AN: Here we go, another little chapter here!
I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think!
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"I'm just sayin' it's different," Daryl insisted as he worked, his brother leaning over him having spent more of the past half hour giving him a hard time about Carol staying at his house and taking Russ to the Greene house…and consequently bringing him by the shop later…than he'd spent doing much of anything that resembled billable work, "she's already got a kid so she ain't…hell I don't know…losin' her damn mind over shit like we gotta watch this here cartoon if you want even half an hour's peace right now. You don't know…you ain't got kids…but you gonna know soon enough I reckon."
Merle chuckled.
"You just full a' shit," Merle mused. "We've kept Russ some…he ain't runnin' no damn body off…she ain't the first one that woulda stuck around…just admit that she's the first damn one ya tried ta get ta stick around. You ain't made it through two dates with no damn body else since Heather…"
Daryl shook his head.
"I ain't sayin' it like she's some kinda creature I just up an' decided ta settle for like they weren't nothin' better to come so I figured I'd take what the hell I could get," Daryl explained. "Hell…I'm tellin' ya right damn now that I like her…I'm just sayin' too that it's a hell of a lot different with her 'cause she's got the kid an' she ain't damn gun shy 'bout Russ."
Mac sucked his teeth loudly from where he was fiddling with a part that he'd been sanding for some time for a car that Wren was supposed to be fixing.
"Nah…he's right," Mac announced. "Hell…when me an' Rhonda split the boys was damn young'uns an' I ain't had both of 'em but every other weekend an' every damn Wednesday night. Still…I didn't hardly date a soul more'n once 'til they was on up around sixteen years old. Tellin' a woman you got kids that ain't hers is about like tellin' her you got the bubonic plague an' it's catchin'."
Daryl snorted.
Merle had a different view of how everything happened because his view was rooted in what he thought and not at all rooted in reality.
He based his views on women on the relationships that he'd had back when he was a bachelor playing the field…and things were a hell of a lot different when you were a bachelor that had never had any ties to anyone or anything…and when you didn't have kids.
He had always figured that the women that Daryl went out with and then passed up after what was usually a failed first date were always proof that Daryl was too picky or that he was pining after Heather…or even that he just didn't have no interest in women that extended beyond the accident that had been most of his relationship with Heather.
But that wasn't always the case.
There had been one or two mildly interesting women that Daryl had ended up on a date with…but it never went farther than the one date.
He had learned quickly that he could use the mention of Russ to run off anyone that he didn't like for whatever reason, but he'd also learned that "single father" was like date repellant. No matter how good he might think things were going in the first half hour, all he'd have to do was mention the fact that there was Russ…and there wasn't anyone else…and she was running as fast as she could for the exit and spewing something about it wasn't him, it was her.
Carol was different, though. Carol had Sophia. She knew what it was like, even if she was newer to the game than Daryl was, to feel like as soon as you dropped the bomb that you had in your back pocket all the fun was going to be over before it had even begun.
And Carol seemed, though they were still getting to know each other, to like Russ…and Russ seemed to like her. Russ wasn't a difficult kid to read, after all. He was too damn honest most of the time for his own good and it had resulted in a number of instances where Daryl had to clap his hand over the boy's mouth to keep him from continuing to spew his observations about people that weren't really observations he needed to share with the world. The fact that he had nothing really negative to say about Carol went a good way in showing that he liked her and he felt comfortable around her.
And Daryl liked her. He liked her, honestly, more than he was comfortable with entirely. He liked her more than he thought he was supposed to at this point in the game and he was almost afraid that she would figure it out and run, not from Russ, but from the sheer overwhelming feeling that would most likely come along with finding out that someone you'd had such a short run of a relationship with was finding themselves more intoxicated by you than they really had a reason to.
"Mac's right," Daryl said.
"Write that down," Wren called out. "Ain't too damn often nobody can say that shit…"
"Shut up, Wren," Mac called out. "Ain't you got shit you should be doing? I ended up doing ya damn job…"
Daryl shook his head to himself at the two men who bickered like they'd been married for forty or fifty years…and that was mostly owing to the fact that they almost had been.
Mac had owned the shop since he was probably just shy of twenty and bought the building off an old man who was going out of business because he was too damn old to keep the place running. Wren had been a scrawny ass teenager looking for work and he'd found it at the shop.
Wren was married and holding…to the same woman he'd been with since he was shy of eighteen, and Mac had been through at least four or five failed attempts at marriage, but their relationship had stood the test of time. For all intents and purposes it looked like they hated each other…but Daryl would venture to say that the two men cared more for each other than they probably did for half the people they called kin.
"He is right…an' I'm tellin' ya right now I'ma kick the damn ass a' any one a' you assholes says or does somethin' stupid when she's here," Daryl threatened. "She's bringin' Russ an' if she wants ta come in an' look around, I wanna bring her in here without worrying that y'all dumb asses 'bout ta put the nail in the coffin that I been tryin' ta keep out."
"Hell…" Merle drawled out. "Ain't gon' do shit…I wanna look at her…we all do. You know Andrea's ass is done talkin' 'bout you bringin' her over for a lil' family dinner."
He laughed at the end of it and it drew some laughter from the other two men.
Daryl didn't respond. Andrea did want to meet Carol…and it wasn't Andrea that Daryl had any reservations about. She would behave like a human being, and she could somewhat keep Merle in line by threatening his ass with the various things that she would or wouldn't do to him if he stepped out of line, but Daryl was a little preoccupied with risking Merle's mouth around Carol.
