Monday Morning

Daryl didn't see Kate's mustang when he pulled into the car park and felt a pang of disappointment followed by a sense of worry. The idea of worrying about the fate of a someone he had only just met was almost foreign to him. He never usually worried about much of anything. As long as he had food and a pack of smokes he was pretty much golden.

Over the weekend Charlene had joked that Jim would have to build Daryl a bachelor pad out in the garden when they started having babies. The conversation had scared the shit out of his friend who finally got the idea that he should start popping the question to his girlfriend of five years and it had unintentionally made Daryl feel like more of a loser than ever.

That night he went with Jim over to Joe's bar and they played pool while they discussed Daryl's options. Almost all the girls they had gone to school with were already married and settled down, as were all the ones who they deemed age appropriate for a man of 36. Anyone left over were either the trashy girls, by which he meant the type of girl that Merle would go for, or the 'undesirable' girls and even most of those were married too.

"Bachelor pad sounds damn good," Daryl had decided on his forth beer while resigning himself to not getting laid.

Daryl stubbed out his cigarette and watched Hailee's baby blue Volkswagen Beetle pulling up next to his truck. She spotted him before he had the chance to escape so he had no choice but to wait for her while she checked her reflection in the rear view mirror and applied a layer of lip gloss.

"You have a nice weekend handsome?" she called as she pranced towards him, swaying her hips and twirling her hair around her finger.

What? Handsome. Did she just say that? He stared at the glitter layered on her lips as they curved into a smile. "Ain't you gonna open the door for me?"

Daryl pulled his keys from his pocket and they walked in towards the gift shop and the security office. The guard that had worked the night shifts over the weekend was a part timer that he hadn't met yet but he knew his name was Tyreese. He introduced himself briefly before he made his way into the office and left Hailee to walk the rest of the way to the gift shop with a disappointed pout on her sticky pink lips.

Daryl opened his locker and pulled out his equipment belt while he watched Shane layering on his cologne. He remembered the conversation from Friday morning and curiosity got the better of him as he said "did ya ask Kate out?"

Shane cracked a devilish grin, rubbed his hand over his shaved head then pulled on his hat, "she said no."

Daryl couldn't help the laugh that escaped.

"You think that's funny, Dixon? I ain't giving up yet. Way I see it, I got myself a perfect situation. Get her in the sack and we could be enjoying the next seven weeks under the covers… no strings… she leaves the country and then I'm on to the next. Like a holiday romance except I can fuck her from the comfort of my own bed," Shane winked, obviously infatuated with his own prowess and a seeming certainty that this would happen.

Daryl began to fasten his tie around his neck to busy the hands that had the sudden urge to slam Shane's smug face into the locker.

"It's like a personal challenge now…" he carried on before Tyreese entered the office and said, "hey man… why don't you bring your sister to karaoke night again?"

"Not after last time."

Karaoke night was every Friday and Daryl hadn't joined in last week because of the night shifts, or the week before because there was no fucking way in hell he was going to stand on a stage and sing. No fucking way.

"I love a girl in uniform…" Shane laughed before he turned to Daryl and said, "she's a firefighter… she could put out the fire in my pants any day of the week."

"You better watch your mouth Walsh. I catch your pants anywhere near my sister and I'll shove your head up your ass…" Tyreese slammed his locker shut. "That's a promise."

Shane was relentless. Kate, Tyreese's sister, he was only interested in one thing. No wonder women thought men were assholes.

Daryl sat down to look at the security monitors, even though over the weekend he had promised that he wouldn't spend the entire week watching her. He could see Miss Uppity laughing with Lou before she left the exhibition hall. He followed her from one security screen to the next before it dawned on him; she was heading right for him. Daryl stood up and straightened his tie, shit, act normal. He fell back down in to the chair and grabbed the detective book as she rounded the corner.

Kate's eyes met his before they fell to the book with a smile that she held back by biting her lip. She reached forward and pinched the spine of his open book between her perfectly manicured thumb and forefinger. "I find it easier this way," she said as she turned the book right way up.

Daryl died inside and felt his cheeks burning before he managed to say, "I like a challenge."

Kate laughed and looked like she was going to say something when Shane sauntered out of the security office. "How can I help, Princess?"

"Could you please refrain from calling me that Mr Walsh," she said it with rolled eyes like it wasn't the first time.

"When you start calling me Shane I'll stop calling you Princess," he stepped closer to Kate, taking up her personal space but she held fast with a determined look on her face.

"I could think of something else to call you," she said tartly and Daryl snorted.

Shane looked to Daryl with a cocked eyebrow before he looked back to Kate and laughed, "you like Karaoke, Princess?"

"I'd like the keys for the cabinets."

Daryl threw the detective book on the desk as he stood up to collect the keys for her. He wanted her to be back in her glass cabinet where he could see her from the safety of the monitors instead of standing by while Shane tried to add another notch to his bedpost. Daryl wondered if the man's persistence would really work on Miss Uppity and the idea that it would bothered him more than he cared to admit.

