A/N Thank you all so much everyone.
Daryl says he's got to go find his brother.
Let's see what happens...

The Visitor

They go through the motions, cleaning up the dinner dishes, wiping the table, and getting everything around the place secured for the night. All while a sad silence hangs over the little cabin like a menacing cloud.

There's some small amount of comfort in the familiarity of the routine they've established. Beth takes her turn in the bathroom while Daryl takes Jack out. Then Daryl takes his turn in the bathroom while she crawls into bed. Finally, he lays down with Jack, shuts the last of the lanterns off, and says, "'Night Beth."

"Goodnight Daryl, goodnight Jack."

There's a problem though, no comforting sleep follows. Not this night. This night there's worry and sadness and tossing and turning, and Beth wipes away a few silent tears away on the sleeve of her pajamas. Then quietly tells him, "I could be a big help you know."

"Yeah, I know ya could, but this ain't gonna go that way. You n Jack are stayin' here safe n buttoned up, and I'm gonna go try'n find my brother. I won't be gone long, you'll see." It hurts to say it, it hurts to act like he's so tough and like it isn't tearing him apart, but it's for the best. If he goes alone he won't be risking anyone but himself.

Daryl even feels confident that if something were to happen to him and he never made it back, Beth could make it here without him. It wouldn't be easy, but she's strong and smart and she'd figure it out.

Everything is so fucking different than it was a few weeks ago, and it's not just because she's here.

When he made the decision to move up the mountain and live here alone there was only one person that decision impacted, him. He vowed he'd do it. He'd never need anything that he couldn't find, or build for himself, right here. Just him and his dog, 100% self-sufficient. That was the goal.

He had all the time in the world to get himself and the place ready for that. He could make the big transition at his own pace. He took the years he needed and he built this cabin, made the root cellar something really special, and with the help of Dale and Erma he learned a lot about the old ways of doing things. Still, for a long time he was only spending spring, summer, and early fall up here. This will be his first full winter he spends on the mountain.

Shit, now he sees all those other times he stayed up here for what they really were, nothing more than long camping trips in the wilderness. He was just playing at it, and he always knew there was an option. He could go right back down the mountain any time he decided he was done fending for himself this way. He could get a good job working construction, rent a little apartment and start buying his food at the grocery store again.

At least that was how it was until a few weeks ago, then everything changed. Forever.

Now he really does have to be 100% self-sustaining. Come spring, there will be no running into town to stock up on whatever the things are he can't make or grow, or that he can't hunt. He's either going to have to do it, or he's going to have to do without.

There's more to it too. It's not just him anymore. He's got to think about Beth. Not only keeping her fed and sheltered, but a woman like her? As time passes, just surviving won't be enough. She'll need to feel happy; she'll need to have pretty things that make her smile, like those spoons she admires. If he expects her to stay here with him It's going to be his responsibility to make sure she has all that, and now that that realization has come to him, Daryl resolves, he will do what it takes to keep her happy, because that's what he wants; for her to stay here with him and to be happy.

It amazes him how quickly things have happened. How could he have ever known that a day of hunting would end up changing everything. But it did. It just took Jack losing his mind, running off the way he did and finding her. That day life on the mountain changed forever, and the whole world down the mountain changed too. No one could have seen any of it coming.

He's changing too. He sees that. He's not the same man he was when he first started living his plan. She changed him, and he's sure she made him better.

Those are the many thoughts running through his mind when he hears her stir and then get up from the bed, and now she's down on the floor with him and Jack. "Beth?"

"Don't get mad Daryl, and don't send me away. I just don't want to be alone right now. I need you to hold me and promise me everything will be okay."

It's one of those moments when he shows her his heart, "Yeah, c'mon. Here," he needs her right now too, but it's not sex they crave. It's intimacy, it's comfort, and the reassurance that being close brings to them. Knowing they have each other. Daryl's lying on his back, arm outstretched at his side, welcoming her to him. She slides close, tightly pressing herself against him as she rests her head on his chest, and his arm wraps around her. She has her arm tight around his waist and her leg laying over his, and he smiles a rare, contented smile, "Ya move right in and get comfortable, don't ya?"

