I only own what I created. Which is my original characters. Read and review. All critiques are greatly appreciated.

There were a lot of things she didn't miss from before. In fact, they outnumbered the things she did miss. She didn't miss money. She didn't miss any of her jobs, she didn't miss her hometown, and she definitely didn't miss her sister. But she missed the freedom.

She'd been free up until she'd almost died and Merle saved her. She'd had it good back then. Miles and miles of open road to explore. No motel bills to pay, no having to worry about making enough money to pay for gas. No having to worry about finding an easy mark to rip off for a few dollar bills from a pilfered wallet. Not more unnaturally greasy truck stop dinner food. No more having to hitchhike to the nearest payphone when he car inevitably broke down and she needed to call a tow truck.

It was a literal free-for-all. It truly was luck of the draw now. And she'd been making a good living this was way. She could finally do what she wanted and come and go as she pleased and nobody was there to judge her or stop her. Until Woodbury. And now she was trapped in a fucking prison.

Merle wasn't happy about it either. They'd taken her machete from her. She was getting really tired of people confiscating her hardware. She'd resorted to tapping her fingers against her thigh in its absence. Merle kept shooting her annoyed looks. She just glared back. What did he think she was supposed to do?

The guy in charge tried to put a calming hand on her shoulder to get her to sit like he thought she was some kind of fragile little girl who didn't know her ass from a hole in the wall and she jumped nearly from across the room into a corner and everyone started screaming. Merle was yelling about how he was going to gut Officer Friendly. The Asian guy he'd beat up was screaming about how he needed to leave. The old guy was trying to calm everyone down. And Daryl was threatening to leave with Merle.

And someone laughed and then she could hear the cackling bouncing off the inside of her skull and she couldn't breathe. There was a fire crackling and leaves crunching and hoots and whistles and that evil cackling. And the hands were everywhere. Grabbing and pinching and squeezing. She couldn't stop shaking and the spots were dancing in her vision as he cackled in her face and bit at her lips.

Stars exploded across her vision and she whipped back and forth. "God damn it, Girl, snap out of it," he bellowed, his voice grounding her, "C'mon, fucking come back. You ain't there no more you stupid little fuck!" He smacked her across the face one more time for good measure and then let her go and she fell back against a table, drawing deep breaths as she fought to calm herself and stop shaking. "You need to cut that shit out before I put you down like a fucking dog."

"Well, is anybody gonna get me anything for her face or are you all gonna stand around like a bunch of dipshits," Merle asked the group around them. Someone sprang into action and there was the echo of footsteps on concrete.

Julie continued to stare at her hands, watched as they vibrated violently against the tabletop.

A small, pale hand came into view and she couldn't stop from flinching even after it became clear to her that they were offering a wet cloth for what she could only assume was a split lip. She shot Merle a weak glare and then nodded after a few tense moments and his posture slackened a bit. She focused back on the table top and refused to look up again even as she heard Merle threaten the man who'd tried to touch her again.

"You ever try somethin' like that with her again-any of ya-an I'll kill you nice'n slow an' then I'll watch you turn," his voice was almost jovial in tone as if he was describing what they had had for breakfast, "an' if you're lucky, I'll kill ya after that."

"I didn't mean anything by it," the man said finally as way of an apology. Merle didn't bother replying. Julie closed her eyes and lay her head on the cool metal she was hunched over. It felt good on her throbbing face. She licked at her lip and winced. He'd gotten her good that time.

"You really think a girl like that will survive, out there," a female voice hissed. Another voice piped up, "And with someone like you for company?"

"Girl goes with me, package deal, folks." Merle's tone brooked no argument.

"Merle goes, I go." Everyone started yelling again, clearly outraged. "You can't leave, Daryl, look Merle can stay," someone offered. But Merle was yelling that he was leaving no matter what. The Governor would be gunning for him and he wasn't going to stick around for that shit storm. She slipped a hand under the table and started tapping her fingers against her thigh, letting her fingernails bite into her skin. The pain was a nice distraction. Things were getting overwhelming again. There wasn't enough room. There were in a fucking prison for Christ's sake.

"Let me talk to him," the younger Dixon cut in and everyone seemed to back down immediately and she opened her eyes to watch the pair. When he gestured for his older brother to leave the room with him, she sat up and scrambled over the table like a skittish cat after them and nearly fell into Merle's side. He didn't push her away as he normally would and she knew he understood that she was too close to a complete meltdown to function properly.

