Her heart pounded in her chest, sending blood to her ears so that the only thing she could hear was the rapid beating. The adrenaline was coursing through her veins, and yet her mind was clear as day. There was only one option.

"I get it now."

The scissors almost slipped. With palms slick with sweat, she clenched her fist tight around the handles and with one quick thrust, brought them up and into Dawn's chest. There was resistance. For a split second her eyes met Dawn's and she realised the razor sharp edges had not made it through the Kevlar material of her vest. She didn't even realise Dawn had it on under her shirt.

The loud bang from the gun echoed in Beth's ears. Then there was blackness.

-.-

Her whole body shook as she gasped awake and rose to an upright position. Her throat was raw from screaming and tears poured down her face steadily.

"No!" Beth's hands crossed her stomach, lifting her shirt to reach for a bullet wound. Finding none, she traced her hands over her body, down to her legs and then up over her shoulders. There was no blood or pain and Beth dropped her head into her hands, sobbing.

A door creaked open close by and she turned away, not wanting to be comforted by the people stuck in Grady Memorial Hospital. Soft arms dropped down around her shoulders and Beth shrugged them off, moving further away on the bed she had been placed in.

"Bethy, what's the matter sweetheart?"

Beth stilled.

The lowly murmured tones drifted into her ears like a forgotten dream, "Did you have a nightmare honey?"

Beth's heart dropped into her stomach. The woman speaking, with her sweet southern twang and low pitched voice sounded just like her mother. She didn't want to look at her, only to be disappointed when it turned out to be someone else.

"Just leave me be. Tell Dawn I'll get back to work when it's light." Beth wanted to crawl under her blankets and never come out. It wouldn't be a good hiding place, but at least then her night time visitor would be inclined to leave. She could feel the bed dip and the springs squeak as her visitor took a seat beside her.

"Beth honey, who is Dawn?"

Beth lowered her hands. 'Who is… who is this woman?' She turned to face her, and her heart skipped a beat at the sight.

"Momma?"

Annette Greene smiled as she sat on her daughter's bed, dressed in a pink flannel nightgown. Her brunette hair was piled high in rollers and stray wisps of hair shaped her face. It was the most beautiful sight Beth had seen in the last three years.

She tentatively pressed her palm to her mother's face, and the instant they touched Beth let loose a loud sob, "She shot me Momma. She shot me!" She fell forward into her mother's arms and continued to cry as her mother made shushing sounds. Eventually she drifted off to sleep.

-.-

Beth woke slowly this time, listening to the sounds around her. Her mother was downstairs in the kitchen, humming as she often did when she made breakfast. There was birdsong floating in through the bedroom window and neighing from what sounded like horses in a stable a distance away. It reminded her of growing up on the farm and waking up to the usual farm noises. In fact, if she listened closely enough she could hear a tractor out in the back paddock.

"This must be what Heaven is." She mused out loud.

Beth opened her eyes, taking in the bright mid-morning sun and realised she was in her bedroom, the one she'd had since birth. She was home on the farm. She rubbed her tear-crusted lashes and stretched long across her bed. She turned her head and was greeted with the familiar knick knacks of her childhood. There was the riding trophy she'd received from a competition at the county fair, the heart-shaped photo frame with a picture of her and Jimmy at the Sadie Hawkins dance and her little beaded jewellery box.

'It's all the same. As if nothing has changed.'

Beth surveyed her room and found it as if she'd never left. After the walkers appeared and with the whole mess of Otis shooting Carl, Beth had shared her room with Maggie, not wanting to be alone at night. Now none of Maggie's clothes were strewn across the floor. It was almost unusually tidy.

Beth smiled. "I guess it's time to meet everyone."

She tiptoed over the creaky floorboard outside her room and made her way slowly down the stairs, cherishing the memories that came to her at every turn and corner of the house. As she suspected, her mother was in the kitchen, frying up some eggs and humming an old Johnny Cash song. She smiled and slipped past her and to the dining room, to find her father reading the morning paper with a steaming cup of coffee in his hands.

"Morning Daddy," Beth announced her presence. Hershel Greene looked up at his youngest daughter and Beth could resist it no longer. She rushed to his side and enveloped him in a tight hug.

"I missed you," she whispered into his ear.

"Good morning doodlebug. How are you? Seemed you had a terrible night's sleep. Sit down with me and we can discuss it." Hershel folded his paper and placed it to the side as Beth lowered herself into the adjacent chair.

Beth smiled so wide her cheeks hurt and she took her father's right hand, holding it softly between her own, "I'm so happy to see you Daddy." Hershel smiled in return.

"I'm glad to see you smiling. You woke your mother and I with all your screaming last night Bethy. How're you feeling?"