She's not going to play it coy, she speaks her heart, "Only with you, and only because I care about you so much Daryl, and this feels right." Then she squeezes him a little harder and adds, "And because I've been wanting to lay like this with you for such a long time."

He speaks his truth too, "Yeah, it feels good, and I been wantin' it too. Maybe we can get some sleep now," their eyes close as he softly strokes her hair, and sleep does come to Daryl and Beth.

On that last day before he goes, there's a lot of casual contact, more than they've had before. Hands softly gliding over hands as they walk past each other. A big strong hand resting on her shoulder as Daryl reaches over her to get a cup from the cupboard. The tips of fingers gently sliding along a waistline as she passes behind him on her way outside...

They're about to start their bedtime routine when Daryl's unable to hold back any longer. The pad of his thumb softly slides along her cheekbone and he gently takes her face in his hands and kisses her deeply. He draws away, resting his forehead on hers when he says, "I'm gonna be home Beth. I promise, I'ma be home." Beth never expected their first kiss to make her so sad and so happy.

Daryl busted ass and got the things done he wanted to have finished before he left. The bed frame's built, it's in the house with the big mattress on it and the old bed frame and smaller mattress are now in the outdoor kitchen. He promises her he'll paint the new frame when he gets home, not that she seems to have any concern about that. It's all him, he wants it to be nice for her.

The outside entrance to the bathroom is thoroughly sealed, and there's a new security bar for her to secure the front door. He tried to think of everything, and there was one thing he worried about the most. If he's going to be gone for a week, he's got to know she can defend herself, so, for the past two afternoons they've been practicing with the weapons.

She's a hand with the pistol or the shotgun, but a little timid with the rifle. Still, she'll shoot it if she has to, he feels confident about that. The knives, well she can sure as hell put one through the head of a dead person, he saw that firsthand. She hasn't gotten too good at throwing knives yet, but he's confident she will in time and it's not important right now. She's tougher than he ever would have guessed she'd be.

All that is true, but he's still not comfortable with the idea of leaving her here alone, but what the fuck choice does he have?

Although her heart is breaking Beth's trying hard to put up a brave front. It's also true that even though she doesn't want him to go, she admires him for doing this. It's the man Daryl is. The man she's pretty sure she loves. He's brave and honorable and he's willing to leave all the comforts of home to search for his brother.

This last night together they lay close, his fingers gently gliding up and down her back while his lips and nose nuzzle into her hair, and again he whispers his promise, "Everythin's gonna be fine, you'll see. I'll be back before ya even notice I was gone."

She won't let herself think about the possibility he won't come home. "I'm going to miss you every second you're not here."

Jack, his head resting on his Dad's leg, lets out his own long sigh. He feels the sadness and anxiety coming from his humans, and it's making it almost as hard for him to sleep as it is for them.

It's not even daylight when Daryl gives up any ideas of sleeping and begins preparing to leave. Now Jack is hyperaware something is not right in his home, and he's been whimpering at Daryl. Daryl gives the dog a good neck scratching and promises, "I'ma be back real soon. You look out for Beth, k?"

It happens quickly. His arms encircle her, he pulls her close and says, "I'm comin' back lady, I promise, and I always keep my promises." He kisses her hair and smiles, "I don't know about that other thing we talked about though, that waitin' 30 days thing. Once I get home? Well…that might be the first promise I ever break."

It takes her a second, but when she gets what he's talking about she giggles, responding, "I'm sure I'll be able to find it in my heart to forgive you." And then she squeezes him with all her might, "Please hurry home to us."

She loses it just a little and he tries to make a joke, "Think of it as a vacation from me."

"Stop that Daryl, I want you with me all the time. I think you're finally catching on to that."

