Sorry this is super late, but hope you enjoy! Kinda a slow chapter, but please let me know what you think!

Chapter 9

"Beth would never do that. This is Bethy, we're talking about." Maggie looked around at the stunned silent room after Jesus had finished talking. "She's just a kid."

"She was." Carol managed. "This world made her grow up."

"No, that's shit!" Maggie yelled, every feeling of depression instantly converting to anger at the story Jesus told of her sister. "There's no way she went from being a little girl to a murderer from a couple months on the road. It's impossible."

"She's not stable." Carol spoke again. "Who knows what's going on in her mind…" The old woman said calmly.

"She can heal." Michonne said. "She's gotta get better. She's safe now."

"We'll get her a doctor, see what's even wrong with mind." Rick added.

"And what about now, when she's running out in the middle of the yard swinging a knife and killing whoever she damn well pleases." Rosita said in aggravation.

"She killed a man who was with the Saviors. We don't know why, she's not just fighting anyone." Michonne snapped back.

"She tried to stab you last night Maggie." Rosita turned to the woman, whose fierceness had flooded back into her aggressive eyes.

"She didn't know where she was, she's sick or something. That's not fair." Maggie argued calmly, yet efficiently.

"Exactly." Rosita said. "She's sick or something, but she's putting everyone else at risk.

"Rosita we get that you disagree with Beth being here." Maggie raised her eyebrows in annoyance. "We've heard you loud and clear. But what exactly are you suggesting we do." Maggie stepped towards her, as the others watched silently, feeling the tension start to increase. "To my sister, who just happens to be eight months pregnant, mentally unstable and can hardly walk a few feet by herself."

"She's not your baby sister anywhere."

"It doesn't matter." Michonne. "She's family."

"I'm suggesting you throw her out on her ass and get Gabriel back, someone who actually gave a damn about us and didn't try to stab you." Rosita motioned towards Maggie.

"This discussion is over." Maggie ended. "Negan will be done, dead tomorrow. We're ending this and then Beth's gonna heal. She'll get better, we all will."

"Now we can focus on tomorrow." Carol said shyly from the corner she was standing in.


Beth stared into the darkness of the room, listening to the hum of the ceiling fan while a strong arm, wrapped around her middle. She took a deep breath, whispering the name Daryl to herself, while his snores filled her ears, in an effort to try and keep the fact clear in her mind, that it was in fact Daryl Dixon holding her in his arms as he slept. She couldn't block out the thoughts of the other men's arms that had once wrapped around her. She remembered lying nude in Negan's arms after their first time together, then in an instant she could almost feel Simon's body pressed against hers. The thoughts made her try to squirm further from Daryl, but she only was able to manage to fall on her back from her side.

Her head rested against the bulge of his bicep, and she looked to see his sleeping face. A warmness filled her body, a feeling she once might of recognized as happiness or at least a sense of safety, but could hardly recognize it, as she was interrupted with a hard kick to her stomach. She moved her hand to her stomach and felt the press against her stitches. Daryl's eyebrows burrowed in some faraway dream, and she pondered if he was happier in that other world or lying in a bed with her, as the first beams of the new day were sneaking through the dark windows.

She sighed and rubbed her stomach in her now cleanly washed T-shirt, that she had worn the day Daryl found her. The baby inside of her continued to kick and she found herself lifting the grey soft material to the end of her breasts to feel the soft skin of her stomach. Her hand formed circles around it until she moved to the line of her scar. It made her frown in the darkness and she felt an internal stinging of her hand as the memory of her first time at Hilltop burned in her mind.

"Daryl." She shut her eyes to block it out, but it persisted more in complete darkness. Her eyes flung open again, and she felt the baby pressing against her bladder. In the heat, chills still shriveled her inside in fear of a memory that felt like a reality. "Daryl." She whispered again and heard her stomach rumble in a subtle hunger.

She tried to remember the last time she had ate and the memories of the previous night rushed back to her. Daryl had told her he would take care of her from now on, the thought was strange, but comforting. Of course, guilt and confusion and a splitting pain in her head followed the words, but for a second it felt good. The feeling of warmth had been burrowed inside of as he pulled her body to his and whispered it.

