Daryl came through the apartment in a rush to get showered and cleaned up on time. He stripped down to his boxers and walked through to the bathroom, pushing the door closed and crawled in under the spray.
Just as he was washing his hair, Daryl heard the door squeak open.
"Clean towel on the commode," Andrea's voice said.
"Get the fuck outta here! Jesus!" Daryl called back. He heard the medicine cabinet open.
"Calm down Daryl, you seen one naked man you've seen 'em all," Andrea said. "All the damn packages are the same, some are just more compact than others."
"Why the fuck ya still in here?" Daryl growled. He turned to rinse the shampoo out of his hair, hissing as some of it burned his eyes.
"Did you get it done?" Andrea asked. Daryl peeked around the shower curtain. She was looking in the mirror, messing with her hair as though he wasn't naked in the shower only a couple of feet away from her.
"You're a damn piece a' work, ya know that? Yeah, I got it done," he said.
"Good," she said, turning and looking straight at him. She pretended like she was going to look around the curtain and Daryl slid it closed again as quickly as he could.
"OUT!" He yelled.
Andrea laughed.
"You've got about twenty minutes if you want to make it on time, so I suggest you get that cute little ass of yours shakin'!" Andrea said. Daryl tossed a shampoo bottle out of the shower and in her general direction, but it must have missed its mark because he heard it bounce on the bathroom floor just as he heard the bathroom door click closed.
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Daryl came into Lula's Diner and ran his hand through his hair, looking around. Carol was supposed to be there, but she wasn't, or at least he didn't see her. He cursed to himself a little, under his breath, at the fact that he'd rushed down here like this and she wasn't anywhere around.
"Can I help ya?" Donna, one of the other waitresses there, asked as she bounced toward Daryl.
"Lookin' for Carol," Daryl said.
"Oh," the woman said, cracking her gum. "She's in back talkin' to Lula. She'll be out in a minute, cutie," Donna said with a smile.
Daryl scratched at the back of his neck and wandered over to the bar area of the small diner, picking aimlessly at the sugar packets until Carol appeared out of the back, taking off her apron as she walked. Daryl straightened up as soon as he saw her and smiled.
"Hey," he said.
Carol looked surprised to see him and he realized that Andrea had only been involved in one side of this. Carol hadn't received all the updates that he had throughout the day.
"Hi, Daryl," Carol said, still looking no less confused. "You eating dinner?" She asked.
Normally you sat yourself at Lula's so loitering around the bar area when you weren't one of the old men that came in just to sip free coffee refills and talk about the newspaper was uncommon. Even Daryl knew that by now.
"Yeah," Daryl said.
Carol smiled at him.
"Well enjoy," she said, starting around him. He caught her arm and she turned, raising an eyebrow at him. He let go of her arm quickly.
"I was hopin' ya could eat with me since ya off now an' all," Daryl said.
Carol made a face, but Daryl wasn't entirely sure what the face meant. He knew she was off. Andrea had asked her about her work schedule twice just to make sure.
"I mean unless ya got other plans," Daryl said. "Better plans."
He realized Lula's Diner wasn't exactly a four star restaurant, but it was about the best that Sweet Junction had to offer. Carol bit her lip and shifted her feet a little nervously, glancing at the patrons of the restaurant. It was early for dinner, and right now the only people in the diner were the old men that didn't have anywhere else to go.
"Fine," Carol said.
Daryl smiled at her and pointed toward one of the open booths. She led the way, taking the side she obviously preferred. Donna hopped over a moment later.
"Looks like ya found her!" Donna said.
"Yeah," Daryl said. He'd only met Donna a few times, but from what he'd seen she was always bubbly.
"What can I get'cha?" Donna asked.
"Burger an' fries," Daryl said. "Strawberry milkshake."
"I'll have the same," Carol said, smiling at Donna.
"No problem," Donna said.
When the bubbly waitress had bounced her way away from the table, Daryl turned his attention to Carol. She was glancing out the window and he wondered if she was nervous like he was.
