Ren and Daryl were sat eating dinner in the third tower when her phone rang. Taking her plate of deer, that Daryl hunted himself, with her she moved to the desk answering it quickly, so it didn't stop ringing, "Hello?"
Daryl noticed she didn't put it on speaker and when he heard her next, he knew why.
"Everything's going good Chris."
He'd heard her and her fiancé getting into little spats over the fact that Daryl was out there with her, he knew Ren was telling the truth that her fiancé had nothing to worry about, because he didn't. At first Daryl would have gotten with her even if she was engaged, but now he respected her to much because of how hard she worked and how she clearly cared about the project, the environment, and just people in general. Even if it was the heat of the moment, it wouldn't feel right knowing that she was in a happy relationship, which is what she claimed it to be even if they did argue most of the time he heard them on the phone.
"No, we were just eating dinner…Yes, together because it was cooked at the same time…I'm not doing this again tonight. Did you call just to get your panties in a wad?...Well I'm glad the appointment is set, be sure to video call me, I can set up a wifi point to be able to see everything…Yeah I wish I was going to be there to see it too but everyone convinced me to stay out here despite the fact we're planning a wedding, including you might I add…" She scoffed and rolled her eyes, "It's only been three weeks and I told you it could take up to eight…Well you know what then Chris, why don't you pack your fucking bags, get on a plane to Georgia, drive up to the forest, hike out to where I'm at, and you keep me safe from wolves and hunt dinners for me like he does and then you'll get to spend that time with me instead of some guy I trust but you don't. But you aren't going to do that because you hate nature and being outside and I'm honestly starting to feel like you don't trust me either with these fucking check-ins. Goodnight!"
She hung up the phone and realized Daryl was sitting right behind her and that he just heard that whole thing. Closing her eyes tight she let out a sigh but then heard him say, "I won' tell him if you smoke when you're done eatin."
"I swear it's not normally like this. He quit his job and is working on a start up with one of his friends and with the wedding planning, it's just extra stressful right now." She grabbed her plate and went back over to the table, "We rarely fight this much."
He shrugged, "So long as he ain't hurtin ya."
"My uncle says he's to scrawny to hurt me. Which I don't know if that makes him like Chris more or less." She chuckled lightly.
"Doesn't have to be physical to hurt ya." Daryl restated.
"I know." She gave him a soft smile, slightly surprised because most people don't think of abuse as anything but physical, "He doesn't. Normally he's not the jealous type like this…but normally I'm not on a two-month long trip."
"With me." Daryl said the most important part.
"It's not specifically you…just the fact that you're another man." She tried to make it better, but it didn't really work. Sighing she took a bite of her food before saying, "The only other men in my life are my family, so Chris isn't really used to competition, not that he has any or anything, I don't look anywhere else other than who I'm with because if I do then I know I'm could hurt the person I'm with…"
"That's good of ya." He said, "Not many people are like that. Got that kind of loyalty."
He knew a lot of people who didn't. His dad, his brother, the guys his brother hangs out with, girls who are mad at their boyfriends and so they sleep with him, hell pretty much every girl he ever slept with had some kind of ulterior motive. She was completely unique from anyone he'd ever met, he might have to consider moving to where she was raised or where she lived now if people were like that there.
"I guess it's just the way I was raised." She smiled at him finishing her meal, "Now about that cigarette?"
"C'mon." He grabbed the pack and they headed outside.
"I can help you know." She said as they walked the half mile to the tower from the truck. He never let her carry any of the boxes that needed to get to the tower. Before he said it was too hot out and that she needed to conserve her water, but it had rained the night before and cooled off about ten degrees, fall had finally arrived in the forest even if it was late. She was thinking of asking her boss for a weather recorder to so that she could track weather patterns in connection with climate change.
"I got it." Daryl responded like normal.
She sighed, knowing it was going to take him at least three trips, he wasn't going to let her take anything up the ladder, and he was going to pretend like he wasn't exhausted afterwards. Ren didn't know what he thought he was trying to prove, or maybe he was just being a gentleman, or he thought she was weak. While she thought she should find it annoying he didn't let her carry anything but her own backpack, she found it more embarrassing because she was able to help she just didn't like confrontation enough to push the subject when he stopped her from grabbing anything else.
The tower came into view, standing high above the trees and Daryl motioned to it as he sat down the boxes he'd been carrying, "Go on up and get settled, I'll get the rest."
"Are you sure?" She felt really bad he did all the heavy lifting.
"Yeah, it's fine." He said and wiped his forehead before turning back to the trail.
She watched him start walking and she thought about something, "Daryl wait!" She called and jogged the short distance to him while grabbing her water bottle out of her back-pack's side pocket, "You haven't drank any since we left tower three."
"It's fine." He didn't want to take her water, it was hers. He didn't want her having to do more work than she needed to, her job was to fix the systems and then once they were up and running to install the solar panels. He didn't do much of anything other than track the pack of wolves that were still ahead of him and make sure they had food to eat. He didn't want to be dead weight to her.
