Hope

by sheriffandsteel

Hunger Games AU: As a mentor Daryl had given up on ever having a victor. To many kids had died on his watch. But then Beth Greene shows up and reminds him what its like to have hope. (written for amiserablelove's tumblr prompt)

She let Maggie put the braid in her hair the day of the reaping. What had started as a silly little gesture had grown into a full on tradition for the two sisters. At Maggie's first reaping Beth had sat beside her older sister's shaking figure and began to braid her hair. She only had time to get one small braid in before they had to leave to get to the square.

"Don't worry." Beth told her older sister as they headed into the crowded and somber streets, their clammy hands clutched tightly as they walked in front of their family. "The braid will give you good luck."

Maggie had managed to find a smile for her six year old sister before she was tugged away from her to join the other children of reaping age.

That year a sixteen year old girl was chosen and Maggie managed to grab herself another year of life. And so a tradition was started.

Every year before Maggie left to the drawing of the names Beth would braid a lock of her hair before they left. Every year Maggie was not chosen and she slowly crept closer to ineligibility.

On Beth's first reaping, and Maggie's last, she stood still as Maggie slowly braided a lock of her hair after having just done so for her older sister. "Don't worry." Maggie told her brushing away a stray tear that had managed to escape from Beth's bright blue eyes. "The braid will protect you." And it did.

Their brother Shawn was not given braids but he did not get reaped either, spending each year standing stoically with the other boys, a sigh of relief leaving his body as another boy's name was called. But the reaping was not the only way that children died in the districts and when he was sixteen he was in a combine accident. The poorer parts of District Eleven where they lived lacked health care and despite everything their father tried Shawn bled out within two days. Their mother followed four months later having simply lost the will to keep on going.

On the day that one way or the other would be her last reaping Beth sat in front of the cracked steel plate that served as their family mirror and watched her older sister shakily braid a section of her hair. As she tied the braid off with a blue ribbon Maggie's hands stilled on her little sister's shoulders.

"Did you want me to do another one?" she asked quietly.

Beth reached up and grabbed her sister's hand. "One should be enough luck." she assured her as their father stepped into the room.

"We need to go girls." he said solemnly. Beth rose, smoothing down the front of her light yellow dress, the one that had once been Maggie's reaping dress, and followed her little family out of the house and onto the dusty streets. For what would be one way or the other the last time they made the trek to the square with fear in their throats. Maggie reached down and clutched one of Beth's hands as her father took her other.

XxX

Daryl Dixon leaned his chair back on two legs as the mayor of District Eleven read off the history of the "great country of Panem". The whole thing was a load of bullshit that had been sprouted at them for as long as he could remember and longer. He forced himself to pretend to pay attention as the list of previous victors was read off. In the twenty-eight years of the games he had been the only victor that District Eleven had thus far managed to scrape by.

Finally the monotone mayor finished his speech and the escort approached the large glass bowls where this years victims names would be chosen. The escort, Klaus Osten, hurt the eyes to look at. He wore a bright silver suit that the bright sun seemed to reflect off of and had garnish green hair. He approached the ball on the right.

"Its the males year to start first!" he called happily in his clipped accent. He stuck his hand in the ball and wiggled it around for dramatic effect. Daryl snorted under his breath as Klaus finally pulled out a slip of paper and approached the microphone again.

"Randal Garcia." a wiry boy of about sixteen began to make his way through the crowd. Already his dark brown eyes were filling with tears as they darted through the crowd. He took the stage and began to blink rapidly as the cameras zoomed in on his weakness eagerly. Daryl bit back a groan wishing he could get someone who actually stood a chance for once.

Klaus's request for volunteers was met with dead silence as usual. He approached the girl's bowl and repeated his fishing actions. Slip in hand he went back to microphone and read off the other victim's name, "Beth Greene."

"No!" a scream pierced the air and both the cameras and Daryl's eyes were drawn to a pretty brunette struggling against the hold of an older man and the grip of two others at the edge of the crowd. "Beth!" she screeched, the pain in her voice ripping through even Daryl's tough shell. He turned to see the girl approaching the stage bracing himself to see a sobbing twelve year old. He blinked in surprise as a blank faced older blonde girl walked up the steps to stand next to Klaus who looked positively ecstatic by the brunette's reaction.

As the girl in the crowd began to sob loudly the blonde girl took her place next to Klaus and rose her face to stare out at the crowd, her large blue eyes dry and her fists clenched tightly at her sides. Daryl rubbed his hand over his jaw. The girl looked like she'd crumple in the Games, she wasn't very tall and she was very skinny. Her arms looked to frail to have much strength in them but as she shook hands with her district partner Daryl could see that inside she might have just enough strength inside to get through this alive, which was the exact opposite of how he won his Game.

