The Brothers Dixon

Merle

Merle followed Daryl to their cabin in the rain and they were both chilled and soaking by the time they got there. Daryl had went into his room and was throwing things around in there when Merle stopped at his doorway. "I'm going to take a shower and then pack. Don't pack too much. We'll get what we need in Charlotte."

Merle showered and shaved and then dressed in a pair of blue jeans with a polo shirt. He and Daryl were going to be living in a nice condo in Charlotte. They needed to blend in to their surroundings. He was going with the young executive look and Daryl could probably look like an indulged younger brother. Tomorrow Daryl was getting a haircut and some new clothes. New wheels too, something nice but not too flashy. Flashy got noticed and they were only supposed to be background clutter.

Merle went through Daryl's pack and threw out most of his clothes while Daryl scowled. "This ain't about you, Daryl. This is about us watching over Carol. We gotta be chameleons and they fade into the scenery. We can't be looking like a couple of rednecks looking out of place in a good neighborhood. We don't do anything that will make anyone look at us twice. Understand?"

Merle packed his weapons carefully making sure that he brought extra ammo. He would find a shooting range somewhere and get in some practice this week. He had promised his Old Ladies that he would be careful to stay within the parameters of the law and he wasn't an assassin but he wanted to be ready for whatever might come.

They took Merle's Tahoe. It was bigger and more comfortable and Merle drove. Daryl was too wound up to drive in this fog. Merle loved the big heavy duty vehicle. It was the first nice ride he had ever owned. It fit in everywhere. He looked and felt like a success when he drove it. Merle didn't hurry; the last thing he wanted was to catch up with Carol's Cherokee. That might be awkward.

Merle decided to make the miles go easier by picking on Daryl. "So how was your big night out on the town? You and Jesse keep your womenfolk safe?" Merle had stayed home because he didn't want to risk the temptation of barhopping. It would be too easy to have a beer or maybe ten. He wanted to go and show those two boys how a man walked into a bar and roped out the woman he wanted. He missed the night life but he couldn't risk losing what he had, what Daryl had on a binge. Adulthood was shitty at times; you had to consider the risks before you decided if the reward was worth it. He had spent a lifetime grabbing the reward and ignoring the risks, but last evening he had sat with his Old Ladies and planned this out instead of going carousing.

"Nothing big, we played pool at The Watering Hole and Carol kicked by my ass and took names. Some guy bigger than the two of us put together came waltzing over and challenged Carol to a game. She schooled him and then went to that new bar out of town that has a band on Saturday night?"

Merle had been by there, "How was the band?" He liked to dance. His mother had taught him how to dance when he was in high school. She was usually mellow by the time he got home from school and she would put an eight track in and she showed him all kinda dances. Daryl would be out there with them and it was maybe the most fun they ever had. His father had come home drunk one night and broke the tape player like he destroyed everything that brought joy into that house. "Do you remember Mom teaching me how to dance? Man, she could dance even half drunk. Light on her feet and as happy as I ever saw her."

"I remember her dancing and you stumbling all over the house." Daryl remembered the dancing and the smile on Mom's face when Merle got the step right. He remembered putting his feet on Mom's and her waltzing him around the living room. That feeling of joyful movement wasn't one that he had a whole lot of memories so he had treasured that.

"Did she have time …to teach you?" Merle had been in juvie when his mom had died in the house fire. They let him go home for the funeral and then they let him go to the military to be rid of him.

Daryl shook his head, "Naw, she died when I was eight, remember?"

"Did you dance with Carol last night?" Merle just figured that Daryl had probably danced with his girl at the bar.

"I don't know how to dance. I just held up a few drunk girls at some bar a few times." Daryl would just as soon forget those encounters that usually ended with quick sex somewhere in the parking lot of the bar.

"It ain't all that hard. I'll show you how. You can dance with a pillow and I'll tell you what to do. Hell, you danced up a storm when you were eight."

Daryl looked to see if Merle was making fun of him, but he seemed serious. Dancing with a pillow seemed like a dumb ass thing to do, but last night he would have danced with a mattress if it allowed him to take Carol's hand and lead her to the dance floor and then…. He jerked himself from thinking any farther than that.

