A/N: This is a work of fan fiction. No infringement intended.

The Country Singer

By Leah Pensotti

Chapter Ten

Melanie had done just about everything she could over the past three and a half weeks since Daryl, Morgan and Aaron went to scout. She had signed up to watch the gate, had gone on two supply runs and had written lyrics for four different songs she and Adam were working on.

Eric told her that it wasn't out of the ordinary to be gone that long. Evidently he had been Aaron's recruiting partner before Daryl came to town. Melanie avoided talking about her worries. The weather had moved into a cool, drizzly fall and the construction team had been working overtime to reinforce the walls. They weren't even a half of the way done.

On the two supply runs she found two packs of cigarettes (both menthol) and a small bottle of Patron and a big bottle of red wine. She was going to wait for Daryl to get back before opening any of it.

Recently, she had gone to see Olivia at the armory and the food stores. She and Adam had been running low all week because Melanie's appetite had returned to full form. As she packed up her box and turned around, she ran into Carol.

"Hi Carol." She greeted her quickly and attempted to duck out of the door.

She heard Carol turn around and follow her, "Mellie. Wait...please..."

Melanie stopped and turned around slowly and said, "Ok."

Carol acted unsure, like she didn't know where to begin, "Did Daryl say anything...before he left?"

Melanie shrugged, "Just that he hoped to come back. That we'd have a drink."

"I have been playing it over and over in my head...that if it was the last time I saw him, his memory of me would be laying into him."

She shrugged again, "He didn't seem mad to me. He knew you were just looking out for him."

Carol looked regretful and sighed, "I guess he told you...about what I said..."

"Not really. But I can guess how it went. I'm not mad, Carol."

Her head snapped up, "You're not?"

Melanie shook her head, "No. I'm not. I'm glad he has you. We all need someone in our corner."

"I thought you were that person for him now."

She couldn't help but laugh, "Uh, no. We just drink together...sometimes I feed him. He isn't exactly talkative. He's just...my new friend. Adam calls him my stray cat, because you never know what doorstep he'll turn up on next. I like him, I like not having to be "on" or entertaining. I can just drink and smoke and not feel alone."

Carol seemed ok with that answer and they parted with Carol promising to bring Melanie and Adam a casserole, which she made good on. Melanie was feeling a little better about what she saw in the mirror too, she'd put on about five pounds since the last time she weighed. She was looking less and less anorexic.

Twice a week when Adam came home sore and late from work, she would eat dinner with him and then would go spend the night watching the walls, her two main partners were Michonne one night and Tara the next. Tara she had gotten to know a little on runs, and she thought Tara was a total hoot. She was silly, gregarious and easy to talk to...basically the female version of Adam. Michonne on the other hand, was a stoic. She and Melanie talked very little, and it didn't help that Michonne intimidated the shit out of her. She was just so damn tough.

On the twenty-fifth day, Maggie and Melanie were sitting on the front porch drinking coffee, bundled up in warm clothes and talking about Maggie's family, which was exponentially bigger than her own.

"Did you not have any brothers or sisters? Grandparents?"

Melanie shook her head, "No siblings. But I had my mom's mom. Granny would watch me while my mom worked her two jobs. We didn't have a lot of money."

Maggie smiled sadly, "Sounds kinda lonely."

"I had my music. It wasn't too bad. Besides, look at me now, I have four solid friends during the apocalypse. It all pans out."

Melanie smiled and noticed something out of the corner of her eye. Three men walking up the street towards Rick's home.

It was them.

Melanie stood up from the porch and Maggie followed. Daryl looked her way...he looked tired and rough. Part of her wanted to run after him, but she didn't. He had business to attend to, and if he wanted to see her, he would come and find her.

Maggie sighed, "Well, they are all in one piece. But they don't look to happy. I guess I better go tell Glenn."

Daryl felt so relieved to be back. The whole trip out just led to more and more red herrings on a wild goose chase. They started with the warehouse where they first encountered the trap. The man in the red poncho that he and Aaron had followed was amongst the walkers in the trap and that made his heart drop a bit. They followed the graffiti from DC to Maryland and to Virginia, finding "Wolves not far behind" tagged on cars, street signs, sidewalks...and sometimes more walker traps attached to them. It lead them in circles...for weeks. They did not want to come home empty-handed.

Despite the detailed notes that Aaron had taken, it felt like they did.

Rick sighed at the non-news, and put his hands on his hips, "I suppose we've just got to be extra vigilant. They haven't gotten closer to us...it gives us time to prepare for an attack."

He then sent them home and said they would talk again in the morning. Daryl decided to go to Carol's first and then maybe to Melanie and Adam's later. He was able to find a few bottles of liquor and a pack of smokes from his travels. When he knocked on Carol's door, she was overjoyed to see him.

