Good morning, loyal followers! Well I'm so glad you all decided to stick out this long journey with me. This is technically the last chapter, though I have another one I want to use as an epilogue which I might post this afternoon. I hope you all enjoyed reading this story as much as I enjoyed writing it.

(Disclaimer: I don't own anything to do with TWD. I'm just using the characters to exercise my overactive imagination and creative abilities.)

Also, don't forget about my other story, "Big City, Little Princess." I'll be updating that one more frequently now that this story is complete. You all have been wonderful followers. Don't forget to leave and review and tell me how much you liked the story!

(Aurora's POV)

I never was one for reading the Bible, a mythical work trusted by millions of spiritual leaders and vulnerable people. It did not comply with the laws of nature, laws which I lived my life by. Science never failed me. Not once. It guided me through high school at age thirteen, gave me an outlet to perfect my work by the time I was eighteen. That was my rock. Science gave me solid hope to lean on. It was my one and only friend throughout my 24 years. I have no regrets for what I did, the people I killed. It was all in the name of science and scientific progress. My mother new what she was doing. She walked into the room with the intent to die. Cameron was the same, though he struggled far too much and corrupted the data samples. These things do happen unfortunately. But I finally overcame it all! I finally won the battle against death and resurrection! I achieved the seemingly unbelievable! The girl was my answer. Her body and mind were tenfold stronger than any other subjects' I tested. Her recovery was, for lack of a more accurate definition, miraculous.

I do not fear dying. I do not fear pain. I do not fear the end of everything.

I fear … Memory.

There was only a moment of searing pain, in my neck, throughout my entire body, then it all slowly faded into nothing. I understand now that I am only my consciousness, floating in a sea of blackness. It is a euphoric feeling, one I cannot describe even with the vast amount of scientific complexities stored in my mind.

Yet … I feel a pull underneath me. I am helpless to resist it.

I, my conscious, feels as though it's burning up. Yet there is no light to find the source, nor one single spot of heat. It is utterly all-consuming.

Then I hear them … and pure terror surrounds me. The voices, echoes of my past encounters with lesser human beings, growing steadily louder, and Louder, and LOUDER!

IT'S PURE SCREECHING AND SCREAMING AND I FEEL THE VOICES TEARING AT MY CONSCIOUSNESS ... BUT I AM HELPLESS TO RESIST IT!

And I continue falling … I know, somehow I just know, I will never stop falling. It is an eternal abyss of darkness and screeching, screaming, agonizing voices!

Now I'm sure of it … I swear I feel a presence all around me, begging the voices to continue their screams.

So … This is HELL ... and Satan has descended with me.

(Beth's POV)

He was bleeding internally. It was bad, the damage severe. There was nothing more the doctors could do. Daryl was a survivor, but was he strong enough to survive this? A bullet in his gut? The blood loss? It would take a miracle, and sadly those are in short supply these days. I'd give him my life, if only I could.

After the gunshots rang out, guards and doctors came from every corner of the facility. I was leaning over Daryl, not feeling much of anything, trying to wake him from the darkness slowly closing in, hoping it wasn't too late. He was cold, a stark difference to his usually warm body. Blood pooled on the floor underneath him. His face was pale. And all the while I begged God to spare him. I didn't care if he took me in the process but if Daryl lived I could then die happy. Daryl would probably scold me to Heaven and back for thinking that my life could be so easily exchanged for his, but I just didn't care anymore. He was the whole reason I was alive, his voice in my head, knowing he was out there looking for me as I tried to escape to look for him! Without Daryl, what was my reason for living now? I just leaned over him and cried. I didn't even feel myself slipping away until I woke up in the medical outpatient facility of the compound the next day.

The doctors did their best. Turns out not everyone in the facility was okay with what happened there, much like Grady Memorial, and some higher clearance doctors rolled their eyes and even scowled at Aurora's name. She was brilliant, yet intolerable even in her own field of study. Everything she was at the funeral home, the ego and lies and lust for power, was a trait of her's throughout her miserable life. I suppose the old Beth Greene might've felt sorry for the woman, but not now. No, I've learned that some people are better left in the Hell of their own lives.

