Sam couldn't believe Daryl's group had actually decided to take them in for the time being. She sat in the back of the car, sandwiched between Merle and Daryl and felt suddenly very much like a kid again. She didn't know these people. What if their intentions weren't all that noble? Merle had lived with them for a short while, but their current leader had only just arrived when Merle had been left. He had told her of that sheriff guy who had chained him up on a malls roof in Atlanta and really, how could he trust them to not just drop them off somewhere without their weapons or worse, any way to defend themselves?
She sighed, her eyes flickering to Daryl on her right. His arm was propped up at the space by the window and he was drumming his fingers absentmindedly on the interior trim.
Of course, he was the reason. Merle trusted him to get him out of any precarious situation and she understood why, but still...
He had told the group, that he would go with Merle and her, though. Did he mean it? Would he leave the people he had survived with for so long?
Daryl turned his head then and frowned at her when he saw her staring. She held his gaze and after a few seconds he huffed and turned towards the window again, fidgeting with his fingernails.
Sam turned around to Merle, who grinned at her as if nothing bad had happened at all and he'd be perfectly welcome in this car.
Her gut feeling didn't improve when they stopped a little while later in front of large prison gates.
„Do you really trust these people?" she urged in a hushed voice.
Merle grinned at her again and shrugged: „No."
„Then why are we here? Why let them take us into these walls? It's a damn prison, Merle. These walls are built to keep people in!"
„Ain't nobody holding you captive," drawled Daryl.
She didn't turn around, though, just continued to look into Merle's eyes instead, the question clearly written in her own. Are you sure about this?
Merle hesitated, his eyes wandering to his brother briefly, but then grabbed her hand in his. It's okay, trust me.
Sam sighed, leaned back in her seat and held onto the little comfort she was offered, hoping that this, for once, would turn out a good decision.
The prison inside was a cold and clammy place. The raw cement walls held no warmth and the metal bars, which they had partly covered with bed sheets, obviously to try and create a bit of privacy for everyone, made it look even more uncomfortable. Of course, those brought safety as well, but Sam still couldn't help but feel caged in.
She didn't know what she had expected, but it surely had not been an one-legged old man, a middle-aged woman who looked pretty much scared, a prisoner, a girl, a boy and a baby.
The leader strode around them with a quick, dark glare and made his way over to the girl who had the baby on her hip. He took it out of her arms, pressed a kiss on the head and hugged it tightly, whispering things Sam couldn't make out from the distance.
„Oh, this is just perfect," Merle chuckled, „couldn't you find any more lost cases?"
Oh, why couldn't he hold his tongue? Sam sighed inwardly and just wanted to tell him so when Daryl beat her to it: „Shut up."
„Merle?" asked the woman with the short grey hair, who had stepped closer now.
„Damn woman, wasn't expecting to see you again. How's your nice little hubby? Ain't seeing him around here."
„Ed's dead. The Walkers killed him back in the camp in Atlanta," she answered with a soft voice.
„Well, good for you. That kid of yours sure ain't needing him ‚round."
Everyone stopped moving at that and the sorrow that flickered over the woman's face could only mean one thing. Sam adverted her eyes and felt the warm hand in hers twitch nervously.
„Sorry. Didn' know," she heard Merle say, all traces of his usual sarcasm gone and she couldn't help but feel proud. He could play nice and sincerity was the one thing they'd need right now.
„It's okay."
„You can pick one of the unoccupied cells on the ground floor until we know what to do with you," said the Rick guy, when he turned around to Merle again.
„The girl can share Beth's cell," suggested the old man and their leader grunted his approval.
The blond girl, who had now the baby in her arms again, had to be Beth then. She seemed nice enough, but Sam wasn't going to share a sleeping space with a stranger.
„We'll not be separated," she told them.
The man frowned at her, his eyes trailing from her face to their joined hands.
„Are you related?" he asked.
„As good as," answered Merle for her. „Not leaving her with your group of inadequate devotees."
„Fine," Rick shrugged.
The man eyed him carefully, before whispering: „Rick, you really want to leave her with him? She can't be much older than Beth, I don't think them sharing a cell is a good idea."
„And why not?"
„From the things you told us, he doesn't seem like the kind of man she'd be safe with alone at night."
„Are you seri-," Sam started, but was stopped by Daryl who stomped towards the two men.
„Is that what you think he is? Is that what you thought of me, too, old man? He's not a rapist!"
„His friend sure is," answered the Asian from behind them and everyone turned their heads.
„Glenn," cried the woman next to him.
Sam let go of Merle's hand then and fixed her eyes on the old man: „How dare you! I can assure you that he never so much as laid a fingertip inappropriately on me! We were alone all these months and I trust him with my life! I don't know what happened back there, but I know that he'd never hurt someone like that!"
She didn't know how, but somehow after an argument about the Governor's actions and a lot of shouting from the woman who had to be Maggie, they managed to get everything sorted and Sam found herself in a cell together with Merle. Only when she hit the mattress he had offered to her, she realized how tired she really was. They had been up all day yesterday and run through that forest all night. The last thing she remembered was Merle settling down on a sleeping bag next to the bunk bed before her eyes closed and sleep took over.
Sam woke to the sound of the shuffle of shoes and the bars of their cell being pushed open.
„What do you want?"
Merle sounded every bit as tired as she still felt, but if he was awake, there was no need to react, so she decided to keep quiet and listen. Cautiously she peered through her eyelashes. It was dark in the cell, but in the beginning morning light that fell in through the opening in the sheet covered bars, she could make out the silhouette of a man standing in the doorway.
„Thought we'd talk as long as everyone else is still asleep," came the hushed answer and Sam recognized the voice as Daryl's.
„So?" Merle asked and she could hear the rustle of the blankets as he sat up.
„What do you have with her?"
„What d' you think?"
The bars gave a low rumble when Daryl closed them and the room was drowned in darkness again.
„You bring her with you, you hold her hand, you touch her. She your new fuckbuddy?"
Merle chuckled before answering: „You know she's not, little brother. But even if we'd be fucking, what's it to you?"
„You're my brother. These people here, they trust me."
„Oh yeah, that Rick guy and you, you're so close now," he mocked, voice rising. „That swine chained me up on a roof and left me there to die and you're kissing his ass like a good little bitch, aren't ya?"
„I'm nobody's bitch!"
„So where were you?"
„We came back! We came and you were gone! I didn't cut your hand off, that was you! I didn't leave you either, that was you too, as always!"
Daryl's breathing was heavy now and Sam was sure everyone had heard that last part or at least had woken up from it. She debated on saying something, surely they had to know by now that she'd be awake.
„She's not Haley, Merle. And you know it," whispered Daryl before pushing the metal door open with a loud bang, illuminating the room once more and leaving Sam staring into Merle's pain filled eyes.
