Thank you so much for reading and reviewing this story for me so far. I really love writing it and it's something a little different for me and I know I said this would be a short one but I keep getting more and more ideas for this one. I know some have been asking for it and I will also be writing a Daryl POV chapter for this story. I will be working on the next chapter of From Afar next.
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Part Four.
"No."
It is the fifth time Oscar had said that but Beth is not about to be deterred. If anything, his unwavering refusal just spurns her on.
"Please, Oscar. Look how sweet he is. He won't be a problem. You know he won't be." She tries to hold the tabby cat close to Oscar's face. The man finally moves his eyes from the television screen to glance at the cat for just a moment before looking back to Beth and her smile and hopeful face.
"No."
Beth sighs but still, she is not about to give up. "I'm not asking to keep him in my room. Maybe we could put a littler box for him in yours and Axel's office back and I'll be the one to empty it. He's always hanging around, Oscar. He already lives here. He could be the motel's official mascot."
Oscar just blinks at her. "No."
"Oscar-"
"Oscar, man, you gotta do somethin' about the asshole in room five or I will," Daryl says, coming into the office. "What the hell is that?" He sees the cat in Beth's arms and his ever present frown deepens.
"It's a cat," Beth smiles at him.
"What's room five doing now?" Oscar asks.
"Is that the cat who's been killin' all the mice 'round here?" Daryl asks.
"We don't have mice," Oscar frowns.
"See?" Beth's smile widens as she looks back to Oscar. "We all have jobs to do as my daddy always used to say and keeping the motel mouse free is Mr. Tabby's."
"That is the worst fuckin' name I have ever heard," Daryl snorts.
Beth frowns at him. "Well, what would you name him?"
Daryl and the cat stare at one another, blue eyes blinking against yellow. He just shrugs his shoulders. "Cornelius," he then replies as if it's the most obvious answer.
…
Axel, of course, loves the cat and declares that he agrees with Beth. He will live at the motel and be their official mascot and the litter box can be kept in the back office.
And his official name will be Cornelius.
Beth beams, Oscars sighs and Daryl just looks indifferent to the whole thing.
…
"Can I ask you something?" Beth asks after she comes up to the corner booth where Daryl sits. He is looking over the menu and she doesn't know why because he comes here every night and looks at it every night and he knows the whole thing by heart.
"Just some chili and a slice of cornbread tonight," he says, dropping the menu back between the ketchup and mustard bottles. "And Coke," he adds.
"Can I ask you something?" She asks again.
He looks up at her. "I just answered. Didn' you hear?"
She ignores his frown. "Why does Axel seem to hate you so much?" She blurts the question out. "My first full day here, when I saw your brother… and you, Axel told me that you were the worst news and while I think you are a very surly man and seem to dislike me for absolutely no reason – which is entirely your right – although you did bring me that deer and it was so wonderfully delicious and thank you for that but I keep hearing Axel's words in my head and it just doesn't make sense."
She is well aware of the fact that she is rambling and Daryl is looking up at her with slightly squinted eyes as if she is giving him a headache.
She doesn't expect him to answer and she can't quite believe that she has mentioned this at all to him. She turns to leave but just as she does, she hears him mutter.
"The Dixon last name is a bad last name to have in these parts," he says.
She turns back to him. "But Sherriff Grimes… and Martinez and Oscar, too. They don't seem to have a problem with you whatsoever."
Daryl shrugs. "You'll have to talk to 'em if you're so curious 'bout it."
Beth looks at him for a moment but he is staring down at the table and doesn't look at her again. She doesn't say anything else and goes to get him his Coke.
…
She is sitting outside her room, the door open behind her, the light from inside spilling out into the night. She strums her guitar, tuning some of the strings, humming a random song. Cornelius sits nearby, licking his paw. Room five sounds as if it is having a party behind the closed door – yet again – music pounding, drowning her sound out, and there are loud crashes and voices. She nearly cringes every time she hears a glass break. The motel's maid, Michonne, is going to be beyond pissed when she has to clean that up tomorrow.
