Chapter Text
"Daryl Dixon?" Beth echoed, sure that her incredulity mirrored the look her sister was wearing right now. Why? How? She didn't even speak to him after, when he stopped being an obnoxious ass and started to take meals along with everyone else. How could Daryl Dixon have been involved in all of this?
Maggie sighed. "Apparently he was living in some cabin in that part of the woods, heard a crash, and checked it out. He told us that he found you, checked on you, and used your phone to make an emergency call."
It was hard imagining him doing everything her sister just recounted. "Is he here?" Beth asked, as she shifted in bed, trying to sit up taller. The sudden movement made her wince. Fractured ribs. She was going to feel this for a while.
Her sister shook her head. "He rode with you in the ambulance to the hospital but left as soon as Daddy and Momma arrived. The police had to question him with what happened.” Maggie patted her hand in what she assumed was supposed to be reassuring. “Don’t trouble yourself too much on that account, Bethy. What matters is you’re safe, and that you should rest.
It still didn’t make sense; none of it did, but Beth found herself agreeing nonetheless. “Okay.”
“Daddy and Shawn will be here real soon. They’d be glad to see you awake.” Maggie helped her settle back down again, and it felt nice to feel her big sister’s hand smooth down her hair, just like she did when she was little.
She was suddenly tired, so tired. She didn’t want to talk, and she knew Maggie was exhausted too. She didn’t want to fight anymore. Beth closed her eyes, and soon she slipped into sleep, dreamt of a strange man next to her bed, in a forest, holding her hand.
The next days came and passed by in a blur of people coming and going--doctors and nurses and friends and family who came to check in on her, helped her take her mind off the numbed pain that was her constant companion in those passing hours. Calls and texts came in at all hours asking about her. Despite trying to hide the accident from Otis and Patricia so that they could enjoy their vacation, the news still got to them and they called in a panic, guilty and terrified that they had somehow caused the accident she found herself in. Despite Beth’s and her family’s reassurances, the couple cut their vacation short by a week, eager to help out with Beth’s recuperation.
Her father only started smiling when Beth became more active, when she started smiling, herself. She was still largely dependent on the painkillers to even get there, but the miracle of her own survival began to trickle in her consciousness, the enormity of what she had walked away from revealing itself to her. She was alive. She was given a second chance. She was determined to fight through it, if only it meant that it lessened the worried look on her family’s faces, so that Maggie and Shawn would feel less guilty when the time came that they had to go back to college and resume their lives.
That week, it seemed like the whole town poured in through her hospital ward’s door to cheer her up. Many of her classmates had gone on vacation for the summer and weren’t around, but their parents and cousins and older friends had all come to sit with her. She later heard that they passed around a hat to help the Greenes with their medical expenses. Even Officer Grimes dropped by, accompanied by his wife, Lori, although he was tight-lipped on the circumstances of the accident.
Of Daryl Dixon and his participation in her rescue, nothing more was said. Her father had reassured her that the police had determined the accident was nobody’s fault, a combination of bad weather and slick roads. They tried to not worry her, but a friend of Beth’s sent a picture of her totaled car, and she wondered, like Maggie, how it was that she had survived. She sometimes dreamt of it, those last moments before the fall, how she had closed her eyes and prayed. As I lay me down to sleep, I pray to God my soul to keep.
Beth waited for him to come visit her, but he never appeared.
After a week in confinement, the doctors finally had given her the go-ahead to recuperate at her own house.They gave her a rundown of the medicine she had to take, the checkups she had to schedule, what she should and shouldn’t do, but Beth was only half-listening, so relieved that she could go back and sleep in her own bed. She was grateful for all the people who had come to see her, but all she wanted to do at that point was to go home.
Shawn had volunteered to drive, and was full of good humor and light-hearted jokes all the way home. Her mother sat beside her, smiled ever so gently as the landscape of the town fell behind them to give way to the more wooded area of their home. Had it really been a week ago, when Momma asked her to reconsider Europe? Just like that, it wasn’t even in the cards anymore.
