Chapter 4

***'Tis the season to declare I don't own TWD or its associated stuff and things.***

Me: Okay, so just an FYI: I don't hate Merle. Michael Rooker's portrayal of this character in S3 really turned me around on Merle, and my version does away with the racist tendencies that came with that character initially...though he's still pretty roguish.

"When are y'gonna get your own place, Merle?" Daryl muttered, tossing Merle's rucksack full of possessions out of the way as he collapsed into the recliner in his living room.

"Relax, little brother," Merle Dixon drawled. "I've only been back to town for a week now. Soon as Scooter hooks me up with that mechanic job, I'm outta your hair. I'll be renting his spare house over on Duluth. Besides, it's the holidays! Y'should be glad to have family around this time of year."

"Yeah, well, good as it is t'see you, it gets cramped with two people in a one-bedroom apartment," Daryl grumbled, cracking his can of Budweiser.

"Don't know why you don't get yourself a nicer place." Merle raised an eyebrow, looking around at the somewhat shabby surroundings. Daryl's idea of interior decorating was a buck's head mounted on the wall and a velvet tapestry of dogs playing poker. "You make enough money. Don't you wanna get yourself a wife someday? Maybe have a couple of rugrats?"

Daryl shrugged and took a swig of beer. "I'm hardly ever here, most of the time. Who needs a big place? And who's thinkin' about a wife and kids? What woman wants to marry a bounty hunter?"

"You'd be surprised," Merle answered. "So we headed to Officer Friendly's for Christmas Eve?"

"Naw, Glenn and Maggie's."

"And you picked Andrea's name for me on that Secret Santa thing," Merle mused, heading to the kitchen to grab his own beer out of the fridge.

"Leave it alone, bro!" Daryl called after him. "Told you she's dating that pretty boy with the fancy job. Been a few months now...and she seems to like him a lot."

Merle sauntered back into the living room, bottle of Heineken in hand. "Datin' ain't exactly married. And what makes you think I've got plans for her?"

"'Cuz I know you. I know you two were messin' around for a bit before you shipped out. I caught her comin' outta your place that one mornin'. Figured it weren't nothin' serious, since you left."

"Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't," Merle retorted. "I sure don't recall it bein' any of your business. Besides, we're all adults here."

Daryl eyed him with skepticism. "Whatever you say, bro."

Merle's upper lip curled. "Just stay out of it, little brother. I don't plan to make her do anything she doesn't wanna. No need to get all protective. Who'd you get, anyway?"

Daryl took a long pull from his beer and shook his head. "I pulled the guy Andrea's datin'. No idea what I'm gonna get 'im. Guess I could always give him some of my venison jerky."

"It is pretty good. Speaking of which...y'got any left?"

Daryl motioned towards the kitchen. "Yeah, it's in the Ziploc baggie next t'the toaster."

Merle went back into the kitchen and located the baggie Daryl had been referring to, fishing a large piece of the jerky out. Leaning against the kitchen counter, he alternated taking bites of the jerky and sips of his beer. The sound of the television turning on in the living room let him know that Daryl was now occupied, giving Merle the freedom to be alone with his thoughts.

The thing with him and Andrea was a surprise to both of them. She wanted to learn how to shoot a gun, said she thought it was a useful skill to learn given some of the rougher neighborhoods her work sometimes seemed to bring her to...but he had wondered privately at the time she'd asked him if she wanted the excitement of it. She might be a lawyer, and spend a lot of her days being proper and professional for the sake of her job and clients...but he could recognize the thrill-seeker underneath.

She could've asked Daryl to teach her, but his little brother wasn't the talkative sort and she could've been self-conscious about asking him since she'd accidentally whacked him in the head once with a metal pipe when they'd been helping Michonne move out of her apartment into Rick's house. It had been hard enough to draw a little blood...and Daryl, though normally mute, had plenty to say at the time it had happened.

Officer Friendly would've been another option...but she may have balked at that because Rick was her best friend's husband. Merle had felt some curiosity about her particular choice of him as a teacher...but with his military experience and years spent living on the wrong side of the law in his younger, wilder days, he knew his way around weapons.

He'd always found her attractive, but had seen he and Andrea as being too different from each other to ever consider pursuing her in any way. It had been as much of a surprise to him as it was to her that as the days passed with them spending time at the shooting range that a closeness seemed to develop. He'd taken her to a few of the bars he hung out in on occasion and been gratified to see she was a mean pool player and dart thrower who was more than capable of letting her hair down.

She'd taken him to some of the restaurants she liked to frequent and introduced him to Hong Kong cinema at the art house theater.

They'd circled one another slowly, and he'd been shocked when she was the one to make the first move. He'd been working his nerve up to do it...and nerve wasn't generally a thing he was short on. But she'd given him a kiss when they'd been saying good night to each other after shooting some pool one night and next thing you knew, they'd become a...well, maybe not a couple...but something that looked a lot like one.

They'd both kept quiet about it...though Daryl had caught her coming out of his place rather early in the morning. Given the disheveled look of her, there'd been no option to lie about what she'd been doing at his place at seven on a Sunday morning. Daryl being Daryl meant he wouldn't have mentioned it to anyone else and wouldn't ask Merle about it...though his expression when she'd hurried to her car after greeting Daryl with an embarrassed grin spoke volumes.

The involvement between them had continued for a few months...but he'd been given an opportunity to ship out on a vessel and figured he could use the money, given that his last jaunt at sea had been close to a year ago.

He'd been thinking of giving up the mariner life for a while now, but the thing with Andrea threw him. He'd developed feelings for her unlike anything he'd ever felt for a woman before...so naturally it made him want to leave the country.

She'd regarded him with cool eyes when he'd broken the news of his departure to her. "It was fun while it lasted," she'd said nonchalantly, upping his admiration for her tenfold.

He figured that months at sea would chase away this peculiar attachment he'd grown to feel for her...but he'd been wrong. If anything, his heart (and other parts of him) yearned for her more than ever.

Merle wasn't a man who put much faith in signs...but he hoped that Daryl drawing Andrea's name for him was an indication of things to come. He hoped that very much.

And he already had a gift for her.

To Be Continued