A/N: LONG AUTHORS NOTE, SORRY :(

First and foremost, please accept my sincerest apologies for the incredibly inexcusable delay on this chapter update. This took way way way way WAY too long to do, and I'll explain why.

My brain has been non-stop unable to write any of my AU fics because all I've wanted to write are cannon one-shots, and stuff like that. This season of The Walking Dead is going to be the complete and utter death of me considering the amount of crying and sobbing and uncontrollable emotions I've felt since the season premiere. Which by the way, we're only four episodes into the season. I'm not going to make it.

Not to mention – The other issue was, and is, that this story is – to put it simply – my baby. It was the most successful story I've ever wrote, and it was the one that I always loved writing since the beginning, day in and day out. You guys' unwavering support of this story is something that I appreciate more than words can say. And I thank you all, and will continue to thank you all, every single day.

That being said; I'm pretty sure my inspiration for completing this finally is due to the fact that last Saturday I FUCKING MET NORMAN REEDUS. Like, IN PERSON. HE PLAYED PATTY CAKE WITH ME. HE HUGGED ME AND I HELD THE SIDE OF HIS FACE. (More like squished it to mine really hard I wouldn't be surprised if it was painful) I CANT MAKE THIS SHIT UP PEOPLE. IT WAS GLORIOUS. I couldn't form a coherent sentence for a good three hours afterwards. And if we're being honest here – I'm still a complete fucking mess.

Honestly, he's the sweetest, dorkiest, most genuine individual I've met – and I loved every minute of it.

Follow me on Tumblr if you haven't already ( YourMem0ryTrain ) – I have slew of one-shots I'll be uploading there and here in the next couple of days. As well as a brand new AU story. (a prompt from my love Ashley/Akiraflame – where daryl and beth's children hate each other. I'm very, very excited about it)

Song credit for this chapter - "You Save Me" - Kenny Chesney

So here she is. The next, and final chapter of How to Save a Life. I hope you've enjoyed reading this just as much as I've enjoyed writing it. So, without further ado...

Until next time.

Love y'all from the very bottom of my heart.

-Stephanie

How to Save a Life

Chapter Nineteen - "You Save Me"

Each year when the summer rolls around into the Town of Riverdale Georgia, one could argue that the heat from the sun in the sky at high noon would make just about anyone think that they were about to lose their minds.

And when that summer heat did in fact roll around, usually during the last weeks of July, it brought equally horrendous thunderstorms to the small town right along with it. Any resident there could attest that nine times out of ten, should you have gotten the chance to ask them. And out of few people that lived in that said town, one Daryl Dixon, was no exception to that.

That particular individual, in fact, the last known living member of the Dixon family, only known to those of the community as Daryl the mechanic or Daryl 'that Merle guy's brother', would tell you the exact same thing. That is of course, if you managed to bring yourself to engage in conversation with the surly, usually closed-off and somewhat angry looking individual.

He'd tell you how the heat from the sun sometimes became unbearable as he bent himself underneath the hood of a car. He'd tell you how during those few months of summer, it was rare to come home at the end of the day without a searing sunburn on the back of his neck.

So yes, should you have asked Daryl Dixon about the weather or anything else about the town, he'd say that it was the same way it had always been.

Summers in the small town started out the same as they always did for most residents. Six-thirty alarm clocks would blare before the sun would rise, bacon would sear on a cooktop just before the elementary school children bounded their way out the door and into the school bus waiting at the end of the street, and Daryl Dixon would arrive at Merle's Auto Garage just as the clock struck nine AM.

Today, though, was different.

It was an eerie feeling, but a relaxing and comfortable one all the same, and that feeling he had lasted long into the day, even as the hours progressed.

He supposed it was because the scene was a little too familiar, or maybe it was because the scorching heat flowing through the open windows of his truck was much like it had been that one afternoon. That one afternoon a year ago to that very day.

"Daryl Dixon, so help me god, you better tell me where you're takin' me right this second."

Daryl smirked over at a disgruntled looking Beth in his passenger seat.

He knew she had no idea where he was taking her, probably because he knew the town of Riverdale a hell of a lot better than she ever would. He'd lived in that town for so long that he knew every single back road, every single side street, every single short cut.

Besides that, he was pretty sure she wouldn't recognize where he was taking her in the light of that hot summer day. That very afternoon exactly a year ago had been very different, the sky had been a dark shade of gray and rain had beaten down upon the town heavily all afternoon.

