The sun shining through the cracks in the ceiling and onto the empty shelves almost reminded Daryl of working florescent lights, the ones that used to shine perpetually in 24/7 convince stores like this one.
"Even if there were any food left, it would be eaten by the rats already. This building's barely standing." Rick speculated as Daryl continued to search in one isle, labeled with faded letters reading ISLE B: SNACKS AND CHIPS.
"Remember the idea of convenience?" Daryl inquired, as he continued to lift broken shelves in hopes of finding his target.
Rick took a moment to understand the reference, searching his memory for any significance before realizing the name of the store, Quick N' Convenient. Upon making the connection, Rick almost laughed. "You mean back when we could get mad at the store for running out of a soda flavor? Or having the gall to sell us stale crackers?"
"Shit, what I'd do for some freaking stale crackers right now." Daryl mused as Maggie and Glenn exited the store's storage room, Maggie's arm covered in what one could only assume was walker blood.
"Nothing really there." Glenn groaned. "Not much edible at least. The manager must have had some bad breath though; he had almost an entire drawer of these mints." Glenn reached into his cargo pants and pulled out a tin of Altoids.
"I'll take those" Daryl mumbled, grabbing the tins without making eye contact and stuffing them into his pocket. "I assume you grabbed whatever was worth anythin?"
Glenn rolled his eyes, suspecting why Daryl suddenly cared about his breath. Though everyone knew about Daryl and Beth's bond, Glenn seemed to have the most trouble accepting his sister-in-law's new but quickly evolving relationship. Even Maggie had accepted the pairing with a "Just like her mom, as long as she's happy" attitude (and a few "I'll kill you if you hurt her" threats that Daryl genuinely believed). But Glenn held fast, limiting his conversations with Daryl to raiding strategies and thanks for helping with a walker. He just couldn't get over the age gap, over Daryl's abrasive (and often terrifying) attitude, or even over that haunting image of Daryl emerging from the woods with ears hanging from his necklace.
"There's a sign for a gas station a ways down the road?" Maggie suggested, trying to judge the reality of a different store in this town having anything left.
"I'll go check it out with you." Rick offered, looking purposefully at the awkwardness between Glenn and Daryl. "These two can head over to the daycare up the hill. When Carl was in one, there was always crap around for the kids to eat. Might have been overlooked by scavengers?"
Maggie started to disagree, started to suggest she and Glenn stay together, until she realized Rick's intentions. "Sounds good to me." She nodded, "We'll see you boys in a little bit, yell if y'all need to be saved."
Glenn looked to his wife with slight betrayal in his eyes, before exasperatedly running his hands through his hair and agreeing, "We'll see if there's anything's good for Judith as well?"
Daryl and Glenn climbed the hill in near silence, other than the growls of the two walkers they ran into. It was hard to imagine back when a single walker could scare a group of healthy adults. These days, though they knew a single walker could kill any of them if caught unprepared, they were also confident in their ability to protect themselves and to protect each other.
The daycare appeared to be locked up, but Glenn and Daryl easily found their way inside through a smashed window.
"Looks like someone already raided for their kids," Daryl said, looking around to a few empty toy chests, "but grab a bag and pick up whatever can be washed off before lil' asskicker puts it in her mouth. I'll look for any food."
Daryl moved straight for what was labeled the teacher's room, assuming any left over food might be stored in there. He opened a mini-fridge only to be greeted with an indescribable stench and find what must have once resembled milk and fruit. He moved quickly onto a small closet, again only finding moldy food and pretzel bags already raided by mice.
"God damn it!" He groaned, slamming the closet door closed louder than he intended.
"Shit, keep it down," Glenn appeared in the doorway almost immediately, a backpack full of toys over one shoulder. "What the hell's your problem?!"
Daryl didn't reply, he just tried to open a metal desk drawer to find it locked.
"Seriously, what's your issue? You have a fight with your girlfriend or something?" Glenn regretted the mocking words before they were even out of his mouth. Mocking Daryl Dixon was like poking a hungry bear; bringing Beth into the mix was like putting your head in the hungry bear's mouth.
