Disclaimer: Nothing is owned by me, blah blah.
[notes at the end]
Beth was late to work. It was the first time that she had been late since the time her brother had been in a car accident and she had spent the night at the hospital. But that time it was – thankfully – not a family crisis that had held her up. Georgia was far enough down south that most of the weather they got in the winter was nothing more than rain, but nature had decided to throw a curve ball and grant Georgians a taste of snow.
Which meant that there were a bunch of people driving in weather that they didn't know how to. Which meant a huge influx of car accidents. Beth had sat in her old car an extra thirty minutes waiting for a car to be towed off the road.
She rushed in the back door to the diner where she worked, not even taking the time to put on anything farmer than a thin, yellow sweater despite the cold trip from her car. The diner was right off of the highway, a place called Louise's. She had no idea where the name came from. There was nothing around it for miles in either direction, except a small gas station across the street from them.
Beth usually liked working there just fine, but that was when she wasn't late and her boss was in a good mood.
"Sorry I'm late," she said breathlessly, shoving her pen and pad of paper into her apron pocket.
Her boss didn't even bother turning around as he flipped a pancake on the stove. "Shut up and get to work, miss Greene. Haley already had to pick up two of your tables."
Beth nodded, a little bit sheepish. It hadn't been her fault that she had been late, but her boss' temper had that effect on her. It was like whenever her Daddy would catch her doing something that she should've been, only her boss didn't have any kindness to him at all.
"And you're not getting paid for the time you missed," Her boss added, although Beth thought that that was pretty obvious. She tried not to let her boss' mood affect her all that much.
The bell sounded at the front of the restaurant and the kitchen window allowed her a view of a new customer. The man made his way to the back tables, disappearing out of view. Beth moved aside for Haley, who was coming off the floor with a nearly-empty pot of coffee in her hand, and made her way over to the table the man had sat at.
The man ordered coffee and eggs. Beth nearly rolled her eyes. Everyone ordered coffee and eggs. Technically, it was eggs on toast, but still. It was like they didn't have anything else on the menu.
She had only one more table in the next hour. It was another solitary man who ordered – of course – coffee and eggs. The only good thing was that she had gotten good tips off of both tables. Beth found herself leaning her arms against the front counter, gazing out mindlessly at the slow flutter of snowflakes that had continued on and off since before she had gotten there.
It was her second Christmas that she wouldn't be spending at her parents' farm. The death of her parents in a car crash two summers ago had resulted in the sale of their family farm. She lived with her older sister and Shawn would be there in the next few days, but it wasn't the same. It seemed stupid – of course it wasn't the same, and would never be again – but she couldn't help but be a bit surprised by it. Christmas had always been her favorite holiday, and she-
"Hey, earth to Beth." Haley nudged her hard in the ribs.
Beth jumped out of her reverie, blinking several times at her coworker. "Huh? What?"
Haley jerked her chin over at a table. "You take this guy, alright?"
The customer in question was seated with his back towards her, and seemed to be slouching a bit in his seat. He didn't seem agitated or angry to her. And it wasn't like Haley to give tables away.
"Ok, but why?" She asked, confused.
She snorted and crossed her arms. "I know him. Well, sort of. Just take him, 'cuz there is no way I will."
Just then their boss called Haley from the back. "Yeah, I'll be there in a bit," Haley called back, irritation laced through her tone. She smiled at Beth. "Anyway, thanks."
Beth with a smile and a nod she moved around the counter to approach the table. When she got there she saw that the man's gaze was fixed on something out the window, his eyes squinting a bit in the light.
"Good morning, sir, what can I get you?" She smiled down at him.
He glanced up at her only briefly before looking out the window once more. His eyes were a cloudy blue, she noticed. Almost like ice. "Coffee," His voice rumbled as if he hadn't used it in a while. Maybe he had just woken up, she thought idly. He did have that 'I hate mornings' look about him.
"Anything else?" 'Like eggs,' she added mentally.
He shrugged. "Jus' coffee."
She nodded. "Alrighty then," And walked back into the kitchen where they kept their coffee pots. Haley hadn't made any more since she had last seen her with the coffee, so Beth started to brew another pot.
She glanced over her shoulder at the man sitting at the table. The back of his head remained unmoving. She wondered why Haley refused to serve him; maybe an ex-boyfriend? He did sorta seem like the type that she'd go for, she supposed. Possibly. She admittedly didn't know much about Haley's love life.
"Snap out of it," Her boss appeared next to her with a large envelope in his hands.
