Guys, I just can't hold out on you and I've had SM finished for so long you deserve to read it all! I can't even say how grateful I am for your comments, your love and your support. You guys made SM happen, I swear you did and you make everything else happen. I can't wait to write more fic to share with you all. Thank so much for every bit of kindness you've ever showed me and a huge, huge thank you to wallflow3r who is my beta, my friend and a kick ass writer ❤️❤️
"MOTHERFUCKER!" Negan roars.
The second bullet pins him in the leg, just in case the first didn't do a good enough job of paralysing him. Beth continues to clutch the gun, aiming it at Negan when another gun presses to her temple. She almost smiles at the irony of it all as Simon rounds her, keeping the gun pressed to her forehead.
"You know I survived a bullet to the brain once, what'd you think my chances are of surviving again?" She asks shakily.
Simon smiles, twisted and cruel. "Not big, sweetheart."
"You kill her, he dies," Rosita speaks, her voice ringing in the clearing.
The Saviours are frozen, all of them paused at their vehicles. Negan ordered them to pack up and leave meaning Beth's family got to raise to their knees, got their weapons back.
Now Simon has taken charge and some of them are hovering back to the middle of the clearing, violence eager in their eyes.
They're too late though because both Rosita and Tara are pointing their newly retrieved guns at Simon while Maggie aims her gun at Negan.
Beth's heart stutters as she surveys the scene. This place could light up with bullets in less than a second because there's no way in hell the Saviours are getting her family back on their knees.
"Well," Simon chuckles. "Looks like we got ourselves a hostage situation here boss," Simon says to Negan.
In turn Negan groans, face down in the mud and no where to go. She shot him pretty low on his spine and she's sure she paralysed him.
Even with a bullet in the leg he would try to hop away. Unless he's playing. Can't fake the bullet wound though.
"Let her go," Daryl rumbles and when Beth looks to him he has Lucille. "I got pretty good aim, asshole an' the minute you shoot her, I got nothin' left to lose."
Beth thinks this might be the last straw for her already shattered heart. After everything he just heard, he would still die for her.
After hearing she was done with him, that he was just a piece on the side, he still had the strength to rise to his feet.
After watching Negan's hands run across her body, caress her like Daryl did himself, he's still willing to do whatever it takes to save her.
Even if it means dying or avenging her, if it came down to it. She knows he killed Dawn. Maggie told her, when she didn't have her memories.
She didn't care at the time, didn't understand what it meant. Now she understands. She understands all too well, the lengths he will go.
She's died before; she knows how it tears the fabric of the soul and scatters it to the four corners of the world and yet he would still do that for her.
She wonders if he knew that would he still be so willing and yet even as she thinks it, she has her answer. Would there ever be anything in this world or the next to stop him fighting for her?
He must be so exhausted, so beaten down and yet he always, always gets back up. What the hell did she ever do to deserve this man? This beautiful, beautiful man. If they survive this she will never, ever leave his side.
"You take one step closer, mutt an' I blow your girls brains out," Simon hisses, eyes darting around at the Saviours that are frozen. "What're you doing!? Light 'em up!"
"We don't take orders from you," Dwight answers him. "We're Negan."
"Oh yeah?" Simon asks with a curled lip, even more grotesque because of his fucked up nose. "Let's fix that, shall we!"
Beth jumps in her skin when the gun shot rings, her eyes flying around wildly to see who went down. It takes her a while for the images to piece together and then finally, she works out what's happened.
Simon just shot Negan in the back of the head.
Icy fear trickles in her gut. Simon is not one to fuck with. Simon is not a man she can beguile or sway. Simon would love to watch the world burn and see her and everyone she loves go right along with it.
They're fucked.
"Who do you answer to now!?" Simon shouts, his grin so wide Beth can see his gums.
"Not you motherfucker," Daryl grunts and then he swings Lucille.
Beth screeches in her throat as the barbed wire connects with Simon's face and takes away a chunk of his skin.
The sound he makes is horrendous, does things to her ears and her belly she can't begin to fathom. Daryl goes in again; swings the bat around Simon's head.
Simon drops like a heavy stone to his knees, the gun falling out his hand and flops down on to his face. His chest still moves, he's still breathing and Beth is almost terrified to look at Daryl.
