They were on the fifth tower and only had three left after that to set up before she could install all of the solar panels and such on them. It'd been almost six weeks that they'd been together, and they were very used to each other at that point now that she was more herself after the news of Chris cheating on her. Daryl noticed she still worked a lot, but she would stop and eat meals with him and sometimes come outside and have a cigarette.

He was working on his map for the next day of tracking and she was finishing up her work for the day when her phone began going off. She groaned, "Dammit."

"Is it him? I'll answer it." He turned to look at her.

"No, it's my brother. I told him I'd call to tell him what I thought of the venue Chris was supposed to look at yesterday." She picked up the phone and stood, leaving the tower to talk to her brother. "Hey."

"Hey, I thought they gave you a satellite phone so you don't lose contact with the outside world." Hammond said.

"I'm in the outside world technically." She tried to pass the joke off. Daryl could hear her side of the conversation despite her being outside, but he couldn't hear her brother since the phone wasn't on speaker.

"So what did you think of the arboretum? Was the signal good enough to see everything you wanted to?" He asked.

"About that…" Her throat got tight, this was the scariest part.

"What happened? You didn't like it? Or did Chris forget?" Hammond asked, then muttered, "Of course he did, to damn busy with his own start-up to think of you or the wedding."

"There isn't going to be a wedding." She blurted out. This was the first time she'd said it out loud. Daryl walked to the other side of the tower cabin, grabbing the pack of cigarettes, waiting, knowing she was going to need one after the call.

"What do you mean?" Hammond asked, "What the hell happened?"

"Becca…" She started, she hadn't talked about it at all in the four days of finding out, "Becca found him in my apartment with someone else."

"WHAT?" Her brother yelled, "I'm going to kill him. That scrawny punk is fucking dead!"

"Hammond, stop." She tried to say because normally she hated it when her brother got like this, but this time it made her smile slightly.

"No! Who the hell does he think he is? He thinks he can mooch off of my baby sister and then go tramping around town?" Hammond got angry, then his voice went soft, "Fuck, I'm so sorry baby girl."

"It's okay." She looked down at her feet as she pulled her jacket closer around her. It was getting colder by the day the less of fall there was.

"Is it? I mean how are you holding up?"

"I'm focusing on my work like always." She knew how she was when bad things happened.

"Are you eating?" He asked.

"Yeah, Daryl makes sure that I eat."

"Daryl?"

"Yeah, you know the guy out here with me? The one that's supposed to keep me from being wolf kibble?" She reminded him.

"Right, yeah, I just didn't know that was his name." Hammond told her. "So, he's looking out for you?"

"Mmhmm, he really sweet. I honestly don't know what I'd do out here without him." Ren almost laughed, it was true. Daryl wasn't at all what she'd thought she would need in that moment, but it turns out he was. He didn't push for her to talk about it, he was just there if she needed anything, and he didn't look at her any different, which she could never tell quite what the look in his eye was when he looked at her, but at least it hadn't changed. "I got lucky that he was out here with me."

"That's good then. I'll have to thank him one day." He said. "Do…do you want me to tell dad and the others?"

She hadn't thought about that, just as much as she hadn't thought about telling Hammond. As far as she was concerned, she didn't want to think about it at all. Ren sighed, "Would you please?"

"Of course." Her brother responded, "I'll let you get back to work. Love you."

"Love you too Hammond." She told him. When she hung up the phone she heard the noise of the cabin door opening. Turning she saw Daryl coming out and lighting two cigarettes, handing one of them to her. She smiled, "Thanks."

"Thought you might want one." He said leaning on the bannister. Daryl tried not to think about what she'd said about him, but with her standing next to him, that's all he could think about. Nobody had ever called him sweet before and truly meant it like she did.

Ren moved to be leaning on the bannister too before leaning her head on his upper arm. She swallowed hard, "This okay?"

"Yeah." He replied.

