Merle acts on an impulse while Beth removes stitches from his beaten body

You think I'm a bad boy
You think I'm alright
And what you got
Is gonna keep me up all night
Love Bug, Baby Bee

Painful. Really painful.

That was the first thing Beth Greene thought when she saw the gashes and stitches all over his body. Gashes across his chest, bite marks across his arm – by the Governor and not a walker, thank God – and nasty bruises. He looked so horrible... And her heart ache for that. For the pained look on Daryl's face – having dragged his brother back all by himself – and for the pain this man had gone through for Daryl... And them.

She'd helped her father when they got him inside. Had to help hold him down as he thrashed, mind and body still trapped in whatever battle he'd been in. Beth had a bruise on her wrist for a week after the way he'd grabbed her, but she hadn't cried or even told her father til later. It hadn't mattered. Making sure Merle Dixon lived had been important.

"Whatcha doin here, Girl?"

Beth stood in the doorway to his cell – his room – as he drew the cover he'd put over it aside. He healed up fast enough. He was still bruised – the most prominent one was a blossom of colors by his left eye – and he still walked with a limp... But he was up and moving, which Beth had to give him credit for.

Beth held up one of the medical kits her father had handed her She had volunteered to go in his place. Ever since all the Woodbury residents had moved into the prison, he was busy helping the elderly with arthritis and cleaning up sick kids. So when he'd mumbled tiredly about working on Mr. Dixon Sr. – Daryl was simply Mr. Dixon – and his stitches, Beth had volunteered.

Of course her father had been wary. While Merle may have helped save the whole prison and ended the Governor with Michonne's help, he was still Merle Dixon. And the idea of leaving her alone with him while he was moving about and stronger than he'd been while bed rested, was obviously not something he wanted. And Beth had seen that. But she'd insisted. And like always, her father was wore down and here she was.

"Come ta play Doctor with me?" he teased with a wolfish grin.

Beth's cheeks flamed, but she kept her gaze and motioned for him to sit down. He eyed her and tilted his head to the side, taking her in before he snorted a laugh and backed up until he was sitting on his bed. Beth stepped into his cell, the cover swaying back into place on her way in, giving them privacy that made her stomach jerk.

He removed his shirt without thought and Beth bit down another blush. She'd seen the man shirtless before... But he'd been unconscious or thrashing in pain. Now she could make out the muscles in his arms and the broadness of his barrel chest. The light patch of graying blonde hair on his chest...

"Well get it to it, sugar bite," he drawled, sounding agitated now as he sat down and eyed her.

"Beth," she said softly, causing him to wrinkle his brow at her. "It's Beth... My name."

His steely blue eyes twinkled with amusement and he scoffed and motioned for her to get to it with his only remaining hand. She tightened her ponytail before dragging on a pair of plastic gloves and grabbing the scissors and alcohol.

She decided she'd go for the largest one first. It was a stitch along his left bicep that her father had to double stitch. It looked as though someone had dragged a jagged edge across his skin and ripped into him; like someone had used a box-cutter.

Gently, she began to swab at the stitches with alcohol. He stiffened and his bicep went hard, flexing under her palm. She heard him snarl as she started numbing it with a numbing cream that had been found on a run a few weeks ago. As quickly as he had stiffened, his muscles relaxed. Once the cream was in the skin, Beth went to work, plucking and cutting out the medical string carefully.

-0-

Merle watched her work, gritting his teeth at the sensation. He wasn't no pussy bitch, but fuck did getting shit cut out of ya hurt! He'd been high enough for cutting his arm off that while it had hurt he hadn't felt as much pain. Now it felt like he was getting stabbed by that asshole again.

The only thing that didn't hurt was having girlies hands on him. Although she had on them medical gloves, he could feel the heat of her fingertips through the plastic. And the position they were in was rather appealing, Girl standing over him between his legs. She probably hadn't even realized he'd maneuvered her between his legs as subtly as possible. He could almost grin at the look she'd give him.

The other good thing about the angle was how close she was and how he could pick up her scent. Girl smelled of sandalwood, soap, and female; that familiar, feminine musk with a hint of flowery shit. It was enticing. Girl smelled clean. Looked it to. Her skin was smooth and porcelain like. And her hair was a goldish blonde and a few soft locks tickled his shoulder.

His steely blue eyes followed the trail of her hair to her shoulder before it followed to her jawline and down to the pulse along her neck... And that's where he saw it. His eyes narrowed in on the small blemish. It looked about the size of his thumb and was a very pinkish red.