Tuesday Afternoon

"Are you still interested in going shooting?" Lou asked Daryl as they studied the crossbows behind the glass and told him all about their origins.

"Yeah, ya wanna go on saturday?"

"Aye, that'll be grand."

"Ya want me to pick ya up?"

The sound of Miss Uppity's high heels began to fill the hall. "No son, I'll make arrangements… now…" Lou nudged Daryl to another display case. "Let me tell you about the long bows…"

Daryl hadn't planned on spending so much time in Miss Uppity's metaphorical glass case but talking to Lou made the day pass by faster and there was something nice about talking to the old man. Maybe it was because out of all the curators at the museum and book learning types that Daryl had ever come across, Lou was the first one not to make him feel stupid. He didn't talk down to him. The conversation was two way and it was on a subject that Daryl actually had a genuine interest in. He liked learning about the history of his favourite weapon. He loved his crossbow but it had never occurred to him to think of where bows came from or how old they were. Old and almost unchanged. He was actually excited to take Lou shooting on the weekend.

Wednesday Morning

Lou climbed into the passenger seat of Kate's car, "since you're picking me up lass…"

Kate interrupted and gestured her head to the backseat, "I've already bought donuts."

"Excellent." Without fail every time Kate had given Lou a lift in her car they had bought two dozen donuts. So when she had passed a donut drive in on the way to his house she had picked them up to save time and her own sanity. The man had a peculiar obsession with the sugary treats which involved staring at the display counter and hand selecting each one, no matter how long it took. She'd been through the process many times. Many many times.

Kate noticed Lou rubbing his knee, "you know I'd pick you up every day." He only asked her when his knee was particularly troubling him.

"Aye, but I like the bus. I met my Abby on a bus, the number 36…"

Lou had told her the story of how he wooed Abigale countless times but she never stopped him from re-telling it. She liked the far off look he got whenever he spoke about his late wife.

"Her car had broken down that day and I never did learn how to drive… you never know where you might meet someone do you lass?"

"I don't want to have this conversation again."

"You're young… it's too late for me now. Don't throw your life away."

"I'm not ready… besides… plenty of people find love in their seventies all the time. If you find a date…" Kate smirked, "then so will I."

"Touché, my dear," Lou chuckled before he looked at the donuts on the backseat. "Do you suppose I should have a donut for the journey?"

Kate gave him a disapproving look and didn't need to remind him of the last time he had eaten a donut in her car and somehow managed to get blueberry jam all over her glove box and in between the seats.

They made it to the museum with five minutes until opening time which in her books was late but Lou was the sort of man that could be forgiven for all indiscretions. Lateness, nosiness and messy donut eating.

"I'll have a cuppa if your making one lass," Lou eased himself onto a chair in the breakroom and cracked open one of the donut boxes while Kate put the kettle on.

The door creaked open and though her peripheral vision she saw Daryl Dixon walk in.

"Ah… good morning son, did you look at my book…" Said Lou.

Kate didn't hear a response except for the sound of a chair being dragged across the tile floor as she assumed Daryl took a seat at the table. She smiled to herself as she wondered if the security guard would be reading Lou's book upside down like the trashy detective novel from Monday. The friendship must have been getting serious between Mr Dixon and Lou if the old man was forcing him to read his book on archery.

She dropped tea bags into hers and Lou's cups before she looked over her shoulder to Daryl. He'd made her a cup of tea so she had no choice but to make him a coffee or things would be weird. She grabbed the same plain blue mug he'd used last week and set it next to hers while she listened to them discussing different brands of crossbow bolts.

Kate carried the hot drinks over to the table where Daryl stood up and held out his hands.

"Four sugars," she said as their gazes locked. How had she never noticed how blue his eyes were before now? Probably because she'd only ever noticed the challenge in the intense way he held her gaze. Just like he was doing right now. She suddenly felt nervous. She couldn't possibly look at those blue eyes any longer. Kate let her vision slip from his to Lou's mug before Daryl took it from her fingers and placed it on the table.

"Thank ya ma'am," His husky voice was probably a by-product of all his smoking but there was something impossibly seductive about it. Why did Lou keep inviting this man into their personal space? She didn't want to have so much time to be contemplating the gravelly cadence of someone's heavy southern accent.

Daryl removed his hat and dropped it to the table before he sat back down. Why did security guards wear hats anyway? It seemed redundant to wear a hat inside and in her opinion Daryl didn't suit it. She wasn't entirely sure he suited being a security guard. Not that she had spent too much time thinking about it. But there had been quiet intervals in the day when he had spoken to Lou or passed through the exhibition hall and her mind had stretched its legs and wandered. There was something about the stubble that seemed to permanently shadow his chin, his rough calloused hands, the hint of a bicep when he moved his arm and his dirty old truck that betrayed his pressed grey trousers, black tie and utility belt. He seemed like that sort of man that belonged in the outdoors. Sunshine and mud, rough and dirty. Even in his silly hat he looked like the kind of man that could be rough, dirty, dangerous even. On second thoughts maybe she had indeed spent some time thinking about it.

