Daryl watched Beth place the phone back onto the receiver and she let out a heavy sigh. He didn't hear the other side of the conversation, but reading the blonde's body language he could tell it didn't exactly go the way she expected. Daddy was probably disappointed in her from messing up the truck or something.

Beth fiddled with the stray pieces of hair that had fallen out of her pony tail as she chewed her bottom lip and looked down into her lap. She didn't say anything for what seemed like a very long time and Daryl had no idea if he was supposed to speak up or not. Or wanted to.

He'd was probably a little more pissed than he should have been at her for prejudging his shop. But her wrinkling her noise got to him. He was good at what he did. If she didn't want his help, she could go elsewhere. Merle had also gotten to him. He didn't want to be nice to this girl if his brother was going to go around thinking he was right about Daryl thinking dirty thoughts about her.

The thing with Merle was that you could say one tiny thing and it would get held against you forever. Merle had a very hard time letting things go. It was almost guaranteed that he was going to try one more time to mention Daryl thinking she was attractive. Escalating anything was going to make it worse.

The term speak of the devil came to Daryl's mind as Merle came strolling into the office and over to the mini fridge in the corner then. He might have been told to stay away, but Merle never listened and Daryl was somewhat thankful for that in this moment to have someone to break the silence. "You got your call, Blondie?"

"Uhm yes, I did," Beth looked up from her lap at Merle, who was bent at the waist digging in the mini fridge.

"You want a beer?" Merle straightened up and turned around to face his brother. He tossed a bottle to him and Daryl caught it. He had two more in his other hand and waved them in the direction of Beth.

"No thank you. I don't drink," Beth was now in the middle of putting her hair back in a proper pony and looked surprised that Merle had even asked her.

"Dang girl, is it like a just say no thing or have you just made too many drunken mistakes." Merle laughed, placed the one bottle in front of Beth and then opened his own bottle on the side of the desk.

Even though it was rhetorical, Beth chose to answer. "Alcohol dims the senses and poisons your body. It makes people spew hateful things from their mouths and is a short term fix for dealing with problems. I'd rather not partake thank you very much."

Daryl, along with his brother, made a face at the teenager's preachy attitude. She sounded like she'd been to Sunday School one too many times or memorized an AA pamphlet. She looked old enough that she could go out and party, hell she said she was going out to Florida and it was summer break. That screamed underage drinking. And yet there she was refusing.

"Well, well, well. I think I'll continue to poison myself. I got something in me I need to kill," without another word Merle turned the bottle up and started chugging his beer.

"I'm sure you do," Beth's face was twisted in a sort of frown as Merle finished his bottle and let out a belch. Her attitude had shift drastically since Merle walked in and she was starting to show her annoyance.

"So what's the plan?" Daryl watched her glance at him for a second but she was too distracted by Merle and looking at him in disgust as he reached over and took the bottle that he'd placed in front of her.

"If you keep making that face it's gonna get stuck like that," Merle laughed and popped the cap off on the desk again.

Beth's face dropped a bit and she took her gaze off Merle finally. "Is there a motel or an inn here somewhere?"

Daryl was thinking about which one to send her to, but Merle seemed to already know and answered before him. "You're in luck Blondie. There's one of few miles down the road from here that will probably have one or two vacancies". Merle smirked at the girl and looked like he was trying his damned hardest not to laugh. Daryl knew why.

Merle wanted Beth to stay at Jim's Motel. It was one of the three motels in town and it was the diviest. It was normally the place where prostitutes took their dates because it was so damn cheap. The sheets on the beds probably got washed once a month, if you were lucky, and if Beth thought the dust in the shop was bad he couldn't wait to see what she thought of Jim's rooms.

Daryl thought about protesting and maybe sending her to a better one, but the offense from her wrinkling her nose was still fresh in his mind and decided against it. Not really caring if he was too old to be spiteful about a teenager's opinion.

"Yeah, Jim's would work out fine for you," Daryl said and saw Merle press his lips together from the corner of his eye. "I just need you to fill out a few things before you go."

Luckily the paper he needed was sitting on top of everything he shuffled and he was able to get it without leaving anytime for Merle to open his big mouth and give anything away. He placed the sheet in front of her and handed her a pen as she read over everything. It was pretty simple stuff she need to fill out (license plate number, name, number to reach you at, emergency contact number etc.) but the girl was looking at it like it was written in German.

"Is there a problem?" Daryl asked her.

Beth looked up at him and said, "Well, I just don't know which contact number or emergency number to put."

"Just put the motel and your house number," he didn't think it was that big of a mystery. He was sure daddy and mommy would come bail her out if she needed anything.

"Do you know the motel number?"

Daryl actually didn't. They sure as shit didn't have a phone book neither. If he wanted to talk to Jim he found him, that's how it worked in this town. He looked at his brother who shrugged. Beth sat there and looked at them waiting for an answer. He could just tell her she could come down there and talk in person. But he had a feeling she would constantly be asking how things with the truck were going or maybe choose to not leave.

"How, 'bout we just get the number from the owner at the motel," Beth finally suggested.

"That's not actually too bad of an idea Blondie. I'll drive you down there," Merle was still sipping on the beer he'd taken from her and was starting to dig around in his pockets for his bike keys.

Daryl let out a sigh. The only thing worse than a drunk Merle hitting on a teenager was a drunk Merle taking a teenager to a motel. And there was also the whole drunk driving thing that he'd been fined for several times. "Merle, why don't you let me take care of it?"

Merle was sucking in air to talk back, but then out of the blue he shut his mouth and stared at his brother with a calculating looking. "Oh, I see Darylina," Merle winked and nodded his head. "You can take care of it."