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ROSALINE HUMMED as maggie made her way downstairs. apparently, andrea had offered to stay with beth. lori and her didn't think that was the best idea, but they couldn't object as she had already gone upstairs.
after a few minutes, maggie decided to go back up. the sound of glass shattering caught the gir's attention. quickly her head snapped to where lori was standing, "you hear that?" the woman stopped, taking a good listen as to what the noises were coming from the second floor, "come on." rosaline urged speeding up the stairs.
the two burst in the room, lori's eyes widening, "maggie?"
"she's in there. i heard glass!" the other girl kept pounding on the door, demanding her younger sister to open it. beth's quiet sobs could be heard from the other side. she was trying to commit suicide again.
"beth, come out please, think about maggie." rosaline pleaded along with them, in hopes of getting the girl to give up and come out.
maggie started to become panicked, "don't do this beth, don't do this. open up, please!"
the sobbing only continued.
realization came into lori's eyes, "we left her with andrea." the older woman turned to her, "where's a key?" maggie started murmuring to herself, going through her cupboards shakily searching for a key to the door. the clattering of items echoed in the room.
"i don't know." she finally said, opening the cupboards before going back to the door, "beth honey, please open the door. i'm not mad. i'm not mad, beth."
rosaline's eyes scanned the room, she spotted a long metal stick, it looked like it was used for poking a fireplace in order to get the flames to rise. she tapped lori on the back passing it to her.
"maggie." lori warned, causing the girl to step back.
lori pried the door open, revealing the young blonde girl standing there, shaking clasping her bloodied wrist.
she cried, "i'm sorry." maggie didn't waste time. she went to hug her younger sister, rubbing her hand up and down her back in order to get beth to calm down.
rosaline placed a hand on her forehead, turning away. relief washed over them. beth had given up on her attempt and realized that there was something worth sticking around for. she had hope - that's all that mattered at that moment.
"okay. it's okay." maggie reassured, guiding her out of the bathroom to go treat her wound.
"here, i'll do it for you." rosaline offered, "you go wash up and clam down."
the brown-haired girl guided the blonde into the living room, lori passed her the needed materials for her to patch beth up.
rosaline nodded thanks to her, "can you get her a glass of water too?" she asked then turned to the younger girl, "give me your hand."
maggie placed a glass on the table before walking outside to meet andrea. rosaline could hear their infuriated voices.
"how bad is she?" andrea queried.
"it wasn't deep from what it looked like. rosaline is patching her up now." maggie replied.
the green-eyed girl shook her head, before turning to beth. she held her hand out and the girl placed her wrist in her palm timidly, "i'm glad you saw another way." rosaline comforted, beginning to take saline and wiping the cuts down in order to disinfect it. after that, she used a bit of antiseptic cream to prevent infection before stitching it, firmly dressing the wound, and wrapping it in a bandage.
beth watched her work carefully and admired how gentle she was, "thank you- and i'm sorry." she apologized.
"no honey, don't be sorry. i'm glad you're okay, your sister would've been distraught if you weren't." rosaline soothed, whilst finishing off the wrapping, "we're gonna need to change this every day if the bleeding doesn't stop. make sure it doesn't get infected, okay?"
she nodded, "you're good at this, but i never saw you work like this before."
"there wasn't really a need. i patched daryl up when he needed his dressing redone. i used to study medicine." rosaline explained, smiling at her.
"you should ask my dad to teach you some stuff if you want." beth offered, finally making some conversation.
rosaline grinned at her suggestion, glad that the girl was relieving the tension by sparking up a chat with her, "i'll do that. you just rest okay?"
"okay."
suddenly, hershel rushed into the room checking over his daughter, he took a look at her bandaged wrist before turning to the brown-haired girl, "you did that? you know how?"
"studied medicine before the world went to..." she stopped herself from cursing, "this. they let us do practicals."
"i trust you've done it properly?" hershel asked earning a nod of confirmation, "good."
"daddy, you should teach her more, so there's more help if anyone is injured." beth suggested from her seat.
the old man took a long glance at rosaline, "would you be up to it?"
she nodded, "of course. it'll come in handy if you're busy and we get more than one person that's injured."
"it's settled then - for now, beth, go rest," he instructed, guiding the girl upstairs.
rosaline slowly walked outside just to see maggie block andrea from entering, "stay away from us. don't you dare step foot inside this house ever again." maggie stared her down with a deathly look. if looks could kill... rosaline shivered. she wouldn't wanna be in her place.
andrea only gaped at her in bewilderment, before glancing at lori. the woman didn't say anything, clearly still angered by their earlier argument. andrea nodded before walking away from them.
rosaline eyed maggie, "she's going to be fine. i got her stitched up, your dad came to check and went to put her to bed."
"thank you so much." maggie hugged her before lori turned to her.
"i'm not going to say she was right, but beth has made her choice. she wants to live and now she knows it." she reiterated, "and sometimes you have to cross the line."
the girl seemed to understand her words, nodding, "mmm." the three entered the house.
