She stayed and she fought by his side. She always knew she wouldn't back down. Not since she made the choice to live as her blood flowed around her on her bathroom floor. She knew this world would not kill her when the farm became overran and she killed her first one of those things trying to get away. She knew she would fight for her family, when one of the walkers was Patricia and she put a a piece of rebar between her eyes, never telling her daddy or sister. She knew she would always fight when the flu went through the prison, killing off many of her people. She knew she would always survive when the Governor stormed the prison, trying to claim it for himself. She knew she would live when it was just her and Daryl. She knew she would always love him, when he chose to fight for her.
So she stayed by his side and fought for him too. She lived even when the cut on her arm became infected, no one but her and her daddy knew. She knew that the world couldn't kill her when some of the blood from her first walker kill got on the bandage of the cut. She knew she would fight for her family, even as Walker Patricia almost scratched her. She knew she would always fight when the flu went around and she became sick again once the outbreak started to wane, make sure she protected Judith and Carol had her for a time. She is fine. She knew she would always survive when she killed a man to protect her family when the Governor attacked the last time. She knew she would live when she stayed and fought for her love and was scratched in the process.
-Say something, I'm giving up on you.-
She knew she would survive and live, even with the throbbing of the scratches on her back making her wince. Covered by her jacket, the bleeding has slowed. She shouldn't have doubted Daryl noticing her wince. The sounds of his footfalls instantly stopped. Everything was quite as he watched her gritting her teeth. "Ya alright there?"
She gritted her teeth, trying not to let the pain and fear get to her. A few tears slipped down her clenched shut eyes. "It's just . . ." Her throat swelled, imagining the worst.
"My back."
Daryl couldn't meet her eyes so he looked around, noticing another house in the distance. He walked closer to her, "There's a house close by. 'Nother few feet or so, beyond the trees. We'll hole up there for the night."
She opened her eyes, peering through slits to see the direction he pointed in. "Let's go."
Gritting her teeth and stomping through, trying not to scream as the backpack kept causing friction with the jean jacket she wore, rubbing on the scratches.
She stood off the side as he knocked on the door jamb, hearing nothing in side. "It's clear."
Throwing her bag down she fell to her knees by the little couch as he came in from around the corner. "What is it?"
"My back." He reached over trying to touch her. "Don't. Daryl!"
"You have to let me look at it." Waiting for her, she nodded.
"Can you get the jacket off?" She shook her head, tears tracking down her dirty face and on the floor. He pulled out the knife that had been with him longer than the crossbow, the mate to the one he gave her.
He touched her shoulder, dropping to a crouch by her, causing her to give a pained whine. He disregarded it as best as he could. "You have to keep quiet, Greene."
He cut away the sleeves of the jacket and then the back. All he saw were diagonal, bloody scratches criss-crossing the pale skin. "Beth. Are these?"
Knowing what he meant, she spoke hurriedly. "I'll be alright." She fell forward, tears falling, tears falling, unobstructed down her face and soaking the cushion under her. He critically studied the cuts, the scratches on her swollen shoulder and all down her back. Her skin was blotched and shredded with small areas of blue and covered in faded, dried blood. Most of the wound still oozing and raw.
"Beth. . ." For the first time since the 'shine shack, he said her name. Not Greene, princess, or baby girl, her name.
"Daryl. I'll be fine. You'll see." He didn't want to believe it, he didn't want to be there.
"First your ankle and now this, baby girl. We need to get you cleaned up. Here." The breath in his lungs halted as his voice started to break. He was going to be alone again. He would be here for her. Make sure her last memories were worthwhile.
He picked her up and carried her as gently as he could to the couch. "You won't be alone, baby girl."
"Daryl, it ain't what you think." She tried to turn her head and look at him, but he refused to meet her eyes.
"Stay here, I'll be back. He went to the bathroom to try and find some medicine. Anything. She had to be better.
'You couldn't save her, coul'ya, Darylina. Ma died. I died. She dying.' Merle's voice in his head.
'The one job I had. I couldn't even do that. Ain't nuthin' but a worthless redneck. I was 'lone all the times you left, I'll be 'lone after she gone. I couldn' save her.'
'You love her, don' ya.'
'It means nuthin now.'
His brother's shadow looked back at him, brows furrowed. 'What makes ya so sure a that, baby brother?'
He ignored Merle, splashing water on his face form the faucet, finding some peroxide and paper towels, grabbing his pack on the way back to her.
Beth's hands clenched, she wasn't crying for the pain anymore. She was fighting, feeling the weakness overtake her. She ain't felt this bad since she fell sick at the prison. The time before that, she hadn' felt that bad since the cut on her hand became infected with the blood.
