Leave Out All The Rest (Bethyl AU)

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She always l o v e d the things the rest of the world had forgot, like snails and slugs & the broken flowers.
I think that's why she l o v e d me, I was just another broken thing that the world had left behind.
•Atticus poetry•

Daryl turned the bike off and sat on his bike for a moment looking his old house, the shack. He didn't want to be here. He never wanted to be here again but he was, he thought his brother might be there so he was there, looking for him. As soon as Daryl cut the bike off the door opened and Daryl felt his throat go dry when he saw his father step out onto the porch.

"I'll be damned, it's my own flesh and blood. Comin to visit yer pops, huh? Coulda come sooner, been bed riddin the last week and a half." Merle senior said and Daryls face didn't hide his distaste. He looked at his father who was wearing his normal sweat pants and white tank top. He looked thin and moved slower than usual. Daryl got off his bike and tried not to think about the last time he saw him at the shack; the last time he saw his mother alive.

"Merle been by?" Daryl asked ignoring the smile on his father's face.

"What? We ain't gon' talk about things? Catch up some? Sad I missed her funeral, thirty years of marriage and I don't get to say goodbye."

"Don't fuckin talk about her. Not to me." Daryl said in a growl. His temper was low but he could feel the heat rising inside him.

"I'll talk about my wife if I want to, wait, wait, wait, this is priceless. You think I'm the reason she's gone don't you?" His father said through staggered laughs.

Daryl just glared at his father, gripping his knuckles tight.

"If you ain't been here that night she woulda never flipped her shit. That's on you. It's your fault the bitch killed herself."

Daryl stepped on the porch and in his fathers face.

"Don't you fucking call her that!" He yelled and grabbed the beer bottle in his fathers hand and threw it to the ground in frustration. His father held up his hands and took a step back.

His father just laughed and opened the door to the shack and looked over his shoulder, "Your dumbass brother ain't been here. It was a fucking joy to see ya son."

Daryl watched him go back inside and Daryl kicked the door in frustration. He hadn't wanted to see his father but he hoped Merle may have came by or called him to cuss his fathers out at least. He shuffled back to his bike and felt like a million bricks laid upon his shoulders as he drove down the road towards town.

_>_>_>_>_>_>

That night, Daryl sat on the edge of his porch waiting for Beth to come by. When she heard he went to go see his father she didn't hesitate to worry and insist on seeing him. He went into work after seeing his father and was still there when he told her. He told her there was no sense in coming by the garage and he could just her tomorrow when they planned to go down to the lake for the day. But Beth being Beth, she insisted to come over as soon as he left work. Daryl sat there thinking about what happened with his father and wondered why he was so surprised. Of course his father would be a jackass, of course he would talk shit about his mother, and of course his brother didn't go to the shack... Merle was hardly there when they did live there. As he was thinking this he saw Beth's truck pull into the bar parking lot and then over to the shack. He never let her inside, he didn't want her to see what a dump it really was. She hugged him as soon as he opened her door. He wrapped his arms around her and felt her small body pressing into his, he took in her sweet sent of strawberries and fresh air and smiled into her hair. It didn't matter how shitty of a world he lived in when her world came colliding into his.