The door to room six opens and Daryl walks out, his face as dark as a storm, and he slams his door shut. She pauses in her strumming to look at him as he pauses to light a cigarette. He lifts his head and sees her and she slowly lowers her eyes back to her guitar, pretending she doesn't hear the gravel beneath his feet as he walks from his room towards her.
He sits down beside her with a word and she doesn't say anything either.
He exhales a cloud of smoke and rests his arms on his knees, his eyes focused out into the night. Cornelius finishes cleaning himself and Beth smiles faintly when the cat begins rubbing himself against Daryl's legs and it's surprising when Daryl doesn't push the animal away.
She begins to sing. "Nice to meet you/Where you been/I could show you incredible things/Magic, madness, heaven, sin/Saw you there and I thought oh my god/Look at that face/You look like my next mistake/Love's a game/Wanna play/New money, suit and tie/I can read you like a magazine/Ain't it funny rumors fly/And I know you heard about me/So hey, let's be friends/I'm dying to see how this one ends/Grab your passport and my hand/I could make the bad guys good for a weekend."
"You write that?" Daryl asks.
She smiles. "I wish. This is Taylor Swift."
"Do you write any music?"
"I do. Whenever I'm inspired. Unfortunately, at the moment, the only thing I'm inspired by are fried eggs and greasy cheeseburgers," she smiles a little and she thinks she sees him smile, too, but his cigarette and the mostly darkness hide it.
She strums and hums but doesn't sing again and he remains sitting there, smoking, and Cornelius curls up on the step between them. The party continues raging on but it is faded noise in the background and sitting there with Daryl, things are quiet and peaceful and she feels herself smiling a little again.
…
She gets a cold and the instant she walks into the diner, sneezing and coughing, T-Dog takes one look at her and points at the door with his burger flipper.
"Are you out of your damn mind, girl?"
He comes from the kitchen and gently pushes her to the door.
"Go home and rest and come back when you don't look like death," he says.
"I don't look that bad," she grumbles but she is so grateful to not have to work that night that she allows herself to be pushed back outside.
When she gets back to the motel, she almost feels like stopping at Daryl's door to tell him that she won't be working tonight but she has found out that he does maintenance work all over town – keeps the whole damn place from falling apart, as he says – and she knows he's not there.
When she finally gets back to her room, she collapses face down onto the bed and has just enough energy to roll herself within the comforter like a burrito before she passes out.
…
"What is going on with you and Daryl Dixon?" Sasha asks the next day when she comes over to the motel to see her, bringing a container of chicken noodle soup.
"What do you mean?"
They sit cross legged on the bed, facing one another, and she sips at her soup, feeling the hot liquid searing her sore throat and it feels so wonderful.
"T put me on the night shift last night and Daryl Dixon came in, saw me, didn't see you and I swear, he turned right back around and left," Sasha says and Beth feels her watching her closely for any sort of reaction to what she has just said.
Beth is proud of herself because she is convinced she doesn't give anything away though she is convinced she feels her heart skip an actual beat in her chest. She knows Sasha has no reason to make something like that up so just the image of Daryl walking in and not seeing her and leaving because of it, it makes the back of her neck flush. Does this mean he likes her?
No, that's impossible. Of course he doesn't like her. He thinks she's just some spoiled little princess. She annoys him and he is always scowling at her. He has these moments of niceness towards her that make her stomach flutter even more but then he will be back to frowning at her and he just seems so annoyed by her most of the time and she is reminded that he barely seems able to tolerate her.
"I don't know," Beth finally shrugs. "Maybe he just doesn't like change."
"Mmmm-hmmm," Sasha nods. "I'm sure that's it. Listen, Beth. Just… be careful."
"With Daryl?" Beth looks at herm surprised, and Sasha nods her head. "Why?"
