Thank you so, so much to your warm response on the first chapter. I'm very excited for telling this new story and am so glad that you all seem excited for it, too!

…

Chapter Two.

And to think. She had been expecting Sunday to be a quiet day.

Beth is running the office just like her daddy did and she really has no set hours. If there is an animal in need of help, the person can bring it to see her or give her a call and she'll come to wherever she is needed. For the first few years of his practice, Hershel Greene had had an office out in the barn but eventually, he moved it into the house – the first floor sitting room has become the vet's waiting room and the spare guest bedroom right off of it has become the exam room.

She had been worried – for all of two seconds – that after her daddy died, no one would come and bring their animals to see her; that they would move onto the next vet in the next town over; that they would look at her and still see little Bethy Greene and not Dr. Greene.

But it really had just been a concern for about two seconds before one of the older women Beth recognized from church came up to her in the kitchen at the funeral luncheon and told her that her cat had some sort of dry cough and could she please take a look and help him?

Beth is still little Bethy Greene to most people in this town but she is Hershel's daughter and he had boasted proudly of his youngest graduating from veterinarian school; boasted so much so, no one can possibly ever think that that she is incompetent in her role. When her daddy passed away, Beth became the new Dr. Greene in town and no one questioned it.

"You are doing so good, Louis," she says to the chocolate lab currently laying out on the steel table in the exam room in her softest, most gentle tone.

The dog whimpers a little and begins trying to move and Beth stills her pliers immediately. The dog's owner, Daryl Dixon, adjusts his arms so he's holding the dog down more firmly.

"Sorry," he mumbles.

"It's alright," she says, giving the man a small smile before looking down to the dog. "Just a few more, Louis," she goes back to speaking to him and in his eyes, she can see how scared the dog is and how much he's probably hurting right now. "You are doing so good, Louis."

With her pliers, she pulls the porcupine needles from the dog's snout as slowly and as carefully as she can, not wanting any of them to break off because then she'll have to get her tweezers and it will be more painful for Louis if she has to dig around for the end of it instead of just slowly – very slowly – pulling the needles out with her sterilized pliers.

She had gone to church that morning and had come home after service, making herself a breakfast of eggs and toast. She's still getting used to how quiet the farm is. Otis doesn't come to work on the weekends and mama and daddy are both gone now. Her older sister, Maggie, got married and moved with her husband, Glenn, up to Michigan, where his family is, and her older brother, Shawn, is off doing what Shawn does – which is pretty much whatever he feels like. He sends postcards and the last one she got from him had been from Los Angeles. Beth is the one who stayed in state to go to college and come home once graduating and now, it's just her in a farmhouse that's too big and too quiet for just her.

The pickup truck had come speeding down the dirt road towards the house around noon and Beth knew immediately that it was someone who needed her help. She hurried out onto the front steps to see Daryl Dixon rush out of his door, not even bothering to close it, as he then went to the other side. When he pulled something gingerly from the front seat beside him, wrapped up in a blanket, Beth had moved into action.

Just a few more needles left. Beth's hand is steady even as her heart pounds away. It's okay though. It's going well and Louis is being so good even as he is whining and wanting to get away. Daryl's arms are strong though as he holds onto the dog.

"It's a common myth that porcupines actually project their needles," Beth begins talking, speaking in that still quiet, gentle tone to the dog. "So, you must have gotten pretty close to the animal for him to get you, Louis."

She's quiet, pulling out another long needle and dropping it into the metal bowl next to her with a soft ping. She lifts her eyes to glance at Daryl for only a second before putting her attention once again on Louis. She doesn't say anything else. Just waits. She knows Daryl Dixon. Not well but she knows enough and she knows that he talks very rarely but when he does, it's in his own time. There's no use in forcing words out of him.

Her daddy had told her as much when she had gone off to school and with all of his children from the house, Daryl would come over to help with the handy work that needed to be done and the man always invited him for dinner. And sometimes, Daryl would agree and stay and Hershel had gotten to know Daryl and in turn, Hershel would tell Beth things so she would know him, too. They called one another nearly every day and gave one another the report of what was happening in their lives and Daryl was a part of her daddy's report.

