Ava groaned in pain, slowly waking up. She heard shouting which made her head throb painfully, opening her eyes she winced as she stared up at the bright sky, looked over she saw two of her uncles, both shouting and trying to get to her as they pulled at the cuff that kept him stuck to the pipe. As Ava blinked again the two Merles became one Merle, thank fuck for that, this world didn't need another Merle, one was enough.

" Merle? " she asked weakly, slurring a bit.

" Ava! Holy shit, your alive. Baby girl you got to get up, grab that fucking hack saw over there so I can get out of this fucking cuffs. " He said, shouting.

" Whats going on? " she asked quietly, stumbling to her feet and swaying on the spot, Merle looked at her worried.

" They fucking left us here. " Merle growled. " That stupid blonde bitch is going to die when I find her, hurting you like that. "

Ava resisted the urge to roll her eyes. No matter what people believed, Merle would never hurt a woman, or child. He believed that anyone who did, were lower then dirt, bastards. No good pieces of shit. Thats what he believed his old man was, but Merle would never ever hurt a woman or child. No matter what they did.

Ava on the other hand, wouldn't hesitate to hurt the bitch who had done this. She wanted to shove Andrea off this roof-Wait, she couldn't. They'd left her, and Merle, there. She stumbled over to the tool bag that had been dumped, walking over she picked up the saw, she sat down beside Merle and began trying to saw at the chain, ten minutes later Merle said it was enough. It hadn't even dented it.

" Give it here, gotta cut ma' damn hand off. " Merle said, Ava stared at his wrist, it was already bleeding from his struggle, the cuffs had dug painfully into his skin. But when she imagined how worse it would be, him sawing his hand off. She walked over to the ledge of the roof and threw it down into the street.

" Girl! What the fuck are ya' doing! " Merle screamed, Ava looked over worriedly when she heard pounding on the door, she jumped a bit when arms reached out but she saw that the door was now chained closed. At least the assholes that had left them there were nice enough to lock the door on their way out.

" Daddy will come for us! You really gonna cut off your hand Merle! Are you fucking dumb! " she snapped, stomping over. Merle glared up at her,panting heavily. His skin was red from being in the sun for so long and his lips were dry and cracking. She was sure she looked the same. " We just got to wait, for dad to get here. And if you get past that thick skull of yours and think, you'll realize i'm right. " she said, Merle stared at her for a few moments, processing what she had said, and as much as it pained him to admit someone besides him was right, he nodded and sighed, leaning back against the pipe and wincing when he moved his wrist the wrong way.

With a sigh Ava sat down beside Merle, grabbing his hand gently. She began tearing up a shirt she had put her in her bag and she bandaged his wrist up the best she could, which wasn't easy considering it was still cuffed. When she was done she leaned against him and her eyes slowly closed.

Ava woke up to shouting she she stretched her body out, much like a lazy cat. Someone was nudging her shoulder but she just cuddled closer to Merle, she was too tired to move at the moment.

Suddenly cold water was dumped onto Ava's face, making her sit up gasping in shock.

" Asshole, the fuck is wrong with you-" Ava released that Merle hadn't had water, looking up she saw that Dad stood there holding a water bottle, smiling down at Ava amused.

" Dad! " she screamed, jumping to her feet and wrapped her arms tightly around his waist, burying her face in his stomach. Daryl chuckled and pulled her up into his arms, burying his face in her hair, hiding the tears he knew would fall. He didn't need any of these fuckers to see that. Didn't need them thinking he was weak.

" I told you Merle! I knew he'd come!" Ava cried, looking over and smiling at her uncle, Glenn was crouched down beside him, helping him up. T-dog looked hesitant but helped Merle stand as well.

" Need to get him to camp soon, so he can rest up. Gotta get this binded better. " Daryl said, setting Ava onto her feet. She picked up her knife and turned around, scowling when she spotted the stranger that had cuffed her uncle up.

" Dick! " she snapped, walking past him. She heard her uncle chuckle from behind her.

" We have to go grab the guns. " the stranger said.

" Rick, maybe we can get them another day. We should get Merle back, and Ava should-" Glenn started.

" We came here for two things, Merle and those guns. We need them Glenn, you know we do. " Rick replied, Glenn sighed and nodded.

" Three things! What am I? a damn Biter? " Ava asked, glaring at the man, he sighed looking apologetic but she just kept walking, not wanting to hear anything he had to say.

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They all looked down at Glenn as he and Rick mapped out the area where the guns were and how we would get them, Daryl and Glenn would be going down to the ally, while T-Dog and Rick would be just up the street in another ally. Ava and Merle were to wait here, safely.

" Dad! I want to come with you. I can back you up, while Glenn's getting the bag. " Ava said.

" What about me? " Merle drawled. " Think good ol' Merle can't handle himself? "

" Your hurt Merle, besides your blood would only draw them towards you. " Glenn said, dad and Merle seemed just a bit impressed that Glenn knew that.

" Please Dad, I don't want to leave you. " Pleaded Ava, staring up at her dad with those bright blue eyes of hers. Daryl bit the tip of his thumb, staring nervously at his daughter, he had a bad feeling but he couldn't just let her out of his sight again. He had already almost lost her, just when he had found her. He had almost forgotten what she looked like, not having any photos of her didn't help. But now that she was with him again, he knew he wouldn't be able to let her go again, not easily anyhow.

" Fine, but you don't leave my damn sight girl, ya' hear? " Daryl said, narrowing his eyes at the now smiling little girl.

" Yes sir. " she said cheerfully, she was happy she was getting to go, but don't get her wrong, she was going to be taking this very seriously. You had to take things seriously when you were alone out here, in this world you couldn't take risk's. You couldn't be stupid, because one wrong move and, you were dead.