OFFICIAL

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

A/N: I'm sorry this took so long to get this up. I just couldn't find my muse but with the impending Season 6 mid-premiere I seemed to have found it again. I hope it doesn't disappoint (as last nights episode certainly did not - okay that's the only spoiler if you are behind). I'm not completely done with this little story but I thought I'd at least start it to keep me motivated. This follow up to HOME will not be as long or angst ridden but will have lots of Bethyl. I own nothing of TWD I just like to pretend for a bit in their universe.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

CHAPTER 1

Daryl knew it was a dream, he knew it instantly but he didn't care. It was a memory; a favorite of his from the prison, not that he would have admitted it at the time.

It was the wedding day of Glenn and Maggie. Preparations had been going on all day. People were skittering about arranging tables and getting spare decorations up. There were a couple of forlorn looking crepe white wedding bells, some garland of ivy and wildflowers were draped about. The walkers at the fence had been cleared aggressively for the past two days and all rotten corpses had been burned, as many as possible. It was the first time the group had massively tried to dispose of the rotting menace. It had gone fairly well. Daryl had led the charge, not wanting to get sucked into other wedding preparation festivities. The goofy look on Glenn and the dreamy one on Maggie was enough to cause Daryl to keep his distance.

He was filthy after two days of hard work. Daryl was covered in blood and grime, streaked with smoky soot from the last raging fire. Carol had found him lurking on the edge of the prison and ordered him straight to the showers. Daryl protested as much as he could, unleashing some choice curses in her general direction, but Carol took them without flinching. With a hand on her bony hip and the other pointed in the direction of the showers, she ushered him to his fate.

Carl delivered him a washed pair of dark blue jeans and a black shirt. Daryl sneered as he took them from the kid as he considered tossing them to the side but knew better than to go against Carol's wishes. As he dressed, Daryl was at least grateful it wasn't a button up or polo shirt, but it was nicer than just a plain cotton shirt he preferred. He'd survive for the night Daryl guessed; at least the black would help him blend into the background. Carol had ruined his plan to never attend in the first place. Weddings weren't his thing. They were full of crying women, flowers being thrown about, crowds of loud and laughing people, everyone pushing and hugging and greeting and smiling as they milled about. Daryl had been willing to do anything to get out of attending, he even offered to do watch duty in the tower but the stupid Woodbury folk had taken that opportunity tonight. Glenn, Maggie, Rick, and Hershel had insisted he attend so in the end he did.

As Daryl dreamed, he relived the memory of himself watching Hershel standing up in front of the small crowd with his eldest daughter and Glenn. No brilliant white and gaudy dress on the bride. Maggie was dressed in a simple beige sun dress with small pink roses blossoming across it. Maggie wore it well along with the undying smile on her face. Glenn was wearing grey slacks that Beth had altered the week prior and a blue button up shirt along with a bright, cheery grin lighting his face up.

The best part of the dream memory, the one he didn't mind viewing over and over again, was of Beth as she came into view as the crowd of heads parted. Beth was standing up next to her sister, clutching Maggie's bouquet of wildflowers as the happy couple held hands while exchanging vows. Daryl was beyond listening to Hershel's poetic words of hardship, love, strength, and marriage when Beth came into sight. Suddenly, his entirety was focused on the unexpected blonde vixen that had materialized from nothing before him. Beth wore a simple pale yellow dress, perhaps a size too small but they worked with what they had in the apocalypse. Her golden hair was unbound save for two small barrettes that clasped her hair from her face, framing it. Her high cheeks were pink and her eyes sparkled with unshed tears of happiness in the low light of evening. Her long legs, unhampered by pants, were toned and shaped below the knee length hem. The sweetheart top of her dress strained against her chest, creating more cleavage than Daryl had ever seen on the young woman, not that he had ever looked.

Who had Beth been before that moment in Daryl's eyes? A crying teenage brat back at the farm or a clingy mouse of a girl while on the road during their winter struggle. At the prison, Beth had found some footing, a purpose with Judith. Daryl found he loved to listen to her singing, secretly eavesdropping as she crooned to the small infant. But never, ever was Beth a woman in his eyes, an object of lust or desire. Daryl had looked at the various women at the prison; he did from time to time. What man didn't, married or not? There was a sly peek as a woman bent low, down her shirt or at the rounded curve of her behind when no one was looking. But never had Daryl seen Beth like that before. She was taboo, she was a child. Right? Not a woman, not the young desirable curved beauty before him.

