All it had taken was that damn poncho. A man who was not him was wearing it, and the rage that bubbled inside her at the sight, of what it meant, traveled to her trigger finger in the blink of an eye. Written for the Nine Lives's "Joy" Challenge.

Daryl and Beth are on their own, alone, and have lost everything and everyone they've ever cared about. Old wounds are reopened as they search for their family and the people they love, but they soon realize that the most dangerous elements of their new world have only just appeared. Absolutely no romance between Beth and Daryl. Slow-burn Caryl.

Daryl takes and unexpected dip in a creek bed in the dead of winter. 

She couldn’t lay that burden on him. She couldn’t.

Secrets were secrets.

But, oh. To be free of just one ounce of this burden would be such a blessing.

The first heat wave of the spring had struck, and no one was happy. Old Caryl one-shot.