Chapter 1: Home At Last

Daryl walked out of Grady Memorial carrying Beth in his arms. Thank god she had only been knocked out by Dawn's fist.

Maggie ran up to him and started crying tears of joy. After so long of thinking that Beth was dead, she had finally found her. She almost felt bad for leaving to go to Washington.

Daryl stared down at the girl in her arms and knew just how much he had missed her. He felt… warm inside. Suddenly he acknowledged the feeling, and had no idea what it was, but he knew it was something. Being his not-open-to-others self, he discarded the feeling.

He grew a small grin as he passed her off to Glenn, who put Beth in the backseat of a blue sedan they found in the parking lot. Glenn planted himself in the driver's seat, with Maggie in the back with Beth, and Carol in the passenger's seat.

Daryl focused his attention on the girl in the backseat of the sedan. For all this time, he thought she'd been dead… but no. She was titanium.

"Daryl!" Rick called over to him.

Daryl snapped his head around and saw that the rest of the group was piling into a grey van on the other side of the parking lot.

He walked over to the van just before Rick was about to climb into the driver's seat. "I'll drive." Daryl said, taking the keys from him and sitting in the seat.

Once everyone was in the van, Daryl stuck the keys into the ignition and started the car. Before he put it in drive and drove away, he glanced back at the other car. He wanted to be there when Beth woke up, but he just didn't want to destroy the moment. So, he drove out of the parking lot and onto the road.

Daryl had been driving for about half an hour now. He didn't know where they were going, hell, none of them did, but he just kept on driving in silence.

"What's so important about the girl, anyways?" Rosita finally asked, breaking the silence. Daryl tried not to yell at her.

Eugene nodded his head, "Agreed, we just risked our lives driving through Atlanta to get to the girl.", Daryl's hands gripped the wheel hard in anger.

"She sure as hell wasn't as important than gettin' to Washington…" Abraham said.

"SHUT UP!" Daryl finally yelled out angrily. How could they say that about Beth? They didn't know squat about her or what she was like. He was so mad right now that he could punch a hole through the roof of the car.

Everyone sat in silence once again.

Rick turned his head to look at Daryl. He could tell that he cared about her more than anyone. He turned his head back towards everyone, "We fight for one of our own. No matter what it takes. We leave no one behind," everyone looked down, "got that?" he asked. Everyone nodded, "Good."

Daryl calmed down a bit after that.

While Glenn was driving and Carol was doing a crossword puzzle she had found, Maggie told stories about her and Beth before the world went to hell. She knew it was silly, but she thought the stories would wake her up.

Maggie sighed, "I wish she'd wake up already. I know everyone wants to talk to her, especially Daryl…"

Beth's eyes slowly opened. "Daryl…?" she whispered. "Oh my god!" Maggie squealed as she hugged her tightly. "Beth oh my god are you feeling okay?", Beth looked around, a confused look on her face. "Where's Daryl?" she asked. Maggie tilted her head. "Maggie, where's Daryl?".

"He's in the other car, but here's Glenn and Carol." they looked back at Beth, "Morning sleepyhead." Carol said, smiling. "I want to see Daryl." Beth was basically whining now. "Beth, you'll see him later, okay?" Maggie said, kind of disappointed. Beth turned so she was on her side, and decided to try to go back to sleep so time passed by faster. "I wanna see him…" she muttered.

Rick and Daryl decided to stop the cars and set up camp. It was late at night now, and Beth was starting to get extremely pissed off.

Glenn stopped the car and Beth immediately sprung out of the door and ran over to the van. She swung the door open, but Daryl wasn't there. She frowned. "Rick, where the hell did Daryl go?" she asked demandingly, now she was really starting to get mad. "Oh, hey, you're up." Rick said as he walked around the car to meet her. "Yep, I'm awake, awesome. Now can you tell me where Daryl is?", Rick looked shocked. Was there something going on between her and Daryl?

"He went to set up the tents, that way." he pointed behind her.

"Thanks." Beth said, going to find Daryl. She couldn't wait to see him.

That's the end of this chapter! Let me know if you like this new fanfiction and I'll continue writing more! :)