"Tell me about the demons." Molly said as they laid sideways across the bed after he gave her a pretty clear idea of just how well he could throw it down. "If you want to."

It was late now, way past midnight and the breeze coming in the window was cool. There were sounds of night creatures outside and the room was bathed in moonlight. This apartment building was closer to the woods and hers was more in town. She liked the quiet of his place, they had even turned off the music.

The moonlight always came into his bedroom, but he never quite appreciated it as much as he did right at this moment.

It was enough so that they could see each other as they laid side by side. They had been like that a few minutes before he spoke.

He was laying on his stomach and the tattoos were visible, she reached over and touched them as she sat up. His back was strong, just like the rest of him. She could sit and look at him all night long. She never realized how mesmerizing a man's shoulders could be until she met him.

Tara was right, he was a smoke show.

"There's a demon on your back, maybe more than one, you can tell me about it, if you want." She said.

He nodded. "I want to, it's only fair. I asked you. Can I be honest? I want to tell you something first, before I spill my guts ok?"

"Yes of course, no judgement, ever ok?" She said earnestly, but she felt like he didn't believe her. "Seriously."

He nodded, he knew that. Something about her called out to him. Deep down he knew that she would understand him, and everything about his past. But that didn't mean she wouldn't walk out the door. And it didn't mean that he understood in his mind yet that her words were true.

"I understand why you wear the ring at work, but I asked about the tattoos because I was worried it had something to do with a guy, I didn't mean to stir the pot all up about your sister." He said. "I'm sorry about that, just one thing led to another. I only meant to ask about the ring, but they're so beautiful, not like mine."

"She's always on my mind Daryl, you didn't stir anything up." Molly said and she reached for his hand running her fingers over his knuckles softly. "And anything that's a part of you, is beautiful to me."

He didn't say a word, no one had ever said anything like that to him before. He had been closed off for so long, unable to form even the shakiest of bonds with another person. Merle and his father had always been the only people he could relate to.

He felt like he could relate to her, because of her sister, maybe, he didn't know and he didn't care. He was so relieved to feel something for someone finally. It didn't even matter if it wasn't like that for her, he knew he wasn't broken now.

He had always thought that he was. Why else would his mother have left if there wasn't something wrong with him. The inability to feel that started at the age of four and stayed for thirty- two years had convinced him that he was beyond repair. It was the desire to not feel that made him make the choices he did at times. It was easier not to feel.

It was familiar.

"I just wanted to know." He shrugged. "You know?"

She nodded. "It would have been a conflict of interest for me to come out and say I wasn't married while I was your dad's nurse. Also embarrassing, to tell the truth. And then I was going to go to the garden center and I was like, that's kind of stalkerish. So I just didn't do anything, I don't date much. Can you tell?"

"Me either." He said. "You know, and then the girl I wanted to date was married."

She laughed. "Now that I'm not Jacob's nurse I'll go out with you again."

"We haven't actually gone out yet." He said. "But I aint complaining."

He smiled at her and she noticed that when he smiled he had one dimple on his cheek. She hadn't noticed that before or maybe she hadn't ever been close enough. She leaned down and kissed his cheek right where the dimple was.

"She died from a heroin over dose." She me his eyes. "Is it drugs, the demon on your back."

He rolled over to face her, she was sitting up and he was laying on his side.

"My mother left us when I was four and Merle was five. Jake raised us all alone, and he did the best he could while building the business, but Merle and me, we gave him a run for his money."

"I imagine you did." She laughed and for a moment she wished she had grown up here. She met Tara when she was twenty-two, at college, it would have been great to know them all as kids.

To know him as a kid and as a teenager, that would have been something else. She imagined him to be a wild one and it would have been fun to know him then. She didn't care what he thought was so bad about him. There was nothing that could change her mind about him.

"So. I never told anyone this before. People know around here about it, but they see I guess that I'm different now. Still to tell you…" He started. "Was ashamed I guess."

"You don't have to." She replied, but he stopped her from saying any more. He wanted to tell her what had happened to him and why he got those specific tattoos. "Don't tell me, it's really ok."

