Disclaimer: I don't own the walking dead so please don't sue!
AN: Thanks again for all the reviews and favorites. I promise we're finally getting to some serious stuff, so bear with me a little bit longer. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter as it was the most fun for me to write!

~*TWD~~*TWD*TWD~*TWD~*TWD~*TWD~*TWD~*TWD~*TWD~*TWD~*TWD~*TWD

Beth awoke to the whispers of the cell block and a fading sun. he figured she must have slept through dinner and the voices were the sounds of the older people from Woodbury who'd survived gossiping about the happenings of the prison. She guessed when people didn't have TV anymore they tended to put their noses in other people's business.

Gathering up her clothes was the easy part, but finding the privacy to take a shower was not. This close to bed time and everyone was in the middle of brushing their teeth or washing their face. Beth wasn't much for community showers to begin with, but knowing that any one at anytime could come in while she was vulnerable was unsettling.

When it was finally cleared she grabbed the body wash and the shampoo off of the shelf, picked out a towel and sat them on the stool outside the shower in the corner of the room. She had just taken off her shirt when she heard the door to the bathroom open and close. She was thankful she still had her tank top on. She knew she could easily just slip behind the curtain as the others did but she preferred to be able to see the entire room if she needed to.

"Beth, are you in here?" Her sister called out before rounding the corner.

"Polo." Beth giggled as Maggie sat on the bench in front of the showers.

"I hear you smooched Dixon, and that the sheriff wasn't too fond of it. I figured we were over due for this sisterly talk. What's going on with you?" Maggie patted the wood next to her and Beth quickly obliged.

"I honestly don't know Mags. I thought I knew what I wanted. I thought you know, if I got tougher and if I wasn't stuck with a baby all day that the fog would clear. It hasn't, if anything I'm more mixed up now than I was before I allowed myself to admit that I liked them. They're both really great guys and if the dead never started walking neither of them would be in my life. I'm scared. I'm scared because I don't know who to choose, and I certainly don't know how to let either one of them down. Not to mention you know, the fact that every guy I get into a relationship with ends up dead."Beth had finally allowed herself a bit of vulnerability.

Beth knew it was useless to try to hide how she was feeling from her sister. Maggie always found a way to figure it out. Mostly she knew that her sister was the only one with the experience and the heart to really help her out of this mess.

"Do you want the good or the bad first?" Maggie leaned forward a bit, a slight smile on her face to show that she wasn't joking, but wasn't about to crush her hopes and dreams.

"Hit me with the bad first, it'll make the good seem better than what it is." Beth's voice was barely above a whisper.

"You're going to end up breaking at least two hearts no matter what you do. I say two because one will be yours. You can't feel for two men with out cutting one out of your heart so he can find some one else. If we can ever find stable ground, and Beth I feel that we're so very close to that, we need to start thinking about re-population. That reason alone makes it super unfair to claim two men. You're going to be hurt, and you're going to hurt someone, and you're only making it worse on all three of you by not being able to figure out what you want." Maggie had put her hand on Beth's knee and gave it a small pat before continuing, "on the other hand, you have two of the finest men in this prison who are giving you the sexy eyes. They both would do anything they could to protect you, and they both are someone you really want to be by your side in a situation like this. You just need to figure out what you're looking for in a man." Maggie looked up at her little sister.

"How am I supposed to know what I want? How did you know that you loved Glenn?" Beth's voice was small and full of anxiety.

"I knew that Glenn was the one for me when he put his life on the line to save my stupid ass from a walker. Usually if the world ends and a guy's already gotten into your pants, they only do that if they love you, but see you don't have that issue. You don't have to guess like I did in the beginning with Glenn. So it comes down to who do you feel most compatible with? Who do you think is patient enough with you? Who has enough fire to keep you interested? Which of them would it break your heart more if they suddenly decided tomorrow that they hated you? I think mostly though you should consider who understands and respects you and you return those same feelings, who's taking the time to get to know you whether you realize it or not. I'm just saying if I were in your shoes, I'd want to try to see how well it worked with either of the for a while before I made a definitive answer." She knew her little sister was seeing where she was trying to steer her.

"I guess it would be alright to do a dating trial period with both of them right?" Beth asked and Maggie nodded.

"The problem is figuring out who goes first and where the lines with both of them are." The older sister giggled a bit to herself.

"What do you mean by 'lines'?" Beth blushed as she asked. She had a feeling where her sister was going with this.

"Look you can play miss innocent all you want but the truth about dating is sometimes in the heat of a moment things can happen. If they both agree to this trial period, and honestly if one of them doesn't then you know they haven't really thought this through. Anyway, things can happen and everyone involved needs to know where those lines are, and if you cross one with somebody then you best be sure that's who you want to be with." Maggie always had a way of explaining things to Beth with a sense of humor, but let her know that it was how things needed to be done.