"The Dixons don't have the best reputation around here. Daryl's dad and his older brother are pretty awful people. They did a lot of bad shit. Mostly drugs and robberies," Sasha explains.
Beth sips another spoonful of soup. "And did Daryl do any of these things?" She asks. Sasha just stares at her. "Well, you mentioned his dad and his older brother and I'm just wondering if Daryl does these things, too, or he just has the same last name."
She thinks it makes perfect sense but Sasha is looking at her like she has sprouted a third head. She then shakes her head slightly.
"Look, Beth," she says. "Just be careful. He's a Dixon and there's something in their blood that no matter how good you think they are… they aren't."
Beth sips another spoonful of soup and doesn't know what to say to that.
She knows she doesn't believe it though.
…
It is a cool night and she has the door to her room open, sitting outside again with a thick cardigan sweater wrapped around herself. Her head is tilted up and she is looking at the stars twinkling overhead and she finds herself missing the farm all of a sudden. She wonders if Maggie is looking up at the stars right then, too.
Is this what she is going to do? Live in a motel for the rest of her life and be a waitress at a small-town greasy diner? Is this what she left the farm for? She thought she would drive to California and start living a life she couldn't even imagine.
Instead, she hasn't even left Georgia and she has no idea what she is doing.
She wishes her daddy was alive for so many reasons but she really wishes he was still here so she could ask why he hadn't left her the farm. Maggie had left and she had stayed and helped him every day, putting off college to stay and help, and she was with him until the day he died. And she just doesn't get it. She knows she isn't like Maggie but he would tell her every day how much he loved her, his doodlebug, and what he wouldn't know what he would do without her.
So why, in the end, hadn't that mattered?
She hears a roar of a motorcycle nearing and seconds later, Daryl pulls into the parking lot, stopping in front of his room. He sees her sitting there and comes to her and she quickly wipes at her cheeks with her sweater sleeves.
He stops in front of her. "You a'right?" He asks and she knows that it's obvious she's been crying.
She nods, not looking at him. "Sure," she answers quietly and shortly.
She expects him to leave then, to walk back to his room and leave her sitting out here where she can cry by herself, but instead, he sits down beside her. He doesn't say anything and she doesn't say anything either. He lights a cigarette and sitting there with him, she looks back up to the stars and from the corner of her eye, she sees him looking up at them with her.
…
She drops off his cheeseburger and onion rings, setting it in front of him. "Anything else?" She asks.
He shakes his head but before she can walk away, his hand shoots out and she gasps with surprise when his fingers circle lightly around her wrist, stopping her. It's her left wrist with all of the bracelets and the scar beneath and for a panicked moment, she is convinced he can feel it. But he just looks up at her and his fingers drop away.
"I'm goin' huntin' this weekend," he tells her. He looks at her for a moment as she looks at him and then he looks down to his plate of food. "Remember you sayin' you aren't feelin' inspired lately and I was wonderin' if you wanted to go with me. Maybe bein' in the woods will help you out with that."
Beth hears the words he's saying to her and yet, she can hardly believe it; can hardly believe that he is suggesting they do something where they spend more time together.
She looks at him and imagines what it would be like in the woods with him and she remembers what Andrea said about him – how he is the best tracker and hunter in the county. She has never been hunting before. Her daddy and older brother, Shawn, used to go all of the time but that had been just for the boys and she or Maggie had never been allowed to go.
She imagines Daryl in the wood, quiet and intense like he is now but even more so while hunting and just the mental image of it makes her nearly shiver.
"Yes," she answers quickly and nods her head and she doesn't think a moment longer about it. She just thinks of being with Daryl in the woods, alone for who knows how long, and she can't remember the last time she has heard of anything more appealing.
Daryl looks up at her and he looks a mixture of surprised and relieved that she has agreed to come with him.
She doesn't think as to why Daryl would invite her to come with him but she is not going to think it to death. He invited her to come with him and right now, it's the only thing she wants to do.
There it is. Her heart has just skipped another beat.
…
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