Restless

Chapter 25

Carol watched Dayna leave the room and heard the click of the door latch behind her. She turned and crossed her arms over her chest and glared at Daryl.

"What?" he growled at her. Daryl had a feeling he wasn't going to like what Carol had to say by the look on her face.

"What is wrong with you?" she snapped her eyes full of fire.

"Besides me being shot, I have no fuckin' idea what you are talking about," he retorted. "But I can tell you are about to tell me, so what's wrong with me that we don't already know?" Daryl fiddled with the sheet covering him. He was a captive audience and Carol knew that. Whatever she had on her mind, he wanted her to just spit it out and get it over with.

"Why are you avoiding her like the plague? I never thought you were one to play games with people's feelings, but you've proved me wrong." Carol sat back and watched Daryl absorb her words. She could tell he didn't expect that. She saw a flash of surprise cross his scruffy face quickly to be replaced by anger. "Go ahead deny it, Daryl. I know you want to, but the truth is you let her fall for you and then you stomped on it. You disappoint me, Daryl."

Carol had taken a big risk confronting Daryl this way. She certainly didn't want to risk their friendship, but Daryl needed Dayna. He was just too stubborn to realize it. She also did not know the full story behind them. Dayna had never shared it with her, but Carol was good at putting puzzles together. She knew Dayna and Daryl had come back from that supply run with serious tension between them. Daryl had taken off immediately after they got back and as much as Dayna tried to hide it, she was miserable. Before that, she had watched Daryl as his eyes never left Dayna when she was around and Dayna did the same thing. They tried to hide it from each other and everyone, but Carol noticed everything.

"She's too damn smart for her own good," Daryl thought to himself, "but she had no right to be up my ass in my business." His life was his and no one else needed to get involved in it. He took a deep breath to calm his anger before he spoke. "Listen, first there's nothing between me and Dayna. If she feels somethin' for me that's her problem. I'm not about to get involved with someone like her. And how is any of this any of your business? Stay out of it, Carol. I mean it."

Daryl lay back into the bed exhausted. His little tirade took more out of him that he expected. Damn, he hated being this weak. He closed his eyes hoping Carol would just leave. He knew he had been wrong to treat Dayna the way he did, but he didn't know what else to do. Ignoring her and hurting her was the easy way out for him. What did he know about relationships anyway? He was a Dixon and they always screwed them up. Dayna didn't deserve someone like him, no one did.

"Someone like her? She's a great person, who is kind and thoughtful and people love her. What is so wrong about that?" Carol insisted. She wasn't going to drop this...yet.

"That's the whole problem, Carol! She's too good! Once she realized what a piece of shit I am, she'd drop me as fast as she could. I'm...I'm not sure I could handle that, so it's better not to even try!" There he said it, well make that shouted it.

"What's going on in here?" Denise demanded as she burst into the room. "Daryl should be resting, not yelling. Carol, I think it's time to go. I need to check him anyway."

"Okay. I'm sorry I got you upset," Carol told Daryl. He could tell her apology didn't quite reach her eyes. She leaned over to give him a kiss on the cheek and whispered, "You are the best man I have ever known. Someday I hope you realize how incredible you are." Then she walked out of the room leaving Daryl speechless.

Denise had the old fashion thermometer in her hand. Any of the new ones had a run out of battery power so the old fashion way of taking temperatures was their only option. "You okay?" she asked.