He cradles her face in his hands and kisses her. It's sweet and tender, but there's sadness too and he quickly turns away. He can't look at her another second or he might not be able to do what he knows he has to do. He grabs the backpack and never looks back as he's walking out the door, he simply says, "Gonna miss ya, be home soon," and he's gone.

Beth wants to chase after him and plead with him not to go, but of course she won't do that. It would be so mean and so unfair. Instead, she sits down on their big new bed and has a good cry. Jack is nervous and pacing the floor before he finally settles his chin on her leg, staring up at her. She rubs her hand over the dogs' head and says, "I'm fine Jack, I promise. I'm just going to miss your Dad. I know you will too, but we're going to manage just fine because we're strong and brave, right boy?" She rubs his head again and he seems to agree with everything she said.

Daryl had already taken everything out of the van he knew he wouldn't need. It's stripped nearly bare. He's got his weapons of course, and the backpack with some jerky, granola bars and candy bars, and he even brought a couple packages of ramen. There are three gallons of water on the floorboard of the passenger seat, and a blanket. Beth insisted he bring that blanket, and he smiles looking at it. She's probably right, he will need it at some point.

He's got the journey all mapped out in his head. He knows his brother. If Merle managed to bust out of the prison he'd stay off the highway, stick to the back roads. That's how Dixons like to travel, whether there's trouble or not, backroads are where they're comfortable. So, that's where Daryl plans to stay.

The trip down the mountain is just as long and rough as he knew it would be, although it's a little faster without Jack. Still, he'd rather have Beth and the dog with him and have to stop every hour. It just wouldn't be a good idea, not this trip.

He's grateful not to see any humans as he makes his way down the mountain. He feels more concerned about the way they'll be acting these days than he is about the dead people. He's not sure what he'd do if he saw a couple of guys walking up the mountain toward his place, but yeah, well, he'd do something because he can't let that happen.

By the time he hits pavement he's seeing some lone dead ones, and a few small groups of them. He has a strategy about dead ones for his trip, he won't bother stopping to kill them unless he has to in order to get around them. He can't be wasting the time and energy it would take to stop and kill every one of those bastards off. There are just too many of them.

He attempts to drive around Rosewood to the south. He'll have to pass through the edge of town, but hopefully taking this route means he'll be skirting a lot of the dead. But just as he's about to turn off the main highway and onto the backroad, he runs into trouble. A shit ton of those bastards are all clustered together and blocking his access to the road.

It's time to make a fast decision. Does he get out of the van and try to single-handedly kill 30 or more of those fuckers, hoping none of them get a taste of him. Or, does he go ahead and swing through town and go out the other direction toward the prison.

Yeah, he's going to pick door number two.

Since his plan has been altered, and he's going to be going through town, maybe he ought to go ahead and pick up all the supplies and stuff he wants to get now. If he does, he won't have to worry about stopping on the way home like he planned. Then he thinks better of it, nah, probably not a good idea with fuel being as tight as it is. He'd be adding a lot of extra weight for the trip to the prison and back.

She told herself the best way to get through this time would be to stay busy. She started off small.

After getting the feel of using the antique sewing machine, and it definitely required getting a rhythm going between her foot and her hands, she patched two pair of Daryl's pants and a couple of shirts. Just that little bit of sewing has her wishing she had some fabric. The little cabin could use some cute curtains and maybe even a couple of throw pillows. She'd like that, but what would Daryl think? Would he say it was too much? Too feminine? It's hard to know if he'd care one way or the other. She'd just have to ask him and if he said he wouldn't mind, then maybe someday they can go back to town and find fabric.

Then the idea for a real project comes to her and she asks the dog, "What do you think Jack? Do we really have to wait for Daryl to get home to paint the bed frame? I've painted a thing or two, I don't see why I can't just do it myself. I'll tell you what. I'll bring everything in and first thing in the morning, after we've had our breakfast, I'll put the coat of primer on and we'll give it 24 hours to get good and dry. You know what that means. I'll be sleeping with you tomorrow night. Okay?" The dog cocks his head to the side and she smiles at him, "I just knew you'd agree."