Without a thought, Merle lifted his left hand up and wrapped his hand around her throat, brushing a thumb along the mark. And instantly Girl froze, her hand freezing and the scissors going slack in her hand. She didn't move and he carefully thumbed the mark before sliding his hand upto her chin before drawing it back down.

"Get bit by a mosquito, darlin'?" he smirked, knowing damn well what that little mark was but wanting to see how the little bible thumper reacted.

Her face went red, the flush moving over her face and down her neck, flushing her skin in an appealing way. His smirk slid into a shit-eaters grin and she ducked her head, fingers shaking and biting her lower lip as she went to work.

He started laughing... Until she yanked particularly hard on one of the stitches enough for him to feel it and he bit out a loud string of curses. He glared darkly at her as she met his gaze, face still red but doe-like eyes flickering with indignant at his teasing. Girl had a little fire, huh?

"Looks like a damn bug bite," he harrumphed and he saw her bristle.

"It's a love bite," she mumbled softly, focusing on her task of cleaning and making sure she wouldn't have to drain the wound as she got half the stitches out.

Merle snorted loudly and pointedly looked at the mark. "That's more like getting bit by a bug than a bite mark, darlin. What, that boy of yers just flash his teeth on ya?"

"Zack," she said quickly, eyes meeting his briefly before ducking again, her voice softer. "His names Zack..."

Ah. Thaaaatt's right. The little boy band shit. He recalled when the kid had been brought in with two other kids his age. He gave the kid props, though. Accordin to his brother, kid had only been wielding a bat with nails hammered into it and a metal one and had been swinging down walkers with his little friends when he'd been found by Daryl and Glenn while on a run while he'd been out cold. He'd only seen the kid around a few times, but he knew him and little blondie here were apparently some cute little pair. He almost snorted.

"Boy Band didn't leave no love mark, Girl. That there aint nothin but a nip. Like a sting from a big ol' bee," he snickered as she went to work on a stitch on his left forearm.

His hand gripped his knee while his metal cover dug into his bed. The little ones could hurt worse than the big ones with this shit. He saw her lips purse as she flashed him a few glares but kept her lips pressed together as she worked.

Watching her, an idea formed. It was a stupid, reckless, and downright dumbass idea... But that would make it all the more fun. Especially if girlie played along. Hell even if she didn't, he doubted she'd go runnin right away.

So – without any other thought – he leaned forward and growled into her ear. "Let ol' Merle show ya what a real love bite is, sugar cube."

Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped. And with that he leaned forward and went for where the boys mark was and wrapped his mouth around her flesh. Instantly he was greeted with more of her clean scent and her very clean taste with just the slightest hint of salty sweat and just a smidge of that soup she smelled of.

To keep her from jerking back, he threw his stump around her waist, one arm holding her in place. He felt her shudder and her fingers curl around his forearm. He winced as she tugged the skin my his stitches, but didn't let up, his teeth, tongue, and lips working the soft, tender flesh of her neck, kneeding and abusing and soothing the skin all at once.

When she didn't scream or start to struggle, he smirked, thinking he'd frozen her in place... And then he heard it. The softest, mewling moan and whimper. His body stiffened and he demoved his mouth from her neck and drew back, their eyes meeting, her face flushed and eyes glazed with surprise and somethin-

Merle quickly released her and shot up, almost knocking Girl onto her ass.

"Get out," he ordered gruffly, grabbing her arm and dragging her out his cell, shoving her medical kit to her and slamming his cell door shut, yanking the cover fully in place to block any light or any view of himself.

-0-

"Jesus, Beth! Zack really left one on ya, didn't he?" Joni Garber – a girl Beth's age who had been saved by Maggie and Carol while they'd been on a run with Tyreese – whispered as she brushed Beth's hair aside and looked at her neck.

Beth – the two having been on dishes duty – reached up and touched her neck where Joni's fingers had brushed and she felt heat overwhelm her, looking down at the small bucket of water they used to wash the dishes.

"Yeah... He got a little overzealous," she teased and Joni grinned before shaking her head and going to work on drying the dishes Beth handed her.

Two days had passed now, and Beth was still sporting The Mark, as she had come to call it. Maggie had teased her about it already, but also threatened to beat Zack if he left another one like that. Zack had seemed surprised and had apologized, admitting that he didn't think he'd got her that hard. Rick had sputtered about it to her, while also joking if he should have a "Talk" with Zack.