XxX

Good-byes were hell. She felt as though she was drowning in her family's tears knowing all to well that she shouldn't shed any of her own. She was too physically weak already to let any emotional weakness be known.

The train ride to the Capitol was hell. Randal spent the whole time locked in his compartment, his sobs easily heard over the turn of the wheels and the growl of the engine. Klaus kept up a steady stream of unimportant chatter while Daryl glared at her across the table. She excused herself within the first hour to copy Randal and cry in the solitude of her compartment. Once alone she angrily ripped the braid from her hair cursing it for breaking its lucky promise to her. Collapsing on her bed the tears began to fall, a steady stream that darkened her pillowcase as she stared into the darkening room around her.

To say that her meeting with her stylist was hell, would be an understatement. Gertrude, the large woman with bright purple hair and a pink flower tattooed on each of her eyelids, decided that the best way to show off agriculture was to dress Beth as a plant instead of a farmer as she had the last few years. After Beth had been waxed and scrapped until her skin bled she was forced into a skin tight green unitard and then had a yellow puffy dress pulled over that. Her make-up was elaborate and also green and the hair that the stylist pulled back from her face into a ridiculous updo was secured with green ribbon.

"You see my dear!" Gertrude cried as she stepped back and clapped her hands in delight. "You're corn."she whispered in awe.

Beth stared at the full length mirror before her and fought to keep her face blank. She looked utterly ridiculous and nothing like the ears of corn that were grown across the district from her home.

The chariot ride was not hell but it was at least purgatory. Randal looked as ridiculous as she did but they did not exchange a word the whole ride around the city circle. Beth waved to the crowd and smiled, pretending she was happy to be there. They always went wild for those tributes. As she looked around the circle at the other tributes Beth knew that she playing in a losing game. There was no way she could come out of this alive.

The morning before training it was agreed that they would be trained separately. Daryl spent the hour before group training with Randal and she would get an hour after. The elevator ride down to the training center was silent.

Once in the training room Beth spent the day actively avoiding the other tributes. She was the eldest one there but all but two of the males were bigger than her in both height and weight and four of the girls were heavier than her while six were taller. Beth knew she did not have the strength to beat these people nor did she have the will to kill them. She would be unable to get either up to a level where she could defeat these twenty-three people in the next four days so instead she stuck to survival skills. Her father always sadly remarked that half the kids would die in the arena due to natural causes and not another tribute. That day she learned how to tell poisonous food from edible, how to light a fire, how to set three different types of snares and how to track animals and people.

Beth was exhausted by the time she reached the eleventh floor. The second she stepped inside Daryl was beside her grabbing her arm and pulling her into her room.

"What?" she snapped pulling her arm from his grasp and glaring at him. She was not in the mood to be manhandled.

Daryl raised an eyebrow at her. "You've got an hour. Tell me what you can do." he explained before sitting down on her bed uninvited. Beth huffed and sat next to him putting her head in her hands.

"I can't do anything." she admitted finally, staring down at her feet. This wasn't exactly true of course, she could sing and cook and she was great with children .But these would do nothing for her in the Games. These would not stop her from being killed or people cheering when she was.

Or betting on how quickly she would die.

"Bullshit." Daryl said. Beth looked up at him in surprise at the passion in his voice. She had never met Daryl Dixon before the reaping but stories of his surliness had reached her ears many times. "Randal's not a contestant. I hate to say it but we all know its true. He'll likely die in the bloodbath." Beth stared at him opened mouthed at this admission. Surely he couldn't tell her things like this, he was supposed to encourage them! Or what if he was only saying this so she thought she might have a chance? What if he told the same thing to Randal about her this morning? "I have to have a fighter this year." he continued. Beth looked into his haunted blue eyes as he stared back at her and wondered how many teens he had watched go off to their deaths. "Ineed you to fight."

His words made her close her eyes. That was to close to the last thing that Maggie had said to her as she was shepherded from the hall by Peacekeepers. Her hand had stroked Beth's hair, tucking a stray lock behind her ear, before she whispered to her. "Please Beth, don't give up. Whatever you do, whatever happens, you need to fight."

Taking a deep breath Beth sat up straight. "I'm fast." she said finally. "I can climb trees pretty high, I work in the apple orchard." she explained to which Daryl nodded his chin in his hand. "I learned some survival skills today." she ended with a shrug.

