A/N - So this is my attempt at a fic where Beth survives. However, I'm still going to try to keep things as realistic as possible within the Walking Dead universe. Hope you enjoy!

Angels in the Storm

Beth felt an unfamiliar anger boiling inside of her.

Noah took a few tentative steps towards Dawn, resignation written clearly across his face. "It's okay, Beth," he reassured her. "I'll be alright."

No. No, he wouldn't be alright. She knew what kind of place Grady was. She knew that Dawn would never let him go. Not now, that she had another chance to sink her claws into him.

"I knew you'd be back," Dawn said with a barely concealed smirk.

Noah was a good person. He didn't deserve this. He had come back to rescue her, even though he knew the danger. What kind of person would she be if she just watched as he went back to a life of servitude and slavery?

She was willing to sacrifice herself for him once before. It was as easy decision, to do it again. The cold metal of the scissors dug into her hand, and she felt her resolve harden.

She wasn't weak. She was strong. Strong enough to take down Dawn, to make sure she could never imprison people ever again.

Beth swallowed, and moved forward. She felt Daryl reach for her from behind, but his fingers grasped at nothing but air. Her heart clenched, reminding her of what she was giving up. But her thoughts were too chaotic, and everything was happening so fast, and before she knew it, she was standing right in front of Dawn.

"I get it now," she whispered. And without another thought, she pulled out the scissors and stabbed Dawn right in the eye.

BANG!

Beth collapsed onto the ground. The next few seconds were pandemonium. Gun shots rang out all around her, but then all she could see or hear was white noise. She felt satisfied, at the thought that her death would at least mean something.

"BETH! BETH! Fuck, BETH!"

Someone was shaking her. That was strange. She didn't expect angels to be so rough in heaven.

Then, someone smacked her face, and her eyes flew open.

"Wha... Daryl?"

The next thing she knew, his arms enveloped her into a massive, desperate hug. He didn't say a word, but heavy tears poored down his face and onto her shirt. Tears welled in her eyes, unbidden. She was alive. Holy hell, she was still alive.

And suddenly, the world came rushing back.

Dawn was laying on the ground next to her, dead. She turned around, and saw that all of the cops behind her were dead, too. Tremulously, she turned towards Rick and the group, and saw that there was another body on the ground.

"Tyreese!" she called out. She scrambled out of Daryl's arms, and started crawling towards Tyreese's prone body.

No, this wasn't supposed to happen! It was supposed to be her!

"TYREESE!" she screamed. "TYREESE!"

"It's too late," Rick stated. His eyes were empty, as if he had lost far too much to even register losing somebody else.

Sasha crumpled to the floor next to Tyreese, heaving out gut wrenching sobs. Oh God, what had she done? Beth's head was spinning, and the guilt was overwhelming her, and she couldn't think, she couldn't think!

"It should have been me," she whispered softly.

And then, she knew no more.

She awoke to the freezing chill of cold water. She looked around, and blearily wondered when they had brought a river into Grady.

"Hey there, Sleeping Beauty," she heard from behind her.

She turned around, and could hardly believe her eyes. There was Daryl, standing there, with his angel wing jacket and shaggy hair and that smile that lit up his entire face, and she didn't even try to stop herself from running up to him and flinging her arms around him.

Daryl didn't seem to care one bit that she was soaking wet and looked like hell. He hugged her back, and picked her up and swung her around like a child. They were both laughing, and Beth's eyes filled with tears of joy. She clung to him even more tightly, afraid that if she let go, he might disappear.

"You trying to strangle me or something?" he joked, and she reluctantly slackened her grip.

He reached for her head, and lightly traced his fingers along a fresh gash in her scalp. Beth rightly figured that she had been grazed by a bullet. She flinched, both in pain and at the intimate nature of the contact. She never knew his rough fingers could be so delicate. Vaguely, she prayed that he wouldn't notice the increase in her heart beat, and that he would blame the goosebumps on the wind chilling her in her wet clothes.

