A/N: Thanks to the amazing Jen for editing this for me! Of course, neither TWD universe or its characters are mine, but its creator Robert Kirkman.
Beth was organizing medicine boxes when Rosita appeared at full speed like a stampeding buffalo, throwing Beth straight into the inside of the cabinet.
"Beth, you're not gonna believe-"
"Wait, wait" Beth interrupted her, trying to get out of the deathtrap her friend had put her in. She dropped the medicine boxes she was carrying on a shelf and turned around to listen to her, "Okay, now".
"It's too much!" Rosita exclaimed, enraged, "You have to see this!"
Beth realized Rosita had a paper on her hand. She took it and started reading, frowning more and more as she advanced.
Esteemed employees:
Due to the lack of resources and the difficult situation we're going through right now, we've been forced to reduce work hours to eliminate expenses. In the following days we will be informing you about your new schedules and shifts.
Thank you in advance for your collaboration and your invaluable work.
Dawn Lerner, Director of Rosewood Retirement Centre
"Can you believe it?" Rosita said as soon as Beth lifted her head from the paper, "This shit was hung up everywhere this morning. Thanks for your invaluable work?" Rosita huffed, "So invaluable that we've hardly seen a cent for months".
"So what now?" Beth asked, "I need to work more hours".
"So do I" Rosita answered, "How do they think we live? Eating air?"
Beth let out a shaky breath, lowering her gaze to the sheet again, rereading those lines over and over again, as if that would magically change the words on it.
"You know what?" said Rosita suddenly, "We should talk to Dawn".
"There's no use in it" both women turned around when they heard Lori, who was entering with a box. She dropped it noisily on the floor and started dusting off her hands, "I just talked to her".
"And?" Rosita encouraged her after a few seconds of silence.
"And" she continued, "She's told me that 'we all have to make sacrifices for the greater good'"
"Fuck her!"
"Rosita!" Lori and Beth exclaimed, the latter spinning around to check that no one else had heard that, "That could cost you your job!"
"My job!? This is slavery, come on", Rosita replied, her hands on her hips, "They don't pay us, they change our shifts whenever they want to, and now they tell us that this bullshit is for our own good. It's for the powerful people's sake, like our dear director. I'm sure she doesn't have any trouble making it through the month. Let's see how long it takes them to start firing people".
Suddenly, Lori burst into tears, burying her face in her hands. Beth and Rosita looked at each other, alarmed, before they hurried to hold her, as if she was going to fall at any time.
"Lori, calm down, I didn't mean it" Rosita corrected herself, "everything's going to be fine"
"Nothing's going to be fine" Lori shook her head, "I'm sure they'll fire me".
"What are you talking about?" Beth said, "You're the one who's keeping this place running, Lori, even Dawn knows that".
Lori shook her head again, and dropped her hands to her sides.
"I'm pregnant" and she started sobbing again. Her partners looked at each other again, this time confused.
"But that's good news, Lori" Beth comforted her, smiling, "That's great actually".
"How long do you think Dawn will take to fire me? They hardly pay us at all, why would they pay me maternity leave?"
"That's illegal", Rosita countered firmly, "They'd be in trouble if they fired you because of that. Besides, if they have to fire anyone, it would be me. We all know you'd work more in a day being eight months-pregnant than I do in two weeks".
Lori started laughing nervously, and even Beth giggled, relaxing the atmosphere instantly.
"I still have coffee in my thermos", Beth said, "Let's take a cup and we calm down a bit, okay?"
"God, hurry up" Rosita urged her, pressing Lori's back softly to make her walk, "With this shitty coffee machine, it's been weeks since the last time I drank a decent cup of coffee".
"They're not even able to do that" Lori added, but this time in a humorous tone as they walked down the aisle. Beth intertwined her arm with Lori's and Rosita did the same.
"Well, we can always ask Beth to call her friend the handy hottie" Rosita said teasingly.
Both women turned her heads to look at Beth with a mischievous grin.
"Stop" she protested, blushing, "He's a patient's son".
"And what a son" Lori sighed, "I wouldn't even mind having Mrs. Dixon as my in law".
"Enough" Beth muttered, blushing.
"No mothers-in-law for me, thanks," Rosita said mischievously, "just me and him. I'd show him one hell of a good time."
"STOP!" Beth whined, mortified, before her partners started laughing scandalously. Beth was the youngest of them and yet sometimes she felt like she was the adult and her friends the high school teenagers. Just like she did in that moment.
