Chapter Ten
Daryl ran a hand through his hair as he rinsed out their cups. He felt more than a little out of sorts and he was ready to get the night over with. He'd heard every embarrassing ass word that came out of her friends mouth. It was bad enough that he was having trouble keeping his head on straight. Now it was goddamn impossible to do that. She hadn't been touched in six years. On the surface, he had assumed that. But then he really thought about what that implied. Six years was a long fucking time.
He wasn't stupid enough to think that he was some sort of goddamn sex God, but he was Merle Dixon's brother and there wasn't any trick out there that Daryl hadn't heard of to get a woman off. And from what her friend had said, Carol wouldn't even be too damn hard to impress. Her asshole husband had been a total flop in the sack, which wasn't surprising. Usually when a man laid hands on a woman it was because they didn't feel like a real man in other aspects. Seventeen years of pent up sexual aggression. No wonder she was eyeballing his dick.
Goddamn it! Why did he have to want to sleep with this woman?
"Your cousin saw me."
He turned around at the sound of her voice. "So."
Her eyes were wide and she was flushed and she looked good as fuck in his shirt. She threw her hands up. "He thinks there's something going on."
He snorted. "He knows better than that."
She sat down heavily in the chair and sighed. "This night has been a complete disaster."
He shook his head and leaned into the counter again. "You got outta jail. You got to rough up some poor guy in a parking lot. Now you're living the wild life and spendin' the night with a man you don't know. Could be worse." He didn't know why he was trying to make her feel better. He didn't like her at all. He could be physically attracted to her without liking her.
She looked up and then she smiled. He blinked in surprise. He hadn't seen her smile until now and it lit up her face. It didn't last very long though and she looked down at her hands. "What am suppose to do with her?" She asked, sadness washing the light away, leaving her pale and drawn.
He didn't have an answer for her. He had been an addict himself and nothing had helped at first. It wasn't until someone actually realized how to help him before he was able to kick his own demons.
"Do you think she's been on it for very long?" She asked, rubbing at the tension in the back of her neck.
He shrugged. "It's kind of hard to tell. When did she start actin' different?"
She blew out a breath. "Andrea said she started acting different about a year ago. That was when she stopped coming for visits. She stopped writing. She just shut down. I think I need to call and try to get her into rehab. Maybe by the time school starts back up she'll be-"
"No!" He pushed away from the counter, shaking his head. "You can't do that to her." He remembered what it was like in those places and he knew that they never helped him. All it did was make him feel more alone, more confused. He didn't want the girl to go through that. Some people needed places like that but he didn't think she did. Somehow he knew exactly what she needed. She needed him.
"You can't stand there and tell me how to raise my daughter," she snapped. "This is the best thing I can do for her."
"Are you fucking serious! The day after you get out of prison you send her away? That's the best thing you can do for her? No goddamn wonder she's in this fuckin' mess!"
"You have no fucking idea what I've been through!" She growled. "Or her for that matter!"
"I don't give a goddamn what you've been through! This ain't about you. It's about a fucking kid that feels like her life ain't worth livin' anymore. It's about how she feels inside, not what you might be goin' through. Of all the selfish goddamn things I've ever fuckin' heard!"
"I'm not being selfish!" she snapped.
"You don't know what the fuck you're doin'. You're gonna make it worse. She's gonna feel like-"
"How the hell can you stand there and act like you know? You don't know her."
Daryl's hands slammed down onto the table with enough force to cause her whole body to tense and fear replaced the outrage in her eyes. She thought he was going to hit her and he knew it. He took a steadying breath. He didn't want her to be afraid of him.
"I don't have to know her. I've lived it myself. I was just like her... No," he shook his head, "I was way further gone than her. And they sent me off over and over and the only thing it did was prove to me that they didn't give a fuck. That it was easier to hide me away than to look me in the goddamn eye and face what they did. So don't you sit there and tell me I don't know. I do know. I know a lot more about what's in her head than you ever will."
She refused to look away, even though that fear was still clear in her eyes and the artery in her neck was jumping fast. She blinked tears back but he refused to let them wear on him. He would fight for the kid because for a long damn time he hadn't had anyone around to fight for him. In the beginning even June and Odin had thrown up their hands and watched him spiral, thinking that sending him off was what he had needed.
