Archive of Our Own ^beta

The days after the prison's fall went by in complete silence. They ran, they stopped if it was safe enough, Daryl and Rick set up the camp while Beth worked on a fire, then they had to leave. They didn't eat for days at a time in the beginning, focused mainly on finding clean water then moving again.

Daryl didn’t mind the quiet. He was used to it and he preferred it. But it was wrong for Rick and Beth to be like that.

Beth was always talking with her family or playing with Carl when they were still a small group. She was just a young girl, and sometimes it always felt like she didn’t realize how fucked up the world was. One day, when Daryl stopped looking at them through judgemental eyes and started to see them as his group, he realized that she actually did know, but she chose to move past it. This didn’t seem like something she was moving past anytime soon.

Sometimes when she was left alone he wondered if she’d try to kill herself again, and what he'd have to do to stop it.

Rick was something else. Daryl knew he had the capacity to mentally break like he did when Lori died. His wife, who he was falling out of love with. It had been building up the entire winter, and Lori was just the tipping point. It wasn’t like he ever became mentally stable after that. Sure, he became an involved father again, and dedicated all of his time to the betterment of their community. Then those two things were dead. Or gone, never to be seen again. Not like that was any better. Carl probably could’ve made it on his own for a while, or he could’ve been with another adult who’d keep him safe. Judith might’ve been scooped up by someone. But as far as Rick knew, they were dead.

Daryl considered all of this for the first few days, which turned into weeks, that they spent in almost complete silence. Beth cried and grieved eventually, when they found an actual structure to stay in for a few nights. She was different after that. She needed to let it all out somehow. She started to put it behind her. Daryl almost tried to comfort her that night, but he didn’t know how, so he just looked the other way.

Maybe he should've thought more about Rick, and not focused so much on Beth. How the man just kept a straight face and stewed in his own silence long after Beth and Daryl started talking again. That was a warning sign that Rick was going to snap, and Daryl knew it somewhere in the back of his head. But what could he do? He had never lost a child. He couldn’t tell Rick how to feel or relate to him in any way. He could have had a serious talk with Rick those first few weeks, and maybe it would’ve helped. Instead he let the man bottle it all up inside. So maybe for the chain of events that set Rick off, Daryl was partially to blame.

Beth quietly curses and rolls her shoulder, immediately making Daryl turn away from what he’s doing and watch her with concern.

“ ‘S the matter?” he asks, nodding his head at her. She blushes a bit and looks away shyly, which only makes Daryl all the more curious.

“That thing’s just so heavy… it’s like when I first started using a gun,” Beth explains, motioning to the crossbow secured on his back. “Must’ve taken a long time for your back to stop hurting so much.”

Daryl’s been teaching Beth how to use it, in case they’re ever in a pinch and she needs to grab it for something. It’d also be nice if he could find Beth her own. Nice way to pass the time, too, teaching her new things. Girl’s a fast and eager learner.

“Here.” He tries to sit down next to her in a casual way, like it’s no big deal that he’s gonna give her a massage. He’s about to ask if it’s okay when she turns to the side and gives him silent permission to touch her.

“You want some advil too, if this doesn’t help much?” He asks, moving her ponytail out of the way. He starts off gentle, trying his best not to hurt her at all.

“Uh… no, it’s not that bad,” she says shakily, sitting nice and still for him. Part of him thinks she rolled her shoulder on purpose to get his attention in the hopes of something like this. He may not have a lot of experience with women, but he sure as hell knows when one is flirting with him.

First it started with them finding a shit ton of moonshine at an old cabin. Beth never had a drink before, so Daryl begrudgingly obliged her, trying to get Rick to join them so it wouldn’t just be him getting lit with a teenage girl. Rick said no and left them to it, where they opened up to each other about what felt like everything. Since then, he’s found an unlikely close friend in Beth, where he thought Rick would’ve been.

But lately…

Beth makes a small, involuntary noise at the back of her throat when Daryl starts to apply more pressure. He feels nervous, as if he’s doing something wrong by acting like this with her, but nobody’s around to see. Not even Rick, who’s inside the house doing god knows what.

There have been odd moments here and there where they feel like a real group, sitting around the fire talking, but mostly it’s just been Beth and Daryl. Daryl wishes Rick could be here with them emotionally, reach the level of acceptance they have, but the man who was once a leader Daryl could look up to is nearly gone. And maybe he doesn’t want him here right in this moment, anyway.

“That feel okay?” Daryl asks, already knowing her answer. She only nods, hanging her head low as the tips of her ears turn the same colour of pink he’s sure her face is.

There’s a part of him that wants to make the first real move on Beth. At the same time, he likes where they’re at now. Companions on the road. Doing something dumb like kissing her might ruin everything, and it might be too much for him all at once. No, they need to take things at their own pace, and right now this feels right.

Daryl does the same thing that made her make the noise before, this time even harder, and she basically moans. For a second he’s worried he went too hard on her and it hurt, but she lets him keep going, so he keeps going. He feels want forming in the pit of his stomach every moment she lets him keep going, until she suddenly jerks away from him and fixes her slightly dishevelled shirt.

He’s confused at first until he sees Rick walking around the side of the house and up to the fire they’re cooking dinner on.