Three days later, Beth was leaving the supermarket carrying two bags in one hand and the receipt in the other. Her forehead wrinkled every time she had to read that damn paper. That morning she had sat down to do math and write carefully a list of essential things she should buy. Just the necessities, she had said. But then she discovered than half of her cabinets and her fridge were practically empty. So the list started growing and growing, until finally she ended up doing the purchase of the week like she was preparing for the apocalypse.
Fortunately, on Friday she'd finally receive her month's pay. That didn't mean that the nursing home didn't owe her two months of delays anymore, but at least she'd have money for another thirty days. Thirty days without sweating every time a letter from the bank or some bill arrived.
A day will come when that problem would occur again, most likely sooner rather than later, but that day wasn't today.
And Beth wasn't going to spend her day worrying herself about next month.
She stopped at a traffic light as she saved the receipt in her jacket pocket. She took one of the bags in her free hand to distribute the load and her gaze started wandering down the street, until she noticed the magnificent bike that was parked in front sidewalk. In her hometown, a thing like that would have been main theme of conversation for at least three days, but there, in a bigger town, it was nothing special.
However, it was still an object of admiration. The kind of machine for which her brother would have sighed like a schoolgirl in love.
The street light turned green and she crossed. She didn't even know why she stopped beside that beast with wheels, but sunlight made it shine like a dark diamond and it was almost inviting.
No sooner had she lifted a finger to touch it when she heard a throat clearing that made her turn around sharply.
"Mr. Dixon" she panted, moving her hand away in a sudden. Her heart was pounding in her chest. She'd be lying if she said that she hadn't thought about him at all. In fact, she did. Every single day. Every time she went into his mother's room, when she saw those blue eyes that were starting to become faded, oblivious to the outside world and that however still seemed to keep a hint of the glint that they had possessed yesteryear. The same glint that now was piercing her.
He looked at her, at the bike, and then at her again questioningly.
"My brother Shawn loves bikes" she felt the need to explain herself, "And this one is… impressive".
She swore she saw a light glow of pride before it faded suddenly.
"And…" he started quietly, "and you?"
"What about me?" Beth blinked, confused.
"Do you like them?" I mean… bikes" he added, almost shyly. Beth wasn't able to understand why he was hiding behind his hair. She was the one that felt anchored to the ground every time he looked at her like that.
It was her turn to shrug.
"Dunno. There weren't lots of bikes like this one in my hometown. Besides, I think my dad would have a heart attack if he saw me riding something like this" she answered with a weak smile. To her surprise, Daryl returned her a smile, in a brief and almost imperceptible way.
They stayed silent for a few seconds more until she dared to ask:
"Do you live around here?"
"Nah" he answered, "I just came to buy some parts".
"Oh, right" Beth felt ridiculous standing there, looking at him. She bit the inside of her cheek, trying to find something to say, "Your mom is fine, but she misses you".
She received a grunt as an answer, and suddenly, the atmosphere turned from lightly awkward to so tense that you could cut it.
"I know you have things to do, and work and things like that" she continued, "but maybe if you talked with your brother you could-"
"My brother isn't around here" he cut her off harshly, "'s just me".
"And do you think you could stop by some day? If you have a day off?"
He shrugged.
"C'mon, just for an hour. I'm sure she'd be so happy to see you" she insisted, smiling. He scratched his head just one second before he glazed at her and nodded, "Really? What about tomorrow?"
Another affirmative grunt. Her smile widened.
"Alright. See you tomorrow, Mr. Dixon" she said, unable to stop smiling. She turned around and started walking again. She almost couldn't hear his voice before she turned the corner.
"See you tomorrow, Greene".
Beth spent the rest of the day here and there, looking at the clock impatiently, but he didn't appear. She couldn't help it. She spent hours turning her head towards the door, expecting to see him entering, but her disappointment only grew as the day went on and only employees and relatives entered, none of them named Dixon.
It was nearly 10 p.m. Beth was changing her clothes, taking off that old uniform and putting on her real clothes. It was almost like she was changing her skin. She wasn't Nurse Greene anymore, or Greene, she was just Beth, Bethy, Hershel's little daughter who had gone crazy and moved to another town, away from her family to work in a nursing home that was falling apart.
She walked through the silent aisles of the nursing home and she wished the receptionist a good night quietly before she got out. A blow cold air received her, and she huddled even more in her coat.
