**A/N: Here it is, the first chapter of the sequel to She's Breathing! Not much to say but that I hope you enjoy it. (And yes, the fic rating does apply to this specific chapter.)
"Look, we gotta try and make some runs for supplies, but we gotta be smart about it."
"You think I don't know that?"
"I ain't sayin' you don't, okay? Just..."
A snap and crackle from the fire in front of her momentarily blocked out the sound of Rick and Daryl's hushed conversation, and Beth frowned. She shouldn't have been listening in to begin with, she knew that. Her Mama had always scolded her for eavesdropping as a kid, but Beth's sense of good manners and morals had always eaged a bit with her natural curiosity. She couldn't help but be curious right now. Rick had pulled Daryl off to the side a half hour after they'd all gotten up, catching him while she'd been relieving herself in the woods. She hadn't been at his side for once, which apparently meant she didn't get included into the conversation.
Now the pair of them were shoulder to shoulder across the fire, leaning over some map they'd spread out on a flat-topped rock. From where Beth stood on the other side she could see Daryl tracing his finger over something on the map, but whatever he was murmuring to Rick, she couldn't hear. It wasn't an unfamiliar sight, or at least it hadn't been at one time. She had plenty of memories like this, Rick and Daryl with their heads together bent over a map or talking over a problem. Sometimes Michonne would join in, or Carol or, even further back, Lori would sometimes try (usually to no avail, back then). Maybe she just hadn't had so many memories of them like this lately because usually she was right there beside Daryl, part of the conversation. Had it just been because she'd conveniently been next to him whenever it happened?
She really did know she shouldn't have been eavesdropping, but she still didn't tear her gaze away. Not until Rick looked up at spotted her and Beth cleared her throat and darted a look off to the side as if she hadn't been staring at them. "Beth!" For just a second she felt like a kid caught spying or something, but there was no scolding look on Rick's face when she glanced back up at him. Instead, he was waving her over, and when she glanced at Daryl he had a hint of a smile on his lips. Just enough for her to know it was okay.
Leaving the fire behind she moved around it and came up at Daryl's side next to the rock. The moment she was there, Rick gestured down to the map, including her easily into the conversation as he summarized, "You know we're running low on the supplies James gave us, and the little we've managed to collect along the way." Of course she knew. It had been about a week since they'd left Richmond, and their journey had been slow-going. They'd made it through most of Virginia and according to the signs they'd found (and Daryl's reckoning prior to that) were currently somewhere in the Jefferson National Forest and getting closer to the border.
They'd been walking for all of it. Up at dawn, stopping for breaks when needed, and then for lunch, and later slowing before sunset to set up camp before it got dark. It was slow going, but that was better than pushing themselves and getting hurt. The problem was that they hadn't had a ton of supplies to start with, especially when it came to food. Water wasn't as hard in the forest with both Beth and Daryl to find sources for it, but food could be more trouble. They didn't have time for Beth and Daryl to go off on a long hunt for a deer and while the squirrel and occasional rabbit they caught helped, it wasn't enough.
"Daryl says we're about here," Rick pointed to a spot around the center of the forest. "And right here-" He dragged his finger slightly, "-is a lake."
"Lake Moomaw," Daryl said roughly, giving her what she knew was an amused little smile at the name. "Found a little brochure thing, back at the last ranger cabin we passed. Supposed t' be a campground on a ridge above it. Reckon we can find some fishin' supplies, if anythin', and the campground might be a good place t' stop for a day or two."
Beth nodded slowly, her eyes on his as she followed right along with his suggestion. She was distracted by Rick looking up at her and asking, "So what do you think, Beth?"
The fact that she was being asked made her blink and shift in place, especially considering just moment before she'd been worrying about not being included, but she wasn't about to blow this by being an idiot. Especially not when Daryl was gently leaning his arm against hers like he was right now in silent encouragement. After staring down at the map a moment longer to collect her thoughts, Beth remarked, "Staying up on a ridge might be safer, and a campground might be less risk than cabins or buildings that might have walkers inside. Sounds like the sort of place we could stay a short while, and we could use that. Hank has been real tired lately, and Tara's leg is still bothering her, and I know Noah's Mom just isn't used to being on the road like this. Plus you know Judith always gets fussy when we've been constantly on the move, a day or two to relax would settle her." She tapped her fingers on the map, and added, "And fish would be really good. We can eat 'em fresh, or dry it out to save it. Plus if we stay there a day or two, Daryl and I might be able to hunt down a deer and add to our supplies. I think it's a really good idea."
