Chapter Eight

Carol felt like the biggest idiot in the world. Merle had jumped at the opportunity to get Daryl alone outside and now Andrea was staring at her, that smug look on her face causing Carol to cringe inwardly. This was all her fault. There would be no sense in getting mad at Andrea for it.

"You like him," she said once the awkward silence had gone on so long Carol couldn't help but wonder if the other girl had gone mute.

Carol snorted. "Of course I do. He's really nice. He has bad taste in music but he's nice."

Andrea studied her with a huge grin plastered across her face. "You don't just like him. You like him. You should have seen yourself!"

Carol groaned and ran a hand through her damp hair. "Andrea, are you insane? Look at that boy. Look at me. I'm just..."

"Beautiful," Andrea deadpanned, her face growing serious. "One of the most beautiful people I've ever met and if you try to act like you aren't then I swear I'm gonna..."

"Andrea," Carol admonished gently, unable to stay annoyed at her best friend. "What I meant was that he has to be... involved with somebody. I was just going to say that I'm just some girl passing through."

Andrea shook her head, her eyes taking on that knowing look. "That's the thing. He is very un-involved from what his brother tells me. He's pretty much a self imposed shut in. He doesn't talk to anyone really. He doesn't have any close friends and from what Merle tells me, he can't recall him ever even having a girlfriend. Ever!"

Carol looked at her like she was crazy. That couldn't be true. He seemed really shy at first but by the time she had finally gotten so exhausted that she was dosing off they had been having a decent time. Of course, she was pretty sure that he was feeling sorry for her because of how sick she was.

"You like him," Andrea insisted. "You were totally picturing him naked and he was checking you out too."

Carol groaned and pushed past her into the living room. "We need to think about getting out of here. We don't need to think about boys."

"Getting out of here and going back to what? That broke down car we were living out of? Back to worrying about Tom or someone just like him finding us with our guard down?" If Carol didn't know any better she would have sworn that Andrea sounded angry. She had never known of Andrea having any kind of a temper.

She turned around and put her hands on her hips. "What are you saying?"

Andrea looked at the floor for a few moments and then looked back up quickly. She almost looked guilty. "Merle said that we could stay here until we found jobs and got ourselves off the streets."

Carol's mouth dropped open with an audible pop.

"Before you say anything you should really think about it," Andrea said, knowing Carol was going to think of every reason not to stay here.

"Where would we sleep? This is a one bedroom cabin!"

Andrea crossed her arms over her chest. "We live in a car. And it isn't even ours! It was a car that some guys stripped and left in an alley. Carol, we can have a house! We can have the life that we've spent the last two years talking about. So what if we have to sleep on the floor in this cabin! At least it's warm!"

Carol knew that she was right. Not only that, but deep down, she wanted to stay here. She wanted to get to know the strange boy that had taken care of her the night before. But it scared her. The things he made her think about scared her. But there wasn't anything she could say that would make sense. "How the hell did you and Merle get so close in what little time you've known him?"

Andrea shrugged. "I made out with him last night."

Carol's mouth dropped open again. "Andrea!"

Andrea just laughed. "He's hot."

Carol was starting to feel a little drained. She was better but her strength wasn't back yet. She sat down heavily on the couch and Andrea joined her. She knew she was right. Sleeping on the floor in a house was much better than sleeping in a cold car. Not to mention this place wasn't in the middle of the city and from what she could tell they were pretty much protected here. Daryl and Merle obviously wouldn't let anyone hurt them. Her mind went back to the way the muscles of his chest felt under her hands. And then what Andrea had said about him not ever having a girlfriend.

"Well, if nothing else, the next few weeks are probably going to be pretty interesting," Carol said as she laid her head against the back of the couch.

Andrea grinned. "I think you're right.

~H~

Daryl reveled in the ache in his arms as the ax swung down and split into the log. He'd made a mad dash for the woodpile as soon as Merle got him outside. He didn't want to hear it. He didn't want to have to answer the questions that he knew Merle was about to ask him because he wasn't sure how he would answer them.

Merle watched him with his arms crossed in front of him. He was going to stand there until Daryl ran out of wood, and then what? He couldn't just take off running towards the forest. That wouldn't make any sense. He didn't even have his crossbow on him.

"What the hell was that all about?" Merle asked when Daryl finally took a break long enough to wipe the sweat off his brow.

"Don't know what you're talkin' about," Daryl muttered as he tossed the ax to the side and placed his hands on his hips. He might as well get this over with.

Merle rolled his eyes. "Look baby brother. How long we been together?" He looked at Daryl pointedly as if he was going to force him to tell him something that he already knew.

"Two years, Merle," he grumbled as he bent down to pick up the firewood he had chopped so he could stack it by the front door.

"Right. And in them two years how many ladies have you fucked?" Merle asked.

"Holy shit, Merle," Daryl groaned. "This don't have nothin' to do with anything like that."

"You had drool on your chin when you was starin' at them perfect tits of hers," Merle followed him to the front door.

