Somehow he knew. It all happened so fast. But he knew how it was going to go.

As soon as Beth moved, he could see the scissors. . .he wanted to shout out, but it was too late. They could all hear it; metal hitting bone, gun fire and then her body hitting the floor. He moved forward, shouting angrily but with no words just noise. His gun was already out and he could see Dawn mouthing the words 'I didn't meant to' and 'I'm sorry'. . .but he didn't care. He shot. He knew exactly what he was doing, and he didn't care.

She had to pay. He had tried so hard to find her, and finally he had. . .but before he had even spoken to her, hugged her. . .she was gone.

As Dawn's body fell to ground lifelessly, he could hear shouts and voices but he didn't care he just dropped to the ground next to Beth's body, checking for a pulse even though he knew it was pointless. She was gone. And he was left crying.

He looked at her face, tears blurring his vision. He could swear her mouth was smiling sadly as he heard the words:

"You're gonna miss me so bad when I'm gone, Daryl Dixon."

The tears came twice as fast and hard then. He grabbed her body, noticing how limp it was as he hugged her close. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," He kept repeating. This was his fault. He hadn't protected her enough, hadn't taught her to defend herself enough. He shouldn't have stopped at that house, he should have kept them moving, he should-

"This wasn't your fault, Daryl."

He stopped repeating and looked down at Beth's face, which was laid against his chest. She was looking at him with those big blue eyes.

"None of this was your fault. You know that. You looked after me, made me strong and you never gave up on me. So don't you dare blame yourself, you hear me? This isn't your fault." She smiled, and he blinked and she was staring at him with big glazed wide eyes. Dead eyes. He closed his eyes and hugged her tighter.

She was gone and there was nothing he could do about it, nothing he could do to change it now. Standing up, he picked her up, keeping her close and started towards the exit.


Thanks for reading. (the part where Beth is talking to Daryl doesn't really happen, it's just something he imagines)

Okay, so it's been a couple of years since I've uploaded (or even properly wrote) anything. I'm trying to get started again, even though it's hard with a 1 and half year old who doesn't sleep properly lol.

I actually wrote this the same night the episode aired, so a while ago. . .not sure why I didn't upload it then; probably because it's not very good, but I've been looking through my unfinished/fics and found this.