Daryl woke with a start. Looking around, he realized he and Amy had slept on the lawnchairs in the yard all night. Judging by the sky, he figured it was four or five in the morning. He'd slept better on the lawn chair than he had in his own bed in years. He looked over and saw that Amy was still sleeping. Best to wake her up and get her inside before he headed home to get ready for work. Didn't want any gossip to start from him going in late. He stood up and stretched then leaned over and gently shook Amy's shoulder. She started awake and sat up quickly, confused until she saw Daryl. Then she smiled and blushed.

"We sleep out here all night?" she mumbled, yawning. He smirked.

"Yeah. I gotta go home and get ready for work now, but if ya want ya can come see me at lunch or I can come see ya when I get off work," he mumbled nervously. He didn't want to crowd her, but he wanted to see her as often as could for the time she was here. He didn't doubt she'd be gone by the end of summer and go back to a life in the city away from here. He felt almost like he had that summer so long ago-desperate for every minute with her to store up memories for when she was gone again. He bit his thumb nervously, watching her.

She smiled up at him, almost the old sweet smile she had had once. "That sounds good. I can make ya something to eat if ya want," she looked more relaxed than she had yesterday.

"That sounds nice. Nothing fancy though, I don't eat a lot and I don't want you to go to any trouble," he mumbled, scuffing his foot. She stood up and grabbed his hand and started to walk him to his bike.

"Don't be silly-it'll give me something to do. I'm kind of at loose ends right now, so I need ta find something to keep me busy," she finished, shrugging and blushing. He nodded and got on the bike and started it up. She watched him drive off, waving a little and then he headed home.

At noon, Daryl looked up and saw Amy crossing the parking lot from her truck with a little basket. It reminded him of the basket she used to bring him food in back at the treehouse. He smiled a small smile at the sight of her. He realized he'd been tense all morning, anxious if she would really show up or not. He shouldn't have doubted her. She'd always kept her word. George and Pete, the other two mechanics, looked over at Daryl and smirked. Before they could make any comments he threw the shop towel down and strode out quickly to meet Amy in the parking lot.

"Hey," he said, taking the basket from her and steering her to the park across the street. He often sat there on one of the benches at lunch to smoke and have some quiet. The shop got pretty noisy sometimes.

They sat at one of the picnic tables and he opened the basket and pulled out some fried chicken, rolls, slaw, and some bottles of water. He looked up at her questioningly. "Ya made this?" he asked, biting into a roll.

"Oh no," she laughed, "I'm not any good at cooking. Remember the burned food last night? That's pretty much par for the course for me. I picked that up at the store on the way here. So you're safe-you won't die of food poisoning today anyway," she smiled. He frowned, not liking to hear her put herself down, but kept quiet.

"Well," he began nervously, "it's Friday. Spect you have some family stuff ta do, or something like that this weekend," he trailed off and bit into the chicken, keeping his eyes on the food. He could feel his face turning pink. He didn't want to rush her, or them, into anything but he also felt that due to their past they could skip some of the getting to know you formalities. It wasn't that he thought he'd have any chance at all in repeating that summer now with her, but he did want to spend as much time as possible with her and he didn't want to waste any of that time playing games. He had always been direct and believed in making his intentions clear as soon as he himself knew them.

Amy glanced at him shyly, turning a pretty pink her own self. "No, I don't have any plans. No family thing-I'm the black sheep remember? Don't wanna contaminate the other family members," and she gave a short bitter laugh. He frowned.

"Where's your family at? Aren't they gonna come check on you?" he grumbled. He didn't like the sound of this already.

She shook her head quickly and shrugged. "mmmm no. Momma and Daddy divorced right after I graduated high school. Daddy's married again, to a woman not much older than me. Momma started drinking, it got pretty bad there for a while. Then she met a nice man when she started going to one of the groups, AA. They got married a few years ago," she paused and Daryl kept chewing, shocked at this news. "Mark is a really nice man, good for Momma. Been really good to us kids too. They live in South Carolina, he has a house on one of the islands off the coast. Daddy and Stacy live in Nashville." She paused. Daryl nodded for her to go on. "Leslie is a nurse in Chicago, married to a doctor and has a couple of kids. Tommy is in the tech business, he and his wife live out in California with their three kids." She paused again. "My grandparents left us a pretty good sum of money, all tied up in a trust and my brother is in charge of it. He deposits some in my account every month, and if I need more I have to call and ask him," she turned red with embarrassment. "It's humiliating, but they decided that I couldn't be trusted with my own money so they fixed it so I can't just have it. They said they were afraid I'd spend it all or give it all to some asshole I was with." Her voice faltered and she looked quietly down at her hands. "They're probably right. I probably would have," and she shrugged. Daryl's jaw clenched and he had to breathe deeply to calm himself down. Jesus, it just got worse and worse.

"Do ya see your family much at all?" he murmured, not wanting to upset her but trying to figure the situation out.

