One.

Uncle Daryl's house sat on top of a small hill and at the bottom of the hill, across the one-lane road, was a single train track. Every morning, at ten o'clock sharp, and again, exactly twelve hours later, a train came roaring past. The wheels clanged against the metal, the stacks of freight cars rocked back and forth and the whistle blew long and loud. So loud. Molly Dixon had never had opinions on trains before moving here but since coming to live with her uncle, she had decided that she truly hated trains. Even if she went to bed early and was already asleep, the train came screaming and woke Molly with a jolt. Maybe Uncle Daryl wouldn't mind driving her into town so she could make an investment in earbuds.

Tonight, she was still wide awake and the train wasn't responsible for it but it was still annoying as always. She pulled herself from the bed and went to the window. Her bedroom faced the front of the house so she was able to see the train in the darkness, speeding past. When Molly and her brother first moved in, they asked what the train was and where it went. Uncle Daryl said it went just about everywhere and it moved cargo. The cars could be filled with just about anything and once the train reached its destination, the trucks would come and move the goods off the trains and drive them to the stores so yes. Molly knew the trains were important but that didn't stop her from hating them all the same.

When the train finally passed, it took another moment for the night sounds to come back. Out where Uncle Daryl lived, it was quiet in a way that Molly still wasn't used to. Out here, there were no people shouting at each other, people blasting their music too loudly, or random police or ambulance sirens. Out here, there were crickets and cicadas, the occasional owl and bullfrog. This kind of quiet still hurt Molly's ears. Knowing she wasn't going to sleep right this second, she decided the best thing to do for herself was to get a glass of water. Uncle Daryl's house was old, two-stories and small. Upstairs, there were two bedrooms. One was now hers and across the hall was her brother's. It used to be their uncle's but when they moved in, Daryl gave it to Benji. He was going to build himself an addition onto the back of the house but he wouldn't get to that for a while, so, right now, Uncle Daryl was sleeping on the couch downstairs.

The door creaked as she slowly opened it. Benji's door was wide open as always because he hated sleeping with the door closed. "If my door's closed, I can't escape easily if a masked man breaks in," Benji explained like it was the most obvious and best explanation ever given for something. Molly could see him sleeping in the bed and as always, his dog was with him. Tom was a ridiculous name for a dog but dad had found the thing on the street and named it himself. And since Benji had absolutely worshiped dad, he had agreed that Tom was the perfect dog name. Tom was a little thing. Some kind of terrier mutt - black and small with two triangle ears on his head – and everywhere Benji went, Tom was right behind him. When Uncle Daryl went to pick them up and move them in with him, Benji made sure that he would let Tom move in with him, too.

"Tom's your dog, Benji. Course he's comin' with us," Daryl had said in that rough, but gentle at the same time, voice of his. Daryl's voice always sounded as if he had gone years without actually using it so it always had a gravel quality to it.

When one of the floorboards in the hallway creaked, Tom lifted his head up immediately but he saw that it was Molly and he laid it down again, relaxing. Molly tried to go down the stairs slowly but every other one creaked and there was no sneaking anywhere. She didn't want to wake Uncle Daryl but as she came down the stairs, she saw him awake on the couch, watching something on television. He moved his eyes from the screen to her as soon as he heard her. She gave him a small smile and without saying anything, she turned on the bottom step and went into the kitchen. Downstairs, there was the living room, kitchen and bathroom. There was also a little mud room/ laundry room built outside the backdoor. Molly and Benji had been living here for almost two weeks now and while they were comfortable with their uncle and his house and knew where everything was, neither could quite come to call this their home yet.

In the kitchen, Molly opened the right cabinet and took one of the plastic cups. Before they came here, Uncle Daryl lived by himself and had just enough things for him. Since then, he went and bought one of those dish sets so now he had six plastic coffee cups, six plastic glasses, six plastic plates and six plastic bowls – all in a minty green color. He also bought some new silverware so there was enough of that for all of them, too. Molly liked drinking everything out of the coffee cups. It made her feel older for some reason. She didn't drink coffee but she would pour a bit of Dr. Pepper and sip it like she was. She wondered when Uncle Daryl would let her try coffee. She wondered if he had thought about things like that yet. He probably hadn't. His life changed two weeks ago, too.

"You alrigh'?" He asked her now as she stepped into the living room with her coffee cup of water.

"The train," she answered with a nod. She glanced at the television and then eased herself down into the rocking recliner chair. Uncle Daryl didn't have a lot of furniture either. When it was just him, he hadn't needed that much. In the living room, there was this recliner and the couch he'd been sleeping on, a coffee table and the television and the stand it was set on. Nothing fancy or expensive. All stuff pieced together from second-hand stores but comfortable all the same.

