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Need You Now

Chapter 112


Well, work didn't kill my mood and thus, my generous spirit has remained intact shockingly. Usually I am in a foul mood by the time my 12 hour shift is over, but the cold weather has kept the fights and robberies to a minimum tonight. Yay! So, you guys get an extra chapter this week. Figure it makes up for Daryl not being in either of them, maybe? Probably not, I mean...it's Daryl. We all want the D. Teehee This chapter is between Will Dixon, Daryl and Merle's no count father, and the beginnings of how Jacey ended up with Sam. Hope you all like it!

I am off until Sunday night, so I will post the next chapter of this story and, for those of you who are reading Running Wild, I will update that one, too. Heading home to work on Running Wild here shortly. I finished up chapter 43 over the weekend and figure on needing maybe another 3-5 before it's finished. Fingers crossed I can hammer it out and finish it up soon.

Have a great rest of the week and weekend! My bestie (DeadFan8) is visiting for the rest of the week, so I forsee lots of TWD and Outlander with copious amounts of wine and disgustingly unhealthy foods. L8Rs.



The Past: Wednesday, March 8th, 2006


The sharp sound of the elderly engine backfiring caused Will Dixon to wince and glance over his shoulder at the baby that was buckled into an old car seat he had located at a neighboring thrift store before hightailing it out of town. Sighing with relief that the child was still sleeping peacefully, apparently having inherited his genes in the fact that she could damn near sleep through any sort of commotion, he crawled out of the car and slammed the door and headed up the cracked pavement towards the automotive shop without bothering to take the child with him.

Will pushed open the glass door that was in dire need of a thorough cleaning, the tinkling sound of a bell rang loudly above his head announcing his arrival to the nonexistent employee. Impatient, his jaw was tense and his gaze was hard as he waited for whomever was working in the garage to come out and assist him. With his arms crossed over his chest, he glared at the door that undoubtedly led out to the work bay and didn’t bother considering that his presence wasn’t allowed in the back as he strolled across the dingy linoleum and pushed open the dark green swinging door. Scanning the nearly empty garage, he spotted the top of someone’s work boot covered feet poking out from beneath a white sedan and called out to them, “Hey, can I get some help?”

“Sorry, sir! I didn’t hear you come in. Hearing ain’t what it used to be.” The elderly man that was way past the age of retirement slid out from beneath the car, all the while huffing and puffing from exertion, and stood up to face Will Dixon. “Name’s Swain, what can I do you for?”

“Looking for my son. Ain’t seen him in years, but heard he worked here at some point. Daryl Dixon?” Will ignored the extended hand and stared hard at the old man in front of him with distaste. The man was on the verge of passing out from simply trying to stand up, he could only imagine what sort of shoddy work he passed off around the garage being in that shape.

“Daryl? Hell, that boy ain’t worked for me in years.” Swain laughed at the thought of the Dixon boy he’d hired years ago who’d had nothing to offer in the way of a reference, but had been one of the best mechanics he had ever laid his eyes on. “I’m sorry, but I can’t help you on that one. That boy lit out of here long time ago.”

“Well, hell.” Will scrubbed a hand over his weather worn face, the rough skin of his palms scratched loudly against the days old scruff on his cheeks. He glanced over his shoulder out the small window on the garage doors to where his car sat with that baby he’d been left with against his own will and wondered what in the hell he was going to do about her now. “This was the last line I had on him. His brother had mentioned this place last time I talked to him, been a while though.”

“You know, you might wanna check down the street at the sporting goods store. One of the Collins’s may be able to help you out.” Swain lumbered over to the garage door and opened it up, the metal groaned and popped as it rolled upwards. Like himself, the garage was old and in need of retirement as well, but he just wasn’t ready to give her up just yet. Pointing down the road, he said, “Collins Hunting and Sporting Goods. If they can’t help you can’t no one ‘round here tell you where that boy is.”

Mumbling his thanks, Will strode out of the dank garage like a man on a mission and slammed the car door loudly after crawling in to the rust covered sedan he’d procured for the excursion. Once again, the slumbering child in the backseat barely stirred. Tearing down the street, Will pulled in to the closest spot available and exited the car, leaving the child behind once more, and jogged up to the store with the Collins name etched across the top in dark blue letters. Pushing his way inside the store, paying no attention to the elderly man that was about to exit and certainly not offering to hold open the door for him to leave, Will marched over to the counter and stared at the scrawny teenaged boy operating the register until he finished up the current sale.

“Afternoon, sir. What can I help you with today?” Hunter Crawley asked politely before fully turning around to face the next customer. Seeing the man before him, the young man visibly flinched at the intense expression on the man’s hardened face and tried his best to plaster on the smile required of a customer service representative.

“Heard someone here might be able to tell me where Daryl Dixon is?” Will barked, his patience for the task at hand had long since worn out and his body was starting to sober up from the whiskey he’d had for breakfast and was begging for more to function.