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rosaline heard rhaegar bark as a car pulled up on the driveway. exchanging a few words with lori, she looked outside to see rick and shane pull up. when they opened the boot, the boy, randall was still in there.
they took him off to the shed.
around half an hour passed before everyone started gathering. rosaline studied the group for a moment, noticing daryl's absence. she gazed at rick, "where's daryl?"
shane answered hands on his belt, "he's having a little 'talk' with our guest, your dog went along too."
her eyes locked onto the barn. a talk, huh? she knew exactly what the definition of 'talk' meant for shane. she shook her head at him before starting for the barn. the closer she got, the more she could hear the banging of someone's head against the hard wood and the snapping of teeth.
daryl was beating that kid for answers and using rheagar to help.
silently, she opened the door to the barn, letting the slightest beam of light in, although, that didn't seem to catch daryl's attention. he kept throwing punches at randall who was laying on the floor preparing for another beating whilst holding rhaegar by the scruff. the marksman decided to pull out the knife she had given to him back out on the highway as he asked her dog to stay put.
"uh, no no no no no no no no... come on man!" randall practically begged.
"how many?!" daryl roared in his face, slamming the knife into the soft grass below them, practically scaring the life out of the kid.
"uh, thirty! thirty! thirty guys!" randall answered hastily.
"where?"
"uh.." he didn't answer straight away. daryl ripped off the dressing on his leg, causing randall to scream in agony, "i don't know! i swear!" daryl placed his knife under one of the stitches, "we were never in any place more than a night!"
he prepared to tear the stitch out, "scouting? planning on staying local?"
"i... i don't know! they left me behind." the boy insisted. rosaline couldn't look at the scene any longer.
"you ever pick off a scab? start real slow at first..." daryl began, making randall squirm under him in fear, "sooner or later you just gotta rip it off. or my four-legged pal back there can finish the job."
she stepped through pushing rhaegar out the barn door, "daryl..." she said.
"yeah?" he asked, continuing.
"he's scared. he doesn't know."
however, randall decided to give in, "okay! okay! they have weapons. heavy stuff, automatics, but i didn't do anything!" he stammered.
daryl ignored rosaline, "your boys shot at my boys, tried to take this farm." now that the two had made up, he'd do anything to keep the farm safe, he wasn't going to risk her or anyone's safety back at camp. the redneck refused to give anyone that option, "you just went along for the ride? you're trying to tell me you're innocent?"
"yes!" randall shouted, breathing heavily, "these people took me in. not just guys! a whole group of 'em. men and women, kids too! just like you people."
rosaline stood up, placing a hand on daryl's shoulder, prompting him to move away from the injured boy. daryl stiffened, so she put her hand down, scared of causing another outburst.
"thought i'd have a better chance with them, you know? but we go out, scavenge, just the men - one night we found this little campsite. a man and his two daughters. teenagers. real young, real cute." randall started to explain.
daryl had just turned to rosaline, looking her up and down checking if she was okay subconsciously. he hadn't seen her for a few hours. however when randall started telling his story he whipped straight back around, his brows knitted together sending the boy the deadliest glare imaginable.
"the daddy had to watch while these guys... they," he stopped, "and they didn't even kill them afterwards. they just made him watch as his daughters. they just, they just... left him there. no, but i didn't touch those girls, i swear!"
the marksman couldn't take the story anymore and he squared randall straight in the jaw knocking him over.
randall yelped, stammering, "please! please, you gotta believe me man." his eyes met rosaline's "you, do you believe me?"
"don't talk to her." daryl kicked him in the gut.
"i'm not like that." he cried out, "i ain't like that. please. please you gotta believe me."
daryl kicked him again. harder. randall screamed in pain. he punched him.
"daryl, enough, please." she asked a bit more sternly, "he's just a kid! you don't need to beat him to death. neither did you need to put my dog up to the job."
the girl placed a hand on his back. he turned to her swiftly, but she didn't falter. his eyes softened and he grumbled a 'sorry' under his breath before taking his crossbow and walking out with her from the barn. rosaline made a mental note to come to clear the kid up later.
whilst they were strolling back to the group, daryl glanced at her, "don't go near him."
it's almost as if he had read her mind.
"what's he going to do? kill me with his hands tied behind his back?" she taunted, bumping into him, "didn't rick say he said he went to school with maggie? he's a kid, you don't have to worry."
he scratched the stubble on his chin, "still."
she sighed, shaking her head. the pair approached the group which was waiting by the trees.
daryl spoke first, "boy there's got a gang. thirty men. they have heavy artillery and they aren't looking to make friends. they roll through here, our boys are dead." he looked to the women, "and your women, they're gonna wish they were."
"what did you do?" carol questioned, jerking her chin to the blood on his hand. his knuckles were bruised too.
going to have to clean that for him. he won't do it himself. rosaline noted in her mind.
daryl looked down before swinging his gaze back to her. rosaline decided to interrupt, "he started beating him for answers. i had to bring him out." she gave him a pointed look.
carol turned away in disappointment. the rest of them shook their heads.
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annnddd randall is back! rosaline doesn't accept the way that daryl is getting information out of him. she's also planning on disobeying rick to go patch the kid up. she hates watching other people suffer, perhaps she's too good for her own safety.
remember to vote and comment, it helps the story a lot! <3
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