I'm pleased with the way this chapter turned out. I hope you all enjoy it, too. :)

Beth's eyes fluttered open, and she noticed that the bed was empty next to her. She could hear a rhythmic sound coming from outside the cabin. She stood from the bed and went over to the bedroom window, pulling back the curtains to reveal the source of the sound.

Daryl was outside digging a grave for Cara beneath a dogwood tree behind the cabin. The sun had barely even begun to peek over the horizon, and judging from the depth of the hole he had dug, he had been at his task for some time. Beth's eyes drifted to the sheet-covered form next to the grave and she bit her lip, trying to fight off the wave of sadness that came over her at the sight. She could feel that her eyes were still swollen from crying the night before, and thankfully no fresh tears sprang to her eyes now. She had cried all the tears she had left the night before in Daryl's arms.

She hadn't even known Cara longer than a few hours, but her inability to save the girl was what was really hurting Beth. She hated knowing what Cara had gone through without being able to show her that there was still goodness left in the world. Even with everything she and Daryl had done, Beth could sense that Cara had lost her faith in humanity. Beth wished she could have changed that.

She sighed and quickly got dressed before wandering out into the chilly morning air. The sun was just beginning to shine over the horizon, and a fog still lingered, yet to be warmed away by the sun. She made her way over to where Daryl had just finished digging. He looked up as she approached.

"Was just gonna come wake you," he said, his voice rough from lack of use.

Beth looked down at Cara's body that was hidden from view by an old plaid sheet that Daryl had taken from the linen closet.

"I'll help you put her in," she said.

Daryl nodded and bent down toward the body, careful not to let the sheet slip and uncover her as he slipped his arms under Cara's shoulders. Beth lifted beneath Cara's feet and the two of them carefully lowered her into the grave. Daryl grabbed the shovel again and began replacing the dirt around her body while Beth watched in a daze. After a few moments, she blinked herself out of her reverie and walked into the trees, grabbing two large sticks from the ground. Beth wandered back toward the house and to the toolbox on the screened in porch. She found a nail and removed her pink hammer from her belt loop to nail the two sticks into a cross. When she was done, she slipped the hammer back into her belt loop and made her way back to Cara's grave. She shoved the cross into the ground at the head of the grave and placed her hand on Daryl's arm to cease his shoveling.

"Let me finish it," she said.

"You sure?"

Beth nodded, and Daryl surrendered the shovel to her. He had already filled in the grave about halfway, and Cara's body was no longer visible, but Beth wanted to finish the job. Daryl stood behind her and watched as she filled in the grave with dirt, each shovel-full feeling heavier than the last. When she finished, she set down the shovel and went to stand by Daryl, who immediately took her hand in his.

"You wanna say somethin?" he asked.

Beth shrugged. "Dunno what to say," she admitted. "We didn't know anything about her. I dunno if she was religious, so prayer doesn't really seem right. I don't know what prayer I would say anyway."

Daryl nodded solemnly and gave Beth's hand a comforting squeeze.

"This is gonna sound silly," Beth said, "But there's a quote from Buffy that just came to mind. She says, 'The hardest thing in this world is to live in it.' I think that applies now more than ever. And at least Cara doesn't have to live in this world anymore."

Daryl frowned at her, remembering when Beth had lost her own will to live shortly after they had met for the first time. Beth seemed to sense what he was thinking and shook her head.

"I'm not saying people should want to die. I've been there, done that, and I'm over it. I'm just saying that it's good that she's in a better place. Even if there is no heaven and there's nothing after death, nothing is still better than what she went through. She doesn't have to fight anymore or be scared anymore. She's either basking in eternal glory or she doesn't exist anymore, and either way, I think that's okay."

Daryl's grip grew tighter on Beth's hand and he swallowed the lump that had appeared in his throat. He wasn't a religious person, and he didn't believe in the concept of Heaven or Hell, but the thought of nothingness after death had always unnerved him. However now, Beth's statement made sense. The world they lived in was fucked up, and while he certainly didn't want to die anytime soon, thinking about the nothingness that could follow death actually wasn't so scary. Life was the scary thing nowadays, not death. But it just meant that he wanted to live as much as he could while he still could, and he wanted to live that life with the woman next to him.