"Was out huntin'," Daryl finally speaks in that gruff tone of his. "Trackin' after a buck. Louis got on the porcupine's scent and before I could stop 'im, he tracked it and got too close. Scared the porcupine. Thought he was bein' threatened."

"Who could ever think you would be threatening them, huh, Louis?" Beth smiles at the dog.

She's stiff by the time she pulls out the remaining four needles and with a soft grunt, Beth straightens up, putting a hand on her lower back. Daryl arms loosen around Louis just enough for the dog to move a bit but he makes sure he keeps him up on the table.

"Hold him for just another second," she says as she goes to the shelf and takes down a bottle of cleaning antiseptic and a gauze pad.

If Louis was a human, he'd be screaming the instant Beth swipes the pad across his snout. She bends over quickly and blows on it as Daryl's arms strain, holding the struggling dog.

"Shhhh, Louis," she said gently. "You're so brave. It's done now. I promise."

She blew once more and then turned to throw the gauze and porcupine needles out. "Make sure he keeps that clean. Don't let him go sniffing in the dirt or rolling in the grass. And come and bring him back to see me on Tuesday," she says, looking back to Daryl.

Daryl nods and he lifts Louis from the table, setting him down on the floor. The dog immediately shakes his whole body as if trying to rid himself of the entire experience.

"Thanks, Doc. What do I owe 'ya?" Daryl asks. "My wallet's in the truck so give me a second to go get it," he then tells her.

Beth hesitates. She doesn't feel right charging him. It's not like Louis needed his shots or surgery. He just needed pliers and her steady hand. And Daryl seems to notice her hesitating because he frowns at her as if she's just greatly insulted him and it's such a fierce frown, it nearly makes her take a step backwards to get away from it.

"I'll mail you the bill," she's quick to promise him.

Daryl stares at her for a moment and then gives a single nod of his head. "You better."

…

In small Southern towns like theirs, sometimes, it feels like time doesn't move at all.

And if it does, it moves very slowly and sometimes, Beth will walk around town – going to the small grocery store or going to the bank or to the hair salon to see her friend, Rosita – and it will feel like she never left for college at all. Almost everything is exactly the way it was when she had left when she was eighteen. Some people have passed on – her daddy not being around, leaving a large hole in her life she can't imagine ever being filled again – but babies have been born and they even got a new family who had moved to town a couple of years ago. And that had been quite the event because no one ever moved here. The people who lived here, their families had been living in this area for generations.

Monday morning, Beth has seen a little Basset Hound puppy who had needed his booster shots, a parrot who isn't talking anymore and deeply concerning his owners, and a little girl had brought a frog in a shoe-box that she had caught down by the creek that flows through town and it didn't look "right" to her.

At noon, Beth closes the office for a little bit so she can take a break for lunch. There is a sign on the front door that if anyone comes by and she's not there but needs her, to call her cell.

She waves to Otis, who is at the barn, working on one of horse's shoes and he waves back as she climbs into the old farm pickup truck. She drives into town – a blink and you miss it kind of town with most of the businesses on the main street and the houses shooting off on the small streets on either side. It's small and it doesn't seem as if there's much to it but Beth has always loved it here. She's not like Maggie and Shawn, who have both always been on the lookout for something bigger and better. This is her home and Beth really can't imagine herself living anywhere else.

She had done the Atlanta thing for a few years. She had experienced city living and had decided that it wasn't for her. This is for her and she just wishes her daddy could be here, too, so they could share the Greene veterinary practice together.

Beth parks the truck in the small lot next to the diner and heads inside to join the lunch crowd. The diner has an official name – Oak Tree Diner – which still appears on its laminated menus but no one calls it by that. It's simply the diner. There are two other restaurants in town – a Chinese all-you-can-eat buffet and a Mexican restaurant – as well a pizza parlor and a Subway. But when someone wants pancakes at two o'clock in the afternoon or a cheeseburger at nine in the morning, they know to go to the diner.