After of course, he pulled away, but never stayed far from her. She had managed to screw her impression up more before he had managed to fall asleep with her in his arms. Daryl had been the good guy he always was in her dreams, bringing her clothes and helping her dress in the grey T-shirt, and pair of panties without bothering to pull the pair of jeans over, figuring she was just going to lie down again. She emerged from the bathroom moments later to find the bed dressed in new sheets and Daryl patiently waiting for her. His eyes studied her face, but this time she didn't take him not looking at her bare legs as a rejection.

She neared the man and stood centimeters from his face, until she did what she thought would be right in the situation. Or maybe she didn't think, maybe it was an instinct or maybe it was just something so burned in her head that she could never forget it. Either way Beth stood on her tippy toes to try and press her lips to Daryl's. Her eyes stayed open until they touched, but he didn't return the affection. Beth felt Daryl's hands reach her back and pull her back to the floor.

"Don't." He said quietly.

"What?" Beth's eyes were full of bewilderment. She felt empty inside after talking to him; empty, lost, and vulnerable. Her mind seemed to stop whispering what to do, and the voices and pictures left her for a few short minutes. She couldn't help but take relief, yet she didn't know how to act. She just wanted Daryl to tell her what to do, what to say, how to act, like someone else had all those years ago the last time she was empty and lost inside.

"Ya don't have ta anymore." He said, only half understanding what he meant, but thinking Beth's unhinged mind was only causing her to try and kiss him, because it was what she was used to. The thought pained him, but it was better than letting himself fall into the category of her mind where he was just one more man to use her.

Beth's bright eyes just looked more lost when he tried to explain and he just nudged her forward toward the bed. "C'mon." He mumbled and she allowed him to sit her down on the bed in the darkening room. "I'm gonna getcha somethin' ta eat. Stay 'ere." He mumbled and she allowed the softness of the sheets to embrace her.

He left and she sat in the silence, not allowing the thoughts to torture her. She somehow felt colder and more vulnerable sitting without him, and craved his simple touch once more. Her eyes lifted to the fan above her and she watched the simple motion of it with her full attention. It was comforting as her unblackened eye followed one particular wing around and around until the opening of the doer snatched her attention away.

It of course was only a few minutes before he returned with the predictable cup of broth and spoon on a tray, but Beth's eyes ignored the food and darted towards the little girl in his other arm. The blonde hair rubbed the outline of her distinctive green eyes and everything felt numb in Beth's body once again.

"Judith?" Tears returned to her eyes and she couldn't tell if they were happy or sad. She felt the emptiness inside of her fill with some emotion she used to feel in another life. It was different than when she was with Daryl, it felt more familiar, and less wrong for a few moments.

Daryl set the tray down against the bed and dropped his grip around the child to hand her to Beth, who had her arms opened to welcome the toddler in. Beth reached for the girl and Daryl tried to ignore her clinging on to him, in fear Beth would notice the same. The child settled in a second later, leaning against the bump of Beth's stomach with her arms wrapped tightly around her.

"Judith." Beth whispered, taking in the sweet smell of the baby. The simple word being the only thing to come to her mind. The tone of her voice said nothing, but everything at the same time.

"She missed ya." He mumbled, enjoying the excitement of Beth holding the child again. For the quick moment, she might've actually looked like herself. There was no grin on her face, but he could sense the happiness in her eyes. It wasn't a rescued or moving on glimmer of joy, but it only resembled the innocence that had once allowed her to laugh like it wasn't the end of the fucking world.

"She doesn't remember me." Beth corrected, as the girl mumbled some incoherent sounds into her shoulder.

"She will." Daryl said to her. "Ya ain't leavin' 'er again."

Suddenly and without warning with his words, he watched the color and happiness leave Beth's face. Her arms tightened around the child, and Daryl knew something was wrong. Judith felt the bones tense around her, as she let out a squeal. The child was bawling by the time Daryl reached her and pried her from Beth's arms. His fingers pulled her arms from the child's middle, as Judith cried out.

"Beth!" He yelled, but the emptiness had returned to the girl's eyes, by time she turned to him.

