Something To Talk About

Daryl Dixon had a moment that shook him to his core: He'd almost been bitten by a walker. What shook him wasn't the attack itself, it was that he hadn't seen it coming. He'd had no idea it had come upon him until Beth Greene, of all people, saved him. He looked at the wasted creature that had once been a woman. It now had a knife in its head and Beth Greene stood over it.

"You okay?" she asked in concern.

"Fine," he answered shortly.

Beth frowned, confused by the bristling tension in his voice and his surly glare. Everything had been fine moments before. Now he was suddenly touchy.

"Get your knife and let's get back to the prison."

Beth pulled her knife from the walker's head, wiped the blade clean on the walker’s dress, and then followed Daryl for the exit. He spared a final glance at the monster that had very nearly put an end to him and then sped off, heading home to the prison.

*****

When Daryl arrived at his cell he pulled off his vest and shirt, and then used it to dab the sweat from his forehead. All he could think of was the feel of a sharp bite to the neck taking him by complete surprise. How had the damn thing gotten so close? Was he getting old? Was his hearing going out, or was his mind slipping?

A shadow crossed the curtain he'd half shut for privacy. A second later there was a soft knock. He recognized Beth's silhouette and he felt a surge of irrational anger. Had she come to gloat or tease him about this close call? Or worse, had she come to show pity?

"What?" he snapped, after jerking the curtain back.

She backed away from his aggressive greeting. "I came to talk to you."

"What do you want?"

"To see how you are."

"I said I'm fine. How many times I gotta tell you that, girl, before it sinks in?"

Beth stood there, gazing at Daryl with anger and her clear on her face. The girl wore her heart on her sleeve and she was gonna have to grow a thicker skin if she was gonna make it in this world.

"I was trying to be a friend. My mistake," she said with quiet anger. "Won't happen again."

When she left, Daryl let the curtain fall. He dropped to the cot, feeling like the world's meanest dick. He'd have to find her and apologize. What fun that was gonna be.

*****

Beth sat on the steps to the building that had acted as both the administrative offices and the infirmary. It faced the woods and was usually free of walkers, as it was now, blessedly. She was still angry and hurt by Daryl's behavior the day before. She knew he was prone to the occasional bout of acrimony but she honestly couldn't reason out what had upset him so much.

She replayed their outing from the day before. They'd gone into town for supplies, mostly to find stuff for Jude. Conversation had done well. He'd been outright pleasant, smiling more than usual, engaging her, listening to her talk. Then that walker had emerged from the closet behind him. She'd killed it and then everything between them had changed. He'd been a hateful ass ever since.

She nearly jumped when Daryl seemed to appear out of thin air beside her.

"What do you want?"

He deserved the attitude. He'd dished it out first, after all.

"Came to say sorry," he said.

His mouth was twisted as though the word sorry was a bitter pill in his mouth. Had Beth not seen his lips moving she wouldn't have believed what she'd heard. Daryl Dixon apologized. Some of her anger cooled.

"Why were you so mad at me?"

"Wasn't mad at you. I was shook. I didn't hear that walker," he explained. "It almost got me."

"You've come close to dying before. We all have."

Daryl shook his head. "Not like that. Any other time I've been in danger I saw hit coming. I fought it head on. This time the thing snuck up on me. If I'd have been alone it woulda got me by surprise, plain and simple."

She suddenly understood. He'd been shaken by self-doubt. He had keen senses and yesterday they'd failed him. Plus, he'd been saved by a girl. Specifically, the kind of girl who usually needed saving rather than the kind who did the saving, like her sister Maggie, or Michonne, or Carol. She decided she wouldn't rub his nose in it.

"I guess I owe you thanks," he said sourly.

"Better than owing me money," she joked.

They shared a smile.

"We cool?" he asked.

"Yeah. We're cool."

Beth leaned in and kissed Daryl on the cheek.

"Oh, sorry!"

They looked around at the newcomer. It was Patrick, one of the Woodbury survivors. He looked at them with his face flushed in embarrassment, as though he'd caught them doing something indecent.

"Sorry," he repeated. "Didn't mean to interrupt."

He took off, literally at a run, leaving Daryl and Beth to stare after him in bewilderment.