He shook his head. He wanted to pursue something with her and if that was the case, she needed to know. He knew that living the honest life meant doing uncomfortable things sometimes, like spilling your guts to someone who's opinion mattered to you.

That was a first for him too.

"Even though dad always made us feel loved, it does something to you. To know your own mother don't want you." He said. "We were in counseling after, but I guess it didn't work for me."

She looked at him as he spoke, never taking her eyes from him. He was about to tell her something that no one else knew. It was a privilege and she needed to let him know that she saw it as just that.

"Daryl, I'm honored that you trust me with this, whatever it is, it won't make me think any less of you." She said. "You know that right?"

"I know that, because you inked yourself up too over your past, just like me." He said. "I wasn't always such an upstanding citizen. I don't blame anyone but myself, don't misunderstand me ok?"

She nodded, letting him know she completely understood him. He visibly relaxed.

" I did what I did and it was no one's fault but my own, I don't blame my mother or Jake or Merle or anyone."

He sat up and faced her and they both sat Indian style on the bed.

"I've been in jail." He said. "I had a little, no it wasn't little it was big. I had a big habit."

She raised her eyebrows. "Besides smoking." She said trying to lighten the mood, she had suspected as much. She had seen a man at a Narcotic's Anonymous meeting once with demon tattoos on his back, that man said they were called, crank and heroin.

She had been there to see Claudia to get her 90-day chip, again. Claudia never could seem to make it past a few months clean. She had been clean four months the day Molly found her four years ago. Her twin dead at thirty-one, and there had been a hole in her heart ever since.

"So, I stole, from everyone, my dad, my brother everyone. Then my buddy got this bright idea that we should rob houses." He said looking down with a smirk." Of course, we got caught and I ended up detoxing in jail. I've been out and clean ten years."

He looked at her now, trying to read her thoughts. He was sure she would leave now. He sister died from drugs, why in the world would she sign up for this.

Clean or using, there was a certain personality in an addict and he was well aware of his flaws. He had tried to make amends to anyone he needed to. But everyone in town knew Jake Dixon's son did five years.

He worked hard and most people noticed that but still, he felt haunted by it. Merle joined the service at twenty and was now an officer. He never gave Jake the trouble Daryl did.

"Is that why you were worried about who would know you, when I said my roommate knew you?" She asked.

"Yeah, I didn't know you noticed."

"I notice everything, it's kind of my job." She said. "Tara says you're good people and I like you a little bit so, this doesn't matter to me."

He nodded. "The demons are to remind me who I could become again, if I'm not careful."

"And the butterflies remind me of how precious life is, it can fly away from you, so you have to enjoy every moment."

/

They woke up at nine am. Molly hadn't slept that late in a long time, she was usually in bed by ten and up at six, even on days she didn't work. She had been in bed early the night before, but not alone and not in her bed.

The quilt covered them half way and Molly was laying on her stomach. Daryl on his side with his arm around her. He had woken her up around four am to make love again, but it was slow and sweet, not crazy like the night before.

Then they fell back asleep.

He could love her; he was sure of it. He didn't feel weird waking up with her, his arm was around her and he felt content. He reached over and pulled her close, she settled herself against him and sighed in her sleep.

He kissed the back of her neck and rubbed her stomach, pulling her back against him more. Today he wanted to take her out on the bike, maybe go to the old quarry. Then a nice dinner later, this was no casual fuck. It never had been.

Molly's phone was buzzing on the nightstand, and she knew it was Tara. She sent her a quick text the night before to let her know she was staying overnight at Daryl's which was met with a thumbs up sign back from Tara.

She snuggled up to him more and then reached for the phone.

"Hey, yeah, I'm fine, just slept late." She said as she sat up a little. "Very funny, sure I'll tell him, sure. See ya later."

Daryl sat up next to her leaning on one arm.

"Tara says hi."

"Tell her hi for me."

"You can, they're both home and if you want to go on the bike I need my boots, all I have are those sandals." She said turning to face him and sit up more.

"You been on a bike before? That's something a seasoned biker would say."

"My dad had one, a million years ago, he would never take us out unless we had boots and long sleeves on."