"You touch any weapons?"

She shook her head. The most she had ever used was a knife to cut up food for dinner.

Daryl let out a sigh. "Tomorrow I want you to learn how to use as many different types of weapons as you can. I don't care what they are you learn them. No telling what you'll get in the arena."

Beth clutched her hands tight in her lap and nodded.

XxX

To say that Randal was a lost cause was laughable. The boy seemed to have given up the second his name was called. Beth told Daryl that he spent the entire time in the training rooms sitting in a corner and huddling from the other tributes. Part of Daryl wondered if this was the boy's strategy but seeing him in the halls convinced him otherwise. Boy was just scared out his damn mind. By the last day of training he seemed to have given up completely, having accepted what was sure to be his ultimate death.

Beth was different. When she stepped onto the stage he had known that there was something new in this one, something he had not seen in his previous tributes. He could not put his finger on it as they worked to better her chances in the arena. They debated often what she would do for her individual session. Finally they settled on her using the entire floor as an obstacle course and making her way across it as fast as she could touching the floor as little as she could. Daryl had wanted her to add some weapon work in as well but Beth insisted that she would likely screw that up if she did.

"I want them to think that I'm competent." she explained one night, their dinner long cold before them, "I don't want to show them any hint of a weakness."

Randal came back that night blank faced and ignored Daryl's call of his name, heading straight to his room. Beth returned some twenty minutes later grinning from ear to ear.

"It went okay then?" he asked as she settled on the couch next to him as Klaus bounded into the room.

"Well I didn't fall." Beth said with a shrug. "And the knife I threw actually hit a target." she beamed at him and Daryl managed a small grin back and a warning bell went off in his head as he suddenly realized how close they were sitting. But Beth could be dead in a matter of days so he didn't even consider moving.

That night the scores were broadcast. Most tributes ranged in the 4-6 area, Randal received a two and the Careers from One, Two and Four all got a nine or a ten. Beth managed to scrape up an eight. She seemed unsure if this was a good thing or not but Klaus and Daryl managed to reassure her that it was good.

"Good enough to catch a sponsor's eye, low enough to stay out of the Career spotlight." Daryl explained hoping to make the crease between her eyebrows disappear. "And hey you got a better score then me. I only got a seven." he admitted as she looked up at him with a small grateful smile.

XxX

The next day Beth spent the longest four hours of her life with Klaus. He dressed her like a doll in a long ridiculously poofy dress and then made her wear heels she felt likely to topple over in. She wondered if they'd let her wear a cast in the arena if she broke her ankle.

He made her practice walking, then sitting, then standing and through all of it smiling. He seemed satisfied that she could smile and be polite so the interview wasn't likely to be a disaster. Rubbing her face she quickly shed the ridiculous outfit and headed to lunch. After eating their fill her and Daryl retreated back into her room again, the poofy dress from before still crumbled on the floor.

Daryl frowned at it but Beth simply shook her head. "Don't ask."

For the next four hours Daryl made her answer a series of repetitive questions until she was laying on her back and staring up at her ceiling.

"Do we have to keep doing this?" she whined finally looking over at him.

He frowned down at her. "Yes. Your interview is one of the most important parts of the pregames." he explained as he grabbed a new card from his lap. "What is your favorite thing to do in your spare time?" he read off the card before wrinkling his nose in disgust.

Beth rolled her eyes. "As if anyone in Eleven gets free time." she snorted before a thought occurred to her. "Actually you have free time don't you?" she rolled over and propped herself up on her elbow. Daryl looked down at her slowly. "What do you do with your time?" she asked curiously.

"Interviews not about me." he said turning away and pulling out a new card. "What is your favorite thing about the Capitol?" he read before scoffing and throwing the card over his shoulder.

"Meeting you." Beth whispered shyly but truthfully. The Capitol itself both overwhelmed and disgusted her, he was the only good thing to happen to her in this mess. Daryl looked down at her again and she smiled sheepishly before sitting up. "Ask me another one." she demanded as she pulled a pillow onto her lap and held it tight.

The next day she was woken early to go and meet up with Gertrude. First she spent the whole day being polished and shined. She managed not to complain until they started working on her hair. One of her pep team moved to twist her hair in a familiar fashion when she held up her hand to stop him.

"No braids." she said quietly.

He frowned at her. "Gertrude wants-"

Beth shook her head adamantly. "No. Braids." she said slowly. Something in her voice convinced the man for instead he fashioned her hair into an updo. Beth stared at her reflection as he worked. She felt bad for getting in the way of his job but she could not stand the thought of having any fake luck in her hair tonight. She needed to be ready for this, tonight was the sponsor end all be all.

