Since the death of his second wife four years previously, Hershel Greene had been living alone with his two daughters. Neither Maggie, the older, nor Beth, his younger daughter from his second wife, knew what he was up to when he left their large apartment to meet with the guides and agents he supervised for TE. He wanted to keep both of them as far away from the rebellion as possible. Of course, if he should ever get caught that would not save them entirely, but he hoped it would at least save their lives.

Originally he had planned to spend his evening at home, reading one of his old books or maybe playing cards with Beth while Maggie was out on her date with Glenn, the nice young boy she had met a few weeks ago when she'd been shopping for groceries. Hershel had only met him three times and found him quite likeable - but he had seen the telltale bump behind his right ear, right next to the hairline, and he wasn't quite certain yet if he wanted this to continue. Him keeping Maggie out of his own rebellious activities wasn't going to count for much if her boyfriend was enganged in them as well, was it?

Just after dinner, however, he had received a call from Daryl Dixon, one of the guides that he supervised, who was asking to see him because he needed his advice. As he knew that Daryl had nobody else to turn to, Hershel had agreed to meet him at a bar just around the corner. Getting there wouldn't take too long for Daryl, and he himself wouldn't be too far from home after maybe having a glass of beer or two.

„I'm leaving, Bethy", he called out to his younger daughter as he slipped into his jacket. She was sitting in the living room with a book, so deeply engrossed in her reading that he had to repeat himself to make her notice him. She looked up at him as he stood in the hallway, her big blue eyes and thick blond hair reminding him painfully of her late mother, and gave him one of her sweet smiles. She was almost of age and had a boyfriend of her own, but she was still so innocent that thinking of her out in the world as it was now hurt something deep inside him.

„Love you, Daddy, I hope you'll have fun with your friend!" Slipping one finger between the pages of her book to mark her place, she rose to come out into the hallway and kiss his cheek. „If you need me to pick you up -„

He interrupted her, knowing what she was about to say. „We'll be just around the corner, so I won't have far to go, Bethy. And if I do need help, I'm sure he'll be up to it." He opened the door, waving good-bye to her. „I won't be too long."

.-.

Daryl was already seated at the table in the darkest corner of the dingy bar. All the tables around him were empty, and he kept glaring about himself to make sure they would remain that way. His right hand was curled around a glass of water, and as Hershel approached the table, he saw him pick something small from one of his jacket pockets, put it into his mouth and chase it with a mouthful of water. So that was why he wasn't even having any of the fake beer the place served, let alone something stronger. Apparently he was having a bad evening in more ways than one.

Slipping onto the chair opposite Daryl, he caught the waiter's eye and raised a hand, nodding at the man, then gave Daryl his full attention. „You're looking good, son, and it's a pleasure to see you. I wasn't expecting to hear from you until Saturday."

Daryl gave him a gloomy look that told Hershel in no uncertain terms that he was all too aware of the dark circles under his tired, sunken eyes. „Yeah, y'know, ‚m working with this new agent and … She keeps droppin' hints about herself and about stuff that I'm really not supposed to know about her and … It's just creepin' me out, so …here I am …" He shrugged as he let his sentence peter out.

Hershel nodded. He was the one who had had to sever all of Carol Peletier's previous links, so he knew her track record with guides, as well as her profile. And he had paired the two of them very deliberately, hoping they would be good for each other.

.-.

When the waiter set down a glass of beer in front of him, its rim chipped and its sides still grimy with fingerprints, Hershel nodded his thanks at him before turning his attention back on Daryl again. Carefully placing his hands on both sides of the glass in front of him, he looked up at the younger man, taking in the intense look in his sky blue eyes and the lines in his face. Way back here in the shadows of the bar he still saw a muscle in his cheek twitching.

„How's the pain?" he asked, his voice gentle. „And how are things with Merle?"

„Pain ain't a problem, still dosing myself", Daryl mumbled, his blush obvious even in the gloom of their secluded corner, and Hershel knew him well enough not to push it.