"I can't." She whispered. "I just can't." She shook her head aggressively, saying the words more to herself than him. Her gaze was down at her stomach and she trembled once more.

Daryl sighed, as he soothed the child. One step forward, two steps back. He sighed and cupped Beth's face in his hand, keeping the other child situated on his shoulder, calm around him. "'Ay." Daryl snapped at her, as her head continued to shake. "Yer fine."

She stopped moving and lifted her gaze to his, tears and weakness in her eyes. Daryl leaned down and kissed the curls on top of her head. "I'll be right back. Just drink yer soup." He motioned to the red bowl on the tray by the bottom of the bed.

Beth liked that, him telling her what to do. She could take orders, she was good at that. It was easy, just letting her body do what someone else wanted rather than trying to figure out what she was supposed to do. She did as she was told, lifting the red plastic bowl to her lips and sipping the warm broth. A memory of drinking a similar substance burned in her mind, seeing her father vividly sitting by her bedside as a little girl. It aganized her, but the pain felt good. The warm feeling came with it, but unlike with Daryl and Judith it seemed to burn her insides. She liked it, because pain was something to deal with. Pain was something to endure, she knew pain was real. When Daryl returned a few minutes later, he found her calmer than when he left her and the bowl empty in her hands.

"Ya good?" He asked, still having to pry the bowl from her white knuckles that encased it so tightly. She turned to him, but said nothing and explained everything in the lost look of her eyes. "Okay." He mumbled to her.

"Daryl, I know you all look at me like I'm crazy." She started.

"Beth stop."

"No." She shot back, not following his directions. "And I probably am."

"Don't matta', not one bit." He told her. "Yer gonna get better. We'll get ya better."

"Tomorrow you're ending things with Negan?" She asked, seemingly changing subjects.

"Yeah." He mumbled. "He ain't ever gonna be able ta hurt ya ever again."

"I need to go." She told him shortly.

"No fuckin' way." He grumbled.

"I wasn't asking permission."

"Beth-"

"This whole thing is my fault. I planned every attack on you guys." Beth shuttered with her own words. "I need to end it."

"Beth, yer gonna-"

"Get myself killed?" She finished his sentence, and he felt the exact words melt in his mouth with the need gone to say them. "I already have." She said strongly, pushing the hair away from her deformed ear and pressing scar. He studied her, taking in the pinkish dent of the distortion that pained him to think about.

Beth knew she had once been pretty, maybe not pretty, but undamaged. Her skin had once blushed, and she could smile without feeling the skin below the scars wrinkle. She had hardly thought of beauty in the past few years, but in the moment, sitting in front of Daryl, who had his eyes glued to her scar, the thought clung to her thoughts like a wet blanket.

Always look. They're a part of you. It just makes you more ruthless, more sexy. Beth could almost feel the mouth grasp around her neck, like it had the first time the specific man in her mind had said something like that. Always look Beth. Look!

"No." Beth whispered under her breath, responding to the internal voice. "I don't want to."

"Beth huh?" Daryl mumbled, suddenly lifting her chin to look at him in confusion.

"Sorry…" Beth apologized, trying to remember what she had been saying. "Right, I don't die."

"Huh?" Daryl grumbled again.

"I live, I kill, I watch everyone else die." Beth said, looking down again. "But I'm just not the dying type."

"Ya ain't losin' no one else." Daryl said, not knowing what else to say and not fully understanding what she meant, like most of the things she had said in the last two days. "And ya ain't killin' no one else either." Beth's big eyes lifted to his again, and he grew in confidence. "Ya ain't gonna need ta anymore. So I'll bring ya tomorrow if ya need ta, but yer gonna listen ta me. Everythin' I say, ya do." He warned harshly.

"Fine." Beth rolled her eyes in a quiet defiance, as she turned from him and pushed her head against a pillow.

Daryl watched the soaked clump of wet hairs clot against the fresh pillow and tried understanding her words. It was useless, and the thought of her going completely nuts came to his mind in a silent pain. He pushed the thought away from him when he sat up at the foot of the bed. His eyes drifted to her face, expecting to find her trying to drift off to sleep, but he was surprised to find the blue ovals forced on him.

