(Wow, I'm happy for all of my positive reviews. I am glad that people are really enjoying this. SN: I'm not sure how I feel about this chapter. I had one thing planned, but ended up with this. I am trying to get things set up for a chapter I have been planning since the beginning, but I am having some issues with the chapters before. I am hoping there will be one more after this one and then I can get to a chapter I really want worked in.) The last few weeks had flown by pretty fast. Carol received news that they accepted the offer that she had on the house. She had immediately called Daryl to let him know. She could have sworn that he seemed almost as excited about it as she was. He came by during the evenings just like he had promised her he would to help do the minor repairs to the house. She had insisted on helping him do any repairs. She said it was her house and her problem, not his. So, they had been spending even more time together lately. She wasn't complaining though, she enjoyed his company. She still hadn't told Sophia about the house yet. She wanted to have everything ready before she told her. So lately, she had been telling her daughter she was working late while she and Daryl had really been at the house doing work while Sophia stayed with Rick and Lori. Everything was almost ready for them to move in, they just had to finish painting the bedrooms. Daryl planned to come Thursday evening and help her finish up and she was going to bring Sophia to see the house this weekend. Thursday evening rolled around and Daryl met up with her at her new house to paint the bedrooms. He had ridden his bike to her place straight from work, but hadn't been counting on the fact that it would be pouring down rain. He hopped off his bike and bolted straight for the door. "Oh my gosh! Get in here, you're soaked." She said as she pulled him inside. "Yeah, damn weather forecast didn't mention nothing about rain tonight." He grumbled as he stepped inside. "I woulda just drove the truck today if I woulda know." "I'd offer you a towel, but you know, I haven't exactly brought those here yet." She said with a small smile. "I'll be fine." He said. He looked down at his boots and immediately noticed all the mud he had tracked in. "I guess it's a good thing we already replaced all that beige carpet in here with wood floor." He chuckled. She smiled at him. "Here" she said as she reached into a bag on the kitchen table. "I brought these so you could paint in them. You can go get out of your wet clothes and just put these on. Then we can eat before we get started." She tossed him an old black t-shirt with King County Police Department written on it in white and a pair of black sweat pants to go with it. "Did you steal Rick's clothes?" He chuckled "The correct term is borrowed. Now go change. Food's getting cold." "Yes ma'am." He said as he headed towards the bathroom. ()()() He returned moments later wearing Rick's clothes. The t-shirt was a little snug because his shoulders were broader than Rick's and his arms larger and more muscular. The pants were a little tight too, but he figured that it would do to paint in. Besides, it was better than wearing his clothes that were soaked. She eyed him as he returned to the kitchen wearing Rick's clothes. She immediately noticed how tight the shirt was on him. She hadn't seen him without a shirt yet, other than when he lifted his up to reveal the scars on his back that one time, and even then she hadn't seen his chest, just his back. Now that she was able to see him in this tight fitting shirt that was clinging to all the right places, she was willing to bet that he had six pack to match his muscular arms. He noticed her staring at him after he walked back into the kitchen and he immediately felt uncomfortable. He assumed she was thinking that he looked stupid in Rick's clothes. "What are you looking at?" He questioned as he crossed his arms over his chest. "You're the one who brought me these stupid clothes." Shit. He caught her staring at him. She felt like an idiot. She was very attracted to him, she had been since the moment she met him. Although she knew she never had a chance with him. She was sure he would be mortified of the thought of anything happening between them. After all, whenever she made jokes with him suggesting anything he immediately shut it down and told her to stop. She liked making the jokes though, even if she couldn't have him, it was fun to flirt with him and interact with a man in that way. Especially one as good looking as him. "Nothing." She said. "Let's eat." ()()() They went and sat at the dining room table that she had picked out earlier in the week. Of course Daryl had gone with her to pick it out. He had even taken his dad's old truck and loaded it up and brought it here for her. She had just picked up some fast food for them on her way from work. She knew she was starving and figured he would be too. She hadn't really asked him what he wanted, but she had picked up on things he liked and didn't like over the last two months she had known him. He was usually at her house at least three nights a week, if not more. So she felt confident in her ability to pick out something that he would eat tonight. She wondered if she had been wrong when she noticed the way he picked around his food. He usually inhaled his meals, but tonight he had barely eaten half of the burger she bought him and he still had a little over a fourth of his fries left as he got up to throw his trash away. "You didn't like what I got for you?" She asked him "Nah, it was fine." He said. "You barely touched your food, Daryl." She said. "It's