This hopeful life | Rickyl

Hope shines bright like a smile

On Friday, Rick sat down with Lori and their lawyers to draw up a draft. Lori was more her old self which meant everything was not going to go smoothly. Somehow, Rick wasn't surprised. Afterwards, he met Daryl for a couple of games of pool. Daryl sensed Rick just wanted to get his mind off his divorce and didn't ask anything. Even after two games, Rick was still quiet and withdrawn.

"I'm sorry."

"Don't."

"Shouldn't take it out on you."

"You're not. I get it."

"You're a good friend."

"Pfft. I'm just drinkin' beer an' shootin' pool. An' winning. Again."

"Hmph." Rick looked at the table more closely, sighed, rubbed the back of his neck. "Let me rephrase that. You're a terrible friend."

"Nah, you're just a terrible player."

That got a chuckle out of Rick which might just have been what Daryl had been aiming at.

*

Before they parted for the night, Daryl had invited Rick to come practice some more shooting the next day. This time Rick came prepared: he didn't have high hopes that two six-packs would make Merle like him any better, but maybe he'd not hate him more, either. Hope springs et cetera et cetera.

He arrived early, nobody was home yet. He sat down on a porch chair that had obviously been purchased for its sturdy structure and not for aesthetic value. He leaned the chair on its back legs against the wall and relaxed without a coherent thought in his head, and watched the midday sun lavish its rays on the small batches of wild flowers and the too-tall grass on the Dixon front yard. He was pretty damn close to falling asleep with a stupid, relaxed smile on his face, when Merle's truck turned on the driveway.

The roar of the engine died down, the brothers stepped out. The glower targeted at Rick - courtesy of one Merle Dixon - burned on his skin, and for one extremely amusing second Rick toyed with the idea of annoying the man by being obnoxiously pleasant to him. However, his aim wasn't to aggravate the difficult situation any more than what was unavoidable simply because he was Daryl's new friend, and a cop, and a man. He was no threat to Daryl, and he'd do his very best to show that to Merle. Oh, he was pretty sure they wouldn't be sharing drinks and swapping secrets any time soon. Rick would settle for a strained tolerance. Jokes aside, the most important goal was to soothe things down so that Daryl wouldn't have to listen to Merle's bigoted tirades.

He stood up and nodded politely to both men.

"Hi, Rick, hope ya didn't hafta wait too long." Daryl's tone was determinedly nonchalant.

"Our friendly li'l officer seemed to have no trouble availin' himself to our chairs," Merle sneered.

Rick paid him no attention. "Not long at all. Almost fell asleep though, it was so comfortable on your porch."

"What, something kept ya up all night?" The sneer had turned to a snarl.

Rick sighed to himself. Actually, it was a really good thing he and Daryl had had that conversation, he was much better prepared for this inane onslaught.

"Cut it," Daryl snapped.

"It's ok," Rick said to him, and turned to address Merle. "Yeah, something did. Thanks for asking, that's very considerate of you." Good Lord, there goes the decision to not be obnoxiously pleasant... "Long story short, my life is kind of a shitstorm these days. Your brother has been a lifesaver, I honestly don't know what I would've done without his help. But yesterday was... especially bad. Even after," he glanced at Daryl with a smile, "Daryl thoroughly decimated me at pool, it just... well, I didn't sleep so well, 's all."