Part Ten

When Jesse opened his eyes the next morning, Daryl was already packing and preparing them to head out to talk to Ed's "friend".

"What's this guy's name?" Jesse asked, before flinching back slightly, hearing Mr. White's voice in his head, asking him why a rat like him would ask questions.

"He goes by Buck," Daryl explained, "I don't know if he really has much of a name, other than that. Then again in this business… that's pretty usual."

Jesse pulled off the blanket and smiled, remembering the times he had called himself "Diesel". It seemed silly now, in retrospect – but it had seemed pretty bad-ass at the time.

They didn't talk much on the ride to Buck's house, which turned out to be a dilapidated rowhome with an overturned shopping cart in the front yard.

"Stay behind me, in case things get funny," Daryl growled, and Jesse was all too happy to oblige. Daryl jogged up the stone steps and pressed his finger to the doorbell. "Motherfucker shoulda fixed this damn thing," he grumbled when they heard no sound ring out from inside the house.

"Maybe he doesn't want to be disturbed," Jesse suggested. He could feel his heart pounding against his chest – what if this all went wrong? What if this Buck got hurt Daryl and Jesse was too damaged to do any good? What if Daryl was just another person who was going to die on him?

That thought crashed to the floor about the same time as the front door did.

"What the fuck?" Jesse heard someone exclaimed from inside the house. "What the fuck?"

"Come with me," Daryl said with a grunt, gesturing inside. Jesse stared for a long moment, until Daryl made another, more insistent gesture. He followed quickly, and they soon found themselves in the middle of a living room. The room was rather bare – the only things decorating it were a full length mirror that had been tipped up on the wall and a tattered beige sofa. The carpeting looked as if it had been ripped up, not by a cat, but by a tiger.

There was a chubby, sour-looking man sitting on the couch, angrily drinking a beer. He set it down and looked up at Daryl and Jesse.

"What the fuck?" he repeated.

"I shouldn't have to keep knocking for you to answer," Daryl told him. "Where's Ed?"

"I don't know no Ed. Get out of here before I make you pay for my door."

"I didn't ask what you want me to do – I asked where Ed was."

Jesse swallowed, wondering what he was supposed to do in this situation. Should he just wait until Buck made a move, and go ahead and defend Daryl? Should he be patrolling the exits? Trying to look like muscle and acting tough? What was his role… or did he even have one?

He watched as Daryl took a step towards Buck, his lips curling into a smile that didn't reach his eyes. He was going to get his answers one way or the other; Jesse knew that much, but he wasn't sure he could watch that process. Not after he had been on the other end of it himself. Maybe he should speak up, maybe he should say something, try and convince Daryl to go another way. Try to convince Buck to run and not to get hurt, or try to convince him to just tell Daryl what he needed to know.

"I'm going to ask you one more time, Buck. I know you ain't got much love for Ed, either. I could play around with you all day about this, but the thing is he has my girlfriend and her daughter – so I don't have any time. You know he wouldn't piss on you if you were on fire, so why even play at protecting him? Why get hurt over it? Because," Jesse watched as Daryl's eyes darkened, "you will get hurt, and I will find out what I need anyway. So why not just save yourself the trouble?"

Buck made a snorting sound and then looked up at Daryl.

"What will you give me if I do? I'm seeing the stick, but I'm interested in seeing the carrot. Cause if the carrot ain't any good, I think I might take your stick from you and beat your ass."

To Jesse's surprise, Daryl smiled.

"One carrot, coming right up."

They began to discuss numbers as Jesse stared, his head swimming. Was this how things worked, now? How negotiations worked in situations like this? Maybe it had always been this way and the compound had just made him hazy. Or maybe he had been naïve.

At some point, Daryl placed a number of curled bills into Buck's hand, and Buck whispered something into Daryl's ear.

"It's a pleasure doing business with you," Daryl grunted. "I hope I won't be seeing you again too soon."

"What are you going to do about my door?" Buck asked. Daryl shrugged.

"I gave you enough to get a new one, shitheel." Daryl turned to Jesse and snapped his fingers. "C'mon, Jesse. It's time to go." Jesse nearly had to reach up and close his jaw. Maybe he just wasn't used to being back out in the world, not yet at least.

It took a moment for him to stir back into himself and follow Daryl back outside.

"What did you find out?" Jesse asked, once he had found himself able to speak again.

"I found out where he is." Daryl sounded surprised, and almost disappointed.

"What do we do now?"

"…Well, we go there." Daryl paused. "By which I mean, I go there. I don't think you're ready to be dragged into all of this. It was a mistake. Let me take you back to your girlfriend and her kid, and I'll go rouse Ed."

Jesse shook his head.

"Not a chance."

"….That's what I was hoping you'd say."