Merle wasn't a bad person…not really…but he, like Mac and Wren too, could be an asshole when his mouth didn't check with his brain first about speaking. He was, essentially, an acquired taste and Daryl wasn't too sure that Carol would have acquired that taste during her life.
And he just didn't want to risk Merle running her off. Not now…
"I mean it," he muttered. "Ever' damn one a' ya better act like ya asses is up for a boy scout badge or some shit…don't'cha fuck this shit up for me…"
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Carol hoped that Daryl wasn't going to be surprised when he saw that Russ was so dirty from his day at the farm that he hardly looked like himself. Sophia was filthy too. Jo Greene had apologized, stating that she'd meant to get them a bath before Carol got there, but Carol had gotten off work a little bit earlier than she'd anticipated and surprised the woman.
And she didn't really mind…dirt could be washed off, after all…but they were both remarkably filthy.
When she got to the shop, pleased with herself for having found it armed only with Daryl's directions and Russ's chain of commands that would have probably gotten her to the moon quicker than they would have gotten her to where she was trying to get, she got both children out of the car and headed toward the open stall door where she could hear the echoing sounds of voices and power tools coming from inside.
Russ ran ahead and she didn't try to stop him. Apparently this place was something of his element and he was more familiar with it than she was.
She knew she'd probably made the right decision when she heard a chorus of "Russ" echoing through the shop and then a few moments later a man that wasn't even her height came out with Russ on his hip, even though the placement of the boy made his diminutive height even more dramatic.
Before he spoke or in any way acknowledged Carol's presence, the man put Russ on his feet on a concrete slab just outside the door with a drain in the middle of it and grabbed a hose off the wall. He started spraying the boy and Russ howled with laughter, dancing in a circle in the stream of water.
Sophia, with Carol holding tight to her hand, began to have a fit over the water that she was missing out on and that was the moment that the little man looked at Carol.
"You don't mind her gettin' wet, let her get on in here," he said. "Just the same to me to water two as it is to water one."
Carol smiled at him and released Sophia's hand. Sophia stopped as soon as she gained her freedom and stared at Carol a moment like this was some sort of trick.
"Go ahead," Carol said, gesturing toward the impromptu bath that Russ was enjoying.
Daryl came out of the shop a moment later and Carol watched as he flicked a cigarette down from behind his ear and lit it. She knew that he smoked, he didn't try to hide the habit at all, but at least he wasn't a constant smoker. The habit didn't really bother her, but the constant smoking reminded her too much of Ed who had been one of those chain smokers that had barely put one cigarette out before he'd lit another.
Daryl walked over to stand beside her and look at the little man that was watering the children who seemed to think it was the greatest thing that had ever happened to them.
"Russ give ya trouble?" Daryl asked.
Carol shook her head. It was the truth. The boy wasn't really any trouble at all. He was obedient and even though he might like to "discuss" things a little more than she was used to, since Sophia wasn't an overly chatty child, she didn't mind his chatter.
"He was good," she said. "Who's that?" She asked, pointing toward the little man.
"Name's Robert Wren," Daryl said. "We all call him Wren, though…keeps him from gettin' confused with Mac since they both Roberts."
Carol nodded, accepting that the man must be someone that worked there and obviously was well acquainted with both Daryl and Russ.
Carol turned when she heard the approaching sound of other footsteps out of the shop and two other men walked out. One was a skinny older man, probably older even than the small man watering the children. He had shoulder length white hair and the rough looking complexion of someone who couldn't be scrubbed clean. The other was closer to her in age, his face set in a scowl, and he was working away at a toothpick caught between his teeth.
"This here's Mac," Daryl said, gesturing toward the oldest of the men. "An' this is Merle…my brother."
Carol stopped a moment. She was surprised. She knew that Daryl had a brother, and she knew that he was older than Daryl, but she was searching the man out for any resemblance between the two of them.
It was only when his face dissolved into something of the crooked smile…a smile that Daryl wore a good bit and Carol had seen a number of times cross Russ's face…that Carol saw any resemblance at all.
The man lurched forward, offering a hand to Carol to shake and she stuck hers out to grab his. When he closed his thick hand around hers, he chuckled and pulled her closer to him, clapping her on the back in a show of comradery from what she could tell.
"So you the lil' lady we done heard so damn much about…" he mused.
And at that point the other two men laughed and she caught them cutting their eyes at her, though she felt like she was being left out of some joke that had been told.
She looked toward Daryl who had changed hues a little.
"I…I guess," she stuttered out, not knowing what else to say.
And apparently her lack of words was amusing because it brought another round of laughter from all three of the men present.
"Reckon you are…" Merle said, backing away from her now and very obviously examining her. She held her breath and tried to maintain a smile, not wanting to give away the fact that she was still trying to adjust to this new element. Merle hummed at her and nodded his head, but she just forced herself to smile a little more and hoped that it came out looking at least somewhat natural. "I done called my wife…you comin' ta dinner tonight…"
Daryl started to protest when Carol looked at him with her mouth falling open a little, not quite sure how to respond to the sudden invitation that came out as less of an invitation and more of a command.
But his brother cut him off.
"Yep…you both comin'…won't take no for an answer," Merle said, nodding his head at Carol before sucking his teeth and turning his attention, the conversation obviously over in his opinion by merit of his wife's long distance command, toward the two children who would soon be water logged but were enjoying equally the spray of the hose and the puddles forming around their feet in the heat of the Georgia sun.