Hi everyone! I thought I'd give a brief synopsis of the show and its rules so you know what's normal and what isn't and what normally happens in cases like what is going on right now with Daryl and Beth. Sometimes when things like this happen, a medic has to be called in. Injuries and illnesses happen frequently out in the wild so it's not uncommon. They are not penalized for having to seek medical treatment, per se but they are judged on how well they handle the crisis.

The contestants of the show are given a PSR, a primitive survival rating before the 21 days and then reassessed after the 21 day challenge and given a new score. This could affect Daryl's overall score, but if he bounces back, it could actually boost it instead of make it lower. It all depends on his attitude and resolve and will to get through it.

Cameramen are with them all day and they keep diary cams on them for other times when the cameramen are busy elsewhere or at nighttime when every single member of the crew leaves the contestants on their own.

I have seen shows where they are left to their own devices across miles and some have been separated from crew by wild rapids of a river or worse conditions. It's very much life and death out there.

Hope that clears some things up! Enjoy the next chapter xoxoxo

Chapter 4

It's hot. He can't believe how hot it is. He's in the jungle and he's with Beth but he doesn't remember it being so hot. He wonders if Beth is as hot as he is. His mouth is dry and he opens it to ask if she wants to go down to the water to cool off. It's night he thinks, but maybe it'll be okay. But then a hand is pressing him back.

Her hand is so cold against him and he wonders if she's already gone to the water without him. But she wouldn't go without him. She'd take him with her, he thinks. They are partners; they have to stick together.

"Shh, Daryl. Rest. They're coming." Who is coming? He wants to ask her but he can't. He can't get his mouth to open. All he wants is water.

She seems to understand this because then a hard object is pressed to his lips and he greedily gulps down every bit of water she sluices into his mouth and he's so grateful to her. She's pretty much the only thing keeping him alive at this point, though he isn't sure why he knows this or how. He just knows he's on fire and he can't bring himself to open his eyes. They burn too and he thinks of Merle and how he would make fun of him if he knew all the things he was thinking right now.

How soft and cool Beth's hands feel on his skin as they wait. They're waiting for something. Someone is coming. He opens his mouth to ask her again but the words won't come and finally he's just so tired. His eyes burn and he's just going to go to sleep for a little bit. When he wakes up, it will be cooler and they can go down to the water.

Beth mops at Daryl's brow with her own hands now, wishing more than anything she had all the tools at her disposal that she needed to help him. It was almost torture thinking about all the things she could do for him if she had the proper resources, but all she had was a bamboo shoot full of tepid seawater and her hands that tried to soothe him into a restful position. They needed to bring his fever down. He was going to get dehydrated. She mentally tallied up the water they'd had the day before and knew he was dangerously close to that point.

She feared for his safety, yes. That was her primary concern, but followed by that thought was the fact that if he required medical treatment in a hospital, he would be forced to tap out and she would have to face the challenge alone for the next 17 odd days. She didn't know if she could do it. She was strong, but this place was hell on earth.

Snake island with a side of poison trees. This was what she signed up for, she kept telling herself. That was hard to wrestle with though, when her partner was burning up with fever as his body fought to rid the toxins inside of him.

Finally, blessedly, she heard unmistakable rustling in the brush as the medical team found them. The area was suddenly flooded with bright effusive lights that they'd brought in to assist the medical team. Beth stepped back as two large men picked Daryl up and put him on a stretcher that they had positioned right outside their shelter.

The team worked to triage him and Beth stood back, unsure of what her role in this needed to be. It was taking everything she had to not step in and help out.

"Beth. Beth." His voice called from the stretcher, his lips dry and his voice even gruffer than normal. Beth rushed forward, careful not to get in anyone's way but crouched down at the top of the stretcher and smoothed his hair back from his brow.

"I'm right here Daryl." He seemed to settle at the sound of her voice and everything seemed to tunnel down for her at that point.

They took his temperature which was hovering at 103.5 and she felt a bit better knowing that it was not as high as she had feared. The medic agreed that his body seemed to be having a reaction to the tree sap. They recommended he get treatment in the tent back at their headquarters across the island where they had better equipment and a generator. They also had fans that would aid in bringing his body temperature down in a safe manner.