That was how the rumors got started.

*****

Maggie Greene went to the grill for a bowl of stew. She'd spent half the day out in the guard tower to keep watch. Late spring had come and it had brought heat, humidity, and bugs. Now she was drenched in sweat, exhausted, and itching from mosquito bites. All she wanted was something to eat and some air that actually moved, rather than breathing the stagnant soup that was the spring air. What she wouldn't give for some AC, or at least a fan.

“Did you hear?” a nearby girl said in excitement.

Normally Maggie didn’t pay attention to the younger girls from Woodbury. They loved to gossip, which was something she’d enjoyed when she was their age, but when she heard her sister’s name she paused and listened in.

“Patrick caught Beth Greene and Daryl Dixon making out at the Admin building!”

“Oh, my God. When?” her friend asked.

“This morning. I heard it was heavy, too. Daryl had his dick out and Beth was stroking it.”

They burst into giggles while Maggie and Carol stared at one another in total shock.

“I wonder if he’s big,” one of the girls asked quietly, with a blush.

“One way to find out. We can ask Beth if he’s a shower or a grower.”

They giggled again until they turned to the grill and caught Maggie’s shocked expression and Carol’s glare. Both girls put their heads down and didn’t speak again. Her stew forgotten, Maggie left the grill and went in search of Glenn.

She found him hanging up clothes in the basketball court, which had been strung with clotheslines for the weekend so people could get caught up on laundry.

“With this heat and sun our clothes will be dry in an hour,” he said with a smile. “Only good thing about this kind of wea--”

“You’ll never believe what I heard just now at the grill,” she said angrily. She couldn’t have cared less about their laundry at that moment.

“What?”

“Two girls were talking, said Daryl and Beth had been caught fooling around by the administrative building. You know, back where it’s shady and private and there ain’t no walkers around. How many times have we used that spot?”

“Who said that exactly?” Glenn said. His lack of concern was annoying the hell out of Maggie.

“Abigail and some other girl. I think her name is Lucy or something.”

“Abby and Lucy?” he shook his head. “Come on, Maggie. You know how fifteen-year-old girls are. They’re probably making it up for fun or something.”

“They said Patrick said he caught them.”

Now Glenn looked at her with his full attention. “Patrick?”

Patrick was a nerd but he was also honest and reliable. He didn’t have a malicious bone in his body. He wouldn’t spread a rumor like that falsely.

“What were they doing?” he asked, unsure of what to think or feel.

“She was giving him a hand job,” Maggie said in disgust.

Beth giving Daryl a hand job? Glenn just couldn’t imagine it. He didn’t want to imagine it. Not sweet Beth.

“What do we do? What if this kind of thing gets back to Daddy?”

“Talk to Beth, find out the truth.”

“How am I gonna talk to her about that?”

“Well, I ain’t gonna do it!” Glenn said tightly. He’d do a lot for Maggie, but he wasn’t talking about sex to her little sister.

“Talk to Daryl. Find out--”

“And get punched in the face? Hell no. You talk to your sister.”

“But--”

Glenn held up his hands. “No way. I’m out of it.”

Maggie deflated. “Fine.”

*****

Rick approached the boiler fires where the water that was brought in was sterilized for drinking later. He needed to check on their supply of firewood, which seemed to run low, fast. He heard a few of the teenage boys who worked the boilers laughing uproariously.

“Boys,” he said. “It’s noon. Why don’t you knock off and finish this job tonight. I think we’ve got enough safe drinking water to last the day.”

“Thanks,” one of them, a boy named Zack, said, looking grateful. All of them were soaked with sweat. Rick wished, not for the first time, they had a pool for the young’uns.

“What’s got y’all laughing so hard?”

Zach and the two boys he was with began snickering. “It’s Beth Greene and Daryl Dixon. Patrick caught them doing the dirty by the administration building this morning.”

Rick felt as though Zach had just kicked him in the stomach. The look on his face must have been serious because all three boys fell silent at once. They looked both nervous and confused.

“Get inside and get cool,” Rick said.

“Yessir,” they mumbled, and hurried off, anxious to leave Rick and his intimidating scowl behind.

