I like this chapter. It was fun to write. Enjoy and please review! :)

After they finished eating, Daryl grabbed his crossbow and told Beth he was going out hunting. The thought of being alone so soon after being kidnapped made Beth feel anxious, but she knew it would be impractical to ask him to stay. The cabin didn't have much food on hand, and they needed whatever meat Daryl would be able to bring back.

"Try not to walk around on your ankle too much," he instructed her. She scoffed at him.

"I'm not gonna sit here and be useless while you're gone. I'm gonna go through all the stuff in this place and figure out what we can use. We also need some kind of perimeter alarm, so I'll see if there's anything I can use to make one."

Daryl narrowed his eyes a bit, but nodded. "I won't go far."

Beth gave him a small grateful smile. He looked like he wanted to say something else, but he just cleared his throat awkwardly and gave her a stiff head nod before stalking out the front door. She watched the closed door for several long moments before heaving a sigh and gingerly pulling herself to her feet. Her ribs ached and she wasn't able to put much weight on her ankle, but as she had told Daryl, she needed to make herself useful. She glanced around and hobbled toward the kitchen to start there.

The kitchen was small and only contained a refrigerator, sink, small wood stove, and a small area of counter space. She began searching through the kitchen cabinets and found a few pots and pans and other utensils, some canned food, and expired condiments. Beth decided that they should take one of the smaller cooking pots when they left this place. It would enable them to boil water to make it safe for drinking, and would allow them to more easily heat canned foods over a fire.

Beth rifled through the utensil drawer and found a large Swiss army knife. She grinned as she flipped it open, noting that the larger blade was about three inches long and quite sharp. It also had a smaller blade, a corkscrew, a can opener, a file, some tiny scissors, and even a small magnifying glass.

"Score," she murmured to herself, closing the contraption and slipping it into her pocket. She continued to rummage around and gave a pleased hum when she found a bottle of cheap whiskey shoved in the back of one of the cabinets. It was still about 2/3 full. Beth smiled to herself as she remembered the night she and Daryl got drunk off moonshine. It was the first time he had actually opened up to her and told her anything about his past and his life before the turn. To some people, it might not seem like a big deal, but for Daryl, Beth knew it was. She had managed to tear down at least some of the walls he had been holding in place for so long, and she liked seeing the man he was behind those walls.

Still smiling fondly at the memory, Beth limped over to the linen closet and began going through it. There were towels, sheets, blankets, and a few spare toiletry items, including new toothbrushes and toothpaste, bars of soap, deodorant, and a bar of laundry soap. They were basic and generic, but to Beth, they seemed like gold.

As she moved on throughout the house, she found some rope, men's clothes that looked as though they had belonged to a heavyset man, and even an old hunting rifle in the bedroom closet. Beth piled the loot on the coffee table so she could show Daryl when he returned from hunting. She decided to wash her clothes in the tub with the bar of laundry soap. Her body was clean from the shower, and she couldn't wait for her clothes to be clean, too. She hummed a song to herself as she filled the tub with water and peeled off her filthy clothing. Despite the horrors of the night before, today was turning out to be a good day.

Daryl crept through the woods, careful not to make a sound as he approached a rabbit. He took aim and swiftly sent a bolt through it, successfully procuring dinner for him and Beth. It hadn't taken him long to find the rabbit, which led him to believe that there weren't as many walkers in this area as in others. The ghouls tended to scare off most prey when they were around.

Even though he had already secured their meal, Daryl decided to wander through the woods for a bit longer to get a better grasp on what was around the cabin. He headed toward the stream he had heard earlier and reached it after a short while. It was just a short walk from the cabin. Daryl sat down on a rock next to the water and began skinning and gutting his kill.

His thoughts wandered to Beth, and he was flooded with relief all over again. He couldn't believe that he had almost lost her. If it hadn't been for her bravery and determination, he probably would have lost her. He didn't want to think about what might have happened to her if she had been taken to wherever those men had been going. Anyone who was out kidnapping pretty young girls couldn't have pure intentions. He felt himself growing angry at the thought and forced himself to brush the thoughts away. It didn't matter what could have happened. She was here, and she was safe, and he would keep her that way.

