Part 4: Autumn Leaves Falling Down Like Pieces Into Place

"Listen Alba, I ain't good at any of this shit." Daryl was shuffling his feet and rubbing the back of his neck as he watched Alba cooking something on her stove. She was ignoring him, and he didn't blame her, but he really didn't know what to do. He liked her, a lot. He just didn't know how to show it, or maybe he did and didn't want to, he didn't know anymore. What he did know was he liked the way her wet hair hung around her shoulders, and how she'd nonchalantly flip it out of her face with her hand.

"Can we just…take things slow? Maybe not tell anyone. I don't need Merle breathing down my neck, ya know how he can be."

"Soo…you want to sleep around with me, but act like we don't know each other in public? Yeah, that sounds greeeat." She rolled her eyes and kept stirring the contents of the pot.

"Goddamnit, Alba, that's not what I mean." She turned to look at him curiously then.

"Then what are you trying to say, Dixon?"

"You grew up with us, you know how Merle is. If we can just keep this from him for a little while, so it's something that I can enjoy, without him, I would appreciate it."

Alba crossed her arms and stared at him for a minute, "Fine."

He took a step towards her and closed the space between them, then pulled her in for a kiss. She leaned into it, and then when it started to get more heated, she gently pushed him back. "But not right now, I have to eat, and I have to get in bed for a big test tomorrow. You are, however, welcome to stay the night. I enjoy a good snuggle."

It was his turn to roll his eyes, "You're going to make this so difficult."

"Oh, you know it."

The next few weeks were amazing, he would come over to her apartment every night with take out, sit there and watch her study and never distracting her unless it was for a quick kiss on his way to the bathroom.

It was 3 weeks into their little arrangement when she had finally gave in and started beating her head against the book onto the table.

"Hey hey hey now, stop that." Daryl placed his hands on her shoulders and lifted her head from the table. She was exhausted, she looked a hot mess, her hair had been piled on top of her head in a messy bun for days now. "Look, why don't you have Amy run the bar tonight? Let me take you somewhere special for a few days. Get your mind off this shit, give ya a break."

She rubbed her hands up and down her face and let out a frustrated sigh, "I can't, I have to get this work done."

"No, you can take a break, Finch. You deserve it. Listen you've been working non-stop and you're one of the top of your class. Let me take you somewhere"

She threw her hands up in the air, "Fine, just fine, I'll go call Amy and pack a bag." She stood up then and wandered back to her room. Daryl grinned to himself and took off out the door to get everything ready.

She found him downstairs in the parking lot holding an extra helmet towards her, "Let's go."

"Can you at least tell me where we are going?"

He just grinned at her as he put his helmet on and climbed onto the bike patiently waiting on her to join him, she just sighed and got on, wrapping her arms around his waist did relieve some of her tension. She laid her head against his back as he kick started the bike and they took off.

She probably should have paid attention to the scenery, somehow she knew it was beautiful, but she couldn't take her eyes off of him.

Finally they pulled up to a little green cabin in front of the lake, and it was beautiful. He killed the bike and let her sit there and take in the view. The cabin had a beautiful wooden wrap around porch, and she could see the fire pit in the back and what she assumed was a hot tub.

"Dixon, what did you do? We can't afford to stay in a place like this."

He just laughed, "Merle and I did some work for the person that owns the place, they let me borrow it for the weekend. No charge, now c'mon then, lets look inside."

The inside was beautiful, a small kitchen to the right, a door to the left as soon as you come in that she assumed led into the bathroom, and then a giant fluffy bed further down the wall. She grinned at Daryl and ran and jumped onto the bed.

She stretched out and let out a loud groan that felt like it came from deep down in her soul. Daryl finished setting everything to the side and came over and laid down beside her. "This weekend is doing whatever you want to, if you want to sleep the whole time, sleep."

She laughed, "I'd like to take a look at that hot tub, but you didn't tell me to bring a bathing suit."

"Who said you'd need one?"

She laughed again and playfully punched him in the arm, he just wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close, giving her a nice long kiss. When she felt him start to pull away, she laced her fingers together around the back of his neck and pulled him closer. Within just a few minutes their clothes had been tossed around the room, and the sheets from the bed had been kicked off.

