Disclaimer: I don't own the walking dead
AN: SO yeah, I just ended my first semester back at College and uh, I've been working full time too, and yea got a toddler sooo….. I'M REALLY SORRY IT'S TAKEN SO LONG. For really reals, if I could I would have finished this fic a long time ago as I've gotten plenty of ideas in the last few weeks. This is a bit shorter than I generally like to make my chapters but I already have another one well on it's way. Thank you guys so much for reading!
~*TWD~*TWD~*TWD~*TWD~*TWD~*TWD~*TWD~*TWD~*TWD~*TWD~*TWD~*TWD~*TWD~*
Daryl knew something was different about Beth the following morning. She slept in, which he knew for a fact was hardly like her. It was hard enough for her to even get to sleep, let alone stay asleep. He'd hate to admit it but when he woke up in the middle of the night, it was her cell he peaked in on.
He didn't get a chance to speak with her until around lunch time. When she'd handed him his portion and barely met his gaze. Daryl was nothing if not incredibly observant.
"Beth?" he asked, his voice barely above a whisper. She finally lifted her head to face him, looking him in the eye before her cheeks turned a red he hadn't seen since she tried to commit suicide.
"All I need to know is if you crossed a solid line with him last night or if you made your choice." He tried to keep his voice steady and maintain eye contact but the pain was evident in his behavior.
"No lines that have been agreed upon were crossed with him, and no I haven't made my decision." Beth replied meekly, the red still staining her face but she was being honest.
"That's all I needed." Daryl offered her a small half smile that was so quick that if she'd blinked at the wrong time, surely she'd have missed it. Daryl walked out of the cafeteria, plate in hand and making a bee line straight for his cell. He ate in the comfort of privacy, readied his gear and walked out of the prison. He made sure to make himself scarce.
Rick and Beth enjoyed the rest of their time together, as much as they could any way. The cold was coming in fairly quick and there were still things that they needed to gather to make sure they could go through the rest of fall and winter.
Rick being the ringleader had his hands full making the tough calls of who would be sent to where and when a group would be gone too long he'd be wrought with worry. Luckily Beth was there to console him and lift his spirits.
Daryl on the other hand had taken every chance he could to get the hell out of that prison. Away from the blue orbs that ripped his heart out with every smile that was not directed at him. Most trips he'd end up climbing up into a tree if things got too hairy, but his thoughts no matter how dangerous the situation was would always drift back to her.
On the morning of his first day, Daryl had actually woken up early. He immediately went to the showers. Generally he thought of them as a waste of precious water, especially since a big part of being a good hunter was to make yourself even smell like your surroundings. He wanted today to be special.
He'd taken the time to scrub himself and put on the clean clothes that Beth had always tried to salvage in the wash. He brushed his hair out of his eyes with his fingers and put on his vest. He'd paced his cell probably close to a million times while he waited for Beth to wake up.
He watched her immerge from behind the sheet of her cell, her hair pulled up high on her head with a portion of it in a braid that she always liked to do. Her jeans were worn and her sweater was falling off of one shoulder, but to Daryl she was the cutest when she was like this.
Her eyes were still adjusting to being awake and she stretched before ducking back in her cell to grab her toothbrush and head to the bathroom. Daryl was torn on whether to follow or stay put since he'd already brushed his teeth. He decided that he couldn't wait to see her so he followed, gnawing on his thumb nail as he did.
Beth turned a corner and saw him in her peripheral vision. She stopped for a second and gave him one of her shy smiles before going into the bathroom. When Daryl reached her, he leaned against the wall beside the sink, just looking at her as she brushed her teeth.
"Good morning." Beth managed with a curious tone to her voice after spitting and rinsing.
"Mornin" Daryl nodded to her.
"I take it that you're pretty excited about these next two weeks huh?" Beth wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. She lowered her face toward the sink and splashed a little bit of the water over her face.
"I uh, was actually wondering what you wanted to do. I've never really been the dating type." Daryl hardly looked at her as he spoke.
"I can relate" She said trying to brush water from her eyes and smiled when she felt the cotton of a hand towel being handed to her.
"There's no bars, not that you'd be particularly old enough to take you to one anyhow. It's too cold to take you out on my bike, and I get the impression that it's only going to get colder.
"Show me the apocalypse." Beth straightened out, draping a hand towel over the rack beside Daryl.
"What?' Daryl was instantly confused by what she meant by this.
"You know the lay of the land right? Then show me the apocalypse. Take me around to some spots that you think are decently safe and show me the area. Besides, it wouldn't be a bad idea to learn the area right?" Beth spun on her heel to go make breakfast. Daryl caught up to her with ease.
"It's going to be cold as hell out there Beth."
"I'll pack extra blankets and we'll take a car instead of the bike. Besides we should probably try to gather some gas and medicine. Not to mention we should consider looking into how the hell we'll heat these cells. Judith can't stay warm with blankets alone." Beth spoke, turning her head to speak behind her.
He still followed her, deciding to take time to learn what she does in the day and to see what he could help out with. Beth quickly set to making some powdered milk. She used a little bit of condensed milk to sweeten the flavor and even the texture as she knew the kids would be over joyed, but fussy when it came to their stale cold cereal.
"Michonne managed to score some corn flakes. I'm sure the kids will be thrilled that it's not oatmeal again." Beth smiled up at Daryl as he started setting out the bowls for everyone.
