I do not own any of the TWD characters.

Beth is getting ready to "step up" her game – at all costs! She has an agenda and it will require everyone's cooperation – and you know as well as I know, Beth Greene Dixon usually gets everyone's cooperation, one way or the other.

I am a child of the 70s and Smokey and the Bandit was one of my favorite movies – It still cracks me up! What we're dealing with here is a complete lack of respect for the law. Buford T. Justice

If you've never seen it, I highly recommend it. It didn't win any Oscars, but believe it or not, it was actually nominated for one for Best Film Editing. Sally Field received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Motion Picture for it. FYI It's just a whole lot of fun!

The song lyrics are in bold and I thought it would be goofy to see Beth so focused on her mission and the song East Bound and Down, as sung by Jerry Reed from the movie Smokey and the Bandit, to be her theme song for the day.

Beth Takes Care of Business

Or

East Bound and Down

Monday, December 21

Beth made the trip in to the hospital early – two hours early. For those that know Beth Greene Dixon, well, that's saying something. Beth was a lady on a mission. She organized her desk, gathered items and files that she would need at home to do her job, and collected all of her personal items. She would no longer be working out of this office and when she was here, she'd work from the conference table.

East bound and down load it up and truck it, We gonna do what they say can't be done

We've got a long way to go and a short time to get there, I'm east bound just watch ol' Bandit run

Beth also placed some very important phone calls to get the ball rolling on all of the projects she intended on completing this week. She called Mr. Vaughn to check on the installation of the crown molding. He told her that he could have someone out there today to take care of it. She thanked him ever so kindly and asked him to keep this phone call under his hat. Mr. Vaughn assured her that he would. She called her landlord to see if he could meet with her this afternoon to inspect the apartment. Beth informed him that the apartment was in as good a shape, possibly even better than when she moved into it, so if he could have a check for her security deposit, that would be great. Last but not least, she called Lori. Rick was off today so he was going to watch Judith while Lori helped Beth get every last stitch of anything out of that apartment. Between the two of them, Beth figured it could be done in an hour, two tops.

Greta, the young girl they had hired to handle the patient load, reported to Beth around 8:30. Beth went over this week's schedule of patients that she was to meet with and talked her through any possible problems she might encounter. Greta had a few questions and Beth listened patiently and offered her best advice. Greta would be working out of Beth's office – well, it was actually Greta's office now.

Beth had thirty minutes before she was scheduled to meet with the guys from the tech department. She took advantage of the time to call Merle. She and Merle made some arrangements – he agreed to meet her on Wednesday at the meat locker and together they would get the meat placed in the garage freezer. He also told her that he'd be happy to help Otis empty Daryl's storage unit – they could do that on Thursday. All she had to do was call Otis and make sure he was available.

Keep your foot on the pedal son never mind them brakes, Let it all hang out cause we got a run to make

The boys are thirsty in Atlanta and there's beer in Texarkana, And we'll bring it back no matter what it takes

When 10:30 rolled around and the tech guys hadn't shown up, she went looking for them. Surprise, surprise she found them holed up in their office playing some kind of online war game. Instead of sharing the choice words she would have liked to, she decided she'd rather get her home office set up.

"Hey guys" she chirped – really pouring on the charm.

"Hey" neither one of them looked up. Beth sashayed on in and sat down in one of the chairs. "Whatcha playin?" she asked them.

"World of Warcraft" one of them answered.

"Ohhhhh, I bet ya'll are really good at it" she smiled and batted her eyelashes.

The one with the curly hair, Zach she thought his name was, finally looked up. He momentarily became distracted by the blonde in front of him.

"Hi" Beth said and smiled that thousand watt smile "we were supposed to meet at 10:30. Ya'll are gonna install all of the equipment in my home office – get everything set up for me."

"Yeh, yeh" Zach said "you Ms. Greene?"

"Actually, it's Mrs. Dixon, but you can call me Beth" and she extended her hand. Zach put the game control down long enough to shake her hand. He elbowed the boy next to him.

"Hey, Patrick" Zach said "this is Beth Dixon – we gotta set that home office up for her." Patrick looked up from his monitor and just smiled the goofiest smile she believed she'd ever seen. All he needed was some masking tape to hold his glasses together she thought.

"Listen, guys" she said all perky like "ya think ya'll can come out to my place tomorrow morning and take care of everything?"

They both nodded their heads up and down. Beth left them the address and her phone number. "Now ya'll text me when you're almost there, I can buzz ya in through the gate."

"We'll be there at eight" Zach promised.

