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Never Too Late

Chapter 18

That night before dinner, Rick pulled Scout aside to talk to her about Maggie’s pregnancy after he had been all but mowed down by Glenn the moment he stepped back inside the house. “I’ve been told you know about our situation.”

“I have.” Scout informed him with a nod. “And, while I had some issues at first, I think we’ll manage. Ya’ll are welcome to stay as long as you want…need to.”

“I appreciate that.” Rick sighed in relief and smiled as though a huge weight had been lifted off his shoulders. “I wasn’t sure how you’d react knowing we were going to need to bother you for a few more months.”

“You understand she’ll need supplies, right? I don’t have all the things she needs. I certainly don’t have anything for a newborn. We’re going to have to make a run at some point.” Scout dreaded the thought of a scavenging run, they were risky and would require a long journey in to town. And, she couldn’t exactly not go with them since she not only knew the way, but had access to several places that might hold items that they would need.

“You’re right. Daryl and I have already talked about making a run in to the nearest town in a month or so. Maggie’s not far along and I think we can hold off for a while.” Rick scrubbed his hand over his beard as he thought about the items they would need to locate. “We need medical supplies; scalpel, clamps, stuff like that.”

“I’ve got a medic kit downstairs that has a lot of that stuff inside. We might be good there, especially since I know the hospital was hit the worst, and early on. I’m not sure what all would be left. There are a couple of doctor’s offices we could check though.” Scout made a mental note to make a list of all the doctor’s in town, maybe the pediatricians and veterinarians hadn’t been hit too hard yet. “It’s about a thirty mile trip in to town and then back. My brother’s old house is in between there and here, his wife would have put away all of Olivia’s baby things in the attic so we can check there first. His truck was in the garage last time I was there. If it’s still there we could use it, he usually kept extra jugs of gasoline around in the barn.”

“Good. We can bring back more if we have a vehicle. Then it’s settled, we’ll go on a run in a month or two. That’ll give you time to heal up fully and plenty of time to make a list of everything we need and sketch out a plan.” Rick paused for a moment before shaking his head. “We’ll need at least four people. Me, Daryl, you and Michonne should work. Things should run fine here with everyone else.”

Scout couldn’t help but worry about the plans for a run, but that worry was pushed to the side during dinner. Spirits were high, damn near jovial, as they ate dinner and talked about the future addition to the family.

“Maybe it’ll be a boy and Judith can be his girlfriend when they grow up.” Carl declared as he snatched another roll from the bread basket.“Or maybe it’ll be a girl and I’ll just have to date her when she gets old enough!”

“No way! That’s not happening! You’d be way too old for my little girl! Pervert.” Glenn protested loudly, clearly joking, but his comments still bothered Daryl nonetheless. Of which, Glenn didn’t fail to notice and quickly let the subject drop and let the conversation move away from the possible relationships of his unborn child.

After dinner had been cleared away, the group parted ways; Maggie and Glenn retreated to their bedroom, Rick went to rock Judith to sleep, Carl started yet another game of Monopoly with Tyrese, Sasha and Michonne, while Carol washed dishes. Scout hadn’t decided what she was going to do, sitting at the table she watched as Daryl silently slipped out to the front porch with a cigarette dangling from his lips. From her position at the dinner table, she could see the flicker of his lighter and the glowing red ember from the cigarette when he lit up. She debated going outside to join him, but figured he wanted to be alone since he hadn’t invited her along. Instead, she excused herself from the table and went to take a bath; the long day of assisting in Daryl’s hunt, the walking through the woods and the long cry had left her aching body in dire need of a hot soak.

Scout was shoulder deep in bubbles when there was a knock on her bathroom door a short while later and she instinctively knew who it was without asking. He was the only one that came in to her bedroom without asking permission first. Scout checked to make sure the bubbles covered up all the appropriate places, although it was unlikely that Daryl would be able to see anything with only a single candle lighting the room. “Come on in, Daryl.”

