I loved Merle is all of his awfulness and wanted to revive him for this story. I loved the scenes between Merle and Michonne in "This Sorrowful Life" and really didn't want Merle to die. He is alive and kicking in this story. He is tamer than the tv version but he still loves Dary and will risk anything to reunite with him. Michonne wanted to rescue Andrea from Woodbury and wants Merle to help her.

Disclaimer: The Walking Dead owns the characters and storylines of TWD. I own nothing. I make nothing from this.

The Odd Couple

Michonne stood in the Georgia woods and watched Merle ruthlessly shoot the young man with him. The kid wanted to keep hunting her and Merle wanted to tell the Governor that she was dead. Why did Merle want the Governor to think that she was dead?

Merle stood over the dead boy and knew that he had just added one more name to a list that just kept on growing. He would bet his remaining hand that Michonne was close by and he saw a chance to get the hell out of Woodbury and find Daryl. He raised his raspy voice to as high as he could, "I know you are out there, Michonne. I have a proposition for you for our mutual benefit. I'll put my guns down and walk away from them. Come on out here. If I wanted you dead, then me and Garigulio would have started to hunt you".

Michonne's first instinct was to run. She could take off and ignore this powwow but her chances of getting away from him if he really wanted to track her weren't really all that good. She moved out into the clearing enough so that she could be seen by Merle. She didn't trust this racist bastard but Andrea was still at Woodbury. Andrea had not sensed the undertone of evil in the Governor that lurked behind his façade of civility. He would never let Andrea leave on her own and someday Michonne was going to get her out of there.

Merle grinned when he saw Michonne. He was burning bridges behind him here, but he had a sense that this was going to work. "Let's get the deal done, my Nubian queen. I don't want to hold hands and sing Kumbaya. I want to find Daryl and I want to get away from the Governor. The Governor is going to send a whole bunch of assholes after both of us if I don't come back. I need you too; he'll kill me when he finds out that I didn't bring your dreadlocked head back to him."

Michonne trusted Merle about as much as she would have sack full of rattlesnakes. "Why would I trust you? You could kill me and take my head back to the Governor."

Merle's voice lowered a bit, "I killed this kid because he wanted to keep on after you. I am not going back to Woodbury so you can either join me and have a better chance of getting away or you can go one your own. Woodbury is at my back. I am picking up everything I can use from the dead and getting the hell out of here. Make your choice, Michonne".

Michonne considered her options while Merle gathered supplies. "Don't be thinking this partnership comes with any fringe benefits".

Merle started laughing. "Not every white man is a rapist. None of my arrests were ever for sexual assaults. My vice was drugs and the only good thing that the Governor did for me was drying me out from the sweet taste of oblivion. So get your fine dark ass in gear and we will be on our way. Woodbury was full of women willing to please the Governor's henchmen. Your virtue is safe with me. I'll just think of you as my little sister".

Michonne frowned, "I am walking behind you. I don't trust you at my back".

"Enough negotiations. You lawyers talk everything to death. Let's get moving". Merle headed off to the left and Michonne followed him with her katana still unsheathed. They pushed through for two hours before Merle called a halt. They sat down on opposite sides of a clearing and had a drink from their canteens.

Merle knew that she had been wounded. "I have a first aid kit in my gear. I can give it to you and you can clean and bandage your wound or you can trust me to do it. There is no going back for me, and you are going to hold me up if that gets infected".

"Okay, you do it. I hate to look at blood." Michonne had an aversion to blood and needles. Infection would kill her more slowly than the Governor but just as surely.

Merle grabbed the first aid kit that he always carried. It was compact but well stocked. "Raise up your shirt and I won't faint if I see blood or your tit." She growled at him and he grinned at her. "Lie down so I can get this cleaned up," he growled. His hands were surprisingly quick and gentle. He cleaned the wound and applied some medicine that he had on it. Merle put on a bandage and held it on with duct tape.

"I am going to give you an injection Little Sister," Merle teased. He handed her a lollipop and then slid down her pants. He wiped an area of her ass with an alcohol pad and gave her a quick injection of antibiotics. "I only have some over the counter pain meds, do you want a couple?" She nodded and he handed her two pills and she swallowed them with some water. He handed her some beef jerky and they ate sitting side by side.

"So where did you get your medical skills?" Michonne asked. Merle had cleaned her wound, put a bandage on, and had given her an injection quickly and efficiently with one hand and his teeth.

He shrugged, "When I was eighteen and too old for juvie I was strongly advised to join the army. It was either that or doing some time in jail. I learned a whole lot about how to hurt people and a little about how to heal them. Can you walk?"

Michonne wanted to lie down and stay down but she knew it was keep on keeping on time. "I can walk if I can get up". Both of them got up clumsily and started back through the woods. Soon, they came to a small cabin with a shed beside it. Merle moved to the shed and Michonne checked out the cabin.

Merle had scouted out here before and knew that there was a four-wheeler in the shed. He was relieved that it was still there. The gasoline was there too. Michonne came in the shed with a sack of provisions. "Michonne, have you ever ridden a four-wheeler?"

She shook her head, "No, but it sounds better than walking. Can you get this thing started?"

"Little Sister, this baby is gonna purr for ole Merle. Looks like your day to try new things." Merle motioned for her to hold a wrench tight while he moved something around on the motor. Michonne realized that even Merle would have problems being a one handed mechanic. After some help from her part and some of the most creative cursing from Merle that she had ever experienced the vehicle fired up.

