Thank you guys so much for your feedback! I wanted to continue this for you, for me, and for Emily Kinney, frankly. I told myself if I got 5 reviews saying I should continue, I would... and I got double that! Thank you so much!
Beth's eyes shot open at the sound of a large 'CRACK' coming from the entrance to the store. She slowly lifted her head off of Rick's shoulder, where she had fallen asleep. The light pouring from the windows had changed from a sunny yellow to the rosy hues of sundown. She gently nudged the sleeping Rick next to her. He woke suddenly, and she pointed towards the doors. The wooden beam that was holding the door shut had formed a huge crack as the dead pushed against it.
Beth heard Rick mutter a "Shit" under his breath and he quickly stood up, pulling him with her. He began dragging her by her elbow back towards the window, but she ripped her arm from him.
"What about Daryl?" she asked him incredulously. Rick stopped and turned to look at Beth. He shushed her gently and then gestured to the door which had the fingers of walkers pushing through the opening. Their noises were getting louder as more of them gathered to push on the door.
"There's nothing to do Beth, I'm sorry." Rick whispered, and shook his head at her. He reached for her arm again, but Beth backed away from him.
"I won't leave him here." Beth said, feeling her heart beat jump in her chest. "I can't!" she heard her voice growing louder, but she couldn't control it. She turned and ran to Daryl's body, and wrapped her arms around him, crying loudly. Rick was suddenly behind her, trying to pull her off of him. She heard herself screaming, "NO! NO!" and with her cries the sounds of the walkers grew as well.
Rick was pulling her, and he was much stronger. She heard his voice break in her ear. "If I could take him I would, Beth. But there's no way out for him. I can't very well put him in a grocery cart and push him out the front doors. There's nothing we can do, I'm so, so sorry."
Beth was pulled to the window against her will, but she said nothing. She knew he was right, but it broke her heart. She struggled half-heartedly all the way to the window, until Rick gently pushed her upwards toward the opening. She climbed in and looked one last time at Daryl, when Rick reached up for her hand.
Beth glared at Rick as she reluctantly pulled him up into the window. She was trying so hard to stop crying. She wanted Rick to take her seriously, and that would be impossible for him to do while she was crying. Rick avoided her gaze, and looked instead to the ground below them. There were several walkers clawing at the brick below them. Beth rolled her eyes, and instinctively pulled out the gun which sat on her hip. Immediately, Rick's hand was on hers, gently pushing the gun down.
"'s too loud, Beth. Don't want to draw more." He whispered kindly to her. "Besides… don't you have a better way, now?" he smiled at her.
Beth's eyes filled with tears despite her best efforts. She felt the heavy weight on her back, but had somehow forgotten about it. She pulled the crossbow around to her front, and ran her fingers along it slowly. She turned and braced her back against the frame of the window, and carefully loaded the crossbow, like Daryl had shown her a million times. She turned and aimed downwards at the walkers below them. There were seven of them, and she had ten bolts. She felt Rick's arm slide around her waist and his other hand press firmly into her back between her shoulder blades. She glanced at him in surprise, but he simply shrugged and said, "kickback."
Beth took careful aim at the first walker. When she fired, she was grateful Rick's hand was there, as her body did push backwards when she fired. She also missed, and hit the walker's neck. Beth cursed and mumbled under her breath as she turned to reload Daryl's- her- bow.
"Breathe." Rick advised her as his hands steadied her again. Beth took a deep breath, and aimed carefully. She fired, and hit the walker squarely between the eyes. She smiled as tears filled her eyes again. Rick grinned at her, but nodded back seriously to the remaining six walkers below them.
Beth eliminated five more of them before she had expended her bolts. At that point, it was getting dark, and her aim was faltering. She had taken too long and now they would have to travel at night. Rick jumped down, and killed the final walker with his knife easily. Rick reached up to Beth, who had sat on the edge of the window. She put her hands on Rick's shoulders, and he grabbed her waist, and gently lifted her down. Beth began collecting the bolts, and she saw Rick out of the corner of her eye doing the same.
Beth pulled out each bolt from a walker's head with a sickening squelch. She made a mental note to wash each of them in the creek behind the cabin when they returned. She turned and saw Rick retrieving the final bolt from a walker's stomach. Not her best shot. He attempted to smile at her when he handed her the bolts he had collected. Beth returned his weak grin with one of her own. She knew Rick felt bad for making her leave Daryl. But he couldn't feel as bad as she did. After all the times Daryl had saved her, it killed her to know she couldn't even save his body, much less him. Beth looked back up wistfully at the window they had just exited. She could hear the sounds of the dead that filled the room, and she swore they could hear them eating. Beth tried not to imagine Daryl being ripped apart, his flesh and sinew being torn between walker teeth, but she failed. She fell to her knees and vomited all over some unsuspecting dead walker.
