First off, I hope everyone had a merry Christmas and a happy holidays, as well as a safe and enjoyable New Year's :)

This chapter is the first of a two part flashback (the second will be either next chapter or the chapter after that) and it encompasses a topic that a fair amount of you have probably wondered about. Overall, I'm very happy with it and hopefully you guys will too :)

NanamiYatsumaki: I did, thank you :)

HaloHunter89: Yeah, I know you'll never like Sam but I just thought it'd be funny that Sam would be the one person that Daryl would be able to get 'advice' from in such a vulnerable moment like that. And yeah, Wren and Ethan always makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside :)

DarylDixon'sLover: Thanks and keep reading! We'll figure out eventually ha ha ;)

Enjoy!

- Nagiana


Seventeen Years Ago . . .

"Hey Dar, take a look at this chick!"

Daryl didn't answer his best friend, nor did he acknowledge the slap on his arm that he was dealt in an attempt to try and get his attention. He simply continued to sit there in his seat, absentmindedly twirling his pencil in-between his fingers and only flickered his eyes up towards the front of the classroom. Standing there in the front of the entire class with his aging English teacher was – possibly – one of the most beautiful girls he had ever seen in his life (granted, Shooter's Mill might be a small town but they had their fair share of pretty girls, so understandably, that was quite a thing to say). Long, blue-black hair that fell in pin-straight locks down to the small of her back (none of that bullshit 80's big hair that seemed like such a cool thing lately) and big, almond-shaped brown eyes . . . dark skin shining beneath a yellow plaid flannel shirt, jeans and black Chuck Taylor's . . .

"Damn . . ." He breathed out in awe and his best friend grinned and nodded.

"Right - that's what I said!" He answered with a laugh and Daryl numbly shook his head. If he believed in the total bullshit thing as true love, then he would almost swear up and down that it had struck him at that moment.

"Class, I want you y'all welcome Tessa Nightrun. She's new here; moved from . . . now dear me, where was it you said you from, dear?" Ms. Marnie asked, her thin white eyebrows knitting together in confusion, and Tessa smiled as she nervously shoved her hands down into the front pockets of her jeans.

"Uh, I'm from a small town in New Mexico. I lived on a Cherokee Indian Reservation there." She spoke and Ms. Marnie's eyes widened in slight interest.

"Oh really; so your Cherokee?" She asked and Tessa nodded.

"Yes ma'am - full blooded." She replied with nothing but pride echoing in her tone and Daryl heard his friend mutter a grinning, 'Right on!' but he hardly heard him. He found himself quite unable to tear his eyes away from her and when the teacher told her she could take a seat at the empty desk beside Daryl Dix –

Wait, what?!

Daryl found himself banging unceremoniously back down into reality as his eyes darted to the empty desk sitting in-between him and another shy, quiet girl by the name of Medina Patterson, and felt his heart almost jump up into his throat. It was an action that he immediately cussed himself out for it. What was with him all of a sudden?

He purposely kept his eyes on the pencil still being slowly twirled in his fingers and hardly took notice when the girl on the other side of her said hello before introducing her to the other surrounding people. He let out a derisive snort. It was funny . . . new person moved to town and everyone thought they were the next best thing since indoor plumbing. In fact, you'd almost think that his class wasn't full of nothing but bitches and assholes.

He felt his awe of her go down slightly at that thought. Give her a few days and she'd be best friends with the Queen Bee of the school and sucking the cock of the Star Quarterback behind the bleachers after homecoming – she was certainly pretty enough to become one of the popular girls, anyway. He had seen it happen before and he knew it wasn't about to change.

"Yeah, my name's Steven and this piece of local trash right here is Daryl!"

Daryl gritted his teeth when he felt himself being shoved roughly forward by the jock asshole sitting behind him, who was – ironically – the star quarterback. He saw his best friend, Dirk, tense slightly out of the corner of his eye but the new girl's eyebrows furrowed in an indecipherable emotion as she turned her eyes onto him. "Hey, I'm Tessa . . ." She told him, her voice quiet and almost . . . kind? He nodded curtly and turned his eyes onto her.

"Ya heard tha' brayin' jackass behind me - tha' name's Daryl . . . Daryl Dixon." He told her and she smiled at his answer – the first genuine smile he had been given in such a long time, that it took him aback. With that smile, it was almost like she was happy to have met him and for a moment, he almost smiled back.

But then he got shoved hard again and that need to share her kind smile disappeared in favor of another angry, tight gritting of his teeth.

"Hey, Dixon-Shit, how did ya get that black eye? Did ya good for nothin' deddy give it to ya after he finished plowing the town hoe-bag?"

Tessa's eyebrows furrowed again and she frowned slightly as she turned her eyes onto the jock still sitting behind him and who was now guffawing with one of his other jock asshole friends. Her eyes didn't linger on him long, however, for she returned them to Daryl upon realizing that his hand had now curled around the wood of the pencil in an unnervingly tight grip.

