A/N - Writing this I am still in shock at ...SPOILER ALERT!
The horrible death scene!
This is just my contribution to the aftermath of that! I couldn't face writing anything too sad at the moment, so this is an alternative story for Beth, with a twist as it is set a few years on when the outbreak is over, she lives and is married to Daryl. Each chapter will be split in to two with a flashback leading up to present day, telling the story of how they got where there are.
Rating T/M. Warning some chapters will be M rated.
This is a story I have had buzzing around in my head for a while and I planned to write it one day. But I recently got the urge whilst trying to mend by broken bethyl heart, to just do it! If anyone else is as heartbroken as me than this is for you. I can also assure you, that Beth will NEVER die in any of my stories. I will also be updating Fight our Desires very soon with lots of Beth and Daryl.
Please leave me some feedback, on this story or on the show. I would love to hear what other people think :) X
Beth couldn't believe what she was hearing, this couldn't be happening. She had been so close….. But now she had no choice, she knew what she needed to do.
Blood rushing around her body, adrenaline flooding her veins, she lunged herself forward with passion. Her hands shaking violently, she opened her mouth.
"Wait" she exclaimed loudly.
Before she could move another step, she felt strong fingers tightly gripping her wrist.
"No, stay back," Rick hissed in a fierce whisper.
Beth was determined, she tried to wriggle free from the sheriffs grip but he was too strong for her.
"No, wait," she exclaimed again, this time a little louder and bolder as all eyes suddenly turned in her direction.
"Let him go," Rick said to Beth, his piercing blue eyes staring at her intently, his voice firm but calm.
"No," Beth shrieked again.
Her eyes filling with warm soft liquid, this couldn't be happening, she wouldn't let it, she wouldn't let that bitch win. Rick couldn't stop her, no-one could.
Beth had told herself she didn't cry anymore, but perhaps she had just been saving her tears for something actually worth crying for.
Using all her strength this time, with fierce determination, Beth eventually twisted her wrist away from her former leaders grasp. Moving quickly, before he or anyone else had the chance to do anything to stop her, she found herself leaping away from her old group of survivors and in to Noah's arms, the arms of the kindest sweetest boy she had ever met.
Without thinking, she wrapped her own arms tightly around his neck, burying her whole face in his chest, causing a warm damp patch to spread across his shirt with her tears. He was so young, so innocent, just like she had been not so long ago, she couldn't leave him, she couldn't let him go back.
Eventually, the urge to comfort him subsided and her body relaxed slightly. He gently pushed her away, his big brown eyes staring straight back with emotion in to her bright blue ones.
"I'll be okay," he whispered in her ear as they broke apart.
Beth just continued to look back at her friend. Without him she would never have found the courage to carry on, she owed him everything. She bit her lip, the tears still gently flowing at the injustice of the world, all she could do was nod, before finally whispering back, "We'll come back for ya."
"You won't need to," he replied with the faintest of smiles.
Four years later
Daryl gripped the steering wheel tightly as he pushed his foot down a little harder on the accelerator.
Dusk was creeping in as he sped down the nearly deserted highway, the sky bursting with a beautiful orange and pink glow, his favourite time of day. He reached for the radio dial, turning it up slightly, it wasn't a song he recognised, some old 80's cover, but still it was music, he was grateful for that. It was nice to fill the silence as he drove on alone, thinking he would never quite get tired of hearing music again, as the speedometer crept up. The quicker he could get home the better, thoughts of what he wanted to do to his hot young wife filling his head as he sped on, blood rushing around his body in arousal with the anticipation.
Slowing down slightly, he passed a big neon sign stating the current speed limit. It might be a few years now since the world had slowly started to come back together, but Daryl still couldn't quite get used to things like obeying speed limits again.
He glanced in to his rear view mirror, he looked like shit he knew that. The scars on his face more exaggerated than ever with his fatigue, along with the dark circles under both his eyes, his long dark hair in desperate need of a cut. But then again working the hours he did would do that to a man he thought, relaxing back in to his seat a little. He knew he could take a long hot shower as soon as he got home. A luxury he didn't think he would ever stop being thankful for. For a long time Daryl had had to go for weeks without even so much as taking a quick bath, surviving another day taking priority over everything else. That all felt like another life now though, when Daryl thought back to the nightmares they'd all had to live through during the dark times of the outbreak, somehow it just felt like a dream.
….
Beth suddenly jumped as she heard a key in the front door. Flinging the book she had been reading down on to the side, leaping off the sofa, her long glossy blonde hair falling in loose waves over the straps of the little white dress covering her pale shoulders, she ran to the front door to meet her husband.
