Remembering (A Bethyl FanFic)

Act I Prologue

People have survived gunshots before. It's pretty common actually. The doctors said that eighty to ninety-five percent of victims survive if they make it to the hospital with a beating heart. Those odds, of course, decrease substantially after sustaining a gunshot to the head: only five percent survive.

Beth Greene lay motionless in Daryl's arms. To him, she had been a mission to keep his sanity. He'd tracked her down from Father Gabrielle's church after Terminus. He had almost gotten her back when she decided to become 'strong' and was shot in the head with a 9mm round, a fairly small caliber.

Daryl could only stare at the one person he cared about, now limp in his arms. He'd killed Dawn, but that wasn't enough. He wanted her back. After moments of silence, the group dispersed, leaving Daryl, Maggie, and Rick alone with Beth's body.

"Wh-what do we do?" Maggie sobbed.

"Burying her wouldn't seem right," Rick said. "She doesn't deserve to be put in the dirt. She should rest in piece, comfortably."

"Could they fix her?" Daryl broke his silence.

"I-I don't think so," said Maggie, pointing to Beth's wound, "Her head- it's shot open. We'd need a brain surgeon."

"What if-" Daryl started before Rick cut him off with a solemn raise of a hand.

"I think we should leave her here," he said, "It's clean and safe. And she can't turn anyway."

Daryl sighed in resignation. Maggie stood up and took Beth's arm, which had fallen out of Daryl's arms, and folded it over Beth's stomach. For a second Maggie thought she felt a pulse, only to dismiss it as herself being in a panicked, upset state. Beth was gone and there wasn't anything that could bring her back. Daryl stood and walked back to the door with Beth. He entered and approached Dr. Edwards.

"What is it?" Edwards quietly asked.

"We'd like to leave her here, in the morgue," Daryl mumbled, tears still rolling down his face. Edwards led Daryl to the morgue and set up the embalming table. They took her belongings and wrapped a tag on her toe. Daryl took a pen and simply wrote Greene on the tag. Daryl thanked Edwards and asked him to guide him back to the entrance. A nurse entered moments later and put Beth in a cabinet with a sheet over her. Labeling the cabinet Jane Doe#3, the nurse closed the door and left the room.

"What happened to the body," Edwards sighed when he reentered the morgue after guiding that redneck out. He searched the cabinets, slamming closed the wrong ones. He needed to embalm it before it rotted. He slammed Jon Doe#2 closed. Which one was she in? Slamming shut Jane Doe#1 in frustration he cursed. Then thud.  thud. Thud. THUD. Bashing came from a drawer for a third unidentified woman. Edwards drew a knife and opened the drawer. He slid the corpse out only to find a small foot bashing on the metal rack. On the toe was Greene.