Beth began to walk away, but she kept her fingers entwined with his, tugging him along with her back toward the cabin. He followed willingly and allowed her to lead him through their fence and inside, only stopping when she reached the bedroom and dropped his hand. She turned to face him and moved her body close to his, her deep blue eyes staring into his own and her lips mere inches from his.

"Make me feel alive, Daryl," she said quietly.

He understood what she needed perfectly because he felt the same need. He needed to be with her intimately, not for sexual desire, but to feel the thrill that life gave them. Facing the harsh reality that death was always around the corner wasn't new to either of them, but in that moment, they both felt the need to remember and feel what made life worth living.

Daryl brought his hands to the sides of Beth's face, cupping it between them and rubbing the pads of his thumbs over her smooth cheeks. He lowered his lips to hers and kissed her with everything he had, and Beth felt her knees weaken from the sheer passion of his kiss. She sighed into the kiss and returned it with equal intensity. Her small hands tangled themselves in Daryl's long hair as she molded her body against his. His tongue entered her mouth and mingled with hers, but it wasn't their usual battle for dominance. Instead it was almost tender, yet eager and passionate at the same time.

Beth began to back up toward the bed behind her without breaking the kiss. She disentangled her hands from Daryl's hair and ran them under his shirt, loving the way his warm skin felt under her touch. Their lips parted only momentarily as she pulled the shirt over his head. She shivered as Daryl's calloused fingertips ghosted across her stomach beneath her own shirt, and soon it joined Daryl's shirt on the floor. She wore no bra, and she reveled in the feeling of their bare chests pressing against one another as she fell onto the bed, taking Daryl with her.

She scooted back to the pillows at the head of the bed and immediately began working on the fastenings of Daryl's pants, his hands simultaneously unbuttoning her own pants and tugging them down her legs along with her panties. Beth pulled Daryl's pants down as far as she could, and he aided her in kicking them off, leaving them both naked. Daryl paused and drank in the sight of Beth's exposed body, which she made no effort to hide. Her nipples were hard, whether from desire or from the chill of the cabin, he wasn't sure, and her skin looked pale, smooth, and perfect everywhere his eyes searched. He was unable to find a single imperfection about her, and he was overcome with appreciation for her.

"You're so beautiful," he said quietly.

Beth blushed a little and smiled. She loved hearing Daryl tell her that she was beautiful. If she thought about it, no one had said those words to her before him, which just made them sound even more wonderful. She brought her smiling lips back to his and kissed him passionately again. She could feel his erection against her inner thigh and she arched her hips up, grinding herself against him. Daryl's lips left hers and began trailing kisses down her neck and collarbone. His facial hair scratched her skin in a delicious way, and Beth released a moan when he opened his lips and sucked on her neck, marking her. She arched her hips against him again and he ran one of his hands down her body and between her legs. He began rubbing slow, soft circles around her clit, and Beth moaned again.

"I need you now," she murmured breathlessly.

"You ain't ready yet," Daryl replied softly against her neck. She was growing wetter as he touched her, but he knew she wasn't wet enough to take him just yet.

"Don't care," Beth panted. "Need you."

Daryl brought his mouth away from her neck and spat into his palm. He wiped his saliva on the tip of his erection and positioned himself between her legs. He slowly slipped inside her, moving inch by inch until he was completely sheathed to the hilt. Beth wrapped her legs around his waist and locked her ankles behind him. She ground her hips up against his, prompting him to move. He slowly pulled out of her about halfway before sliding back in, amazed by how wet she had become so quickly. Beth's hands found their way back to his hair and she abruptly tugged him down to her lips, moaning into his mouth as he thrust into her again. Daryl's tongue tangled with hers as he set a steady pace. Each thrust took him deep inside her and he was astounded by how amazing her tight walls felt around him as he moved.

Suddenly he stopped, realizing why she felt better than usual. Beth pulled away from his lips and frowned up at him, squirming a little in an attempt to get him to keep moving.

