Walking Dead 1. It's a life or death matter

_***See Author Note At The End* Thanks**_

**_"But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man." _**

**_~Luke 21:36_**

Beth Greene read the words over and over trying to understand what was going on. It wasn't working. In a fit of rage she threw the bible at the other side of the prison cell, it made a clashing sound and then everything was silent. She hated the silence, when everything was silent she had to listen to her thoughts, and they tormented her. She always thought the bible had all the answers but that book was of no use nowadays.

Ever since the world had gone to hell she had taken to reading the bible, she didn't understand what exactly was she was trying to accomplish or find for that matter; but whatever it was, it wasn't there.

There was no hope. It didn't matter how much you try to hold on to faith, there was nothing left, there were dead bodies walking on earth, for Christ sake; it was a joke, a sick joke, she thought. The way it was written in the bible that the "dead shall rise", well somebody had a very twisted sense of humor, what kind of God could give a literal interpretation to those words? It was blasphemy she knew, but she didn't care, after all they were all lost, there was no mercy for the living, only dead and rotting and the constant reminder that in this world "You needed to kill, or be killed". They were all murderers. Nobody was innocent anymore.

Growing up in church and in a Christian family with a preacher for a dad, taught her many things but mainly about the perception of how the world sees a preacher's daughter, how everyone assumed she was a good girl straight up, how that perception affected the way she behaved. It was the predisposition of what people thought of her that made her act a certain way, she was proper and well behaved, and she was, to the outside world, a good girl. Nonetheless it never taught her how to survive in this new place, a place she could no longer call earth, not when it seem so much like hell.

Beth knew that going to school every day and basically doing what you're told, when you're told doesn't exactly put a woman in the "Good girl's category". Yes, she was naïve and yes she had that certain innocent appeal from being untouched but no, Beth Greene was far from being a "Goody two shoes". Ever since the day she tried to commit suicide, her life had changed. She knew that she wanted to live, and that knowledge came with a heavy burden. It was the fact that now, she understood that this life was hard, this was an ugly world and it was made only for the strong people and although Beth Greene knew she was fighter, she often wondered if she was strong enough to survive.

Life on the farm seemed so far away, almost like a dream. Most days she had a hard time separating what was real and what was a fragment of her imagination. The prison was her home now.

These people, Rick with the strength to lead them all and take hard decisions for the good of the group, Carl with his somber look and cold personality almost to the point of being detach from any emotion whatsoever was far from being the sweet boy she once saw on a bed with a bullet wound, Baby Judith, the little toddler she took care of and the daughter of Rick was as innocent as a child could be in this world, with her sunshine smile she could steal a smile from her, something that almost nobody could accomplish anymore.

Carol with her mother-like personality was a shoulder to cry on when she had nobody to hold on to. Michonne with her quiet character and her constant watchful eyes hardened by this "new life" barely said a word and yet she seemed to always be intent on patrolling the perimeter taking care of all of them, Glen with his way of making everyone smile and giving Maggie the comfort she needed, Sasha and Tyreese with their unconditional bonding and sibling bickering of love.

And Daryl, she didn't know what to make of him, he was rude, quiet, racist, violent, far from being proper and definitely not well behaved. He had a dirty mouth and yet at the same time he was willing to sacrifice his life for all of them, and she often wondered what moved him to act like that, but most of the time she was wary of him; and she just kept her distance. Even the new Woodbury people were her family. She was thankful she had Maggie and her dad by her side but many days she often wondered how long that would last. In this world you couldn't take anything for granted.

The menace of the Governor had tested their ranks, and every day she woke up with the awful knowledge that he was alive, still out there somewhere; maybe plotting how to kill them all, how to exact revenge, or how to hurt her family, that though was enough to make her get out of bed. It was always the same, thinking about the possibilities of the governor attacking them always left a sour taste on her tongue.

She got up, went to the common bathroom at the prison and got dressed. She put her boots on, her black pants, and a black t-shirt, and she let her hair loose. It had grown out quite a lot, it almost reached her waist now, but she didn't have time for fashion, she mostly looked for comfort, so she barely took notice of her appearance. She slid on the tight gun holder with the small handgun on it. She knew how to shoot alright but she was far from being good at it, nonetheless after what happened with the governor she had taken to wearing it every day. In this world it was always handy to keep a weapon by one's side.

She went to the cafeteria of the prison, there was always loud sounds coming from it, everybody was chatting and she took a moment to take it all in. When looking from the outside she could almost forget that this world had gone to hell, it seemed to her that this time in the dining room while everybody was eating and chatting happily was their haven, a safe place where they could almost forget, almost. Because when you see children with knives in their tiny waist and not playing with dolls you knew this was no conventional world, this was a fucked of place full of dead people walking the earth and trying to eat you, and it was a hell of a scary place.

She made her way to the stove where Carol was serving everybody scramble eggs, and she smiled at her.

"Are you okay?" Carol asked.

"I'm fine." She replied smiling.

"Have some food; you're way to skinny child." Carol said giving her a once over. Beth felt her cheeks tint red and she blushed under Carol's eyes because she was not used to having her body inspected like that.

"Are you going to help me with Judith today?" She asked trying to divert Carol's attention from her body.

"I'm cooking for the guys today, I'm sorry babe, I could..." Carol said with a frown, Beth quietly interrupted her before she could finish.

"Don't worry about it, its fine." She smiled; Carol just looked at her with an apologetic smile. She knew that sometimes baby Judith could be a handful.

Beth went to sit by one of the tables, with Glen, Maggie and her dad; they were in a really good mood today.

"Beth, come hear this." Maggie said excitedly, she smiled at her sister and looked expectantly; there was hardly anything that caused Maggie to be this excited anymore so she listened intently.

"So apparently there is this untouched supermarket that the guys found in the east side of town which means that we could have a lot of food and basic stuff that could be used, and also the guys could use a real meal, with you know proper stuff...and you know toilet paper and such." Glen rambled on tripping over words and talking so fast you could barely understand a word he said.

It was hilarious to see somebody so excited over toilet paper, but that was the world they lived now, a harsh place where people got excited over toilet paper, not IPhones or technology shit just a simple thing such as toilet paper.

Beth couldn't help but be excited too; after all it's been awhile since she used toilet paper so she smiled at them. She had come to suspect happiness was contagious.

"I could use toilet paper; it's been a while, yeah." Beth remarked with a smirk and a sassy face, all of them turned their heads to look at her in surprise and then started to roar with laughter. It was these times that made Beth had a bit of faith, if they were still able to crack a joke and laugh after all they had been through then there was still a little bit of hope for this world. And she decided then, maybe she didn't believe that there was still a God out there but she'd believe in family and in the power of showing the people you love how much you love them, with that thought she finished eating, she listened intently but didn't contributed much, she was a little quiet like that. Even after she finished eating they were still talking about the possibilities of new stuff from the supermarket and new things they will need; fantasizing about what amazing things such as a jar of Nutella they could find.

There was so much to do around the prison. The chores were equally divided and while women took turns of cleaning the clothes, cooking the food, doing the dishes, taking care of the garden, the animals, and generally keeping the prison a home, the men were in charge of protecting the fences, looking for food and going on runs, hunting, and killing the walkers through the fence. Maggie and Michonne most of time went on runs but the rest of them took turns doing things around the prison.

Today was her turn of taking care of baby Judith, most of the time it was just Carol who would help Beth out but today she was cooking the dinner for the guys who had gone on a run. They all knew the drill, deep down inside they would say a prayer to whatever God was up there and hope that the guys were safe, but there were no guarantees, you could go out and never come back, every time they came through those doors they would always have solemn expressions on their faces and a sense of anxiety followed by a sense of relief once they were able to see that all of them had made it, well most of the time; it is not always like that, they have lost many people. Whenever they came from a run they were always hungry, tired and mostly covered in blood and walker parts from head to food. It was a rough world all over.

Baby Judith was fussing in Beth's arms, and she took her time looking at the toddler. She was a beautiful healthy baby but lately she was too pale, she noticed. She was already babbling and speaking words in her own language. She was a sign of hope to everybody in the prison, a miracle; the fact that no matter how much dead this world encountered there was always the possibility of life, human life was the hope they needed. Beth decided that it was time for Baby Judith to feel the sun on her skin; because it had been a while since the child went out. She took the toddler in her arms and walked her way out of the prison, people were very fond of the child so she was stopped at least four times in order for people to make funny faces at her or take her from Beth's arms and into their owns.

Once they made it outside the sun touched their skin and it was glorious, it was a beautiful day, the baby looked pale in contrast to the light reflecting on her little body and she knew she had made the right decision then. This child needed a bit of fresh air and sun. Beth started walking around the prison with the toddler in her arms and baby Judith kept making sounds of babbling and fussing with her arms, she had a smile on her face. Beth was too focused on the baby to notice the shuffling of feet, and the breach on the fence that was broken by the side that she was coming through.

**Daryl's POV**

Daryl was tired and pissed off. Every damn time he came home yes he called the prison home now, he'd smelled like death. It was as if the odor was permeated on his skin. He had blood covering his shirt, walker parts attached to the sole of his foot and his hair was way too long and got into his eyes all the time, he had to constantly reach a hand to his temple and move it away only for it to fall a second later in his eyes again, and on top of that. IT. WAS. FUCKING. HOT. The sun was blazing and he could feel sweat pouring down his back through his vest. He was dying of thirst and he was dead tired on his feet.

It had been a close call this time; they almost didn't make it out alive, fuck that damn supermarket. Daryl thought he was having a heart attack when he saw almost fifty walkers come out of the street banging at the windows of that place. Daryl was a very proud man and he would never admit that he had been scared but truth be told it had been too close, too fucking close.

He was thinking about a hot meal and a cool shower with a nice bed to rest when fuck his life, he heard it. It was a piercing scream that made his heart stop in his chest, and his blood run cold, it was a woman... that much he could tell. He forgot about the shower, the meal and the bed, he just ran; the adrenaline rushing through his body, propelling his feet to move faster. He was the first to get there and with horror he saw the panorama.

There was that Greene girl with his baby girl, yes he called baby Judith his girl, and various walkers surrounding her making disgusting snarling sounds. They were coming for her, the closest was a walker woman in her mid twenties Daryl guessed, with half her face hanging loose and dried blood on her arms. She was dragging her left leg and a long white dress covered her decaying body complemented with her bald head, it was a sight alright, he couldn't for the life of God get use to how ugly these motherfuckers were, that creature barely resembled the human being it was once. The thing was gnashing her teeth in the Greene's girl direction.

The kid couldn't do anything about the walkers because she had the baby in her arms. She had tried to run that much he could see but there was another tall walker man with beefy arms coming the other way with his intestines hanging open and his arms reaching out for her. So now she was trapped in a corner. He was observant so he noticed that it must have been at the last minute when she decided to scream for help and that notion made him furious.

He lifted his crossbow and put an arrow through the woman walker's temple and the lifeless body fell to the ground with a heavy sound. In less than a second he killed the walker man and then Maggie took out two of the walkers with her machete and Glenn killed the rest with a baseball bat. He glanced at the girl and noticed that she was crying, he looked at her with a frown and went to snatch the baby from her arms.

He was about to give her a piece of his mind for taking the baby out and being such a fucking irresponsible human being when Rick looked hard at him and shook his head. He huffed in annoyance and gave the dirtiest look he could manage to the idiotic girl. He felt the need to shake her and slap some sense into her because she was petrified to the spot. She hardly breathed and barely did something when he snatched the baby from her. It made him want to whack her.

Daryl didn't consider himself a patient man, but hell he didn't have a fucking ounce of tolerance for stupidity and that was what this situation was, fucking moronic. How on earth did this girl thought it was a good idea to take the toddler outside with so many walkers lurking around.

He had to get away from the situation or else this could get ugly. He had baby Judith in his hand and he realized with distaste that he was getting the toddler bloody, too late, he thought.

He saw Carol and before she could utter a word he raised his hand stopping her in her tracks and with all the arrogance he was able to muster said, "Not know I'm not in the mood for shit or fucking chit-chat."

"I was just..."Carol looked at his eyes and she closed her mouth. Everybody knew not to mess with Daryl when he was in a mood and clearly he was in a mood, a really bad mood.

She raises her arms to take the toddler from him and he complied. He slid past her and made his way to the showers.

Fucking shit, he was trembling, every time he got mad his rage would make him shake. It was out of his control, he knew that he had a certain level of anger management problems, but the fact that he could feel such strong emotions made him realize that he was still human. Sometimes in the midst of this world between all the killings and all the emotional detachment he would doubt that, in fact he would sometimes feel like a death man walking on earth.

Sometimes when he was alone in his cell block he would pinch himself in the arms to see if he could still feel and many times he was surprised to find that it still hurt, that's how numb he had become to everything.

He didn't want to think about what would have happened if he hasn't gotten there in time. Baby Judith would have been hurt… or worse dead. He shivered at the thought, he had come to care about the baby so much, he would never tell anybody but her smiles could light up his day, he took care of that infant when Rick couldn't, and hell he fucking found formula in the damn apocalypse; cause that was Daryl, rough around the edges but a fierce warrior. He was willing to do whatever it took to protect his people. Cause they were his people, the prison was his home and these were his family.

Daryl took his clothes off and got into the shower, his muscles were strained; he was running on of pure adrenaline. It had been an intense day. Too much emotion, he thought with irony.

A rage blast through his body when he thought of the Greene girl again, that fucking child making dumb decisions, he stopped his thoughts quickly. Rick had after all looked at him with a disapproving face, well fuck Rick and fuck his "disapproving look", he was his friend yeah and he respected him but it was about time somebody told that Greene girl the reality of the world they live in. There was no fairy tale, no romantic stuff, there was no time for sweet talking anybody and she was not the fucking exception. She did something wrong, made a mistake that could have cost a toddler her life and somebody ought to say something and if Rick or her dad didn't have the balls to do it, he would.

He got into the shower tuning out his running thoughts about the Greene girl and letting the cold water numb his body and calm his mind. His back was grateful for the water but he hissed at the sensation. The water felt like a torture on his overworked body and skin, he was breathing hard. The trembling had stopped but images of the last time he touched a woman's body surged through his mind, the images were coming fast like flashes, taking his breath away. It was always the same; he was twisted in a creepy kind of way. Every Time he came from a run, and he got in the shower he was as hard as a rock, the adrenaline made him high, and today was no different. It was like he was full of energy and that energy transformed itself into arousal.

Daryl felt his length growing and he closed his eyes, he wasn't thinking of anything in particular just a woman's body and how good it would felt to have a warm body next to him, curves to caress, someone to touch him. His breathing became labored and he could felt already on edge but he hadn't even touched himself yet. He was fucked up like that, he liked to tease himself.

He put his hand on the tile and grabbed himself looking down at his dick shuddering. He started to stroke himself, slowly building up a steady pace as images surged through his mind. He was biting his lips, holding back the moans that were threatening to get out of his mouth, he could almost feel it, that slow coil in his pelvis, and it was too much.

All the emotions of today's run, baby Judith, that Greene girl, it all came crashing down on him. The adrenaline coursed through his body and he released all his pent-up tension. He moved his hand quickly and with a moan he came, breathing hard, holding himself with his hand still on the cool tile, his body spasming with the aftershocks, and then just as easy as he was worked he was done, but he felt relaxed.

He finished washing his body and put a towel on his waist. He took his clothes and put them on. The day wasn't finished, not by far. He still had to eat and he was praying to whatever God could hear him that he didn't find the moronic child because he didn't know if he could control himself, in fact truth be told he was itching to say a couple of things to that Greene girl.

_A/N: This is going to be a long fic with a slow build and lots of romance. What I want is an exploration of the characters emotions and personalities. I will keep this as realistic as possible and the characters of Daryl and Beth as much "In character" as the story allows me. This story will have some parts following the TV series but mostly it will have a plot of it's own. There are several warnings to this story that you guys must keep in mind before reading, first of all my writing resembles my personality so there will be **Sexual situations, Graphic language, Explicit Material, Violent Scenes, Mature Themes, and Graphic descriptions, Some slight borderline Dub-Con scenes** because to me (Daryl is a bit rough around the edges) *wink* *wink*, and lots of smut of course; this is my "Children cover your eyes" kind of warning, or not, it's up to you guys. I will have an actual plot with many twist and turns so is not just smut, but there will be a lot of it. Thanks in advance for giving this story a shot, it means a lot to me, in fact it means the world to me. (Rating will go up in later chapters as the story progresses) xoxo Besos ~ __**RomanticForever77**_


	2. Shhhh, hush little girl don't scream

**Dedicated to my lovely Beta ALCzysz17 **

***See Author Notes At The End* Thanks *wink* **

**Beth's POV**

_** "Reality continues to ruin my life." **  
**― Bill Watterson, The Complete Calvin and Hobbes ** _

She didn't hear the sound of the footsteps approaching or the snarling made by the walker's, more than feel them or hear them she could smell them. That putrefactive odor expelled from their rotting corpses was constantly on the air, but when you could feel it up close; you knew that it was going to be the last thing you were going to smell if you didn't react quickly. That's what death smelled and looked like up close, it was disgusting and fucking ugly. It didn't matter how much blood or walker parts she had on her, the smell always made her want to retch.

She could feel her breakfast coming up in her throat but she held it down, like she always did. She thought of the gun on her thigh but quickly remembered the fact that she had a toddler in her arms and reaching for her handgun was no longer an option. She made an attempt to turn on her heels but then she saw the reality of the situation; she was surrounded by these hideous creatures.

Both sides of the fence had been ripped apart and walkers were walking freely through the space. She couldn't run. She was trapped. They were going to be eaten. She was going to die or turn, in this case. It was that last thought what fueled her to do the only thing she was capable of doing now, screaming; and she screamed really fucking loud.

Seconds later Daryl was there. When he saw her and baby Judith his body tensed, his shoulders squared, his eyes went hard, full of emotion and his face was a mixture of anxiousness and horror combined with God forbid nervousness. It was the first time she had seen Daryl so vulnerable. He quickly got rid of two walkers and then Maggie and Glenn were right by his side and in minutes it was all over. Daryl moved to snatch the baby from her arms without any consideration or delicacy and she let him of course it had all been her fault.

Clearly she wasn't that good of a caretaker if she couldn't assure the child's life or her own, for that matter. She was petrified from head to toe. It had been a close call. She couldn't breathe. Distantly she heard Maggie asking her something but Daryl's furious eyes had her shaking.

She always avoided his gaze, this time however she felt the actual power of his intense stare holding her in place, and she knew he had wanted to yell at her. She swore he was going to.

That thought alone had her in a dazed state, and she was sort of rooted to the floor, not able to move and was hardly breathing. But then something happened and she heard a huffing sound and her eyes focused. Daryl was looking right at her with a fire and hate in his eyes that had her scared. He managed to give her a dirty look and then turned on his heels not saying a word to anybody and taking baby Judith with him.

Distantly she heard Maggie's voice saying something but for the life of her she couldn't figure out what. Maggie walked in front of her and raised her hand suddenly. Beth felt a burning sensation on her left cheek and she came out of her stupor. Maggie had hit her, quite hard too. She looked at Maggie with accusing eyes and her sister stared unblinking at her eyes.

"I swear to God Beth if you don't start talking I will slap you again and again until I get a fucking response from you. Do you hear me? Are you fucking listening to me?" Maggie shouted in her face.

"Maggie calm the hell down, you're just…" Glenn started but was cut off by Maggie's harsh response.

"Don't tell me what to do! She is my sister and she will not leave me, I don't care how many slaps it takes she is not leaving me! Not again. You hear me Beth? Fucking come out of it!" Maggie responded by putting her hands on Beth's arms shaking her.

"Get away from me, Maggie…" She said in a calm voice. Maggie looked surprised and almost ashamed.

"Oh shit." Glenn remarked with a worried expression looking anywhere but at his fiancé.

"Calm down ladies, there's no need to get handy, it's over. Everything is alright now, you girls are safe. It's done." Rick said in a soothing yet commanding voice with his hand on his gun; out of custom. Sheriff habits die hard. He was used to dealing with criminals not fighting sisters.