Clearly unwilling to meet his eyes, Daryl kept looking down at the scratched surface of the table between them, his calloused fingers painting circles and lines on it with the condensate he had wiped off his glass. His teeth were furiously working his lower lip, unaware that his nervous tells were betraying that his mind was on overdrive from Hershel's questions. He felt as if his shame over not being able to get along without the help of painkillers, as well as the marks left on his body and his soul, both years ago and recently, was choking him.

Hershel watched all of this in silence for a few moments. Ultimately, however, he found himself unable to continue allowing Daryl to torture himself like that.

„If you want to talk -„ Hershel offered hesitantly, his voice soft. „When taking you on after your training … I was there for your psych profiling when you joined, so I know that you avoid getting too close to people because of … what happened to you as a child." When Daryl bristled at this statement, he held up one hand to placate him. „And that's a perfectly reasonable thing to do. I get it - you want to protect yourself from getting hurt again. All the same, I do feel that … in the long run …" His eyes went to Daryl's hands, holding the glass of water again, his knuckles white now. „It might be better for you to open up to someone you feel you can trust", he finished softly.

Daryl's eyes were spitting daggers at this point. He had gone rigid, squaring his shoulders defiantly, and the table had started vibrating from Daryl's right leg bouncing up and down on the tips of his toes. „Meeting's over", he declared in a tight voice and made to stand.

Again, Hershel raised one hand, this time to stop him. „Please, humor me", he all but whispered. „We both know this has never been about … „ He took a deep breath, bracing himself. „What happened to you is none of my business, much as I want to help you with it." He gathered his thoughts for a moment before continuing. „You're still blaming yourself for … But losing him was not your fault, and we all know that."

When Daryl looked up at him, meeting his eyes, Hershel saw the pain there, and he heard it in his voice when he started to speak. „Don't care what everybody knows", he muttered. „I's responsible for him, and he got killed … or caught … Hell, we don't even know what happened to him!" His voice rose at the end and he made a fist with his right hand and slammed it down onto the table. The bartender looked up to glance in their direction. When he saw that they weren't facing off over an overturned table, he turned back to his work once more.

„That won't happen again", Hershel said softly, and knowning what Daryl was truly worried about, he went to the heart of the matter, tired of running in circles. „I know that Carol is safe with you. I'm not worried even a little bit. You care too much to let anything happen to her."

Daryl flinched, then went completely still. His voice had gone down to a whisper when he spoke. „She's too trusting", he breathed. „I know far too much about her. If they get me, they'll get her because she forces so much knowledge about herself onto me, and I'm not sure I'd be able to hold it in. But …" The anguish in his voice and eyes was heartbreaking as he continued after composing himself. „But I'm responsible for her. I have to keep her safe, and I'm not sure I can. Not anymore."

„I am", Hershel said firmly. „You will do right by her, like all the others you've guided. It's a shame that you didn't have someone to care as much for your safety …" He fell silent when Daryl exhaled forcefully, respecting his wish to not talk about this particular subject. The scar above his eye was the only one visible when he was dressed - but that didn't mean there weren't others. His heart clenched in sympathy when Daryl's left hand went down to unconsciously rub his left leg.

„Would you like someone else as your agent then?" Hershel asked softly, bracing himself for the blow. If Daryl took him up on this offer he'd be hard put to find a new candidate for each of them that would fit as perfectly as these two fit each other.

„Naw, I don't need a new partner over this shit, I like her well enough. But I need advice on how to react to all that teasin' and jokin' - I just can't deal with that", Daryl brushed off Hershel's suggestion, and the older man sighed with relief at his answer. „She's … She's constantly tryin' to get to me, and …" He shrugged helplessly, unused to putting his emotions into words despite the hours he had spent talking to a therapist about losing Jim. „I just can't … It … freaks me out, I can't let her in … I can't let her … know … about me …"

Placing his glass to one side so it wouldn't stand between them, Hershel answered Daryl's panicked look with a reassuring one of his own. He took in Daryl's panting, the vein pulsing in his right temple, the way his jaw moved as he chewed his lip, his trembling fingers as he played with his glass of water. He felt bad for putting the young man in his care under such a strain, but he still believed that, in the end, Daryl would benefit from all of this.

