A/N: I haven't said anything in the past chapters, and I do apologize for that but thank you so much for the reviews! They've been so lovely and I'm so glad you're enjoying the story! I haven't fully decided who I think took Beth, so I decided to just come up with my own baddies for the sake of this story.

This chapter is DARK, but don't worry! The baddies just wanted to rile Daryl up and they get more than they bargained for afterwards.

Maybe I'm just a negative nelly but I really worry that the reunion scene will be brutal, whenever we get it…

Chapter 10 –

"Why are we stopping here? Shouldn't we start heading to DC now with Eugene?" Maggie asked and Daryl clenched his hands into fists. Maggie had asked this question many times over the past few days. Daryl did his best to ignore her and looked at the leaf covered ground in front of him for tracks. He and Rick had determined to search the area around Terminus for signs of Beth or her kidnappers before moving on. It was a long shot, seeing how far away they were from the funeral home she had been taken from but they figured that with a car, the kidnappers could have gone a great distance very easily. They hadn't had any luck so far but Daryl was eternally grateful for Rick keeping the peace with the group. The two of them had kept quiet about what they were doing and Maggie was the only one to ask any questions.

Daryl's eyes glanced quickly at Abraham. The redhead had been quiet about their search, which Daryl figured was extremely rare at the rate that the man shared his stories. Rick was about twenty feet from Daryl and gave a low whistle, their sign that they gave each other if they had found something. Daryl pushed past Maggie and joined Rick, looking at the tracks the sheriff had found. They were recent, made by two people. Most likely men, judging by their size. One's gait seemed a little off, making Daryl think that perhaps he was injured. Having no clue who they were looking for, Daryl took it as a possible sign and scouted ahead while Rick talked with the group about setting up camp there. Daryl heard the crunch of someone walking behind him and turned. Upon seeing Abraham following him, he resumed following the tracks, muttering under his breath.

"Hey, I…uh….Rick, he told me what we're doing out here," Abraham started and Daryl grunted, acknowledging that the man had spoken but not offering anything in return. "I understand you care for this girl, but…can I just ask…how long has it been since she was taken? What are the odds…"

"Shut up," Daryl growled out, turning and walking briskly to Abraham. "She's alive."

"If you're so sure, then so am I…but what sort of condition do you think she'll be when you find her? We need to make a plan, man. If she's in bad shape, she won't survive the trip to DC. Especially with winter approaching as quickly as it is," Daryl glared at the man and he held up his hands in surrender. "I'm just sayin', it may be something to think about. Maybe we should find a couple vehicles first. If she's in bad shape, us walking to DC is going to take longer. It'll be harder for her than if we have vehicles.

"Then go look for vehicles. Leave me tha hell alone," Daryl spat as he turned and resumed following the trail. Rick jogged to catch up to the hunter and the two followed the trail more quickly. They walked almost an hour before they heard or saw anything. The hunter and the sheriff could see the two men walking ahead of them now and could even hear the two talking. One of them was visibly limping. They were loud and careless about the possibility of attracting walkers to them. Daryl assumed they thought they were cocky and could handle anything that came their way. If they were the people to take Beth, they had another thing comin'. They'd wish they had attracted a herd of walkers by the time he was done with them. Rick signaled for Daryl to move to the other side of the two men and the two split ways to corner them.

"Man, I need to take a break…" one of the men called out and the other groaned.

"Seriously?! We took one not that long ago. Stop being such a pussy and let's go," the other argued.

"No way, man. That blonde bitch got me good. My leg is seriously hurting." Daryl saw red when he heard the man talk about a "blonde bitch." What were the odds that the blonde he was talking about was Beth? Daryl advanced quickly on the men, his crossbow up and ready to take one of them out and his approach made them finally take notice of him and Rick. Rick had his gun leveled on the other's temple before either man could say a word.

The injured man quickly dropped his gun and raised his hands in surrender while the other scoffed and looked between Daryl and Rick. The man's eyes narrowed on Daryl before he laughed loudly.

"Look, man, it's the dumbass redneck! He survived the funeral home," he said with a smirk. The injured man stared at Daryl in awe before laughing as well. Daryl dropped his crossbow and punched the man closest to him, who was the injured one. Rage filled the hunter as he pummeled the other man with his fists while Rick kept his gun trained on the other.

