The lights were bright, and the voices hushed. Footsteps echoed through the corridors. Beth's hands were shaking. Loud beeps punctuated the air, followed by obnoxiously loud noise.

.

People's voices were nearby. Someone was talking to her father. Her hands were shaking. Her vision faded into black.

.

Her eyes would flutter open occasionally, and Beth would squeeze them shut, her eyes aching against the light. All she heard was noise. She slipped into sleep.

.

Beth opened her eyes, the left side of her body aching from lying on the bench. She felt even more exhausted than she had hours earlier. She heard her father's voice, weary and sad. Beth sat up slowly and immediately someone's arms were around her. She blinked slowly, and saw Maggie sitting next to her. Maggie's eyes were bloodshot, her mouth a thin line.

"Beth…" Maggie's lips trembled. "We gotta say good bye now," she rubbed a hand across Beth's back, tears streaming down her face.

.

The sheets on the bed had a stain. Beth folded the sheet back, her hands jerking as she did so.

The fluorescent lighting shed a harsh light on her mother's skin. The monitor next to the bed kept a steady beat.

Beth couldn't quite focus; the room seemed to shift before her eyes.

Her head was pounding, and she was shaking as sobs wracked her body; she gripped her mother's hand.

Wasn't it just the other day that they'd held hands, bathed in the afternoon sun?

Her mother had squeezed her hand, letting her know she was there for her, without having to say anything.

The monitor's beeps seemed to dissolve the sunlight from her memory. Beth leaned her forehead against her mother's hand, her sobs muffled by the sheets.

.

The house was quiet. Night time had fallen. It had been well over a day since they had been home. Beth's feet took her to her room, and she lay down, curling up into herself.

Beth awoke sometime later, in the darkness of her room. It took a minute for her to remember, and she felt her eyes brimming with tears. Her mother was gone.

She'd run home to find her father running out with the paramedics, her mother on a stretcher. She looked to be unconscious.

Maggie and Shawn had met them at the hospital, Glenn arriving an hour or so later. Maggie hadn't been able to reach him because he'd been at work.

Brain aneurysm. Her father hadn't been home when it had happened, he had found her, but the doctors said it wouldn't have been long since it had happened.

The sobs built up in Beth's throat, and she was unable to contain them. She turned to muffle them into her pillow, and jumped when she felt someone's hand smooth her hair over. She looked up to see Maggie, who sat by her on her bed. Beth hadn't heard her come in the room.

"Shhh…I'm here," she murmured. Maggie held her till her cries died down and longer. Beth didn't remember her leaving, waking to an empty room and a glass of water by her bed.

.

Beth didn't see her father or Maggie much that week. Otis and Patricia came by the house and Glenn stayed by Beth's side to the point where Beth felt a bit exasperated. She knew he was following Maggie's orders (not that he wouldn't have been there anyway) but she found herself going to the bathroom a lot, sitting on the edge of the bathtub just staring at her hands.

Shawn was in his room most of the time. All day visitors were coming and going, mostly fielded by Otis and Patricia.

Laura, Maddy and Vanessa came over one day and they'd taken a long walk, the four girls mostly silent but Beth appreciated the company and escape. Maggie had contacted both her and Beth's colleges, and they had been granted a temporary period of leave of two weeks.

The markets on Saturday came and went. The Greene's stayed home, the first time all of them doing so in years.

The funeral was on Monday.

The night before was a surreal experience. Tension could be felt throughout the house, the silence strained at dinner. Patricia and Beth cooked; Maggie was likely to burn the house down if she was let near the stove. Beth and Shawn picked at their food as Maggie and Glenn went through the funeral arrangements. Hershel was outside in the fields with Otis. Beth could have thrown her plate at the wall. She was so frustrated and alone and lost. She could feel these moments of paralysing tension run through her body before she would feel all of her energy drain away, a feeling of hopelessness sinking in. She was crawling into bed every night feeling drained before the tears would start. Maggie came in every night until she fell asleep; however the night before Beth just pretended she was asleep.

Beth watched the sun slowly creep up her wall in the early hours of the morning. It looked like it was going to be a beautiful day. Beth heard her father's footsteps on the stairs, quiet but definite. Beth had set her alarm the night before, but she decided to just turn it off and get out of bed. She took a very long shower; the kind her mother would have scolded her for.