Merle was familiar with Charlotte. He was in and out on business here all the time and he found their new apartment easily. It was rented weekly or monthly mostly by corporations for those in Charlotte on a temporary assignment. He signed a contract for a month and paid for it with a credit card. He didn't like living a trail behind him but this wasn't the kind of place that dealt in cash. Way too upscale to actually put their hands on filthy lucre.

The apartment was very nice. Two bedrooms and two baths with a large living room and a kitchen. The utility room had a washer and dryer and there was an extensive list of places that delivered food to your door. Merle unpacked his computer and charged his cell phone. He glanced at the time and thought that they had time to make it to buy something they needed tonight.

Merle drove to a store specializing in electronics and purchased a cell phone for Daryl. Cell service in Adair was spotty and nonexistent on the mountain so Daryl never needed one. He picked up some food from a grocery store and then came back to find Daryl dressed in sandals, shorts, and a casual shirt. Merle was impressed; Daryl looked like a yuppie. He needed a new haircut but they could do that tomorrow when they went to a mall. They ate a quick sandwich while Daryl took Merle's contacts from is phone and put it into his new phone. Then they did a quick recon of Carol's apartment. It looked like she and Andrea were at home and everything looked quiet.

They drove to a used car dealership and bought two relatively new vehicles. He picked out a full size suv and Daryl chose an older model Mercedes with a sunroof and tinted windows. Merle was about to protest the Mercedes but it did go with the shorts and the sandals. It looked like the kind of car that a kid right out of college might drive and Daryl wanted it. They paid with cash which didn't seem to bother the owner and they arranged to pick up the suv in the morning.

Daryl left the car dealership headed toward Carol's apartment. He was going to park somewhere close and take a walk around the neighborhood. He had a general description of Ed as a tall, dark-haired man in his middle twenties that drove a green Ford sedan.

Merle watched him go and hoped that he would be careful.

Daryl

Daryl had noticed that there was a small park located on the other side of the street from Carol's apartment complex. He found a bench that faced her apartment and just sat there as if he was enjoying the evening. Carol had mentioned last night that she was working the midnight to eight o'clock shift this week and that sometimes she would have to stay longer because the hospital was chronically short handed. He intended to stay close until then and then follow her to her job. Hospitals always had lots of traffic around them and one more car circling the block wouldn't be noticed.

Andrea left in her car around seven thirty. Carol had mentioned that Andrea was dating a cop named Rick. That meant Carol was in the apartment alone and Daryl pulled out his cell phone and called her cell phone. His heart was pounding and it rang several times before she answered. He had practiced his opening line several times but he forgot most of it when she said "Hello."

"Hello, this is Daryl. Just thought I'd call and see if you all got back all right."

It wasn't smooth but she answered quickly, "Daryl, we got back without any problems. Is it still raining up in the mountains?" Carol cursed her own idiocy. She had just blanked out when she heard his voice on the phone and couldn't come up with anything else to say. "Thank you, Jesus" sounded a little too over the top but it had been her first thought. She had been sitting there feeling lonely and he just seemed so close as if he could come through the door any minute.

Daryl ignored the question about the weather on the mountain and went with his practiced speech. "I wanted to tell you that I had a good time last night even if you did take me to the woodshed at playing pool. It was a lot of fun and I hope we can do it again sometime".

Carol knew that her future rode on a proper response. Daryl, the feral cat had crawled out to her and if she scared him off now he might never try again. She wasn't alone in this. Daryl calling her up to chat if he didn't want to see her again was as likely as being hit by a meteor. She gave him the equivalent of a can of just opened tuna, "Daryl, I had a wonderful time last night and not just because I beat you at pool. I loved every bit of it. There is only one part of the night that might have made it more perfect."

Daryl had a moment's anxiety about something he did or didn't do, but her voice was low and teasing in his ear and he was distracted by that for a second, "What could have made it better?"