"Daryl, we need to find out where she is," Rick told him calmly. The man in front of Rick turned and swung a fist at the sheriff, who quickly dodged and the two began their own brawl. It ended quickly, with Rick knocking the man upside his head and pinning him to the forest ground. Daryl stepped back from the injured man and shook out his hand. A quick glimpse at his hand told him he may have broken a bone in it but the rage in him hid any pain. The man he had been punching was out cold from the beating he had just gotten while the man under Rick was fighting to stay conscious.

"Give 'im here, Rick, I'm gonna get some answers," Daryl growled out and the sheriff helped him sit the other man up. "You listen her, ya bastard. Yer gonna tell me where she is, or so help me yer gonna wish you had found some walkers instead of us."

"I ain't gonna tell you shit, redneck. 'Cept I now know why you kept her around. She was a nice piece a tail, that one. Feisty too," the man laughed and Daryl growled. He ignored the was in the man's sentence and focused instead on delivering a hell of a punch to the man's face. "Ya can hit me all ya want, it ain't gonna change anything, brother. She's dead now, walkers got her."

"I don't believe you and I ain't your brother," Daryl replied. "You're gonna tell me where she is. Right. Now." He punctuated his words by breaking two fingers on the man's hand, making him cry out.

"Jesus! What, did you love her or something?" The man gasped out around his pain. Daryl growled and broke another finger. The man laughed through his pain. "That's rich, man. I can see why ya loved her, all smooth skin and innocent. You obviously didn't get ta fuck her though, did ya? That's a shame, cuz the noises she made were just…"

"Shut. The. Hell. Up." Daryl interrupted the man with another punch. He was surprised when Rick pulled him back and almost yelled at the sheriff for interrupting when he watched Rick pummel the man a couple of times himself.

"You don't talk about her that way, d'you understand me?" Rick was quiet but his voice was heavy with anger and the man visibly flinched at the sound of it.

"What? You gotta thing for the bitch too? That's gotta make for an awkward friendship between you two," the man laughed before leaning over to spit out blood. Rick grabbed him roughly by the hair and yanked his head back.

"This man here, this redneck as you called him. He's my brother and he loves that woman. That makes her my sister. I don't take too kindly to people who hurt my family. So you're gonna tell us where she is." Daryl felt an odd feeling in his chest at Rick's words. He wasn't able to contemplate the feeling for long as he noticed the other man was beginning to come to with a groan. He pulled the second man into a sitting position and forced him to look at him.

"I'm gonna ask you this once, jackass. Where. Is. She?"

"It was all a setup, man, and you were the third couple to fall for it. We saw that pretty girl with ya at the funeral home. It's unfair that a redneck like you gets a girl like that while we had nothin'. The couples before ya were just as lucky too. So we did what we do best. We lured them biters to the house using Mike's dog to distract ya. It was so easy, we figured we must have interrupted you two gettin' it on or somethin' with how easy it was. And like all the others, you let her escape first but she was different. She saw the car comin' and panicked. Tried to get to the trees and escape us. All the other bitches just stood there and practically let us take them.

We hit her with the car. Not enough to kill her, ya know? Hard enough to hurt her and make her stop fightin' us so damn much. She was feisty. And beautiful too. It made sense to us why ya kept her around. We were curious to see how you would fare compared to the other men we've left behind, so we stuck around. We didn't think you'd survived until you come runnin' 'round the corner looking for her followed by all them biters. That's when we drove off. We figured you were dead.

She's dead now, though. She fought us every fuckin' day for the past two weeks. She starved herself. After she injured me yesterday, we left the car radio blaring outside the house and we left her chained to the wall. When we looked back, there was at least twenty of them biters heading to the house. She's dead. Just leave us alone and move on," the semi-conscious man groaned out and Daryl looked at Rick. Rick nodded before leaning down to get in the two men's faces.

"Where's the house?"

"You wanna go get yourself killed over a dead girl? Fine. It's about…" the man Daryl had beaten up on started but the other man interrupted.

"Dude, what are you doin?"

