One week in and she was sweating more than she should be for the time of year. The AC in the seconds tower was broken, and while she apricated Daryl saying he would try and fix it for her when he wasn't out hunting the pack, his muttering to himself just outside where she was working was like nails on a chalkboard. Her music only went up so loud on her phone and she could hear him over it. Ren knew it wasn't his fault, but god it was annoying.

Standing up after she started a processing request, she walked out of the tower and to the ladder.

"Where you goin'?" He asked.

"Bathroom." She turned over her shoulder and he bent down to grab his bow but she stopped him, "Daryl-" She calmed her nerves, "I'm fine, I can go to the bathroom by myself. I'll stay within yelling distance."

"Kay." He noticed her smile was forced, and he wasn't sure what was causing it. He heard her tossing and turning at night when she tried to sleep, he assumed it was from the heat, but the cot also wasn't that comfortable, but it was better than the floor which is why he'd said she could have the cot. She had a lot on her plate and not having AC probably wasn't helping her considering the amount of sweat pouring from her, so he looked back at the unit.

Ren walked through the forest back towards the truck, her bathroom spot was in between the two. Not that she really needed to use the bathroom all that much with the amount of sweating she'd been doing, but she just needed a moment of peace and quiet. If Daryl wasn't making noise, then she was having to be on the phone with someone to work on the system. She had barely had any silence in the past five days. The breeze, that was hot, rustling through the trees relaxed her. The sounds of birds and insects all made her anxiety and annoyance go away.

When she found the log she'd been using as a bathroom, she quickly went so this way she didn't get screwed over by having to go again soon. But when she was done, she took her time walking back, enjoying everything. By the time she got back to the ladder she felt much better.

Daryl heard her climbing up and noticed her smile wasn't as forced as before. She walked over to him, "How's it coming?"

He just shrugged his shoulders.

"Want me to take a look?" She asked.

"You got other stuff your workin on." This wasn't his type of thing to fix, but he'd feel to bad if she had to fix this thing too.

"Yeah, well, you make me food every day and also have to deal with the heat." She gave him another genuine smile, "Maybe we can figure it out together so we're both more comfortable."

The heat didn't bother him, but it did bother him how much it bothered her. He knew she wasn't used to it like he was, and she was stuck inside the tower which was a heat box. He nodded and moved to the side so she could look inside it.

Looking at it for a moment she said, "Can you hand me a screwdriver?"

He quickly reached for it and handed it to her, watching as she messed with where a wire was hooked. She then asked for him to hold something and he did, when she asked him to hold something else so she could get further in he had to move behind her, his arms on either side of her so he wasn't in her way. Daryl had tried to stay from being in this close of a proximity to her, he didn't want to make her worried or scare her. He didn't know what was wrong with him, he normally didn't linger on a woman when he found out she wasn't interested or available. But he found himself watching her sleep, wanting to make sure she ate, make sure she was comfortable. For some reason Ren got under his skin.

"A little bit more." He heard her mutter before she yanked something and her back went against his chest, something he tried to ignore, "This might be our problem, it looks like something got in here and chewed on the wire."

"Can it get fixed?" He asked.

"Yeah we should have the stuff." She smiled up at him and he looked down at her, his blue eyes piercing. Ren swallowed hard, not realizing the proximity they were in, "I'll go grab it, you keep holding on to that."

She slid out from under his arms and went over to the toolbox and grabbed the plyers before going inside to her bag and grabbing electrical tape. Taking a deep but quick breath she moved back in between his arms and twisted the wires back together before taping it over.

"Alright, let's see how it's doing now." Ren said as Daryl let go of the wires he was holding before putting the back end back together. As he plugged it in, they heard the click of it turning on and a wide smile came across her face, "Oh thank God."

Daryl couldn't help the small smile that pulled at his lips as she quickly made her way to the door of the tower. Following her in that direction he walked in to see her standing in front of it, the air from it hitting her skin and blowing her hair back. She turned smiling at him again, "Thanks for fixing it."

"You figured it out." He shrugged walking by her, but she put her hand up.

"Then it was a team effort, I couldn't have gotten back there if you hadn't of gotten all of that stuff out of the way." She kept that brilliant smile on her face.

He returned her high-five lightly, not saying anything. Laying back on his make-shift bed he watched as she sat back down and went back to work on the computer. He asked, "How's this one comin'?"

"Good. We should be good to head to the next tower in two days? This one had a lot of issues besides what I'm here for." She told him.

"I'll call it in that they should be ready for a drop soon then." He reached for the satellite phone Murray had given him.

"Okay." She smiled back. AC really can make a difference between wanting and not wanting to kill someone.

Two days later the system still wasn't up and running, she couldn't get it to connect, there was some kind of issue and she had no clue what it was. She could smell the smoke from inside as Daryl had a cigarette outside. She tried everything she could think of, she had been sent a link from home office to diagnose the issue and was waiting for it to download.

Getting up out of the chair she moved to the door and opened it, walking up to the banister where Daryl was standing and saw the pack on the bannister. Grabbing it she took out a cigarette and the lighter and lit it up, much to Daryls surprise. Laying the pack back down she realized what that probably looked like, "Sorry."

"Fine." He shrugged lightly. "You alright?"

"Downloading a patch to get this damn thing to work." She rubbed her face before inhaling, it made her nerves calm, "Please don't tell anyone about this."

"Who'm I gunna tell?" He tried not to chuckle.

"My fiancé?" She laughed realizing how ridiculous her request was.

"He want you to stop?" Daryl asked, they'd been talking a little more, but it was mostly him asking stuff about her, he thought she was probably uncomfortable asking stuff about him after they talked about their dads.

"Yeah I told him I stopped six months ago when we got engaged…which I did until now." She gave a shy kind of smile.

"Wouldn't have guessed you for it." He took another drag of his.

"Hey college is hard." She joked.

"Wouldn't know."

She waved it off, "It's not for everyone."

"Huh?" He wasn't used to that response. Normally people would roll their eyes at him for not having gone or would make a comment about how they weren't surprised.

"College isn't for everyone." She leaned on the banister taking another hit, "The world needs mechanics and plumbers and carpenters. If everyone got a degree then we'd all be smart as hell, broke as shit, with no bathrooms, no cars, and no houses. Doesn't sound like a very fun world to me."

"It ain't til ya get used to it." He told her and she looked at him with a raised brow. He pointed around to the treetops below them, "Out here you only got your legs to get around and the ground to sleep on. You ain't got a roof unless you're in a tower, truck only can stay on the trails for it, aint no bathrooms."

"Yeah but bathrooms are different for guys, anywhere can be a bathroom for you." She pointed out.

"For certain things." He returned her point and she laughed agreeing with him.

"You're right I guess." She finished laughing, taking a smoke break had been a good idea, "But moral to the story is, college isn't meant for everyone and that's just fine."

"Hmmhmm." He agreed, hating how much he had grown to like her, he might actually miss her when she goes back home. "Why'd you keep smokin after college?"

"Because life gets stressful." She gave him his usual shrug, "And I like smoking when I drink."

"I could get 'em to bring us some drinks to if that'll help you." He told her.

She shook her head as her phone started ringing, "I don't know how my job would feel about me drinking on location."

"They ain't gotta know." He looked at her, "And you don work all day."

"I'll think about it." She smiled answering, "Hey Conner, you got the link?"

He watched as she went back inside after putting out her cigarette. He'd have Murray bring him more just in case she wanted them.