The Spare Room

Disclaimer: I do not own anything that belongs to the Walking Dead.

Chapter 35

"She's spent the last two nights sleepin' out on the couch," Daryl said, sitting in a chair with his shoulders slumped forward, "Been jumpy too. Poor thing 'bout jumped out of her skin this mornin' when I left for work. Ain't been right since we got home from the hospital Wednesday."

Merle's brow crinkled into a frown. When he had asked how Mouse was, he had been expecting a better answer than that. He had figured that the two of them having the house to themselves might give Daryl and Carol a nudge forward. From the sounds of it, that wasn't the case at all.

"I know ya said 'no' to them pointers I was tryin' to give ya before, but from the sounds of it, ya should've shut ya ass up and listened," Merle commented. He received an unamused glare from his younger brother.

"Ya ain't helpin'," Daryl groused.

"You didn't really expect him to, did you?" Kevin asked from his wheelchair, a grin on his face as he worked on scooping some Jell-O from Merle's Jell-O cup.

"Don't know what I expected," Daryl growled, shaking his head, "Somethin's up. She's not herself. Barely says two words to me. Just gets home from her shift and goes to bed. Then the next mornin' she's on the couch."

Kevin's smiled dimmed a little as his brow crinkled in thought. After a moment, he put down the Jell-O cup and asked, "What room is she sleeping in?"

Daryl shrugged, "Hers. For the beginning part of the night, at least."

Kevin looked at him for a long moment before stating, "You're an idiot."

Merle barked out a laugh and Daryl stared at his friend incredulously.

"Thanks, Pal."

Kevin rolled his eyes and said, "Think about it, Daryl. She's sleeping in the same room that she shared with Ed, the asshole who would've beat her into a coma in that room if you guys hadn't been there."

Comprehension dawned on Daryl's face before it seemed to drain of colour.

"Shit," he squeaked.

"Shit is right," Kevin said, reaching over to Merle's tray and pointing at the lump of bread the hospital tried to call a 'dinner roll'. Merle waved his hand in permission and Kevin jumped at the chance to grab it and a little packet of butter, "Highly doubt she's getting much sleep in that room. Surprised she didn't relive the whole damn thing just stepping in there."

Daryl sighed and looked to Merle, "You think she can stay in your room?"

"Ya don't think she'd be open to stayin' in your room, Baby Brother? Could give ya them pointers," Merle teased. Daryl was still not amused.

"Merle."

"Fine," Merle permitted with a roll of his eyes, "She can have my room and I'll sleep in the damn spare room when I get outta this hellhole."

"Thank you," Daryl said gratefully.

"You're probably gonna wanna wash the sheets before she moves in there," Kevin advised as he buttered up the bun. Daryl made a face, but Merle jumped at the opportunity.

"And maybe a wall or two," he added, "and the ceiling and-"

"I got it," Daryl interrupted over Kevin's snickers, "I'll just take the damn garden hose to the room."

"Remember the bleach," Kevin added, making Merle chuckle. Daryl looked between the pair of tem for a moment, his brow furrowed as he tried to figure out just what was going on.

"Careful, Brother. Ya face is likely to stay like that if ya look any harder," Merle warned.

"What's goin' on with you two?" Daryl asked. He watched, perplexed, as Merle and Kevin exchanged glances. Daryl watched a near silent conversation between his brother and his friend.

Merle shrugged, "Not a damn thing."

"Bull," Daryl countered. Then he looked to Kevin, "Kev?"

Kevin shrugged as well, "Not a thing."

Daryl shook his head. Something wasn't adding up. Sharing food and then acting like a pair of giggling school girls wasn't exactly something he'd ever thought he'd see Kevin and Merle partake in.

"What?" Merle asked innocently, "We've been spendin' a lot of time together since we've been in the joint."

"It's a hospital, not a prison, Merle," Daryl said dryly.

"Food tastes the same, though," Merle pointed out, "Ya best get goin' back to Cranwall if ya gonna get Mouse moved over to my room."

Daryl made to protest, but apparently thought better of it. He sighed and turned to Kevin, "You want me to take you back to your room?"

