It was so much fun to participate in the 2021 @bethylbigbang event! I had a wonderful author partner, @raginglittlehurricane​. Getting to work with her to create some art pieces for her fic Lydia, Oh Lydia was such an amazing experience. While all of the edits have been shared with her chapter posts, I wanted to take the opportunity to post my edits to my blog, all together! Lydia, Oh Lydia can be found here.

(Please do not repost without permission. No cropping or editing. Thanks.)

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

My piece for the Bethyl Big Bang! 

In honor of the wonderful fic “dust off your highest hopes” by @maviswrites ❤️

(edit by the incredible @boltthrutheheart for @bethylbigbang)

Beth and Daryl are on the run. The prison has fallen, their whole family could be dead, and they're just fighting to stay alive. Amidst the chaos, they find the last thing they're expecting - a young girl, all alone, half feral and filled with strange notions about walkers.

Beth and Daryl take in Lydia, and she ends up changing the course of their whole lives.

"I'm sorry," Beth tells her softly, and she's not even sure for what. Just that she is. "You deserve somewhere safe Lydia, and I hate myself for not being able to give you that. But we're not going to stop looking. We won't stop searching. We'll find somewhere."

"But what if we don't?" Lydia demands, her chin quivering. "What if they're all gone?"

"Then we'll make another one." the words escape Beth before she can think about them, about if they're a promise she can't keep, but once she's said them she realizes that she means them. They will. This group they have, it's a good one. Bigger and stronger than before. The right people. "We can build a place, Lydia. We can do it. You... You can do it."

"No, I can't." Lydia looks at her, panic stricken. "I'm bad. I'm bad, I'm bad! Bad things happen because of me!"

Beth lets go of the bottle and it washes away downstream in the blink of an eye, but she could care less. Instead, she uses both hands to hold tight to Lydia, squeezing her. Lydia doesn't fight back, though Beth can feel her shaking. Beth just hugs her, then presses several tender kisses to the top of Lydia's head before she leans back.

"You..." she starts thickly, "are the best kid I know, Lydia. The best. The best. You will know safety, and love, and home. I'm sure of it. I'll make sure of it. You will, and you are going to get the chance to be good, and happy, and loved. I swear. I swear."

(edit by the incredible @boltthrutheheart for @bethylbigbang)

Beth and Daryl are on the run. The prison has fallen, their whole family could be dead, and they're just fighting to stay alive. Amidst the chaos, they find the last thing they're expecting - a young girl, all alone, half feral and filled with strange notions about walkers.

Beth and Daryl take in Lydia, and she ends up changing the course of their whole lives.

"Put your backs to the walls on either side of the car now." the voice outside the car is confident, commanding. Beth shifts onto the balls of her feet, tensed, but she's so focused on the door that she doesn't register the footsteps on the roof until the hatch is pulled open and sunlight floods in, temporarily blinding her as she looks up.

A metal canister glints in the light, rattling as it drops down onto the floor. Beth feels like she's swimming through water or molasses, knowing what is about to happen before it does. Daryl's body collides with hers right as Abraham bellows,

"Move!"

Daryl has knocked her and Lydia to the floor, his torso covering them. Beth doesn't even feel the pain from the shock; whatever gas is in the canister, it's filling the car quickly, making her limbs heavy and her head swim. Beneath her she feels that Lydia is shaking, but how can she reassure her that things are okay? How can she keep lying to her like that?

Through the fog, Beth can make out what's happening. Everyone has scattered to the corners and the far sides. She can make out Glenn, his arms flung wide in front of Maggie and Tara. Abraham, in front of Rosita and Eugene. Bob, protecting Sasha. Rick, staggering defensively in front of Michonne and Carl.

Protecting their little families.

Beth only has a second to realize that Daryl is in front of her and Lydia before the gas makes her head spin and her eyes burn.

(picset by@lumierelalune for@bethylbigbang)

Beth Greene has one year to break into the music scene. To do so, her sister Maggie tells her to join a band. But Beth doesn't know what to make of the drummer who is clearly in love with her sister, the bass player who is the loudest and crudest person she's ever met, and the guitar player with deep blue eyes and messy black hair and a scowl that hides a heart of gold underneath it.

"We'll keep at it when we're on tour," he declared, with the air of promising her something grand, "but I don't think anyone's gonna be fucking with you, Cinderella."

"Thanks," Beth said dryly and Daryl turned on his heel, walking into the house without a further word backwards. Beth glanced at Merle, mostly to see what he was going to do, but stopped when she saw the look on his face. She was accustomed to the many expressions he sported, but this one was far more... Gentle than she was used to. It seemed misplaced on him.

"You got somewhere to be?" he asked her instead and Beth shook her head, miffed. "C'mon then." he headed towards the truck. Beth followed, bamboozled by this turn of events.

She'd never been in Daryl's truck. Or maybe it was Merle's. She wasn't quite certain if there was a way of distinguishing who owned what between them. But it smelled like Daryl did; the faint smell of smoke, dust, oil, and something else. It reminded Beth of the smell of her father's work trucks and she slid across the scratchy bench seat, watching as Merle twiddled with dials and started the thing up.

