The Best of Me ( Rickyl )

Chapter 9

The only serious injury he received was the cut over his eye and although it needed a shit load of stitches and had left a very distinct scar. He was lucky to still have his left eye and to this day he still had no idea how the flying debris managed to cut above his eye and below it, not scratching or even slightly damaging his eyeball.

The scar he could deal with easily, he's dealt with scars all his life, but it was the injuries that you couldn't see that still annoyed him now. The drop from the waterfall should've killed him and not a day goes by where he doesn't think about it, but all it did was bruise a few bones which healed within a month. But the aching and stiffness in his body never disappeared and just got worse as time went one. It wasn't anything that he couldn't easily deal with, just a few stretches was all he needed to do before the aching vanished, but it was still a pain in the ass and a constant reminder of that day.

He spent most the morning doing last minute adjustments to the Mustang. He wasn't sure if Rick was still going to come around so they could take one car to Dales cabin. He doubted Rick would, not after what happened last night and he didn't blame him.

He reversed the Mustang out the garage to wash it, but as he shut off the engine he heard the rumble of another vehicle causing him to turn around in confusion before he spotted Ricks BMW slowly pulling into the driveway and he exhaled in relief.

"Nice car." Rick called out, rolling down the window to his BMW as Daryl climbed out Mustang unable to hide the relived smile spreading across his face as he looked over at Rick in the car.

"Dale's policy-" Daryl began to say motioning towards the car before Rick spoke up.

"All rebuilds must be test driven before they're returned." Rick finished for him, pulling his keys out the ignition as he climbed out his car. Daryl nodded in agreement before he motioned towards the garage and disappeared for a moment, leaving Rick outside as he took in just how much work Daryl had done on the car since he saw it a couple days ago.

"Ready to go." Daryl called out, tucking his phone and wallet into his jeans pocket while carrying the urn of Dale's ashes and Rick nodded before they both climbed into the vintage vehicle. Rick automatically sitting shotgun, knowing how much Daryl must be itching to take the Mustang for a test drive.

To both of their surprise the drive wasn't awkward in the slightest. They stopped at the local café and picked up a couple coffees and croissants since neither of them had even thought about making breakfast this morning before they hit the familiar road towards Dale's cabin.

They didn't talk about what happened last night, almost acting like it never happened to begin with. They spoke about old memories of Dale, from the time the old man had caught them making out in the bed of his truck to the time they helped him fix the leaking roof in the bathroom one winter.

Neither of them said anything as they pulled up to the front of the old cabin, both of them completely speechless. It was completely overgrown and run down. Vines and plants had covered the front of the building, the wooden steps leading up the porch cracked and broken. The small vegetable garden he had set up out the front was just a pile of dirt and weeds. They had never seen the cabin like this before, it was always so well maintained and blooming with luscious flowers and plants.

They continued to stare at the overgrown cabin in shock as they silently climbed out the vehicle. Rick grabbed the urn as they began to walk around the side of the house towards the back where they knew Dale's flower garden was, but they were almost scared to see what the flowers looked like.

"God, it used to be so beautiful." Rick commented, breaking the silence as they walked around to the back of the house and Daryl couldn't stop the small gasp that escaped his lips as he took in all the dead flowers, that covered the area behind the house. These tulips were Dales prized possessions. His wife used to plant them every year and after she passed Dale continued the tradition, Daryl couldn't even count how many times Dale had sent to him to work in the garden to maintain the health of the flowers and make sure there weren't any weeds in sight, but now... Daryl couldn't even speak as he took it all in.