The much anticipated chapter is finally here.
Reunion - just sayin'. ;)
Guess I was feeling generous, huh?


Bent or Broken?

Previously:

"She doesn't want to see you." Maggie's words were like a knife to his gut. What? Why? He hadn't seen her in months, what was there that she would be angry at him for?
"Why the hell would that be?" He asked.
"Because you brought him." Daryl followed Maggie's pointing finger although he already knew who was meant. Merle.


Once more, Daryl was frozen for one second before he understood. He understood that the blood on Merle's shirt, nearly all of it, was Jasmin's. That his brother had hurt her, hurt Jasmin, hurt the woman he loved. That he had hurt her so bad that she didn't want to see him because he had brought his brother. He understood that Merle had done the one thing Daryl probably couldn't forgive – Merle had taken Jasmin from him when she was finally within his reach. Just when he had realized that she was here, after all the time without her, time that he had spent missing her she didn't want him anymore because of his brother. His brother, the man he had already regretted going with and now he didn't know how he felt about the fact that he had brought him here. Fuck, if he had been alone, he could already be looking at her. He had to know what had happened, now.

Daryl walked up to his brother, aiming his crossbow at him. "What'cha do to her?"
"Why do ya care? She's just a stupid bitch who wouldn't tell me what I wanted to know."
"What'cha do to her? I ain't askin' again!" Daryl was at the end of his patience, if he even had any that day. If Merle didn't answer soon, he'd find out what an arrow up his ass felt like.
"Roughened her up a little, did my job and tried to get her to tell me where ya were." Merle didn't get it, why was his brother all over him just because he had beaten up the bitch?

Up until then, the others had just looked on but then, Michonne had enough. That son of a bitch had nearly killed Jasmin and it was time Daryl knew it. It wasn't that she liked Daryl a lot, actually she didn't but she wanted Merle gone, preferably dead.
"You nearly killed her, you asshole. Left her for dead, she would've died in that hole if it weren't for these people here."
"Killed her? Ya fuckin' tried to kill her?" Daryl didn't get it, his brother had said he had roughened her up, that was a long way from killing someone.
"Cause she fuckin' got on my nerves, alrigh'? No one cared if she lived or died, don't get your panties all in a bundle." Merle was laughing, somehow he thought his brother was funny when he was all riled up like that. Still, it made no sense whatsoever to him. He didn't pay much attention to what was going on and didn't see Carol sneaking up on the two brothers, hitting Merle with the barrel of her shotgun.
"You better take a look yourself, until then he goes into a cell – and no discussion about this!" She added when she saw that Daryl was ready to disagree.

Merle was dragged into the cell farthest from Jasmin and the people living in the prison knew that this conflict wasn't going to just go away. No one trusted or even liked Merle, hell they hated him for what he had done to Jasmin (and Michonne) and that Daryl had left them once for him. He might have come back, but it still irked them.
How was this conflict going to be dealt with? They didn't have time for something like this now, hell the Governor could attack any second and if they were honest, they needed all the muscle they could get – and Merle had a lot of that, also insight because he had been in the enemy's camp up until two days ago. In the end, it all came down to Jasmin and Daryl, if they were able to work something out concerning Merle, they would follow their lead. If not, well they could hold him a while. For the sakes of Daryl and Jasmin, they hoped that they would work through this though, they had all witnessed what Daryl had gone through when they had lost Andrea and Jasmin. They didn't want Daryl to lose her all over again.
Sophia went to her mother, hugging her because she understood that now was the time when their lives were once more hanging on a thread, not only because of the Governor but also because Daryl had been a big part of them in the last months – losing him would be disastrous for them.


About two hours after the attack, Daryl still hadn't seen Jasmin – but he had gotten an account of what the others knew. What his brother had done to her, knowingly and unknowingly.. Daryl wanted to kill his brother. The only thing keeping the bastard safe was actually the cell that he was in so the others were safe from him. He wanted to pummel him, smash his face in, destroy him – and he hadn't even seen the marks on her skin in person yet.