It was then that she saw him, wrapped up in that leather jacket and that damn vest, leaning against his bike and smoking a cigarette. The cloud of smoke was more visible than he was. The parking lot was dark, with just two lampposts, each one put in one end of the property.
Her feet moved before her brain could stop them. If he acknowledged her approaching him, he didn't give any sign that he did. Instead, he kept smoking, his gaze fixed on the cement beneath his feet.
Beth reached him breathless, panting.
But he remained silent, and she was so fed up.
"I've been waiting for you the whole day", she said, "the whole damn day, checking if you were coming in to see your mother for five goddamn minutes. I had to bite my tongue to not tell her anything, and now I know that was the right thing to do. No mother wants to know that his son makes promises that he can't keep".
She expected Daryl to say something, anything, but he just exhaled another puff of smoke. She sighed.
"I've been working almost twelve hours, and you know what? I'm tired of dealing with you. You're just so selfish. It doesn't matter what I say, right? It doesn't matter that you're a better person than you make yourself out to be. You're going to keep promising that you'll come to get rid of me and then you won't. Well, I won't do this anymore. If you want to see her, you already know where she is. I'm not going to keep chasing you. I won't."
And with that, she turned around and started walking quickly towards the gates, grabbing the strap of her purse more firmly while she walked away.
"I couldn't get in" his voice made her stop short. Slow, very slowly, as if he was setting a trap, Beth spun around.
"You got in the other day without trouble" she answered warily, her fist clenching around the strap.
"I… couldn't" he repeated, lifting his gaze, and Beth understood. Her expression softened, feeling how the tension was leaving her shoulders, and she started walking again, that time towards him.
"You don't have to do it on your own" she said gently, before she raised her hand to brush his arm, "You don't have to press yourself. Bit by bit".
And she smiled weakly, trying to encourage him. Finally, he dared to look at her, relaxing visibly.
"Sorry you waited for me" he grumbled.
"Doesn't matter" she answered, shrugging.
Neither of them said anything for a few moments, just standing there.
"Do you want me to take you home?" he finally asked, motioning to the bike. Beth shook her head, smiling.
"Nah, I'm good. Besides, I like walking" she explained. Daryl nodded.
"Mind if I join you?" the question caught her by surprise. Suddenly, she felt like him, almost mute. She couldn't do anything but shake her head.
They walked in silence, with the far sounds of some car in the background. Beth didn't dare to look at him and he didn't say anything. She felt almost like she was sixteen again, shy and unable to open her mouth to say something useful.
"You been living here for long?" he asked her, surprising her for the fifteenth time that night. Beth startled, not expecting to hear his voice.
"What?"
"Yesterday you said that…" Beth marveled at how shy he was, "that in your town my bike would have been talked about. Did you move long ago?"
"Oh" Beth said, understanding, and she nodded, "No, in a few months it will be a year. I had good luck, actually, finding work as soon as I finished college".
He made a sound that she interpreted as a "right".
"And you don't have to call me nurse or Greene" she clarified, "I'm just Beth".
Daryl nodded.
"Same for you" he muttered. Beth smiled, "You like working in the nursing home?"
"I love it" she answered immediately, "Everyone always told me that I should be a teacher or a child care worker, because they say I'm good with kids, but the elderly are really interesting people. They have lots of things to teach us. Do you like your job?"
Daryl took a couple of seconds to answer.
"It's okay" he finally said, "just fix things, nothing permanent".
"Well you're really good at it, judging by how you fixed the boiler" she responded, smiling. He shrugged again.
"It's nothing"
"Yeah it is" she countered, without stopping smiling. He didn't answer and Beth took it as a small victory.
They kept walking in a comfortable silence until they reached the doorway of her apartment building. Beth took more time than usual to take out her keys.
"Thank you so much for walking me home" she thanked him, "it was nice of you".
"It's nothing" he said again, and she laughed.
"By the way", she said suddenly, remembering, "what are you going to do with the bike?"
He looked at her an instant before he smiled lightly.
"I'm sure you can watch it until I come back" he said, with such a deep voice that Beth felt goose bumps running through her.
"Okay" she whispered breathlessly.
"Good night, Beth".
"Good night, Daryl".
She felt her legs trembling as soon as he turned around and started walking away from her, as if she didn't have to keep anchored to the ground. She panted slightly when he spun around again, just an instant to look at her, and turned immediately.
And when he had turned the corner, and only then, she allowed herself to giggle.
A/N: Thanks for reading and please review!