"So how was ya day?" Daryl asked. He was trying to remember the rules of conversation that Andrea made him recite this morning to win his pancakes. She would only let him have them, one half at a time, if he could remember that he was supposed to get Carol talking, get her to talk about herself as much as possible, not interrupt her when she was talking, and not say fuck more than once every three or four sentences unless somehow the conversation got turned to actually fucking and she was the one that started it.
Carol shrugged a little and smiled.
"It was good," she said. "Pretty slow."
"Meet any interestin' people?" Daryl asked. He didn't really know who you could hope to meet around here if you'd lived here your whole life. He hadn't been here all that long and he already felt like he knew most of the people, at least by face if not by name.
Carol smiled again and shook her head.
"No one new today," she said.
Donna brought their food and put it down. As soon as she left, Daryl started eating, trying to figure out what to say next. He watched as Carol unrolled her silverware, put her napkin in her lap and then cut her burger in half. He chuckled a little.
"What?" She asked.
"Ya gettin' all fancy ta eat a burger, that's all," Daryl said.
Carol looked at him, slightly irritated.
"So I don't want ketchup in my lap? Is that a crime?" Carol asked.
Daryl shrugged.
"How much a' that can ya eat no way? Big as ya is I bet'cha that ya can't eat half that burger, half them fries and half that milkshake," Daryl said.
Carol looked at the plate.
"I could eat all of this," she said.
Daryl smiled and shook his head. He took another bite of his burger and chewed it.
"Nope," he said, once he'd swallowed it. "Ten bucks says ya can't."
"Fine!" Carol said. "You've got a bet, Mr. Dixon. Ten bucks if I can finish all of this."
"An' if ya can't," Daryl said, "then ya gotta go with me on Saturday for a picnic at the lake."
"I thought the bet was ten bucks," Carol said, raising her eyebrow and taking a bite of the cheeseburger.
"Ya gon' get ten bucks if ya eat it, but I get the picnic if ya cant," Daryl said. "An' ya gotta keep it down, too. Ain't none a' that barfin' right after ya done gonna count."
Carol cocked an eyebrow at him, smiling a little.
"You can't talk about barfing if I'm going to eat all of this. That's part of the deal," she said.
Daryl chuckled and nodded.
"Fine, get on it, woman, that's an awful lotta food," Daryl said.
Carol swallowed the bite she was chewing.
"And I just happen to be awful hungry," she said. "You're about to be out ten bucks, Daryl!"
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It had been oddly the best dinner that Carol could remember in a long time. She was dying from trying to eat a plate full of food that she'd never finished in her life before, but the conversation had been entertaining. She'd lost the bet, and she'd pretended to be annoyed, but the idea of a picnic did sound fun.
She really did like Daryl. There was something about him that she couldn't help but find adorable. In a lot of ways he was like a big, goofy, kid, but it was endearing. He wasn't the kind of immature guy that drove you crazy barking about how big and bad they were all the time or how many women they'd been with. It was more the goofy kind of guy that could still see fun in a lot of places where she'd begun to forget there was any fun left.
As they walked back toward the apartments, her apron thrown over one arm, Daryl reached his hand down and she felt his finger teasing the palm of her hand. She couldn't help but smile at it. Daryl Dixon was trying to hold her hand. She looked at him and smiled. He looked worried, and she thought it was cute that he was wearing as much concentration on his face over trying to get her to take his hand as she imagined most people would have trying to do something as serious as perform surgery. She decided to grant him a little help, and she slipped her hand around his, pretending not to notice his grin out of the corner of her eye.
"So a picnic, huh?" Carol asked.
"Yep," Daryl said, swinging her arm a little. "We goin' ta the lake an' we gon' have a big picnic. Andrea's packin' it."
"We have to work on Friday night," Carol said.
"Don't matter, we ain't goin' 'til late lunch so ya ain't gotta get up early nor nothin' for it," Daryl said.