The feeling of the sunlight hitting her face once again was achingly wonderful and some of her panic subsided. She broke away from the two brothers and sat off by herself near the chain link fencing.

"What's up with the girl?"

"Well, obviously she's working out some issues."

"Yeah, don't seem like she's doing too good a job." The two men stood in silence as they let the statement hang in the air. "They said you could stay, Merle. You could make a go of it here. These are good people."

"They cuffed me to a fuckin' roof an' left me for dead," Merle snapped, "I had to cut my fuckin' hand off!"

"Rick went back for you. I went back for you. We tried to do right by you." Merle scoffed at that and Julie found herself scoffing along with him mentally, pointedly ignoring the sincerity she read in his younger brother's voice. "Rick's done right by me so far. He's a good man. You should stay."

"We can't," Merle replied and it would have sounded apologetic if he hadn't said it in such a way that it sounded as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. She could feel Merle's eyes on her and it was making her shoulder blades itch. "We don't belong here. We belong out there."

"She ain't your problem." Julie couldn't stop the resentment from building up inside her at that statement. Fuck you, Daryl Dixon, you selfish little piece of backwoods shit. Get bit, you asshole.

She wound her fingers in the chain link fence and watched the Roamers as they pushed at the outer fencing. It was like watching a room full of drunks all try to fit through a doorway at the same time. They would surge forward and bounce backwards and stumble. Some would fall.

"Naw, she ain't a problem, she's still fuckin' goin' with me," Merle countered finally, "an' if I were even gonna consider stayin' she'd stay with me."

"Then I guess all three of us are leaving," Daryl challenged as if he were throwing a wrench in some dastardly plan Merle had had laid out for the two of them. Ooh, that'll show him, Daryl, you mastermind, you. She couldn't help but shake her head at the stupidity of it.

She pushed back the small amount of sympathy for him. It was always hard to leave home. Even if you hated it.

"Peaches," Merle called and she ignored him until she heard him grumble in exasperation, "Are you even in there, fuckwit?"

It occurred to her that he may have been trying to ask her opinion. She turned to give him a loaded look and a half shrug. He let out a bark of laughter and clapped Daryl on the back. Daryl looked about as pleased as she felt and she wasn't sure whether or not she was glad that the feeling was so obviously mutual. Obviously, tact was not a Dixon strong suit.

She stepped away from the fence and let out a long suffering sigh as she came to stand next to the elder brother, crossing her arms in a show of displeasure. Merle frowned at her. "Don't gimme that. C'mon now, you knew how it would be. You can't try to fuckin' change anythin'."

She rolled her eyes and turned to scrutinize Daryl. He and Merle shared the same blue eyes and the same standoffish attitude. And it wasn't that hard to tell Daryl Dixon did feelings about as well as his brother did. She could work with that. But he was too fucking quiet. Why is he so fucking quiet? Maybe he's defective, She hypothesized, Bet he got dropped on his head. It's shaped funny. And he has stupid hair. She squinted suspiciously. This was really going to rub her the wrong way for a very long time.

Daryl was every bit as dirty as Merle was clean. Being in the military had ingrained in the older Dixon that cleanliness was of the utmost importance. He'd even kept the same high and tight haircut. There wasn't a stitch of clothing on Daryl Dixon that wasn't caked in dirt and damp with sweat. His hair was greasy and it stuck to his head. She sniffed her disgust and turned back around when he looked over at her, sensing her blatant stare.

Gravel crunched next to her and that familiar scent of sweat, smoke, and earth washed over her. Merle. "What's your thoughts?"

She didn't bother looking up. "We can't stay here," she said quietly. "There's not enough space. I can't be in here. I can't-Did you see the way they looked at me when I-" she took in a deep breath to calm herself and stepped closer to Merle, anchoring herself in the only way she knew how as she curled her fingers further around the chainlink fencing, "and they think you're a threat."

"I am."

"You're so full of shit your eyes should be brown." He only grunted in response and she closed her eyes, leaning her face against the fence. "We don't belong here. We'd do better on our own. Staying here will only get us killed."

"Daryl wants us to stay here."

She scoffed at that. "Daryl wants you to stay here and me to fuck off."

"Sometimes, I want ya to fuck off." She couldn't help it. She let out a laugh and Merle chuckled along with her. They smirked at each other for a minute and then Merle patted her on the back gruffly. "Havin' you around's better than gold, Girl."

Julie smiled.

Julie tossed the large duffle out the window and watched it roll down the slope of the porch roof and over the edge. There was an audible thud and then a whispered, "What'd you pack, Julie? A fuckin' bowling ball?"

