Credit for the medical explanations (all though somewhat messy on my part) goes to #TD theories I read all over tumblr. And as of this writing, the descriptions for the Savior's Sanctuary/ Factory were taken from the comics since we have not seen them on the show yet. Thank you for the favorites and follows and the reviews! It means a lot!

5. Denise opened the door before they even knocked.

"Hi, Beth right?" she held out her hand. Beth looked at her outstretched hand and then back at Michonne. Michonne gave a little nod.

Beth took her hand. "Yeah, I'm Beth. But how did you…."

"Small town.." Denise laughed at her own joke. "I'm Denise. Come on in." Beth followed the woman into a converted examination room. "Have a seat up here." she said patting a table.

"Um, I think I better lie down." Beth said taking off her coat. She pulled up the blood stained shirt.

"Oh! Well yeah I'd say so! What happened?" Denise busied herself with the supplies needed for stitches.

"I was stabbed." Beth said. "Two days ago."

Denise pushed a cart over to the table where Beth was lying. "Well I heard that you had been kidnapped and then killed. Now you're here and you're alive, but it looks like you had to put up a fight."

"That's basically the way it went, except I wasn't dead and actually I was kidnapped a second time by the Saviors for a man called Negan. And I did fight, to get away, something I should have done the first time." Beth's face darkened at that memory.

Michonne looked at Beth in shock. "You were with Negan?" she asked. Beth nodded, uncomfortable with the way Michonne was staring at her.

"We know of Negan." Denise removed Beth's old bandage oblivious to Michonne's reaction to Beth's revelation. Her smile faded a little and her brow furrowed.

"How long?" Michonne was by the table now.

"Can we talk after? With Rick so I can avoid having to tell this story again and again?" Beth sucked in her breath as Denise pulled the rest of the tape from the bandage off.

"You haven't told anyone else? Daryl?" Michonne asked her.

"Beth shook her head. "A reunion with a dead girl kind of leaves everyone speechless." she said through gritted teeth.

"No more talking. Let's get this stitched up." Denise said. She gave Beth a shot. Pain killer. Something Carol hadn't had and Beth was grateful. It began to work immediately. Once the stitches were done and bandaged Denise looked over at Michonne.

"Can I talk to Beth alone? Kind of a doctor patient confidentiality thing." she said. Michonne's eyes were on Beth.

"Okay. I'll wait outside." she said.

Beth struggled to sit up, it didn't hurt much anymore thanks to the pain medicine, but the bandage made it awkward. Denise took her arm and helped her.

"You said you were with the Saviors? And Negan?" Denise asked. She was looking intently at Beth. Beth nodded. She looked down at her hands on her lap and she had a feeling she knew where this line of questioning was going. "We know these men are savages Beth. If they hurt you, forced you too.. Look I'm here to help. Before the world went to shit I was finishing my degree in psychology and I was interning in a women's center. I dealt with a lot of victims of rape and abuse." Denise sat on a stool beside Beth. Beth clenched her fists in her lap. She wanted to cry, but that was just the old Beth waking up. Being with her family was making her feel things, remember things.. She hadn't cried the entire time she'd been on her own, but now it wasn't as easy to push everything into that dark little corner of her mind. And this woman genuinely wanted to help Beth felt that, but she wasn't ready to accept that she needed that help.

"I'm okay. I fought back." She took a deep breath and sat up straight. "It wasn't, he didn't.. It wasn't that long. I'm okay." Beth struggled to stay in control of the last shred of her sanity. Because this was the part that was going to push her over the edge of she let it.

Denise put her hand on Beth's. "Well I'm here. And we have everything we need to deal with, you know, anything that could come up. Please come see me if you want to."

"Thank you." Beth said and she meant it. She pushed herself off the exam table. She was a little light headed.

"Oh yeah the pain meds might make you feel a little funny. Kind of like being drunk." Denise smiled.

Drunk on moonshine and burning down a cabin. That was her only experience with feeling like this. It was kind of the same feeling. It felt good. It was like letting go of all the bad feelings without forgetting how they had shaped her. She felt lighter.

"Will it wear off right away?" She asked. She didn't want to feel the pain from the stitches, but she also liked not feeling much of anything else.

"Not for a little while. And I'm sending a few more pain pills with you. That's going to hurt for awhile." Denise handed her a small brown bottle. The old label had been torn off. "Take one every six hours if you need it." She also handed Beth a brown bag. It contained extra first aid supplies. "Make sure when you shower you tape a plastic bag over the bandage." Beth nodded and turned to the door. There was that nice floaty feeling. Denice held her elbow to steady her as they stepped out into the foyer where Michonne was waiting.