It was only when she was done talking that she glanced up at both men. Rick was nodding seriously as if he were genuinely taking her opinion into account, and Daryl... well, Daryl was staring at her with this look in her eyes that she knew was a combination of pride and affection and attraction, and she would have kissed him for it if the others weren't all right there.
"Alright." Rick gave one more decisive nod, and began to fold up the map. "We should send a smaller group ahead to scout and make sure it's safe. You two wanna pick who to go with you?"
Daryl didn't hesitate. "Michonne, Maggie, and Glenn?"
Though she'd paused for a second to smile- it really was still a novelty to be a 'pair' and not the assumed tag-a-long of Daryl's- Beth chimed in after a moment, "And Carl. If you don't mind. He's been getting better and better with that bow of his and he could use more practice scoping places out and reading the tracking signs and all."
Though he hesitated a moment, Rick nodded after a moment. If it had been a riskier situation she wouldn't have asked, but a campground up in the forest in the mountains didn't seem quite as dangerous. Besides, she'd meant it. Carl was getting better every day, but he needed more practice, and Beth wanted him to get it. She wanted him to be strong. "How 'bout I come this time? Michonne can stay with the group and guard." He looked over at Beth, and surprised her again when he asked, "That okay?"
She knew that what he was really asking was if it was okay for Carl, and Beth felt an odd sense of pride in knowing that Rick trusted her opinion when it came to his son. He'd trusted her enough to ask for her help with Carl before, and now he was trusting her to know what was right for the boy, too. Knowing that Rick had that much faith in her judgment of his son's needs made her feel even more proud. She took a moment to think it over and then nodded, voicing her thoughts out loud, "He's been learning a lot. It'd be good for him to have you see some of that, and for him to see that you respect him for it."
His nod and the understanding look that passed between them helped Beth believe she'd made the right decision. Rick wanted his son to be strong, to find ways to overcome the trauma of what he'd gone through. He wouldn't risk upsetting that, if he could avoid it. After a moment, Rick offered them the folded map and then headed off, presumably to find the others for their little advance party, leaving Daryl and Beth alone by the rock. Turning towards him, she used her body as a shield, so everyone sitting around behind them couldn't see the way she ran her fingers lightly up his arm. "Did I do good?"
"You don't need to ask that," Daryl said with a hint of amusement in his voice, "You always do good."
"I'm surprised he even asked me, to be honest." She gave a little shrug of her shoulder but Daryl instantly shook his head.
"Another thing you shouldn't be sayin'." He reached down, finding her hand where it was hidden between their bodies and gently running the rough pads of his fingers across the back of her hand. "Course he asked for your opinion. You're smart. But you also..." She saw his brow furrow as he searched for the right words. "Y' think about everyone else an' what they need. You see it, when we don't."
Now it was her turn to furrow her brow at him, even as she gently hooked her fingers through his. "That's not anything special, though..."
"'Course it is. Rick, he thinks of the journey and what we need to get there, to keep goin'. Me, I think about huntin' and food, an' where we might be safer in general. But you..." His fingers stroked the inside of her palm and she sighed at the softness of his touch and the way the rough pads of his fingers felt against her skin. "You see all of that, an' you see everyone else, too. You notice when people are hurt, or tired, or need a break and you remember it, an'... factor it in."
She started to shake her head but he cut her off with one look, and after a moment, Beth just crinkled up her nose at him. When she saw a faint smile appear on his lips instead, she went on playfully, "Speaking of noticing people..."
"What?"
"You." She smiled at him as her own fingers shifted to graze against his. "You notice things about me even I don't notice sometimes." She could see him shrugging it off, and Beth gave him a look that was very similar to the one he'd given her. The sight of it made him chuckle, and Beth just smiled as she felt the companionable ease between them.
"Hey, lovebirds!" Glenn's voice broke in from behind them and while Daryl looked a mix of annoyed and slightly flustered the way he often did when they got caught in a even a mild display of affection, Beth just laughed as she turned to stick her tongue out at Glenn. "Very mature," her brother-in-law teased with a roll of his eyes.
"Says the guy who just called us lovebirds," Beth shot right back. She reluctantly released Daryl's hand to turn towards Glenn, but was firmly conscious of Daryl's warm presence right behind her. "You keep doing that, I might decide to get payback. Just wait till the next time you and my sister try sneaking off for some alone time, then you'll regret all your teasing..."