Carol smiled into the telephone, "You could have danced with me at the bar. Instead I had to chase off one of your admirer's when I got back from talking to a friend of mine."

Daryl smiled back, "I ain't much of a dancer but I promise to try if you'll give me a second chance. I chased that girl off myself so that you would have to sit beside of me when you got back."

The conversation went on nonstop for two hours until Carol looked at her watch. "Daryl, I have to get ready for work."

"Would it be alright it I called you tomorrow?"

Carol said, "Tomorrow evening would be better. I have to work until eight tomorrow and I know you are busy during the day and I am working all week from midnight until at least eight in the morning. Jesse is coming down tomorrow morning and we're going to our first self-defense class too, but call me whenever you get a chance. Goodnight Daryl."

"Goodnight, Carol. You drive careful now. I'll call you tomorrow. Goodnight." He hung up and wished he had called her sweetheart when he said goodnight.

Daryl got up from his park bench. He had kept an eye out for dark haired men in green sedans and hadn't seen anyone fitting that description. He needed to visit a gas station to buy a tank of gas and visit the rest room before Carol left.

His cell phone rang and he answered thinking it was Carol. "Sweetheart, is there something wrong?"

Instead it was the cold and merciless voice of Merle which rang through his ear, "The something that is wrong, Sweetheart, is that your phone has been busy for over an hour."

Daryl growled back, "I have been talking to Carol. She thinks I am on the mountain. What do you need?"

"Sweetheart, I was just worried that something was wrong. Now have been able to tear yourself away from the phone long enough to look for our bad guy?" Merle was laughing as he talked.

"Haven't seen anything here. I am sitting in a park across from the apartments and Andrea left a couple of hours ago and Carol is by herself. Jesse is coming tomorrow."

"You stay put there and I'll come by and follow our bird to its job. You can take the morning shift and follow her to her nest in the morning". Merle was smiling when he hung up.

Daryl walked back to his car and when he saw Merle cruise by he drove back to his new apartment. He would have liked to be the one to follow Carol to work but he trusted Merle to take care of her.

Merle had followed Carol's Cherokee to the hospital and into the visitor's parking lot at the ER entrance. Carol had walked in with an attractive Black woman that looked to be a little older than Carol. They were talking and laughing together so she must be a friend. Merle shifted in his seat to get a better look at the woman but they soon disappeared. Merle waited a minute and then pulled out. Carol wouldn't leave the hospital until morning and Daryl would be waiting her close to where she had parked her car.

Christie Alston had noticed that Carol was unusually buoyant and relaxed as they walked in, "The mountain air must agree with you. You look like you won the lottery."

Carol laughed, "I had a good time at home and we'll be up there for a week at the end of the month. I think you could benefit with some mountain air too." Carol didn't care if she worked twelve hour shifts every day until then. In two weeks, she'd be home again and she had a feeling that Daryl wouldn't be lurking down at the barn when she got there. She was glad that Christie was coming with her though; she worked too hard and needed to get away from the city for a while.

Carol had dug out her Urban Cowboy soundtrack and listened to it as she drove in, she was still humming to herself as she signed and started another shift of car wrecks, domestic abuse, accidents, heart attacks, and strokes.

AN

I read an interview by Norman Reedus over a year ago in which he stated that Melissa McBride schooled him at pool. So I put that in.

Merle may be impossibly good in this one but remember he is only twenty eight and he has been sober two years. He does love Daryl but he is more willing to let Daryl find his own happiness. Merle is a bit lonely in this one but that can change.

A young Daryl sporting around the city in shorts and sandals driving a Mercedes. He is also clean shaven and absolutely spotless. Just saying.

No Ed sighting yet. I have to gear myself up before I walk into that dark heart. Yes, he is still around but I wanted to get our players in place before he slinks in.

Next chapter will have some Randrea. Andrea is off to see Rick and we'll see some of that. There will Ed. Know that he is included because it is Carol's fate to intersect with him and be taught some hard lessons. I know that it would be easy to write Ed out easily but that won't happen. He will get his, but sadly you can't find a walker when you need one.

Loving all your reviews. I do appreciate it.