Daryl having sex with Beth? He knew she was eighteen. He knew she was old enough to make up her own mind about who she wanted to be with, but he just couldn’t see Daryl taking advantage of someone half his age. He also thought there was something more than friendship between Daryl and Carol, and he couldn’t see Daryl cheating on Carol, or doing anything to hurt her.

He took an inventory of the firewood. They were set for another week, give or take a day. He headed back toward the grill, hungry, and anxious to get inside the prison. It was a big building that didn’t absorb heat too quickly and so it was shadowy and cool compared to the outside. Perhaps he’d run into Daryl and he could have a talk with him about Beth, but he had reservations. Beth was an adult, technically, at least by the old rules of society, and frankly, who Daryl slept with was none of his business as long as the girl wasn’t a child and she was in her right mind. By the time he got to the grill and saw Carol’s look of anger and hurt, however, he knew he’d be having a word with Daryl.

*****

Beth Greene entered the cafeteria to grab a cup of water and one of the hand held fans that had been brought back from a raid on an abandoned church. It was the kind of paddle-like fans that sat in the back of the pews and put out good air. She grabbed one that had the picture of the Virgin Mary on one side, and an advert for Tiller’s Funeral Home on the other. She realized, however, as she walked through the room, that she was getting curious glances from many of the people there. Two girls, Abigail and Lucy, were snickering behind their hands. There was a mischievous, almost malicious, gleam in their eyes as they looked at her. She’d never really cared for them, and with each passing day they gave her a reason to dislike them even more.

Ignoring them, and curious as to what was so funny, Beth gulped down two cups of water that the cooler that had been filled with. She felt like she’d sweated off five pounds just that morning. There was louder laughter from Lucy and Abigail when Daryl approached and she filled his cup with water.

“What’s so damn funny?” Daryl asked Beth tightly.

“Beats me,” she said, rolling her eyes. “You hungry?”

“Gonna eat later. Right now I’m gonna cool off in the shower.”

This earned blatant giggling from the girls. They looked as though they expected something, but whatever it was Daryl was damned if he could figure it out. Annoyed, he headed for the washroom, and Beth headed outside.

The grill was manned by Carol, who was about to head inside. It was hot, smoky, and she had a throbbing headache. Surely those girls were just trying to stir trouble. Surely Daryl wasn’t having sex with an eighteen-year-old girl. Beth Greene? She just couldn’t see it.

“Hi, Carol!”

Carol’s stomach tightened at Beth’s bright smile. Would Beth really fool around with Daryl when she knew he and she were…?

What exactly?

Carol gave that thought serious consideration, not for the first time. She’d flirted with Daryl. She flirted all the time. She made it clear she was open to taking their friendship to the next level but he never made a move to do anything physical. Was Beth the reason why? Did he have feelings, desires, for someone younger, and that’s why he wasn’t, apparently, interested in her romantically?

Beth stared at Carol, seeing a look that bordered on hate, in the older woman’s eyes. What was going on? Why were people acting so weird, with the staring and giggling, and the whispers behind their hands? Why was Carol upset with her? For the life of her Beth couldn’t think of what she’d done to anger Carol.

“Is everything okay?” Beth asked.

“Yeah. What do you want?”

“A bowl of stew if there’s any left.”

“There’s plenty. Help yourself. I’m done for the day,” Carol said, and started off. Beth caught her by the arm and Carol pulled away. People were in the court, staring at them as though they were watching a live soap opera.

“Carol, what’s wrong?”

“Like you don’t know,” Carol said coolly.

“I don’t know. People are acting weird. They’re staring and giggling and whispering, and now you’re mad at me and I don’t even know why.”

“Beth, Carol, let’s take this inside,” Maggie said. Neither woman had noticed her arrival. Maggie shared a glance with Carol, and Beth was confused.

“What’s going on?”

“Inside,” Maggie insisted.

“Fine,” Beth said, and followed her sister and Carol into the prison, where Maggie led them to the library.

*****

Rick approached the men’s washroom where he heard the water running. Daryl stood inside, fully clothed safe for his boots and socks. He operated the hand pump and water splashed over his head and soaked his clothes. He saw Rick and gave him a nod.

“This water feels great,” he said.

When it stopped running he grabbed his socks and shoes and sloshed toward Rick.

