For as long as he could remember it had always been him and his brother. Whether it was catching frogs down at the pond, sneaking beers into their tree house, or sitting at their mama's funeral, Merle was always by Daryl's side. So when Daryl gets a call from his brother's public defender about him getting arrested again, Daryl just sighs and asks how much bail is this time.

"Hey baby brother," Merle drawled, "come to save ol' Merle's ass again, eh?"

"Only cause you're too stupid to learn your lesson," Daryl snapped back. Merle just chuckled, trying to shrug off the sting from the venom in his brother's voice. "Dammit, I mean it Merle. Next time I'll let you rot in here. I got Sal breathin' down my neck for all the money I owe 'im. And Artie is runnin' outta patience with me takin' advances on my check all the time. At this point I'll be workin' for him till I'm eighty to pay 'im back." Daryl paced back and forth, one hand on his hip, the other combing through his hair.

"Easy now lil brother. Don't getcha panties all in a bunch." Daryl's gaze snapped up from floor to Merle's eyes. He hated it when his brother tried to downplay how serious things were. Sometimes his cool humor was well placed, but most of the time it irritated Daryl even more. Merle knew this of course, but both reactions always worked in his favor so it was a habit he never dropped.

The whole drive home Merle rambled on about this hot piece of ass he wanted to nail, whatever tweaker dude he'd like to beat down, and every other thought that passed through his brain. The man had no filter and loved the sound of his own voice. Daryl was used to his brother's ramblings so he was able to tune out Merle pretty easily. It was getting cooler in the fall months but Daryl enjoyed the feeling of the crisp night air sweeping through his open window and calming his worked up nerves from earlier.

"Hey pull over," Merle said suddenly.

Daryl was too lost in his own thoughts to register that Merle was actually saying something to him, so when Merle grabbed for the wheel Daryl snapped at him, "Hey man, what the fuck. Ya don't jus' grab the wheel like that."

"Well if you'd fuckin' listen to me ya dumbass you'd know I told ya to pull over." Daryl narrowed his eyes at Merle as he jerked the wheel at his request, pulling up to Wally's Pub.

"You know if your drunk ass gets into trouble you're going to jail, right?"

"Oh, stop bein' such a pussy, Darylena. C'mon an' let me beat ya ass at a game of pool."

"You can try," Daryl challenged, slamming the door of his pick up shut.

Several games of pool and several rounds of beer later the Dixon brothers found themselves having a good time together. That was until on his way to the head Merle made a new friend.

"Well hey there sugar. Why don't you let ol' Merle here buy ya a drink?"

"That's awful kind of you Merle but I'm all set."

"What's the matter baby. Afraid of what a real man can do for ya?"

"Not at all. You see that real man right there, walking towards us with that pissed off look on his face? Well that's my man, and I'm guessing he's not to happy with you over here harassin' me."

A man just a bit taller than Merle came over, slid his arm around the shoulders of Merle's new friend and asked, "Everything all right over here, Becca?"

"Everythin's just fine, Nick. Merle was just offerin' to buy me a drink but I kindly turned him down."

"Well that's not all I was offerin' now was it sugar?"

From across the bar Daryl could see that things between Merle and his new friends were starting to get heated. Hoping he could diffuse the situation before things got out of hand, Daryl stomped in their direction.

"C'mon Merle. We gotta go," he said stepping between Merle and Nick who were just mere inches away from each other.

Nick put his hand on Daryl's shoulder to shove him out of the way when Daryl snapped. "Get yer hands offa me!" And before he could stop himself Daryl threw the first punch. If the brothers had been sober, poor Nick wouldn't have stood a chance, but thanks to their alcohol consumption, neither Daryl or Merle were on their game. Daryl had the makings of quite the shiner on his right eye, and Merle had a busted lip, but all in all they considered themselves victorious in this fight.

"M'sorry I'm late, Artie," Daryl called as he entered the shop and grabbed his punch card to clock in.

"Jesus, Dixon, what happened to you?" Daryl's boss replied.

"Ah just a lil scuffle with Merle last night is all."

"So Merle's back, huh?" Artie said while walking towards Daryl. He had something to say but he didn't want the rest of his guys hearing it. "You know Daryl, I like ya a lot. You're a good worker and I know I can count on ya. But whenever Merle is back in the picture things start to go to hell. I wish I could keep cuttin' you some slack, but the rest of the guys see it and it's not fair. Next time I won't be able to ignore it."

"What are you sayin' Artie?"

"I'm sayin' get your act together or find another job."

Daryl was glad to have such an understanding man for a boss. And he knew any other place wouldn't have put up with all the shit that goes on in his life, so he was thankful for this one. He really didn't want to lose this job. It was the longest one he'd ever been able to hold down and since everyone else in town knew his and Merle's reputation he doubted anyone else would take the chance to hire him. He had to stop getting sucked into Merle's whirlwind, once and for all.

"I'll do my best. Promise."

"Glad to hear that Dixon. Now you've got quite the line up today so you best get on it."

Daryl didn't normally drink so much so he was hurting today. His head was pounding, his stomach rumbling, and his knuckles were all scraped up from the fight the night before. Time seemed to be crawling by as he prayed for five p.m. to come so he could go home and die.

Had he'd had all his wits about him, he would have recognized the name on his clipboard, but since his hangover was dulling his senses, he called it out without a second thought.

"Daryl?" he heard a female voice reply, "Daryl Dixon?"

Daryl's eyes cut up from their place on his paperwork and met the pair of eyes that belonged to the girl who called his name. A look of confusion flashed across his face before recognition started to set in.

"Remy?"