Maggie came up behind her husband, a grin on her face that was similar to Beth's own. "Is he being a doofus again?"
"Yep." Beth leaned imperceptibly back against Daryl, feeling him relax from the tension that being caught in an affectionate moment sometimes seemed to cause him. "And the next time you two are sneaking off together and get interrupted, just remember it's all your doofus husband's fault!"
Just as Maggie playfully punched Glenn's arm, Beth heard a voice call out her name. "Beth!" She looked over to see Carl hurrying towards her excitedly, only to catch himself and slow down when he saw her, Daryl, Maggie, and Glenn all standing there. She didn't fail to notice the transformation that went over him; the way he puffed out his chest a bit and tilted his chin up under the sheriff's hat he still proudly wore. When he reached her side, he cleared his throat. "Dad said you wanted me to come on a run with you?"
"That's right." She smiled and resisted the urge to slip that hat off and ruffle his hair. She knew he hated that, even if she was fond of doing it sometimes. Instead she tugged on the brim of his hat briefly and gave him a smile. "Come on, let's go get our weapons and I'll tell you all about the mission, okay?"
As she walked off with Carl, who was doing his best to hide his excitement (even though it showed in the bounce of his step), Beth glanced over her shoulder at Daryl and gave him a slow soft smile that was all for him.
...
At first Carl had seemed a little unsure about having his Dad along for their little 'mission', but once Beth framed it as a chance to show his Dad how good he'd gotten at this, the boy seemed to latch onto it. She could see it in the way he held himself as they trekked through the forest and up towards the lake, and she could hear it in the confident way he'd point out things like the traces of the path they were following. They were making their way through the forest on what had once been a walking path according to Daryl's little park map. Now, after two years of being unused by anyone but animals, it was faint but still visible.
It wasn't that hard to find the shape of it, but Carl seemed so proud of himself that Beth didn't have any desire to point that out. He was showing off a bit, but she didn't mind. He was a teenage boy, after all. Watching him with a faint smile, Beth drifted closer to Daryl, who was at her side keeping an eye on the woods. With a nod ahead to Carl, she asked, "Was I ever like that, when you were training me?"
Daryl looked at her and raised a slow eyebrow as he murmured back, "Who, you? Miss, 'soon I won't need you anymore'?"
She blushed instantly, but after a moment she just chuckled. "Okay I guess I did get a tiny bit cocky."
"Just a bit?" He elbowed her just lightly and Beth snorted with amusement.
"You know I just wanted to prove myself to you." Seeing him open his mouth to reply and instinctively knowing what he was going to say, Beth gave him a sideways glance and added softly, "I didn't know then that I didn't need to prove myself to you."
He looked at her with so many unspoken things in his eyes; things he didn't need to say, because she could read them as well as she could read herself these days. In his eyes she saw pride at how far she'd come and how strong she was to him; trust, implicit in every moment they share together; love that radiated from his heart just as it did from hers, so strong that it hummed in her bones whenever they were close. She saw that he wished they were alone for just a moment so that he could kiss her or touch her, show her with his hands and his lips the things he couldn't always put into words.
Beth knew that he knew she could see all those things, because she could see the knowledge of it in his eyes, too, and through the brief graze of the backs of their hands, they shared acknowledgment of that understanding and so much more.
"Oh, get a room!"Glenn's playful voice called out from behind them, and the moment was broken, but not in a bad way. They were all laughing and Daryl was glaring at Glenn in a way that was more playful than serious, and Maggie was shaking her head apologetically as she laughed, and even Rick had a smile on his face.
"All they were doing was walking together," Carl chimed in with confusion after a moment, to which Glenn laughed and replied, "Yeah and making googly eyes at each other, and brushing their hands. Which for Daryl is pretty much like making out, don't you know that?"
This time it was Daryl who snorted and shot back, "Glenn's just mad we won't make it a competition of who can gross everyone out the most by suckin' face in front of the group."
"Wouldn't be a competition anyway," Beth slide in without missing a beat, "Glenn would win that contest any day."
"Hey! I'm taking that personally, you know!" His mock-offended voice echoed out behind her, and Beth just grinned.
