"Was it necessary to cut my arm?" the redhead snarled as she held up a cloth against her arm. He had knocked her out with a single punch as they were leaving the town and it seemed that he had cut her arm while he was at it. As far as she knew, there had been no real point in cutting her arm. She lifted up the cloth to reveal the cut, which was deep enough to give her the willies.
"'S all part o' the plan, sweetcheeks," he replied as he placed some weapons on top of a shelf that was far out of Hannah's reach.
"It's Hannah," she corrected with venom in her voice.
"Sweetcheeks sounds better tho," he said, slowly approaching her. Since she was sitting on a bar stool, Hannah didn't really have enough time to back up before he was standing so close to her that she could pretty much feel him breathe on her. It was hard to believe that this man was related to Daryl. He was a completely different person than the Daryl she knew. Even the tone that he spoke in was far sharper than Daryl's had ever been.
As soon as Merle's hand touched her cheek she swatted his hand before falling backwards due to the shaky nature of the stool she had been sitting on top of. While it only frustrated Hannah, the events seemed to amuse Merle, who was laughing loudly and saying something unintelligible. She stood up immediately, determined to not be cornered further by this vile man.
"How 'bout ya give me some of that sweet ya been givin' lil' broth'a?" he suggested, reaching for her ass, only to have her back up. Obviously amused by her attempt to get away from him he grinned before walking towards her. "Don't tell me yer afraid of lil' ol'Merle?" he said, laughing.
Hannah's heart was beating hard against her chest and her hands were trembling with fear of this man. The way he grinned as she backed up was a familiar sight, one that she had thought that she would be rid of for the rest of her life. Suddenly she came to a halt, unable to back up further. Her heart stopped for a split second as she realized that she had reached the wall of the little cabin they were in. She watched, terrified, as he came close enough for her to feel his warm breath. From experience, she had expected him to raise his hand and swing it but instead she felt him placed his hand on her chest.
"Don't touch me!" she said snapped, attempting to shove him away with her hands but with no avail. She briefly recalled how she had told Daryl that she wasn't the same weak girl he had known prior to the apocalypse. Had she lied to him? To herself? She had thought that she had enough strength to stand on her own ground when something like this would happen but her efforts seemed to be in vain.
"Ya always this feisty?" he said, amusement ringing in his words. "Didn't know Darlena like 'em to put up a fight. 'e really takes 'fter me."
"Daryl's nothing like you!" Hannah protested. "He doesn't lay a hand on me!"
"So yer one 'f dem gurls? Teasin' lil' broth'a?" Merle said, snaking his hand under her shirt. Hannah wriggled in an attempt to get away from this man but he was holding her in one place with his other hand. She closed her eyes, trying to tell herself that this wasn't happening. This was just a bad dream. A very, very bad dream.
"Com'n sweet cheeks, look at yer pal Merle," he instructed. "Ya don't want the lil' spic to get in'a acc'dent, do ya?"
Hannah's eyes fluttered open when she realized that he was referring to Pablo as lil' spic. She desperately wanted to smack this man for referring to her boy as a spic but she controlled herself, knowing that if she did react he might actually go through with his threat. This man didn't seem like he was kidding around when he threatened her and honestly, she didn't want to risk him being serious. She looked him straight in the eyes, her moss green eyes exhibiting the fear that resided within her heart.
"'S more lik'it," he said, pleased with the sudden obedience. All he had to do was mention the little boy and she was silent and obedient. "Now how 'bout ya giv ol' Merle a nice lil' kiss?" The thought of placing her lips on to this man's was beyond revolting but in fear of Pablo's safety, Hannah slowly inched towards Merle, her hands shaking.
"Com'n, I ain't no toad ya'know," Merle said, reveling in the way she was heeding his orders. When she finally allowed her lips to touch his, he grabbed her and hungrily devoured her with his lips. He allowed his hand to wander in directions that would be considered shameful for anyone else to let their hands wander on a first date.
She didn't mean to, it was just a reaction to his hand on her breast, a flinch of some sort. "Fuckin' bitch." Those were the words she heard as his fist threw her down to the ground. "D'ya wanna get rid of the lil' spic? 'S that what ya want?" She tried to hold in the sobs that were choking up in her throat. She wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of hearing her cry. The side of her face ached terribly and she wondered how well it would show.
"I'm sorry," she murmured, her head hanging low. She slowly stood up again and her arms wrapped around her own body. It had been the first time that anyone had touched her, skin to skin, in place that weren't usually visible. She had always felt ridiculous for being so inexperienced and now she hated herself for it. If she had been more used to a stranger's touch, she might not have bit him by accident. "I've never been…" she trailed off, not wanting to have to explain her to this monster.