She let out a giggle as she swung her leg over the lip of the window sill and slowly climbed out. She slowly scooted toward the edge and peered over and into the darkness. "Where are you?" There was silence and the then the sound of footsteps on dew covered grass. "I'm right here," he whispered from directly below her, "swing your legs over and just drop. I'll catch you."

Julie inhaled deeply and did as she was asked, exhaling on the way down, before landing in two very muscular arms. She yelped in surprise and then laughed as he crushed his lips to hers. She threw her arms around his neck and giggled into his mouth. She had to smother her laugh in his shoulder as he jogged over to his truck, opened the passenger door and unceremoniously dumped her in the seat.

Julie never thought running away from home would be the happiest moment of her life up until then. Dropping out at sixteen so she could work all day and take night classes to get her GED had been worth it. Being able to look in the rearview mirror and watch the dilapidated wood-panel house disappear from view was so freeing and so completely devastating at the same time. She'd been dreaming about it since she was twelve. And it was finally here and the build up was over and as the relief slowly ebbed away she was left wondering what was next. Where would they go from there? He'd told her a million times, pinning her with those blue eyes, that they would make it. She knew they would. But for how long?

She wondered if Rachel had been as terrified as she was. She'd left first. She'd left through the front door, not through her bedroom window like a coward. Their father hadn't even looked up from the television as Rachel had declared, "I'm out of this shithole," and slammed the door so hard it shook the front of the house. She hadn't even said goodbye. Hell, she hadn't even apologized for stealing all the money Julie had managed to save up for her own escape. Two-hundred dollars gone. It wasn't much, but she'd gotten from babysitting. A lot of babysitting. She'd taken their mother's bracelet, too. The one their mother had left Julie. The one she'd clasped around Julie's tiny wrist as she walked out the door in her waitressing uniform for the last time. When she'd told Julie she loved her and she was "Mommy's brave, strong girl."

He drove until they crossed the state line into Kentucky and then they slept in their first seedy motel until noon, wrapped up in blankets and each other, high off the realization that it truly was the two of them against the world now.

They stopped for good in North Carolina. She found a diner to work in while she considered whether or not she really wanted to go to community college and he started working at a garage in the next town over. And things were perfect. He was always there to pick her up after work. They would sit in the very back booth and share a basket of fries and a breakfast platter. She liked the biscuits and gravy, he liked the short stack of pancakes drenched in maple syrup.

They were making ends meet and just beginning to become on a first name basis with people in both towns. And Julie could feel that unfamiliar itch start to settle in. It made so that her smile didn't quite reach her eyes anymore. There wasn't so much of a bounce in her step and she couldn't remember the last time she had full out laughed at anything.

But he still made her heart flutter in her chest and her entire body shiver as her nerves quaked whenever he came close to her. She was a tuning fork and he was hitting all the right notes. There was magic in the way he touched her. The itch was gone when he touched her, completely forgotten if only for a moment. She could smile then. It was a year of bliss. Followed by a lifetime of despair.

Julie followed behind the pair with a sour look on her face. They'd been bitching back and forth for over an hour and Daryl Dixon had, at some point, decided she was the most insufferable human being left on the planet. She'd resorted to glaring at the back of his head in hopes that it would spontaneously combust and then she and Merle wouldn't have to deal with him anymore.

She tied her hair up in a messy bun and tried to spend her time ignoring the drama that involved the two men in front of her. It was getting harder and harder to ignore them. And Daryl kept making pithy comments about how she wouldn't talk. He kept asking if it meant she was a retard. She gave him the stink eye every time he looked at her. It made her uncomfortable. He kept looking at her with his eyes and she didn't like it. He'd gotten meaner the longer the three of them were alone.

He had pretty much ignored her when they first left. He hadn't made a single rude remark. They'd settled down to make camp for the night and she and Merle had been tasked with starting a fire and keeping a watch for walkers as Daryl called them. He'd come back with three squirrels long after dusk and wordlessly began gutting them. Julie had never seen someone gut a squirrel before and had watched in morbid fascination. All while she and Merle sat side by side completely bored. Merle and Daryl were tossing out ideas as to where they should head while their meager dinner cooked and she had listened thoughtfully for a long while. The conversation always circled back to returning to the prison and eventually, Julie had tuned them out completely as her mind began to supply her with scenario after horrifying scenario, the least disturbing being trapped in a cell with a cellblock full of walkers trying to reach her.

