You thought death could keep me from you? // A Bethyl fanfiction

Chapter V - I love you

After having opened up to someone you can either feel one of two ways: 

1 - You feel uplifted and as light as a feather. You feel the bond each other growing stronger like a muscle. It's like a drug; you keep going back for more, getting anything and everything off your chest. 

2 - You feel awkward and embarrassed, as if the other is judging you incessantly for your past actions. Perhaps confiding in them was the wrong choice? It doesn't matter, you tell yourself. But it does, because you can't help but feel paranoid, are they looking at you differently? Are they distancing themselves from you? If only you could go back in time. 

For Beth Greene however, it was an odd mixture of both results. Sure, she felt lighter, but she was also sure that a weight was now attached to her ankle, so every time she'd try to float away, it'd pull her back down. They didn't look at her differently, except Hoshi and Raegan kept asking about her accident, to which Beth would reply, in the most truthful fashion, I don't know, because she really didn't know. Everything surrounding that moment was a blur, she remembered bits and pieces; Rick's beard, Daryl's tense shoulders, Carol's relief, the heat from Noah's body as she embraced him, the anger she felt when she stabbed Dawn, the sound of a gun going off, and then nothing. The next thing she can remember is the sky. Then waking up in the hospital.

After a few more hours the mid afternoon heat finally cooled, it was well into the night when they arrived at the coast of Savannah. It was desolate, nothing living remained; the city had been bombed just like Atlanta, and now the dead had claimed the land as their own, patrolling it like guard dogs. 
They mutually decided to camp out in a small fishing shack as to not wake the rest of the group who were sleeping in the docked boat. 
After having walked for a week straight, Beth welcomed the comfort of sleep in a damp, rotting shack that smelt mildly of fish. 

When she woke it was light outside, and hot, meaning she had slept into the afternoon. Groaning she got up and stretched, her joints popping and her muscles aching. 
The first thing that she noticed as she walked out of the fishing shack was how strangely pretty Savannah looked in the day; the grey walls of the city buildings still stood high in the sky, despite their crumbling foundations.

The fresh sea water felt cleansing as she splashed her face and arms. 
"Oh good you're finally up. We thought you might have died." Came a sarcastic voice from behind her, Raegan. 
She ignored her and started untying her laces, she hadn't cleaned since she left Grady and quite frankly the freezing water felt so much better than the sweltering heat that she could have dived straight in. 
Raegan laughed from behind her, "There's a shower in the boat you know." 
Beth stopped what she was doing and turned to the grinning girl; her hair was untied and fell just below her breasts. 
Without a word, Beth stood up and walked over to the white boat, swaying on the crystal water.
It was quite big, probably not quite big enough for all of them, but sleeping on the floor was still heavenly compared to the cold, damp ground she was used to. 
Inside Hoshi was sitting at a small table chirping to a smaller girl opposite her.
"Beth!" Hoshi exclaimed, clapping her hands together, "We were just talking about you." 
She motioned to the girl sitting opposite her; it was Aiko, her sister. She looked like a younger version of Hoshi save for her long hair pulled into a high, slightly lopsided ponytail.
"Aiko, right?" Beth smiled at the stranger. 
"Yeah, nice to meet you." She shook her hand before returning to her previous conversation with Hoshi, muttering something about their food supply.
Beth's mind wandered as she looked around the cabin, to the right was a small kitchenette with the dining table in the middle and to the left was a green sofa pushed up against the wall, it was facing an old television set that probably didn't get used much.
There were stairs behind the dining table, hidden by a half wall, that lead to the bedrooms and bathrooms. Which reminded Beth what she was supposed to do in the first place.
"I'm gonna have a shower, if that's alright?" She asked Hoshi who seemed to have forgotten about her presence all together.
"Oh sure it's down the stairs to the left."