They stayed like that as they smoked, only going inside when it started to rain.

The next day the rain had gone from a slight sprinkle to a full-blown storm. Rain was beating down on the roof of the tower and thunder would shake it every now and then. Daryl had been trying to keep himself busy since he hadn't gone out to track with the storm. Ren however was still attempting to work. But it wasn't working at all.

She hit the enter button multiple times, each one harder than the last then finally slammed her hands down, "Shit."

"What's wrong?" Daryl asked looking from the map on the wall of the forest, which at this point he had memorized, just like he had his map of the tracks.

"I think the storms blocking the signal. I can't do anything." She fell back into the chair, rubbing the back of her neck.

"Take a break." He suggested.

"I can't." She sighed, "If I do then I'll think about it."

Daryl didn't say anything because he understood, he had things he didn't want to think about.

"It's always been like this." Rens voice was soft, "I always avoid thinking about bad stuff that happens by working on something." She half laughed at herself as she looked at the window that was being pelted with rain, "I even did it while my own mom was dying. My aunt too."

He sat up from his position on the floor and leaned against the wall, "I never had nothin' to keep my mind away from it. Just made me hate everythin more."

"You don't hate everything." She gave him a small smile and he looked at her as if she didn't know what she was talking about. "If you hated everything you wouldn't be out here with me."

He nodded, "Yeah, I don hate you."

"That's good to know."

It was like she wanted to talk but she didn't know how. He didn't know what else to do, "When'd your mom pass?"

"I was six."

"What happened?"

"She got cancer. Doctors didn't catch it in time so there wasn't much they could do other than help the pain." She told him, "My aunt and uncle took me during a lot of it. My mom didn't want me seeing her sick like that. Didn't want me to remember her like that."

"Must've been hard." He said.

"I don't really remember to be honest. I mostly just remember building a computer." She couldn't stop her laugh. Daryl smiled at this, he liked her laugh, most everyone else's laugh annoyed him, especially Merles, but not hers. It was beautiful.

He tore his eyes away from her. He couldn't think of her like that, not right now, not anymore. The last thing he wanted to do was hurt her more than she was already hurting, and he knew if he tried anything, he would end up hurting her. So instead he went a different route. "Mine died when I was eight. Got home from school and there were firetrucks, the house was gone and she was gone with it."

"Holy shit." Ren couldn't imagine. She also found it weird he was sharing something like this with her but she liked it, he was easy to talk to and easy to listen to. "I'm so sorry."

"She was probably doped outta her mind." He admitted.

"Still doesn't change the fact that it's shit." Ren turned her body to face him, "You weren't expecting to lose her that soon or that way. So, I'm sorry."

"You weren't expecting to lose your mom neither. So, I'm sorry too." Daryl saw her rubbing her shoulders as they spoke and he decided to ask, "Neck hurtin' again?"

"Huh?" She wasn't sure what he meant.

"You've been rubbin your neck and shoulders since you got here." He told her. If it made her feel better it was the least he could do, "C'mere."

Ren slowly stood up and walked over to where he was sitting on the floor. She didn't know why being in such a close proximity to him made her stomach tight, but it did. He motioned for her to sit with her back facing him and when she was settled his put his hands on one of her shoulders, massaging it.

He felt her stiffen slightly at his touch, "That okay?"

"Yeah, it doesn't hurt to much." Which it didn't. It actually felt really good and she started to relax as he worked, him touching her like that was mostly the reason she'd gone tense though. She wasn't expecting it. She could feel his hands working on a knot that he found and when he got to the back of her neck, she could feel the callouses on his hands, but they weren't rough, and actually felt kind of good. "You're really good at this."

"Don normally do it to someone else." He told her, "Glad it's helping."

"It is." She had a small smile. She did get damn lucky to be stuck with someone like him instead of anybody else.

A/N: Be sure to let me know what you guys think! It's a weird challenge writing these two in the real world haha