Beth was in Dawn's office, her feet inches away from the torn up body of Gorman and the now dead body of Joan. Dawn was standing just in front of her, her face pale, her eyes wide with anger.

'Who the hell do you think you are?' She asked Beth, her voice laced with contempt.

'He attacked me.' Beth said back, her own voice heavy with spite. 'Just like he attacked Joan. Just like you let him. You know what's happening here and you let it happen, you let it -'

'So that we make it.' Dawn interrupted with passion.

'No-one's coming, Dawn,' Beth said, raising her voice. 'No-one's coming!'

Dawn stared at her, her eyes narrowing, her lips parting as she breathed.

'We're all gonna die and you let this happen. For nothing.'

Dawn looked down at the two broken bodies on her office floor, her face falling for a moment. Then the surly mask of anger returned, and she lashed out, slapping Beth hard across the face. Beth bulked and stumbled backward, but she did not cry out. She remained impassive as Dawn hit her again, this time her fist connecting with her eye. And then again.

When she was done, she stood staring at Beth, her hands by her side, her chest rising and falling in heavy succession as she panted. Beth raised her eyes and looked back at the woman, feeling her cheek begin to swell already.

Then she turned and left the room.

Doctor Edwards found her in the corridor and pulled her into his dimly lit office. He did not speak to her, just instructed her to sit down on the wooden chair before his desk. Beth did as she was told, sitting and staring ahead of herself as he began to apply ointment to her face. It stung and started, but she did not move.

Once he was done, Edwards sat back in his own chair and looked at his handy work.

'There. You will heal nicely.' He said. 'Should be ready to jump back into it in a few days.'

He put his things together in his bag and stood up, heading for the door.

'How did you know Trevitt was a doctor?' Beth said aloud, hearing his footsteps stop. She turned her head to look at his back. 'That's why you had me give him the wrong meds, right? Why you had me kill him? Cause if he had lived there'd be another doctor, and Dawn wouldn't need you any more. She wouldn't protect you.'

'Trevitt was an oncologist at St. Ignatius.' Edwards said quietly from the doorway. Beth could see he had lowered his head. 'I knew him.' Slowly he turned around to face her, his head lowered and his eyes on the floor. 'They would have kicked me out.' He made eye contact with her then. 'Maybe Gorman - maybe he would have killed me.' He rose his eyebrows and spoke with a conviction Beth did not believe. 'I didn't have a choice.'

She looked at him for a while, her head tilted.

'Use everything you can use.' She said.

Edwards looked at her, his brow furrowed. Beth looked back, her own face impassive. Slowly, he turned and left the room, leaving her alone in his office.

She turned her gaze down to her hands in her lap; she had balled them into fists. She opened them and stretched her fingers out, taking a deep breath. She hoped Noah had gotten far away.

It took Beth a long time to fall asleep that night; her face hurt from her beating and her heart hurt for both herself and Noah. She prayed he had made it out and would not be caught before he escaped the city; his leg had been injured and he was not used to fighting, so Beth was fearful for him. Plus she also hurt for herself at not having gotten away too. From her bed, if she twisted her head, she could see the night sky. There were not many stars out tonight, but she could make out a few scattered throughout the inky backdrop, slowly becoming more and more visible as the years passed by, the light pollution minimizing as nature took back the world.

She wondered where Noah was, and whether he was looking up at those same stars.

Then she wondered where Daryl was, and whether he too was looking up at them. Beth reach into the pocket of her scrubs and pulled out the scan of her baby. She could not quite make it out in the darkness, but she gently rubbed her thumb over it, lending comfort from it. A piece of it was Daryl, and it was the closest she could get to him right now.

She held it to her chest, feeling the tears welling in her eyes, aching against the swelling of her right eye.

'No,' she murmured to herself, 'you don't get to cry. You don't get to cry.'

But she wasn't listening to herself, and the tears spilled down her bruised cheeks and onto the white pillow beneath her head. She closed her eyes and tried to calm herself, and at some point she fell to sleep.

Beth's eyes felt heavy when she opened them the next morning. She blinked them several times, focusing them on the room. Her hand felt sticky, and as she lifted it from her chest, she saw her photo was stuck to it. Smiling lightly, she peeled it from her skin, checked it was still intact, and put it back into her pocket before pulling herself out of the bed. Her body felt heavier overall this morning, and there was a light fluttering in her abdomen. Beth put her hand against where the sensation was, and felt the very slightly rounded flesh beneath her top.

