Great response to the last chapter! Guess you guys were glad to see them back together lol. Thanks to you all! Now on with the show…
Own nothing Walking Dead related.
Before she could lose the nerve, before Merle could open his mouth to ruin the moment, Hannah rose up on her tiptoes and smashed her lips against his. She felt him tense in surprise, lips frozen and unmoving. She let her mouth linger, anxiously waiting for his reaction.
It took all of 5 seconds to come.
His mouth opened greedily under hers, his surprisingly warm lips overtaking hers in earnest fervor. His good hand moved to cradle the back of her head while his prosthetic lay across her back, trapping her against his body. Hannah let out a tiny sigh of pleasure, her own small hands splayed across his broad chest. Kissing Merle was like licking a live wire. It was intense and shocking and completely overwhelming. She could feel the electrical current running all the way down to her toes. He kissed her with so much passion, passion she never knew he had. She let it wash over her, let it soak into her every pore.
All too soon, Merle pulled away. He looked down at her, blue eyes flashing with desire and lust and something else she couldn't quite place. It made her shiver pleasantly.
"You better have meant that, girl," he growled softly, tugging gently on her red hair. "Kiss a man like that, and it better have meant something."
Hannah smiled up at him, reaching back to take his good hand out of his hair. She brought it down to her chest and placed it gently over her still racing heart. It was her way of saying yes, it meant something. Yes, she'd finally seen the light. Yes, she was his.
Understanding broke over Merle's face, and he let his trademark crooked smile shine.
"Well now, miss Hannah, guess that means I get to kiss ya again," he let out a chuckle. "And any other dame time I want to, for that matter. Your Merle's girl now," his voice softened, "You've really always been Merle's girl."
Hannah beamed, his words filling her with a kind of happiness she'd not yet felt in this cruel new world. She was Merle's girl. It felt good to think that.
Merle leaned down to deliver another smoldering kiss, then straightened up with a more serious look in his eye.
"We gotta get moving," he said. "That herd could still be moving. Gotta get somewhere safe. Come on."
He grabbed Hannah's hand and pulled her deeper into the trees. They tread in silence, mindful of the many dangers that could befall them at any moment. Well, Hannah hoped Merle was at least being mindful. She was having a hard time focusing on anything else but the feeling of his lips on hers. Good grief, if she had known it felt like that to kiss him, she would have done it a long time ago. She thought back to the morning she had woken up next to him, how a part of her had wanted to kiss him then. She should have just done it. Then all this mess wouldn't have happened. She shook her head. No use thinking about that. She was with Merle now, and that was all that mattered.
They journeyed for a couple of hours. Hannah had no clue where they were going. It didn't seem like Merle was leading her back to the farmhouse, which was probably a good thing, as there really wasn't any reason for them to be there anymore. They just needed a place to hold up for the night, as dark was starting to fall around them. Then in the morning, they could figure out what their next move was.
Finally they stumbled upon an abandoned motor home, much like the one that had been on the farmyard. This one, however, was free of corpses and smelled a lot less nasty. They quickly got in, Merle securing it as best he could while Hannah searched for food. After a meal of beef jerky and marshmallows, they climbed up onto the roof with some pillows and blankets. Merle tried to get Hannah to go sleep in the bed while he took first watch, but she resisted, instead snuggling into his side. There was no way she was sleeping in that bed alone. She craved closeness to Merle. He didn't seem too upset with her decision either. He wrapped his mangled arm around her, his good one resting near his ever trusty pistol.
They sat in comfortable silence for a bit, just watching the trees sway in the slight breeze around them. Then Merle cleared his throat.
"Was looking for ya for four days," he began, still staring out at the trees. "I did find those bastards' trail, but they were sneaky, and it eventually disappeared. Stumbled around blindly for a bit, looking for any sort of clue. Finally, I got lucky. Found one of their lower men out scouting. I caught him and forced him to tell me where the camp was." He paused, looking down at Hannah with a slight smile. "I'll spare ya the details of how I did that."
Hannah nodded, grateful. Although a bad man, she did not want to hear about what Merle had done to the lower henchman.
"Anyways," Merle continued, "I was contemplatin' how I'd get you out of there, with all them men, when I got sniffed out by a herd. Must've been like 50 of them, all snappin and snarlin. And then it came to me. If I could lead the herd to the camp, we'd have a chance. So I did just that. And thank my lucky stars, it worked. They chewed up them idiots, and I got ya."