"Oh good – I'll have some breakfast for ya" Beth told them. Then she cupped her hands around her mouth and whispered like she was telling them some huge secret "I'm a real good cook."

Both boys, because basically that's what they were, just nodded their heads up and down and their mouths hung open. Beth stood up, spun around, but before leaving their office she turned back to them "bye Guys."

"Bye" they both said.

East bound and down load it up and truck it…..

Beth was leaving the hospital by 11:00, she stopped at Taco Bell and ordered three chicken soft tacos – eating all three of them before she even reached the Grimes home. 11:15 she was walking in the front door and straight to the kitchen.

"Well, hello to you too" Rick said as Beth breezed through the house.

"Hey" she called out as she threw her hand up in the air. Beth stopped in the kitchen and took several swigs of milk from the jug. Judith stood there staring at her.

"Carl does that all the time" Judith told her. Beth shrugged her shoulders to let Judith know she didn't really care if Carl did that or not. Beth left the kitchen and pinched Judith's cheeks on the way out.

Stepping out into the foyer Beth yelled out, "Come on Lori – we burnin daylight!"

"I'm coming" Lori screamed from her bedroom.

Jesus Christ Rick mumbled under his breath.

"What's wrong with Aunt Bethie?" Judith asked.

"Who the hell knows with her" her Daddy told her "probably on the verge of one of them come aparts."

By 11:45, Beth and Lori were throwing really random shit – random shit like a box of tampons, a crock pot, socks with no mates - into boxes. Each of them checked drawers, cabinets, and closets. They looked underneath furniture and beds – they checked the laundry closet and the dishwasher. The landlord was there by 2:00 with Beth's check. Three o'clock found Lori being dropped at her house.

"Thank you Lori" Beth told her. "You've helped me get a tiny piece of the puzzle tended to today. Love you!"

"You're welcome – love you too." Lori watched as Beth spun out of her driveway and took off down the street. Lori continued to stare at Beth's taillights until she turned left and headed out of town.

Lori walked back into the house. Rick looked down at his watch.

"Ya back already?" Rick asked in disbelief.

"Yeh, Beth seem a little off to you today?" Lori asked Rick.

"Ya think?" Rick rolled his eyes. "Damn crazy ass girl."

"I didn't even have time to enjoy that fancy new ride of hers" Lori complained. "She needs to slow down, by the way- think I've got whiplash" Lori mumbled as she rubbed the back of her neck.

East bound and down load it up and truck it….

She wasn't crazy – she just had a long way to go and a short time to get there. As a matter of fact she had Daryl's ipod plugged in to her car speakers and was singing just as loudly as she could to Jerry Reed's East Bound and Down. She remembered Maggie sneaking her out to the drive in to see Smokey and Bandit. It was years after it was originally released, of course, and her Daddy would have died if he'd known Beth had gone to see it. She had fallen in love with Burt Reynolds that night. She guessed that's why she liked Merle so much, he reminded her of Burt's character in that movie, Bandit.

Indeed, she needed to slow down. Leon Basset clocked her at fifteen over when she crossed over from city jurisdiction into county territory. Immediately he flipped the lights on to pull over this snazzy little ride that still had temporary tags on it.

Ol' Smokey's got them ears on he's hot on your trail, he ain't gonna rest till you're in jail

So you got dodge 'im and you got to duck 'im, you got to keep that diesel truckin'

Just put that hammer down and give it hell

Fancy Ass outta town yuppies he mumbled as he radioed the make and model of the car in. The call, of course, came across Rick's portable radio that was sitting on the charger in the kitchen. Rick was finding his milk jug had been put back into the fridge with no top and what appeared to be maybe, a thimble full of milk. "Dammit Carl" Rick muttered as he dropped the empty plastic container into the trash.

"Nu uh" Judith said "Aunt Bethie drank all the milk." Rick huffed out an exasperated breath.

Leon was apparently worked up because the car didn't seem to want to stop, but finally did pull over. Again, he sputtered the identifying vehicle information over the radio. This time it caught Rick's attention.

"Lori!" Rick yelled.

"Yeh" she came into the kitchen.

"We're outta milk" Rick told her.

"Did you call me in here for that?" Lori asked him.

"Naw, what kinda car did you say Beth got?"

Lori shrugged "some kind of Buick – it's brown."

Rick pinched the bridge of his nose – he felt a headache coming on. "Is it an Enclave?"

"Yeh, that sounds right."

Rick called Leon on his cell. He asked him if he'd approached the driver yet. Leon told him not yet, the driver appeared to be female. Rick gave him strict instructions "keep her there until I get there, don't care what ya gotta do, this stop is mine."

East bound and down load it up and truck it…