Beth was getting a lunch together for Daryl in the kitchen. He was headed out on a long hunt today with the others and he'd need something to eat.
"Hey, have you seen my huntin' knife?" He walked into the kitchen, dressed and ready to go.
"No," she said, "When'd you last use it?"
"Yesterday, I swear I put it back in my bag last night." She shrugged and said
"I'll look for it for you when I come back here with Gwen." She gave him his food and then kissed him goodbye. She went across the street, talked a bit with Brenna and then brought Gwen back across the street. She didn't see Steve lurking around and felt relieved. Finally he'd learned his lesson.
She placed Gwen down on the rug while she looked for Daryl's knife. Where the hell could it be? He always seemed to have it on him; the only time she'd seen him without it was when he was sleeping. A knock on the door brought her out of her thoughts and she stood up and went to answer the door. There was Lizzie standing there, a plate in her hands. On top of the plate sat two large glasses of what looked like smoothies.
"Hey," she said, "Whatcha got?"
"Carol made these for you and Daryl, yours is a strawberry smoothie and Daryl's is lemonade." She let Lizzie in and said
"Thanks! I'm not thirsty right now and I'm sure Daryl would really appreciate it after her gets back from his long hunt. I'll just put them in the ice box."
"She even put your names on them!" Beth picked up the cup with her name which was written in neat cursive with a smiley face at the end.
"I'll just go put them in the ice box so they don't melt." She took the platter from Lizzie and went into the kitchen. She heard her call out from the living room.
"Gwen's here!"
"Yup, I'm watching her today." She opened up the box and placed the cups inside.
"She's so cute."
"She is," said Beth, pulling out a bit of jerky to snack on.
"When are you gonna have your baby?"
"Not for awhile." Suddenly there was a loud cry. It was Gwen. Beth dropped the food and ran into the living room. She was horrified to see Gwen upside on the floor on her head, against the couch. Lizzie looked up at Beth, not quite so scared but looking like a kid who'd been caught with her hand in the cookie jar. She dashed forward and picked Gwen up off the floor and tried to comfort her.
"What happened?!"
I brought her up onto the couch with me and she fell."
"She fell? Onto her head?"
"Ya she went head first." Gwen screamed louder and Beth turned her attention back to her. There was a red mark on the top of her head but no broken skin or significant damage. Her suspicion of Lizzie was not the most urgent thing at the moment so all she said was
"Just be more careful with her." Lizzie nodded and said
"I will." Lizzie had left by the time she managed to calm Gwen down. She gave her soft head a kiss, wishing in some way that would make it all better. She was almost sure that Lizzie was sadistic. Whenever she was around Gwen, something bad happened, and she couldn't forget her feeding the walkers. She wondered if Carol had actually talked to Lizzie about it? Maybe it was time to talk to her. She waited until Lizzie had left to go meet up with some other kids and then headed over. She held tightly onto Gwen when Carol opened the door.
"Oh hey Beth," she smiled down at Gwen and said "And you too."
"Carol I have to talk to you, it's about Lizzie."
"Sure come in." Beth went and sat down on the couch, still holding onto Gwen, who was due for a nap and now falling asleep on her shoulder. "It's about Lizzie."
"Did you get the smoothies I made? How'd you like them?"
"They looked great," said Beth, "I haven't drank it yet, I'm gonna wait for Daryl to come home and we can have them together. He'll need it after being out all day."
"So what was it you came to say?"
"Did you talk to Lizzie about the walkers and everything?"
"I did," said Carol, "She seemed to be sorry for what she did. I got across to her what they actually are."
"Well she still seems a little….. off."
"What do you mean?"
"Every time I leave her with Gwen bad things seem to happen. Today I found Gwen on her head. Lizzie said she'd fallen off the couch, and awhile ago-"
"I'm sure it really all has been an accident. I don't think Lizzie would hurt a baby."
"But-"
"It was nice of you to be concerned though." Beth knew she wasn't going to get anywhere with Carol about this. With a sigh she said
"Alright then, I'll see you later then."
Lily tried to come up with some excuse for what she had seen. It couldn't be what she thought it was. There had to be an explanation. She had been down in the kitchen early that morning when she saw it. Her mother had a nasty cold and she'd gone to get a few cans of chicken noodle soup for her. There hadn't been very many people down there and she was alone in the storage room when she first walked in. They kept many different things there, canned foods, other non-perishable foods, baking supplies and oddly a small cupboard of poisonous substances. Someone had found them out on a run and brought them back to the town, thinking Richard could use them for something. Richard had been reluctant to keep them around but decided to store them away just in case. She had been putting a few cans into her bag when Carol walked in. She continued to go about her business until she saw what cupboard Carol was going into. She watched out of the corner of her eye, trying to stall her movements as much as possible. Carol quickly reached in and pulled out a small brown bottle. She quickly re-latched the cupboard and left the room. Still curious, Lily quickly left the room to follow her. She saw the door slam shut and hurried to look out the window.
