Exhausted.

They all were. They felt it set deep in their bones, to the point where everyone collapsed on the barn ground, unable to stay awake any longer. Beth had slept a little bit next to Maggie's side, but woke up to the sound of thunder overhead again, the storm close. The loud clashing sound made her eyes flash open, jolting her out of some dream that made no sense, just images all put together. The sound of thunder, the loud crack of noise from above, it reminded her of the sound of the gun going off right before the bullet went through her head.

She flinched. Not a memory she wanted to relive.

But then again, she wasn't there for the worst part—the aftermath. Maggie had let it slip she thought she didn't want to go on anymore after that, how she thought about giving up and joining the rest of the family. She also told her how Daryl had carried Beth down all those flights of stairs until they got outside. Torture, that was what it must have been for him. He had felt responsible, even for her silly mistake with Dawn. Shot her right in the head too, right after Beth hit the floor, that was what Glenn told her.

Eye for an eye.

Yeah, that was not the reason he took her life and Beth knew it. It wasn't purely revenge. Daryl shot Dawn out of heartbreak.

She didn't blame him. Beth would have done the same had the situation been reversed. She really would have. That was because she was different now, and he meant more to her now than ever before. She couldn't imagine losing him, not in the way that he did with her.

But there was other things to concern herself with other than imaginary situations. She had been back with the group for not even twenty four hours and their lives had already been threatened numerous times, by numerous elements. Could she really complain though? They were all together again, with the exception of Bob and Tyreese, who had fallen victims to the world's unkind side. She said a prayer for them and for Sasha, even though she had questioned her own faith in the past couple of months.

Beth tried to close her eyes again and get some more sleep but she couldn't and knew why. Looking around, Daryl wasn't among those sleeping and it unnerved her. Not having him close made her feel uneasy to the point where she placed her palms onto the ground and hoisted herself up so she could search for him.

Lightening flashed through the old barn doors, the same ones that they held a herd of walkers back from hours before, until the pressure from the other side dwindled and then vanished when the storm got violent. They didn't open the doors at all, didn't need to compromise their safety. For once, the weather was on their side and the wind must have torn the dead away from their safe place for the night.

Beth wandered around a few dark corners until she found him sitting all by himself on the far side of the barn, away from anyone's eyes. She watched him for a little bit, cheek leaned up against the wooden beam of the barn. He looked tired too, yet refused to go to sleep. She lightly cleared her throat to alert him of her presence, to which Daryl seemed not too surprised about.

There was a tension between them, more intense than before and more centralized. They both knew it, felt it. There was no questioning about what it was either, they could tell.

Beth licked her lips before she approached. "You need some rest," she acknowledged, keeping her voice down, though she was sure the others would not wake.

"Someone's gotta keep watch."

They both froze.

He didn't mean to repeat it, just happened that those words all came together. Still, the memories all flooded back and Beth found herself reminiscing all the time alone spent with Daryl. Well, most of the memories, at least. Her prior memories were a little fuzzy do to the bullet. There were many things about the past she didn't remember, but Daryl was not one of them. The memories about him and the shack, the porch, the woods, the funeral home, they were crystal clear.

What she didn't remember was ever leaving the funeral home and how she ended up at the hospital. The in-between wasn't there at all, and perhaps there was a reason for that. Maybe she didn't need to know.

Part of her wished they could have stayed there in the funeral home longer, maybe even forever. The two of them together. They would have made it work. Of course they would have.

They already had.

"It's dangerous to not have enough sleep, Daryl," she commented, sitting down on the ground in front of him and pulled her legs up so she could rest her chin on her knees. The floor was much cooler than the rest of the barn, the weather having turned for the worst and chilling the surrounding air. None of them minded much though, not after a rare heat wave had ripped along Virginia and had them sweating all day. "Sleep deprivation doesn't help when trying to escape walkers…or worse."

"Or worse?" he questioned, carving into the floor with her knife. "You mean the people who are left."

Daryl continued to pick around the edges of her knife, the one she had left at the hospital. It had been the only thing he had that was hers—other than her heart—and kept it close at all times. Daryl picked the sheath off the ground and put the knife into place. He turned it around and held it out for her to take. "It's yours."