Carol smiled to herself. A picnic really did sound nice. The last time that she could remember going on a picnic she'd probably been eleven or twelve and she'd gone with her parents. She'd been excited about the whole event just because they were eating outside. For some reason it didn't matter if it was just the same plain sandwiches that you might eat every day, if you ate them outside they seemed special.
"Well you tell Andrea to let me know what we're taking," Carol said. "I'll make something to take along."
She turned and smiled at Daryl who was grinning and looking ahead.
"I can do that," Daryl said. "So ya feel like ya 'bout ta pop now?"
Carol chuckled.
"I do feel like I ate too much," She said.
Daryl turned quickly and poked her in the stomach, a little more roughly, she imagined, than he intended.
"Hey!" She said, not really mad at him.
"I was just testin'," he said. "Ta see if ya really was gonna pop."
"What about you? You ate the whole thing!" Carol said, poking him in the side. He rubbed the spot and smiled at her.
"I got a lot more room than you got," Daryl said. "Ya did pretty good, though, woman. I was impressed for a bit there. Thought'cha might win after all."
"If I hadn't had lunch I could have done it," Carol said.
Daryl chuckled.
"I challenge ya to a rematch then. One day when ya ain't ate no lunch," Daryl said.
"What will be the stakes then?" Carol asked.
Daryl shrugged.
"Don't know, reckon we'll figure 'em out when we get there," he said.
Carol nodded. She squeezed his hand a little and responded by tightening his a little. She liked walking down the street and holding his hand.
As they neared the parking lot, Daryl kept tugging at her hand.
"What are you doing?" She asked finally.
"Come 'ere," Daryl said. "I got somethin' ta show ya."
Carol sighed and followed him, not knowing what he was up to.
Daryl walked her over to a very old truck. From the looks of it, it had once been a mint green type color, though most of the body was heavily coated in rust now. Daryl opened the door to the truck, exposing the interior. It was imitation leather and cracked in a number of places. It smelled like some kind of grease or fuel, but Carol couldn't really identify the smell.
"What'cha think?" Daryl asked.
Carol wasn't sure what she was supposed to think. If she saw the old truck anywhere she'd have imagined it to have a set of cinder blocks under the tires, that's what she thought. She looked at Daryl, hoping he would tell her what to think, and shrugged a little.
Daryl smiled and crawled into the cab of the truck. He cranked it and the truck roared to life, which surprised Carol a good deal.
"She's 'bout good as new," Daryl said. "Replaced most a' the old parts that needed more work than they was worth. The speedometer don't work, but that just means ya gotta be careful not ta get'cha foot too heavy. She runs though, an' I got a good deal on the tires so they's all almost new."
Daryl hopped out of the cab of the truck and left it running with the door open.
Carol still wasn't sure what she was supposed to say. She guessed that Daryl must have bought the truck or fixed it up or something. She knew that he and Merle had the old red truck, but perhaps a second vehicle was a good idea for the two of them. She shrugged a little and smiled at him.
"It's very nice," she said.
Daryl grinned and nodded his head a little, looking at the thing.
"Ya think?" He asked.
Carol smiled again and nodded.
"Yes, Daryl, it's a very nice truck," she said.
Daryl pushed at her arm.
"Well go on," he said. "Get in, let's take her out for a ride."
Carol was confused, but she crawled into the truck. Daryl ran around the front of it and was pulling himself into the passenger's side before she ever got the door shut.
"Where are we going?" Carol asked.
Daryl shrugged.
"Don't matter," Daryl said. "Gas tank's full. Let's just take her out on some a' the back roads an' then cut back through town."
Carol shrugged and put the truck in reverse, backing out of the spot. She drove the old truck out of the parking lot and started down one of the back roads that led out of town. After a moment, she reached over and cranked the window down and Daryl did the same with his window. He lit a cigarette and leaned out the window a little.
"How ya like her? She drive good?" He asked.
Carol was surprised at how well the old truck did drive. The steering was a little loose on it, but that didn't take too long to get used to.
"It drives good, Daryl," Carol said. Daryl grinned.
"Good," he said. "Now ya can tell everybody ya don't need their damn charity rides."