"Beth, how are you?" Maggie asked looking at her with a concern expression basically ignoring Rick's remark, she had her eyes on her face and her hands were still on her arms but they felt soothing now like she was holding her. A pure contrast to how she was manhandling her before.

"I'm fine, it's just… Judith was looking pale and I…" She started to babble but Rick interrupted her.

"Beth its fine, nobody is blaming you. Nothing happened, Judith is fine." Rick's voice shook at the last remark and the blood drained a bit from his face.

And she knew it then, she knew it wasn't fine, not at all. A baby had almost died on her watch and it was her God damn fault. Maggie's voice interrupted the guilt swirling around her thoughts.

"Don't ever do that to me again Beth! God when I saw you standing there with that expression on your face, I thought…you were gone again, I'm just so happy you're okay." Maggie said hugging her hard and taking her face in both hands she looked intently at her and just smiled. "I love you, yeah? I'm sorry for hitting you."

"Yeah, she's sorry but thank God you talked or else I would have to drag your body out of here otherwise Maggie would've probably beat you to death herself. Jesus woman, if she wasn't dead you would have killed her with that God awful slap. I mean look at her face." Glenn remarked making everybody laugh and ripping a smile from Maggie and herself.

By now almost everybody was there, they had heard her scream and they were all intent on trying to fix the fence to keep the walkers out. The attention was no longer on her, which she was glad; but the red handprint on her face didn't help that matter much, but thank God people mainly gave her sympathetic looks. Everybody knew Maggie's temper by now.

Beth absolutely hated being the center of attention. Not that she was shy, but it was enough to have Daryl's accusing eyes looking at her and she sure as hell didn't need anybody else looking down on her and whispering shit about her lack of ability to keep a baby safe.

"Beth, come with me please." Her Daddy's calm voice was heard among all the sound around her and he was looking at her with a combined worried and relieved expression. She looked one last time at Maggie hugging her and then made her way to her Daddy.

As she passed Rick, who was looking at the fence, his gaze lost, she stopped. Squeezing his shoulder and getting on her tiptoes she whispered in his ear so only he could hear. "I'm really sorry, it won't happen again."

"I know, don't worry about it." Rick was surprised by her closeness but calmed her nonetheless placing a hand on her arm, his kind eyes smiling at her.

"I'm not, I was making you a promise," she reply fiercely. He blushed, and she gave him a kiss on his cheek.

She went to her Daddy and he hugged her putting his arms on her shoulders, guiding her inside the prison. She was safe. Everything was okay. If only just for now, she thought bitterly.

* * *

Once inside, her Daddy asked her if she was okay and after answering three times the same damn question he gave her some pills so she could fall asleep and calm herself. He then told her to go to bed. She was sick of being taken care of like a baby but truth be told she was tired and it had been a God awful day so she sucked it up and complied.

Beth was making her way to her cell block when with a start she realized she was hungry. She had barely eaten anything apart from her breakfast and her stomach was making weird sounds reminding her that she was a human and therefore she needed food. She made her way to cafeteria, and she saw that it was crowded. There were people unpacking boxes and everybody was chatting excitedly.

She tried her best to go unnoticed. Beth wanted to get in and get out quickly but somebody caught her by the arm and she froze. When she turned she saw Carol's worried eyes looking her over.

She released the breath she didn't know she was holding because she had thought it was going to be Daryl's gaze looking down at her.

"Are you okay baby? I heard what happened, I'm so sorry. I was going to take Judith out myself because I noticed she was pale too, and I know she needed fresh air. God knows being inside all the time is not healthy for a child." Carol spoke fast, and Beth knew that she was trying to make her feel better, to ease the guilt but instead of putting out the fire it was fueling it, and Beth felt like shit all over again.

"It's okay Carol, I'm fine. Don't worry about it, yeah?" She said and before Carol could say anything more she slid pass her taking a plate of mashed potatoes with half a fish and some strawberry jam that nobody had noticed. She kept her head down and slid out the cafeteria quietly.

**Daryl's POV**

Daryl was making his way inside the cafeteria when he noticed a small hunched form with blond hair walking very fast with a plate of food in her hands obviously trying very hard to go unnoticed.

He looked up at heaven and scowled to God as if he could see him. He had asked just one thing, just one fucking thing. It was a simple request; he did not want to find the Greene girl. But no, she had to be going out when he was coming in, damn his luck. He was making his way over to the girl when somebody grabbed his arm.

He looked to the person touching him ready to throw a punch because nobody fucking touched him and saw Carol. He calmed down but before he could say something she was talking. "Leave it, Daryl. She's been having a really difficult day and you need to eat something."

"Listen to me, somebody ought to say something and if no one does, I will. And fucking let go of my arm woman." He all but shouted to her.

"Daryl, please…" Carol tried to say. But Daryl just kept walking.

As he was making his way to catch up with the girl he saw her looking at the floor, a desperate expression on her face and he was furious. He hated weak people.

His stomach rumbled. God he was so hungry and he could feel the pain in his muscles from being so overworked. He didn't want to make a scene and shouting in the cafeteria at the girl would be just that, so he let her go.

He will be saying a thing or two to her but not here and not right now. He was going to go to her cell later. They would be alone there and there wasn't going to be Rick or Carol to fucking stop him.

**Beth's POV**

Beth had finished eating and took a shower quickly. She was starting to feel the effects of the pill her Daddy gave her but it wasn't nearly enough; she could still be tormented by her thoughts and the events of the day. She was currently on her mat in her cell reflecting on what happened today.

Everything happened in a blur, kind of like when you get on a roller coaster and you're so full of adrenaline. It feels like you could almost touch the sky, not quite getting there but it's enough and you're getting high on it. But then as soon as it starts it's fucking over. For her it was always a disappointment, these rides; she always expected more. Most of the times the rides ended too soon and she never really saw it coming, it always hits her by surprise, kind of like it did today.

She knew enough of herself to understand that she was just using "shock" and the element of surprise as a shield, kind of like when she was kid. She used to hide underneath her bed and pretend she was a princess and her bed was a castle, and that a beautiful gentleman in shining armor would come and kiss her, sweeping her off her feet and blah, blah, blah. Little girls have a hell of an active imagination she thought bitterly.

Beth often did this so she could detach herself from her harsh reality. As fucked up as it sounded that place she made up in her mind was a safe place where she could tune out the screams of her parents fighting over her Daddy getting home drunk every night. As the years progressed she used her dazed, shocked state as a shield. When things just got to be too much she'd detach herself from reality.

If she was completely honest with herself she had been scared to death. The walkers had come from everywhere, lunging at her and baby Judith. It had been her fault she knew that, but by God she couldn't have done anything about it. She had been too caught up with the toddler in her arms to really see anything at all. It sounded stupid but it was the truth.

She messed up, big time; her behavior had been reckless and extremely careless. If it had been only her, it wouldn't have been so bad but baby Judith had been with her when it happened and she was held accountable for that child. Hell, if Daryl hasn't showed up when he did, both of them would have died. It was as simple as that.

Beth didn't want to see Daryl, she was afraid of him before and more so now. She had seen that maniac, wild look in his eyes that denoted and screamed "fucking crazy asshole". The others ignored it or maybe they weren't able to see it but she could. Daryl had problems, like real mind problems. And she was best staying the fuck away from him, but then today happened.

This wasn't the first time she had seen that anger radiating off him, in fact she had seen it quite a lot, but it was never directed at her.

Her body was rigid as per usual but tonight she was on edge, she could feel it. Beth had stirred that Dixon's rage and that was not good; not good at all. With that thought she closed her eyes and felt herself drifting off to a restless on and off state of sleep. She knew it was still daylight out but the meds her Daddy gave her to calm her were drugging her senses, lulling her to sleep and she fight them off for awhile until she couldn't anymore and she fall into a restless sleep full of nightmares.

**Daryl's POV**

Daryl finished his food quickly, bitterly thinking that somebody had taken his goddamned strawberry jam, so as per usual he was pissed off. His only thought after he was done eating was to go find the Greene girl. He had been sitting at a table with Rick and some Woodbury people when he noticed some Woodbury woman, Cindy or Candy he couldn't remember her name trying to engaged him in a conversation, as if. Daryl didn't talk, he fucked and that was that and not with everybody for that matter.

He was tired of answering her in monosyllabic, it was the end of the world and all that, but that didn't mean he was going to hook up with just about anyone. Rick was amused, he could tell. He was constantly hiding a smile at the women's persistence. Bitch thought he was going to fall for her antics; no he didn't fall for women's shit anymore. He didn't have the time or patience for their shitty drama, he'd rather bury himself in them and hear them moan, not argue or talk.

At one point Daryl had just about enough and he had been so fucking desperate that he was thinking of shouting to her, "I'm fucking gay, leave me the hell alone," but he just bite his tongue. That wouldn't do. What would Merle say if…he tuned that thought out quickly. He didn't care what that fucking bastard Merle would say.

He stood up abruptly and everybody looked at him. He just shrugged, "I'm tired, I'm off to sleep," and with that remark he started making his way to the cell blocks.

He knew where the Greene girl slept, hell he knew where everybody slept. He was quiet yeah, but he analyzed and studied everybody. He was a distrustful person by nature and growing up in the woods made him antisocial. A really bad combination if you asked anybody before but quite an asset in this world they lived nowadays.

Living in the woods gave him peculiar abilities; like hunting, and he was glad for that because he had been able to pull his weight and be of use to these people.

He had a cold demeanor and he knew that he came off as a violent careless motherfucker, which he was; but there was so much more underneath the cold exterior. He was full of insecurities and he was constantly trying to prove himself to these people.

He lived in constant fear of being like his father and Merle. He was afraid of letting his temper get the best of him but at the same time that temper fueled him and made him feel alive. He didn't want to become numb. Sometimes he'd catch himself being so reasonable that he was consumed by quite a scary lack of sensibility. He felt like he was constantly stabbing himself.

He got to the Greene girl's cell block to see she was mumbling and thrashing in bed, clearly having nightmares. He looked at her face and saw a red handprint on her left cheek, some darker part inside him was actually glad; somebody had decided to slap some fucking sense into her, literally.

She was small and had a really petite frame, but that was no excuse to treat her differently. It didn't matter to a walker whether you looked young, petite, cute or small they would fucking eat you all the same; you were a meal to them.

He was about to wake her up, when she said, "Please don't eat her," she was talking in her sleep but those words sent a shiver down his back. The desperation had been evident in her voice. And whatever she was dreaming was unpleasant enough to make her desperate.

A part of him was actually glad she had no peace in her sleep. He would barely have any today because of her. Daryl knew that he would lay awake all night envisioning all the scenarios that would have happened if he hadn't gotten there in time.

His plan was to wake her up and give her a piece of his mind but waking her up would be a favor. She was clearly suffering in her nightmare and why should he disturb her dreams? Smiling to himself he turned on his heel, whatever he was going to say could wait until tomorrow. Nightmares were bad he knew that, hell he had demons of his owns and thinking about his almost made him felt a pang of remorse but he pushed it down inside. She needed to be hardened by this life.

This world was a dark place but Daryl was used to that, there was no darker place than his own mind.

**Beth's POV**

"_They were going to eat her. She had to run. The walker's mouth opened and a foul smell came from it. She was feeling its teeth sinking in her throat…_ "

When Beth woke up with a start, someone was screaming. It was two seconds later she came realize that in fact it was herself. She had an awful nightmare. These were frequent though.

She wasn't going to stay asleep anymore, she knew that much, apparently she was developing insomnia. So she decided to go out and get some fresh air. She always felt crowded inside the prison anyways. Her fear of crowded places, claustrophobia, innate her paranoia; or at least that's what her psychiatrist use to say.

When she was five years old, she and Maggie were playing in the barn right next to her house. There was a little play house for the hens and they were playing hide and seek. Maggie was counting 1, 2, 3…she could still hear her in her head, the numbers and Maggie's laugh as she came near her hiding place.

She grew tired of finding a place and the barn was small, so she snuck herself inside the little house. Maggie was coming for her; she could remember it clearly as if had been today. But then she couldn't hear Maggie at all, there was silence.

Everything was quiet. She held her breath. Maggie must have forgotten about the little house. She smiled. She had won. The taste of victory quickly became bittersweet though as she went to push on the door but it didn't open. She started to push harder on it, but it wouldn't budge. She grew desperate and the minutes ticked by. She was trapped; there was nothing she could do.

She spent a whole night there, and then she must have fell asleep cause when she woke up it was to the sound of a door opening and a tall figure's shadow emerging from the dark… it was a man. "Shhh, hush little girl, don't scream." Her eyes bulged out of her little face and she did precisely the thing she was told not to do. She screamed….

Her thoughts haunted her. She needed air, she felt it, the paranoia, and it was a closed space. "Shhhh, hush little girl, don't scream,", "Shhhh, hush little girl, don't scream," the voice was getting louder, she felt the hairs on her arms rising. It was always like that, she couldn't control it. She got up from her bed and started humming a song, sometimes it helped, a little.

* * *

As Beth stepped outside she felt the wind caress her face and she could feel her long hair dancing around her waist. The night was beautiful she thought, if not for the fact that she could hear growling, snarling and various sounds of moans combined with the rattling of the walkers at the fences this would've been perfect.

She looked up at the sky, it was full of stars. When she was back at the farm she would play connect the dots with the constellations, and almost every day at 11:11pm she would always make a wish, they never came true but she never lost hope.

Most of the nights she had trouble sleeping. She had no clock but she knew that she barely sleep four hours a day. There was nothing she could do about it, every night she had nightmares. They were of Patricia being torn by the walkers, of Dale being eaten and the sight of his stomach ripped open, of blood pouring out of her open wrist as she stood with a broken part of mirror glass in her hand and such.

Beth was tormented, she felt the air entering her lungs but she was drowning. Her mind was a dark place and her thoughts were consuming her slowly.

As she walked near the side of the door stepping outside she felt more than saw a presence. Her senses were on high alarm. She had come unarmed outside, not that she was exactly good at shooting but she was a decent shot more or less. Her physical complexion was delicate so she had little to no skill in fighting, to hell she thought, whoever was there had nothing against her piercing scream. Yes, she thought, I can't fight, I can't shot, but I sure as hell can scream and somebody ought to hear me.

Her eyes started to adjust to the dark and she let the air she didn't know she was holding out; almost relieved by the person she saw, but not quite.

She saw the shape of Daryl Dixon leaning against a wall. He was shirtless, his jeans hung low on his hips and his abs were perfectly toned and formed, his arms were strong and every time he flexed, to draw a cigarette to his mouth the muscles of his arms would become more pronounced and they looked rather fit and toned, it was quite a sight.

There was no denial in the fact that women desired a piece of Dixon. She meant like kind of they were all in the desert dehydrating and he was the water, and boy were these whores thirsty... He was the only idiot who didn't notice how most of the women, to put it nicely, ogled at his body and blushed and fucking kissed the floor he walked on, they were practically speechless in his presence. He thought probably that they were scared, but no, these women were fascinated. He was the kind of boy your mama always told you not to befriend, the kind of boy you stay the hell away from, and truth be told she always made sure she listened to her mama. Old habits die hard though. So like the good girl she was, she made her feet turn.

As Beth was turning a smell caught her nose. He was smoking a cheap cigarette and it was making her dizzy. Ever since she could remember she had this ability of judging a cheap cigarette from a expensive one. She didn't smoke, in fact she made sure she stayed the hell away from the people that did but she couldn't help it. She liked how it smelled. So she guessed she was a smoker, a passive one, but one nonetheless.

She had tried to keep her distance from Daryl all day and in fact ever since the time she had met him. Dixon's rudeness made her want to put soap in his mouth, to her it seemed like the man had grew with savages.

Beth must have made a noise as she was turning around since her feet trying to keep her quiet sort of tangled themselves on a plant by the floor that she didn't knew was there, obviously, and she went sprawling to the floor. She closed her eyes and damn it all to hell. She had done a hell of a job of going unnoticed. Daryl was looking at her from above. All the commotion had him come over to her.

He looked kind of amused and mad but he had a determined expression on his face. He looked at her exasperated because she looked like she was in a trance, kind of in awe. But truth be told she was embarrassed and didn't dare to get up from the ground.

Beth knew he was dangerous, violent, racist, and moody, she never admitted out loud but a part of her was scared of him. Somehow she doubted he would hurt her but one could never now.

"Get the fuck up, or are you waiting on my hand darling?" He said with as much distaste as he could muster.

"As if." She mumbled slowly getting to her feet.

"What was that?" He seemed surprised she had talked back to him.

"I said 'As. If'. Do you have a hearing problem?" Beth said slowly as if talking to a mere child.

"Who the fuck do you think you are, little shit, talking back to me…" Daryl looked furious, in fact he was trembling she noted.

"I didn't… I thought…" She realized her mistake but he interrupted her.

"Do you think after everything that happened today that you can come and fucking sass me? Have you any idea what you did today?" His voice was calm, deadly, and he was walking towards her.

Her breath was coming shallow; she was scared, truly petrified. She could feel her head assume a stance of defense. His body was a foot apart from her.

"Listen Dixon, I don't know what's wrong with you but you better stay away from me." Beth felt her voice tremble, she didn't sound confident. He smirked.

"Is it Dixon now huh? After you eat the meat I bring in here, after I fucking saved your life it's Dixon now. In fact you know what on second thought that actually sounds nice, kind of demands respect. You know little girls need to acknowledge their adults, kid." He was speaking down to her.

"Is that so? That's the only way I bet you would have a woman's respect, asshole." She said emphasizing on the word woman.

His smile evaporated, he took her by the arms. His face was close to her face. "For your own good I would take those words back." His hands were bruising her arms, it was painful.

"I… won't." Beth's arms hurt but she will be damned if she let that damn Dixon intimidate her.

He smiled in a creepy kind of way, his eyes wild. He looked down at her and practically brimmed with emotion. This guy was emotionally unstable, he was deranged and it was then she knew that this guy was dangerous.

"Let's have it your way then, kid." He said in an excited sort of way that made the hairs in the back of her head stand.

_A/N: So I found a beautiful lovely girl who is now my Beta. A million thanks to ALCzysz17 She has to put off with my english (because spanish is my first language) so all my love goes to you Alishia, in fact this chapter is for you babes, kisses. As the story progresses you will see Beth's and Daryl's relationship develop more, Daryl however will be a bit dark because that's how I see it, but there will be romance children, so don't worry. Also thanks to everybody who took the time to Review/ Favorite/Follow etc... and stuff; they mean the world to me, like seriously. I did answered to each of you personally and I will continue to do so, because I like talking to you guys and getting to know you. I'm already working on Chapter 3 so it shall be up soon. Drop me a line or two ;) Thanks babes. xoxo besos ~ RomanticForever77_


	3. I don't cuddle, babe

***See Author Note At The End* Thanks *wink* **

**Daryl's POV**

**"The truth is, everyone is going to hurt you. You just got to find the ones worth suffering for."  
― Bob Marley**

He looked at the girl's scared expression and felt a sense of accomplish. He didn't understand what he was trying to prove but he knew that her face painted a lovely canvas being scared like that. This last thought triggered a memory and he was lost in his past.

_**Flashback**_

_His whole body was shaking and his little hands were on his stomach, he was doubling over with pain. He could still felt the colliding of the broom whacking his back. Everything hurts, he thought. His little body spasm and contracted as pain rippled through his aching muscles. Tears were running down his cherub face but like his father had said, "You paint a lovely canvas, like that". His daddy always said he looked lovely when he was scared and sort of fragile, just like a woman. His tears were proof of his weakness. He was scared because he knew his daddy was going to be mad. He was weak. His daddy hated weak people. He would hate him, but worse of all he was going to keep beating him. _

"_Darlina, where're you hiding? You know daddy will find you…" His daddy said using a creepily sweet voice. Very misleading. _

_He was holding his breath; he knew it was only a matter of time before his daddy found him hiding underneath the table. _

"_You little bastard, come out and it would hurt less; Dixon's word." His daddy growled, his daddy had used his typical phrasing "Dixon's word" but truth be told his word mean nothing, it was all lies, it was going to hurt, a lot._

_A clashing glass sound was heard and he knew his daddy had thrown his beer against the wall. There were broken pieces of glass on the floor now. A sob broke out from his body followed by some kicking and screaming, his daddy got him. His daddy caress his cheek in an attempt to stilled him but then he took him by his left arm and slid him through the floor roughly, his body scraping on the broken pieces of the beer bottle. _

_His face was of pure terror. His father's face was glancing down at him, a wild derange gaze in his eyes and with his cold mocking voice said, "You look lovely scared Darlina, it makes me feel accomplished," and then he saw his daddy raise his fist; and everything went black. _

_**End of Flashback**_

Daryl snapped out of it, his guilt heavy in his heart. Sort of like how you get that feeling when you know an ugly truth and your heart sort of compresses and you feel like you're being shocked but you're still breathing, and it's even more frustrating because the more oxygen you breath, the worse the feeling of being shocked gets. He knew that feeling well, too well in fact.

