Since this is really just a collection of one-shots about the Dixon family, please let me know if there is anything specific you would like to read. Thank you!

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Chapter Seventeen. Career.

"I think it's sweet," Beth smiled.

Daryl just frowned at her in response. He didn't see anything sweet about this but when Hunter had come running into the garage after school, waving a piece of paper from his second grade teacher, Aaron Harris, and talking about career day, Hunter had looked so excited about it, Daryl heard himself agreeing to come before he was able to stop himself and tell his son that it was probably best if he asked his mom instead of him. But when Daryl said yes, Hunter had whooped and hugged him and started talking about how cool it was going to be, having Daryl come talk to his class.

And that night at dinner, Hunter had only talked about it more, Beth smiling the whole time as she listened to him, but Daryl hadn't said a word, only frowning to himself and wondering if there was a way for him to get himself out of this.

He knew there wasn't and he knew he would go, of course. He had already told Hunter and Hunter was just so damn excited.

"He's proud of you," Beth said after dinner and she and Daryl were cleaning up the kitchen. Daryl did nothing but let out some sort of grunt. Beth looked at him. "He is. He wants to show you off to his classmates."

"What the hell am I gonna tell a bunch of kids?" Daryl's frown deepened.

"You have a thousand things you can tell them," Beth told him and he wondered if she ever got exhausted, playing the constant cheerleader, always so damn optimistic and finding the bright side of things. Didn't she know no good could come of this?

"'m just gonna embarrass him," he mumbled.

Beth looked at him, a mixture of surprise and confusion swirling in her eyes. "What are you talking about?" She asked, her voice almost in a demanding tone.

Daryl just keep frowning and crossed his arms over his chest. "'m just a mechanic, Beth," he then said as if he had to remind her of this.

"So?" Beth asked, still confused. She shook her head. "That's not all you are and even if you were, why isn't that a good job? It's a specialty, Daryl. Not everyone knows how to fix cars. If everyone knew, there would be no need for mechanics."

Daryl grunted again and said nothing else.

Later, as they were all getting ready for bed, Hunter came racing into their bedroom and hopped up onto the bed. His grin practically engulfed his entire face as Daryl came out of the bathroom and saw him.

"Get to bed," Daryl said gruffly.

"Can you tell everyone about the Firebird?" Hunter asked.

"If you wan'," Daryl said, pulling the covers of the bed back as far as he could despite Hunter being on them. Beth came into the room then from having tucked Abby into bed for the night and Daryl looked at her. "Tell 'im to go to bed," he said.

Beth just smiled and went into the bathroom.

"And you'll tell them all about the woodshop, too? And hunting?" Hunter asked, sitting up on his knees eagerly.

"Yeah," Daryl nodded and lifted Hunter up, putting him on Beth's side of the bed so he could lay down on his, sliding in between the covers.

"It's gonna be so awesome, dad," Hunter kept going. "All of the other kids, their parents have just one job but you have a million!"

Daryl couldn't help but frown a little at that. "That's not really a good thing, Hunter," he said, adjusting his head on the pillow and not looking at the boy.

"Why not?" Hunter's smile began to slip.

Daryl shrugged. "Usually means that I need to do a million things so I have enough money to take care of your mom and you kids."

Hunter's smile was gone completely now and Daryl instantly felt like shit. His kid was excited about all of this and Daryl shouldn't take that away from him. Right now, Hunter was young enough to still think that his dad was cool. Daryl shouldn't want that to end. He was sure when the kids got all older, they would wise up.

"I can talk about this house, too, if you wan'." Daryl tried to get him to smile again.

It worked.

"Yeah," Hunter beamed. "You can show them all the magazine article!"

"If you wan'," Daryl said again with a nod.

Beth came out of the bathroom, rubbing lotion onto her hands. "Time for bed, Hunter."

Hunter hopped down from the bed without argument and raced from the room, calling a "good night!" over his shoulder as he went. Beth went around the bed to her side and lifting the covers, she slipped between them, laying down beside him.

She leaned in and kissed him on the side of his head. "There's a reason he didn't ask me to come instead," she murmured to him. "Good night."