Beth let her muscles tense to form a sad excuse for a smile, with no teeth showing, but pressed up lips. She shrugged and pushed herself forward in the bed to grab his hand. Beth felt him tense at her touch, as his back stiffened, but she didn't allow herself to feel the rejection yet. She knew when she would be alone sometime, the feeling or memory would come back to her, but that was for another time.

Daryl allowed her to pull him next to her, following her closely, while ignoring his confused gut feeling. In the last few days, he could barely begin to understand a single action of the girl, but he wanted to follow her nonetheless. He knew she was lost in her world, and the thought of her not coming back to the real world made him feel sick. There were times, the way she hugged her sister or the second of joy that flashed in her eyes when she saw Judith, that he was sure the old Beth was in there somewhere. Hell, he still didn't believe there was a new Beth, he just figured half the stuff she mumbled was just a confused mindset. He wasn't someone to shy away from things that weren't pretty, but he also wasn't someone to sit around and hope for things to get better. But this was Beth, what was he supposed to do.

So he just did what she asked, not with her words, but by the simple looks or motions she gave him. He knew she had no idea what she was doing, that her actions were just attempts at mirroring who she thought she should be or who she once was. He figured she had a better idea of what she needed than he did, and Maggie and everyone else had seemingly disappeared on the girl, so he listened and followed.

Beth pulled his arm around the bulge of stomach, as she lied on the bed in the darkness. She refused to close her eyes until she knew Daryl gave into her and held her against his chest. She knew it was wrong, it felt wrong. This wasn't who she was, she gave up the luxury of being protected and saved when she decided who she was, but she couldn't find the person in her to make her move in the moment.

Eventually the two fell asleep, and so she found herself at dawn lying with Daryl Dixon next to her.

"Beth." Daryl called, after hearing her call his name.

"Huh?" She turned to him, feeling a deep ache in her lower back. The thought that she had called him came back to her in the moment, but she forgot why. She needed something, or had she just said it. Were they talking? Beth felt angry in her confusion.

Daryl traced the outline of her face in the darkness and knew she was once more lost. Beth blinked, trying to recall the previous moments, but knew they were probably lost forever.

"C'mon." He mumbled and threw the sheets encasing them off in one quick motion before extending his hand to Beth.

The ache in her back only worsened when she swung her legs over the side of the bed, to feel her toes tingle at the feel of the old wood floor and was once more reminded she was only in a pair of panties. Beth's eyes moved up to him slowly only to find his usual grim scowl that only left her more confused as she realized her swollen eye had lowered enough to see a slimmer of the room and the man. Her bare legs dangled in the warm still air and she suddenly felt a completely new ache somewhere deep inside of her. It took her a minute to realize what the pain was, or why it picked this particular moment to strike. She couldn't remember feeling it before, but maybe she had... before she got shot in the head. She remembered Zach, and Jimmy and the thoughts of Daryl, but she couldn't remember the feelings. Maybe it was after Negan found her that she forgot what it was like to feel or at least recognize her emotions, or maybe it was before. It didn't matter either way, the fact was every pained withered emotion felt foreign and unnatural to her.

It took her a few seconds of watching his impatient eyes follow the scar across her forehead, as she sat silently complentating through her tangled mind to finally realize what was wrong with her. She wanted him to look. It wasn't a pain like the fetus inside of her pressing against her bladder, which the thought of came back to her while she thought it through, nor was it like the ache of her back. No, it was a yearning that burned inside her as if her chest was on fire. And for Beth it fucking stung like nothing she had experienced before.

Beth knew from experience what it was like to have someone want her. She knew what it was like to have a man's eyes stare so deeply into her that for a quick moment, she actually thought that he could see past the seductive concealing face that she covered her imperfections with. Beth knew that she wasn't sexy, nor was she innocently beautiful, like she had been before, although she would never admit it. Nevertheless, her face, her quick enticing movements, her merciless words and actions, seemed to draw more horny men in than a pretty unscarred face ever could. Beth had a game she had to play, a balance she needed to keep equal, so she did what she did.

Before, when Beth used to sit by the window of the third floor biology classroom, she knew what happened during sex. She understood the science of it, and sometimes she heard her friends talk about the pleasures of it. Then she was older, at Grady or near Axel, and she found out about the fear in it.