Beth reached out and took it gratefully, securing the weapon onto her side where she could easily grab it if necessary. "Daryl," she sighed, not entirely sure of what to say next.

He was having trouble looking at her ever since she got back. She would only catch him when she was looking the other direction and abruptly turned his way to check if his eyes had been on her. She thought maybe he was too ashamed about losing her and leaving her body behind at the hospital that he had somehow made it up in his mind that she was angry or upset about what had happened.

She wasn't. Not at all. And most certainly not towards Daryl.

"We should talk about it."

It was a heavy statement. She was referring to a lot of things at once. The funeral home, the feelings, the kidnapping, the time apart and where he went, the journey to and away from the hospital. She had some apologies up her sleeve too, for being so stupid and stabbing Dawn in the first place.

"I never meant to leave you," she blurted out her thoughts. "If I could, I'd do it all over again and walk out of there with you."

Another heavy statement, more than the one before. But the truth needed to be said. Beth needed to get it off her chest and Daryl needed to hear it.

"I'm so sorry," she breathed out, a sharp inhale following to keep more words from tumbling out before she could think them through.

Daryl shook his head back and forth as it was hung towards the floor, then pulling it up and letting it rest against the wall behind him. It was the first time he had really looked at her, and she meant really look at her. "No," he told her. "I'm sorry. It's my fault. I should've protected ya from the beginning. Should've never opened that door."

His voice cracked at the end. Beth could hear the pain coming through.

She took a shaky breath and scooted closer to him as another crack of thunder hit from over them, shaking the barn and rattling a few hanging metal pieces of equipment. A flash of lightning struck through again as well and Beth saw Daryl more clearly in that split second. He was full of dirt, arms exposed with scratches on them from tree branches he probably didn't bother to avoid. His eyes looked duller, less full of light, like a tortured soul that had been wandering around for too long. "Nothin' would have happened if I had just checked before…"

Then it was Beth's turn to rapidly shake her head back and forth. "It's not like that," she insisted. "Somethin' else could have happened. Maybe I really would have ended up dead if things didn't go the way they did. Maybe it just happened the way it did for a reason."

"I would kept you safe."

It shut her up. Beth felt as if there would be no convincing Daryl that he was not to blame, not at the stage they were at.

"You can't take responsibility for my actions," she firmly spoke back. "I was the one who made the mistake and stabbed Dawn. That was me. That was what made the gun go off. If you want to feel bad about letting your guard down and opening the door, then fine, go ahead. But you don't get to feel guilty for what happened at the hospital. That's on me. And only me."

Daryl dropped his eyes again and she followed where they went. The scar. The one right on his hand. She had never noticed it before, but she guessed Daryl did a good job of hiding it from her. It looked like it had been painful to receive and she knew all too well that it had been self-inflicted and not an accident.

Beth took his hand gently and held it in her own two, cradling Daryl's scarred one. "What happened?"

"Cigarette," he replied right away.

"Ouch," Beth commented, trying to hold back a cringe. "That must have hurt."

"Not enough."

Double ouch, only that time Beth was the one who felt the twist in her gut. Not enough. It made her realize how much she had underestimated the extent of Daryl's pain.

She squeezed his hand. "You see? This is why I'm so sorry. I didn't mean for you to go through this and I never would want you to have to feel—"

"You didn't force me to care so much 'bout you," he interrupted. "Just happened. And then you were…dead…and it was too much. Couldn't deal with it. Didn't know how." Daryl reached out slowly with his other hand towards her face, moving a stray piece of hair from her ponytail away. His thumb ran along the scar on her cheek that had healed to form a red line. "Beth," he whispered. She could hear the guilt in his voice that time.

"Don't," she warned him. It wasn't fair that Daryl wanted to take all the blame for her being kidnapped, for what happened at the hospital, for the shot to the head, and the leaving her behind after they thought she was dead and gone. "Just don't. You don't have to. Not anymore."

He looked up at her, eyes shameful and somewhat glossy from what was him holding back tears. "I'm sorry," he choked out, another apology.