Beth managed not to jump that time, but she was sure her expression gave her away. "Sorry," She sighed.
"You've been slacking today, Greene." He deadpanned in that way that he always did. He opened up the enveloped and pulled out a piece of paper. "Check," he said simply as he handed it to her and walked away.
"Right, thanks." She called after him, but he ignored her. Pay-day was always a good day, even when she was late. She folded up her paycheck and put it in her pocket behind her pen and paper. It fit snuggly with the rest of her tips, and the pocket was already bulging. She took care not to crinkle it.
She brought both the coffee and cup out to her customer. Setting the cup down on the table she poured the dark liquid about halfway before pausing. "Do you want room for sugar?" She asked mildly.
She sort of gave her a noncommittal shrug which she just took to mean no, so she filled the cup up the rest of the way.
"Are you sure that there's nothing else I can get ya'?" she tried one last time.
"S'fine." Was all he said.
She nodded, "Ok," and left him alone. The bell rang out as the door opened right as she past in front of it. Two men strolled in, shivering in their zip-up sweaters that were obviously not meant for the weather.
"Oh, good morning." She smiled sweetly at them.
One spared her a sharp smile as his eyes flickered up and down the length of her while the other just turned his frown in her direction. Beth tried not to let her smile falter or her eyes harden.
"We seat ourselves, right?" He grumbled.
She nodded. "Yes, sir. Anywhere you'd like."
The man didn't bother responding, just headed off in the direction of where her other customer sat. He took a seat in the last booth, two booths down from where the man sat drinking his coffee. The other man winked at her before following his companion.
Beth would make Haley take them. She could better handle customers like that, and she herself had taken the last guy, so it was Haley's turn besides.
When she went back in the kitchen only the cook was there. T-Dog hummed a tune under his breath, not paying her much attention.
"Hey, where's Haley?" She asked him.
He glanced over his shoulder and shrugged. "Got a call, went outside."
"'Kay, thanks." She stepped towards the back door, but just then her boss opened the door and stepped inside. He didn't have a coat on. When he saw her he nodded towards the front of the diner.
"Haley's fired. You're on your own 'til one." He said angrily, although she knew that his anger must've been towards Haley instead of her.
Beth tried not to groan in frustration. That was the third time that Haley had been fired in the past six months. She needed to stop yelling at their boss and taking calls during work hours.
She sighed as she went back out onto the floor and approached the table with the two men seated at it. "Can I get you guys something?" She asked as she pulled out her pen and pad, her pleasant waitress mask firmly in place.
The smiling guy opened his mouth to say something, but the grumpy guy cut him off. "I heard you guys serve eggs. Gimme that. And some coffee, but I don't want none of that creamer shit."
"Me too," the smiling guy added. He was still eying her openly. His eyes seemed to focus on something that was most definitely not her face. With his expression he reminded her simultaneously of a wolf and a weasel. "Say, what's your name, girlie?" He asked after a pause.
"Beth," She hesitated only a second before she told him. He looked like he was about to say something else so she quickly walked away from the table. Her hair stood on end as she could feel his eyes still on her all of the way until she entered the kitchen.
She gave T-Dog their order and got the pot of coffee and two cups for them. She brought it out to them and filled their mugs just as she had done for the man at the other table, only quicker. She left without a word, but approached her other table as an afterthought.
"Can I refill your coffee?" She asked.
The man's gaze had been firmly planted on the table with the smiling man and the grumpy man, but his gaze flickered up once more to meet hers.
"Yeah," he mumbled and slid his mug closer to her. She filled it to the brim again and had only taken a half-step away when he spoke up, albeit in the same tone as before. "Can I have some eggs?" He asked.
"Sure," She nodded and then walked away.
By the time she got back to the kitchen T-Dog had her two plates of eggs for the table with the men ready.
"Thanks," She nodded as she picked them up. "Can you make me one more plate?"
T-Dog nodded and continued to hum to himself. Using her hip she pushed open the kitchen door and carried the eggs on toast to the two men seated in the back. The grumpy man took one look at the eggs and reached for the ketchup on the other end of the table.
"This is empty." He set it down lid-first with a resonating 'thud'.
She nodded as she set the plates down. "Alright, I'll get you another one."
"yeah," She man took a long, loud sip from his coffee. The smiling man was already chewing his first bite, that shard grin still plastered on his face. She tried not to make a face as he chewed with his mouth open.