And then just like that, in one night, her virginity was gone. It was stolen, and all she could do was dig her nails into the dirt and clench her jaw tight enough to feel the back of her teeth ache as they withered down each night with remembrance. And that was it; that was sex. She could feel it, even just sitting next to Daryl with the thought of it. She could feel herself cooling off and her breathes seemed to be harder to catch, but her mind was already lost in thought.

Of course, she had had sex after that. But she had never understood why it was pleasurable. She never got why those men wanted it so badly from her. She had never wanted anybody like those men wanted her.

Until she was sitting on the bed, her eyes glued to none other than Daryl Dixon, the man she had tried to convince herself to hate for two years, as she wrecked the world even more than it was, leaving her even more lost when he finally found her.

"Beth?" His rough scavenged voice was only an echo in her head, as her eyes surveyed him until she felt a few calloused fingers grip the plumpness of her undefined bicep. If it was anyone else, Beth would have been reaching for the knife she kept in her belt and if she would have found it, she would have traced a line across their stomach to create an opening, in what would have seemed like long lasting minutes of naturality to her, but in reality would probably have only took a few tenths of a seconds. Nevertheless, it was Daryl, and something deep inside of her seemed to recognize the feel of the fingers as his and not some lurking intangible demon from inside her self consciousness.

Recognition forced its way back into her one full eye and slivered other one, making the blueness only seem to sparkle more, as if the light caught it at some particular angle. Beth hand reached his in a return of his action, and squeezed the forefinger knuckle that her hand caught naturally in an effort to show him her understanding. In a few actions, it was a language without words.

Daryl forced himself to nod some sort of understanding, but he wasn't entirely sure he was being truthful. Either way, he took her acknowledgement of him as encouragement or at least a mutual statement that she wasn't going to protest him. She felt his opposite palm grip into her shoulder blades in a way that sent chills through her back.

Daryl pushed her back forward and she followed his example, feeling her lower spine twinge in rejection of her weight on it. She winced in the quick pain, squinching the skin around her eyes and nose to a smaller portion in the center of her face, before the pain began to mellow. Her thoughts were instantly distracted by the hope that Daryl didn't notice, but she could never be so lucky.

"What?" The alertness made his voice seem like more of a growl, but the word was clear to Beth.

"Nothin'." She mumbled, suddenly hearing the southern charm of her childhood sweep into her old voice, and she pondered why it returned to her in the moment. Beth had assumed that she had completely rid herself of such a noticeable reminder of who she once was, she even used to practice speaking without the sweetness in the mirror, when she was alone in her bathroom. However, in the moment, the person she had tried to transform herself into seemed to disappear entirely, leaving behind the remainder of the seventeen year southern girl that had once embedded her thoughts so deeply into Daryl, that her decaying words seemed to have become his self consciousness. The childhood innocence that her own sound reminded her of, felt like a dagger in her gut. It was the reminder of her mother and her father, their own accents seemed to flood her mind simultaneously. But for the first time, since she had awoken after the night she had thought she completely lost who she was, she wondered what her father would think of her. It pained her worse than anything else, as the thought of his black eyes that seemed to be focused on her, right before the governor ended his life with a sword that rested on the back of a woman that was now a few flights of stairs away.

The thought was brushed aside quickly, as she muffled her voice to contain herself when she had to respond to Daryl again. His hand rested softly around her, but his gaze seemed anything but comforting to Beth, despite his intentions. She knew he only cared about her, but the depth behind his eyes only seemed to try and decipher her own face and pains, that she knew he could never understand.

"Don't seem like nothin'." He mumbled, looking down in his own sense of awkwardness or maybe a sense of embarrassment, as he flashed his truly bare caring side at her.

Beth knew he was trying the best he could with her. And yet she knew it was an impossible task. She understood that he didn't want her in pain. She knew that he was thinking he could cure her, or make her better in some way. But she knew that it was just bullshit. Maybe, she pondered, it was useless to try and explain it. He would never give up on finding the person she was somewhere in her. But even now, she understood that even if she wasn't fully the person Negan formed, she sure as hell wasn't her father's little girl anymore. She was nobody anymore, but that didn't mean she just got to be someone again. Yet she had to keep going, keep breathing, and just let her instincts act as they wanted to, in order to keep her in this life, at least for another month.