But she was alive, that was in her cards and so many other things, and Beth reflected that this trip home could have been her in a box to an early grave. She tried most hours not to burst into tears every time she remembered, but now they rose in the corner of her eyes, and she just wants to get on her knees and thank everything and everyone she’d ever known. She turned away from her family, pretending to be engrossed in the passing landscape. Even the sting of knowing he didn’t visit wasn’t as painful as she thought it would be. She was just so glad to be alive, that her blood seemed to sing with it, and her body just barely able to hold back the things that she wanted to do with her second chance.
Despite all the thoughts running in her mind, Beth found herself dozing off most of the trip home. When she opened her eyes again, the car was sitting just outside their house.
Shawn swiveled from the driver’s seat, as if he had conjured this all for her, a big smile on his face. “Welcome home, baby sis.”
Otis opened the door, and Patricia, already crying, set off Beth’s own tears, too. She bawled like a baby before she even got out of the car, soaking Patricia’s nice summer dress up front. And then Momma was crying, Daddy was crying, and Maggie, too. It was a mess. It was her family, and they were just so glad to be together. She was glad it was Sunday, glad the day was over, so that no one else had to see this little mourning, this little almost-tragedy.
“My baby girl, my brave baby girl,” Patricia cooed, hugging Beth tightly as Otis and Shawn came up to help her into her wheelchair. “I’m so sorry for everything you’ve been through.”
Beth shook her head. She could see that the accident had deeply rattled Patricia and Otis--they weren’t able to come and visit her in the hospital, but she figured that it was for the best. They felt guilty enough as it was and it was good that they were had been protected from the worst of it. They were tender-hearted, these second parents of hers. “It’s alright, Patricia, I’m here now,” Beth said, comforting her as much as she could.
“Look, Beth,” Shawn didn’t cry, but his voice sounded a little thicker than it was a few minutes ago. He pushed her wheelchair closer to the house, as the rest of the family trailed behind. “You finally got your wish: A slide!” It wasn’t a slide, not really (Shawn was teasing her about her unfulfilled wish to get a slide on the farm when she was five), but a ramp built over half of the steps leading up to the porch, so that she could go in and out the house with more ease.
“Otis kept himself busy while he was waiting for you,” Hershel said by way of explanation. “Patricia and Maggie, too.”
Beth found out later that they had set up a bedroom for her on the first floor of the house, converting what had been a den to a duplicate of her own bedroom upstairs. They had hauled down the bed and her desk, her guitar and music sheets, and everything else that made her comfortable and at ease. Momma even decorated the room with vases full of sunflowers.
“How nice,” Beth sighed as she kissed Maggie’s cheek. “Thank you so much.”
“The doctor said you might have your cast on for a few months, so you’ll have to stay here for a while,” Maggie said. Everyone stood in the bedroom until they were satisfied with Beth’s exclamations of how wonderful it was to be home, and that she was going to get better a lot quicker that she was back. Beth didn’t mind--she knew that they were just trying to find ways to work out their anxieties after what had happened to her.
Momma had prepared a small dinner for all of them. Beth was glad that they didn’t make her homecoming a big thing, as her mother had correctly guessed that she would be too tired to accommodate guests, no matter how well-meaning.
They had just gathered around the dinner table when someone knocked on the door. Beth looked up, surprised, and made a quick count of everyone. All the family was here, and it was a Sunday.
Otis stood up and wordlessly went to the front door. Two sets of footsteps came back in the dining hall, and Beth saw the newcomer--Daryl Dixon--trailing behind Otis.
He looked cleaner than he usually was when working at the farm. His hair was pushed back, no longer falling into his eyes, and he had on a clean flannel button-down shirt. He wore a pair of faded jeans and boots that weren’t tracking mud. He hung back a little when he felt all eyes on him, as a little awkward silence fell in the room upon his arrival.
Annette broke the spell first. “Daryl, it’s so nice of you to join us!” She said as she stood up in one graceful motion towards him. This prompted Shawn to actually pull out a seat for their visitor, as Otis and Annette coaxed him into sitting across Beth.