She turned to the table behind her and plucked the ketchup off of that table. She set it down on their table and picked up the empty bottle. The told the quiet man that she'd be right back with his eggs and then went to check on the one table that Haley had left her when she had gotten fired. It was a woman and who Beth assumed were her sons. It was an exceedingly unhappy table, and the woman hardly spared her a glance before snapping at one of the children.
That table already had their food, so she just went back to the kitchen. There T-dog was just finishing the quiet man's eggs. Beth tossed the empty ketchup bottle in the trash and reached up to the shelf where they kept all of their spare ketchup bottles. She grabbed one and took a moment to readjust her uniform.
She cast another glance at the man sitting by himself. From where she was standing she had a fairly decent view of his profile. He was looking out the window again, apparently no longer interested in what the pair of men were doing. He kept fidgeting as if he was uncomfortable being there. She wondered if it was the people or the atmosphere.
"Yo Beth, eggs." T-dog reminded her.
"Right," She quickly looked away from the quiet man and went over to pick up his eggs. She brought them to him and gently set the plate on the table.
"Thanks," He mumbled, shifting again before he reached for his silverware. Then he immediately scraped the egg off of the toast and set the piece of toast on a napkin.
"Don't mention it," She smiled down at him although he hadn't looked up at her again. Maybe it was because she had those other tables, but he didn't seem as if he was trying to be rude.
"Hey, uh, Beth, was it?" The grumpy man surprised her somewhat by calling out to her. She took a few steps over to his table.
"Yes, can I help you with something?" She asked politely.
"How long you been workin' here?" He asked, an irritated look on his face. Beth knew that some sort of complaint was coming.
"A little over a year, now." She answered levelly.
"Then how the hell do you call this an egg?!" He demanded, shoving his plate away from him with a scowl.
"Would you like me to get you another one, sir?" She tried not to get agitated, but he was being such an asshole, and his friend was the creepiest customer that she had had in a long time.
"What I want is for you to make me a better plate of eggs," He scoffed at her, crossing his arms. Even the smiling man had a frown on his face and was slouching in his seat in some sort of display of irritation.
"I don't make-" She started to say, but the grumpy man moved suddenly to get out of his seat. A bit startled, Beth took a step back. The smiling man followed suit.
"I ain't payin' for this shit." He declared in her face before turning and marching out the door. The smiling man knocked into her a bit as he brushed past her.
"Wha-" She was thoroughly confused and angry. "You can't just leave, you ate at least half of your food." She called out to them but they ignored her completely. Her eyes strayed over to the quiet man, whose blue gaze was finally fixed firmly on hers. That lasted only a moment, though, before his eyes flickered lower and hardened visibly.
He was up and out of his seat in an instant. He flew out the door and he first thought was 'great, not him too,' but she paused. He had stormed up to the pair of men and had jerked the smiling man around by the shoulder. They were obviously yelling at the quiet man, but she couldn't hear what about and with his back to her she couldn't really tell how the quiet man was responding.
It was the grumpy man who threw the first punch. The quite man jerked so it hit him at a weird angle, but he did stumble back a step. And then he returned the favor, only Beth actually saw the hit connect to the man's cheek.
The woman at the other table yelled out for someone to call the police. For her part, Beth was just standing there, completely stunned by the sudden turn of events.
Both her boss and T-dog burst out from the kitchen.
"What the hell-?" T-dog started, but her boss was already dialing 9-1-1. Or at least, that's who she assumed he was calling. Her suspicions were proved correct as she heard him on the phone. T-dog stepped over to her.
"You have any idea why this happened?" He wondered.
She didn't answer at first; her eyes were trained solely on the quiet man, who had taken a solid hit to the chest and another to the head, but had dealt just enough damage to the both of them. He seemed to be grappling with the smiling man for something, but she barely registered that fact.
"Beth?"
"Huh?" She tore her eyes away to look at their cook. "Those guys started saying the eggs sucked, got angry, and left. He followed them out, but I don't know why."
"He?" T-dog asked.
Beth shrugged. "Yeah, the guy from my other table. Didn't say a word, just ran out the door after them."
Just then their boss approached them. "Ok, the cops are on their way. Within the next few minutes, they said. I'm going to go break them up."
"You need any help, boss?" T-dog offered.
But their boss ignored them and went outside. Beth could see him through the glass trying to reason with any of them, but it obviously wasn't working. In fact, to Beth it seemed as if they didn't even realize he was there at all.