Daryl knew he should look away but couldn't help but keep his eyes trained on her. He found he just couldn't look away from her sparkling beauty. He tried to hide it as he watched the happy couple march away, married and smiling as everyone clapped, but his true focus was always on her. Beth must have noticed as she followed the newlyweds down the makeshift aisle; a shy blushing smile sent in his direction was enough for Daryl to drop his eyes, but they didn't stay away from her form for long. He tried his damnedest not to be obvious with his ogling as he took his place for dinner, sitting to the side and talking a little with Rick. Through dinner and the celebration that followed, Daryl watched. His eyes grazing over her body in ways he would only dream about for months afterwards, in ways he finally had allowed himself to do recently.

He knew he had to stop, before it was creepy or before he was caught. The tightening of his pants was evidence enough that he needed to. Daryl walked away from the gathering; it was hard to leave when she was so close. Hell, everything was hard.

Walking to the outskirts of the party, Daryl took a seat on a bench and lit one of his precious cigarettes. He drew in the calming smoke and wondered what the hell was wrong with him. Beth was just a teenage girl. A little… his thoughts were interrupted as she flashed before him again. Beth was dancing with two smaller girls, Mika and Lizzy. As she twirled with the girls; it was easy to compare them. Beth wasn't a girl anymore, the contrast highlighting her new status of budding womanhood. Her head was thrown back, mouth open and laughing. Her long limbs were maneuvering gracefully as the three danced in a circle. Her face was flushed and tinged pink, blue eyes twinkling as her smile reached them.

Fuck. Daryl knew he was screwed as he continued to keep the vision of Beth in the corner of his eye. At least for tonight he was, a long and lonely night. Daryl was used to them but once in a while, he got this urge, this need for companionship. It was something he hadn't felt since the whole world had gone to shit more than a year before.

Daryl breathed in another long, calming drag from his cigarette, blowing the smoke from his nostrils. He couldn't stop his eyes from finding her, keeping her in his sight, as he sat on the bench. However, he wasn't distracted enough not to notice Hershel ambling his way. Daryl tried to shift his eyes away as much as possible, but her glittering laughter would draw him back, almost raising a smile to his usually stoic face.

The older gentleman walked closer and closer, Daryl shifting uncomfortably. He was usually at calm with Hershel, the man was wise and easy to talk to but somehow, someway, Daryl had this feeling he knew. This man knew Daryl was staring at his baby girl and was coming to talk to him; he could feel his ears grow hot and cursed under his breath. He flicked his eyes to the approaching man and Hershel nodded as he stepped closer. Fuck. Hershel was coming to talk to him.

Hershel lowered himself to the bench next to Daryl. He sat close but not too close; the older man knew Daryl liked his space. There was no touching; it was obvious from the months spent together as a sign plastered to his back would have been.

"Daryl," Hershel greeted in that calm, low voice of his.

"Hershel," Daryl responded, not looking to his new company. His eyes were off to the side, not able to meet the older man's gaze.

"Wondrous sight to see, isn't it?" Hershel said, a quirk of a smile on his lips as he looked out at the wedding crowd before them.

Daryl froze, cigarette almost to his lips. What was wondrous? Beth? What was Hershel saying? Rather than incriminate himself, Daryl gave his answer in a noncommittal grunt, his favorite communication.

Hershel gave a low chuckle, understanding the complicated archer seated next to him more than Daryl might have truly understood. "I doubted I would ever hear the laughter of children again if you would have asked me six months ago," the older man said, nodding his head to the dancing girls.

Beth had stopped, breathless with laughter and clapping as the others toddled around her in a circle. More people were gathering to dance with the happy group.

"Winter was hard," Daryl mumbled, feeling free to bring his craving eyes back to Beth. She was torturous to him without even trying. Her smiling face, flushed with rosy cheeks, and her heaving chest with those creamy tops of her breasts were a delight to his starving eyes.

Hershel took in a deep breath, bringing both his hands to rest on the cane in front of him between his knees. "Yes, it was, but we made it. Now we have this community and I see the hope in everyone. The promise of beginning again."

