Just a short little drabble based on The Band Perry's If I Die Young. Bethyl friendship, Caryl relationship if you squint. Enjoy.
Disclaimer: Not mine!
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And I'll be wearing white when I come into your kingdom
I'm as green as the ring on my little cold finger
I've never known the loving of a man
But it sure felt nice when he was holding my hand
-The Band Perry, If I Die Young
She never felt the bullet take her life.
Some describe death as a long tunnel, others as a blackness, a void never ending. Then there was heaven, hell, purgatory, so many others.
Beth didn't experience any of those as she thought she might.
Instead when she opened her eyes, she was by a lake, wrapped in very familiar arms. Her gaze swung upward and met a very familiar and welcome face.
"Daddy!"
His arms tightened around her and she buried her face in his chest, emitting a soft, relieved sob.
She was finally home.
Daryl sighed as he closed the tattered journal and handed it back to Maggie. Nearly a month had passed since Beth's death. Carol was healing well physically, but Maggie seemed to spend most of her days in a fog, comforted only by Glenn. It was understandable; she had lost her last blood relative and her only baby sister.
The memories of that day were still so vivid in the minds of all who saw it. Daryl still felt the weight of her limp body in his arms even now. He had not been so devastated by a loss since the events that led them to finding Sophia as she stumbled out of that barn on the Greene farm.
A gentle hand on his back interrupted his thoughts. "Daryl?"
He turned and came face to face with Carol. "Yeah?"
She handed him his bag. "It's time to go."
Nodding, he slung the bag over his shoulder and braced himself. One day, he would go back to the place where they had buried Beth and he would find some flowers to put on her grave, just as he had done with Sophia and that dark time when he believed he had lost Carol. He knew the exact spot and when the time was right, he would find his way back. But for now, he had to keep moving forward. They all did.
Securing his bag in place, he followed Carol and reached out, briefly squeezing her hand for reassurance. She returned the squeeze and he looked to the rising sun that was just beginning to warm them.
Things would be okay one day.
He had to keep believing that.
And maybe then you'll hear the words I've been singing
Funny when you're dead how people start listening
The End.