XxX

Daryl sat nervously in his seat next to the other mentors. He shifted anxiously as the contestants were paraded out onto the stage. They sat behind a sheer curtain until their interview. You could see their silhouette but nothing else. He stared at Beth's silhouette as the contests acted cute, sly and funny in their interviews. Randal's interview was remarkable for how bad it was, he didn't say a single word, just stared out into the crowd like it was an animal growling into his face. Then he was heading back to his seat and it was Beth's turn.

He sucked in his breath at the sight of her. This was not the ridiculous costume of the chariot ride. Tonight her make up was simple, her hair pulled up elegantly from her face. She wore a short light blue dress that puffed out from her legs which seemed to be longer than usual due to the tall white heels on her feet. He couldn't take his eyes off her as she made her way to her seat. Just as she passed the interviewer, Leon Jempsworth, she tripped and he stood up quickly to catch her around the waist and ease her into her chair. Daryl clenched his fist unwillingly. He held his breath and hoped Beth could pull this off. She had the most spirit of any tribute he'd seen from Eleven since he won and his spirit was long since gone. He didn't know how many more dead children he could handle on his conscious. Although as he looked Beth up and down he could see no child in her.

"Are you alright my dear?" Leon asked as he resat himself.

Beth let out a breathy laugh. "Yes. Thank you for catching me." she said smiling at him.

"Of course of course!" he cried happily. "Always happy to catch a pretty girl."

"You must do it often too with how much they must fall at your feet." she said batting her long eyelashes at him shyly.

It took a second for Leon to gather what she meant and another for the crowd. As they all let out a large laugh, Daryl let out his breath. Hook, line and sinker. From that moment on the crowd was hers.

They spent a few minutes chuckling and telling jokes to one another before Leon got down to the real business, the reason they were all there that night. The big question.

"So Beth. How much of a chance do you think you have at winning the Games?" he asked gently.

Beth managed to hold onto her smile although it did fade in at the edges. "As much as anyone else." she said softly looking over her shoulder to survey the teens behind her.

They stared at her with various emotions: contempt, empathy, gratitude. But Daryl only stared at her with awe as the buzzer sounded and she stood with a wave to signal the end of her interview. She had them. With five little words she had just won over the Capitol.

XxX

Good-byes had never been her strong suit. The good-bye to Klaus was not as easy as she had expected. She had grown used to his exuberant ways. He hugged her tight and kissed both her cheeks quickly before he headed out. Randal retreated into his room before she could say anything to him. She was left standing alone with Daryl who was looking at her solemnly, his hands stuffed deep in his pockets.

Beth looked at him sadly and shrugged. "Anything else you need to tell me?" they had gone over her strategy half a hundred times but she was not ready to leave him, not yet. This surly man before her had given her the hope she needed to fight and the courage to actually do so. She did not want to tell him good-bye, not yet, not ever.

Daryl shook his head at her, the pain evident in his eyes, and suddenly moved as if to turn away. "That's it?" Beth cried, stepping after him. He turned to look back at her and she threw her arms out in exasperation. "No, take care Greene great to know you?" she lowered her voice in an intimation of his own deep drawl. "No be safe Beth, see you on the other side?!" Tears sprang to her eyes as Daryl just kept staring back at her. "No good luck kid, you're gonna need it?" her hands fell to her sides dejectedly as her anger burned out, leaving her feeling strangely empty.

"You don't need it." Daryl said softly as he stepped forward to close the space between them. Beth looked up at him in confusion. "You don't need any luck at all." he whispered brushing a strand of hair behind her ear. "You are gonna be just fine Beth Greene." slowly he bent down to kiss the top of her head. Beth closed her eyes and let his whispered words fill her heart. "I will see you again."

XxX

After a long and sleepless night Daryl sat in the empty room in the training tower where he would likely stay until the Games where done. Usually his tributes didn't make it past the first day, hell for the past two years they hadn't made it out of the bloodbath. He wasn't sure if this year would be breaking that streak or not. He sat alone on the large couch and swirled a glass of whiskey in his hand. Suddenly the television flickered to life as the tributes were risen into the arena.

His eyes scanned the tv screen frantically before she was shown raising a hand to shield the sun from her eyes and she turned quickly on her platform to take in the arena. As she did so he surveyed the tribute outfit to guess at the weather they'd be facing.

