A/N Ok guys here's the matching onner to a Dozen of Daryl's finest secrets. Hope you enjoy, this has a different feel to it I think, its cruder and harsher, but that's guys for you, I always ask my boyfriend how to write a Daryl voice, because he's a guy, and let's face it he's got that badass attitude, which is probably why I like Daryl lol, so the jerkish dirty mind male bravado thing is all Ben :D still my words, but his ideas lol. Have fun, we did writing it. :D I've tried not to make it too O/C but I think it is a little. Hope you enjoy it anyway.

Beth knows a dozen things about Daryl that nobody else does, she holds a dozen of his finest secrets, she can't know everything. That's what she told him when he asked how she didn't know, she thinks she's real smart knowing all that shit, but he knows a dozen or so of her finest secrets too, yeah there's things he knows about her that makes his heart skip beats and his head lose its shit, and his soul ache, he knows stuff that he will take to his grave, and stuff that he wants to tell everyone, but then, hell, he wouldn't be the only one to know.

1.

Beth can't cook for shit.

No that's not to be taken lightly; She really struggles to even boil water. He discovered it back at the farm, when he was limping around after the shot-with-his-own-god-damn-fucking-bow incident. He stumbled into the kitchen and she was leaned over a mixing bowl and her forearms were covered in flour and he wondered how anyone could look that ridiculous, he shook his head and was going to leave, but he heard her crying.

He sighed to himself, so far she hadn't dobbed on him about those pills so she couldn't be too bad. He asked her what she was crying about and she looked embarrassed, so he lifted himself onto the bench and sat there making it clear he wasn't going anywhere.

Eventually she told him that Maggie had asked her to make dinner, and truth was she never was good at cooking, it was a secret she had with her mom, her mom would always cover for her, this was the first time she'd been asked to cook without her mom.

Daryl understood and helped her cook, actually she just watched him, he did the cooking, and hell, he wasn't good but when he got to the mixing bowl where she was supposedly making something he realized how bad she was...

'What's this?' He asked.

'Pastry?'

'Pastry?' He mimicked. 'It's a damn rock girl.'

That was the first secret he kept for her.

It happened often enough, she would be rostered to cook and he would do it for her, and everyone complimented her on her cooking, they said it was earthy and her father was surprised that she really found a talent in the kitchen.

It almost fell apart one day at the prison, Daryl was on a run when she was asked to cook, she actually boiled a pot of water dry while she read the recipe book, so she faked sick and they laughed about the close call later.

Daryl always knew she was a shit cook, it didn't stop him from complimenting her skills when everyone else did, and it didn't stop him from yelling at her years later, after the prison when she had one job. 'Cook the snake.' And she'd burnt it.

But yeah Daryl was the only one who knew she was a shit cook.

2.

She's a rebel.

She's smart, she knows it's not good to hang back, she wants to learn all she can, while she can. She had been badgering him about teaching her about cars, this day though she asked if she could ride with him, it wasn't a learning thing, but she wanted to try it he supposed. He nodded and let her climb on the back of his bike.

He knew on the first corner that it wasn't her first time, you can tell. People usually fight it, lean the opposite way for fear of falling, or they cling so tight to you hoping you'll remain solid.

Beth didn't, she sat back, hands barley on his hips and when he turned she leaned with the bike.

He even tried to scare her, wobbling and fishtailing down the highway but she wasn't afraid.

He asked her when they pulled up when she first rode. She shrugged and told him she skipped school a few times with a kid who really was too old, but he was nice.

'Don't worry mister Dixon, we didn't do anything, we just rode... sometimes he'd smoke, but mostly we'd ride.' She confessed. 'Don't you ever just want to do something?'

He always thought she was a good girl, but no there was a time that she wanted to do something.

Once she was a rebel.

3.

She will keep his secrets.

No one understands this, not even himself but he knows it's true. It's not the little stuff like when she didn't dob for those pills. It's not like how she didn't tell people things he mentioned, this was different.

He never asked her not to tell, but she didn't, and she actually outright lied for him, and he didn't know why, but she had put it so far out of even her own mind that she didn't mention it amongst the secrets that she kept for him, it was gone, completely blotted out.

It was when they were on the road, it happened to be the two of them raiding an old pub, strangely enough pubs were good recourses for good liquor, which was a good steriliser, and they often had weapons in the offices, and usually had good first aid kits.

