She had been so tired the past few days, but Beth chalked it up to the added exercise she had been getting from fucking Merle Dixon. They'd been doing this for almost two weeks now. She would make an excuse to come over looking for him; a broken gun that needed repairing, an earlier promise to help him with the wall maintenance, an item forgotten at her place...

It didn't matter, the end result was always the same. They would drink until it was late enough for the others to tuck in for the night, she would say tell him about their the prison and life on the road before Alexandria, and he would tell her about the military or Woodbury or the mountains up north in Georgia...whatever he felt like telling her that night, and then have sex on the back porch. And there she would kiss him goodnight before finding her way back inside of her own home and slide naked into her own bed. As far as Beth knew, the intricacies of their evening activities were their little secret alone, but Maggie had began to notice the familiarity between her and the elder Dixon brother.

Beth pulled the back door closed, her shoes clutched in her hand as she latched the deadbolt. She was still humming with heat from her recent orgasm when she heard Maggie call quietly from the living room. The heat in her stomach dropped.

Had Maggie seen her?

Beth shook her head, clearing the thought from her mind before joining Maggie on the opposite side of the sofa. She wrapped her arms around her knees, which she had pulled up to her chest as Maggie put aside the book she was reading and smiled softly at Beth.

"Hey," Beth said, "You're still up?"

"Yeah, Glenn snores. Was keeping' me up. Thought I'd come down and catch up on the book club reading. Carol still wants you to join by the way."

Beth laughed, "Good luck with that."

"Yeah, that's what I said too. She'd probably have better luck convincing Daryl to join."

"Probably."

"I've heard you're over there a lot."

"With Daryl? Yeah, we're friends." Beth asked innocently.

But Maggie saw through it, "With Merle."

Beth took a beat; trying to think up a valid excuse, but the thought was cut off by Maggie.

"What are you even doin' Beth? He's a complete ass."

"He really ain't that bad..."

"He delivered me to the Governor and then beat the shit out of Glenn!"

"I don' know Maggie. I think somethin' might've happened to 'im out there. He seems...different?"

"There's only so 'different' someone like him can be..." Maggie grumbled, the thought trailing off unfinished and pulling the book back into her lap. Beth took it as a cue to leave and made her way to the bathroom. She showered quickly before padding over to her bedroom and dropping her robe in a pile on the floor, the pale blue fabric pooling on the ground beside her bed.

They walked together quietly. Beth's makeshift stiches burned and restricted her stride, but she followed Daryl through the forest in silence. The side of his face had bloomed with heavy purple bruises, but now, two days after the attack, he seemed to no longer be concussed.

"Here," Daryl said pointing up at a ruddy-looking treehouse that was made simply of an unroofed platform with a twisting rope ladder held down by a heavy rock, "Can pull the ladder up for the night. Might get a little cold, but we've got that tarp at least."

Beth nodded but said nothing. After he had gone up the swaying ladder, Beth lifted her leg to climb. She couldn't help the wince that spread over her face at the feel of a stitch pulling against the raw edge of her skin. She gritted her teeth together and tried again, this time pulling herself up all five rungs and ignoring the squelching of the fresh blook that was now running down the leg of her newly found jeans.

"Y'all right?" Daryl asked, looking at her concernedly.

Beth silently cursed the light colour of the denim trousers before retorting with an unconvincing 'Yeah, it's fine'.

"Don't look too fine," Daryl said under his breath.

"I get it alright?! I know it's gross!," she snapped back at him.

Immediately she felt guilty for it, and even if she hadn't, the look on Daryl's face would have brought her there.

"m sorry..."

"No, it's..."

"Should've done it someway different. Could've shot the first one with my gun while his back was turned, then got the other one with a knife. Or maybe could've shot the other one and fought the first one. Or shot the car tires 'fore they even got close..."

She sat down beside him and pulled his head down to rest against her chest and carefully wrapping one arm around him, being careful to avoid the place on his back where she knew the long red scar sat.

""m sorry..."

"I know," She said, "You tried."

Beth opened her eyes to the orange of early morning light coming through her window. She ran her hand down between her legs and traced her jagged scar. Her eyes pricked with the beginning of fresh tears. When she had finally stopped bleeding after it happened, she never bled again; her period had disappeared with her stiches. Beth had wondered so many times if it would ever return, or if maybe after so many months of malnutrition the attack had been the last straw and her fertility just couldn't take anything more. There was no way she could know for sure; no test that could be run to see if she would ever be able to become pregnant now or in the future...

She shoved that thought away with the blanket and stood to get dressed. She pulled on her favorite pair od denim shorts: dark blue Bermuda-cut and covered with paint splatters from when she and Carl had decided on a whim to paint the living room, and paired them with an old soft t-shirt before walking down the stairs for breakfast.

She found Carl in the kitchen making coffee. There was already a plate of sausages on the table and Beth could smell the scent of bread toasting in the oven.

"Morning," he said smiling at her over his shoulder.

"Hey Carl," she greeted, "This is a nice surprise. What's the occasion?"

"N-nothing..."

Beth raised her eyebrow.

"Okay, Enid said she might come over for breakfast yesterday and I...I..."

"Wanted to show off?"

"Maybe a little bit. She was gonna bring some comic books over and we were going to read them together."

"Well that sounds like fun."

Beth was about to ask which ones they planned on reading together when Rick walked into the room.

"Since when do you drink coffee?" he asked his son.

"I-I thought I would try it," Carl said unconvincingly.

"He's got a date," Beth said.

Carl blushed, seeming mildly horrified, but Rick just laughed and ruffled his son's hair.

"It's nice that you're making breakfast for Enid son. I'm sure she'll like it. Can you pour me some o' that? I've got to get to work."

Carl nodded and handed Rick a mug before bringing one over to Beth as well.

"Well, Don't forget it's your day with Judith today alright?" Rick said.

"Yes Dad, I know."

"And Carl, leave the door open ok?"

"Dad..."

Beth had to excuse herself to keep from laughing at the scene. It was so domestic and sweet. She remembered her own father telling her the same thing about Jimmy, and she reacted with the same whine that Carl had just given Rick.

She just wished he could have seen where they were now.