Frowning, she pulled up her top and looked down at her bare skin. Sitting down, her belly looked a little rounder, but she wasn't sure whether it was just perspective. So she stood up and stretched herself out, twisting this way and that whilst keeping her eyes on her stomach. She thought maybe her waistline was disappearing ever so slightly, and the very lower section of her stomach definitely looked chubbier. Beth stared at it.

'Are you growing in there?' She whispered.

She felt nothing so she let her top fall back down, and the tiny bulge of her belly disappeared beneath the fabric.

Her morning was spent sponging down the carpet in Dawn's office. Crouched down beside a large bucket of water and soap, Beth sponged up the blood, grimacing every time she dunked the dirty sponge back into the water and watched the blood fade from it in thin tendrils, turning the water of the bucket a light red.

Her back was aching, and she often had to stop to prop herself back up onto her heels to take deep breaths. As she did this once more, she wiped her arm across her sweating brow and looked down at the wet patch on the carpet. It looked a lot better, but Beth doubted she would ever get all of the blood out.

That was two people now, she thought solemnly. Two people she had inadvertently killed.

'Shepherd, Lamson, what's your 20? I need status on that gunfire.' Dawn's voice entered the room with her as she pushed open the door to her office. 'Do you copy? Licari, do you copy? Does anybody copy? Damn it.'

She stormed past Beth and to her work-out Bike. Beth watched her as she went, taking in her gym clothing, her dark hair pulled up beneath a cap that proudly said 'police'. Beth looked at her for a moment, taking in her pale features, the heavy sighs.

'Something wrong?' She risked asking.

'They don't always radio back and it drives me crazy.' Dawn said as she climbed onto her bike. 'You're done with that. About as good as it's going to get. Give my desk a wipe down then get rid of the bucket.'

Beth nodded and pushed herself to her feet, one hand absently going to her lower stomach as she stood. She turned and took an old rag, beginning to wipe the desk. She picked up and photo and was about it put it down when Dawn called to her.

'Wait, no, no, no. Beth, no, not there. Up by the badges.'

Beth stood up and took the photograph to the filing cabinet she had found the wallet in and put the frame down there, behind three police badges.

'Thank you.' Dawn said.

'Is this Captain Hanson?' Beth asked slowly.

Dawn looked across at her. She sighed and closed her eyes for a moment.

'Did someone say something about him to you?' She asked.

'Just that he used to be in charge.' Beth shrugged.

'Well, you'll hear stories about him. About me. About what I did.' Dawn looked steadily at Beth from beneath her hat. 'He was my mentor. My friend. I miss him. That's the part the stories leave out.'

'What happened to him?' Beth asked.

Dawn took the towel from the handle of her bike and wiped it across her face, pausing in her peddling.

'They risk their lives every time they go out there.' She said seriously. 'It has to be worth it. It has to matter. He lost sight of that. So he lost them.' She paused, making eye contact with the younger woman. 'Beth, in this job you don't need their love but you have to have their respect. Otherwise, the day is gonna come when you need backup and you don't have it. And what comes next? Everybody goes down.' She sighed. 'Hanson lost his way. That's what happened.'

Beth swallowed. She nodded.

'Get that out of here,' Dawn said, nodding to the bucket.

Beth picked up the bucket, but she also picked up Dawn's key from the desk and put it in the hem of her pants.

'Are you going to jump?'

Beth had heard the footsteps approaching, but she had made no bid to turn around. With Dawn's key, she had opened the elevator and was sitting at the edge, her legs dangling down. Herself and Noah had done so well, they had planned it all so perfectly and gotten out without too much trouble. It could have worked out. It all could have worked out.

'I wanted to be alone.' Beth said. 'You left your elevator key where it was.'

'Well, I know you're not going anywhere.' Dawn said from behind her.

'Neither are you.' Beth said. She peeled her eyes up from the darkness before her and turned to look at Dawn, who was leaning against the wall behind her, watching her.

'You you keep telling yourself you have to do whatever it takes just until this is all over.' Beth said firmly. 'But it isn't over. This is it. This is who you are and what this place is until the end.'