“S’nothin,” he mumbled, obviously not used to this kind of hovering attention. Hershel was smiling now, and Maggie and Patricia, too. He looked a bit younger now, under the soft lights of the dining room, although he was noticeably nervous, a marked change from his usual wounded stance while working the farm. He stared down at the placements, at the plates and the flowers, and then finally, at her.
Beth didn’t know what to say to him. What do you say to someone who had saved your life? She instead smiled warmly at him, hoping that it could convey her gratitude, somehow. After a beat, he went back to studying the plate in front of him. Well. At least she tried.
The other people began passing the salad around, and that gave her something to do for a while. Her family chatted away like Daryl Dixon being part of their family dinner was nothing out of the ordinary. They talked about college, Maggie and Shawn’s plans for summer now that the semester was coming to a close.
“I thought I’d come here, and, you know, help out,” Maggie said as she glanced at Beth.
Beth rolled her eyes. “Maggie, I’ll be fine. What, are you gonna stare at me wheeling around here all day?” She knew that Maggie just got a part-time job at the courthouse, and she didn’t want to slow her down on Beth’s account.
“She’s just gonna be sleeping all day, getting fat,” Shawn joked as she tore up a piece of bread. “You don’t wanna be around for that sad sight.”
“Thank you Shawn, really.” Beth replied with as much sarcasm as she could muster. “Next time you don’t know what words rhyme with ‘broken glass’ in your next song you’re writing, don’t go calling me.”
“It’s ‘pansy ass.’ I got it all covered. So to speak.” Shawn tossed a breadcrumb aimed at her face.
“Hey!” Beth giggled. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Daryl sitting quietly with his soup. She turned her attention to him and pushed a bread basket in his direction. “Try this, it’s really good,” she said softly.
He seemed to freeze when she spoke to him again, but this time nodded meekly. He almost seemed like a little boy on his best behavior, slightly scared to be called out. He took a dinner roll and practically crammed the whole thing in his mouth. It was a bit funny, but Beth didn’t want to hurt his feelings, so she bit the inner side of her cheek, forcing back a giggle.
“So how are you settling in at the cottage, Daryl?” Hershel’s voice cut through the good-natured din of his family to address their visitor. Beth’s head whipped back and forth from her Daddy’s direction to Daryl’s, surprised at this little revelation. Daryl Dixon was living here, at the farm?
Daryl swallowed quickly and nodded. “S’alright. Clean.”
“It’s not much, but I hope you like it,” Hershel said. Beth glanced at her mother, then at Maggie, to see if they would shed some light on this development but they were already busy with their food.
“I wouldn’t have believed that you lived in that shitty old cabin in the woods until I saw it,” Otis nodded around the table. “It’s been abandoned for years! You must be pretty tough to rough it out there.” He turned to Daryl, grinning widely.
Beth saw Daryl’s ears turn red. Otis meant well, meant what he said as a compliment, but he also revealed that Daryl was pretty much squatting in someone’s old house in the middle of nowhere. “I know my way around,” he said gruffly.
“Still, I guess that was pretty lucky, considering what happened,” Otis said, finally bringing up Daryl’s involvement in her rescue. Daryl didn’t respond, and instead stared down on his plate again. “But you have to agree our cottage’s a bit better than that cabin.”
Couldn’t he afford better lodgings? He’d have to have had his pay packet last week, at least. The red had begun to creep down in blotchy patches across Daryl’s face.
“Oh, I forgot to tell everyone,” Beth chimed in, calling everyone’s attention. “Lori told me that she and Officer Grimes are expecting another baby. They went straight to the ob-gyne after visiting me in the hospital the other day.”
“That’s wonderful!” Annette jumped in, taking up her cue to change the subject. “They’ve been trying a long time for another one, haven’t they?”
“As long Beth’s been angling to become somebody’s godmother,” Maggie said ruefully. “Elizabeth, why are you so obsessed with that anyway?”
“It’s a rite of passage. I’m an adult!” Beth said, taking a swipe of butter with a finger and putting it in her mouth. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Daryl relax from the diverted attention.
“Someone does all the hard work of bringing a baby in this world, and it’s still about you,” Shawn chortled. “Good job, Bethy.”