He was becoming his father; it was a terrible notion. Daryl considered himself pretty much a fearless person, but everybody has that one thing that makes their hairs in the back of their necks rise. That one fear that absolutely terrorized them, for him it was becoming his fucking heartless, cold, bastard, violent, sick, fuck father.

He wouldn't admit it out loud but there was something about intimidating a person that gave him a high, in the literal sense of the world, it sort of gave him a rush. Just like his father. It's the way he had so much control about their emotions, he loved the way their delicate beating heart would pound quickly making a sweet melody just because of something he did or said.

Truth be told he knew that people could experience this in different forms but to say it was him who made a person feel that way, well that was simply addicting. It was intoxicating in the worst kind of way.

Daryl liked control in every aspect of his life, it sort of gave him protection and a sense of stability; balance. Because if he was in control nobody could hurt him, like his father once had. At the same time his emotions constantly got the better of him because he was impulsive; which was a curse. He thrilled on the fact that he could achieve this domination of people's emotions, he knew it was sick, but those were his fucking deviations and he couldn't do anything about it.

Beth was still in his arms and he suddenly felt the strong need to put her at an arm's length. He didn't know if he could control himself, he was still itching to hurt her; to make her feel all the anxiety he had felt when he saw baby Judith in her arms with those walkers all around them. God, if he could put that child in a crib made of glass and kept her fucking untouched from the rest of the world he'd damn well would do it.

"Dixon, please you're hurting me. Let go of me." The girl in his arms said in a nervous voice.

'That's the thing darling, I don't think I want to; I like it far too much,' he wanted to say but instead he replied, "You didn't seem to mind about my feelings before, I mean you hurt me and all…" His voice was full of mockery.

"I…you… Dixon, I swear to God I will fucking scream!" She all but threatened.

"Darling are you swearing? Oh my, my, that wouldn't do. Are you not the same little kid I met walking with her face trained to the floor, too shy to talk to anybody? I mean...Your daddy must be mighty proud of what you've become." His voice was still full of mockery but now laced with sarcasm. Oh, he was enjoying this far too much.

"You mother… mother of Christ, please leave me alone." Beth was blushing, clearly she was ashamed of her swearing.

"Do you think it's wise to scream? I mean with all the walkers so close to the fence, or is it that you have a death wish Beth?" He got closer to her ear as he spoke, he rarely said her name but when he did it was in the name of hurting her; it sounded dangerous, almost sexy coming from his mouth, very misleading but the pun was not lost to either of them.

"No, I don't…" She responded back calmly.

He eased back a little to look at her, her face was full of emotion, there was a mix of hatred and a fire in her eyes; that had obscured if only for a moment the fear he knew she had of him. He smirked. He was done here. Daryl looked at her from head to toe and then sneered in disdain.

Half smiling he said in a calm tone, "If you ever as so much, as put Judith's life at risk, I will personally make your life a living hell. Are we fucking clear you stupid, irresponsible child?"

"Yes." She said quietly, her eyes full of guilt. Good, he thought, served her right.

He made a show of letting her go and looking at his surroundings only to half smile down at her and come up close, almost a meter from her body, clearly intimidating her.

"I haven't forgotten about your apology, be assured you will apologize. That I promise you." He said with a smirk.

He left her standing there, looking determined and clearly mad at him. As he turned away from her his face contorted with a pained expression. He had treated her harshly. His desires scared him but his motivations were clear, he wanted to give her a piece of his mind.

She needed to understand that this was no fairytale, people's actions had consequences and she was no exception to that rule but he lost a bit of himself in the process. That wouldn't do.

"HE WAS NOT HIS FATHER" his thoughts were repeating that like a mantra but it felt more like a prayer.

The more reasonable part knew better. He had scared the girl. He was a monster. "HE WAS HIS FATHER".

He was constantly torn between the notion of being strong like his daddy had taught him but at the same time not becoming his father in the process. But he was failing miserably. He was in fact becoming what he hated most in the world, an insensible bastard, his father.

The thought made him shiver. Daryl knew he needed a little something to distract his mind and he knew exactly where to find it.

* * *

For him sex was mechanical. You see sometimes when a person does something repeatedly it becomes a routine, something you no longer do consciously but rather subconsciously on a conscious level. Every time he fucked a woman's body he tuned out her emotions, he detached himself from her; it was a release kind of thing and nothing fucking more.

What you need to understand about humans is that we do things in two ways because there are no other options. People constantly say that humans are complicated but quite contrary to popular belief humans are pretty simple. We either do everything we can to numb ourselves or we become obsessed seeking feelings and emotions.

The first one helps us numb the excess of the emotions and the second helps with the lack there of. It's interesting to see that between these two, lines get brutally blurred. You can barely do one without having to do the other. That's human life, a fucking walking contradiction.

Truth is, Daryl barely knew why he did half the things he did; he didn't think about much, just did. He acted on impulse rather than on his rational thoughts, it was ironic.

When he got to Cindy's or Candy's cell block, he still couldn't remember her name, he took a deep breath. He thought of turning back around and relieving himself in his cell block but it had been too damn long.

He looked at his painful hard on and made a fucking choice. One he knew he would regret but one he still made because that was Daryl for you, took choices based on feelings not worrying about consequences. You think he would know better, considering all the consequences he's endured because of his choices, but not a fucking chance, sometimes old habits die hard.

Cindy or Candy was sleeping peacefully and he took a moment to look at the woman. She was really good looking, he noticed for the first time. Her legs were outstretched and visible since her short pajamas barely covered her thighs. She had a slender figure but she more than covered for that with her amazing set of tits, her breathing was making her rack more visible and he was getting harder by the second.

Her hair was blond, dirty blonde, and that thought made him smirk. She had been flirting shamelessly with him back in the cafeteria. Well Cindy or Candy definitely got what she was looking for, he smirked in the dark.

Her facial features were delicate and she was tall, in another world she could have been a model, in this one; well not so much, he thought bitterly.

He came inside her cell and leaned over her sleeping form putting a hand on her mouth and another on her thigh. She opened her eyes instantly with a wild look; obviously scared. She had tried to scream like he anticipated.

"If I lift my hand from your mouth would you behave like a good little girl?" He side smiled at her, trying to calm her down. But it was a test, he knew that and so did she and as he expected she passed.

She looked weary but shook her head 'no'. Daryl raised an eyebrow and lifted his hand from her mouth but kept his other hand on her thigh rubbing in circles, making the movement insinuant.

"Mmmm, hi…" She said after a moment of gaining her surroundings, her blush spreading to her cheeks and nervously looking back at him.

"Hey, you." Daryl said in a calm, soothing voice.

"Do you… are you...do you mmmm, can I…" She was stammering and tripping over words clearly nervous about the situation.

"Am I alright?" He asked amused.

"Yes." She nodded.

"I don't know, check for yourself." He said in a husky voice taking her hand in his hand and putting it on his bulge.

"Oh." She looked startled and blushed even more.

"Yes, Oh." He replied back teasingly moving her hand with his over his bulge more firmly, feeling a sense of pleasure overcome his body.

"I can help you with that, babe." She stated with a look of confidence glowing on her face, her voice was overly sweet as she spoke, he loved when women talk to him with a baby voice, they radiated innocence and that was a turn on for him. Apparently she had gotten over her startled state.

She swung her legs out of bed in order to sit up and put both of her legs around his hips. Her green eyes looked at him as she got closer to his mouth, at the last moment however he stopped her. Daryl held her by the arms when he realized what she had been about to do.

He didn't kiss women, kissing was too personal. He fucked them yeah, but never kissed them, not on the mouth at least. So side smiling at her, he kissed her cheek and went down placing kisses all over her jaw until he reach her throat, he bit her pulse point hard, and she moaned.

Her hand was still rubbing his erection through his pants and she must have felt it twitch when she moaned because right away she squeezed him hard and fuck he swore he saw white lights. Well he smirked, if the bitch wanted to get rough that meant he had been right coming here then.

"Is this what you wanted huh?" His voice came out in a husky voice gripping her by the hair so he could look at her in the face.

"God, yes!" She responded in a rough voice. She removed her hand from his erection so she could rub her center on his bulge, her legs tightening around his waist.

"You wanted this for a long time?" Daryl inquired, he wanted to know.

"Yes, fuck yes!" She kept rubbing herself on him.

He put a hand on her hips to still her movements and reaching for the hem of her shirt he lift it off her body, yes god damn yes. He had been right; she had an amazing set of tits. He took her in and lowered his head to her chest; he kissed the top of her left tit and roughly took her left nipple in his mouth. His other hand started fondling her right tit. She had her hands on his hair and she proceeded to grabbed his face pulling him up. She took his head in both her hands trying to kiss him again.

"No." Daryl said to her, sweetly taking her hands from his hair. She looked confused. He gripped her hair again and looked her in the eyes. "Don't try to kiss me again or this is over."

She still looked confused but nodded her head. Her eyes were glazed over and she was so turn on by him that he knew he could've asked her anything and she would have said 'yes'. Her hands moved from his erection up his stomach to his chest and she slid his vest with the angels wings from his arms, discarding the piece of clothing on the floor. She took the hem of his shirt and also took it off. She lowered her hands to his pants and reach for his belt looking up at him smiling.

He smirked at her, she was such a whore. He had a perfect eye for them, hell he fucking spotted them a mile away.

She opened his fly and took his erection in her hands sliding her hand up and down slowly. He moaned. It had been so long since he had been touched by a woman's hand. He felt his body overcome with pleasure, the feeling was slowly building in his pelvis and fuck this wouldn't do.

He took her hands roughly from his erection and tore her short pants off along with her panties. He wanted to have a little more foreplay but he had been hard too long and if she kept moaning and touching him like that he was going to fucking blow his load and that wouldn't do at all.

So he put his hands on her center and realized that she was fucking dripping with wetness, he side smile; he hasn't lost his touch at all. He put two fingers inside of her easily and started to pump in and out of her with his hand, hard. He wasn't delicate when it came to sex. In fact he preferred it rough and hard. She was moaning too loud so he had to cover her mouth, he didn't want anybody barging in on them and messing up his release.

"You're so fucking wet for me, and I've barely touched you, you want me that much huh?" He spoke in a lustful voice.

She was incapable of answering him, only moaning louder, his hand muffling the sound, "I want to feel you, I want to feel that sweet thing of yours fucking squeezing me."

She was about to come. He felt her walls clenching and unclenching on his fingers.

"Fucking cum on my fingers, make me feel what it feels like to be inside of you." He kept talking dirty to her. And as soon as the words were out of his mouth she came.

"I can't wait any longer." Daryl commented taking his hand from her mouth and looking into his jeans for the 'emergency condom' he always carried, ripping the foil open before giving it to her. She put it on him. He lifted her from the bed and turned her around.

He bent her over admiring her ass. She put her hands on the bed and he took her by the hips. In one swift motion he entered her. He stretched her, he knew he was big but for his life he couldn't wait for her to get used to him so he went at it hard, and she fucking loved it, if her moans were any indication.

Most of the time guys had the wrong idea about women's bodies, they thought women wanted to be treated as if they were china dolls made of glass but he knew for a fact they were fucking wrong. Women usually got off the hardest when men were rough with them.

"Is this what you wanted, huh?" He said his voice shaking, it had been too long since he had been inside a woman's body.

"Yes." She moaned.

"Did you want me like this? Did you want me to give it to you hard, just like this?" He pumped his hips a little faster against her, his hands gripping her hips harder as he grew in speed. She would have bruises in the morning.

"Oh fuck me, Daryl!" Her voice raised in a pitch, shaking.

"That's what I'm doing." Daryl smirked. "Did you touch yourself thinking of this?" He asked his voice laced full of lust. He could feel the slow coil of his soon to be release in his pelvis.

"Yes fucking yes." She said her walls spasming around him, and a warmness enveloping his dick.

He looked up from her back, he could feel he was almost there when he saw Beth Greene standing outside the cell. His face contorted in a look of pleasure and he came with a loud moan, his eyes staring right at her. Their eyes connected.

She blushed and quickly turned around. Daryl had tried to hold himself back but it was too late, he had been too far gone to really stop. What the fuck was the girl doing in there he didn't know but he was going to find out.

He pulled out of the woman he was with and gave her a slap on the ass. She looked startled and he side smiled, winking at her. She smiled sweetly back.

Daryl started getting dressed and she looked at him with an almost shy smile getting under the covers naked, but not saying anything.

Once he was dressed he looked at her with a serious expression and caressed her cheek saying, "I don't cuddle."

When he was getting out of the cell with a smirk he noticed he still didn't know her name and he didn't fucking care either.

He fail to notice the lonely tear that fell out of the naked woman's eye, when he turned his back on her.

* * *

Daryl's first 'relationship' had been when he was 13; he had been infatuated with his childhood best friend, his male childhood best friend. At first he thought he was homosexual, but then he realized it was just a bromance, a platonic relationship; he didn't want anything sexual with his friend but **he had an unhealthy, borderline erotic fixation **with Matt. He loved the guy like a brother.

Matt was beautiful, he had no problem admitting that. They had seen each other naked when they had gone for a swim in the clearing near his house and often they had wank together side by side, rather than a friendship they were intimate, you know that level right before lovers but not quite there, well that was how Matt and Daryl were. They had played around the woods and practically saw each other become teenagers. They grew up in each other's company. Being next to Matt felt as normal as breathing.

When Matt's parents moved away when Matt was 18, they made a ritual of some sort, they took a knife and cut each other's palms pressing them together to join their blood as they promise themselves that they would never forget each other. That day they became brothers by blood. Matt was more of brother to him than Merle ever had been, that's why he hadn't mourned Merle that much. Yes he had cared, Merle was his blood, but truth be told he cried more when Matt went away.

As the years pass he never forgot Matt. He had been Daryl's safe haven and home. He read somewhere once that it was unhealthy to make homes out of people but he couldn't help it. His life was chaotic, his house was hell, but Matt's beautiful blue eyes were as calm as the ocean.

He never had love as a child, not by his mom and not by his dad; but Matt had truly loved him, he was his family, the only one he had, his only one. One day when he came to Matt crying, his body covered in bruises and his lips busted, he had told him crying that he couldn't take it anymore that he wanted to run away. Matt had answered by planting a chaste kiss on his mouth and telling him that he couldn't handle the idea of being without him. That night he stayed with Matt, his face in his neck with Matt's arms around his sleeping form, he was lulled to sleep by the beating of his heart, they had been 15.

Whenever Daryl came to Matt cover in cuts and bruises the other boy would go look for a alcohol and cured his bubus', not saying a word and not asking questions. He had cried in his room for a week and refused to eat anything when Matt leave with his parents to another state.

He had kept the necklace Matt had given him until the apocalypse, he had a habit of kissing it just before he went to sleep. The necklace had been bizarre like their friendship, it had a single ear made of silver. Matt said it was so that Daryl could always talk to him and he would never forget that somewhere Matt would and could hear him. He lost the piece of jewelry in the middle of running away from his house with Merle, a walker had tried to grab him by the collar and instead grabbed the necklace, Merle tugged him back and it got stuck in a walker's hand. He started shouting but it was done…he had lost it. He didn't talk to Merle for a week. But the necklace had practically safe his life.

Matt had saved Daryl's life more than once. When he had been delusional, on the clearing looking for Sophia, he had clung to Matt's voice saying that he would never leave him, that he was there for him, that he would always listen. And that's what fueled him to cut the walker's ears off and put them on his neck. He had Matt, which means that he could get out of it, Matt was the only thing he needed. Every time Merle saw him with Matt he said that they both look like "An old married couple" and he would call them both "fags" and as a consequence had constantly taken to calling him "Darlina" like his father used to called him. It was hurtful thing to do.

On one hot summer day when he was talking about nothing in particular to Matt his head on his legs while Matt pet his hair, he asked him if it bother him that people thought that they were "gays". Matt's beautiful eyes looked at him and a smile adorned his angel like face, quietly he got closer to him and whispered "No, we both know what we are, you know what you mean to me and I know what I mean to you. We are more than lovers, more than friends, and more than "fags", we are brothers, you are a part of me and you will always be". Matt leaned down and kiss him on the temple and planting kisses on his face said "I will always be with you, even when we are no longer together". sealing his promise with a chaste kiss to his mouth.

Those were the most beautiful words somebody had ever told him. Nobody would ever be Matt. Of one thing he was sure if he had ever experienced love he would compare it to the feeling he had got when he was with Matt.

Matt had been the only person he gave a fuck about and he was no longer by his side. Truth was that throughout the years not one day passed that he didn't wonder where Matt was.

He didn't do "relationships", the closest he had ever got to something as keen as a relationship was Matt's. Because people leave and you stayed, he though full of heartache. Matt had leave and he had stayed.

Usually when his thoughts took that turn he would tuned them out for his sake. That line of thought usually made his chest compress and the emotions were too overwhelming. That's why Daryl didn't do relationships, they only made you weak and they only do you harm.

* * *

Unbeknown to him, there was once a legend that said that whenever somebody when thinking of a significant other could feel their hearts compress and their emotions run on high was because another heart was trying to communicate with them. There are hearts that know each other so profoundly that they speak a language unknown to the carriers. Because somewhere, somebody was missing him, and thinking the exact same thing.

* * *

The prison had been chaotic to put it nicely. A week had passed since he had gotten laid and so many things had happened since then. He had tried to look for the Greene girl the next day to asked her what the fuck she been doing on Candy's cell block, yes now he knew the girls name since he had heard one of her Woodbury friends calling her, but the girl was really good at hiding from him.

However his mind quickly had diverted from thoughts of the Greene girl when Michonne came that same day to the prison bloody and badly hurt, her horse barely holding her weight. She had been almost unconscious and by time that Hershel had gotten to her, she had fainted. Leaving everybody on edge as to what had happened to her.

She had three bullet wounds on her left arm and she was lucky to be alive or so said the Doc. Her recovery was going to be slow and she wouldn't be able to fight for a while; which meant a great harm from their protection ranks since she was a great fighter. In simple words it made the group vulnerable.

When he saw her coming through the gates he had been pissed off. Daryl had always been against people going out alone on runs and he voiced his thoughts to her. She was a really stubborn woman and had wanted to go fucking looking for the devil and she had found it, apparently; just not exactly the one she had in mind.

Michonne had been going out for months to look for the Governor. If an antichrist was coming to Earth after the apocalypse, that man would have fit quite well for the role. They all thought he was a sick fuck, the guy literally got off on inflicting pain, so talk about crazy. And of course as luck would have it she didn't found him at all, but instead she found three rattlers who had tried to make a move on her.

When she had refused quickly attempting to retrieve her sword to threaten them, they had all shoot at her. That was the kind of world they live in, a world where nobody asked questions anymore. It was shoot first, think later. Luckily she had quick reflexes and quickly got on her horse and rode straight to the prison making sure that nobody followed her. Thinking of the greater good of all of them even when badly hurt.

Now they had two fucking problems. First of all they needed to figure out who these fucking guys were and if they were with a big group. Clearly it would be a bad one given the kind of people Michonne described.

The second problem was a cause of the first one; they needed to go on a run to snatch some medicines for Michonne and they were short on people who wanted to volunteer after what had happened to her, which was of course expected.