Finally, he gathered his courage, reigned in his rage and walked up the cell she was staying in. He had been quiet, but somehow she had still heard him.
"Stay where you are, I was serious." She said, her back turned to him. Her hair was fanned out behind her, some strands had fallen off the bunk and were lightly grazing the floor. Damn, her hair had grown a lot. Daryl drank it in, he had never before cared about someone's hair but at the moment, it was all he was able to see and he wasn't going to complain. There she was, alive and talking. The emotion of it all was nearly bringing him to his knees, fuck he had missed her so much.
"Just lemme explain."
"No" she nearly cut him off. "Go away. I need rest." The venom in her voice left him staggering and a moment later, he went into his cell. He was crushed, how was he supposed to make it right again? His brother had messed up, not him. What did she want him to do? He just wanted her back, looking at him, smiling at him, talking to him, smoking with him. Fuck! This wasn't how he had hoped their reunion would go.

Jasmin meanwhile was shaking from the effort not to cry once again. Just hearing his voice nearly had her caving. But how could she put her heart out there, just so he could stomp on it. Even on the slight chance that he didn't choose his brother over her at first, who would want her like this? She hadn't been allowed to stand up yet so she had no way of knowing how bad her face really looked, but the cut was big, she could feel it throbbing, could imagine how it looked. The other scars on her body at least were covered in tattoos and not on her face for all the world to see. Not to mention all the bruising, swelling that currently deformed her face – if he saw her like that, he'd run for the hills. God, this hurt so much more than not knowing where he was. This wasn't how she had imagined their reunion, not at all.
Someone touched her shoulder then, she had been too focused on keeping her emotions in check to notice. The hand was small, warm and female – Sophia. Jasmin turned around so she could look at the girl.
"Are you gonna be okay?" The girl whispered, knowing that Jasmin didn't want Daryl to hear. "We could go for a walk to the yard, Hershel said it would do you good. You think you can walk?"
Jasmin nodded and sat up slowly. They went out to the yard then, Jasmin realizing that Sophia had changed a lot, had gotten a lot tougher, grown up but somehow, she was also still the same. After slowly getting out of the building, they sat down in the yard. Just when Jasmin thought that a cigarette would be heaven right now, Sophia handed her a pack.
"I took them from Daryl's stash, don't think he'd mind. He hit a goldmine just before we found the prison, his words not mine."
"Thanks, sweetie." She tried to smile at her, but it didn't really show because of how swollen her face was. They sat after that, in silence until Sophia spoke up.
"I think it's best we head inside now, I know mama will be nearly done with dinner soon." With that, she helped Jasmin up and they went back inside, Jasmin once more lying down.
Sophia said, as if in goodbye, "You know he missed you like crazy, right?"


Meanwhile, Carol went up to Daryl's cell, intent on talking to him.
"Haven't had a chance to say, I'm glad you came back."
Daryl huffed, saying, "To what? All of this?" He was pointing the arrow he was fiddling with around the room.
"This is our home." Carol replied.
"This is a tomb." He wasn't only referring to the fact that they would all die here but that people had already died there.
"That's what T-Dog called it. I thought he was right, until you found me." She looked at him then and he gave her an attempt of a smile, even though he didn't really feel like smiling at all. But this was Carol and Carol was his friend.
"He's your brother, but he's not good for you. Don't let him bring you down."
"Already did. How am I supposed to make this right?" They both knew he was talking about Jasmin.
"She needs time to heal."
"What he did to her, it was just like when she was back in Germany. I jus' know that she thought that she was back there. In a way, she was."
"She will come around, I think she missed you just as much as you did her. If her reaction to you not being here when she realized it was us is anything to go by, at least. You'll work this out, just don't let Merle out of that cell." Daryl nodded at that, understanding that making her feel as safe as possible would be the best he could do right now.