Everyone was treated in the communal med bay; all of us needed care and decent rest. Rick arranged to have my bed next to Daryl's, close enough I could reach out and touch his hand. Sometimes I did, but only at night, when almost everyone else was sound asleep. I wasn't sure how Daryl would react to my feelings for him, much less the rest of our family. During the day, I never left his side. I've heard that patients who aren't awake can still hear you if you talk to them, so I whispered everything to Daryl. I told him about this place, the tests Dr. Arthur and Aurora did, what happened after he was shot, how much I cared for him. But more importantly, I told him I needed him, that I would always need him.

"I hope he wakes up." A voice behind me made me jump from my usual sitting position next to Daryl. Carol stood at the foot of my bed. I hadn't even heard her walk up.

"Yeah. Me too," I said focusing my attention back to Daryl.

Carol walked around and took a seat next to me. I chanced a glance at her expression, one that looked like it was torn between worlds. I averted my gaze as soon as her's met mine- I was so angry at her for betraying all of us, even little Judith who cried and screamed as Carol cared for her outside the med bay. Rick called a family meeting as soon as I was awake. Apparently Carol had lost all hope in humanity and was just trying to save her own skin. It was reasonable enough after everything she'd been through, but did such selfishness really belong in our family? In this world? Rick mentioned something about Terminus and Carol saving all their lives and reuniting him with Judith. But she also killed Karen and David, and Lizzie! I couldn't bring myself to speak in front of the group, because I knew what came out would be the worst. I'd already caused enough breaks in this family, didn't need to add to it. In the end, Rick left it up to Carol to decide whether she wanted to stay or go. I left the room. I didn't want or care enough to know the answer.

Now here she was, sitting beside me looking at Daryl with so much concern ... Ironic considering she fed him to the wolves. but now was not the time for starting arguments so I simply said, "What is it, Carol? What's on your mind?"

She looked at me very sternly, never once breaking eye contact. "Do you love him?"

I was slightly taken aback by the question. My immediate thought was Why do you care? I blinked a couple times before the right words spilled out. "I… I don't know. Never thought about him like that before." It's true; I never thought about loving Daryl before she suggested the word…but maybe there is something there.

Carol shook her head. "Love is foolish, Beth. It's what got you both trapped in this place, isn't it?"

My brow creased. I didn't like what she was insinuating.

"Daryl… he shouldn't have to constantly look out for you," Carol continued, staring at Daryl now. "People chasing after love, after another person… It gets people killed. Only hurts everyone else more."

Control the anger. I tried to remember the definition of love. It's been so long since I used that word. I never really loved Jimmy or Zach, though I'd said it to both of them. Come to think of it, I never felt this with Jimmy or Zach, this thing I feel with Daryl.

Then I remember it, the definition of love, a definition Carol would do well to remember. "Love, Carol, is caring about another person far more than you care about yourself. You want to keep them alive, even if it means you cant'' be with them any longer. You can truly a tell a person is in love when everything they do is for someone else, every breath they take, every action, every fiber of their being is devoted to someone else. It's selflessness, Carol. That's what love is. What you did to our family, that wasn't love."

Carol continued to stare at me. I was about to open my mouth again when I heard a familiar voice behind me.

"She's right." I turned my head. Maggie stood there, eyes brimming with tears. "She's right, Carol."

Carol said nothing, didn't move either. She just looked back towards Daryl, fighting an inner battle she couldn't possibly win.

"I knew he loved you back in Atlanta," Maggie said situating herself on the other side of me. "No one cries like that because they lost a friend, even if they'd been through Hell and back together. I remember crying like that when I thought I lost Glenn, and then afterwards every part of me searched for him, knowing the odds were stacked against us ever finding each other again. But I just couldn't stand by and let fate take over. I had to fight to get him back...kinda like you did."

I couldn't hold back the tears, neither could Maggie. It was the first sisterly moment we had in a long while. I hugged her and she hugged back, so hard I couldn't breathe. But the pain was good; Pain let me know she felt something too.

