Ch.4
"We can't stay here. We have to find someplace to stay for a little while," Daryl said, glancing over at Beth.
Maggie had laid out a blanket just after Beth had fallen asleep, and Daryl had laid her on it after holding her for a few more hours. Maggie had stayed by her side the whole time, but she had gotten up when the group had begun discussing what they were going to do now. They had found Beth, but nobody was sure what kind of state she was in or how weak she was.
"We need someplace that we can stay just until she's better," Maggie said. "After that we can head to Washington, I guess."
Rick nodded and looked at Abraham. "I'm not saying that we're giving up going to D.C. We'll still go. But that girl, Beth, we found her, and now we have to do whatever it takes to make her better. I owe that to her…I owe that to Maggie…I owe that to her father," he said quietly but forcefully.
Abraham looked at him for a moment. "Fine. Rosita, Eugene, and I will stay with you. We'll do whatever needs to be done to keep everyone safe and get the girl healed. But once she's up and moving again and able to travel, we're going to Washington."
Rosita placed a hand on Abraham's shoulder and smiled weakly. "Thank you," she said.
Daryl wasn't sure why, and he really didn't understand it, but Rosita had wanted to find Beth just as badly as everyone else in the group who had known Beth from the prison. When Abraham had stated that they needed to keep moving, that they couldn't waste anymore time, Rosita had begun arguing with him. She wanted to stay with the group and do whatever she could to help Beth and the others. For that Daryl was thankful.
Once it was decided that everyone was staying and that they would try to find someplace to stay, they began the discussion on Beth.
"She didn't say much, but she told me that she can't keep any food down," Daryl offered.
"She probably hasn't eaten in days. She's severely dehydrated. We need to start slow. She can't eat any solid foods; they'll be too much for her, she won't be able to keep them down. We need to find soups and broths. We'll keep her on that for a little while and gradually move her into solid foods," Bob said.
"I don't think we have any soups or broths," Sasha said. "I think we only have a few cans of beans and the rest is fruit and vegetables."
"Then we'll have to find some," Rick said. "We can find a small town or something, hole up in a building there until she's better. If we find a town there has to be a grocery store. We'll get her what she needs."
Everyone remained silent for a moment, nobody wanting to be the one to bring up the inevitable. They all had seen what Beth looked like before Daryl had cleaned her. There was no way to overlook the bandages on her wrists or the bruises and cuts so clearly visible against her pale skin. Nobody knew what happened to her, Beth hadn't said anything, they could only speculate.
"That blood that was on her, that's on her clothes and dried in her hair, it's not hers," Daryl said.
"Walker blood?" Maggie asked.
Daryl shook his head. "Some of it, but most of it was human blood."
Maggie nodded solemnly, taking in a deep breath.
"And her wrists…those are ligature marks," Bob said sadly. "They're pretty bad, too. There are some deep cuts, and her wrists are raw and bloody. We're going to have to keep an eye on them, keep cleaning them so they don't get infected."
They all knew what ligature marks meant. The air around them suddenly felt ten times heavier.
"She was held against her will," Maggie said quietly, her voice shaking as she tried to hold back tears.
Glenn wrapped an arm around her, pulling her in close. "Hey, don't let your mind go there. We don't know what happened yet. Don't go around speculating things. Alright?"
Maggie nodded.
"We have her back now. We just need to be there for her," Glenn said softly into Maggie's ear.
There was another moment of silence. Everyone just seemed to stare into nothingness.
Michonne was the one to break the silence. "We need to find her new clothes. Daryl's shirt will do for now, but she's going to need her own shirt. And her jeans…they're covered in blood and missing the button."
Carol looked over at Michonne. "When we find someplace to stay I can go looking for clothes. I know her sizes from doing laundry."
"I can go with you," Michonne said.
Carol nodded slowly, looking at the ground. "Thank you."
Daryl knew that Carol was taking this hard. After the farm Carol and Beth had grown close. Carol became the mother figure that Beth no longer had, and Carol happily filled that role for her, looking after Beth as she would her own daughter. Their time at the prison had only strengthened their relationship.
"We should get going soon," Abraham said, looking up at the sky. "We want to find someplace before it's dark, and the way it's been these past few days the nearest town could be miles away."
"But she's sleeping," Maggie said quietly. "Shouldn't we let her sleep? She needs to sleep."
"She needs to be someplace safe. She can sleep when we get there," Abraham said.
Maggie opened her mouth to say something, but Daryl cut her off.
"I can carry her," he said, glancing over at Beth again. "I'll carry her. That way she can still sleep."
"Are you sure?" Rick asked. "We could be walking for a while. We don't know when we'll come across another town."
"I said I'm carrying her," Daryl said defensively.
Rick nodded and clapped a hand on his shoulder, offering him a weak smile.
Everyone began packing up their things. There wasn't much to pack up so it didn't take long. Daryl went over to Beth. She was sleeping, the slow rise and fall of her chest was evidence of that. He reached down and gently scooped her into his arms, careful not to wake her. Her head lulled to rest against his chest.
He hadn't noticed it when he had first carried her back to camp, but she had lost weight. She had to have. He remembered carrying her when she hurt her ankle. He remembered making a comment about her being heavier than she looked. He was joking a little when he had said that. But now, carrying Beth in his arms, he knew that she was lighter. He could feel the bones under her skin.
Daryl kept looking at her as they walked. He was studying her. Once again his mind was being filled with all of the scenarios she could have been in. He was trying to make sense of all of the blood. He was trying to figure out how long she had been out there by herself.
"We need shampoo," he said quietly, not even sure if anyone could hear him.
"Um, I think-I think I may have some in my bag. I-I don't really know, though," Maggie said.
