They were back at the seventh tower. She was checking the boxes to make sure everything was good before climbing up onto the roof. Blowing on her hands quickly before lifting up a panel to see underneath it she put it back down when she heard Daryl clear his throat. He wasn't looking at her. She knew it was time for him to go, and she would be with the ranger at this tower, Robin, a very talkative woman from what Ren could tell.

He stepped forward and held something out to her, "Here. For when you ain't working on small stuff."

Reaching out she took the bundle from his hands and saw a pair of gloves wrapped around a cigarette pack. She held the box up, "Will you bring me more when I'm out?"

"Shouldn you quit before you go back home? Won your friends be mad?" He asked.

"I feel like I have a pretty good reason for starting up again." She felt a smile on her face. "You're helping to relocate the wolves, right?"

"Yeah." He answered.

"When you're done…let me know how they are?" She asked and he nodded. Ren smiled a little wider, "I'll be waiting with bated breath then."

"Huh?" He couldn't help the tug at the corner of his lip.

She laughed at herself, "I'll see you soon…Daryl."

"Yeah." He nodded before turning to the ladder. "I'll check on your rental while I'm in town."

"Thanks. I appreciate it." Ren watched him as he went down before putting the gloves on and the pack in her pocket, then returned to the solar panel. She didn't look over the banister as she heard his truck start a little bit away, she didn't think she'd be able to see it anyways. Sighing, she knew she shouldn't miss him, it didn't make any sense to, it was inevitable. She'd just gotten used to him being there.

"Wowie, you two sure had a lot of blankets. Did it really get that cold up here?" Robin came out of the tower.

"Yeah." Ren didn't look away from her work, "Plus it made the floor softer for sleeping on."

"He had you sleep on the floor?!" Robin almost scoffed.

"No." Ren covered her tracks, "No, he slept on the floor, I felt bad about it, so I asked for more blankets for him."

"Smart thinkin'. I don't care how we do the sleepin thing, but the blankets will certainly help whoever is on the floor."

She'd been used to sleeping on the floor anyways, "I'll take the floor, I had the cot the entire rest of the time."

"Alright, but just let me know if you want to trade, I know how you Californians are about equality." Robin laughed at herself.

"Ha." Ren tried to force out a laugh too, but it was hard, "Yeah, we…uh…we like things equal."

This was going to be a long week, maybe if she focused really hard, she could have everything new installed for the protection system and be on to the next tower with hopefully a quieter ranger…or even get Daryl back.

He'd only been able to visit her for about an hour or so since she had work to get done, but he'd let her know that the wolves had been successfully taken up north, none of them had been injured and that they should be settled in before the harshness of winter was there. She was glad that he'd been on the team to help do that and he'd just been glad it made her happy. The days they'd been out there were long, and they felt even longer not having been able to see her at the end of them. He just needed to get used to not having her around again, then he would be fine.

Ren had wanted to ask him to stay, but she knew that there was no reason for the rangers to have him out there if they were out there, no point in paying two people. Plus, he probably had things to do, he'd been gone for two months. She was barely sleeping, even two towers after he'd left. Maybe her own bed would be the difference, she wouldn't miss him as much there.

She'd watched him leave from the roof of the tower as she drilled the panels to it. The Ranger for this tower came out, and looked up at her, "Must have been fun out here with him for two months."

"What do you mean?" She asked him, she couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic or not, but from the sounds of it, he wasn't.

"Dixon's not exactly the nicest or most welcoming person. Probably wasn't the best company." Matthew sipped his coffee, "Not for someone like you anyways."

"He was fine." She grunted out as she undid a latch on the panel, feeding the wires to the antenna. "Helped me when I needed help, left me alone to do my work when I didn't."

"Well I'll be sure to do those things for you too little miss." He smiled at her.

Clearly not if you're still talking to me. Hiding her eye roll she tried to give him the hint she didn't want him around or to talk about Daryl anymore, "Well I'll be sure to let you know when I need help."