"Yer a virgin?" Merle said, laughing. "Ain't ne'er had a man touch yer treasures?" he continued as he closed in on her once again. "Not e'en Daryl? Don't know why dat boy was hangin' 'round ya if ya don't give 'im some 'f dat." His hand grabbing her ass. His face was close to hers once more and this time Hannah was prepared for the sensation of his awful lips upon hers. She closed her eyes in horror as his hand slithered into her pants. Before he was able to do anything more she was saved by someone knocking at the cabin door.
"Your brother's here," a male voice announced, opening the door to the cabin. This caused Merle to look over his shoulder with a grin. "Tell 'im I'm finishin' up in 'ere," Merle said, the door closing promptly. He looked at Hannah as he took a step backwards. "Gimme yer panties," he commanded. She looked at him, confused at this command. After a while he seemed to get agitated and he repeated the comment harsher along with a threat directed towards Pablo. Hannah promptly took off her pants and pulled down her underwear, handing it over to Merle who snatched it from her before he went for the door.
"If ya make a sound, the boys have pe'mission t' come 'n shut ya trap."
With those words her left the cabin, leaving Hannah crying as quietly as she could. She found herself wishing for Daryl, hoping that he would burst through the door at any second. He had shown up, after all. Now all he had to do was help her the heck out of there so they could prepare to fight those bastards.
Daryl was more than pissed, he was furious. Of all people Merle could have abducted he had chosen to take Hannah, which made Daryl think that perhaps Merle had been watching them for a while. Either that, or Hannah had the worst timing. He felt bad, wishing that someone else had been taken but he couldn't deny that he felt that there were better people for Merle to have taken. Any man would fare better with Merle than the women.
"Where the hell 's he?" Daryl snarled impatiently. They had told him to sit tight while they went and got Merle. Apparently he was 'busy'.
"Relax, lil' broth'a," a voice said, causing Daryl to turn to the side. He was met with the sight of the man who practically raised him. Whenever he was around that was. For a moment all the anger disappeared and was replaced with relief that his brother was alive despite the fact that he had a hand missing. It didn't take long for the anger to return but this time it wasn't as strong as it had been at first.
"Where the fuck is she, Merle?" he asked. The way Merle smiled when he asked the question told him more than he wanted to know. He had been with her. "Merle, what did you do to her?"
"Ain't what I did to 'er," he said, grinning. "Gurl couldn't keep 'er hands off of me. Ya didn't tell me she was such a feisty gurl." Merle pulled something partially out of his pocket, revealing something that looked like panties. Daryl's heart sank as he realized what Merle was trying to tell him. She had succumbed to his charms, then. He had liked to think that she would never have gone for anyone like Merle, anyone like him. She was supposed to be the kind of girl that would choose only the best for herself but he had been wrong.
The memory of the tracks that had indicated that she had been dragged and that someone was bleeding was erased from his mind by the insecurities that had kept him from acting upon the urge to touch her.
Merle, knowing that he was successfully playing with Daryl's insecurities stuffed the panties back into his pocket. The boy had always been a pussy, didn't matter how hard Merle had tried to teach him how to approach a woman like a man, Daryl had never taken to. Merle had considered it a god damn miracle when Daryl had taken him to the cabin in an attempt to save the redhead. He had liked to think that Daryl had already showed her the wonder of a Dixon but as he had discovered while talking to the ginger, he had hardly touched the girl.
"What, are ya jus' gonna stand there 'n look at me or did'ya come to speak business?"
"Merle, ya can't take over Nightingale. 'S our home," Daryl said.
"Yer home? Ya'll a big family now?" Merle said, offending by his brother's words. "Looks like ya done 'n gone forget who raised ya."
"I haven't forgotten," Daryl protested.
"Sure looks like ya have. Hanging around that damn group. Cops, niggers and spics. I ain't sure I know ya anymore."
"They ain't so bad Merle, not to me. We all keep one another alive. Don't matter what we are."
"Do'ya think they's gonna let us," Merle said, motioning towards the members of his new posse. "Stay in that town of yers?" After a moment of silence from Daryl's end of the stick, Merle spoke up again: "Didn't think so."
Daryl wanted to speak out, say something to Merle to let him know that he didn't give a fuck whether they wanted him and his crew to join the town. He sure as hell didn't want a bunch of lowlifes threatening the other members of the group. He would have put up with Merle hanging around the area, but only because he was his brother, not because he wanted him around. He found himself wishing that Merle had never escaped that god damn roof. They could have gone off on their own and prevented anything from happening to the rest of the group.
"Don't'ya worry, Darlena," Merle said, approaching his brother. "I ain't gonna make ya leave or that pretty lil' redhead o' ours." Daryl cringed at how Merle had referred to her as theirs, like she was some sort of object that they were sharing.
"Where is she?" he asked again, no longer fazed by the fact that Merle had her panties. The realization that he could have, somehow, forced them from her had taken far too long to come to Daryl.
"She's restin'. Wore her out, if'ya get me," Merle answered with a laugh.