Daryl feels embarrassed next to Beth now. Not because he’s worried that Rick saw. In fact he’s worried about the exact opposite. Beth jumping away like that at the sight of another person seeing them implies that she thinks they were doing something wrong or sexual. So now what she thinks is out in the open between them. And the next time they have a moment alone, he’ll have to decide if it’s more awkward or less awkward to address it. When did he start worrying about dumb shit like this?

Rick gives them a curt nod and examines the skewered squirrels they’re preparing for dinner. Beth even caught one of them earlier, which made Daryl begin to let go of a fear that was at the edge of his mind. What would happen to her if she got separated from them, or if they died? Now he’s fairly confident she’d be able to survive well on her own.

They eat inside the house they’ve made their own the past few days. Beth sits by the window and quickly tries to read a book she found in the basement called Jane Eyre before it gets too dark to read, while she scarfes down her dinner. He likes the way she sits at the table, one foot on her chair so that her knee is in her face. It looks sort of wild, fit for who she is now. Sometimes he doesn’t like that and he misses when she could be clean and civilized, worried about which outfits to wear. But she’s beautiful now too, not so worried about how she presents herself and more worried about feeling comfortable.

By the time it’s dark enough for her to close her book, Rick and Daryl have already given themselves sponge baths and gotten as ready to sleep as they can.

The first two nights that they were here, they took turns taking watch, but there was nothing, so they all decided to try one night of everyone sleeping through the whole night. Despite there being three bedrooms Daryl decided to sleep in the sun room, which turned out to be a good setup that made everyone feel safer. He’s such a light sleeper that if there was anything coming, he’d wake up right away and grab his crossbow. But so far there’s been absolutely nothing. Not even a single walker. He’s not overly concerned about a few stragglers anyway. They’d just get stuck at the fence around the property and he’d go take them out with no issue. A herd, or worse, other people, that’s a different story. But for now, this is the safest place they’ve been since the prison.

Beth goes into the bathroom for her own sponge bath just as Rick and Daryl are going to sleep. Beth’s room is the entire second floor of the small house, one of those loft-type bedrooms, while Rick sleeps downstairs. At least there’s extra protection for Beth. Gives her a few extra minutes to get away if anything bad happens.

Daryl can’t sleep. This isn’t uncommon, but he’s not worried about anything in particular like he usually is. There’s decent game around here, water they can filter not too far away, no walkers, no people, and everyone’s healthy. Things are actually getting better compared to where the three of them were a month ago. So why can’t he sleep?

On a slightly paranoid whim, he sits up and looks into the dark window of the house.

It takes him a while to make out in only the moonlight, but he’s sure he can see that Rick’s bedroom door is wide open, and that his bed is empty.

Then he realizes that the only reason he can see that is because there’s a very subtle light illuminating the room ever so slightly.

Now he’s curious as ever, and he knows he sure as hell won’t be able to sleep this one off.

It’s not strange for Rick to keep his door open. Maybe the room felt hot, maybe it made him feel more comfortable. But then, where is he? Maybe he’s sitting in the living room, also unable to sleep, and the two of them can finally have a heart to heart. Daryl doesn’t want Rick to feel alone and depressed like this anymore.

He walks into the house normally at first, but immediately tenses up and switches to his quiet hunting stance when he hears loud yet hushed voices coming from upstairs.

He also notices that the light is coming from the staircase, shining down from her bedroom.

At first, he’s in denial and attack mode. There’s no way that’s Rick and Beth, someone must have gotten into the house. But he would’ve known if it was a stranger. They wouldn’t be whisper yelling, shifting uneasily on the floorboards. And Rick would’ve come to get him if it was. But as Daryl approaches the bottom of the stairs he realizes that Rick purposefully waited until Daryl was gone. He wanted to go up to Beth’s room all on his own.

Daryl hesitates for a while at the bottom of the stairs, barely able to make out what they’re saying. It sounds like it’s mostly Beth arguing, with an emphasis on the word no, and Rick quietly answering her. He should just walk up there and see what’s going on. Confirm to himself that it’s not what he thinks it is. But in his gut, he knows.

The only way to assess the situation is to go up the stairs a bit and listen. Carefully making sure to stay to the side to avoid any creaking, he slowly makes his way up, stopping halfway up the stairs where he can hear them clearly. If this is a private moment, he’ll just go back to bed. Maybe they’re talking about Judith. Beth was like that girl's Mom, and Rick was her Dad, so it’d make sense. He hopes that’s what it is. He wishes he could just be right about one thing.

“Rick, go back to bed!” Beth exclaims, sounding exasperated. Daryl can’t see them yet, but if he went just a few steps up he’d be able to see her bed that faces the stairs. He feels guilty, sneakily listening to them like this, but Beth piques his curiosity even more and he’s glued in place.

Rick doesn’t respond, and instead Daryl hears the sound of fabric tearing.

“Stop!” Beth cries, and this time he can hear the fact that she’s probably crying a little bit. “Oh my god! Rick, please…” Beth whimpers as the irrefutable sound of Rick’s lips on her skin starts.