"I wanna walk out of this, man. Bad enough they've beaten you up enough that you ain't gonna be able to defend yourself. I don't wanna get the shit beaten out of me anymore over that dead girl." Rick punched the man in front of him, Mike if Daryl assumed correctly, and Daryl glared at the injured one in front of him.

"The house? Where is it?"

"A day's walk north from here," he replied. Daryl nodded and held his hand out to Rick. Rick looked at it briefly before handing his gun over and walking away.

"I'm gonna go move camp, meet me there," he told the hunter before walking off quickly. With all the screams and soon to be gun shots, walkers were gonna be swarming the area and they needed to get as far away as they could before that happened. Daryl looked at the gun in his hand and then at the two men in front of him.

"You shoulda never told me what you did to 'er. You shouldn't a said you hit her with your fuckin' car or that you touched her inappropriately. I was never gonna let you live regardless, but now I'm gonna make it as painful as I can. For her, the ammo this is gonna use is gonna be worth it," Daryl aimed the gun at Mike's leg and fired a round into his knee.

"Man, what are you doin?! We never touched her! She wouldn't let us! Mike's just sayin shit to rile you up!"

Rick walked briskly back to their camp. He faltered slightly as he heard the first shot and the other man yelling at Daryl, then another He could hear the two men scream and ran the rest of the way to their camp.

"What's goin on?" Carl jumped up and asked as Rick approached.

"We need to pack up, now! Let's go," the group quickly packed up their belongings that they had taken out. They all stopped when two more shots rang out.

"What's goin on? We've been moving in circles for days and now Daryl's off somewhere with gun shots goin off and your hand is bleeding. Was there a fight?" Maggie asked as she shouldered her bag. Rick sighed before helping Carl pack their stuff.

"Maggie, we didn't say anything because Daryl didn't want to. He's pissed at you over your lack of care about Beth not being here. Did it ever occur to you that she might have survived the prison?" Rick asked as he shouldered his pack and Daryl approached. Daryl's eyes were dark with rage as his eyes met Maggie's wide eyes.

"Beth…survived?"

"Yea, I was with her for a few months, not that you seem to care about her any now that you've got your boy toy back," Daryl growled out as he approached the woman angrily. Glenn tried to step between them and Daryl shoved him out of the way. "The least you could do is ask if anyone knew anything. But you were so focused on getting Glenn back that your own sister meant nothing to you!"

"That…that's not true, Daryl…where is she? What happened to her?" Maggie started but Daryl interrupted her.

"Oh, NOW you care?! Well, too late sunshine! According to her kidnappers, she's dead in a house about a day's travel north of here. If only you had cared sooner!" Daryl spat out before storming off, heading north.

"Hey, Romeo!" Abraham's voice shouted. Daryl turned, fully ready to rip the redhead a new one. He paused when the redhead ran up to him and tossed him a set of car keys. "I got lucky. Tank's pretty full, back seats lower. Could use it to make a bed for her when we find her. I found another one too, Rosita is bringing it. You go ahead and head to this house and see if you can save her. We'll follow when Rosita gets here." Daryl stood there looking at the car keys in his hand before nodding and clapping his hand on Abraham's shoulder.

"I owe ya," he said softly before jogging towards the road. He heard two sets of feet running behind him and soon Rick and Michonne caught up with him.

"I ain't gonna let you deal with this alone, Daryl." Daryl knew what Rick was trying to say. He had had to deal with Merle's death on his own back at the prison. It had crushed him. If Beth was indeed dead and he had to put her down, he didn't know if he could do it. Or if he could live with himself afterwards. The three heroes got to the road and found a minivan waiting on the edge of the road. Daryl groaned at the sight of it but threw the driver door open and climbed in anyways. Rick slid the backseat door open and climbed in, allowing Michonne in before closing the door. He immediately began lowering the seats in the back to make them lay flat.

"If she's as starved as they said, she won't be up for much running at the moment. She'll probably need to rest. Just focus on getting there," Rick told him from the back and Daryl nodded. He sped the van down the road and turned to go north on the first road he came to.

The three of them lost track of how long they were in the car, searching the landscape for any building that could be holding Beth. Rick tapped Daryl on the shoulder and pointed out something in the distance on top of a hill. It was the first building they had seen and they could see a large number of a walkers stumbling around and into the building. As they got closer, Daryl could see a car pulled up outside of the building.