"You should, cause it's definitely not Maggie's fault!" She looked over her shoulder at her sister, and gave her a slow smile. Moments like this, all laughter and banter and the warmth of sunshine overhead, it always made her remember the way things used to be. There was the scent of dirt and pine instead of hay and cows, but if she closed her eyes for just a moment she could remember her and Maggie and Shawn laying out on the grass in front of the farm, teasing Shawn over getting caught making out with his latest girlfriend behind the barn.
A hint of nostalgia and sadness flashed through Maggie's gaze, and Beth knew her sister was remembering the same thing; or at the least, a similar moment. In a way it only brought them another tiny bit closer, placed another stitch in the rented fabric of their relationship and healed that tear a little bit more.
When she turned back ahead, the smile lingered on her lips and despite Glenn's teasing, Daryl brushed the back of his hand against hers again in shared understanding. She never needed more from him. They didn't need more, at least not when there were others around. Their moments were private, intimate, and sometimes she thought that they could share a hundred thoughts with one look or gentle touch when they needed to. Like they did right now, hiking through the woods together with the laughter of their family soft behind them.
...
It wasn't until they got about three quarters of the way there that Carl's show-off tendencies eased a bit and he came up beside Beth to walk with her instead. She had a feeling he wanted to ask her something; actually, she'd gotten that feeling from him a lot lately. The thing with Carl sometimes was you just had to be patient and let him get it out. He was almost like Daryl in that way, or heck, even like Rick. If you pushed any of them they'd close off or snap, but if you just waited, sometimes it'd come out on it's own. If it were meant to, anyway.
"Beth?" His voice was soft and hesitant until she looked over at him with a soft, open smile. "Do you ever think... You know, that it was a waste? We worked so hard getting up to Richmond and then after all that we just ended up turning around and heading back again."
She considered his question in thoughtful silence as they walked carefully through the woods, surrounded by the faint rustling of tree branches and the distant calls of birds. It was a question worth giving consideration to, but she didn't have to think about it long; the same question had been on her mind since they'd voted to leave Richmond over a week ago.
"I don't think anything is really a waste," Beth said after a moment. She glanced over at him, their eyes meeting as she went on, "Everything we go through, the good and the bad, the exciting and the boring... it's all important in it's own way. My Daddy used to say everything happens for a reason, you know? Everything can be a lesson."
"Even this?"
Beth nodded. "Definitely this. Didn't we learn from it? We learned that a place like that isn't right for us, but we also learned that we want to find a place that is." She nudged him a bit, conscious that everyone around them was listening even as she kept her focus on Carl. "It's like when you learn to ride a bike. Falling off teaches you just as much as the times you stay on. When you fall, you realize what you did wrong and you learn what to do instead so that next time maybe you don't fall." She smiled. "Or at least maybe you don't fall the same way again."
For once Carl didn't reply. He seemed to just be taking in what she'd said, but as the boy drifted back a bit to muse on it, Rick came up to take his place at Beth's side. "You remind me a lot of your father," he said hesitantly, she assumed because he didn't want to accidentally upset her.
The brush of Daryl's arm against hers on the other side had Beth figuring he anticipated it might upset her, too, and she didn't blame either of them for thinking that. These days, mentioning a loved one who'd been lost was risky for all of them; it was always a toss-up, seemingly no way of knowing on which side the coin would fall.
But Beth just smiled up at Rick, grateful as she replied softly, "Thank you." She was proud to be thought of as anything like her father. "He was a good man. One of the best men I know." Her slow glance included Rick and Daryl, because the truth was that they were just as high on that list in her mind now, and she wanted them to know it.
Before either of them could say anything more, Daryl caught her attention by slowing down beside her. Her own pace slowed a second behind his, and it took just a moment longer for Rick and the others to catch on. Looking ahead, Beth saw Daryl's outstretched arm pointing to the end of the woods and an open clearing beyond. In the distance she could see a few colorful tents dotting the grass, some of them still standing, others torn up or knocked around, though it was hard to tell what had done it; wind, weather, walkers, people... in the time since this campground had been used as a vacation spot, so much could have happened to cause any of the damage.
What really caught her attention was the silver glint of a couple RVs also parked on the camp ground, presumably abandoned in the aftermath of the rise of the walkers. Though she'd never been in it, Beth had heard stories of the RV the group had once had. It was a good sort of shelter; a safe place to sleep, probably with some sort of gas stove they might be able to use and, if they were lucky, a store of canned food. Doubly good if they could get it moving.
