seek it out and ye shall find;

When they got home, Beth headed to the bathroom while Daryl and Malachi went to their bedroom. In preparation for the party, Beth took a quick shower to freshen up after all the sweating she'd done during class. She even shaved her legs for the first time in weeks.

She saw the boys preparing lunch together in the kitchen as she headed for her bedroom, both of them wearing different clothes and seeming to be in better moods. Although Beth could still hear the occasional whine in Malachi's voice as she shut the door behind her.

There was a text from Clementine waiting on her phone, informing her she'd be on her way over soon. Beth texted back a thumbs up emoji, then set about gathering all the beauty products she'd acquired – or rather, the few forgotten tubes of makeup that had been tossed into a drawer. She also sorted through her clothes and pulled out everything she'd bought that wasn't for sleeping, running, or concealing a weapon.

There was a knock on her door. With a pile of clothes and makeup on her bed, Beth hopped up and answered it, expecting Clem. Instead, she found Daryl.

"We're headin' over t'Carol's fer a bit," he explained, gesturing toward the front door and where Malachi stood, backpack in hand, waiting for his dad. "Ya ain't leavin' till three-thirty, right?"

"Yeah," Beth answered. "So… yer comin'?"

He nodded. "Might as well. Think Carol's afraid a bein' lonely tonight. Sophia's stayin' at a friend's, she asked me if she could take Mal for the night. So I ain't got nothin' better t'do."

Beth couldn't hold back her smirk. "Don't lie – you wanna see your friends, too. It's okay."

He furrowed his brow and grumbled, but she didn't break her smile. "Jus' acquaintances. Figured ya need at least one person who's zen around y'all. Bunch a troublemakers, might start some kinda revolution if I left ya unattended."

His grumbling was misleading when Beth realized what he was saying, and she saw the small smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. Her smirk turned into a bashful smile and she said, "Alright, Chaperone Dixon. If you insist. Ya sure there's room for two on the back a that bike?"

Daryl raised his eyebrows and said, "Nah. We're walkin'. 'S only twenty minutes away."

She shrugged and agreed, although she was admittedly a little disappointed. "Oh, well alright."

Daryl was about to turn and head for the door when there was a knocking on the other side. He looked at Beth.

"There's the muscle of the operation now," he joked, and smirked before turning away and walking over to open the front door.

Sure enough, Clementine had arrived, a backpack over her shoulder. She was wearing sweatpants, an old martial arts T-shirt, and sneakers. She seemed surprised to be greeted by Daryl, but smiled nonetheless. For the first time, Beth realized that Clem had a polite smile she used with people she didn't know very well, and an honest smile with people she could comfortably joke with. Beth wondered if her own smiles were as drastically different and noticeable as that.

Clem spotted Beth over Daryl's shoulder and entered the apartment after he'd said hello and stepped aside. He shut the door behind her and she headed straight for Beth, who had taken a step outside her bedroom door.

"Hey," Clem said, smiling. Her hair was already done, the curls loosened with product and pulled into a half-up style, leaving her face framed while the dark curls flowed down her back and over her shoulders. Her hair was longer than it had seemed, and Beth could see now why she always tied it up in a bun.

"Hey, what's up," Beth greeted with a smile, leading Clem into her bedroom while Daryl and Malachi left for Carol's.

Clem set her bag down on the floor and stepped closer to the pile on the bed, not hesitating to start picking through it and examining the few pieces of makeup and some of the clothing. Beth could see that she'd already started on her own face, and it looked like she only had a few finishing touches to do before she was ready for the party.

"So, how pretty are you tryin' to look for this thing?" Beth asked, sitting down on the edge of the bed, next to the clothes.

Clem smiled eagerly and dropped the items from her hands back into the pile, then went to her bag and opened it up. "Just a little cuter than usual. When's the last time you had a reason to spoil yourself and make yourself feel beautiful for a night?"

