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Need You Now

Chapter 39

The Present: Thursday night, March 8th. 2012

Not wanting to risk being caught eavesdropping since the discussion on the stage was obviously over, Daryl slipped from the hallway and crossed the auditorium to quietly make his way to the kitchen in search of Jacey. Poking his head in the steamy room, the boiling pots and burning wood in the stoves giving off more heat than could be filtered out the door that was propped open at the other end of the room, Daryl spotted Jacey sitting on one of the counters next to where Donna Collins was working on dinner; golden unruly hair barely contained by the braided pigtails on either side of her head and happily swinging her red sneakered feet back and forth.

Oblivious to the tension that filled the room any time Daryl was near the Collins family, Jacey broke in to a smile when she saw her brother lurking in the door way and called out to him around the chunk of homemade bread she had just shoved in to her mouth. "Daryl! I thought you were lost again."

"Nah, just needed to check something out." Daryl mustered up the courage to enter the kitchen and face Sam's mother for the first time since showing back up in Collins. Between skipping official meals on most days and the hustle and bustle of meal times the few times he'd shown up, Daryl had managed to avoid the scariest of all mother's in the world; the one that could still make him feel like a fucked up twenty six year old who'd never amount to anything but the guy who'd knocked up the town sweetheart and walked out on her barely a year later. Nodding his head slightly, he mumbled, "Mrs. Collins."

"Daryl." Donna stopped stirring the contents of the stock pot long enough to turn towards her former son in law and glare at him disapprovingly. His long locks were disheveled and in desperate need of a washing, as was the grime smeared arms that poked out of an equally dirty sleeveless shirt and vest. "You were shown where the showers are located, weren't you?"

"Daryl said he don't need no shower because he won't catch shit if he smells like soap." Jacey happily pointed out after polishing off the last of the bread she'd been clutching.

"Justina Clementine! You will watch your language or you'll be dinning on soap, young lady!" Donna barked out sharply, chastising the child for using such foul language, something she hated and never would tolerate. When Jacey mumbled an apology and dropped her head to look at her lap, she turned quickly to Daryl and said, "As the adult you should probably learn to watch your language when you're around children."

"Yes, ma'am," Daryl followed Jacey's example and ducked his head, too, wanting to avoid the stern glare he was getting from Donna. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Maggie slip in to the room and edge along the wall to stand near Carol, who was being amazingly quiet. He had never been one to be comfortable with being the center of attention and that aspect of his personality had not changed in the slightest after the turn. Peeking up at Mrs. Collins from beneath the canopy of his bangs, he apologized, "I'm sorry. Ain't really used to being near kids...except Carl and he's got a worse mouth on him than I do."

"Yes, well, it's been a long time, but I'm sure you can remember my position on manners and cursing." Donna felt the corner of her mouth try to lift in a tiny smile, more than a little pleased with herself for making Daryl cringe and apologize. Sure, she'd changed a lot with age, as well as the outbreak, but this mother bear still wanted the man who'd broken her daughter's heart to remember just who it was he was dealing with. Allowing the smile to fully form, she chuckled lightly as she shook her head and turned back to the pot. "Now, what about that shower?"

"I've threatened to hose him off in his sleep, but it didn't faze him." Carol piped in from across the room, where she was pulling fresh baked rolls out of the oven. Her remark earned her a steely glare from Daryl, which she shrugged off. Everyone else in their family had showered and gotten new clothes, it was far past time for him to follow suit and at least make an attempt to fit in here.

"We could just haul him in to the showers and force him to clean up." Donna nodded towards Daryl, who was staring at the women in stony silence. She'd kept her ears to the ground since he'd shown back up in town, had shared more than one discussion about the matter with Cassie and had come to the conclusion that she knew exactly what would get him to take a shower and find clean clothes. Shrugging nonchalantly, she glanced at Daryl out of the corner of her eye and said, "Or he could just do it himself, since I doubt he's going to get in Sam's good graces smelling the way he does."

Daryl offered up only a grunt in response to their comments, not really knowing what to say anyway. He glared across the room at Carol and thought about making a snide remark in regards to how ridiculous she looked wearing that shirt with the flowers all over it like a some mother from a fifties television show minus the skirt and pearls, but opted to just keep his mouth shut. Glowering from being made fun of, he turned to Jacey, the only one who hadn't offered up any scathing remarks about his hygiene and asked, "You ok staying here until dinner?"

"Yep," Jacey nodded her head and swung her legs that dangled off the counter, the rubber soles of her sneakers thudding lightly against the cabinet below. "Where are you going? Aren't you gonna eat dinner?"

"I ain't hungry." Daryl offered one more glare towards Carol and Maggie, who were working hard at avoiding his stare, before turning and leaving the room.

"I think ya'll hurt his feelings." Maggie said softly in the off chance that Daryl was still within earshot. "That really wasn't nice."