"I hope you didn't come here out of pity."

Carol was teasing him, but there was some of how she truly felt in it. Daryl shook his head, "Comeon now."

"Go shower and change. I'll make you something to eat."

He did as she said and when he had come back down in fresh clothes with damp hair, Carol asked for a run down and news and he told her the same thing that he had told Rick. He ate the ramen noodles she had fixed him and she sat across the kitchen table from him, "So I talked to Mellie."

Daryl almost dropped his fork, "Uh-huh."

"I get it. I do. And I might have been a bit quick to judge her."

"She ain't so bad."

"I thought she'd be some pretentious fancy pants. But that girl...isn't what I thought she was. Not even close to it."

Daryl knew how Carol felt.

After eating, he said his farewell and grabbed his bag and bow and made his way to Adam and Melanie's house. He knocked on the door and was surprised that Adam answered it instead of Melanie, "Hey man! Glad you made it back!"

Adam opened the door to Daryl and he walked in, Mellie was on the couch with her guitar and that yellow pick hanging from her lips as she wrote in the beat up notebook. He actually stood there for a few minutes before she realized he was in the same room with her, she was that lost in thought.

When she finally looked up she was startled, "Oh hey. Sorry...I wasn't expecting to see you there."

"Been writin'?"

Melanie smiled, "Yeah, a lot actually. Adam and I have some really good stuff. How was your expedition?"

Daryl shook his head, "A whole lotta nothin.' Just kept running in circles."

He dropped his bag on the floor and then propped his crossbow against the big couch and then he fell down in its comfort. He sat across from Melanie and noticed she looked different. Her face was fuller and she had more color in her cheeks. She was looking more like the girl on that poster in Walmart.

She stood up and placed her guitar gently on the couch. She was wearing a purple plaid shirt and the same beat up jeans that she always wore...there was a hole forming on the right knee, "Are you hungry?"

He shook his head, "No. Stopped by Carol's for a shower. She made me dinner."

Melanie waved for him to follow her, "Come on."

He got up and walked into the kitchen where Adam was making their evening meal...looked like the macaroni and tomatoes again. Melanie opened up the cabinets by the sink and pulled out two bottles of liquor, one big and one small...and then two packs of cigarettes.

Adam shook his head, "You're gonna ruin your voice."

Melanie sighed, "Doesn't really matter all that much, does it?"

Daryl stood up and went back to get his bag and returned to the kitchen with his four bottles and pack of cigarettes. Melanie smiled, "Thank God you found a pack. All I could find is menthols."

As Melanie and Adam ate their dinner, they talked about what had been happening around town since Daryl had been gone. Adam talked about the construction crew working with the steel piling to reinforce the walls. Melanie talked about the night watch and going on runs. They drank from the bottle of red wine and just enjoyed each other's company.

Adam and Melanie washed and dried the dishes, and then Adam spoke up, "I'm gonna head up to bed. I'm totally beat."

He patted Melanie on the shoulder and she hugged him. Adam looked surprised, "What was that for?"

Melanie smiled, "Just because. 'Night big guy."

Daryl and Melanie moved outside. She took the throw blanket with her to stay off the coolness. The shared cigarettes and drank from the big bottle of wine. Melanie kept looking upward, but there were no stars to be seen on that night.

"I was worried about you, you know. So was Carol."

Daryl smirked, "Yeah, she told me you had a talk."

Melanie chuckled lowly, "She brought me and Adam a casserole. It must've gone well."

"Ya'll don't need to worry about me. I'm not worth worrying about."

Melanie swatted his arm gently, "That's not true."

He watched her in the dark, the smoke dancing around her face and hair. He would be lying if he said that someone caring about him didn't feel good. Because it did. It only took the end of the world for him to have a real family.

"So you know about me and my trailer park days. Tell me about your family?"

Daryl felt a hitch in his chest, "Dirt poor and 'bout as redneck as they come. Daddy was as mean as a snake and my brother Merle was a drugged out asshole...but he was all I had."

He felt Melanie looking at him head on, a softness in her hazel eyes. She took another drag of smoke, "I always hated those terms. Redneck, white trash, trailer trash. People in Nashville liked to put them in songs. I guess I've been called all of those names too much to care to put them in songs."

He shrugged, "I s'ppose I kinda owned it. I don't give a fuck what anybody else thinks. And honestly, now I know ya came up poor in a trailer park with a stripper mama, I think I like ya more."

She laughed lowly, "Thanks."

They talked, smoked and drank until Melanie became too cold to continue sitting outdoors. She again offered him the guest bedroom and he declined in favor of the couch.