Knee length khaki colored shorts, deep green t-shirt, lighter green jacket made of water and windproof material. Calf length white socks and high ankle khaki boots with thick soles. So hot weather with winds and chances of rain. Or maybe there was a lot water in the arena. With boots that high there was likely snakes hidden in the tall grasses surrounding them.

The Cornucopia sat alone in the middle of a cleared dirt field. Behind the tributes stretched an endless sea of tall grasses no trees or water in sight. Seeing this Daryl knew he had made the right decision when he told Beth what her strategy had to be but that did not make it any easier when the gong rang out and she sprinted off her platform and headed straight for the bounty surrounding the Cornucopia.

When Beth had told him she was fast she had not been exaggerating. By the time the other tributes were reaching the lesser value goods on the outskirts of the bounty she had already reached the center with one backpack slung onto her back. He placed his hands on his mouth as she desperately worked a knife free and grabbed another bag, a tribute was approaching behind her when the screen cut to the gruesome footage of the boy from Ten having his neck slit open by the girl from One. It cut again to Randal being gutted still on his platform by the boy from Two and Daryl cursed before he rose his glass in a silent salute to the boy before downing it. The screen cut to Beth again as she shoved into the boy in front of her knocking him just off balance enough to push past him at a sprint. Daryl jumped to his feet as he watched her dodge past the other tributes fighting on the ground and sprint into the grasslands, the tall blades waving in the breeze her movements left behind the only sign as to where she had gone. Raising his hands to his head Daryl let out a laugh.

She'd fucking done it. Beth had made it out of the bloodbath not only alive but with supplies. Her first part of their bargain was done. Dropping the glass on the table Daryl headed for the door ready to hold up his part in all of this.

XxX

Panting Beth fell onto her knees in the tall grass. She had been running for hours and there had been only two changes in the otherwise unchanging scenery. After she first left the Cornucopia she stumbled into a clearing at the same time as another tribute. It was the boy from Twelve and he was just a bit larger than her. He eyed the gear on her arms and started across the clearing for her. Just as she moved to dart back into the grass he let out a yelp and Beth watched frozen as the ground beneath him began to sink. She dropped her bags to search for a rope to help pull him out but before she could find anything he was already gone, just the tips of his fingers sticking out to show anyone had ever been there at all. She had rocked back on her heels to numb to move until the cannons broke through her thought. The bloodbath had to be over was all that would register as she quickly repacked her gear and started on her way again this time being a bit more cautious of the ground as the cannon rang out eleven times.

That night was darker than any night she'd ever seen in her life. Looking up she saw that the stars had been blacked out. She had gone through her packs early and found a flashlight and a sleeping bag. She was to scared to use either, sure that the flashlight would draw others to her and unable to convince herself to lay down for the night. Sometime after the anthem played for the night and showed them the faces of the dead, where she was unsurprised to see her district partner, Beth stumbled upon another clearing. After throwing a few heavy rocks at it she discovered that it was another area full of quicksand as she had suspected. Feeling tired now and wanting to at least sit she pulled her sleeping bag out again. The night was growing colder. She ran her fingers over the bright blue material before a sudden plan hit her. Guilt flooded her thoughts at what she planned to do but she knew that here in the arena you did what you had to do to live. Praying that she would somehow be forgiven Beth sprung into action. A few minutes later she was content with her handiwork and turned on the flashlight. She tossed it carefully onto the sleeping bag before backing up into the grass again tightening the hold on her backpack where she had consolidated her supplies. She had room enough in only one now that she didn't have the sleeping bag.

Beth didn't have to wait long for someone to see the flashlight's glow. As the grasses to her right rustled she moved silently farther away. The still intact Career pack broke through the grass line and stared at the sleeping bag lying in the middle of the clearing. In the dark with only the flashlight shining on it the grass she had stuffed inside it really did make it look like a person was asleep in it.

"Aw, poor baby must be afraid of the dark." the girl from Two whispered to laughs from her friends. She drew her knife and stepped forward. Suddenly she was screaming as the sand beneath her gave way and began to suck both her and the sleeping bag down. Beth turned and let her screams cover the sound of her sprinting feet as she headed back out into the grasses.

XxX

Beth didn't need any supplies because she had made it out so well stocked from the Cornucopia. Still Daryl worked the circuit of the Capitol, meeting with all the richest people he could find while constantly keeping one eye on the monitors. She was not a hard sell by any means, especially after her trap the night before. He knew how much that move had to have hurt her to perform but he was grateful that she had as more and more people began to sign on for her.