"The day after that, I'll get the paint on, and that'll mean another night sleeping with you." She scratches Jack's back and smiles, "Your Dad is going to be so surprised when he gets home and I've got the bed all done. It'll be good too, I'm sure he'll be exhausted and if he gets everything he's hoping to get, we're going to have a bunch more stuff to put away. The painting will just be one less thing he has to worry about."

Before they go to the shed for the supplies, she suggests, "Let's take a walk by the lake, want to?" It's obvious Jack wants to do whatever she wants to do. As soon as they're out the door she feels it, there's a much deeper chill in the air than they've had, it almost feels cold enough to snow. She looks up at the sky and says, "Please wait until he gets home."

The next afternoon the primer coat is done, and even though it's quite cold, the windows are wide open to air the little cabin out. Beth's got a big fire burning in the wood stove and a pan of turkey soup warming, but she may have to give in and close those windows. It's just too chilly.

The next morning over breakfast she smiles at Jack, "Today I'm going to get that darn bed painted, and then do you know what? That's right Jack. The next morning I'll get the mattress back on and the darn bed made, and guess what we're going to do after that?"

The dog waits patiently to hear, and Beth tells him, "Absolutely nothing. We're going to take the rest of the day off. We'll sit around the fire and I'm going to read." The dog cocks his head to the side and she assures him, "Well yes, of course I'm going to cook for us, my gosh Jack, I know we have to eat."

Daryl's about twenty-five miles from the prison when he spots trouble. There's a young boy and a pregnant woman just off the side of the road. The woman's crying, but the boy, a skinny little thing, doesn't have a weapon and he's in a fight for his life with a dead one. Daryl can't just drive by and pretend he didn't see this.

He hits the brake, throws the van into park and grabs the big crossbow, just as the dead thing is about to make short work of the kid. Before that can happen Daryl fires a bolt through the dead guy's head and when the thing drops to the ground, the boy's Mom screams, and that is apparently what draws in a bunch of the dead guys' dead friends. They're coming out of the trees.

Daryl let's another bolt fly and a great big fellow goes down, shit, the guy must have been a fuckin' lumberjack in his last life. Then Daryl throws his knife and manages to hit another dead one in the side of the head, but it's not a kill shot, it just grazes the creature. Daryl pulls his pistol from the holster, fires off three fast rounds and three more dead ones go down for the last time.

That's when the boy makes a run for it. The kid retrieves Daryl's knife, but shit, one of those things is right there coming at the boy. The kid doesn't hesitate though, he stabs it between the eyes and Daryl nods at the kid as he takes down a couple more with bolts, and the kid gets another with Daryl's knife. Then, as fast as it started, it's over.

Now the boy seems shook, while meantime his Mom's about to have some kind of breakdown. Daryl claps the young man on the shoulder and says, "Hey kid, good work."

"Thanks Mister. Here's your knife."

He'd give it to the boy if he had another, but shit, he's got his own battles to fight, so Daryl reaches for it and says, "We oughta check these dead guys, see if we can find you a knife of your own."

"Walkers."

"What?"

"We call the dead guys 'walkers' cuz that's what they do, they just walk around."

"Huh, that makes sense. Walkers."

Daryl doesn't really expect to find weapons, but damn if the lumberjack doesn't have a real nice Bowie knife in a sheath, "Look here kid, your own knife. Ma'am, there's one here for you too."

Just then a guy shows up and the boy and the woman hurry over to him. Daryl assumes, this must be Daddy. The man, dressed in some kind of worn out cop uniform scolds the woman and boy, "Where were you two?"

The woman shrugs, "We were picking wild berries and I guess we got turned around."

"I told you both to stay in camp, there are walkers everywhere."

Daryl's turning to go, but the man says, "Wait, I have a feeling I owe you some gratitude for protecting my family."

"You don't owe me nuthin'. Your boy done a lot of it. He's handy with a knife."