Fuck. Daryl doesn’t know what to do. On one hand, Beth doesn’t sound like she’s happy with this situation. On the other hand, Rick would never really rape Beth, right? And Beth would never let herself be raped like this. Not if she could just run outside and ask for help from Daryl. It’s not his place to intervene just yet. If things get worse then yeah, he’ll be right here waiting to help her. But they’re both adults who can handle themselves.

Plus, he’s frozen in shock at the whole thing. He was sure that Rick saw Beth as a little girl and would try to skin Daryl alive once he found out what kind of feelings Daryl has for her. But apparently, Rick’s got even worse ones.

Somehow, Daryl doesn’t feel jealous at all, despite his strange new feelings towards the girl. Sex isn’t the same anymore. Her feelings for him seem stronger than ever, and clearly Rick’s the one pursuing her. So he’ll wait here and make sure she’s okay while Rick does what he needs to do. Beth always looked up to Rick and trusted him with her life. Rick always saw Beth as something that was his to protect and take care of. This doesn’t seem very out of line.

Daryl climbs further up the stairs until finally, he peeks his head up just enough to see what’s happening at the other side of the room. The place is only illuminated by one candle, and they’re very clearly too busy in their own world to ever notice him.

Beth’s only in her underwear, ripped t-shirt thrown to the floor, jeans around her ankles. She’s perched at the end of the bed, sitting quietly while Rick kisses her neck and runs his hand up and down her thigh.

“Rick, I really don’t want to. I’ve never done anything like this before, okay? Another day,” Beth reasons calmly. Daryl doesn’t know if she’s telling the truth or just trying to convince Rick some more. Either way, he does feel a small pang of jealousy at that. The fact that he won’t be her first whether she’s lying or not. He’d be happy to be with her either way, but there’s something that makes his heart stir about being with her in such an intimate way and having to carefully guide her along. Maybe it’s more fitting that he’s only here to protect her while it’s happening, like a guard dog.

“That’s okay, sweetheart,” Rick murmurs into her hair more lovingly than Daryl expected. Even from across the room Daryl can see that Beth is shaking like a leaf, but he’s unsure if it’s from fear or arousal as Rick’s fingers trace over her panties teasingly.

He pulls her jeans completely off and Beth immediately curls her legs into her chest, making it harder for him to take off any more of her clothes. She still doesn’t say anything or try to pull away from him, even leaning into his kisses on her skin.

Her demeanour changes again when he pushes her hands and legs away, quickly unclasping her bra. She gasps, crossing her arms and holding the dangling bra to her chest. “Stop it!” she shrieks, swatting his hand away. Rick ignores her, pushing the straps off of her shoulder as she gives up and keeps trying to hold her bra to her chest. Daryl feels his cock stir at the thought of her perky little tits, and that’s when he knows he’s in too deep. No fucking way can he go up there and try to stop anything when he’s getting turned on by all of this.

He has to grab himself through his straining jeans when Rick finally pulls her bra off. She quickly moves her hands back across her chest, hanging her head low like she’s ashamed. “You’re so fuckin’ cute Beth,” Rick says with the first small laugh Daryl’s heard in a long time. He’s not joking to tease her, he’s being serious. Beth is really cute like this. He can practically feel her blush as Rick wraps his arms around her in a hug and kisses the top of her head. He coolly tugs her arms and they come falling down immediately on her own volition.

But that’s not the end of Beth’s pleading words towards Rick. “I trust you and I care about you a lot, but you’re scaring me a little. You just came in here an’...” Beth trails off with a lump in her throat. Daryl didn’t see or hear any of that. They were already mid argument when he came in. It sounds like Rick snuck into her room while she was trying to sleep, and maybe he just started touching her, or maybe he did something more aggressive like he did when he ripped her shirt open.

He understands why she’s scared, but she might also benefit from being handled like this. The girl’s always talking about how everyone treated her like a kid for too long, never let her do anything to help the group or herself. She’s a grown up out here, equal to him and Rick in every way. It’s clear in her body language that she’s not completely opposed to this either.

“You’re all mine, Beth. I provide for you, and I wanna make you feel good. I need you like this for me now, okay?” Rick breathes into her neck. He sounds drunk, but Daryl knows he isn’t since there’s no alcohol. He just needs Beth that badly, and he’s trying to make her understand, for her sake. If she ran and called for help, Rick wouldn’t stop taking care of her, and he wouldn’t try to ditch her. He isn’t trying to make Beth feel like it’s this or death. Instead, he’s giving her a soft order, like he has in the past. Take care of Judith, mend these winter jackets, weed the farm, feed the pigs. And she’d do it, because she knew it was what he needed her to do the most to help, not out of fear.

This seems to click in Beth’s mind, and she mulls it over for a few seconds while Rick’s hands travel her lithe body.

“I need you to be able to take this for me Beth,” Rick adds, slowly pushing her down onto the bed.

“I—”

He hovers over her, bending down to close his lips over hers and swallow her words in the process. Almost without Beth noticing, he easily slides her panties off, every expanse of her creamy white skin now completely exposed to the two mens leering eyes. She gasps again and looks over Rick’s shoulder for her already discarded underwear. Rick puts his hand on her shoulder and firmly pushes her down when she lets out a little cry of pain. After a while, Daryl realizes he’s leaving hickeys on her neck, right where everyone would be able to see them the next morning. He wants Daryl to know what happened here last night, for one reason or another.