The conversation veered back into calmer waters with the arrival of Patricia’s famous casserole. As everyone dug in, Beth turned her attention to Daryl again. “Do you know Officer Grimes? He’s really nice. Practically the president of this area.”
He inclined his head. “Yeah,” he said, but didn’t offer anything more. She could see he was a bit grateful, though, for changing the subject just then.
“He comes around sometimes, maybe you’d get to know him better,” Beth gently pushed the conversation.
Daryl shrugged. “Maybe,” he said. It wasn’t much, but it felt friendlier, somehow. At least he wasn’t glaring at her anymore. She wondered how her family had been able to convince him to move here, to even be here, sitting at the table with them, with the way he was.
“Do you always just answer in one or two words?” Beth asked, smiling slightly.
She was a bit surprised to see a corner of his lips turn up. “No.”
Beth leaned back. “Coulda fooled me.”
The friendliness was short-lived, though, as Hershel asked Beth on how she was feeling. By the time she had done with her father's careful questioning, it was Patricia who had engaged in Daryl in conversation, although it was mostly one-sided on her part.
It was clear that her family was anxious to make Daryl feel comfortable and at home, and he was just as unnerved by it. It occurred to Beth that once again, something had happened here that she was not aware of, and now she had to pay close attention to pick up the clues of what had transpired in the days that she wasn't around.
She noticed one other thing, though: Daryl's eyes kept flicking back to Maggie's face. Of course. Maggie was so gorgeous that people couldn't help looking at her, men and women alike. She heard that Maggie looked like her mother, a famous beauty before she had died. Beth, on the other hand, looked just like Annette, with her blonde hair and cupid's bow mouth. Her momma was beautiful, and Beth was proud of Maggie's looks, but when it came to her own looks, Beth had accepted that she would always be the cute one. The pretty one, on a good day.
Beth pretended not to notice Daryl's glances, though. He had been embarrassed enough for one day.
As soon as they were all done with the ice cream, Daryl announced that it was time for him to go.
"Don't you want to stay for coffee or something, Daryl?" Annette asked.
He shook his head. "Nah, thanks. Gotta get up early tomorrow."
"I'll walk you out." Beth's voice rang out, before anyone else could speak, as everyone turned to look at her. "Could you help me, Daryl?" She asked sweetly, indicating to the wheelchair she was sitting on. She could feel her father's eyes on her but he probably understood her intention.
"Um," he glanced back at the dining table, and then back to her. "Alright."
He steered the both of them out of the room after a repeated muttering of "thanks" to no one in particular.
"Thanks for coming by," Beth said as soon as they were out of earshot. "I hope you had a good time."
"Food's good," he grunted, as if it was explanation enough why he was there. They had reached the door, as it wasn't a very big distance. He let her go and stood in front of her. "Sure you can get back there on your own?" He asked, making a vague gesture towards the short distance they just crossed.
She nodded. "Yeah. Gotta get used to it, right?"
"Hmm." He reached for something in his front pocket and drew out a cigarette. The thing was already in his mouth when he realized he was still indoors. He drew it out again, slightly embarrassed for doing that in front of her. He had been so awkward the whole evening, and it was still surprising her after the first impressions he’d made on her during that first week on the farm. How could she have thought so badly of him?
"Thank you," she finally said, coming out of her all in a rush. "They told me you helped me in the accident. I'm not sure if I can ever repay that."
He shifted his weight and scratched one arm, fidgeting. "S'nothing," he muttered.
It wasn't nothing, and she didn't know how to say that without embarrassing him even more. He wasn't used to this, she saw. Words were something he clearly struggled with giving, and receiving. But she wanted him to understand her full meaning so she reached out with both hands and reached for his one empty one.
His hand was rough and callused, and her own looked tiny compared to his. She clasped it tightly and closed her eyes briefly. Praying he would understand what she couldn't say: the depth of her gratitude. She looked up at him and saw that he was looking at their joined hands. He didn't pull away, and she tightened her clasp. She was surprised when he briefly squeezed back in response.
Beth smiled, but his face was still serious. They finally let go, and Beth wheeled a little away from him to give him room. "Goodnight, Daryl," she said softly.