"That's it. That's the car they took her in," he mumbled as he fought to keep his rage in check. Rick nodded as he got his gun and knife ready.

"There are a lot of walkers around here. Don't let your rage distract you, alright? Don't get tunnel vision on me. I'm not burying anyone today. I'm not burying you or Beth. So stay sharp. Can you do that for me? For Beth?" Rick asked, his eyes searching Daryl's face. Daryl clenched his jaw and nodded. He pulled the van up as close to the house as he could without risking any issues with the walkers. He and Rick looked at each other, then at Michonne, they all gave a short nod to each other, and threw their doors open. The blaring of an AC/DC CD met their ears. Rick fought his way through the small herd of walkers to the car while Daryl and Michonne covered him. Once Rick killed the radio, the three let out a breath and began battling their way through the herd to the door.

Daryl would never admit it to Rick but rage and fear were blinding him. He was so pissed off about everything the men had said and he was terrified that their words were true. His eyes scanned the walkers before he killed them, making sure none of them were Beth. Sweat ran down Daryl's face and neck as he fought off more walkers than he could ever keep track of. There were at least fifty outside the house alone.

A walker grabbed a hole of Daryl from behind while he fought off another in front of him. There was a streak of silver and the walker behind him let go, falling to the ground dead behind him. Michonne gave him a short nod as he killed the one in front of him before the continued. The three fought their way into the house and went room to room clearing it out, leaving a trail of walker bodies behind them. The three took a moment in an empty room to catch their breath and look around. There was so far no sign of Beth and Daryl was beginning to feel his fury grow.

A crashing sound at the end of the hall made everyone's head snap up and Daryl reloaded his crossbow and held it tightly in his hand. The hall led to a small dining room and everyone froze in the door way. In the middle of the room stood a blonde walker. Her back was to the three of them but her size fit Beth's. The braid over one shoulder looked like Beth's, though the last time Daryl had seen her, her long blonde hair had been in a ponytail with a small braid in it. But it had been weeks. Her hair style could have changed.

"We left her chained to the wall…" Daryl recalled and his eyes traveled to the walker's wrists. She was missing a hand but her other hand, her left hand was still there. There were no bracelets on her wrist nor was there a scar from her suicide attempt. He released his breath.

"It's not Beth," he said softly and he could feel and see the tension leave Rick and Michonne's body. The walker turned and faced them, confirming Daryl's observations. The walker looked to be around the same age as Beth but the blonde hair and body size were the only similarities between them. He sighed and leveled his crossbow with the girl's forehead as she began to stumble towards hi.

"I'm sorry this happened to you…" he said softly before firing the bolt and watching her body crumple to the ground. His eyes fell on the wall in front of him. A short chain held up a thin, frail left arm with bracelets hanging loosely around the elbow. The cuff on her wrist was fastened so tightly that the skin around it was swollen and cut. Blood flowed from the cuff down her arm and into her shirt. Her shoulder looked to be at an odd angle with a bone jutting up under the skin and Daryl thought it looked to be dislocated.

Her blonde hair was hanging loosely in a ponytail and it was knotted and matted with blood. There was blood caked on her face from a wound on her temple and bruising littered her skin everywhere he could see. Her left leg was extended and it appeared to be broken somewhere with the angle it was laying. In her right hand sat a machete that was covered in fresh walker blood. That was when Daryl looked around the room. They had only killed one walker in that room but there was at least twenty bodies piled up around her.

Daryl swallowed the lump in his throat, as well as his rage at seeing her condition, and slowly approached the girl. Daryl kneeled down in front of her and tipped her chin up so he could see her better. Her blue eyes were glazed over but they met his briefly before filling with tears.

"Stop torturing me…" she sobbed softly, "he's not really here…He's coming, but…he's not here right now…Why do I…keep seeing him show up?" Daryl's heart clenched and he put his hands on the sides of her face gently to avoid hurting her bruises.

"I am here, Beth. I'm here…" Daryl gently took the machete from her hand and turned to Rick and Michonne, both of whom were watching with small smiles on their face. "The bastards didn't have a key on them when I killed them earlier…it should be here somewhere but we need to hurry. That radio brought all the walkers in the area here, there are probably more coming."