"How come you're taking me home?" Beth asked, hoping she didn't sound ungrateful. But Merle seemed to know what she was referencing. He gave her a sidelong look before asking, bluntly,

"You wanna fuck my brother?"

Beth and Daryl meet, and fall in love. There’s only one problem. Daryl thinks Beth is older than she is. Based on the song Young Girl by Gary Puckett and the union Gap.​

(edit by the incredible @boltthrutheheart for @bethylbigbang)

Beth and Daryl are on the run. The prison has fallen, their whole family could be dead, and they're just fighting to stay alive. Amidst the chaos, they find the last thing they're expecting - a young girl, all alone, half feral and filled with strange notions about walkers.

Beth and Daryl take in Lydia, and she ends up changing the course of their whole lives.

Beth feels lightheaded from the adrenaline and the assumption that she and Lydia are some… Harem to Daryl. She hopes Lydia doesn’t understand. She hopes Lydia has never been given a reason to understand such things. She’s not sure how they’re going to get out of these. She doesn’t see how they can; they’re outnumbered, with weapons already drawn on them.

She forgets that Daryl is a Dixon.

“You’re gonna wanna walk away,” he tells the leader, without so much as glancing at the other men. “‘fore someone gets hurt.”

The leader blinks, looking at least a little bit surprised at the confidence in Daryl’s voice. Beth sees the briefest moment of hesitation in his eyes, as he half-glances at the other men. Then he looks at Beth, who does her best to shield Lydia with her body. Apparently satisfied with his observations, he reaches down and grabs a gun from his waistband, walking to place it at Daryl’s head.

“Now,” he says shortly, “you wanna die on your feet like a man, or on your knees like a coward? Or you wanna live, like a miserable sonna-bitch, and watch as we claim your girls, again and again and again and again? Cause I’ll let you live, but you’re gonna watch. So what’s it gonna be?”

Then several things happen at once.

(picset by@lumierelalune for@bethylbigbang)

Beth Greene has one year to break into the music scene. To do so, her sister Maggie tells her to join a band. But Beth doesn't know what to make of the drummer who is clearly in love with her sister, the bass player who is the loudest and crudest person she's ever met, and the guitar player with deep blue eyes and messy black hair and a scowl that hides a heart of gold underneath it.

“Play the melody?” Beth requested quietly and he looked at her, kneeling in the middle of the room, smiling at him in the evening sunlight. She was glowing. He was powerless. So he began to play the notes that he’d composed to fit Beth’s lyrics. A soft song, perfectly suited to Beth’s voice when she wanted to be slow and gentle. The type Andrea had tried for, what just came naturally to Beth.

“Like that?” Daryl muttered, trying to find the right tempo. Beth nodded along with her eyes half shut, and then she was singing, his words and hers together, anything's worth trying, say I was in your dream last night, do you hate what you see like I do?

It was so beautiful, so lovely. Just like her. Daryl was playing and she was singing, her eyes drifting shut as she swayed on her knees back and forth, one hand raised. The sunset through her window, the hazy summer air, how her hair gleamed and the way her lips formed the words, something they’d made together and now it was here, intimate and everything, beyond what even Daryl could have imagined.

The end of the song, they had decided, would end with soft ‘oohs’, the kind that Beth did best. Daryl, mesmerized, watched her as she finished, slowly opening her eyes as a smile unfurled across her face. The last note seemed to linger in the air between them, the song remaining almost… Unfinished. Like words left unspoken. He noticed everything about her, hypersensitive to the glint in her blue eyes, the freckles on her nose, the blush that crossed her cheeks.

Was it his imagination or was she drawing closer? Was she leaning towards him, eyelashes kissing her lower lids? Was this happening or was it all a dream, desperately trying to rationalize the pull he felt towards her? He tried to fight it. He did. But Beth was right there and she was smiling and he was surrounded by everything that just felt like her, and he wanted to kiss her so badly that his eyes fluttered shut and —

After turning 18, Beth dyes her hair pink and takes off on a motorcycle determined to leave behind her boring life. Along the way the zombie apocalypse breaks out. She joins up with Abraham and company to join them on their mission, while planning to ditch them along the way to head back to Atlanta to find her family.

Written for Bethyl Big Bang October 2021!

(edit by the incredible @boltthrutheheart for @bethylbigbang)

Beth and Daryl are on the run. The prison has fallen, their whole family could be dead, and they're just fighting to stay alive. Amidst the chaos, they find the last thing they're expecting - a young girl, all alone, half feral and filled with strange notions about walkers.

Beth and Daryl take in Lydia, and she ends up changing the course of their whole lives.

"I'm getting good at this. Pretty soon I won't need you at all," she remarks smugly and hears Lydia's snort of amusement behind her.

"Yeah, keep on tracking," Daryl grumbles and when Lydia catches up to her, Beth tosses her a wink.

Daryl's right. The walker isn't far. In fact, in less than ten minutes, Beth, Daryl, and Lydia are crowded around, looking into a little clearing where a walker is feasting on something, likely an unlucky vole or woodchuck. Someone who survived a decent ways into this mess, if she were to guess by the lack of decomposition and the fact that there, tucked into the waistband on his pants, is something worth gold in this world.