Most of those at the tables and the counter are cops and the men from the cardboard box factory in town – the biggest employer around – on their lunch break. She finds a seat for herself on a stool at the counter in between two men – Sheriff Grimes and a factory man and they exchange friendly smiles with one another.

"Hi, Beth," the waitress, Paulie Dixon, smiles at her from the other side of the counter. As long as Beth can remember, it seems like Paulie is the only waitress here at the diner because no matter what time Beth comes here, Paulie's the one who's working. "You want anything to drink?" She asks as she hands Beth one of the menus and holds a coffee pot in her other hand.

"Hi Paulie. Diet Coke, and please tell me that that's a hummingbird cake over there," Beth says, looking to the thick delicious-looking cake at the end of the counter under a plastic lid.

The diner featured a new special cake every few days, baked by Paulie, and they were always quick to sell out. Beth can't believe she's gotten here in time to still get a piece.

"Baked just this morning," Paulie gives her a grin. "I'll cut you a slice."

Paulie walks away and Beth nearly licks her lips in anticipation. She hasn't had hummingbird cake in a very long time. Probably not since when her mama was still alive.

"How are you doin', Beth?" Sheriff Rick Grimes asks her then and Beth looks to the lean man in his uniform with curly brown hair, his Sheriff's hat on the counter next to him and a coffee cup in his hand.

He looks tired to her and she knows he and his wife, Lori, had recently had a baby, Judy. Beth suspects they're getting used to having a baby again since their son, Carl, is already in the dreaded tween age.

And Beth gives an honest nod in return because Sheriff Grimes and her daddy had always been close friends and had respected one another greatly. "Trying to get used to it," she answers. "Even though I really don't want to get used to it."

Rick nods with understanding and Beth knows that he gets it. Just a couple summers ago, both of his parents had been killed in a car crash. They had died instantly on the Parish Bridge. One second, they were here, and the next, they were gone. Snap of a finger. Blink of an eye. Just like how Hershel had collapsed on the floor of the barn from a heart attack. One second, her daddy was here and the next, he wasn't.

As awful as it sounds, at least with her mother, the cancer hadn't taken her right away and Beth had had the time to spend with her and come to terms with the fact that Annette Greene was dying. It hadn't made it easier but it had made it… something. With Hershel, there had been no warning or preparation time at all and Beth doesn't know what was worse. To be prepared for it or to be completely taken by surprise.

Both are pretty awful if anyone asks her.

"Here you go, sweetie," Paulie appears again with a glass of fizzling ice-cold Diet Coke and a thick triangle slab of the banana and pineapple cake with pecans that is so large, it nearly takes up the entire plate.

Beth can't help but laugh. "Did you leave any left for someone else?" She asks as she unwraps her fork from her napkin, ready to dive in.

"It's my thanks to you for helping Louis yesterday," Paulie says. "Louis and Daryl are stayin' with me for a while and Daryl told me what you did."

Beth doesn't ask why Daryl is staying with his mother for the time being. Everyone knows about the breakup between Daryl and Amy Harris and Beth supposes that's one of the obvious downsides to living in a small town like this. Your business is everyone's business. And that's something Beth has never wanted to give into. Too much gossip makes her sick but deep down, she can't help herself when she wonders what the hell is wrong with Amy where she would break up with Daryl Dixon.

She doesn't know him but she knows enough and the way he had worried about and taken care of his dog yesterday has shown her all she needs to know. A man who treats animals with kindness is a good man.

"There is no reason to thank me. It's my job," Beth says. "But thank you," she then smiles.

Paulie just pushes the plate closer to her and goes off to deliver fresh food to another table.

The first bite of the moist, dense cake Beth takes, she can't help but moan a little and Rick overhears and snickers a little to himself as he smiles before taking another sip of coffee.

…

After trying to pay for the slice of cake and being refused by Paulie, Beth leaves a twenty-dollar tip by her plate and hurries out before Paulie can yell at her about it.

Outside, she pulls the keys to the truck from her purse but before heading home, she crosses the street for Mitchell's Drug Store, needing to get a couple of things she noticed this morning that she was running low on.

