Author's Note: New story!

About the story: Yes, is Beth, Daryl, and Merle together. Together, together. It may seem odd, but I just think it fits.

I do not have a Beta, so any mistakes you see are entirely my own ignorance, my only excuse is that English isn't my first language.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything from TWD. Sorry for the bad news.

[This story is currently being rewritten, so I have deleted the previous chapters and will, instead, upload the new, edited versions.]

Beth looked at her wrist and sighed; she would have that scar forever. That wasn't how she envisioned her life would be a year ago; everything had happened so fast. Nobody told her how hard this was going to be — nobody gave her a head's up.

She looked at the ceiling of her bedroom and felt like crying. There were stars painted all over her ceiling, which she painted herself, trying to bring the wonders of the outside to her little refuge... It all seemed like such a long time ago, though.

Beth had appreciated freedom more than most, or so she thought. All of her life she'd searched for anything that gave her peace — the wonderful feeling of flying. Beth always felt like she was incomplete. She felt trapped in a life where all the decisions were already settled way before she even realized there was something to decide over. Living at the farm, being a good student, getting married to Jimmy, having two children. It was all suffocating. So Beth began doing all things that made her feel free, like riding horses incredible fast, runin', singing, gazing at the stars...

As she thought about what she had done, she couldn't help but feel guilty. Death wasn't freedom; it was oblivion, nothing. But she had been so sure of everything. So sure that there was nothing left to live for; that she was going to die anyway in a very near future. So it hadn't mattered; being alive hadn't mattered. But the moment the glass cut through her skin she knew she had made a mistake. She wanted to live, so damn much. The blood that seeped from her wrist was warm and bright red. Her own blood was alive — all that time she had been alive on the inside and hadn't noticed. So she screamed for Maggie. She cried, hoping that it wasn't too late, that she would live now that she found out she wanted to.

She sighed again. At the clock by her bed read 4 am; she should be sleeping. But in the end, it didn't matter; she could sleep during the day, her sister wasn't going to let her get out of bed to do anything anyway. Might as well enjoy the time she had.

She got up and made her way to the porch. It was a beautiful night, the stars shining brightly in the sky. It almost seemed as though the universe was trying to show her what she would have missed had she died.

Beth was so distracted by her thoughts that she didn't hear the steps until they were close. She jumped as she turned around, her hand going to her heart as she looked Daryl right in the eyes.

"You scared me." The words slipped out of her mouth, uncontrolled.

He didn't answer, although it wasn't really a question. He just looked at her like she was stupid for getting scared in the first place. Beth felt herself blushing from embarrassment. That appeared to be the only thing she could do in his presence, she thought, remembering the first time she saw Daryl.

Beth was getting water for Carl, as he couldn't quite get up yet. As she was passing the living room, she saw Rick talking to two other men. The man on the right looked like someone she would run away from if she ever saw on the street at night. He was tall, clearly strong, and had scars on his arms and face that were visible even from where she was standing. But the thing that made him scary was the fact that he was all dirty, covered in blood, and scowling terribly. She certainly wouldn't want to be on his bad side, ever. Then on the left was Daryl, although she didn't know who he was at the time. With his crossbow hanging on his back, his hair falling in front of his eyes, and a tense posture that made it look like he was ready to run or fight at any minute.

Suddenly he stopped talking and looked right at her. She froze, ashamed at being caught staring. As much as she tried to move, she couldn't feel her legs. She felt herself blushing and quickly looked down. When she looked up again, he was already talking to Rick again, ignoring her completely.

The whole thing had lasted seconds, but she remembered clearly. His gaze wasn't something one could forget. Daryl looked at you like he saw you, really saw you. And that was not something Beth was used to.

She continued to look at him as he sat on the chair and lit a cigarette. She suddenly had the urge to say something, anything to break the uncomfortable silence.

"Couldn't sleep, too?" She asked, cringing to herself as soon as the stupid question slipped out of her mouth.

He didn't even glance her way, and that made her a little angry. Sure, she had noticed that he didn't speak much to anybody that wasn't his brother. But he always answered when someone asked him a direct question, even if it was to say a simple 'yes' or 'no.' She couldn't believe he was going to ignore her.

"You know, you could answer," She pressed.

"Ain't got nothin' to answer to you, little girl," He spoke with the cigarette hanging from his mouth.

Little girl? He didn't call Carl little, and he was several years younger than her.

"Little girl? Do you even know how old I am?"

"Don't care, it's not like it makes a difference," He finished his smoke and got up to leave, but Beth wasn't ready to let him go.

"What does that even mean?" Beth knew that wasn't a polite question, but she couldn't seem to care.

"Whatever," He turned his back, still calm as ever.

It only served to annoy Beth further. There he was, all composed and confident, in the middle of the apocalypse, like nothing happening around him was worthy of notice. Like she wasn't worthy of notice.

She grabbed his arm, riding high on her misplaced anger, and said: "Answer me!"

He turned around, grabbing the hand on his arm and slapping it away. He looked at her, and she could tell that she made him angry. It was a reaction, though, which made her feel some weird sense of satisfaction running through her body.

"Don't touch me," He said, walking 'till he was inches from her face.

The look in his eyes scared her, but the anger made her brave.

"Then answer me! Tell me why you look at me like I'm annoying you just for breathing."

"You wanna know why, little girl?" He spat the words out. "Well, it's because you don't deserve more time out of any of our lives."

"What the hell does that even mean?" That was the first time in her life that Beth cursed out loud. And, had the situation been any less consuming, she would've been shocked with herself.

"It means that your pathetic attempt at killin' yourself has already made us waste too much time as it is." The words were coming out of his grind teeth.

And they were like a slap in her face. She took one step back, her anger giving space to shame.

"What?" She whispered. Her blood began to rush faster through her body as her heart accelerated, louder than before and almost blocking the other sounds coming from outside her body.

"That's right," He took one step forward, bending his head to look her right in the eyes. How come she never noticed that his bright blue eyes were the exact same shade as hers? "Your ridiculous cry for attention has only made us waste time we don't have takin' care of an ungrateful kid like you."

"You know nothing about me." Her eyes began to water as she spoke. She wasn't ungrateful; she just hadn't been able to understand why everybody seemed so eager to live in a dying world.

"I know enough," He said, suddenly backing away to spit on the ground between them. "You're a little princess who had it easy all your life, with people to protect and cater to your every need, and as soon as things get a little harsh, you can't handle it. You try to kill yourself like a coward, not caring for anyone who might get hurt by your actions."

She felt sick - like she was going to throw up and cry at the same time. She just shook her head in denial, that wasn't true, that wasn't her.

He looked at her with a disgusted expression "If your intention was to make everyone look at you like you're not cut for this word, congratulations. It's clear that you'll just be a dead weight until you finally get yourself killed anyway."

He said the words and left. No parting glances, nothing to soften the blow.

Beth just slid to the floor, struggling to breathe. She hugged her knees and cried like she never cried before, wondering if that's what everyone else was thinking, and that made her even sicker. In all her life she never heard anything so hurtful.

That was the first time she cried because of a Dixon.

AN2: Tell me what you guys thought. I hope you liked it.