Hannah let out a shudder. It had been a risky plan. Merle could have easily been overrun. Or she could have gotten caught in the middle of it all. She burrowed deeper into his side, sending up a prayer of thanks that everything had worked out.
"Nobody, uh, touched ya, did they?" Merle asked, his shoulders tense. Hannah shook her head, and his shoulder visibly relaxed. "Good. Bad enough that they beat on ya. Deserved what they got, bastards."
Hannah didn't want to think about what it would have been like if she'd actually spent the evening with the boss. He would not be kind and gentle, that was for sure. She found herself wondering what kind of lover Merle was. Was he raw and animalistic? Rough and dirty? She had a hard time believing that he'd be slow and gentle, but stranger things had happened. She was suddenly overcome with an intense desire to find out. If she felt like flying after only kissing Merle, imagine what the sex would be like…
"You okay, darling?" Merle broke in. "You look kinda flushed."
Hannah blushed, instinctively cowering into the blankets. That pushed her closer into Merle's very toned body, which did nothing to help calm her down. Good grief, she thought, this was going to be a looooong night.
In the end, Merle fell asleep after only a few hours of watch, snoring lightly on the mound of blankets Hannah had pushed around him. She wasn't at all tired, so she let him sleep while she watched the rest of the night. It was quiet, for which she was very happy. They both deserved a night of quiet, after all that had happened the last few days.
The sun was just only up for about an hour when she heard the voices. They were coming up from the south of the trailer, and were getting louder quickly. She checked to make sure Merle was still asleep, then flattened herself against the roof of the trailer. From the angle that they were coming from, they wouldn't see them. She lay there, listening. It sounded like a boy and a girl, both young.
"I think we're following the wrong trail. This one is way too fresh."
"They could be moving. Come on, of all people you should have a little faith."
"We aren't going to find anything, I know that. Felt it in my heart that first night. I've done my grieving, and this is all a waste of time."
"Babe, you may think that, but you're father doesn't. Do it for him, okay?"
A sigh. "Fine. Wanna check that trailer over there?"
"Yeah. Keep your weapon up, who knows what's in there."
Hannah listened to their footsteps continue to move closer. She frowned, unsure of what to do. They sounded harmless, but one never did know. She didn't have to decide though, and Merle (who had woken up) decided for her.
"You take one more step and Imma blow your heads off," he shouted, still lying down out of sight. Hannah heard the footsteps stop, and the unmistakable clicks of guns being readied.
"Who's that? Where are you?" the boys voice called.
"Don't matter who I am or where I am, just turn around and leave. Ain't nothing here you're looking for," Merle called back, pulling Hannah to him. She could feel the tension radiating from his body.
"Look mister, we're not looking for trouble," the boy answered. "We're looking for one of our group. Went missing a few days ago. If you have her, we'd like her back."
Hannah froze. She quickly rolled to face Merle, signing for him to ask who the person was. Merle frowned, but did it anyways.
"Who'd ya lose?"
"A girl," the girl's voice spoke up. "My little sister. Blonde, blue eyes, young. If you've got her or hurt her, I'll kill you."
Hannah's eyes widened. They had to be talking about Beth. They just had to be! She had to tell them. If this was Beth's sister, she deserved to know her sister was dead. Shuffling away from Merle, she threw caution to the wind, and stood up.
Standing on the ground below the trailer was a boy and a girl, both only maybe a few years older than her. The girl was southern looking, a very pretty brunette bearing striking resemblance to Hannah's deceased friend. The boy was Asian, and he looked like he meant business. Both raised their guns when Hannah popped up, but lowered them slightly when they saw she was unarmed.
"Who are you?" the boy asked, squinting his eyes in confusion. "It was a man's voice that was talking."
"You put those guns down, or I'll shoot," Merle appeared beside Hannah, gun up and ready. She watched in surprise as the boy's face suddenly changed into a look of recognition.
"Damn," he breathed out. "Merle?"
Merle cocked his head to the side, the same look slowly dawning on his face. "Glenn?"
I liked the Merle reuniting with Glenn scene in the show, so I felt I had to pay tribute to it on here lol. This one is a lot less violent lol.