Those crazy fucks were running wild around, and nobody wanted to die. They all knew that out of them all Michonne was one of the best fighters, so obviously they were keen on self preservation and since she had gotten hurt they knew chances of them getting hurt where higher.

It had taken almost one whole day for Michonne to wake up and explain the situation, another one for them to come up with various plan and course of action if needed, and fucking another one to choose the people that were going on the run. So excuse him, but he had a fucking right to be pissed off.

And since great things keep coming, he thought sarcastically, against his better judgment three guys from Woodbury whom he had never seen killing a walker, not even through the fence, were going. Zack was one of the Woodbury guys and he was really young barely in his teens which in his opinion meant inexperience, the Doc was going and Greg right along with Maggie, Glen, Rick, Tyreese, Sasha, Candy and surprisingly Beth.

He thought her interest in going on the run was far because she wanted to go on it, but rather the puppy eyes she was making at Zack, which was bad because the more people going on the run the more back's he had to watch.

They were all getting ready to go out, when he saw her kissing Zack, he smirked. Well the girl moved fucking fast. Too bad for her, displays of PDA made him want to retch and he felt the need to take her happiness from her, because if he didn't like it, she shouldn't enjoy it, at all.

As the transportation arrangement were made by Rick, he discretely leaned into the Greene's girl ear and said, "Did you enjoy the show?" He didn't need to explain because they both knew what he was referring to.

She blushed red and refused to acknowledge him, as if he didn't exist, well that certainly had make him smirk.

"You either tell me what the fuck were you doing in Candy's cell block or I go to your room tonight when you're alone." He threatened

She looked scandalized, he had to fight to hide his amusement and a small smile at the corner of his lips. Daryl looked up front with a serious expression, nonetheless.

"I wanted to scream at you after you left that night cause you never let me finish talking, well explaining. Now shut up and leave me alone and don't you dare come into my cell!" Beth whispered harshly.

He looked at her and leaned even closer to her this time, "Hope you had fun alone in your room kid." Daryl winked and side smiled. She was looking as if she had swallowed a lemon. Her expression was totally off.

* * *

As soon as they were on the road he had a bit of alone time to think. The motorcycle 'his baby' as he liked to call her, helped him with that, on 'his baby' he didn't have to worry about anything but himself.

He believed that each person had their constant escape from the world, for him it was speed and the sense of freedom that came with the abandon of knowing that nobody could catch you. He had been shackled in his childhood to his abusive father and his unhealthy relationship with his brother and he had learn to enjoy the bits and pieces of freedom that life had to offer him.

To feel the wind caress his hair was one of life's small pleasures and who was he to turn that down. He spent the rest of the way thinking of Candy and how he shall proceed, he had fucked her yeah? That should've been that, but he knew enough about women to know that no matter how much of a whores they acted like they were women and inevitably almost every girl took sex personal.

He didn't get it, he really didn't, he constantly tried to be as detached as he could in sex with women and somehow they still manage to tied themselves emotionally to him. It was a vicious circle, everybody who knew him, knew what he was; a free dick with free fucks and nothing more.

It wasn't like he was sleeping around and fucking everything that had a hole, actually women pretty much threw themselves at him and of course being the man that he was he didn't refuse them.

One too many times he had ended up with a black eye and busted knuckles because he had fucked a married woman. They were worth it, truth be told but they fucking attached themselves emotionally to him. He had a theory that the quieter the woman the more wild in the bed they were. And also the more composed and calmed they appear the more they liked to be roughen up. His thoughts stopped abruptly as he got to the place.

He was the first to arrive to the destination, the others followed behind. The pharmacy was pretty much walker free, this town had been almost left untouched from the ransackers because only the locals knew about the existence of this place. It had been a detached in town, a sort of place where only the locals went, since the other pharmacy was a 6 hours of travel trip.

Hershel said that this place had all the medicines he had given Doc in the list. He was hoping that they could go in and out and that be quick about it, but of course he wasn't that hopeful after all he had a hell of a fucking bad long week and the universe hasn't been cooperating with him lately.

They had scanned the place and it looked too quiet for his comfort, there were two or three walkers around but not much of a concern for them, which in his opinion was odd and dangerous. Few walkers meant people, and people these days usually meant trouble.

You see he liked to think of himself as a man who gave no fuck's about anything or anyone, and at the same time he tried to stay out of everybody business but sadly the world was not like him and every-fucking-where he went trouble had a way to find him.

They made their way quietly to the front door since the door was open, miraculously the glass vitrine had been intact and it looked from the outside as if the place was deserted, which was bad news, very bad news in Daryl's opinion and experience. The second they got inside, they heard it. And Daryl knew it then, they were in trouble, deep trouble.

It was a gunshot; followed by a quick set of tumbling boxes and some screaming and crying. They were already inside when someone talked. "Did you hear that?"

"Someone's at the door, go check" Said another rough voice with a thick accent.

He knew if they didn't do something quick things were going to get ugly for all of them, so in a 'calm on the outside but brimming with nervousness on the inside' stance he scanned the area looking for a hideout. He was a quick thinker when it came to these sorts of situations.

He saw an opened door next to the counter, it was close enough for them to hide but too far away and more likely to get caught if they didn't move quietly and fast, he also didn't know if they all could fit in there. So he acted quickly. He raise an arm and everybody looked at him, he pointed to the door and made the "shh" motion by putting a finger to his mouth and they all nodded like good little children.

They made their way to the door quickly and when he open it, he was quite annoyed; it was broom closet and it was fucking small. They all squeeze themselves in barely breathing and kind of in each other's necks. And to make matters interesting they let a bit of the door open so it wouldn't be suspicious. I mean, if a person was hiding would they leave the door opened? No, of course. See? That's the secret to hiding something; leave it in plain sight.

Since he had been the first one to got in the closet he was currently being squeezed to death in a corner. His back was parallel to the wall and somebody was pressing their ass painfully hard in his male bits. It hurt, like a bitch. He knew it was a woman because that perky bubbly thing had the unmistakable signature of a girl. He took the person by the hips and tried to get her away from himself and succeed, if only for a moment, he was no longer hurting. Nonetheless something happen, and the person or woman for that matter took his hands and moved them to their chest squeezing them.

To say he was baffled was an understatement. He was a freak he knew that, but fucking get it on in a closet, full of people; friends for that matter and at the very risk of getting caught and ending up death was fucking crazy. But he be damn, he was getting hard.

"The door was open, but there's nobody here, Jake." Said the same voice with the damn accent he couldn't quite name but seemed familiar.

"Did you check outside? Can you see someone? Or a car?" Asked the first man while apparently moving closer to the second. How many were there? They had too guys with thick accents, he was mentally trying to analyze the situation but was finding it quite hard at the moment.

The body in front of his was grinding dirtily on his bulge and squeezing his hand on her tits, it was driving him mad. Thanks to God nobody had notice since they were all on edge and intent on listening to the guy talking; ready to get out of the closet and shoot them all if needed, they were fighters like that.

His breath was labored, and Candy, his mind had concluded, was fucking dirty. She was behaving like a whore and he loved it. She was so wild, he notice. Apparently she had missed him giving it to her hard, if the way she was moving up against him was any indication. This girl seemed different though while her movements where wild and fiercely they lacked expertise which he knew Candy had plenty off. He decide not the deal on that notion a lot, a quick release what a quick release and that was that.

His body loved it and he felt his hard on nuzzled right between the woman ass cheeks, it was heaven. He had his face on the wall looking at the ceiling concentrating on not moaning and praying to whatever God was up there that when he come he didn't make any sound. She was currently lowering one of his hands and getting it to the front of her panties, and his head snapped down, they couldn't do this here, it was dangerous.

"Was somebody with you? Do you have a group?" Asked the man in a menacing tone.

"I…no sir." Said a childlike voice.

"You seem a bit insecure, darling." Said the man in a leering tone.

He was horrified, he truly was, he was literally stroking a pussy while a child was being held against his or her will and fucked him but he was getting harder by the minute. He had his hand down in the girls pussy, clit stroking, he couldn't get fingers inside but apparently she was so sensitive that his hand on her clitoris was enough which he find odd. He was currently rubbing her hard. She had all her weight on him and he was supporting her.

"No sir, there was nobody else with me," said the now sobbing voice of a boy he recognized.

"Very well dear, just in case…" A gunshot and a hard thudding was heard along with something else...

Just when the gunshot was heard he came. The girl on his arms trembled and moaned quietly the sound obstructed by the gunshot and came a few second after. He had wet his pants and he didn't know how to hide it. He was coming on with ideas in his mind, when a voice chilled him to the bones.

"Babe?" Beth's Greene voice whispered on his ear, squeezing the hand that was still on her pussy, her wet pussy.

A/N

My Darlings,

First of all thanks to everybody for taking their time to read my story, it means the world to me, really. I wanted explain a bit about Daryl's and Matt's relationship **They are not in a together as in a relationship or as a couple or "Gays" for that matter **they in fact have a deep complicate relationship based on intimacy and other stuff that I will explore on upcoming Chapters. Excuse the used of the word "Fag" I'm actually against the use of derogatory words or "labels" for that matter but this is Merle we are talking about...so it was necessary in order to keep him "In character", because that's who he is, don't blame me, just sue AMC. Also the underlined bold line "**he had an unhealthy, borderline erotic fixation" **it's from the TV show "Revolution" when Tom describes Monroe's obsession with Miles, actually Daryl's and Matt's relationship is inspired on them. This is completely in Daryl's POV because I wanted to let you readers, get a bit into his head, kind of understand why he behaves the way he does, in an effort for you guys to understand better his motivations or reasons to be more precisely. I wanted you guys to understand part of why he behaves the way he does (hence the memories/flashbacks). In terms of his sexuality he's kind of "blank book" so I wrote him using bits and pieces from the show and how I think he is. Thanks again for everything, tell me what you think about this chapter, love you babes. besos xoxox RomanticForever77


	4. Beautiful things kill you

*******See Author Note At The End* Thanks *wink* *blows kisses***

**Beth's POV**

"_**Stephen kissed me in the spring, **_

_**Robin in the fall,**_

_**But Colin only looked at me**_

_**And never kissed at all.**_

_**Stephen's kiss was lost in jest,**_

_**Robin's lost in play,**_

_**But the kiss in Colin's eyes**_

_**Haunts me night and day."**_

― _**Sara Teasdale**__**, **__**The Collected Poems**_

The redneck bastard had left her there, literally; just when she had been about to snap and tell him a thing or two, he had turned on his heels. The cocky son of a bitch thought he could get away with anything and that wouldn't do.

Beth had been so surprised that her anger had been somewhat replaced by awe, rarely people left her standing without finishing talking, you see people respected her. She had earned that, she was a serious girl, and usually thought before speaking.

Actually, she was the kind of girl who talked only when talked to and always said what people wanted to hear, in other words she was the definition of a proper girl. There were few people that made her lose her calm and fucked her but Dixon was kind of that person.

That thing or human creature which were she was concern was semantics because he was NOT a person had unhinged her. The bastard didn't have respect for anybody, she thought. He was rude, disrespectful and she was fucking sick of it.

How dare he leave her standing there, after everything he said to her? That wouldn't do. That wouldn't do at all. She sort out her thoughts and in a fit of bravado decided he was going to hear a piece of her mind. Beth started walking, and just before she reached the door she heard it.

_Shhh, hush little girl, don't scream. Shhh, hush little girl, don't scream. _

It was as faint as a whisper, but to her it was as loud as a lions roar. The blood in her veins felt colder, the color drained from her face, she took a breath but the air was not coming in. She closed her eyes and said a prayer. She willed it to go away.

_Shhh, hush little girl, don't scream. Shhh, hush little girl, don't scream. _

"Please, please go away." Beth whispered in the cold night.

But truth is that sometimes we tried so hard to run from our demons that we forget that there are things we can't really run from, especially if they come from our own minds.

* * *

Beth was musing on nothing in particular while walking back to her room or rather trying hard not too. It was taking all of her concentration to fight back the memory. For the second time that night she was willing a memory to go away, difference was that this memory in particular was recent and definitely good.

Her heart beat faster and her cheeks tinted red. Just thinking about it made her insides tingle and her head dizzy. She was ashamed to admit that she was flustered.

Beth thought that she was a grown up, hell she thought she was a woman but truth be told she was not. She was a girl, a little girl. And that Son of a bitch had unbeknown to him reminded her of that.

She had been so focused on finding that stupid redneck that she had failed to notice the moans coming from the cell. Her anger had been so centered that it had blinded her and dulled her senses. It was hard to concentrate on anything at all when she was seeing red.

She liked to think of herself as a calm person but Maggie had once called her bipolar, she had said that her mood swings were abrupt and scary. Maggie had also said that she could be as calm as the sea but as fierce as a tsunami. When she was sweet, she was as sweet as strawberry but when she was mad she was as bitter as a lemon.

Beth had tried to keep her anger in check but that Dixon guy brought out the worst in her, it was like she couldn't hold it in, she had to scream at him and let it all out.

So she failed to see it coming until she was standing right in front of it. It was a beautiful sight if she was truly honest with herself. He was perfection; she could see his chest and his toned abs. She could see his hands grabbing on to the girls hips and just for a minute she imagined what it would feel like if it was her, but as quickly as it came she made it go away. Beth held back her thoughts scolding herself and reminding herself that, that was a dangerous path she didn't want to take.

It was hormones she told herself.

But Beth couldn't take her eyes away from the sight, she could faintly hear the girl moaning, but her eyes were trained on the beautiful creature making all that possible when she heard it.

_**"Did you want me like this? Did you want me to give it to you hard, just like this?" **_He said huskily, his words were breathless, his face was lustful and she be damned but she was aroused. She could hear the girl had answered him but for her life she couldn't care what the fuck the girl said.

Beth had never heard anybody talking dirty like that, it was so hot. All her boyfriends were good boys; they never did anything with her, not that she had encourage it before but hell the world was no longer was it was, nobody was innocent anymore. In fact to put it simple she was a fucking saint. She had done nothing sexual with her boyfriends. Nothing except for kiss them, but she longed for it. She realized in that moment that she wanted it all.

_**"That's what I'm doing." **_She heard him answer the girl, she didn't know what the girl had said but she saw Daryl smirk and couldn't help but think that even in sex he was cocky, but she didn't know just how much until he said the next sentence.

_**"Did you touch yourself thinking of this?" **_He asked the girl and she could hear it in his voice, it was full of lust, pride and control.

Beth was having a hard time holding her hand still but it had a mind of its own and it kept wanting to get in her panties, so yes, she could understand the question.

She discovered IT then, one of her turn on's. She liked dirty talking and she liked how he talked during sex. Her blue eyes were taking it all in, with shame. She liked what she was seeing and she liked it a lot.

Up until this moment his eyes had been on the woman's back but in less than a second Beth saw him look up and she was petrified.

His normal light blue eyes were darker and his hair was in his eyes, he was moving faster against the girl's hips and she couldn't for the life of her tear her face away from him.

Daryl was looking right at her. And then abruptly his beautiful face contorted in a look of ecstasy, and the sexiest moan came from his mouth. He had never stopped staring at her. He had come looking at her. It was more than she could take. With her cheek's tinted red and her heart beating fast she turned around and ran.

Beth didn't understand what the fuck was wrong with her but something was clearly off. She had literally stood there while that Dixon guy had fucked a girl and came staring her down.

She went inside her cell block and took a pillow muffling a scream. She was sexually frustrated if that was even possible for a virgin. She took a towel and some fresh clothes and went to take a shower, a cold shower.

Her only image as she bathed herself was of his face contorted in pleasure and she knew it then that she had to put it in her special vault. The one she kept only for herself in her mind, her one true dirty secret. His expression had been beautiful and she had a habit of collecting beautiful things. This certainly qualified as one of the most beautiful expressions she had ever seen on a person.

Beth finished her shower and went to her cell to lay down for the second time. She was thinking about his face when she was overcome by tiredness. It had been quite a long day, in fact the longest of her life.

For once her sleep had been as close to peaceful as it could get. She dreamt of beautiful expressions of pleasure and haunting dark blue eyes.

* * *

Sometimes we find exactly what we are looking for in the least expected place, funny thing is that we never knew we were looking for it in the first place. I believe that we go through life admiring beautiful things.

Beth spent most of her life searching and collecting beautiful things, it was her hobby, her secret. Some people had photos; some had sculptures, paintings and other stuff. But she had memories; her mind was a collection of beautiful things. It was a kaleidoscope of beauty.

For Beth, beauty was a rare thing and since she was human, her initial drive was to possess beauty, to capture it. And truth be told she spend most of her life hunting beauty.

Beautiful things are simple things, most of the time. We see beauty in a simple rainy day, we see beauty in the way a light reflects on a person's eyes, we see beauty in a smile, beauty is everywhere, and we just have to open our eyes to see it.

But the truth is that real beauty, is rare, like a precious gem, it takes you by surprise, it sort of petrifies you, and you can't stop looking at it even if you want to, it horrifies you and enthralls you at the same time. Beauty is like a butterfly.

When Beth was a child she once tried to catch a butterfly she chased it in the farm and quietly snuck up on it. The butterfly had been on a flower, a yellow flower to be exact, the animal had been orange with black spots, it was the most beautiful thing she had seen in her short live.

The butterfly had been feeding, it had been vulnerable, a vulnerable prey to be exact and she had felt like a hunter. She wanted to capture it, she didn't know what possessed her to do it, but she felt it inside, the adrenaline, like small tingles in her stomach and she acted on impulse.

Beth had never wanted anything in her life so bad; her drive had been so high that she hasn't cared. She waited for the perfect moment, she must have been hiding, well squatting, behind the creature for a good ten minutes when she saw it, it was the perfect moment and in a second she closed her hand around it. She could feel it flapping its wings inside her palm, it tingled and she smiled, she got it, she had the butterfly.

Once she had the butterfly in her hand she started to run, to show it to her mom and grabbing it by the wings she showed her. Her mom had scowled her. She said, "Beth what have you done? You shouldn't have...you know what will happen now?"

Beth barely listened though, she was mesmerized by the way the creature flapped its wings. The sun had been blazing in the summer day and the birds were singing, the sun reflected on the butterfly's wings. It was quite a sight.

But all of a sudden the beautiful creature stopped moving, she put it in her hand but it was weak, it barely flapped its wings. She poked it, and looked up at her mom with tears in her eyes, she couldn't quite understand what had happened, and she was horrified.

Her mom caressed her cheek and said, "Now you understand, Beth, it's going to die." Beth brought the butterfly closer to her face and whispered, "I'm sorry," she had felt terrible, she knew it wasn't going to solve anything but she needed to apologize.

She ran back to where she had been chasing the butterfly gently depositing it on the flower, but the butterfly was already dead, she had killed it. That's when she understood that beautiful things were for observing not touching because pretty things bruised easily, you can't get attached to them cause they die.

Beauty is ephemeral and once you found it you would want to catch it, but what people needed to understand is that once we have it, it will die, eventually. Because beauty is never infinite. Beauty is death and we are all killers.

* * *

Later on her life as she recalled her experience to her psychiatrist, he had been alarmed. Beth had seen it on his face, she had a strange ability to read people and she didn't think it was a blessing but more of a curse. He diagnosed her with a lot of things including an _**"Antisocial personality disorder (ASPD)",** also called 'dissocial personality disorder', which was a personality disorder characterized by a pervasive pattern of disregard for, or violation of, the rights of others. There may be an impoverished moral sense or conscience and a history of crime, legal problems, impulsive and aggressive behavior" but it was most commonly known as the "Sociopath syndrome_".

Yes, Beth had done her homework. When she saw the prognosis she had researched it. In fact one day while the Doc had been talking to her dad about her new pills she had snuck in his office and read the file, it had said:

"_**The patience showed pre-sociopath behavior in her earlier childhood, evidenced many times in our different sessions but particularly more persistent in this session specifically in the way she recalled and vividly described a certain memory involving the capture of a living thing, without any regards of its life, acting primary on impulse. Involving and not excluding whatsoever the organized planification of the abduction of the previously mention and later the admission of self satisfaction at the achievement. There had been no guilty conscience or remorse in the adolescent as a child's retelling of the story but mainly the expression of hedonistic activities and the manifestation of her ego."**_

_**And in small note it said "Will keep looking at the patterns**_"

Beth knew it had been scribbled quickly if the handwriting was any indication and judging by the observations she read it had been clearly written just before she had finished the story because she had in fact felt guilty.

