Daryl had let Beth sleep while he carried her inside the house. He thought maybe it would be easier for her, not having to see where she had been taken, the long line of trees towering menacingly. Beth moaned in her sleep uncomfortably when he sat her down on the bed.

"Hey, girl," Daryl said, nudging her arm. "Beth!"

She woke up, looking at his face, trying to register where she was. A part of him wondered if she thought she was dreaming - that she had fallen asleep in this bed, and woken up again thinking it was just another nightmare. I wish t'hell that was the truth.

"Sorry," Beth muttered.

"I got this for ya," he said holding out a water bottle. "Drink up."

He watched her drink the bottle faster than was probably smart, but he didn't have the heart to tell her to slow down. Who knew if she had even had anything to drink since she had been taken? She winced a little with each swallow, but didn't stop until every drop was gone.

"Better?" he asked.

"Mmh," Beth hummed. "Can I go back to sleep now?"

"I gotta fix ya up first, Beth," he said.

"Yeah? You got a magic wand I don't know about?" she asked bitterly.

He shifted his weight from foot to foot. Daryl would've given anything to undo what had been done to Beth - his friend Beth, his girl Beth; the one person he was supposed to be watching out for. The one who kept slipping through his hands like sand and coming back changed. Bippity, bopitty, boo, he snarled at himself. What fucking good am I?

"I need to make sure that nothin' is broken, and clean up some of the cuts," he said. "Can't risk you gettin' an infection."

"Nothing's broken," she said.

"How would you know?" he asked.

"My father," she replied. "Trust me, nothing's broken."

"I'd feel better 'bout it if you'd let me check," Daryl protested.

"Well, I'd feel better if the water had been moonshine, but we both gotta make do, I guess."

"At least let me help with your scrapes," he said.

"Fine," she relented. "Is there a first aid kit?"

"Yeah, I got it right here," he said, picking it up off the nightstand.

"I'll be able to do most of it myself," she said, reaching for the kit, "but I think I've got some cuts on my back that I won't be able to reach. And my face, probably."

"Are you gonna be okay for me to...?" Daryl began to ask, trailing off awkwardly, not wanting to say it.

"Probably not, but we don't really have a choice, right?" she asked, her chin trembling as if she was about to cry.

"Beth, I need ya to look at me," Daryl said. When her gazed flickered up to his, he continued. "I'd never hurt ya, girl. I'd rather cut off my own arms. You just gotta trust me for a little bit longer, and then it'll be done. Just like that. I'll be as fast as I can."

She took a deep breath and scooted her body forward to let him sit behind her. Daryl moved the kit and lowered himself onto the mattress. Suddenly he felt as though he had no idea what to do with his hands. Sensing his hesitation, she lifted her shirt up as modestly as she could.

Daryl saw red - a murderous haze. Cuts, both shallow and deep, and bruises. Everywhere. All over her pale skin. He clenched his fists so hard that his knuckles cracked loudly in the silence. He could make out fingerprints. Fuckin' animals, God damn animals...

"Daryl?" Beth asked, her voice small. "It's okay."

"It ain't," Daryl responded with an air of finality. He tried to steady his hands as he began disinfecting her cuts. She didn't even flinch, but he felt her breathing go erratic at the touch of his fingers against her bare skin. "Beth, y'okay?"

"Just... can you talk to me?" she asked. "If I can hear your voice, I know it's you and it's alright."

"Talkin' ain't really my strong suit," he admitted. "But I can give it a shot. Got any suggestions for topics?"

"Anything."

"One time, in math class, I started my textbook on fire."

"What?" Beth asked.

"The teacher was goin' on and on about long division or some shit," Daryl said, "and I was in the ninth grade, I think. And I was so bored. I had my lighter in my pocket, and I just started to burn the edge of the book. I sat at the back by myself and I didn't think anyone would notice. But next thing I knew the book just went up. Best guess is that Merle had spilled somethin' on it - like a vodka somethin'."

"Wow," Beth said, her breathing having slowed down some. "What happened after that?"

"Well, the teacher was less than pleased. All the kids thought it was pretty badass though. Of course, they thought I did it on purpose. Got suspended for a while. There were rumors going around by the time I got back that I had planned on burning the school down."

"Well, you did burn down a house," she said a little wistfully, as if the memory was so long ago she couldn't even remember she had been there. Daryl supposed, to her, that the girl in that memory and her now were almost completely different people. But he didn't see it that way.

"I got led astray by a bad influence," Daryl said ruefully.

"Yeah, well if someone suggested that you should jump off a cliff, would you do it?" Beth asked, looking back over her shoulder.

"I'unno," he said, pulling her shirt back down. "Maybe if they were blonde."