Ch.3

It had been three weeks since they had gotten out of the train car and nearly four weeks since he had lost Beth. As soon as they had escaped Terminus, Daryl was on a mission to find Beth. It was his fault that she was missing, and now it was his responsibility to find her.

He had retraced his steps back to the funeral home, hoping against hope that she would be there, or that there would be some sign of where she had been taken. His mind had been racing when he had first ran from the house and saw the car screeching away, taking Beth with it, but now he had had time to clear his thoughts, to think things through. He followed the path of the car to the fork in the road, and again he discovered that he was lost. There was no sign anywhere, no tracks that he could follow. He wanted to collapse to the ground again, but he couldn't give up. He decided to lead the group down the road he hadn't been down.

And that's how they were where they were now, still following the road. Any house or building they came upon they would search, looking for any sign of Beth; a lock of her blond hair, a boot print, a piece of clothing, a drop of blood. But they never found anything, and it had been days since they had last come across a building to search; the woods now lined the road.

He had thought of every possible situation that Beth could be in, and each one was worse than the last. This world caused some people to lose their humanity, and there was no telling what they were capable of. Every morning he sent a prayer up to a god he wasn't sure he believed in, and every night he did the same. He prayed that he would find Beth. He prayed that she wasn't hurt, and that he would get to her before anything happened to her. He also prayed that if he was too late, that if whoever had taken her had hurt her in any way, that if she was suffering, that God would end her pain, that he would let her be at peace. He hated himself for asking for that, but he didn't want Beth to suffer.

They were taking a break. Everyone was tired, so they stopped in the middle of the road. Daryl sat down, setting his crossbow beside him. Maggie took a seat next to him. She hadn't left his side since he had told her about Beth. She had been angry with him, furious even, but she had forgiven him. She told him that it wasn't his fault, that there was nothing he could do. But he knew that she was wrong. It was all his fault. He had promised her that he would get her back, that she would see her sister again, and he was determined to keep that promise.

Most everyone was quiet. As the days dragged on, their hopes in finding Beth had dwindled. He could see it in their faces, in the looks they gave him, but they never said anything. Abraham was rambling on about needing to get Eugene to Washington, D.C. At first he hadn't protested looking for Beth; in fact he had been a willing participant in the search for her. He had said that he owed them for getting Rosita, Eugene, and him out of Terminus. Now he was getting anxious. He wanted to get a move on, and he was starting to doubt that Beth was still alive. Daryl overheard him telling Rick that he was only going to stay a few more days, and if they didn't find the girl he was leaving.

Daryl was broken from his thoughts when he heard a rustling in the woods. Everyone turned to where the noise was coming from. On instinct, Daryl stood, picking up his crossbow and aiming it in the direction of the noise. His finger was on the trigger, about to pull it to kill the approaching walker, but he hesitated when it came out of the woods.

The figure fell to its knees, hitting the ground hard, using it's arms to hold itself up. Daryl dropped his crossbow, running as fast as he could to the figure. It wasn't a walker, it was a girl, it was Beth. He dropped to his knees in front of her. She was barely recognizable. Every inch of her skin was covered in dirt and blood, the ends of her hair stained red. The only visible skin was where the tears were falling from her eyes. Her shirt was ripped and tattered, barely staying on her shoulders, and her jeans were loosely clinging to her jutting hipbones, the button missing.

She was clutching a knife in her hand, the same knife he had given to her after the prison, her knuckles white. Daryl raised his hand to her chin, gently tilting her face to look at him. Her eyes were blank and unfocused; she wasn't really seeing him. Carefully he removed the knife from her hand and scooped her up, carrying her over to the rest of the group, sitting down with her in his lap.

"Someone warm up water and bring me a rag," he yelled, never taking his eyes off of Beth.

He barely registered Maggie rushing over to him and kneeling down beside him. Her hand reached out to brush the hair out of Beth's face, but she immediately stopped her movements when she saw Beth flinch away from her touch, trying to push herself as close to Daryl as possible. Daryl looked at Maggie and he saw the worry written all over her face.

Looking back down at Beth, he studied her face. Her eyes were still blank and she was looking straight ahead. A steady stream of tears was rolling down her face, but she wasn't making a sound or moving.

Daryl looked around at the rest of the group. Most of them were staring in disbelief, which only confirmed his suspicions that most of them thought Beth was dead. Carol was building a fire and starting to warm up a pot of water. The group had found Carol, Tyreese, and Judith two days after they had made it out of Terminus. They had vaguely told them what had happened to Lizzie and Mika, and nobody questioned the actions they took to protect Judith. Rick welcomed Carol back into the group, never mentioning that she had been the one to kill Karen and David. The past was the past. They needed to move on and forget what had happened.

As soon as Carol brought the pot of warm water over to Daryl and handed him a rag he began to clean Beth as best he could. He hadn't noticed at first; perhaps he had been too caught up in the moment, maybe his emotions had been clouding his thoughts and had caused his mind to overlook the blood coating Beth's skin. Beth wasn't covered in just walker blood, but also human blood. In fact, it was mostly human blood that stained her clothes and had congealed on her skin.