He inclined his head, opened the door, and left into the night.
Dark dreams plagued her that night, dreams of falling into the darkness, reaching out to catch onto anything, anyone. She was glad Maggie and Shawn chose to wake her early that morning, only if to cut the nightmares short.
The pain was there, persistent and warm in her torso. Beth tried to fight back a wince as she leaned up to receive Maggie’s kiss. “Gotta go little sis,” Maggie said. Her older sister didn’t miss the pain that crossed Beth’s face. “I hate leaving you like this.”
“I know,” Beth nodded, her voice still thick from sleep. “You go on ahead and drive safe, you hear?”
“Aye aye sir,” Shawn said, as Maggie gave way for him. Beth was a little surprised to feel Shawn plant a kiss on her forehead. He was not one for physical affection, but the accident must have rattled him up more than he’d like to admit. “Give us a call anytime you want, alright?”
She settled back on her pillows and nodded. “Yeah. I love you, Shawn.”
“Love ya, baby sis. Take care of yourself.” After another kiss on her cheeks, Maggie and Shawn finally left. Beth lay on the bed, listened to the murmured sounds of her parents saying their goodbyes to her siblings. Doors slammed shut, and she heard the sound of Shawn’s car gunning to life, the sound of gravel under its wheels, until they finally drove away. The house was quiet again.
She closed her eyes, but the pain wasn’t letting her get back to sleep. She sensed her mother hovering near her doorway, but she pretended to be asleep, not wanting Annette to be a mother hen when the sun wasn’t even up yet. Maggie and Shawn, they never seem to stay long enough. Beth missed them already.
Sleep wouldn’t come, so her mind wandered down other roads. Months before graduation, people were either fidgeting about college or prom, or both. She had just broken up with Jimmy. Jimmy, who hadn’t even thought to call after her accident. It’s funny, how childish it all seemed now. How childish the school was, the classrooms, too-bright and cheery, even in her mind’s eye. She followed her memories down the familiar hallways, past the lockers and the chattering students, until she found him.
Aiden Monroe. Even in her thoughts his name sounded like a song. Tall and dark-haired, brown eyes like her favorite morning coffee, he had strode in the small Student Council office like a hero out of a book. Beth must have been filling out forms or something inconsequential, but all the other details of how they first met still stood out stark in her mind. Aiden’s warm smile, the cornflower blue button-down shirt he was wearing, his neatly-trimmed nails. He looked every bit the Congresswoman’s son, although he had no airs, and was perfectly happy to go through the Career Day schedule with her.
He had been a lucky addition to that event. Most of the people they got to agree to give a talk on Career Day were mostly people from around town. Officer Grimes had been there so many times that he probably could recite his speech in his sleep. Her own father had spoken at it once, although he was sure that most of the kids in this town were eager to leave, as farming didn’t seem suited for young people full of restless energy.
Aiden Monroe had been a stroke of luck. Beth had wanted to change things up for Career Day, and her late-night research brought her attention to an article about Congresswoman Monroe’s son being involved in humanitarian work. She went out on a limb and contacted people in the newspaper, who gave her contacts to the Congresswoman’s staff. Before she knew it, she was exchanging emails with Aiden himself, who readily agreed to King County and meet them all.
He was handsome, and could easily run for politics himself with his kind face and gentlemanly ways. All the auditorium was abuzz when he finally walked onstage for his turn. He gave a pretty well-rounded speech about his humanitarian work, helping build houses for poverty-stricken people in Southeast Asia, establishing clean water networks in Tajikistan. It wasn’t for everyone, he warned, but the work was fulfilling, and he got to meet interesting people along the way. He seemed to look at her when he said this, but Beth must have imagined it.
She got to talk to him afterwards, when the school hosted a small party for the participants. People crowded around him, wanting to know more about him and his mother, the closest thing King County had for a celebrity these days. He always found time to extricate himself from the crowd and talk to her, though. Their emails had been friendlier before she had even met him, but Beth found that he had made her the shyest she’s ever been. She was suddenly hyper-aware of herself around him, her small stature, her relative immaturity compared to him, her heavy accent.