It had actually been a while since they had time to have sex, she's been so busy with school that by the time they got done eating, both of them were so tired they normally just curled up and fell asleep. The first round was quick and sloppy, both just so eager to be against one another. Second round they took their time, he made sure every inch of her body was touched by his lips, her hands holding onto him like he was the only thing keeping her above water.

When they were finally done and laying there in the bed holding onto each other, she craned her head back so she could see him. "I swear, you're just the prettiest sum'bitch I've ever laid eyes on."

"Shut the hell up, you want some food? I can order us some pizza or something."

"Yeah I could probably eat, I was wanting to jump in the shower first though."

"Go ahead, I'll take care of the food." He sat up in the bed and grabbed his pants and pulled them on and headed for the phone.

The shower in the bathroom was absolutely gorgeous, it was a blue stone tile stand up shower with sliding glass doors. She reached in and turned the water on and stepped in, letting the warm water run over her body.

"I don't know, I think you're the prettiest sum'bitch I ever saw."

She laughed, "Well are you just gonna stand there and stare, or are you gonna join me?"

"Yeah, but we gotta hurry, pizza guy will be here in half an hour." He kicked his jeans back off and joined her. "Jesus, do you have any cold water going at all? You're gonna fit right in when you get to hell."

"Oh shut up and just kiss me."

He smiled and wrapped his arms around her waist, "You're awful needy, ya know it?"

"You spoil me, I can't help it."

God when he smiled down at her, her heart swelled and the butterflies started up again. Every time he smiles at her, touches her, hell, even when he just looks at her.

Without warning he darted his eyes away from her, dropped his arms to his sides and abruptly left the shower.

"I'm going to go watch for the food." And with that he was out of the bathroom, and out the front door.

Alba stood there and let the water run down her face, confused at what she could've done to make him take off like that. She finally reached over and turned the water off and grabbed the towel, wrapping it around herself before walking out into the main part of the cabin. She looked out the window and he was sitting on the porch staring out over the lake in deep thought.

She threw on a pair of shorts and a tank top and walked out and sat in the chair beside of him.

"You ok?"

He jumped a little at her voice, like she had pulled him from a trance. "Yeah, do you know what lake this is?"

She looked around, it looked like every lake she'd ever seen, maybe the scenery was a little prettier, but nothing about it popped out at her. "No, I guess I don't."

"It's Lake Lanier, it's supposedly haunted. Got a ton of cemeteries, a whole town at the bottom of it. Ton of stuff still happens here, tragic shit."

Alba looked at the lake a little more clearly now, it did give off a creepy vibe. She ran her hands up and down her arms to ward off the goosebumps that had appeared.

The rest of the wait for the food was in silence, she couldn't really figure out what had changed. Staring out of the lake she let her mind wander, and even started to look for ghosts of the ones that laid at the bottom of the lake.

So lost in thought, when the pizza man did arrive, she jumped out of her skin. They walked inside together and ate in silence, when he was done he went into the bathroom and shut the door.

Wanting to try and fix things, she stripped her clothes off and headed for the hot tub, grabbing the bottle of whiskey from the table as she went by.

When he finally came around he was leaning against the door frame just watching her, "You coming?"

He thought about it for a second, and then tossed his clothes back inside and joined her, taking a shot of whiskey from the bottle before handing it back to her.

After they had passed the bottle back and forth for a while, she decided to finally just come out with it. "Do you want to tell me what's changed between us?"

He looked at her and shrugged, taking the bottle from her. Deciding to take things into her own hands and wanting to fix whatever it was, she crawled over into his lap and straddled him, wrapping her arms around his neck.

She kissed him then, slow and passionately, it took only a few seconds before he gave in and started kissing her back.

She wasn't sure if it was the whiskey that made her do it, or the pounding of her heart against her chest, or even the flutters in her stomach.

She leaned back from the kiss and looked into his blue eyes, "Goddamn, I love you Daryl Dixon."

As soon as the words left her mouth she realized she'd made a mistake, the look on his face was like she had slapped him. He gently pushed her off of the top of him and climbed from the hot tub, "Uhm, I just remembered there's something I have to do tomorrow, so we need to head on back."

She wanted to scream at the skies, but instead just got out and packed her things. Taking one last look at the lake before climbing back onto the bike.

I guess tragic things really do always happen here.