"Dude, look at his hand! I wouldn' mess with him. Remember what he did to Jonesy a couple of days ago -?"

"Tha' piece-of-shit nigger was talkin' 'bout ma momma!" Daryl interrupted the jock's friend in a snap and he saw Tessa's eyes widen in shock. He didn't care, though, and still proceeded to turn halfway around to glare at the two of them sitting behind him. His momma might have been a good-for-nothing alcoholic – the same as his deddy – but no one was gonna badmouth her in front of him. She was still his momma and she had still labored to give him life. Whether he hated her or not, he still had to give her that. He shook his head. "He fuckin' deserved what he got!"

The jock adopted an angry look on his face at his words. "So instead of a good old fashioned fist fight, ya fuckin' shank him instead?" He shook his head, the same angry look still on his face. "We should have figured. Ma deddy said Dixons have never fought fair anyways – wouldn't know how to fight fair, even if they needed to! All of ya'll are fuckin' scum – every single one of ya!"

It shocked everyone with the speed at which Daryl had moved then – especially Tessa and the jock that now found the scruff of his shirt being tightly held in a very angry handhold by Daryl. "Ya tell ya deddy tha next time he says tha'. tha' he's jus' pissed off tha' Will Dixon handed him his ass on a silver platter - even when he was ten sheets in tha fuckin' wind! It's also somethin' ya 'bout to get yaself if ya don' shut tha fuck up -!"

"Daryl Dixon!"

Everyone held their collective breath with the teacher's shocked, shrill voice split through the air at that moment. Daryl didn't turn around to face her but released the jock nonetheless before stooping down and yanking up his backpack from the floor. "Next time ya try to be alpha male and show off in front of tha new girl, make sure it ain' with someone who has no qualms 'bout kickin' ya ass!" He snapped at him and Ms. Marnie shook her head, an angry look appearing on her face as she placed her hands on her hips.

"Daryl Dixon, you get your butt to the principal's office right this minute!"

Daryl rolled his eyes. "Don' worry, I was on ma way there!"

She shook her head. "I swear to God, not even Merle gave me this much trouble!"

"Now tha's surprisin'!" Daryl muttered with a bitter laugh as he moved to head up the aisle of students to the front that would then lead to the classroom door. He stopped, however, when he felt a hand latch onto his arm. He looked down, alarmed, only to see the hand belonged to Tessa. She smiled when his eyes connected with hers then.

"It was nice meeting you." She spoke and Daryl nodded slowly.

"Rrright . . ." He spoke slowly before gently pulling his arm free, where he then proceeded on his way to the front. He couldn't deny, though, the chills that had ran up and down his spine at the feel of her hand on his arm, though, and when he glanced back at her before leaving the classroom, his eyes had connected with hers for just a moment . . . a moment that made his heart skip a beat.


He peered out at her through locks of dark chocolate brown hair and it was as he gazed at her in this way, that Tessa realized just how good-looking this guy sitting beside her, really was. He was tall and thin but held a corded, leanly muscular frame that wasn't wholly unappealing. His face was handsomely chiseled and was set with beautiful bright blue eyes that appeared almost haunted and forlorn in their depth and magnitude. One of them was ringed with a nasty purplish-blackness that she noticed the jock asshole behind him had commented about and for a moment at the look of them, Tessa felt her heart pick up a hard, staccato beat.

From the day she first met him, Tessa Nightrun knew that Daryl Dixon would be hers, and likewise, the day he first met her, Daryl Dixon knew that Tessa Nightrun would be his.

It was only a matter of time.


"Hey, Steven - leave him the fuck alone, will ya?"

The whole classroom, which has buzzing like a hive of angry bees, went completely silent at Tessa's suddenly angry words. She abruptly pulled herself out of the conversation she had been having with Medina, and instead, turned her eyes onto the jock asshole that still insisted on sitting behind Daryl and making his life Hell during fourth period English. He turned a surprised look on her, as well as Daryl, and when she didn't say anything, just proceeded to stare him down, he slowly sank back down in his seat and moved to cross his arms in front of his chest.

"I was just -"

"Just what?" She demanded, interrupting him mid-sentence before he could continue. "I mean, seriously, how stupid can you be?"

She laughed then, ignoring her friend when Medina hissed a, 'Tessa, don't!' in her direction, and continued: "The guy almost kicks your ass in class the other day in front of everyone and yet you still insist on messin' with him!" She shook her head. "If your friend did to him the same that you're doing to him now, then no wonder he shanked him! Hell, he had every right to!"

"Stay outa it . . .!"

Tessa's eyes widened and she turned a slightly alarmed look onto Daryl sitting beside her, who had hissed the words to her through gritted teeth. And likewise, Steven turned a slightly alarmed look on him as well. Tessa shook her head. "I-I–I'm sorry?" She asked, stuttering over her words in her confusion, and Daryl shook his head as he turned a fierce glare onto her.