“This place has been great,” he said. “I’m sorry I didn’t have enough time to go around.” In fact, he had to leave that very same evening.
Beth could see Rick and Lori grinning at her in a knowing way from across the room (Officer Grimes had been invited to Career Day once again, of course). Had she made herself so obvious? She flushed scarlet and bit her lip. “You could visit us anytime. I could take you around,” she ventured.
He smiled back, easy and warm. “Would you? I’d like that.”
He hadn’t been flirty, hadn’t been suggestive or inappropriate, but he gave her an address she could send letters to, said that sometimes the internet didn’t work wherever he was stationed and he would like to hear from her. She had flushed bright red as if he’d asked her to marry him right there and then. She nodded, and they hugged, and that was that.
She made sure to memorize the address, just in case she lost that slip of paper. She never did.
He’d replied to her at least twice since she left school. He didn’t talk much about what he was doing out there, and she understood. She’d been honest with him, though, and tentatively touched on her hanging back on the farm for the gap year, talked about colleges she was looking at. His responses had been encouraging, understanding. He promised to come down to Atlanta sometime in the year, but didn’t know when. He didn’t know that he was a big reason why she was staying in the first place. Waiting for him. Waiting to find out if there would be anything to discover. Maybe it was a little pathetic, and she hadn’t told a soul about him, but Beth didn’t care. She’d wanted to wait.
Was there something there? Was she just imagining things? Even as she revisited the few precious moments that she shared with Aiden, even if she scoured his emails and letters to her, the answers seemed to always be a little out of reach.
What do you want to do with the rest of your life? was the question Career Day asked. She didn’t have answers, not even now, but Aiden Monroe’s face flashed before her eyes whenever she thought about it.
He didn’t know about her accident. She hadn’t written to him about it yet. She wondered if he would come see her then, if he cared.
She snorted, instantly disgusted at herself for even thinking of making her situation a kind of bait for him to test his affections. She would let herself recover for a few weeks, then write to him about the accident, she decided. No need to alarm him while she was on the mend.
The first morning back at the house had been excruciating. Turned out that the painkillers had been working their magic on her the night before, and now all her injuries were making sure that they were felt that day.
“I’m sorry, baby girl,” Annette had said as she spoon-fed Beth that morning. They had begun to wean her off the painkillers, not by much, but it was just enough for things to hurt. Her mother looked pained for her, as if it had been her doing.
As it was, Beth needed help in doing everything. She was a child again, needed help when she had to go to the toilet, when she had to take a bath. And now she was being spoon fed like a toddler, her ribs hurting too much for her to even raise her arms.
Beth asked to be moved to the porch for the remainder of the day. The den had suddenly felt like it was closing in on her, and she wanted to feel some fresh air. Her father and Otis obliged, setting up a settee with some pillows and blankets, and a small table for her books. She didn’t feel like reading, though, merely looked out at the farm, the blue of the sky strangely comforting.
Some of the guys came up to see her while she was out there, hat in their hands, all very sorry to see her like this. She was embarrassed but grateful, exchanging a few words of reassurances and pleasantries before they had to go back to work. Even Guillermo called, and she put him on speakerphone, and he regaled her with a few stories about working in the hospital, the secret liaisons and oddball patients he encountered. He promised to see her soon. It was still slightly strange, finding out how much people cared about her this way. She promised herself to be much nicer to them, to make a better effort for the people who had been so kind to her.
She didn’t see much of Daryl, although she could make out his tiny figure from afar, coming and going. She was still watching him make his way around the farm when she heard Otis come up the porch, a labrador puppy in his hands.
“Thought you were missing this one,” Otis said by way of greeting as he held the squirming puppy up. “They were missing you.”
Beth grinned widely, and bit back the pain as she made room for the puppy to sit next to her on the settee. Otis didn’t know that small movements hurt, but she didn’t want to turn away the adorable creature he had brought along. “This is Lucy, isn’t it? Hi Lucy,” she said to the puppy as she stroked its golden-brown fur. It tried to nip her finger in response, making Beth giggle.