She watched Carol go back across the street and go back into her apartment building. What could she possibly want the poison for? Maybe to get rid of some rats or mice that were inside her apartment? That would be the most innocent explanation. She hoisted the bag over her shoulder and left the building to go back to her own home. As she was passing by Carol's apartment building she ran into someone coming out of the door. She fell down, dropping the bag in the process.
"Sorry 'bout that." She looked up to see Beth's boyfriend standing above her. He held out a hand to help her up.
"That's ok," she said, letting him pull her up.
"Lily right? That's your name?" she nodded, grabbing her bag off of the ground. He smiled and said "She loved the ice cream, thanks for showin' me the recipe."
"No problem," she said, "I'll let you know if she comes to me with any more requests." She said goodbye to him and continued down the road. It was then that she remembered Beth telling her about how Carol and Steve had been bothering her. But she hadn't mentioned it recently, leading Lily to believe it had stopped. But what was the poison for? She had only met Carol a handful of times and she'd never seemed to be the crazy type. Could she want to harm Beth beyond verbally attacking her?
Daryl was exhausted when he stumbled through the door. He threw his things down on the floor and looked around for Beth. He saw the bedroom door ajar and peeked inside. She was asleep on top of the covers. An open book lay on her stomach. Smiling he went and took the book off of her and then shut the door to let her sleep. He went straight into the kitchen and pulled open the ice box, wanting to stick his entire sweaty head inside. Then he spotted the smoothies at the bottom. He picked up the pink one and instantly started to down it. It was so sweet and cold he didn't care if he was giving himself a brain freeze. It was strawberry flavored. Had Beth made these while he was out? He finished it within minutes and felt cooled down instantly. Only after did he see Beth's name on the side in black marker. Maybe Tyreese or Carol had made them? Either way it was delicious. Beth could have his when she woke up.
He was starting to feel relaxed when he heard a scream from somewhere nearby. He was quickly on his feet and out the door. There was a small crowd of people gathered around something in the hallway. He saw Carol, looking distraught as she stared down at something. He pushed through the crowd and felt his heart stop when he saw what it was. Steve was lying on the ground in a pool of blood, a large gash in his throat and what looked like several stab wounds in his chest.
"What the hell happened?" When Carol saw him she came and clung to his arm.
"We don't know! Someone found him like this!" Daryl saw Richard part the crowd. He had a serious look on his face. "He's pissed," said Carol quietly, "There hasn't been a murder or a wall breach in a long time."
"Who found him?" A small red-headed woman raised her hand and said
"I found him like this about twenty minutes ago." Richard knelt down to get a better look at the body.
"Did you find a murder weapon?"
"No." Richard stood back up and looked like he was deep in thought, contemplating what he was going to do.
"Alright, everyone go back to your apartments, I'll have a group of people down here to come clean up and take the body away. I want it examined to see if there's any evidence." There was a feeling of fear in the crowd, was one of their own a killer? Or was it an intruder? Tyreese came and put his hand on Carol's shoulder, trying to get her to calm down. He looked at Daryl and said
"Dinner's in an hour." Daryl nodded, still looking at Steve's body.
Beth woke up about a half hour later. She could hear a retching sound coming from inside the bathroom. Curious, she sat up and called out
"Daryl is that you?" she heard him talk back in a pained voice.
"Ya I'm in here." She got up and made her way over to the bathroom. When she looked inside she was shocked to see Daryl hanging over the toilet, heaving and coughing.
"What happened?!"
"I dunno," he said, "I was fine about an hour ago." She went over and rubbed his back, trying to soothe him.
"Do you think you're just sick?" He didn't answer her and instead violently vomited again into the toilet.
"Beth, Steve's dead."
"What?!"
"Steve, they found him dead earlier in the hallway. He was all cut up." It was a lot of information for Beth to process. She had a million questions.
"Why didn't you wake me up?! Who did it?!" Daryl looked up at her, looking pale and miserable.
"They don' know who did it. Not that it matters that little prick had it comin' to him anyways with the way he acted."
"Just because he was mean to me doesn't mean he deserved to die!" He didn't answer he and turned back to vomit. As shocking as Steve's death was her concern for Daryl was more important. She said
"I'll go set up a bucket by the bed and you can get in and rest." She left him there and went out into the living room to grab the waste basket, making sure there was a plastic bag inside of it before placing it by the bed. Then she want back and got him. He was hunched over when he stood up, holding his stomach in pain.
"Hurts like a bitch," he said, lying down into bed.
"It'll go away; you just gotta rest and let it pass."
"I don' wanna get you sick too."
"Don't worry about me."
"I'm never gonna drink strawberry smoothies again." She laughed and said
"You found them?"
"Ya, did you make 'em?"
"No, Lizzie brought them over. Carol made them for us."
"When you got dinner thank her for me."
"I will." She kissed his forehead again and then left the room, giving him some time to sleep. She was still feeling a bit groggy from her nap so she decided to have her smoothie. She picked up the one remaining cup and drank it down.