"I said stay outta it. I don' need ya help -!"

He was interrupted by the bell ringing then – its sharp, piercing sound heralding an end to another day of highschool, and the other students in the class scrambled to yank up their things and head for the door. Daryl beat them all with the speed with which he yanked up his backpack and slid out of his desk to head for the door. He didn't pay any of them any other mind and Tessa watched him go with eyebrows furrowed gently in concern.

A good-natured chuckling brought her back down into reality and she turned her eyes back down onto Steven when he grinned and got to his feet after picking up his backpack. "Don't worry about him, Tess – he's trash. His whole family is trash – they've been trash since before the town was first started! Hell, my papaw remembers when his grandpa Earl -"

"Look, this is probably a fascinating story rich with detail and historical accuracy, but truthfully, I would rather slice open my eardrums with razor blades than listen to a thing that comes out of your asshole mouth!" She told him with a totally fake sweet smile and Medina and the others still lingering in the classroom, gave snickers of laughter as she got to her feet, picked up her backpack and after saying a rushed goodbye to Medina, ran from the room. Ms. Marnie shot her a disapproving look as she went but Tessa ignored him and instead, searched desperately for Daryl amongst the quickly moving crowd.

When she finally found him, he was heading towards the front doors with his best friend, the both of them talking in low murmurs. She pursed her lips and moved quickly through the crowd after him, praying she'd catch him before he left or was picked up.

"Like I was sayin', Merle gets out -"

"Daryl!"

"—But he's gotta go back 'cause of tha' stupid fuckin' drug possession charge -"

"Daryl!"

"What?!" Daryl snapped when his named reached him for a second time. He angrily spun around on him and Dirk's way to the parking lot where his Jeep stood waiting for them, only to see Tessa jogging towards him, a grateful smile appearing on her face. Dirk fought to hold back the smile that threatened to split his face and told Daryl he would wait for him at the Jeep as Tessa finally closed the distance between them, partially breathless. "What do ya want?" He growled, wondering just what was up with his woman thinking that she could get in his shit and then demand his attention afterwards.

"Look, I'm . . . I'm sorry about Steven." She apologized and a look of clear confusion appeared on his face as he gave a shrug of the same emotion and a wordless shake of his head.

"What'cha gotta be sorry for? He ain' ya man – ya ain' gotta apologize for him!"

Tessa shook her head. "It's just . . . it's wrong, what he does to you – harping on you and shit because of your family. I just . . . I got tired of it, that's all."

Daryl shook his head again as he shoved his hands down into the front pockets of his jeans. "There ain' nothin' for ya to have gotten tired of! Again, I ain' ya man – ya ain' gotta be worried 'bout me! Hell, I can take care of maself!"

"I know," Tessa replied before laughing and giving a roll of her eyes. "Oh believe me, I've heard about what you did to his friend – I know that you can take care of yourself!"

Daryl took a step towards her then. He meant it to be threatening but she simply stood her ground and continued to gaze up at him defiantly. The act took him aback and for a moment, he forgot what he going to say. When he finally did speak, it was with the vague thought that maybe . . . maybe this chick was alright.

"Then ya oughta know by now tha' I don' need ya help! I don' want to be friends – I don't wanna to be around ya any more than what's necessary!" Daryl shook his head, anger still filling his eyes. "I mean, look at ya! Babydoll, ya leagues above me! Ya pretty and smart and ya don' need to be around some dumbass redneck like me! Ma family ain' for ya – I ain' tha man ya want!"

Tessa smiled in amusement and arched an eyebrow in the same emotion as she moved to cross her arms in front of her chest. "Who said anything about us hooking up, Daryl?" She asked and he stood there, blinking dumbly for a moment. Had he really insinuated something about hem getting together? Truthfully, he had been so angry when he began firing off his mouth, that he hadn't been entirely sure of what was leaving his mouth. He stood there for a minute, desperately rethinking back to what he had said and when he realized that, yes, those words had insinuated a relationship beyond friendship, his face reddened at the amused, slightly smug look on her face.

Goddamn her for being so damn pretty!

His face grew hotter as those words flew through his mind and when he registered that he had actually thought them for a moment. He then angrily shook his head. "Ya know what – fuck ya! If ya want to sit around moonin' after me, then dammit, its ya loss! Ya'd be tha first one to do it, too, so have fun bein' tha only one in line!" He snapped and Tessa let out a laugh as he shook his head and turned around to head back in the direction of Dirk and his Jeep.

"Oh believe me, Daryl – I ain't the only one!" She called after him and his teeth gritted slightly. She made him angrier than anyone had in months, but yet . . . he also felt strangely amused by it – almost giddy.

What the Hell was happening to him?