This day, appropriately, the sun was shining. Beaming through the rearview mirror and making him pretty glad that he'd snatched up his sunglasses before leaving his cabin with his girl in tow.

It was around four in the afternoon, on a Friday. It was around the time that last year he'd be closing up the bays at his brother's garage, packing up his shit and headed for the bar.

It was around the time that he'd begin drinking himself into oblivion, sitting by himself at the cherry colored bar-top, barely listening to Carol try and talk to him as he spiraled down the path of no return farther and farther. He shook his head at the memory.

He wasn't sure how he'd done it - convinced Maggie against her better judgment to let Beth stay with him at his home for a week. Truthfully, he would have been fine anywhere with her. Because anywhere with her was home.

"I told ya," he replied, sneaking a glance over his arm propped over the steering wheel to look over at her. "'S a surprise."

"Better be a good one." She grumbled, smiling beside herself. "'Cause as much as I love your truck, I had other plans for tonight."

His ears perked up at that, catching his eyes upon hers, seeing that all too familiar glint of mischief in her eyes. He shook his head at her and chuckled a little bit, he wasn't about to let her distract him. Not this time. Not when he had plans like he did today.

He turned another corner, pulling off to the side of the road and shifting the gear into park. Beth looked around for a moment, seeming to survey her surroundings to try and figure out where she was, but she still looked confused.

"C'mon." He said, sliding out of the truck and shutting the door of his old truck with a loud creak, sliding around to meet her on the other side, and not wasting any time twining their fingers together as they walked through the now tall and thick grass.

"You're not bringing me out here to kill me, are you?" She laughed half-heartedly through her sentence, so quietly Daryl almost thought that she was being serious for a second. He turned to look at her as she lifted her small legs up and down through the grass, her cowboy boots now wet from the water on the blades of it.

He snorted when he caught the half smirk on her face, squeezing her hand a little tighter. "C'mon, just a little further."

This year though, at least for Daryl, was completely different in every single imaginable aspect.

If you'd have asked him any line of questions about his life at this time a year ago, it was likely that the answer you would have gotten from him would be a hell of a lot different than the one he'd give you now.

And that was because this year, at nine-thirty in the morning on a Friday at the end of the month of July, Daryl was somewhere he never thought he would be; Laying in his bed, curled up behind the first, and likely only woman he'd ever love.

How he'd gotten so lucky, he didn't have a god damn clue.

He wasn't entirely sure how he'd ended up here, now that he was thinking about it; trudging through the too tall grass towards the edge of the creek that he had passed over on that bridge so many times over the past years of living in that small town. Not entirely sure what in the hell he'd done to deserve the woman who's hand was tightly clasped into his own.

And for what it was worth, he was done asking questions about it; Questioning whether he deserved to be there, or whether he deserved to have her as his own. She'd made it clear back in her dressing room that first day back with her in New York City – and truthfully, as much as he still didn't think he was worth what she thought he was – she was right. Who in the hell was he to decide for her what she didn't or did deserve? At the end of the day, no matter what the fuck he thought or what the hell it was that he believed, it wasn't his call. It was hers.

And he'd be damned if he were to question that again. He wouldn't dare even look back towards that deep dark place that still resided somewhere inside of him. Wouldn't even mention it, or think about it, at least as much as he could manage to. The last thing in the world that he'd ever do, ever again, was tread over that unseen line in the sand, and make her run the hell away. He knew that was what he deserved, but he wouldn't dare provoke it.

Because in all honesty, without her, without Beth Greene, he didn't think that he'd survive.

It was the halting of Beth's footsteps that caused him to stir away from his current thought process.

It felt surreal; how all of this had come together. Watching her as her eyes shifted their focus from the creek just ahead of them, and over through the surrounding area. He could see it in her eyes the second that she finally realized just exactly where they were. That they were at the very place that they had first met, a year ago to that exact day.

"Daryl." She said quietly. So quietly, that he was sure that if he hadn't been paying such close attention to every single thing that she was doing, he would have missed his name being spoken entirely. Her hand tightened its grip on his own, tighter than she ever had gripped it, close to the way she had when her hand had first come into contact with his forearm when she had been trapped in that car. He winced at the memory, but squeezed her hand back just as tightly.

"You found me here." She said quietly, turning her head to the side and upwards to face him. She smiled at him sweetly, and Daryl couldn't help but notice how glassy her eyes looked. Whether it was out of love and adoration, or she had truly gotten upset over this, he wasn't sure. He was hoping the former rather than the latter.