Anyway, they walked into this one and there was someone in there.

'Daryl...fancy seeing you.' The man drawled. 'What ya got there?' He nodded to Beth.

Daryl never answered, he stepped in front of Beth and when the man stepped forward, only one step he shoved her back and launched at the man, it was a messy scuffle of noises, thuds as skin hit skin. A broken glass top table and a few grunts of pain from Daryl, and Beth was about to run for the others but Daryl seemed to be winning all of a sudden, he had a broken bottle to the man's neck and the man had his hands in the air, surrendering. Daryl didn't care, he drew the bottle across the man's neck slowly and deliberately and as the man begged him to stop, but he finally gargled slumping to the floor. Daryl smiled, he actually smiled and he looked to Beth, blood spurted on his shirt.

Beth looked genuinely afraid, she took a step back. 'Why did you do that?'

Daryl frowned because really the man had sounded friendly enough, Beth didn't know who he was, Daryl had spent enough time with the kind that Merle kept company with, and he recognized him, but Beth didn't know who he was, or that he deserved that.

He was about to explain all that when Rick and Hershel walked in. Daryl was already on eggshells over beating that kid in the barn, and no one approved of killing the living, what could he say when he was still standing over the body?

'You killed him?' Rick asked, and Daryl took a deep breath thinking this might be it.

'I...' Daryl's eyes darted around the room, he sort of saw Beth fiddling with some glass but he didn't.

'Did he attack you? Hershel asked and Beth understood the question, even from behind she could see her father's disapproval of the violent death, even if Daryl made up a convincing story, the murder was brutal enough that they wouldn't forgive him.

'Daryl didn't do it... he was just checking him.' Beth spoke up from behind them.

'He's got blood on him Beth.' Rick answered not looking away.

'It's mine.' She answered, and they all looked to her, and that's when Daryl saw her arm bleeding, he looked to the ground and saw the glass from the table his back had broken slicked with her blood. 'I'm so clumsy, I walked straight into it, I must've got it on mister Dixon... that's when he saw the body... is it as fresh as it looks?'

Daryl cleared his throat. 'Yeah.. best keep movin' whoever did that, might be wantin' more.' Daryl told them.

The story wasn't the most convincing, but Beth had no reason to lie. So Rick accepted it and they left. It would be weeks, maybe months before Daryl asked her why she did it, she said she didn't know, she just believed in him. Daryl said maybe he was an evil murderer, and she smiled and said she knew he wasn't. He never told her who the man was.

It was possibly a year after they found the prison, when he would run his finger down the scar that she had put there to protect him, and he would understand, that it was the beginning of a friendship, that's when he told her he was a

'He was a Bad man.' Daryl affirmed.

'I know' came the simple answer and they both laughed softly.

Daryl frowned 'You never had to do that for me.'

Beth smiled, 'Yes I did.' She answered, because she knew they would have sent him away if they thought he killed the man in cold blood.

Only Daryl knows that Beth keeps his secrets.

4.

She's mortally afraid of crickets.

Crickets, it's the funniest thing. It's the first time he saw her naked, well almost naked, but crickets of all things. She's ok with spiders and bugs and slugs, but crickets. She says the noise they make when they rub their legs together gives her nightmares.

It's one of the first handful of times she brings Judy up to the watchtower, she's probably about seven weeks old, Beth is still a little nervous about caring for her, but somehow it's become her job, she brought her up there one night when she wouldn't settle, because Daryl seems to be able to do it so well, after that it became regular.

'Hey.' She smiled as she placed Judith on the floor and climbed through the trapdoor.

'Hey Beth... Asskicker not settling?'

She shook her head.

'C'mere.' He motioned the two of them over as he placed his crossbow on the floor and reached for the squirming child. It took about three seconds for Judith to stop crying and another four for her to stop squirming and settle against his chest.

'Don't know how you do that.' Beth frowned.

He shrugged and she wondered what he was doing when he reached for her neck, but she didn't feel uncomfortable, hell she had a bit of a crush on him, maybe he was going to kiss her, that'd be cool.

'Damn it.' He answered her thoughts.

'What?'

'Had a cricket on ya, tried to flick it off, fell down yer...' He pointed between her breasts.