One day he would figure out it wasn't really his fault, but it wouldn't be anytime soon.

Following that, Beth was brave. Braver than she had been before, maybe braver than she ever would be again. She got up from her sitting position and moved closer to Daryl, slowly kneeled down, legs on the opposite side of Daryl's thighs, his legs sliding out and then laid flat against the flooring. Beth grabbed his face and smashed her lips against his the way she had wanted to for a while, she just hadn't realized the desire to until he was no longer there. It was a sweet, innocent kiss, one that was over briefly as Beth pulled away to look at Daryl.

He ran his tongue over his bottom lip and then rubbed them together. "It's okay," she told him, trying to soothe the pain and at the same time trying to hold back her own steam of tears. "I'm here now. I'm here with you. That's what we've got now."

A few tears spilled over then, Daryl's chest heaved and he lost his normal breathing pattern. "You were gone. And I've never…never felt so alone." With the confession out of the way, Daryl tilted his head forward and rested his forehead on Beth's chest. She wrapped her arms around him, elbows on his shoulder and hands placed on the back of his head, and held on tight, letting him get the emotion out while her chin rested on the top of his head.

There was so much pain and heartbreak between them. So much time to make up for.

Beth got the feeling it hadn't been the first time that Daryl had cried about her. She stroked his long hair that was still damp from the rain as the tears stopped after a minute or so and his chest heaving came to a stop. He didn't move, however. Daryl stayed put, turning his head to the side to rest it against her chest. She felt his cheek bones move with his jaw as his lips stayed parted and she felt the hot air on her skin.

Beth closed her eyes and took in a deep, much needed breath of air. She had missed him, missed him with all her heart. And though it was awful to say, she had missed Daryl the most out of everyone, even her own sister. But she couldn't feel bad about that, considering Maggie had told her she believed Beth had been dead all along. She understood why. Beth had been weak last time Maggie saw her, knew her.

But she was different now. Changed. She had evolved with the help of Daryl.

He knew that too. Daryl saw the transformation in her, especially after the hospital. Her time there had taught her a lot, like how people will manipulate in any way to get what they want, even if it meant hurting people. Or killing them.

Beth had done that. She had killed. And yet, for some strange reason, it didn't feel as bad as she thought it would. Her conscious wasn't nagging at her every day. Maybe that was part of the world's way of helping her survive, keeping her alive. Killing was part of the job now. But something she had trouble with, the question she couldn't answer, was did it count as murder if the people on the other end were asking for it?

She could think of a certain cop who took advantage of women who fit that profile. Beth didn't acknowledge his name; she didn't feel bad for him. In fact, Beth was glad she hit him over the head with the glass jar and sent him to his fate. He deserved it. And maybe some people now just did.

With Daryl's legs were straight out in front of him, Beth took the opportunity to sit down on the upper part of his thighs, her own legs spreading out on the other side of his. Daryl's hand cupped her cheek, then traced over the scar again. She knew about his, the ones on his back. She had seen them a few times and Daryl had finally explained to her what they were from. Beth remembered how ashamed and embarrassed he was of them, the look on his face as he had told her, the way he wouldn't look directly at her. The one so obvious on her cheek now must anger him. He had gone to such extreme lengths to keep his hidden, and now she had her own scars right on her face for everyone to see.

That was the thing though, they didn't bother her. Maybe they would have had she not known Daryl's story, but after what she went through and the struggle to find her family again, a red line on her face was the least of her worries.

"Just a scar," she reminded him.

It hit home for him. Daryl sighed and flashed his eyes over to where the others were asleep behind a wall, hearing the stirring noise of someone on the hay. They both knew that no one was going to get up anytime soon. It was just the two of them awake.

"When you were gone," Daryl started. "I, I—"

"You can tell me," she encouraged, placing a hand on the side of his head to steady his eye contact. "You can say it."

"Felt like I lost everythin'. There was nothin' left. No reason to go on." Beth nodded along as he spoke, understanding the words on a deep level. "I felt dead inside."

She knew the feeling.

