I Made It!

Chapter 1: Recap

Getting her sweater on and her boots, Beth stares into the mirror and readies herself for whatever might happen. All Dawn told her was some people were coming for her and Carol and that she should be ready.

Ready.

Her life so far had taught her that she wasn't prepared for anything...ever. What with walkers taking over the planet, losing her father to a mad man, getting separated from the group with a man who was far from friendly, and then losing that comfort in some midnight raid under a full moon only to end up here with some psycho person... Huh no, she was never ready for anything. So tucking a pair a surgical scissors in her cast, Beth is finally ready to meet the outcome of this latest endeavor.

It occurs to Beth that these people could be anyone. Okay not anyone- at least it remotely has to be Rick, if he even knows she's alive let alone in a hospital in down town Atlanta. She hasn't seen her fearless leader in what he assumes two months. Has it really been that long? The reason two months sounds correct is that in two months she's gotten stronger, what with spending time with Daryl.

Daryl.

She almost forgot about him. Nah, how could she forget about the man who saved her life so many times. The rough man who she held in the doorway to her prison cell when he so gently told her that her boyfriend had died, but it was he who needed comforting. The man who chased down booze for her because she failed to sip the slightest amount of peach schnapps- all because she could now that her father was gone and she wished to break a rule, but soon found herself wallowing in her own tears cause defying him was more painful than watching the Governor behead him for the small population to see. Daryl held her hand, carried the weight of her sorrows and pain on his back- prepared a lovely dinner- though it contained only soda and pigs feet- for her and carried her around a funeral home: he was someone she could never forget. He was a friend, a guardian, and yet, maybe, just maybe, she wished he was more than that.

Who am I kidding? Daryl could never feel anything remotely close to love for me.

"Beth." Dr. Edwards pokes his head in her room, pulling her from her memories with a small grin. "It's almost time. Can you help your friend?"

"Yeah...Dr. Edwards..." She softly calls to him. He was the closest thing, besides Noah, that she would consider a friend in this Hell hole. True, she attempted to kill him, which she put a stop to once she found Carol in her presence, unconscious and not doing so well, but he was still kind to her on many occasions that made it hard for Beth not to see him as a friend. "Why is she doing this?"

"What do you mean?" He steps in the room and leans against the closet door. His tall frame seems more slumped than usual.

Maybe he's worried about this too. Maybe...maybe he knows what kind of trick this is.

"Why is she all of a sudden so willing to let me and Carol leave? She didn't let Noah and I leave before...why now?"

"I don't know. All I know is that there are people out there... Bad people? Good people? I'm not sure, but there people who are twisting her hands. I don't think she has much of a choice."

Bad people?

He leaves without a second word and leaves Beth to wonder what lies for her out in that hallway.