But to his surprise Daryl ignored him, turning over mason jars on the teacher's desk, dumping out writing supplies, markers, and endless paperclips onto the floor.
"Shit… did something actually happen? I'm sorry, man..." Glenn tried to take advantage of Daryl's silence; even if he didn't like the relationship, he knew a heartbroken Daryl wouldn't be good for anyone.
A smirk spread across Daryl's face as he spotted a key among the colored paperclips on the floor, as if oblivious to Glenn's questioning. "Jackpot" he mumbled as he unlocked the teacher's desk, unveiling an entire drawer of snack foods.
"My neighbor 's girlfriend was a teacher. Said she basically kept half her groceries in her desk since she was always at work." Daryl passed the backpack to Glenn, to hold open as he filled it with various snack foods. He filled the bag quickly until he stopped on a single bag of BBQ flavored chips, a wide smile spreading only momentarily across his face before being replaced with a scowl. "These're mine." He grunted, attempting to stuff the chips in his shirt pocket without further explanation. Daryl didn't feel the need to reveal to Glenn that Beth had spent days talking about how much she missed eating BBQ potato chips during summer picnics. She had painted a picture for him of her idyllic childhood, one that made Beth sound so nostalgic that Daryl was determined to bring her back any part of that happy memory, even if temporarily.
Glenn opened his mouth to tease Daryl about his snack choice, but thought twice about risking his life in that manner, at least until he got something off his chest. "You know… I've been meaning to talk to you." Glenn started, zipping up the nylon backpack in his hands.
"Uh huh." Daryl replied, checking the rest of the teacher's drawers for any useful materials and only paying half attention to Glenn's stammering.
"When I first started seeing Maggie, Hershel gave me a hard time, but eventually he turned to me and just let me know that he accepted me. Told me I was a good man. It meant a lot to have his approval..."
"Uh huh." Daryl replied once again, increasingly confident he did not want to have this conversation.
"And I know I've been kind of a jerk lately, but I just wanted Beth to have someone to look out for her, like she deserves to have. Every girl deserves that."
Daryl didn't even both to reply "uh huh" this time. He knew it didn't matter. Glenn had clearly prepared this speech long ago and wasn't stopping now.
"But I was talking to Maggie," Glenn continued without missing a beat, "and she pointed out that Hershel liked you, trusted you even. That he'd know Beth was safe with you, that you're loyal and would look out for her-"
Daryl shot Glenn a look; he had made it clear Beth didn't need any saving, no more than anyone else in their group.
"I mean, he would know someone always had her back if she needed it." Glenn rushed to fix his mistake, " And I know you and I haven't always been the best of friends. But I just wanted you to know… I'll try… I mean, I'm gonna try not to be a jerk. I really think you two could be good together."
Daryl stared at Glenn for a minute, before finally concluding the conversation with a simple, "Okay." And moving back to the broken window of the daycare.
"Ya know, I had to fight off walkers for that bag of chips." Daryl said with a smirk, looking through Beth's stray hairs and into her blue eyes. Him, Rick, Glenn, and Maggie had returned to the unfinished office building, currently acting as their home base, with only a few bags of food; but they were determined to hit up another town the next week. Upon returning, Daryl had merely nodded to the other members of his group before rushing over to Beth, the single bag of chips held out like an offering before Beth wrapped her arms around him in a hug.
"Yeah, cause those walkers terrify you." She joked back, searching his face for any sign of injury or exhaustion as she refused to let go of Daryl.
"Ya know," he said in a low whisper, "I also had to listen to Glenn try to grant approval of our relationship for those chips. He even tried to tell me we could be related one day."
"Aw, what a hard day!" Beth cooed, "And you went through all that pain, just for a bag of chips?" Beth teased with a laugh, releasing Daryl and taking the bag of chips gratefully.
Sometimes, looking into her eyes, Daryl could forget the world had gone to hell. Just see a happy girl relieved that she could save her favorite junk food for a rainy day. He would do anything to make her smile like that. "Damn, girl, you know it isn't just for a bag of chips." Daryl leaned in, stealing a kiss as everyone else was distracted by Judith grasping at her new toys.