Before

She was avoiding him and they both knew it. In fact, most of their small group had pieced it together at this point, and while they'd discussed it amongst themselves none of them had braved asking the pair about it. If it were really serious, Beth would've spoken to her older sister about it.

Probably.

Even so, if you wanted to see the newest member of their clan, the first place to look for her was with the blonde teenager. Daryl gently scuffed his shoe against the cement floor outside her cell and cleared his throat to signal his arrival. She called out a soft approval to enter, and he pushed aside the flowery curtain to step inside.

She was folding a small pile of laundry from a basket on the desk, baby clothes they'd collected on the last run. She'd turned her head when he walked in before quickly dropping back to her task, ignoring him as much as possible in the small space. He waited for her to say something before realizing that it would have to be him.

"Lil Asskicker asleep?" Beth hummed her reply as if the child wasn't obviously sleeping in the pack-and-play in the corner. He gave the girl a once-over, taking in her tense stance, stony face and pinched mouth. Oh yeah, she was upset about something. Unfortunately for him, everyone left in his world lived in this prison, so it wasn't like he could stay out of her way forever. Especially if she was gatekeeping the baby. "You ever going to tell me what's wrong?" Beth finally spared him a glance, a deadpanned glare that said he should already know. "What?"

Beth threw down the onesie in her hands and turned her whole body towards him as she cocked her head to the side, hands on her hips. He'd seen the same sort of look before on her sister's face, but never on the sweet little Greene's. "Seriously? You can't think of a reason why I'd be mad at you?"

He knew that whatever her reason he probably deserved it, but still wasn't sure exactly what it was he'd done. He merely shrugged, which was apparently the exact wrong thing to do. He watched as Beth straightened her spine and crossed her arms against her chest as she took a step towards him. He wasn't too sure, this being his first time and all, but he was pretty sure he was about to get chewed out by a 17-year-old a third of his size.

"How about how just a few days ago you left us all behind like we were nothing?" His hopes that this was about some silly little slight dropped to his stomach with her question. He selfishly hoped that they'd all decided to just forgive and forget. Not her though. "Like you didn't just spend the better part of a year having our backs while we had yours. How about how you took off with someone who tried to kill Glenn and did God know what to my sister?" Daryl, blanched at that; he knew it hadn't been Merle that hurt Maggie, but Glenn he couldn't place on anyone else. "Lori's dead, Rick can barely hold it together, there's a baby . What about Carol? My dad?" she implored. "You just left like we didn't matter," she spat out at him.

Daryl had been looking down at his feet the moment she started berating him, and he wasn't going to be looking her in the eye anytime soon. She wasn't wrong, not at all, and she'd hit on every single point he'd had running through his head the second he'd stepped into the woods with Merle.

He thought she was done, but she had one more thing to say. "Everyone else might be quick to forgive you but don't expect me to. I know I'm not one of your priorities, but what about everyone else?"

Judith chose that moment to stir awake in her crib. When it was clear he wasn't going to answer her in any way, Beth shouldered past him. "The baby's awake," she said over her shoulder as she left her small cell.

She purposely did not look at any of the other group members meandering around the cell block on her way down the stairs and out the door into the courtyard. Cement brick echoed; they'd all heard what she said to him, and almost everyone pretended to be busy as she rushed out. But even with her blood pulsing in her ears, she couldn't miss Merle's hearty laugh. "Wooo-eee! Jailbait's got some fire in her!"

She tried to not let the pride in his voice go to her head.

After

As tired as she was, sleep would not come. Tension filled the air so thick that she could almost see it even in the faint light provided by the candles. There wasn't even a reason to pretend to be asleep; neither of them were and knew it of each other. And she doubted either of them would be drifting off anytime soon.

"Do you wanna talk about it?"