And with that, she turned off the lamp on the nightstand beside the bed and rolled onto her side, closing her eyes. Daryl continued to lay there, blinking up at the ceiling, not feeling tired in the least. He listened to the crickets outside and the occasional creak of wood in their old house and Beth's soft breathing beside him and all of the sounds were familiar; comforting in a way. But they didn't lull him to sleep as they usually did. He heard one of the kids coughed in their sleep. He heard the faint tinkle of the bell around Kyle's collar when the cat jumped up and curled into a ball at the foot of their bed.

He reminded himself that it wasn't like it used to be. The Dixon name no longer meant what it used to. He was a hard-working man. A family man. Was nothing like his old man or any of the other Dixon men to come before him.

And the town knew it. He had a wife and three kids who all shared the Dixon last name and when something bad happened in town, the blame didn't automatically fall to a Dixon. Times had changed. Daryl wasn't the red-neck trash resident anymore. When people saw him in town, they didn't automatically put distance between themselves and him and look anywhere but him.

The kids in Hunter's class were too young to know how it used to be. He would go talk to them and they would only know him as Hunter's dad… and maybe it would be alright. Hunter was too young to know quite what embarrassment was and Daryl wasn't going to let himself be embarrassed in front of a bunch of seven-year-olds.

He was a Dixon. He was used to the judgment of others and he never let it get to him before. He wasn't going to let anyone who couldn't make their own lunch get to him. If Hunter wanted him to talk to his class, he would do it without any more complaints. If Hunter was really proud of him, as Beth had said, Daryl would do what he had to do to make sure it stayed that way.

…

"Mr. Dixon."

Daryl stepped into the classroom and instantly, Hunter's teacher, Aaron, approached him, his hand extended. Daryl shook it.

"Daryl," he corrected him. Mr. Dixon just sounded too damn weird.

Aaron smiled at him. "I'm so glad you were able to come in today. Hunter has been going on and on about you."

Daryl didn't say anything to that but he felt the back of his neck flush a little. He stuffed his hands in the front pockets of his jeans and gave his shoulders a shrug.

"Not too sure what to talk about exactly. I've got a few things," he said.

Aaron just kept on smiling but it was a smile that didn't make Daryl nervous. It was a smile that people gave when they genuinely found something to smile about. He recognized it well. Beth was always smiling like that.

"You can talk to them about anything," Aaron told him. "I know the kids are tired hearing about the usual jobs."

"Usual jobs?" Daryl grunted.

"We've had a lawyer and a doctor and a cook come in and talk with them."

Daryl's eyes lowered to the floor. Right. The usual jobs. The jobs that meant actually meant something. Maybe this hadn't been a good idea, agreeing to come here.

"And I admit, I've been excited to hear you speak since Hunter said you would be," Aaron said and Daryl gave a nod but said nothing.

A bell rang suddenly and then moments later, he heard the stampede of running feet. Kids started streaming into the classroom then, cheeks rosy from recess outside, and Daryl's eyes instantly fell on Hunter, who saw him at the same time and who's smile burst instantly across his face, taking it over completely. Daryl gave him a small smile in return.

"Alright, kids," Aaron called out over the noise. "Take your seats so we can get started. We have a special guest with us to continue with Career Day. We have Hunter's dad, Daryl, here to speak with you about what he does for a living."

The kids were all seated now in their rows of desks and Daryl found Hunter sitting in his desk, center row, three back from the front, and Hunter was still beaming.

Aaron took a step back then and gave Daryl a nod, signaling to him that he could begin. Daryl looked back over the kids – at the twenty kids all turned to him. Forty eyes staring at him. Daryl had never liked being the center of attention like this.

"Um," he began but then immediately cleared his throat. "I'm a mechanic over at Dale's Auto Garage. That means I work on and fix cars." He was quiet for a beat, trying to think of what else to say. "And I own a little business of my own. Woodwork. I build all sorts of things for people in town and all 'round the state. I just finished up a job I had in New Orleans for a man who wanted a gazebo built."

"Hunter's brought pictures from home," Aaron stepped in then, holding a stack of pictures as well as the magazine in which Sasha had written an article about him for.

