Daryl's Broken Wings

Chapter 22:

Sitting beside her bed in his chair, Daryl watches over Beth while Tara goes to get food for them. Beth hasn't moved or said anything to him- being so drugged she almaost doesn't know how to turn her head and speak. When Daryl reaches for her hand, she jerks her body in his direction and stares deep into his eyes.

"Beth..." Daryl calmly says as he continues to hold her hand between his. "Do you know me?"

At first she shakes her head no, but the longer she looks at him, the more she starts to remember his face and his rough hands.

"Yer...yer the new officer in town...D...Darren?"

"It's Daryl actually. Do you remember when we met?" He asks for no real reason. She looks down at her hand between his and them up at him, blushing.

"Today. I remember you and Rick came to my shop and you never tried anything sweet before..."

Shit. She doesn't remember anything really. Not even Merle or worse, not even Kylie!

"Officer, why am I here?"

"Umm...well, I regret to inform you this, but..."

"What are you doing?" Maggie asks as Tara tries to block her from the room.

"Can you give me a sec, Beth?" Rolling his wheel chair back, he lets go of her hand and takes Maggie out into the hallway, closing the door behind them. "Maggie, please, hear me out."

"One, why are you here and two! Why are you pretending to need a wheel chair?" He looks down at his hands in his lap as Maggie glowers at him.

"I'm paralyzed from the waist down...and I'm here to help Beth."

"I'm not letting you back in there! My sister was raped and doesn't remember anything! You don't get to sneak back in here and tell her some damn lies to make her forgive you like you never cheated on her!"

"Maggie! If you just let me get her understanding what happened! Refresh her memory- I promise I will tell her the truth- about how I hurt her. I'll leave after that and never come back. Never bother anyone in this town again...I'll give everything up so she can have her memory. Just please, let me do this. She thinks it's the day we first met. She relapsed to that point, which means Gareth attacked her on that date which is why she believes it's a year ago. Please Maggie...I'm begging you. For Beth." He folds his hands around hers and pleads to her with his eyes. Maggie nods slowly and then punches Daryl in his arm as hard as she can.

"You get my sister back to where she was. You help her- then you leave. I'll talk to my dad and he'll address the town. If we're gonna do this, we're doing it right." She says with nails in her bite. "The sooner she gets through this the sooner yer gone." Maggie pushes passed his chair and Tara and goes in to see her sister. Daryl follows her and Beth just looks between them curiously.

"Maggie...is everything okay?"

"Yes, Beth. Officer Dixon was just informing me of what happened." Maggie smiles at Daryl and though it looks genuine, Daryl can tell she's never going to smile at him and mean it ever again.

"What did happen, Officer Dixon?" Beth asks sweetky and confused.

"You can call me Daryl- I'm off the clock right now." Beth nods in understanding and he continues. "I have a few questions for you, Beth."

"Okay...I don't know if I'll remember them, but I'll try my best."

"That's all that matters. Okay, are you currently seeing Gareth Andrews?"

"Yes."

"And has he ever done anything to hurt you or anything that made you fear him?" Her face sinks and Daryl and Maggie can see her fear. "You can tell me Beth, I'm a good cop."

"He...he forces me to have sex with him... He...rapes me almost every day." Her eyes fill with tears and Daryl feels terrible having to make her feel this pain again. Maggie covers her mouth and turns away in pain for her sister. Taking her hand, Daryl looks deeply into her eyes and tries to console her with just a glance. "Daryl...why am I in the hospital?"

Maggie jolts around and looks intently at Daryl, waiting to see what his answer will be.

"Beth, there was an accident... Gareth... Harmed you a town over and when you both were driving back, he lost control of the vehicle and sent the car into a tree. He... He didn't make it." It was safer telling her this than what really happened to Gareth. It was safer letting her believe that this wasn't a random act by some random guy, but from a man who had done her wrong so many times. Tears welling up, Beth covers her face and Daryl just rubs her leg gently. Maggie doesn't know if she's crying because of the stories ending, or if it was out of relief that she was free from a rapist. "I'm really sorry, Beth."

Back his chair up, Daryl heads towards the door when Beth shoots up in the bed.

"Daryl wait!"

"Yes, Ms. Greene?" He politely says and Maggie watches the exchange.

"You were walking today...why are you in a wheel chair?" She asks and Daryl sighs.

"Because... My legs were doomed to go soon. It so happened, today was the day the pain over ran strength." True in his words, Daryl smiles and wheels himself out of the room and finds Tara before leaving.

Pain did over run strength today. Instead of being strong and telling Beth the truth, he lied to her so she could avoid the pain that will just come later.