In Hope Of Falling In Love (A Walking Dead Fanfic)

Prologue

Beth had heard about men like Daryl for a long time. The tales and stories her sister had told her about the Dixon's and how rowdy they were many years before they met officially.

It had began when her father had sold his pocket watch to Robert Sailor, the town's resident drunk and madman. Daryl's father had refused to let him keep it and had stolen the watch from Robert while he slept in his own vomit.

Josephine, Hershel's first wife, then went and requested it back and he gave it back reluctantly.

That was the first story Beth was told about the Dixons. The second, a much darker story than the first, was how Daryl's father use to beat Merle and Daryl.

When Beth had first learnt of this, after Maggie told her, she was quite surprised two strong men like them were confined to such difficulties in their lives. They were, or appeared to be, quite independent and even if their father wasn't the nicest man, Beth often wondered how much of what she was hearing was true.

She had learned it was when they had first arrived at the prison. Daryl had been changing his shirt and she'd stolen a peek, only curious as to whether what Maggie told her was true, and had seen the scars layering his back.

The third, and last, story her sister told her was how Merle, the older of the Dixon brothers, use to sell drugs.

Beth, herself, had never touched or seen drugs in her life. The closer she'd got to any kind of drugs were the anti-depressants her father had to take briefly after his first wife's, and Maggie's mother, death.

She couldn't help feeling quite sympathetic towards Daryl after his brother's death but if she was going to bring it up, or tell him that she was sorry about what happened, she suspected he would have her for lunch or her head on a stick.

He's not the type of guy to talk about feelings.

Beth decided not to bring it up but if it did come up in conversation she would engage in it and discuss her feelings towards it.

She found that she could be quite opinionated and this apocalypse only gave her one more reason to be more curious or show how brave and strong she was.

But still, she couldn't shake the image of Daryl's scars from her head.

He, she thought, deserved a girl with sparkly eyes, who could write him songs or poetry and could make him feel again.

Maybe, just maybe, she could be that girl.