She's frozen again, stuck in the knowledge that she should do something but not wanting to.
Rick saves her by turning his gun and landing a bullet to Simon's head. Beth sways on her feet and she's surprised to find Dwight is the one who catches her.
When she looks to him she almost smiles but her face is still frozen, stiff and all wrong as she slides the gun from her shaking hand to his. "Go get Cherry back. Don't fuck up an' don't come callin', understand?"
He nods, glances around the clearing and whispers so only she can hear, "it was me who shot you. I'm sorry. He said-"
"I know," Beth cuts him off. "You did what you had to."
He nods and steps back a little as Daryl comes closer, cups her waist gently and pulls her into his chest. "You okay?"
Beth takes in a deep, shaky breath as she leans her weight into him, the adrenaline seeping out of her and everything becoming loose. "No. No I'm not."
His arms tighten around her and his face buries itself in her hair, inhaling deeply. "You're safe now."
She smiles softly. "How'd you know? That I was lying?"
"I didn't," he rumbles softly. "I just saw the good in people. Saw it in you like you taught me once."
Staring in the mirror later on, the morning after the night before, Beth looks at the vicious wound in her shoulder.
It burns to know Dwight did it and he wasn't punished for it but she meant what she said to him: he did what he had to do.
What also burns is knowing he killed Denise and that Beth can never tell anyone. Especially not Tara.
It's a shame that builds inside her then, a dishonesty she's not comfortable with but Tara would never understand, would never forgive, would never stop looking for revenge.
Beth told her it was Simon and Dwight confirmed it, that Negan sent them out after the outpost incident. Dwight thanked them all for what they did, for releasing the Saviours and their family members from Negan.
Beth doesn't know if she believes all of them, some of them like Simon, flourished in such a system. She knows that Rick knows that too.
They still need to be on guard as always. For now, talks of trade are being discussed between Hilltop, Alexandria and the Saviours, not to mention that Beth and Dwight clued them in on other communities that are around too.
That's discussions that Beth doesn't need a part in though because her place is right here: with Daryl.
She looks at him in the bedroom from where she's stood in the bathroom, head hanging between his shoulders and picking at his fingers.
Beth's cautious when she approaches him. "I'm so sorry, Daryl."
He glances up with unfocused eyes. "Why?"
She laughs disbelievingly. "Are you kiddin'? Everythin' you heard, everythin' I did-"
"Don't," Daryl growls as he shoots to his feet and turns his back on her. "I don't wanna hear it again."
Beth's heart clutches and her throat closes tight as she leans her forehead between his shoulder blades. "I didn't have my memories then, I wasn't m-"
"What?"
Beth jumps. Not because she didn't expect a response from him but because his question is so powerful, a bark of authorisation that she feels down her spine.
She stands back as Daryl turns to face her, a frown on her face before realisation dawns on her. "Oh my God, you don't know. I didn't have a chance…"
Daryl keeps watching her, frowning now himself and Beth swallows, smiles a little wobbly. "I… er, I got my memories back. Some stuff is still fuzzy y'know? But I remember everythin'. I remember the prison and my childhood an' the shack an' us an' the hospi-"
Her breath cuts off in a rattling gasp as Daryl tears her up and kisses her, dragging her so high up his body Beth has to wrap her legs around his waist just to stay in place.
"Beth," Daryl moans against her mouth, his hand reaching to her hair and tangling. "S'you. Jesus."
Beth moans back, tears sliding down her eyes with emotion she can't begin to decipher, her hands in Daryl's hair and her mouth sealed over his.
When she needs air she pulls away and presses their foreheads together. "Don't leave," she whispers softly. "Stay."
Daryl's eyes slide to the bed and she nods when he looks back at her. With a trembling sigh, he presses his mouth to hers with more desperation than the first kiss, his knees bending so that she falls to the bed.
Beth giggles and he smiles, allowing her to tear at his shirt and titling her head back so he can kiss her throat.
There's something desperate about his hands, about the way he pulls at her clothing but something so lustful about his mouth on her skin.
The actions are so contradicting Beth's head swims and all she can do is cling to his body, blasting heat through his clothing.
"I don't want slow and sweet this time," she breathes in his ear, rolling her hips against his. "I want you to fuck me."
