Ch.16

Beth was following Daryl around again today; lately it seemed as if she was practically his shadow, but Daryl didn't mind. If his company is what she needed, then his company was going to be what she got. He had slept in her room again last night, it was almost like an unspoken agreement they had between them; Beth couldn't sleep without him by her side, the nightmares would overwhelm her.

Still, everything about the situation he found himself in felt wrong. Whenever he looked at Beth all he could see was the pain that was taking over her; she was slowly descending in a downwards spiral. He wanted nothing more than to take it all away, to mold her back into the person she used to be, but he knew he couldn't do it.

He had found himself wanting to tell Maggie again. In fact, he almost had last night when Maggie had approached him after Beth had gone to her room.

"Hey, Daryl, can I talk to you real quick?"

Daryl had been a little suspicious. Lately whenever anyone wanted to talk to him he would instantly jump to the conclusion that they knew what had happened. But, none of them ever had any inkling of what Beth had gone through.

"I saw you in Beth's room last night. I talked to Beth about it." She paused.

Oh God, she either knows what happened or she thinks I'm taking advantage of her little sister. Either way, I'm about to get a slap to the face.

"She said you keep the nightmares away."

Another pause. Daryl's heart sank. He was almost hoping that Maggie knew, even if it meant she would hate Daryl for the rest of her life.

"I just wanted to thank you. She seems to me more open with you than she is with me nowadays."

Maggie had begun to turn, and before he even knew what he was doing, Daryl had opened his mouth and started talking.

"Maggie, wait."

His hand reached out and lightly grasped her arm, stopping her from going any further. He saw as Maggie looked at him with a confused expression on her face. How does he say this? How does he tell her that they didn't just escape from that group unscathed, that more had happened and Beth had bore the brunt of the men's anger? It would break Maggie's heart, and any trust Beth had in him would be gone.

He must have stayed there for a while, just looking at Maggie, trying to decide if he should say anything or not.

"What?"

Daryl searched her face, trying to find an answer, trying to decide if what he was doing was the right thing. "Never mind. It's nothin'."

And with that the conversation had ended. Maggie retreated to her room with Glenn, and Daryl had been left standing there in silence, wondering if he had made the right decision.

Now, sitting at the kitchen table with Beth beside him, the question still lingered in his mind. He was eating lunch, and Beth was preparing a bottle and some food for Judith. Something felt off, something wasn't right about the way she was holding herself today. She seemed on edge, more fragile than ever, like she was going to break at any moment.

Maggie was in the kitchen with Glenn, Daryl, and Beth. She had tried to get Beth to eat something, but she refused, instead busying herself with preparing lunch for Judith. She wasn't talking much today, in fact, the only word she had spoken was "no" when Maggie had set a plate of food down in front of her.

She had only seen her sister a few times today. She had been trailing behind Daryl for reasons she just couldn't explain. She figured they had grown closer since Daryl had been the only other person Beth had after the prison, but it was like Beth was isolating herself from everyone else. The only people she interacted with were Daryl and Maggie, every once in a while she'd flash a fake smile at Rick when she took Judith from him. But aside from that, she was being very antisocial.

Maggie was watching her sister closely, trying to figure out what was going on inside of her head. Beth was wearing a tank top today, and through her mess of blonde hair, Maggie began to see the faint mark of a bruise. It was a yellowish green color; it had obviously been pretty bad, but it was almost done healing. If this had been a few years ago, Maggie would have been concerned, but now they lived in a world where bruises were inevitable; they decorated everyone's skin like tattoos, and she figures the bruise had happened during the attack on the prison, nobody had come out of that completely injury free.

Maggie was broke from her thoughts when an aggravated sigh was released from Beth's lips. She walked over to stand across from Beth, trying to see what was going on. Beth was trying to screw the cap on Judith's bottle, but for some reason she couldn't get it. That's when Maggie noticed Beth's trembling hands. They were shaking so badly, but for no apparent reason. Maggie looked to Beth's face, and she instantly saw the frustration etched into every inch of her face. Her eyebrows were scrunched, and every muscle in her face was tensed.

"Here, do you need help?"

Beth didn't answer. She stopped what she was doing for a second, closed her eyes tightly, and scrunched her hands into fists. Maggie saw the way her fingernails dug into the palms of her hands, and she was almost certain Beth was going to draw blood. But then she stopped and went back to working on the bottle. Such a simple task was proving to be such a huge problem for her.

"Beth, let me help you, " she said as she began reaching for the bottle.

Beth immediately looked up at her. Maggie saw the anger in her eyes, and for the briefest of seconds she was scared of what was going to happen next.

"I can do it myself, I don't need your help!" Beth snapped, her voice echoing through the room.

Shock was written on everyone's faces as both Daryl and Glenn turned their attention to Beth. None of them had ever seen Beth act like this; it was completely out of character for her. Beth seemed to ignore them as she returned her attention to the bottle.

"Beth," Maggie began, looking on at her sister with worry.

Beth didn't respond again. Her shaking hands were still trying to screw the cap on the bottle, but to no avail. Maggie could sense that Beth's frustration was growing with every passing second. And then she snapped.

The bottle went flying across the room, milk splattering on the wall and the bottle crashing to the floor with a clank. Tears started to trail down Beth's face, and now it wasn't only her hands that were shaking, her whole body was.

The whole room was silent and everything seemed to stand still. Nobody could make sense of what had just happened. And then everything caught up for Maggie.

"Beth, what the hell was that?" She didn't like to curse at her sister, but she couldn't help herself.

Beth got up from the table and went to where the bottle was lying on the floor. She began to pick it up and grabbed a washcloth and started soaking up the milk. Maggie looked from Glenn to Daryl, both of whom were intently watching Beth's every move. Maggie was fed up with this. Something was obviously bothering Beth, and she wasn't talking about it.

Maggie marched over to her sister and grabbed her by the wrist. She felt as Beth's body went stiff and she flinched away, trying to yank her wrist free. When her eyes met Maggie's there was a storm cloud of emotions in them. Anger, frustration, sadness, emptiness. But there was something else in her eyes, something that made Maggie loosen her grip, something that made her stomach drop. Fear.

It was an overpowering fear. And it just wasn't showing in her eyes. When Maggie looked at Beth's face every feature gave off the emotion of fear. The way her bottom lip quivered despite Beth biting it trying to make it stop. The way her eyebrows were raised. The way the tears began gathering in her eyes once again, and then one escaped and made its way down her face.

Maggie turned to the others; their expressions hadn't changed from a few moments ago. "Excuse us, I need to have a word with Beth."

Maggie turned to face her sister again, once again tightening the grasp on her wrist, and began walking. She felt Beth trying to resist, trying to pull away, but Maggie wasn't having any of this. There were things that they obviously needed to talk about, things they needed to get to the bottom of. Maggie wasn't going to let Beth avoid her anymore.

Author's Note: So I really liked this chapter. When I started writing it I didn't intend to it end how it did; it was going to be completely different. But my fingers started taking on a mind of their own as I was writing, and this is how the chapter turned out. I was going to make it longer, but I decided to stop here, to sort of leave you with a cliffhanger.

As you can see, Daryl is still struggling with his decision to keep Beth's secret. Beth is beginning to act out, and Maggie is taking notice. Maggie knows something is going on with Beth, but she has absolutely no idea what Beth has gone through.

What did you think of the chapter? Did you like it? What do you think will happen next?

Thank you for all of the reviews, follows, and favorites!

And, who's excited for The Walking Dead tonight?!