Beth furrowed her brow, not expecting such a serious outlook from Clem. "Um… I dunno. I mean – "

"Exactly," Clem stopped her, still smiling broadly, then went on as she pulled out pieces of clothing and bags of makeup from her backpack. "It's not like – prom, or going out to the club or something. It's just some clothes I never have a reason to wear. And I immediately knew you'd look great in this one top I have… Oh, and I also have the perfect color in one of my eyeshadow palettes, it'll match the whole thing. It'll really bring out your eyes."

Once again, Beth was surprised. "Wow, I didn't know you were into this kinda stuff."

Clem shrugged as she methodically pulled out clothes and makeup and sat down on the floor, arranging her impromptu workspace. "My mom taught me in middle school, but she stopped 'cause I didn't care about girly stuff back then. So then in high school, when I got into it, I just learned all the other stuff from YouTube tutorials. It's not a big deal – I didn't have any siblings. I know lots of girls have their big sisters or whatever to teach them how to contour and all that. But my mom really only showed me the basics, and I just like how it looks sometimes. It's kinda like art – it can be fun."

Beth was thinking about Maggie. There was a time, many years ago, when Maggie might've delighted in teaching Beth how to properly apply eyeshadow. But things changed, and priorities got shuffled around. Beth got a little lost in the mix, and when it came to anything more than plucking her eyebrows or shaving her legs (or, eventually, trimming up down there), she didn't want to bother Maggie with such nonsense. Besides, Maggie never seemed to have a desire for makeup either, so why would Beth be interested? And her momma had always been too busy for such superficial matters – any beauty routines she maintained were kept quiet because that's what was "ladylike" and "Christian." Annette hadn't lived long enough to see Beth as anything more than her innocent baby girl who needed protection from the cruelties of womanhood.

But she didn't talk about any of that. Instead, she said, "Oh – yeah, I… didn't learn any a that either. Um, didn't really think about teachin' myself either, I guess. Just the basics."

Clem was arranging everything on the floor, then looked over to Beth and signaled for her to sit down on the floor in front of her. "Well, lucky for you, you're naturally beautifully. Some of us aren't so blessed."

Beth had to laugh at that as she sat down on the carpet and scooted in close to Clem, both of them surrounded by makeup palettes and brushes. "Not true. You're easily way prettier than me."

Clem rolled her eyes and started grabbing sponges and bottles. "Just take the damn compliment."

Beth laughed again and Clem joined her, then she began working on Beth's face. Beth closed her eyes and felt the excitement growing inside. She knew it was a stupid thing to be excited about – and extremely superficial, at that. But she couldn't help that she anticipated seeing herself in a new way when Clem was done. Maybe she'd even look more like a "Rosie."

"So," Clem started as she dabbed at Beth's cheeks and forehead with a sponge. "Did he tell you about his date last night? Carol wouldn't say anything about it when we asked her."

Beth kept her eyes closed and tried to speak a little softer than usual so as not to move her mouth too much while Clem worked, "…Yeah. I… guess so. It, uh… didn't go well. I dunno if I should say anythin' if Carol didn't…"

Clem made a sound of intrigue from her throat. "Well, he didn't seem too pissed at class. But I guess that doesn't really mean anything..."

"Nah, not really," Beth mumbled, thinking about that morning and how irritable Daryl had been. "He, um – walked out on that girl. She sounded pretty awful, honestly. He came home kinda drunk, an' I don't think I've actually seen him drunk till last night."

"Hm. He did tell you a lot," Clem muttered, and Beth immediately realized she'd said too much.

Shit, she thought. Did he tell me all that in confidence? Surely, Carol will be telling everyone about it within a couple days…

"Not really, it was jus'… in passin'. That's – all he said. When I asked," Beth stammered, then pursed her lips and tried to remain still as Clem began working on her eyebrows.

She could hear Clem clicking her tongue and sensed that she was shaking her head, as well. "It's cool, dude – no need to explain to me. He didn't ride his bike home like that, did he?"

"No – he got a cab, I guess. Said he had t'go pick his bike up in the morning," Beth replied as Clem carefully plucked at her eyebrows and highlighted their arches with a steady hand. "I dunno… he seemed pretty upset. I think he was kinda lookin' forward to it, even if he was mostly doing it like, as a favor to Carol."