Otis drew up a chair to sit across her. He watched her play with the puppy for a few minutes, a small smile playing on his lips. “How are you feeling?” he finally asked.
The puppy had rolled on its back, and Beth stroked its soft stomach with one finger. “I’m still a little out of it,” she admitted. “At least my black eye’s going away.”
“It looks good on you. Makes you look tough,” Otis offered. “Saw some of the boys coming up here to visit you here,” he added.
“Yeah,” she nodded. “It was nice of them to do that.”
Otis traced her gaze across the farm towards Daryl Dixon, who had disappeared into the barn. “You don’t mind that he’s here?”
She frowned a little at that. “Why would I mind? He saved my life. And if Daddy’s alright with it, it’s not really any of my business, isn’t it?”
Otis nodded, although he didn’t seem convinced. “You must be surprised, though.”
All her curiosity about Daryl Dixon didn’t seem as urgent as it had been a week ago. He had seemed mysterious and dangerous, but now he could just be as harmless as the puppy sitting beside her now, after all the things he’s done for them, after the night before. If there’s something that she truly understood about Otis, it was his tender heart and steadfast loyalty. He had seen something in Daryl Dixon, and had felt sorry for his situation. Now that she understood the situation a little better, it wasn’t hard to understand how things ended up the way they were.
There was still something she was curious about, though. “How did you meet him? Momma said he helped you out somehow.”
“Ah.” Otis reddened at this. “He helped me out in a...in a bar fight.”
Beth stared at him a bit of a shock, torn between giggling and letting her jaw drop open. Otis? In a bar fight? He might as well have told her that he had been rescued from aliens. “Seriously?”
“Serious,” Otis chuckled at her expression. “It’s funny now, but it was pretty bad. Dunno why I was even in there--buddy of mine insisted we tried somewhere new. Anyway, Daryl was there, stopped me from getting stabbed, but he roughed up some people. Owner fired him on the spot.”
Beth had heard of those places, the rougher, seedier side of town. It was hard to imagine Otis there, knowing him the way she did. Why would anyone want to hurt Otis when he was so sweet? “So you felt bad for him and offered him a job here,” she said softly.
“Yeah. He looked pretty pissed when I did, though. Was surprised myself when he showed up the next day.”
“But where is he from? I’ve never seen him before.”
“From these parts. He really wasn’t clear, but...” Otis shrugged, indicating that it really didn’t matter at this point.
She thought about his accent, heavier than hers, the way his hair fell over his face as if he didn’t want anyone to see it, his shabby clothes, his wounded gaze. A drifter. He must have been down on his luck when Otis met him that day, squatting in a cabin in the woods and taking up that offer when he knew next to nothing about farming. His bad luck had been her good luck, finding her the way he did in the woods, and she felt terrible about it. She knew exactly what Otis felt, even though others probably wouldn’t understand.
Lucy had fallen asleep beside her. “Anyway, gotta get back to work,” Otis said as he stood up. He scooped up the puppy back into his arms. “Get some rest, Beth.”
Her head buzzed with all the new information Otis had given, Beth simply nodded and settled back against her pillows. She had been more tired than she realized, because before she knew it, she had fallen asleep.
When she woke again, it was already late afternoon, and Daryl was standing in front of her.
He was putting a sheaf of papers under a book, and looked startled when he saw her looking at him.
“Didn’t mean to wake ya,” he said in that gravelly voice of his. “Your dad put them here and then the wind blew them away.”
“You picked them up?” she asked.
He nodded.
There was a beat and then she thanked him, sinking back into her pillows. The hurt was still there, throbbing and insistent. She hoped it wasn’t too much trouble, picking up the papers. The farm was quiet now, and she knew everyone had gone home based on how low the sun hung on the horizon.
“Sorry about that. What are they, anyway?” she asked, referring to the papers.
He glanced at the papers. “College applications,” he said.
“Ah.” Hershel wasn’t going to beat around the bush, accident or no. She didn’t really want to talk about it, not even to Daryl Dixon, so she gestured to the empty seat across her. “Why don’t you sit down, Daryl?”