“How’d you know it was me?” Daryl asked as he cracked the door to poke his head inside. The room smelled like sugar cookies, a smell he’d come to associate to Scout.

“I just did.” Scout shrugged and turned to look at him. “You need something?”

“Nah, just checking on you.’ Daryl chewed on his thumbnail awkwardly as he leaned against the doorframe, of which was still only cracked a few inches. “Am I bothering you?”

“Nope. You can come in if you want.” Scout motioned towards the stool at the counter. “It’s not exactly comfortable though. I guess you could sit on the toilet, if you wanted.”

Daryl shuffled back and forth on his feet for a moment, deciding what to do. Holding Scout while she cried had been intimate enough, but sitting in the bathroom while she bathed was a level or three above that. Finally, he slipped inside the bathroom, shutting the door behind him, and took a seat on the floor with his back propped up against the wall. From his position he could look Scout in the face while they talked. He could also see the tops of her breasts, but he tried to avoid making eye contact with them and was thankful for the low light so Scout couldn’t tell when he did.

Scout watched Daryl while he chewed on his thumbnail again, a gesture she had come to realize meant that something was weighing heavily on his mind, and had an inkling as to what was bothering him. “Glenn wasn’t talking about you earlier. He was just joking around with Carl, you know?”

“I know.” Daryl mumbled, switching from chewing his nails to picking at the hole in the knee of his pants.

As usual, he didn’t elaborate. Daryl was definitely a man of few words. Scout could tell he wanted to talk to someone though, or at least that was the way she was reading his body language. She wondered if he had been able to talk to anyone after Beth had died, or had he just suffered alone in silence; her guess was the latter of the two. “Tell me about her.” Scout asked hopefully. She wanted him to have someone to talk to, a neutral party that wouldn’t judge him for what he was feeling, someone to help him work through his pain.

Daryl started to protest, Scout could see it in his face, even with the darkened room and the flickering of the candle flame. And then, he shocked them both. “Beth. Don’t even know where to start.” He paused and considered his words, his thoughts, for a moment before continuing. “Was just a kid when we met her family. Busted up on their property like we did yours. When it got over run with walkers they came with us. Beth, Maggie, and their dad, Hershel. She wasn’t like them, her family, she was so sweet, so…hell, not weak, but not exactly strong yet. More like innocent. Had the voice of an angel, too. Used to sing Judith to sleep, entertain us at night.

‘Don’t know when she grew up finally. Guess at that age you have to do it quickly now. But, there she was, no longer a little girl and fierce. Damn. Wouldn’t let anything go, just gnawed and hounded you until she got her way, but did it with this damn sweet smile on her face so you never realized you was being grilled.” Daryl’s voice caught in his throat and he cleared it to cover up the fact that he was choked up talking about her. He itched for another cigarette, but abided by Scout’s rules of no smoking in the house. “She ended up with me after the prison. Taught her the basics of tracking. Wasn’t exactly great at it, but she didn’t give up. We found an empty funeral home to hole up in. Damn place got over run, too. Fucking walkers. I…I told her to run. To wait by the road for me. By the time I took out enough of ‘em to get out, she was gone. I’d lost her.”

“Maggie told me a little bit about her being kidnapped, but not the whole story. I’m sorry. She sounds a lot like my little sister. I’d have liked to meet her.” Scout pretended not to notice the tearful sound in his voice. “You know, nowadays, with the way things are. I think people age faster, they grow up and mature way before their time. And, from what I’ve heard about her, I think she was an old soul. Maybe age doesn’t matter now. You know, so long as it’s not like icky age difference. I mean, we don’t need grandpa’s picking up toddlers or anything, because…ew…but, she was an adult.”

