The Walking Dead One Shot

Par 24

"What do you mean you lost Daryl?" Rick asked from his knees. Negan had shown up shortly after they had managed to get back from the Hilltop. Beth rocked Judith in her arms and was putting on a brave face.

"I mean I left him all locked up safe and sound when I left to bring your psychotic son back to you and when I got home his ass was no where to be found and Fat Joey was lying in a pool of blood." Negan said as his men went through the houses.

"He's not here." Rick said. Negan ignored him and walked over kneeling in front of Beth.

"Where is he?" Negan asked.

"I don't know where he could be." Beth said sobbing. "When he went out if he couldn't make it back in the same day he'd sleep in the woods or the RV. He didn't have a specific safe spot." Beth answered honestly. "You don't know for sure that Daryl killed Fat Joey."

"Well Fat Joey didn't just drop dead either." Negan said as he stood up and walked around looking for someone who'd cave and tell him what he wanted to know.

"Daryl he let Dwight go." Beth said causing Negan to turn around. "The first time, he could have just left him and those two women to die when he got away after they took him hostage, but he opened the supplies they had and saw that it was insulin. He went back and saved them."

"Dwight get over here!" Negan said. Beth cringed. There was no way Dwight would tell the truth. Negan repeated her story and Dwight didn't make a move as he listened. "So when you ran away for 45 minutes before deciding that life was better with me, did you run into our friend?"

"Yeah, I took his bike off him and me and Sherry came back."

"Oh but none of this Daryl saving a stranger crap?" Negan said. He knew that Beth was telling the truth as far as she was told, but she had already admitted to not being there.

"Saved us from what?" Dwight scoffed. Negan fist shot out and slammed into the unscarred side of Dwight's face.

"That missing insulin you claim you didn't take when you fucking ran. Now I find it amazing that Beth here, without any knowledge of me missing said medical inventory would know exactly what I was missing, I mean down to the color of the cooler." Dwight glared at Beth. "Don't be glaring at her, she did nothing wrong."

"Look I didn't want you to be mad at Sherry and we couldn't go back after the walkers got her sister for the supplies we took, it wasn't safe." Negan bounced Lucille on his shoulder and stared Dwight down.

"Really? Cause Beth here, she told me that Daryl killed the 2 walkers that attacked my dearly departed fiancée, was talking to you guys about coming back here to live with them, when you pulled a gun when he had his back turned and then took his crossbow and bike."

"I didn't go down like that." Dwight said. "Daryl ain't going to tell his girl that he had his stuff taken, he's got to make himself sound good."

"You are a coward." Beth seethed. "Daryl didn't need to lie to make himself sound good to me. He lived everyday just being himself and that was proof enough of how much of a kind, loving man he was." She spat out. "He won't be coming back. He knows what you'll do to us if we try and hide him and he'd never live with himself if he got another one of us killed. He's probably half way back to Georgia now." Beth said falling to her behind and sobbing quietly as she rubbed Judith's back. Negan cracked his neck and waited in silence while the remaining houses were searched.

"Dwight I want you to hold off going off to look for Sherry. I think you need to go back and study Daryl's cell for a little while for clues."

"But she's out there and he might be holding her hostage."

"Daryl would never take a woman hostage." Rick roared. "We need to get our work down so next week we'll have something for you. We have an agreement, we've been holding our end and you lost Daryl."

"Well Daryl was supposed to be working for me." Negan said looking around. "Who's going to be doing his grunt work now?"

"I don't Eugene? The other one of our people you took." Rosita spat out.

"You'd be glad to know Eugene is fitting in splendidly. Already following every order, every rule. Making bullets and enjoying the luxuries of living and working with me, not for me." Negan said. "I wonder if he knows anything or anywhere Daryl might be."

"He's pretty useless." Rosita said. "All he's good for is making bullets. Whoever's keeping him safe, feed and alive is his best friend. I wouldn't take a lot of stock in what he says."

"I don't really think I need any input from the woman who shot Lucille." Negan said ignoring Rosita. "There's only so far he can get and not too many places to hide. I start asking the different places that serve me if they've seen anything, well one of them is going to have to have seen something." Beth closed her eyes and said a silent prayer that Gregory or any of the other Hill Top people would keep their mouths shut tight.