One month, it felt wrong to Beth. She knew it was medically right, but she couldn't imagine given birth to the baby girl in just a month's time. It made her stomach ache in sickness at the thought for some reason unknown to her.

Beth's mind snapped back into her reality seconds later with just one more nudge of her elbow this time. She felt the indent of his knuckles in a guilty feeling of relief, as she turned to him once more. "I'm good." Her monotone voice came back to her in a response. "Just my back."

"Ye don' hafta come today." He reasoned one last time, knowing full well that it was pointless. After spending as much time with the Greene sisters that he had at the prison and after, he knew they were too damn stubborn for their own good. "Ain't gonna be too safe for ya." His voice was muffled, as he once more resorted to lower his chin and stare at the ground, only to catch sight of Beth's bare toes wiggling in their nakedness.

"I'm going." She said strongly, as her mouth twitched it what almost resembled a sarcastic smile, but stopped before it got too far up her cheeks. "Besides, ain't that much safer here, anyhow without y'all."

Daryl grunted again, knowing she was probably right not to leave her there alone, but hating the idea of dragging her to line of fire. "Maggie sure as hell ain't never gunna go for it." He responded sullenly.

"So?" Beth suddenly felt a childish sense of rebellion building inside of her. "She doesn't get to boss me around, not anymore." Her last two words were emphasized in a way that she hadn't meant to, but she knew it was right that they were, as it felt too comforting to be chattering childishly again, forgetting who she was or wasn't.

Daryl grunted, his head still watching the curve of her foot twist in place before she squeezed her toes together.

"Besides, you're gonna go tell her, I'm coming." Beth said persuasively.

"That right?" Daryl played into her act.

"Mhm." She mumbled. "You said I was safe with you, right?" Beth said, a streak of a light meanness in her voice.

"'Course." Daryl said, seeming not to catch her sarcasm.

"Good." She concluded.

"Go get dressed." He commanded, strictly pushing her elbow towards the bathroom. "I'll come get ya, when we're ready."

"Okay." Beth said sullenly, not wanting to be alone, but knowing Daryl was just going to fulfill her wish and get Maggie's okay. Beth's eyes followed Daryl, as he turned from her and left her alone in the room, only to be taunted from the fan swirling above her. She proceeded to the bathroom, the skin of her thighs rubbing against each other as she took the few steps in, feeling her skin sickle with sweat.

Beth returned from the bathroom twenty minutes later with moist curls pulled back in a hair elastic she had found and her skin still sparkling with moisture. To her surprise, Daryl had also returned to the bedroom, this time equipped with a rifle slung around his shoulder and changed into an unsurprising similar outfit than what he had had on hours before. Beth felt his eyes glare at her own clothing, and remembered that she was dressed in his shirt.

She had just found it lying in the corner of the bathroom after she stepped out of the shower, and she figured he wouldn't need it. It was a simple man's blank tank top complete with buttons through the center, that felt baggy and awkward around her shoulders, but she figured it would fit her better than anything else she could find. Whether or not that was true, once she had pulled the rough withered material over her head, she was instantly rewarded with a warm feeling deep inside of her. It smelt like him, and with the distinctive scent, she suddenly felt as if she wasn't completely alone in the tortures that she couldn't tell if they were real or not.

"Sorry, you want it back?" She mumbled, and his eyes averted down her legs to find her in the same jeans she had on when he found her.

"Naw, looks better on ye." He mumbled, but he found himself at a loss of words, as she stood standing in front of him with so many thoughts being conveyed that she didn't mean to show in the deep blueness of her eyes. "Keep it."

She hummed a response before stepping toward the door. "Comin?" She asked clearly and he noticed the underlining of some sort of contentedness in the ringing of her soft voice.

Daryl sighed, when she reminded him of their reality when her hand graced the swell of her stomach and he knew he had to stop pretending that everything was like before. He extended the handgun Rosita had originally collected from her a few days before.

