Suddenly...Gone

Chapter 5

Emma climbed into Daryl's truck and flashed him a timid smile as he started them towards home. She looked down at her stained uniform and felt embarrassed by it. She had coffee on her and god knows what else. Busy days always meant messy days and as hard as she tried to stay clean, Emma never could. She quickly looked over at Daryl and realized that he was in the same boat. They both worked dirty jobs.

"How'd my tires do?" she asked him finally breaking the heavy silence.

"Good. The spare only needed air, and the other one had a nail in it that I plugged. Easy fixes," he told her. He wished he was comfortable making small talk, but he wasn't. Why didn't he think to tell her about the tires? He was too damn nervous, that's why.

"That sounds good. What do I owe you?"

"Nuthin'"

"C'mon, Daryl I must owe you something," Emma asked again.

"Naw. Garages never charge for plugs, and I was happy to do it. Didn't have that much going today so I had plenty of time fix 'em." It seemed like he was helping a lot of women in need these last few days. It made him feel surprisingly good.

Emma was happy that she didn't have to spend any money to fix her tires. "Thank you, Daryl. I really appreciate it."

"I'll put the front tire back on when we get back. Shouldn't take me long at all," he told her. The rest of the trip was done in silence as neither knew what to say to the other but wished they did.

Daryl finally pulled the truck into the trailer park, and he pulled to a stop in front of his trailer. Merle's motorcycle was gone much to his relief. "Looks like my brother's gone," he said making conversation.

"He's not like you," was all that Emma could think of saying.

Daryl quickly turned and looked at Emma before she got out of the pickup. He put his hand on her arm, 'You've met Merle?" he asked surprised. The way Emma said yes she had, he knew Merle had been his usual dick self. "Did he do or say anything...stupid?"

"He just makes me feel uncomfortable," she told him looking at her hands.

"Sumbitch!" he said under his breath. "Emma I'm sorry. I'll talk to him. I don't know why he is such a ...such a..." Daryl couldn't think of a word that he wanted to say in front of her.

"Jerk?" Emma volunteered.

"That's a nice way of putting it, but we'll go with that. But Emma, if he bothers you or makes you feel uncomfortable again, you need to tell me right away. Okay?" He waited for her to look at him. When she finally did, he could see the relief in her deep green eyes.

"Thank you, Daryl. He's so not like you," she told him with a smile. Daryl loved the way her face lit up when she looked at him that way.

He hated being so shy around women, only when he had been drinking did he ever get lucky, and that was usually because they came on to him. "Naw, we're not alike much anymore. When I was younger, I was trying to be like him, but I just couldn't do it anymore." Daryl had spent enough wasted time being angry and acting like a jackass like his brother. He finally started to become his own man. "Enough of me, let's get that tire back on the car for you."

They both got out of the truck, and Daryl easily grabbed a tire from the back. Maybe he would think of something to say to her if his hands were busy doing what they did best...fixing cars. The car was still up on the jack, so it was easy to get the front tire back on. He noticed that Emma had gone inside and he was disappointed. He was taking the jack off when she reappeared wearing jeans and a t-shirt and holding two glasses of what looked like tea. Daryl stood up wiping his hands on his pants. "Damn, she sure looked good in those jeans," he thought to himself.