"The pain meds are working pretty good right now. She's a bit wobbly." Denise told Michonne. Michonne stepped in next to Beth and they walked out the front door. "Come back in a few days and I'll check it Beth. It was nice meeting you. I'm.. well I am really glad you're alive!"

Beth laughed a little at that. "She's nice." Michonne looked over at her. "I've only met one really nice person since the shooting at Grady and she was a fucked up mess like me." Beth was rambling. The pain meds had definitely loosened her tongue.

When they got to the house Beth just stared up at it in wonder. It was so new and nice. Michonne took her hand and helped her up the stairs. Rick must have been watching for them because he opened the door. Beth wandered in trying to look everywhere at once.

"Everything go okay?" Rick asked.

"Oh yeah. Right now the pain meds are making it all good. Right Beth?" Michonne said.

"Yeah I feel pretty good. No pain. Let's get this conversation over with before the meds wear off. It isn't a pretty story. Little Beth has ventured into the depths of hell." she laughed hollowly.

Michonne looked concerned and Rick shook his head. She pretended not to have seen and walked into the living room. There was a laundry basket full of clothing on the floor.

"Carol and Maggie dropped off some clothes. I told Maggie that you could stay here in our extra room." Rick told her.

Beth looked surprised. That was one less uncomfortable thing she had to do. "She wasn't upset?"

"A little disappointed, but Carol went on and on about how being here with Judith and Carl would be good for you. I think she bought it." Rick said.

"That will make me happy. Judith is so big. I've missed so much." she shook her head. "But it's not a problem at all right? You have room?"

"Yep. It's just me and Michonne, Carl and Judith." Rick said.

Beth eyed him. "Oh.. " Then she looked at Michonne. "Oh!" She sat down gently on the couch. Rick sat beside her and Michonne took chair on the other side of her. She started to feel a bit trapped, but remembered these people were her family. They loved her and needed to know what had happened. Maybe then they'd understand her pain and anger. Once Rick knew he could help her tell the others.

"So what happened Beth? How are you here? How are you even alive?" Rick got right to the point.

The pain meds didn't take all of the pain away. This was going to hurt. She hadn't really told anyone the entire story. Dr. Edwards knew what had happened when she was at Grady before the shooting. And Sheri, her only friend (if you could call her that) in the factory where the Saviors had taken her, knew a little. But most of it, the worst of it, was hidden in her head where even she didn't have to think about it. Until now.

"When I was taken from the funeral home where Daryl and I were staying it was a kidnapping. I'm sure Noah told you guys about that. The hospital took people in and then forced them to work off their "debt". Some people were really injured and some like me were taken. I don't how I broke my wrist. I just woke up like that. But Dawn made sure I knew that the hospital and her officers had rescued me and so I owed them. We were slaves. The women.. they were supposed to keep Dawn's officers happy. I didn't, the one man who tried something with me, died. I tried to get out with Noah but I was caught. I killed three men." Beth paused. "I don't know if they all deserved to die. But I killed them." She looked at Rick and he nodded at her to go on. "And then Carol came and you all were there and I thought I was going home. But I didn't go home."

"Dr. Edwards told me that after the shooting you guys left. And Daryl took my body and carried me out. He thinks that once you all got out to the parking lot you were over ran by a horde. That's what he saw from the windows. He watched Daryl put my body in the trunk of a car and he tied the trunk closed with a yellow ribbon. He figured that Daryl wanted someone to find me, or my body. Dr. Edwards went out as soon as it was clear and his plan was to take me and bury me. We had had a conversation before and I told him that we buried our loved ones, if we could. So that's what he was gonna do. He told me, he said.." Beth stopped and took a breath. "He said that Daryl was really upset. He was crying while he carried me. And, and he wanted to honor me in the same way he felt Daryl and all of you would have." Beth put her hand over her mouth and closed her eyes for a minute. "When he went to take my body from trunk he realized that I wasn't dead. He said the physical changes that happen to the body after death weren't happening. He took me back into the hospital and checked my vitals. They were barely there because of the shock, but they were there. There was no way Daryl or any of you could have known any different. For all intents and purposes I was dead." She watched Rick wipe his eyes.

"I'm gonna get some water for you Beth." Michonne said heading to the kitchen.

"Beth you have to tell Daryl this. He, he's blaming himself." Rick shook his head.