The man looks at the boy and asks, "Is that right Carl?"

"Yeah Dad, just like I've been telling you and Mom, I need my own knife and gun."

That makes the woman upset, "No, I don't want my son shooting guns and stabbing people with knives."

Daryl tries to bite his tongue, but he can't quite get the job done, "Why? Don't ya want him ta be able ta defend himself? Shit, he just saved his life and your life too."

The husband says to his wife, "We'll talk about it later Lori," then holds out a hand to Daryl, "My name's Rick Grimes."

Although he's not the trusting sort, for some reason Daryl trusts these folks. It's almost like he knows them from somewhere, "Daryl Dixon. Nice ta meet ya."

"Where ya heading?"

Again, Daryl sees no reason to lie to this man, "I'm goin' to the prison to see if my brother's still there."

Rick cocks his head to the side and smiles. "So my navigation skills are intact, huh? I was thinking we were traveling in the direction of the state prison. My group is hoping it will be a good place to set up a permanent camp. Plenty of space, lots of ground for farming, and there are concrete walls, bars and fences to keep us safe."

Daryl nods, "Yeah, that sounds like a pretty good idea. I hope it works out for ya."

The cop says, "You're welcome to join us. We could use more fighters."

"Nah, but thanks, I gotta find my bother. He was a guest of the prison."

Rick smiles, nods and tells him, "Your brother may have gotten out. It was just before all communications were lost and the world went into absolute anarchy. A lot of prison guards all over the state just said, what the hell, opened up the cells and infirmaries and walked out of the prison yards right along with the prisoners."

Daryl nods, "Yeah? If there was any way it could have happened like that, then Merle would be the first guy out." He heads back to the van, looks over his shoulder and says, "Anyway, good luck to you folks, maybe I'll see ya around."

"Yeah, thanks man, thanks for taking care of my family."

Daryl only nods when the boy calls out, "Thanks for my new knife, I've been needing one."

That makes Daryl smile, he likes the kid, "Here, come over here, I got sumthin' for ya."

Carl runs to him and Daryl hands him one of the candy bars from his backpack, "It may be a while before we get any more a these."

"Thanks Mister."

The big tasks of getting the bed frame painted and the bed back together are done. Beth is feeling delighted and very proud of herself.

She smiles at the dog and suggests, "I know it's cold out Jack, but what do you say we build a fire out there? I'll heat up some stew for dinner, but if we get too chilly, we can come back in to eat." They start to walk outside when she remembers, "Geez, your Dad drilled it into my head about a million times." She's got the pistol on her hip, and she grabs the shotgun before the two head outside to build a fire.

The fire's burning brightly and Beth has the lap blanket wrapped around her shoulders, she scratches the dog and asks, "I know it's cold, we won't stay out long, but gosh, this is so nice, isn't it Jack? I just wish your Dad was here." No sooner are the words out of her mouth than she hears the sound of a vehicle, then sees the glow of the headlights.

At first, she's thrilled, Daryl's home! Then she gets a clearer view of the vehicle, oh my gawd, it's Dwight's hippy van. How did him and that Simon guy find this place?

Beth stands with the shotgun locked, loaded and aimed right at the vehicle. Jack is at her side making a low growling noise and in a confident voice she assures the dog, "It's okay Jack, you stay right here with me. I'll do whatever I have to do to keep us safe, that's a promise."

The van stops about a hundred feet from her and the door slowly opens. A man gets out but he's neither Dwight nor Simon. She has no idea who he is but he hold his hands in the air like he means no harm, and says, "Hey there Sugar, don't shoot me, K? I didn't come here for trouble. The name's Dixon, Merle Dixon, my brother Daryl owns this place, you a friend a his?"

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A/N Merle! Please leave a comment. The chapter photo is on my tumblr blogs gneebee and bethylmethbrick, please check it out. I'll be back next week with more of The Man on The Mountain, I hope you'll be here too. Until then remember, I love ya large! xo gneebee