ow that I said I wouldn't start another story until I finished the one I was working on. But this idea has been clawing at my mind repeatedly the last few days. Compared to the normal length of my stories, this won't be all that long. Or, probably, most likely, won't be. If you know my other stories, you can probably already guess this is going to be AU. Though, one day I do want to try my hand at some ZA stuff. I'm not even sure if this idea will catch and hold interest. But I kinda had to throw it out there since it wouldn't get out of my head. So, enough rambling. Here it is. If it's your cup of tea, feel free to drink, so to speak. =]
Twenty-nine year old Daryl Dixon was putting down the last piece of laminate wood flooring in his bedroom of the newly purchased house he was living in with his older brother, Merle.
They closed on the house, which was an older brick home, a few weeks ago. The house had belonged to their boss, Hershel Greene and his wife, who owned the local Welding and Industrial Supply company that the brother's had been working at for the last two years.
The house originally belonged to his second wife, Annette, where she lived with her son, Shawn, prior to marrying Hershel about fifteen years before. Once they were married, she and Shawn moved in with Hershel in the farm house that had belonged to his family for more than 150 years. The couple decided to keep her house and rent it out to have a second income.
The house had already been divided into a duplex, or apartment of sorts, before he and Annette had married to give her a second source of income. She'd been a single mom and hadn't needed all of the space that the house had with just her and Shawn living in it. So, they were able to earn double the money in rent off of it by renting out two spaces. Hershel had two daughters of his own from his previous wife, who passed away from cancer, when he married Annette. With three kids between them they figured they could use all of the extra money that they could get.
But the past year or so they'd had a string of bad luck with renters on either side of the house. Whether it was people destroying their property or people refusing to pay their monthly rent, it seemed like they couldn't catch a break. The couple were getting older and decided that they just didn't want to deal with the hassle of it all anymore. Their two oldest children, Maggie and Shawn, were in college now and they knew that they could use the money from selling the house to help finish getting both kids through school. It would also help put a cushion in their retirement fund.
Hershel mentioned something about selling the place one day at work, and Merle seemed to latch onto the idea of buying the place like a leech to its host. He had a plan all mapped out in his head.
"It'll be perfect, little brother." He'd told Daryl that day. "We can live on one side of the house and we can rent out the other side. That way, we can cover almost the whole payment with what we get in rent. Hell, we can probably make double the payment and get the place paid off in no time. Then when it's all said and done you can have one half and I can have the other."
Daryl really couldn't argue with Merle's logic on the matter. It made a lot of sense. In time, each would have their own space, while still being able to live close together. And he didn't mind sharing a place with his brother for now. Hell, he'd been living with him ever since he was seventeen anyway. What could it hurt to stay with him a few more years.
Living in an actual house sounded more appealing than the small apartment they'd been renting the last two years. The place was cramped and something was almost always fucking up. Their landlord took forever to get repairs done and half the time they'd had to fix the shit themselves. Besides, their house payment hadn't actually ended up being all that much more than what they'd been paying in rent. And Daryl figured it made a hell of a lot more sense to shell out that money each month for something that would be theirs. Something that no one could take from them.
He'd jumped on board with Merle almost immediately and they'd applied for a loan to co-buy the place. They were approved pretty quickly and it barely took a month to close on the house. The last few weeks they'd been doing some minor work to the house. They removed all of the carpet and tile on the side of the house they'd be living in and replaced it with laminate wood floors. The carpet in the bedrooms and living room had been a hideous brown color and the tile in the kitchen and dining room had been a pale yellow with orange and brown flowers.
They had also chosen to paint the walls in all of the rooms and to replace the stove and refrigerator, which matched the pale yellow color of the floor. In time, they were gonna replace the cabinets and redo the bathroom's, but that could wait for now. They weren't so bad.
Daryl was thankful for the fact that he and has brother had done all sorts of odd jobs before landing this gig with Hershel. It would have cost a fucking fortune to pay someone to do all the shit they'd done themselves.
