Quick recap (because I'm mortified at how long this has taken me): Daryl and Merle were united in Woodbury, Merle was told to leave by Glenn and Rick at the side of the road. Daryl argued for his brother, saying that he was Dean's father and that they were sticking together. Then the ultimatum: Leave Merle and stay in the prison, or leave the rest of the group to stay with his brother and nephew. Daryl manages to convince them to bring Merle back to the prison for the moment, but no one is happy. Merle is his usual crude self, insulting practically everyone. Meanwhile, Tyreese's group is in the prison, and everything is about to get tense. They've just reached the prison.
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At all the cell doors that they had to pause and unlock, Merle was getting tenser and more coiled, swinging his stump forcefully at his side. Daryl just concentrated all his energy at the task of not fumbling the keys. He could feel Rick's hard stare on his back, and his decision was weighing down heavily on him.
When they reached the communal area, the sight of four strangers lounging on chairs stopped everyone in the tracks except Merle. Daryl had his crossbow aimed at them in a second, one foot sliding sideways to stop Merle from going any further, but his brother just stomped past him.
With a loud yell that made Carol jump, Merle called out, "DEAN!"
From the cell block, there was the sound of something heavy hitting the floor, and then small footsteps thudding towards them. When Dean reached the cell door, he screamed in excitement, pushing his arms through the metal bars in his anticipation, "Daddy!"
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It took Daryl less than ten seconds to skirt around the prison rec room, keeping his eyes fixed on the unfamiliar group huddled together in the middle, and unlock the prison door.
Dean's squeals of pure delight were all that anyone could hear for a few minutes, as Merle dropped to his knees and embraced his son. Daryl watched the reunion with a stony face, feeling the disapproving looks that everyone was casting their way, and nodded slightly at Jimmy, who was hanging back by the wall.
Then Dean's hand grabbed at his leg, tugging him down, and he crouched down with the ghost of a smile on his face, while his nephew let out a scream of excitement. Daryl rocked back on his heels, one hand holding tightly onto Dean and feeling the kid shaking with anticipation, but with his eyes looking darkly up at the rest of the group—daring them to say anything about his brother.
Eventually, Merle pulled back slightly, Dean's excited chatter already beginning, and the two Dixon brothers rose to their full height. Daryl slung Dean easily up on his hip, arm brushing against Merle, who Dean was still determined to keep close.
"My daddy's back, guys—look it's m' daddy, an' I told ya tha' he was gon' find us—me and Daryl've been waiting fer ya, daddy—but yer here now, an' I know ya don't like prisons, cause ya told me tha' once, but we live here now, an' sometimes other people come, but I'm not allowed ta talk ta them—like those ones! But I can show ya where me and Daryl sleep, up on th' perch, cause it's cool an' me and Daryl ain't sleepin' in no cages, but Jimmy sleeps in a cell, an' he says tha' he likes it cause of th' bed—I slept in there with him last night, cause Daryl didn't come back, but now he's back—an' yer back daddy, like Daryl said ya would be! He said so, an' no one else 'cept me believed him, but ya came back!"
No one said anything and the room was silent, except for Merle's snort of laugher, and the way he ruffled Dean's hair roughly, "Kid sure does talk a lot more, since I seen him." His brother looked different in the murky light of the prison, like the dangerous stranger that the others believed him to be, and Beth had already taken a few steps away without even knowing who he was.
Dean beamed at the acknowledgement of his father, and twisted around to catch Jimmy's eyes, pointing indiscreetly towards Merle. Jimmy just shifted awkwardly on his feet, and nodded at Dean, one hand slipping into his pocket reflexively to clutch at his pocket knife.
Merle was scanning the room, Daryl could see his brother cataloguing all the faces he recognised and the ones he didn't. Despite the excited kid clinging onto him, he felt cold as ice.
Rick and Hershel moved around them into their cell block, their expressions unreadable, and Daryl nudged Merle to follow them, scowling at the four strangers standing wordlessly in the common area. The cell door slammed with a bang behind them, and Carl twisted the key efficiently.
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Daryl, still with Dean clinging onto a mixture of him and Merle, hung back while Rick headed straight for his baby. "Don't start anythin', Merle, jus' don't. Fer me an' Dean, don't." His brother just responded by smirking at him, and jostling Daryl's arm that was carrying Dean.
"Hey, Jimmy—Jimmy, c'mere an' meet my daddy!" Dean burst out suddenly, and reached out for Jimmy.
The teenager hesitated for a moment, before stepping away from the wall he had been leaning against, and awkwardly made his way over. He stared at Merle, as Merle stared back, and seemed unsure as to offer his hand or not.
"What happened ta yer fingers?" Merle asked bluntly, noticing the missing digits as Jimmy hand tapped against his leg.
"What happened to your hand?"
There was a beat of silence then, in which Daryl wasn't sure whether Jimmy had sealed his fate or shattered it, but then Merle let out a roaring laugh. This made Dean laugh, mostly because the little boy laughed whenever anyone else did, and Jimmy awkwardly chuckled along, as Merle firmly shook his hand.