That night, they all woke up to the screams – her screams. Daryl's blood froze when he heard her, god, at first he had thought she was actually being attacked. No one understood what she was shouting, at least not fully but they were sure that it was a memory of when she had been 21. Daryl didn't sleep again that night, sitting just outside her cell to make sure no one could really get to her.


After breakfast, Daryl went into his cell again to get Jasmin's backpack. He wanted to give it to her and maybe, she'd talk to him then.
"Are we really doing this again?" She asked, having once more heard his approach.
"Just thought you'd want your stuff, kept it so you'd get it back when ya found us." He set her backpack down, intending to go when she .
"You kept it all this time?" She asked him. He still couldn't see her face, she kept it in the shadow but he saw her legs dangling over the bunk. Had they always been this skinny? There was barely any meat on them, hell it looked as if all there was to them was muscle.
"Yeah, couldn't just throw it away. Wouldn't just give ya up."
"Is he going to stay here forever?" She wanted Merle gone, dead, so he would never hurt her again, look at her again, talk to her again. He was just a living reminder of what he had done to her.
"In the last cell, he ain't leavin' it until ya say it's okay." He meant to be reassuring, but somehow, it made her angry. She thrust her face into the light, leaving him literally frozen in shock. It was even worse than he had anticipated and he had painted a pretty bad picture in his head.
"Do you think I will ever want him out of that cell? No, he can rot and die in there for all I care. Now get the hell away from me!" When he didn't move right away, she picked up a fork that was lying next to her bed and threw it at him. It didn't really hurt him, of course, but he came out of his shock. He took one last look at Jasmin and then went off to find Rick.

"Gimme the key." Daryl growled at Rick.
"Why?" Since the attack, Rick had gotten back to himself, realizing what was going on around him once more.
"Just give it to me!" Rick took one look at Daryl, thinking that if he didn't do what the man wanted, he might be the one who felt the wrath of a Dixon so he just gave it to him. That didn't mean that he was going to leave Daryl unsupervised though.

Daryl didn't waste any more time, getting the cell door open as soon as he arrived. Merle was stupid enough to think that his brother had realized that there was no reason to keep him locked up and therefore was totally caught off guard when Daryl landed his first of many punches to his face. Daryl had never before had the upper hand in a fight between the two brothers – his brother was bigger and heavier muscled from his time in the military but today, their roles were reversed. Daryl's rage fueled his strength and Merle was too shocked to react at first. While Daryl was laying into Merle, he shouted at him.
"There's one good thing in my whole fuckin' life and you gotta ruin it, huh? Someone actually givin' a damn about me and ya gotta drive her away from me, do that ta her and for what? So that yer stupid Governor can kick ya out! Fuck, if ya weren't blood, you'd be dead by now. No one harms the woman I love!"
Shit, shit, shit. He hadn't meant to say that. He shoved Merle back into cell, locked it and was out of the building like a shot. The rest of the prison gang stood shocked, most of them had made their way to the commotion, wanting to know what was going on. No one had expected Daryl to lose it like that, especially because just two days ago, he had chosen his brother over them. Now it looked as if he was ready to kill Merle and not regret it one bit. What really had their minds reeling though was that Daryl had announced his feelings for Jasmin for all of them to hear. They had suspected, of course, but Daryl never spoke of such things as feelings, at least not for his own benefit.