Carol was struck by the comment.
"What do you mean?" Carol asked.
"The truck," Daryl said. "She's yours."
Carol turned her eyes off the road a minute, not really a big deal since they hadn't passed a car in some time, and looked at Daryl.
"Daryl, you can't give me a truck," Carol said.
"Sure I can," Daryl said. "Just did. It was my truck. I reckon I could do what I wanted with it."
"I couldn't accept it," Carol said.
"Ya ain't got no choice," Daryl said. "You the one that's drivin' it an' that's the law or somethin'. It's your truck an' I ain't takin' it back. Fixed it for ya."
"Why would you do that?" Carol asked.
Daryl shrugged.
"I reckon I did it 'cause I wanted to," Daryl said. "Ain't that good enough reason ta do somethin'?"
Carol didn't know how to respond. She was speechless for so many reasons. She couldn't imagine someone just giving her a truck. Yet, it appeared that Daryl Dixon had done just that. He didn't seem to think it was negotiable either. She wasn't sure if he expected some kind of payment for it, or what he had in mind. No one had ever done anything like that for her and she was floored. She didn't know if there was some kind of protocol for something like this, but she'd never learned it.
Carol steered the old truck through and town and finally made it back to their parking lot, bringing the truck to a stop in one of the spaces. When she killed the engine and crawled out, Daryl came around to meet her and she tried to give him the keys back.
He reached out and balled her fist up in his, pressing the keys into her hand.
"Nope," he said. "I told ya, she's your truck. I fixed her just for ya an' if ya weren't ta take her now she wouldn't run no more. Trucks is funny that way. They know who they belong to, an' they don't always like ta keep runnin' once they feel like they ain't wanted," Daryl said. "So ya stuck with her."
Carol smiled.
"I really don't know what to say, Daryl," she said. "I don't know what I'm supposed to say, or what you want me to do."
"Well," Daryl said, "I reckon ya could say you'll take the damn truck, for starters. And a thank ya is always nice when someone gives ya somethin'."
Carol smiled, feeling tears brimming in her eyes.
"Thank you, Daryl. Thank you," she said.
Daryl grinned.
"Ya welcome," he said.
"Are you sure you don't want me to pay you for the truck?" Carol asked. "I know you don't make all that much working for Hershel…"
"Didn't cost me nothin'," Daryl said. "Hershel give me the truck ta fix for ya."
"What about for the work? You must have put time into it, and the parts?" Carol asked.
Daryl smiled.
"Tell ya what, ya be real nice ta me, an' give me a kiss, an' we'll call it even," Daryl said.
Carol made a face at him.
"Daryl, a kiss for payment?" She asked. Daryl grinned.
"Now I expect it ta be a good one," Daryl said, "but that's what I want."
Carol smiled and leaned in to kiss him. His mouth met hers and she let him kiss her the way he wanted to. His hands wrapped around her and she felt him running both of them up and down her back as he pressed her to him, his tongue searching out her mouth. She held the kiss for a while, and when she finally pulled away, she realized she was breathing heavy. The kiss had been a "good one" as he'd called it, and her body had responded, even against her wishes, by wanting more.
As she looked into his eyes, she could see that he was feeling it too. He stood there a moment, his hands still on her back, looking down at her.
Then he cleared his throat and dropped his hands, turning quickly and stepping up onto the walkway that led to the building.
"Was that alright?" Carol asked.
Daryl smiled.
"Pretty good," he said. "Truck might need some tune ups every now and again, though, so ya might have ta pay for those too."
Carol chuckled at him and grinned. He fell behind her a little and she felt his hand on the small of her back as he walked her toward the apartments.
Carol hoped she wasn't wrong, and she hoped she wasn't being overconfident or cocky, but it seemed to her like Daryl Dixon might be trying to woo her. She didn't have any real practice in the matter, Ed had certainly never been much for shows, but it seemed like Daryl's given preference for wooing came in the form of old time courting, and though Carol didn't know much about how it was supposed to go, she was liking what it promised to be.