Daryl woke up to find that Beth was no longer lying with him. He looked at the clock on the bedside table, realizing that it was much later than he'd realized. He must have been more tired than he'd initially thought, he supposed. He heard the shower running then and realized that must be where Beth was. He felt momentarily tempted to go in and join her, her room did have its own adjoining bathroom after all – but ultimately he thought better of it. He didn't think he'd have any resolve at all if he and Beth were both naked and wet. When they got home, though, he thought to himself, all bets were off.
He knew it seemed silly, but he missed Beth. He'd been away from her for so long that now that he'd had a taste of being next to her again he didn't want her to be away from him, even for a few minutes. He knew he'd have to get over that – next week would come too quickly and they'd be apart all day during the week. But the nights and the weekends, he thought with a smile on his face, he planned to make up for lost time then. He knew that he'd felt puppy love before, that need to be with someone all of the time – but he couldn't help but think that this was different, that he would never get enough of being with Beth. And if she'd let him hang around, he'd feel like this about her for the next 50 years, maybe longer.
He heard the water turn off and decided that he might also shower off before dinner – he wasn't sure of what Annette had planned, but he never felt very clean after traveling and he'd been wallowing around in Beth's bed for hours now and wanted to be his best for Beth's family. He gathered a few of his things together, waiting for Beth to come out so that he could go in. But when the door opened, the last thing on his mind was his own shower. Beth had mostly dried off, but still had a thin sheen of dampness covering her skin. She'd toweled off her hair, but it was flowing wildly down her back. And she was completely naked. Daryl's breath hitched and he realized one very important thing in that moment – while he'd committed himself to his own ideas about not having sex with Beth until they got home, he'd grossly underestimated her tenacity in making him change that resolve. And it was crumbling, right before him, as he raked his eyes over her body, not able to stop himself from looking at every detail of her beautiful body.
He started to say something, but she shook her head, moving slowly over to him, wrapping her arms around his neck and pressing her naked body into his.
"Beth…" he said, a bit of warning in his tone. But again, she shook her head, this time putting her fingers over his lips, silencing him.
"Don't talk… just feel… just love…" Beth said sweetly, almost in a whisper. It struck Daryl how Beth's expression was completely different than it was earlier – then, she was lusty and needy, but now she was calm, gentle, and loving. She slowly backed him towards the end of her bed, and once Daryl had gotten to it, he perched there, pulling Beth closer to him, situating her in between his legs. She kissed him then, slowly, gently – she didn't seem to be in a hurry, and for some reason that turned Daryl on even more than what had happened earlier.
She reached for the hem of his shirt, not bothering to finish unbuttoning it, just lifting it, along with his undershirt, up over Daryl's head. She slowly and carefully ran her hands all over his chest, something Daryl realized in that moment that she'd never been able to do before. She touched and explored, softly caressing his skin and placing sweet little kisses all over his chest, his arms, and his stomach. Daryl didn't have any idea where this was going, what she intended, but he wasn't sure he cared anymore – he was so turned on, so unbelievably hard, especially when Beth started kissing along the line of his jeans, that he knew he was gone, that he was just putty in her hands now, for whatever she wanted from him.
Beth kissed her way back up to Daryl's face and kissed his lips again, tenderly, slowly, but deeply. And then she pulled away slowly, and moved away from him, going back the same way she came. She went towards her closet, pulling out a couple of things and started dressing as if nothing in the world had just happened, like she hadn't just given Daryl the biggest erection of his life. When she noticed that he was staring at her, his mouth slightly open in shock, she waltzed back over, standing right back in the spot she'd been earlier, fully clothed now, and wrapping her arms around his neck again.
She smiled at him, a bit mischievously now. "You wanna go downstairs soon… see what mama has planned for dinner?"
Daryl didn't respond for a while, still slowly pondering what had just happened. He was sure his face indicated his confusion because as he looked down at Beth, her smirk grew little by little. She was playing a dangerous game, Daryl thought – but he also couldn't complain about it. He'd been the one to lay down the rules after all, right?