Beth had panicked, actually screamed, she felt crawling everywhere, she had to get it out, she ripped her top of and shook it out, running her hands over herself searching for the cricket, her heart was pounding, she paused wondering where it had gone, she thought she felt it crawling on her leg, although in hindsight it could have just been the seam of her pants on her hyper sensitive skin, she ripped them down tripping as they got caught on her boots, she kicked the lot of while making panicky breath whining sounds as she checked her legs, and then she felt her bra tickle her and reached for the clasp.

'Woah, whoa, slow down there!' Daryl admonished her, placing Asskicker in a safe spot as his hands stilled hers. She was rolling around frantically and he literally had to pin her down. 'Just calm down.' He almost whispered as he looked down at her, faces only inches apart... yeah that was the first time he thought of kissing her, he'd think about that later, his body on top of her nearly naked one, writhing and grabbing at him and breathing his name, yeah that was the foundation for many uncomfortable situations he would find himself in. He shook his head and reached for the cricket that was now in her hair. He pulled it out and tossed it out the tower. 'There.' He didn't move for a moment, he thought he was waiting for her to calm down, but he probably just liked feeling her there.

She blushed violently and redressed herself.

Later on, she would tell him how Shawn used to chase her around and make her eat them.

After that, much after that he would tease her, probably after the Woodbury people he would be sitting at a table playing cards and he would tell Rick, when he asked if he ever saw weird stuff when he was on watch, how this girl climbed up while he was on watch and stripped for him, and he will kick her under the table and wink, but refuse to tell Rick who it was.

One day after they have an argument he will put a cricket in a jar under her bed so that it will make its noises and send her running out of the cell so that she has nowhere to go but to come and see him.

No one ever finds out and she begs him not to tell Maggie because she will tease her, so he doesn't.

Only Daryl knows she is mortally afraid of crickets.

5.

She's obsessed with platting stuff.

He notices but he doesn't, not for a long time, she's always fiddling, he doesn't mind, he's so still, he sort of likes the movements. He notices it when he picks up Judith's blanket one day, she's about five or six months old now, and what was a mess of frays is now a neat braid. He doesn't know who did it, but then he notices other stuff, one day he looks down at his pants and sees that same neat braid along the bottom of one leg and he wonders how it got there, a few nights later when he's resting Judith and Beth is keeping watch for him he opens his eyes to feel her tugging at his other leg, he moves it for her, and she looks at him almost embarrassed.

'Thought you were asleep.'

'M-m.' He answers. 'What ya doin'?'

Beth smiled lightly. 'Tidying up the frays.' She admits.

'Wondered how that happened.' He commented, and then he lifted his foot and dropped it into her lap and she almost smiled as she went to work.

It was cute at first, he found plats everywhere, at first it was things that could do with tidying, but as she ran out of things it started to get annoying, he platted two cords to two separate keys together, and when he was trying to give one to Glen he couldn't help cursing the, 'Fucking plats, dumb shit!'

He didn't really mind though, he would watch her nimble fingers working over things.

He commented when Michonne arrived that now she could work on someone's hair, Beth shook her head and said she didn't like plating things that belonged to other people. Daryl laughed at that, because all of his clothes sported the little braids, so did the frayed end of his crossbow, and he said as much, and she blushed and apologized and told her he didn't mind.

It was damn near dangerous though, one day he was on a run with Maggie and he tripped, a walker had his shoe, and no matter how hard he tried to kick it of the lace wouldn't budge. Maggie killed it, and later on the way home he'd look down at his foot and see the stupid plat in his shoe lace that prevented it from being loosened. 'Fucking plats.' He'd mumble and Maggie would frown at him, but he would ignore it.

After that on the next run he would raid a little quilting store and get her a bunch of cotton in different colours, and give it to her, she slowly replaced those bracelets that covered the scars on her wrists with little braided chains. People would ask her to make one, and she would be busy or forget or something,

Daryl would hear her say that, so he wondered why she made one for him when he picked up his crossbow one Moring and found the blue braid tied around the string.

He pulled it off, and thought about telling her boys don't wear bracelets, but he liked having something from her, and so he tied it around his ankle where nobody would see it. She did though, one day when she took to braiding the frays on his pants again. She didn't say anything she just scratched at his ankle to get his attention and smiled, he shrugged back and pushed his foot into her, because it felt nice when her fingers tickled over the sensitive skin... he was pretty sure she knew he liked it.

