*Disclaimer: I do not own Little Women. I am merely writing for my own amusement.
~~~Beth's Secret~~~
Beth was her favorite sister. They had always been as close as twins, emotionally and age wise. They shared a room and would stay up all night talking. Or, Jo would. Beth would stay up and listen. They never kept secrets from one another. Jo had told Beth all about her secret love for Laurie, and Beth would occasionally talk about the Hummel children, and how they were the only people, outside of her own family and the Lawrence family, who'd ever been kind to her.
As they got older, though, it seemed their late night talks diminished, growing less and less frequent. And then, after she'd turned fifteen, Beth began sneaking out for hours at a time. Jo shrugged it off at first, but soon her hotheaded nature overcame her, and she demanded to know what her sister was up to. It was their first and only fight ever. It was also the last time Beth snuck out and the official end of their late night talks.
In the months before Jo left, Beth became more withdrawn. She only spoke to certain people, and only spoke of one thing: the Hummel children. She would bring them any food she could find, any money she could earn, even clothes she couldn't wear any more were donated to the family. Her good will went unnoticed by her own family.
A few months later, Beth announced that the Hummel baby had taken ill with the scarlet fever, and she didn't know what to do about it. She didn't know that she, too, had contracted the illness. Jo thought through that time about how selfless her sister was, asking everyday if the baby had gotten better, when she herself lay on what was very near her death bed.
But she got better, though weakened by her illness. One of the Hummel girls would come over every day and read a passage from the Bible for her. Jo noticed something in her sister's eyes after one of these sessions that she had never seen in her sister's eyes before, but she couldn't quite name it.
Beth grew stronger, though not as strong as before, they all knew that could never happen. Her heart was forever weakened by the illness. It seemed to Jo that her sister's mind had been affected as well. Jo had told her that her heart was weakened, that she could never run again, or ice skate. Beth's face gained a faraway look as she replied, "My heart has never been stronger."