Yes, I made that hilariously bad cover image myself! It would have been better but I couldn't really erase Beth's background much more than I did, or else it would have looked odd. I still like it though, and it's better than no cover image at all! :)

I have always loved the idea of this couple, and the actual couple itself. I also love Rick/Beth, but there is, thankfully, a LOT of love for that couple on here. :) Anyway, I LOVED The Governor, and he was my favorite character. I feel the writers made a big mistake in what happened in the season four midseason finale concerning him. I feel his redemption could have been made permanent for him if the writers didn't have other "villains" to get to, and I do think he was a good man, just very misunderstood. I don't condone all his actions, but I do understand why he did them...to me, it seemed, he did just lose it.

Anyway, this starts in season four. I also recommend another fantastic story called "I Know Who You Really Are" which is the only other Beth/Gov story on here. Anyway if you read this and liked it, thank you so much! Please enjoy! :)

Prologue

To many, Beth Greene would seem insane. Perhaps she was. Certainly, her family…or should she say, former family, to her immense pain, thought she was. She was not sure if they would ever accept her back. Accept him. But in the end, all she could think about was all of those little beginning moments with him, and then, later on, sweeping moments of love and passion and real, actual happiness in this new world, and she always knew that she would never see herself as crazy.

How come the very idea of loving a monster had been acceptable when it was a fairy-tale, or even something meant for children, in the old world? But now, in this new world, where monsters walked the earth, the very idea of a young girl falling in love with the man everybody around her perceived to be the monster was not celebrated or lauded. No. This man was not seen as misunderstood to her beloved family and friends back at the prison, and, in the end, they would never see him as the wronged man turned beast, who was in pain, and only needed love and understanding from a woman crazy enough to give it to him to set him right.

But…that very word was not what she ever saw him as anymore. Saw him as now. Indeed, it had pained her when she had gone and told her family and friends. They had spat the word at her, condemning her, because, in their words, she had fallen in love with a monster.

It always pained her, at the thought that so many called him that, to his face. Behind his back. Because he wasn't a monster. Yes, he had done terrible, terrible things, but the thing was, he had never meant to. Never wanted to. Those things had only come from a place of great pain and loss, when he had lost the last person he had ever wanted to lose.

Sometimes, in the beginning, really, like on that first fateful day, when she had gone on a supply run by herself, and later passed through Woodbury and seen him sitting there, in his abandoned old town, alone, she had fancied herself insane. Feeling sorry for the man who had caused so much damage to her group? Befriending, and actually seeing a tender, damaged side to him? She couldn't bear it. But soon, she had learned the hard way that even he was in pain. Even he had lost people he had loved.

Even he was a good man, underneath it all.

It had taken a lot of time, yes, and taken a lot of courage, but in the end she sympathized with him. In the end she forgave him. And in the end, she fell in love with him. Besides, she had once heard it said that you could never truly love a person until you forgave their darkness. And that's just what she did.

Looking at him…perhaps, at first, an outsider would be frightened of him. Yet she never was. He was tall, thin, and yet powerful. And he had brown hair that gleamed. He also had just one eye, the light of which grew dim whenever she had to leave, or when he told her stories of his dead daughter. His remainder of an eye was covered by a thick black eye-patch, the color seeming to echo the loneliness in his soul. He may have looked different, but she still found him handsome, and especially so when his tender side finally began to show.

It also made her marvel, time and time again, how much utter confidence he had in her…her family had always babied her, and never let her prove herself, for fear of her getting hurt, or insisting that she was perfectly useful doing what she already did, such as taking care of Judith and cooking. Yet he did teach her, and let her, and praised her often. He valued her abilities, and helped her gain and later improve them. She had always wanted to prove she, too, could kill Walkers, and shoot a gun. It was immensely satisfying.

And then, every time they would kiss, or he would touch her, and she would feel his heart beating in time with hers, or feel his warmth, she had to fight not to faint. Her head always swam and she felt like she was flying when she was with him. Yet as much as their contact weakened her, it also made her feel powerful…very, very alive. This must have been what Maggie felt like with Glenn.

She would never, ever look back. As much as it hurt her that her family would never accept him, or the idea of she and him together, as long as she had him to hold her, she could somehow survive. She wanted him more than any man she had ever met. She needed him. She would die for him.

She felt it whenever she blushed in front of him, and grew so tongue-tied she couldn't speak. She felt it every day she couldn't stop smiling, or whenever she made him laugh or smile. She felt it every day she grew more confident and alive with him.

She loved Philip Blake. And this love was forever.