Bethany Sutton Chapter 16

Beth sat in the waiting room of the ER. She’d been informed by the staff that Daryl had been taken back for surgery but that had been nearly two hours ago. She supposed that a lack of word was a good thing. It meant he was still alive. Had he died someone would have come out by now to inform her.

At first Beth had paced the floor, unable to sit still for more than a few minutes at a time. Now she remained seated, unable to imagine having the strength or energy to get to her feet. She felt powerless, scared, and drained.

“When a person is in love the way Daryl loves you, they’ll raise their fists to God and the Devil alike to hang on,” Andrea said. “A person in love will do anything to keep the one they love happy. He’ll make it back to you.”

“What if he doesn’t, Andrea?”

Andrea considered the question for a moment, her hand covering Beth’s. “Then you’ll suffer. You’ll hurt, you’ll be angry, and then you’ll heal. It seems impossible now but you’ll move on. You’ll never forget but you will heal.”

It was six a.m. when the doctor came to speak with Beth. She had longed to see him appear with news about Daryl. Now she was afraid of what he would say.

“Mr. Dixon suffered quite a bit of damage to his shoulder and some damage to his right lung. A bullet fragment came close to his heart but we’ve removed it. He’s critical but stable.”

“When can I see him?”

“Are you related to him?”

“I’m his girlfriend. I’m the only family he has.”

“He’s unconscious and will be for quite awhile. I can allow you just a couple of minutes with him but then you’ll have to leave.”

“We’ll be here,” Lori said, kissing Beth on the forehead.

She looked tiny and scared as she followed behind the doctor. Lori watched her until the doors swung shut, closing Beth off from sight.

“You okay?” Andrea asked, rubbing Lori’s back as she leaned forward, her elbows on her legs, her head down.

“No. It’s been a bad night.”

“I’m sorry,” Andrea said softly. “I’m so sorry.”

...

Rick sat at the desk in the command hub. He’d managed to get some of his systems back up and running. He now had eyes on most of the yard and the grounds, and all of the interior of the house. He counted three intruders. All three were cops from Senoia. One was Brigid Mercer.

“Michonne, Mercer is heading for the rear garage. The armored truck is gone,” said Rick. Both Michonne and Shane could hear him through the earpieces they wore.

“I saw Lori drive off. I think she got Beth out,” said Michonne.

“Where’s Andrea?” Shane asked.

“I haven’t seen her. She could be with Lori, helping protect Daryl,” said Michonne.

“There’s a dead man and a lot of blood in the rear garage,” Rick said. “We need to establish contact with Lori and find out what happened. Okay, Shane, you’ve got two men in the upcoming hall that leads to the kitchen, on your left.”

Shane didn’t respond. He was keeping quiet so as to keep the element of surprise. Rick watched as he halted at the corner and peered around.

“Take the shot,” said Rick. “They attacked our safe haven. They don’t get out of this alive.”

Shane came around the corner where both men were talking, their guns lowered, their guard down, and opened fire. He took both men out with head shots since he could see they both had on armor.

“Mercer is the last one,” Rick said.

“I’m on my way to Michonne’s location as backup,” Shane said. “Fuck. I’d really hoped she was one of the good guys.”

“Noted,” replied Rick.

Michonne stood in the shadows. “I see her,” Michonne whispered.

“Careful, Baby. Don’t let her get the drop on you.”

“Never,” she answered.

Rick was tense as he watched Mercer come out to search the yard. Mercer froze with her back to Michonne when she heard the click of the gun.

“Don’t move,” Michonne said. “Drop your weapon and lace your hands behind your head.”

Mercer failed to respond. Instead she stood perfectly still.

“You know I’ll kill you,” Michonne said. “Drop it.”

“You must be Michonne,” Mercer said.

The gun slipped from her grip. That was when Rick realized she had something slipping out of her sleeve.

“Knife!” Rick shouted.

Michonne had just enough time to fall back as Mercer brought her right arm around in a deadly arc. The knife in her hand would have slashed across Michonne’s throat had she moved just a second slower. Mercer’s foot lashed out while Michonne was off balance, kicking the gun from her hand. Another spin on her heel and her booted foot caught Michonne in the chest.

“Mercer!” Shane shouted, just as she was about to drive the knife down on Michonne.

Instead of stopping and surrendering she took off across the yard, disappearing into the inky darkness by the fence. Shane fired but Rick wasn’t sure he’d managed to hit her.

“You okay?” Shane demanded.

“I’m fine, go. Go!”

Shane ran after Mercer, who had disappeared through a breach in the fence. Rick felt a cold sense of dread in his stomach at that. Only he and his team knew of that breach. Or so he’d thought.

“Get back in. Come in, now, to the hub. I’m calling Jacqui and Axel back in from the Marsden case.”

“On our way,” Michonne said.

They arrived at the hub a minute later. Most of the screens were dark but Rick had managed to get some of them up and running. He didn’t like the information they displayed as his nimble fingers danced across the keyboard.

“The house is clear?” Shane asked, coming in and locking the door behind him.

“Clear,” Rick confirmed.

“What are you looking at?”

“I’ve been looking into the breach,” Rick explained. “I’ve uncovered evidence that we were compromised from the inside.”

“A traitor? No. Not possible,” said Michonne. “None of our people would betray us.”

“Well, one of ours did. I’m no longer sure Beth was the real target,” said Rick.

“Then who was the target?” asked Shane.

“Michonne.”

Michonne shared a lingering look with Shane.