Nearly a year later It was Michonne who saw it, Daryl got his foot caught in a rotten train track and she had frantically pulled his jean leg up so she could untwist his foot better, and she saw the bright blue braid, she smirked at him, but didn't say anything not for another month. It was when they were on the way home from the pansy rolling incident, she had saved his ass again and she sat in the car laughing.

He twirled the pansy in his hand nervously and looked at her.

'What?' He snapped.

'You've got a bracelet.' She grinned.

'What?' It had been weeks and he'd forgotten.

She smirked again. 'And a flower...'

Daryl didn't answer her he looked out the window.

'She won't give anyone else one, maybe she's in love with you too?'

Daryl's head snapped to hers. 'Ya ain't got your head on right.' He commented, but he wondered what she meant when she said too.

Michonne shrugged and promised shed never tell anyone.

'Fucking plats.' He mumbled and she laughed at it.

So yeah maybe Michonne knew too, but that hardly counted, she was as observant as he was, but yeah, Beth liked to plat things... no one knew that.

Beth was obsessed with plats.

6.

Beth is a saint.

This is not something he's always known. She caught him once praying, it's not that weird, it might be a little but it's not unheard of is it? He knows he can't pray right, none of them really get answered, so either gods turned... is sleeping... which when he looks around the world right now is a real possibility. Or the more likely answer, he's too fucking dark for god to see.

That's why he asks her to stay, the night she catches him, he calls her over and asks her to pray for him, like he can't, like he needs and intercessory. Some sort of saint to pray through.

He prays for Merle... he's the only other person who knows he prays, like their granddaddy taught them. It's after that conversation they had, well Merle had.

He commented on the fine piece of ass that was lugging that kid around. Daryl told him to shut it, but Merle went on about 'The fucking hot barley legal...' and Daryl reminded him she wasn't legal and never would be for him anyway. Something in the bite of Daryl's voice stopped Merle from his teasings. 'Sorry Daryleena, Didn't know little brother.'

And when Daryl swung by to say a nightly prayer, like they did when they were kids, being Merles intercessory because he'd never ask forgiveness, Merle would pray for the first time.

'Also god, look after Saint Brigid...' He added before looking to Daryl who was partly studded, halfway through signing the cross on his chest. 'What the fuck is that?' He poked him till he almost fell over.

'What?' Daryl asked.

Merle motioned the cross and Daryl shrugged. '...Sorry.'

'Who taught ya that shit?'

'Who the fuck is St Brigid for you to care all of a' sudden? Daryl retorted.

Merles face opened a little, because he knew his baby brother was smart enough to know.

'Fucking patron saint of children, travellers and the poor and downtrodden... who the hell do you think she is? That who taught ya that catholic shit, fucking St Brigid... yeah God turnin' ya away again, so now you gotta ask for ya own intercessory huh? God can't turn away St Brigid huh? She's the one he can't say no too huh little brother, Saint Brigid...' Merle teased long enough that Daryl left. When he didn't return the following night Merle went looking for him and heard him in her cell, praying and Merles heart softened when he heard those words begging God to forgive him for loving her.

Merle decided he wouldn't tease his brother about her again, although he started calling Beth Brigid, and no one understood that but Daryl.

Now Merle is gone.

Daryl is the only person that knows Beth is a Saint.

7.

Beth like scars.

She's not one of those floozy girls that thinks they're hot or anything.

She knew about his, maybe even before she saw them, maybe... she defiantly knew about them after he had that fight with Merle, and came storming back in the prison.

But she never mentioned them, not once, not even later when he told her who put them there, she never spoke about them really, but it was once, just after Merle died and she found him sooking in the shower like some pussy whipped school girl.

She hugged him, she rubbed his back in the same way he'd seen her soothing Judith, and he thought maybe she didn't even realize that she was doing it, running her hands over every scar, she even kissed some of the bigger ones and he thought it was strange, but it soothed his soul and he didn't have the heart to stop her. She stopped on her own anyway and slumped against him, and just held him, like he was a child that needed someone to hold them together.

It was months later, after St Patricks, when she was fixing her bracelets around her own scars. For some reason she didn't mind showing them to Daryl, but the questions they raised from others made her uneasy.

'I shouldn't be.' She answered his silent question.

'Be what?'

'embarrassed.' She looked to him. 'I should be proud, I know... and I am... you should be too.'

Daryl breathed in his cigarette and flicked it away. ''Bout what?' He asked.

