First, I want to say thank you to everyone who responded to my first chapter. I'm glad you guys encouraged me to write more. I'm having fun with this story but I'm also getting frustrated all the same. These are very hard people to write so I do not envy Gimple… well… much. Anyway, that being said- I wrote this chapter at least three times. This is the chapter I settled on. I started writing on 4/16 and am just not getting to where I like it even slightly. Let me know what you guys think because this is eating away at me.
Also, I have to admit Game of Thrones has me very distracted. I just started reading the books after getting completely caught up on the show and am in LOVE with it! So, between work, reading, raising kids, and running a household, my updates will be very slow. I just, again, beg for patience.
On another note, I've read the comics and I believe that a character from there has Beth. If you haven't read them, there isn't any spoilers so no worries there. This is just my take on it.
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"You're here." She whispered. Her hand moved to touch his on her cheek. "I thought you were dead." He could see tears filling her eyes and spill down her face, his thumb swiping at them as they did.
"Take more than a few walkers to take me down, girl." He whispered back, his eyes traveling every inch of her face looking for wounds, scars, anything that would prove that she has been hurt. She smiled at him and pulled at his hand to bring it away from her face. She grabbed his bow from his hands and placed it on the floor quietly beside them. He looked at her with questioning eyes until she lunged for him and pressed herself up against him, her hands clawing at the back of his vest.
He stood still and awkward for a moment before giving into the feel of her wrapped around him. One hand found its way into her hair and began rubbing the back of her neck while the other mimicked hers on the small of her back. He realized he was clinging to her as much as she was him.
"What happened?" She asked in a small and muffled voice against his chest.
"Got out, tried to find ya' when I saw the car drive off. Been looking ever since." She pulled back and looked at him, tears falling more quickly but her voice never wavered.
"We came back. He said you were probably dead but we came back. There was so much blood. I thought you were dead."
"Who is he?" He demanded.
"His name is Gabriel. He had been living there. He's a priest. Says helping me is helping him pay for his sins of the past. "
"He hurt ya?" She shook her head no. Her hands still gripped at his arms as his still rested on the back of her neck and waist. He became very aware of the proximity and pulled away from her completely and reached for his bow. "Not too bright is he?" He commented. Beth knew what he meant.
"He doesn't have a bit of survival instinct in him. I humor him when I know it's safe."
"He's dead weight then." Beth nodded.
"He's a good man, or at least tries to be. He grabbed me limping on the road. I told him you were in there and we needed to wait but they started heading for the car. He got scared and drove off. Said he thought he saw one running after us. I thought he was crazy. I guess that was you. I didn't even think that it could have been. There were so many of them and he was so scared and ranting." Tears fell again and she took a step closer to him. "I'm sorry, Daryl. I should have made him stop."
"If ya even could. 'Sides, he got ya out 'n yer safe now." Beth nodded.
"Lizzie? Everything ok?" Gabriel called out from the other room. Daryl gave her a questioning look as she responded.
"Yeah, I'll be right there. Found something interesting." She said her accent thick on her voice again.
"What's the act ' bout?" He asked with a raised brow.
"If you were dead, I didn't want to be Beth anymore. If I never saw Maggie, Glenn, and Judith, any of them again, I didn't want to be me. Lizzie was the first name that came to mind that was close to my real name." She said with a small, sad smile.
"I'm not callin' ya that." He responded with his own small smirk. She nodded and laughed slightly.
"What'd you find?" Gabriel responded. Beth grabbed Daryl's hand and pulled him out of the room. He was hesitant at first but after he secured the crossbow over his back and put a hand on his knife he allowed her to pull him back into the family room where Gabriel was seated.
The man jumped from his spot on the couch and pulled his knife at the sight of Daryl.
"It's ok, Father. This is Daryl." The man looked from Beth back to the redneck before and dropped the knife.
"Heavenly Father, you still grant miracles." The priest whispered, his eyes casting upward.
"Ain't no miracle. Jus' luck." Daryl said as he dropped his hand from his knife and reluctantly released Beth's. "S'no God anymore." Daryl grunted and pulled a chair from the dining area and sat down across of him. His eyes were studying the man, seeing every secret his body carried. He was just under six feet tall and lanky. He reminded him of Patrick, kid had been a bean pole. He wasn't guarded which told Daryl he didn't live on the road like they had. He seemed relaxed and care free. It infuriated him.