“No! not there, Daryl will see, I’ll be so embarrassed,” Beth whines, trying to move her body up the bed to get her neck away from him. He wonders absently if Beth’s ever gotten a hickey before this or if this is her first experience of a guy biting her to mark her as his. Either way, he’s pretty sure her first boyfriend wouldn’t do that while living with Hershel, and he never saw anything on her from Zack. Even if he had, this is her first time having a man who’s actually deserving of calling her his do it.

Rick moves up the bed with her, relentlessly working on biting and sucking her neck and chest. “You sure you don’t want that? It’d drive him fuckin’ crazy.” And it does. Just the thought of seeing the proof of her sweet innocence being corrupted makes him need to grab his own cock again. After that, there’s no point in his hand leaving where it is.

For the first time, Beth quiets down and lets him keep having his way without complaint.

Rick carefully moves his hand between her legs while Beth is distracted relishing in his love bites, and she immediately becomes oppositional again. “Rick, I really haven’t…” she tries, snapping her legs shut.

“You’re so fucking wet already. Jesus.” Fuck. Daryl’s grateful Rick’s talkative side decided to come back out for this.

Beth seems too stunned at her own self to speak.

“Didn’t know it could be like this, huh? I’m gonna make you come so fucking hard, baby,” he promises, teasing her tight little pussy with his fingers. She’s so wet that Daryl can see it from where he’s standing.

“Want you to watch,” Rick orders as he brings her closer to the edge of the bed again and helps her prop herself up on her elbows. She still looks so fucking scared and innocent that it almost makes him finally intervene. He believes her now, that she’s never done anything like this before. But his cock and his brain make him stop. She’s only starting to enjoy it now, and if Rick doesn’t start abusing her or something, he still thinks it could be good for her.

“Put your legs like this,” he continues, moving her small body around however he pleases. He puts her feet onto the bed so her knees are bent up and her legs are spread. All she can do is look down at what he’s doing to her.

Sitting next to her, he continues the foreplay for a little while by running his hands along her naked thighs, slowly trailing down to her pussy where he rubs small circles onto her clit with his pointer and middle finger.

She immediately throws her head back and loudly cries out, hands immediately going to his wrist. She doesn’t try to move it, just keeps her hand on top of his while he works furiously to bring her to orgasm.

“Watch sweetheart, watch what I’m doing to your little teenage cunt,” Rick mutters in her ear, using his other hand to bring her head back up.

Beth listens to him and obediently watches Rick fuck her with his fingers, although she doesn’t seem too pleased about it.

“Good girl, you’re gonna come for me, you’re gonna be my little slut,” he adds, even more aggressively than before.

“Rick, it’s too much, please that’s too much.” Rick doesn’t take this well, and instead of listening to her, he wraps his other arm around her and supports both of them on his elbow, hand clasped loudly over her mouth like a slap. Now she has to lay there, and he’s determined to make her come this way.

Beth squeals and squirms under him, kicking her legs away as she forces herself out of his grasp and across the bed. “I told you I didn’t wanna do that anymore!” Beth yells, not bothering to whisper anymore or even try to be quiet at all.

Despite his hard cock and the fog clouding his rational thinking, Daryl nearly makes his way up the stairs, ready to get it to stop for her. This is her first act of real defiance, not small pleas that she’s easily convinced out of.

Rick nonchalantly grabs Beth by her legs and brings her back to the end of the bed, where he slaps her ass with a loud smack and grabs her face. She shouts in pained surprise, legs going back to their original position as she submits to what Rick wants.

“You don’t want me to make you come? Nobody ever made you come before?” He questions, bringing his fingers back to her clit. She doesn’t answer, looking away from him even as his grip remains on her face. “I want you to tell me how it feels.”

Beth considers it for a moment as her small hand moves back to rest on top of the one that’s working her pussy to give herself some semblance of control.

“Tell me,” he encourages breathily.

“It feels like I don’t want to,” she starts. Her small, sniffly voice must do something to soften Rick as he lets her face go. “But my body never felt like this before… like too much… I just wanna run away, but I can feel it in my whole body…” she trails off, unable to focus as she describes her building orgasm.

“I feel so scared ‘cause I’ve never been with a man like this, and now you’re…” she murmurs, panting as she looks down at what’s happening to her. It must be an overwhelming mix of emotions and feelings, being so shy and embarrassed about a man seeing her like this for the first time, and then having him force her to orgasm until she’s a shaking mess.

“Shit,” Rick mutters at the end of her tangent. Daryl nearly comes in his pants when she’s finished, so he can’t imagine how Rick feels, being the one doing it to her. She’s so sweet, and her touches to everyone else are always soft and innocent, it’s almost unbelievable this is happening to her.

“Come for me please,” he asks desperately. “Come on my fingers. Gonna make you come on my cock soon, sweetheart.”

“Oh god, please,” Beth cries out to the ceiling after laying down on her back. Her toes flex, her legs go slack, and Rick moans with her, probably feeling her flutter around him as she comes undone.