'This place saved you.' Dawn said severely. 'I saved you. Twice.' She pushed herself up from the wall and walked towards Beth, the echo of her boots loud against the floor. 'The others don't know what you did. They think Joan was trying to get back at me and that Gorman was in the wrong place at the wrong time.'

'That's what happened.' Beth said.

'Bullshit.' Dawn hissed. 'I saw the smashed jar. I closed up my office and I fixed it before it could be a problem. You're a cop killer.'

'I would never kill somebody.' Beth said, her eyes locked on Dawn's face.

'But you did.' Dawn said. 'What do you think would happen if the others found out? I protected you. But there's a way things have to happen here. Don't you get that?'

The sound of a door closing distracted them both, and both women turned to see another officer stood at the end of the hall, watching them. Beth pulled herself up and stood beside Dawn, staring straight back at him.

'What are you gonna do?' Dawn asked. Her voice was calm and steady as she stood with her hands beside her.

'No, Dawn, what are you gonna do?' The man said. 'Starting with her.'

'She's my ward. It's my call.' Dawn said.

'Fine, but your people deserve to know who they're working for. So, you gonna tell them or am I?'

'You don't get to threaten me.' Dawn said through gritted teeth. She took a few steps forward, towards the man who was stood mostly in shadow.

'That's not a threat.' He said. 'But these are the facts. You look like shit. The guys are talking. They think you're cracking. This is Hanson all over again. It's time to make a change.' He turned his back on her and placed his hand on the door ready to push it open.

'O'Donnell.' Dawn warned. She pulled her gun from her holster and held it high, her hands steady, aiming it straight at the man. 'You're wrong. I'm nothing like Hanson. I was the one who killed him, remember that? I was the only one who could go through with it.'

'Lower your weapon, Dawn.' The man said, as he slowly turned to face her. 'All I have to do is shout.'

'All I have to do is say you came at me.' Dawn said, then she turned her face slightly towards Beth's direction. 'Beth, get out of the way.'

Beth moved out of their way, back towards the second door just around the corner, but she could still see both of them, her heart in her throat.

'You're not gonna do this.' The man said as Beth hurried out of the way.

'You're not giving me a choice.' Dawn said. She jerked her gun away from the door. 'Go.'

'We were rookies together.' The man said, raising his hands and moving away from the door. 'You knew my wife. You were here in this hospital having cigars with me in the parking lot when my kid was born.'

'Don't. That guy is gone.' Dawn said darkly. 'We're supposed to protect people. To help them. But look at you. You're beating the old man. You're laughing with your buddies about that poor girl getting raped. That's who you are now.'

'So who the hell are you?' O'Donnell spat.

'Somebody who's not gonna let it happen anymore.'

'That's not what this is about.' He said, narrowing his eyes. 'It's about holding on to what you have.'

'What the hell do I have?' Dawn asked, and Beth could see there were tears on her cheeks.

'This isn't you. After Hanson, you changed.' The man said, then he lunged at Dawn, knocking her gun from her hand. It slid across the floor and fell straight down the open elevator. The two officers grappled, throwing punches. Dawn was able to knock the man back into the wall behind him, but he came back for her, knocking her across the face. She kneed him in the crotch and tackled her shoulder into his chest, knocking him back, but he elbowed her in the back and threw her off. He grabbed her by the throat and threw her against the wall, lifting her body up from the ground.

'You think you're better than us?!' He shouted as Dawn began to choke.

Beth rushed to them and tried to pull him from her, but he smacked her off, knocking her easily to the ground.

'Stay in your lane, bitch!' He yelled, but Beth's distraction allowed Dawn to chop her hand into his throat. O'Donnel sputtered and fell backwards, grasping at his throat, and Dawn used that opportunity to high kick him in the chest, forcing him back all the more. He stumbled across to where Beth lay beside the shaft, and Dawn caught her eye.

'Beth!' She shouted.

Beth jumped up and shoved him in the chest with all her might. The man stared at her, wide eyed, for a split second, and then he tumbled. His yell echoed all the way up as his body plummeted to the ground below. Beth stood staring down, watching it fall, her heart racing in her chest. Dawn limped to her side.

'Thank you.' She breathed.