"Understandable," Clem mumbled, distracted by her precise work. "Carol might know him best, but I don't think she knows what he wants best. There's… a difference."

"Mm-hmm," Beth said, keeping her lips shut as Clem brushed her cheeks and nose lightly with a brush to sweep away the stray hairs and powder.

"Maybe she'll lose interest in Daryl's love life once she finds somebody, though," Clem continued, beginning her work on Beth's eyelids.

Beth shrugged, eyes still closed as she tried to keep her face steady. "She seems pretty content by herself. I don't think she has any time for a relationship. At least not till Sophia gets a little… better."

"Yeah, but she gets lonely," Clem said quietly. "Trust me. I don't think she's even been on a date since she left Ed. But… she's been kinda talking about this one guy she met at Sophia's therapist's office."

"Oh, really?" Beth asked.

"Yeah," Clem explained. "I dunno if she's mentioned him to anybody else. A couple times, she came through the lobby while I was working 'cause she and Sophia got back from therapy and she was smiling a lot. I thought maybe the therapist was just working really well, but then the last couple times I saw her afterwards, she mentioned some guy named Toby…? I think it was. But I didn't really ask about him. She just mentioned him a lot in a couple of stories. He's probably married or something, but it's the first guy's name I've heard her mention that wasn't a doctor, her ex, or her neighbor."

Beth was curious, but she still couldn't picture Carol making time for any dates with some guy she met at a doctor's office. Much like Beth, her plate was full enough already.

"Maybe he's just a friend," Beth mumbled as Clem brushed colors across her eyelids.

"Ah," Clem grunted, speaking in a low, growling voice, "Think she's got enough friends…"

Beth immediately realized that Clem was doing an impression of Daryl, without warning. She tried to suppress a giggle, but couldn't help it, and Clem had to stop applying eyeshadow for a second when her mouth broke into a broad grin and she giggled, too.

"That was… so mean," Beth giggled, opening her eyes to see Clem's reddened cheeks and mischievous smile.

"What? I didn't say anything mean," Clem said, still chuckling. "That's just what he sounds like. And that's what he'd say – you know it!"

Beth threw her head back and laughed loudly.

For just a brief moment, as she sat on her bedroom floor with her new friend and laughed while surrounded by makeup and pretty clothes… she felt like a normal eighteen-year-old girl.

After Beth came home from breaking up with Jimmy and dealt with the consequential conversation with Maggie and Hershel, she went upstairs and hid away for the rest of the night. She could hear her family shuffling about, and more than once, she heard the front door downstairs opening and closing. They normally didn't get any visitors this late at night, and Beth knew it was all because of her. They were having hushed conversations and heated arguments, but all she wanted to do was bathe and forget it had ever happened.

She scrubbed the dirt and blood from her skin as best she could, but she couldn't wash away the black eye and cut lip. The whole experience left her with the same guilt and shame that she'd lain in bed with after August Eleventh. Her skin was pink and raw by the time she dried off, just like it had been that night. This was different, though, she knew: She had never told anyone about that night, but this had been unavoidable. Maggie and Hershel knew, and they were undoubtedly going to pursue their own form of justice.

Beth returned to her bedroom to find the blood-stained clothes on her floor. She picked them up and took them to the laundry room, where she spent the next half-hour washing, scrubbing, and re-washing the white cardigan and yellow polo. But the blood grew darker and seemed to seep into the fabric. She tried to use all the tricks that her momma had taught her for getting blood out, but she grew so frustrated and her fingers were fumbling and the next thing she knew, there were tears in her eyes.

She wanted to scream, but she didn't. Instead, she wadded up the wet shirts and angrily chucked them into the trashcan nearby, then stormed off to her bedroom.

Several different voices drifted up the stairs and into Beth's bedroom, but she tuned them out. She couldn't handle any more for the day, physically or mentally. She had warned Jimmy, and he knew what would happen, and he did it anyway. Beth may have been naïve, but she'd seen enough to know by now that there was no possible way for her to stop her daddy.