When Beth walked out into the hallway she expected to see bloodstains still soaking the floor but it had all been cleaned up. Who would want to murder Steve? She tried to think of any enemies he might of had. She could only think of Daryl, and she knew for certain he wasn't a murderer. "Where's Daryl?" Tyreese looked up at her with curiosity when she walked in the door.
"Sick as a dog," she said, "I left him to get some rest in bed." Carol, whose back had been turned spun around and said
"Do you know why?" Beth shoke her head.
"Started up an hour ago."
"Did you drink my smoothies?"
"We did," she said smiling, "Daryl drank mine on accident though, not that it really matters, I like lemonade the same." Carol stiffened and said
"Oh well that's good, I'll have to make some more." They sat down to eat and Carol said "Did he tell you about Steve?"
"He did," she said, "It's terrible."
"Everyone's scared now," said Carol, "Not sure if it was someone from the inside or an intruder. He was stabbed a bunch of times."
"Does Richard have an idea of who it might be?"
"No," said Carol, "He's still trying to put everything together."
"Well let's hope they find out soon."
The next day Daryl was still sick in bed but doing much better than before. She tried to get him to eat some light food but he refused, not wanting to start violently vomiting again. Beth decided to watch Gwen over at Brenna's, just in case Daryl had a virus. Before she went she sat down on the edge of the bed.
"Hey I need to talk to you about Lizzie." She had forgotten to bring it up to him in last night's chaos.
"What about her?"
"I think there's seriously something wrong with her."
"Why?"
"I'm pretty sure yesterday she dropped Gwen on her head on purpose off the couch." Daryl sat up and said
"You sure?"
"Pretty sure, I tried to talk to Carol about it yesterday but she wouldn't hear it. I feel like there's not much I can do about it. You can't be rough with her like you can an adult, she's just a kid."
"Keep Gwen away from her 'n watch her close when she's around."
Lily was down in the kitchen again. This time to help cook tonight's dinner. She was slicing up some veggies on the cutting board when she saw Carol walk in. She spotted Lily and came over. With a smile she said
"Do you have any strawberries left?"
"Ya why?"
"Gonna make Beth some more smoothies."
"Smoothies?"
"Ya, I know she likes the strawberry ones and yesterday Daryl ended up drinking hers on accident."
"Oh," said Lily, "Ya the strawberries are right up there." She pointed to a cupboard on the far right.
"Thanks." Carol took what she needed and then left. Was she right to be suspicious of her? There was nothing wrong with making smoothies for Beth.
She finished up what she was doing just in time for dinner. She bundled up a bowl of the meet and veggie mixture for herself and then headed towards her house. As she was leaving the kitchen she got caught up in a group of men. She walked behind them and listened to their conversation. Clearly they had just gotten back from hunting and were in a hurry to go get something to eat. Then she heard a familiar name. One man said
"Too bad Daryl couldn't come with us today." Another joined in and said
"Ya, heard he was really sick." It took Lily a moment to connect the dots. She'd seen Carol take the poison yesterday. She knew Daryl had not been sick yesterday because she'd seen him go out the morning. In that time Carol had made the smoothies and Daryl and Beth had drank them. Daryl had been the one to get ill. She dropped the bowl, realization dawning on her.
Beth managed to get Daryl out of bed. He hadn't thrown up in a couple of hours but he was still feeling weak. When they walked into Carol's apartment they were all sitting around the table waiting for them. Tyreese offered Daryl the seat next to him and said
"How are you feeling?"
"Alright."
"I have a surprise for you Beth; I know Daryl drank yours yesterday so I made you another strawberry smoothie." Carol pulled the cup out of the ice box and passed it across the table to her. Beth eyed it appreciatively and said
"Thanks!" She picked up the cup and brought the straw to her lips. Suddenly the door burst open and she felt the cup being torn out of her hands. It fell to the floor and splattered all over the place.
"DON'T DRINK THAT!" Shocked, Beth looked up to see Lily standing there, her face red with anger and determination.
"What?" Beth was completely confused.
"IT'S POSIONED!" She pointed a finger furiously at Carol. "SHE POSIONED IT!"
Thanks DarylDixon'sLover, MaddyMarie1212, K. Lynn Perks, VampireTrekkie1701, stateofgrace-xo, Caitiann, and all the guests for commenting :) It's been interesting seeing peoples guesses on who has Georgette :) I wanna keep hearing who you guys think it is. Send me a message on who you think it is and if you get it right I'll let you see a preview of Beth and Daryl's next chapter :)
Anyway some people were concerned about how Georgette's face is gonna look after the attack. I can't tell you that yet but the zombie apocalypse is not about looking and staying beautiful, its about surviving. I think by giving the girls scars it shows how much they've been through and proves that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Also someone asked about possible romances between characters once the girls get to Georgia. I have some stuff planned out but again you'll just have to wait and see ;) lol one pairing I have in mind might come as a surprise and I'm not sure if I'm going to go through with it but all in good time :)
Thanks for reading,
Wanderlustt