"I told him. He has to believe it now." Beth knew Daryl would always feel guilty no matter what she said. That was just who he was. Michonne came back with a glass of water. She sat it on the table. "I was angry. Angry that I got left behind, I couldn't accept the fact that Daryl couldn't tell I was alive and that he just walked away from me. My sister too, she should have known. Logically I know that everything Dr. Edwards explained to me makes perfect sense, but in my heart I just can't let go of the fact that the two people I was closest to had no idea I was still in that broken body." Beth confessed this and felt horrible.

"So that's why you want to be here? You just need time Beth. You are working through everything too." Michonne told her. Beth tried smiling and then she continued her story.

"So once he knew I was alive, Dr. Edwards took me into the operating room to see exactly what had happened. He's not a surgeon but he knew enough to figure out that the bullet had basically followed along the inside of my skull with some damage to the frontal lobe and then exited out the back.. I don't know what all of that really means and I may have missed a few things, but it didn't kill me. I was in a coma for about 2 weeks after it happened. Another Dr. ended up coming to Grady looking for a safe place for his family and he offered his services to the hospital. I got lucky, he was a surgeon. He did another surgery before I woke up and repaired the damage to the back of my skull. When I came out of the coma and it seemed like I was okay. Both doctors helped me rehabilitate. Because all I wanted was to find you guys and go home. I think I worked harder so that I could recover faster. They sent officers out looking for you guys, or any word of your group. They really tried to help me. After Dawn was killed the hospital was actually a really good place to be. People there wanted to work together and rebuild. I just wanted to find you." Beth reached for the glass of water. Her hand shook as she sat it back down. That was the easy part. What was coming wasn't gonna be easy. She glanced at the stairs and saw Carl sitting there. He held a finger to his lips. And she looked away.

"The Saviors had come into the hospital once or twice when I was in the coma. They made threats and the people there gave into them and gave them medicine and supplies just to get them to leave. But when they came back again they didn't want supplies. They wanted to people. Or their boss wanted people. There were probably 20 men with guns and they went around picking who they were going to take with them. By then I was doing good. I helped out in the hospital wherever I was needed and that night I tried to help hide people. The older people. I knew these guys would just kill them or something worse. I was locking a group in a supply closet when one of the Savior's saw me. I threw the key down an elevator shaft so he couldn't get to the people in the closet and he grabbed my hair and drug me back to the front of the hospital where all the others were. When he stopped I kicked his feet out from under him and used my elbow to break his nose. His friends thought that was hilarious and so he hit me, hard. I blacked out and when I came too I was in a van. My hands and feet were tied up. No one else in the van was tied up. One guy told me not to fight back because they were gonna kill me. I remember telling him, we're all dead anyway. And I believed it." Beth's stomach was in knots. She could remember all the people. Their faces and their fear. That van had smelled like fear. They were just a bunch of sheep being led to the slaughter.

"There was no way to see out of the van's windows because they had blacked them out, but we only drove for maybe an hour. The van pulled into some kind of garage. Most the people in there with me were crying or praying by then. They opened the doors and had everyone get out and then they pulled me out." Beth remembered that it was right at that moment she decided she wasn't going to be a victim anymore. She was going to fight until she escaped or died. She had nothing to lose. She did have one thing worth fighting for, one face that kept her going. It was Daryl. But she wasn't going to tell Rick and Michonne that. They didn't need to know.

"When they pulled me out I fell on my knees and the guy whose nose I broke made me stand up by pulling my hair. I heard someone laughing and the crowd parted and a man walked out. By the way everyone in the room acted I figured this was Negan. He said he heard they had a fighter on their hands and he wanted to see who had caused so much trouble for his boys. The guy who had me by my hair, he pushed me forward and said this little bitch broke my nose. And Negan laughed and said.. he said that's cause you're a pussy! And then he came and got right in my face. He said I like them feisty. I spit in his face." Beth smiled at that memory. She looked at Rick and Michonne, but they weren't smiling. Rick looked angry and Michonne just looked sad. "Are the details too much for you? You wanted me to tell my story. This is it. It's not a fairytale and it only gets worse. Can you handle it?" Beth wasn't sure where the sudden anger came from. And she didn't want sympathy. Not now. It was way too late for that.

"Go on Beth. It's hard to hear because, because we love you." Rick said.

"And we need to know." Michonne said.