Rick and Michonne nodded and walked off to find the key and kill the few walkers that were approaching. Daryl looked at Beth and sighed.

"I'm sorry, Beth. I am so sorry I couldn't protect you…but I'm here now. I'm gonna get you outta here." Her eyes met his and he saw a light of recognition spark in them.

"Daryl…you're really here?" her voice was raspy and Daryl fought hard to keep the image and sound his brain conjured of her screaming until her throat was sore.

"Yeah, Sweetheart, I am. Talk to me, Beautiful. Do you know where the key is?" She nodded and shakily lifted her right arm to point at a table just out of her arms reach. He let out a low whistle and could hear Rick and Michonne returning to the room at the sound.

"I tried to get it after they left me here but it was too far away…I was barely able to get the machete…I tried everything…I think…I think I dislocated my shoulder in the process. Daryl…" her voice cut off and she swallowed heavily. "You should leave me, Daryl. You need to go." Daryl sputtered and stared at her in shock as he grabbed the small key and came back to her.

"What the hell you goin' on about, girl? I ain't gonna leave you here."

"You need to. Daryl, they hit me with their car…I think it broke my leg. This cuff is so tight on my wrist, we'll be lucky if we don't have to remove my hand…I'll be a burden on everyone. A risk. You said it to daddy back at the prison several times. No matter what, we always wind up running. I can't run, Daryl." Daryl shook his head at her and quickly unlocked her wrist from the cuff. He kept a hold her arm so that it wouldn't fall and she gave a hiss in pain.

"We're gonna set your shoulder back into place, and then we're leavin'. All of us are leavin' together. Ya hear me? We ain't leavin' ya behind. Not now, not ever." Rick and Michonne walked forward and Beth's eyes moved to them, shock and happiness showing on her face before pain as Daryl moved her arm back into its socket.

"Beth," Rick smiled as he kneeled in front of her, "don't take offense to this but you must've really been knocked a good one if you think we're gonna leave you here. We've got vehicles now, you'll be fine." Beth smiled and nodded as tears ran down her face.

"I never thought I'd see y'all again," she sobbed out as she held out her hands to Rick and Michonne, both of whom grasped and squeezed one. Her eyes fell to Daryl and she put her hands in his. "I knew you were coming…" Daryl swallowed heavily before shifting forward.

"I'm gonna do my best to not hurt you more than you already are, Beth, but we need to get going. The rest of the group is waiting on us and that radio blaring has got every walker heading this way," Daryl said as he put his hands around Beth's back and under her legs. She nodded with a grimace and Daryl lifted her up. She cried out in pain, one of her hands going around his neck and gripping tightly while the other alternated from gripping her ribs to clutching at her leg. Daryl felt guilt crushing him as he moved her carefully through the house and outside to the van. Michonne jogged ahead of him and beheaded several walkers while Rick took care of any that came up around them. Michonne jerked the back door to the van open and Daryl carefully set Beth down on the folded seats. She grimaced and took deep breaths in and out. Daryl closed the door and watched as Rick and Michonne climbed in and pulled the van away from the house.

Daryl's eyes flitted over Beth as he took in her bruises and wounds. If only I could kill them again…and again…he thought to himself. He wanted to hear from Beth what had actually happened to her since the men had contradicted each other during his time with them, but he could tell by looking at her that she hadn't rested or eaten much during her time with the men. Michonne drove the van carefully but quickly down the road and Daryl appreciated her attempts at keeping the ride smooth for Beth's sake.

Beth's face scrunched up in pain and she let out a low moan, her hand squeezing his painfully until it slackened. Her face smoothed and her breathing evened. Daryl assumed she had passed out from the pain. He scrubbed his hand down his face as a mixture of emotions boiled over inside of his chest. Guilt, rage, relief all filled and crashed through his body. He looked to the front of the van and met Rick's eyes.

"Remember what I told you. None of this is your fault. She's safe now…we'll get Bob to look at her, see what he can fix. We'll stop everywhere we can to find her pain killers and antibiotics to avoid infections. Get some rest, Daryl. You need it. She's safe. She's here."