He thought about all the things he had wanted to say to her when he had been running after the car, and how he suddenly felt that he didn't have the guts to do so. He saw her in his mind's eye smiling at him before he had left the cabin. He should have said something to her then to make her realize how much almost losing her had wrecked him. He should have told her how glad he was that she was here, and that he would have run to the end of the earth to save her. He should have admitted that, to him, she represented everything that was good in the world, and he that he had grown to love being around her. But now, with her here only a few hundred feet away, admitting these things to her seemed impossible. Daryl had never been good at expressing himself or his feelings, and the thought of pouring his heart out to Beth suddenly seemed terrifying. He had never let anyone in the way he had let her in, and the idea of opening himself up to her further filled him with anxiety.

He sighed and shook his head at himself. He would make sure she knew how glad he was that she was safe, and maybe someday he could work up to telling her how much she had affected him. She was on her way to making him into a better person, but his hesitance to get close to people was a hard habit to break. After a lifetime of conditioning and experiences to make him push people away, trusting someone the way he was starting to trust Beth was an entirely new thing for him.

Daryl pushed himself off the rock he was seated on and rinsed the blood from his hands in the stream. He grabbed the prepared rabbit and made his way back to the cabin. He wondered if Beth had found anything useful while he was gone. He hadn't been gone long at all, maybe an hour at most, but the cabin wasn't very big, so it couldn't have taken long to search. He strode up the steps of the screened in porch and opened the door to a sight he wasn't prepared for.

There was Beth, standing in the living room in nothing but her bra and underwear. She stared at the open door like a deer in headlights, and Daryl's eyes involuntarily traveled down her body. Beth turned beet red and hastily grabbed a flannel shirt that was on the coffee table, trying somewhat unsuccessfully to cover herself with it. Daryl coughed and reddened as he realized he'd been staring.

"Shit, uh, sorry," he muttered, quickly turning around and fleeing from the doorway back out onto the porch. He pinched his nose between his eyes and exhaled slowly. Daryl certainly hadn't expected Beth to be nearly naked in the living room, and now the image was burned into his mind. She was wearing a simple light pink bra and matching underwear, and Daryl was faced with the sudden realization that her slender body had enticed an entirely inappropriate attraction in him.

No, no, no, fuck no, he thought to himself. She's just a kid. How old was she now anyway? Eighteen? Nineteen? Way too young for a man of his age to be thinking of her like that. He almost groaned aloud and hated himself for allowing himself to look at her in that way. It was so very wrong. He was her protector and her companion, and he felt like a dirty old man for being unable to stop himself from looking.

"Uh, hey," Beth's soft voice suddenly pulled him from his thoughts. He spun around to see her standing in the doorway, now wearing a very oversized flannel shirt that looked as though it were actually a large dress swallowing her small frame.

"The hell were you doin' walkin' around in your underwear?" Daryl snapped, his tone sharper than he intended. She blushed red again and looked away.

"I found a bar of laundry soap and I washed my clothes in the tub, but I realized I hadn't brought any others into the bathroom with me. I didn't expect you back so soon, so I went out to grab one of the shirts I found earlier. You walked in at just the wrong time."

Daryl nodded, unable to meet her eyes. "Sorry," he apologized again.

"It's okay," Beth said quietly, still clearly very embarrassed. "Looks like you caught something?"

"Rabbit," Daryl grunted in response.

"That's good. I found some good stuff in the house. Come see?"

Daryl nodded and followed her back inside the house. He kept his eyes down and looked away from her bare legs as she limped over to the living room. The oversized flannel she was wearing covered her legs decently enough, but after what he'd seen moments before, Daryl was afraid that the sight of her exposed pale skin would give him flashbacks of her in her underwear. He set the rabbit down on the kitchen counter and cleared his throat awkwardly as she sat on one of the couches. He took a few steps toward her to see her pile of loot, but didn't sit down next to her.

"Found this rifle in the bedroom closet, some rope, toiletries, clothes that are enormous on me and would probably still be big on you, and this. My favorite find." She held up the Swiss army knife.

"Lemme see that," Daryl muttered, trying to snatch it from her. She held it out of his reach.

"Okay, but I call dibs on it. I want it," she said with a playful smile.

Daryl arched his eyebrows at her and shrugged. "Okay, it's yours. Can I see your knife?"

Beth grinned and tossed it to him. Daryl flipped open the blade and whistled appreciatively as he examined the knife's features.