The three of them paused at the break in the trees to survey the area in front of them. Behind them, Maggie, Glenn, and Carl gathered close, silently watching over their shoulders. "Looks quiet," Rick remarked with a glance over at the two of them.
"No walkers, that I can see," Beth added, though she looked over at Daryl knowing he saw exactly what she did, if not even more.
"No tracks, either," he agreed with a nod. But he jutted out his chin in the direction of the tents, and Beth hummed in agreement to his unspoken thoughts.
Rick apparently couldn't follow their communication so well, and Beth had to bite back a smile and a little chuckle at the look on his face. "He thinks there might be walkers in some of the tents. See the dark spots on some of them?" She pointed them out, careful to turn her body slightly to include Carl as well. "Blood, probably. They're not moving, but they might've been in there for a long time. All this time, even. Might not be used to moving, or hearing anything that'd get them moving."
"Could we find out without opening them first?" Carl spoke softly from behind her, hesitant but growing more confident when Beth gave him a pleased nod.
As Carl briefly scuffed his foot on the ground, Beth looked up at Rick and slowly raised her eyebrow. A silent gesture of her head towards Carl had understanding dawning in his father's eyes, and after a moment Rick turned slowly to ask his son, "What's your suggestion, Carl?"
Beth didn't miss how the surprise that flashed across Carl's face was followed a second later by just a hint of pride. "We could..." He looked all around him, silent for a few moments before an idea lit up his eyes and he crouched down to pick up a good-sized rock. "Make some noise?"
"Good idea," Daryl spoke beside her, but it was Rick who reached out to squeeze his son's shoulder in agreement.
She was proud of them both, especially when Carl stood up a little straighter at his father's unspoken compliment. Beth watched as Daryl took the rock and carefully aimed it, tossing it at a fire pit in the center of some of the tents. The rock hit a rusted pot that was resting on top of a grate there, making a loud clang that was impossible to miss, and sure enough it got a reaction. Something began to move in two of the blood-stained tents, and although it was far slower than the frantic movements of newer and younger walkers, it was definitely movement.
By now they all had plenty of practice with walkers, and taking them out wasn't too hard a feat. Daryl and Beth would have tried to shoot them through the tents, if it hadn't been such a waste of arrows. Instead they moved systematically, using the slowness of the walkers to their advantage. One member of the group moved to the back of the tent to tempt the walker with sound, while another went to the front, quickly undid the zipper, and shot the walker through the head. That task was left to Beth and Daryl's crossbows; Carl asked to help but Beth had to let him down gently this time; he wasn't good enough with his new compound bow just yet for this.
The third bloody tent had no movement inside of it, but the flap in the front was open and by Beth's guess, whoever- or whatever- had been inside of it was probably long gone.
For now, that just left the two campers; one a sleek metal trailer that was missing the car that had once towed it, and the other a small white RV. After a hushed discussion, Rick and Carl took the trailer while Maggie and Glenn took the RV, leaving Beth and Daryl keeping guard outside with their bows upraised. Too many people in those confined spaces would harm, rather than hinder. The last thing they needed was to get all tangled up in each other when a walker sprang out of a closet or a closed room. Thankfully, both spaces were clean except for one walker in Maggie and Glenn's, RV trapped in the bedroom but quickly taken care of according to Glenn, who stuck his head out the door when he let them know it was all clear.
With the others scoping out the contents of the campers, Beth turned around to examine the rest of the camp. With the forest at her back, she realized they were up on a ridge overlooking the lake which stretched out below them, long and bright with the clear blue of the sky reflected on it's surface. It was... beautiful. Absolutely beautiful in every way, especially when she imagined what it would look like with the sun rising or setting over it, painting pinks and purples and oranges across the water. She could see why people would choose to come camp up here, with a view like this.
What happened next was her own stupid fault, really. She couldn't help but be drawn to the gorgeous view of the lake beneath the ridge, and without thinking she stepped closer and closer to the edge. Everything felt fine, everything felt solid... Until suddenly it didn't. Gravel crunched and shifted under her feet and suddenly the rock began to crumble and before she could pull back she felt herself slipping right over the edge.