But deep down inside she knew better, thing is that sometimes we believe what we want to believe.

* * *

Beth saw him for the first time when he had been giving Michonne's horse a bath, he had been shirtless. His body was glinting in the sun and he looked really fit.

They all had chores and responsibilities around the prison but truth be told, there are people that no matter what they do, how they look or even if you bath them in horse shit they will look good and she be damned but he was beautiful.

She had seen him just when Rick brought them all in; he was one of the Woodbury guys, one of the "young Woodbury guys", to be exact. You see in a world where chaos reigned it was hard to find the right kind of youth, she was eighteen right in the borderline of adulthood but not quite there yet, and it was a hard "in between".

Beth had been in the prison garden looking at the small plants with the soon to be vegetables when she felt a slight spray of water, it was refreshing in the blazing sun.

But she noticed it wasn't raining at all and when she looked to the side she saw Zack with the hose and his head thrown back laughing, he had dimples on his cheek and dark hair, he was beautiful. Looking at him she could almost forget about the rattling of the fence and the snarling sounds made by the walkers, almost but not quite.

People constantly thought that happiness was eternal, that it's a thing you could grab and never let go off and that when you had it in your hands it would always be present in your life, but she knew different, happiness where moments, mere moments.

A person could never have happiness completely, in fact she knew that you could see it rarely, and she saw it in Zack's smile and she felt it in the slight spray and just as fast as it came it passed with the sound of a sheriff voice.

"Zack, what on earth are you doing with the hose? Don't you know that the reserve of water it's limited? On to the task boy," said Rick with a glint in his eyes but with a serious expression on his face.

The thing about Rick was that he rarely smiled at all. Not that he had smiled at all when she had met him at the farm but he had been less miserable. All of them had gone through a lot together, it was rough all over, but to have the weight of all the guilt of the whole group and by default be responsible for their welfare, was a task she didn't envy and didn't wish on his worst enemy.

She saw it on Daryl too most of the time he looked haunted as if one day he would bolt from the place sick and tired of them all, but then he cared so much about the group that she scolded herself for even thinking that at all. She had seen both men lean on each other but it was not enough. This world was a fucked up place and it was damn hard to have faith when there were no signals available.

After what happened with Lori and the incident with Carl, Rick changed. There were moments when he looked lost, she was afraid that one day they would lose him forever. She had seen it nonetheless; there were moments when you could see it in his eyes, if only for a second, it was there, like now. She saw that he could almost forget his demons and smiled for a second, if only with his eyes but it was enough; for now at least. She understood that healing took a while if it ever happened at all.

"I'm really sorry Sir, it won't happen again." Zack said with a serious face but right when the sheriff turned around he smiled at Beth and threw her a wink, she ducked her face and her cheeks tinted red, she fought hard to hide a smile.

She had noticed Zack flirting around with her in the prison but she had been too occupied to pay him any mind whatsoever, but she was a girl after all.

After the event that she had witnessed three days ago she felt her hormones all over the place. What she saw had been beautiful but a beauty she knew she couldn't reach. She had tried her hardest to run away from Daryl. She tried to never be alone and it had worked fine, she had evade him successfully.

After what happened with Daryl her mind had been consumed by lustful thoughts involving nobody in particular but making her on edge all day.

Her fantasies were now taking on a crazy turn involving certain Woodbury boy and crazy outside sex. She spent the next hour thinking of that when her musings were interrupted by said very real boy.

"Beth…." Zack brought a hand to his temple to shield himself from the sun, he had said something else but the rattling of the walkers cover his voice.

"What?" Beth screamed back at him.

"I said, are you coming? Food's ready." Zack said getting closer to her shirtless and stretching a hand to help her up with a grin on his face.

"Sure," she answered smiling at him and taking his hand. Her boots had another plan though because they tangled up in the plants and she went colliding with his chest. Damn her clumsy self, it was the second time she had tangled up in her own feet. She had one hand on his stomach and the other holding up his hand. She looked into his beautiful brown eyes the sun's light reflected on his irises, and his hair was wet. Her hand was touching hard skin and he was mesmerized looking at her. The rattling of the fence was put to a second place as his eyes looked at her, so without thinking much about anything she got on her tip toes and pressed her lips against his.

He was surprised, that much she could tell because it took him almost five seconds to respond to her, but when he did. It was hot all over. The hand at her waist steadying her brought her closer to him. And he entwined their hands together lacing them. His kiss was slow, unhurried and sweet, like they had all the time in the world.

That wouldn't do. So she raised her hand to the back of his head and brought down his head to harden the kiss. He complied and kissed her hard. A deep cough was heard and they parted.

Rick was in leaning by the water container with an amused face. Her cheeks turned red and Zack just ducked his head and stole one chaste kiss from her smiling mouth.

"I came back to see if everything was alright, dinner is ready." Rick then turned around leaving them alone again.

"Alright then," he said taking her hand in his. Beth gave his hand a squeeze but quickly let go because she felt weird walking around holding his hand. He looked at her, tilting his head to the side but said nothing.

He grabbed his shirt and put it on. He put both his hands in his pockets and started walking.

"So… this is a thing then huh?" Zack asked with a cute smile.

"I guess…" Beth said looking at him and smiling.

"You guess? So what was…" He looked like a cocker spaniel with his head tilted but she interrupted him before he could finish the sentence.

She grabbed him by his arms and cornered him in the wall. There was nobody around. She put a single finger to his lips and proceeded to kissing him again. She put her body flush against him and she had to close her eyes harder because for a minute she swore she saw dark blue eyes staring back at her.

After a couple of kisses, Zack grab Beth by the arms and smiling at her said, "I think we should slow down a bit and go eat yeah?"

She quickly looked away slightly embarrassed by her abrupt actions and nodded her head. What the hell was wrong with her, throwing herself at this guy like that? She must be losing her mind.

He seemed to read her thoughts because he continued on, "It's just that I am a man Beth and it's harder for me to control myself when I'm near a beautiful girl such as yourself and it's been a while and well I'm really, really, really happy to kiss you, if you know what I mean."

Beth had to laugh then, cause he look adorable and his cheeky remark had made her look down and see the outline of his erection straining his jeans.

She got closer again and leaned towards his ear to whisper, "I don't really mind that you're happy at all," and she kissed his throat right next to his pulse point. She felt tingly all over.

Easing back and looking at him she had to hide an amused smile because he looked quite baffled. She smiled at him and said, "Come on, I'm hungry, if you know what I mean," and he threw his head laughing and winked.

* * *

The conversation in the kitchen was about one thing only; Michonne's attack. Everybody was on edge and obviously nobody wanted to go on the run. They were all worried sick about Michonne's health. Her daddy needed some medicines and without them he couldn't save her life.

Zack offered to go on the run just when she had been about to tell him not to go. Beth had just found him and so excuse her but she was a selfish person and she didn't want to lose him, not just yet.

So the only thing she could do was offer herself to go with them to be closer to him. The rest of the day had gone fast for her and before she knew it she was having nightmares of little houses with scared girls inside and haunting dark blue eyes.

* * *

The day of the run she woke up feeling a strange adrenaline. She had been on the road before and it had been bad back then. But it had been a while since all of that, and truth be told she was nervous.

She got dressed and put her hair into a messy bun; grabbing her small hand gun she attached it to her tight holder on her jeans. She also took a bag in case she saw something they needed.

When she got out, she saw Zack and he waved at her. She made her way to him and gave him a kiss. It was the first kiss they had in public so she was a little embarrassed but also excited.

Zack was busy cleaning his car, which they were going to take on the run when she felt someone get closer to her. It was Daryl, of course.

"Did you enjoy the show?" He didn't need to explain because they both knew what he was referring to.

Beth blushed red and refused to acknowledge him. She wouldn't give him the pleasure, instead she just focused on what Zack was doing.

"You either tell me what the fuck were you doing in Candy's cell block or I go to your room tonight when you're alone." He threatened

She looked scandalized, she didn't want another "Dixon encounter" she had had plenty of him thank you very much and she sure as hell didn't need another "fight" or "erotic scene" for that matter like she had seen.

"I wanted to scream at you after you left that night cause you never let me finish talking, well explaining. Now shut up and leave me alone and don't you dare come into my cell!" She whispered harshly.

He looked at her and leaned even closer to her this time, "Hope you had fun alone in your room kid." Daryl winked and side smiled. She was looking as if she had swallowed a lemon. Her expression was totally off because he didn't know; he couldn't have known how close she really had been to having "fun alone in her room".

Beth closed her eyes and prayed for some sort of patience to an invisible God. She hated how every single time they talked he managed to leave her furious and he was always just dandy. It was infuriating.

As the transportation arrangements were made she went to sit by Zack. As they drove by she whispered in his ear, "I want you."

He looked at her with many expressions across his face and opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted by Sasha's question to him about Michonne's horse so he just squeeze her knee and turn his head to Sasha answering her in a friendly and polite manner. But truth be told she had seen everything she needed to see in his eyes.

* * *

They had encountered a bit of problem on their way to the pharmacy and they were currently hiding in a broom closet and as luck would have it she ended up being right in front of Zack's dick. Beth was sure of it because she had made sure that when they entered the place Zack's hand never left hers.

Zack had taken up her waist and repositioned her better and she had caught the clue of what he had wanted, so taking his hands from her hips she put them on her boobs. She knew she had great boobs so she started taking his hands and moving them on her body praying to whatever God was up there that nobody would see what she was doing. She knew Tyreese was in front of her and he was big enough to hide them, but nevertheless she was worried.

She was grinding her butt hard on him but it was not enough for her. So she took one of his hands and lowered it to the front of her panties, nobody had touched her there before but she really liked him and she wanted to do it now so without thinking much about the consequences of her actions she put his hand on her pussy and started moving his arm.

The moment his hand came in contact with her small bundle of nerves she had to bite her lips drawing blood, literally to keep any unwanted sounds out. He knew exactly where to touch and how to touch her and it was painfully obvious that he had experience; he was reading her body as if it was his favorite book.

When they had been kissing yesterday he had been calm and sweet but today he was fire and fast and rough and God she loved it.

Beth was really close to him and she could smell him, his smell was a bit different, there was something entirely off about him. He looked taller and somehow bigger or maybe it was that she was feeling smaller in his strong hands. She couldn't think straight. She could no longer support herself standing up so she leaned on him.

She felt she was almost there and she came just when she had felt something wet on the back of her pants, she didn't really see or hear anything except for the sound of his moan when he came but it was too familiar, too damn familiar. So leaning to his ear she whispered fearfully, "Babe," squeezing the hand that was still inside of her panties.

Her hand touched his face and her blood was cold when she felt rough facial hair instead of smooth skin. She had just been grinding on Daryl Dixon and he currently had his hand in her panties.

He quickly took his hands out and whispered harshly, "Later." It sounded more of a threat than a promise.

She disengaged herself from him and tried not to think about what had just happened. Did she… had she… this was too fucked up. She would berate herself more later but for now she needed to focus.

A/N

Babes:

It's 3:54am in Puerto Rico so I'm basically sleeping in the computer, but I had to get this out for you guys. This chapter is more of "The other side of the coin" you see I wanted you guys to see what Beth's emotions were in everything that happened with Daryl. I write a lot of myself in my stories, because I believe that a good story comes from real experience, it's like "We write about what we know", that's my motto, but in this Chapter I wrote a memory specifically the way it happened to me. Can you guys guess what is it? I would tell you in Chapter 5, promise, but in the meantime write me and tell what you think is it. I like talking to you guys, seriously. Thanks to everyone who takes a minute of their days and review/favorite/follows this story, it means the world to me.

**Merry Christmas and Happy New Year **my darlings, I really hope you had amazing holidays. Tell me what you got for Christmas yeah? And did any of you kiss a stranger for New Year? Next update will be in a couple of days. Also do any of you speak Spanish? I'm curious. *wink* Besos xoxo RomanticForever77


	5. Into the fire- part 1

**Dedicated to ****Dhalia89****, because her reviews make me smile; kisses, darling. **

***See Author Note At The End* Thanks *wink* *grab's both cheeks and squeezes them***

**Daryl's POV **

_**"If you're going through hell, keep going." **_

_**~ Winston Churchill**_

He felt hands touch his face as if the person was trying hard to read his features like a blind man would try to memorize a person's face. But these hands didn't belong to a blind man in fact, he knew they were Beth's. Subconsciously, he couldn't help but notice that the touch was as delicate as a feather much like herself.

Sometimes, when a person detaches him or herself from emotions long enough it is no longer a choice, but rather an act that becomes a part of who you are. Daryl knew that he needed to detach himself from personal touches in order to avoid emotional ties. For him, the more intimate the touches were, the more complicated the matter was and he didn't like complications.

He was a simple man that was used to rough touches. He liked things hard, fast and the more impersonal they were, the better for him. Sometimes, it was even easier when he didn't know the names of his sexual partners; it made the whole thing more impersonal.

He understood perfectly well that the intimate touches were a "no go" kind of zone. It was his personal code and he didn't break it. Hardly anybody touched his face anymore, because he didn't like it at all, and to say that he was surprised to find Beth touching him in such an intimate manner was an understatement. For him, touching someone's face was an intimate act and he had only shared that kind of intimacy with Matt, so he was taken aback by the sweet touch.

The girl's hands were trembling, and he knew that before she formulated the word 'babe' as an endearment, she must have known it was him because her voice was fearful. Nonetheless, because of the situation they currently found themselves in he didn't allow much thought on the matter. Things were messed up as it was, and he had no time for this, no time at all.

As per usual, when Daryl found something that he didn't like or understand he just ignored it or willed it to go away, so bearing that in mind and true to his nature he took his hand out of her pussy and he just murmured a quick, "Later" close to her ear making sure she heard it, and for him that was that.

He didn't care what the fuck the girl had been doing and why on earth had she done it to him but he was too fucking busy at the moment and way too tense to find out right now what this was all about, so this "situation" would have to be postponed for later.

Keeping that in mind he damned to hell his advances on trying to clean his trousers, since as far as he was concerned they were already ruined. He reasoned with himself that nobody would notice anything strange about his pants with all the tension of the current situation they were all in.

They had more important matters right now to attend to than to concern themselves with who was grinding who and who was getting who off. And if he was honest with himself which he was, most of the time; he was an outlaw, a rebel and he didn't owe any of them any explanation whatsoever, so where he was concerned he could just say that he had pissed himself.

That though sort of made a mental smile creep into his face because who on earth would believe that he had actually pissed himself? And besides that wouldn't do at all because he had a reputation to uphold and he be damned if anybody thought he had pissed himself in a fucking broom closet.

Daryl knew he needed to concentrate on the problem at hand and willed his thoughts to focus on the current situation. The pharmacy had gone eerily calm. For him it was silent, too silent, he thought.

After the gunshot was heard, everything had gone awfully quiet, something was wrong, he thought, the situation somehow seemed off. Why on earth would somebody risk a single gunshot on a person, and if he was correct, on a child for that matter? Bullets were precious these days; it was like finding a pot of gold, so he didn't think someone would purposely waste them.

But there were crazy people out there and the world was no longer a place full of smiling people and "love in the air" stories, not that it was before the apocalypse, but that place had been a definitely safer place by far. Nonetheless to shoot a gun in the middle of nowhere, in this world they lived in was reckless and stupid and it would only serve to attract more attention to whoever had pulled the trigger.

He knew that they didn't have much time; probably every walker in about a mile radius had been alerted by the sound. He wondered how on earth these people had lived so long being careless like that.

It didn't make sense.

And then there had been two shots, he mused, which meant that whoever had killed that child had killed somebody that was with him, so why would they worry about two people? This didn't make any sense at all.

Just as Daryl had begun to understand what was going on the door was opened and three loaded guns were cocked and pointed at their faces and three tough looking guys and a child were staring right at them. The child that was crying before was now cocking his head to the side, as if he was trying to analyze them, but it couldn't be, it was a child after all; and the kid looked about four years old.

The child, he thought, of course. The whole thing had been an act. The gunshots and the "dead child" were an act, and they had all fallen for it.

* * *

"Afternoon Gentlemen, Ladies," one of the guys said with an English accent and in a posh mocking chivalrous tone, making a reverence, but Daryl noticed there was nothing but fire in his eyes and unfriendliness mixed with a tense stance.

"Cut the shit Ashford, and who the fuck are you people?" Said a tall guy with a scowl and another heavy accent he couldn't quite identify but concluded that it was probably Irish.

"Jake, for the love of Christ, just take it easy, son." Another man also with an English accent said while holding a gun and sporting a crucifix, which was a juxtaposition on his own. He had kind green eyes, and Daryl made a mental note that in case of pleading for one's life he was the card to play.

"Father, this is not your congregation, this is not church and these people could be dangerous, you know that, Gabriel." He said pointedly looking at the man. "Now, I will repeat my question one last time yeah? WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU PEOPLE?!" The same guy said in a shout making them all wince, the walkers at the prison would be able to fucking hear that voice.

Daryl was taking it all in and making notes. Of course the man with the kind eyes was a priest, that's why he was wearing a crucifix; it took Daryl more time than what it was usually necessary to analyze that fact.

But truth be told Daryl couldn't take it anymore "father" or not if this guy, the fucking prick who was currently shouting didn't shut the fuck up they were going to die, all of them. The walkers would be on their way just about now, and things were soon going to get ugly for all of them but before he could said anything Rick stepped outside of the broom closet with the others following behind.

"Keep shouting and there would be none of us left to explain who we are. So, I strongly suggest that you shut your mouth and stop pointing those guns at our faces," Rick said in a calm and collected tone. He seemed almost unfazed by the seemingly dangerous men.

"Father, you should listen to the man, remember what mother said?""Daddy, she said not to look for problems," said the same small beautiful child he saw before in a thick English accent tugging on his dad's shirt to get his attention.

"Damien, go stand behind Ashford." The guy who he thought was named Jake said with a kind voice, contrasting dramatically with how he had been shouting before.

"But Father, mother said to tell you that…" the child's voice sounded adult and it was a startling contrast to his pouting little mouth, when his father interrupted him.

"Damien, Please." Repeated the man in a pleading tone. And Daryl knew it then, these people were not dangerous, they were cautious, desperate and distrustful. That was what this world did to you; it turned good men into killers.

He looked around to test his theory and internally smiled, they were all tense but nobody had their fingers on the trigger, the eyes of these men were not hungry for blood but rather protective of each other.

There was no one dead and no trace of a "body" to match with the gunshot they all heard so he concluded that it must have all been an act to distract them, they must have heard them when they went inside the pharmacy and quickly decided to investigate.

But as luck would have it, they had just made it easier for them, when he decided for them all to hide in the closet. These guys must have pretended to have more people and a hostage in order to appear tougher since they saw that his people were clearly outnumbering them.

And he knew that with a rather intimidating Tyreese well, he couldn't really blame them. But truth be told he was baffled, certainly these English men had fooled them all. Of course he was just putting one and one together; and he didn't know anything for sure but he was almost sure these was the case. If these guys had though all this on their own he needed to ask them and copy a thing or two about their strategy.

"Listen why don't we all stay calm and you guys go on your way and we will be on ours." Rick said calmly lowering his gun, he probably came to the same conclusion Daryl just had.

A bad man would never treat his son with such kindness, he ought to know a bit about that but he also knew that a desperate father would do anything in his power to protect a child. And honestly he didn't blame the guy, hell if he was in this world with a child he knew he would do anything to keep him alive, even if it meant killing people. It was a tough world all over.

"How do we know you won't try anything on us?" The first man asked cautiously with an English accent, Ashford, he thought they had called him.

"We won't, we just need some medicine and we will be out of your way and out of here, we don't want any trouble." Maggie answered fast.

"Listen to your kid, man and let's just all go." Tyreese uttered in an anxious voice. He looked really tough and big but Daryl knew better, he was a softy inside.