He must have realized something, though, because he grunted and put her down, and they broke apart. She stared at him, her eyes memorizing every inch of his features. She noted how his hair had grown longer, and how he had more frown lines than before.

The hair she liked, but the frown lines... well, those would have to go. For now, though, there were more important things to worry about.

"What happened back there?" she asked.

His eyes, so open before, immediately hardened and closed off.

"It was a shit show, is was happened," he said roughly. "What the hell were you thinking? Why did you stab her? Everything was going fine - "

"It was NOT fine!" she argued. "She was gonna take Noah, and none of you were gonna do anything about it! I had to do something!"

"Noah isn't one of us," Daryl argued back. "Nobody was gonna risk their lives for him."

"Exactly," Beth replied. "But he risked his life for me. He was my new group, my new family, and he was there for me after you left and - "

"I didn't leave," Darly hissed. "Fuck Beth, I ran after that car all night, until I couldn't run no more! I ran and I ran, but I got to a crossroads, and there weren't nothing to tell me where they had taken you. But I never stopped looking for you! I never stopped hoping..."

Beth felt her heart give a giant squeeze. Daryl never lied, never stretched the truth. If anything, he was overly critical of himself. So if he said that he ran all night, that probably meant he ran well into the morning.

But that still didn't change the fact that Noah had been there for her after Daryl was gone. And she couldn't quite bring herself to regret what she had done. Except...

"What about Tyreese?" she asked after a few moments of silence.

"Dead," Daryl answered simply.

Beth's breath hitched. Christ, she hadn't meant for Tyreese to die. She hadn't even considered the possibility that her actions would put the group in danger. But she couldn't stop the small, dark part of her mind that whispered to her, rejoicing, at least it wasn't Daryl.

"I'm so sorry," Beth whispered. "I didn't know..."

"Didn't know what?" Daryl pressed her. "Didn't know he was dead? Didn't know your little stunt could get people hurt? I thought I had taught you better than that. But fuck Beth, it ain't me you need to be apologizing to. Sasha ain't said a word since it happened."

Beth was stunned into silence. He was right, of course. She hadn't been thinking about the safety of Rick and the group. She had been too caught up in the drama of Grady, too determined to save someone, even if she couldn't save herself. But she had lost sight of the bigger picture. And Tyreese was dead because of it.

The growl of a walker jolted her out of her reverie. She spun around, just in time to see an arrow pierce through the skull of a female walker in the forest some twenty feet away. Daryl moved forward and collected his arrow, wrenching it out of the rotten flesh with a sickening squelch.

"C'mon, we should head back to camp," Daryl stated. "It's not safe out here."

"Alright," Beth agreed. Daryl started walking away, and she quickly fell into step beside him. Her clothes were still dripping wet, but complaining about it was the last thing on her mind.

Instead, she fell into a comfortable silence next to Daryl. It was almost like deja vu. They were both wearing the same outfits they had worn all those months ago, when it was just the two of them. They were walking through a stretch of Georgia woods, which to her eyes, all looked exactly the same. She was even injured, just like when she had stepped on that bear trap, and he was still there, ready to protect her if necessary. The only difference was that this time, she could take care of herself, if it came down to it.

She knew he was mad at her, knew that he was frustrated at how she seemingly threw all of her survival training out the window. But she suspected that he was far happier that she was alive and they were finally back together again.

"I missed you," she blurted out impulsively. She felt her cheeks turn pink, and ducked her head under her hair in the hopes that he wouldn't see.

She snuck a glance at him, and saw that he was failing quite spectacularly at hiding his own blush.

"Ain't much to miss," he finally said. But he was grinning, so Beth counted it as a victory.

"Bullshit," she countered. "I just hope you don't have any plans on leaving me again."

"I already told you, I didn't leave - " he started to huff out, before turning and catching sight of her own grin.

"Dammit, Greene," he muttered, before trailing off into silence. She thought that was the end of the conversation, until out of nowhere, he practically choked out, "I missed you, too."

The feeling that spread through Beth's stomach kept her warm for the rest of the walk back to camp. And if Daryl noticed that she inched closer to him, he had the good grace not to mention it.