She didn't even want to think about the things Hershel would do to Jimmy.

After a restless few hours of sleep, Beth got up to find the farmhouse empty. Everyone was usually up and around by sunrise anyway, but she could feel that there was something different about today. It was rare for all of them to be gone this early on a Friday morning, and even if they weren't in the house, they were usually somewhere nearby. However, when she gazed out the windows, she saw no one except the usual employees that were just starting to show up for the day. Glenn's car was gone, but so was Hershel's truck.

Beth tried to clear her head while she began preparing some breakfast, but there was a sense of dread that wouldn't leave her body. The sky lightened and more employees showed up outside, and she glanced at the clock. It was nearly 6:30 and she was sitting at the kitchen table, eating breakfast by herself.

The food tasted bland, but she knew it was just her nerves. There was a constant chill running through her that she couldn't seem to shake off, and she kept glancing toward the hall and the backdoor, ears perked for any signs of her family. But there was nothing more than the usual sounds of the farm.

She had finished her meal and resorted to washing the dishes when she heard the front door.

'Finally,' she thought, dropping everything and drying her hands quickly to rush down the hall.

But she stopped halfway to the front door, staring at the sight before her. She suddenly understood how Maggie and Hershel must've felt when they saw her walk in the night before.

There was her daddy, her sister, her brother-in-law, and her cousin. But they all had blood spattered across them, and Glenn and Hershel looked to be particularly sweaty. Maggie had a dark look on her face, and Beth couldn't remember when she'd ever seen it before. All the questions she'd had for them were suddenly gone, and she stared in shock.

"Bethy, y'should be in bed," Hershel said, his voice somehow kind and soft despite his menacing appearance.

Beth found her voice, but the only sentence her mouth was able to form was, "Please tell me you didn't kill him."

The entire group froze. Glenn shook his head, eyes wide. Arnold looked to Hershel, who slumped his shoulders as though in defeat, and Maggie scoffed audibly.

"Of course not," she said. "We… taught him a lesson. He'll never bother us again."

Beth raised her eyebrows. "Sounds like murder."

Hershel shook his head and stepped forward, putting his hands up. "No - he's alive. I promise you… Despite my better judgment, I left him alive."

Maggie pursed her lips.

"I'm – gonna go help Patricia an' Otis," Arnold mumbled, grabbing the handle to the front door.

"Eh - !" Hershel called, stopping him. "Change that damn shirt first, boy."

Arnold nodded obediently and let go of the door handle to dash around the group and disappear upstairs.

"And where are Otis and Patricia…?" Beth asked, eyes narrowing as they passed over each member of the group.

"Takin' care of the weapons," Hershel explained. "I won't lie t'you, Beth. You're an adult now, you can handle the truth. And you know what was gonna happen to that boy if he kept up… an' – well, like I said, I didn't kill him."

Beth nodded, gaze drifting downwards. She knew he wasn't lying because he wouldn't be this nonchalant about murder. But for all she knew, Jimmy could be in a vegetative state somewhere. Technically, that would still be "alive."

"Beth… he could've killed you last night," Maggie said, voice stern as she spoke up.

Beth looked into her sister's eyes and nodded in understanding, then said, "I know. I just… don't want you guys goin' to prison 'cause of me."

Hershel looked down at this statement, and Glenn took the opportunity to slip away upstairs. Maggie approached Beth.

"Don't worry about that," she said, her voice softer but still stern. "We knew what we were doin'. We would never put the family at risk like that."

Beth nodded, but she knew her skepticism was probably evident on her face.

Maggie reached out and squeezed her arm reassuringly. "He hurt you, Beth. He had to pay… If it weren't for everythin' goin' on lately… he would be dead right now. I promise you that… Nobody hurts my baby sister an' gets away with it. Nobody."

Beth spent the rest of the day in her bedroom, either trying to sleep or trying to ignore the sounds of her family rustling about the house and arguing with each other. She had a feeling that by this point, the Jimmy thing had just become another layer to a large stack of problems for the Greene's.

