𝐍𝐄𝐔𝐑𝐎𝐓𝐈𝐂 | 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘭𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘥

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍

𝑵𝑬𝑼𝑹𝑶𝑻𝑰𝑪

𝘊𝘏𝘈𝘗𝘛𝘌𝘙 𝘛𝘏𝘐𝘙𝘛𝘌𝘌𝘕

☼

"What did you do before all this?" 

Delaney lent into the fluffed pillow behind her and fixed the blonde across from her with a look, her dark brow arching high onto her forehead as Beth merely shot her a bright smile. It wasn't like it mattered anymore, what she did before - Beth's genuine interest, however, was not false. Her big blue eyes were searching, seeking and keen for a real answer. "What's it matter?" 

"It matters." Beth answered without a beat, "Who we were before, it doesn't all just go away..." She shifted to face Delaney better, folding her legs beneath her, back to the door of the clinical room. She fiddled with the edge of her stained white cast, "I sing. I still sing." She explained, with a half smile and a shrug of her shoulder.

"I was a mechanic." Delaney told her, searching her face in a similar way as hers had been, finding the kindness still so evident on Beth's fair features, "I worked in an auto shop with a bunch of degenerates." She shrugged a shoulder, plucking at the waffle knit blanket they were both sitting on, "Wasn't much, but I enjoyed it" 

"Hey, Del, what did you do before all of this." Noah's question had reminded her of the similar one she'd been asked by Beth in Grady Memorial, when it had been just the two of them surviving. It stung, admittedly, but no memory of Beth didn't sting at least a little. She could still picture that easy going smile if she tried, so affectionate and understanding, no hint of anything malicious. 

She knew he was trying to fill the unbearable silence inside of the car, finding it to be a little bit too quiet. Tyreese had finished talking now, his story about his father a little heavy hitting, but by no means difficult to listen to - it had made them think. Of family, of lessons, of anything else but what they were about to do. They were taking Noah home, driving him to Richmond, Virginia to fulfill not only Beth's last wish, but to also get a kid home to his family. With that good deed they hoped that this community would be willing to take them in too, to create a safe place for Judith and Carl, and for somewhere for them to live. 

Rick and Glenn were the other two people inside of the car, Delaney being the last. Glenn had been mostly silent the the entire drive, sitting in the far back, listening and thinking. He had been sullen since Beth's death, no different really to anyone else, but Delaney had decided that she dearly missed the smile he had worn before, in those days following Terminus. His dull frown did not suit him, but it didn't look as if it was going to go anywhere, any time soon. Rick, he wasn't sad, at least not visibly. Delaney knew that the death of Beth had left something aching in him, but he didn't let it show, not after those tears had fallen in Grady. No, instead he was choosing anger over anything else. 

And his anger, this time, was directed at her.

Delaney and he had gotten into a rather colourful argument about whether or not she was going to go, and she had won it fair and square. With her barbed words and her furious reminding that she was not his friend or problem, Delaney had won. And in doing so she had ticked Rick off. He hadn't looked at her once since sitting down beside her in the back, his gaze strictly out of the dusty window, watching things pass them by.