Taking a Chance

Chapter 37

The intense pounding in his head is what woke Daryl up. That combined with the fact that his mouth was dry as a bone and every single muscle in his body hurt he knew he was in bad shape. What the hell had happened to him? Slowly Daryl raised his right hand to his head, yeah it as still attached. He had been doubtful. Carefully he opened his eyes and saw he was in a strange motel room with a single dim light on. From the amount of light coming in from under the closed curtains, it looked to be early morning,

How had be gotten here? What fucking stupid thing did he do this time? It took him a couple minutes before he could physically sit up. Between the shooting pain in his head and the rolling in his stomach, he didn't dare move once he was sitting on the edge of the bed. The one thing he noticed, thank-fucking-God, that no one else had been in bed with him. No matter what happened, he hadn't cheated on Gabrielle.

The minute he said her name, parts of last night started coming back. They had a fight... a really big one. She told him she was pregnant and like the lowlife redneck he was, he walked out on her. "Nice going asshole, you walked out on your pregnant wife. What the fuck is wrong with you?" he asked himself out loud.

"I was about to ask you that same question."

Daryl hadn't heard anyone enter the room, but before he jumped off the bed onto legs that he wasn't sure would hold him up, he recognized the voice. "Grimes, what the fuck are you doing here? What am I doing here?"

The door closed behind Rick and he entered the dim room with a tray of coffees and a bag of takeout. The minute the smell of the food hit Daryl he knew he was in trouble. He bolted for the bathroom and made it just in time to lose his stomach to the porcelain gods. After twenty minutes he was finally able to wobbly stand up. He didn't remember feeling this bad ever. He had many hangovers in his life, but this ranked as the worst one. Getting older sucked if he couldn't handle a few shots and beers.

"Why are you here?" Daryl muttered as he stood in the bathroom doorway.

"To take care of your sorry ass, why else?" Rick took a sip from the piping hot coffee.

"I don't need a babysitter, Grimes. Just go."

"Hell no. Until I find out why you are being such a complete ass to Gabby, I'm staying put." Rick could easily see that Daryl was not happy he was here. Well, neither was he. He spent the entire night sitting in a chair watching his best friend snore the night away instead of being home with his beautiful wife. She had put him in charge of finding out why Daryl was so against Gabby being pregnant, so even if this was the last thing he wanted to do, he was doing it.

"Get out Grimes. That's between me and Gabrielle. Ain't none of your business!" Daryl growled at him.

"It became my business when you got so fucking drunk last night that I had to drag you outta that bar just before they called the station on you. How would that look to Gabrielle's clients that her husband was carted off to jail for drunk and disorderly?" Huh? Did ya think of that?" Rick just shook his head at his friend, and then he opened the second breakfast sandwich he had brought for himself and took a big bite.

Daryl hadn't thought about anything but himself last night. He might be really mad at Gabrielle right now, but he certainly did not want to do anything that would hurt her business. He was still so used to thinking only about himself that he never considered her during his heavy drinking except to blame her. "I don't wanna talk about it."

"You got no choice, man. Take a shower, maybe that'll help ya feel better. I got a cup of coffee here with your name on it when you get out and if you can handle food a sandwich too. There are clean clothes in the plastic bag for ya." Daryl looked at Rick furious that he may have gone to Gabrielle before him. "Relax man. Those are some of my stuff that Michonne dropped off. Should fit ya." Daryl was still looking none too happy with him. "Just go shower before I drink all the coffee on you. I was the one up all night dickhead."