All she had time to do was cry out once, frantic and sharp, "Daryl!" Her body twisted, instinct telling her to reach for something, to grab whatever she could. She went sliding over the ledge on her side and twisted onto her belly, her hands scrambling desperately for purchase on rocks that crumbled underneath her palms and plants that snapped with her weight. She felt emptiness beneath her yawning up to swallow her as she made one last, panicked grasp for something, anything-
-and felt a hand curl hard around her wrist. Instinct had her fingers curling tightly back and relief flooded her system though she was still on fire with panic and adrenaline. She didn't have to look up to know who it was, but she did anyway and o course, there he was. Daryl, crouched on his haunches and gripping her tightly. His face was set like stone but she could see the panic and fear deep in his eyes as he gripped her with all his strength.
"Hold on, girl. Ain't gonna let you fall."
Never, never, never. She knew that like she knew to breathe in and out, knew it right down deep in her bones. Daryl Dixon would never let her go, never let her fall.
Beth trusted him like she did every moment of every day. She clung tightly to his wrist and did her best to help him. Her legs stopped scrambling and struggling because she knew that would only set him off balance. Instead, as her heart raced away in her chest and panic threatened to tighten her lungs and steal her breath, she shifted her feet to try and dig them in to the rock of the ridge, steadying herself as best she could.
"Good girl," he murmured, his voice rough with the worry he was trying to shove down as he focused instead on helping her. She heard the panicked cries of the others in the distance as Maggie and Glenn came out from the RV and spotted Daryl desperately holding onto her.
Beth wasn't sure if they'd get to them in time, but Daryl didn't even seem to consider that he needed them. He dug his heels in deep and pulled, hoisting her up inch by inch until she managed to catch on a ledge with her feet and shove.
The movement pushed her up a few inches and he staggered back, only to gasp seconds later when the rock began to crumble beneath her feet and she fell heavily back again.
"No!" He cried out the word, rougher and more determined than she'd heard him in a long time. A change came over him like Beth hadn't seen since that day in the woods with the Hunters. His face was set like stone, filled with a fierceness that brought to mind something both wild and protective all at once. He growled as his arms went tight, muscles bulging as he put every ounce of strength into desperately pulling her body up and over the ledge.
She came over faster than expected, the momentum sending her smacking hard into him until they tumbled backwards together onto the ground. The ground. Beth felt one hand braced against it as she fell against his chest, pinning him to the ground beneath her as a desperate sob echoed through her chest. "Oh god-"
That was all she had time to get out before he was sitting up and his arms were around her. One pressed to the small of her back and the other to the back of her head as he cradled her to his chest. Dimly she was aware of Maggie and Glenn slowing as they got close, Rick and Carl close behind them, and then everything faded to just her and Daryl. She trembled in his arms but she could feel him shaking too, and she knew it wasn't just from the strain of pulling her up.
"I'm okay," she whispered into the crook of his neck as he clutched her tightly, almost desperately, as if letting her go meant she might slip away from him again and right back down the edge of that cliff. "I'm okay, Daryl, I'm okay. You saved me."
"Fuck," he growled against her hair, pressing a kiss there where she no one else could see. "Don't you ever do somethin' like that again, Greene, okay? Ever."
"Wasn't planning on doing it at all," she whispered back, her eyes pressed shut as relief flooded her system. It had been an accident, they both knew that, but she also knew what he needed to hear. "I promise, Daryl. Never again, I promise."
"Good. Cause I ain't-" His fingers clenched in her shirt and then released slowly. "I ain't losing you like that. Not like that."
Conscious of the people around them, but not caring anyway, Beth turned her head to press her lips against his forehead and whispered, "Not at all. Not ever." She knew she couldn't promise it and yet she did, anyway. Because she was still alive, wasn't she? They were still alive, still breathing, still managing to come back to each other again and again, no matter what. Even if that had been too close for comfort.
It was a few long moments before Daryl lifted her to his feet and released her, but only long enough for Maggie to wrap her up in a tight hug that was shared by the others. This time when she moved back to Daryl's side and his hand took hers, Glenn didn't tease about the public affection. No one did.
And Beth was glad, because there was no way in hell she was letting go of him right now. So she didn't, not even as the others assured them the clearing was clear, not until Daryl told the others she needed space for just a moment to compose herself and brought her away into the woods. That was true, she did need a moment, but it was more than that. She needed him, and judging by the frantic brush of his hands over her body the moment they were alone, he needed her too.
Remnants of the adrenaline she'd felt as she'd went sliding over that cliff still lingered, pulsing through her veins and fueled by the look in his eyes. Beth saw it again now, that panic and worry now mingling with his relief at her being alive, and safe. She could see the need in his eyes and knew it was matched in her own; the need to be reassured that they were alive, save, together.