Beth crossed her arms and continued. "Negan just wiped his face and laughed at me. He wasn't fazed at all by what I had done. He had one of the men cut the rope that bound my legs and he helped me up. He pulled my hair and told me that I was gonna make him a fine.. a fine wife." Beth dropped her head to her chest and bit her lip. She was not going to cry. Not now. She looked up and focused on a painting on the wall of a tree. "They herded us like cattle into another huge room. The place was an abandoned factory. I found that out later. There were only about 15 of us that had come over in the van. I never saw any of the others, but I heard that they went back and took more people. Then they separated us. I was taken alone to a room that was like a cell. It had a barred door and inside there was a bed and a small bathroom. The man that took me there just pushed me inside and slammed the door. He told me Negan will deal with me soon. But hours went by and no one came. I had to use the bed to get up because my arms were still tied and then I spent, I don't know how long trying to loosen the rope enough to get out of it." Beth laid her hands on her lap. There were still faint bruises on her wrists. "I sat on the bed all night and forced myself to stay awake. A man brought a tray of food the next morning. He wasn't expecting me to have my hands free and I pushed the tray into his face and got out of the barred door. I ran, but didn't get far. Two men were at the end of the corridor and they grabbed me. They argued over the fact that Negan said I was tied up until Negan showed up and shut them up. He put me back in that cell and I stayed there for at least a week. They sent food and I dumped it. They told me to shower and sleep and I didn't do it. Finally they sent someone in to force me to do whatever Negan told me to do." Beth rubbed her forehead. Forcing her to eat, bathe and sleep meant beating her when she refused. She stopped refusing after the first day. She was hurting and scared and knew that if they broke any bones she would haven't any chance of escaping and she was still determined to escape that hell.

"The day they let me out they sent a woman in first. She was older than me and she was pretty. She told me that if I just did what Negan said he'd let me go with her and I'd be much happier there than in this cell. I asked her where she came from and she said she was Negan's wife and that her and the other wives had a floor of their own and that I could come if I promised to behave. I could tell she was mocking Negan when she said I had to promise to behave. She asked me what my name was and I told her the truth. I said Beth because I wanted to hear someone say it back to me. I needed to remember it. That was the only thing I told her that was true. Well at least from before the hospital. She told me again to be good and go with her. She said, well she whispered to me that if I stayed down there I'd never make it out." Beth felt the lump in her throat. She had told Sherri that she would do whatever it took to get out. She promised to behave. She realized she was just trading one part of hell for another, but there was something about the woman that gave her hope. She hadn't felt that since the day they had wheeled Carol into Grady. "She reminded me of Carol and felt like I could trust her a little. So I did what she said." Beth looked at Rick and he nodded.

"The wives had a floor to themselves. It was like a dormitory. Just beds and tables and chairs. There was a bathroom with showers. There were seven women there including Sherri. That was her name, Sherri." Beth said.

"Was? You were talking about her earlier weren't you? The only nice person you met. What happened to her?" Michonne asked.

Beth rocked back and forth on the couch. "Yeah that was her.. I'll get to it eventually. I want to tell it like I remember it." She smiled at Michonne and hated the sympathy she saw in the woman's eyes.

"When the other women saw me they shook their heads and a couple even laughed. One of them said 'another young one, what the hell is he thinking? Didn't he learn his lesson last time?' I just got so angry.. I walked up to her and pushed her so hard she fell down. Two of the other wives grabbed me and held me. The woman I pushed said 'I heard they had a problem child, you must be her. You're dead you know.' Sherri told her to shut up. I heard later that the last girl Negan had taken as a wife had committed suicide one night when everyone was asleep. She hung herself with a bed sheet. She was young. Younger than me. Anyway I made a pretty bad first impression. None of the other wives liked me and if Sherri wasn't around they spent their time tormenting me." Beth felt sick as the memories came back slamming into her conscious like fists. They corned her more than once in the bathroom and held her while one of the men, the Saviors touched her. The guys gave them soda or cigarettes in exchange. They thought she was a virgin so they never let the guys have sex with her. Because she belonged to Negan.

"After about three weeks Negan showed up. When he walked in all the girls shut up and sat down. He walked around the room like some kind of god. He laughed and he, he grabbed at the women. He watched me the whole time. I didn't sit down. I just stood there. He walked over to me and grabbed my arm and twisted it behind my back. He forced me to sit down on the bed. He said 'don't you know you're supposed to sit when I enter the room?' He asked Sherri if I was behaving myself and she said I was. He told her to get me ready, he'd be back later." Beth stopped talking and just sat there. Her throat was sore and her back hurt and she wished Carl wasn't sitting on the steps listening.

