Fire and Ice

Sabotage

Lexi sat in the front seat of Daryl’s truck as he first dropped off Tank at home and then took her to his parent’s house.  Riding in silence except for Luke’s chatter, she did her best to keep the tears at bay as she stared out the passenger window.  Pulling into his parents drive, Lexi felt her heart ache knowing she wouldn’t be hanging around them anymore.  Slipping out of the truck and grabbing her bags, she frowned as Daryl took them from her without a word and briskly walked up the porch stairs and into the house as Luke trailed behind him.  Walking sadly towards the house, Lexi walked quietly inside the house and stood there while Daryl talked to his mom.

“Is her room still unoccupied?” Daryl asked

Jane looked between Daryl and Lexi and then nodded

Still looking at the ground, Lexi felt Daryl push past her as he ran up the stairs with her bags.  Coming back down and not looking at each other, Daryl grabbed Luke and held him in his arms. 

“Tell dad that we’re going fishing in a little bit, if he wants to go then have him meet us at the lake” Daryl said softly as Luke cheered, happy to be going fishing. “And Lexi, I’ll let my mom or dad know when your car is done and you can pick it up”

Lexi nodded and stared at the ground, afraid to look at him not wanting to risk that she would cry and throw her arms around his neck and beg him to take her back to his house.

“Goodbye Lexi” Daryl said hoarsely and walked quickly through the front door.

Not wanting to deal with anything or anyone, Lexi ran up the steps quickly and into her room, slamming the door.  Throwing herself on the bed, she was finally able to let the waterworks go.  How did she get herself in such a mess?  It was supposed to be no strings attached, it was supposed to be just for fun but now with Luke thinking she was staying and her being all domestic with doing his laundry and grocery shopping, she had just been fooling herself….she cared about both of them deeply and it scared the hell out of her.  She had plans, she didn’t want to be tied down, that was the exact thing she ran from in New York.  She wasn’t sure where she would end up but she knew what she wanted, a little restaurant on the beach by the ocean and to be able to serve wonderful food every day and this place…..this place was a million miles away from the ocean.  But then again she had never felt like this before, the way she felt when she was with Daryl and Luke….was it real?  Or was it just wishful thinking?  She had no idea what to do….her car could not get fixed soon enough.

Jane walked quietly down the hall and her heart ached hearing the sobbing woman on the other side of the door.  She wasn’t sure what had happened but whatever it was, things had obviously not ended well.  She had secretly hoped things would work out between them and she would decide to stay.  She treated her grandson like gold and she could tell she was absolutely crazy about her son.  Wanting to talk to her, to maybe try and help fix this, she raised her fist to knock but stopped and put her hand back down by her side, remembering Daryl’s words “butt out mom”. 

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Pulling into the gravel drive by the lake, Daryl looked at his dad’s truck sitting there.  Getting Luke out of his seat and grabbing their fishing gear, he watched as his son launched himself at his grandfather who caught him and laughed.

“Hey my boy, where you been?  I missed you” Jack said, giving Luke a hug.

“I was hanging out with daddy’s friend Lexi, she was teaching me to cook…it was pretty cool” Luke explained.

“Ah” Jack responded and looked at his son that was walking towards them looking completely miserable. “Luke, why don’t you go get pappy’s tackle box out of my truck” he said softly still looking at Daryl.