"It's alright Jake, see? These people mean no harm they have women and even a child with them." The father, Gabriel, said pointedly looking at Beth.

Before any of them could react or Beth could say something, since she had an outrageous look on her face, a bell ring sounded. It was clearly announcing a person coming into the store. They all held their breaths in tension. They knew that those were not walker's footsteps, those were a man's footsteps. This was bad, Daryl thought.

* * *

They had all assumed a stance of fight when Daryl saw him.

He saw him before HE saw him. He hasn't change that much in all these years, sure he was more bulky and there was a faint stubble on his face, and of course he was dirty but he was still the same tall beautiful guy he had, with time, come to call his brother.

"Ashford, what the hell is taking so long, where are you?" He called from the door, the shelves were hiding all of them from view but Daryl could see him perfectly well from where he was standing.

"We're in here Matt," said Ashford with an amused smile on his face.

Matt came into view as he swept the place with his eyes, he strode over to where they were standing and look at to whom he imagined were his people. He saw all of them there, tense stance and guns pointed towards each other and his eyes slowly measured all of them, he stopped only when he saw Daryl.

A beautiful smile spread across Matt's face. Blue ocean eyes clashed with heaven blue eyes and he felt as calm as ever. Funny thing, how some things don't change with the years, it was as if a part of himself finally found him. His brother, his best friend was here. He smiled, a real smile; he hadn't done that in a while but it felt good and he went to open his mouth to say something when all hell broke loose.

* * *

Two guys came through the door and he was surprised to recognized one of them. Martinez's face was a mixture of anxiousness laced with anger. His face was contorted in a painful expression and his shirt was bloody, his hand was holding his side and the other guy with him was speaking quickly in another language unintelligible for all of them, Spanish, he thought.

They didn't have time to make it to them; they had to duck quickly because several things happened at once. He distinctly heard people shouting and orders being commanded but there was gunfire going off and bullets flying all over the place and he couldn't understand or follow anybody at all, everybody scrambled and both groups fell apart. The walkers he noticed, were starting to get closer to the pharmacy with all the noise that was going on.

But with all that going on around him, he only saw Matt.

A gunshot was heard and the vitrine had collapsed, a bullet had gone through it and it had hit Matt straight in the right shoulder.

Daryl saw it all in slow motion. It was like all the oxygen was taken from the room. There are things, that are similar to a car crash, he thought. You know they are coming, you know it's going to be bad and yet you can't stop them from happening and you can't stop looking at them. It's horribly fascinating and it enthralls you, it was like a disaster waiting to happen.

He saw Matt's body falling to the floor and he could hear him screaming in pain, the sound tore him apart. After all these years there was nothing that could hurt him more than Matt in pain.

And he just moved in autopilot, he set his emotions aside and started walking through the chaos because he wasn't going to lose his friend, not when he had just found him. He ducked and crawled his way through the glass of the vitrine cutting his hands along the way and leaving a trail of blood behind in order to get to where he was. But he didn't feel anything, there was no pain, only the notion that if he didn't get to where Matt was, somebody was going to kill his friend.

Tears were rolling down Matt's beautiful face and it pained Daryl just to look at him, he couldn't get to him. The bullets were flying all over the place and if he were to stand up, they would kill him and he knew he would give his life for Matt but right now Matt needed him alive not dead.

Matt was strong and with tears running down his face and bullets flying through the pharmacy he crawled behind a shelf and quickly ripped the sleeve off his shirt. He saw that blood was pouring from his arm, but Matt was currently wrapping the piece of shirt around his arm to stop the blood flow.

Daryl felt helpless, he could only stay down and watch his friend. Matt was looking at him, his eyes pleading. He was desperate; he looked around to analyze the situation.

By this point the walkers were coming freely through the pharmacy and his people, he saw were ducking and hiding from the gunshots, so it was pretty hard for all of them to do much about the walkers.

The walkers were dead, the bullets came through their bodies and did nothing to them, it only hindered them for a moment before they kept moving forward. They looked like rag dolls, really ugly rag dolls. He knew they had to do something or else they were all going to die.

The gun shots suddenly stopped but the walkers didn't, they kept walking inside the store getting awfully close to all of them and with dread he noticed that there were four walkers coming for Matt, his blood was cold and he was reaching for his crossbow but the angle was all wrong, he couldn't do anything, not from where he was at.

"Are they dead?" "Should we go in?" He heard a voice ask from the door.

"No, leave them, they may as well be. The walkers will finish it, we are done here," said a second voice.

They heard several cars starting up and the sound of screeching tires and then it was all gnarling and shuffling of feet and the heavy odor of the undead.

Daryl stood up quickly and shot two arrows that impacted only one walker in the head and hit the other on the stomach; he stilled his hand, calmed himself and aimed again. This time he got it straight in the head right between its eyes and moving closer he killed the other two quickly. He failed to see the one behind his back.

"Daryl, behind you." Matt quickly said in a shout.

He felt the creatures hand and his half falling face on his shoulder when somebody put a knife through his skull. When the creature fell to the floor, he saw Rick taking the knife out of its brain spilling walker parts all over them, he nodded at him and Rick nodded back.

Both of them set to work back to back keeping the walkers away from Matt but it was turning out to be a quite impossible task since they kept multiplying and coming. He heard lots of gunshots and he started to scan the place to see where the sounds of the gunshots were coming from, since they were no longer aiming at them and clearly the people firing the guns had gone in the cars and left.

Daryl's eyes quickly scanned the situation and his heart stopped. Maggie and Glen were fighting about eleven walkers on their own and both of them were starting to look tired, Beth was half hiding behind Zack who was doing his best at keeping the creatures off themselves, but he saw that they were both trapped in a corner and he knew it was just a matter of time before Zach would lose control of the situation. The thought made his heart clench. Tyreese and Sasha were helping clear the path for Zach and Beth in order for them to get out but it was impossible. The creatures kept coming through the broken vitrines and their cars were just too far away to make a run for it.

He saw that Doc was gathering some pills and medicine while Candy and Greg were watching his back, fighting off the creatures with knifes. The other guys, the ones that they just met were fighting respectively but shooting the walkers which of course was having and inverse effect and instead of getting rid of them it was attracting more of them.

So, that's where the gunshots were coming from, he thought. The child, he saw was hiding behind his dad while the man was fighting three walkers on his own.

"What the fuck are we going to do?" He asked Rick while keeping an eye on Matt lying on the floor, his head was currently lolling to the side, apparently about to pass out.

"I'm thinking, I - don't know." Rick answered him quickly evading a walker by mere seconds and knifing him in the stomach subsequently kicking his legs to stick his knife in the head of the creature.

"They are too many, Rick, we can't handle it," Daryl declared retrieving some arrows from three fallen walkers and knifing one that was lunging at him.

"I know, just let me think for a moment." Rick's voice replied back to him breathless, exertion clearly getting to him.

"Time is something we don't have right now, fucking hurry up!" He all but shouted anxiously looking at Matt's form.

"I don't fucking know. Alright!" Rick screamed desperately looking for a way out and seeing more and more walkers.

He was looking around too, while dividing his attention to the fight at hand, when he saw it. He thought that if heaven had a sign he supposed it would say, "Emergency exit".

"Rick, there's a back door! We can see if it leads outside then get through the side and bring in the cars inside the pharmacy if needed yeah?" Daryl kept glancing at the exit sign.

"Whatever get's us out of this mess, I got your back." Rick said quickly, the walkers getting closer to them.

He nodded and kneeled down to Matt's side picking him up by the legs and cradling him in his arms, managing to kick a walker that made a grab for them.

"Daryl, what are you doing? Do you know him? We can't, we don't have time!" Rick's breath was labored as they made their way to the counter in order to get to exit.

"He's like a brother to me," he answered not bothering to add more, this was not the time and certainly not the place.

Rick looked at him with a thin line on his mouth and nodded. He would hear about it later, he knew, but for now; he needed to get Matt out of there and into a safe place.

Tyreese screamed to them and Rick shouted for them to follow him. Sasha was behind him and Zack and Beth too, apparently they had gotten out of the mess by throwing one of the shelves on the floor and blocking the way and subsequently jumping on it to get to were Rick currently was.

Maggie had the English child clasping her hand like a life saver and the child's face was blank with tears falling from his eyes. Glen was covering her but soon realized the task was impossible and took the child in his arms running and shouting to Maggie to run, she was currently dropping things from the shelves making the walkers trip on themselves.

Doc and Candy came alone and the girl was crying he saw, there was no Greg to be seen he looked at her and she shook her head 'no', he dealt with it later.

Ashford, the other English man came behind them with Gabriel "the priest" also following them with Martinez's arm thrown around his shoulder and the other guy holding his side.

When Rick saw them with Martinez he just looked at him and for the second time in the day he shook his head 'no' and said, "Later," to Rick who just nodded, right now they needed to get out of this God forsaken pharmacy.

Rick slid over the counter, punching the vitrinite with his gun making it easier for all of them to get in the small place. He took Matt's form sliding him as Rick held him at the other side while he slid over the counter, they all did the same while Ashford and Tyreese took care of Martinez and subsequently cleared the path for all of them.

All the pills were inside that place but there was no time left. While Rick struggled with the door Beth took her bag and started filling it quickly, when she was done, she took Ashford's and did the same and she did it with all of their bags. Since the place was full she had Zach help her grabbing plastic bags and filling them with everything she could see.

By the time Rick managed to get the door to budge a bit she had reunited a stock that would last for quite a while with how much stuff they had found. The walkers had followed their scents and were piling up on the counter and Daryl knew soon they would start to climb.

Rick quickly opened the door and a sigh of relief was collectively heard. It was clear, the stupid creatures had of course concentrated on the front and the back was free of them, since he saw that there was one or two around the back but nothing to worry about. The cars were clear so they started walking over there.

Once they got to the car, they noticed two cars more, a Red Jeep and a Range Rover. He figured those were the other men's cars.

Daryl opened the door of their car and deposited Matt on the back seat sitting him up and subsequently seating himself on the side and put Matt's face on his lap. With an anxious face he counted less people, he saw that they were short of one person, Greg, the guy was nowhere to be seen and the child's dad was also gone. The car was too small for all of them to fit so that would be a problem.

"What is it with you and Matt?" Ashford asked with a cocked eyebrow doubling over breathlessly.

"We know each other, that's all you need to know, for now. Can you drive?" Daryl asked signaling with his head to the motorcycle.

Ashford looked at him as an amused expression crossed his face. "How could I not, Mate?"

Daryl looked at him, baffled. How could he still crack a joke after all they been through was unknown to him. That's dry English humor, he thought.

He sat up taking his keys out of his pocket and threw them to the man. He didn't look at anybody, he just heard faintly what they were talking about but he was too concerned with Matt's health to really care. He just cradled Matt's head on his lap and stroked his hair back, he was passed out.

Ashford looked at Tyreese and said, "We have a jeep, you can all fit there and whoever gets left out, comes with me on the bike yeah?"

"We need to think about this for a moment, are we really bringing these people with us?" Rick voiced his question holding a hand as if it was capable of stopping what he obviously thought was a great mistake.

"Mate, you have our friend with you, in a car, what's your problem?" Ashford said matter-of-factly.

"We can let the counsel decide later Rick, they seem alright to me," Tyreese said looking at the small child that had a blank face and tears running down his face, he was holding his hands around Glen's neck and Glen was clutching him as if his life depended on it.

"We will let the council decide then." Rick said unsure of himself.

"Are we done here ladies?" Daryl said through clenched teeth from the car, Matt's unconscious form in his lap.

* * *

A/N:

Babes:

How are you guys? Are you liking the story so far?. I don't read the comics I merely just watch the TV show, but I did some research and I know there's a "Father" (priest) named Gabriel in the comics and since the show it's basically based on the comics I will be using a couple of elements from the original storyline, obviously twisting them up to fit my story. One of the things I like about the show it's the different varieties of nationalities you find in it, so I sort of took that idea and made up the "English group mix with an Irish" because I like English boys, they are hot and "yeahhh mate." *wink*. I don't know if I portrayed them the right way but I hope you guys like it. As promise from Chapter 4th the memory I wrote the way it happened was the butterfly memory as " WayPastMyBedtime" pointed out. So it's awesome that you figure that one out babes ;)

I really like the way you guys responded to me in the last Chapter, I really would love to talk with all of you. And I really like some of your reviews for instance Summers Rage because as I have told you before dear you're so damn perceptive. I usually write "clues" as to where the story is heading in the little things, those small details that we just skip, well in those ;) and I want you guys to know that everything I write it's important to the story line. And most of the time Summers Rage actually get's part of the plot, it's amazing really.

Also I've been hectic with work (I work at my uni) these last couple of days, and since I start college on the Wednesday 15, you guys can probably guess it's been a bit crazy. **As you all notice most of my chapters are a bit long and I figured that to make up for the time in between of the updates I would put longer chapter. But I've change my mind and I will just update every two days from now on. Promise.**

PS. Excuse the long A/N ;)

Kisses and keep reviewing/favoriting/following/guesting (I made that up) haha I really love them all. xoxo Besos RomanticForever77


	6. Into the fire-part 2

_***See Author Note At The End* Thanks *wink* **_

_**Daryl's POV**_

"_**Though she be but little, she is fierce!"**_

_**~ William Shakespeare **_

They all looked at Daryl but he was sick and tired of their back and forth stupid conversation. People were hurt and they had taken all of the "Woodbury people" with them and basically provide a shelter and a home to them so in his mind he couldn't really understand why not do the same with these guys. He had already evaluated the situation and concluded that these guys couldn't be bad people, if Matt was with them. He knew Matt like the back of his hand and his friend would never be part of a group that was full of robbers or violent people, which of course was all that was left on earth from the people that used to inhabit the place but he also understood that there could still be people like Rick on earth, decent guys.

"You ladies are fighting over who comes with who and there are people badly hurt. We're all tired, so Rick, just let the council decide," he said calmly but with an exasperate demeanor at the same time because he only wanted Matt to get help from Hershel quickly.

Rick nodded and the car arrangements were made fast. He was currently in their car and Rick was in the passenger seat while Doc was driving. Martinez was next to Matt in the back seat who was sort of laying across the seat with his head on Daryl's lap, he was currently petting Matt's hair and looking at his unconscious form.

The others were in the red jeep; Maggie was on the passenger seat with the child on her lap while Glenn drove the car. Tyreese and Sasha were next to Zach and Beth on the back seat of the same car while Ashford was on Daryl's bike with Candy behind him.

They had all agreed when they got to the prison to wait for a council meeting and attend to the wounded first. Apparently there were others with wounds that he had overlooked when he checked them all in, he knew that in his desperation the only thing he had wanted was for his friend to get the help he needed and some things must have past in a blur to him.

They were currently on their way back to the prison, he knew that they needed to get there fast because he could feel the blood from Matt's arm on his pants and he was worried that his friend had over the past hour lost a lot of blood. He was no doctor but he knew that, that was certainly not a good indication.

Martinez's was looking at him with a painful expression on his face and holding his side with his hand trying to stop the pain, judging by the expression on his face it was a lost cause. The car was speeding up and he had his knife out just in case, he was prepare to kill both of them, Matt and Martinez if necessary because he'd rather have his best friend's blood on his hands than him roaming the earth as one of those awful God forsaken creatures.

The trees passed them in a blur, this time he couldn't feel the wind in his hair and there was no sense of freedom. He saw the sun going down as if hiding from all the chaos that surrounded them, it was as if the dawn was flirting with them all, hiding away like a virgin maiden but still reflecting pale rays of sun. In another time, in another world he would have appreciated the view. But in this one, it only meant one thing. The night was coming and with it the dawn, which was the premonition of imminent danger.

Daryl looked to the roof of the car and threw one silent prayer to whatever God was up there. He didn't think it was fair, but he was still holding on to his faith like a person on the verge of death held on to his life. After all these years, in the middle of chaos, of the God forsaken place they still called earth he had found his best friend, it was surreal, almost meant to be.

But what he couldn't understand was if it was only to have him taken away by whoever was that like to play games with them? Because that was what God was doing right? Playing games with them, he thought bitterly.

Daryl remembered once when his father had come home drunk and penniless after he had just received his paycheck and his mother had started screaming at him. His father had justified his addiction to gambling by saying that God had once gambled away with Job's life on the Old Testament and if God could do it he sure as hell could too, the drunken bastard had reasoned.

And he being the curious child he was, set up himself to research and looked it up on the small bible he kept tucked under his pillow and realized with a start that it was true, God had in fact made a gamble with Satan over Job's life. He couldn't fathom the idea that God was gambling with Matt's life right now because that would surely break him.

Martinez interrupted his musings with a groan. He tightened his hold on the knife in his right hand and Martinez looked at him with a half smile.

"Are you going to kill me, man?" Martinez said with a wry smile in his thick Latin accent.

"If you turn, then yeah, you bet your ass I'm going to put you down," he said with a serious expression on his face.

Martinez seemed to ponder this asseveration for a moment but then he simply nodded. It was simple actually, every single one of them had long ago accepted their fates, if you were alive in this world you knew that once you died you would turn and they all understood that it was better to be killed than to roam the earth being undead.

"I saw him you know," Martinez started with a frown on his face.

"You saw who?" Asked Rick, he had quietly seen their exchange from the front of the passenger seat.

"I have seen him, he's crazy, he wasn't like that before. He's really crazy now, he killed everybody that day…" said Martinez doubling over with pain and with a desperate voice making little sense.

"Who did you see Martinez, the governor?" Daryl asked with a worried expression on his face. Matt was moving his eyes under his eyelids in a worrying manner.

"There was nothing I could do, you know? He was enraged, it was as if some type of devil had crawled under his skin and what's worst I just stood there helplessly watching." Martinez spoke guilty with his eyes glazed almost as if he was no longer talking to them but rather talking to himself.

"Martinez, are you talking about the governor?" Rick reiterated Daryl's question looking at him straight in the eye and making a small nod towards the knife Daryl was holding in his hand.

"Do you think God will judge me? Do you believe in hell?" Martinez asked nobody in particular, he kept on talking as if he didn't hear Rick asking him anything at all.

"I believe that people constantly blame bad things on the devil when truth is that we are all guilty of our actions." He said looking straight at Martinez.

This comment grabbed Martinez's attention and he raised his face and looked at him; he smiled an ironic smile and said, "Don't let them get to you."

"Don't let who get to me?" Daryl asked him with a confused expression on his face.

"Your demons, don't let them get to you, don't let them consume you," Martinez said looking at him straight in the eye. "Better prepare that knife, Redneck." He said with an amused smile mixed with an expression full of pain, "I'm sorry you know I couldn't sleep for a while after all the things that I saw. I can't change what I did, or what I was part of but I'm sorry and I hope that whoever is up there will hear me." His voice trembled and abruptly changing the conversation he added, "In another life we could've been friends, you know…"

"Probably, yeah," Daryl lightly agreed looking at him and side smiling and raising his hand at chest level with the knuckles white from the pressure of holding the knife.

"The governor will come to get your people, he's obsessed with that black lady and he hates you, he's deranged and mentally unstable," Martinez advised looking at Rick sharply.

"Where did you see him last?" Rick asked.

"He was pointing a gun at your prison, looking at you working with your kid outside." Martinez stated and started convulsing in the car his eyes rolling back and blood pouring out of his mouth.

"Daryl, he's going to turn," said Doc who had been quiet through the whole conversation.

He nodded to the Doc but he had to wait, he wasn't going to kill a man, he was going to kill a walker. Martinez's body was spasming and he knew it was only a matter of time.

His chest felt constricted as he looked at Matt's unconscious form.

"Please let it be on time, Please let it be on time," he repeated in his mind like a mantra.

* * *

Life was cruel, he knew that. Sometimes when we expect certain things to happen we set up ourselves for disappointment, Daryl thought bitterly as he dug the grave.

His arms felt heavy and there were tears running down from his eyes, his face was pale, but from the outside you could only see his red eyes puffed because his face was covered by a rag in order to shield his mouth and nose from the infection.

Everything was messed up and these were dark times.

There was nothing to do now but wait.

_**15 hours before **_

Two of the Woodbury guys rushed and opened the doors for both cars and Daryl's bike to pass.

