The Dragonfly On My Shoulder
A/N: To the lovely anon who asked why I picture Daryl as blonde. I am in love with season one and two Daryl with shorter lighter hair. So when I say blonde I mean dirty blonde like that. Thanks for asking, I'm sure you aren't the only one. I am always open to questions, feel free to PM me anytime.
PS: This is a true story, just switched the names a little. This is how my husband and I found each other again.
The tattoo didn't hurt as much as she thought it would and it was a welcome surprise because she intended to get more, many more. She had them all planned out, and had for years.
Ed had forbid it, even though he himself had that dumb parrot tattoo on his own chest, a memory of a drunken night and another girl.
Her name was Danielle, and she was the one that got away, apparently when Ed dated her she had a pet bird or some such bullshit. When she left him, because women always left him, he was so distraught he got the ink on his chest as a reminder.
Carol was the woman who stayed with him, through all his bullshit and all his beatings. Then he burned her pictures. She had been taking night classes in photography and creative writing and he was pissed off about it. How dare she do something for herself, that she liked.
She was a hack, in his opinion with no talent for writing or photography and he told her every day.
He burned every one of her black and white and most of the color prints, all of her writing notebooks and he was just about to break her camera and enlarger when she came home.
She fought back, finally.
Something snapped and she packed her bags. That night she moved in with Maggie and Glenn temporarily, and soon she would have enough saved for her own place. Ed was flabbergasted that she left, how dare she leave him.
He told her she would be sorry and that she was making the biggest, mistake of her life.
She wasn't and she knew it and now, she and Maggie were at 'Slingin Ink' getting her tattoo. It was a colorful dragonfly on her left shoulder, she had wanted it for years, as a memorial for her father. Ed forbid it, so naturally she went to get it right away. The very next day after she left that ass she was married to.
The tattoo artist said she was a bleeder, and Maggie laughed because Jim had said the same thing about her. Maggie was a frequent customer and she had brought baby Herschel with her this time. The baby sat quietly and sweetly in the stroller watching Aunt Carol get tattooed.
"How's that husband of yours Maggie? He ever going to finish his sleeve?" Jim said as he was running the needle over Carols back. "Almost done sweetie, just have the writing to do now." He said to Carol.
"He's got an appointment Friday Jim; don't you look at your schedule." Maggie said.
"I aint got time for that." He laughed. "Ok Miss. Carol 'She flies by her own wings' right?"
Carol nodded and Maggie smiled and baby Herschel started clapping.
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Carol wasn't looking forward to the work dinner at all but she had to go. She was determined to not miss any work while she sorted out her life and so she had to go to this partner's dinner. No one but her very best friend at work knew what was going on in her life.
She intended to keep it that way. It had only been a few days since she left Ed and it was all so new yet. But she was free and there was no feeling quite like that.
The restaurant was one she had never been to before three towns over. The meeting was over dinner with some clients at the advertising firm she worked at and she was required to attend.
It would be a challenge.
It was nice not having to check in with Ed every five minutes, even though he had taken to sleeping outside Maggie and Glenn's house in his truck every night. Finally, they had called the cops and got the restraining order.
She still suspected he followed her, but he kept his distance and she didn't see him anywhere near the restaurant. She texted her co-worker Tara when she got there and Tara told her where the private room was, but she had to walk through the bar to get there.
She was working on her fear of new places, ten years married to Ed made her fearful of people and new things. He liked it that way, and when she went back to school to do something for herself that had been her first step towards independence.
It was why he tried to destroy her work and it backfired in his face. Doing this, going somewhere different was her way of proving that he didn't get the best of her, not in the end.
Walking into a new restaurant where she didn't know anyone and walking through a crowd was easier now that she wasn't under his thumb anymore. She could wear what she wanted and he had no say. It was a work thing tonight so she wore nice jeans and a nice light blue blouse. The clothes he used to forbid she now wore proudly.
Every day away from her made her stronger, every decision, the tattoo and the clothes was her way of taking herself and her life back.
Carol sucked in her breath and opened the door to the loud bar, where everyone was talking, she would make her way through the crowd silently and not draw attention to herself. She could see Tara in the doorway of the room in the back. Just a little way to go.
The plan was working until a voice on her left said her name.
"Carol?" And she knew the voice, she would know that voice anywhere. She hadn't heard it in over ten years, and it was deeper and more gravely, but it was his.
The first and only man she had ever truly loved. She turned and looked at him and he looked the same, his hair was a little longer but his eyes, his eyes were still as blue as the ocean.
"Daryl?" She gulped out the words, not believing he was sitting there at one of the raised tables next to her.
He was introducing her to the man he was with Rob or Rick or something, but she couldn't catch her breath. Here was her high school sweetheart who she had dated for three years, who she subconsciously compared every other man in her life to, in front of her.
"I thought you moved away?" She said. She knew he moved away, with his wife and kids. She had said yes to Ed, because she had heard he got married. The was no more hope left so she had settled.
"Came back six months ago. Buy you a drink." He said pulling a chair out for her.