"Good find," he said with a nod.

"I thought so, too. I didn't find any empty cans or anything to make a perimeter alarm with though. We've got the rope, but nothing to tie to it."

"Didn't see any walkers in the woods," Daryl said. "Haven't seen any since I was up on the road yesterday. We'll probably be fine just covering up the windows and proppin' a chair under the door tonight. Tomorrow I'll go out and look for some stuff on the road we can use."

Beth nodded and settled back on the couch a little.

"You're really okay with just stayin' here for a bit?" she asked.

"Sure," Daryl replied with a shrug.

"And you're okay with not going out and lookin' for the others for a while?"

"I just got you back, girl. One step at a time."

Beth grinned at him, and Daryl felt a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth as well.

They were both full and content. They had cooked the rabbit over the fire in the fireplace, and now dark had fallen outside. Daryl had taken apart the old rifle Beth had found and was almost done cleaning it, and Beth was writing in her journal by the light of the fire. She finished what she was writing and set the journal on the coffee table.

"I found a bottle of whiskey in one of the kitchen cabinets," Beth said.

Daryl glanced up to find her looking at him with a somewhat mischievous expression on her face.

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah. I think we should drink some."

Daryl shook his head and gave her a half smile. "Not till you're healed."

Beth scoffed at him. "Yes, Mr. Dixon."

"Besides," Daryl smirked at her, "we wanna stay here for a bit. If I give you booze, you might burn the place down."

Beth laughed. It felt good to laugh. She suddenly realized that it was the first time she had laughed since they had gotten here. Since she had woken up to discover that Daryl had rescued her. She smiled at him and noticed him studying her intensely, as if he wanted to say something, but he remained silent. He suddenly stood from where he was seated on the floor.

"I'll take first watch," he muttered. "You get some sleep. I'll wake you in a couple hours."

Beth nodded and stood from the couch as Daryl went out the front door to keep watch on the porch. She limped into the bedroom and lay down on the bed. She could hear the sound of crickets and cicadas singing outside, and thankfully no snarls or moans from walkers interrupted the peaceful sound of the night. But as soon as Beth settled down and closed her eyes, the tranquility of the night was ruined by flashbacks of the night before. She saw the indifferent face of the man who had first grabbed her and thrown her to the ground, and she covered her bruised ribs with her hands as she remembered his brutal kicks to her side. Flashes of burying her knife in the driver's neck ran through her head, and she remembered the way the tires squealed as the car swerved. Visions of the car careening toward the large tree repeated in her mind. She began to feel anxious and her chest felt tight. She tried to think of positive things, but her mind kept bringing her back.

After trying unsuccessfully to banish the thoughts from her head for several minutes, Beth sat up. She rubbed her eyes and told herself to stop worrying about what had happened. She had made it. Daryl had come for her. Daryl was here now, and he would keep her safe.

She took a deep breath and stood from the bed. She limped out of the bedroom and to the front door. When she opened it and came out onto the porch, she found Daryl sitting on the porch steps. He turned to look at her in confusion.

"Can't sleep," Beth said quietly. "I can't stop thinking about what happened. Last night, I mean. It won't stop playing in my head."

Daryl frowned and said nothing. He didn't know what to say. He knew what it was like to be haunted by things, and it usually wasn't something that could be easily dismissed.

Beth took a tentative step forward. "Could you . . . could you lay with me a while? Just till I fall asleep?"

Her voice was so quiet that Daryl almost didn't hear her. He didn't reply, but stood from where he was seated and made his way over to her. She gave him a grateful smile, turning and shuffling back inside and toward the bedroom. She laid back down on the bed and scooted to the far side. Daryl lay down next to her. He folded his hands behind his head and stared at the ceiling, listening to the night around them. Beth carefully moved closer to him and tentatively laid her head on his chest. Daryl instantly tensed.

"Is this okay?" Beth asked softly.

Daryl forced himself to relax and let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding.

"Yeah."

Beth scooted a little closer to him and Daryl slowly moved one of his arms from behind his head to circle around her back. His touch was light and unsure, but it was more than enough for Beth. Daryl's scent of sweat and woods was comforting to her, and the steady rise and fall of his breathing was a constant reminder that he was there and he was real.

The haunting memories of the night before faded away, and Beth drifted off to sleep in the safety of Daryl's arms.