"I don't think either one of them would want to touch me right now. I still have walker smell on me from our run earlier. How was the stew tonight?" Beth asked.

"It tasted like bunny. I took over the kitchen today. There's still some left if you want to reheat it after your shower. Before you ask, Daryl's on watch duty tonight and Rick has Judith so Carl can get some sleep." Maggie stood to leave after she finished explaining things.

"Thanks. I don't know what I'd do with out you." Beth hugged her older sister.

"Let's hope you never have to find out. Night Bethy"

"Night"

When Magie left, Beth continued on with her shower. Letting the water cleanse away the stink of the last few days. Water was sparse so everyone at the prison took quick showers and waited as long as they could between them. Same with clothes. Water was more important to filtered for drinking than used for cleaning.

When she was done, she put on fresh shorts with a tank top and a t-shirt. These summer nights had a tendency to be just as warm as the days. She wrapped her wet hair up in a towel and dropped her dirty clothes off in the laundry room bin. She saw the pile and knew that would be what she'd have to get done tonight after she ate and talked things over with they guys.

Luckily she found Rick soothing baby Judith in the cafeteria. He was swaying from side to side with a sleeping baby on his shoulder and half a bottle of formula in his hand. For a moment Beth just stood in the doorway and watched him. The way he carried the little girl and whispered to her with his eyes closed. Rick opened his eyes to see a happy Beth with a towel on her head wave at him. He smiled back and motioned with the hand with the bottle for her to come in.

"I ran out of water and formula in our cell so I came in here to get her a bottle. She drank half of it and ended up passing out on my shoulder." Rick whispered as low as he could.

"I was just going to grab some stew and I was actually hoping to get the chance to talk with you a bit. Do you want me to come by your cell when I'm done eating?" Beth whispered and rubbed Judiths back a little. Her little eye fluttered open for a second but the sleepies won out and she was back to snoring in no time.

"Yea just don't take too long or I'll be asleep. She's been running me ragged all afternoon and evening." Rick smiled. Beth grabbed the bottle out of his hand and patted him on the back as he left.

She found the remainder of the stew on the stove, she lit the pilot and turned on the gas. She waited a few minutes until it started to bubble and quickly turned everything off. She ate in contented silence until her stomach no longer growled with that familiar empty feeling. She put the bowl and dumped the bottle in the sink and made her way back to her cell.

Letting her hair down was a bit of a relief considering the prison was still fairly warm from the day. She brushed out the long blonde hair, and slipped on her sandals. After she was done talking to Rick she had to run everything by Daryl too, hopefully before his shift on watch was over. It was already pretty dark so Beth took her little flashlight with her to navigate down the block.

Rick heard two tiny knocks just to the side of his cell door. He got up and opened the curtain to invite her in. Judith was laying sprawled on her back in the crib, snoring as loud as any adult could.

"I wanted to run an idea by you and Daryl." Beth blurted before taking a seat on Rick's bed.

"I don't share." Rick smiled, his tone teasing enough that it made Beth lightly punch him in the leg before he sat down.

"Though the thought had crossed my mind, that's not the idea I wanted to talk about." She tried to have the best poker face but by the end of the sentence she was blushing and giggling.

"I will completely ignore your failed attempt to make me blush if you just go ahead and tell me then deal?" Rick held out his hand and she took it to shake.

"I was thinking of doing a dating trial period. I'm not sure how long but basically it would be to see who I have a connection with and who I don't. I figure if people dated before the world ended to figure out who their soul mate is then maybe I could do the same thing. I thought Zach was going to be it for me because he was cute and we were roughly the same age. I was with him because I didn't think I had another option, as much as I'm ashamed to admit that. He's been dead a month and a half and here I am trying to convince two grown men to let me try them out before I make a definitive decision, but I think it's what needs to happen." Beth was picking at her nails a little as she spoke. Her voice wavering a bit when she brought up her ex boyfriend.

"I think it's a great idea. Given, I'm not thrilled about the idea of Daryl having alone time with you but It's not just about me and you. I think two weeks would be long enough to know whether we share a connection or if it's just attraction, don't you?" Rick asked with hope in his voice.

"I think it sounds reasonable, I hope Daryl finds it acceptable too. There's just one more detail that needs to be hammered out." Beth straightened up a bit and flipped her hair back over her shoulder. "Where's your lines Rick? I obviously know that if I have sex with him then that's a point of no return. I'm not asking this because I plan on doing all sorts of things with both of you but I think that sometimes in a heat of a moment I can't be expected to be a saint." Beth was blushing almost crimson in the candlelight.

"I mildly feel like I'm in high school right now. Are we talking bases or specifics?" rick was blushing too.

