A/N: As you can see, chapters are going to be very brief. I think it's better to have brief chapters that move forward and are dynamic instead of looooong chapters that actually tell nothing. Thanks for all the favs and follows and comments, you're awesome! I know the first chapter didn't look pretty hopeful so thanks for having faith in this story!

The chapter's title is from "Smother", by Daughter. Every chapter will have a lyric from one of their songs as a title because it's a great band and I'm in love.

There was a moment when Beth couldn't distinguish red from the rest of the colors. Blood was soaking everything, and the silence was so deafening that she could hear every single sound inside her.

"Daryl" she muttered, her voice cracking almost instantly. She dragged herself towards him and placed a shaking hand on his cheek, "Daryl".

She was so focused on him that she wasn't paying attention to what was going on around her, so she didn't see Rick taking a step forward and raising his gun to blow the cop's brains out.

"Don't move" Rick practically growled when Dawn tried to get her pistol. There had never been so much poison in his voice like in that moment.

"I didn't…" she started, but then another gunshot was heard, and Dawn's lifeless body fell to the floor beside Daryl. Everyone looked at Beth, who was still holding the gun which had finished the woman's life. Her eyes were full of hate, and tears stained her face.

"Beth" Carol murmured, approaching her, but then Beth shook her head violently and turned around, pointing at her with the gun to make her back up, "He's gone".

"He's not gone" she countered, her voice husky and harsh. She turned her head towards Grady's people and fixed her gaze on the doctor, who was hiding in between the crowd, "C'mere. Now!" she shouted, pointing at him now. Edwards raised both hands in surrender and was practically pushed towards her, "You're a doctor, and you're supposed to save lives. Save him".

The doctor seemed to hesitate, but with a gun so close to his head seemed to dissuade him from refusing right away.

"Beth…" Sasha sobbed behind her.

"COME ON!" it was like a signal for Edwards, who immediately bent down, being followed by the gun. Beth tried to pay attention to the doctor's moves while he treated Daryl, but she felt like everything was too much: her heartbeats, and the blood, and the dim light, and the people, and the shivers running through her body, and the pain piercing her, and…

Edward's face turned from focus to absolute astonishment.

"He's alive" he muttered. The arm Beth used to hold the gun faltered for a second and landed on the floor. It was that sound what made the doctor react, "Hurry up, bring a stretcher!"

Beth felt like she couldn't breathe. The air just wouldn't get to her lungs. However, she moved away quickly as soon as two guards brought the stretcher and lifted him from the floor, leaving a pool of blood which looked almost deep enough to swim in it.

She got up in a second, like her body was acting on its accord, ignoring her state of shock, and she held onto a side of the stretcher to go with them as they moved. She pretended she didn't notice the paleness of his usually tanned face, or the blood still surging from the back of his head.

They got to the same room in where Edwards had once helped Carol, and it was then when he turned around to look at her.

"I need y'all gone right now".

"No" she replied immediately, "I'm stayin'".

"I cannot take care of him with people in here!" he countered, but Beth shook her head.

"I can help".

"You're not able to help right now. Larry and Jenny, stay".

"Beth" Tyreese placed a hand on her shoulder, "Let's go".

She hesitated just for an instant, but then she nodded and took a step back. Before she left, though, she grabbed Edward's arm and forced him to look at her in the eye.

"If you hurt him…" she didn't finish the sentence, but it was obvious what she would do to him.

"I'll never do that again" she promised, and she nodded once again before she let Tyreese take her out to the hallway.

And being there, surrounded by her family, was just as suffocating as being between strangers again.

How could have such a wonderful moment gone so bad?

Hours went by and they still didn't know anything. Carol sat on the floor and Tyreese went with her, giving her water and making sure she wasn't too worn out, even though she kept saying she was fine. Sasha and Rick, on the other side, didn't let their guards down for a second, and kept their guns close while they glazed at every single person who approached them. Beth and Noah were the two people who were closest to the door, and even if she could feel his looks at her, she kept staring at the door.

"Here" he said suddenly, handing her a rag, "You should clean up a bit".

"Huh?" she answered. Noah pointed at her, and when she lowered her eyes, she found out that she was covered in blood. It was like coming back to the day they had forced her to hold Joan down while they cut off her arm. There had been so much blood, and the screams…

"C'mere" Noah murmured, taking her hands and wiping them out efficiently but with gentleness. She just let him, too tired to protest. It had been too many hours, and the initial relief of knowing that Daryl was still alive had been replaced by anguish for not being able to be there with him, "He's gonna be fine" he added quietly, "He's tough".

She nodded automatically, even though the knot in her chest was still tight.

"He didn't stop lookin' for you" he kept going, focused on his task, "He saved me even though he didn't have to. And as soon as he found out I'd been here he asked me 'bout you. He's good people. And today not a single good person is gonna die".

Beth swallowed hard to get rid of the thickness in her throat, of the storm that tried to explode in her eyes again. She couldn't keep crying.

"Done" Noah concluded, dropping her hands, which were now slightly pink.

"Thank you" Beth whispered, and he nodded, knowing that she didn't mean just her hands.

The door opened and Edwards came out, closing it after him and taking off his gloves. They all turned their heads brusquely and stared at him, expectant. Beth stopped breathing.

"He'll recover" Edwards announced. Even without turning around, Beth felt her family deflating of relief, "He's not totally safe, though, but it seems like the bullet didn't perforated any vital area. That… never happens" the doctor finished, scratching his head.

"I wanna see 'im" Beth said then.

"He's not conscious".

"I don't care" she replied, "I'm not gonna leave him again".

"A'right, a'right" he gave in, raising both hands, "We're gonna move in to a room and then you can stay with him as long as you want, deal?"

Even though she wanted to see him right away, she knew he was right and nodded once.

Another while went by until Daryl was in a proper room, a thick bandage covering his head. He was breathing through a respirator, and the monitors were making soft noises that kind of soothed Beth. She had sat beside him and she hadn't let go of his hand for a second since she'd entered the room. The sun had already set, and her family had been rotating to convince her about leaving for a bit to rest, but she had refused over and over again, even when Rick told her that Maggie was there and wanted to see her. She was not going to leave his side.

"I dunno if you can hear me" she whispered into the darkness, "but I'm here. I'm here" and squeezed his hand.

She rested her forehead against their intertwined hands and forced herself to think about anything except for what had happened a few hours ago, what had brought them there. About her stupid last-minute decision of stabbing Dawn, about that cop shooting Daryl. She shook her head and got rid of the tears angrily.

She had to keep faith for him.

A/N: Hey, he's alive! Fangirls, you can already drop your tomatoes, I'd be the first one to riot if Daryl died. Besides, what I hated the most about Coda (IGNORING THAT THEY SHOT MY PRECIOUS BETH) was how absurd and OOC it was. Well...

Thank you so much for reading this. Please leave a comment, I care about your opinion! If you liked it, why don't you click on the favorite button? And if you want to know what's going to happen next, follow this story!