Beth only had one black dress. It was plain and would be suitable enough, she supposed. The only pair of black shoes she owned was a pair of flats, which she slipped on before glancing at herself in the mirror. She looked pale and her eyes were puffy. She wanted to look her best for the funeral, for her mother. She couldn't show up looking like a reflection of how she felt. She carefully applied her makeup and brushed her hair, before deciding that she looked presentable.

She descended the stairs, pausing when she heard a familiar deep voice. She entered the living room to see Jimmy talking to Glenn, both looking sombre in suits.

He looked up and immediately reached out to her, his eyes sad.

"Beth." He said her name, and she felt her legs moving towards him before she was engulfed in a hug. Glenn quietly left the room.

Beth almost expected to feel a part of her heal as she was wrapped in Jimmy's arms. She instead felt nothing of the sort…he felt familiar of course, but they had essentially lost contact over three months ago. It was a few moments before they broke apart.

"I'm sorry I didn't come sooner," Jimmy apologised, and Beth nodded, stepping away from him. She could feel his concerned gaze but Beth just smiled at him briefly.

Maggie entered the room, declaring it was time to go. Her eyes looked bloodshot but she seemed alert. Maggie's black dress and heels seemed to transform her from just 'her older sister' into an adult, Beth realised as she looked at her. Jimmy held out his arm to her, and Beth took it, murmuring a thanks. They locked up the house and headed over to the church on foot in silence. Maggie walked ahead with Glenn, their arms linked and Beth and Jimmy trailed behind.

Most of the townspeople were there, from Ed and Carol to Sheriff Grimes and his family. The ceremony was beautiful; Beth felt tears streaming down her face and didn't bother trying to stop them. She even managed to laugh a couple of times through her tears during Maggie's eulogy as she shared her memories, Beth standing behind her.

While Annette wasn't Maggie's biological mother, they had forged a bond stronger than steel. Maggie had initially resented Annette, having lost her own mother when she was a baby. Maggie was only young but she rebelled, and it took a long time before she accepted her. It had taken almost as long for them to be able to laugh about it. Once their bond was forged it was unbreakable. When Maggie had dropped out of college, Annette had been there for her. Eventually she convinced her to go back, and Maggie fought back tears as she promised that she would finish this time.

Beth embraced her sister once she had finished speaking, before going back to their seats. It wasn't long before it was time for the funeral procession. Beth's mother was being buried not too far from the church, at the edge of the small graveyard underneath some trees.

Hershel, Shawn, Otis, Glenn, Jimmy and Sheriff Grimes were the pallbearers, and everyone followed them out of the church over to the burial site. Beth held on to Maggie's arm, suddenly having a hard time to breathe. It was hitting her all over again, and she struggled to focus on the priest's words as the casket was lowered into the ground. She was breathing deeply, staring at the casket when she looked up. Through the crowd, she saw someone standing outside the ring of mourners, on the outskirts of the cemetery but within earshot of the priest. He was leaning against a tree, his hands in his pockets with his head bowed. Her breath hitched in her throat. He was the last person she expected to see today. As she stared at him he glanced up, his eyes finding hers immediately. He nodded to her, and she gripped Maggie's arm even tighter as she nodded back, a single jerk of the head that she hoped would qualify. They held each other's gaze, just for a moment.

.

Once the service had ended, the slow trickle of people to the Greene farm began for the wake. Patricia had been cooking early that morning and Carol and Lori Grimes had dropped some food around the day before. Their fridge had never been so packed and it seemed like they would have enough food to last them a month.

Beth walked home with her family, the last ones to arrive at their home. She had glanced around a couple of times for Daryl once the service had ended but couldn't see him. She had seen Jimmy leave shortly after it had ended with Laura, Maddy and Vanessa. Beth wanted to stay with her family, and to say a private good bye before she went back to the house.

The Greene house was packed, as everyone was fond of Annette Greene. Beth found it was just easier to keep busy, making sure everyone had some food and getting drinks for people, offering Mr Whitley a napkin as his hands shook a little. Maggie caught her arm at one point and told her to relax, but she just couldn't. Eventually however, it seemed like everyone had eaten and there wasn't as much to do. Beth found herself standing with Carol, who was now without Ed as he had left to probably drink himself into oblivion, and her daughter Sophia. Carol had been telling Beth how she handled herself with so much grace, to which Beth politely thanked her, and forced herself to wait until Sophia wanted her mother's attention to excuse herself. She had no idea where Carol was getting this "grace" from, she felt like as though she was adrift in a fast flowing river at the moment.