Beth felt her pony tail being pulled back by Rick, and his hand gently rubbing her back as she coughed and spit bile. Beth stood slowly and wiped the dirt off of her knees. She looked up at Rick, embarrassed, and nodded her thanks for his assistance. He put his hand on her back, and silently guided her down the road away from the store, and towards the woods.
/
Rick had offered Beth the coat that he had pulled off the Pharmacist, but she had shook him off. It was dark and cold, but she would only pull Daryl's vest closer around her body. Rick didn't push her. He couldn't; she was clearly grieving and traumatized, and he couldn't help but feel some responsibility for that. He knew on a cognitive level that he didn't have another choice. But he still had Beth's face in his head when he told her they had to leave Daryl's body to be destroyed by walkers. It was a look of total disgust, and it was burned into his mind.
Rick had insisted Beth walk directly in front of him as the darkness settled in. At this point it was too dark to see her, and he was worried about her falling, or worse. At one point he had attempted to light a match, just so he could double check their location. It quickly burnt through, and lightly burned his fingers, causing Rick to drop it. He quickly stomped out the flames on the ground and groaned.
Beth had been silent for most of the trip so far, including his fire mishap, which both worried and suited Rick. The quiet helped him think, and listen for walkers, but soon his worry for Beth overtook his other concerns.
"I'm sorry, Beth." He finally sighed, and she paused momentarily in front of him before walking on. She shrugged- or at least he imagined she did- and answered him kindly.
"It's not your fault. It was the right call. It just-"her voice hitched, breaking Rick's heart- "wasn't the one I wanted to make."
"I didn't know, for what it's worth." Rick said, once again placing his hand on her shoulder. He worried for a moment that the touch would be unwelcome, but the truth was that Rick felt better when he was close to Beth. It felt like bad things couldn't happen if she was around, though of course they already had.
Beth relaxed under his touch, and sighed. "You didn't know about what?" she softly asked.
Rick winced. This whole thing made him wildly uncomfortable. "That… you know. That… You and Daryl had a… were… you know, a thing." Rick rolled his eyes at how graceful he was with his words. He was cursing himself internally when he was interrupted by Beth's raucous laughter. It was a beautiful, if not a startling, sound. Rick cleared his throat, and Beth sounded as if she was trying to catch her breath.
"Oh, that's… God that's funny. What gave you that idea, Rick?" she asked him as they continued to walk down the path through the dark.
Rick glared at the back of her head, and resisted scoffing at her. He chose instead to tumble gracefully over his words once more. "I mean… you two were clearly closer than any of us could have imagined. He clearly loved you so, so much." Rick heard Beth choke on her tears, and he rubbed her back as she sniffled.
Beth nodded and wiped her face. "He did. And I loved him, we were best friends. But no, not lovers." She smiled softly. "It's cute that you thought that though."
Rick inwardly grunted at being called cute, but pressed forward in the conversation. "So… why were you guys so close? And how did nobody else notice it?" he asked carefully. He really, really didn't want Beth to keep crying, but his curiosity was getting the better of him, and at least she was talking to him again.
Beth stiffened beneath his hand, and Rick instantly regretted asking the question. "You don't have to tell me." He immediately told her, but she was shaking her head.
"No, I want to talk about it, about him. It's healthy." Beth sighed, and Rick waited for her to continue at her own pace. "When you guys came to the farm, you know I was dating Jimmy? Well one night…" Rick heard Beth swallow hard, "Jimmy tried to rape me."
Rick felt his blood boil. Beth had been 16 when that happened. Jimmy was already dead, but at that moment Rick envied the walkers that got to tear the bastard's flesh off of his bones. He wanted to scream, but he knew from his experience with the Sheriff's department that he needed to let Beth do this uninterrupted.
"Daryl found us and stopped him." Beth continued, taking very measured breaths. "Daryl carried me up to my room. I begged him to never tell, I couldn't bear the idea of Maggie or Daddy finding out, I couldn't." Beth shook her head and held her hands out despondently in front of her. "He finally agreed, on one condition. That he could make sure it never happened again." Beth laughed to herself quietly. "I thought at the time he meant he was going to kill Jimmy. I was horrified. But it turned out he wanted to train me, so that I could fight off anyone who ever tried again."
Rick was listening carefully to every word that tumbled from Beth Greene's lips. He couldn't remember seeing Daryl and Beth sneak off together. But if he was being honest with himself, the only time he noticed Beth Greene much was when she held his daughter in her arms. Until now, of course.
"We found time, every day, and he kicked my butt into shape. He made me run, and do pushups before he would even let me hold a gun." Beth flicked her ponytail with her hand. "And then the farm fell."