Daryl’s eyelids feel heavy with lust at the sight of Beth sprawled across that bed, coming down from an intense climax. He needs to look away and think of something else, anything, to try and get his cock to stop throbbing. He considers taking it out and getting off himself off, but he’s not here to be a complete fucking pervert. He’s here to make sure Beth’s okay. Rick can take care of her, that’s real clear, but there’s something primal in him that’s making him stay right in place. Beth’s still his girl and he needs to be here for her.

Rick wastes no time. He gives Beth a minute to lay there and revel in it, watching her carefully, but after that he’s already undressing himself.

“Rick…” Beth immediately starts.

“I need you,” he says, now only in his boxers, running his hands up and down her body.

Surprisingly, Beth grabs his erect cock with a timid hand. “I know, I know, but please just let me do it like this,” she pleads, groping him like she’s trying to make him come in his pants.

It’d probably be better for them to do it Beth’s way. Less risk of pregnancy, no pain for her, and Rick still gets to use her to make himself come. But Daryl can see it in his face that he’s going to convince Beth to let him use her however he wants. Daryl can’t say he hates that idea, either. He still doesn’t feel all that jealous. Maybe if it was another man, sure, but Rick… Rick might be the only other man he would want to have Beth, if not himself.

“I need to be inside of you. I need to. I know you can take it.”

And with that, Rick takes off his boxers, mounting Beth without waiting for her response.

Beth props herself up again, sliding back towards the headboard. This time instead of pulling her back by her ankles, Rick follows her, effectively pinning her underneath him while he reaches down to guide his cock inside of her.

Beth lets out a loud yelp as he enters her. Daryl can see how far his cock is inside of her, how he’s easing it in nice and slow for her, only halfway for now. “Fuck, you’re so tight, so fucking tight,” he says, voice strained. Beth is a whimpering mess underneath him, nails digging into his back as he eases into her.

“Quiet. You don’t wan’ Daryl to hear you, do you?” he teases, leaning down to leave more kisses and bites on her little tits. “Or maybe you do,” he adds. Beth cries out again just as Rick completely fills her up, clearly unable to control himself.

“You’re just a little slut, hey? Just a little slut,” he affirms to her, pulling out and pushing back in. Daryl’s never wanted to get himself off so bad. There’s something so tantalizing about calling sweet Beth Greene a little slut, like she might become one just for him.

“It fucking hurts,” Beth complains, a sassy edge to her tone rather than a weepy one.

“You’ll get used to it,” he answers seriously. Beth’s not trying to get away or trying to get him to stop anymore, which must stroke Rick’s ego plenty.

“Easy for you to say…” she retorts, voice strained. Rick speeds up the pace of his hips a bit, now steadily following a rhythm, and gives her a light smack on the ass for her comment.

“Brat.”

Like Daryl knew it would, it only takes another minute or so for her to adjust to his cock being inside of her. She even starts to match his pace, which he hopes Rick will notice and make her feel good about. It might be subconscious on her end, but she’s taking it so fucking good.

“Fuck… told you. I fuckin’ told you. Knew you needed that little pussy t’ get pounded,” Rick breathes into her ear, barely loud enough so that Daryl can hear him.

“I’m gonna come inside you, Beth. I’m gonna fill you up,” Rick growls, his thrusts speeding up while Beth suddenly goes still. Daryl feels the arousal wash out of his body all at once. Fuck. No fuckin’ way is he letting that shit happen.

“No Rick, I’m serious right now, don’t do that!” Beth yells. When he doesn’t listen, she kicks and shoves him off of her, crawling across the bed and falling to the floor with a loud thump.

Wordlessly, Rick walks around the bed to where Beth is sitting on the floor and swiftly picks her up, even as she fights him. “I swear to god, Rick!” she yells as she’s thrown back onto the bed, immediately towered over by him.

He grabs her by the throat, only applying enough pressure to keep her in place. Then he holds her leg open with his free hand and keeps going, slower than before, like he’s trying to build himself up to it. Beth’s hands focus on trying to pry his off of her throat, failing miserably.

If Daryl had known he would get like this, he would’ve nipped this in the bud right from the start. But now it feels too late, like he’d be intruding on something deeply, deeply personal. Doesn’t mean he won’t keep trying to build up the courage though. If Rick hits her, or starts choking her too hard… he’s done.

“Wait, wait, wait, listen to me… I saw you… you were like a father figure to me, Rick. Please just- not inside me,” she whimpers, making his stomach flip. She’s trying so hard to do everything from fight him off physically and appeal to his better nature. Yet Rick seems so set in his ways, that there’s no way the girl could convince him.

“Yeah, I saw you like my daughter. When you were still a little girl. You’re all grown up now.”

Daryl feels how Beth must feel, a strange mix of fear and arousal. His brain knows how fucked up this whole thing is, that he should stop it right fucking now, but his body is a whole other beast.

He starts fucking into her hard again, making the bed shake, getting off on his own words. “Shit, I’m gonna fucking come baby, it’s okay,” he chokes out as his head turns up to the ceiling. Beth makes a small sound at the back of her throat, the same one she made when Daryl massaged her earlier, each time Rick thrusts into her, which doesn’t bode well for her goal of him not coming inside her.

