The Walking Dead *Fan Fiction/Bethyl*

Chapter Twenty

I would never forget eyes like those. It was like looking into my past and re-living all the painful memories that made me leave my home in the first place. It was those eyes that comforted me when my brother died, and the ones that took the punches when protecting me from the enraged father. The ones that begged and pleaded me not to go and leave me with the monster, the one that he was also afraid of, the the one he was beginning to become. 

"Martinez." I whispered, covering my mouth to contain a sob that was threatening to escape. His eyes grew wide, and he lowered the bow. 

"Beth.." He said, his voice a sigh. He took a step toward me and that was all it took for Fable to rocket out of my arms and sending me to my back. I slowly pushed myself back up into a sitting position, but I slid back and away from him. It felt unnatural, almost inhuman to do this, but he was different. I was different, and our past couldn't change the way I looked at him now. 

"You've changed." Martinez says, shifting his weight to the right, slinging Daryl's bow over his left shoulder. 

"So have you" I replied with no emotion in my voice. I was simply running on autopilot 

He takes a step towards me and it takes every inch of my every being to not shoot away from him. Instead I just sit still until he kneels beside me. Behind me, Fable whimpers before she slowly crawls over to Daryl. Martinez stretch's his hand towards my face until its resting on my cheek. His fingers curl around my golden hair. I close my eyes and focus on more important moments than this right here, right now. I think about Carol, and Sofia, and how she sacrificed her life so that I could live mine. My mind fast-forwards to last month where I was willing to leave to save the one that I loved. And then now where I would gladly change places with him in a heartbeat. I want to feel his lips on mine, his arms wrapping around me in the protectiveness that only Daryl could possess. What I wanted most to rewind time to when I helped Rick and his group, when I first met all of them. When all this started. If only I would have stayed away, we would have never been in this position. 

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For ten minutes I sat in the uncomfortable position of Martinez touching and playing my with my hair. I could smell the alcohol on his breath the moment he sat down. 

"You've changed so much" He repeats, rubbing my cheek. It burned wherever he touched me, leaving me and my whole body feeling like it was on fire. "Your body has grown into itself, your not just the fourteen year old Beth anymore. It's almost like your different person." 

"I'm not that Beth anymore." I reply, I turn my head to where Fable and Daryl were. "I never was" 

Martinez drops his hand from my cheek and stand up, wobbling a little before he planted his feet firmly to the ground. I was finally able to catch my breath that I hadn't realized that I was holding. "How old are you?" He asks after a moment of silence. 

"Eighteen" I reply, turning my gaze up to him. 

"Four years." He mummers to himself quietly. I watch as he shakes his head until his looks at me. "How long have you been with them?" He asks nodding over to Fable and Daryl.

"I've been with Daryl for seven months, but I've only been with Fable for a month." I say. "They've saved my lives more times than I can count."

"But yet you sit here with an injured leg."

"I tripped." I say crossing my arms and pushing myself up in a standing position. "At least I don't give up. At least I'm not a coward who does someones dirty work!"

"I'm here because your father is worried about you..." He starts.

"Bullshit." I say interrupting him. "My father has never cared for me, not once in my life time. I've been taking care of myself since the birthday you walked out on me. I ran away because I knew I would be safer away from him. Safer away from you."

"Beth-"

My body was pulsing with anger now, and I clenched my fists to keep from lashing out. "You were following us, you have been the whole time. Haven't you?"

"It was-"

"Haven't you?" I scream so loud that I'm surprised that no walkers have come to get us.

His gaze falls to the ground. "Yes", he mummers softly that I can hardly hear him.

"You were the one who pushed Daryl off the cliff." I say, shaking my head. "He recognized you, you know. You were one of the people who killed his brother."

"Him and his people have done nothing but wreck havoc in Woodberry." He states, shifting from side to side. "When they came looking for him and a girl a few months back, we thought that you would be with them. But then we caught one of them, a blonde hair girl. Andrea. She said that you and that bastard Daryl had run off together, leaving them with a horde of walkers. Now If you call me a asshole.. well that was pretty bad to do."

 "Is that what you call it now? Woodberry?" I say ignoring what he says to me. "Or could I call it the Governor town or Shit faced backstabbers that used to be your best friend-"

"Stop" Martinez screams so loud that it catch's me off balance, causing me to fall on my ass. He swings Daryl's bow from off of his back and aims it once again at me. "I won't have you talking about the town, the same people that you grew up with. I wont have it Beth."

"Then you better knock me unconscious, because I'll keep giving you shit, and you can't make me stop."

"Beth-" Martinez whispers

"Do it!"

Martinez lifts Daryl's bow and whacks it at the side of my head, it misses my temple by a hair and scrapes a long line across the bottom of my eye to down my cheek.

"Beth!" I hear Fable scream, but I can feel the drowsiness taking over and for once, it feels good to let go and fade into the darkness.