The pair of them followed a turn in the road, which signified that they were almost to the cabin. A walker tripped into their path, and Rick kicked him down, taking out his frustration as he stabbed the walker in the head. He urged Beth on.
"On the road it was different. I was watchin' for Lori, she was pregnant." Beth shook her head, and waved her hands in front of her. "You know that, you were there. Anyway, we had to stay as a group, but he would talk to me, give me scenarios. 'What would you do, if…' 'how would you handle a walker that…' stuff like that." She kicked a rock absent mindedly. "Then at the prison, we became best friends. He taught me how to shoot, he let me use his crossbow some, and we talked constantly. Michonne noticed. She thought we were doin' it too, and she threatened to slice his throat." Beth laughed again, and the sound was incredibly welcome to Rick's ears.
"Why didn't you?" he quietly asked, and Beth scoffed.
"Michonne asked that too. I didn't tell her, because Daryl asked me not to. Though I guess it doesn't matter now." She shrugged. "Not that we would have anyway, but Daryl was gay."
Rick stopped walking, and he felt his eyes widen in shock. "What?" he asked and she laughed again at him.
"Can you imagine if he told people, Rick? It would have been okay with you, but growing up? When he ran with Merle and his crew? They would have beaten him to death." She looked down and shook her head derisively and kicked the ground. "He was so used to pretending otherwise, I don't think he'd ever fully accepted it himself.
Rick had started walking again, and caught up to Beth. He was still completely in shock, but Beth was oblivious. This was a fact that was made clear as she began giggling again.
"This one time, I caught him checking out Tyreese." Beth laughed, as Rick felt his mouth gape. "I gave him such hell for that. Can you imagine? 'Hey Merle, here's my big black boyfriend!'" She laughed loudly again, and Rick found himself smiling at her glee. The moment was too short lived. She sobered thoughtfully. "I had always hoped he would find someone. I hated that he felt like he had to live his life with so many secrets, and so much fear. I really wanted him to be comfortable with himself and find some measure of happiness. I guess now he never will."
Rick wanted to say something comforting. He wanted to tell her that God had him now, but even he couldn't bring himself to form that kind of lie on his lips. Rick had long given up on God, and the last time he had prayed to him, his son had been shot. Instead, Rick gripped Beth's hand, which she thankfully squeezed.
"Beth," Rick whispered, using all the strength he could muster, "I promise we'll do something for him. I'm sorry we can't bury him, I'm so sorry. But we will do something. I swear." Beth turned and smiled at him, and kissed him gently on the cheek.
They walked in silence for the rest of the short walk. Rick savored the quiet, which was broken only by Beth's sniffles. He needed to process what he had just been told, but in some ways it made a lot of sense to him. Lots of girls wanted Daryl Dixon. Rick knew for a fact that he had received more than one invitation to the prison showers. Rick had laughed, but Daryl had just rolled his eyes. Now he knew why. It obviously didn't bother Rick that Daryl was gay- but for a long time he had fancied that he was Daryl's best friend. Turns out it was a little blonde teenager instead. Rick wasn't jealous, but he would be lying if he said he wasn't a little hurt that Daryl had felt like he couldn't trust Rick with his secret. There was another part of Rick that wasn't admitting to himself how very relieved he felt that he had been wrong about Daryl and Beth's connection.
They turned off the path, and went down the hill that led to their cabin. Rick wondered to himself how long it would take for Michonne and Carl to find them out here. He had left pretty clear directions, but it was in a store now crawling with walkers. He planned to go back if they didn't come soon, and make his choices from there.
They entered the small cabin, and Rick lit the small lantern in the corner. Beth sighed and took off her holster, and gently laid the crossbow on the floor. She flopped on the bed, and gently began running her hand along the handle of Judith's carrier. Rick smiled gently at her.
"Want to sleep?" he asked her, slowly. To his surprise, she shook her head.
"Actually," she sighed, looking up at him wearily, "I could really use a drink."
I hope you guys aren't mad at the whole Daryl reveal. I did that for a couple of reasons. 1, I love Bethyl, but this is not a Bethyl story. Which means I have to make it clear from the get-go (and eschew my gut impulses) that Bethyl would never be a thing. But I love them together, I think they have a great connection, and I wanted to honor that in a platonic way. 2, I think its a good way to develop Daryl's character. It always made some sense in my head (Even though RK put a kibbosh on it during TTD) and I like thinking about how that would impact every other aspect of his life.
Also, this isn't the last we'll see of Daryl. I have a few flashbacks planned that will inform the story. So that's coming down the pike.
Finally, I'm trying to keep these two really true to character, which means Beth is still young. She's going to do young things, like want to find a drink. I like these two together, because I think they have something to offer each other as they are.
PS- Did you see Rick kiss Beth's head in the hospital? So cute.
Thank you guys again!