Ch.20

Everything around Maggie seemed to stop. The breath was sucked right from her lungs, and she swore that she felt her heart stop beating for the briefest of moments. What had Daryl just said? For a moment she thought that she had heard him wrong, or that this was all just a bad dream. She was praying that this was a bad dream. She was praying that she would wake up any minute now and everything would be back to normal. But she knew it wasn't.

Everything made sense. The way Beth had been acting, it all made sense now. She knew that something was wrong, but she could have never imagined anything like this. Beth was being moody, she had been isolating herself from everyone, shying away from people's touch. And then today, when she killed that walker, Maggie had never seen someone full of that much anger.

She had gone up to Beth's room to check on her. She was planning on talking to her about what had happened, but she paused at the top of the steps when she heard sobbing. Walking to Beth's room she found her sister, trembling and clinging to Daryl on the bathroom floor, his jacket wrapped around her. One look at Daryl told her that she wasn't needed. She didn't say anything; she just walked away and let them be.

Daryl ran out of the room, and Maggie paid little attention to his absence until she heard screaming. It was Beth. She rushed out of the room, towards the noise. They were outside, and so Maggie went out onto the porch, Glenn and Rick following behind.

Daryl was holding onto Beth's wrist, and she was doing her best to break free, but he wasn't letting go of her. Even from this far away Maggie could see that Beth was crying, she could tell by the way the sun glistened on the wet streaks running the length of her face. She wanted to run out to her sister, but she was frozen on the porch, forced to watch the events unfold in front of her.

She couldn't make out what they were saying. Neither of them was yelling anymore. But she saw Daryl pull Beth to his chest and wrap her securely in a hug. They stayed there like that for a few minutes before Beth pulled herself free and turned back to the house, stomping past everyone on the porch without even glancing at them.

Everyone walked back inside, including Daryl. Nobody said anything. Maggie was trying to sort through her thoughts, they just seemed to be all jumbled, and she wasn't thinking straight.

"Maggie, are you alright? What's going on?" Glenn asked, and she could tell by his tone that he was worried.

"It's Beth. She-she was…" Maggie couldn't bring herself to say it. She couldn't bring herself to admit what had happened to her sister.

"What happened to Beth?" He asked, looking around.

By now Carol had entered the room. Glenn was looking at Maggie for an answer, but she just looked away. His answer came from someone else in the room.

"She was raped," Daryl said.

"What?" Glenn asked, sounding as if he didn't believe him. "No, we would have known."

"Promised to keep it a secret," Daryl mumbled before exiting the room.

Glenn turned back to look at Maggie. "Maggie." It came out as more of a question than a statement.

Maggie nodded her head, and she saw a wave of sadness wash over Glenn's face. She knew that Glenn had come to see Beth as his own family, as his little sister, and she knew that this news would hurt him as much as it was hurting Maggie. Maggie went over to sit on the couch, and Glenn followed, reaching out and grabbing her hand in his and squeezing it tightly.

"What am I supposed to do? What am I supposed to say to her?"

There was a silence in the room, nobody knowing how to answer her.

"How is she ever going to get past this?"

After another minute of silence, Carol finally spoke. "Beth's strong, stronger than any of us give her credit for. She'll get through this. She just needs you right now."

Maggie sat there for a while longer, Glenn holding her hand. She was trying to figure out what to do. Everyone else had left the room. She eventually came to her senses.

"I need to go and talk to her," she said, standing up.

Maggie made her way to her sister's room. Beth's door was closed. She thought about knocking, but decided to just walk right in. She had been planning out what she would say. She was going to ask Beth if she wanted to talk about it. She was going to ask her what she needed. She was going to promise her that everything was going to be ok. But when she walked in Beth's room she didn't do any of those things.

Beth was sitting cross-legged on her bed, her hands resting limply in her lap. Her head was turned down, and Maggie could see a tear drop from her face and land on her hand. Without thinking, Maggie went over to her sister and enveloped her in a hug. Beth tensed under her, but when she eventually relaxed, she eased into her embrace and started crying even harder.

Maggie didn't even realize it, but she started crying, too. She felt horrible that she hadn't noticed what was wrong with Beth sooner. She felt horrible that she hadn't been able to do anything. She felt horrible that Beth felt like she couldn't tell her the truth.

Eventually they both stopped crying, but Maggie refused to let Beth go. She wanted to believe that she could just hold her and everything would be better. She wanted to believe that she could hold her and all of her pain would just magically dissolve.

After what seemed like an eternity of holding her, but at the same time didn't feel like long enough, Beth backed away from her. She was avoiding any eye contact with Maggie, and it seemed like she was trying to push herself as far away from her as possible.

"Beth?"

Beth didn't respond. She didn't even look to Maggie.

"Beth?" Maggie asked again, this time reaching over and grabbing her hand.

"I'm so sorry, Beth. None of this should have happened to you."

Beth remained silent.

"I need you to know that I'm here for you, and that you can talk to me."

Beth didn't answer, but she squeezed Maggie's hand, and Maggie squeezed back.

Author's Note: First of all, I want to thank you all...over 100 reviews! Wow! I am so happy right now, and so grateful to everyone has reviewed, favorites, followed, or just read. You are all amazing!

Second, this chapter was all from Maggie's POV. I thought that it was kind of important to get her reaction and see what she was thinking after finding out the truth about what happened to Beth. She's relieved that she finally knows what happened, but she's also angry that Beth felt like she couldn't tell her. How is she going to help Beth get through this?

So I'm at a bit of a dilemma for the next chapter. I can't decide if I want it to be from Daryl's POV, Beth's POV, or a combination of the two. I would love to hear what you think!

And, for any of you that also read my other story, "A Fighting Chance," I may not get a chance to update this weekend. My sister is up for the weekend and we are in the midst of planning her wedding! But, I promise to update as soon as possible!