Every wipe of the cloth over her skin revealed a new horror. Bruises littered her body. Some of them were in the shape of a hand, the fingers wrapping around her arms, leaving marks behind from where she had been grabbed too hard. He was hoping that it was a walker's hand that had left those marks. She had too many cuts and scrapes to count, but none of them would have been cause for the amount of blood on her.

He moved from cleaning her arms to cleaning her face. He delicately wiped the blood and dirt from her cheeks, erasing the trails her tears had left. He noticed that she had a busted lip that was almost done healing. Her right eye had a light bruise just underneath it.

When he was finally done cleaning her, he placed the rag back into the water that was now a deep shade of dirty red. He looked at her skin and was pleased that he had been able to get most of the blood and dirt off of her, but the water had gotten so dirty so fast that it was impossible to completely clean her.

Looking at her shirt again, Daryl removed his angel wing vest. He unbuttoned the flannel shirt he had been wearing since before they had found the funeral home. It was dirty, but it was better than the shirt she had on. He carefully put in on her, leaving her ratted yellow polo underneath it. She was swimming in the new shirt, but it covered her.

He was wracking his brain for what to do next. His thoughts were going a million miles an hour, and he was having a hard time organizing them. He had cleaned her, but what next? Food. She must be hungry. He reached over to his bag that was sitting beside him and grabbed a granola bar out of it. He opened it and handed it to her. When she didn't take it he set it on her stomach, figuring she'd eat when she got hungry.

"I can't keep anything down," she said just above a whisper, causing Daryl to strain his ears to hear her.

Daryl nodded slowly and reached back into his bag. He pulled out his bottle of water. If she couldn't eat, maybe she could still keep down a little water. He unscrewed the cap and lifted the bottle to her lips. He slowly titled it back. He could tell that she was thirsty. She brought a weak hand to the bottle and tried to tip it back more, but Daryl kept the bottle firmly in place pressed against her lips. He didn't want her to drink it too fast and make herself sick.

"Take it slow," he said calmly. "Just take small sips."

When she started to cough he took the bottle back and set it aside. They could try again later. He looked over at Maggie again, whose watery eyes were glued to her younger sister. She hadn't said a word, and he assumed she was still in shock.

Bob made his way over to them and kneeled down in front of him and Beth. He had the most medical experience in the group, and Daryl trusted him with Beth and her injuries. He reached a hand out to her, but Beth flinched away from him just as she had with Maggie.

"Beth, it's me; it's Bob," he said softly. "I'm not going to hurt you. I promise. I just need to look at your injuries, okay? We need to get them cleaned, make sure they aren't too serious."

Beth didn't say anything, but when Bob gently grabbed her left arm she didn't pull it back. Daryl watched as Bob looked at her arm, inspecting every inch of it. He saw the concern on his face when he looked at her raw and bloodied wrist; her right wrist looked the same way. Daryl wasn't stupid; he knew what they were. They were ligature marks. Her wrists had been tied tightly; she had been restrained.

Bob looked over at the first aid kit he had brought with him and picked up an alcohol swab. Daryl held onto Beth a little tighter, knowing that this was going to hurt her. Bob began to methodically clean the wound, holding tight to Beth's arm when she tensed and made to move it away from him. Tears began to fall from her eyes again, but she still didn't say anything. When Bob had finished cleaning her wrist, he grabbed the roll of gauze and began to wrap her wrist. He moved on to her right wrist and did the same, wordlessly cleaning and bandaging it, completely focused on his task.

After Bob had checked Beth over, cleaning all of her cuts and scrapes that weren't hiding beneath clothing, he stood up. He looked down at Beth sadly and walked away.

Daryl returned his attention to Beth. Her eyelids were heavy, slowly drooping closed. She was struggling to stay awake, but she was doing her best to fight sleep.

"Sleep," he said to her.

Beth ignored him and continued her battle with her exhaustion.

"You can sleep now. You're safe. Nothing can hurt you now. I have you, and I'm not going to let anything happen to you. You're safe. Sleep."

Beth slowly nodded and her eyes almost immediately closed. He watched as her chest slowly rose and fell, her breathing regulating. Her face relaxed and the tension in her body eased. Daryl wiped at his face, wiping away a single tear that had managed to escape. He had found her; or rather she had found him.

Author's Note: I know that a lot of you have been waiting for this chapter, waiting for the Beth and Daryl reunion. And I know that it may not be what you were expecting. There was know big hug and neither of them confessed their love for the other. All I can say is all well.

This chapter finally gave us a time line. It has been four weeks since Daryl and Beth were at the funeral home and it got overrun. That's a long time to be separated from the group. If you do the math, Beth has been on her own for a few days, about a week. We know what happened during that week she was on her own, but the other three weeks are still a complete mystery.

Also, Daryl never gave up looking for her. One of my favorite parts of this chapter is when it talks about Daryl praying. He desperately wanted to find her, and he was praying that he would. But he was also being realistic about things. He knows what kind of people the world they live in creates, and he knew that Beth could be suffering. So he prays that if she is suffering that God ends her pain...he prays that she dies. I think that's a very powerful thing for him to do. Yes, it's very sad, and some may think it's a little weird. But to me, I kind of see it as Daryl showing how much he cares for Beth, wether that be romantically or just as really really close friends.

I'm already working on the next chapter, and so far it is from Daryl's POV. So expect an update relatively soon.

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