"Nah," Kevin denied, "Mom and Dad are supposed to be coming by at seven. I can hang out here 'til then."

"Suit yourself," Daryl said, shaking his head as he got to his feet, "See you guys tomorrow?"

"Take a break, Lil' Brother," Merle suggested, "Ya visited us twice in two days. Reckon we can survive one without ya."

"Alright. Sunday then. Me and Carol will stop by," Daryl promised. Then he left.

After a moment or two, Merle turned to Kevin, "So I'm stuck with ya 'til seven?"

"Yep," Kevin said.

"Fantastic," Merle grumbled. Kevin snorted.

"You put on a good face for him, don't you?"

Merle rolled his eyes and glanced over at the call-button, "Suppose I could get a nurse to take ya back…"

"Any particular reason why we're not telling Daryl about the lawyer?" Kevin wondered. Merle huffed out a puff of air.

"He's got enough on his plate."

"He still has a right to know," Kevin said.

"And he will," Merle assured him, "We'll tell him once we figure out if we even got a case. Should know after we meet this law intern on Monday."

"We should really figure out what we're gonna say to this lawyer person," Kevin suggested, "I mean, this person is gonna be the one to decide if the law firm even accepts the case."

"I thought they just took notes back to the lawyer and the lawyers decided to take the case," Merle corrected.

"Either way, we should be ready," Kevin said, "I wanna hit old Ed where it hurts."

"Same," Merle muttered, "Suppose it's a good thing I told Daryl to stay home tomorrow. Guess we could go over it then," he said, leaning back into his bed.

"We have time now," Kevin pointed out.

Merle just rolled his eyes and hit the call button with his good hand.

0-TSR-0

Daryl pulled up to the diner and came to a stop by Carol's car. He figured that he might get a bite to eat, talk to her about changing rooms, and then he'd go home and get the process started. The little bell chimed over his head as he entered the Harvest Garden. He paused at the door, not to wait to be seated, but to scope out the place. Carol was busy taking orders from an older couple so Daryl decided to pick a small table by a window and sit there. Across the aisle, a group of college kids were sharing a large pizza. Daryl normally wouldn't have paid them any attention had it not been for the topic of their conversation.

"I hear she's still in a coma," one boy was saying, "Crazy."

"You think it was really Ed, though?" another asked as he rolled up the sleeves on his letterman jacket, "He was a solid guy when we played football together before his accident."

Another young man was practically glaring at his friend, "You know Ed had a temper, though."

"Well, you shouldn't have stole his girlfriend, Kyle," Letterman Jacket said, reaching for a slice now that his precious jacket was out of harm's way.

"I didn't steal anybody," Kyle retorted, "Went on two dates with Veronica after they broke up and then he went crazy on me."

"Dating your buddy's ex doesn't exactly follow the rules, either," the fourth college kid pointed out as he licked ranch dressing off of his fingers.

Kyle crossed his arms and shook his head, "Still don't erase the fact that he's got a temper and she's in the hospital.

"I'd like to know what evidence they got on him," Ranch Dressing mused, "I mean, she's not talking, so what do they really have that points to him?"

"She might know, though," the first of the college kids piped up, signalling for Carol to come over. The other boys frowned. Clearly, they hadn't been aware of her connection to Peletier.

"Carol Taylor?" Letterman Jacket questioned, "What's she got to do with anything?"

"She's dating him. Ed," the first guy explained quickly before his expression morphed into a simpering smile when Carol walked over to their table, "Hiya, Carol," he greeted.

"Hello, Jeff. Is there anything I can do for you guys?" Carol asked dutifully. Daryl's stomach did flip-flops as he listened in, knowing what the assholes would ask.

"Not really," Jeff said, "but I do got a question for ya. What's the deal with Ed?"

The other three guys made no secret about leaning forward, eagerly awaiting her answer. Carol shuffled uneasily and Daryl was frustrated by the fact that her back was to him and he couldn't see her face. He got to his feet and approached the table, where he saw that Carol was indeed stricken by the question.

"These guys botherin' ya?" Daryl growled, glaring at the table of jocks. Carol smiled gratefully at him, but the college guys weren't so pleased with his presence.