Beth walked out on to the veranda, and found her father sitting with Otis on the bench. Otis looked up and smiled warmly at Beth, getting up to let her sit with her father. He checked if either of them wanted any food to which they both declined. It was a heavy silence that followed the door shutting as Otis entered the house.

"It was a beautiful service Daddy," Beth said softly.

Hershel nodded slowly, staring out on to the fields.

"Bethy, I want to ask you something," Hershel began, after a long silence. Beth turned to him, her gaze questioning.

"Where were you?" He asked gently.

Beth stared at her father. She didn't need to ask when he was referring to.

"I..."

"I've been wondering…you weren't at Vanessa's. I rang. I was waitin'…You weren't answerin' your phone."

Beth stared at her hands, her breath catching in her throat. Why'd he have to bring this up now? Beth hadn't turned her phone on until a couple of days after It happened. In the days following her mother's passing, Beth's phone had been receiving messages and phone calls left right and centre, but for the most part Beth hadn't been looking at them or answering it.

Her father suddenly seemed to wither and age in front of Beth's eyes. In their area, they were lucky to have a hospital as many rural areas did not but it was a fair distance for the ambulance to travel. Beth couldn't imagine what it would have been like for her father, waiting for the ambulance.

"I…uh," Beth looked down again. "I wasn't at Vanessa's…I was out…looking at a car, with Daryl Dixon." Beth whispered, feeling so damn foolish. Her face was hot and she was holding back tears.

"Why didn't you tell me? Oh Bethy, I'm not mad," Hershel wrapped an arm around her.

"It was meant to be a surprise," Beth wept. Her father's words appeased the weight on her shoulders, the weight that had been bearing down on her especially heavily at night that Beth had been struggling with – and it wasn't where she'd been, or who she'd been with, but the knowledge her mother had been alone when it had happened, and for some time afterwards, before anyone found her. Rationally, Beth knew that nothing could have been done and the doctor had insisted it was quick but her guilty conscience was strong. Not only that, but her father waiting for the ambulance...it crept into her thoughts at night.

"She loved surprises," Hershel said, his voice rumbling through Beth as she clung to her father, crying for the loss of her mother. Beth nodded, making an embarrassing hiccupping noise as she tried to stop crying. Hershel hugged her close, whispering to his youngest daughter that he wasn't mad. Hershel being the honourable man he was, Beth knew that if he said he wasn't mad then it meant he wasn't. He may have been a little disappointed, but upon seeing her distress it melted away. Hershel just wasn't used to his daughter lying to him, but he could see her motives were pure. He just kept whispering that he wasn't mad, and everything was going to be fine.

When Beth's sobs had died down, Hershel went inside to get a glass of water for her. He left her outside, once she had assured him she was fine, sipping the water after being called in by Maggie. Beth didn't want to go back in just yet, and sipped her water slowly. She was staring into her cup when she heard footsteps to her left on the steps, and looked up to see Daryl stepping up to the veranda.

"Hey." He said, barely loud enough for her to hear.

He looked incredibly uncomfortable, and like he was a second away from running like a spooked animal. It was strange, in that instant, to think of a man like Daryl as an animal of prey. When it came down to it, if the going got rough she knew you'd want Daryl Dixon there. But right now, standing on her veranda, he looked spooked. That's when she looked down and saw he was clutching a bunch of white flowers.

"'M sorry," he mumbled, stepping forward. She stared up at him as he laid the flowers carefully on the bench.

He backed away immediately, nodding awkwardly. Beth looked down at the flowers and back up at Daryl, her eyes wide, to see him turn abruptly.

"Thank you," she said softly. He paused for a second, before walking away.

A/N I'm pretty nervous about posting this chapter (and I was about the last chapter I posted a couple of weeks ago), so I hope you liked them.

I've had a couple of people suggest doing a chapter from Daryl's POV, which I will...eventually. Sorry! But I knew from the start that it wouldn't be for a while.

Also, I have a song rec to LittleBird (guest reviewer) and anyone else who is interested - The Last Day on Earth by Kate Miller-Heidke. Probably better for the ZA stories.

Thanks so much to everyone for following, favouriting, reviewing and reading, it really inspires me!