His voice cut through the silence as her entire jolted with both the sound of his raspy timbre and the question itself. Daryl Dixon offered to talk through something? Color her shocked out of her damn mind. She sat up from the spot in the corner she'd chosen to lie down in after they'd awkwardly separated. She'd tried to place herself as far away as possible without making it seem like she was trying to get away from him, and attempted to show this by laying flat on her back instead of curling onto her side like she wished.

Beth faced him to find that he was already looking at her. He hadn't moved from the spot where she'd just all but thrown herself at him, hadn't twitched a single muscle if she had to guess. The dim lighting from the handful of candles around the garage didn't give off enough light for her to clearly see his eyes with the distance between them, but she blushed all the same. "So…I'm not just imagining things? That was–I–" she stumbled along unsure of what to say. "You had– something–there too?" she finally settled on. It didn't make complete sense even in her own mind but she hoped he'd get what she was trying to say.

He took a beat too long to reply and she panicked, her heart pounding in her ears and vision starting to blur. Rightfully so. Of course she'd just get him back just to ruin it with some stupid–

"Yeah," he admitted.

She released the breath she'd be holding in as her lungs thanked her for the relief, and stared. The two sets of blue eyes bore into each other from 10 feet away as she tried to think of anything to say. She was pretty sure her mouth was hanging agape just waiting for her brain to catch up with whatever words she hadn't thought of yet. Beth wished he'd say something else but he was either waiting for her, or likewise had no idea what to say.

Heavy, silent minutes ticked by as they both held frozen in place.

It was too much for him, the silence or the perceived rejection, when Daryl finally got to his feet and took a few quick steps towards the door. Beth's heart stopped as he moved–if he walked out she'd never fully get him back. She moved faster than her tired body wanted and was on her feet in a flash, reaching towards him before he could flee. "Daryl, wait–"

He rounded back on her and was inches away from her face in a blink. "Wait for what? Don't need to hear you telling me to fuck off–"

"I would never tell you that and you know it." He deflated some and turned his head away from her as her eyes scanned over his tense features. He was very clearly pissed off, but it was pointed towards himself rather than at her. She frowned as she took a chance and placed a hand on his chest. "Daryl…"

He shook his head still not looking at her. "Don't. I don't want to hear it." He didn't step away from her but he leaned, just enough so that her hand was barely touching him.

Beth rolled her eyes. "You don't even know what I'm going to say." He puffed out some kind of aggravated noise, so like him that she couldn't help but smile slightly. "I don't even know what I'm going to say," she admitted. "But I don't want you to leave. I don't ever want you to leave," she said with a tilt of her head in an effort to get him to look at her.

He blinked and his face slackened, so she took a risk and stepped closer to him, sliding her hand to the base of his neck. He was burning hot and if it were anyone else she'd be concerned about a fever. His skin twitched at the feeling on her fingers and she watched as goosebumps erupted from the spot she touched. She'd just lifted her eyes to lock with his when a loud banging on the metal garage door sprung them apart. They both reached for the weapons on their hips as all hopes that it was just a walker disappeared.

" Sortez! Sortez!" came a sing-songy voice. "I know you're in there Daryl Dixon!"

Future

Daryl blinked awake as the sounds of someone's soft humming filled his ears. His head throbbed as he tried to focus on the sound, finally realizing that he recognized the voice. It wasn't the one he wanted to hear though.

"You're awake," said the French woman.

He all but growled at her as he sat up from where he laid on the cold stone floor. He struggled with the movement, as one arm was chained above him to the wall, just low enough to stop it from going numb while he was horizontal. "Where is she?"

Madame Genet grinned at him. " Qui? Avez-vous un 'truc' pour les blondes, Daryl?" She smiled even wider. "She's the second one you've brought around here."

Daryl tried to stand but the chain didn't have enough slack for him to lounge at her like he wanted. "WHERE IS SHE?!"

The woman simply waved him off with a chuckle. "She's fine. Just meeting with an old friend." She pinched her lips together as all the mirth fell from her face. "Now why don't you and I talk about all these Americans you've summoned across the sea, hmm?"