The cops arrived within the next few minutes just as they had promised. Or, at least it had felt like only a couple of minutes. Two cops hopped out of a squad car and ran over, gently shoving her boss out of their way. They spared no kindness for those fighting, however. They both barreled into the brawl and tore the three men apart. They didn't have to restrain them really, because they all stopped fighting when they realized that the cops had showed up.
They handcuffed all three of them, but stood there for a long time just talking to them and her boss. The smiling man kept shrugging and the grumpy man looked away. The quiet man seemed to answer when he was spoken to, but stood still as a statue. It was a strange contrast to his earlier twitchiness.
He looked up at one of the cops and said something, but Beth had never been able to read mouths. The bigger of the cops stepped up and began searching the smiling man, who was yelling loud enough to be heard through the glass. His breath came out in hot puffs.
"Hey, do you have your money?" T-dog asked her.
She looked up at him, confused, but checked anyway. "I'm pretty sure I-It's gone?" she tried to keep her tone from turning to panic as she glanced down to see her pocket empty.
Just then one of the cops entered the diner, and was looking straight at her. "Excuse me, miss. But did you misplace any of your tips?"
"All of them," T-dog answered before she had the chance.
She nodded. "It's all gone."
The cop sighed and scratched at his hair. "Well we just found a wad of cash and a paycheck made out to a 'Beth Greene' on one of these guys. So you're her?"
"Yeah, that's me."
He hadn't asked her to go with him, but she still stepped past him outside. The smiling man was spouting some nonsense about that being his money, and that the bitch must've dropped her check near him. No one was paying him much mind.
The quiet man's gaze was turned down at his shoes. She took several steps towards him and he raised his gaze to hers. Neither said anything for a long moment.
"Were you…trying to get me my money back?" She asked, suddenly immensely aware of the unusually gold Georgia air.
He sort of nodded and shrugged. "Saw 'em snatch it while they was leavin'." He admitted, although that wasn't quite the answer to her question.
"Thank you," She breathed, and she meant it. She never thought that a stranger, let alone…Well, she was grateful. Immensely grateful.
He looked immensely uncomfortable, but after a second he nodded.
She spun around towards the cops. "He's not going to jail, is he?"
The two of them glanced at each other. "well-"
"Because he was just defending himself. I saw him and so did others; that one there was the one who threw the first punch." She pointed her finger at the grumpy man, who told her to bite him. She ignored him and continued. "And he was just trying to help me. Really, he did nothing wrong."
The cop who had entered the diner waited for her to finish. "Well, we're going to have to take him down to the station-"
She opened her mouth but caught herself before she said anything.
"-but after we file the report he should be fine." He finished calmly. Beth felt the man shifting on his feet beside her. He obviously didn't want to go to the station, but she couldn't blame him. She wouldn't want to go to the station.
"So no jail?" She clarified.
"Probably not." The cop shrugged, and she knew that that was as good as she was going to get from him.
She turned back around towards the quiet man. His gaze had been on the cop, but it shifted to her.
"What's your name?" She asked, suddenly aware that she wanted to know.
"Don't matter," He replied.
She nodded. "It does,"
He regarded her for a long moment, his blue eyes partly obstructed by his bangs. She held his gaze, willing him to speak. The cops were apparently finishing up, because one started escorting the other two men to the squad car while the other placed her money in her hands.
"This is yours," he said.
She broke eye contact to thank the policeman with a smile.
The cop then stepped over to the quiet man, apparently to take him to the car as well. Beth knew that he wouldn't tell her, that he would just get in the back of the police car and never appear in her life again. She dropped her gaze to the money in her hands. It wasn't like she knew him, but…
"Daryl,"
When she looked up she saw that he had turned to look back at her, but only for a moment. Then he turned back around and let himself get led away. She watched him get into the squad car, and then watched the car as it pulled out of Louise's parking lot.
The car turned and drove straight down the snow-covered highway, and Beth watched it until it disappeared.
[author notes]
Ok, wow. So I'm super insecure about this, as it has been years since I've put any piece of my writing online. Bethyl is my otp to end all otps, and I just really want to do them justice. Which is sort of impossible, if this little piece of work is anything to go by. A slight holiday theme because holidays.
I've been wanting to write bethyl for a while, but of course i wait until half of my otp is dead. Isn't that always how it goes? I'm a sucker for bethyl diner au's, though, so I had to try one. It's completely pointless, but. Well. And now I'm absolutely positive that everything I just wrote was out of character, so I cant think about it anymore. Happy holidays!