Silence didn't settle over the farmhouse until late in the evening. The sun went down and the air cooled outside, and people finally stopped coming and going through the front and back doors. A little while later, the rest of the lights in the house were shut off, and the doors to Hershel's bedroom and Maggie and Glenn's bedroom were shut for the night. Beth finally found the calm quiet she'd needed, and drifted off to sleep.

It was nearly midnight when she jerked awake for a seemingly inexplicable reason. She looked around, disoriented for a few seconds. But the house was still quiet and everything still appeared to be dark.

Then she heard it: a loud 'thud' from downstairs. It sounded like it had come from directly below her bedroom.

Beth cleared the sleep from her eyes and got up, turning on her bedside lamp. She threw on some pajama pants and slippers, then headed out the bedroom door and toward the stairs. The second story was still dark and silent, and all the doors were shut. She wondered if Glenn or Maggie had gone to the kitchen for something and knocked something over, or maybe her daddy had fallen downstairs. He'd fallen a couple times before, and she knew she had to expect it as he got older.

She was preparing herself for several different scenarios, but once she reached the bottom of the stairs and rounded the corner to head to the kitchen, she stopped in her tracks. Of all the possibilities she'd thought of, what she saw had not been one of them.

Luckily, she was still in the dark of the hallway and hidden by shadows, so he couldn't see her, but she had a very clear view of Jimmy standing in her kitchen. He was surrounded by broken glass and seemed to be stumbling around, though she couldn't tell if he was drunk or high. He was holding something tightly in his hand, but there wasn't enough lighting for her to make out what it was.

Her breath caught in her throat and she froze for a second, torn between turning and running away or reaching into the drawer nearby and grabbing the Beretta. But she stopped herself from doing either – she couldn't run this time, not when her family was sleeping upstairs, and she knew she'd end up killing him if she grabbed the gun. But she didn't know if she'd have enough time to wake up Maggie and Hershel before Jimmy started heading upstairs to do God knows what.

With pure panic fueling her, Beth rushed back upstairs as quietly as she could and dashed to her phone, which she'd left lying beside her bed. She dialed 911 without a second thought, then tiptoed back to the top of the stairs to listen and watch for Jimmy. From the sounds of it, he was still fumbling around the kitchen.

"Nine-one-one, what's your emergency?" The dispatcher came through the phone loudly, and Beth feared for a second that Jimmy would hear it from the kitchen.

"Uh – y-yes, I have – um, well, my abusive ex-boyfriend just broke into my house. He – I think he's high on something, and maybe ar-armed, and – um, I don't – I don't know what t'do. I'm afraid he wants t'try to kill my family," Beth rambled, cupping her hand to the phone to try to muffle her voice from being heard downstairs, even though she was whispering.

She wasn't sure if she was making sense, but she didn't care either. She just wanted someone to arrive and take Jimmy away as soon as possible. She didn't want her home to be a crime scene again – and she didn't want her family to become murderers. She couldn't stop herself from feeling panicked.

"Okay, miss, and what's your location?" The dispatcher asked. Beth could hear the rapid clicks of a keyboard in the background.

She whispered the address of the farm, then jumped when another loud 'thud' came from the kitchen.

"And are you safe right now?" The dispatcher asked. "I need you to stay on the line with me, miss. What's your name?"

"I – " Beth didn't want to say any more than she had to.

Then she heard a sound from nearby and turned her head to see Maggie's bedroom door opening. Maggie appeared, dressed in pajamas and looking half-asleep. But she seemed to wake up quickly when she saw Beth huddled at the top of the stairs, cell phone pressed to her ear.

"I have t'go," Beth whispered, then ended the call and slipped the phone into the pocket of her pants as Maggie rushed over to her.

"Beth – what's goin' on?" Maggie hissed, glancing down the stairs questioningly.

"Jimmy broke in," Beth whispered, looking to her older sister with large, fearful eyes.