Her eyes reached it milliseconds later and he took note of the level of alertness, as her eyes widened seeing the small gun. She looked up to him again, almost asking permission, before she quickly tried to snatch it from his palm like a child wanting candy, as soon as he nodded his head slightly. With the quick intensity of her movement, Daryl once more pulled the gun back, instantly seeing the confusion sweep through her innocent looking face.

"'ay." He warned clearly to her. "Only if ya hafta."

"Okay." She said, rolling her eyes at his warning and eyeing the gun as it neared her once more. "But I might, you know that, right?"

"Ya won't. Yer gunna be with me." He said, suddenly regretting giving her the gun in the first place.

"I might." She argued.

"I'll keep ya safe." Daryl was growing angrier with her defiance and she knew it, but she couldn't stop herself from trying to dismantle every idea he had concerning her. "I ain't ever gunna let nobody hurt ya again. Beth, not Negan or anybody else."

"No one can keep me safe." Beth turned from him and stepped through the door to depart from the room. "And it ain't just them that have hurt me." She whispered before disappearing out the door, mumbling something about Maggie waiting for them, leaving Daryl nothing else to do, but follow.

It was less than an hour later that Beth found her hair blowing wildly behind her, as the air seemed to rip at her face, riding down an abandoned street clinging to Daryl Dixon for her life on the back of his motorcycle. She hummed slightly to herself, moving her eyes around the unfamiliar scenery with the only signs of life seeming to be the occasional decaying walker trying to move in the direction of the bike.

After some time of just the two of them alone, Daryl found a way into a wooded area, in which he stopped the bike and set it against a tree.

"Maggie doesn't know I'm here?" She asked in more of a statement than a question, as she followed Daryl's lead in standing.

"Yer sista said someth' 'bout ya goin' over 'er dead body." Daryl answered honestly, while moving his attention to the tree line to try and see their group. "I told 'er I'd stay with ya."

Beth nodded quietly to herself for a minute, before continuing their conversation, knowing full well that Daryl wanted to concentrate on bigger things than her. "So we're just gonna sit here and watch?" Beth asked, her voice full of disapproval.

"'Til 's safe fer ya." He answered, still without looking over at her.

"I can handle myself." She said, suddenly feeling once more like a pouting child.

Daryl finally moved his eyes over to the girl, slouching as she leaned against the same tree the bike used to support itself. Her own glance was down at her boots, that seemed to be squeezing her swollen feet too tightly, but she refused to say anything about it. He grunted an acknowledgment of her words, but felt the disapproval building inside him.

A quick second of fear washed over him, although he would never let it show, with the thought of Beth trying to handle herself. After everything he had been told, and from what he had concurred, Daryl came to the conclusion that there was a period of time, in which Beth Greene could take care of herself better than anyone else. It was probably in that period that she truly lost who she was, but people can come back, Daryl was sure of it. It may have been the only thing he was ever hopeful about in his life, he was going to damn well get Beth Greene back to who she wanted to be. So now, she couldn't handle herself the way she was so adamant about, but she wasn't the child that needed to be taken care of that everyone thought she was. In Daryl's eyes, Beth was just a little lost and needed some finding. He would do right by her, he knew that, as much as was possible for him to do. And in the end, it would be worth it, to see the Beth that smiled and sang with her sweet voice of hope.

He could never allow himself to believe that that girl was gone forever…

Suddenly his entire thought process was interrupted by a whistle. It was as clear as anything, ringing through the trees, and the two standing in the midst of it, knew exactly what it meant. Daryl grabbed his gun from around his arm and pressed his eye against the scope.

"Shit." Daryl mumbled and swung the gun around his arm again.

"What?" Beth asked, noting the concerned sound of her own voice in confusion.

"They got 'em surrounded." Daryl answered, looking Beth in her sparkling eyes and knowing what he had to do. "Beth I gotta go."

"Wait Daryl, you can't just leave me here." Her voice shook in her franticness. Tears swarmed her eyes, and a voice deep inside of her scolded her for being so weak and pathetic. She had been on her own, she knew how to kill. That same part of her told her that she wasn't any safer with Daryl than alone. Yet tears swarmed her eyes without knowing why except that she didn't want Daryl to leave her… again.