A loud thumping, persistent knock woke Melanie up in the morning. It took her a minute to register where she was. She had fallen asleep on the little couch listening to music with Daryl. She still had her clothes and boots on from yesterday. Daryl stirred when Melanie went to answer the door and Tara was there looking panicked.

"Mellie, you have to come with me...there's been an accident, it's Adam."

"But-"

"He fell. Abraham sent me to get you. He fell. It's bad. Part of the wall is breached. We need to run. Now."

Melanie grabbed her gun and hunting knife and saw Daryl ready, his crossbow in hand. As they ran to the construction site, Melanie found herself praying. As they had extended the wall outward, they put up a temporary chain link fence. Melanie climbed and hopped it and continued to run to where Abraham and Rick and a few others were crowded around Adam, while Michonne and Glenn were working to keep the walkers at bay at the breach. There had been too much noise and they were swarming.

She ran to Adam and pulled Rick back to see. He had fallen from the scaffold, right onto two upright pieces of steel piping. They had impaled him...one near the shoulder, another in the stomach. His blood was pooling everywhere. Mellie fell to her knees and took Adam's head in her hands.

"No. No. Adam...you have to stay with me. I can't..."

Adam, covered in his own blood, smiled weakly, "Mellie...I'm a gonner...I gotta...you gotta..."

Melanie was crying, "No, we're going to get you out of here...get you to Denise."

"Mellie...if you don't go now, they'll get in. More will die. Not worth it..."

"Adam, no! Don't you leave me. Don't you dare."

And then Adam smiled, "Crazy girl. You've got this. I love you."

She felt overwhelmed and Adam looked up at Rick, the color draining out of his face, "Rick, get her out of here. Get them all...out...Daryl..."

Melanie didn't hear what he said to Daryl, because Rick was dragging her away to the chain link fence. She fought him every inch.

"Rick...let me go!"

She struggled and he shook his head, "He wants this...to save you. To save us..."

Melanie broke free from Rick, but was caught by Abraham, who threw her over his shoulder. She balled up her fists and beat him in the back, but it did nothing. Rick climbed the chain link fence and once to the other side, Abraham tossed Melanie like a rag doll over the fence, where Rick helped her over. She fought him still, and once Abraham and Daryl made it over, they stopped her from trying to get to Adam.

Rick had her by the waist and he called Glenn and Michonne back, bringing everyone to safety and leaving Adam bleeding. Glenn and Michonne made it over and the walkers began ambling in through the breach. She couldn't breathe, it was like someone had a stranglehold on her heart.

"Adam! You listen to me! I love you!"

She cried and repeated it over and over. The walkers descended on him and soon, she could hear his screams. She could feel a ripping at her chest and Rick put one of his hands up and turned her head, "Don't look, Mellie."

Her first inclination was to sink into his chest, but instead she pushed Rick away and ran past the group, past the sad eyes. She ran down the street to the complete opposite side of the town and found herself in one of the empty houses backyard. She fell on her knees and punched at the ground, screaming at the top of her lungs. She was alone, and she would drown in it.

Her hands and legs were covered with dirt and blood, soon the screaming stopped and she just wept. Adam was gone. It was like she lost part of her being. She rested her head against the cool earth, and soon, two arms wrapped around her waist and pulled her up to stand.

When Daryl found her, she was covered in Adam's blood and dirt, and shaking on the ground. He had followed her as she ran, she was faster than him...her hair was wild and she looked like a feral baby animal taken away from it's mother too soon.

He was shocked at her lightness when he pulled her up, and when she realized it was him, she tried to push away and run. But he wouldn't let her. He held her there as she cried into his chest.

"Daryl?"

"Uh-huh?"

"I don't wanna go back there."

"Ya don't have to, Red."

She pulled him closer to her, finally wrapping her arms around him. He laid his cheek atop her head and felt her shake with grief. After minutes of just her crying and silence, the skies opened up and rain began to fall.

It was fitting.

As the rain came down harder, Daryl scooped her up gently and carried her all the way back home.

a/n: Hi ya'll. I hope you aren't too mad at me. I realized that for Mellie to grow, to be forced out of her cocoon, it had to happen. It's gonna be a long road for her, but she and Daryl will grow closer, as well as more interaction in the group.

Thanks everybody for reading, but the story stats/traffic graph have not been working on the site for the past week...if you all would be so kind to leave me a review and let me know that you were here reading and what you think/how I am doing, it would be wonderful.

Special shout outs to Jean F and Angie B. You two rule :) I hope this chapter answers some of your questions. Now that Mellie is on her own, she's going to have to break out. It's a sink or swim situation. She may sink for a bit, but I promise you, she will swim.

If you enjoy Rick/OC fics, please check out "Redemption" :)

Please, please let me know you were here with a review. It would mean the world to me :)

Love love!

Leah P! Xoxo