"You cover your eyes when I tell you to," Uncle Daryl told her and she nodded without protest.

He loved horror movies and if he was in the mood to watch something on the television, it was usually some horror movie or another. After two weeks of being here, Molly and Benji, both, were getting good at being able to tell what kind of movie it was. Tonight, he seemed to be watching a horror movie from the 1970s made over in England. Vampires, if Molly had to make an educated guess.

"Are we still going to the library tomorrow?" She asked after a minute. She took a sip of water and held the coffee cup with both hands as if it was hot and she had to be cautious.

"Yeah. Gonna get you and Benji library cards like you've been wantin'. And then I'm gonna take you over to the school so I can get you registered."

Molly knew that that had to be done but her stomach tightened anyway when Uncle Daryl said it. It had been two weeks. She and Benji weren't going back home. They were here to stay.

"Cover 'em, Molly," he then said quickly before something could happen on screen that he was anticipating.

She instantly snapped them closed and then covered them with a hand, too, for good measure. She wasn't tempted to take a peak. She had seen enough scary things for a while and wasn't looking to see more.

"Uncle Daryl? It's Molly. Mom's not home and there's nothing to eat. Benji and me are hungry."

The call from his niece came two weeks ago. He lived an hour away but Daryl didn't wait a second. He closed his shop – leaving a sign on the door that stated he'd Be Back Soon – got into his truck and made the drive down to where his brother and his family lived. Merle had been dead for almost a year by this time. Addicted, overdosed and died all on Oxy, Merle Dixon was just one of the millions with the same ending to their story. He had been doing so good, too. He had gotten his life together. He had met a woman, Samantha, and got married. Together, they had two kids – Molly (named after Merle's favorite band, Molly Hatchet) and Benji (named after Samantha's favorite movie growing up). Merle got himself a legal job and Daryl would never say anything like it out loud but seeing his older brother finally getting himself together after years of dealing, stealing and going in and out of jail, Daryl felt proud.

But then, Merle hurt his back at work and his doctor prescribed him Oxy to help with the pain because at that point, no one knew the damage the painkiller could – and would – do to a person.

In no time at all, Merle was addicted. He started to steal and pawn things from his family's house and then steal other things from stores so he could buy more. Always more. When he died, Daryl came down to help Samantha with the funeral and with the kids and while there, he also went to a lawyer's office to sign some papers that Samantha wanted him to. He had no problem signing anything – especially papers that made him the kids' legal guardian if anything happened. With Merle dead now, those kids were his blood and Daryl would do anything for them that was needed. That blood was more important now than ever. He had no idea that Samantha was already using Oxy herself, too. Her husband had just died of an overdose from the same thing and she didn't care. She started taking it for pain like so many others and like all of them, she was a full blown addict in the blink of an eye.

Daryl hadn't known. By that point, she had still been able to hide it. It was only when Molly called him for help and Daryl got to the house did he see for himself. The house was empty of plenty of things but it still managed to be messy. Molly was twelve and Benji was ten and they could only do so much. They both had birthday money from Daryl that they had managed to hide from their parents and had gone to Dollar Tree to get food for themselves and Tom but that food was just about gone now and neither knew what to do.

"Why didn't you call me sooner?" Daryl asked them both once they got done telling him. Samantha had been gone for almost a week now and she hadn't been back since. They had no idea where she was. Daryl could only imagine. He had spent his life around drug addicts and knew all too well what most were willing to do to get their next high. He sure as Hell didn't mention any of that to the kids.

"Mom's been leaving like this for a while now but she always comes back," Benji told him. "She's never been gone for this long." The boy looked on the verge of tears but he kept taking deep breaths, trying to pull himself together, not wanting to cry in front of his uncle.

Daryl squeezed Benji's shoulder and then pulled both kids to his sides, giving them a hug. "Alrigh'. Get your stuff together. Whatever you want to take and what we can fit in my truck. Go on."

Molly and Benji were so happy to have someone there to tell them what to do, they both ran to their rooms to do just what Uncle Daryl told them. Daryl went into Merle and Samantha's bedroom, looking around. Most of what they had in here had been long taken to be pawned. There was a family picture of the four still framed and collecting dust on the dresser. Daryl wondered if he should take that so the kids would have it but he was too angry right now. The last thing those kids probably needed was a reminder of happier times. There was a lockbox on the top shelf of the closet and even though he didn't think it'd be gone, Daryl was happy all the same to see it was where it was supposed to be. He pulled the string of the closet lightbulb but nothing came on. He pulled it again and then looked up to see if the bulb was burned out. He had a feeling it was something else though and his body grew even more tense than it already was as he went to the light switch on the wall. Flipping it up, he looked at the fixture on the ceiling. That didn't come on either.

