Happy Sunday!

I said my goodbyes to both of them, Johnny sullen and quiet and Arlene accepting and sweet as always. Then, I borrowed one of the cars and I left. I didn't bother tracking Daryl. I didn't need to. I knew where he'd be. But I didn't expect to find Merle dead as a walker and Daryl collapsed on the ground by his dead brother, the dismembered bodies of walkers scattered across the ground. Some weren't even properly dead, their mouths still moving on armless, legless bodies. I took them out with my machete as I moved towards where Daryl was kneeling in front of his dead brother. I dropped into the soft grass beside him and stared down at Merle. A gunshot to the stomach. Somebody had fuckin' shot Merle in the stomach to end him, knowing what he'd turn into. The knife wound in his head let me know that Daryl had taken care of the problem and my heart ached for him.

"Daryl," I said as softly as I could. His eyes turned to me and I almost wished I hadn't attracted his attention. The blue eyes were rimmed with red and filled with anger and a burning hatred.

"What the fuck are ya doin' here?" he snarled. "Tol' ya to wait back at the prison! Don' ya ever fuckin' listen? Don' ya ever fuckin' think?"

"Daryl, you're okay." It just hit me that he might not have been. That I could have stumbled upon an entirely different scene.

"'course I'm o-fuckin'-kay. 'Couse ya don' give two shits 'bout my brother."

"Daryl, you and I both know that's not true. Come on. I'll help you bury him."

"Don' need yer fuckin' help. Go back to the fuckin' prison!"

"No." I stood up and marched over to the car where I knew there was a shovel in the trunk. I grabbed it and marched back over to Daryl. I demanded, "Where do you want him buried?"

"Can' ya wait jus a fuckin' minute? Why are ya in such a fuckin' rush to put him in the ground? Ain't like he's comin' back! He ain't never comin' back! Only fuckin' family I had left an he's fuckin' gone! Don' ya get that ya stupid bitch? Don' ya fuckin' get it?"

"Daryl, I've seen a lot of people die. I watched my granddaddy put a bullet in my father's head, and then I put a bullet in his head. I lost my fiancé. I almost lost my brother and my baby girl. I know what it is to lose family. Now, you can sit here and hate me all you want, but I'm still going to go dig a fucking hole for your brother, because, even though I don't miss Merle like you do, in that short time that I knew him, he was important to me too."

"Ya didn' know shit 'bout him. Ya didn' know shit an ya didn' care fer shit 'bout him!"

I spun on my heel and stomped away. I began digging into the hard earth stubbornly. I was going to dig that fucking hole, I was going to put that big, stubborn, stupid fucking redneck's walker body into it, I was going to say a quick service, and then I was going to drag the other redneck's stupid ass to my car and drive back to my little girl in time to have dinner and read her a bedtime story. And if the fucking redneck didn't make it easy on me, I'd hit him in his stupid, thick fucking head with a shovel. Soon though, I saw him move out of the corner of my eye. I ignored him and kept digging. I had a neat hole about as deep as my knees but I knew that would never do for Merle. It had to be at least as deep as my chest, if not deeper. Daryl wouldn't stand for anything less, and, honestly, I wouldn't either. Merle may not have been a great man but he was a good man for his brother and he was a good man to my little girl. He did what he did because he thought he was doing what was best for the prison group.

"I'll dig the hole," Daryl said gruffly, refusing to look at me. "Ya shouldn' be doin' it. My brother. I'll do it. Ya should get his body ready or somethin'."

"I can…"

"Fuckin' said I'll do it. Ain' right to make me say shit twice, ya lil fuckin' psycho."

I nodded and took the hand he was extending so he could help me out of the hole. I turned to walk to Merle's body and Daryl's hand circled my arm quickly. He yanked me back to him and grabbed my face roughly. He pressed a quick kiss to my mouth and muttered, "Yer so fuckin' stupid. Ya know that, right?"

"Dig the hole. You and I have to be the ones to tell Arlene that 'uncle knife hand' won't be coming back."

"Go fuckin' take care of the body."

I nodded and made my way over to kneel next to Merle's body. I could see the differences the walker virus had made to his body. His skin was gray and mottled. He was only hours turned and he already looked softer, less like the hardened man I'd shared hot chocolate vodka with. His death wound was in the middle of his chest. The Governor knew what he was doing when he killed him and I felt my heart break for the man. I smoothed my hand over his sparse hair and smiled softly, knowing he'd never allow it if he were alive. He'd smack my hand away and make a lewd comment about Daryl not pleasing me right and him having to do it.

I stared down into his eyes. They were once so much like Daryl's. They were harder and meaner, somewhat less intelligent, but they had kindness in them. The anger that he put forth as on the first day I met him was always there, like it was in Daryl's. He showed it more and he didn't try to get along with people like Daryl did. But there was kindness in Merle. I'd seen that when he held Arlene and laughed let her call him 'uncle knife-hand.' I saw it when he drank hot chocolate with me, and warned me what would happen to me if the Governor wasn't taken care of. The virus had cut through his eyes, yellowing and reddening them. Blood vessels had popped and blood pooled in the corner of one of his eyes.

I brushed the dirt away from his face and used my hand to shut his eyes. I buttoned his coat over the angry red smear running from his chest and crossed his arms over his chest. I went to the car again to get a tarp out of the back. While Daryl dug, I wrapped him in the blue tarp carefully, struggling to move his dead weight. Daryl finished the hole and lifted Merle's body over his shoulder. He deposited him in the hole and I asked, "Should we say a few words?"

"Ain' no god listenin' to us, Jesse. All I got to say was Merle was my brother an he took care of me. We took care of each other. All I had growin' up. Now I got a new family, but I won' be forgettin' 'bout my brother. Won' never forget 'bout him."

I nodded and we started burying Merle. It took us half an hour to push the dirt back into the hole in the ground. Then, Daryl got on his bike and I got in my car and he followed me back to the prison.