Evolution Chapter 11

*Thank you all for your exceptionally sweet comments. It was such a nice surprise to read them. I truly enjoy writing this story and I appreciate your helpful feedback. Have a great week!

Daryl strolled into Holly's office to fill her in on his visit from Mason Grant. He suspected that the recent discovery of walker's behavior towards hybrids would be of great interest to her. He was surprised to find Carol sitting at the front desk. "Hey," he said, cocking his head to the side. "What are you doing here?"

Carol smiled. "Holly's full time receptionist went into labor last night. This will be my new job for the next couple of months.

"Nice," said Daryl nodding. "I'm sure LT's grateful to have you to help out."

"It works out well for me, because Sophia's is in school all week now. Hey I'll take this over cleaning all of the clothes in camp on a washboard any day," she said, winking.

Daryl laughed. "I don't blame you. Hey, where's LT hiding anyway?"

"Lulu wasn't feeling well this morning so Holly's working from the apartment today," said Carol.

Daryl became nervous. "Is Lulu okay?"

"Oh yes, just the usual kid things. Sore throat and a cough, that's all," Carol assured him.

He thanked Carol and made his way to the apartments. He was surprised by his concern for Lulu, but figured it was par for the course when a person has a child in their life. He'd given up on fighting his attachment to her. There was simply no point in denying his feelings for all three Greeley girls.

Ian McGrory wore his usual mischievous grin upon seeing Daryl. "Mr. Dixon, what's the word?"

"Eh, the usual Ian, what about you?" asked Daryl.

"Just tryin to stay out of trouble," said Ian. "LT's got an appointment right now but it won't be much longer."

"Okay. How's Lulu?" asked Daryl.

"Woke up this morning with a bad cough and sore throat. Good thing LT came back from the scout when she did. Kids need their moms when they're sick, ya know?"

Daryl came next to Ian and leaned against the wall. "Hey, speaking of, when is the next scout mission?"

"Leaving tomorrow morning. Why? You thinking of going back out there?" asked Ian.

"Hell no!" said Daryl, laughing. "I'll stick to hunting."

"Hey how'd you guys do today by the way?" asked Ian.

"Got a tip about some quail. Bobwhites. Snagged a half dozen. Small, but they'll be a nice change of pace from squirrel."

"Yeah? Kitchen gonna stew 'em up?" asked Ian.

"That's what they tell me," said Daryl, smiling.

Just then the apartment door opened. Daryl tensed when Shane Walsh appeared. He hadn't seen Shane since Friday and assumed that the man had already left camp. Why hadn't he left and that would he want with the lieutenant?

Shane glanced at the two men. He clenched his jaw and nodded at Daryl. "Dixon," he said, as he walked down the hallway to the staircase.

Ian took note of Daryl's dark expression. "Warm and fuzzy that one, ey?" he asked.

Daryl scoffed. "Yeah. He's a real teddy bear. I'll see ya Ian," said Daryl, as he entered the apartment. He had a knot in his stomach. He didn't know what Shane could possibly have wanted. If he had been so hell bent on leaving just three days before, why would he be hanging around camp? Something just wasn't right.

"You look deep in thought," said Holly, smiling from the kitchen. "How you doin?"

Daryl softened upon seeing her. She looked tired but still maintained the sparkle in her hazel eyes. His heart beat faster, remembering how he felt watching her sleep before he left for his hunt. "Hey LT. I'm good. You? How's Lulu?"

"She's doing okay. She sounds awful, though. I'm just making her some soup now," she said, popping off the top of a can of chicken and stars. "Then I'm hoping she takes a nap. Why don't you go see her? I'll make some soup and a grilled cheese for you if you'd like."

Daryl smiled. "That'd be great, thank you," he said, making his way to Lulu's room. He peeked his head in and had to chuckle at the sight of the child. She was in her bed, surrounded by every stuffed animal in her room. Her favorite book, Little Red Riding Hood, was opened in her lap and she was "reading" the story to her stuffed animal friends. Her little feet wiggled under the blankets as she spoke. "Hey, got room for one more?" he asked.

"Daryl!" she exclaimed hoarsely. "Come and sit with me."

"You sound so sick, baby girl," he said, walking to her bed. He looked at the crowd of animals on the bed and went to go grab a rocking chair.

"No, lay with me," she said. She took a handful of her animals and placed them on the other side of the bed. She patted the free space next to her. "Here you go," she said, smiling.

