10.

'How did it go man'? Herman was doing sume numbers in the computer when he saw Daryl get back. He had asked him to go get some cart parts from a fabric near Atlanta.
'Went fine. Brought what I could in the truck and the other stuff they'll be deliverin' it tomorrow mornin'.
'Thank you man. Did you check on Merle?'

Merle was a sensitive subject between the two men. He used to work in the car shop just like Daryl, although he had less responsabilities. Daryl had always been thankful because he knew Herman did it for him more than for his brother. Merle was unsteady and sometimes he could be rude to costumers, so Herman used to give him other tasks which didn't imply interacting with them. But Merle wasn't the kind of guy who would happily take orders from his boss either. He also missed work, once or twice a week, because he was to drunk or too high even for Daryl to put him in his track and drag him to work. And when Merle's addiction to cocaine started to become worse, things turned too complicated for Herman to manage. One month later, which was like 4 months ago, he ended up having to talk to Daryl and firing him. Daryl hadn't known what to do back then, because despite the fact that Merle was his brother, he knew Herman had a point. He would have even done it himself. From that day, things with Merle started to become unmanagable. He started to do heroin too, and when Daryl would come home, he would find him either unconscious on the floor or out. It was useless to talk to him, hell, it had even been useless to beat the shit out of him. One day he ended up robbing a shop near Atlanta with some motherfucker addicts cause they were out of money to get more drugs, and that had been how he had ended up in rehab. That whole situation with Merle always broke Daryl into pieces, although he would never admit it. He hated the fact that for some reason, Merle hadn't had any opportunities of becoming different. He would never understand, not in a million years of thinking, which he did a lot, how come he had been able to somewhat overcome his abusive childhood and younger years while Merle hadn't. Hell, Jack had never done to Merle the things he did to Daryl. He knew there was no easy way out of that kind of situations, they just got into your skin and suddenly the future wasn't up to you anymore. No matter how hard you tried, your past would just always be there, threatening your future, at least to some point.

'Ya ok there man?'
'Yea.. was just thinkin' bout stuff'.
'Milton had dinner with us last night. He went to deliver Monica some seeds and we told him to stay. Told us Andrea was in your place'.
'Uh, yea.. she brought some seeds I wanted. Took Carol with 'er'.
'Ed's wife?'
Daryl stared at him, annoyed.
'Thought you told me she got rid of that son of a bitch.'
'I know man, I didn't know if we were talking about the same Carol, that's all'.
'Yea, whatever, guess she wouldn' like it if ya called 'er that'.
'What, are you her lawyer now or something?' Herman chuckled. Daryl was actually pretty mad by now.
'I'm her nothin, ok? But if some fucker beats on his woman, show some respect and dontcha refer to 'er as his damn wife'.
'Ok man, you have a point there. You're right, just Carol from now on.'

Herman knew Daryl better than he thought. He knew he had hit a nerve there. Last night, Milton had tried not to say a word about Carol going with Andrea to Daryl's house last night, but he ended up making it pretty clear that Andrea took Carol for a reason. When Monica asked Milton about it, he just answered he couldn't say anything, so it was pretty obvious for Herman that there was something going on in there. He decided to play with Daryl a little to see what he could find out.

'So they just showed up? What did you guys do?'
'We did nothin' man, they brought those seeds, I was cookin' some rabbit, couldn't tell 'em to fuck off'. Ended up eatin' it'.
'So are you sleeping with Andrea¡'.
'What the fuck ya talkin' about man? Isn't she seein' your weird pal? I'm not fuckin sleepin' with her.'
'Ok ok. I get it. No need to say it twice. Is it Carol then?'

Daryl would have liked to behave like some plain idiot guy and ask Herman why the fuck he was askin' these questions. He was pretty sure Milton had said something to him and Monica last night, and now Herman was trying to make Daryl talk about it. He wasn't fuckin' stupid. It didn't matter if Carol said something to Milton and then he had gone and told 'em in the middle of dinner, he didn't want to know.

'Go watch some mexican novel man. I'm not sleepin' with Carol, Andrea or anyone for that matter. Hell, I don't even know 'em.'
'Don't tell me that's a limitation for ya'.
'It's none of yer bussiness who the hell I sleep with k? I figured I made it pretty clear for ya guys in this year I've been workin with ya. Did Monica give you a blow job last night? Good for you man, now do me a favor an' grow up for fuck's sake'.

And with that he got out and headed to the deposit.

'Ok Carol, I know the payment's not much. But we will only be needing you for four hours every day, from 12 to 4 or 1 to 5, that's up to you'.
'I don't know how to thank you Lori. I was needing a job so much, with college bills and having to find a place to rent and this whole new life'.
Lori waved her hand, brushing her off. 'Don't mention it. We were needing someone here too, with the baby coming and all, I can no longer stay for 8 hours you know? How do you feel about starting this Thursday?'

She didn't know Lori very well. All she knew was she was Rick's wife. She seemed ok, although not very cheerful. She looked way too serious from time to time, but Carol didn't mind. It's not that she wanted to become her friend or anything. She just needed a job. Rick on the other hand, seemed to be those nice guys who felt good when they could do things for people. He had a remarkable reputation as a cop in the town. He had called her that morning to check on her, ask her how she was. He had also told her the news about Ed. Apparently the procedure was slow and it would take 3 months for him to come back to Annandale and going to the court. Carol figured she had less than 3 months to prepare herself for that, but for now, she felt it was better if she didn't think about it. She wasn't ready, yet.

Carol went back to Andrea's apartment. It was 5 pm and Andrea wasn't home. She went to the fridge to get some orange juice and found a note in the table:

'Went to Milton's. I might come back, or I might not. Dinner with Daryl Friday night?' and some sort of winky face.