He hesitated, but did was told, drawing himself up the way Otis did earlier. He still seemed ill at ease, though, and Beth hadn’t the slightest idea how to make it better.
“How are you today, Daryl?” she asked, because she didn’t know what else to ask. Not after everything’s Otis told her, everything she’s figured out for herself.
He looked away, looked at the sunset that set the sky aflame in pinks and purples. “Fine.”
“Will you join us for dinner tonight?”
He looked back at her then, his jaw suddenly set hard. “Are you askin’ or are you invitin?”
Beth blinked, startled at his response. She had thought that they were a little friendlier now, or at least, past this vague aggression that he had just barely contained himself. “I’m inviting, of course,” she said, trying to sound calm, not defensive.
He drew back just then, and crossed his arms. In the faint light, he almost looked like a sullen kid.
Then he spoke, so low she almost didn’t hear it. “I ain’t a charity case.”
Oh. Was that what he thought? Was that why he was so ill at ease, so prickly? Did he think they all pitied him? There was an element of pity in it--she remembered Otis’ face when he told her about finding Daryl in the cabin--but she knew herself. She knew her family. They weren’t naive do-gooders, they just wanted to do right by what felt right. There was a difference there, but she didn’t really know how to put this into words.
“You work your hours just like everybody else,” she said. “And no one’s been using that cottage since I was eleven years old, might as well be yours.”
His lips quirked up just then. “That right?”
She smiled. “Hell yeah. You’re living in my fairy princess castle.” She tried to sit up then, and winced at the pain that followed. He caught on it, saw him lean towards her in that exact moment. She held that smile though, until she was sitting upright.
“Been sleeping all day,” she said. “Shawn’s right, I’m just gonna get fat and lazy if I keep this up.” She reached up and smoothed her hair, as much as she could with the hopeless, curly, tangled mess she dealt with everyday. “No wonder Daddy’s already making me look at college applications.”
He frowned a little at that. “Y’wanna get back out there?” He asked in a voice that seemed admonishing, you just got out of an accident.
She looked at her plaster-encased leg, hulking and awkward. “Well, probably not soon, but I should start moving around more. I was supposed to be making use of my time here to learn veterinary. I want to be like one, like my dad.”
“Uh huh,” he didn’t seem convinced. Or maybe she was just talking too fast.
Then, an idea.
“Maybe you can help me out on something,” she twisted her fingers together, hoping that she wasn’t being too forward. “I mean, everyone’s so busy and I’m not exactly mobile, so...” Suddenly, she wanted to show him that he wasn’t a charity case, that there was a reason why he was there. “If you’re not too busy, you can help me getting around.”
“You mean, like a nurse?”
“No, I mean...” she sighed. “You know what, forget it. It was a dumb idea anyway.”
“Ain’t a dumb idea,” Daryl said abruptly. He was still frowning, but she could see that he was turning the idea in his mind, figuring it out. “Just clarifyin’ what you meant.”
She stared at him then, trying to see if he was serious or just playing along. He seemed dead serious though, and he finally met her eyes.
“When I’m a little better...than this,” she ventured, suddenly feeling shy, not understanding why. It wasn’t his job to be like a nurse, but the fact of the matter was that Otis and Patricia and her parents weren’t up to the task of physically burdened with her. And she’d be damned if they got a full-time nurse to look after her. But he could help her. And then maybe he’d feel a little less like a charity case.
“Alright,” he nodded. “When you’re ready.”
She beamed at him, grateful already. “I’ll let you know.”
They heard the low timbre of Hershel’s voice out of sight, coming up the porch, followed by heavy steps on the stairs. Daryl stood up quickly, as if afraid of being caught, and then remembered himself, where he was, and sat down again. He reminded her of a caged bird just then, not used to freedom. She wondered why that was. The more she tried to figure him out, the more it seemed an impossible task.
Hershel and Otis came, and they didn’t seem the least bit surprised to see them sitting together. “Come on in, when you’re ready,” Hershel said before he went in, addressing both him and Beth. She glanced at Daryl and smiled. Like it was the most natural thing, Daryl Dixon and Beth Greene--friends. She liked the sound of that.