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Jillian and Daryl didn't talk to each other for four days after their kitchen interaction. He spend the days in the woods and only joined the group to eat breakfast and dinner. He stole glances at her when she wasn't looking, not knowing she was doing the same to him. Her light and easy going way with everyone was pissing him off. She acted like he didn't exist.
On the fourth day he heard the girls talking and knew the next day they were going to be doing laundry. They had found a few old old boards that women used to wash clothes before washers and dryers and there were a few clothes lines in the back yard. The basement had a load of laundry soap and they all needed clean clothes.
When Jillian finally decided to go to bed, it was well after Daryl had went into the house. Seeing him everyday and night was killing her. She hated that she wanted him so bad. She hadn't dated anyone since him. She had tried but she found she compared the men to him. No one was ever good enough for her, made her feel the way he did. He had broke her heart and she was still trying to heal. Then the world ended.
Jillian walked carefully through the kitchen and the living room. She let her flashlight guide her up the stairs and into the hallway. She passed his room and paused. She wanted to knock but instead she pressed her hand against the door and closed her eyes. She imaged him laying in his bed, sleeping with his legs spread, one arm across his face and the other one resting across his chest, it was his favorite position to sleep in. With a sigh she walked away. Once she reached her room, she stopped dead in her tracks. Sitting in front of her door was a basket full of clothes. She didn't need to look through them to know who they belonged too.
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Jillian, Andrea, and Lori were sitting with two buckets in front of each woman. The day was hot and they knew the clothes would dry fast. They were talking lightly and laughing together as they washed the clothes. One bucket was filled with soap and the other bucket they used to rinse the clothes. Lori was washing hers, Rick's, Carl's, and Glenn's clothes. Andrea was washing hers, Dale's and Shane's clothes. Both women stopped and stared at her when she took out one of Daryl's shirts.
" Jillian, please tell me you aren't really going to wash his clothes." Lori said. " I mean, after the way he talks to you, you'd really do that for him?" Jillian laughed.
" Do you want to wash them?" She asked. Both girls started to laugh and shake their heads. "Okay then. Daryl would be completely fine to walk around in nasty, dirty clothes and I, for one, don't want to smell them when they get wicked nasty. Besides, he put them in front of my door, thinking I won't do them, thinking I'd get pissed."
" You know him well, don't you?" Andrea said as she laughed.
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Daryl came back in the late afternoon when everyone was starting dinner. He walked through the house and to his room. She hadn't said anything to him about the clothes, she hadn't even knowledge that she had received them. He had set them in front of her door with a smirk, figuring he was going to get a rise out of her. He opened his door and went into the room, stopping in his tracks. His clothes were folded into neat little piles. He walked over to his bed and looked at the clothes. He picked up a shirt and smelled it.
" Fucking bitch." He said softly.
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Jillian was sitting by Andrea, watching the fire. Carl was running around the yard with Rick and Shane chasing him. Everyone was watching the men play with young boy. Jillian had a small smile as the scene unfolded around her. Suddenly the door to the kitchen burst open then slammed against the house, making everyone jump. Daryl was storming through the yard.
" You bitch!" He yelled.
" Here it comes." Jillian said softly to Andrea.
" Wow, Daryl, she washed your clothes without you asking and all you can say is, you bitch?" Andrea asked when he reached them. Daryl stopped walking as soon as he was in front of Jillian. She raised her eye brows at him.
" Did you need something, Dixon?" She asked.
" Don't you have any manners, young man?" Dale asked. " The lady did wash your clothes for you." Daryl looked from one face to another before he looked back at Jillian who was smiling. Everyone was waiting for him to speak but for once in his life, Daryl Dixon was lost for words. He leaned down slightly.
" Stay the hell out of my room." He said lowly before he walked away.
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Jillian walked slowly to her room later that night. Daryl had disappeared into the house and hadn't come back out. He even skipped dinner. She walked slowly up the stairs and down the hallway. She passed his room without a second glance. Daryl had made this a game and she had won this round but she didn't feel good for it. She had just reached her door and started to open it when his door whipped opened.
" So you can stalk around my room but I can't come into yours, is that how it is?" He snapped. Jillian closed her eyes without facing him.
" I didn't stalk around your room. I brought your clothes back to you. I thought it would be easier for you if I folded them into piles." She said.
" Oh is that it? You were just being nice and sweet!" He spat at her. Jillian sighed and faced him then. He expected her to be angry, he wanted her to be angry. But there was a different look on her face.
" You know, this game has been going on long enough, don't you think?" She asked. Daryl frowned.
" I ain't playing a game. What hell you talking about?" He asked.
" Yes, you are and you know it. You set your clothes in front of my door to piss me off and when it didn't you got pissed instead. Look, I'm tired and I don't want to play with you anymore. You are the whole person on this entire planet I have left alive." She said. " I am all you have. You brother is dead. My parents, well they were spared seeing this."
" What do you mean your parents were spared?" Daryl asked. He had actually really liked her dad, had even gone hunting with him a few times.
" My parents were killed a year ago in a car accident." Daryl felt a pain go through him then. She had adored her parents. They has spent a lot of time with them when he dated her.
" How?" He asked, his voice had lost some of the anger and roughness.
" It was winter and their car slipped on the ice. They crashed through a guard rail and went into the river. They weren't able to get out in time." Jillian said softly. Through the light of his flash light he could see she was struggling with her emotions. Daryl swallowed hard.
" I'm sorry, Jill." He said softly after a while. Only Double D ever called her Jill.
" I half expected you to show up at the funeral." She said.
" I was away, I didn't know." He said. She nodded.
" So you see, we don't have anyone left but each other. I'm not asking you to be my friend but can we just stop with the anger?" She said. Daryl didn't speak for so long that Jillian turned away to go into her room, her shoulders down.
" I ain't your friend." He said finally. Jillian's back was to him and she couldn't look at him. She closed her eyes and nodded her head as a single tear fell down her cheek. " But I ain't got to be mean to you either." Jillian quickly wiped the tear away and faced him.
" I'd like that." She said softly. Without another word to her, Daryl turned and went into his room, closing the door behind him.
Daryl leaned against his door as he listened to her door shut. He put his hand into his hair and closed his eyes. He couldn't see her cry. He had never been able to take it when she cried. He hated to admit it, but even now, he wanted to rush into her room and hold her close to him. He wanted to sooth her until she stopped crying. Daryl opened his eyes and dropped his hands to his side. He clutched them into fists. He couldn't have imaged what she had been through since her parents died.
