The time between Carol waking and gathering in the hallway seemed to be a mere blink of her eyes. Dawn barely gave her a moment to take a sip of water before she started questioning the older woman. She attempted to play it dumb, but the officer was having none of it.
Carol stayed as vague as possible, and still lied quite a bit about how she made it to Atlanta. So well, that Beth believed she'd traveled alone until Dawn was called away to deal with "the situation". As soon as she heard Rick's voice over the radio she knew she was just as gullible as everyone expected her to be, and her excitement was tampered by the realization.
"Daryl, is he…" Beth trailed off as she helped the other woman try to sit up. Dr. Edwards hadn't been allowed to do any scans, so she wasn't sure how many internal injuries her friend had. But she needed to know if she could move when they needed to.
Carol blinked at her questioningly before grimacing at the pain in her abdomen. "He's here. We found Noah, and they must've gone back for the others after I got hit." Relief must have covered her face because Carol looked at her with concern. "He's fine Beth. He found us, and we found you."
The young woman nodded. "They said…I didn't see him come out of the house," she tried to explain as she let out a heavy breath.
Carol gave her a small reassuring smile as she started to swing one leg over the side of the bed. "You heard–they're coming to get us. Help me get dressed."
NowBeth chuckled softly to herself as she glanced around at the space they were contained in. Twin cells with bars built deep into the ancient stonework of the drafty building.
"You wanna tell me about it or are we just going to sit with this elephant in the room?" Beth raised her eyebrow and crossed her arms over her chest. "Have you been here this whole time?" Carol asked, just getting right into it.
The blonde shook her head. "Just a week or so," she admitted as she took a few steps closer to the bars that separated them. The older woman was just a few steps away standing similarly, observing her. She tried to make it seem like a jovial conversation between two old friends, but Beth was sure she was studying her. Clocking every move and every word.
"But you know that woman?" Another nod. Carol left an opening for Beth to continue but when she didn't, she changed gears, coming up to grab into the bars with both hands. "How'd you find Daryl?"
Beth gave a barely-there smile. "On accident. Rick reached out to me after you left and never came back, and—"
"Hold on. Rick knew you were alive?"
Beth blinked, surprised. "He really didn't tell anyone?"
The older woman paused and gave the blonde another once-over before raising a brow at her. "No, I think I would've remembered that one."
The blonde chewed on her bottom lip and nodded, looking away from her. "I got us over here by calling in a few favors, and he was just standing there in the forest on the second day. We'd barely even started searching."
"Rick and Michonne came with you?" Carol asked after a few seconds to soak in what Beth had said.
"And Judith."
The older woman blinked in surprise. "Why?" Beth merely shrugged. Even if she had a feeling why the Grimes' decided to bring the girl, it's not like she'd been asked for her opinion about it. A few moments passed before Carol settled without getting an answer. "How'd that go?"
The blonde turned back to her with a furrow on her brow. "What do you mean?"
"Judith," she said simply.
Beth let her face fall into a blank mask. Now was not the time to dwell on that which she'd been pushing down since she first saw the child after a decade."She doesn't remember me. Michonne's her mom."
She could feel Carol's stare as she waited to clock any reaction the young woman had. Eventually she shrugged. "You were too, once."
Beth internally blanched and decided that the subject needed to change. "Why are you here?" she asked. "They wouldn't have left us alone if they thought we knew each other."
Carol only took a beat before answering. "Oh you know me, I like to stick my nose where it doesn't belong." She smiled, instantly recognizing the tone in her voice and the look on her face as fake. She was placating her. "I was trying to sneak into town, see if I could get some info about Daryl. Someone heard my accent," her brows twitched down at this. "I guess they're rounding up Americans. That's not because of you, is it?"
The younger woman couldn't help but huff out a laugh, and shook her head. She could play this game too. "All him."
This brought a more genuine smile to the older woman's face. "I'm not surprised. I can't tell if he's become more or less of a hellion over the years." The mirth in her eyes quickly faded as the calculating Carol came back. "If Rick knew where you were, if you'd been trapped or held against your will, he would've brought you home with him. I mean, that's just Rick," she tried to play off naively. Carol squinted and gave her a small, innocent smile. "Did you know we were alive? Where we were the whole time?"