“Gotta walk the fence in an hour,” he said. “In the meantime I’m gonna take a siesta.”

“I need to talk to you,” said Rick.

“So, talk.”

“It’s about you and Beth.”

Daryl stopped and faced Rick. Had the girl been so upset she’d complained to Rick before he could apologize?

“I already talked to her,” said Daryl. “Me and her are cool. We made up.”

“Made up?”

“Yeah, you know. Didn’t she tell you?”

Rick shook his head so Daryl told him about his close call in town. “I was a dick but she’s over it now.”

“That’s not what I want to talk about.”

“Well then spit it out. I need a nap, I’m fucking tired,” Daryl said irritably.

“I wanted to talk about y’all’s relationship.”

Daryl frowned. He stood before Rick so long, staring and trying to figure out what Rick was trying to say, that Rick began to shift on his feet.

“Our what?” Daryl finally said.

“Y’all’s relationship,” Rick repeated.

“What the fuck are you talking about, Rick?”

“Look, everybody’s talking about it. I know who you sleep with is none of my business but Carol heard and--”

Daryl took a closer step to Rick, his face full of anger. “Sleep with? You think I’m screwin’ Beth?”

*****

Maggie paced the library, wringing her hands, unsure what to say. Carol sat with her arms crossed. She no longer looked quite so angry, but she did look thoughtful. She was beginning to think that Beth honestly had no idea what was going on. The girl was an open book and had a good heart. Beth also knew about her complicated friendship with Daryl. Carol doubted the girl would feign innocence if she was sleeping with Daryl and thought she’d found out.

“Just tell me what’s wrong,” Beth insisted.

“Look, I know you’re eighteen and you’re old enough to have sex but you’re still my baby sister. I still need to look out for you,” Maggie said.

“Oh, my God,” Beth said, shaking her head angrily. “Oh, my God, that son of a bitch. He told everybody we had sex?”

“So it’s true?” Carol said in shock. Maggie looked astonished.

“Are you…you know…being careful?” Maggie asked after an awkward, tense silence. She winced when she saw Carol’s expression of anger and hurt.

Beth was bristling. “I’m not sleeping with Zach! I kissed him one time. Just once. Now he’s telling people I did it with him? You wait till I see him. I’m gonna punch him dead in his lying mouth!”

“Not Zach, Daryl!” Carol shouted, standing up. “You’re sleeping with Daryl!”

Beth’s jaw practically hit the floor. She stood as well and looked between her and Maggie.

“Daryl? You think I’m screwing Daryl?”

*****

Rick sighed. “Look, Beth is eighteen. She’s a young woman, she’s old enough to make up her own mind about who she wants to be with, but Carol is upset. That’s why I’m here. I don’t want to see her hurt.”

“What would make you think…?” Daryl’s mind went back to that morning, when he’d been talking to Beth and Patrick had happened upon them. “Patrick.”

“I’m sorry?” Rick said, disturbed. What could Patrick have to do with Beth and Daryl having sex?

“I apologized to Beth. She kissed me on the cheek. Patrick walked up on us then. He looked all embarrassed and ran away, said he was sorry for interrupting. Rick, that’s all it was. An innocent kiss on the cheek. Patrick took it the wrong way and must have told a bunch of people and it snowballed.”

Rick heaved a sigh of relief. “So you’re not sleeping with Beth?”

“No.”

Rick nodded. “Okay.”

“Not that it would be anybody’s business if I did. Like you said, Beth’s a grown woman, and Carol and I are just friends.”

Leaving it at that, Daryl walked away. Rick watched him leave and he wondered if, perhaps, being more than a friend to Beth had ever crossed Daryl’s mind. If it had, and they developed a relationship, Rick decided he was going to keep his nose well and truly clear if the whole thing.

*****

“I am not having sex with Daryl,” Beth said calmly. She rubbed at her temples. Her head was doing its best to start aching. “Why on earth would you think that?”

“We heard some girls talking,” Maggie said. “Patrick said he caught you giving him a hand job.”