I pulled away from Maggie and turned back to Carol. The woman had changed so much since the farm, maybe a little too much. That was one of the many curses of this world now, changing so much that you barely recognize yourself in the mirror. I was still angry at her, but maybe Carol was now starting to feel the effects of that change, the results of her efforts to survive in a world that was beyond cruel.

"Carol?" I didn't reach out to touch her, but I hoped my voice was enough to break through the barrier. "I don't know what you've decided to do. I don't think I'll ever forgive you for killing those people and turning your back on your own family. But I have to make my own judgments, and I wanna know- Are you at all sorry for what you did?"

Apparently not. Carol stood and walked back to the foot of my bed, avoiding eye contact. Her voice was grave, voice of any emotion at all. "I just needed to see this with my own eyes, hear it with my own ears." Only then did she look up at me, give a small nod, and then walk away. I didn't return the gesture; I wasn't quite sure what she meant, but I suppose that's the Carol I might have to tolerate now. She wasn't sorry, but she had her reasons and if she chose to stay, I would just have to get over it, take comfort in Daryl and my family and just get over it. Maybe that's what everyone else would have to do as well.

Maggie stayed with me for a while. We talked about her and Glenn mostly, avoiding Daryl and the doom and gloom that accompanied him right now. Occasionally I saw him twitch, and I shed a tear or two thinking he was turning on me. That fear plagued the back of my mind since the night I dreamed it. I promised myself I'd never let it happen, but if he goes now…

I refocused my attention back to Maggie. We talked some more, always careful to avoid Daryl, and Grady Memorial, and Dr. Arthur, and Aurora. Pretty much anything to do with me. She left as soon as Glenn came to tell us dinner was ready. I told them I'd catch up, but I had no intention of going anywhere. They knew that. Yeah, I missed Maggie. I knew she wasn't looking for me while we were separated, but I understand why now. Love. What a complicated, yet utterly simply thing it is.

It was quiet again, but a safe kind of quiet. Very few places in the world were "safe" anymore. I wondered if there would ever be a permanent place for us, a place where we could start living out normal lives again, or as normal as we could get now.

Us…That's a strange word, girl. Even now I heard his voice in my head. His body was so still aside from the steady breathing. He was asleep, could possibly stay asleep for the rest of my life.

"You can't die on me, Daryl Dixon. You're supposed to be the last man standing," I whispered moving to kneel beside his bed. I took his hand in mind, lacing our fingers together, wishing he'd just wake up. "There's so much I still need to tell you, Daryl. You have to hear it, and after you hear it you can't leave me. I can't be alone again." Tears threatened to fall, but I brushed them away quickly. "You're a good man, Daryl Dixon. I want to be able to tell you that so…please wake up…wake up so I can say it and you can hear it." I leaned in close, so close I could feel his breath ghost across my face. It was warm and inviting, making me move even closer. My heart was pounding, but I was determined to do this. It was stupid. What was I expecting to happen? That Daryl would just miraculously wake up, like some damn romance novel? It wasn't logical, but I needed to do it. It was now or never, and I didn't know if Daryl had another minute.

I leaned down and pressed my lips to his. They were remarkably soft and sweet. I breathe a sigh of relief and contentment as I pulled away. Looking at him in that moment, he really was beautiful. I brushed some of the shaggy, long hair away from his face, which always seemed to have the same serious expression now. I was okay with that. Deep down, he had his smiles. He showed me a few before.

I laid my head down next to his, against his should. I still kept my hand intertwined with his, but as sleep began to take over, I felt it getting looser and looser. It was only natural…

Until it suddenly wasn't loose anymore. My sleepy eyes blinked a few times. Was I dreaming? I looked down the length of the bed at our hands, his now fully grasping mine, like it was his lifeline. Again, there was that pain; he was squeezing so hard his knuckles were white, but it was a good and life-like kind of pain.

I needed to see his face, to know for certain I wasn't just imagining things. Ever so slowly, hopefully, I lifted my head.

His eyes pierced mine. They were little slits against his tanned skin but still such a brilliant blue they took my breath away. I couldn't hold back the tears anymore. They streamed down my face and I made no attempt to wipe them away. I smiled, and he returned with a small smile of his own.

We didn't need to say anything. He was alive. Daryl was alive!