
She sits quietly, and for a long time the only sound is their soft breathing, the clink of the comb on the edge of the cup, the soft scrape of his nails against her scalp, the brush of his fingers against her neck.



She sits quietly, and for a long time the only sound is their soft breathing, the clink of the comb on the edge of the cup, the soft scrape of his nails against her scalp, the brush of his fingers against her neck.



“You’re like a magpie, man, where do you even find this stuff?” Glenn is the only one who ever really comments on it, but Beth finds him later, when he’s brooding away from the group. He doesn’t know why he does it, exactly, only he remembers being like this as a kid, bringing home pretty rocks and bouquets of weeds to his Ma, remembers the smile that lit her face even though it was all garbage. Remembers the line of gifts on her bedside table, before things got real bad.
– Daryl likes to give out trinkets. It’s not a thing. Mostly it’s not a thing.


She hears the blast go off and then everything is numb. In those brief moments between the light and the dark she feels everything and nothing all at once. Her life flashes before her eyes and she sees all that has happened and everything that could have been.


Together for half a year after the prison fell, Beth and Daryl finally find their way to the ASZ. The reunion is joyful, but the adjustment is difficult in ways they could never have predicted. And maybe it doesn’t need to be. Maybe they need to stop closing doors and open some new ones.


She should have run the moment she heard the sound of a vehicle in the distance. She should have already been hidden when the headlights blinded her as she stood in the middle of the road. She should have done a lot of things before that black car stopped in front of her and a man stepped out of the vehicle, but between her sprained ankle, adrenaline-high from escaping the walkers, and Daryl’s promise that he would meet her on the road, Beth didn’t move.
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