Beth tore her eyes away and stormed from the hall, shoving the doors open and hurrying away from the sight. He took her total up to three.

Dawn found Beth in her own room, sat on her windowsill, staring out into the city. Her head hurt and she felt sick, but this time it wasn't down to the baby. She had fought so hard since the beginning of the fall to be a good person, but this place was destroying her. She had always tried to see the good in people, to believe in people, but she couldn't believe in this place. Her clean slate had been muddied and filled with red, so much red, in just the short time she had been in this building. Gavin Trevitt, Gorman, O'Donnell. Their blood was on her hands whether she liked it or not, and nothing would ever clean them again.

'It's okay to cry.' Dawn said, pushing open Beth's door. 'I do. I just don't let them see it.'

Dawn took a swig from her hipflask as she walked across the room and sat down on the end of Beth's bed. She offered it out to Beth.

'It's from my own stash. There's no strings.' She said.

Beth narrowed her eyes at her.

'I can't.' She said.

Dawn regarded her for a moment, her face thoughtful. She took another swig herself then screwed the lid back on, smacking her lips together. She looked back up at Beth.

'You plan on keeping it.' She said.

'I know now why you covered for me.' Beth said instead, turning her eyes back out to the window. 'You weren't protecting me. You were protecting yourself.'

'Is that so?' Dawn asked.

'Gorman, O'Donnell, they were problems for you. And now they're not.' Beth said. 'And you didn't have to do the dirty work. That's how things get done here. Everyone uses people to get what they want. You're not the ones who have to remember.'

'Is that what happened with Edwards and Trevitt?' Dawn asked softly, the tone of realization in her voice as she looked across at Beth's profile. 'He used you?'

'I'm gonna get out.' Beth said. 'Just like Noah.'

'He'll be back.' Dawn said.

'He's going home.' Beth said passionately, turning to stare at Dawn.

Dawn smiled at her.

'They always come back.' She said. 'They don't ever get far because they can't. But really they don't want to.'

'He's going home.' Beth repeated.

Dawn sighed with that same condescending smile.

'I was like you when I was younger. Nobody could tell me anything.' She sighed. 'Beth, you can be a part of this thing. Both of you.'

Beth resisted the urge to lay a hand on her stomach, instead she just returned to stare out of the window.

'This is important.' Dawn insisted. 'Maybe the most important thing you do in your life. And what you did back there - Gorman and O'Donnell hurt people. The world didn't lose anything when they died. And you're wrong about what happened. I didn't use you.'

Beth glanced across at Dawn; her face was soft and gentle, her eyes opening. Beth swallowed the sickening feeling in her throat. Dawn looked into her eyes, her own eyes imploring as she spoke.

'And I will remember.' She said.

Beth sighed and looked down at her lap. Her face was hurting and her lower back stung from where she had been knocked to the floor. This place is going to kill me, she thought, as her head pounded.

Dawn's radio buzzed. She took it from her holster, clicked it.

'Officer Lerner. Come in.' She said.

'Franco.' The radio responded. 'We have a situation. There are people here and they have officer's Shepherd and Licari. They want to exact an exchange, our men for – for Beth.'

Beth stared, open mouthed, at Dawn, who looked back up at her.

Dawn's mouth began to shape a no, but then she stopped and swallowed, visibly confused. She blinked several times before she answered.

'What people?' She asked.

'A – a Rick Grimes.' The voice on the other end of the radio said. 'They've got people. Snipers.'

Beth blinked. Rick Grimes? She frowned across at Dawn, who had lowered her eyes to the ground. Her heart was hammering away and a curious sensation of nausea was washing her insides.

'Okay.' Dawn said, defeated. 'Bring them in.' She put the radio down and looked up at Beth. 'Get dressed.' She said.

Beth watched Dawn leave the room, her mouth open. Slowly, she climbed down from the windowsill and fetched the clothes she had come in in, which had been left on the drawers by her bed. Methodically, she pulled off her top and pants, and tugged her old, stiff jeans back on over her legs. She noticed it took more effort to button them over her belly. She pulled her old top on, letting it fall over her stomach, wrinkling her nose in disgust at the smell of stale sweat and blood. She paused to run her hands over the scrubs she had worn for the past week, stopping to take the photo of her scan from them, which she tucked safely into her bra.

There was a knock on her door.