"When I woke up," Beth whispered, outlining Daryl's bottom lip with her thumb and watching as his eyes drifted shut momentarily. "I thought that I'd never see anyone again. Not Maggie, not Glenn. Or Rick. Or Judith. Or you. And all I could think was that it literally did feel like the end of the world. It killed me inside." She took another thoughtful moment to choose her words correctly. "But in the end, I found you all. And I've never been more grateful."

The chain on the barn door clashed against the wood because of the wind, spooking Beth because she had been so focused on the emotion of what she was saying. Daryl's eyes snapped over that way and Beth twisted her neck around to make sure no walkers were trying to get in. But it was all secure, they were both just rattled from the previous conversation that their senses were heightened.

"Just the wind," Daryl assured her in a deep voice.

She turned back. "Daryl?"

"Yeah?"

"What I feel for you…it's something else. I've never felt it before." There it was, out in the open. Honestly, she couldn't keep it in any longer. Beth needed Daryl to know how she felt. She took his hand and placed it onto her chest. "I know you feel it too."

And he stared at her, only the light from the small dying fire to the side making their features visible. He wouldn't deny what she said because it was the damn truth. Closest thing to it.

"Beth," he mumbled, only making her scoot closer and licked her lips.

"Daryl," she said his name back. "It's okay, remember? I'm here."

"You're here," he repeated.

She got the sense that maybe he had not fully believed it in the hours she had been there. But Daryl was a complicated individual, she had grown to realize that about him. She had also grown to love him and he held a special place in her heart. Daryl needed guidance, required patience, and wanted love even if he didn't consciously know that.

"Just kiss me again," Beth ordered, a small laugh escaping. It was all she really wanted.

A few seconds passed by and he looked indecisive until Daryl gave in to his own strong desire and placed his lips onto hers. It was better than the first time, much better, in every way. Beth let her torso press into him, grabbing at the worn and old angel vest of his, the material scrunching up into her palms.

There were a lot of gasps for air in between hot and heavy kisses. It seemed like they wanted to devour each other entirely.

Daryl's hands hesitantly went from his side up to her thighs, then brought her closer to him, if that was even possible. She was practically plastered up against him, feeling the muscles on his abdomen from the sharp breaths of air he took in.

Beth yanked out the band holding up her ponytail and her hair swung down, feeling longer than before as the ends touched her lower forearms. Enough time went by and Daryl went for the gray sweater she had on, only wearing it as a protector against the teeth of oncoming walkers, if they were to get ahold of her by some unlikely chance. But his movements were rushed, heated, and full of desire. The material was off of her in no time, with the help of Beth moving her arms out.

She also did not want to wait.

Time had always been the worst enemy.

Beth grabbed at his face again to attack his mouth, tongues in the mix. She was still wearing that stupid yellow polo with blood stains on it too. The rain had washed some of it away, but barely any. The past was right there on her shirt for everyone to see, even herself. So she took it off slowly, letting her hair fall back down once it was over her head. Tossing it to the ground next to her, Beth expelled a breath that had held in. Daryl's eyes glanced over her once, twice, and then a third time until they found their way back to her eyes.

Daryl's lips were then on her neck, fingers digging into her back as she arched it into him. Her breathing had significantly picked up, and so did Daryl's. The feeling of his mouth and tongue on the skin of her sensitive neck was overwhelming.

Intoxicating.

There was no room to even think anymore, it was all Daryl. That was all that was on her mind.

Her own fingers started to work at the buttons to his dark shirt, hands flattening against his abdomen once they were all open. The angel wing vest fell off him and then the shirt, much to Beth's liking. She had seen him like that before, with no shirt, but only briefly. But the situation was much, much different that time around.

Daryl moved onto his knees, taking Beth with him in his strong arms as they wrapped around her. She bent her arms back to feel the floor beneath them, Daryl lying her down onto it carefully. The once cold floor all of a sudden was like fire on her back, along with her entire body. But all she could feel was Daryl. Her whole world was him right then.

He pressed into her and she felt the arousal through his pants, and the way that he moved his lower half against her, needing some form of friction to please him. Beth instinctively moved her hand down between them and flattened her palm against the hard member that she had previously felt on her leg. Her mouth opened out of surprise, then she quickly shut it again. Daryl groaned upon the contact, even though it was still through his clothes.