Putting his bag down and walking towards her, Beth leapt in to Daryl's strong arms, wrapping her legs around his waist, flinging her arms around his neck passionately, kissing him deeply, urgently, drinking in his manly aroma, her hands gripping the back of his shaggy dark hair.
Daryl was eager to respond, his lips immediately locking with hers, holding her tightly to him. Both completely unable to hide their mutual longing for each other still.
They had been married for little over two years now, but it still filled Beth with a huge rush of butterflies every time Daryl got home. After everything they had been through together, now that the outbreak was over, they had fallen more in love than ever.
Eventually they broke apart.
"You're early, I'm not ready for ya yet, I'll need to put some food on for you," Beth said with a sparkle in her eye, breaking in to a wide smile, looking back at her handsome rugged husband.
"Relax, that can wait," Daryl said, pulling her towards him again. Speaking with a confidence that would once have been so alien to him around a beautiful woman.
Drawing her closer, he kissed her again, slowly this time, breathing in her scent, stroking the back of her head, he'd only been apart from her a short time but he'd missed her, he'd never get tired of coming home to her.
…...
Daryl gazed at Beth's face staring back at him, her big wide eyes reflecting the soft beams of moonlight falling through their bedroom window. Her beautiful features illuminated as she studied his face in return.
Brushing her face with his fingers, he moved slowly, intensely, savouring every moment, every thrust, feeling his heart raging in his chest, his breath quickening as he moved even closer to her. Her perfect breasts pressed against his muscular torso, he sensed her heart beating quickly too in rhythm with his. Proof that she was real.
She pressed her cool lips in to his damp neck, it was a cliché to say the sex kept getting better and better, but it did. The first few times they had slept together had been wonderful, but it had been so new, so unexpected, startling even. Then once they had gotten used to each others bodies they had found a new sense of pace, fast, full on and urgent. Back then, despite the danger, they had been on fire for each other. Now, it was just as intense, but in a different way, slower, more intimate, more passionate and loving. They knew each other so well, how to provide the ultimate pleasure, whilst retaining their remarkable closeness, their bond.
Tangling his fingers in her soft blonde hair, planting gentle kisses across her smooth sensitive skin, forcing her to let out a small moan, he moved to find her lips, their bodies moving together. She kissed him back hot and hard. His muscles straining as he lifted her hips up, gliding in to her further, increasing the contact between them.
Breaking away from the kiss, his face flushed with lust and pure animal arousal, taking in their intimacy, their connection, it was still there more alive than ever. He sucked in a breath as his powerful body strained with the need for her. He cursed as his teeth grinded and she let out a breathless cry, both barely able to stand the feelings pulsing through them. Their eyes locking as the pleasure spread and he held her gaze as Beth let out a sound Daryl knew only too well, halfway between a sigh and a scream. Losing all focus his control swayed and he simultaneously let out a small growl, his features softening for an instant with a subtle vulnerability.
...
Contently and affectionately Daryl wrapped Beth in his arms, crushing her in to him as he pressed his face damp with mists of sweat in to the curve of her neck. He knew he could never find another woman alive that could make him feel like he did now as he lay back and held her close.
Life was different now, calm, peaceful, routine even.
In a strange way at times Daryl found himself almost missing the old life, the living on the edge and perverse excitement of it all, together with the sense of freedom it leant. There had been no rules or restraints, they were purely living in the moment, in their own little bubble, he felt valued, needed in a way he had never done before.
But Daryl was also aware, although the world they lived in these days was still far from being how it had been before the outbreak; the chaos was mostly over, there was now a sense of order again. They were no longer constantly hungry, sick and exhausted. They could enjoy the simple pleasures again, pleasures that had been pretty unknown to him even before the outbreak; lying in bed watching a movie, reading a book, going out for beers and simply having the chance to just 'be'. But most importantly, they could look forward now, look forward to their future, a future at one point it looked unlikely they'd ever have. Altogether, the sun was shining brighter and there was hope again. It was safe, safer than it had been for a long time. For that thought alone Daryl had never been so happy.
They stayed like that for a long time, both dazed and high. Before Beth whispered the three little words that had been so painfully absent all Daryl's life, "I love you."
Running his strong masculine fingertips gently over the scar across her left cheek, his eyes warm and tender, he whispered back, "I love you too."
a/n - Thanks for reading. The story will change tempo soon and will follow Beth and Daryl as they struggle to make sense of their roles in the new world and their marriage, now there is a cure for the outbreak. Each chapter will also have a flashback up to present day to show how they ended up where they are.