None of them knew. None of them had the slightest clue that right now she was sporting Merle Dixon's mark. That is... She was sporting his "love bite"... No one had a clue. And Beth wasn't going to correct them. The only people that needed to know was her... and him.

From their spot on the wall of the prison, Beth could see the watchtower. She instantly found his larger frame swagging across the outside by the rail, talking to Daryl, who flipped him off as he undoubtedly said something to piss the younger Dixon off.

She'd heard from her daddy that he'd gone to Carol to get the rest of the stitches removed. Her father had been concerned about why that was, but Beth simply stated that she'd been a little nervous around him and he'd wanted to make it easier on her. It was a little far fetched – it was Merle, he didn't care about who he rubbed wrong – but her daddy was one to see good in men so he'd accepted it without much questions asked.

"Those two are weird," Joni spoke up, causing Beth to blink out of her thoughts.

"Who?" she asked.

Joni pointed to the tower where Merle and Daryl were "fighting" - Daryl shoving Merle and Merle smacking him upside the head as they sneered at one another – and she felt herself smile just a little, because she could see Daryl didn't really have anything behind his glare and yelling and Merle was completely relaxed-

Dear God she was reading his body language now!

"It's just a sibling thing," Beth said, her face red as she scrubbed at the dishes a little rougher than she needed to.

Joni shrugged and hummed as she turned the conversation to the boys their age and the few little rumors she'd grasped onto, chattering away while Beth did her best to not look up at the tower.

-0-

Merle bit down on his toothpick, eyes staring out into the dark as he watched for any activity. The air was cool – winter would be approaching soon – and his mind was here and everywhere at the moment.

Two days – now almost three he was sure – had passed since he'd pulled his little move on the little bible thumping, farmers daughter. He'd waited for all hell to break loose. Waited for Chinaman and Bo Peep ta come storming at him with Officer Friendly on their ass and his brother with his dick up his... But nothing. He was still treated the same, and nothin was happening.

He'd found her walking with the kid – Li'l Asskicker was such a fucking Darylina thing to call the little shit – or talking with Mouse or even hanging around her little boy toy and friends. But otherwise she hadn't tried to avoid him or approach him. Things were just as they were before she came into his cell.

Part of him was disappointed. He'd been looking forward to a little drama. And boy would that bring up some drama with Girl's sister. She may have been overpowered at Woodbury but girl was a firecracker, hit like a Hellcat, and had one mean choke-hold. And with Chinaman – who he admitted had more balls than he thought – it would be a helluva party.

But another part of him was a little surprised. Why hadn't girlie gone running for the hills and told everyone? Sure he hadn't really done anything bad – a goddamn hickie was all he'd given her – but she had a good chunk of the prison folks wrapped around her dainty finger and if she hollered wolf, they'd come a runnin for his hide.

A knock on the door interrupted his thoughts and he turned to find blondie standing in the doorway with a canteen of coffee and a bowl of what smelled like squirrel meat soup. He straightened and dropped his feet to the ground – having propped them on one of the tables – and watched her simply stare at him before entering.

She didn't say a word as she placed the canteen and bowl where his feet had been. It was when she was closer that he noticed she had her hair pulled completely back and wasn't hiding behind it. That was what he'd been waiting for. For the girl to try and cover it up.

But nope. Girl had to go and shock him by leaving it out in the open for everyone to gawk at. And he had seen a few of the men look at it and murmur in wonderment about it, but he hadn't paid mind to her not even using make-up on it (not like she had a lot but he knew there was still a little bit of that shit floating around this place).

She wiped her hands on her jeans and nodded to him before turning and going for the door. He watched her go to close the door before he spoke up.

"Surprised ya aint gone runnin up the hill about all this, darlin," he drawled slowly, watching her stop and turn those doe-like eyes on him.

"I'm a big girl, Mr. Dixon. A little love bite isn't worth throwing a fit over," she spoke up and he bit out a laugh, a smile tugging at the corner of her pursed lips, startling him more at how damn calm she was being.

"Besides... I kind of liked it," she stated shyly and Merle almost choked on his spit, eyes widening as that smile tugged wider and she shut the door, leaving him in a stupor.

"Sunuvabitch!" he rasped out, catching his breath before he started to laugh again.

Well I'll be damned.

R&R Plz