"No," she replied. "Um, when my parents separated I moved out of the house and in with my boyfriend. Jack worked with my dad, he was a few years older than me and my family all liked him. He seemed like a stable guy." She sighed and shrugged again. "But it never felt right to me. I knew I didn't really love him, I just needed a place to stay. Couldn't stand the mess going on at home. Made my momma and sister and brother mad at me. They haven't really ever gotten over it." Daryl's eyebrows raised.

"How old were you?"

"Eighteen, daddy left the summer after I graduated and I moved in with Jack that fall. Hadn't known him very long, but he seemed trustworthy. I didn't plan on staying with him very long, thought I'd get a job and get my own place," her voice faltered again and she frowned in thought. "Seemed like I could just never get my shit together to leave him or go back to school. Didn't work most of the time I was with him, he liked me to be available so I could go with him on business trips or vacation. I just felt like I had no idea what I wanted to do or how to do it."

Daryl nodded, "How long were you together?" he asked. She sighed and thought.

"Four years, almost five. I finally left because I knew he wasn't ever going to marry me. I didn't really want to marry him, but I felt he should at least ask me," she laughed a little. "I know that sounds stupid, but –I don't know, I felt that if he wanted me to stay he should at least ask me to stay permanently, make a commitment." Daryl nodded again. He wanted to punch this guy in the throat.

"So what happened," he coaxed her. She ran her hands through her curls and sighed.

"Well, I took a course in medical assisting, and met a girl there-Moira. And Moira introduced me to a guy she'd known for years. Kurt. He was older, had a stable job, was always talking about how he wanted to meet a nice girl and get married. I moved out of Jack's apartment and in with Moira. Things moved pretty quick with Kurt-I was flattered. Here I'd been with Jack all that time and he wouldn't even discuss marriage and within two weeks of meeting Kurt he went out and bought me a ring and told everyone we were getting married." She paused, biting her lip. Daryl had a feeling this Kurt guy was going to be worse than Jack had been. He started biting at his thumb. He nodded at her to continue. "Well, we planned on getting married the next Christmas, but I got pregnant by Easter, so we moved the date up. He seemed so happy, ran around telling everyone he was going to be a daddy, was just so sweet. Then, the weekend before our wedding, he went out drinking with his friends and when he got home –I had moved in with him when I found out I was pregnant-when he got home he told me he didn't want to marry me. That this was a mistake. He was still in love with someone else and he wanted to be with her." Daryl clenched both his fists and then lit a cigarette and took a deep drag. He nodded again, not trusting his voice at this point. He couldn't understand how Amy stayed so calm telling him all this, like she was telling him about something she'd seen on tv or in a movie. It was like she had removed herself from it completely. Maybe that was how she had gotten through it.

"Well, we argued and I cried but he insisted he was calling it all off. The next day I called the minister and the florist and the bakery and cancelled everything. It was just going to be a small thing in the park and then have a little party at his house. I called everyone we'd invited and told them it was cancelled. Moira helped me move my stuff back to her house. I was pretty scared, here I was pregnant and now he had bailed out on me. I hadn't bothered to look for a job since I'd gotten out of school because Kurt had said he would take care of things, and I knew no one would hire a pregnant woman right off the bat." Daryl frowned. Amy looked down and refused to meet his eyes. He saw a tear slip down her cheek.

"Amy, you don't have ta tell me anymore. I can see it's upsetting ya," he whispered. She shook her head.

"No, I want to tell ya," she whispered, "ya need to see how I really am." She cleared her throat. "I….I took a bunch of pills. I just wanted to never wake up again. I cut my wrists too, I wanted to be make sure I didn't wake up." Here Daryl reached over and grabbed Amy's hand fiercely.

"Don't you ever do that again," he said in a voice hoarse with emotion, "promise me Amy. Promise me you won't," he gripped her hands almost painfully. Amy looked at him silently and nodded. "Say it, dammit. Say you promise," he whispered.

"I promise," she replied softly.

"Did ya lose the baby?" he asked softly. She nodded and peered at him sadly. "That wasn't your fault. That bastard was the cause of that. Don't blame yourself for that. I don't." He squeezed her hands tightly again.

"It was my fault," she began and he cut her off.

"No dammit. Who told ya it was your fault? Your family, right?" and here she nodded again. He swore softly under his breath and glared at her. "Your damn family seems to have done nothing for you, just hurt you. Don't you believe what they say about you. You're a good person, always have been." He sighed exasperatedly and swore again. When he looked at her he saw he had made her anxious. He relaxed his grip on her hands and tried to smile. She relaxed a bit at that. "Look, I gotta go back to work here in a minute. If ya want, I'll come by after work and we can do something," he continued. She nodded at this. "Good, then walk me back to the shop and plan on my coming by around six, okay?" She smiled at him and they cleared up the table and walked back to the shop. He helped her into the cab of the truck and waved her off as she headed back to the farm. He wanted to punch something. He had never expected any good from the world, he'd learned not to at a young age. But Amy, Amy had had a far better start in life than he had had, how had she had so many bad things happen to her? She was too trusting, always had been. And people took advantage of that. Well, however much time he had with her he was going to make damn sure no one hurt her while he had anything to say about it.