It was only the second day and already there was only ten tributes left. Ten had died in the bloodbath at the Cornucopia, one had died in the quicksand trying to attack Beth, two Careers died in her trap, the girl from Two and the boy from Four who tried to pull her out, another tribute died from a snakebite they got on their neck as they tried to sleep. The playing field was lowering drastically but with the dangers of the arena and the four remaining Careers out searching on a blood hunt he did not dare get his hopes up yet.

XxX

The second day was drawing to a close and her water bottle was half empty. Despite the terror of the darkness the night before Beth found herself wishing for it as the bright sun bore down on her from above and the wind whipped dirt and grass into her face With the heavy wind she could not tell when the grass was moving due to an attacker or the breeze. Even though she was about asleep on her feet she kept moving in a widening circle one hand tight on her knife.

The sun had just slipped over the horizon when two cannons quickly fired off. Beth did the math in her head as quick as her sluggish sleep deprived brain could manage.

She was officially in the top eight.

And it was only day two.

XxX

That night Daryl did not sleep. He sat huddled on his couch with his head in his hands and watched as the camera showed shots of the eight remaining tributes, all asleep on the dirty floor of the grasslands. Tomorrow tv crews would interview the remaining tributes family. Tomorrow would bring them one step closer to the end. The camera suddenly cut back to Beth even though it had shown her only two tributes ago. He saw why instantly. A large green snake was slithering its way to Beth's sleeping form. Daryl jumped to his feet and felt his heart leap up with him. He wanted to scream at her, to tell her to get up, to move, but no words came out. He simply watched in horror as the snake reared back and bit her on the wrist.

Her blue eyes opened with a snap and moved her knife with a flash that left the snake beheaded. Daryl was already on the phone with the Gamemakers pulling in all her sponsor money to get medicine for her hoping they would have enough. As he waited for the Gamemakers to figure out the total he watched as Beth carefully removed the snake head from her arm and flung it behind her. Gritting her teeth she rose her wrist to her mouth and began to suck on her arm. Seconds later she spat to the side and took her arm back in her mouth again.

"That's it. That's my girl. Hold on." Daryl whispered as the Game maker got back on the phone with him.

"Sir you seem to be a few hundred notes short." the woman said in her clipped accent.

Daryl bit back a groan and was about to yell at her that he would fund the rest himself when she spoke again.

"Wait hang on. It seems some of your sponsors are adding more to their funding. Yes. Hmm yes it seems you have enough." she said in the same bored tone.

Daryl closed his eyes briefly before snapping, "Send her the antidote. Now!"

He watched with bated breath as the parachute floated down a few minutes later. Instantly Beth crawled over to it and popped it open.

Her eyes shone in the camera light as she opened the cap of the medicine and spread it over the bite. "Thank you." she whispered to the darkness surrounding her.

Watching her though, Daryl knew that she was reason that antidote arrived. It seemed her sponsor's liked backing a girl tough and clear headed enough to suck snake venom out of her arm.

XxX

Although the antidote cleaned and closed up her wound by the time the sun fully rose in the morning Beth still felt woozy and unsteady. The day past uneventfully, she stayed in the same place at the edge of a quicksand clearing and watched the grass around her. Nothing moved and nothing happened. She spent the day eating her last crackers, singing softly under her breath and picking blue polish of her nails in the heat.

That night she dozed with her pack on sure that the crowds would be antsy with such a boring day.

They were.

Late that night she was awoken to the howling of wind. Her hair whipped into her face before she managed to tuck it into her collar. Beth tried to stand but the wind was so strong it nearly knocked her over again. She dropped to her knees and stretched out flat on the floor. Slowly she began to crawl trying to put as much distance between her and the quicksand as possible. A heavy rain began to fall and she looked up to see the sky had turned a sickly green.

Looking over her shoulder she saw a swirling vortex lower from the sky. Cursing but not knowing what she could possibly do to outrun the tornado she stayed where she was digging her fingers into the earth in the vain hopes that would protect her. She could not hear anything over the roar of the wind or the pounding of the rain. A foot connected with her side suddenly and someone sprawled out on top of her. Beth gripped her knife as they rolled off of her and onto the sand next to her. The girl from Eight stared at her with wild eyes before swinging an ax at her head. Beth rolled out of the way and slashed out at her with the knife.

Her heart hammered in her chest and she could barely see and she felt like throwing up. The girl swung at her again, this time Beth barely dodged it. Raising to her knees Beth threw herself onto the girl, pinning her ax hand down with her knee. She rose the knife high and brought it down into the girl's neck with a scream. As the girl went limp beneath her she rolled away with a gasp, backpedaling fast on her hands and feet staring at what she had done.