"We need a condom," he muttered, but Beth shook her head and tightened her legs around his waist, her ankles still locked together and holding him in place.

"Leave it," she commanded breathlessly. "Wanna feel you, and just you right now."

The logical side of him insisted that this was a bad idea, but Daryl brushed the thoughts away and nodded. He looked down into her deep blue eyes and thrust into her again, hard this time, causing her to cry out as he hit her sensitive spot deep inside her. His eyes didn't leave hers as he continued to thrust into her slow, deep, and hard. The connection Daryl felt to Beth became stronger, almost overwhelming, and he suddenly realized that this wasn't just fucking. This was making love. He had never used those words before to define his sexual encounters, but he felt that it was the only accurate way to describe what was happening between them at that moment.

Beth's eyes began to flutter closed as she neared her climax, and he sped up a little in hopes of getting her there faster, as he wasn't going to last much longer himself. She gasped and moaned as he pounded into her, and soon she came undone beneath him, her walls constricting around him in pulsating waves and sending him over the edge.

"Beth," he groaned out, and he abruptly pulled out of her warmth and finished himself on her lower belly without a second to spare. He collapsed next to her on the bed and allowed himself a moment to catch his breath before going to the dresser and grabbing one of the old white undershirts from the cabin's original occupant and making his way back to Beth, where he cleaned up his mess from her stomach with the shirt. He fell back on the bed beside her and turned on his side to face her.

"Shouldn't have done that without a condom," he said.

"I know," Beth sighed. "It's just not as intimate with a condom, and I needed more, you know?"

"I know."

Daryl reached his arm over and pulled Beth into his body, and she turned on her side and curled into him with her back to his chest. She loved how perfectly they fit together and how right it felt to be close to him like this. She had spooned this way with both Zach and Jimmy, but she didn't seem to fit against them nearly as well as she did against Daryl. It was as though he were the missing piece to her puzzle, as corny as that seemed.

Daryl began running his fingertips over Beth's skin, giving her pleasant goosebumps. She sighed contentedly and let her eyes flutter closed as she enjoyed his delicate touches. She realized that she would probably have to take one of the Plan B packages she had swiped from the pharmacy. Even if it would make her feel under the weather for a day or two, it wasn't worth the risk of conceiving a child. The world was already a dangerous place, and Beth couldn't imagine having to deal with pregnancy and the birth and care of a child with the added danger of Cara's assailants being somewhere nearby. Her body and mind were already under enough stress as it was.

"We should finish the barbed wire fence today," Daryl said after a few moments.

"Yeah," Beth agreed. "Can we just lay here for a few more minutes?"

Daryl chuckled a little. "Sure. We can lay here for as long as you want."

"In that case, let's lay here forever," she said with a smile, turning around to face him. "I just want to pretend that everything hasn't gone to hell. I want to pretend that the dead aren't walking and trying to eat us, that crazy groups of sadistic people aren't out to hurt us, and that the only thing we have to worry about today is when to finally get ourselves out of bed."

Daryl gave Beth a sad smile and nodded in agreement. "Me too, girl. Me too."

Beth pressed her lips to Daryl's and got lost in the kiss. The world would never be "normal" as it once was, and no matter how much pretending they did, it couldn't change the reality of the harsh life they had been forced into. But both found consolation in the fact that despite all the factors working against them, they still had each other.

Beth pulled away from Daryl's lips and stared into his icy blue eyes, and she felt her heart expand as if she had a balloon in her chest as she looked at him. With a start, she realized that her feelings for him ran deep, deeper than she had ever thought they would. What had started as a feeling of safety had grown to sexual attraction, but now, it was so much more than that. She knew that she would die without him if she lost him, and not just because he kept her safe, but because she would lose the will to carry on without him. He was her rock, and as she continued to look into his eyes, Beth slowly came to terms with a fact that scared her more than anything they had faced thus far.

Beth was falling in love with Daryl. And she was falling fast.

I think I'll aim for a few chapters of fluff and smut before bringing in more conflict to the story. I can't handle the depressing shit right now.

Thanks for reading and please review! :)