"We're just asking a question, Buddy. Sit back down," Letterman Jacket ordered. Daryl stayed put.

"It's fine," Carol admitted, composing herself as she placed a hand on Daryl's arm. She looked back at the table and explained, "Ed and I broke up, Jeff. As I understand it now, he's in a bunch of trouble. That's all I know."

"Oh, okay," Jeff said, "Didn't know that. Sorry, Carol."

Daryl thought that would be the end of it, but Letterman Jacket had other ideas, "So you think he actually did whatever to Veronica Creedy?"

"That he raped her and put her in a coma?" Carol clarified, "Yes, Greg. Yes, I do."

With that, Carol turned on her heel and tugged Daryl to a table far from the four college guys.

"Y'alright?" Daryl wondered as he followed her.

"They're not really the first to ask, but they were the first of Ed's old friends to ask," Carol replied. She gestured to a seat, so Daryl sat. Then she asked, "What can I get you, Daryl?"

"Usual would be good," Daryl shrugged, "Ya sure ya okay?"

"Yeah," she nodded, "It's nothing."

"It's somethin' if they're botherin' ya. I could stay 'til they leave-"

"I'll be fine, Daryl. I'm sure you've got better things to do at home than sit around and wait for me," Carol dismissed. Daryl could tell that she wasn't in the mood to argue about it anymore. He was learning that she was a straight shooter. She would tell him if she wanted him to stay just like she would tell him if she was ever bothered by him kissing her. Daryl was learning not to dwell on things.

"Alright. If you're sure," he conceded, "Wanna run somethin' by ya."

Carol frowned, "Like what?"

"Figured…well, that ya might want a different room," he stammered. At Carol's frown, he elaborated, "I know that ya been sleepin' on the sofa. Figured that ya didn't wanna be in that room no more 'cause of everythin' so I figured that we could put Merle in the spare room and you in his."

"Oh," Carol said, blinking rapidly, "I…wow…I mean, I wouldn't want to put Merle out-"

"He suggested it when I told him ya was havin' trouble sleepin'," Daryl supplied, "He don't mind."

Carol mustered up a smile and thanked him, "That's really sweet, Daryl."

"Ain't nothin'. I'll get started when I get home," Daryl promised her.

0~TSR~0

For all Merle's jokes, he actually wasn't that messy. Aside from a few clothes balled up on the floor, there really wasn't that much mess. Still, that didn't stop Daryl from treating the sheets like hazardous waste as he carried them to the washing machine. He moved most of the furniture to the hallway, figuring that it would be easier to move Carol in if Merle's stuff was out. It really wasn't that much. Just the mattress, bedframe, and one dresser, though the dresser was heavier than Daryl had anticipated. He mostly dragged it out of Merle's room, and once, it nearly tipped over before Daryl grabbed it. One of the drawers fell out with a loud thump on the laminate floor.

"Dammit," Daryl swore to himself as he wiggled around the dresser. He checked the drawer and when he realized that it wasn't broken, he went about picking up Merle's rolls of socks and tossing them back into the drawer. After they were all back in the drawer, Daryl noticed the white back of a picture. Daryl didn't really want to know what picture Merle kept in his sock drawer, but curiosity got the better of him.

He hadn't expected it to be a picture of his mother.

It was a black and white picture. Ruby Dixon was smiling, not at the camera, but down at her sons. Merle was eight-years-old with his hair short and a toothy little half-smile. He was holding a bunch of blankets with a small head poking out the end. Baby Daryl. If Daryl looked closer at the picture, he could see that the bay version of himself had wrapped a tiny fist around a couple of Merle's fingers.

Daryl had a hard time fighting back a lump in his throat. He hadn't even known that such a picture had existed, let alone that Merle had it. He almost didn't want to put it back in the drawer. He wanted it for himself…so that he could hold onto a little piece of his mother as well. Still, it was Merle's and from the looks of the photo, it was something that Merle looked at a lot of the time. The edges of the photo were soft and frayed. The picture a little faded. With reluctance, Daryl put it back in the drawer and then went about putting the drawer back into the dresser.

