Daryl's mind went blank.
He seen what Beth did. He seen her stab that cop, Dawn. The next part would haunt him forever.
Even if he couldn't really tell you what exactly happened in that moment.
He just heard the gunshot, and then the next thing he knew, Beth was on the cold, hard floor. Not moving, blood on the back of her pretty blonde head.
He didn't have time to think about what he was going to do next. He plunged forward, almost unconsciously, pointing his gun at Dawn.
"I didn't mean to-" She panicked.
Nothing mattered at the point though. Only his rage. Only the fact that something just happened that would scar him along with the ones his father gave him on his beaten back. It was nothing that could be reversed, fixed, or hunted down ever again. It was nothing food, water, or shelter could fix. It was nothing a book about overcoming childhood abuse could fix. It was nothing a bullet could fix...
But, he did it anyway. The next thing he knew, his bullet was going through Dawn's head, and he watched as Dawn's lifeless body hit the floor in front of Beth's.
You could cut the shock and devastation in that hospital hallway with a knife. The cries of Carol behind him, and the loss of words of everyone else was deafening.
Daryl didn't hold back. He was tired of holding back. He let what happened wash over him as he started to let the tears fall. He worked so hard to get back to her, and Carol was severely hurt, almost killed, in the process, just for this tragedy to happen. He was so close. He thought he had won this time around. Instead, what became the light at the end of this tunnel was no longer there. His moral compass had gone astray. It was broken, never to be repaired. It didn't point North anymore. It couldn't guide him in the right direction anymore.
It was still. She was still. She was gone. She was dead.
Nobody from the hospital came back with Rick and the rest of the group. Rick had offered, but nobody stepped forward. After, Daryl picked up Beth's body, and along with the rest of the group, made their way out of the hospital in all their disparity.
Everything seemed to be going in slow motion at that point, or had it been? Seeing Maggie collapse to the ground and scream for her sister, seeing Glenn and Michonne's shocked but blank faces made it all feel that more real. Abraham and his people didn't know what to do. They didn't know Beth. They would never know Beth Greene, so they lost something too that day, even if they didn't realize it.
Maggie finally stood up and sobbed over her sister. Daryl wanted to say something, anything. Instead, he just cried harder, and just looked down at Beth with her sister. The stitches...the bullet wound. She was the most beautiful disaster.
Things started to come to when Rick suddenly yelled, "Walkers!"
Daryl looked up and everybody else looked behind them to find a massive herd coming towards the hospital. They must have heard the gunshots that were fired, or maybe it was Maggie's horrified screaming. It could have easily been both, honestly. They started to panic.
"Hurry!" Rick yelled, "Have your weapons ready! We need to see if we can find an easier way out of the city. Vehicles!"
Daryl almost didn't know what to do. He was carrying Beth's dead weight, but he needed to help his people find what they needed to escape from the oncoming herd. Until, Dr. Edwards came running out of the hospital entrance.
"There's a massive herd of the biters coming!" He exclaimed, "You guys need to get out of here fast!"
He glanced down at Beth's body in Daryl's arms. He gave Daryl, Maggie, and the rest of the group an apologetic look.
"Listen," he started, putting his hands up, "I am...so sorry about Beth. She was a great and an intelligent girl...woman. I can tell she was very loved. I know you all don't want to say goodbye just yet, especially after what just happened, but I want to try and help you any way I can. Hauling her off with you guys will be a struggle, so maybe you can let me take her. She will be safe here. I won't let anything...else...happen to her. I promise you."
Daryl and Maggie glared at the man...but, in the back of their minds, they were considering it. Rick looked at the man in consideration, and then back at Daryl and Maggie.
"I don't want to say goodbye either," Rick said, shaken, "but he might be right on this."
Daryl huffed and puffed through a sob, and Maggie cupped her sister's face and kissed the unmarked part of her forehead.
"I love you, Beth" she cried, "Tell Daddy, Mom, Shawn, and everyone that I love them, too. I'm so sorry."
Glenn then came up behind her and said his goodbye. "Bye, sis" he simply said through a silent cry. Everybody else made their way over and said their quick goodbyes as well, before going about the next steps to safety.
It was Daryl's turn, and to hand over Beth to the doctor. He glanced at Rick, and Rick responded by giving him that nod that he knows all too well. This was it. This had to be it.
Daryl's body started to shake in sobs as he held Beth a little closer for the final time.
"I just got you back" he whispered, letting the uncontrollable tears fall from his face. He kissed her hard on the cheek. "I'm so sorry this happened to you" he whispered, "You were right. You were always right. I'll miss you, Beth."
The herd was getting closer, as the moans of the walkers were getting louder and louder. Daryl then reluctantly put Beth's body in the doctor's arms, just how he was carrying her. The same way he carried her on that final day at the funeral home, when her ankle was too hurt to make it to the dinner table. This was a much more serious situation now, and it hurt like hell.
"There are a few vehicles around the building somewhere that you all are free to take as well" the doctor called out to Rick and the group. Rick nodded at him in regards of a "thank you", and told Daryl and Maggie to come on.
Daryl took in one last glimpse of Beth Greene, before running off with the rest of his family to safety.
