#bethhatesgoodbyes

He'd never even got to spend a Valentines day with an actual girlfriend. Usually, it had been the few female friends from school who had friend-zoned him and only came to him if their boyfriends dumped them before hand. But now, that he had one, and a serious one, he wanted to make it special.

Send ✄ for a PET PEEVE headcanon.

Beth and Rick had found themselves surrounded by a small group of heavily armed survivors. They had been making their way through the forest, looking for a safe place when they had stumbled upon the group of hostiles. They were outmanned and outgunned and from the looks of it, Rick couldn’t see a way out of this.

His eyes wandered down to a corpse. The victim’s death didn’t appear to be recent and from what he could see from where they stood, the cuts and amputated limbs were all done postmortem. He could have sworn that he saw a finger tip sitting atop a small pile of rice on one of the plates. He swallowed hard at the sudden realization of how these people were staying alive. Fear shook him when he figured they were this group’s next meal. He knew there would be no reasoning with them, at least not for both of their lives.

If I sacrifice myself, Beth gets to live on. She’s smart, caring, and she has a good head on her shoulders. She’ll keep Carl on track, take care of him, have his back. She looked after Judith as if she were her own. The world needs more people like Beth. I’ve had a good life, a long life. Letting Beth live on would be honoring Hershel’s memory, Rick thought to himself, the plan formulating in his head.

So he made a deal with the group: let Beth go and they could have him. He mislead them into believing that she was his daughter, hoping that they would be more receptive to his offer if they believed such a thing. He reasoned with them that she was small and skinny, that they wouldn’t get what they wanted from her. He said it in such a way that they knew he knew what they were up to and what this was all about. All he asked for was that he get to have a few moments to say a few things to her and that they wait 15 minutes to kill him so that he could be assured that they don’t try to track her down after his death.

Rick wasn’t certain they would go for it, but they did. He knew it was still a risk, however. He knew Daryl was an exceptional tracker when it came to hunting and he knew tracking humans wasn’t that much different from tracking an animal. If they had someone in their group who was as good of a tracker as Daryl, he knew they could still follow her - or try to, anyway - after he was dead. Still, by sacrificing himself, he gave her the chance to get away and maybe she would, even if they broke their end of the promise (which he was counting on).

The group respectfully kept their distance, but they also kept their eye on the pair. He knew if they both tried to make a run for it, they both would end up shot in the back, dead. He was careful, however, to keep his back to the group so they couldn’t attempt to read his lips. He kept his voice low enough that he was sure they couldn’t hear what he said to the young woman they believed to be his daughter.

"Listen to me and listen fast, Beth. Tell Carl I love him and that I’ll always be with him in spirit. You can tell him whatever you want about how I died - you can say I was attacked by walkers and was bitten or you can tell him the truth. It might be easier on you just to tell him that I was attacked by walkers. I know it’s a lie, but it might be better that way," Rick said. "They’re going to come after you after the 15 minutes is up and after they kill me. They might not even wait 15 minutes to do it. So when we part ways, you run as fast as you can and you stay away from them. I’ll say hi to your old man if I see him. It was good knowing you, Beth. You’re a good girl and you’re gonna survive this world. Don’t blame yourself for this. This was my decision. I made it on my own and there’s no way you could have talked me out of it."