"Oh, I'm here for work, I have to get to the room over there." She turned to leave and she felt his hand on her arm.
"After?" He said and she could see his eyes were soft and pleading.
"That's not a good idea, I know you're married." She said softly.
"Divorced, three years, Kelsey moved back here to be near her family and I followed to be near my kids." He said. "So later?"
She nodded absentmindedly and walked off to the meeting.
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Carol had tried to find him on Facebook just to see where he was in life, but he wasn't on it. He wasn't on any social media at all. To think that he had been back and she didn't know it was mind boggling. They broke up over something so stupid she couldn't even remember what it had been. But they had been both too stubborn to make up.
She remembered the day she heard he was getting married, she drove right over to his house. They had been broken up over a year. He had been working on a car out front of his house and he told her in no uncertain terms that yes, he knew what he was doing, no he didn't love her anymore and yes he loved Kelsey.
Then he told her to leave.
She married Ed soon after that, they had been dating and he had asked. A mutual friend told her Daryl had indeed gotten married. So she married Ed and started her long decent into hell.
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"Don't you believe in fate?" Tara whispered to her during the dinner. "What are the odds you would both be in the same place at the same time. Its fate. And he's divorced? Carol, someone is trying to tell you something."
Tara was a bubbly, wonderful person in Carol's life, even if she was a little un seasoned in how life could beat you into the ground. She was so refreshing. But she didn't have a clue about how life could be.
"He won't wait; he was just being nice." Carol said.
"Oh, he'll wait, you have no idea what a dish you are." Tara said.
Carol laughed. "Ok, Tara."
"Seriously, even Alisha says so."
"Well, good to know." She giggled with her friend. It felt so good to laugh again. In the past ten years' laughter had been missing from her life. She looked forward to a wonderful life with lots of laughter.
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Carol and Tara walked out of the back room when their dinner meeting was done and she saw him still sitting there. It had been two hours and his friend was nowhere to be seen. Tara patted her on her shoulder and Carol winced.
"Tattoo remember."
"Oh. Sorry." Tara said. "Break a leg huh?"
"Funny." She said as she approached the table. And he looked up at her, he was on his feet in a second pulling the chair out for her and out of the corner of her eye she saw Tara giving her the thumbs up and the call me sign.
He looked over to where she was looking and Tara gave a little wave as she walked out the door.
"My friend Tara." She said. "Where's your friend Rich?"
"Oh, Rick had to get home." He said. "His wife is pregnant; the baby is coming any day now. Their first."
"How wonderful."
"Do you have kids Carol?" He asked.
"No." She said. "My ex didn't want them."
That would always be the thing she regretted most in life. Carol wanted kids so badly, but now it seemed to be a blessing that she never had them with Ed.
He nodded. "So you're divorced?"
"Getting divorced, my lawyer says five months." She said as the waitress brought over a diet coke and set it down on the table in front of her.
"I got you a diet coke, do you still drink them?"
She nodded.
"Yeah it doesn't take long these days, Kelsey just said she didn't want to be married anymore and it was done."
"I'm sorry." Carol replied, feeling badly for the children, and for him.
"Don't be, it was coming for a long time. It's better for everyone this way."
"Yeah, mine too." She rubbed her shoulder because it still stung where Tara had tapped her.
"You ok."
"Oh." She said. "New tattoo."
"Excellent, show me." He said, his eyes lighting up and a smile quirking at his lips.
He was so opposite of Ed it was uncanny and refreshing. He wanted to see her tattoo and appreciated what they were. They were falling into easy conversation just like it had always been with them.
She scooted next to him and showed him the tattoo, he whistled.
"Nice, love the quote. 'She flies by her own wings'." He said. "Who did it?"
"Jim at 'Slingin Ink'" and she noticed he was smiling.
"I know him, he did a few for me." He said. "Back in the day."
"I'm getting more."
"You should." He said. "What's it mean, the dragonfly on your shoulder?"
"My Dad passed a little over a year ago." Ed had been convinced that was why she left him, he thought she was having an extreme grief reaction.
"I'm sorry, Carol." Daryl nodded. "I saw it in the paper, I wanted to call you."
"They say when you see a dragonfly its someone who's passed letting you know they're ok." Carol said. "It reminds me of him. Like he's always with me."
"Your old man was something." He said taking a sip of his soda.
She nodded with a grin on her face. "He loved you."
"Yeah, it was mutual." She said.
They talked for hours until the last of the tables left and the waiter was making hints about closing. Daryl paid the tab and they walked out into the parking lot to her car.
"So, you live and learn right? Kelsey said she had been unhappy for years."
"I tried to talk you out of it." Carol said to him as they stood leaning against the car door.
He laughed. "Yeah you did."
Her phone dinged but she ignored it.
"That's just Tara checking in. I should go." She said turning to open her car door.
"Can I have your number; we could go for coffee sometime?"
"Sure." She replied and he leaned over to her and kissed her quickly on the lips.
"Do you believe in fate Carol?" He asked.
She considered that foe a moment, she hadn't lately and not since she was a young girl and unspoiled by life. But here they were.
"Maybe I do."