XxX

Daryl cursed as the tornado tore through the arena. It seemed as if the Gamemakers had grown annoyed with their terrible ratings for this Game and their unenthusiastic players. No one in the Game who was still alive had been a crowd favorite from the beginning. Sure there was still Careers but not the ones that were originally the favorites. Both from One, the boy from Two, the girl from Three, the girl from Four, the boy from Six, the girl from Eight, and Beth were all that was left. Of them the crowd favorites were now the four remaining Careers who were camping in the Cornucopia and nursing minor wounds and Beth who was wandering aimlessly in the grass.

The arena did not leave much for the tributes to do which the crowd found very boring. So in an effort to spice things up the Gamemakers deiced to throw in a tornado. Great.

The tornado caught the pair from One in its vortex suffocating them inside its wind. It threw the boy from Six clear across the arena where he died upon impact with the hard packed earth. Fleeing from the wind in terror the girl from Three ran into a patch of quicksand. And the girl from Eight was killed by Beth in a scuffle as the tornado touched down.

Daryl watched sadly as the tornado was sucked back up out of the arena and Beth lifted her dirty head from the the ground. Tear tracks cut through the dirt on her face, whether real tears or from the wind he didn't know. He knew how hard it was to kill someone, he redid it every night in his sleep. Sighing he poured himself another glass of whiskey and sat down to watch Beth's face as the cannons went off and she realized that she was now in the top three.

XxX

Two people. That was all that was standing between her and going home. All that was preventing her from ever feeling Maggie's arms around her again, from hearing her father's laugh. Two people. She stared at the still bloody knife in her hand as the sun rose.

She could handle that.

Slowly Beth pulled her hair from her ponytail and sectioned of a small part of it. She braided it, tangles and all, before pulling her hair back up again. For good luck. She whispered to Maggie in her thoughts.

She got to her feet shakily. She was unsteady from a combination of snake venom, dehydration, hunger and having been outside in a tornado the night before. She did not know who else had survived the tornado she only knew that whoever they were they were keeping her from home.

Beth did not want to kill them, she did not want to kill anyone else. But she couldn't bring herself to just lay down and die. Not when she was this close. She never would have thought she would be this close.

As the day wore on the sun grew hotter than she would have thought possible. She shed her jacket, tying it around her waist. Sweat made her shirt cling to her and she wished desperately for a drink of water. Hours later Beth stumbled into the clearing where the Cornucopia and the two people standing between her and her family were lounging.

"Well its about time." the boy from Two huffed crossing his arms over his chest from where he lay in the shade of the Cornucopia.

"Seriously, we've been waiting for you all day." the red headed girl from Four said as she picked at her fingernails with a knife from her place on the ground next to Two.

Beth's brain was muddled from the heat. "What?" she finally managed to get out. She had not been expecting that she would have to fight the two at the same time or that they would be in such better shape then she was.

"Oh look. Poor things got sunstroke." Four cooed as she placed her knife down next to her. "Maybe we should let her rest before we kill her." she joked.

"No way." Two said as he capped his water bottle and placed it next to him. "I'm sick of this fucking heat. I'm going home today." he turned away from Four to rifle through the pack next to him. Beth saw Four grip her knife again tightly.

"Who said you'd be the one going home?" she asked quietly as she rose to her knees.

Two laughed. "Oh please Alexa. We both know which one of us is going to win in a fight. Don't worry, I'll make it quick." he turned from his pack with a smile just as Alexa shot forward sinking her knife to the hilt between his shoulder blades. He screamed and tried to reach back for her but she drew the knife down tearing open his back. The boy let out a garbled noise blood spewing from his mouth as he fell face forward into the dirt.

Beth stood opened mouth, clutching her own knife with white knuckles. Alexa brushed her bloody hands on her shorts and stood, grabbing another knife from beside her. "Well now that that's over with." she said tossing the knife in the air and catching it easily. "Let's get this over with huh?" she approached Beth who rose her knife with a shaking hand, the sun causing the world to dance before her eyes. Alexa lunged for her and Beth darted out of the way. Before she could regain her footing Alexa lunged again and this time the blade made contact.

XxX

The neck of the whiskey bottle was cold to the touch as Daryl hunched forward in his seat a thousand thoughts flowing through his mind. Blood splattered the hard packed dirt the two girls stood on and Beth clutched the large cut on her arm in a vain attempt to stop the bleeding.

