AN: short chapter

I do

Not own or profit from The Walking Dead

Chapter 4

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Merle,

Your father hates me, not you boys, he has his reasons for hating me, not that it matters, he would find a reason. The man I married is gone. I tried finding what was there inside of your dad for so long, but it's gone. I was desperate to find that feeling again, I searched for it, but I regret it now. There's so much I regret.

Mom

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"I'm sorry Mr. Grimes, you're father has passed away."

Rick Grimes stood at the desk of the hospice trying to find some grief inside him at the fact his dad was gone.

Him and his dad hadn't seen eye to eye on much, never had but since he'd gone back to school to become a lawyer, their relationship had been downright strained.

Matt Grimes had been a distant father, never down right mean, but never really there. Rick's mom had died of cancer when he was only young, and his aunt Judith had said his daddy had never been the same.

Matt had taken up a friendship with Mike Dixon which had perplexed Rick. All his life his father had drummed in his head to stay away from Merle and Daryl Dixon when seemingly he was best of friends with their dad.

It bothered Rick now, more so since he started investigating the deaths of Rose and Mike Dixon, it bothered Rick just how much his father had hated the Dixon boys. Because the case was full of holes.

Most people in the town they lived in had known the Dixon boys were abused by their father, not a single person who could have done anything about had had seemingly cared, definitely not Rick's father. Their might have been motive for Daryl to snap, and kill his father. But not his mother.

Rick had watched them, Daryl and his mom from afar. Daryl loved his mom. Even Rick as a kid could see that.

But there was more than motive that was suspicious. The witness, his aunt Judith. Judith had been a second mother to Rick after his mom had died. She'd never married, never had children of her own. Rick was pretty certain that Judith lived financially off the good graces of his father. Rick winced at the thought, but he strongly suspected his father had coerced his aunt into testifying against Daryl. The question was why?

There was no DNA, no fingerprints, nothing that pointed to Daryl as the guilty party without a doubt. Rick was certain of that. It was in fact Daryl's case and the way Rick had witnessed his father seemingly use the law to railroad an innocent man, that had inspired Rick to become a lawyer. He owed Daryl, Rick felt. Somehow Rick couldn't escape the feeling that his family had royally screwed over Daryl's and he wanted to make it right.

But with his dad gone, that got a whole lot harder to prove.

His phone alerted him to a text from Merle, glancing down at it he winced. Fuck...could this day get any worse?

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"Merle, please tell me that you had nothing to do with this."

Merle spun as he paced in front of Rick. They were waiting in the us marshals office. Waiting to hear word on Daryl. All they knew is something had happened. What Rick was unsure of. Merle walked over to his wife Andrea who was sitting biting her nails nervously. Rick was pretty sure that Andrea was thinking the same. They were an odd pair Merle and Andrea, Rick had been surprised when he'd moved back to town after Lori's death and heard that Merle Dixon had married Andrea Harrison. Andrea was a lawyer at a small firm, mainly human rights, she'd sought out Rick's help at freeing Daryl. Rick was pretty certain that Andrea knew Merle had a tendency to take the matters into his own hands and damn the consequences.

Merle huffed before sitting next to Andrea, "I ain't had nothing to do with this. I swear."

"He hasn't, otherwise he'd already be in jail."

They all turned to to see a Marshall coming to the doorway. "I'm Marshall Tara Chambers, I'm investigating the bus crash and we have already ruled out foul play. I need to know if Daryl has contacted either of you?"

Merle stood up in relief. "He survived the crash. No one has told me nothing! What kinda place u guys running here?"

" you're brother survived the crash. Now he's on the run."