Her groans could be heard coming from down the hall as Dary walked in the room. Moving faster, "Shh now, baby girl. Ain't gonna be none of that. We're going to get you nice and clean."
"Daryl. We'll find them right? You and me? Baby Judith? Rick, Carl, Michonne?"
For one moment he was reminded of the only time his mother ever comforted him, he pet on wrapped hand down her hair, trying to soothe her. He voice was scratchy. "Yea baby girl. You'll sing Judy all her favorite songs, be the first one to learn how to use 'Chonne's sword, show Carl a thing or two about shooting my 'bow."
The heat from her head was excruciating, she was breaking a fever. "Daryl?"
"Yea baby?"
"It hurts."
He meticulously began to clean her cuts, digging in the bag for the bandages they found in the funeral home. "I know. I know. It'll be over soon. I'll take care of you 'til it ain' hurtin' no more."
"I'll be okay Daryl, you'll see." He continued cleaning the scratches, wiping down her back with the water in his bottles.
"You're strong baby. Can you sit up? I need to wrap 'em." Grabbing the bandages, he helped her up, still not looking in her eyes. In not time she was bandages, the last of the ointment on under em. "I'll change them for you in a couple of hours."
He didn't speak again after that.
She wasn't having none of it. "Daryl? WIll you look at me?" Tilting her head to and fro as he moved around her, securing the bandage she couldn't meet his eyes, obscured by the long hair of his.
The tears kept coming, the pain not stopping. She didn't move much more than her head, trying not to agitat the scratches. She felt tired and heavy.
She felt the care with which he did everything; cleaning her wounds, wrapping her up, and making sure she was warm. The gentleness of his touch as he resumed petting her hair. "Daryl? Please."
She heard the roughness in his voice as he spoke for the last time in awhile. "Rest baby girl. You need it."
She shook her head, keeping her eyes open. Her vision was blurry and she blinked to clear it. His hand never stopped and she could have sworn she saw his shoulders shake just a little.
She felt the tremors of his hand as they moved through her hair. The heat of her body make her feel clammy. She wanted to move but didn't want to lose his touch. "Daryl? Do you think they're alive?"
He felt her eyes on his as he nodded, trying to even his breathing so she wouldn't hear. He sat on the floor by her side, not moving til her end. He would be there til the end.
"You shoulda run girl."
"I wasn't going to leave you Daryl. It's you and me now. I will fight for you, with you. Always."
He felt a chill through his bones as he thought of a future without her. Such a thing, breaking his heart as his own eyes grew watery, blurry with tears.
"And I you, girl. I'll be with ya, always." His shoulders shook, a lot like his voice. He was losing it.
"I believe you. It'll always be us. Even after we find them an we're all together again. Do you think Maggie found Glenn?" Her voice drifted off in a different direction, much like her thoughts.
"I know she did, baby." His other hand fisted, hurt and anger on her behalf as he remember the Terminus sign.
"Yea. I think they were meant to be. No matter what would've happened, they would find each other. I think, all of us would have found each other at some point, in the old world. If none of this had hapened."
"You think so huh?"
"Yea. Daryl?"
Looking down, he finally looked in her eyes, seeing the tears falling in her cloudy blues, he softly wiped them away. "What is it baby girl?"
"I love you." The words were a whisper as her eyes slowly drifted shut.
His throat clenched tight as his hand in her hair stilled at the same time her chest did. "I loved you for a long time, girl. Ain' never said nuthin' 'fore. You always were too good for a dirty old redneck like me." His voice broke and the tears fell.
He sat there for a long time, not seeing anything. The edges of his vision were black as his heart broke.
He slowly stood, drifting his hand through her soft hair one last time. Walking toward her bag, he rifled through, looking for her best set of clothes. He would make sure she looked her best as beautiful as he knew she was.
The world lost something big in her. His heart clenched and stopped beating. In losing her, he lost everything. It hurt more to than losing is brother. Ole Merle was a grown man. Little Beth was a damn angel. The brightest thing to ever walk this earth.
He grabbed the matching knives and set them on the floor next to the couch. Pulling out a pretty yellow top with little flowers on it he had found her in a pile of things on a run one day, he set it by the knives, as well as her best jeans. Covered in stains of walker blood and baby fluids. the cleanest pair she had.
"I -" His throat was still tight as he kept moving around. He cleaned up the bandages and medicine, putting the things from her pack in his. They weren't ever gunna leave him. The last bits of her he could ever have.
"I loved you since the day I pulled up to your daddy's farm and you were standing on tha porch. Hair all golden from the sun, smile wide and heart-breakin'. That's all you been doing since that first day baby girl. Breakin' my heart."
Somewhere in the world, the earth tremored and the skies cried with him.