His body tense, his heart was beating uncontrollably in his chest and he could felt his arms were numb. He was working in auto-pilot now. There was nothing he could do and he felt helplessly. His friend was dying in his arms.

As soon as the car was stopped Daryl was out of the car with Matt's body cradled in his arms. He wouldn't let him turn, not after everything they've been through. He felt more than saw someone beside him, he looked out of the corner of his eyes and realized that it was Rick walking next to him.

"Hershel, we need you!" Rick hollered as soon as they got inside the prison, he didn't look at anybody he just strode past all the people looking for the old man with a worried expression.

But there was no need to scream since Hershel was already rolling his sleeves up and checking to see if both his daughters were alright in order to set himself to work.

"Someone…" Hershel said unable to finish asking the question that everybody always asked them after a run.

"We lost Greg and we have to call for a council meeting immediately." Rick quickly stated looking at Ashford and at Glenn holding the child with a somber expression.

"I see, after I'm done with this." Hershel answered looking at Matt in Daryl's arms and motioning for Carol to come.

They were already in Block C when Hershel asked Daryl to place him on the bed.

He complied and looked at his friend, his hands and legs were both covered in blood and his friend looked too pale, Daryl couldn't breathe.

"Can you help him?" He asked Hershel swallowing hard and unable to ask anything more afraid of an answer he wouldn't like.

"We will see son…What happened?" Hershel asked him looking at the body lying on the mat and setting to work tearing his shirt and injecting him with something he didn't recognized.

Daryl explained what had happened and Doc brought some medications they had gathered from the run. After he was done, Hershel looked at him and nodded, his eyes worried and his expression blank.

"He has lost a lot of blood judging by the amount you have on your body." Hershel said looking at Daryl hands and trousers. "I need you to step outside son."

"I want to know if he will be alright, I need to know…" he started saying with a furious tone when he felt Rick's hand on his arm.

"Daryl we need to talk," Rick said looking at him with a thin line on his mouth.

"I know," he answered, Rick's hand on his arm felt soothing and his voice somehow had calmed him. He needed to let Hershel work alone and he would check on Matt later. Before someone could stop him, he leaned over and whispered to his friend, "Don't leave me."

Both Hershel and Rick were baffled since Daryl never showed any type of emotion to anybody apart from anger. He looked at Hershel and nodded and signaled with his head for Rick to follow him.

"Before I forget, after I'm done with him, come back here Daryl and let me take a look at your hands, wouldn't want that to get infected," Hershel said looking at the cuts in his hands.

He nodded and both men got out of the cell leaving Hershel to deal with Matt. He saw Doc working with Maggie's right leg, Glenn taking some pills and Tyreese sitting on a chair waiting apparently for some kind of treatment too. It had been too close, too damn close.

As they made their way to the cafeteria they were both quiet, he knew the questions were coming but he figured that Rick was as tired as he was and both of them needed food in their bodies in order to have the conversation they were going to have.

* * *

He felt old, as if he was on the cusps of death. He felt as if death was looking at him straight in the eyes. He closed his eyes for a moment and his vision clouded for a minute and then he saw it.

_**Flashback**_

_**His body was spasming and he kept hitting his elbow on the handle of the door, there was blood pouring out of his mouth, and his eyes were rolling in his head.**_

He stopped walking for a moment willing his eyes to get rid of the images but his brain kept conjuring them.

_**Suddenly his body stilled for a second and then his eyes opened, the thing had red eyes, the white part of the once human eyes was injected in blood and his body was pale white with his heart no longer beating. **_

He put one of his hands on the wall, he could faintly hear Rick calling to him but he was gone, lost in the memory. There was a strong headache in his head; it was as if somebody was hitting his head repeatedly with a hammer.

_**He looked at the creature, he hesitated for a moment, he wanted to see life, the residual of what that man once was but it was a lost cause. There was no trace of Martinez, just this was a walker that Martinez's had turned into. **_

Exertion took in and his knees gave away, he crouched to the floor and put both of his hands on the floor and subsequently moved to sit with his back on the wall. His eyes were lost, wild, he could hear Rick calling him and he felt himself being shook, but it was too much; all of this.

_**The creature that once was Martinez reached for him with the scent of death poignant and his jaw opened but before the thing so much as could do something he plunged the knife in the top of his head putting him down. **_

"I'm my father, I'm a monster," Daryl said numbly as if talking to nobody in particular while rocking his body back and forth.

_**After he killed him, he looked at Doc because the car had suddenly stopped. When he looked up front, he saw the front of the prison. Gates opening for them, Martinez almost made it. Almost. **_

_**End of flashback **_

Daryl was currently sitting on the floor with his knees up to his chest hugging himself with his eyes glazed. He felt Rick's hands on his shoulder and his eyes focused on the sheriff's eyes.

"It's okay, you're here, and you're fine." Rick was looking at him crouching in front of him with a worried expression in his eyes.

"I'm sorry, I'm okay," he mumbled looking at Rick and standing from the floor quickly making Rick stood back a bit.

"I know what it feels like, you know I do, I've been down that path before," Rick said looking at him with an understanding expression.

"I know I'll take a shower before going to eat yeah?" He said to Rick because he needed some time alone, away from all of them, theses burdens were too heavy on his shoulder and he needed a break.

* * *

_**13 hours before**_

He was currently getting out of his cell block when he saw her. She was sitting on the floor fixing Zach's wrist which was sporting an ugly red gash. Her eyebrows were drawn together in concentration and she had one side of her lip trapped between her teeth.

He liked that in girls, the way that sometimes they would bite their lips unconsciously when they were doing a task or concentrating on something. He thought it made them look sexy. In the Greene girl he thought it looked weird. He didn't want to put the kid and sexy in the same sentence. Zach was mesmerized, his eyes were looking straight at Beth and in Daryl's opinion he looked stupid.

It amused him to no end how guys sported that idiotic look on their faces when they were in love. It was stupid. He had been on a bad humor, but seeing these two and contemplating the idea of getting the Greene girl riled up suddenly made him forget if only for a moment that his best friend was on the cusps of dead in the other room.

He cleared his throat and both of their heads turned to look at him. An idea sparked in his head and he came up with a plan to make the girl mad.

"Can you help me," he said to the girl with an innocent expression laced with a bit of pain.

She looked taken aback for a minute and he saw her shaking her head from side to side in order to clear her head and he saw how a slowly a blush creeped in her cheeks. "What do you want," she said and quickly cleared her throat and tried to fix it and said more kindly, "I'm kind of working with Zach at the moment."

"I cut my hands with the vitrine glass on the floor and look," he said showing the gashes on the palms of his hands to her which were angry red cuts but clean since he had just got out of the bathroom. He saw Zach's eyes open like plates and he smiled internally, it was done.

"I think he needs the help more than I do, Bethy," Zach stated to the girl taking his hand from her.

His face looked constricted at the mention of the name "Bethy" it was so sweet, it made him want to retch. He didn't do pet names or nicknames. He thought they were overrated and dumb.

The Greene girl looked at him with her big doe eyes and a calculated expression on her face followed by a frown when she saw that Zach was backing away from her and that there was an expression of pity when he looked at Daryl's hands.

"Come here, Dixon." Beth said in a small voice through clenched teeth.

Daryl was taken aback because he thought that she was going to send him to fuck himself but once again he was surprised with her reaction towards him. He moved to where she was currently sitting cross legged and looked down at her. She set to remove the alcohol and some antiseptics she was using with Zach and proceeded to look at him. He looked right back at her and she cocked an eyebrow.

"Well go on, sit or are you waiting for an invitation?" She inquired patting the place in front of her with her hand.

He could hear Zach chuckling but one look from him and he had the boy looking at the floor. Truth was that he was kind of fond of the boy but he couldn't stand people mocking him or laughing at his expense.

He saw that the look had worked on the boy but those same antics no longer worked with this girl, she was not afraid or intimidated by him, sometimes he saw her shaking as a leaf when he was mad and other times she was sassing him and talking back at him. It was as if she almost had a double personality disorder, he couldn't understand her. He went to sit on the floor with his legs crossed and extended his hands towards her.

She looked at them and her eyebrows furrowed as she bit her lip and put her hand around one of his hands, the contact was intimate but at the same time innocent and delicate. A fire spread across his body and he felt an electric current in his hand which made him flinch and snatch his hand back.

Beth looked at him and cocked her head to the side and said, "Don't be a baby Dixon, it will only hurt for a moment and then it will be better with some numbing cream I found."

Daryl looked at her and nodded his head, although he hadn't snatched his hand because of the pain but rather the pleasant sensation on the back of his hands, he nodded his head again; she didn't need to know that.

They heard Zach moving and he came closer to them putting a hand on Beth's shoulder he said, "I'm going to go look for something to eat, see you later yeah?"

She nodded her head and tilted her face for a kiss but he just kissed her on the cheek. She looked at him with her eyebrows furrowed and her face showed a blank expression.

"What happened in the broom closet?" He asked as soon as he was certain that Zach was out of earshot.

"It was a mistake alright? I thought you were someone else." She quickly stated with a blush creeping in her face and her eyes intent on fixing his hand and not looking at him.

"Was it?" He asked with a smirk on his face in a mock impression of a husky voice.

"Yes it was," she said through clenched teeth.

"It didn't seem like a mistake with the way you were moving against me, you seem to like what I did to you, didn't you kid?" He said with a chuckle looking at her eyes and enjoying the blush on her face. She was such a child, he thought.

"I would've never enjoyed it if I knew it was you." Beth commented haughtily looking at him straight in the eye with a serious expression.

Daryl looked back at her, searching her face for something and not quite knowing what it was. But after five seconds or so he nodded. He didn't feel like torturing the girl anymore. He was tired and he only wanted to get this over with, his hands hurt and he was worried about his friend.

For a minute their banter had made him forget about everything that was going on but it was not enough. It was never enough. No matter what he did, he could never run away from chaos, it seemed to follow him everywhere he went.

"Are you okay?" She asked softly after a minute of silence.

"Yeah," he grumbled back looking at her, her true concern and the honesty in her voice surprised him once again but it shouldn't have, she had a kind spirit and she was always running around playing mother to all of them.

"It's all done, good as new." Beth smiled lightly putting a bandage around his hands and securing it with a clip.

Just as she was done saying that he nodded his head and stood up. She looked at him and went to pick up all the dirty rags from the floor. He looked at her one more time and turned on his feet to go look for food and have the council meeting and the conversation with Rick.

* * *

_**11 hours before**_

The cafeteria was packed full and everybody seemed to be talking all at once. There was a lot of questioning gazes thrown at him from different people, he figured it was due to his hands probably but he brushed them off. He wanted to get to the food, because truth be told he was starving.

He looked at Carol serving food and made his way to grab a bowl.

"Are you okay?-What happened?-Who are these English people?-Did you know that there's going to be a council meeting in about half an hour." She said in quick rapid session without pausing or taking a breath.

"Yes, when we got to the pharmacy somebody shot at us, I don't know, yes." Daryl said just as fast and without sparing her another glance.

He saw Rick sitting at a table with Glenn and Maggie. He made his way to them. He saw that all of them had bathed and they were currently eating. He saw that Glenn was alternating between eating and looking worriedly at the child who was sitting with his back straight and eating his food with a blank expression on his face and looking at his fiancé looking at the child. It was as if those three were in a world apart from them.

Rick, he noticed was looking at him as if calculating him in some manner. He looked back at him with a tired expression on his face and then started to dig into his food. He was stalling the inevitable but you couldn't blame a man for wanting to eat in peace.

"Who is him, Daryl?" Rick asked him suddenly.

"He's like a brother to me, we grew up together, practically," he said slowly.

Rick looked at him and nodded, he knew that Rick could understand what it was like; he once had Shane as his right hand man and brother.

"It's not up to me, you know, it's up to the council, the place is pretty packed as it is." Rick stated looking at him with his eyebrows drawn together.

Daryl nodded and didn't say anything else. He didn't know what he would do if the council didn't let his friend stay, this guy was after all, his brother.

"We're meeting in a while back in the library," he continued with a worried expression on his face glancing at the child who was currently looking at him.

"Carol told me," he answered finishing his food and taking a gulp of his water. He was almost done and he was itching to go see Matt but he knew that Hershel must still be working with him since he was nowhere to be seen.

Rick nodded and looked at someone around the room; he followed Rick's eyes and saw what he was looking at. He was looking at Ashford and Gabriel, "the priest" who were currently sitting at a table with Tyreese and Sasha, along with Karen and Candy and some Woodbury people. The guy was saying something and they were all listening intently while Father Gabriel was smiling fondly at whatever Ashford was saying.

His face turned back to Rick and he found that Rick was looking at him. They both nodded and turned to stand up. Maggie and Glenn looked at them and both stand up too. He looked at Carol and signaled with his head for them to move on, Beth saw this and was next to them in a minute, she immediately went to talk to Sasha and Tyreese who also joined them. Glenn was talking to the child and motioning for him to wait with Ashford and the Father.

Everybody in the cafeteria were currently looking at them, they knew that a council meeting would happen soon. All of them made their way outside of the prison and quickly got to the library they were surprised to find Hershel there. The old man looked tired and his shirt was full of blood.

"How is he?" Daryl instantly asked him practically running to the old man.

"He will live, he was sporting a kind of flu but with the medicine you guys brought he will get better in no time. I was able to extract the bullet completely and that will take a while to heal but he should be able to use his hands in a week or so and in three weeks he will be as good as new, son." Hershel said with a comforting smile on his face.

Daryl looked at him feeling quite relieved and nodded, his friend was going to be okay and that was all that mattered.

They all took a seat respectively and all of them looked at each other. As soon as the meeting started all of them argued the pro's and con's of all of the English guys staying at the prison and what it would mean for the rest of the people since they were seeing an increase in the amount of walkers at the fence as of late, probably attracted by the scent of their living bodies.

Tyreese talked to Ashford about the real reason as to why they had all acted out the death of a child and he explained that they weren't acting out, in the first gunshot they had killed a walker inside the store and the second had been to play out as "robbers" or dangerous guys.

He proceeded to tell him that a guy named Martinez had warned them about another guy they called "the governor", he had explained to Tyreese that the guy had been behind their trail ever since they saw him pointing a gun at the prison.

He had told them that the people living inside the prison were dangerous and that they needed to kill them in order to be safe and that he needed help. Matt had seen Rick working with Carl and had concluded that as long as the people didn't mess with them he was not going to mess with anybody. The governor had then gone raving mad and shooting everybody and they had all ran since they didn't like to kill a man because they only killed walkers.

They proceed to discuss the attitude of the English group towards the governor and the veracity of their statement. When all was put on the table Hershel called for a vote.

"Those in favor please raise your hand." Hershel said looking at everybody in the room.

Maggie, Glen, Tyreese, Rick, Beth and Daryl voted 'yes'.

Hershel, Sasha and Carol voted 'no'.

And the voting passed. They looked at each other and nodded. They respected democracy around the prison and the guys of the English group were staying.

* * *

_**6 hours before**_

He was currently lying on his bed unable to sleep because somehow he had a nagging feeling that tomorrow was going to be a bad day. And as bad luck would have it, Daryl was rarely wrong about his hunches.

* * *

A/N

My lovely beautiful readers:

As promised this is Chapter 6th and it's kind of a continuation of Chapter 5th. The real Beth/Daryl story is going to start soon; it will be a kind of slow progressing thing. I know there's no romance or sexual interaction (willingly and conscious) between them yet, but it will happen my children, so bare with me, yeah? There's the "thing" with the hours which means that he's going back in time, thinking about what happen, I hope you guys got that, also I will be explaining whose grave was Daryl digging in the next Chapter.

I will be updating again in two days, so see you then. Also I'm kind of hoping you guys will review more and tell me what's going on in your minds and what are your thoughts about the story yeah? *puppy face* because you guys didn't review or talk to me, for that matter like you guys did in the Chapter before(4th) so I'm hoping that will change yeah? Also I wanted to clarified _**Daryl is not gay or bisexual, or anything of the sort, he's a guy who loves a friend dearly, like a brother. He has a close relationship with Matt because that's the only intimate relationship Daryl's ever had with another human being. I repeat they're not in a relationship or as a couple, this is a Daryl/Beth story only. **_Thanks my darlings. Besos xoxo RomanticForever77


	7. That first real kiss

_***See**____**A VERY IMPORTANT **__**Author Note At The End* Thanks *wink* *blows kisses***_

_**Beth's POV**_

"_**It wasn't that long, and it certainly wasn't the kind of kiss you see in movies these days, but it was wonderful in its own way, and all I can remember about the moment is that when our lips touched, I knew the memory would last forever."**_

_**~Nicholas Sparks, A Walk to Remember**_

_**A week later after the run**_

Amazingly things have a way of happening when we least expect it. We think we have our lives figured out; we are so certain we know what we want and what to do in order to get it, but truth be told life is unpredictable.

Humans are unpredictable.

The way things happen in the present is not an indication of how things are going to happen in the future. Humans have the power to change the course of things. When things go wrong, we expect misery, we know what's coming but it's when things are going well and in a blink of an eye they go bad that's when we really suffer. We adapt, we evolve but we are never truly happy.

When we are born, we come into this world crying, afraid because we are no longer safe in our mother's bellies and we never really stop crying or being afraid for that matter. Just because tears don't fall down your cheeks doesn't mean you're not crying.

It's easy most of the time to smile, to pretend everything is alright, to hide behind a proud stance, to keep your chin high and to never back down but everybody has a limit. People will do whatever they can to hurt you because it's in their nature. But what do we do when the world, an inanimate object, is hurting you too? When God is making things harder on you? What do you do when you're hurting yourself? What do you do when you are your own worst enemy?

We blame people for our own mistakes and we constantly blame God but we never blame ourselves, we never stand in front of a mirror and look ourselves in the eyes and say, "It's your fault," we don't cause it's easier to blame others.

We can't hide from our mistakes, we can't hide from who we are and we can't lie to ourselves for ever. And surely we can't escape the present and change the past because what's done is done.

Beth was reflecting on those things as she was getting ready to do her chores. She pulled her weight around like all of them did. But when she looked at herself in the mirror all she could think was about how much of messed up person she was. She was her own worst enemy.

Beth knew the guys needed her help this week more than ever, since this week had literally been hell to all of them and they were currently switching each other around in order to get things done. The flu had spread around and they were currently quarantined. Today she was in charge of feeding the animals.

_**Daryl POV**_

Exertion was taking its toll on Daryl's limbs as he lifted the shovel once again, throwing the sand on the side. He was currently digging the third hole that day, his skin was sunburned, and a rag was covering his mouth and nose and tears were no longer running down his eyes. Because when a person sees dead for so long, eventually they become numb to it.

A sickness had taken over the prison and people were slowly dying, the medicine they've brought was not enough. A new breed of walker's was evolving, apparently. Hershel had said to him that just by breathing the air next to a person infected with the "new sickness" it could be lethal. Karen had died, leaving Tyreese on the road of Looney town. Yesterday two of the Woodbury people including Patrick had died, and today he was digging yet another grave for another Woodbury kid.

The kids were the worst. He had to dig the graves of the children smaller because their little bodies didn't need as much space. It was a morbidity and something awful but truth be told they needed a lot of space. He tried to bunch up the bodies as close together as possible in order for them to have more space so they could bury the people he knew were going to continuously die, that is judging by the rate at which people were currently dying.

He wondered for a moment, if he were to die who would be in charge of digging his grave? He shook his head of the thought and looked at the blazing sun, he was thirsty and there was no one next to him. But if he was honest with himself he could really say that digging graves was a sort of a therapy.

In a terrible sort of way he liked it.

People would leave him alone and nobody would be pestering him around asking stupid questions. It was not necessarily that he enjoyed digging graves but he was a "clean the shit" kind of guy and it was calming to be useful in the middle of chaos. Some things needed to be done and nobody wanted to do it, so it was up to him to do those kinds of things.

