The Reunion •Daryl Dixon• •Book Two•

Four

"Liv" Rick whispered over and over as he nudged his sleeping friend, she was back at her hotel and as much as he wanted to drive her back to their house so Lori could console and support her, he knew Olivia was adamant that she wanted to do this on her own. He just wouldn't tell Lori he had the opportunity like right now to bring her back.

"Wakey Wakey" he gave her a bit more of a tougher push and this time she woke bleary eyed. "That was the most id slept in ages" she half smiled, Rick felt guilty to of woken her but he couldn't of been on patrol with a snoring Olivia next to him, his Captain would crucify him. "c'mon I'll walk you up to your room" he gently spoke as he locked his patrol car and escorted Olivia up to her room.

"Things will get better Liv, it might  not seem it now but it will." Rick tried to reassure, Olivia feigned a smile in reply, what did he know? He was still married and had a child. "I'm a twenty-three year old divorcee! who wants me?" she huffed, she was annoyed Rick would even patronise her like that but what else could he say? That she was right and no one would want her? Olivia knew for a fact that would of just upset her.

As Olivia opened the door she tossed her room key on the side and shoved the bottles from her bed making Rick tut "This is not the answer kid" he sternly spoke looking at one of the bottles. Olivia gave him a know-it-all smile "I know, that's why I drunk two and stopped" she replied, Rick still slyly eyed the bin to see if she was telling the truth but she was an adult now, if she really wanted to get hammered in  a hotel room alone she could.

"I gotta get back to work, stop by and see Lori and Carl in the morning, they would love to see you, maybe stay the night?" Rick suggested turning his walkie talkie up as a crackled voice came through "think about it please" he added before giving her a thumbs up and dashing off.

As she watched Rick pull away from the window her eyes darted to the clock on the bedside table it was nearly 6am, she had to be out of her room by 10am "great" she moaned flopping herself on her bed.

She knew at this time Daryl would be awake and fought the urge to call him regardless if hours before she told him she could do this without him. But here she was dialling his phone.

It barely rang once before he answered frantically "Liv?" he asked rather breathy "Fancy breakfast?" she suggested, it threw him off guard as she stammered a confused response but it was a yes.

He arranged to meet her and she ended the call and now felt like an idiot. She was having breakfast with the man who not even a full day ago she divorced.

She didn't have much to freshen up with, she was still in her pencil dress from the day before, not that Daryl had seen her but even he would know that wasn't her standard attire.

Olivia heard the roar of his pick up truck come down the road and made her way out of her room and gave her key back to the snooty front desk girl.

"Its just breakfast, no blubbing" she pep talked herself  but it was more of a warning to herself.

"You good?" Daryl asked after he leant over to open her door for her and she stepped in. "Starving" she moaned in reply. She buckled herself up as he pulled away "You not going to work?" she asked as she watched the hotel she stayed in get smaller and smaller in the mirror "I wasn't going to turn down breakfast" he replied as his truck bumped across the road between gear changes. It made Olivia laugh "Remember when you bought this thing home and it woke the whole trailer park?" she giggled "It still does" Daryl joked back. The night he rocked up at home with it Olivia was convinced it was the end of the world with the sound it made, she was relieved however when she looked out the window and it was just Daryl and not an apocalypse.

As they pulled up at a Denny's Daryl allowed her to enter the diner first, and they both smiled as they inhaled the scent of a cooked breakfast. They really were starving.

The waitress sat them down at a booth and they ordered coffee to start with. Once she bought the coffees over she took their order and they both ordered large breakfasts, Olivia wasn't feeling hungover but she was certainly feeling something.

"Are you okay? Why didn't you come yesterday?" Olivia asked as she blew her piping hot coffee and instantly she saw Daryl look uncomfortable "I didn't need to be there, we were going to be divorced either way" he shrugged. Olivia leaned in across the table "don't act like you never wanted the divorce" she whispered harshly. She didn't mean to snap but the way he responded was as if it was all her doing. "Well its done now" he spat back. Maybe breakfast wasn't such a good idea?

"We were too young" Olivia reasoned "we did it all so fast" she added becoming teary eyed, Daryl swallowed his coffee and motioned her to come closer so he could comfort her and she instantly took up his offer. "aren't we supposed to hate eachother?" she laughed at the irony she found herself in, divorced and back in the arms of her ex husband like nothing happened. "I wouldn't change it though, none of it" Daryl replied stroking Olivia's arm.

Their food came making them scoot apart as the waitress offered "Can I get you two love birds anymore coffee?" making them share awkward glances.

"I know what I'd change" Olivia spoke mouthful of bacon making Daryl look up as he stuffed his face "me cleaning on my day off and you coming home all dusty and oily and you practically rolling over the furniture like an animal ruining my efforts" she laughed and Daryl smiled, it still did things to her when he did that. "Yea, well i'd change you getting undressed and tossing the clothes wherever you tossed them" Daryl remarked but Olivia quickly cut in with a reply "We both did that!"

The pair rabbited on throughout the breakfast, it was as if they hadn't seen eachother in years let alone just divorced. "I know one more" Daryl spoke as he pushed his clear plate into the middle of the table followed by Olivia "You would of gone to Beauty College instead of work" he confessed, his words made a chill shoot up Olivia "bit late for me now" she sighed playing with her fork. "its not sweetheart" he softly replied but Olivia was having none of it "How? I have no money now and in fact no where to live" she snapped getting up from the table and leaving.

"What. The. Hell. Was. I. Thinking!?" she yelled to herself this is why divorced couples don't see each other much. Daryl quickly followed her outside and eyed her to get in the truck and she huffed, arms folded as she did. "I just wanted you to do what you always wanted, you aint no waitress" this was his way of apologising "I had to work, money went out of our accounts quicker than it went in" she shrugged like it was nothing. But it was everything, they both worked nearly seven days a week, long days at that too, they hardly saw eachother. "you were always so grumpy when you got home, I hate being around you" she sadly admitted "its hard at the garage sometimes, I had so much work" he tried to defend himself, Olivia turned to face him "that wasn't my fault" she replied simply.

They sat in a silence for a while and Olivia was about to get out the truck and go on with her day and head to Lori's when Daryl broke the silence and stopped her leaving in the process "You were never happy in any of your jobs" She narrowed her eyes at him "I had no qualifications, all I could do was waitress" she snapped in reply. "And If I remember correctly you put my boss in intensive care" she spat making the tension that much stronger, Daryl didn't acknowledge nor deny that fact, instead he ignored her "he deserved everything he got" Daryl growled, and he did deserve everything Daryl did to him but he risked everything they had for a douchebag like that. Of course Daryl denied ever attacking Jeff but Olivia was always sceptical of it. It was only until she went to wash Daryl's trousers not long after that she found his phone inside and upon opening it found messages from Shane who was a pretty bent cop at the time discussing Jeff being 'scared' to use Daryl's name that she was able to put two and two together.

But that was nothing, absolutely nothing on how bad it got for Olivia and Daryl in the few years after..