Just as she lifts an arm to push the door open, the door is being pulled open from inside and she nearly falls into the person who is stepping out.

"I'm so, so sorry," Beth is quick to apologize and scramble to steady herself and feeling a hand on her elbow to help, she lifts her eyes and sees that she has fallen into no one other than Daryl Dixon. He's looking down at her with a blank face and she feels her cheeks flush.

"You a'right, Doc?" He asks in that gruff tone of his and Beth wonders how much he smokes.

"Sorry about that," she says and tries to ignore the reaction her body is having to his hand still on her elbow.

His hand is rough – which isn't surprising considering he owns his own carpentry business in town – and his fingertips are warm and even though she can feel the humidity hanging in the air that day like a blanket, she feels like shivering anyway.

Daryl is still looking at her and his hand falls to hang at his side.

They stand there for a few seconds in silence before he lifts an eyebrow at her and Beth realizes that she's blocking his way out. If possible, she feels her cheeks stain an even darker red, now practically on fire, and she is quick to step from his way.

"Sorry," she manages to say once more but she doesn't look at him again and before he can say anything in response – not that she's expecting him to – Beth hurries into the store.

She's pretty sure she doesn't breathe again until she's in the aisle where the shampoo and conditioner bottles are kept.

And just what the hell is the matter with you, Beth Greene, she demands of herself to know. It's not like that's the first time she's ever seen Daryl Dixon – or any attractive man for that matter. Daryl had just been at her house yesterday with Louis but she just embarrassed herself too much to even ask how the dog is doing and she's acting like some silly girl who's never been in contact with the opposite sex before.

Perfect way to show everyone how professional you are, she grumbles to herself. She doubts her daddy stumbled and blushed around his patients.

She grabs the bottle of shampoo and another of conditioner of the usual brand she uses and she heads towards the front counter. George Mitchell, the man whose family has owned the drugstore for as long as there's been a town there, is standing at the cash register and he smiles broadly when he sees her.

"Hi, Doc," he greets her and scans the two bottles.

"Hi, George," Beth smiles in return, feeling more like herself now. Her face is no longer feeling as if it's on fire, at least. "It feels so good in here," she then comments on the cold air.

Yes, it does," George agrees with a nod of his head. "Daryl Dixon was just in here and he offered to check on the vents. Hasn't felt good like this in here all summer. Well, you know his older brother, Merle, works for the air repair place but he shows up whenever the heck he wants even if you make an appointment. It's a wonder that boy hasn't gotten fired yet."

Beth doesn't comment. She's pretty sure George and Merle Dixon are the same age and Merle probably wouldn't like being called "boy" by anyone – especially George Mitchell.

"But you know Daryl has spent most of his life keeping that brother of his out of trouble," George continues and Beth stands there with a tight, polite smile on her face because she hates gossip but it's just as rude to just interrupt him so she can leave. "Will Dixon leaving that family – and this town – was a blessing but I think it was too late for Merle. He had spent too much time around that dad of his and picked up on some of his bad habits."

And Beth has no idea what to say to any of this even if she wanted to participate in the conversation. She never knew Will Dixon. She knows of him. In a small town, no one forgets bad seeds like that no matter how many years have passed.

"At least Paulie has Daryl. One out of two isn't bad, I suppose," George finishes with a sigh.

Beth takes the plastic bag from him and gives him another smile, taking the opportunity to step back towards the door. "Have a good day, George," she says as friendly as she can.

"You, too, Doc," he says with a nod and she is quick to leave the store.

Crossing the street once more to her truck, she gets in and heads back towards the farm. She's been gone far longer than she had wanted to be and she needs to open the office again. She has a couple of appointments scheduled later that day and she needs to order some more supplies and she needs to go over the schedule for tomorrow… Beth nearly groans just when she thinks about tomorrow.

She told Daryl to bring Louis back tomorrow.

Hopefully, she can get through the checkup without setting herself on fire with her blush. She doesn't even ask herself why she wants to blush around Daryl Dixon all of a sudden. She already knows she doesn't have an answer.

…

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