'Our scars... they make us who we are... I am proud of that... I just don't like the questions... I like what they mean though... I don't like how they got there... but I like the meaning of them, that I was strong enough to survive, Its like they're proof or something. The deeper they are, just shows were stronger.' She explained.

He huffed an almost laugh. 'I must be like a Schwarzenegger then.'

'Yeah... maybe. She smiled.

After that he wouldn't mind taking his shirt of when they were alone on a hot day and letting the wind cool him, he wouldn't be afraid that she'd ask him about it, she never would, and she wouldn't think it was ugly, she would just get it.

That made him more comfortable about the whole thing.

It would be probably ten years from then, when he would finally tell her, not because she asked, but because she didn't. She will hold him and tell him it doesn't matter, that life made him stronger for this one. And then she will laugh and say guys with scars are hot and she digs them... or at least she digs this one.

He's the only one who knows that.

Beth likes scars.

8.

Beth is a tease.

No he's not kidding, he knows it seems unbelievable, but she is... no one would believe him if he told them, but she is... no wait she's not a tease, let him rephrase that, she's a god-damn-fucking-cock-tease. Yeah, she didn't do it by halves, not really anyway, and she knew it and loved it. No one but him will ever know that.

This is probably the most surprising and interesting secret he knows about her, and he could ramble on the subject all day, because really there was so much she had done.

It had nothing to do with the cricket thing, because that honestly was her panicking, but his mind would always go back to that. He sort of thought she was teasing him a few times, sometimes she pushed against him, or stood closer to him. There was this way she flicked her hair sometimes, and it sounds stupid, but it made him a little hard every time she did it, it was the simplest thing.

It was one day when they were cooking, well he was cooking, she was sitting on the bench licking a spoon, she wasn't teasing him at first, at least he's pretty sure she wasn't, but the sight of it made him hard, it was stupid, but hell he was hard up, and she was always hanging around lately in shorter than short shorts and skimpy little tops because of the heat.

'Don't do that.' He tried to snatch the spoon.

She smirked and pulled it away, he ignored her for a moment but she did it again.

'Beth I'm tellin' ya.' He warned.

She frowned at him. 'Why, it's yum!'

He tried to reach for it again, but she pulled it away, and he wrestled her for a moment before finally snatching it away. That's when he realized he was pressing into her shin, and he tried to avoid her gaze as he stepped away throwing the spoon on the bench with annoyance.

He could feel her staring at him and when he finally looked back at her she dropped her eyes, and gave him a coy smile then she got up and walked away, leaving him feeling... violated?

When he thought about it, that might not have been the first time she teased him, but it was the first time he remembered.

It was probably weeks after that when she sauntered across the court with her tee-shirt knotted up. Daryl knew he wasn't supposed to look, it was just an unspoken thing, none of them were allowed to look at Beth, she was the baby, well Judith was the baby, but still. Merle nudged him though, and Beth bent over dramatically and showed of her tight ass, as she picked up Judith, and it could've been innocent, but her intense gaze as she crossed to him and stood close enough that her shoulder brushed on his chest told him it was anything but innocent.

He didn't mind, hell it gave him something to think about when he was alone and bored out of his brain. He called her on it one day, sometime that seemed like a lifetime later, it was just after Merle left, he'd been feeling pretty shit about life and Beth knew it, she was trying to cheer him up, she'd been teasing him all day, not it that way, just in friendly banter.

Currently she was saying how the new Woodbury ladies all fancied him, he laughed at that from his spot on his bike where he was supposed to be doing something, but really he was just leaning over it. He felt her climb on behind him and he sat up a little.

'Remember that time you took me for a ride?'

He furrowed his brows because he wondered what her hands were doing snaking around to his stomach. 'Yeah.'

'We should do that again?' She asked, and her hands dropped low enough that he wriggled his hips and caught his head from dropping back at the same time he reached for her wrists.

'Beth what are you doing?'

She didn't answer, she just pulled her hands back.

'Ya can't do that shit.' He told her.

Beth climbed of the bike and managed to look sad about it. 'Sorry Daryl.' And her appolagy was so genuine that he thought maybe she didn't know.

He sniffed in a bravado kind of way. 'Bit o' teasin's fun n' all, but ya know nothing can happen don't ya?'

She nodded. 'Yeah course... didn't mean too.'

Daryl shrugged and leant forward again, mostly just to hide his problem. 'S'fine beth, just stop it ok.'