"I think the more specific you are the less chance of me doing something that will really hurt you." Beth's voice had gotten small and monotonous. Trying to conceal the shame and emotion of the conversation she was having.

"I would have to say that my line would be oral. If you're going to go down on someone then that pretty much means you know where your heart is. Same for him. At that point it's not fooling around anymore." Rick's voice was as flat as he could make it. He was trying not to think of Daryl touching her in anyway but when he thought of her mouth on him he found himself getting very upset.

"I respect that and understand where you're coming from. Like I said I don't plan on things happening it might end up that I'm not comfortable enough to try something with either of you. Keep in mind I'm very new to this stuff. The most Zach and I did was some over the pants stuff, as 'high school' as that might sound." Beth made sure to put air quotes around her phrasing. "Do you have any reference on who should go first?" She finally asked.

"I think that should be left up to you Beth. I won't take offense if I go second, it means I'd be the one freshest on your mind, but I wouldn't mind going first either. Daryl's already gotten to kiss you so I feel a bit behind." Rick chuckled a little as he scratched the back of his head.

"You're just a gentleman like that. There hasn't really been an appropriate heat of the moment time for us yet. I'm gonna go run this all by Daryl and hopefully I'll have an answer for you by morning okay?"
She was nervous but she was glad she'd gotten it all out in the open.

"Alright." Rick smiled. He leaned forward and left a chaste kiss on her cheek before she got up to leave the cell. She blushed a little but squeezed his leg as she got up to show him that he hadn't crossed any of her lines.

She hated leaving the prison at night. Even though everything was fenced in and fairly quiet, she knew there would be at least one walker that would see her flashlight and bang against the fence. Sure enough as she reached out for the doorknob of the guard tower a walker slammed itself against the fence and tried to reach for her through one of the holes. No sooner had she'd opened the door did the walker go down, with an arrow sticking out of the side of it's head.

Beth was shaken but she was more nervous about the discussion she was about to have than the walkers. She came to the top of the stairs and was greeted by Daryl who was only wearing his Angel wing vest and a tank top underneath with his jeans and crossbow. Even his boots and socks were off in a corner. He was leaning against one of the poles smoking a cigarette.

"You gonna stand there and gawk at me all night or do you have something on your mind?" Daryl's voice was playful. It was evident that he was still in a good mood from earlier.

"I've got plenty on my mind Dixon." Beth paused only to lick her lips which in turn made Daryl look away and blush for a second. Beth couldn't help but smile before continuing "Seems to me that the only way I'm going to be able to figure out who I have a connection with is if I were to do something like a dating trial period for both of you. Now I already spoke with Rick. He's on board with the idea, thinks that two weeks should be a good enough time frame to figure out how you two feel about me and how I feel about either of you." Beth had walked over to the opposite pole face him. While they talked.

"I suppose you're right. I didn't think it'd be fair to expect you to choose with out figuring out what you wanted, nonetheless about whether either of us could provide it. Count me in." Daryl let out smoke as he talked.

"Alright, so where's your line?" Beth had folded her arms over her chest and leaned back.

"Line?"

"Yea, I mean where's that point that if I cross it with Rick, in your mind there's no coming back from. It means if I cross it then I made my choice." Beth had begun rubbing the back of her neck, the nervousness getting to her.

"I would be hurt if you had sex with him. I would be hurt if either of you went down on each other, but in the long run neither of those things matter if you ended up choosing me. Of course I'd be pissy and I might say shit about it when I'm angry that I don't really mean but, it's how I feel." Daryl took the last pull of his smoke before stamping it out on the ledge and tossing the butt out in the yard.

"You really think you could do that?" Beth looked him in the eyes.

"I might beat his ass, but yea. If that's what it took for you to figure out I'm what you want and not him then I can see myself forgiving you. Him too, it wouldn't only be his fault. Unless it is only his fault then I'd kill the son of a bitch." Daryl had stepped a bit closer to her. He made sure to check around before focusing solely on her again.

"That really means a lot. Rick's line is oral. He thinks that if we get to that point then we're pretty sure how we feel about one another." Beth stood still.

"I think if I went through what he had with Lori I'd probably feel the same way. I can respect that, but I want to go second. I want to be the one freshest in your mind and on the off chance you do choose me then I wouldn't have to wait two weeks of watching you with him." Daryl did another look around before focusing on the conversation again.

"Alright Dixon. See you in 14 days. It should give you plenty of time to think of inventive ways to show me a good time." Beth was smiling. She stepped closer to the door as she spoke, and winked back at him when she was done before vanishing down the stairs.

She made her way back to her cell. She was so excited she couldn't hardly sleep. She had no idea what would happen these next few weeks but she knew she couldn't wait to find out.