"It wasn't nice, sure." Donna picked up the stock pot and carried it over to the sink to drain the water. After dumping the vegetables in to the strainer, she turned back to Carol and Maggie and wiped her hands on the towel that was stuck in the waistband of her apron. "But it was necessary."

Daryl stalked towards the hallway, wanting to put as much distance between himself and the distasteful glint in the eyes of Donna Collins. Didn't matter to her that he'd changed, all she would ever see was the messed up young man that walked out on her daughter only a handful of months after losing their daughter. Cutting the corner a little too sharply, he cursed when he banged his shoulder and caused the tip of the crossbow to clang loudly against the doorframe. He stopped long enough to check the foot rail at the end of the crossbow before readjusting it over his shoulder, but the break in his departure was long enough to let his anger creep up and spill over. Cursing one more, this one with a bit more ferocity, Daryl balled up his fist and punched the door that closed off the auditorium from the hallway that led outside. Seeing the crack that split beneath his knuckles sent his anger receding as he realized that punching things wasn't going to get anything accomplished and certainly wouldn't make anyone in the Collins family believe his claims of the change that had happened to him since he'd left Sam. With a sigh, Daryl turned to leave, but stopped when he found Sam standing just a few feet away from him. The exit door was open, allowing the rapidly fading afternoon sun to filter in and fill the narrow hallway with a soft glow.

"Hey," Sam said after a few moments of silence passed between them. She could tell he was upset about something, the rigid stance and tension that radiated off of him giving away Daryl's feelings...at least to Sam, who could apparently still read him like a book. "You're here earlier than I expected. Everything ok?"

"Yeah. Fine." Daryl dropped his head enough to avoid looking directly at Sam, letting his long bangs hide his eyes. "Jacey was hungry. Ain't got shit at my place."

"Oh. She eats like a linebacker. It's quite impressive." Sam chewed on her lip and wondered what to say next, since it was clear Daryl wasn't going to be the one to do much of the talking. Sam heard the squeal of a young child coming from the kitchen and recognized it as the one Jacey made when she was laughing. "She's probably in there messing up dinner. I should probably go save my mom. Um, are you staying for dinner or...?" Sam let her question fade away as she took a few steps closer to Daryl, who seemed more upset than tense. "Seriously, are you ok?"

"I said I'm fine...and I ain't hungry." Daryl brushed past Sam, avoiding her watchful stare, and stalked down the hallway to disappear out the backdoor.

"Ok, then." Sam whispered to herself as Daryl stormed away from her; his mood a complete change from what it had seemed at the school only a little while ago. She turned and headed towards the kitchen, pausing long enough in the doorway to inspect the damaged door; gingerly running her finger over the freshly split wood as her mind pieced together the sound she'd heard up on stage shortly before seeing Daryl. Curious as to what had caused the outburst, Sam carried on to the kitchen to question the last people that had seen Daryl before her.

"Hey, sweetheart." Donna met Sam in the doorway with a stack of plates in her hand. "I didn't expect you this early, thought you'd play some more. Sounded real nice today."

"What'd you say to Daryl?" Sam blocked her mother's way to the auditorium to start setting up for dinner, crossing her arms over her chest in the doorway. The last place Daryl had been was the kitchen and it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that his bad mood was likely due to something that had been said by her loving, but demeaning mother. Although, now that Sam realized there were several pairs of very curious stares being thrown their way she actually regretted bombarding her mother at that particular moment.

"I didn't do anything to him, Samantha. I simply suggested he take a shower. The man is covered in dirt and God knows what else." Donna shook her head as she sat the plates down on the counter before gently. Placing her hands on her daughters crossed arms, she eased her in to the auditorium for a little bit of privacy. "Honestly, you'd have thought I suggested something horrible to him, but I promise all I did was ask why he hasn't taken advantage of a shower and clean clothes, Sam. You'd think he would want that after being out there for so long."

To Sam, his sudden bad mood made sense now, but her mother would never understand that what she'd done was suggest that Daryl wasn't good enough to be around them the way he was, or that he offended her by not conforming to the standards of the community. Once again, Donna Collins had made Daryl feel like he was nothing, just a nobody, when all she'd been doing was asking why he wasn't making himself comfortable in town. Knowing that by trying to explain that to her mother would solve nothing, Sam sighed since she didn't know what to do. Her heart wanted her to chase after Daryl and make sure he was all right, but her brain was screaming at her to leave him alone, it wanted nothing to do with him. It was, overall, a very confusing situation.

Picking up from Sam's quietness that the conversation was over, Donna stepped back in to the kitchen and picked up where she had left off, preparing for dinner. As she walked back in to the room with Sam, the stack of plates back in her hands, Donna said, "I just don't understand why he got so upset over a little comment about how filthy he is, Sam."

"You wouldn't understand, Mom." Sam turned away from her mother to go find Daryl, her heart wining out in the end. As she headed back across the dimly lit room towards the hallway he'd just stormed out of, Sam muttered, "You wouldn't understand him, because you never got to know him."

Notes

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