Well, maybe not the present situation, but still …

„Carol is notorious for trying to establish contact with her guides", he told Daryl gently, reaching out to place his own hands over his friends' on his glass. His left thumb covered the small, faded blue star tattoo just above Daryl's own thumb, and then he felt Daryl's hands twitch and start to pull back. For a moment, Daryl's face went rigid, the tendons in his neck standing out like wires as he tried to get his knee-jerk reaction to being touched under control again. His own hands still loosely covering Daryl's, Hershel waited patiently until Daryl relaxed again ever so slightly, drawing a deep, shuddering breath.

Oh yes, he much preferred sitting at tables in the shadows with his back to the wall, where he wouldn't feel the stares of all the other patrons on him as they watched him tense up and jerk back and lose his shit whenever something happened to trigger him. Big, terrible things like someone touching his hand. Daryl fought to suppress the wave of self-loathing flooding him, biting down on his lip so hard that he tasted blood.

„So", he said slowly, still gnawing on his lip as he overcame the resistance of Hershel's hands on his own to raise his glass to his mouth and wash his blood down with a sip of water. „You knew this about her, and you know me, and you put us on one team together? What kinda jerk are you?"

Hershel had known the younger man facing him for fifteen years, and although it was well hidden under the residual anger, he still saw the spark of mischief in the blue eyes that told him Daryl wasn't really mad at him. „You, my friend, need to open up to the world, at least a little bit", he said softly, leaning forward and tapping Daryl's chest with his right index finger. This time, he ignored Daryl's reflexive tensing and continued without giving him the time to get a word in sideways. „And she is well known for getting people to open up too much, so I thought the two of you would go well together. Maybe she will get you to open up a tiny bit. That's all I ask."

Holding Daryl's eyes, he moved his right hand through a sweeping half circle, seemingly indicating the front half of the bar, but Daryl knew better. „Give it a try. Give her a try. Until now, she has cracked just about every partner she's been paired with - we've had to break them up every single time. Let her open you up, just a little bit. You'll be great together."

Daryl sat in silence, obviously still unsure of himself, but at least he wasn't uncertain enough any longer to keep fighting back.

„And Merle?" Hershel continued after a few moments of forced silence as he lifted his glass to drink deeply of his lukewarm beer, finishing more than half of it.

„Apart from my lyin' to him?" Daryl asked bitterly, picking up his glass of water, his hand shaking. He couldn't meet Hershel's eyes any longer, reminding the older man just how much he hated deceiving his brother. Then, reining in his guilt and shame, he mumbled an apology and added that Merle wasn't a problem, at least right now.

Ignoring Daryl's feigned anger, and seeing that nothing more was going to come of this tonight, Hershel drained his glass and pushed himself to his feet, rising from the chair. „Don't worry about her safety - I sure don't", he said, smiling down at his friend, „I'll go home now to keep my daughter company, if you don't mind. And you go spend some time with your brother." His eyes sparkled as he pointedly looked away toward the entrance of the bar while Daryl got up as well.

„You okay walking home on your own?" Daryl asked as he placed a handful of coins on the battered table, eyeing the empty beer glass.

„I'll be fine, thank you. You go home and get a good night's rest rest, son - seems like you need it. Just work tomorrow, or some more training as well?"

Daryl's answer came out as a disgusted sigh. „Both. ‚m tired already just thinkin' of it."

Hershel clapped him on the shoulder with a laugh, careful not to be too rough and pull back his hand before Daryl could tense up again. „Mark my words. You'll be great together. If threre's anything else I can help with, just let me know and we'll meet again."