WARNING! This story contains spoilers, racial slurs, violence, graphic details, and explicit adult scenes.

(I have failed to add the DISCLAIMER in the first chapter! Anyways, I do NOT own The Walking Dead, if I did...there would be a cure by now.)

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Chapter Three — Camp Melodrama

The group quickly walked back to the survival camp.

"Merle!" Daryl shouted as he walked towards his tent. Thalia rolled her eyes, she felt that if Merle was here she'd have to leave the camp. That's because she strongly disliked Merle for several obvious reasons. "Merle! Get your ugly ass out here! I got us some squirrel! Let's stew 'em up."

"Daryl, just slow up a bit. I need to talk to you." Shane said before Daryl could reach his tent.

"About what?"

"About Merle. There was a… There was a problem in Atlanta." Shane told him. Thalia looked at Shane then at Daryl.

Daryl nodded before responding, "He dead?"

"We're not sure."

"He either is or he ain't!" Daryl shouted. Thalia noticed her two girls coming out of the tent, watching the scene in front of them.

"No easy way to say this, so I'll just say it." Rick said, stepping forward.

"Who the hell are you?"

"Rick Grimes."

"Rick Grimes," Daryl said mockingly, "you got something you want to tell me?"

"Your brother was a danger to us all, so I handcuffed him on a roof, hooked him to a piece of metal. He's still there."

Thalia's eyes widen as she looked around to the group. She might strongly dislike Merle, but no one deserves to go out like that.

"Hold on." Daryl said with a pause. "Let me process this. You're saying you handcuffed my brother to a roof and you left him there?!"

"Yeah." Rick said simply. Daryl went to attack him, but Rick shoved him off.

"Hey! Watch the knife!" T-Dog shouted to Rick. Daryl pulled his knife out, but Shane was able to come up behind him and put him in a chokehold. Thalia's hand went to her gun. If they were going to hurt Daryl, they would feel her wrath.

"Okay. Okay." Shane said into Daryl's ear.

"You'd best let me go!" The southern man said as he struggled against the ex-cop.

"Nah, I think it's better if I don't."

"Choke hold's illegal." Daryl mumbled.

"You can file a complaint." Shane said sarcastically. "Come on, man. We'll keep this up all day."

"You better ease up on him, Shane. I'm not kidding." Thalia commented, hand still propped on her gun. "He can't fucking talk because he can't breathe! Ease up! Now."

Shane glanced at Rick. Rick looked between Shane and Thalia. Knowing that she was right, Rick nodded at his friend to ease up on Daryl. Shane reluctantly agreed and loosened his grip on the hunter.

"I'd like to have a calm discussion on this topic. Do you think we can manage that?" Rick asked. Daryl stayed quiet, giving the new guy a glare. "Do you think we can manage that?"

"Hmm?" Shane asked, trying to get a response from the rugged hunter.

"Mmm. Yeah." Daryl agreed after thinking about it. Shane let him go.

"What I did was not on a whim. Your brother does not work and play well with others."

"It's not Rick's fault. I had the key. I dropped it." T-Dog said from where he stood.

"You couldn't pick it up?" Thalia asked with her hands on her hips, and eyebrow raised. Daryl grunted, wanting to know the answer to that question.

"Well, I dropped it in a drain." The African American man said bluntly.

"If it's supposed to make me feel better, it don't." Daryl said getting annoyed with the situation, he stood up from his position on the ground.

"Well, maybe this will. Look, I chained the door to the roof… So the geeks couldn't get at him… With a padlock. It's gotta count for something." Thalia shook her head slightly. Daryl was about to run off to his tent, not wanting anyone to see the tears that threaten to fall from his eyes.

"Hell with all y'all! Just tell me where he is so that I can go get him." Daryl shouted to the group.

"He'll show you." Lori said, nodding her at Rick. "Isn't that right?"

Rick nodded, avoiding his wife's gaze. "I'm going back." The olive skinned woman scoffed before walking into the RV.

Daryl walked back to his tent, when he opened it he saw Thalia's kids in it. The oldest one was sharpening some sticks while the other one was coloring.

"What are y'all doing in here?" Daryl asked, he didn't mean to sound as harsh as he did. KK rolled her eyes.

"What does it look like?" The child spat at him. Daryl was slightly shocked at the sudden attitude.

Thalia cleared her throat from behind the southern man. He turned to look at her.

"Shane told us we could use this tent since you were out on a hunt." Thalia said before handing the dead squirrels to Daryl. "You forgot about these dead little critters when you threw them at Rick."

Daryl took them, he looked down to his feet then back at Thalia.

"We can move out of your tent if you want us to." Thalia told Daryl.

"Mom, that's bullshit! Where are we going to go?"