Daryl let his attention drift over to the others, but was pulled back by Merle saying, "Where'd ya get this kid, Darylena? He got more balls than all the rest put together."
"Jimmy helps a lot with Dean. Ya can trust him—he's a good kid." Daryl grunted out, missing the flush of pride in Jimmy's cheeks that the teenager quickly repressed. Dean then shifted from his grip, and half tumbled into Jimmy's arms with an excited giggle. "Dean, ya gotta wait here fer th' minute—look after yer daddy. I gotta sort some things out."
The baby was crying, and even from the back, Daryl could see that Rick was cracking slightly.
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Everyone retreated after that, slunk back to their respective cells, and the cellblock got quiet.
Rick spared Daryl a glance, one that was fighting equal measures of disgust and respect, at least it seemed that way to him, and then turned his back on him. Carl followed his father into the cell, with Lil Asskicker, and Beth crept into her own cell, with just a gesture towards Jimmy that had him nervously going after her. She most likely wanted an explanation as to who Merle was, and Daryl winced inwardly at the horror stories that were sure to spread through the group like wildfire. Dean was now back in Merle's arms, examining his stump curiously. Merle's stare was burning into his back.
The tension was just too high.
Glenn made a sound of pure rage as he stalked into his cell with Maggie, Hershel bringing medical supplies behind him. Daryl glanced up for a moment, to see Carol fixing a laundry basket into a crib for the baby, and the disappointment in her eyes shone through, even after she'd turned away.
Daryl remained, halfway between the group and his blood. No one else offered any words, and the silence cut him like a knife.
It was just the Dixons left in the empty space then, and Daryl wearily let Dean lead them up to the perch. Daryl sat down heavily, one hand still clutching his crossbow tightly, and wasn't surprised when Dean slowed his babble, and clambered into his lap.
"What's wrong, Daryl? Aren't ya happy?"
He braced himself again, and looked up with as much of a smile that he could, Merle watching him carefully, "Sure I am, kid. Jus' tired. Yer daddy's back with us, an' we still got everyone together. What about you? Ya gon' give Merle th' grand tour when things get sorted?"
Even as he was speaking, Daryl could feel his stomach churning, not wanted to leave the prison and its security. But then he watched as Dean nodded enthusiastically, leaning back against Merle, and dug his yo-yo out of his pocket to show his father.
"This is th' best day ever, cause you an' daddy are back. I don't want ya ta ever leave."
Merle looked bemused, as Dean began to explain how a yo-yo worked, but he was Dean's father. Daryl could feel the whole group's disapproval weighing down on him, could see Glenn's bloody face when he closed his eyes—but when he opened them, in front of him was Merle and Dean, looking happier than he'd seen either of them since everything went to shit.
And he didn't know what to do.
Except he did know. He knew that Dean needed his father, and that Merle needed Dean.
Daryl needed both of them.
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The group gathered eventually to deal with the four strangers, all of them. Daryl pushed Merle back into the farthest corner, left him with Dean whispering stories into his ear, and stepped up between Axl and Carol, ignoring the way Glenn sent a betrayed look in his direction.
The strangers looked decent enough, as Hershel introduced them all, but Daryl made sure that they could see the way his hand was drifting towards his hunting knife. He didn't like having Dean around other people, hadn't let him go anywhere near the prison men when they hadn't known them, but this was necessary. It would look suspicious to the others if Merle and Dean were the only ones who didn't show up, and there was far too much tension surrounding his brother already.
Jimmy locked eyes with him, nodding silently at him, and Daryl returned the gesture, reminding himself to have a few words with Jimmy later—to explain the situation.
Rick started speaking, and everything seemed to be going okay, until it wasn't. Daryl frowned, and took another step forward as the others took one back, when Rick started imploding. Hershel tried to talk rationally to him, reason with him, but Daryl could see that something wasn't right. Hershel's logic was sound, though Daryl wasn't sure where he stood with regards to it, but things just went downhill from there for Rick.
He started subtly looking up at something on the second level, getting more distressed every time he did, and Daryl's hand dropped away from his knife. He stepped forward again, as Rick started muttering, "No, no, no, no, no," while he still stared desperately up at that second level. Daryl knew all the signs of hallucinations, and there wasn't another explanation for this.
"Rick," He said gruffly, but there was no stopping it, when Rick whirled around to face the rest of them.
"Why're you here? What do you want from me? Why're you… I can't help you! Get out!" His hand kept coming up to cover his eyes, shield them from whatever horror Rick was seeing, and Daryl tensed. "Get out!" The rest of the group, as well as one of the strangers, started to make calming suggestions, but Rick was too far gone, "You don't belong here!"
Rick's hand went for his gun, and the group of four shied away, at the same time that the rest of them did. Daryl moved forward and to the right, to cover Dean and Merle, even though he knew that Merle would be doing that anyway.
The moaning shouts that Rick made had Dean burrowing his head into Merle's shoulder, and the strangers heading for the door. "We'll leave, we're going—ain't nobody gotta get shot here!"