Aaron handed them over to the first student in the front desk with a quiet instruction to pass them back once she had finished looking through them and Daryl cleared his throat again.

"'m also a hunter and sell some of the meat of the animals I get," he added.

"My daddy buys deer from you all of the time," a girl spoke up and Daryl looked at her. Penny Blake, who's daddy was Philip. Not his favorite customer. Something about the guy just never settled right with Daryl though he didn't know what it was because the guy had always been nice enough to him.

Daryl gave a nod. "'s right."

"What does deer taste like?" Another kid, a boy, asked.

"I've brought deer jerky from home!" Hunter suddenly exclaimed, reaching into his desk. "We hunt it and clean it and then smoke it. It's the best!"

Daryl couldn't help but be surprised that Hunter had seemed to bring so much from home to show the other students but he smiled a little, feeling a little bit relieved and a bit more relaxed as well though he still felt a rigidness in his back. He felt like he really had no idea what he was doing, standing up here.

Aaron went to go collect the fistfuls of jerky Hunter had and began distributing them to the eager kids, taking one for himself and then handing the last one to Daryl.

A girl in the far back raised her hand.

"Uh, yeah," Daryl said, not too sure what else to do.

"How do you skin a rabbit?" She asked rather unexpectedly. "My brother went hunting with my uncle and he tried to do it but he's an idiot and didn't do it right at all even though he swore he knew what he was doing."

"Uh, well…" Daryl looked to Aaron, a little unsure if he should talk about it but Aaron just munched on his deer jerky and gave Daryl a smile. "A'right. Well, you draw your knife around each of the four joints, rippin' it gently back. You should be able to peel it back from the body like a banana after that."

"That's cruel," another girl said, frowning at her desk.

"It's already dead," Hunter frowned at her.

"You made this?" A boy asked, holding up a picture and Daryl took a couple of steps forward to see what he was referring to, seeing the picture of the dollhouse he had built for Abby as well as every piece of doll furniture inside of it.

"Yeah," Daryl nodded. "That was for Hunter's little sister. And 'm startin' work on a playhouse in the backyard for her now."

"All from wood?" The same boy asked.

"All from wood," Hunter nodded and beamed at Daryl.

Daryl smiled a little in response. "And, uh, I'm also workin' on restorin' a car. Hunter's helpin' me. We found it, rustin' out in a junkyard, and we took it home and we work on it together on the weekends, puttin' it back to how it used to be."

There were murmurs then from other students of how cool that was and somehow, Hunter's smile grew wider.

"My dad can hardly mow the grass in straight lines," one student said.

"My dad can't do anything. He has to call someone anytime something in our house needs fixing," another said.

Daryl did his best to not smirk that that.

He talked for just a few minutes more about cars and his other carpentry projects before he had to go back to work. Aaron thanked him over and over again and shook his hand for coming and all of the students gave him a loud applause.

"Alright, Hunter," Aaron said, handing out the hall pass. "You can walk your dad down to the front office," he said and Hunter immediately flew from his desk, taking the hall pass and Daryl's hand and tugging him from the classroom.

The hallway was quiet and empty as all of the other classes were in session and Daryl walked with him down towards the front office and the main front doors.

"You were awesome, dad," Hunter grinned up at him. "I knew you would be. No one else who came to talk to us is anything like you."

Now that it was over and done with, Daryl found himself breathing a little easier, the tight knot in his stomach loosening until it was almost gone entirely.

"'m glad I could come," Daryl said and found himself to actually mean it. "And thanks for bringin' those pictures and the jerky. Didn' know you were gonna do that."

"Mama helped me. It was my idea and she said it would help you," Hunter said. "Did it help?"

"It did," Daryl nodded. "Was smart of you to think of it."

Outside the front office, they stopped and Hunter didn't hesitate in wrapping his arms around his waist in a hug. Daryl smiled a little and hugged him back.

"You're the coolest dad, dad," Hunter then said, tilting his head up towards him, and Daryl knew that Hunter would say that to him no matter how this afternoon had gone but still, hearing his son say that to him, he had to admit that it made him feel pretty damn good.

And hopefully, that was something Hunter would keep thinking about him for a while.

…

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