Matt was still unconscious and every time he went to visit him his best friend was asleep. He couldn't fathom to be too close to his friend because Hershel had told him that Matt had taken the flu, and that he needed medication in order to get him better and if Daryl as so much as breathed near him he could get infected. Michonne was sick too since she had been in the block where it all started, when Patrick had taken the virus and literally bit some Woodbury people up. They have been able to contain the disease from spreading in that block but they could only do so much.

He was currently digging and finishing with his hole when Daryl looked to the side and saw just the Greene girl falling to the floor and holding a hand to her chest. His heart thumped faster and his only thought was "Please, not her too". He put his shovel down and practically went running to where she was.

_**Beth's POV**_

She was currently feeding the pigs with a bowl of all the leftovers from the morning when she heard it.

_Shhh, hush little girl, don't scream. Shhh, hush little girl, don't scream._

Her heart stopped for a moment and then started beating wildly again. The hair on the back of her neck stood up once again and she closed her eyes. She stilled her hands and held herself with one arm on the wooden fence that they had built for the pigs.

_Shhh, hush little girl, don't scream. Shhh, hush little girl, don't scream._

"Please, please go away," Beth breathed out as a silent prayer. She closed her eyes harder and thought of pretty things but she felt it coming. She was looking around when all of a sudden her breath caught in her lungs; it was as if there was no air around her. She knew it then, she was having a panic attack.

_Are you afraid little one? Give me your hand doll._

She felt the mud mix with shit on her knees, she was getting dirty but she knew there was nothing she could do about it. She dropped the bowl with the leftovers on the mud and put her hand on her chest. She was taking large gulps of air but nothing was working. Her psychiatric had taught her breathing exercises but they were bullshit.

"I'm not afraid, I'm not scared of you," Beth screamed to nobody in particular.

"What the fuck is wrong with you child? Who are you talking too?" Said the rough voice of Daryl Dixon who was currently standing above her with a scowl on his face.

She felt tears running down her face and looked everywhere. She was disoriented, he was here, if he didn't shut up, he was going to come.

"Don't say anything, he will hear you," she said in a whisper, her eyes fearful scanning the place as if expecting someone to pop out of the place.

"What are you…" he started saying but was cut off when she stood up and put a hand on his mouth, grabbing him by the shirt and dragging him to the floor. She knew he was strong so probably it was more the element of surprise that made it possible for her to manhandle him.

"Listen woman, I don't know what the hell is wrong with that pretty head of yours but…" he said making a move to stand up and shaking his head from side to side to remove her hand from his mouth. He was looking at her as if expecting a second head to appear, once again she interrupt him again.

Beth put her hand on his mouth and in order to still his movement she got on top of him straddling his hips, eliciting a struggled muffle response from him. He was thrashing around when she looked him straight in the eyes. He had light heaven blue eyes. This was Dixon.

They were in the prison. She had it all wrong. And just as quickly as she was gone, she was brought back. Beth notice she was straddling his hips and that he had halted any movement he was previously doing and put his hand on her hips to control her moving.

She looked at him in the eye but didn't dare remove the hand that was on his mouth because she knew that once she did it, he was going to start screaming at her and insulting her.

"I'm sorry, I thought… It's...It won't happen again." Beth all but stuttered blushing and removed her hand from his mouth.

"Get off me, and fucking stop moving." Daryl said in a calm, overly calm yet serious voice.

She nodded her head 'yes' and slid herself downward in order to get up. She landed on his privates and he moaned. She stopped her movement and looked at him straight in the eye. He had a pained expression on his face and his eyes were dark, dark blue. She quickly realized what was going on and opened her eyes like big plates.

"Move, kid." He repeated through clenched teeth.

"I'm sorry, I'm really sorry." She repeated quickly trying to stand up but his hands were still on her hips. She looked at him and with her hands signaled to his hands on her hips and said "Can you please…"

He looked at his hands on her hips and as if he was burned he took them away. She quickly stood up and picked up the bowl from the mud which was empty since the pigs had eaten all that was inside and looking back at Daryl Dixon got closer to him.

"I'm sorry you had to see that." Beth apologized nervously tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

He was lying on the floor with a hand on his face. He nodded his head.

"I don't know what came over me, it must have been the stress with all the people getting sick I just…" She quickly rambled and he nodded once again still on the ground.

"Are you ok? Do you need help standing up?" Beth asked quite concerned because he was just laying there.

"Don't. Stay away from me, please." Daryl said taking the hand that was covering his face and halting any movement from her, it was as if he thought that his hand could stop every movement from her.

She nodded her head though and he looked straight at her face and his cheeks blushed, he turned his head to the side and inhaled a lot of air, as if to calm himself.

"I was wondering…would you please maybe not tell anyone about what you just saw I mean?" She said blushing, stammering and very ashamed of herself.

He looked at her from the ground and searched her face. Beth wanted to look away from his eyes but she couldn't, he was looking for something deep down inside her. His scowl was no longer on his face and a look of understanding passed across it but it was so fast that maybe she had imagined it all.

"Don't worry, I won't tell." Daryl whispered almost as if he didn't want her to hear it.

She nodded and looked about herself. Turning around she was almost out of the pigs stable when she heard his voice.

"You left the cub, Beth," he said in a low voice standing up and cleaning himself off trying to avoid looking at her.

She was so surprise that he had called her by her name that she just nodded and picked up the cub getting out of stable because truth be told she could hear her heart beating and she was afraid he might hear it too.

Daryl's POV

Daryl had intruded on a moment, a Beth's and Zack's moment. He was pissed, hell he wanted to puke. Shit, nowadays you couldn't even go to the prison kitchen to grab a quick something to eat because there was someone fucking somebody, or somebody fucking interrupting him. He was tired after a hard day of digging holes and all he wanted was some peace and quiet. But he was never left the fuck alone and plus he always sort of hated couples and lovely-dovey eyes. And that was exactly how Zack was looking at Beth, again.

He was formulating a plan in order to interrupt the teenagers when he heard something that Beth had said to Zack. She had said, "Teach me."

Unwillingly he was flooded with a memory. Those two words triggered a flashback.

_**Flashblack**_

_The machine's beep tone kept him awake. It was a beep-beep sound that had a haunting melody. While it beeped you were alive but if the sound ever stopped you were dead, it was somehow synchronized with the beating of his heart and for his life he couldn't bring his eyes to close, too worried that the sound would somehow stop. His body still felt sore but he was already better._

_He had been in the hospital for two weeks now, this time it had been bad. His daddy had used a knife. His leg was broken in four places and he could barely see from one eye, that was how swollen his eye was. His wrist had a bandage covered with some salve and the doctor had said that he had second degree burns on it. It had been bad, it had been really bad._

_He felt a warmth that came from his left and he felt the presence of a body. When he slowly turned his head he confirmed his initial assessment, he saw Matt lying there next to him. He looked tired and there were purple shadows under his eyes, in fact screw tired, he looked wrecked. His hair was tousled and he had his hand on Daryl's chest and one leg curled up around his calves. He was holding on to him as if he was a giant teddy bear._

_He took the moment to look at Matt, he never really got tired of it, he looked peacefully sleeping next to him, so unlike himself. He never had peace in his sleep; his nights were always crowded with nightmares except those times he slept next to Matt._

_Matt stirred in his sleep and mumbled something, interrupting his musings. Daryl got closer to him to hear what he said but it seemed to him as if he was blabbering. Nonetheless Matt started making sounds again and this time he could hear exactly what he was saying. His friend was mumbling, "Don't leave me, never leave me Daryl," his heart swelled and he put his hand on top of Matt's hand on his chest and said, "I'm here, I'm here," trying to calm his friend._

_And looking down at him he saw Matt's form waking up, his eyes wild. He looked afraid and lost, when he took in his surroundings a sigh escaped his lips and his eyes settled on Daryl's form. He hugged him harder and kissed his arm, shoulder, lips, and temple and just about everything he could reach._

_Daryl smiled a real smile. "Hey, hey I could get used to waking up like this you know but I'm alright and if Misha comes...you...I, what happened?" He asked a concerned expression on his face combined with an apologetic smile for the first remark but it was true Misha was always jealous of their intimacy._

_Matt's expression was somber and his eyebrows knitted, "Fuck Misha and her stupid remarks! I don't care about what that cow thinks. But for a moment I thought I lost you… you were shouting when I brought you here and in so much pain and God help me, I can't deal with that, you've been practically in a coma for two weeks, I can't Daryl."_

_Daryl's face softened and he whispered in an ashamed tone, 'I'm sorry Matt, I'm really sorry."_

_Matt's face hardened, his English accent became more pronounced when he was mad. "You twat, you have nothing to be sorry about! What the hell is wrong with you? Must I remind you that it was your fucked up arse of a dad that did this to you?" His face darkened._

"_I...yes, I know, but I...it's for my own good and I know you don't understand and sometimes even I don't understand it myself but I know it's for the best, he… he wants me to be strong." He said unsure of himself._

_Matt's face was expressionless, he closed up, he masked his face. There was something wrong, he knew Matt like the back of his hand. "Let's not talk about it anymore for now; yeah love? He said petting his head back and sitting up on the bed._

"_Is something wrong.. What?" Daryl started to say but was cut off by Matt._

"_Enough, Daryl, tell me about that bird you like, what's her name Hope or something like that?" Matt commented airily with a mischievous face._

"_It's Faith; her name is Faith, Matt. How many times do I have to tell you?" He grumbled in a condescending tone._

"_Aha, yes I knew that, so did you guys talk, and you know," Matt said winking._

"_Well yes we do, but sort of... it's weird and I'm worried." Daryl mumbled quickly, lowering his face while playing with his hands._

"_What's wrong love?" Matt asked lifting his chin with his hand and caressing his cheek, a concerned expression on his face._

"_I'veneverkissedanyone." He said very quickly._

"_What was that?" Asked Matt with a big grin, teasing him cause the fucker had heard what he said._

"_I've never kissed anyone!" _

"_There happy, you bastard?" Daryl said mortified with his cheeks turning red._

"_But Darling, don't I count for someone or am I nobody? You twat." Matt said with his eyes glinting and slapping his arm._

"_Oh shut up, you know what I mean, a real kiss, with a __girl__." Daryl all but stated putting emphasis on the last word._

"_Yes I know, but love that's something that comes out naturally you know," Matt commented his eyes twinkling, smiling with them like only he could._

"_But.. What if I do it wrong? What if she thinks I'm bad?" Daryl said worriedly._

"_That's, that's impossible nobody is that bad, there's just different ways of kissing, and I think….mmmm sort of just…. it's just… look just don't worry about it yeah? When the right time comes, with the right lady you will do just fine. I swear." Matt said kindly before rolling his eyes to the ceiling._

"_If not… well." Matt said with a smile_

"_If not what Matt?" Daryl inquired with a daring expression_

"_You would always have me yeah?" Matt stated with a "sorry but I'm not sorry smile"._

_He look at Matt as an idea came to his mind, looking straight at his eyes and with a serious expression he said, "Teach me."_

_Matt looked at him in surprise and kind of taken aback for a moment though he hid it quickly. He looked at Daryl's face with a thoughtful expression and then it switched to concern then it was just his usual mischievousness laced with a playful smile. It still amazed him how Matt's face could express so many emotions like an open book and yet manage to be mysterious at the same time, it was beautiful._

"_Are you sure love? It's different kissing a guy than a girl you know that right"? Matt interrupted his thoughts._

"_Yes I do, it's just that I trust you. You're the only one that can help me." Daryl said with a hopeful voice._

"_I know I know babes," he said with a tender look, sort of like one would look a baby._

_Matt didn't let Daryl consider more of what he had asked. He lifted one hand and thread it through his hair, massaging it slowly as he inched his face closer. He could count Matt's freckles and distinguish the different shades of blue that his eyes held. He had one eye with a bit of green, it wasn't noticeable but up close you could see it._

_Matt's dad had told him it was a mild case of "__**heterochromia". **__He was thinking about what it meant when he felt soft full lips on his own but that was hardly "new" since Matt and him kissed all the time but their kisses were full of innocence, the kinds you give to your siblings, every single one of them had been of pure brotherly affection, except this one._

_This kiss was thrilling; it was full of emotion, of love. He lifted a hand and put it on Matt's cheek caressing it and the other on Matt's shoulder to drag him closer. He felt Matt's tongue on his lips and he felt a small tug on his hair that made him moan, at the same time and by default making him open his mouth. He started to massage his tongue with his and the feeling was heavenly._

_Matt deepened the kiss and tilted his head a little bit grabbing the fabric of his shirt to get him closer if that was even possible. He moaned into Matt's mouth and he could felt Matt's shiver spasms in his shoulder. He felt light headed and remember that he needed to come back up for a breath. He pulled back and what he saw made butterflies flutter in his stomach._

_Matt's eyes were dark blue and his lips were red, his hair was tousled and his cheeks were tinted red, it was quite a sight. Daryl imagined that he looked sort of the same, Matt was looking at him with fascinated eyes but with a proud expression in his eyes, sort of how you look at a baby's first steps._

_One thing was for sure Daryl wanted to repeat that and so they did. They kissed for almost 20 minutes when a nurse came and interrupted them to take his vitals; she gave them a wink and got out of the room. When the nurse was done they looked at each other and burst out laughing until tears were running down their cheeks from so much laughing, their sides hurt and they were looking at each other lying side by side._

_Matt took his hand and kissed it saying, "I know you were going to be good darling, now you're ready to kiss that bird, Hope."_

"_It's Faith, Matt. How many times do I have to tell you?" Daryl said though he smiled._

_With a glint in his eyes and a dismissive hand Matt said, "Yes, yes I know."_

_And they started rolling with laughter again, talking about shit stuff while holding hands._

_**End of Flashback**_

Weeks later he had in fact kissed the girl, Faith and she was the first and last girl he kissed because when he kissed her, he realized that there was no love. He didn't feel what he had felt with Matt and he realized with sadness that maybe he never will. Probably because nobody could ever love him like Matt had. That was his first and last kiss with Matt like that; the others were just pure brotherly affection.

He decided that he was never going to kiss a girl again because when he did he wanted to feel love or something akin to it.

Daryl turned back to the present where Zack was giving Beth a look like Matt gave him just before kissing him.

He had missed half the conversation and of course what it had been about but he could see Zack inching closer and he be damned but he didn't want Zack's mouth on Beth's, he didn't question his motives but instead acted on his impulse.

He took a casserole that was in the entrance and a big spoon and he just banged the spoon with the casserole making as much noise as he could. He looked at the surprised couple and smirked, "Oh, I didn't realize someone was already here."

Beth looked furious while Zack look embarrassed. She grabbed Zack by the arm and made to stand up.

His grin was bigger now and he said, "Beth, can I talk to you for a minute alone." He put emphasis on the word 'alone' and giving an apologetic side smile to Zack, he really liked the boy. And his strong dislike for the girl had nothing to do with him. The boy smiled back and scurried quickly out of the kitchen not sparing the girl a second glance and clearly glad of being out of Daryl's bad list.

Her face was a mix of surprise and hatred. "What do you want Dixon?" Beth said in a calm yet clipped tone pronouncing every syllable as if commanding peace from a higher source.

Too bad she didn't get the memo; there was nothing up there, and certainly nobody in this kitchen to give her peace.

He side smiled and said nothing more, moving a few casseroles here and there and calmly after about 15 minutes he looked at her and tilting his head asked. "What were you asking Zack?"

She looked shocked, as if she wasn't expecting the question. And truth be told he hadn't been meaning to ask that, it had just sort popped out of his mouth, like word vomit. He had wanted to bother her, stall her so by the time she got out of the kitchen Zack would already be out of reach but with a disturbing sense of knowledge he realized that he really wanted to know what they have been talking about.

It was curiosity; he was a curious person by nature.

She said nothing; she was clearly mortified with her face red and she turned to go. He took her by one arm and held her looking into her eyes.

" . . ?" Daryl questioned again, intrigued now. He wanted to know if they were talking like him and Matt.

"It is none of your business, what is wrong with you?" She yanked at her arm. "Are you fucking insane?" She yanked again. "What have I done to you?" She groaned loudly. "Just I'm sorry okay; whatever I did I'm sorry just, please leave me alone…" Beth said in a tired sort of way. It had been a God awful day for both of them.

His smirk got wider and he leaned to her ear and whispered, "You see, I told you, you would apologize. And that's better child but really what I want to know is what you were asking him, call it curiosity."

Beth's face looked desperate, furious and he thought that any moment now she was going to snap and truth be told he was itching for it.

As she raised her hand he knew what was coming but for his life he couldn't stop her, he wanted to feel. And the clashing sound was loud as her hand collided with his cheek; she had slapped him, hard. He had been too focused on her face, she had looked powerful, hell if he didn't know any better he thought she might have enjoyed it a bit. She looked dominant, he was baffled, she had a sadistic side or so he saw.

Daryl's hair got into his eyes and his face was to the side, his cheek burn and there was blood on his lips where his teeth had collided with his lower lip.

He slowly deliberately turned his head, his eyes wild, and a smirk on his face, he raised his hand and she flinched away, closing his eyes.

He was amused. He slowly lowered his hand and caressed her cheek and very slowly he leaned to her and whispered in her ear. "If you ever dare to touch me again, least of all slap me, I will cut your hand. Am I clear?" His voice was full of dripping honey. It was sweet laced with danger and he could see that she was terrified, he had been wrong on his assessment before, she was not a sadistic woman just a desperate girl.

Beth nodded her head quickly, her eyes big as plates. She took in his bloody lip and as if in a daze she raised her hand, she slowly put her palm on his cheek and gave him a caress. He leaned his head on it closing his eyes, it was a rather unconscious body response and slowly she ran one finger on his lower lip. Smearing her fingertip with blood.

He reacted and was about to grab her hand and shout at her when she took her fingertip and cleaned it on his shirt. She grabbed the hem of his shirt and raised it to clean his lip; she got on her tiptoes and pressed the fabric back and forth, all the while looking at his eyes.

She was an open book, he saw so many emotions, she was scared, repulsed, there was hatred and fascination but they were changing so quickly that it was hard to keep up. Unconsciously one of her hands was in his chest as to maintain balance and he could feel her warm hand burning his flesh.

When there was no longer blood on his lip he took her wrist and stopped her. She looked like a child caught with her hand in the cookie jar and that though almost made him smile, she was such a child. She was a child playing a dangerous game. He was a man and he was certainly not her friend or Zack and she ought to remember that.

So slowly, deliberately he looked into her eyes and quietly said, "Don't ever touch me again." Then he disengaged his body from her turned around leaving his snack and an embarrassed stunned girl behind.

_**A/N**_

_**My babes: **_

_**Guess where I am currently? In a rooftop, in the biology building. I kind of love heights , they are calming to me and since I have a lab soon in about 2 hours and the lab it's 3 fucking hours long I usually like to write in here; among other things, if you know what I mean *boys* *cough* ;)**_

_**I started college and I have this professor who doesn't really like me and I just feel like slapping him, but I can't, obviously and a there's this guy I hate on one of the my other classes too. So this is going to be a "just dandy" semester for me. **_

_**Also I wanted to clarify that I'm from Puerto Rico and in here we're really affectionate so we sort of get into each other's personal space constantly. We kiss, hug, touch and all that stuff all the time. That's why it really didn't seem to me like Daryl's and Matt's relationship was anything out of the ordinary but talking to **__**AnnaFlyte**__** I can see where you guys are coming from. I'm not an American so there's a bit of difference in cultures and I know you guys don't touch as much as we do, but no, they are not together, he's not bisexual, gay, they are not a couple, they won't be a couple, they are not romantically involved in fact they won't be involve in ANY WAY whatsoever not sexually and not as lovers, there's not going to be a subplot, or a threesome, Matt is not Daryl's lover and I could keep on going... but I hope you guys get it this time. I wanted you guys to know that I plan on keeping Daryl as "In character" as possible and guysssss this is**__** Daryl**__** we are talking about so he**__** would never be anything else than straight. This is a Beth's and Daryl's fanfiction only**__** I can't see him being gay or bisexual, I don't have a problem with it, but it's not really compatible with his character. So I hope that was sorted. ;) **_

_**Also keep up with the reviews I love them all and I love talking to you guys. Thanks, it really means the world to me. xoxo Besos RomanticForver **_


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