"It's got a gun," Lydia observes and Beth glances back at her and Daryl, catching his eye. She asks the question silently, with a raised eyebrow and a tilt of her head. Daryl answers with a tiny nod and steps towards Lydia. He trusts her and he'll watch out for Lydia.

Reassured, Beth steps into the clear with a confidence that is evidently unearned, if the sharp snap of the trap on her ankle is anything to go off of. Pain spirals up her leg instantly, hot and wild. She gasps involuntarily, fighting back the sudden urge to vomit, both from fear and panic. Only one thought goes through her mind as the walker turns and snarls at her, mouth bloody.

Lydia is behind her.

(picset by@lumierelalune for@bethylbigbang)

Beth Greene has one year to break into the music scene. To do so, her sister Maggie tells her to join a band. But Beth doesn't know what to make of the drummer who is clearly in love with her sister, the bass player who is the loudest and crudest person she's ever met, and the guitar player with deep blue eyes and messy black hair and a scowl that hides a heart of gold underneath it.

Daryl picked up the sweating bottle of beer again, placing the chilled glass against the back of his neck. It wasn't as refreshing as it had been several minutes ago when he'd pulled it from the fridge, but it was at least giving him a bit of relief against the heat. He raised the lip of the glass to his mouth, trying not to look over at Beth.

It was their new thing; after rehearsals, Maggie and Glenn would take off for whatever date they had planned for that evening. That left Beth, Daryl, and Merle to their own devices. Merle would disappear more often than not, grinning maniacally at Daryl, and that meant Beth and Daryl would be on their own.

Thank god they could fill the time and silence with music. Beth was eager to work with Daryl on songs and he'd quickly discovered that her opinions were pretty damn good and her instincts even better. She had the uncanny ability to listen to a song and suggest ways to finetune either the lyrics or the melody, even if she wasn't the one who wrote it originally.

That should be great. That was great, especially for the band and the places they would play in. Beth was going to make a huge difference, Daryl knew it.

But the problem was, his plan to avoid and ignore her.... Was down the drain.

(edit by the incredible @boltthrutheheart for @bethylbigbang)

Beth and Daryl are on the run. The prison has fallen, their whole family could be dead, and they're just fighting to stay alive. Amidst the chaos, they find the last thing they're expecting - a young girl, all alone, half feral and filled with strange notions about walkers.

Beth and Daryl take in Lydia, and she ends up changing the course of their whole lives.

Daryl moves through the gloom in near silence. Beth is slightly noisier, but she's been improving on that front too. By the time they make it to the door that must lead to some office, she's only hit one creaky board. Daryl pushes the door open and they both hold their breath for...

Nothing. The office is empty, just an overturned chair and a desk piled with messy papers. Someone was killed here, judging from the splatter of blood against the back wall, but they're long gone. The blood is dry and faded, a sign that everyone left alive knows.

"Maybe it was nothing," Beth says quietly. She knows Daryl wants it to be their family. She does too. She still has faith and knows he does as well, deep down. But reality is what it is. And in this world, the reality is that --

Daryl moves so fast that Beth is literally mid-thought and he is gone. She blinks, realizing that he's disappeared and the only sign is the door to the back that swings slightly. Baffled, because Daryl rarely lets her out of his sight, she slips through it and down the street. She hasn't gone more than a few steps when she hears what Daryl had picked up long before her; the growl and shuffling of walkers.

She goes towards it as well, following Daryl. It doesn't sound like too many and she trusts that whatever he's doing, it's safe. She takes her knife out, palming the handle as she rounds the corner and freezes in her tracks, stunned and baffled to see Daryl fighting walkers frantically. Just when she’s questioning what in the hell would make him do something so stupid, she hears it.

The frantic wail of a child in danger.

(picset by @lumierelalune for @bethylbigbang)

Beth Greene has one year to break into the music scene. To do so, her sister Maggie tells her to join a band. But Beth doesn't know what to make of the drummer who is clearly in love with her sister, the bass player who is the loudest and crudest person she's ever met, and the guitar player with deep blue eyes and messy black hair and a scowl that hides a heart of gold underneath it.

"Leave it be, Merle," Glenn ordered, finally leaving Maggie's side and going to pick up drumsticks. "You hated Andrea anyways."

"Sure I did," Merle said easily, "but it don't mean I can't complain about Blondie walking out two weeks before touring just 'cause she finally thinks Phillip is gonna put a ring on it. Only regret I got is not being able to see her face when she realizes he ain't ever gonna --"

"Okay." Glenn cut across Merle with the ease of someone who'd done it a lot. "Beth, thanks for coming. We're really glad to have you... And... Maggie," he finished lamely.

"Smooth," Merle snorted in amusement. "I'll take over, Rico Suave. Like I said, that idiot's Glenn, I'm Merle, and this here is Daryl, my OCD little brother and guitar player."

"Hello," Beth said softly and Daryl finally straightened up, turning and looking at her.

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