Maggie's mouth dropped open and she seemed to be in disbelief at first. Then she asked, "Who was on the phone? Why didn't you wake me up? What's he doin' down there?"

"I – I called the cops," Beth choked out, and as soon as the words came out, she realized she'd made a huge mistake.

Maggie's eyes widened in horror. "The cops?! Beth, no!"

'Oh my god, what was I thinking?!' Beth thought. The look on her sister's face made her realize how wrong she'd been. She still couldn't explain it. She hadn't been thinking. She'd been acting on pure fear.

"I – I just wanted him gone," Beth hissed, tears brimming in her eyes as a whole new panic mounted inside her. "I didn't want you guys t'kill him, or – or for him to kill you. I just wanted him t'go to jail!"

Maggie just shook her head and rushed back to her bedroom, returning a couple of seconds later with Glenn before dashing to Hershel's bedroom door and knocking frantically. Beth stood by the stairs helplessly, watching as Maggie and Glenn entered Hershel's bedroom and woke him up.

Meanwhile, the clatter Jimmy was making had moved to the hallway, and it was only a matter of time until he'd be coming up the stairs. Beth still wasn't sure of his intentions, but she knew they weren't good. She stared down the dark staircase as the distant sounds of police sirens reached her ears from somewhere outside.

"Beth!"

Jimmy had stumbled his way to the stairs and spotted her at the top, or maybe he had heard her voice. Either way, he was staring up at her from the bottom of the stairs now, but Hershel was just emerging from his bedroom with Glenn and Maggie. He had a shotgun in his hand.

"Beth, get t'bed," Hershel said sternly, approaching the stairs and peering down to see Jimmy.

"Daddy, I – I didn't know what t'do," she said desperately. "I just wanted him gone. Please, don't do anythin' – I don't know what he has with him, an-and I think he's on somethin'."

Her father sighed but he became more preoccupied with the man attempting to climb the stairs. Maggie rushed over and turned on the upstairs light, flooding the area with light. Beth blinked, and for the first time, she could see Jimmy clearly.

He was a bloodied, bruised mess. If she'd broken his nose, her family had shattered it, and some parts of his face were so swollen, it was a wonder he wasn't in the hospital. She could tell there were a lot more bruises on the rest of his body, covered by clothing. But her daddy had left him more stable than she'd expected, and she wondered for a second if he was only up and walking because of all the drugs in his system. She knew it was likely that he'd self-medicated.

"Boy, you better get outta here. I know you must be high on somethin' to think comin' here was a good idea," Hershel said loudly, his voice deep and ominous. He cocked the shotgun audibly and aimed it at Jimmy.

Despite his extreme intoxication, Jimmy was coherent enough to recognize when a gun was being pointed at him. He put up his hands and backed away slowly, nearly tripping backward as he reversed down the couple of stairs he'd climbed. Whatever he'd had in his hands must've been abandoned in the kitchen, because he appeared to be unarmed.

Hershel held the gun out in front of him and took slow, careful steps down the stairs. Glenn and Maggie stayed close behind him, and Beth knew she was supposed to be going to her bedroom, but she couldn't tear herself away.

Jimmy started rambling, his words rushed and slurred, "Listen, ol' man, y'think – "

"Shut the fuck up and get your ass to that door, NOW!" Maggie barked, but Jimmy didn't seem intimidated by her like he normally would have been.

"Do we have to beat your ass again for you to get it?!" Glenn asked, anger evident in his voice.

Jimmy started rambling again, and they didn't stop him this time because they became too preoccupied with getting down the stairs and inching him toward the front door as the sirens grew closer and closer. Beth followed close behind, watching with big, fearful eyes.

She was terrified that her daddy would pull the trigger at any moment and put a giant hole in Jimmy's gut. She didn't think she could bring herself to scrub the bloodstain of another person she had once loved.

They had finally cornered him against the front door, but no one could convince him to turn around and leave before the cops started pulling up. Beth kept her mouth shut, even though Jimmy spotted her and tried to talk to her a couple of times. Hershel kept nudging closer and enunciating his words with the shotgun, and the hair on the back of Beth's neck stood up every time. Jimmy rambled about a bunch of nonsense reasons for his breaking in, but wouldn't acknowledge the question when Hershel repeatedly asked him what he'd taken. He didn't seem able to focus on any one thing.