Before they started working with Hershel they'd been carpenters, roofers, mechanics, painters, plumbers, landscapers, you name it and they'd done it. Most jobs had barely lasted six months. Merle usually got bored and wanted to book up after that. Either that, or he'd gotten into it with their boss and gotten them both fired. His brother was hot headed and didn't seem to know when to keep his mouth shut.
But it had been different at Hershel's welding place, even from the beginning. He and Daryl both seemed to click with the man from the get go. He was a reasonable man, he didn't bitch and raise hell for no reason. As long as the job was being done, Hershel was happy.
The town seemed to be a good fit for them as well. They settled in rather easily. Merle made some drinking and gambling buddies, but they weren't the usual kind Merle seemed to fall in with. These guys were married men. Settled with families. Axel and Oscar, they liked to drink and shoot the bull, but they weren't the kinda guys that were gonna lead Merle down the wrong road like so many of the loser friends he'd seen his older brother encounter over the years.
And Daryl, well he'd managed to make a few friends as well.
There was Glenn. He was their pizza delivery guy and he'd almost forcibly be-friended Daryl. He'd talk his fucking head off every time Daryl ordered in, which was often. But he quickly found out he liked the kid. Well, he wasn't really a kid, Daryl supposed, he lived on his own and he was eighteen when he'd met him two years ago, but he was nine years younger than Daryl, so that made him a kid to him.
Then there was Rick Grimes, who'd also sort of forced his way into friendship with Daryl. He'd been at the bar with Merle one night, and Merle had found a piece of tail and ditched him shortly after their arrival. Daryl had decided to order one more beer and call it a night rather than stay there alone, but Rick Grimes had taken a seat beside him. He seemed to already be a little drunk when he got there and started blabbing to Daryl about some fight he had with his girlfriend. Rick had ordered them a pitcher a beer, which ended up convincing Daryl to stay. Because after all, who was he to turn down free beer? Anyway, they'd ended up getting a little drunk, shot some pool, then Rick said they should do the same thing next Friday, and in his drunken state, Daryl had thought that was a great idea.
In retrospect, he probably wouldn't have followed through with that plan, but the girl Merle took home from the bar that night ended up being the flavor of the week for him. He spent the next two weeks fucking her and then kicked her to the curb. And Daryl didn't have anything to do with Merle otherwise occupied, so he'd ended up going. Turns out, hanging out with Rick wasn't so bad and they ended up becoming pretty good buddies.
Daryl just wasn't a people person. He was a pretty introverted guy. He was quiet and he liked to keep to himself for the most part. He much rather be hunting or fishing than hanging out with a large crowd. He liked hanging out with Rick and Glenn, but he was more than happy spending an evening to himself, too. He and his brother were total opposites that way. Merle loved being the center of attention. He'd rather be in the bar or at a party surrounded by people any day, though he did enjoy hunting and fishing.
It was good that one of them had an extravagant personality, Daryl supposed, since they'd have to be dealing with a renter now that they had that empty apartment on the other side of the house to rent out. He was more than happy to leave that part to Merle. He didn't feel like having to hassle somebody for money or make sure they paid on time. Hell, he didn't much care to talk to whoever ended up on the other end of the house. He wasn't looking to become buddies with whoever moved in. He just wanted somebody who wouldn't make too much noise and paid their bills on time.
At first, he'd been a little weary about renting the space out. He'd heard about some of the horrible renters Hershel had. His brother had a temper, hell, when it came down to it, Daryl did, too. If some stupid son of bitch tried to pull half the shit they'd head Hershel talk about, one of them would probably end up in jail for beating their ass. It was a good thing Rick Grimes was a cop.
Daryl's apprehension faded a little, though, when Hershel said he had someone in mind to rent the place. His niece was a school teacher and she'd lived up near Atlanta the past ten years. She'd recently gotten a job down here to be closer to family and needed a place to live. Hershel asked both of them if they'd consider letting her rent the place out.
