A/N: Based on a true story, just changed to Bethyl. I listened to Troy Sivan's 'The Fault In Our Stars' while writing this. Supposedly writing this was part of my healing process…
"I'm sorry, Mr. Dixon, there's nothing we can do for your wife now…except make her comfortable…" the doctor told Daryl softly, his voice heavy with sadness as he told him the bad news. Daryl's eyes burned and he shook his head, his hand gripping the blonde in the hospital bed's tighter.
"No, there's…gotta be somethin'…please…" he sobbed out.
"Give us a minute, please?" Beth asked the doctor weakly, her voice gaspy as she struggled to breathe. The doctor nodded softly before leaving the two alone in the room. Beth struggled to sit up, her body too weak to lift itself off of the mattress. She let out a pained huff when her body couldn't even manage that small feat and she settled on pulling Daryl to lay on the bed beside her.
Once he was laying comfortably beside her, she held him as best as she could as he held her tightly and cried.
"I can't lose you, Beth. Living without you….I can't do it."
"You can," she breathed out, "and you will." There was a rattle to her breathing as she breathed in and she turned away from her husband and coughed heavily into a tissue. Beth took as deep of a breath as her lungs would let her take,
"I don't want to let this go…" another breath, "I don't want to lose control," she sang softly, shakily as she struggled to breathe.
"I just want to see the stars with you," Daryl mumbled the next line and Beth smiled sadly, her eyes filling with her own tears. Daryl swallowed heavily, his hand lifting to rest on Beth's cheek. "I don't want to say goodbye, Beth…I hate goodbyes…."
"I know. I do too…but this, this isn't goodbye, Mr. Dixon. Not really…" Tears rolled down the blonde's cheeks and the couple held each other tightly, eventually dozing into a light sleep.
"Daryl…" Beth's voice was soft, far away sounding but it woke the man anyways and he instantly looked her over, looking for any physical signs of her illness worsening. "It's…it's time." Daryl felt his throat burn and tighten and he shook his head.
"No, I need more time. You can't…you can't leave me, Beth…" He held her tighter to him as her heart rate audibly and visibly slowed on the monitor beside the bed. He mashed the button on the bed for a nurse. "No…no…Beth….I love you, please…"
"I…love you…the lights, they light up in…" the blonde took a shaky breath and Daryl picked up the song for her.
"They light up in lights of sadness, telling you it's time to go…" his voice cracked and he had to force a swallow around the pain in his throat and chest, as each breath he took burned and his sobs swelled in his body.
"Don't give it up, just stay grand for one more minute…" he sang broken to her as her eyes fluttered closed, a soft smile on her face. The beeping of the monitor slowed before flatlining right as the nurse entered the room. The nurse hollered down the hall and Daryl felt someone pulling him from the bed and leading him to a chair in the hall while a crash cart was taken into the room and the door was closed.
"I just wanna see the stars with you…." Her voice whispered in his ears and he sobbed into his hands.
"With you…" he sang back through his tears.
A/N: I apologize for the choppiness of this little prompt. It was very hard for me to write and this is what the muse wanted, claiming "it's part of the healing process you need."