"I don't know how to fix her," she whispered, a tear escaping and the fearful look dissolving into desperation.
He shook his head, "She's a little bent. She's cracked and she's chipped but she ain't fuckin' broken. You can't fix what ain't broke."
"Then what can I do about the cracks?" She asked, her eyes clearing a little.
He shook his head. "Let me worry about the damn cracks, alright? I know what I'm doin'. Two weeks. You give me two weeks and if I can't help her then we'll do what you wanna do but if you care about her at all, you'll just step back and at least let me try."
He hadn't realized that he was leaning closer. Too close for comfort but he really was desperate. She blew out a breath, biting her lip while she studied him. All he could do now was hope like hell he had gotten through to her.
"Two weeks?" She asked in a near whisper.
He nodded, still not moving away from her.
"Why do you care so much?"
He shook his head, feeling the force of the conversation weighing heavily on him. He didn't talk about his past with people. He didn't talk about it with anyone. Now this woman that he barely knew had access to some of the darkest moments in his life and he felt exposed. "Cause she's just a kid. Kids shouldn't have to go through the shit she's been through. The ones that's been through it, they shouldn't have to feel like every fuckin' day is the end of the world."
"And you were like her?"
He nodded, hating to admit anything to a stranger but not able to do anything about it now. "I was a lot worse than her and for a lot longer."
"You really think you can help her?"
He nodded again. He truly did think that he could help her. Hell, she hadn't been there for ten minutes earlier and he had warn her down a little bit. She just needed somebody that would listen. She needed somebody she could trust. She needed him because he understood and right now, in her head, she didn't believe that there was anyone out there that did.
She wiped her face just like Sophia had done earlier and he saw the resemblance then. "I don't want to be shut out anymore. I want to help her too."
"You sure you're up for that?"
"I'm a hardened criminal. Of course I'm up for it," she muttered, offering him a slight smile.
~H~
Sophia rolled over and then jerked up just in time to keep herself from spilling onto the floor. She wasn't as out of it as she had been the first time she had woken up in this house. She remembered coming here and she remembered talking to Daryl. The fight she had ran from in the car. She knew everything. She had only taken enough to get her through the day so it hadn't really affected her mind too much. She hadn't over done it.
She didn't want to face her mom and Andrea this morning but she couldn't hide out here forever. She would have if she could but they would find her. Or they would report her and then Daryl would be the one to get in trouble and she didn't want that.
She rubbed her eyes and moved so her feet were on the floor. She felt bad for what had happened to him the night before. Her mom had really done a number on him before he had managed to pin her against that car, and even then her mom had tried to fight him off. She had also felt bad last night when she had found herself here. But there was something about the man. It was the way he looked at her. It wasn't like the way other people did. Damon was the same way. They treated her like she was a person and not some basket case. They talked to her, not at her.
She pushed the quilt off to the side and stood up, stretching. The house was silent but she saw light coming from the kitchen. Before checking to see if anyone else was up she went down the hall towards the bathroom. The door was closed but before she could knock, it opened up. Steam billowed out and then Damon stepped out, stopping in his tracks when he saw her.
She stared. There wasn't anything else she could do. He had a towel wrapped low around his hips and his bare torso was beaded with water, his damp hair hung past his shoulders. He wasn't built like other boys his age. He was heavily muscled, his chest and shoulders were broad.
"You here to pick up your mom?"
She looked up at his face, flushing because he had one dark eyebrow raised. He knew she'd just been checking him out. She cleared her throat. "Huh?"
"Your mom was here last night. Figured she stayed."
"My mom was here?"
He nodded and then stepped around her. "Yep. When I got up to use the bathroom last night she was comin' out of the bathroom wearin' one of Daryl's shirts and lookin' pretty flushed. If you ain't here to pick her up then what are you doin' here?"
"I came here last night."
He frowned. "Last night? You crash here?"
She nodded. "On the couch. I didn't know she came here."
"Well, I'd love to stand out here and chat but I'm kinda naked so..."
She felt her face flame and then she nodded. "Yeah, I was just..."
He grinned, shook his head and slipped into his room.
She rolled her eyes at herself. God, he had to think she was a moron! She slipped into the bathroom, wondering what the hell her mom had been doing here and why the hell she had been here wearing Daryl's shirt.