“D-Daryl? I don’t know anyone by that name, sir.” Hunter stuttered, a habit that he had suffered through since childhood whenever he felt under pressure. Realizing that the response wasn’t what the man wanted to hear, he added, “But if someone here was supposed to know him, then I’d check over at Marie’s. The diner a couple blocks over? Sam was heading over there to eat lunch a bit ago, she might know.”

“Sam, you say? What’s he look like?” Will grunted in response, only paying attention to every other word out of the boy. He was tired of having to track down someone in this godforsaken town that might have known his son and where he could possibly locate him.

She, sir. Samantha Collins.” Hunter smiled and jerked a thumb towards the wall behind him that was littered with pictures of Sam throughout the years, from when she was barely knee high and perched on the piano bench to one of her concerts the previous year.

“Who’s she? Some sort of celebrity or something?” He asked as his eyes scanned across the pictures he had scarcely noticed upon entering the store. His dark blue gaze lingered on one of the latest pictures, took in the woman’s gentle curves and beautiful face and wondered how in the hell someone like that would know his good for nothing son.

“She is to us. Hometown celebrity, I guess. Sam usually lives up in Nashville, but her tour ended a few months ago and she’s been back in town visiting her family.” Hunter wondered if he should be telling this man all this information about Sam, but figured he couldn’t take it back now. Glancing over his shoulder at the pictures behind him, Hunter’s eyes landed on a framed image that showed Sam, but had clearly been cut to remove the other person in the photo with her and that’s when he realized why the name Dixon seemed so familiar. “Hey, Sam’s ex-husband’s last name was Dixon, or at least I think it was. You think that might be your son?”

“My son was married to her?” The disbelief in his voice reflected what he was feeling inside. How in the hell had his no good, lowlife son managed to snag a fine piece of woman like that? One that clearly wasn’t hurting for money neither. A sly smile spread across Will’s features, reminding the clerk of an evil coyote hunting a road runner and sent chills down his spine. “Thanks for your time, son.”

Without bothering to wait for a reply from the clerk, Will strode out of the building and crawled back in to the car. The second the door slammed shut, the car was filled with the incessant cries of a baby that had been woken up from its nap and he leaned forward to put his head on the steering wheel to try to calm his nerves before he snapped on the wailing baby in the backseat. It wasn’t like he could pawn it off on someone if it was covered in bruises, they’d ask too many questions….questions he couldn’t afford to answer. Turning around, he glared at the child and was pleased when it stared back at him with wide blue eyes and calmed its cries to sniffling hiccups.

Within the hour, Will Dixon had the address of one Samantha Collins scrawled on a crumbled receipt he had found shoved in to the partially filled ashtray. He was thankful that the phone booth he had managed to locate had a phone book with almost all of its pages dangling from a plastic coated metal cord beneath the grimy telephone. After scrolling through the book, he had located a residence of James Collins that had a second listing for Samantha. Small towns were so trusting and therefore, easy pickings for someone like Will Dixon.

After getting directions for the general area from the clerk at the gas station, not giving away exactly where he needed to go so no one alerted the Collins family, Will nosed the car through the town until he came to the neighborhood that was clearly the affluent section of Collins. Scanning the numbers on the mailboxes, he found the one he needed and pulled up to the curb and took in the surroundings for a moment before crawling out of the car. Using all the weapons he had at his disposal, he snatched the child out of the backseat and headed up the sidewalk.

Hearing the doorbell chime through the house, Sam put down the magazine she was reading in the kitchen while her mother worked on making a casserole for one of the ladies in her book club that had recently had surgery and headed towards the foyer. Opening the front door, she was taken aback by the stranger on the porch and asked, “Can I help you?”

“Yeah, looking for Sam Collins? You her?” Will snapped and instantly regretted the harshness in his response. His body was aching for another drink, it had been too long since his last one and if he didn’t get something soon things would grow infinitely worse for him. Forcing a smile on to his face, he tried again, “I’m sorry for that. Long ride with the little one. Name’s Will Dixon, I’m looking for my son, Daryl. Heard someone here might be able to help me?”

Sam felt like someone had just ran up and punched her in the stomach. She pressed a hand to her chest, while the other clutched the edge of the door with a death grip. Finding her voice, she asked, “Could I see some ID, please?” While some might consider her question rude, she’d had safety concerns drilled in to her from Bo and her father when she had moved away to Nashville and one of those was to always ask for ID if you didn’t know the person at your door. Glancing down at the ratty leather wallet in her shaking hand, she peered at the license behind the cracked plastic window and saw the Dixon name printed there beside a faded picture of the man in front of her. Handing it back, she held open the door and waved him inside. “Sorry about that, my brother is a police officer and he’d have my hide if I just let you in without checking.”

“It’s no problem. People can’t be too safe these days.” Will replied, coming up with an answer he assumed she would want to hear. He followed the young woman in to a neighboring room and appreciated the tight little ass that sashayed in front of him. It was all he could do not to reach out and grab it. He’d always had a fondness for a nice ass on a woman and the one in front of him at the moment was one of the finest he’d seen in a long time.

