Thank you to everyone who reviewed! Special thanks to Kaylah who pointed out that some of you may have not read chapter 6, thinking it was my note about the midseason finale... so if you haven't read chapter six, GO DO THAT FIRST!

Hope you guys enjoy! :)

Rick sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. Beth wanted a drink. He couldn't count all the ways that sounded like a horrible idea. She was too young, for one. But if he was being honest with himself, he never thought of her that way. She and Carl both, although they were both teenagers, once the world went to shit they both became adults. He had been forced to treat Carl and Beth as equals with the rest of them, allowing them to shoot, take turns on watch, and even occasionally go on runs. Sometimes he wished that it were different, particularly with Carl, but that's not how it worked now. But there was more to it than just her age. She was emotionally exhausted, she needed sleep not alcohol. She didn't have any food on her stomach, and there wasn't much to give her. She had already thrown up once today, and Rick had no idea if she could handle doing it again. He needed her, a fact that he begrudgingly admitted to himself, and if she were passed out dehydrated, or god, if they were attacked while she was inebriated, they would be in serious trouble. No, Rick couldn't let this happen. But what he didn't know was how to talk Beth out of it.

"That sounds like a really, really terrible idea, Beth." Rick felt guilty as hell for having to leave Daryl in the store. He did, but he couldn't let Beth be this self-destructive. That was the worst thing he could do, because it was the last thing she needed. "Besides, where are we going to get-"

"I know you have some from the store." Beth interrupted him, causing his eyes to shoot up at her. "I saw it in the bag when you were digging out a match."

Rick winced, and subconsciously moved in front of the bag, blocking it with his body. "Beth, I can't let you do that. If your father were here-"

"But he's not, is he?" Beth interrupted again. The silence hung heavy in the air for a moment, as Beth's gaze bore into Rick. "My dad's dead. He's gone, and so is Judy. And now Daryl." Beth looked down and shook her head solemnly. "I know, Rick. I know this isn't the right way to deal with this. But I'm dealing with this the way my daddy did when he lost my mom and my brother. It's all I've got," she sniffed, but quickly wiped it away. "It's all I've got, and it's what I'm going to do."

Rick swallowed hard. He didn't want to support this, at all. But he was beginning to wonder that if maybe this is what she needed to do in order to grieve, maybe he shouldn't keep her from it.

"You know," Rick smiled, and went to sit next to Beth on the bed, "When Lori died I shut myself in the back of the prison. I swore I could see her, and the other people who had died because of me, I heard them on the phone." Rick tilted his neck and rubbed it sheepishly, "I wasn't a very good leader for a while. I was angry, and I don't know, I think I lost my head there for a little while. I had this beautiful new baby girl, and I didn't even go see her. You know who was taking care of her?" Beth smiled and nodded, but she still was looking at her feet. "It was you, Beth. You took care of my baby while I got my shit together. You allowed me time to grieve. So I'm going to do the same for you."

Rick got up and went over to the bag. He pulled out the large bottle of unlabeled brown liquid, and went back and stood in front of the bed. He bent down in front of Beth and lifted her chin so that she would look him in the eyes. "I'm like you, Beth. I don't know if this is the way to handle things or not. I'm not good at this either. But if this is what you need, I'm not going to keep you from it." Rick took her hands, and placed the bottle in them. Part of him hoped for a minute she would push the bottle away; that she would realize she didn't really need it. But instead, she slowly opened the bottle. She inhaled the strong fumes and winced. She looked Rick in the eyes, and slowly took a long sip.

/

Beth knew she had drunk a little too much at this point, but she liked how she was feeling. She wasn't so tired, or angry, or sad anymore. If anything, she was a little giggly. Rick kept trying to talk to her about one thing or another, and it just kept getting funnier and funnier to her.

Rick's face looked a little flushed to her, a little bit of dark pink was inching up his neck and splashed across his cheeks. She attributed it to the fact that she had finally gotten him to agree to join her. He had staunchly resisted at first, claiming that someone needed to be sober, just in case. But Beth had reasoned that the cabin was secure, and that she had no intention of getting so inebriated that she couldn't shoot a gun if the situation called for it. He had groaned, and complained, but his eyes had still rolled back in his head after his first drink, and he declared it the best thing he had tasted since he woke up in the hospital. Now Rick sat on the foot of the bed, while she sat at the head, and they kept inadvertently kicking each other.