"Will he have to tap out." Beth asked the director who was standing across from the medic, making notes on her clipboard.

She looked down at Beth and their eyes met and Beth could tell that the woman was genuinely concerned. "It'll be up to Daryl. His condition is serious but stable. If he stabilizes further, the medic may release him but it's up to his body to fight this and up to him if he decides he wants to stay. It won't be easy. It takes several days for the poison to work its way out of the system." She was a straight shooter and for that, Beth was grateful.

"Can I go with him?" She asked but the director was shaking her head.

"I'm sorry, Beth. You have to stay here. It's against the rules."

She nodded as they prepared to leave, trying not to cry.

She went back to Daryl's side and his eyes were open. "You're gonna be just fine Daryl Dixon. You're gonna be the last man standing in this challenge." She says with a brave smile.

He nods at her and he tries to open his mouth to speak but she can tell he's having a hard time. He's just too sick. "Shh, don't try to talk. You just go get better and prove me right."

As the two men pick up the stretcher to carry Daryl through the jungle, Beth does something that she hasn't done in a long time. She prays.

It's been hours she is guessing since Daryl has been gone and she's tried to stay busy around camp. She'd tidied up the shelter, laying the blanket over the bed and clearing out any stray leaves and adds them to the fire that she then stokes up to be certain that it won't go out. She then busies herself with chopping more wood for the fire, lining up the logs in a pyramid.

When that's done, she sits down and has a meal of bananas and works on making rope from some of the stalks of the banana leaves that she'd gathered and carried back. If she can, she is going to try to make a dead-fall trap. It's better than sitting around and doing nothing.

She works at the knots and takes a small sturdy branch and ties the rope she's fashioned from the stems onto the end of it. Feeling relatively satisfied that this will be enough to prop up any rock she might find, she goes into the jungle to find the game trails that she and Daryl had crossed the day before. She is careful to avoid the area where she knows the Chin Chin tree is and she's now ever alert of its presence or any others just like it, for that matter.

She is almost on constant vigil at this point as she walks, watching for the ever present danger of snakes and she wishes for the millionth time she had taken the time to learn how to make primitive shoes before she'd come out here. She had depended on her tough Georgia heels to get her by out here but it simply wasn't enough for this terrain. She didn't think a thousand pedicures when she went back home would return her feet to their natural state. They ached something awful but still she plodded on, carefully stepping through the jungle.

Finding the first game trail was easy and she looked around immediately to see if she could find a large boulder to put it under.

She tries not to think about Daryl right now and just hopes that they are doing everything they can to help him. Perhaps it's even foolish for her to be making plans for him to come back. Maybe the call had already been made. For all she knew, he could be halfway to some hospital right now and she'd never see him again.

Any minute now, someone could be coming back to tell her he'd been withdrawn from the challenge and she'd be left to finish the 21 day challenge on her own.

She had to fight back tears at the thought. She wiped at her eyes with the back of her hands, hoping to god she didn't have anything on her that would cause any further misery than what they were currently in. She was just tired, she told herself. It had been a long night and she hadn't gotten any sleep and this day was stretching on to infinity with no one here with her.

She didn't know if she could survive out here alone with no one to talk to and nothing to do. It had honestly only crossed her mind a couple of times but she had always envisioned her partner to be something of Herculean strength; someone exactly like Daryl to be honest.

He just had to pull through. He had to or she didn't know what she was going to do. She could finish the challenge; but suddenly after everything, she wasn't sure she even wanted to. And that just made her feel worse. She wasn't really sure how this day was going to end, but she was pretty sure it was going to end in tears.

She fished out her diary cam for the first time since Daryl left and spoke into the camera, knowing she looked like absolute hell but that was okay because that's exactly how she felt.

"I'm exhausted. I hope Daryl is doing okay and he's getting better. I really hope that he doesn't have to tap out of the challenge. Obviously, he needs to be healthy enough to stay. Things out here are bad enough when you're in perfect health.

We made a stupid mistake with the Chin Chin tree. One we won't make again. I just hope he gets another chance to prove himself.