"Boss we found some fresh made, well I don't even know what it is." A man said carrying out a pot.

"That's applesauce for the baby." Beth said. "We got it from the trees over there." Beth said pointing to the trees by the south wall.

"Go put 2 servings in bowls in her house, bring the rest home for my wives for a treat. You don't mind do you Beth?" Beth shook her head and waited till they loaded a few more things up and left.

"Alright let's clean up and do an inventory of what they took." Rick said as he helped Beth to her feet and sent her off with the baby.

"One of his men pissed in our garden." Carl said. "He's an idiot, we give them supplies from the garden." Rick reminded everyone to be thorough when they washed anything they took from the garden for themselves. Negan's men had taken a few more beds and couches, some candles, more DVDS that honestly no one had anytime to watch and clothing. He was constantly taking clothing back for his wives.

"They bought that I caught those rabbits Daryl sent back." Michonne said, "We have enough of those to make a good soup for everyone. I'll help Beth put on a couple of big pots." Rick nodded and hoped that Daryl was having luck convincing The Kingdom that they need to go to war.

"You put on a good show with Negan." Rick said walking up the porch and sitting beside Beth. "Are you going to be heading out to meet up with Daryl like you planned in a few days?"

"I'm going to keep an eye on things and make sure there's no one watching and following us. You know they might." Beth said holding Judith's hands while she stood in her lap. "Daryl said to keep an eye on the west end of the wall. He'll drop supplies over for us when ever he can."

"Jesus said he'd stop buy and bring them for him." Rick said. "We need to make sure that he isn't found before we're ready to fight."

"We need to make sure he isn't found because God knows what Negan would do to him." Beth said. "You could tell them that I went out looking for Daryl and never came back. I could go stay with him and he wouldn't have to be alone." Beth added hopefully.

"He has Morgan with him. He made me promise not to let you try and talk me into anything like this either. Negan would be suspicious if you disappeared. You now he wouldn't buy another empty grave."

"You aren't going to stop me from leaving to go to The Kingdom to see him are you?" Beth asked. I mean Rick had just brought up her going, Daryl had said they'd have visits and with Negan stopping by randomly she clearly couldn't wait for him to come to her. "He said we'd see each other."

"He said that to make sure you'd leave him. It's just not safe. We got to wait for Daryl." Rick said. "You got to promise me, I can't deal with anymore of you guys just doing what you want. Carl, Rosita. No more. We got to plan every last detail of anything." Beth nodded her head and stood to follow Rick into the house.

"I'll get her down and start chopping." She said to Michonne as she walked to the living room and placed the baby in her playpen, kneeling to rub her back as she settled for a nap.

"So what is the plan?" Beth asked quietly in the kitchen as she chopped some early veggies and Rick helped butcher the animals. "If The Kingdom won't join us and The Hilltop, Gregory we can't even trust him not to give up Maggie and Daryl."

"We need to go talk to the other communities, Jesus told us there were more. We find them and see if there are any more fighters out there.

"Beth I saw Negan's compound. We need so many more people on our side before we can even think about making any kind of move. There are just so many of them." Michonne added.

"They have Eugene too. You know what they did to Daryl. What if he tells them about Maggie?" Beth asked.

"We just have to remember that Eugene is smart, we have to hope he won't do anything to hurt us. We can't count out that like anyone else he'll do what ever he has to do to survive."

"What if he tells them about how we know about the others?"

"We have to just have a little faith. We also have to be ready." Rick added. "Eugene was working on bullets and explosives, things to keep us safe since they took our guns. If they come for us, hopefully he doesn't tell them everything. If he does, they're still going to burn." Rick promised.

"Did you move the bombs he set up?" Beth asked.

"Of course." Rick said. "The remote is where we hide those medications Daryl found for your migraines." Beth nodded her head. She knew exactly where and what Rick was talking about.