"You said you didn't want to. Those were your rules, right?" she said, trying to act coy, but Daryl knew better. She knew exactly what she was doing, what she'd been doing to him, getting him all worked up and then cutting him off.
"It's not that I don't want to, Beth…" Daryl said, barely managing to speak now.
"I know. But we'll wait. That's what you want… so that's what we'll do." She responded sweetly. He believed her, in that moment, that she wanted to do what he'd told her he wanted – but part of him also still thought she was trying to tease him, trying to show him the error of his thought process, trying to test his resolve.
"I… uh… I'm gonna take a quick shower" Daryl said, moving away from her, passing her and heading quickly into the bathroom. He needed to get away from her for a few minutes, he thought, it was the only way he could calm down, the only way he could make it out of the situation without stripping her clothes off and making love to her. He needed that shower now more than ever, and not because he needed to rinse off, but because he needed to stand under the cold water, needed to get his body back under control before he could even dare to think about heading downstairs to the other members of the Greene family.
Daryl and Beth's time at the Greene farm went by much more quickly than Daryl anticipated. By Friday night he found himself almost wishing they could stay a bit longer, although he also was anxious to get Beth back to Hilton Head, back to their new home, to the surprise there that awaited her.
She'd taken every possible chance she could to tease him, something he'd have never guessed she would have been so incredibly good at. Daryl had always thought she was so innocent seeming. But after he'd gotten that letter from her, which he somehow still hadn't talked to her about, he'd realized there was a whole other adventurous side to her that he'd hadn't seen before. But he looked forward to discovering more about that side. Thursday night, after they'd spent most of the evening talking with her parents and Maggie, visiting and catching up and just enjoying each other's company, she'd come to bed in the tiniest nightgown that Daryl had ever seen – and his underwear had grown much tighter when he noticed that she wasn't wearing any panties. He resisted her as best he could, but she seemed to take every little moment she could, every single opportunity when no one else was watching, to do or say something that would make his pants bulge and his mind go crazy. She'd walk by him and grab his ass, or whisper something unbelievably dirty into his ear. And every chance she had to be naked in front of him she took, knowing the reaction it had on him, the physical evidence of it apparent almost immediately.
Daryl found himself loving spending time with the Greenes, who had seemingly taken him into their family already as if he'd been a member all along. Hershel seemed to have accepted what he'd told him over the phone during that first phone call they had – he appeared completely confident that Daryl would take care of Beth, that he'd be there for her no matter what. Annette seemed equally fond of him, fussing over him and doting on him as if he was one of her own children. And even Maggie had come around and warmed up. They'd found a commonality in their love for Georgia football, and he'd even helped her with her car after she'd mentioned that it was giving her trouble – Daryl fixed it for her, even refusing to let her pay him back for the parts he'd gotten in town.
Thursday night they'd all discussed plans for Thanksgiving and Christmas, with Daryl excitedly agreeing to come with Beth to spend the holidays there with them. Annette had insisted on it, telling Daryl all about the traditions they had. Maggie would be bringing Glenn then too, since he'd be out of training by then and Daryl looked forward to meeting him – he wondered if he'd have any similarities with him, given how different Beth and Maggie seemed to be. No one really asked Daryl about his family, even after the run-in with Merle at the diner, and he was grateful that he didn't have to talk about it, didn't have to tell them about his family and all the problems and pain he'd experienced throughout the years. He guessed Beth might have mentioned to them that he'd had a painful childhood, but wasn't sure. Regardless of why they didn't ask, he was glad, hoping to truly leave all of that in the past. He felt like he'd made the last step in truly doing that when he'd stood up to Merle at the diner the day before.
On Friday Beth showed him around the farm, which was bigger than he'd initially realized. They rode around on an ATV, since the farm had so much land and Beth wanted to show Daryl everything. And he couldn't get over the feeling of how great it felt doing that with her, just riding around talking and laughing and having fun together. It felt so normal, Daryl thought, and at times he almost felt afraid that he was just having a dream and that he'd wake up and all of this would be gone. But slowly, over time, Beth and her family had clawed their way into his heart, and for the first time in his life he felt truly content and happy, sure that he knew what the future held for him and Beth.