She had to stop eating and handed her portion off to Merle, who had taken it without a word. Daryl had scowled at her then. "Too good to eat squirrel, Princess? Sorry we don't have no fuckin' steak for ya."

Merle hurled a nearby rock at him. "Oh, shut the fuck up, you whiny little bitch. You always have to get so bent out of shape about every single fucking thing. If your feelings are so hurt maybe you oughta run back to Officer Friendly so he kiss your boo-boos better."

"Fuck you an' your dumb bitch."

Julie glanced off into the darkness of the surrounding wilderness. I wonder if he's still alive. She stretched out beside the fire and watched as the embers glowed dimly under the low flames. It was better not to think of him, even if she had trouble forgetting him sometimes.

Merle stretched out a few inches away and without a thought to it, she rolled toward him, resting her head on his shoulder. He looked at her and opened his mouth to snap at her but then thought better of it and looked away. She brought her hand up to curl loosely around his bicep and closed her eyes.

"Gonna go take a piss," Daryl growled from the other side of the fire. She could hear the crunching of leaves under his boots as he stomped off. The next morning he was insufferable. He'd started off the day by smacking her in the face with her bag when he'd tossed it on her head and then kicked her in the boot, causing her to jump and skitter away from the two men with wide eyes and labored breathing. That had started the first fight, which had then devolved into one about the nightmares she's had the night before. They'd started out as pleasant memories and then devolved in the memories she'd been trying to ignore and push away ever since she'd ended up with Merle.

It had been going on for hours when it finally became physical. They'd started shoving and it had genuinely surprised Julie. She had been too stuck in her own head to notice how heated the exchange had gotten. She'd watched wordlessly as Merle had tried to pull his brother back toward him and ripped the shirt from his back. Any protest she'd had toward his mistreatment died in her throat. She'd never seen scars like that. She wondered if the scars on her arms and shoulders would look like them after enough time passed.

Merle seemed frozen, too, and Julie slowly moved toward Daryl, pulling him up slowly and gently once she reached him, careful not to make eye contact. It's the end of the world and we're all still running from our pasts, she thought sadly, We're all still running from ghosts who can't touch us anymore.

She felt Daryl eye her for a moment, but kept her eyes trained on Merle, who for once seemed at a loss as to how to handle the situation. There was no way in hell she was going to let Daryl Dixon know that she understood him. No way in hell.

"We have to go back with him," she said finally once she was sure Daryl was out of earshot. "He's your brother."

"I didn't know-I mean, I didn't think-"

"You didn't want to," she replied softly, "and that's okay. You did what you could to survive. You couldn't protect him forever."

"You don't know shit, so shut your fucking mouth," he yelled and she couldn't help but jump away from him. He took off after his brother and Julie settled for following at a good distance behind him. The entire journey back to the prison felt like she was walking to her death, sticking her head right in the hangman's noose. But she had promised Merle she was with him until the end. Once at the gates, she'd resumed her post next Merle and made sure to keep as far away from the leader of Daryl's group as possible.

Merle had been given a cell next to Daryl's and she had been given the one on the other side of the hunter. She'd skirted around the man in charge-Rick-and dropped her pack on the upper bunk in Merle's cell all while staring at him, waiting for him to challenge her request. He'd simply walked in, grabbed her bag and tossed it back in the cell she had been assigned to. Fuckhole.

From then on, she spent all her time outside, staring out passed the fences at the walkers who pressed in on them. The entire place screamed death trap. It was key that you kept moving. It was because she had stopped that those men had-she tore herself away from the fence violently and wrapped her arms around her middle.

"You get used to it after awhile," an airy voice said next to her and she jumped. It was the blonde girl who always had the baby glue to her hip. She smiled up at Julie and it unnerved her just how innocent her big eyes were. Julie wondered if she'd ever been that way.

"I know it's weird to think about. Getting used to dead people trying break into your home to eat you...your home that's a prison, but Rick knows," she trailed off when she noticed Julie inch away at the mention of Rick. "He didn't know. We didn't know. He wouldn't have touched you if he'd known."

"You don't have to talk to us." Her voice was so soft. "But I'd like it if you would trust us. We're good people and it's nice to have someone here who's closer to my age. Especially, a girl."

She looked over at the girl and she smiled at Julie again. "My name's Beth, Maggie's my sister, and Herschel's my Daddy." She tried to smile again, but Julie had gone back to staring at the walkers. They were never getting out alive. Eventually, they were going to die there.