She scratched at her neck, and nodded before making up some reason to run away.

She didn't talk to him for a week, which doesn't seem like a long time, but in this world in this place, it felt like a year, that's when he put that cricket under her bed, effectively calling her up to him.

That was the next thing, his plan didn't work out well, he'd been asleep on watch, damn idiot he was, didn't matter, he woke up and it was early, Beth coming through the trapdoor had woken him.

'Hey.' She smiled.

'Hey.' He replied, not letting on how relieved he was to see her.

'There's a cricket in my room...'

He smirked. 'I can come get it later.'

She looked nervous, and he furrowed his brow and then he realized and drew his knees up to his chest, it wasn't anything, it just happened in the mornings, it was normal, although the way she was acting made him think maybe she didn't know that.

'What?' He asked, and he cursed himself for asking.

She shrugged and sat down. 'I don't know... just feel bad... I'm just, I don't know... curious I guess' She admitted.

Daryl snorted at that. 'Guess that's normal huh, at your age... why don't you go be curious with one of those Woodbury boys... isn't Zach meant to be chasing you around?'

Beth looked at him and nodded slightly. 'I didn't plan it... It's just easy with you.'

Daryl shifted a little, he was going to tell her not to say stuff like that, 'I know.' He admitted, because it was the same with her.

Carol did it too the teasing thing, but it never felt the same, Beth had him all hot and cold at once, it was weird, but yeah, it was easy.

He'd regret that conversation in three days when he finds out she said yes to being a thing with Zach.

Yeah he wants to tell someone about it, but he won't, not ever.

It's after when she's dating Zach he thinks, he let it slip one day that he missed it, and she'd hit him with full force, amping it up to an unbearable level, because just once or twice she actually teases him, knowing what shes doing and doing it anyway.

It's him, Rick and Glen sitting on a bench by the wall and they're watching the girls play basket ball, they all know what the other is thinking, hell they're all guys. But its Glen that speaks.

'Sucks huh... when you can't do anything, you just have to watch.'

'What?' Daryl asks as he flicks the ash of his cigarette.

Glen bumps his shoulder, 'You know what I'm talking about.'

Rick chuckles. 'I know, but you've got Maggie.'

Glen shrugs. 'Yeah but she's such a tease, don't think I'm not just as hard up.'

'Trust me, ya can't be as hard up as us.' Rick answered.

'Been way longer for me.' Daryl admits.

'What about Carol?' Rick asks.

Daryl frowns at that. 'What about her?'

'Aren't you two?' Glen adds.

Daryl snorts. 'Nah, no way.'

They all sit in silence and watch the women for a while.

'Look at her, she's doing it again.' Glen said.

Daryl's eyes trained over to Maggie, and she was wiping her neck down with a cool wet rag, staring right at Glen and then letting it dip a little low with a wink before she threw it down and ran back to regroup.

'Huh!' Rick laughed.

'That's nothing... I swear she's given be blue balls ten times in the last month, its ridiculous, yous have no idea!'

'Oh yeah I do!' Daryl agreed, if Maggie was half as good as her sister, he knew. He shifted feeling uncomfortable at the stares of the two men.

'Who?' Rick finally asked.

Daryl panicked internally for a moment, he thought about telling them, but there was no way they'd believe him, and even if they did, they'd both beat his sorry ass for thinking it anyway. He shrugged. 'Gotta be any single one?' He smirked, and they seemed to buy that with nods and chuckles as they remarked on various girls.

That's when Beth really did it, she ran over to add the score, previously she had told Daryl the score and he had stood on the edge of the bench and written it, but this time Beth ran over and snatched the chalk, leaning up past him, her breast almost smooching in his face, but he moved it in time. When she couldn't reach she stepped up one foot between his legs and the other one the other side of him, she steadied herself using his shoulder and he instinctively put his hand around her thigh making sure she didn't fall, she scribbled the score, and stepped back down, passing him the chalk, she glanced at the other two who were looking at the players.

And then she looked straight to his crouch and licked her lips with a wink before she ran off. He almost wanted to scream 'Did you idiots not see that?' But it was so far out of the realm of possibility that they had hardly even noticed her there.