"I'll watch, make sure if you fall that I catch you." He kept his grin.

She wasn't going to fall. It was the fourth tower she was working on. She remembered guys like this from college though, and they were annoying as hell. Ren didn't warrant him a response, she just focused on what she had to do, hoping that by the time she finished, he would be inside asleep, or at least have gotten the hint.

Sitting in the tower she was soldering together the connections for the panels to the sensors when she felt a hand on each of her shoulders, rubbing them. Fucking Matthew, his advances were getting worse and every time they made her feel sick, especially now, "Please don't do that."

"You look tense." He said, his thumbed moving across her shoulder blades and up towards her neck. She leaned forward, trying to politely get his hands off of her.

"I'm dealing with very hot things, I need to concentrate." She leaned over her work now, trying to bend out of his grasp, but his hands didn't leave her.

Matthew followed her down and whispered in her ear, "Come on now, it's just southern hospitality." She knew southern hospitality, Daryl had way more of it than this guy did, and this wasn't anything near that. Her body was stiff, mind going through options as he said, "Tell me you haven't been lonely. Stuck out here with that stupid tracker, then having to put up with Robin and Mary. You've been out here practically alone for some time, and a lady like you shouldn't have to be alone."

She could feel his hands going down her back and around her waist despite the fact that she was sitting down, and her jaw was tight as she spoke through gritted teeth, "Get you hands off of me. Now."

"Just a little fun, won't take long. Have you back to your work in no time." His hands started moving towards her chest and she snapped.

Her elbow went into his chest and he got knocked away from her and she said with almost a yell, "I said hands off!"

"Bitch!" He back handed her.

Daryl was at his house, or at least it was the current place him and Merle were able to stay at. It was sort of an apartment, but it could have also been a motel. Merle was still serving time, so it was just him and he was bored as shit. He almost wished he'd never found the wolves, then he'd still have something to do. But he also knew if he found them after Ren left, then they would be dead. He sighed, almost everything he thought about, saw, or heard made him think of her.

He didn't get it. No one had ever stuck with him like that. No one but Merle. But Merle was his blood, his family, so of course Merle would pop up in his head a lot. But why the hell was Ren? It was probably because he'd spent so much time with just her, sort of like how he spent all that time with just Merle. The sex might have something to do with it, he'd never slept with anyone like her before, and never in the way that they had before, and never as much as they had before. He'd spent two months with her, he'd guess it'd take more than two weeks to not wonder how she was doing.

A crash in the apartment next to him distracted him, two voices yelling at each other, the couple in there was probably still arguing about the same thing they were arguing about when he'd left for the forest. All they did was argue. He felt bad for their kid, sometimes Daryl would pass him sitting on the stairs while his parents were fighting inside. It quieted down for a moment and then Daryl heard a knock on the door. It was probably the wife, coming over with a black eye or bruised lip, asking to borrow whatever it was that her husband had just broken, half the time they didn't have it. Daryl and Merle rarely cooked in their kitchen.

When he opened the door though, it was Murray. Daryl tried not to be surprised, "What?"

"Somethin's happened out at tower five." Murray said.

"Ren? She alright?" Daryl quickly moved around the apartment grabbing his things.

"I don't know, I just got a call that something happened out there between her and Matt." Murray watched as he threw stuff out of his way, "Figured you lasted out there with her for two months, you'd know how to deal with her."

"Ain't nothin to deal with." Daryl said moving out the door, "She ain't a problem."

Daryl slammed the door and headed for Murrays truck, not even looking back to see if the man was following him. If something happened, something enough for them to call headquarters, it was enough to make Daryl worry. She didn't even need them called when she'd been bitten by the wolf. His chest was tight despite his rapid heart rate. He didn't know what he'd do if something had happened to her.

A/N: Gotta have some drama in there! Sprinkle it through out to keep it interesting haha. Let me know what you guys think!