"Greene, yer gunna be fine." Daryl's sincerity was clear to her, as he grabbed her gun from her belt and pressed it firmly in her palm. She gulped, as she looked from the gun to his eyes and nodded. "Not unless ya hafta." He repeated what he said earlier before letting go of his grip on the gun for Beth to be its sole supporter.

"Don't get yourself killed." Beth said quietly, still clearly distraught about his decision.

Daryl's lip quivered in his attempt at what anyone else would have smirked at. The curve of his lips returned to its normal low standing a second later, as he turned from her, feeling his chest wretch in guilt, wanting nothing more than to grab her and ride far away from any of this on the bike that lay only a few feet away, but he forced himself to walk the first few steps from her.

"Wait Daryl." The girl called and he stopped in his spot. "If it comes to it, he'll keep you alive long enough to find me, if you tell him I'm not at Hilltop anymore."

"It won't." Daryl answered, trying to hide his anger at her pessimism.

"It might." She corrected, the coldness flooding back into her voice that he thought she had gotten rid of, only for it to return in her sternness. "I won't let him kill you."

"I ain't lettin' ya go back there." Daryl answered and turned to her, feeling himself become angrier every lingering second.

"I ain't letting ya die for me." She corrected his statement. "Go now, do what you gotta do." She said, suddenly timid again.

Daryl grunted, not wanting her to think they had reached a conclusion to their argument, but knowing he had to go. He turned and walked away, leaving the girl completely alone.

Beth's back began to ache moments later, as her eyes continued to study the scene she could see through the trees. Negan was talking through a megaphone, his voice erupting in her own mind, bringing painful memories back to her mind.

Beth placed her hand on the small of her back and proceeded to sit on the bike to nullify the pain. It proved half successful, as she sighed and closed her eyes with her head leaning against the tree behind it.

"Greene?" A voice pulled Beth out of her trance and she swung her head up too quickly, instantly feeling the pounding. Her eyes seemed to sting, as she saw a woman she recognized as one of Negan's lieutenants and two men, who she might have seen around sanctuary.

Shit! She thought silently to herself while gripping her hand gun tighter in her palm. She thought of firing on them, or at least trying to fight, but Daryl's words ran through her mind. Not unless ya hafta. Beth contemplated this while the woman was saying something to her.

"Well, shit. Half of us thought you were dead without seeing you in months." The woman continued, as Beth began to listen. "Guess that's why Negan kept you locked away all this time." She smirked cruelly and nodded to Beth's middle.

"Guess so." Beth answered, pulling over her vulnerabilities that she had left bare minutes earlier with a face of nothing, but coldness for the three Saviors.

"Makes sense." The woman continued. "Why he cared so much about finding you."

"It's Laura, right?" Beth asked.

The woman rolled her eyes and looked to her two subordinates. "Course Mrs. Negan wouldn't bother learning names." She said to them and smirked.

"It's Greene." Beth suddenly pulled her gun to face Laura in anger. The motions didn't feel real to her, like it wasn't even her making them. It just felt like she wasn't really there at all, that her aggressiveness was just a reflex at that point once again.

Laura smirked once more, although Beth could see the true fear through her denial and the act she put on for them. "So what, you're gonna shoot me now?"

Beth stayed quiet, thinking about her options.

"Guess Negan wouldn't even be mad, if you killed me, you know?" She continued.

Beth stayed quiet once more, remembering Daryl's words to her. She didn't have to, she wanted to. Beth was about to lower the gun, fully enjoying watching the woman sweat through her confidence, when one of the men to Laura's left knocked the gun to the dirt.

Beth watched it fall, but made no attempt to reach for it. She pushed her arm back to her side and looked once more at Laura, who just scoffed at her.

"C'mon." The woman said walking a few steps towards the tree line. "Let's get you back to Negan."

Beth sighed and stayed still for a few more seconds before Laura spoke again.

"Greene?" She asked, curious as to why Beth had not started walking.

Beth ignored her, but finally forced herself to step forward into the dirt. I don't have to, Beth thought to herself, wondering if Daryl would want her to escape or keep her hands clean. Either way, Beth knew she wasn't dying that day, so she took another step toward Negan and two separate ideas of a home.