He hadn't even noticed that she was walking beside him. He looked over at her. She was doing the same thing he had been doing. She was studying her. She wanted to know what had happened. He could only imagine the scenarios that were going through her head.
"You okay?" he asked quietly.
Maggie shook her head. "I don't know. I'm happy that she's back…but look at her, Daryl. What happened to her?"
Daryl nodded slowly, looking back at Beth. "We don't know yet, Maggie. We just have to wait. It might not be bad…" he said, his voice trailing off.
He wanted to believe himself. He wanted to believe that nothing bad had happened to her. But the more he thought about it, the worse it became. Eventually his thoughts came to an abrupt halt when Rick suddenly stopped, pointing ahead of them.
"There's a town," he said. "It doesn't look big…only a few buildings. We chose one and clear it and settle down for the night."
The group began to walk faster, the sun starting to set. They needed to clear a building before it was dark. They chose the first building they saw. It wasn't big. It was only two stories, brick, and didn't have many windows. The few windows that it did have weren't broken, which was a good sign.
"Daryl, Maggie, stay out here with Beth. The rest of us will clear it and come back out to get you," Glenn said before giving Maggie a quick kiss. "Everything's going to be alright," he whispered into Maggie's ear.
Daryl sighed and leaned against the building, still holding onto Beth tightly, watching as the rest of the group went inside. It didn't take long before they came back out, dragging the rotting bodies of two walkers with them.
Carol looked at him. "It's clear. I laid down a few blankets for her on the top floor."
Daryl nodded and walked inside. It was dark, but he vaguely remembered Rosita grabbing a few candles in one of the houses they had raided looking for Beth. He slowly made his way up the stairs to the second floor. It was one big open room, no walls separating it. He spotted the mound of blankets Carol had assembled for Beth and carefully set her down.
Michonne came up the stairs, the rest of the group following behind her. "Carol and I are gonna go look for some clothes for her. We'll try to find some food, too. Sasha checked…we have one can of chicken broth," Michonne said quietly.
Daryl sat down a few feet away from Beth. Everyone started to settle into what would be their new home until they got back on the road. As he suspected, Rosita grabbed a few candles from her bag, lighting them and placing them throughout the room.
"You should get some sleep," Rosita said when she sat a candle near him. "You've been carrying her all day. You have to be exhausted."
Daryl grunted in response and Rosita walked away. He wasn't going to sleep until Beth woke up and he had a chance to talk to her. He needed to know that she was okay, that she would get better.
He couldn't take his eyes off of her. He was afraid that the moment he looked away she would disappear. But as he watched her he saw the way her face changed. It went from being relaxed to tensing, and soon enough a strangled scream was escaping her mouth, echoing throughout the room.
He was confused at first, not knowing what was going on. When it finally clicked in his head that she was having a nightmare he rushed to her side, Maggie reaching her at the same time. He gently shook her shoulders.
"Beth. Beth, wake up," he said, trying to keep his voice calm.
Her eyes popped open and he breathed a sigh of relief. He helped her sit up and lean back against the wall. Her breathing was ragged and she placed her head in her hands, trying to calm herself.
"It was just a dream," she mumbled. "Just a dream."
"Are you alright?" Maggie asked worriedly.
"I'm fine," Beth whispered weakly, not looking up.
"I'm going to get you something to eat, okay? Daryl will stay with you."
Beth gave a barely noticeable nod and Maggie left to go get Beth the can of broth they had. Daryl continued looking at Beth, watching as her breathing slowly returned to normal. He wanted to say something, but every time he opened his mouth no words came out. He was never good with words, but he had absolutely no idea what to say to her.
When Beth finally looked up, she avoided making eye contact with anyone. Her eyes were open, but she wasn't actually looking at anything. She still had dark circles under her eyes.
He saw her look down at her wrists, frowning slightly when she noticed the bandages. Then her hands went to the knife sheath resting against her thigh. Her eyes widened when her knife wasn't there. She was starting to panic. Daryl quickly grabbed his bag and rummaged through it, finding her knife.
"Here, here," he said calmly, handing her knife to her. "I put it in my bag, It's right here."
Beth's shaky hand reached out and took it from him, clutching it as tightly as she was when he had first seen her. She immediately calmed down, but her body was still stiff, rigid.
He was still thinking of what to say to her, and before he even realized it, words were coming out of his mouth. "You were right. I did miss you so bad when you were gone, Beth Greene."
Beth finally looked up at him, her eyes meeting his and actually seeing him, not just looking through him. "You were right, too," she said, her voice raw, probably from lack of water.
"About what?" He asked, not knowing what she was talking about.
"The good ones don't survive."
Daryl looked down. He remembered telling her that. It was when they were at the cemetery. "I don't think the good ones survive anymore." He'd told her that and she had swore to him that there were still good people. He was skeptical at first, but she had changed his mind. And now he knew that she what she was saying was wrong. The good ones do survive. She was here, and she was good, and she had survived.
He leaned back against the wall next to her. There were so many things that he wanted to ask, but he didn't know where to start. He didn't want to say something wrong. Would she even want to talk about what had happened? Maybe she would be too tired to talk. After a few minutes of tense silence he finally spoke.
"What happened to yah Beth?" Daryl asked, looking at her carefully.
Beth looked him directly in the eye, and spoke with a voice that was eerily calm. "I took care of myself."
Author's Note: So there's chapter 4. They've found someplace to stay and now they can focus on Beth. My favorite part of this chapter is the ending. Daryl tells Beth that he missed her and Beth tells Daryl that he was right when he said that the good ones don't survive anymore, but she never went into any explanation. All she tells him is that she took care of herself.
The next update probably won't before for another two weeks or so...my life got really hectic really quick, but I am going to do my best to update as soon as possible.
Please review and tell me what you think!