Love in the Aftermath

VIII

4 years later

It had been four years since Lydia came to live with the Harts and things seemed to be going well. Octavia had in fact gone to work and actually manage Wills shop. Daryl had decided to take Will up in his offer to open a motorcycle part of the shop which he basically ran. Damon still worked there and was doing even better, he had learned way more about cars and there wasn't much he couldn't fix or replace now. Delilah had graduated college and was now a fancy lawyer doing absolutely amazing. She even moved closer to home and her and Merle had gotten together. She would come down whenever she could to see everyone, mostly Merle honestly. Lydia had been doing okay she never fully recovered and wasn't the same but she tried to be. William had started dating around finally now that he had a lot of help at the shop and had some time to himself.

They were all working at the shop when Damon finally realized there was something going on between his little sister and Daryl. He had been watching them talk to each other and flirt with each other almost every day thinking he was wrong about his assumption. He wasn't though and decided he was going to talk to Daryl about it soon and then maybe he'd talk to Octavia too.

"Hey Daryl, lemme talk to you for a minute." Damon called out to Daryl who was working or one of the bikes that had come in.

"Mhmm." Was all Daryl said while never looking up at the man.

"Anything you wanna tell me about O?"

"Nah."

"Interesting."

"Mmm." Daryl hummed not knowing what Damon was talking about even in the slightest.

"Come on Daryl. I ain't stupid. You like her." Damon said lowering his voice and coming closer to him.

"I don't know what you talking about." He lied.

"Yea okay. So when are you gonna ask her out." Damon scoffed.

"I ain't." Daryl was getting fed up with the topic.

"Why the hell not." Damon asked surprised.

"Mostly because I don't know what you're talking about." Daryl said refusing to admit anything mostly so he wouldn't have to think about it. He had gone a long time without thinking much about it and he wanted to keep it that way.

"Daryl who are you fighting it man? I mean whatever I'll leave it be but it's clearly there between you two." Damon said walking away while shaking his head.

Daryl was conflicted, he knew it was there on his side and he wanted so badly to tell her but he couldn't lose her. He would do anything to keep her in his life and that meant not telling her how he really felt. What he didn't know was she was having that same talk with Damon now and he might convince her to tell him first.

"O, you got a second?" Damon asked his sister who was concentrated on the computer in front of her.

"I guess." She said still typing away.

"Do you like Daryl?"

"What?" She froze.

"Daryl, you like him right?" Damon asked without much of a tone at all as if he wasn't really asking and knew the answer. Which he did.

"I don't know what you're talking about." She lied.

"Y'all are impossible." He said rolling his eyes at her.

"Wait, did you talk to him, did he say that he liked me?"

"Mmmm why do you care ma'am, if you don't like him then it should matter really, huh?" He said taunting her a little.

"I guess not."

"O, come on, I'm not blind I can see y'all got some feelings there."

"I don't think so."

"You're wrong, or you're just lyin' to me."

"Why do you care, D?"

"Cause, I like to see my family happy. You know that. Y'all make each other happy but if you keep running away from your feelings you're not gonna keep being happy. One day it'll get in the way keeping somethin' like that from each other. I mean look at Delilah, they tried to keep it to themselves and they ended up not being friends for a long time." He told her trying to get her to understand where he was coming from.

"Yea I guess."

"So you do like him." He said smiling.

"Maybe just a little." She said as a smile crept into her face and a blush made it way to her cheeks.

"Yes! Now Daryl won't admit it to me, of course, that stubborn man, but that just means you have to tell him first."

"But what if he doesn't like me and he's not admitting it because it's not there? I mean come in D that's a possibility."

"No it ain't. He likes you for sure."

"Alright. I gotta get back to work and you should to man get outta here." She told him with a laugh at the end.

"Oh whatever." He said laughing back and walking away.

Now she was left wondering what to do. Should she tell him, should she just keep it to herself for now? Does Daryl actually like her or doesn't Damon just think he sees something there? Question after question filled her mind and she had trouble actually getting back to work like she had said she needed to do. What she did know for certain was that she loved Daryl Dixon and if nothing else she didn't want to lose him.

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Kinda a boring chapter but then next one is where things go down hill😭