Beth opened it.

'Okay.' Dawn said.

Beth's heart fluttered and she swallowed hard past the lump forming in her throat.

She was marched out of her room and down the corridors by four officers, including Dawn. Doctor Edwards came out of his own room and looked at Beth as she passed. He offered her a smile, but Beth just stared straight back at him.

They walked her through towards where the stairwell was, then they stopped, all four officers standing in a line in front of her. They waited for a while, and Beth held her breath.

'Holster your weapons,' Dawn said.

Then the door at the end of the corridor opened and two officers Beth recognised as Falco and McGiney walked in, followed by two other officers who were being held from behind and walked in. Beth gasped as she saw Rick, staring directly at her, his eyes dark and serious and narrowed over his beard. Beside him, holding the other officer, was Daryl.

They walked into the corridor and Beth saw Tyreese, Sasha, Maggie – and surprisingly Noah - behind them. She bit down on her bottom lip, hard. The officers before her parted, and she stepped forward into the middle of them. The two officers in front of her friends walked towards them, where they stopped just to the side of Beth.

'They haven't been harmed,' Rick said, and Beth's spine seemed to tingle at the sound of his voice.

'Where's Lamson?' Dawn asked.

'Rotter's got him,' Officer Shepherd said.

'We saw him go down.' Licari agreed.

Beth could see Dawn breaking beside her. Tears had risen in her eyes, and she nodded her head.

'I'm sorry to hear that,' she said, her voice breaking only slightly. 'He was one of the good guys.'

She took Beth's arm, and Beth tried to keep her breathing steady.

'Yours for mine.' She said.

Rick nodded.

'Alright.' He said.

Himself and Daryl slowly walked their captured officers into the middle as Dawn led Beth. They let go of the officers who walked their last steps to Dawn, and Dawn released Beth's arm. Beth took a deep breathe as she felt herself released; the two or three steps between Dawn and her family were the longest steps of her life, the corridor seeming to stretch out before her. As she reached Rick, he reached out for her and placed one warm hand on her face. She looked at him, and he leant in to kiss her forehead. Then he gently pushed her towards the others.

Daryl was standing there, watching. Beth walked to him, and she saw him take a deep, shuddering breath. She took her own breath as tears welled again in her eyes. Daryl licked at his dry lips, attempting to moisten them. Beth stopped, stood before him, her breath catching in her throat. His own steel blue were were sparkling behind his hair, his lips seeming to quiver.

Then she moved to him, wrapping her arms tightly around his waist and burying her head in his chest, breathing in his familiar scent, the leather of his vest, the fabric of his shirt, the musk that was unmistakably his. Daryl held her close to him, his arms tight around her back, one hand on the back of her hair. He buried her face in her mass of curls, breathing in her own scent, his heart racing behind his shirt.

'Now I just need Noah.' Dawn said.

Beth lifted her wet face from Daryl's chest and turned to look at the woman.

'That wasn't part of the deal.' Rick said. He walked back to the centre.

'Noah was my ward.' Dawn said. 'Beth took his place and I'm losing her, so I need him back.'

'He ain't stayin'.' Daryl said, pushing Beth behind him and stepping out.

'He's one of mine you have no claim on him.' Dawn said.

'The boy wants to go home,' Rick said, with strong emphasis on the home. 'So you have no claim on him.'

Dawn looked at Rick for a while, her face set.

'Well then we don't have a deal.'

'The deal is done.' Rick said.

'It – It's okay,' Noah said, limping forward. 'I'll stay.'

'No.' Rick said.

'I gotta do it,' Noah said, facing Rick.

Rick looked back at him, and Beth could see his resolve break.

Noah removed his gun and held it out to Rick.

'Wait!' Beth said, moving around to Daryl and stepping to Noah. She took the gun from him and threw her arms around his neck.

'It's okay.' Noah said softly to her.

'I knew you'd be back,' Dawn said to Noah, a smile playing on her lips.

Slowly, Beth lowered her arms from Noah. She stepped towards Dawn and stood before her, staring deep into her cold, dark eyes. The woman stared back. Beth looked into the eyes of the woman that had kept her here, had hurt her, had beat her, had manipulated her, had led her to kill. She smiled.

'I get it now.' She said, and she twisted the gun in her hand up and fired.