Daryl fluffed a pillow and settled next to her. "Momma's making you some soup."

"Will you eat with me?" she asked.

"Of course," he said, resting his head on the pillow. He forgot how exhausted he was until he laid down. He could smell the delicious aroma of the soup coming from the kitchen and thought about how much he had longed for days like these when he was a child.

Daryl was always the child who had to go to school sick. He never got to enjoy a few days of recovery in the comfort of his own bed and with a doting mom such as Holly. Daryl truly believed that his mother was a good person. However, she was mentally ill and did not care for Daryl or Merle the way most mothers did for their kids. She was a hoarder and didn't know enough to keep the house clean and tidy. Daryl's skin still crawled at the memory of the squalor that the Dixon boys had to live in. Merle would get so angry at times, trying to load up trash bags in an attempt to clean the house. Their mother would scream and cry and plead with Merle not to throw her things away.

When Merle was sixteen, he took Daryl to live in their fathers trailer on the other side of town. It was clean and neat, however things weren't much better there. Mr. Dixon was an alcoholic who had frequent binges, followed by blackouts. Daryl and Merle spent a lot of their time cleaning up vomit and tending to the many injuries that their father suffered due to falling while intoxicated.

Daryl shrugged off the memories of his parents when he saw Holly enter Lulu's bedroom. She was carrying a large try with two bowls of hot soup and two grilled cheese sandwiches. "Hi kids," she said, grinning. "Lunchtime."

Daryl and Lulu sat on the bed side by side and dug into their lunch. Holly sat on the rocker next to them. Daryl filled Holly in on the quails, as well as his interaction with Mason.

"I can't believe the walkers won't try to eat hybrids," she said. "It just goes to show that we don't know nearly enough about the hybrids. I wish Mason would come back to camp, even just for a while. I kind of miss him."

Daryl nodded. "Yeah, I liked him, even though he's like a walking, talking computer. He told me to say hello to you by the way."

"He did? How did he know that we knew each other?" she asked.

Daryl grinned and looked over at Lulu before clearing his throat. "He, uh…smelled you on me," he said, trying not to giggle.

Holly nodded and laughed. "Well, okay then. Wow."

"So…" started Daryl.

"Shane," said Holly.

"How did you know what I was going to say?" he asked.

"Women's intuition," she said. "No, I'm kidding. He mentioned the disagreement he had with the group on Friday. He said you were probably not happy with him," she said.

"I personally don't care a lick about him," said Daryl, shrugging. He saw Holly observing him. "But…I'm still concerned that he was here. What did he want?"

"He's going to stay," said Holly.

"Wait, what?" asked Daryl. "He pitched a fit on Friday. He went on about how we'll all regret staying, yada yada. Now he's staying? I'll never understand that guy for the life of me."

"Yeah, he said that he had a change of heart and wanted to give it a shot. He asked for work, too," said Holly.

"What kind of work?" Daryl asked.

"He wanted to know if I needed help with anything. He offered to stand guard or to escort me to my oh-so-fun immunity tests with Inland."

Daryl put down his spoon. "Holly," he started.

"I know what you're going to say, Daryl."

"You can't trust that man. Please tell me you didn't give him a job where he'll be close to you all day. Look," he said, glancing over at Lulu. Content that she was engrossed in her food, he continued. "I aint the jealous type, okay? I'm just telling you not to trust him. He…he did some things back at our old camp that didn't sit right with me. I don't want him around here, and I especially don't want him around the girls. If anything ever happened to any of you, I don't know what I'd do."

Holly's heart raced under the intensity of his gaze. His honesty both surprised and delighted her. She swallowed hard. "I understand."

"So, what did you tell him?" asked Daryl.

"I told him I had all the help I needed but I would let him know if there were some jobs around camp for him," she said.

"Good. Give him a job cleaning toilets," Daryl scoffed. Lulu giggled.

Holly nudged him with her bare foot. "Oh now stop," she said smiling. When Daryl and Lulu were finished, Holly took their tray of food. "Why don't you stay?" she asked him softly. "Take a nap. You didn't get much sleep last night."

Daryl looked over at Lulu. "You mind if I take a nap with ya, kid?"

Lulu brightened. "Really?" she asked, clapping her hands excitedly. She pulled the blankets over them and laid her head on her pillow. Daryl closed his eyes and he felt Lulu take his hand in hers. Soon, the pair was snoozing to the sounds of birds singing outside.