“You’re a fucking asshole,” she spits out. “I’ll never forgive you.”

For some reason, that’s it.

Daryl snaps and makes his way completely up the stairs. Beth notices first, hands moving from her throat to her bouncing little tits, body turning completely red almost in an instant as she tries to cover herself up.

Rick must know he’s there, but it’s like he doesn’t care, focusing on using Beth like a little doll until Daryl finally mans up and says something. “Don’t be dumb, man.”

He finally stops and pulls out of Beth, hesitantly letting her neck go. She immediately rolls over to cover up with a blanket. Daryl suddenly feels guilty that he’s been watching her naked this whole time. He has to remind himself that it was for her own good.

“I don’t have to ask your permission to fuck someone,” Rick says angrily, pulling his boxers up for his own modesty.

“I meant don’t be a dumbass and come inside her. Jesus. You already forget what happened to Lori? I’m not letting that happen to Beth.”

Rick scoffs, squaring Daryl up. “How can you say that to me? Of course I haven’t,” Rick bites out, looking back at Beth after he’s done. He doesn’t know how to respond. He doesn’t believe for a second that Rick would bestow the same fate upon Beth, but it sure seemed like he was about to.

“I wasn’t actually gonna,” he adds carefully, like he’s just considered Beth for the first time tonight.

“Then why’d you freak her out like that?”

Rick looks him up and down as he smirks like a dickhead.

“How long ‘ve you been watching us? Been watching what I’m doing to your girl?” he taunts as a lump forms in Daryl’s throat. He doesn’t want Beth to know.

Rick moves to the side so that Daryl and Beth are facing each other. Beth looks nervous, and Daryl’s almost positive it’s because she thinks he’s mad for sleeping with Rick.

“You’re hard. So obviously you’ve been watching for a while, or you got off on me choking Beth. Either way, you ain’t one to judge,” Rick says, trying to prove something to Beth.

Beth looks down at the bulge in his pants, sinking even deeper into the bed. “Were you?” she asks quietly.

Daryl sighs, rubbing his hands over his face. What the fuck does someone say in this situation? He just sat back and watched Rick take advantage of her.

“I just wanted to make sure you were okay,” he manages to explain. She deserves that, doesn’t she? An explanation from one of them. He suspects Rick will have some explaining to do in the morning. But for now, he can give her something.

“It’s okay,” she assures him after a beat, although she doesn’t seem fully confident in her own answer. Maybe it’s okay with her for now, but it won’t always be. Not until he explains himself more.

“I’m not finished with her yet,” Rick tells both of them, making his way back to Beth. Beth flinches away, looking to Daryl for guidance.

Now that she knows he’s here and she’s seeking him out, he realizes he’d do literally fucking anything for her. Even if it means beating the shit out of Rick until he can-

“Only if Daryl stays,” Beth blurts out quickly.

Stays where?/ To watch them from a chair in the corner of the room?

Surely she must know she doesn’t have to do this anymore. Doesn’t have to trust Rick to take care of her and think of her safety while he’s ruthlessly corrupting her. She doesn’t have to compromise with him. It can just end now.

But instead she just wants him here, in some way or another.

Rick softens again, and Daryl wonders if he still thinks of Beth as a little girl and a daughter figure in some fucked up way.

“Would that make you feel better?” In that moment, he can tell that Rick never sought out to hurt Beth. He started to like it along the way, so long as she let him, but those weren’t his intentions.

Beth nods hesitantly, exposing her chest as she sits up straight in the bed. Daryl instinctively looks away until Beth reaches her hand out to him. “Come here,” she orders. Daryl freezes, shaking from his nerves. She means she wants him to stay in the bed with them?

He almost says no, but how can he deny her anything?

Rick waits patiently at the other side of the bed until they get situated. Daryl grabs Beth’s hand and she pulls him closer until he’s on the bed with her, where she immediately pulls off his vest and begins to unbutton the shirt underneath.

He nearly tells her to stop because he doesn’t want them to see the scars that mark his body, but wouldn’t that be hypocritical? He feels like a fucking asshole now as he gets a sense of what Beth’s been feeling all evening.

She quickly pushes his shirt off of his shoulders. Her eyes linger for a second but luckily she doesn’t say anything, and neither does Rick. Instead, she smooths her hands over his newly exposed skin, gentle as can be. He’s not sure when the last time someone touched him like this was. Maybe years and years ago. It feels nice.

He kicks off his shoes, leaving them close to the bed, ready to go just in case. Then, Beth urges him to take off his pants, hand carefully placed on his thigh like she’s contemplating touching him.

“That’s enough,” Rick says. He doesn’t sound angry anymore, just eager to be back inside of Beth, and Daryl wonders if Beth will really be more enthusiastic with him now that Daryl’s here.

“Okay,” she answers in a submissive nature. She thinks about something for a second, then motions for Daryl to lay down on the bed, laying directly on top of him with her ass in the air. He was half expecting to be doing something to her at the same time as Rick, but this is nicer. She just wants to be held while it’s happening and Rick isn’t exactly in the mood to do that.