Daryl had escaped the prison and was sitting outside, looking at the Walker-infested yard. He heard someone approaching, not bothering to look who it was. He really didn't care, he wouldn't even make the effort for Carol right now.
"You don't mean that." The voice that said it had Daryl's head whipping around. He hadn't expected Jasmin to come to him, not after what she had said, what his brother had done.
"What?" What exactly was she talking about? Fuck, why wasn't she looking at him? He just wanted her to look at him.
"You don't love me. How could you, we haven't seen each other in months." It wasn't making much sense for her to tell him that because she knew that she loved Daryl too and it wasn't impossible for her to feel that way, so why would it be for him? But she wasn't thinking straight, she was only thinking about the new scar and how she looked with it. Somehow she was forgetting who she was talking to, that Daryl had his own scars and that he had known about her old scars too and hadn't cared about them.
"I do, don't matter that I haven't seen you. Ya know I ain't good with this shit but I ain't never given up hope on findin' ya. Kept this too." With that, he took the dark blue metal box out of his pocket and handed it to her. She couldn't believe it, she had thought she had lost it forever.
"Where did you find this? I thought I lost it at the farm." She was clutching the box to her heart, still incredulous.
"Ya did, found it at the farm, trampled and with blood on it. Thought it was yours, thought ya might be dead. Took it with me'nd used it for the cigarettes."
"Thank you. I mean it, really." She looked at him then and they both knew that they couldn't be without the other. Jasmin sat down next to Daryl on the bench, not really knowing what to do with that realization.

"I don't know how to fix this."
"Me neither, just know that I need ya." Daryl confessed. It took a lot to just say this, what if she sent him away anyway?
"He's your brother, I get that. But please don't ask me to just forget what he did. It.. it was just like it was back then. I.." She trailed off, lost for words but she didn't have to spell it out, not for Daryl. He had understood as soon as the others had told him what had happened – it was as he had feared.
"For what it's worth, I'm sorry." What else was he supposed to say anyway? There was no way for him to take her pain away.
"You know, I antagonized him so Michonne could get away. When he realized I knew you, the thought I knew where you were. That's why he held me there. The cheek happened before when I tried to kill him." Daryl's shoulders went rigid – she had tried to kill his brother? When? Why? She seemed to get his confusion, "The Governor sent Merle and six others to kill Mich and me. We got rid of all of them but Merle and another guy and I only had my machete so I had to get into hitting distance. Merle was faster though and that was it for my face being without scars." There was this hollow laugh again, the one Daryl had first heard when she had told the group about Germany.

Talking about what happened with Merle didn't exactly have a therapeutic influence on Jasmin though, who was feeling more dizzy as the story continued. When she was done, her stomach heaved and emptied the content of her stomach onto the pavement. Daryl was next to her as soon as he noticed something was amiss, so when she swayed he caught her. He carried her inside after that, looking at her face from up close – he'd kill his brother if he said one wrong word, that much was without question. What he had done to Jasmin was unforgivable, maybe Merle would really spend the rest of his days in that cell – he would, as far as Daryl was concerned.
He set her down on the bunk of her bed and thew the blanket, getting Hershel to check her over. Daryl had noticed that she was slightly hotter to the touch than she was supposed to be and he was worried out of his mind. When Hershel was checking out Jasmin, Rick came to talk to Daryl – once more not caring that Daryl had other things to worry about.
"What'cha want?" Daryl asked impatiently. He wanted to know what was wrong with Jasmin, not have a chat, for god's sake.
"I want Merle out of that cell, we need him." Rick announced but really, it was more of an order.
"Are you crazy? He ain't goin' anywhere! Ya taken a look at Jasmin lately?"Daryl was flabbergasted, how far gone was Rick to make such a decision?
"It's final. We need him, you keep an eye on him. I'm serious, I know this isn't easy but we need the muscle." Daryl felt as if Rick had kicked him in the gut. Why was he doing this to him? He had just told Jasmin that Merle would stay in the cell until she said otherwise and now?


Insensitive Rick, huh? On his defense: he's still in gaga land, he'll understand that he made a mistake with that choice soon though, maybe.
Jasmin is not out of the woods yet but maybe Daryl can be her hero? ;) ;)
They talked but things are not okay, that's as fast as I could take it. I don't want them to just jump at each other. I hope y'all have a bit more patience, they will make up soon, maybe in the next chapter already.
If you're nice I might listen to what you request in the reviews :P