She laughed lightly with a smile, "Drink some, it'll make me feel better about you doing all the work."
Daryl looked from her outstretched hand to her expectant face and sighed before taking her water bottle and taking a gulp. It was refreshing even if it was cooler outside now, it was still on the warmer side and the water was nice, and so was her smile at him drinking it. He handed it back to her, "I'll be back, go on and get up there."
"Alright." She still had a small smile and went to the ladder, climbing up it. When she made it up to the tower, she tossed her bag down, this one was a little bigger than the last two, but not by much. She never stayed in a dorm, but she figured this is what it must have felt like two people crammed into a ten by ten space. As she booted up the computer, she noticed something that she hadn't in all the other towers. A smile came across her face.
Daryl was making his way back with the second load, which was also the heaviest, and when he got back he was shocked to see none of the boxes from their first on the ground next to the tower anymore. He put down the boxes he was carrying and looked up to see Ren walking to the bannister with a smile on her face, "There you are."
"What happened?" He yelled up.
"Simple pully system, got them up with no problem." She tossed the end of a rope down, "Tie one on."
"What?" He was confused.
"I found rope, I can just pull them up, so you don't have to make a bunch of dangerous trips up the ladder." She tugged on the rope a little, so it bounced pretty close to the ground, "Come on, tie one on and I'll pull it up, it'll go quicker."
"Nah, it's fine." He didn't want her to hurt herself.
She took in a deep breath, readying herself, "Daryl Dixon you tie a box to the end of this rope right now."
She'd never been that stern with him before and he couldn't hide the impressed look on his face, "Yes ma'am." He replied taking the lightest box, which was still pretty heavy, over to the rope. He tied it on the end with the slack she gave him and decided he would just climb up and pull it up, because it was a good idea now that they had a rope, but this probably wasn't something she could lift on her own.
She watched and as soon as the knot was set, she started pulling on it. The rope was looped around two other parts of the bannister which helped with the weigh. Daryl hadn't even made it a third of the way up the ladder as he watched as it quickly and easily made its way up to the top of the tower and she pulled it onto the floor with the help of the rope. After a moment she tossed the empty rope back down to him, "Next."
They did this for all of them and when he finished with the third trip, he made his way up the ladder. He got up there as she was untying the last box. He'd known she wasn't very weak, but he didn't realize she was that strong. "Good job."
"Thanks. I told you we make a good team." She smiled at him standing up before coiling the rope back up, "I felt bad, you're doing all the work."
"No, I ain't." He told her, "You're doin' a lot."
She laughed, "I sit in a chair all day, you go out and actually do work. And don't try and tell me that they're the same because we both know they aren't, and we also know you aren't out there tracking as much anymore because you want to make sure I eat."
Daryl didn't say anything because she was right, he was tracking less because he wanted to make sure she was having dinner, and most days he would come back for lunch because he wanted to make sure she was eating that too. Instead he just sighed and picked up the box and carried it into the tower cabin with her following behind him.
Just like when they always got to the tower the first thing Ren did was unplug all of the old equipment and remove the ancient computer, before grabbing the box with the new computer and putting it on the desk instead, beginning to plug it in and make sure everything worked properly with the upgraded stuff.
She got so distracted into her work that he hadn't gotten the chance to get her to eat anything despite the fact she had just been talking about it so he would have thought it would have been fresh on her mind, but clearly it wasn't. He quietly went over and slid a sandwich in front of her as she hooked wires into the computer.
Ren smiled at the sandwich, "You're a sweetheart you know that."
"Stop." He muttered.
"Okay, but it doesn't make it any less true." She picked up her food and took a bite. Ren could tell he put up a tough exterior, that he didn't want people to think he cared, but she knew he did, and she liked it. He reminded her of her brother, could probably kill someone in a fight if they were mad enough, but would hate themselves for doing it. She had wondered on many occasions if his girlfriend was as upset about him being out there as her fiancé was, or if he even had a girlfriend, which if he didn't that would explain why he spent so much time alone in the woods. If she were single, she might too if her work wasn't electricity based.
He was good looking enough to have a girlfriend, he didn't wear a ring so he probably wasn't married, that and people tend to mention that kind of thing at least once especially considering he's been hearing her argue on the phone with Chris for weeks.
"Shit!" She was taken from her thoughts as a cord shocked her as she plugged it in, and she pulled her hand away in an instant.
"You alright?" Daryl came over and took her hand to look at it.
"Fine." She muttered shyly at his proximity, "Just a little shock."
"You sure?" He looked down at her, his eyes meeting her electric green ones.
The concern was clear on his face as they looked at each other and Ren couldn't think of the last time someone looked at her that worried that wasn't her family, not even Chris, but maybe Becca. It made her stomach go tight and she laughed nervously, "I should have been paying better attention, the wire is frayed. I'll tape it up before I try again."
"Alright." He let go of her hand and went back to setting up the rest of the small cabin.
A/N: Be sure to let me know what you guys think! Thanks for reading so far!