"Smart man." He said getting up and walking into the bathroom that was off the bedroom, she could hear him peeing and then running the water to wash his hands.

"You would have liked him; your dad is a lot like him." She called out to him, feeling melancholy for her family. She was all alone in the world, except for Tara and Alisha.

He walked out in his boxers, running his hand through his hair. "It's two miles to your place right, I'll follow you on the bike and we can get what you need?"

"Sure if you're hungry Tara said they're making pancakes." She asked.

"I'm on it." He replied.

/

Molly came busting in the front door of their ground level apartment with Daryl right behind her. She dropped her purse on the couch and kicked off her shoes. Daryl did the same with his shoes.

Tara and Alisha were in the kitchen and she could smell blueberry pancakes. The table in the small dining room off the living room was set for four. The smell of coffee was permeating the air.

Pretty boy was in his cage and he started flapping his wings when Molly came in and announced they were home. She walked over to his cage which was in the corner between the living room and dining room.

"Come on Daryl, come meet my best guy." She said taking his hand and leading him over to the cage. "This is pretty boy; the only parrot I have ever known who doesn't talk."

She leaned closer to the cage and picked up a cracker to offer to him.

"This is Daryl, my other best guy." She said putting the cracker into the cage and the brightly colored bird took it. "Pretty boy gives me something to worry about besides myself, isn't that right my sweet baby."

Tara came out of the kitchen with a huge plate of pancakes followed by Alisha who had two pitchers of juice, apple and orange.

"Hey Daryl, long time no see, this is Alisha, Lish this is Daryl, I told you about him and his brother, you remember right?"

Alisha nodded putting the juice pitchers down and shook his hand.

"Good to meet you." She said and he said likewise.

"Good to meet you." Daryl said. "Hay Tara, good to see you."

"Come on let's sit." Alisha said "We have a date with Eugene and Milton to go to Atlanta today, you want to come."

They sat down at the table and Molly turned to them. "We have a date with a bike and a lake."

"Next time." Daryl said.

"It's cool." Tara said. "How's Merle Daryl."

She passed him the plate and he took three pancakes for himself and put three on Molly's plate.

"Whoa there ace." Molly said. "I can't eat all that."

He replied by pouring syrup all over them. "I'm starving; bet you are too." Then he poured it all over his plate too. "Butter?"

Molly rolled her eyes at him. "Really?"

Daryl ignored her and put butter on his and offered it to her and she shook her head.

"He's Merle, you know. Stationed in Hawaii right now, last I talked to him he was learning to surf." Daryl said. "He should be getting retirement soon, but I'll believe it when I see it."

Tara laughed and smiled at that news. "Alisha tried to teach me to surf on vacation a few years ago, no Bueno."

"You all met in college?" Daryl asked.

Molly nodded. "Alisha was my roommate freshman year, then we met Tara in Anatomy class. Claudia was an English major so by sophomore year the four of us had a place off campus."

"Over that janky coffee place remember. The Ink Well remember?" Tara said. "Every Saturday night they had poetry readings and live music. There was no getting to sleep before two am."

"Hey, the price was right, you know." Alisha said passing cups of juice to each of them. "Just not conducive for nursing students. We didn't do a thing except study and go to class, rinse and repeat."

"It was a good time." Molly said.

She had been in college around the same time he went to jail. That fact wasn't lost on him and she saw it in his eyes, the flash of regret and shame.

"Stop." She whispered. And he stopped.

/

Tara and Alisha were on their way to Atlanta after breakfast and Daryl and Molly did the dishes. He looked around her apartment and it was cute. There was a book shelf in the living room with all of her books.

He stood there at the bookshelf looking as she called out from the bedroom that she was going to get her boots and a jacket.

He nodded and said. "Take your time."

He reached for one of the books and opened it. There was a big X on the page, he knew that she put and X in the books she wasn't crazy about. It was The Tommyknockers by Stephen King. She had told him about her book code back when she was taking care of Jake. He hadn't read it because she said it wasn't so good.

"Give me one more minute Daryl." Molly called out.

"It's fine sweetheart." He called back.

From the back of the room over by the window he heard the word "Douchebag." Come from Pretty Boy's cage.