Ch.12

Daryl woke up to find that neither of them had moved much throughout the night. The only change in position was Beth's hand, which had laced itself with his at some point during the night. He started to get up out of bed, but stopped when he saw Beth's eyes flutter open. Realizing that she was holding his hand, she released it, but remained on the bed.

"I'm going to go and make us some breakfast," he said as he got up and left the room.

He rummaged through his bag until he found the box of oatmeal Beth had grabbed yesterday. He cooked the oatmeal and waited for Beth to come out of the room. He was trying to devise a plan, trying to come up with a way to get Beth to eat.

When Beth came out of the room he saw how exhausted she looked, the weight of her torment was drawn on her every feature. The life in her eyes had long since faded, and the circles beneath them had grown a darker shade, and it looked as if she was struggling to keep her eyes open. Her hair was a mess, and he guessed she hadn't brushed it out since her attack. And he could see the distinct outline of her shoulder blades and collarbone through the shirt she was wearing. While she had gotten a full night sleep, her body was desperately craving energy from food that she was refusing to give it.

She sat down in the chair directly across from him; oblivious to the bowl of oatmeal he had set out for her. It looked like she was zoning out, like she didn't really know what was going on. It was only when he talked to her that her eyes focused.

"You gonna' eat that?"

She looked to the bowl sitting in front of her, and picked up the spoon. For a moment he thought he had gotten lucky and that she was actually going to eat. He slumped in his chair defeated when she just pushed the food around.

He heard the spoon clink against the bowl and looked up and saw Beth lean back in her chair. "Where are we?"

He saw the perfect opportunity. She needed to eat and she wanted answers. It may be a little childish of him, but he was desperate to get Beth to eat.

"I'll tell you what, I'll answer whatever questions you have if you eat." He leaned forward, signaling to the bowl.

"But I'm not hungry."

"But you need to eat; haven't been able to get anything in you in days."

He saw her toss the thought about in her mind. And then she reluctantly pulled the bowl closer to her, hand grabbing the spoon. Once again she only played with the food, but when her eyes met Daryl's, almost pleading with him to not make her do this, and his eyes stayed strong and unwavering, she lifted the spoon to her mouth.

"We're in some town called Bushlake, actually a suburb of Bushlake."

"Do you know how to get to where we need to go?"

He looked at her and motioned for her to take another bite, and she did.

"I found a map in town yesterday. We somehow managed to get pretty far off course, but we have a car now, so if we leave soon we should be able to make it there by late afternoon."

There was a moment of silence before she spoke again. "Can you tell if they've been here?"

Daryl looked at her for a long while before answering. He knew what she wanted to hear, but he wasn't going to lie. He shook his head no, and when Beth didn't take a bite he didn't say anything. He would let this one go.

That's how their morning continued. Daryl would trade an answer for Beth eating a spoonful of her breakfast. They did this until her bowl was empty, and Daryl could already see the color coming back to her face.

"You go and get changed, I'll start packing up the car. I want to make sure we're there before dark."

Daryl grabbed anything he thought would be useful. He raided the kitchen cabinets and packed up any food that was still edible. He refilled their empty water bottles. He checked the rooms and was pleased when he found a gun hidden in a closet. And then he waited for Beth.

She was wearing the clothes from yesterday, and she had tied her hair back in a pony. She didn't have anything that she wanted to bring with her, so Daryl put the last few things in the car. They drove out of the little suburban neighborhood they had called home and headed for the main road. Daryl had memorized the directions he would need to take, and he hoped that they wouldn't run into any problems.

Beth hadn't said a word since getting in the car. They had been driving for over an hour, and they were keeping their thoughts to themselves. Daryl was wondering if anyone else had made it. He figured that someone had to, that they couldn't be the only ones. He wondered if anyone else had run into any trouble since the prison. Then he heard Beth's soft and hushed voice.

"Promise me that if we find the others you won't tell."

Daryl looked over at her, surprised, not sure how to respond. Her head was resting against the window, eyes staring out to the woods flashing by, and she had pulled her knees to her chest and had wrapped her arms around them tightly. He could see a tear escape her eye and start making its way down her face. He had thought about what they would do when they met up with the others, how they would tell them what had happened. He never thought that they wouldn't tell them.

"Beth, you know I can't do that." He kept his voice soft.

"Promise."

It was more of a pleading demand than a question, and he knew that she didn't want anyone to know what had happened. And despite his better judgment, he agreed.

"Promise."

After driving another three hours they made it to where Daryl wanted to be, the highway where they had lost Sophia. They hadn't said anything else after the promise she made him make, but he knew she understood where they were by the way she lifted her head from the window, her eyes scouring their surroundings for any sign of life.

Maneuvering around the abandoned vehicles on a motorcycle had been much easier than doing it in the car they were now in. But he managed to steadily make his way around the cars until he reached the car they had left the note for Sophia on. They had decided shortly after securing the prison that if anything happened they would go back to that car and then make their way to Hershel's farm.

Putting the car in park he got out, Beth following closely behind. He looked for any sign that someone from their group had been there. As he got closer he noticed a piece of paper stuck underneath the windshield wiper, and he grabbed it.

At the farm. Not overrun.

There wasn't a name and there was no telling who else was with the anonymous writer, but it was the first sign they had received that someone else had survived. The note was snatched from his hands by Beth, whose eyes studied the note, searching for anything he may have missed.

"Can you tell who wrote it?" She shook her head no. "At least we know someone made it. Let's get going."

They got back in the car and made their way back to the farm. He saw as the familiar white house started to appear in the distance. The last time they had been there the place had been overrun with walkers, but now there wasn't a walker in sight. As he turned the car off people started to appear on the porch. When Maggie emerged from the crowd Beth swung her door open, and they both started running towards each other.

When their bodies finally collided he could see the way the impact had hurt Beth, but she didn't back away, instead she hugged her tighter and the sobs started to pour out of her. Her knees gave way and they were both on the ground in an instance. She was too happy to see her sister. Stepping from the car he got a better look of everyone on the porch. Almost everyone was here. Rick, Carl, Michonne, Tyreese, the kids, they had all made it. He stopped when he saw a familiar face he didn't think he would ever see again. Carol.

Author's Note: So I'm not really sure how I feel about this chapter. I feel like something is missing, but I can't seem to put my finger on it. I have been reading it over and over, but can't figure out what it needs, so I decided to post it.

Anyways, neither of them mentioned what happened the previous night, they both just seemed to brush it off. And Daryl resorted to childish games to get Beth to eat...hey, whatever works. And I think the biggest thing in this chapter is the promise. Daryl was very reluctant to promise Beth he wouldn't tell, and he knows that he shouldn't have. He still feels horrible for not being able to keep his promise to Hershel, and he knows that something like this isn't something that you can just keep secret forever. Will he keep his promise, or will he break it?

Also, they made it back to the farm and have finally been reunited with the rest of their group. And, Carol is back! I figured that I might as well throw her back in the loop.

On a side note, I may not be posting as often as I would like in the next few weeks. It seems as if all of my professors have gotten together and decided to have exams and papers due at the same time. So, I will be focusing on good grades, but will still try to update as much as possible. I am going to try to get a new chapter up before the end of this weekend, but my sister is coming home for a visit, so I'm not sure if I will be able to.

Have a great week/weekend...and a little more than a week until The Walking Dead returns!