Later that night Beth made her way over to the house she normally shared with Daryl. She was going to try and sleep there, having promised Michonne if it was too hard and lonely she'd move back in with Aaron and Eric or back home with them. She climb the stairs slowly, she wasn't sure, every night since Daryl had been gone, she didn't know if she wanted or would be able to go into the room they shared. She'd slept on the floor in the hallway twice, on the floor in the actual room once and had sat on the bed, unable to lay down and sleep the other night. She closed her eyes and walked through the door, stumbling when she saw him sitting there with his knee up and his arm casually draped over it.

"Hey girl." Daryl said softly. "Figured you'd be spitting mad at me after Rick told yah I didn't want you heading out. Thought you might be less mad if I snuck in for a visit." Beth rushed over and threw herself into his arms. "I want you to promise me now."

"I already promised Rick." Beth said into his neck. Daryl rolled his eyes.

"Yeah well I want you to promise me you ain't going to try anything with Negan like you did at the hospital. Nothing without planning carefully first."

"I promise Daryl." Beth said easily. "He's never alone, he always has weapons on him. He always comes looking for me and wants to spend their days here hanging out with me and the baby."

"It's all he wants. He keeps sending his wives down once a month to be tested, see if they're knocked up. He got no problem taking another man's wife I don't think he'd have a problem playing house with another man's baby. He still thinks she's yours. Wouldn't surprise me if he's hoping to convince you to be number 13." Daryl said stretching out. "I was hiding in that fucking ridiculous fake chimney on the Monroe house. It took them long enough to leave. Nobody even bothered checking the roofs." Beth smiled into his neck. "I found Carol." Daryl said, explaining how she just wanted to be left alone, she wanted to live in peace. "I couldn't tell her about Glenn and Abe. About what they did to me." Beth leaned up and kissed him. "She'd feel like she had to come back and go to war."

"So you aren't totally alone then? I know Morgan is there, Carol, she's been with you from the start."

"She just wants to be left alone. I ain't going to be seeing her." Daryl explaining how she lived off by herself didn't even kill walkers unless she had to. "Look I'm going to have to sneak out of here soon to meet Jesus. I just really wanted to check in." Daryl said running his finger across her scalp, gently when he went over her scar. "You're shaking." Daryl said pulling her against him, holding her even tighter.

"We weren't ready the last time we had to go war. We lost my dad. Who are we going to lose this time?"

"Nobody. We're gonna plan and be ready and this time? We get the enemy down we ain't letting up." Daryl said referring to how they had gotten comfortable and let their guard down with The Governor.

"How long till you have to leave?" Beth asked running her hand across his chest.

"An hour, maybe two." Daryl said letting her settle against him. "I'll wait till you fall asleep if you want." Beth nodded her head and threw her leg over his. "You gonna put on your pajamas?" Beth kicked off her shoes but didn't bother lifting her head and letting go of him, shaking her head. "How's the baby?"

"Good. She's standing now. I think she'll take her first steps." Daryl smiled. "I could go get her, you want to see her?"

"No, don't draw attention. Be weird if anyone saw you." Daryl said. "Maybe next time I'll get to see her.

"Are you liking the Kingdom?" Beth asked. Daryl shrugged.

"It's alright. I mean the people are nice, there's a fucking tiger." Daryl said. "I don't like that everyone calls him King Ezekiel, but at least he doesn't fucking make people bow." Daryl said. Beth nodded into his chest. "I'm serious though, not just a big cat or something. It's a legit tiger, her name or his I honestly don't know is Shiva."

"I want to see her." Beth said softly. Daryl chuckled and kissed the side of her head. Beth lifted her head. "Do you hear motors?" Beth asked. Daryl tensed and stood up to look out the windows. "Oh my God did they come back?" Beth asked as she shoved her feet back into her boots.

"It's not Negan." Daryl said. "It's two trucks. Carol was going to ask Ezekiel send anything he could spare to you guys. Thinks Maggie is here pregnant and starved."

"Are you sure it's them?" Daryl nodded and climbed back into bed pulling her with him. "Should I go down? It would be weird if I didn't right?"

"Yeah. I guess this is—"

"Don't you dare. This is not goodbye. I'll see you soon." Beth said straddling him and kissing him hard. "I still hate goodbyes."