He frowned when he met resistance.

He pulled the drawer out and looked inside to see if something was broken inside. Instead, he saw a small box taped to the back of the dresser. Confused, he reached inside and pulled it out. It was just a small tin box, almost like a little toolbox. Daryl looked at it like it would burst into flames. He had some idea of what he would find in there.

Drugs.

What else would Merle hide in the back of his dresser?

Daryl reached for the latch on the box. If there were drugs in there, they would need to get flushed down the toilet. Merle had promised Daryl that when he got home, there would be no more drugs in the house, save for drugs actually prescribed by a doctor. Daryl was going to hold him to it.

Only when Daryl flipped up the lid, there were no drugs inside the little box.

There was a little banker's book, an envelope with some cash, and a slip of paper. Daryl recognized the envelope as the one he had picked up from Merle's drug dealer friend at a party a couple weeks ago. The slip of paper was a bank slip that said that Merle had opened a savings account…in Daryl's name.

Even more confused, Daryl opened the banker's book, finding that on the inside, Merle had scrawled 'Daryl's College Fund' and that he had tracked every deposit he had made into the account since Daryl was sixteen.

The lump in Daryl's throat caught as he thought about what his brother did for him and what it all meant.

0~TSR~0

The patrons of the restaurant were slowly trickling out of the Harvest Garden, signalling that Carol's shift was almost over. She started to wipe down the empty tables to get a head start on the cleaning at the end of the night. She couldn't wait to go home. It had been a long shift that was only made longer by people asking her about Ed.

It had been no secret that the two had dated for quite some time and the townspeople had naturally looked to Carol when word of Ed's transgressions had reached their ears. Usually it was one or two of the braver people who would ask, but the others would grow silent as they listened in on her replies. She had fashioned herself a flat reply of, 'Ed and I broke up. As I understand it now, he is in a lot of trouble.'

It was a simple way to show people that she was no longer a source of news to them. If they pressed for more information, such as when they broke up or why, she would say, 'We were over before Ed left town,' or, 'We broke up because he was violent.'

Some expressed doubt that Ed would do such a thing. Carol would say that was all she knew and then she would walk away.

She had known to some degree that for a while, she would be part of Ed's scandal. She just hadn't realized how she would be affected by the judging faces and the implications that she should have seen it coming…and that had opened a whole new can of worms for her.

Carol had been Ed's girlfriend. She should've been enough for him to keep him from going after Veronica. She should have seen the signs and prevented Ed from going after Veronica. It was all on Carol, not Ed.

At least, that's the impression that Carol had gotten from the 'well-meaning' people of Cranwall.

And to a degree, Carol wondered if they had been right. Though she had tried to put it from her mind, she couldn't completely forget that night outside of the bar where Ed had forced himself upon her…hurt her in a way that he would hurt Veronica Creedy a week later. If Carol had reported him earlier, if she had talked to the police as soon as Ed had hurt her, would Veronica have been safe the following weekend? Maybe in a way, by her remaining silent, she had unleashed a monster on an unsuspecting woman. Maybe Veronica's assault was, in some small way, Carol's fault.

"Carol?"

A male voice made her jump and whirl around. Kyle Roberts was standing there, his hands up in a surrendering gesture.

"Hey, easy. I didn't mean to startle you," he said, offering her a kind smile. Carol nodded and mustered a weak smile of her own. Kyle used to be a friend of Ed's when they had played football together. He had been with Jeff and Greg's table earlier in the night. It seemed as though his friends had left him behind.

"What can I do for you, Kyle?" Carol asked.

"Nothing," Kyle assured her, "I just wanted to apologize on Jeff and Greg's behalf. They were out of line earlier."

"Well, thank you, Kyle," Carol said politely, returning to her task of wiping tables, "It's not a big deal."

"It is," Kyle corrected, "They just…they don't get it. Ed had them fooled for a long time."

Carol stopped wiping to look at him.