I don't want to be out here alone." She fights back tears again and then feeling just as raw and vulnerable she just lets it all out. "I don't think I can do this on my own. I mean, I can try. That's what I came for but I also expected that my partner would be able to help me through. And I can help Daryl. If he's strong enough to stay."

She finishes setting the dead-fall trap, lining the branch up with the rock and baiting it with a bit of banana she'd brought with her. Hopefully it will attract some game and she'll be able to capture it.

Suddenly Beth knows exactly how she is going to fill the rest of her day and she turns off the camera, dries her tears and sets off to do just that. If he comes back, this could help him a lot.

Feeling her hope surge and her resolve strengthen, she sets out from camp towards the beach.

He was on fire. That was what he was convinced of. Maybe he'd died and gone to hell. He'd thought that might happen on more than one occasion. He was a Dixon after all and it wasn't like Dixons ended up at the pearly gates up top.

Especially his pops. This reminded him of one of those times that his pops had beaten him with his belt. His back had been raw and bloody and burned like hellfire, just like this. Except this was on his legs and his arms. And his pops might be a mean drunk but he hit his target every time. And for whatever reason, his back was his pops favorite target in the world when he got to swinging that leather strop around.

No this was a different kind of burning and he felt like he was burning from the inside too and he wondered again where Beth had gotten to. She would want to go down to cool off in the ocean. It was dark so it must be night.

He looked around him and couldn't see anything. It was then that he realized his eyes were closed. "Water."

"There he is." A voice says and he forces his eyes open. The air hits his eyes and it feels hot and gritty like he has been sandblasted in the face. Why is everything so fucking hot?

"Good to see you back with us Daryl. I'm Dr. Cloyd." He nodded at the petite blonde woman adjusting a blood pressure cuff over his arm. What was she talking about? Where the fuck did he go? He'd been right here.

But as he looks around he's not at the shelter anymore. The last thing he remembered was going to sleep. But now he was in a tent that was lit up with bright overhead lights and he was lying back on a cot and had about six people milling about getting this and that. But where was Beth?

"Beth." He makes a move to sit up and he's immediately blocked by two people who make him lie back. And he can't decide if he wants to punch them or be grateful because as he moves he suddenly feels very nauseous like he might throw up.

"She is back at your camp." What the fuck? Why isn't she here with him? He is so confused and he tries to sit up again only to be attacked by another wave of nausea. This needed to stop. He had shit to do. They had to get the shelter firmed up. They were going to go foraging. Or was that yesterday?

"Daryl do you remember what happened with the burns on your arms and legs?" Dr. Cloyd was saying and then it all came back to him.

Him and Beth finding the banana tree and then him very stupidly climbing the worst damn tree on the whole cursed island. He nodded at the doctor. He remembered all right. He had some very painful reminders.

"I've given you a steroid shot combined with an antihistamine to combat the response your body is having." He remembered Beth telling him that was what she was going to give him if she was his doctor and he felt proud all the sudden that she would have been able to take care of him had she been able to.

He suddenly needed to get back to her. He guessed she had been the one to call for the medic and he couldn't fault her for that.

"What happens now?" His voice was hoarse and his throat felt like raw hamburger meat.

Someone handed him a bottle of water and it was ice cold and he wanted to gulp the whole thing down at once it tasted so good, but his stomach was still feeling pretty iffy so he decided on small sips as the doctor spoke.

"You get to decide that. Your body is having a reaction to the sap. It will take a few days to work out of your system. People normally go to the hospital for treatment, but it's up to you."

Daryl just shook his head at that notion. No way in hell was he going to a hospital.

She continued. "That would mean tapping out of the challenge, of course. You're welcome to have time to think it over. I'm going to go tell the director my recommendations." She patted his leg and stood up and went over to the other side of the large tent to converse with the director who nodded in his direction as the doctor approached her.

He wished Beth was here. He'd feel better if he could talk this whole thing through with her. He respected her opinion and he wanted to know what she thought. He had seen other contestants go through this challenge and he knew when one needed medical attention their partner had to stay behind at camp. It was just the rules.

Still, he was a grown man and he could make his own decisions. He thought of what he would do if Beth weren't here and his decision was the same. He didn't want to leave. He wondered if they'd make him though.