Merle backed it out of the shed and motioned for Michonne to hop on behind him. She grabbed her sack of supplies and tied it on the back. Merle drove cautiously at first. Michonne guessed that he was getting adjusted to driving with one hand. She could see an occasional walker in the woods but the road seemed reasonably clear. Merle opened the machine up on long clear stretches and Michonne found herself feeling a burst of exhilaration. They were putting distance between them and Woodbury on this ride. Merle might be an unrepentant racist redneck but he had gotten this machine moving. She was still alive and she would find a way to get Andrea out of there.

Merle leaned his head back and howled. He was feeling better right now than he had since he lost his hand and Daryl. He wasn't going to get his hand back but at least he had a chance to find his brother. He couldn't undo what he had done as the Governor's henchman, but he was riding a four wheeler down a road in Georgia in the spring. Even the air smelled better out here, all earth and pine. He didn't mind having the ninja along for the ride. She was as tough as he was and probably tougher than Daryl. If they had had a sister she would probably be just like Michonne and would have to be to survive growing up in the Dixon home.

Michonne felt the wind in her face and she held on tight. Merle yelled, "I know this road now and I am going to take a short cut". He slowed down and veered off the road and they headed across a field and onto a dirt road that ran parallel to the road that they were on. There were a couple of walkers in their way and when Merle stopped she hopped out and dispatched them. He nodded his approval and Michonne was annoyed with herself for being pleased by that.

They traveled for the rest of the afternoon along quiet roads. Michonne had a good sense of direction and could tell that they had been traveling northwest. A few times they had to stop and moved branches or take out walkers. Late in the day they found a place they both agreed with, a farmhouse out of sight of paved roads.

Merle hid the four-wheeler inside the barn but parked it where they could exit out of the back of the building. Together they cleared the farmhouse of the family within. They scavenged food and Merle looked over their vehicles. Michonne let him handle that; she really wasn't all that good with machines.

She did find a camp stove in their shed and a couple of canisters of fuel. She heated up some food and they ate sitting on rockers on the porch. They drank water from the well and talked about their plans.

Merle finished his food and stood up and looked around the place. "I think we are far enough away from Woodbury. You can go your merry way if you want to now, but I want to find Daryl and I figured Andrea told you all about his group . I need to find him. He's the only person in this world that I care about."

Michonne put her plate down and thought for a minute. "I want to get Andrea out of there. She had my back a few times last winter. I owe her. I need your help. I'll help you find Daryl if you will help me get Andrea out of Woodbury". S

"We can't do it by ourselves, Sissy. You are a ninja, but a single bullet can bring you down. I am tough as nails but I only have one arm. We need Daryl to get it done. I can get us in because I left a back door way in that no one knows about but we'll need some help getting out." Merle kicked the porch bannister; he hated admitting that he wasn't the warrior that he had been. Going back to get Andrea was a damn fool thing for him to do but he hated the Governor for turning him into a murderer. Saving Andrea might erase some of the stains on his soul. "What do you know about the group"

Michonne thought for a bit, "They were all living at a big farm when a herd came in and she got separated from them. Two sheriff deputies were in charge, Rick and Shane. Rick's wife had an affair with Shane because she thought Rick was dead so that was a mess. One of the children got lost in the woods and Daryl searched for her for days.

Merle interrupted, "Was it Sophia?"

"Yes, the little girl was named Sophia and Carol was her mother's name". She was impressed that he would remember the names of the people in the group.

"Where was Sophia's father?" Merle hated that fat fucker. "He liked to slap his wife around and I was planning for him to take a long walk in the woods and never find his way back to the camp. Daryl hated him too and I can tell he was itching to protect the wife".

"Andrea said that he was killed in the attack that killed her sister. They lost several people in that one. They broke camp after that, tried the CDC and that didn't work out, and then they were on the road when Sophia got lost. They stopped at the farm because the little boy was accidentally shot. Andrea said that Daryl and Carol had some sort of connection."

Merle pulled a map from his pack and they traced the route from Atlanta to the highway close to the farm. "Do you think they would have gone back to the farm for the winter?" Daryl having a connection to Carol probably meant that he was still with the group. He hoped the boy was at least getting laid.

Michonne shook her head, "We wandered around that area and never saw them. A good size herd came through there and I think they just started looking for a new place".

"Let's go there anyway and check. It's not all that far from here. We could start there. They'll stay away from towns and cities because there would be too many walkers". Merle wanted to see where that misbegotten group had gone after the quarry. He knew right off that hanging around with them was a death sentence. Daryl was trying to feed and protect them already. He told Daryl that they were going to rob the camp and take off. He knew Daryl like the back of his only hand. Daryl would get his panties all bunched up about robbing them that when Merle said, "Fuck it, let's just get out of here" that Daryl would grab their tent and they would get the fuck out of Dodge. Daryl was just too easy to manipulate sometimes.

Michonne took first watch while Merle slept. They had brought some blankets out from the house and put them in the hay loft. It was quiet out here and she had time to think about this strange alliance formed between her and Merle. She needed him because she couldn't rescue Andrea by herself. He knew every nook and cranny in Woodbury. He needed her to help find Daryl. He called her "Sissy and Little Sister" and he behaved like a know it all big brother most of the time. Michonne faced an unsettling truth; she didn't want to be out here by herself.

Merle woke up for watch before her time was up, but he assured her that he never slept too much anyway. Michonne fell asleep and didn't wake up until Merle woke her up. "Rise and shine, Sissy. We are going to go look for Bubby this morning". Dear God, she thought to herself, "I am in redneck hell and Merle is my brother".

So tell what you think. Is this story worth pursuing? It will have Carol and Daryl eventually. So give and honest but delightfully complimentary review please. Just kidding. I would appreciate your feedback.

I started this on Valentine's Day and it really is a love story. Merle loves Daryl and Michonne loves Andrea.