Beth raked her eyes over Carol as she ran her tongue over her teeth. As she thought about how she wanted to play this. Sometime over the course of this conversation Carol had decided that the girl she used to know was not the same woman standing before her. More so, she'd decided she couldn't trust her. "I–"
She was interrupted as three uniformed barged into the room. The two men towered over the short stout woman with a pinched look on her face. "Attrape-la! You," she pointed at Beth as she spoke with a thick accent. "Don't bother putting up a fight."
Beth backed all the way to the wall of the call she was in as all three of the French soldiers moved towards her. The woman unlocked the cage as the blonde sized up the two men. The one who wasn't an entire foot taller than her had at least 100 pounds on her. If she had any kind of weapon she might have a chance, but with hand to hand she had to hope they moved slowly. Her focus was pulled from the men at the sound of a gun cocking. The woman had upholstered her weapon and pointed it directly at her.
Her minimal chance dropped to zero.
The blonde quickly flicked her eyes towards Carol in the other cell. She was making herself as small as possible to avoid notice but she was intently watching the scene. If Beth had to guess, she'd done the same measuring up of the soldiers that she had.
Rough hands grabbed at her upper arms as her body did the natural motion to jerk away. They only pulled harder. Out of the cell with one last look at the woman she used to know, out of the room and into the hall. The hands did not relent as she moved her legs along as little as possible. Her head swiveled back and forth scanning as much as she could to gain her berings and try to memorize her way back. There were plenty of closed doors on their walk and any one of them could lead to an exit.
They turned a corner and she finally saw a window large enough to fit through. She was so focused on scanning every inch of the area and trying to guess how far the drop would be that she missed the fact that they arrived at their destination.
The first and only thing she saw as she was dragged into the room was Daryl bound to the wall with a set of chains around his wrists and ankles. He jerked forward as her group entered, his eyes locking with hers as the guards led her to the other side of the room. He didn't look any more beat up than usual, but his jaw was set and his eyes were fiery. If they were strangers and she hadn't spent ten years hardening herself she might be inclined to take a step back at the weight of this stare. But the anger behind it wasn't directed at her.
"Well, there's no use pretending that you don't know each other."
Beth ripped her gaze away from Daryl towards the voice. If she had to make an educated guess, she'd say that the woman standing in front of her was the one her companion was looking for. Marion Genet stood haughtily with a smile and shining eyes, as if she knew something they didn't. "Even if we hadn't capturedt you together, Liza's gathered enough information over the years to put it all together."
The blonde's brow furrowed. "Liza?"
"Qui. A nickname for my cousin as we were growing up. I'm a few years younger and Liza was easier to say."
She let the information sink in. "Kublek."
The French woman grinned even wider. "She said you were quick, I'm glad to see it's true. We won't have to waste time beating the bush as you Americans say." She kept her hands clasped behind her as she took a few steps closer to where the guards held her in place. Beth heard Daryl's chains rattle behind her. "It had been years since I'd seen her last. She moved to America for that putain husband of hers, and when the dead rose I assumed she was lost. Imagine my surprise when my Liza arrived alive, and with hope of a cure no less. And now here you are," she said as she gestured towards the younger woman.
"You had no idea I would come here," Beth bit out.
Genet laughed. "Fate, mon cher. Liza was supposed to bring you here a year ago after taking control of your Republic, but she failed. And yet here you are anyway. Exactly where you're supposed to be."
"It's not fate, you're just a self-righteous bitch." Daryl's low timbre was nearly a growl but it didn't deter the woman at all.
Genet cut her eyes to him and smiled again in a way that made Beth have to suppress a shudder. "Destiny, brought you both here Mr. Dixon. I see that now."
If there wasn't so much tension between the occupants in the room she would've rolled her eyes. "That so?"
With a grin that showed her teeth, the French woman turned back to Beth. "Because with him," she said as she nodded towards Daryl, "you will cooperate. And with you, he will. Without each other this would have been so much harder for us all. So you see," she smiled widely. "Fate."