"Son, God is not gone. God has simply tested us. He has sent hell to walk to earth to see who is strong enough to survive." Daryl rolled his eyes.
"S'bullshit. Too many good people are dead yet I'm still here. Men like the governor were allowed to live while the good died." Daryl's voice rose and Beth stepped closer to him, her hand gently on his shoulder to try to call him. "You ain't seen what we've seen, that's clear. Ya don't know-"
"I do know." Gabriel shouted, his dark face flushed slightly. "I've seen death, son. I know how the good died in the mouths of creatures. I know." He turned his head away bitterly. There was something he wasn't saying. Something he was keeping close. Something Daryl knew he would not learn tonight.
"Then why ya believe?" Daryl pressed.
"Because of men like you. You know nothing about me other than I took her from you. But rather then cut me open you are sitting here across from me, eyes burning holes into my body but refusing to hurt me because I kept her alive." Daryl's anger grew.
"Ya saw me chase after. You knew I was back there yet ya still took her."
"And you never gave up looking for her, did you?" Daryl nodded. "What does she mean to you? I know what you mean to her." Gabriel pressed.
"Her father was a good man. Took me in. Took us all in. N' died 'cause I couldn't stop some sumbitch who wanted what we had. I owe her." Daryl said through gritted teeth.
"No." Daryl stood up and stalked over the man until he towered over him as he sunk deep into the couch.
"This ain't no Sunday school, Father. I ain't someone you can preach to. Ya kept her safe, but you hold us back I will leave ya to the walkers." His finger was in the man's face, his eyes watching his body for any hint that he might defend himself and reach for his knife. When the man nodded in acceptance Daryl backed off and stomped over to the kitchen. Beth was close behind him.
"Was that really necessary?" She accused.
"What'd ya tell him?" He growled in a hushed whisper.
"Nothing he couldn't already see. I was destroyed when I thought you were dead." She growled back. Daryl saw the conviction in her eyes and realized she was not the same person she was a few weeks ago. The hope was barely visible and strength replaced the doubt he used to see. He sighed and headed down the hall shouting over his shoulder.
"Gunna sleep. 'Less someone wants to pray before we turn in for the night?" He didn't wait for an answer when he slammed the door to the room she found him in. He could hear her muffled apologies to the man in the living room and it made him even angrier. What devotion did she have to him? He took her away.
You got some competition little brother.
Daryl shook his head and collapsed on the bed and tried to close his eyes against the anger surging through his body. He couldn't shake why he was so upset. He was here with her and yet he walked out on her.
Ya' jealous.
"No." He muttered under his breath. "No."
"No, what?" She asked. He jumped up, annoyed that he hadn't heard her sneak up on him. She was obviously proud of herself because he could see her smirk even in the pitch black of the room. He didn't respond and she walked over and sat down on the edge of the bed. "Tell me what's going on and don't you dare lie to me Daryl Dixon." She pressed.
"I don't like em."
"I think that is obvious. But you didn't like us at first." She countered. He sighed and laid back on the bed, his hands folded under his head to prop him up slightly. She mimicked his sigh, kicked off her shoes, and curled up on the bed next to him, her head rested on his folded arm. She felt him tense beside her. "I'm glad you're here." She murmured. "But we're not done with this conversation." He felt her smile against his arm. He grunted in response when he heard her yawn.
"Sleep, girl." He told her. She nodded and pressed herself ever so slightly closer. His mind raced as he listened to her breathing.
Ya know ya want to little brother.
He pushed his brother's perverse and nagging voice from his mind and waited until her breathing evened out. Once he was certain she was asleep he pulled his arm out from underneath them and rested her head on the pillow. For a fleeting moment he thought about crawling off the bed to find another. But his body ached to keep her near. He still wasn't convinced this wasn't a dream and if it were real he didn't want to chance that priest taking her again.
He exhaled deeply and turned to his side and pressing his chest to her back. His arm hesitantly draped across her waist and his fingers, moving on their own accord, began playing with the hem of her shirt.
"I'm glad ya here, too." He whispered to her back and rested his forehead against the back of her head. His body relaxed and sleep took him for the second time that day.
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Well… was it everything you hoped it to be? Or did it suck? Be honest- I can take it. I'm going to write more tonight and hopefully post some more by the end of the weekend. If I can keep my kids out of my hair long enough, that is.