Alexa smiled at her and rose the tip of her knife to her mouth. "You know maybe I'll just stop here. Let you bleed out on your own." she smiled widely at the thought and Beth bared her teeth at her. Alexa began to circle Beth again spinning the knife lazily in her fingers. "You know I'm actually impressed with you Betty. A no-one with no training, a tiny little thing from District Eleven of all places, and here you are. Top two facing off with me." Alexa stopped her monologue to smile at Beth her eyes shining in the sunlight. "You're not even crying. Not begging for your life. Your folks will be so proud. Heartbroken of course, you were so close. But proud that in the end you went out as bravely as you took the reaping stage. But bravery doesn't win you the Games." she said sadly as she began to pace around Beth again who followed her movements, keeping her back away from her as the blood from her right arm gushed to the floor.

Daryl took a swig of the whiskey and wished he could be as dry eyed as Beth at that moment. Even with the cut and the pain it had to be causing her she kept her feet, eyes dry and fixated on the girl before her. He slumped against the couch as tears pooled in his eyes, bottle of whiskey nestled in the crook of his arm as he waited for the one person he thought could survive this mess die.

"You have any last good-byes you want to say?" Alexa asked, stopping only a foot away from Beth, still spinning her blade between her fingers. "Your dad? Your pretty hysterical sister? Ooh wonder how she'll get through all of this? How about that sexy mentor of yours you were alw-"

Three things happened in quick procession. The blade spun out of Alexa's fingers and clattered to the ground, Beth lunged at the taller girl taking them both down to the floor, and Beth rose her injured arm and brought the knife down straight into Alexa's heart.

A bubble of blood formed on the girl's lips as she stared up in surprise at Beth who slumped to the side of the dying girl pressing her bleeding arm into her side. "You talk to much." she wheezed as the cannon blasted one last time and the victory trumpets began to blare.

As the hovercraft lifted Beth's still bleeding form up Daryl continued to stare at the screen in shock. Then he was laughing and the door to the floor was being thrown open as Klaus stumbled through it. And Daryl might not have been able to stand the green haired bastard but he still pulled him onto the couch with him in a bear hug as they jumped and cheered like four year old girls because finally, finally, someone else had lived.

XxX

She had only been in the Games for four days. She had been recovering from it for three months. Beth sat huddled in her bathtub even though the water was long cold. Her new house in the Victor's Village was quiet, to quiet. It was late enough that her father and Maggie should be back from work by then but she knew that her father was likely helping someone sick and her sister was off seeing Glenn, one of the men who had held her back the day of the reaping.

Beth lay her head back against the porcelain rim of the tub as the room grew dark around her. She began to see faces in the darkness and hear screams in the tiled bathroom. Jerkily she pulled the drain and rose to her feet, splashing cold water on the floor as she did so. Pulling a bathrobe tight around her she wandered out into her unnecessarily large house unsure of what to do with herself. She looked out the window in time to see Daryl cross the porch steps to his house next door. Running to her room she dressed quickly before dashing back outside in bare feet.

Pounding on his door Beth kept looking over her shoulder sure that someone was out there behind her with a knife. The door yanked open and light spilled out onto the empty street.

"Beth?" he asked clearly surprised to see her still dripping and frantic form on his steps at twilight. "What's wrong?"his brow furrowed, causing a deep crease between them.

"Does it ever get better?" she blurted crossing her arms in front of her chest as if to hold herself together. The large jagged scar on her arm shone in the light of Daryl's house. The Capitol had offered to erase it for her but she had refused. Beth wanted the reminder of how close she had come to dying herself, as if that knowledge would make her feel less guilty for the things she had done. Of the person she had become.

"No." Daryl admitted, shaking his head at her sadly. "It doesn't."

"How do you survive?" she asked crumbling against the door frame as the words hit her like a weight.

"I drink." he admitted with a shrug as he cast her a strange look. "Or at least I did."

Beth looked up at him with hopeful eyes. Did that mean it could get better? "What got you to stop?"

Daryl looked down at her as a flash of pain crossed his features. "Hope." he whispered.

Her brows knitted together in confusion. How was that supposed to help her now? "Hope for what?"

"Hope that there are still good people out there who can beat the Games. That not every winner will be a crazy career fueling the Capitol." he admitted with an embarrassed shrug.

"Where did you find hope like that?" Beth whispered looking up at him, the light shinning off her big blue eyes. She could use hope like that right now.

Daryl let out a slight laugh and tugged on the small wet braid still in her hair. "In you."