Holly watched Daryl sleep. His chest rose and fell rhythmically and he looked so peaceful. She saw that Lulu had grabbed his hand to help her sleep, which was a habit that she'd had since she was a baby.

Holly was grateful that Daryl had formed such a tight bond with Lulu. Her father, Zachary, had never really accepted his youngest daughter. Holly's second pregnancy was a surprise. Zach accused Holly of planning the pregnancy behind his back. "You tricked me!" he spat at her, before telling her that he'd never love the child the way he did their first daughter, Aria. Holly would never forget the pain she felt when he said that to her. He served her with divorce papers when she was eight months pregnant. Holly was not surprised. Her marriage had been troubled for years. Zach was an angry man with a bad temper. She blamed herself for not leaving him sooner.

Since then, Zach had only seen Lulu from afar. Now that he was living outside of camp, he had not seen Aria in months either. However, according to Holly's brothers, Zach had come to the camp gates and inquired about his eldest daughter on occasion. He never asked for Lulu.

Aria had a difficult time accepting Zach's rejection of the family. However, she never blamed Holly or Lulu for her father's behavior. Zach's poor reputation had spread around camp quickly. Aria was not immune to hearing the stories of her father's exploits as "Z", the head of a destructive band of dissidents. However, Aria did not falter. Holly always felt lucky to have such a mature and sweet young woman for a daughter. Lulu, on the other hand, never knew Zach, so she did not suffer any negative effects without him in her life.

Daryl murmured something in his sleep. Holly went over to the bed and pulled the blankets over his shoulder. She sighed, hoping she wasn't putting too much pressure on Daryl. She didn't want him to feel that she was just looking for a fill-in father for her kids. Quite the contrary. She just wanted him to be around. Every moment she spent with Daryl brought on more feelings for him. He was a very rare and special person.

The passionate way in which he spoke about Shane shocked her. She did not expect him to exhibit such a desire to protect her and the girls. It warmed her heart to know that he felt that way. Holly hoped that Daryl understood how much she appreciated his friendship.

It was getting more and more difficult to keep him at arms length, which scared her. She knew that if they spent any more long nights talking, that it would be harder to fight the desire to become physical.

She left Daryl and Lulu to sleep and stepped out into the hallway. Ian turned to her and grinned.

"Okay. Advice," said Holly.

"Anything for my favorite lieutenant. Would this advice you seek have anything to do with Daryl?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

She smiled and shook her head. "No, no, we're not getting into that today,"

"Really? Because I could swear you'd want advice about that man. Especially after I saw the daggers he shot at Shane Walsh when he saw him leaving the apartment," said Ian, whistling. "Damn, if looks could kill, you know?"

"Daryl doesn't trust him."

"Daryl's a smart man, then," said Ian. He looked down at his feet. "Walsh has probably already been approached, you know."

"I know. I could see something in his eyes today. Just didn't sit right with me," said Holly. "But I can't eject him from camp. I have no proof that he's done something wrong."

"Well, what do you want me to do if he comes back here?" Ian asked.

"Tell him I'll only see him in my office. My home is off limits now."

"Yes ma'am."

Holly leaned against the wall. "I am thinking of offering Rick Grimes a job."

"Yeah? I like Rick. But isn't he good friends with Walsh?" asked Ian.

"They are. But I think Rick's trustworthy. To a fault, in fact," said Holly.

"Me too. What kind of work were you thinking for him?" asked Ian.

"Civilian Affairs. Figured he could head it up."

Ian's eyes widened. "Wow. Civilian Affairs? That's not just a job, LT, that's a huge commitment. I mean he'd be involved in every element of camp. He'd also have to deal with all the fringe camps, and that includes Z and his boys. He'd be on the front lines of all our dealings with Inland, too. You think he's up for it?"

"I do. Civilians make up a large part of our camp. They need proper representation. I think Rick would do right by them. And us," said Holly.

Ian nodded. "I always trust your decisions. And I agree. I think Rick would do a great job."

Holly patted Ian on the shoulder. "I knew I could count on you, sir."

Ian brushed his shoulders off and grinned. "But of course, my good lady."

As he watched Holly enter her apartment, Ian thought about Shane's recent visit. He'd have to make it a point to do some asking around over the next few days. Ian prided himself on having his finger on the pulse of the camp. After seeing the look in Daryl's eyes when he saw Shane, the young private hoped that this was true.