"You watch your mouth! Don't talk to your mama like that," Daryl instinctually said, he didn't know where that fatherly sternness came from. KK never had someone, a man, talk to her like the before.

Instead of a smart comment, she shut her mouth and continued to sharpen some more sticks.

Thalia raised her eyebrow, she never seen KK react to someone with the respect she instantly had for Daryl. Thalia knew why there was a spark of "Father & Daughter" moment between them.

"Y'all can stay in here. I'm never in this damn tent anyways," Daryl mumbled before walking off. Thalia looked at KK.

"I'm going with them to look for his brother."

"You know that man or somethin'?" KK said as she looked up from her sticks to her mom. Thalia eyes were locked on her daughter's big browns and nodded. "I like him."

"You do?"

"Yeah, there's just something about him." KK told her mom honestly.

"Dixon has the effect on people."

"Dixon?" KK asked, almost mentally making a connection to herself. "My last name is Dixon."

Thalia mentally slapped herself in the face. It was this moment she knew...she fucked up.

"Uh..." Thalia said. "Look after your sister for me." The mother wanted to badly change the subject. KK sensed that, so instead of pushing the subject...she let it go.

"Yeah, whatever."

~•~

Rick was putting on his sheriff outfit as Shane walked towards him.

"So that's it, huh? You're just gonna walk off? Just to hell with everybody else?" Shane barked in his ear, a little peeved off.

"I'm not saying to hell with anybody… Not you Shane…"

"Lori least of all. Tell her that." Shane said with a scoff.

"She knows." Rick said with a small shrug.

"Well, look, I… I don't, okay, Rick? So could you just… Could you throw me a bone here, man? Could you just tell me why? Why would you risk your life for a douche bag like Merle Dixon?" Shane said loudly.

"Hey, choose your words more carefully." Daryl warned the ex-cop.

"No, I did." Shane said matter of fact. "Douche bag's what I meant. Merle Dixon…The guy wouldn't give you a glass of water if you were dying of thirst."

"What he would or wouldn't do doesn't interest me. I can't let a man die of thirst… me. Thirst and exposure. We left him like an animal caught in a trap. That's no way for anything to die, let alone a human being." Thalia smiled at Rick's words. He was really a good man.

"So you and Daryl, that's your big plan?" Lori said bitterly, folding her arms. Rick then turned to Glenn.

"Oh, come on." Glenn groaned.

"You know the way. You've been there before… In and out, no problem. You said so yourself. It's not fair of me to ask… I know that, but I'd feel a lot better with you along. I know she would too."

"That's just great. Now you're gonna risk three men, huh?" Shane said with a scoff.

"Four." T-Dog said as he stepped forward. Daryl huffed.

"My day just gets better and better, don't it?" Daryl said with a grunt. Thalia rolled her eyes.

"You're starting to sound like Merle." Thalia said with her arms crossed as she inched forward towards the group of men.

"You see anybody else here stepping up to save your brother's cracker ass?" T-Dog asked Daryl.

"I'm going." Thalia told the men. Their heads snapped towards her direction. Daryl was the first to speak.

"The hell you are!" Daryl snapped at the woman who stood beside him. Thalia glared at the redneck.

"You don't get to suggest what I can and cannot do! You lost that privilege years ago!" Thalia hissed at him. Everyone was starting to catch on, Thalia and Daryl use to be together.

"He's got a point, Thalia." Rick started to say. "You got two little girls who need you here."

"Do not pull the stereotypical "you're a mom, you should stay with your kids" bullshit on me! My daughter, KK, knows how to protect herself and her sister without me. The child has killed more walkers than I have and that's saying a lot." Thalia said as she snapped on all the men in the group. "I'm going to help find Merle and there's not a damn thing either one of you men could do about it."

They were speechless. Although Daryl wasn't happy about her decision, he smirked at the attitude she was giving them. It was one of things he loved about her.

"That's five." Dale said, keeping count of the people they were leaving for Atlanta.

The group continued to discuss why shouldn't and why should Rick leave. As Thalia was listening, Daryl pulled her to the side.

"I really don't want you to go." Daryl told her honestly.

"Yeah," Thalia said, "well that's too damn bad. I'm going."

"You don't even like Merle. What are you trying to prove?"

"I ain't trying to prove shit!" Thalia told her ex boyfriend, who stood there with his crossbow on his shoulder. "We're going to Atlanta. I was hoping to find some more clothes for Emma Kate and KK. They've out grown most of the clothes they have now. They getting too tall." Daryl nodded as he glance down at his feet then back at her.

"Your girls...where they daddy at?"

Thalia froze. "Um, he's around."

"So, you know he ain't dead?"

"Oh yeah." Thalia said as she shifted on her feet uncomfortably. Daryl noticed that, he assumed she was hiding something but left it alone. He'll ask her later, right now he's concerned about finding his brother.