Daryl took a deep breath and made sure his face was neutral before he turned back around to face his brother. "You don't know what you're talkin' about, Merle." His voice was as calm as his face. He hoped. He actually wanted to kick his brother's ass right now. Why the hell was Merle looking at Carol like that to begin with? "And you ain't got no business lookin' at her like that. This ain't got nothin' to do with sex."

"Sure it does, baby brother. I've brought plenty of different women up here, two at a time more often than not, and you ain't so much as looked in their general direction. You lock yourself up in your room. But not yesterday. Yesterday I bring in a couple half frozen street pups and you lose your shit!"

"She was sick, Merle," Daryl argued as he stomped past him to get more wood.

"She ain't lookin' all too sick no more baby brother. You ready for her to pack up and take off?"

Daryl frowned. He hadn't thought of that. It was funny that the analogy Merle used was pups because he was close to asking if he could keep her. "I spose she's bout ready to head back to the city then," he muttered.

Merle huffed at Daryl's indifference. "I worry about you, you know that?"

Daryl's gaze landed on Merle and he scowled. "I ain't no fuckin' kid that needs you frettin' over me. There ain't nothin' to worry about when it comes to me. You like to run around and stick your dick in anything with a pulse. I don't wanna go runnin' around with a bunch of people. I don't like shit like that. That don't mean I'm some kinda fucked up retard." He was getting pissed off. He just wanted Merle to drop it.

"The shit you had to go through with that bitch. Maybe it fucked you up more than you think," Merle said in a low voice that definitely was filled with concern.

Daryl felt his face flush. Did his brother really think there was something fucked up in his head just because he would rather spend time in the woods than with a bunch of people? Was that how Merle looked at him? Like he was some kind of damaged freak. He opened his mouth to say something but shut it quickly when the front door opened and the girls walked out. Instantly Carol's eye sought his out and he met them unflinchingly. She smiled, almost shyly.

"Everything alright out here?" Andrea asked as she looked from his face to his brother's.

Merle just sighed, like he was disappointed with the way the conversation had ended. Like he was disappointed in him. Carol really did look like she felt better. "You wanna take a walk or somethin'? It ain't gonna be warm like this forever. Might as well enjoy it while we can," he said suddenly.

Merle's head whipped around and he stared at him quizzically.

"Sure," Carol shrugged as she slipped a hoodie on. Once it was zipped up he realized that this wasn't going to help him out any when it came to staring at her. It hugged her every curve, just like the t-shirt did.

She walked towards him, Merle watching with narrowed eyes. "How come you never ask me to go on walks, asshole?" Merle called after them once they had started walking towards a well worn path at the tree line.

Merle's words replayed in his ears. Was there something wrong with him? Even if there wasn't it was pretty obvious that Merle thought that there was. He glanced over his shoulder, summoned up as much courage as he could and smiled, "Maybe I would, if you looked as good in a Runaways t-shirt."

He didn't wait for Merle's response. He felt his face flame at his bold words and he made sure that he kept his eyes focused on the path and not on her.

"Aren't you cold?" She asked after a while, forcing him to glance at her.

She had pulled the hood up over her head and had her hands shoved into her pockets. He had taken his own jacket off once he started chopping wood, but now that she mentioned it he was feeling the chill in the air now.

"Not really," he lied. "But if you wanna go back then we can. I just get sick of Merle's mouth sometimes."

"I don't want to just yet," she said as she glanced over. "I wanted to talk to you anyway."

He felt himself tense but he wasn't sure why. "Bout what?"

"Did Merle mention to you that he told Andrea that the two of us could stay here?" She asked quickly.

He turned on the path so he was facing her fully, frowning down at her. "He didn't mention that. He just said that you was on the mend and would probably be wantin' to head out."

She looked uncomfortable as she stuffed her hands into her pockets again. "Well, that's the thing. I feel a lot better just after one night here. At first I thought it was a stupid idea but now... I don't know. Maybe we can get ourselves off the streets that way. I don't want another run in with Tom or anyone like him. But I don't want to put you out or anything. It's your house."

He studied her for a few moments but she kept her eyes downcast. She was waiting on him to say something and he wasn't sure what he was suppose to say. "So, if ya wanna stay then what's the problem? Merle offered."

She looked up then, the sunlight causing the blue of her eyes to take on the exact shade of the sky. "I wasn't sure if you'd be as okay with it as your brother. The cabin's small and we're two more mouths to feed and..."

"I don't mind if ya stay for a while," he muttered as he looked away.

"Is it because of how good I look in this t-shirt?"

He met her eyes again and she was grinning at him. He narrowed his eyes at her. "You ain't gonna let me live that one down, are ya?" He hoped to god that she didn't notice how red his face had gotten.

She shook her head. "I don't get compliments often. I'll probably be bringing this up for a while," she winked and then stepped around him, leaving him standing there for a moment as she made her way down the trail. He let her take the lead for a little while. The view from this angle was pretty damn amazing.