okay. I just thought you liked burgers. You practically inhaled them last time I cooked them." "I do." He said. "And the ones you made were damn good. That's why I ate like 5 of em when you cooked em." "Then what was wrong with the one from tonight?" "Merle and I used to live off fast food." He shrugged. "Back when we lived out of hotels, moving from place to place. Most of the time we didn't really have a kitchen to cook in. I guess you just spoiled me with your cooking lately." She blushed. Ed always bitched about her cooking and sometimes he would even get mad and throw the food across the room. "You know? Ed never had anything good to say about anything that I made. I used to love to cook chicken alfredo. He hated it so much. Once he even threw his bowl of food at me." Daryl gritted his teeth. He really wanted to run into this son of a bitch one day. He was going to teach him a lesson. He just had to figure out what he looked like first. "Ed was a dumbass prick." Daryl stated matter of factly. "And your chicken alfredo is one of my favorites." He saw the way her eyes lit up when he said that. It made him feel good that he had the ability to do that. To make her feel good about herself, despite years of that asshole making her feel horrible. He had realized that he would do pretty much anything to see her eyes light up or see her smile. And it terrified the fuck out of him. ()()() They painted her room a baby blue color and added some light gray trim work to it. Then they moved to the guest room and painted it a dark gray. For Sophia's room they decided to do a lime green color and add pink and brown polka dots on the wall. Lime green and pink were her favorite colors. Daryl was adding the last polka dot and then he turned around to look at Carol and busted out laughing. "What's so funny?" She said, her lip turned down as she watched him laugh at her. "You're covered in paint. How the hell did you manage to do that?" She had even somehow managed to get pink and green in her hair. He pulled out his phone that he bought a few weeks ago and went to take a picture. "Daryl Dixon!" She screamed. "Don't you even dare!" She reached to grab the phone from him, but he just moved back and held it above his head." He angled it above both of them and somehow managed to snap a picture of her looking up at him reaching up for the phone and him eyeing down at her with a smile. "Too late. I already got it." He smirked. When he exited out of his photos he noticed that it was already one in the morning. "Shit, it's late." She looked at his phone and saw what time it was. She realized how glad she was that she didn't have to work tomorrow, although she wanted to get home soon and get to bed. She hadn't gotten to see Sophia this evening because she came straight here from work and she wanted to see her off before school tomorrow. "Yeah, we better get going." She said. "Do you have to work tomorrow? " He could still hear rain coming down hard on the metal roof. "Not if it's still doing this in a few hours. No way we can get up on top of a roof in all this rain." It was pouring down hard now, even worse than it had been when he pulled up on his bike earlier. He dreaded making the ride home in all of this. "Come on, I'll take you home." She said. "You can leave your bike here for the night and bring your truck to get it tomorrow." Daryl grimaced. He still hadn't let any of his knew friends see his house, well shack, really. He was embarrassed by it. They all had such nice homes and he lived in what could easily pass as a meth lab. He knew she wouldn't judge him, but he really didn't want her to see it. Besides, it was pouring down rain and he lived almost thirty minutes away. That meant she'd have to drop him off and then the drive back to Rick's, in total, that would take almost an hour and it was already late. Plus he lived in the middle of nowhere. There was barely any cell service. He would worry too much about her driving all that way. "I'm good. I'll take my bike." "I am not letting you drive home in this." She protested. " You won't even be able to see. Besides, it will feel like little bullets hitting you with how hard this rain is." "I'm not letting you drive me home in this out in the middle of nowhere in this." He countered back. She sighed. "I'd tell you that you could just wait it out here, but I don't have bed or a couch for you to sleep on yet." She contemplated things for a minute. "You could just stay at my place." She finally suggested. "Uh uh. No way." He said little too fast. She looked hurt and he immediately realized how bad that sounded. "Rick and Lori would have a fit." He added. She nodded. She knew Lori would. She did everything in her power daily to remind her how much she really didn't know Daryl and she knew Lori knew that she found him attractive. She wasn't sure what Rick's feelings would be on the matter. She knew he was protective of her, but he really liked Daryl and thought a lot of him. Although, he must have mentioned something to Daryl about her for him to know Rick wouldn't approve. Sure, she was technically living in their house, but it was late and she couldn't send him driving home in this. So she decided that they would have to get over it. "You'd be leaving your bike here." She said. "They wouldn't see it or you. I can bring you back here to get the bike after they leave for work." "I don't know." He said. "Where would I sleep?" 'I'll take Sophia's room. She's staying with Rick and Lori tonight anyway. You can sleep in my room." "Are you sure?" He said, uncertainty written in his voice. "Positive. Now get your clothes from earlier and lets go."