His hands found her hips and pressed her back to the nearest tree, and she had just enough time for a fleeting memory of another time they'd done this before all she could think about was his hands caressing her hips and his lips fastening to her neck. He growled, low and animalistic, and she arched into him with a little whimper in response.
Don't let me go, her body pleaded as she curved into his touch and clung to him, holding him tightly, letting her hands span over the angel wings at his back to keep him- her guardian angel- close.
Never, never, never again, his own actions whispered back to her as he trailed open-mouthed kisses across the exposed arch of her neck, all the while reaching between them to deftly unbutton her jeans and tug them down. She thought he would take her right there against the tree, but he didn't. To her surprise he caught her up in his arms the moment her pants were around her ankles, held her close, and brought her with him as he dropped to his knees on the forest floor.
Daryl laid her out against the grass, her hair forming a pale blonde halo around her head as his hand brushed down between the valley of her breasts and across the flat of her stomach. She stretched beneath him, bare from the waist down with her jeans and panties dangling from one ankle, her blue eyes so dark with love and need.
"Never again," he ground out in a rough whisper as he undid his jeans and pushed them open so his cock jutted out at her, hard with the same need she felt hot and low in her belly.
"Never," Beth gasped back, breaking off in a moan as he lined himself up and pressed into her in one hard, smooth thrust.
Daryl leaned over her as he drove in deep, rooting himself within her as if all he wanted was to fuse them together. Maybe he did. She could see it in his eyes, that desperate need to be close to her, to feel alive with her, all mixed up in his worry and fear and love, and she knew he was seeing every bit of that reflected back in her own gaze. His hands pressed against the ground on either side of her head and she wrapped her legs around him, welcoming him in even deeper as he breathed out, "Promise me."
They both knew that there were few promises you could make and keep in a world like this. But they also knew that there were some promises you needed to make, or hear, or believe and right now, this was one of them. "I promise," she breathed back at him, sharing the words as they shared their breaths between them, as they shared the heat of their bodies and the racing of their hearts. "Never again. You won't lose me. I promise."
They came together as if desperate to prove that they could never be separated. If two bodies truly could fuse, theirs would have then as he drove her into the soft grass. The heat between them felt powerful enough to fuel a forge. Maybe it was. Maybe it was forging another link in the chain that bound them together, a chain built from each shared moment, the pain of loss and the relief of reunion, a chain strengthened by friendship and partnership and love.
It was hard and fast and rough and hot, and the desperate kisses they shared between them barely caught their low moans and Daryl's ragged growls and groans, until Beth was arching up like a bow beneath her archer's hands, trembling like a tautly drawn string and then snapping with one last deep thrust. She came undone in shivers, muffling her cries against his mouth only to feel him tense and then pull out of her suddenly to spill across the ground beneath them.
It had been close, almost too close, but right now neither of the could bring themselves to care. Beth didn't think she'd have cared right now even if he had come inside of her, but she knew dimly that later she'd be relieved that he'd at least been able to think enough to stop them from taking that risk.
Now they just lay there on the forest floor, his face buried against her warm shoulder, her hands brushing up his sweat-slicked back under his shirt. When the glide of her fingertips over one of his scars had him pressing closer rather than pulling away, Beth turned graze her lips over his temple, and whispered, "I love you." Though she knew that he had been telling her this with their frantic, needy coupling, she didn't add a 'too' at the end to finish his unspoken words. She needed to say it like that, in a way that wasn't just a response but a statement.
Though she hadn't expected it- or perhaps because of that- Beth smiled all slow and wide when he whispered into the safety of the delicate curve of her neck, into the space that was all his and his alone, "I love you, too."
Even when she'd been sprawled on top of him on the ridge after having been saved from falling to her death, Beth hadn't felt more alive than she did right now, pressed against him on the floor of the woods, their hearts slowing together and their lungs still breathing to the same rhythm. What made her feel most alive, though, were his words; echoing in her mind and wrapping themselves around her heart as she promised herself that she would do whatever it took to keep feeling alive like this, with him, together.
**A/N: I really hope you all enjoyed this first chapter. I will try to update every few days, as best I can. Classes are starting, so I have to see how everything settles, but I'll do my best to give this fic priority.
(Reviews and follows are love! 3 And thanks to all of you who are continuing over from She's Breathing.)