They'd notice he was hard a few minutes after that, and Glen would say something, Daryl would obviously look at him and make some comment about how Glen must be too, only no one could see his tiny chinaman dick and maybe that's why Maggie was teasing him so bad. coz she hadn't managed to find it yet. Rick would laugh at that and they'd all go their separate ways, no one would think it was Beth that did it.

Oh yeah that wasn't as bad as that thing a few months before that at the new year's part, it was like a thing, Daryl looked after everyone pretty good, so when it came to celebrations, Rick always made sure he was off from all responsibilities, so he could enjoy himself. So yeah again he was smashed, and he'd wondered off down a corridor and he heard them counting down. No one actually knew if Glen had set the time perfectly, but they set a countdown timer, he head them all counting down, but he was bummed out and wanted to be alone, they were at three when he heard the shuffle of shoes and turned around coming eye to eye with Beth.

'Three, two , one!' And she leant up and crushed her lips to his, he was too drunk to fight it, he let her do it, and hell when she pulled back he pushed her into the wall and kissed her right on back, he even let himself rutt against her for a minute or two.

'Curious huh?' He teased as he pushed himself against her. 'Why aren't ya with Zach? Ain't curious about him huh?' he asked before claiming her mouth again.

It was weird, because later he would remember this, and he would think that somehow he knew exactly how to kiss her, first time was always a little strange, even if you're two people that can kiss well, you have to learn each other, this wasn't though, he felt like he had done it before.

'I'm where I wanna be... you're here and I'm happy.' She smiled and she tried to kiss him again, but he pushed her back down this time, his brow knitting together, because that almost sounded familiar.

That's when her father rounded the corner.

'Beth there you are!' He paused as he eyed Daryl almost slumped against his daughter but not quiet.

'Sorry daddy, just helping Daryl to his cell.' She commented pulling his arm around her. 'I'll be back in a minute.'

She pulled him along and pushed him onto his bed, he felt her hand on his hip and it traced so lightly over his hardness that he thought it might be his imagination, but then she leant down. 'Just like saint paddys day huh?'

And with that she was gone, and he was left wondering what she meant.

A very long time from now they will laugh about that night, and she will tell him that she only dated Zach because he told her too, she did like him, he was nice, but he wasn't Daryl.

She will confess that she was trying for months to flirt with him and thought she was useless at it, and he will tell her she's anything but useless at it... and then he will regret telling her that, because then he will be in Glens position, and Glen will laugh at him and ask if Beth's gone blind and lost his dick, because he seems to be having the same problem that he had teased Glen for all that time ago.

Daryl will smirk and say something about not being able to lose something that's twelve inches long and Rick will tell him that he's seen the guy pee and it really didn't look that big.

They'll all snort at that, and maybe they'd all sort of know one day... a very long time from now, but no one will ever really know. Right now before the fall of the prison before it turns into anything, it isn't anything, and she does it so rarely it might not even be there, but it is, mostly though he knows she's just playing with him, she's not serious about it.

Beth is defiantly a god-damn-fucking-cock-tease.

Only Daryl knows that.

9.

She has Irish blood in her too.

He is sitting in the guard tower and it's the middle of the night, Ricks spending more time with Judith now and she's just lonely so she still comes up, she's cut her hand on the rusty ladder and its deep, but not dangerous.

It's funny that it happened, because Daryl just cut his hand trying to realign his crossbow.

It's the first thing she says when she steps up.

'Ouch, I cut myself!' She complains holding up her hand.

Daryl smirks and holds up his own. 'Me too.'

She frowns and flops beside him. 'You don't have to be a copycat.'

'Yeah.' He laughed.

'You ok though?' She asks.

He nods. 'You?'

'I'm fine, I wished I was all tough and brave like you though.' She remarks because really it is stinging. 'Must be that Irish blood huh?' She only says it because the whole st Patricks day was only two days ago.

Daryl shrugs, 'Maybe ya bloods just weak, what are ya anyway?'

'We're Swedish... Danish, French, Ukrainian... English.' She answers.

'Yeah weak European blood, painters and poets, blood.' He smirks, not really because they were weak, but because they weren't Irish.

Beth slaps him but then realizes her hand hurts. 'I'd be really annoyed with you if you weren't my best friend!'

'Best friend huh?'

Beth shrugs, 'Yeah...blood brothers?' She asks and he frowns. 'C''mon, I know it's stupid... but give me some of that bad ass Irish blood, and I'll give you my talented European cocktail...'

