I'm not sure if this is going to lead to a longer story. For the moment, it's just going to be an one-shot.

…

Maggie wanted Beth to come sleep in the house she and Glenn had but Beth shook her head and took a step back as if the words themselves had hurt her somehow. She looked over her shoulder then, to Daryl as he stood on the porch, a small distance away from everyone else but his eyes sharply watching everything; watching her and she looked at him for a moment before looking back to Maggie.

She wanted to say something but she didn't know what. She didn't know how to say anything anymore. In the hospital, she learned to choose her words carefully but sometimes, they would blow out of her before she could stop herself and she would receive the consequences. Here, back with her family, she knew she could say what she wanted and the most she would get would be wounded looks and hurt feelings. No one would ever beat her again. But she looked at Maggie and there was so much to say and yet, the words didn't even form on her tongue to speak.

In the end, she just shook her head. "I want to stay outside."

Maggie, of course, protested until Glenn put a hand on her elbow, quieting her with a slight shake of his head. She sighed and kept looking at Beth but Beth was no longer looking at her. She wasn't looking at them. She instead had her eyes focused on the quiet street. She heard laughter coming from somewhere and a dog barking and she couldn't believe that this place was real. What was this place? Was it safe? It must have been if the others had acclimated themselves here; if Daryl had.

She looked to him again. He was looking at her but he still made no move to be anywhere near her. He hadn't said anything to her since they had driven into the gates of Alexandria – her on the back of his motorcycle and his arms around his waist as Morgan had ridden in the car behind them with the man with Daryl – and had taken them straight to his house which he shared with Rick, Michonne, Carl and Judith. The baby was alive and well – they all were alive and well – and she had nearly collapsed from it all.

From there, they had met the woman in charge – Deanna, the woman seeming to be extremely happy to meet her for some reason – and then Daryl had taken her to see the rest of their family and it was all so emotional and overwhelming, Beth felt her head spinning and she just needed a few minutes to herself. But Maggie wouldn't stop crying or clinging to her and it wasn't as if Beth wasn't happy to see her sister – she was – but Maggie was completely suffocating her at the moment.

"Daryl's been sleeping on the porch most nights," Rick spoke up and again, Beth's eyes went to the man who stood on the outer fringes of their group.

She looked at him and remembered seeing him in the hospital hallway, the way his eyes had locked with hers and hadn't looked away, the way his hand grazed over her shoulder when she stepped forward the first time only to turn back towards Dawn. And she remembered nothing else after that except waking up in the hospital once more with Dr. Edwards standing at her bedside and she had instantly asked about him because she couldn't believe that Daryl had just left her.

When Daryl and the other man – Aaron – had come upon her and Morgan in the woods that early morning – had it really only been that morning? – Daryl had stared at her as if he had just seen a ghost. And she knew that that was why he had left. He had thought she was dead. And why wouldn't he think that? She had gotten shot in the head right in front of him. Dr. Edwards had mentioned a herd moving through but he hadn't been able to explain that much but the instant she saw Daryl again, she was able to piece together most of it.

She just didn't know why now, he seemed to want to be nowhere near her. And she knew that he was probably the only one she could stand to be around right now.

The group broke up shortly after that, all giving her one more hug or kiss on the head and they dispersed back to their own houses until she and Daryl were the only ones to remain on the porch. She had noticed a few missing from the group – Tyreese, Noah, and she had seen Sasha wearing Bob's jacket – but she hadn't asked about them, knowing what the answers already were.

She glanced at Daryl before she slowly moved and sat herself down on the porch. She had taken a shower and had been given some new clothes. Fresh underwear and socks – clean and soft cotton against her skin and she had sighed with pleasure when she pulled them on – and blue jeans and a yellow sweater. She smelled like soap and fabric softener and she had never thought she would smell like either of those things ever again. It was all too good to be true and her mind was still racing with everything that had happened in less than twenty-for hours. She was expecting herself to wake up any second now.

She heard a creak of wood as Daryl stepped behind her and then he was sitting down beside her. With it just the two of them again, he was putting himself next to her and she felt like she could breathe. She turned her head and looked at him. His hair was still long and in need of a cut and he still wore his leather vest but he smelled like soap, too.

"What is this place?" She asked him softly.

He shook his head and popped a cigarette into his mouth but he didn't light it. "Still tryin' to figure that out," he said. He then looked at her, too. "Rick and Carol have been talkin' 'bout takin' it for ourselves."

That made her frown, her brow wrinkling as she looked at him. "That's not who we are," she said and all she could think of in that moment was the Governor and those who came with him, ready to take the prison for themselves, and her daddy…

"I know," Daryl nodded and he lowered his eyes as if thinking the same thing, too. He pulled the cigarette from his mouth and rolled it between his fingers.

He used to do that when they were out there – just the two of them. He only had one cigarette left and sometimes, he would pull it out, put it in his mouth, take it out again, hold it. He never lit it; never knew when they would find another one but just feeling it seemed to calm him down in a way nothing else other than her could manage.

She smiled when she saw he still did that though she knew Alexandria probably had more cigarettes. They seemed to have everything. It was both incredible and too good to be true and she couldn't help but be suspicious of everything around her right now. Except Daryl. Even being reunited with their family, she felt like the only real thing was Daryl sitting right next to her.

"Don't think I'm gonna go along with 'em if they do it," he then grunted.

"You won't," she said softly, shifting a little closer to him. "You're better than that." He snorted at that and she reached over without a second thought, slipping one of her hands in his. "You are," she said strongly. He didn't pull his hand from hers and she gave it a slight squeeze. "I don't know if I want to stay here," she then admitted to him softly because if she could say something like that to anyone, it was Daryl.

And she knew she hadn't been there long at all yet – not even twenty-four hours – but unease had settled in her stomach that she couldn't shake. She was nervous around so many people now; nervous around her family because they were all different. She was different. She had begun to change out there – before the hospital. With Daryl. Being back with Daryl, it only reminded her just how much.

He slipped the cigarette back into his pocket with one hand, his other still encased in hers. "Got a new bike. We could leave whenever you wanted."

She looked at him and couldn't help but be surprised. "You would leave here?" She asked, her fingers subconsciously tightening around his.

He shrugged, looking at her and even in the darkness of the porch, she could see the blue of his eyes. "Rick got what he wanted. A safe place for his kids and for everyone else, too. None of 'em need me anymore."

And Beth opened her mouth to tell him that that wasn't true; that she needed him. But the words clumped in her throat before she could but he was looking at her and she got the feeling that maybe he already knew.

She had almost forgotten how well they had gotten at reading one another.

He squeezed her hand back. And he didn't need to tell her that he needed her, too.

…

Thank you so much for reading and please review!