As you know, this story was originally meant to be thirty chapters but I think the story reached a good stopping point in the last chapter and the story felt like maybe it was time to end. Thank you so much to all of those who have read this story and who have loved it and supported it. I hope you enjoy this last chapter!

…

Chapter Twenty-Nine. Find.

"You ready to go?" He asked her in a quiet voice even though they were the only ones around.

Beth, standing in the kitchen, nodded as she gulped down the rest of her coffee. She set the mug down in the sink to wash later and then went to the couch, tugging on her boots and quickly pulling her hair up in a ponytail.

Daryl stepped to the side so she could leave the house first and he followed, closing the door behind them, making sure it was locked.

"Alright," she smiled at him brightly. "Where to?"

He couldn't help but snicker a little. "Don't know why you're so excited. Not like we're doing anythin' glamorous."

"You're wrong, Daryl Dixon," she shook her head, still beaming up at him. "I can't think of anything better than going hunting with you."

He smirked and shook his head. He didn't know what to say to her about all of this. She had asked if she could go hunting with him when he went on Saturday morning and Daryl had had no reason to tell her no. He liked the idea of her coming hunting with him. They had been married for a month now and he supposed he was still getting used to walking into the house and having someone else there; someone who was always so damn happy to see him and someone who wanted to spend time with him. But he knew that it was all definitely something he wanted to get used to.

"We'll head this way," he said, cocking his head to the west, the crossbow resting at ease in his arms, and they set off together.

He had shown Beth how to use it but she wasn't nearly strong enough to load it herself. He was thinking about buying her a crossbow that would be easier to use by someone her size but they didn't have the money right now for something like that so right now, he held the crossbow and she walked beside him, humming softly to herself even as she walked in the quiet way he had showed her.

He smiled a little to himself as he listened to her while his eyes kept a sharp lookout for anything they could be tracking. "What is that?" He asked after a few minutes.

"Oh," Beth looked at him and then laughed a little, her cheeks pink as if she hadn't realized that he was able to hear her. "Just a new song I'm in the middle of writing. About us," she then added, throwing him a smile.

"Mmmm," he hummed more to himself than to her.

"Mmmm," she teased him, stepping closer to him and grasping his hand for a second between both of hers. And he looked at her and smiled because she was in such a good mood that morning and Beth's moods – he had learned long ago – were infectious and whatever she was feeling, he usually wound up feeling that way, too.

She let go of his hand a minute later and he almost told her that she didn't have to though he supposed he would need both hands if they were actually going to be hunting. He caught the trail of a deer – buck from the look of the scratch marks on a couple passing trees, rubbing his antlers on the bark – and Beth stood by, silently watching him as he studied the ground and the tracks with sharp, quick eyes. The deep freezer he had at the back of the house was running a little low on meat and he wanted to catch this deer so he and Beth would be set for a while. It wasn't as if they were starving. But still, he liked to be prepared in case something happened and there was nothing wrong with having a freezer full of meat.

Beth was nearly as silent as he was now, as if she knew how important this was to him, and she followed behind him as he followed the buck's tracks. He would occasionally look over his shoulder to make sure she was still there and she would give him a smile, a twinkle in her eyes, assuring him that she was definitely still here and Daryl wanted to shake his head at himself because where else would she be?

The ground began to slope downwards as they began heading down the hill and he paused in his steps, waiting for Beth until she was beside him and they could walk down together, Daryl keeping one eye on the tracks still in front of them and the other on his wife beside him, making sure she was making it down alright. It wasn't a steep drop at all but he still wanted to make sure that she didn't trip. Beth, sometimes, could be a bit clumsy.

"I've never been this way before," she said to him in a soft voice, mirroring his own hunter voice he used while in the woods.

Daryl nodded. "Gettin' kind of far from our house. Really no reason for you to be out this way," he answered.

"It's clearing up ahead," Beth noted as the trees began to thin out and they could both see the light brighter.

Daryl nodded again. "Opens into somethin' of a field. We'll see if we can follow the buck's tracks through the grass. Prob'ly went into the woods on the other side."

Beth nodded her head and followed him through the trees, stepping from the woods into the nearly waist-high grass. She turned her head and placed her hand above her eyes to shield them from the glaring sun.

"Oh, I know where we are," she said once she laid eyes upon the delapitated old farmhouse. It had been standing there for her entire life and long before that, too. She knew someone owned it but she didn't know why they just didn't tear it down. She couldn't imagine anyone able to fix it up to being something livable again. She looked to Daryl who was now crouching down, studying the grass. "I wonder why they just don't tear the house down," she said, looking back to the house.

Daryl stood up and looked past her to the house, too. "Prob'ly some historical house or somethin'. Against the law to tear things like that down."

"I bet it was an amzing house in its heyday," Beth said. "A big Southern farmhouse like that. Probably had parties all of the time." She looked to Daryl and smiled. "We should throw a party."

Daryl just snorted at that and didn't say anything as he shook his head.

Beth giggled slightly and stepped to him, slipping her arms around his waist.

He looked down at her. "Wanna take a closer look?" He asked.

"No way." She refused so quickly and shook her head so fiercely, Daryl couldn't help but crack a smile at that. "It looks like a thousand people were murdered in there."

He snickered at that and his hand lifted to the back of her neck, lowering his lips to hers in a kiss, and Beth eagerly pressed her lips back to his. Even after being together all of this time, and now being married, he still rarely iniated kisses between them and whenever he did, Beth was more than happy to reciprocate.

"Come on," Daryl pulled his lips back and gave her hip a squeeze. "We gotta deer we gotta get back to trackin'."

"Right behind you," she beamed up at him and Daryl couldn't help but lean back down for one more short kiss.

He then turned and began heading across the field towards the woods on the other side and as promised, Beth followed behind. But she found herself walking at a slow pace and for some reason, she found her eyes lingering on the house in the distance.

Right now, the house was dirty, dark and quite possibly haunted but Beth looked at it and could actually imagine just how beautiful it had once looked and thought of how sad it was that someone had let it fall into such dispair.

She looked forward and saw that Daryl was standing at the edge of the woods, waiting for her, looking at her with a quizical expression and Beth hurried to catch up to him. She gave him a smile and when he stepped into the woods, she followed.

She cast only one more look over her shoulder at the house and she found herself hoping that someone would someday buy that house and make it beautiful again.

…

The End.

Thank you so much for reading and please review one last time!