Yeah he thinks it's stupid, but he lets her grab his hand and press their palms together... and he doesn't let go, he holds her hand for a long time, until their palms are warm and sticky and she's asleep on his shoulder and he doesn't mind knowing his blood is somewhere in her now.

She won't tell anyone, he knows it, but yeah he notices she's got a little more fight in her, he knows his blood doesn't actually run through her veins, but he wondered if a little of his spirit did, because hers was defiantly in him now, and it might have nothing to do with blood at all, but it was there, and he was sure, somewhere he was in her.

So yeah no one else knows but.

Beth now has some Irish blood in her too.

10.

She kissed him first.

He finds this out at that new year's party when she kissed him, he'd seen her kiss Zach before so that wasn't her first kiss, but he knows that they had kissed before even if he didn't remember it.

Then she leant down and told him. 'Just like st paddys huh?'

And as quickly as that she was gone and he was left thinking about it, only he didn't because he remembers now.

That's a secret only he knows. Before anyone else...

She kissed him first.

11.

Judith was always theirs.

Neither of them knew it at first, they both loved her more than anything, but they didn't know. Not until she called them daddy and mommy respectively.

'I know I should tell her not to do it.' He comments after she calls him daddy.

'But it sounds right?' Beth offered.

He drops his eyes because it's shameful.

'It doesn't matter if Ricks there now... you have been from the start... I think that's what a father is.' She admits.

'you've taken to motherin' her pretty well.'

Beth smiles neither of them say anything after that, but when Daryl leaves to go take a piss he presses his lips to her cheek, and then to Judith's head. 'Our girl.' And the unbridled affection in his voice is impossible to miss.

Its years after that nearly two years after when he finds her again, after the prison, when Carol walks up holding Judith and his heart skips a beat. He takes her as soon as Rick is willing to hand her over and he hides her in his warm embrace and murmurs to her that he's sorry he lost her mummy, but he will always be here. Of course he finds Beth too, so it became irrelevant,

But one day in more than a decade's time, Judith will tell Daryl that they felt like her real parents, not the stranger called lorrie or the man who is probably her father, but Daryl and Beth.

And he will kiss her head and whisper. 'Our girl.' In her ear, and somewhere in her heart she will remember a family that met on hushed nights in a guard tower and she will know that's the truest family she ever knew.

Daryl knows, Beth knows and Judith knows, no one else ever will, but...

Judith was always theirs

12.

Beth might not be a Catholic anymore.

He finds it out on the road. When he tells her what it means to be a protestant.

She somehow agrees they don't need a church to pray, that actions are more important than faith, she gets it, and then she favours his prayers, the ones that aren't recited, aren't through saints, she prays like him after a while and he just knows.

She has only on request.

'Just don't tell Maggie.'

He nods. 'Ok.'

That's it, they never speak about it again.

But now he knows...

She might not be catholic anymore.

There's one thing he Just found out though.

1.

She loves him too.

She's not just curious, she's not just his blood sister or best friend.

He told her before she said it, it was when he first saw her after terminus and after he got over being winded by the fact that she was alive he ran to her and he couldn't help tell her.

He couldn't stop muttering. 'oh-my-god-my-god-oh-god-oh-god-you're-ok-god-oh-my-god-beth-god-i-missed-you.' And without his conscious permission his words switched to, 'i-love-you-i-loved-you-beth-i-love-you-beth-love-never-letting-you-go-love-you-so-much-i-love-you-i-love-you-i-love-you.'

And then as Maggie tried to take over the hug he felt her fingers prick against him and he just understood that it was as important for her to hold onto him as it was for him to hold onto her.

He kissed her and he refused to let her go for days.

Maybe it was for more than days... yeah he refused to ever let her go... because she loved him too.

Later Beth will ask how long Daryl's known he loves her for and he will tell her it's been at least since he started bringing her those damn pansies.

When he asks her how long she has loved him for she asks him how he knows she loves him because he has said it a thousand times but she hasn't got to say it yet.

He smiles and listens to the words that light up his world, and then she admits she can't remember how long for, but it's been a very long time.

There will be one final one she keeps now, but one day when it's irrelevant he will confess it.

1.

It was never curiosity.

'I loved you from the day you told me my pastry was like a rock... I didn't always know it but now I think about it... that's when I fell in love with you.

A/N there you go guys, it's a little different, but I hope you enjoyed it anyway. Please review. :D