Daryl knew she was right, but it didn’t mean he didn’t judge himself. He knew others judged him for his relationship with Beth and no matter how hard he had tried during his lifetime, damn it…he still worried what people thought about him. Not that he let that show though. “Beth was one of those inherently good people. Made you think the world was something worth saving.” Daryl licked his lips and continued; spilling his heart out to Scout. “She made me believe in that, too. That there were good people. People worth saving. Never would have thought a few years ago that I would give two shits about anybody in this world. Nobody ever gave a shit about me. Except my brother, but don’t really call him a caring person. More of an asshole than me. You know, we was going to rob their camp before Rick showed up. Things went to shit for a while. Lost Merle. Merle lost his hand. Shit, I don’t know where things turned around. But, there I was, all of the sudden the fucking fish out of water with this group of families. The odd man out. No attachment to any of them, but they let me stay. Didn’t know what I was going to do to them though. Never was able to tell Rick.

‘Then, somewhere down the line I became part of their family. Rick…Rick’s my brother now. He’s more loyal, more caring than my own damn brother ever was. Carol, shit…she lost her little girl. I tried so hard to find her Sophia and the whole damn time she was locked up in Hershel’s barn; a fucking walker. If I’d have tried harder, well…maybe I could’ve saved her, but I fucked that up, too. But, Carol, she forgave me. She’s my best friend, like a sister. They all took me in. Never questioned my intentions. Not once. And now, hell, I’ve changed. Don’t know exactly when it happened, but it did.” Daryl took a deep breath, a calming breath, and placed his head against his hands; pressing the heels of his palm in to his eyes. “Who the fuck becomes a better person after all this shit?”

Tears pricked at Scout’s eyes. No wonder he’d been so closed off. He’d hated himself for years, hated the world around him and certainly wasn’t used to people caring about him. Her heart hurt for him. Scout wanted to chase away all of his demons, take away all of the heart ache and sadness in his life, but she couldn’t. All she could do was try to make his life now a better place for him.

Not caring about decency, Scout scooted towards the end of the tub where Daryl sat; the bubbles no longer covering any of the important parts and she didn’t even give a damn. She reached out and grabbed his wrist lightly, pulling his hand towards her and forcing it away from his eyes. He looked at her; his gaze full of sadness, a deeper darker hurt than he had let her see before. Scout held his hand in hers and kissed the calloused palm; tasted the salty tears that he’d left behind.

“Redemption can be found in oddest places.”

Notes

Comments

@waldhoernchen


Yeah, looking back I feel I could have made this story longer, but by the end my mind was already in a hurry to start work on Need You Now. Sometimes I just can't reign in my muse, unlike lately where she's refusing to show up to work at all.

Glad you're liking it!! I just loved writing the two of them. :)

Serenity Serenity
4/6/16

I'm at chapter 20 now and I can't stop. Jeez. But there are just 40 chapters and I don't want it to be over so soon. What a dilemma.

I like Scout, too. They have a lot in common because she has been in dark places too.

"Redemption can be found in oddest places.” << I liked this ending a lot. Perfectly written. :)

waldhoernchen waldhoernchen
4/6/16

@waldhoernchen

This one was my first TWD fanfic, actually any attempt at fanfic outside of my Buffy ones I wrote for years. I really enjoyed writing it and developing Scout, who is still probably one of my favorite original characters to date. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on it!!

Serenity Serenity
4/5/16

I started with this story as you recommended and you got me after two minutes. I like the dark tone and it's really interesting to see how a single person would deal with being alone for a long time. It looks like she is very similar to Daryl and I like the idea. Especially after Sam and Daryl. The opposite leads to a lot of possibilities and the difference has potential. I'm excited which way it will continue.

waldhoernchen waldhoernchen
4/5/16

@amberryvonnee


Well, I am glad to hear that I was able to keep you entertained! I wish I could read on a road trip, but I have super ridiculous motion sickness that requires heavy medication. Yuck. Hope you enjoy the other stories and thank you so much for the review!

Serenity Serenity
3/27/16