"Mhm." He mumbled out quietly, easing himself down to the ground and tugging her down to sit with him. Just as she managed to start to bend her knees to join him, he guided her with his hands on her hips to sit between his legs, crossing his arms over her stomach just as she leaned back into his front.

Beth sighed loudly, relaxing herself into Daryl's form a little more and placing her hands over his where they rested on her abdomen, her head laying just underneath the stretch of bones on his right shoulder. She turned her head slightly, placing her lips onto the rough stubble etched across the side of his face to kiss the skin there gently.

"I love you". She said after a moment, directly into his ear. Something that she knew got to him, made his insides feel strangled and made his heart feel like it was about to jump straight out of his chest. Made his blood run south, and made his fingers itch to touch her in absolutely every single way imaginable. Made his thoughts cloudy, made his palms clammy, made his voice deep and hoarse, made him forget how to breathe.

"I love you, Beth. I ain't no good at this anniversary shit – don't really know what the hell I'm doin' here."

"I think you're doing just fine." She said back, her lips still close to his skin near his ear. He swore that he could feel her lips curling into a smile through her response.

"I didn't – I couldn't- couldn't think of nothin' else. Nothin' felt right but this. You and me." he motioned with his free hand that wasn't still over Beth's abdomen, flicking it back and forth between the two of them. "You and me, here at this place."

"When I played with Kenny the other night," she began.

"Kenny who?" He asked, interrupting her mid sentence.

"Chesney." She completed, earning a scoff that rumbled through his chest at the thought of it. Casually talking about someone he'd heard on the radio for years like they were an old friend of hers. It was odd in that way, because really, she knew all of those people – the people that were on television screens and plastered onto billboards all over the world. The thought of it though, wasn't something he thought he'd ever get used to

"Anyway," she said, a giggle emanating through her words that made his lips curl into a smile against her shoulder he was leaning onto. "He played this song, one of his older ones." She reached a hand back and placed her hand onto the back of his skull, fingering her way through the long darkened locks of hair at the crown of his head gently.

"Made me think of you. Made me think of us."

"Will you sing it for me, Beth?" He asked quietly, nudging his nose through the tresses of her blonde hair to make his way towards the soft skin of her neck, rubbing against the cool skin with the top of his nose gently. He was almost ashamed of the question, in a way. Sounding like he was begging to hear her.

It was selfish, really. But it was something he needed, almost as much as he needed her.

And it wasn't like he never got to hear her sing – he always got to hear it. Whether she was cooking in his kitchen, singing along to a song on the radio, playing at one of her venues, or recording in the studio while he stood behind the glass watching her in awe. But he wanted her to sing to him, like she had that first night. To sing not just to a crowd of people, or to the people that she had to sing for.

To sing for him, and for him alone.

And amidst his thoughts about the request, Beth obliged, still scratching lightly at his scalp with her small fingers, the vibration of her voice humming straight through her and into him from where her back was against his.

"When I'm a ship tossed around on the waves, up on a high-wire that's ready to break, when I've had just about all I can take, baby, you-"

"Baby, you save me." Daryl completed, speaking the finality of the song that he'd known from the radio a few years ago that she was singing. Speaking not only the words of the song, but speaking the truth about her. About himself and the woman in front of him.

The truth about Beth Greene and Daryl Dixon.

And she smiled, turning her head ever so slightly to look at him in the eyes with that look of complete adoration on her face for him. A look that he still thought, and knew, that he didn't deserve. A look that said everything that he ever needed to know all at once. The look he'd never seen on anyone else in his entire life, let alone another woman. The look that he just knew was for him, and only him.

Tentatively, Daryl pressed his lips to hers, kissing her with every single fiber of his being and his soul, kissing her for everything that she was, and everything that she wasn't, and didn't need to be. It was a feather light touch of lips joining together - not heated or aggressive, or gentle if he really thought about it. But it didn't need to be. It was perfect in every single sense of the word, and for all he knew, it was the only thing that ever mattered, or ever would matter.

Because whether she chose to believe it or not, it didn't matter. She saved him. Saved him in the way that only Beth Greene could. Saved him from spiraling even farther down that dark tunnel, and losing everything that he was. Pulled him back from the edge, and did what nobody else in this world could have ever done.

She saved him. And she was still here.

And in that moment, sitting next to the very creek he'd first met her by, that was the only thing that mattered.

He may have not been able to save Merle, or his mother, or himself. And for the longest time, he thought that he'd been a lost cause a very long time ago. But none of that mattered, because even though he didn't, Beth Greene knew how to save a life.

And more importantly than anything else; she knew how to save his.