Daryl grunted again. He understood Hershel's perspective; he just could never get behind it. The world was never like that for him, happy and full of sunshine and rainbows. Daryl never got lemonade out of lemons, mostly just a lemon thrown at his head when he wasn't looking. Hell, he could hear the groans of the gathering dead behind him, just beyond the fence. They had cleared them for two days and the walkers were already back, most likely drawn by the happy celebration they allowed. Hope? A new beginning? It was hard to move forward when death hunted you constantly. Daryl wasn't going to rain on the old man's parade, so the grunt was the best he could do for an answer.

Almost as if Hershel understood the younger man's darker thoughts, he turned to Daryl. "I know it probably won't last. It's just not the world we live in now, but I hope it does. I pray it does, but deep down I'm a realist. Just as I know that, I know we are strong, our group. Just like we've done before, I know we can survive again. I only worry about one thing though."

Daryl took the cigarette from his lips, blowing some to the side as his eyes looked at where Hershel's missing leg was. A death sentence of sorts in this world.

Hershel tapped the wood appendage. "No, not this. I know this would be a problem but I don't worry about me. My time will come and I know that. I'm grateful every day for the extra time the Lord and Rick's quick thinking gave me. It allowed me this." Hershel tipped his cane out to the crowd. "To see the marriage of Maggie. No, I worry about my Beth. She's young. She's… not like the rest of us. I don't know if she can be hard enough for this world." He sighed and looked over to Daryl, his blue eyes earnest. "Maggie, she's got Glenn. I know that man loves my daughter and she'll be safe while she's with him. They've got each other and they can make it. Rick, he's come back. He's got Carl and Judith. He'll always be strong for them. Sasha and Tyreese, those two siblings have an unbreakable bond of strength between them. Carol and Michonne, they are strong women. But Beth…"

"You ain't gotta worry. She's part of us. She'll be taken care of," Daryl offered uncharacteristically, knowing how tight their group had become. Even if Beth was the most unknown to him out of all of them, Daryl knew she was still one of them.

The old man breached protocol and placed a soft hand to Daryl's knee, patting it twice. "I know you will, son, I know you will." The touch didn't set off his defenses as it normally did and it was over quickly. It felt, well shit, it felt almost normal. Carol was about the only person who could touch him without making him jump or snap but only for the briefest of touches and as long as he knew it was coming.

Daryl was still contemplating the normalcy of the touch when the elderly man rose slowly, balancing his weight on his cane and his one good leg. "You know, one is never good enough until he is," Hershel said as he looked out. Maggie and Glenn were entwined and dancing, holding each other close. "And when he is, he's your family too."

Daryl looked out at the happy couple, not completely understanding the old man's words and letting a snort escape him.

The evidence of that fact must have been apparent on his face too because Hershel smiled down at him and gave him a gentle fatherly squeeze to his shoulder. "You'll understand. Someday, you will. And when you do, son, you'll understand all the meaning behind my words." And with that, Hershel left Daryl alone on the bench with his smoke in his hand and a question on his face.

Daryl pulled his face from his pillow, blinking awake from the fresh dream. It wasn't the usual one for him. His dreams usually centered around Beth and the way the dress formed to her body. The talk with Hershel was new. It took him a moment to drag up the actual memory, to recall if it was a dream or it if it had really happened. Daryl remembered the dancing crowd and all that but it was minute before he could actually confirm with his own sleepy mind that he did recall talking to Hershel while on the outskirts as he tried to slip away but was held there by the vision of the dancing, smiling beauty before him. But had their conversation gone like that? Daryl wasn't certain Hershel had told him he knew Daryl would take care of Beth, he was almost certain Hershel had said he knew everyone would, hadn't he?

You know, one is never good enough until he is… Hershel's calm, deep voice echoed those words in his head again and again.

Daryl looked to the blonde curled up at his side. Beth was sleeping; he almost always woke before she did. Daryl enjoyed the quiet moments before she did, allowing him to look at her unabashed. God, she was beautiful and she was his.

He loved her, Daryl knew that as same as he was certain the sky was blue and the sun rose in the east. He just hadn't told her yet. It was there, always almost out and on the tip of his tongue when Beth said it to him, when she looked at him, or when she cried his name out.

It just wasn't enough anymore, to just say the words. Daryl knew that all Beth cared about was him, the words weren't necessary for her to hear, that much he knew about the amazing woman in his bed. Beth knew. But for him, after this long, it wasn't enough to just tell her. Not anymore. He needed more, to show more, to do something…