“Have a seat. Can I get you something to drink? Does your baby need anything?” Sam asked, her southern upbringing demanding that she keep her manners even in the presence of the man that had left such horrible scars on the back of the man she loved more than life itself. Her eyes locked on to the child in his arms, noticed the paleness of the cheeks that should be rosy red and full of life on a baby and wanted to chastise him for not having her dressed in something warmer than a onesie. Sure, it was Georgia, but it was only the first of March and still plenty cold outside. Mr. Dixon declined the offer for a refreshment and swore the child in his arms was fine, that all she did was sleep anyway. “Is she your granddaughter?”

“No, ma’am. Ain’t got any grandchildren that I know of yet. You and Daryl don’t have none, do you?” Will asked hopefully and wondered if he could get more money out of the woman if had children with his son, a stronger connection with Daryl might put himself in better graces with her.

“Sorry, but no, we didn’t have any children.” Sam’s response was small, barely a whisper as she eyeballed the sleeping baby not three feet away from her. Her arms itched to hold the child, to sniff the top of her baby scented head and feel that warm little body clutched tight to her chest. Her body still craved the child that had been taken away from her and her heart ached to finally have one of her own, but unfortunately the man she wanted to have babies with had long since left her. Tearing her gaze from the child, she looked back at Daryl’s father and saw, for the first time, that his eyes mirrored his son’s. Of course, everything else screamed Merle Dixon and sent a wave of disgust through her body. “Um, I have to apologize, Mr. Dixon, but Daryl and I separated nearly six years ago. I haven’t heard from him since then.”

“I hate to hear that. I, uh, well…I just found out I had this kid. Her mother tore in to town after not seeing her in damned near two years and said it was mine, you know? What was I supposed to do? I didn’t have no money, barely got a job. Anyway, I let her move in, but she skipped out about a week ago. Didn’t leave no note or nothing.” Will dipped his head to look at the child, pretending to actually give a damn about the bundle of flesh in his arms. “I ain’t got the best parenting skills and was hoping to find Daryl, see if he could help out some.”

“Yes, well, I am aware of your parenting skills.” Sam replied with a tone full of coldness and scorn. No matter what her mother had instilled in regards to manners, the sight of Daryl’s scarred back kept popping up in her mind and it was making her sick to sit across from the man that had caused them. “I’ve seen plenty regarding your type of parenting.”

“I’d hoped maybe you maybe didn’t know ‘bout that, maybe he’d told you something else had happened to him. But, I’m guessing Daryl told you plenty ‘bout what happened. I can’t say I’m proud of what I done to that boy. I had a tough time with alcohol back then, his mother was gone and I didn’t have no one to help me out. It wasn’t right, but it happened.” Will stamped down the anger rising inside his chest. How dare the hoity-toity bitch in front of him chastise him for the way he raised his son? Daryl was his damn flesh and blood and if he wanted to whip him with a belt from time to time, well that was his right. But, one look in to Sam’s eyes and he could tell that she wasn’t going to help him out with the kid if he didn’t offer some time of repentance for his actions. “I sure could use some help now, too. Ain’t much for begging, was raised not to, but I don’t know squat ‘bout raising no girl. Don’t got no job or a place to stay, but I don’t feel right sticking her in foster care, you know?”

Sam thought about his words for a moment and hated the idea that Daryl’s father might do the same things to that little girl that he had done to Daryl and Merle as kids. Taking a deep breath, her mind was made up pretty quickly after visualizing crisscrossed red scars marring the ivory skin of the innocent child in his hands. “I can help you out, Mr. Dixon. My family has some pull in town. If you don’t mind staying here in Collins, that is? I can get you a place to rent, help you find some work.”

It wasn’t exactly what he wanted, but Will didn’t figure the woman would just agree to take the child and fork over a bunch of money for it. Smiling, he remembered to tone down the grin because he’d been told it looked like a carnivore tracking down a fluffy bunny at times and nodded to Sam’s offer. “Thank you, Miss Collins. I appreciate the help. Anything you can offer.”

Now all he had to do was bide his time until Sam felt comfortable enough to care for the kid and maybe write him a fat check. Once that day came, Will Dixon would be halfway across Alabama before anyone realized he had skipped town and left behind his daughter.

Notes

So, did I portray the slimy Will Dixon to your expectations?

Comments

@aphishinthec


Wow! Thank you so much. Glad you enjoyed it again. :)

Serenity Serenity
12/1/16

I binge read this too over thanksgiving weekend and literally could not put it down. I was a constant reader when the updates were regular, but sadly am the worst at remembering to review. Excellent story to binge read!!

aphishinthec aphishinthec
12/1/16

@Tripper


Squee! Glad you liked it just as much the second time around. :)

Serenity Serenity
11/28/16

So, I may have just gorged myself on this story and read it all over again in a few days. This is one of my very favourite stories of all time. So freakin' good. Thanks again for this wicked story!

Tripper Tripper
11/25/16

@Lunabelle4


Thank you so much!

Serenity Serenity
11/14/16