Beth frowned and turned her thoughts inward, trying to understand the emotions she was feeling. For the first time in what seemed like a lifetime, she'd woken up knowing that she was safe and surrounded by the loved ones she had lost. Here in Heaven, in God's arms, she could finally relax and be at peace. It would only be a matter of time before the rest of the group showed up. She hoped they would have long and happy lives, somewhere safe.

She looked into her father's shining blue eyes, so much like her own, and smiled, "I feel… peaceful."

Her father sat, contemplating her statement. He opened his mouth to speak and was interrupted as her mother entered the dining room with a tray full of breakfast food. "Good morning Beth, are you feeling better?"

Beth closed her eyes as she inhaled the smell of her mother's home cooked meal. She nodded, "Yes I'm much better now."

She watched her mother set the table and when the food was placed in front of her, Beth dug in. At the first bite of runny eggs on toast, Beth moaned aloud, "Ohhh, this is delicious!"

Her mother laughed, "Well, I can't take the entire credit sweetie. Those hens have a tough time pushing eggs out day after day."

Beth grinned and looked over her parents. They were so happy, so full of life. They looked as if the horrors of the walking dead had never had any impact on them at all. As she ate, her parents started discussing the day's duties, her father mentioning seeing to a cow that looked ready to give birth over on the Johnson's farm and her mother's plan to meet up with her sister-in-law Susie.

As the conversation flowed, Beth's thoughts drifted to the family she left behind. She wondered what her sister Maggie and Glenn were up to, if they'd survived. Little Judith, was she out there somewhere? Hopefully she'd be with someone kind enough to sing her to sleep and to rub her stomach when she was restless. Daryl… how would he be handling her death? She didn't think he'd cry. He was strong, a survivor. He'd move on, but she'd miss him terribly. Rick, Carl, Michonne, Sasha, Bob, Tyrese, Carol, Noah, the rest of the people from the prison… hopefully they were all together and surviving.

Beth had finished the last bite and swallowed the last of her juice when her thoughts drifted to those they'd lost on the way. They must be waiting to see her, surely. She looked up at her parents, "When are we going to meet the others?"

Annette smiled, "What others, honey?"

Beth turned to her father, "Well, there's Shawn, Otis and Patricia to start with. Then we can go visit Lori, and T-Dogg… and Andrea, well she must be with her sister, don't you think? Do you think they're ready to meet me?"

Hershel frowned then, "Shawn's out working the fields. Otis and Patricia are probably at home, if you want to visit them. I don't know who those others were that you mentioned."

Beth stared shocked as her parents glanced worriedly at each other. A horrible feeling started in the pit of her stomach, 'What's going on? How can they not know?'

"Bethy, are you okay?" Her mother had come around to her side of the table and placed a hand on the back of her head.

Beth brushed it off, "Yeah, I'm okay. Are you okay?"

Her parents could only stare at her quizzically. She stood quickly from the table, worry eating away at her. How could they have forgotten their friends? Her mother was understandable, but her father? He'd been there when they all met on the farm. Beth started pacing back and forth across the room.

"Don't you remember Rick Grimes and his people, Daddy?" Beth implored of her father, "They stayed with us before the farm was overrun." Beth looked into her father's eyes, searching for signs of recognition. Hershel shook his head and Beth turned around, hand to her forehead. Her father couldn't remember a thing. 'Is this really Heaven?'

"Now Beth, sit down, you're starting to worry me." Her mother pleaded.

"I'm sorry, I don't want to worry you Momma. I just-" Beth stopped, looking at herself in the faint reflection of the grandfather clock. Her hair, it was long, down to her waist and her cheeks, they were full, her eyes were shining and there were no lines on her face. She gingerly felt the strands on her head, pulling one out and away from her.

'My hair hasn't been this long since before the turn…' Beth gasped and turned towards her parents, who both had concern in their eyes. She walked to the table and picked up the newspaper her father had been reading. The Times-Herald. She looked to the top, and what she saw, shocked her to the core.

'It's… August 1st, 2009?'

"What's the meaning of this?" Beth shook the paper in front of her, "Why is the date wrong? Where are the others?" She dropped the paper to the floor and watched her father stand, both legs whole and intact.

"Beth, what in Heaven's name are you talking about?" Her father rarely spoke in anger, but his voice was terse, questioning, worrying.

Beth felt cold all of a sudden. It was a chill, right down to her bones. Her stomach felt queasy and she swayed on the spot, "I… I'm not… not feeling well at all."

She looked back and forth between her parents and made a mad rush to the bathroom where she heaved the breakfast she'd just eaten. It didn't taste as nice coming up. She sat there, on the cold tile floor, hugging the porcelain seat, her mind whirling.

'What's happened to me?'

-.-

Well, that's a tentative start. I kind of had inspiration for this story in a spur of the moment so not much is planned out. I'm looking for someone to beta-read this fic for me. Tell me if you like it, I'd like to see what people guess is going to happen. xx