“That’s a lie!” Beth shouted. “Daryl and I had an argument. He came to say sorry and I kissed him on the cheek. Patrick saw us and ran off all embarrassed like. My hands weren’t anywhere near Daryl’s…you know…”

Carol seemed to deflate. Perhaps it was just a nasty rumor. Or, perhaps, she just wanted not to be true so badly she was willing to believe anything. Maggie also looked relieved.

“So Patrick lied?”

“He’s not a liar, I don’t think. He must have misunderstood what he saw,” Beth said.

“People embellish stories,” Carol said, sitting down. “God only knows what the rumors will be by the time the sun goes down tonight.”

“We have to set things straight,” said Maggie.

“People will believe what they want,” Beth told her. “You remember school. The more you denied something the more people believed the worst about you. I’m not gonna run around trying to convince anybody of anything. Excuse me. I need to talk to Daddy so this doesn’t catch him by surprise.”

She left Carol and Maggie in the library, and headed out to find her father.

*****

Beth ran into Daryl on her way to the cafeteria, where her father liked to read and eat his lunch. He was dripping wet, having soaked his clothes in the bath, something she’d seen him do before. She seriously considered soaking her cloths to keep cool, too, but at the moment she had more important issues to take care of.

“Daryl, there’s a rumor going around that--”

“I know. Rick just talked to me,” he said.

“Well, I told Maggie I’m not going to go around trying to convince the gossips that the rumors are untrue. You know how they are. The more you deny it, the more they believe it’s true.”

He nodded. “Fine by me.”

“They’re saying I gave you a hand job when I really just kissed you on the cheek!”

Daryl smirked. “Hand job? That ain’t nothin’. Rick heard we were ‘doing the dirty.’”

They stared at one another and then Beth burst into laughter. Even Daryl snorted in amusement. They were staring into one another’s eyes. Beth wondered, for the first time, what if she had indeed given Daryl a hand job, or done the dirty with him? Would she have liked it? Was he a good lover? She supposed Carol knew. It was taken for granted she and Daryl were a couple.

“I guess you’ll need to talk to Carol. She’ll be mad at you. She thinks I was messing with her man.”

“I’m not Carol’s man. She and I are just friends.”

He was looking at her so intensely it was like a physical touch. His gaze roamed over Beth’s body from her head to her toes. He’d never noticed Beth before. He’d thought she was a weak little girl. Then she’d saved him from that walker and he realized she was neither weak nor a little girl. He’d just underestimated her.

Beth felt her heart pick up pace. She’d never considered Daryl in that way. She’d assumed he was Carol’s man, or that they'd hook up soon. He was older, and she’d just assumed he was off limits because of the age difference and his affiliation with Carol. Now, after learning that people thought they were more than friends, it occurred to her that it could be so, if the circumstances were right and they both wanted it.

“Beth?”

Her father had happened upon them. She and Beth took a step away from one another, feeling guilty for the thoughts that had run through their minds as their eyes opened to the possibility that they could be whatever they wanted to be to one another.

“Daddy. I was looking for you. There’s some rumors going around about me and Daryl that aren’t true,” she said.

Hershel smiled and nodded. He had a cane that he used to help him keep balance as he adjusted to his prosthetic. He looked between Beth and Daryl with that same smile that Beth couldn’t decipher.

“I heard.”

“I hope you’re not upset,” she said.

“Not at all. Daryl’s a good man. You’re a young woman who is old enough to make up her own mind who she wants to be with. Whatever your relationship is, or isn’t, is nobody’s business but your own.”

With that said, he moved off down the hall. Beth wasn’t ignorant to what had happened. Her father had given her and Daryl his blessing. He’d let her know outright he saw her as a woman now, and not a child, who could decide for herself who she wanted to be with.

Beth’s eyes found Daryl’s in the semidarkness of the corridor, and they both felt a shift in tone to their friendship.

“Want to join me on a walk tonight, when it gets cool? Daryl asked. “I hear the administrative building is a good place for a private talk.”

“Yeah,” she said, laughing at the joke and feeling almost breathless by the intensity of his gaze. “I’d like that.”

“I’ll pick you up at nine thirty.”

She watched him walk away, toward his cell, and she headed the other direction towards hers with a smile on her face. She covered her mouth to smother a giggle. It wouldn’t do to giggle while within earshot of Daryl Dixon, especially if she wanted to keep her date with him.