He didn't know too much about the woman, but if she was Hershel's niece, he was sure she wouldn't give them too much of a problem. Hershel was a real respected member of the community, a good father, a good husband. All three of his kids seemed to be following in his footsteps. Daryl doubted his niece would be much different. Besides, she was a fucking school teacher for crying out loud. How wild could she be?
They'd agreed to meet her and show her the place, and more or less, they'd pretty much already agreed to let her have it if she wanted it. After all, how do you tell your boss his niece can't move into the empty place you have that he let you buy at a very, very reasonable price?
The only real reservation Daryl had with her renting the place was actually Merle.
His brother was a fucking horn0dog. He wanted to stick his dick in anything that moved.
Merle wasn't a relationship kinda guy. He was a hit until he got bored and quit kinda guy. And Daryl didn't think Hershel would take to kindly to Merle boning his niece and throwing her to the side. Not if he was half as protective of her as he was of those girls of his.
That's the last damn thing they needed was to lose their jobs because Merle couldn't keep it in his pants and then not be able to pay for the damn house.
He hoped like hell Merle had enough sense to stay away from this woman.
()()()
Daryl had laid down on the couch after he finished the floor. He'd only meant to catch a few minutes of the race that was on TV and then get up and tinker with his bike some. But he must have fallen asleep, because the next thing he knew he was being startled awake by a repetitive banging noise.
He quickly determined that the noise was coming from their front door, which was only a few feet away from him. He grabbed the remote and hit view on the TV to see what time it was. He was surprised to see it was well after five. Damn, he'd slept a lot longer than he meant to.
That meant that the person knocking on the door was most likely Hershel's niece. She was supposed to be by about 5 that evening.
"Merle! Hey, Merle!" Daryl called out, since he was supposed to be the one handling all of the rental business. But he got no answer. He stood up with the plan to go check Merle's room and see if maybe he'd fallen asleep in his own room, but a note sitting on the floor caught his eye. It was in Merle's hand writing.
He scanned over the note quickly. "Axel called me. He got stuck on a dirt road. I went to pull him out. We're probably gonna have a few drinks after. Show that girl the house for me. Don't fuck it up, asshole. Oh, and tell me if she's hot. Tittie size. What the ass looks like. You know the drill." Daryl groaned, crinkled up the piece of paper and tossed it on the floor. He should have known he'd get stuck handling this shit.
"Give me just a minute." He called out as the knocks grew more frequent and louder. He made the short walk to the front door and slowly opened it. "Hey, I'm Daryl. You must be…" His words fell short as he fully took the woman standing before him in. His mouth gaped slightly and what he meant to say was jumbled and mixed itself up with the first thought that crossed his mind, which ended up spilling out of his mouth. "You're uh…..you're….uh…" He motioned his hand up and down.
The corner of her lip turned up as she studied the man in front of her and the strange look he was giving her. "With child? Knocked up? Have a bun in the oven? That's very observant of you there, Daryl. It was Daryl, right?" A full on smile lined her face as the man's eyes flicked downwards and his face flushed cherry red. She almost felt bad for him, but his comment about her protruding belly had taken her off guard and almost slightly offended her.
"Sorry." He muttered, not bothering to look up at her. "I uh…I was expecting someone to come look at the apartment I got for rent." He motioned to her belly. "Not this…..Let me call Merle. I reckon you wanna talk to him about all that."
She arched a brow at him and laughed so hard she snorted. "I don't think that's necessary. He might freak even more than it seems you did if you do that." He gave her a confused look and she extended her hand once she realized he still didn't comprehend who she was. "I'm Carol, Hershel's niece. Pregnant niece." She emphasized with a grin. "I'm here to look at the apartment you have for rent."
This might be one of those things that ends up being better in theory. I guess we'll see. I wanna go ahead and say this: There are going to be some time jumps in this story. Some might be great, others not so much. But this first chapter is going to focus on how these two met and the following chapters will go into establishing how they get to know one another and what all happens with that. At some point, we are diving into the future and going from there. I hope some people stick around to see what happens with this.