Her head rests nicely under his chin, body more relaxed than he imagined it would be as she moves his arms to wrap around her middle in a hug.

Rick grabs her hips, digging his nails into the soft flesh there while he begins to slowly build up a rhythm inside of her again. Beth tenses up the second his cock is inside of her, and it’s all Daryl can do to rub her back supportively.

“You’re being so good, Beth,” he encourages softly into her hair. She buries her head in his chest, refusing to look up, seemingly out of embarrassment as she moans and whines into his skin.

Daryl gets rock hard when Beth’s entire body starts to move while she gets fucked, tits bouncing as her nipples harden.

“You should take it in the ass while Daryl fucks your tight little pussy. How would you like that? Both of us fucking you. Could you handle it?” Rick groans, reaching between them and underneath Beth to grab her and play roughly with her nipples.

She only shakes her head no, finally turning it to the side to take a deep breath. He can’t tell if the other man is just talking shit or not, like he apparently was when he told Beth he was gonna come inside of her. Why does he do that? Daryl can only imagine it’s some sort of power play, to keep Beth under his thumb.

“No way. She’s not ready for that. Had a hard enough night as it is,” Daryl says, looking Rick in the eyes for the first time since they started this. It’s a bit strange, but Rick seems to take him seriously, looking back down at what he’s doing to her.

Beth turns her head up to Daryl and moves up a bit, meeting his lips in a more passionate first kiss than he was expecting. Their teeth clash together a few times as Beth’s body moves back and forth from Rick’s ministrations, but it’s nice and hot, his hand coming up to her head to hold it still. Taking this as an invitation to be a bit more of an active participant, he reaches between them and gently holds her pussy open with his index and middle fingers. It doesn’t do anything other than give her the new and surprising sensation of him touching her, but she still gasps against his mouth. The thought of it is what gets him going, holding open the sweet girl in his arms so she can take cock easier.

“Here,” Rick says, moving off of her to grab her by the ankles and pull her back towards the edge of the bed. Daryl’s confused for a second, until he stops her head right at the bulge in his boxers.

Rick doesn’t need to tell her what to do next.

It’s like Beth’s been waiting for this with how quickly she takes his dick out, immediately wrapping her tiny hand around its base. Then she looks up at him like a deer in headlights. “This okay?”

He almost laughs at how out of place the question feels. How could he say no when she seems so eager to please him, and when he feels like he’s about to come all over her face?

“Mhm,” is all he manages to get out, gripping the bed sheet in anticipation of having to physically stop himself from finishing too fast.

“I’m gonna come,” Rick vocalizes, eyes shutting tight. Better not be inside of her, Daryl wants to say.

Beth gives him a curious lick up his length, tongue flicking off with pressure on his tip. She watches his reaction carefully, smiling to herself when she sees what she’s doing to him. She takes him in her mouth just as Rick starts to speed up his pace, whimpering on Daryl as she grabs onto his hips to steady herself. The vibrations of her voice feel fucking amazing, even more so as she tries to spit as much as possible onto him before letting him go with a small pop.

Then she starts stroking him up and down, carefully manoeuvring her tongue around however much she can fit in her mouth, which isn’t a lot, and he can no longer control himself. Bunching her hair up in his fist, he bucks his hips into her. She gags a bit, having to stabilize herself on his hips again, but this time it isn’t Rick’s fault.

“Being so fucking good for me. Thank you for giving this to us,” he says, trying to soften the blow of fucking her mouth in a way she wasn’t ready for.

“Gonna come on you just like you fucking want,” Rick grunts, grabbing her tits as he empties himself out on her back. His cum shoots up the length of her body, but it seems like Beth is only focused on keeping her mouth open as wide as possible while she breathes through her nose.

“God, Beth!” Rick cries out wildly. Unexpectedly, he grabs her head with Daryl and forces her further down onto his cock, making Beth gag and fight against him. It seems to intensify Rick’s orgasm, his eyes closed and focused as he climaxes. Daryl can’t help that it makes him feel the intense heat building in his stomach even more. He still manages to fight against Rick’s grasp, pulling her head back up to where she had it to begin with. Beth looks up at him gratefully, bringing her blowjob back to its original slow pace.

Daryl painstakingly pulls Beth off of his cock altogether, bringing her back up to be level with his face. “I really wanna be inside you now. Do you want that?” He surprises himself with the question. She must be sore and tired after being used by Rick like that, but it feels like a need, how desperately he’s wanted to be with her like this the whole time. He didn’t realize it could be so good until he saw her with Rick.

“I think you can, even if you don’t wanna,” Rick interjects, pulling up his boxers.

Daryl doesn’t want Beth to feel like she has to. He doesn’t want it to be like how it was for her with Rick. He’s gonna make her come too, give her Rick’s unfulfilled promise. But that seems to make up her mind, and before either of them can say anything, she slowly lowers herself onto him with a wince of pain. Fuck, it’s still painful for her, wether it be because of how virginal she is or because she’s been screwed relentlessly already, but she still does it. For him.

Beth looks lost in how to ride him, so Daryl quickly grabs hold of her hips and sits up against the headboard, gently showing her how to work his cock with her pink little cunt.