Excitement grew at a steady pace inside of her. She knew what she wanted and where this was all headed.

Beth wrapped her legs around Daryl and pulled him on her more, getting the majority of his full weight. The smell of him hit her first, the dirt mixed with woods and the sweat. It was nice, even though it might have seemed like it would be the opposite. She hoped that her travels to find her family didn't leave her smelling too awful either. However, she doubted Daryl would even care. He wouldn't be too picky.

A small moan came from her closed mouth, it sounding more like a humming noise. She was overwhelmed completely, but in the best way possible. She had never experienced anything like it before.

"Daryl," she gasped as he rocked against her more. She already started to reach for her button on her jeans. She needed to feel skin on skin. "Please. I want this."

Daryl halted her movements. "Girl," he moaned into her neck, clearly struggling to stay in control. He tilted his head get his mouth next to her ear. "Don't be sayin' that if you don't mean it. I don't know if I can hold back."

She considered it for not even a second. "Don't hold back."

Daryl repositioned so that his elbows propped himself up and he could look at Beth's face. He was panting, eyes wild, and pieces of damp hair were sticking to the sweat on his face. She ran her hands along his arms and pushed her pelvis slightly upward so that the muscles in Daryl's jaw visibly tightened. "Beth," he said again. "This ain't the place."

"We might not be alone again for a while," she boldly countered, hands drifting down Daryl's sides and landing at the edge of his pants. Although Daryl was probably right, she was determined to express what she felt in a physical way that night. "It's just us."

He was going to give in no matter what, she could sense that. He wanted this, wanted her too bad to go back. And it was exactly the same for her. The fact that their family was sleeping not too far away from the other side of the barn wall should have deterred them, but it didn't. After all, they had gone this far.

Her hands gripped at Daryl's hair, the darker strands looping around her thin fingers. She could feel the hair on his chin scratching up against the skin on her neck, then her cleavage as he ducked his head down and put his mouth onto her chest. Beth stared up at the ceiling of the barn as he did, hearing as the rain fiercely hit the sides of their safety zone for the night. Her nails dug into his scalp when he reach her navel, her flat stomach flexing when he did. Beth looked down to watch out of curiosity when she also felt her zipper being undone. Daryl swept a hand underneath her to elevate her lower half and pulled the jeans off down her legs.

He got to his knees and quickly removed them the rest of the way so that she was in nothing but her white bra and underwear. She didn't feel nervous or shy, not with it being Daryl who was there with her. She had always felt safe with him and that was no different in that moment. That was why she grabbed at the material of her underwear and started to pull them down as well, until Daryl also went for them and helped her all the way out of them.

He paused momentarily and took in the view, but Beth was too full of desire to let him linger too long. "Daryl," she quietly whispered out to him, taking off her bra and putting it next to her so she was completely naked in front on him. Daryl hooked his hands around the underneath of her knees and pulled her a little bit towards him so he could be in between them. His body was on her next, hands exploring all over her body, the new skin that was exposed to him that had never been seen or touched before.

She hadn't even been fully aware of her own arousal until Daryl's finger slipped along her opening and she noticed how wet she had become, the slickness a sign that her body was ready for this. It pleased Daryl too because he released something that sounded like half of a moan and half of a sigh.

"Fuck," he breathed out.

Beth was at that point where she knew that she needed him and needed him sooner rather than later. She tugged at his worn pants to get him to take them off. "Need you," she said, just loud enough for him to hear.

The wind kicked up even more outside, howling off in the distance as more rain pounded on the barn, still waking no one out of the group. They remained the only two that were weathering the storm.

Daryl took his hands away from her body and slipped them in between them, and she heard the sound of his zipper being pulled down. Beth grabbed at the sides of his pants and pulled them down partway, not bothering to get them off entirely. She couldn't stand the thought of allowing him to get up off of her to rid himself of them, so she locked her legs around his waist instead and let her legs rub on his.