"Oh, I actually wanted to let you know that we found some fresh apples too. It's coming close to the end of the season but I hauled back as much as I could." Daryl pulled up a big garbage sack that'd been tucked away behind some cookware.
"I figure we can try to have a balanced breakfast this morning." He smiled at her.
"There's a knife over there in that drawer. Don't cut them all, give about two slices a piece to everyone. I want to make sure we still have some left over for another breakfast." Beth started filling the bowls with the cereal, being cautious not to overfill or under fill any of them but still conserve what they had.
Daryl had made quick work of the apples, placing the slices in the bowls after Beth had poured a little of the milk like mixture into each one. Soon people started filtering in. Glenn and Maggie happily took their bowls and said their good mornings before sneaking back into their cell with them.
Rick, Judith, Carl and Michonne were next. Carl happily took his bowl while Rick and Daryl exchanged pleasantries. Michonne smiled up at Beth.
"I think the kids are really going to appreciate this cereal, thank you." Beth handed her a bowl that had a little bit extra in it.
"I knew if I didn't Carl wouldn't have let me hear the end of it." Michonne reached for the bowl with one hand and lightly flicked Carl's hat with the other. The group sat down briefly at one of the tables, chatting and giggling away as Judith babbled in her daddy's arms.
The day wore on, and soon everyone was discussing plans to gather some things that would be needed for winter over lunch. Beth brought up the point of needing an alternative heat source for Judith.
"We can try to find some back up generators to use a heater, insulate her cell with a few more sheets and hang a comforter maybe?" Carl offered.
"There's no guarantee that we can even find anything like that out there. We should try to consider back up solutions." Michonne pointed out.
"A fire pit would be my next guess but we'd need to ventilate the room and make sure to keep her away from it. It's just a really bad idea." Beth whispered the last part to herself.
"We may end up having to move from the cells to the cafeteria for the dead of winter. The more bodies, the more heat we'll have. We can keep warm by using the stove. Luckily it's gas and if we can scavenge properly we may be able to find some natural gas to keep the tank filled. If need be, we could put a fire pit in the kitchen underneath a cracked window to vent the smoke and keep Judith in the cafeteria. We can scavenge some batteries and generators, any energy source, every hand warmer, anything. There's no telling what all will make a difference." Rick finally spoke with his authority.
"Daryl and I can take a direction and search for a few days. We'd need a sizable truck and a considerable amount of gas but, who knows what we can find. Maybe send another team in another direction if we can afford to use the gas and two vehicles." Beth looked at Rick and he nodded. There appeared to be a secret conversation between the two of them.
"I think we'll send the two of you out first with the SUV. If you aren't back by the end of the week, I'll send a team to look for you. I need to know the direction you're going in and your back up routes to narrow down the search." Rick looked from Beth to Daryl, having an unspoken conversation with his right hand man as well.
From the outside looking in, it appeared to be a conversation between a captain and his officers, but they all three knew that Beth had asked permission to leave with Daryl, and Rick was giving the man a warning: Bring her back alive or I will hunt you down.
Daryl nodded. If the roles were reversed there was no way he'd have let Beth go into the woods alone with another man. Through it all, Rick still held up his word for those he cared about, and Daryl respected him for it.
"I'll start gathering our supplies for the week." Beth cut through the lingering silence that had made the situation slightly awkward. She turned on her heel to exit the cafeteria, feeling both sets of eyes on her, watching her go.
The other's slowly dispersed, it wasn't difficult to tell that these two had a few things to talk about before Beth and Daryl drove off into the sunset together.
"You know I'll keep her safe, even if it means my life." Daryl squared his shoulders to face Rick full on when everyone was finally gone.
"I do know." Rick tilted his head a little and stared at the floor from where he stood.
"Did you hurt her?" Daryl asked after a long silence.
"I'd never. Why would you even think that?" Rick looked up at him, a flash of fury passing over his features.
"A few mornings ago, I could tell something was different about her Rick. You know how she is man, her smile, though she always wears it, it's rarely genuine. I watched her face fall as I entered the room that morning, she was on cloud nine and I slammed her back down to earth." Daryl shifted, hiding the hurt that simple action had caused him. Rick's own face showed the same shame that Beth had portrayed earlier.
"I may not be a social person Rick, but I know what shame looks like, and you two have been wearing it whenever you look at me. She promised that none of my lines were crossed, but I just want you to consider for a moment that it was her line that you two crossed." Daryl's jaw tensed. He started to naw on his bottom lip when he was done speaking, like he was keeping himself from letting it rip on Rick.
"Daryl, I don't know what you want from me here. She wasn't lying when she said that your lines weren't crossed. I would never push her into anything that she wouldn't want to do. If anything she was pissed at me for always being the 'good guy'" Rick bit his tongue at the last part. He hadn't mean for it to come out like she were the predator and he the prey.
Daryl's face fell, for a second it looked as if he were about to cry or scream but then a smirk slowly spread across his face as he looked back up at Rick.
"Little Beth Greene huh, wouldn't think she had it in her." He shook his head and half chuckled before continuing. "Look, I don't need to know anything else, I get the feeling I'll find out for myself soon enough." His smile disappeared with the last statement and he left Rick to just stare at him as he left.