She was pretty sure Rick had stopped trying to talk to her about serious things several sips ago, and now they were just talking about their childhood pets. Beth was staunchly a dog person, while Rick loved cats, apparently. Beth found this hilarious, and giggled thusly.

"What's so funny?" Rick asked her, smiling. Beth began giggling even harder that he was unable to keep a straight face.

"You like kittens! Do you also like to give them little pink bow collars?" Beth laughed at him.

Rick blushed and ran his hand through his hair. "Cats don't bother anybody. They keep to themselves. Plus, my cat Snuggles…"

"SNUGGLES!" Beth laughed unable to stop herself.

"Oh shut up." Rick blushed, though he was laughing himself. Beth wasn't about to divulge this information, regardless of how much alcohol she consumed, but she could not help but notice that Rick had a very sweet and genuine laugh. It made her happy to hear. There hadn't been many moments in the few years that they'd known each other that there was an opportunity to laugh together. Beth smiled at Rick, and he smiled back. She savored the moment, and treasured it.

Beth sighed, and let her head fall back against the wall behind her. Rick kicked her lightly, and she looked up at him.

"Feelin' better?" He asked gently, his eyes searching her features for an answer. She nodded back to him, but shrugged.

"It's good. Not as sad. But I know in my head that it's only temporary. Tomorrow I have to go back out there and fight dead things again. There's no Maggie, no Daryl, no Daddy. The world looks worse than ever, and somehow I have to figure out how to deal with it. It's just like before, only it's getting worse. Now I have to figure it out alone." Beth sighed. Rick kicked her again.

"Not alone." He smiled at her. Beth locked eyes with him and nodded her thanks.

At that moment, an extremely large spider fell from the ceiling onto her leg. Beth screamed, with no regards to their surroundings, and flew off the bed. On some level, she heard Rick mumble, "Oh, shit" and before she knew what was happening, she had crawled up on the stove in the corner, which was thankfully not lit, while Rick repeatedly attacked the bed with an old broom that had been in the corner. After several tries, the spider was dead, and Rick was out of breath. He looked up at her and smiled.

"Snuggles would have gotten the spider." He laughed.

/

Rick was starting to feel sleepy, like he always did when he had too much alcohol. Rick didn't drink often, it just wasn't his style. Shane had always mocked him for it, but it worked well enough for him when he needed a designated driver. Shane had been an angry drunk. He always picked fights that Rick had to pull him out of, said things he didn't mean, and punched holes in walls that hadn't done anything to him. Rick had always been grateful he hadn't been like that, and as he sat across from a very beautiful, mellow Beth Greene it was hard to imagine being too angry.

"You fallin' asleep on me?" she asked him, in a very meek little voice.

Rick opened his eyes, just in that moment realizing they were shut at all. He smiled at Beth, a habit he had subconsciously developed. "Maybe a little."

She kicked his boot with her own, and bounced on the bed, shaking him out of his drowsiness. "Alright, alright…" he groaned and sat up. He turned his back so that it was against the wall instead of the foot of the bed. Beth turned in the same direction, so that they were next to each other.

"You can't fall asleep on me." She said, elbowing him gently in the ribs.

"So what do you want to do?" Rick asked drowsily, trying to figure out why he was bothering to try and stay awake with an inebriated Beth Greene anyway. Beth shrugged, flipping her golden ponytail, inadvertently hitting him in the face.

"I dunno." She pondered, making a thoughtful face. "What did you do the last time you were drunk?"

Rick rubbed his eyes, and ran his hands across his face. He tried to remember the last time he had been drunk. It had definitely been awhile. "I think it was at the CDC," he thought out loud. "I drank too much, rambled about how horrible the world was, and then had sex." He shrugged. The whole CDC experience was something Rick would have rather forgotten.

Rick turned to look at Beth whose cheeks had turned a deep, dark shade of beet red. It was only in that moment that Rick realized what he had just said. Drank too much? Check. Complained about how horrible the world was? Check. Sex? Well that was obviously off the table, but Rick imagined the insinuation was enough to make Beth blush, since it was currently making him do the same thing. Rick wanted to correct himself, but he couldn't come up with anything to say that wouldn't just make it worse.

The silence was heavy for a moment until Beth cleared her throat gently, and said "you know what I really want to do?" Rick looked at Beth. She was playing with the corner of Daryl's vest, and she swallowed heavily. "I really want to burn something."