He'd planned a surprise for Beth for their last night in Georgia. It was something he'd toyed around with in his mind before he'd left Hilton Head to come here, but he'd wanted to wait until he was back with Beth, wait until he was absolutely sure he was ready to do this. He had something very special to show her, and something incredibly serious to ask her about – and while he was nervous about it, he hoped there'd be no doubts in Beth's mind when it came time for her to answer him, for her to tell him how she felt about the question he planned to ask. He'd already cleared his plans with Hershel, wanting to make sure it was okay for him to whisk Beth away on her last night in town.
He wanted to surprise her, so he hadn't mentioned it, not until after dinner, right before he'd planned for them to leave. He told her to go and grab a sweater, knowing how cold she often got and how unseasonably cool it had been the last few days. When he led her out to his truck, she asked a million questions – but he didn't answer any of them, simply telling her that he had a surprise for her and that she'd have to wait until they got there to find out. The questions didn't stop as they drove and Beth chattered continually during the 30 minute drive, Daryl remaining mostly quiet. He knew he shouldn't feel nervous, knew that he should be confident in Beth's feelings for him, but he couldn't help but be a little bit anxious nonetheless.
They drove into the darkness, the area around them growing darker as the sun set and as they moved farther and farther away from the commonality of houses and street lights. The farther out they got the more Beth questioned where they were going – but Daryl was concentrating intently on the road in front of them, looking for the dirt road that would lead them to their destination. He finally spotted it and pulled the truck onto the road. They bounced down the road for a ways, trees scattered on both sides of the road, before finally coming into a clearing, where Daryl pulled the truck off of the road and into some grass.
"Where are we?" Beth asked for what seemed like the millionth time in the last half an hour.
"You remember when I told you about my dad's land?" Daryl asked Beth timidly. He'd told her about that the first week they met, and wasn't sure she'd really remember.
"Of course, Daryl. This is it?" she asked.
"Yeah… this is it. It's a special place to me… even though I haven't been able to do what I'd hoped with it. But… I… uh… I wanted to bring you here to see it." Daryl said, feeling a bit shy all of a sudden. "Wanna sit in the back?" he asked.
"Sure!" Beth said, and before Daryl could even reach for his door handle, Beth had already hopped out of the truck.
"Hold on, baby!" he called out to her as he hurried out of the truck, reaching into the backseat and pulling out some things he'd stashed there. He pulled a large fluffy quilt out and moved to the back of the truck, putting the tailgate down and covering the bed with the quilt. He went back to the back and pulled out some pillows and a blanket, throwing them over the side into the truck's bed, garnering a mischievous look from Beth.
"I thought we could lie out here and look at the stars for a while…" Daryl said, trying to clarify his intentions. "I've never been anywhere else where the stars look so bright."
Lastly, he pulled out a bottle of wine and some glasses, and a small little box that he quickly stashed into his pocket until he was ready for Beth to see it. He took a few deep breaths, trying to calm his nerves, before walking around to the back of the truck. Beth had already climbed up onto the bed and was lying on her back, her head slightly elevated by a couple of pillows.
"Comfortable?" he asked, chuckling a bit as he saw that she'd already made herself comfortable, spread out in the bed. He sat the wine and glasses down onto the tailgate and busied himself with opening the bottle.
"It's so beautiful here, Daryl… I love this" Beth said, not looking at Daryl, but up at the sky.
And he just stood there for a moment and watched her, admiring her beauty in the moon light and loving the excited expression on her face. She almost looked like a child, all bright-eyed with delight, and Daryl was reminded of her innocence in that moment. She was much younger than him, and the world hadn't been nearly as harsh to her as it had to him. And he knew in that moment that he'd do everything in his power to keep it that way. He'd shield her from the world, protect her, watch over her and make sure she had the happiest life. He'd do that for as long as she'd allow him to. And he hoped that'd be forever.
"It sure is…" he mumbled.