“Daryl…” she whispers breathily in his ear before he even starts playing with her.

“Do you wanna come?” That’s usually the goal, but with Rick making her do it earlier he’s not sure.

“Mhm,” she answers in a small, high pitched voice. In an instant, Daryl’s hand moves down to where they’re meeting, and his thumb quickly finds her swollen little clit, running it back and forth eagerly.

“Bounce on my cock, just like this,” he encourages. Building up her climax seems to do wonders for her cooperation. She quickly moves herself up and down his cock, ass smacking the skin on his legs each time. It must feel good now, he must be doing something right.

He’s already so close to an orgasm from her using her mouth, but he desperately wants her to come undone on him. He wants to feel her, and be close to her while she does it.

“Come for me Beth, please, please, I just wanna make you feel good,” he begs, pushing his forehead against her so that they’re making deep eye contact. He can’t believe they’re already here, sharing each other’s bodies like this before either of them could admit that they were ready. He would’ve never thought this would happen when he woke up this morning, but now…

Beth nearly screams so loud that he has to cover her mouth, but luckily she does that for him, biting her knuckles as she grinds on him while riding out her orgasm. It’s fucking amazing, just like he knew it would be. He grabs her ass, pushing her further onto his cock so she feels full of him while she’s in pure bliss.

Soon afterwards, Daryl has to pull out, his cum ending up all over her stomach and tits. Now she’s covered in it, and somehow still looks like the sight of innocence after they’re done. She rests her head in the crook of his neck and goes completely slack on top of him. That’s when he decides she’s done and needs to rest, even if Rick says he wants to keep going.

Daryl looks over her head to find Rick completely dressed, sitting facing away from them at the other end of the bed. Daryl had almost forgotten he was in the room while he was with Beth. He can see now why neither of them ever noticed him. He probably wouldn’t notice a herd of walkers approaching the house if he was deep in Beth’s pussy.

Beth rolls off of him after a minute, staring at Rick silently with Daryl. He’s been wondering what she’s thinking this whole evening, but now he can see it clear as day on her face. She already forgives him, at least for tonight.

“Come to bed with us, Rick,” she beckons. Daryl can’t and won’t make Rick do that, but the hurt in Beth’s voice makes him want to. It’s natural that she wants the man who so roughly took her virginity to show her some love and affection. The kind that he used to give to her, like a pat on the head, or a hug for taking such good care of his daughter.

“I’m leaving in the morning,” he tells them coldly, not daring to look at them. Daryl’s stomach drops as he and Beth quickly sit up.

“Hell you talkin’ about? Where you goin’?”

“I need to find them. Their bodies… whatever. Goin’ back to the prison to find something. I know it’s stupid, and it’s a death march, so you guys stay here. This place is strong. Build on the fences. Spikes, like I told you I saw at Morgan’s place,” Rick says pointedly to Daryl. Daryl remembers when Rick got back with Michonne and Carl, telling him about the ingenious spike defences that walkers would get stuck on. Maybe that would work out here, but Daryl’s not as confident as Rick in their ability to stay here for more than a few weeks at the most. No, they need to find something better. And they need to go with him.

“How can you do this to me?” Beth asks tearfully. “Yeah, maybe we did something fucked up that you started, but you can’t just bail on us!” Beth shouts.

Rick snaps back at her. “I’m leaving for you. You won’t be able to face me come morning.”

“You’re just scared of that! You don’t know a thing about how I feel. I just asked you to get in bed and take care of me like you said. That’s what you promised!” Beth shouts, kicking her feet like an angry toddler.

“We’ll all go together. Can’t stay here anyhow,” Daryl interjects, trying to defuse the tension. “But we’ll give it a few days. Beth’s gonna be hurting tomorrow.”

Rick sighs deeply, looking between the two of them. “At least I did something right,” he says after a pause.

Daryl swallows his words, still wondering why Rick did anything he did. He’s right, at least it got Beth and Daryl together, but that sure wasn’t the reason. He’s sure the man himself doesn’t know, either, but all of Rick’s pain seems to have come out in the open now, hanging heavily in the air around them.

“I’m gonna sleep where Daryl was,” he tells Beth softly, hand resting over the blanket on her knee. “And he’s gonna give you what you need, because he really loves you. I do too, but you saw…” he tells her, eyes cold and disconnected. Beth saw how he expresses it now. She felt it deep in her bones, and now Daryl’s here to make her whole again.

Rick walks away without another word, and Beth doesn’t protest. Instead she puts out her candle, bathing the room in complete darkness.

“I was gonna clean you up,” he whispers. He feels bad about everything. The least he can do is make her thoroughly comfortable now that it’s all done.

“I’m so tired,” she replies easily, fitting herself to his side like a puzzle piece.

It’s not too late to go downstairs and try to convince Rick to stay. Maybe he’s already made up his mind and he’ll wait for them. More likely, he’s set in his idea, and he’s already getting ready to leave tomorrow. But maybe there’s a chance that Beth got to his heart and she convinced him. Either way, tomorrow will be a big day. They’ll either never see Rick again, or they’ll have to learn to live with what went on tonight. Oddly enough, Daryl thinks he can live with it either way, as long as he still has Beth to occupy his time.