The sirens were getting closer and closer, and the look Maggie and Hershel had shared told Beth that they weren't saying it, but they both knew that the cops had already had at least one car somewhere nearby, otherwise they wouldn't be responding this fast. Which left them less time to get Jimmy out of the house and under control. He'd moved to cussing at all of them and generally acting aggressively, and Beth prayed he wouldn't do something stupid while her daddy was pointing a gun at him.

"Beth!" He had resorted to attempting to beg and plead with her, despite her family standing between them. "Beth! I'm not – I'm not goin' to jail, yer dad can shoot me, I'd rather fucking die than – "

"Jimmy, STOP!" She finally cried out, staring straight into his eyes from where she stood a few feet behind her father. "You're goin' to jail. Now you can either get out that front door, or my dad will shoot you – and I won't stop him this time."

This seemed to resonate with Jimmy for at least a few seconds, because he stopped ranting and rambling. Beth's hands were shaking as she clutched them in front of her, her heart racing. Then Jimmy's face contorted in anger and he leapt forward, as though he were going to attack Beth with both hands. She jumped back instinctively, but he didn't get more than a foot forward because Glenn had stepped forward in an instant and wrestled Jimmy into a headlock.

He fought back and cussed angrily, but Glenn's grip only got tighter around the other man's neck, and Maggie stepped forward to unlock and open the front door so that they could drag Jimmy out onto the porch. Hershel lowered the shotgun and set it inside a nearby closet, then turned to Beth.

She was still trembling from the sight of Jimmy leaping at her, hands reaching out for her throat and eyes wild with a derangement she didn't recognize.

"Get back t'bed. Now," Hershel said, and his tone told her there was no room for argument. "Do not leave your bedroom, do not talk to anyone about this."

Beth nodded wordlessly, mouth agape. Her daddy turned and followed the others out onto the porch, shutting the front door tightly behind him. She didn't hesitate to dash up the stairs and into her bedroom, where she shut and locked the door and kept her light off. The blue and red of the police lights was bouncing off all her walls as the sirens wailed outside, slowly fading out as the cars parked and turned their sirens off. It seemed deafening to her, though.

She watched the scene play out in front of her house from behind the curtains of her bedroom window. The light from the porch and the headlights of the police cars weren't enough for her to be able to tell who the cops were that her father was talking to, or if any of them was Detective Lerner. But she knew that it wasn't necessarily a good sign if Dawn wasn't here – it was just a breaking-and-entering call anyway, there was no justifiable reason for a detective to be on the scene.

Beth silently cursed herself for calling the police as she watched them approach Jimmy. She knew it was causing a risk for her family, but she just wanted to prevent more people from getting hurt when they didn't have to.

And as she watched her ex-boyfriend attempt to headbutt a police officer, she knew it had been her only option if she didn't want to watch her father put a bullet through Jimmy.

Even from behind her window, Beth could hear Jimmy screaming at the top of his lungs as he was forced into handcuffs, crying out angrily, "BE-ETH! BETH…!"

He stopped yelling once his face was pushed into the hood of the police car so the police could pat him down. She watched them pull multiple handfuls of things out of his pockets and shoes, but she couldn't make out what they were. Later on, she learned they were all bags of her father's product that he'd audaciously stolen.

She tried to tell herself that the police would treat him more humanely than her daddy would have. But the last time Beth saw Jimmy alive, he was being shoved into the backseat of a police car and driven away.

to be continued…

A/N: Yes, Tobin is going to be in this story. I normally ship the everliving hell out of Carzekiel, but I introduced Ezekiel in this fic too soon and blew that chance, so I'm giving Tobin the happiness he DESERVES. There will probably be a lot of that in this story - I love giving characters the happy lives and happy endings that I secretly want for them lol so I hope you're here for it ;)