“Someone on our team put a hit out on me?” she finally asked.

“That’s right. I’m having trouble reaching Axel and Jacqui. Call Andrea and Lori in. Have them bring Beth back. Send one of our associates in to stand guard over Daryl, just in case, though I really don’t think he’s in danger.”

“Whom shall I send in?”

“Call Tara. She’ll go in on short notice.”

…

The control hub now had three more people sitting in the roller chairs under the light of the monitors. Rick brought them up to speed on what had happened while they were at the hospital and Beth gave him a report on Daryl’s condition.

“Mercer got away?” Lori said. “We should go after her.”

“You sure that’s what you want?” asked Rick in a cool tone.

“What kind of question is that, Rick?”

“She tried to kill Michonne. She even asked her name. How would she get Michonne’s name?” asked Shane.

Lori looked between Rick, Shane, and Michonne. “What are you insinuating here?”

“Mercer received a five-hundred thousand dollar deposit from an untraceable account. She disabled security without setting off a single warning. She even knew about the break in the fence. Beth wasn’t the target. Michonne was, wasn’t she? That’s why Mercer wanted to confirm her identity. That’s why she received that payment.”

Lori looked incredulous. Her shock seemed genuine to Beth, but then she was no expert and could be fooled a lot easier than Rick could.

“You can’t possibly believe I hired Mercer to kill Michonne! If I wanted her dead I would have killed her myself.”

“You haven’t let go, Lori,” said Rick. “You’re still in love with me. I made it clear we’re never getting back together so you--”

“Get over yourself, Rick! Think about what you’re saying. I betrayed the team? I got Jacqui and Axel killed, Daryl shot, put Beth’s life in danger, just so I could get rid of Michonne and have another shot with you?”

“Yeah, you did,” Rick said without hesitation.

“Wait,” Michonne interrupted. “Jacqui and Axel are dead? I thought they were responding to trouble in the Marsden case.”

“God, what did you do?” Rick asked, looking horrified. “Come clean!”

“I didn’t kill Jacqui and Axel. I didn’t try to kill Michonne!” Lori shouted. Her eyes were now red with tears. Beth couldn’t help but believe her.

“I did it,” Andrea said. She spoke softly but the impact of her words were like the aftershock of an atomic bomb. Everyone stared at her in silence.

“I hired Mercer to kill Michonne,” Andrea said. “I gave her the code to get in. I tried to get Jacqui and Axel to leave to the Marsden house but Mercer arrived ahead of schedule and they were killed in a firefight.”

Lori stared at Andrea in disbelief. It was like she was seeing a complete stranger. “Why?”

“For you. If Michonne was out of the way I knew Rick would eventually get back with you,” Andrea explained. “I couldn’t stand seeing you in pain. I thought if I could make that happen you’d finally be happy. I did it because I love you.”

After a few moments of silence Shane finally spoke. He looked right into Andrea’s eyes and said, “I’m calling the cops. They need to come and collect their garbage.”

“You got two people killed and Daryl shot…for love?” Beth said, unable to believe what she’d heard.

Andrea looked defeated. She sounded completely hopeless when she said, “A person in love will do anything to keep the one they love happy.”

…

Beth remained upstairs in the room she shared with Daryl while the police combed the house. They removed bodies, they took statements, and Andrea confessed to her crimes. It was that or die at Rick’s hand. It had taken some convincing from both Michonne and Lori to keep him from killing her.

Now she lay in bed, exhausted, scared that she was going to lose the man she loved to Andrea’s twisted sense of loyalty. Beth had never hated someone as much as she hated Andrea in that moment. She felt sorry for Lori, though. The person she’d loved had betrayed her, and the team, all in the name of loving her.

Two days passed in a blur of waking, trying to eat and usually not, showering, spending the day in the waiting room lest Daryl take a turn for the worse, then returning to the house to do it all again. On the third night the bedroom door opened while Beth was just falling off and her sister Maggie came in to lay down behind her.

Beth had never wept so hard in her life as she did when Maggie’s arms were around her. She and Hershel had been informed of Andrea’s betrayal and the consequences of her actions. Now they were all, the entire team, under the same roof grieving, comforting one another, trying to process what had happened. Beth was just glad to have her family back amongst all the sadness and anger. She longed for Daryl, to feel his strong arms around her and his heart thudding strong and steady beneath her ear.

In the morning Lori came into her room and sat down beside her. “I’m so, so sorry for what happened.”

Beth threw her arms around Lori. “It wasn’t your fault. I don’t blame you, so you shouldn’t blame yourself. Daryl’s gonna pull through. I know it.”

“I’ll stay with you at the hospital,” Lori said. “Maggie and I both will.”

At six o’clock that evening a nurse came to the waiting room and called for Beth. “He’s awake.”

Beth all but ran back to his room. When she came inside she found she could hardly recognize Daryl. He was so pale and his skin slicked with sweat. His face looked oddly swollen. He was alive, and that was all that mattered to Beth.

“Daryl?” she said, taking his hand.

“Not a hot doctor this time,” he said weakly.

“When you get out of here I’ll wear a sexy nurses uniform and make you take your medicine.”

He grinned weakly for a moment, and then sobered up. “No trouble?”

“None,” she said. She’d decided to wait until after his release from the hospital to tell him about Andrea. “I love you, Daryl.”

“I know. I love you, too.”

She was allowed to remain by his side for another hour, most of which he spent sleeping due to the morphine, but Beth never left his side, and she never let go of his hand. 

Epilogue