"I knew Veronica when she was little. We were neighbours. I used to walk her to school when she was in elementary school," Kyle revealed, "I knew her before, during, and after Ed. I saw what the others didn't see. I saw him take a beautiful, smart, kind girl and drag her through the mud. I should've said something to her before got involved with him. I knew what he was like; I heard about all his conquests in the locker room. I waited until it was too late. Ed had had his accident and then the rumours had started…I wanted to see if she was okay, but she wasn't. She was a shell of who she used to be. Ed thought I was trying to date her so he beat the shit out of me. He wanted me away from her, I guess. Maybe afraid that I'd find out the truth about him."

"Why are you telling me this, Kyle?" Carol asked. He shrugged and ran his hand through his blond hair.

"Because I can see it…the make-up you're wearing to cover up the bruises and the way you talked about Ed earlier…it was the same tone…the same one Veronica used when she talked about him. You hate him too, for the things he did to you…the things he took from you," Kyle explained.

Carol couldn't speak, so she simply nodded.

"I was never able to tell this to Veronica…she wouldn't even look at me after Ed beat me up…but whatever he does or did, it's not your fault," Kyle said firmly, "He was messed up a long time before you, Carol."

"I know that," Carol managed.

"Good," Kyle said, "Then don't waste another minute on that asshole. Veronica wasted way too much time living in fear of him. Don't do the same. Here."

He handed Carol a fifty. She frowned.

"Kyle, what-"

"It's a tip. I don't think the four dollars Jeff and Greg left as a tip even begins to excuse their rudeness earlier," he replied with a smile, "Have a good night, Carol."

"You too, Kyle. Thank you."

0~TSR~0

Carol walked into the house about an hour later, still a little shell-shocked from the kind gesture, but appreciative nonetheless. It felt good knowing that there were people out there who understood…and who didn't make her feel at fault for Ed's actions. She just hadn't expected such kindness to come from a man who used to be Ed's friend. Maybe the keywords there were 'used to be'.

She entered the house to find a bunch of furniture in the hallway and Daryl sitting on the floor with his back to the wall and a small tin box in front of him.

"Is everything okay?" she asked him. Daryl nodded.

"Yeah…yeah, I just…I found somethin'. Guess Merle's been savin' for me to go to college."

Carol smiled a little and slid down the wall to sit beside him, "He sort of told me as much the other day."

"I didn't know," Daryl said, amazement and wonder on his face, "There's enough in this account here to pay for a good chunk of it."

"That's amazing," Carol said with a smile. Daryl nodded and turned to her.

"I can't get over it," he admitted, "I didn't know."

"He loves you, Daryl," Carol replied, "It's not as big of a stretch as you might think."

"I know."

They sat in silence for a moment before Daryl said, "I'm sorry I didn't get the rooms switched over yet. Got a little distracted by everything."

"It's alright," Carol replied, "I can sleep on the couch-"

"Ya can sleep with me," Daryl blurted out. Carol paused and watched as his face turned red as he realized what he said. Then he tried to backtrack, "I mean…if ya want…ain't no use in ya sleepin' on the couch…I could take the couch…ya don't have to-"

She silenced his ramblings with a quick peck to his lips.

"You're very sweet, Daryl."

"But?" Daryl added. It almost saddened Carol a little that he expected her to renege on her compliment. In all truthfulness, her heart had leapt a little at the thought of sleeping next to Daryl and knowing that he was there if she needed him. It meant more to her than she could say that he wanted to do anything to help her sleep better at night. He was starting to become the best thing in her life and she wouldn't have it any other way.

"There's no 'buts'," she told him, "I'd love to spend the night with you."

Carol watched as his eyes lit up a little and as he swallowed loudly. He nodded and said, "Alright, then."

He stood and offered her a hand up. She took it and stood too so that their bodies were close together. That was when he placed a hand on her cheek and angled her face up to his. He moved slowly, almost too slowly, and placed his lips on hers.

Carol thought about what Kyle Roberts had said in the diner and she resolved that she would not waste anymore time living in fear of Ed. She would overcome him and his memories.

She would be braver...and she would start with her growing relationship with Daryl Dixon.

TBC

AN: Sorry for the delay. Real life has been hectic and I'm trying to keep up with updates and not doing a very good job. I apologize.