Come back to me, she had said. Not come back to us, but come back to me. Daryl kept thinking about that as he wandered around with Merle. He was upset with his brother for putting him in this situation. Merle was family, but his mouth was getting on Daryl's nerves. It had been just the two of them for awhile there, but that wasn't enough for him anymore. While his brother had been gone, Daryl had become part of the group. He already missed them, and Beth...
He wanted to go back to her, wanted to explore this thing that was between them. They were only just getting started. The only thing that had been holding him back was her age. If she had been older, he would already have been with her. Now he would never get the chance, and he wondered if she would forget him. Would she end up with Rick? She was already taking care of his baby.
A baby. He was sure that he had heard a baby, but Merle made fun of him for it. Daryl went looking for it and found a family in trouble. He began to help them as his brother laughed. Merle joined him only to ensure that Daryl didn't get killed. Then he tried to steal food from the family, and Daryl reached his breaking point. His brother was surprised to see him point his crossbow at him. After the family fled, the brothers had it out. Daryl knew that this wasn't going to work, and Merle grudgingly followed him back to the prison. They were just in time to save Rick from being bitten by walkers, which helped the man decide to allow Merle to stay with the group.
They had bigger problems to deal with, namely this governor that had attacked them. Whatever happened, Daryl was glad to be back with his people. He hoped that Merle would adjust to life with them the way he had. Right now he was too tired to worry about anything as he took a shower before going to bed. He hadn't slept since before they had gone to Woodbury to get Maggie and Glenn back.
He had just turned off the water and started drying himself off with a towel when Beth walked into the room.
"How could you just leave like that?" Her blue eyes blazed with anger.
"Ain't it past your bedtime?" He suddenly realized that he wasn't that tired after all.
"This isn't the time for joking!" She strode right up to him.
"What's it time for then?" He dropped the towel on the bench and moved even closer to her.
The look on her face would have been funny if he had been in the mood to laugh. It was like she just realized that he was standing before her naked. "I wanted to talk to you."
"Only heard wanted and you," he said before he kissed her.
She melted into him as he ran his hands down her back and grasped her behind to pull her even closer. Beth moaned into his mouth as she felt him pressed against her with only her clothes between them.
"You done yet?" Merle's voice boomed against the tiles.
"Fuck!" Beth jumped back from Daryl.
"Oh, excuse me," Merle said in a parody of politeness as he grinned at them.
Beth walked quickly past him with her head down.
"We'll finish talking later," Daryl called after her as he casually picked up the towel.
"I see why you were in such a big hurry to come back." Merle took great pleasure in emphasizing the word come.
"I got my reasons," Daryl said. He left it at that as he got dressed.
Merle was apparently too tired to mess with him any further, because he went to take a shower without another word. Daryl left the room and walked to his cell, still thinking about Beth. That was the best welcome home he'd ever gotten.