"I found Sherri later, in the bathroom and she was.. She had a cigarette and she was burning herself. She laughed when she saw me. 'Coping mechanism' she said. I showed her my scars. She told that I was going to have to go with Negan tonight when he came back 'or he'll kill us both'. I knew what she meant and I knew what was going to happen and I wanted to cry, but I didn't. She cried for me. She told me then that she was done with all of this shit and that she was getting me out of there. 'Somewhere there are people who love you aren't there Beth? You're gonna find them.' I just had to get through that night and we'd figure out the rest. That was what I held on to while she dressed me in lingerie and make-up and brushed my hair."

Rick stood up and started pacing. "Sit Rick." Michonne said. He did and even though he kept his head down Beth saw the tears. She contemplated how much of the next part of her story she wanted to tell. But they wanted to hear it all. That's what they said.

"Negan came back. And you know not one woman in that room looked happy to see me being taken out. I tried to pull my wrist from his hand one time and I saw Sherri shake her head so I just.. I just went. That place is huge and dark and like a maze. He took me to his room. There was a bed and.. And he forced me.. He raped me ok? That's it. He did it and it was over and he just laughed when I got sick on the floor. He threw me a towel and told me to clean it up and that Sherri would come get me." Beth looked around at all of them. "Do not feel sorry for me." she whispered.

"Why?" Carl stood up on the stairs and walked into the room. She looked at him standing there, just a kid. "Because I don't want you to. I'm okay."

"Carl you don't need to be here?" Rick said.

"Well I am and I'm not leaving." he sat down beside Beth.

"Let him stay. You want to know what this guy is all about. Carl needs to know what he's up against too." Beth said.

"Sherri came back. One of the Savior's was with her. 'Follow my lead' she said. She started talking to the guy, flirting with him. Promising him, things. We went a different way back, down a dark hallway and she pushed him into a doorway and was kissing him and then he was on the floor bleeding. She told me to grab his knife and his gun while she put the makeshift knife she had stabbed him with into his temple. Then she took my hand and we hurried back in the other direction. We passed a man in the hall with scars on his face. Sherri told him to get rid of the body and he nodded and left. 'You're gonna need those weapons. hide them.' she told me. We got back to the room and it was like nothing had ever happened. The other women didn't treat me like shit anymore and Sherri kept her promise. She was helping me get out. She had connections inside that Negan didn't know about. She made me memorize the way out of the factory by looking at maps. She said Negan wouldn't come back again for weeks. And I'd be gone before he did. I believed her and when she said she'd be gone too I thought she was coming with me." Beth remembered Sherri's face when she said it. Beth had said, 'You're going too?" And Sherri replied, 'Something like that."

"We all had jobs so sometimes most the girls were out of the room. The day I got out it was just Sherri and I in the room. She brought out boots and a jacket and braided my hair. I had the gun and the knife we took from the guy she killed. She made me tell her the route I was taking again. And then.. then.." Beth put her head in her hands. This was so hard and she was still so angry that Sherri wanted it this way and that she had agreed. "Then she told me that she wanted me to shoot her. It would be a distraction and then I could run and leave. I could get out for both of us. I told her no, she could come with me. She said she'd do it herself and I'd have to run anyway or they'd kill me." Beth remembered the look in Sherri's eyes and how she'd said 'I just want out Beth. I'm tired.'

"So I did it. I killed her and I ran." That wasn't exactly true. Sherri had put Beth's hand on the gun and hers over the top of Beth's. Sherri pulled the trigger, but they both held the gun. She had whispered,'Go find your family. Thank you Beth.' "I ran, but obviously the shot was heard and I was chased. The way I went must have been an area that no one went cause only one guy followed me. I was almost to the exit when I got stabbed by him. It slowed me down, but I still got out of the building. He followed me, but I saw the sky and the fence and it made it so easy to just turn and shoot him. Then I kept going. Along the edge of the city. I just thought if I headed back towards where I thought I was last with Daryl.. And then well maybe god was looking out for me because I found them." Him. She saw him and she thought it was a dream. She looked up into Michonne's eyes and Carl reached for her hand.

"So that's it. Now I'm here." Beth looked at them all and smiled. Rick head jerked up at something behind her. She turned and he was standing there in the doorway. His arms at his sides. Beth stood and walked towards him tentatively. He had tears on his face and he looked ready to bolt.

"Don't cry for me Daryl, please don't do that." she whispered.

"I shoulda known.. I shoulda.. I'm gonna kill him. I'm gonna kill them all." And then he was gone.