"Molly!" He shouted out.

A second later, the girl came running from her room. "What?"

"When'd the power get cut off?" He asked her.

She visibly swallowed and he didn't think she would answer him but then, "Two days ago."

He wanted to sigh and start yelling but that was the last thing any of them needed. It wouldn't help anything. "Why didn't you call me sooner?" He had to ask that again. He was only an hour away and he had always been close to Molly and Benji. It wasn't like he was a stranger. Hell. When Molly started running track in school, Daryl tried to get down here every weekend to see her compete in her meets and at the end of the school year, when the kids had those assemblies where they got awards for "Best Attendance" and honor roll, Daryl went to those, too. He loved his niece and nephew like they were his own and when Samantha had asked him to sign those guardianship papers, Daryl hadn't hesitated or thought twice about it.

Molly looked up at him and like Benji, she looked like she was on the verge of tears. "Mom always comes home," she said in a hoarse whisper.

He sent her back to her room to keep getting her things together and Daryl went back to the lockbox. There was nothing in here that Merle and Samantha had been able to pawn so that's why it had been left alone. He didn't know the combination but he was able to pick it open easily enough. Inside was everything he would need. He already knew he was taking the kids with him and they wouldn't be coming back anytime soon. Even if Samantha did come home, she wasn't fit anymore to take care of these kids. There were the notarized and signed papers that showed Daryl as the legal guardian. The kids' birth certificates and social security cards. There were also doctors' papers and vaccination records. Before all of this, Samantha had been meticulous in keeping important papers and files. Thank God. Daryl put it all back in the box and took it with him when he left the bedroom to check on the kids. He wanted to get them out of here as soon as he could.

Sleeping on the couch wasn't bad. Daryl had slept on worse things throughout his life. Every morning, he woke up and folded the blankets and set the pillow on top and set the pile neatly down on the floor next to the couch. He then went into the bathroom to do his things in there before going into the kitchen. He had a small coffee pot on the counter that made two cups – the perfect amount for him – and he had a small radio on the counter that he turned on while he waited for it to brew. It was a local station that gave weather reports and news updates. It was summer so it was going to be hot and humid again that day just like every other summer day in the south. He turned the radio off after a minute. Above his head, he heard creaks of floorboards and then the stairs creaked followed by Benji coming into the kitchen with Tom trotting behind him.

"Morning," Benji mumbled, still half asleep. The kid never slept in but he also wasn't a morning person.

"Mornin'," Daryl gave him a little smirk. It had been the same every day for the past two weeks. Benji shuffled to the door that opened into the mud room and then shuffled through to the back door to let Tom outside. While the dog was out doing his thing, Benji turned and went to the bathroom. Daryl sat down at the table with a cup of coffee and looked out the window, sipping and listening to the birds chirping their songs. Benji came out of the bathroom and went to let Tom back inside. He had two bowls always set out for him – one with food and the other with water – and the dog went to get himself a drink. Benji came and plopped down in another chair at the table, yawning as he did so. "Wanna eat somethin' for breakfast?" Daryl asked.

"Not yet." Benji was awake but he wasn't awake yet to eat.

Daryl sipped his coffee. Tom finished drinking water and came to the table, too. He sat down next to Benji, looking up at him, and Benji bent over, scooping the dog up and sitting him on his lap. He began to scratch him behind one of his triangle ears and looked out the same window Daryl was looking out. When this house had been built, glass had still been expensive in these parts so there weren't that many windows. It made the house always seem dark. When Daryl bought this place, he had a list of things to fix up and adding more windows had definitely been one of the things near the top that he wanted to see to rather than later. But, like with all old houses, when he set out to fix one thing, three more problems popped up. The windows had gotten moved further down the list and now, with his niece and nephew living here with him, everything else was just going to have to wait for a bit.

"Uncle Daryl?" Benji spoke up and Daryl instantly turned his head to look at him. The boy was still looking out the window and scratching one of Tom's ears. "What's the school like here?" He asked.

"Don't know. Don't think it's too bad though. Town's not overrun with idiots so that must mean somethin'," Daryl answered and it made Benji smile. "It'll be okay. Promise." Benji nodded – almost automatically as if he knew it was what he was supposed to do. "'s okay if you don't believe that. You're gonna have to see for yourself but no matter what, you're a Dixon and we're tough."

"Being a Dixon isn't that great, Uncle Daryl," he said quietly, still looking out the window but Daryl had a feeling that his eyes weren't really seeing much of anything. His brain was focused on something else.