She couldn't tell if his scarred back was covered in a thin layer of sweat or if that was just from the dampened clothes Daryl had been wearing all evening. Either way, Beth pressed harder onto Daryl's lower back and felt the ridges of his spine. She wiggled around underneath him, waiting for him to take the bait as he continued to rub his hard dick against her. He did and reached down with one hand to line himself up before pushing in without warning, filling her, and he muffled his short groan against her cheek.

She was shocked somewhat by the sudden penetration, but kept her body relaxed. It was a new experience to her but she knew the tricks to help it feel more natural, thanks to Maggie's sex tips that she had given Beth back at the prison.

Beth let out a small breath of air she had been holding in and let go of the tension in her shoulders, letting them fall flat against the ground beneath, a few stray pieces of hay poking against her back. Daryl looked straight down onto her, moving some hair away from her face, and held himself still until she would give him to green light to keep going. He brushed against her cheek affectionately and his touch made Beth feel so loved and cared for, more than any other time in her life.

She felt the most beautiful then.

The true definition of beautiful, inside and out.

And it was the best feeling the world.

Thunder crashed in the distance but she smiled anyways. It was perfect. Everything she had done to get back to this place with her family, with Daryl, it was all worth it. And when he cracked a smile back at her, Beth knew she was ready.

Daryl moved then, Beth's hands on his sides to feel the movements as Daryl went from slow and careful to a more steady and rhythmic pace. She wasn't expecting to feel much, but she had been wrong. There was a strange and unfamiliar feeling that she got as Daryl's thrusts had gotten faster and deeper, and as his noises became more frequent, ones he tried to keep quiet as much as possible by burying his head into her neck and forcing hot, sticky air onto her.

Beth didn't mind at all, not when it made her feel more aroused. She was aware of how rapid her chest was rising and falling as her lungs required more and more air the closer Daryl got and the more that the tension inside her grew. Her eyebrows were brought together and her hands found their way to Daryl's messy hair, scrunching it up.

She kept her head facing upward towards the ceiling as their bodies moved together, Beth sliding on the floor as Daryl rocked into her. The truth was, she was enjoying it. Every part of it. She was happy that she was able to give Daryl a form of escape, some sort of release that he had been in need of.

"Beth," she heard her name slip out from his lips. Her eyes fluttered as the strange pleasurable sensation hit her unexpectedly. A small noise also escaped out of her mouth as her legs tightened up around Daryl's waist, making his movements get quicker and lack the rhythm they once had.

Her head then tilted to the side and brushed against Daryl's jaw as he finished. He moved so he was able to kiss her on the mouth, sloppy and wet, but still as amazing as before, and lips still soft on her own. Daryl moaned into her when she felt his body jerk forward and come to a sudden halt as she held him there on top of her, one hand loosely in his hair and then other pressed onto his back where his shoulder blades were.

Beth never understood how beautiful a moment like that could be until she experienced it.

A soft kiss followed, then Daryl pulled out and rolled off of her and onto the ground directly next to Beth. After a minute or two, when they regained their normal heart rates, they both pulled their shirts and pants back on. They laid there in their clothes side by side and listened as the storm went away, every sound of thunder getting further away as the lightening stopped and then rain slowed down to a drizzle. They didn't say anything, no words between them. None were necessary. They both knew how they felt about each other and that was enough.

It would always be enough.

Beth curled up next to Daryl, him allowing her to rest her head on his chest with his arm around her, holding her securely. Which one of them fell asleep first, she wasn't sure, but she would place a high bet that it was her because Daryl would never allow himself to slip away into sleep without knowing that she was already there.

—

Beth's eyes opened again and there was a subtle glow of light coming through the darkness of the barn from the outside. There was a shuffling around so she picked up her head and rubbed at her eyes when her sister appeared, crouching down next to Beth.

"Hey," said Maggie. She rubbed Beth's arm lovingly and grinned at her. "I'm gonna venture outside. Come watch the sunrise with me?"

Beth looked over at Daryl, who was still sleeping peacefully. He would be resting for a while longer, after all, he really deserved the rest.

"Okay," she agreed. "But I want to be back before he wakes."

"Daryl will be fine," Maggie insisted. "You're here. Everything in his world is just fine."