~•~

Daryl beeped on the horn of the moving van.

"Come on, let's go! I ain't got all day."

Thalia rolled her eyes but then looked her girls, who stood in front of her. She knelt down to their level.

"KK, play nice while I'm gone. You hear me?" Thalia said with a smirk.

"I always play nice." KK said with a hint of sarcasm, referring to their conversation earlier. She gave her mom a smile small. It was moments like this that KK reminded Thalia of her father, Daryl.

Thalia looked at Emma Kate, she gave the small child a hug. "You be good for sissy. Okay, bug?" Emma Kate nodded. Thalia smiled and looked at KK once again, not noticing Emma Kate running over to Daryl.

"Watch after her, I mean it. And if Mrs. Grimes tell you to do something you do it. Got it?" Thalia told her oldest daughter again. KK rolled her eyes.

"I know, mom." Thalia nodded and looked over KK's shoulder to see Emma Kate handing Daryl a piece of paper with coloring on it. Thalia walked over there with KK following behind her.

"Emma Kate," Thalia said as she picked up the little girl who was smiling at Daryl. Daryl gave the little girl a smile and a nod. "stop sneaking off like that. Go with your sister, go."

KK grabbed her sister's hand and ran off. Thalia sighed watching them leave, she turned to Daryl.

"I'm sorry if she bothered you."

"No, she was okay." Daryl said as he pulled out the paper the small child handed to him. "She, uh, drew me on a paper. When she gave it to me...her face went red and she smiled."

Thalia chuckled and shuffled her feet, kicking the dirt on the ground. "Well, I'll be damned. She likes you."

Daryl chuckled, "she's a good kid. Probably gets that from you. KK, she has a temper but she's a good kid too."

"She gets her temper from her daddy." Thalia told him, her eyes avoiding his gaze.

"The smallest one...she deaf?" Daryl asked, he must of have caught a glimpse of Emma Kate's hearing aid when she handed him the picture.

"Yeah, she's deaf. The hearing aid helps a lot though. But without it...it's a different story." Thalia told him. "That's not the reason why she doesn't talk though. She use to speak all the time. But, since the outbreak..."

Daryl nodded at the story his ex-girlfriend told, letting her know he understood.

Thalia was about to get on the van when Daryl offered a hand to help her, she took it.

As she got up, she tripped over her own feet, falling into Daryl's arms.

"We always end up like this." Thalia whispered as she stood up straight, balancing herself.

"Yeah." Daryl scoffed softly, looking into her brown eyes. Thalia stared into his hardened blue gaze. That was the moment all the feelings that she wanted to so badly to forget flooded into her heart again.

The small moment they shared was short lived when T-Dog hopped in the back, closing the van. Thalia looked down to her feet and walked over to the corner to sit down.

"Thanks for that, T-Dog." Daryl said under his breath.

Thalia started to count her throwing knives.

~•~

The truck arrived outside the city limits.

"He'd better be okay." Daryl warned T-Dog.

"It's my only word on the matter. I told you the geeks can't get at him. The only thing that's gonna get through that door is us."

Glenn stopped the truck.

"We walk from here." The Asian man told the group. The men made their way out of the van. Thalia was about to jump but then Daryl grabbed her by the waist and helped her down.

"Needed an excuse to touch me, huh?" Thalia teased before waking off along the railroad tracks.

The group cut through a fence the lead to the back ways of the city.

"Merle first or guns?" Rick asked everyone, mostly Glenn.

"Merle! We ain't even having this conversation." Daryl shouted over his shoulder.

"We never have a conversation when it comes to Merle." Thalia mumbled bitterly. Daryl glanced at her but decided to not say anything.

"We are. You know the geography. It's your call." Rick told Glenn.

"Merle's closest. The guns would mean doubling back. Merle first." Glenn said as he started to lead the way.

They made their way to the department store Glenn and the others were in earlier. Thalia looked over to see children's clothing, she grabbed what she needed quickly. She then noticed a walker stumbling towards her.

"Damn. You are one ugly skank." Daryl said, gaining the attention to him. Daryl took his crossbow and shot it through the head. He pulled the arrow out. He looked at Thalia.

"You got everything?" Thalia nodded. "Alright. Come on."

The group reached the roof. They cut through the padlock and entered the roof.

"Merle! Merle!" Daryl yelled out. He ran over to the spot where Merle was left but he started to sob, seeing something horrible.

"No! No!" Daryl sobbed. The rest of the group caught up with Daryl.

Thalia gasped at the scene in front of her. Merle's hand and a bloody saw.

~•~•~•~•~•~•~ (A/N)

Chapter three is out! Whoop! Whoop!

I went back and edited a few things! Thank you for reading! Leave some feedback, I'd love to hear what you think!