Kate's mind was wandering so far from the realms of appropriate thought that the sound of Lou's voice saying her name startled her.

"Have a donut," Lou commanded and Kate tore her eyes from Daryl to look in the box. The old man's donuts fetish was terrible for her waistline but they all looked so delicious that she gave in to temptation like she always did. She considered them all before reaching for the donut that was smothered in a thick layer of chocolate icing and topped with crumbled cookie. Her fingers brushed lightly against Daryl's as he reached for the same one. The touch was so light that it could hardly be called a touch but it sent a wave of tingles across her arm before she jerked her hand away.

"You have it," he said quickly.

"No… you... I insist… in fact I should be heading out. People will be arriving shortly," Kate grabbed her tea and left the break room as quickly as she could without looking as odd as she was feeling.

Lou was right, she was becoming so much of a recluse that the slightest caress from another human was enough to make her feel like jelly. When the two men finally emerged from the breakroom she snuck behind a display case and waited until it was only her and Lou. She'd had enough of Daryl Dixon and his rough dirty hands for one day.

"I thought about what you said in the car lass." Lou said as he pointed to a woman who was standing by a painting across the hall from the exhibition room. Kate stared at the lady with grey hair and a pink dress on. What on earth was he talking about?

"Here I go," Lou winked and it occurred to Kate he was going to ask this woman on a date.

"You can't be serious," Kate called to the back of his head as he strolled over, swinging his cane and approached the woman. She stood rooted to the spot as she watched them talking. What Lou was saying she had absolutely no idea, all that she knew was that she'd created a monster. She hadn't meant to challenge him, simply deter him from discussing her love life which he seemed to think was a subject open for debate.

Lou came storming back as fast as his knee would allow and his cheeks were burning bright red, "aye I'm too old for this bollocks, you win lass."

Kate stifled her grin and patted his shoulder sympathetically. "Tea?"

"Oh aye."

Thursday Evening

Kate pulled into the gas station down the road from the museum and it wasn't until she was out of her car and pulling on some disposable gloves from a box next to the pumps that she realised she was parked directly behind Daryl's truck. His shirt sleeves were rolled up and she grabbed a pair of gloves as she watched him lean one hand on his truck and pump his gas.

She felt awkward. Should she say hello or pretend she hadn't seen him? She dithered and he noticed her standing there, frozen like a statue. His gaze swept from her to her mustang and back again. "Ya need help?" he asked and she couldn't tell if he was being patronising or sincere.

"Of course not," she huffed as she decided on the former. Who the hell would need help filling up their fuel tank anyway?

Kate could feel Daryl's eyes following her as she marched to open the petrol cap. Bloody hell, it was locked, she tried to act nonchalant as she made her way back to the driver's side to pop the cap. The smug little smile on his face was enough to make her want to flip him the bird but she refrained. She didn't know why she was letting him get under her skin. They had barely interacted. Unlike Shane who by now had told her his entire life story. But it was Daryl with his intense looks that made her feel exposed.

She paid for her fuel and headed to the supermarket to pick up something for dinner. Kate grabbed a basket and threw in a mango, a mixed bag of salad leaves, chicken and a jar of green pesto. Mango chicken salad was something she could easily prepare, especially if the chicken was already cooked. She was busy looking for ice cream when she bumped into Daryl again. Right in the frozen food aisle.

"Ya followin' me?" he said and she felt the redness of her cheeks betraying her as she cast a quick look to the six pack of beers in his hand.

"Perhaps you're following me," she tried to ignore him as she dropped a tub of mint choc chip ice cream in her basket. Part of her didn't want him to know she was going home to eat ice cream alone but then the other part of her was more interested in eating ice cream and wondering why in the world she cared what Daryl Dixon thought. She didn't care, she flicked her hair over her shoulder and left him to do whatever it was he was doing.

Friday Afternoon

"Real shame you ain't coming out tonight," Hailee placed her hand on Daryl's shoulder as she took a seat next to him in the breakroom. He grunted in between big mouthfuls of his turkey sandwich and could feel her eyes staring a hole into the side of his face.

"Shane even thinks he can convince that stuck up bitch to come along," Hailee rolled her eyes.

Daryl's stomach turned over, "he does?" he tried to remain cool as he watched the woman opening up her pot of salad then pour on the dressing.

"Yeah, I don't see why. I mean I don't know who she thinks she is…"

Hailee was about to start on a jealous tirade when Daryl interrupted her, "how did he manage that?"

"I don't know. You know what Shane's like… he could sell sand to eskimo's" Hailee cocked her bleach blonde head to the side while she considered what she had just said before shrugging her shoulders. "Let's talk about this weekend, you have any plans? Your always so quiet and…" she popped a cherry tomato in her mouth before she added, "mysterious."

Daryl laughed out loud. First time he'd been called mysterious. Asshole, redneck, redneck asshole, they were the sort of things he was used to being called.

"Maybe I will come along to Karaoke," he decided as he took a big bite of his sandwich and tried to ignore the rest of the prattling that Hailee was spewing down his ear.

A/N- Thank you to everyone who has started following this and added it to favourites!