Daryl finished his coffee and stood up to get his second cup. He didn't say anything to Benji's words. He may have only been ten-years-old but that didn't mean he didn't know what he was talking about.

After breakfast and getting themselves all ready, they loaded into Daryl's pickup truck and they headed into town. Maxwell was damn small. Big enough for not everyone to know each other but small enough for it to feel like it wasn't even touched by the outside world most of the time. Daryl had moved here a few years ago when he saw the advertisement randomly in one of those free catalogs that were in the grocery store. A small auto garage and the house behind it all for sale and for a price that wouldn't bankrupt a person. Daryl had been working steadily in a freezer warehouse and had been able to work hard at saving money. When he saw the auto garage – just a place with one work bay and a small office attached – he knew that it would be absolutely perfect for him and it became all he wanted in the world.

He bought the place and after cleaning it up and getting it ready, Dixon's Auto Garage opened. He was far from a millionaire. Hell, he was even far from middle class. He did oil changes, tire rotations, basic maintenance on just about any vehicle brought to him, and he had a tow truck, too, so he could pick up a car that needed it. He worked hard and his reputation for not being crook like so many other mechanics spread throughout the town. Business was steady and he provided a nice little life for himself. But he was already worried about having two kids now under his roof might change that because while he didn't know anything about kids, he knew that they were expensive.

Outside Maxwell Public Library, Molly and Benji followed Daryl to the front doors. Tom came, too, trotting behind Benji because that was what he always did. Daryl knew the dog wouldn't be allowed inside but oddly enough, there wasn't a sign on the door, stating it. Obviously, everyone knew that dogs weren't allowed inside and a sign wasn't necessary but still, Daryl expected there to be a sign.

"Benji, tell 'im to stay," Daryl said as he pulled open one of the doors.

Benji sighed even though he already knew that. "Stay, Tom. And don't go running off with someone else. I treat you like a king. Just remember that."

Tom wagged his tail as he went to sit down next to the book-return box. Molly giggled as she followed after Uncle Daryl and Benji followed behind them both. Inside, the library was quiet, of course, and there didn't seem to be too many people around. There were a couple using the computers and an older woman studying books in one of the aisles, a shriek of a child's laughter rose from the children's section in the back of the building but other than that, it seemed like a slow morning at the library. Maybe Tom could have come in.

At the main desk, there was a young blonde woman, scanning books back into the system and loading them onto the cart next to her so they could be reshelved. She was wearing a nametag – BETH – and as soon as she saw the three coming her way, she smiled.

"Good morning. How can I help you?" She instantly put all of her attention on them.

Daryl honestly forgot what he was going to say for a moment. This woman was young and pretty and her smile was just as pretty as the rest of her. She was on the petite side of things and her hair was long and blonde, hanging down around her pale face. And her eyes were big and blue and staring right at him. He had never been in the library before since moving here, he admitted, and he had never seen this woman around town. He would have remembered if he had seen her around. He honestly didn't really notice women – not like Merle used to before he met and married Samantha. That just wasn't like him. He liked women, don't get him wrong. But he always had more important things on his mind than getting laid.

Molly looked up at her uncle, frowning a little, when he wasn't saying anything and she didn't know what was wrong. She looked at the librarian. Did Uncle Daryl know her? No, they weren't acting like they knew each other. Something was definitely going on though. Molly was twelve. Not a toddler. She quickly guessed what was going on and she almost laughed at her poor uncle.

"My brother and I just moved to town and we'd like to get library cards," Molly took the lead.

"Welcome to Maxwell!" Beth said and they could all tell that she completely meant it and wasn't just saying it to be polite. "I need you two to fill out this form for me and I need proof of address." She looked back at Daryl. "Did you bring a utility bill with you?" She asked.

Daryl still wasn't talking. He was making a complete jackass out of himself and he was well aware of that inside of his own brain but he couldn't get that same brain to snap the Hell out of it. Molly, again, had to bite back laughter as she yanked the envelope sticking out of Uncle Daryl's back jeans pocket.

"Here," Molly slid it across the desk for Beth.

Beth's brow furrowed slightly as she looked at Daryl for another moment, obviously wondering what was wrong with this man, before looking back to Molly. Her warm smile returned. "Thank you and I'll have you all set up in just a few minutes."

"Geez, Uncle Daryl," Benji muttered from next to him. "Get it together."


Thank you very much for reading. I had posted a couple of stories over the past few months but literally no one was reading them so I figured that no one is too interested in Beth x Daryl anymore so I deleted them. But I had an idea that wouldn't leave my head so here I am again. If you do read, please comment so I know you're here and I hope you like it!

Beth's POV will be the next chapter.