The chair wobbled under Hannah's feet as she stood on it. Merle had left in such a hurry that he seemed to have forgotten about the fact that he had placed her weapons on top of a shelf that was easily accessible if she stood on the chair. She had allowed herself to feel sorry for herself for far too long. Even if she couldn't physically take on the man there was no reason why she should just sit in a cabin waiting for him to return. She had been expecting to see Daryl burst into the cabin, telling her that he was getting her out of there but after a good half hour, she had realized that she couldn't rely on him to come and save her.
As she wrapped her fingers around the handle of her rifle, the chair toppled over and she fell down to the ground causing a good deal of ruckus in the process. Luckily she had held on to the rifle with a tight grip which resulted in it coming for with her. The door to the cabin swung open and someone had begun to complain that she was making too much noise but before they got to say much more, Hannah had fired at the man, effectively shooting him down with a single shot. Another man appeared in the door and aimed his gun at her, only to be shot down before he was able to get his finger on the trigger.
She looked around, trying to find stripper clips for the rifle. "Fuck," she muttered to herself, realizing that he had only taken her rifle and not the ammo that had been sitting inside her house. Better for her in the sense that she wasn't out of ammo at home, worse for her since the stripper clip for her rifle contained only five rounds. Two of which she had already used.
"What the hell was that," Daryl asked, looking at Merle with an enraged expression. "Better not have been someone shootin' at Hannah," he threatened as he got ready to leap in the direction that Merle had come from. However he was forced to stop as a figure caught his eye, running down the hill, towards the road that was in sight. Her red hair was flying in the wind and she had a rifle in her hand. He couldn't help but feel proud of the fact that she had gotten herself out of whatever situation she had been.
As he got ready to run after her, he was stopped by Merle's word: "Where ya goin' baby broth'a? Don't tell me ya gonna follow 'er." Daryl turned to look at Merle, raising his crossbow so that he was aiming at Merle.
"Ya bet yer ass I'm gonna follow her," Daryl said.
"If ya follow 'er, I can't promise we ain't gonna shoot ya when we take over the town," Merle warned, hoping that his words would have an effect on Daryl.
But Daryl just turned around and began running after Hannah, forcing his feet to take him as fast as they could. Of course Merle had been lying about him and Hannah, there was no way that she would ever go for someone like Merle. Someone like him. He began to despise himself for taking his brother's word for even just a moment over the things he actually knew about Hannah. It didn't take him long to watch up with her. He grabbed her by the hand, stopping her from running any further.
"Hannah, ya 'kay?" he asked, concern written all over his face. He was surprised when she forcefully pulled her hand away from his. "Hanna?" he repeated her name, this time around his tone was begging her to say something to him.
"Why didn't you come?" she asked, her hands trembling as she turned around with a hurt expression on her face.
"What happened-" Daryl was met with the sight of the sight of her face bruising and swelling slightly.
"Why the fuck didn't you come for me, Daryl?"
"I had to talk to Merle. Convince him that-"
"There is no convincing that man," she shouted at Daryl. "I waited for you to come but you just left me in there!" Her voice was cracking and the tears were streaming down her face. She knew that it wasn't exactly fair to be angry at Daryl. After all, he had made it all the way up to the camp which must have meant something. But she was so angry at him because of Merle, for never telling her what a terrible person his brother was. She was angry at him for not marching straight to her and saving her.
"Hannah, I was tryin' to talk to him. Try 'n work things out," he said, reaching out to touch her once more, this time she flinched instead of moving away from his touch. His heart ached at her reaction, realizing that Merle must have messed her up real good. The thought of Merle putting a hand on her had Daryl seething.
"Try and work things out?" she finally said. "You were trying to work things out with someone who had threatened to kill us all if we don't leave them this town? Promising that he would kill at least some of us, even if we did leave?" She shook her head, trying to find the words that explained how angry she was at him. How hurt she was that he had been trying to work things out with that monster.
"I'm sorry Hannah, I didn't know…" he looked down, ashamed that he had believed Merle.
"Save it Daryl. I don't want to hear it," she said, stopping him from saying anything further. Not that he had any idea what he was supposed to say. He had always been at a loss for words when she had been upset. Usually he had just let her be upset, burn it off or cry, whatever she needed. He had never known what to tell her. Now he wished that he knew how to make things better; that he knew what the right words were.
"I just want to go home and see Pablo. Wash myself," Hannah said, feeling like she was disgusting. "And get ready to fuck your brother and his posse up," she added as she began walking briskly in the direction of the town that was now visible. Accepting the fact that he wasn't going to be able to make things better, at least not at this given moment, Daryl followed her quietly, allowing the guilt of not having gone straight to her to fester.
A/n: I hope you guys liked this chapter. It was a bit difficult to write at times, but I think I'm happy with it for now. Special thanks to all those who review. You guys are awesome!