"Burn something?" Rick was confused. That didn't sound like Beth. It was reckless, pointless, and destructive. All things Beth was not. She nodded lightly at him.

"I just… I think it would be a good way to say goodbye… to Daryl." Beth looked up at Rick, and he looked down at her gentle blue eyes. It became increasingly apparent to Rick that he would never be able to deny Beth Greene anything she asked.

Rick sighed, and wrapped one arm around Beth's shoulders. She placed her head in the crook of his shoulder and Rick pressed a kiss into her hair. "I don't know how to do that, Beth. The smoke would draw walkers here. This cabin only works because there's no herd pressing against our walls." She nodded into his shoulder, but he heard her sniff. Rick wrapped his other arm around her, and waited until she fell asleep.

/

"Beth, wake up." Beth's eyes opened, but she couldn't see anything in the dark. She sat up, and felt a pounding in her head. It clearly wasn't morning, but she could sense the hangover coming her way. She felt Rick grab her hand, and gently pull her from the bed. "Come with me." He said, and she stepped gingerly onto the floor.

Rick led her out of the cabin into the woods. The air was cold, and Beth used one hand to tighten Daryl's vest around her. The other hand was being pulled gently by Rick. They quietly moved through the woods, the only sound was their boots crunching on leaves and sticks. Beth noticed that they passed a few walkers that had been put down that weren't here yesterday. That meant Rick had been out here on his own. The thought of how dangerous that was boiled in Beth's stomach, but as she currently relied on his sight to guide her, she said nothing.

They finally reached their destination, the clearing by the creek. The moon and starlight finally made things more visible, and the light reflected off of the water, illuminating Rick's face. He smiled brightly at her, though he was clearly tired. "Wait here." He instructed her. He went behind a near tree and pulled out something that Beth couldn't really identify.

"What is it?" She asked softly, as he put it in her hands.

"It's a floating lantern," Rick explained excitedly. "You can light it, and it will float up into the sky. I thought… I thought maybe it would be a good way for you to say goodbye."

Beth felt the tears forming in her eyes. This was such a beautiful gesture. And he was right, it was the perfect way to say goodbye. "How did you…" she started, but the tears stopped her.

"It wasn't hard, just took some time. I took the coat off of a walker, and used the fabric and stuffing. I used some paper that was in an old book in the cabin. Then of course we have matches, and I soaked the fabric in some of the alcohol. I carved a couple of sticks to give it structure." He shrugged.

She watched as Rick went out behind the tree and pulled out two other lanterns. Beth choked on a sob in her throat. He was acting like it was no big deal, but he had to have been here at least a couple of hours. Rick gently took the first small lantern out of Beth's hands, and lit the match on fire.

"For Daryl?" he asked, and she nodded. Rick handed the small lantern to her, and she released it up into the air. It floated up, and danced above the trees. Beth took a moment to think about Daryl. About how he saved her life over and over, and how his training was still saving her. About his face when she got him to laugh, even though he always acted like he was too cool to be caught smiling. Beth smiled at the memory, and laughed lightly as the tears ran down her face.

Next to her, Rick lit the second match, and handed her the lantern. His voice cracked as he said "For Hershel." Beth's tears turned to gentle sobs as she released the lantern into the air and thought of her father. About his brutal death, and how it juxtaposed against his gentle life. He had been the best father she could have ever dreamed of, and she was a father to everyone in their new prison family. She heard Rick sniffle beside her, and she knew he was thinking the same thing.

Beth walked slowly over to stand beside Rick, who was holding the final lantern. Tears were running down his face, and his hands shook as he attempted to light the match. Beth quietly put her hands on Rick's, and took the match from him. She lit the lantern as he held it, and kissed both of his hands. She smiled at Rick, and whispered, "For Judith." Together, they lifted the lantern up into the air, and it floated up and joined the others. Beth couldn't help but think of that beautiful baby girl, and her sweet gentle laugh. She was such a good baby, she rarely cried. If she did, Beth only had to hum her a few bars of Tom Waits, and she settled again. Beth loved Judith like she was her own, and Beth would miss her dearly.

Beside her Rick was crying for his daughter. Beth pulled him to her, and he held her tightly. The lights of dawn were beginning to peak over the trees, bathing the two with warmth and light. Beth clung to Rick and they watched the sun rise, the light obscuring the lanterns among the sky.

Thank you all again... Let me know what you think! I didn't love parts of this chapter, so I'm curious as to what you guys think.