He had signed his name on a dotted line waiving them of all responsibility so it was on him if he wanted to stay out here and die, right?

He wondered if the fever had gone to his head that he wanted to try to stick it out here in this godforsaken place but he did. He wanted to stay. He just hoped that the decision wouldn't be taken out of his hands.

As he looked at the director nodding her head worriedly along with what the doctor was saying, his heart sank to his feet. They were going to kick him out and he wasn't going to ever see Beth Greene again. And he just didn't know what to think about that.

Beth walked back into camp just as it was getting dark. It would be full on dark soon and she was equal parts relieved and worried that they hadn't come back to tell her anything yet.

It could mean that Daryl was far more serious than she imagined and they had to take him off the island to get him immediate help and no one had been able to come and tell her yet or they were trying to do what they could in their setup across the island. But it had been so long, it was hard not to let her imagination get the best of her.

Her heart was heavy as she took her strap over her shoulder and put it right outside the shelter and stoked the fire.

It was cooler tonight than it had been the night before and she wondered how she was going to keep warm tonight. It was going to be colder in the shelter without Daryl in it. She felt so alone and she wished someone would just please come and tell her what was going on.

An hour later, while she was roasting more bananas for something quick to eat, she heard something rustling in the brush. The crew had already left for the night and she still had no word about Daryl and she'd resigned herself to going to bed and hoping that someone would bring her news of him in the morning.

But now, her heart gripped with fear as she realized whatever was out there could be a predator. A puma maybe. She reached for the machete, steeling herself for defense if necessary. But the footsteps sounded human.

It was one of the crew and her heart sank all the way to her feet and what it must mean. Daryl was gone. She really wanted to cry.

But then the man stepped into the clearing and she saw someone was trudging in behind him. He looked a bit tired but considerably better since the last time she'd seen him in the middle of the night. That was so long ago.

Her heart leapt back into her chest. He was here. Still maybe he'd come to tell her himself. She'd seen that happen several times when a partner tapped out of the challenge. Daryl would do that, she realized. He would want to come and tell her himself no matter how sick he was.

She walked up to him and for once she didn't go with her instincts and throw her arms around him like she wanted to. Something was holding her back and she wasn't quite sure what it was but she waited for him to speak. "Are you feeling better?"

"I don't feel great. They gave me exactly what you said they would. Said I'd feel better in a few days." He doesn't say anything and Beth thinks she is going to die of suspense.

"So you're leaving?" Beth dares to whisper it and she barely recognizes the emotion in her voice. It's not the end of the world if he leaves, she reminds herself.

"I'm staying." Daryl says and she can't help it, she bursts into a smile and throws her arms around his neck.

At first he stands there and she doesn't think he's going to hug her back. He probably feels terrible and here she is hanging all over him. She goes to pull herself back. "I'm sorry."

But then his arms come up to her waist and she's pressed against him and he's warm but not too hot and he's here. He's staying.

"You ain't got nothin' to be sorry for." He says into her hair and then pulls back to look at her and it's then that she becomes hyperaware of their nudity and their proximity to one another and how she'd had pressed every bit of herself to every bit of him in her exuberance over him staying on the island. Her face flushes as her fingers fly to her hair to adjust her ponytail.

"We just need to be more careful is all. Me especially." He says as he finally steps away, the tips of his ears red. As if he too has suddenly realized how close they are. But she can't think about that just now. She is just so happy he is here that she smiles at him and as she looks back at him she is absolutely stunned. He smiles right back.

Suddenly, Beth knows that they can make it. They have survived this much and they can survive the rest of the challenge too. Together.

I hope that I was able to convey here how Daryl is having to learn that he can depend on someone at the same time that Beth is learning that she can be independent and can make it on her own. This chapter took me a bit longer than I thought I would because I have a lot going on in real life right now. I am AGAIN getting ready to move my entire household, this time to another county within our state. It's not too far, but just far enough to make certain that this happens in a somewhat organized fashion, otherwise I might lose my mind.

I am still planning on updating this story and my others as much as possible, because my writing is what's keeping me sane during this transition. Lol