They ran out, into the sunlight, and the rest of them were left watching as Rick put his head in his hands, and broke just a little bit more. The group retreated back to their cells after that, until only Carl, Hershel, and Daryl were left.
Hershel looked as disappointed as Daryl had seen him, and simply put a hand on Rick's shoulder, before limping back to the others, crutches sounding loudly in the echoing room. Carl just stared at his father, who'd braced himself against the wall, and Daryl nudged him gently.
"I got this, kid. Ya get some rest."
It was just him and Rick then, and Daryl was content not to break the silence. "Merle has to stay in a cell, for tonight," Rick finally said, not lifting his head. "It's the only way Glenn and most of the others will tolerate him being here."
He grunted in reply, and said "Y'know I don't want ta leave."
Rick didn't reply, just kept his gaze fixed on the ground. Daryl waited another few minutes, scuffed his foot against the dirty grey floor, and then headed back to Merle and Dean.
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That night Daryl reluctantly dragged his ratty mattress into one of the empty cells, and nodded for Dean and Merle to follow. The rest of the group just stared sadly at him, but he turned away from the judgement in their eyes, helping Dean smooth the blankets down properly like they did every night.
Dean didn't understand why they were suddenly sleeping in a cell, just like he hadn't understood the tense atmosphere at dinner. The little boy had perched on Merle's knees, eating and chattering away excitedly, before slowly realising that no one was responding.
Merle had let out booming laughs, and patted Dean's head roughly—while the others had just bent their heads down and ate quietly. Glenn and Maggie hadn't shown up at all.
So Daryl just struggled on, feeling the strain of two loyalties tear at his heart. But he had to choose family, had to choose blood like he always had. There was no way that he was leaving Dean behind, the one good thing in his life, and Merle came along with that.
Just as Dean was drifting off to sleep, curled up beside his father and his uncle, Hershel appeared outside their cell. Before Merle could sneer or make some kind of comment that Daryl would regret, he lurched to his feet, half expecting to see the rest of the group gathered like a mob, ready to turf them out of the prison. His feelings of safety in the prison were way out of sync.
"I need those keys of yours, son," Came the eventual words, and Daryl didn't even protest at the use of 'son,' like he normally would have. His fingers gravitated carefully towards the keychain at his hip, and he turned around to glance at Dean and Merle, against his own will, "You know why."
Biting his lip to keep all his frustrations and protests inside, Daryl simply grunted, and scowled as he dropped the keys into Hershel's waiting hand. But then he couldn't resist saying, "Ya don't know him, none 'a you do. He ain't the monster you all think he is."
And Hershel almost looked apologetic then. Almost.
The cell door clanged shut with a sound that made Daryl instantly tense up, and the turning of the key in the lock only made it worse. Maybe there wasn't a home for them in the prison anymore. Before he turned away from the door, he caught sight of Jimmy leaning against one of the corners, where he often would retreat to, looking furious.
The teenager didn't notice him, but Daryl watched as he stared after Hershel's form with disgust and conflict in his eyes, before clenching a fist and stalking off back to his own cell.
A smile tugged on the edges of Daryl's lips, and he rolled his eyes at the stubbornness of the kid. Seems he had at least one ally in all this.
Merle cursed off the majority of the group then, voice low and just as Daryl had remembered it, and he simply listened like he always did. Dean had one hand clenched in his daddy's shirt, and the other one was resting on Daryl's leg, and he chewed on the inside of his cheek. Merle's voice went on and on, and Daryl let himself slip into it, the familiarity of it all washing over him.
"Officer Friendly ain't so friendly any more, is he?"
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He couldn't keep the scowl off his face when Rick returned the next morning to let them out, and neither did he try.
Dean frowned in confusion, one hand reaching up to grip the cold bars, and he gazed up at Rick who was trying to avoid looking at the child, "Why are we locked in, Rick? What—we never been locked in before—cause we normally sleep on the perch, so why—I don't understand, is it—Daddy, why were we locked in, Daryl, why? Don't ya normally have th' keys? Cause sometimes ya let me play with them, but only if I'm sup—supervised. So why does Rick have your keys… did he, did he wanta play with them too?"
Daryl softened his expression when he looked down at his nephew, and said carefully, "You'll have to ask Rick that."
But then the door was open, and Dean was already skipping out into the cell block to greet Jimmy with his usual gusto. Daryl just continued to stare at Rick, before becoming aware of Merle's presence at his shoulder. His brother was a solid weight behind him, and Daryl realised how much he'd never wanted to get into this situation.
Luckily Dean darted around both Rick and Merle before words, or blows, could be exchanged, and tugged Merle forward excitedly, "Time for breakfast, daddy! C'mon, you can sit with me an' Jimmy, an' Daryl o' course, cause we always sit together—an' now we'll havta get another chair. That's okay though, cause I know where we keep th' spares."
Merle left silently, giving Rick a calculating look, but heeding Daryl's nudge to the ribs not to say anything. He walked slowly past Rick, reaching down to take his son's hand, and let Dean lead him off, Jimmy following quietly.
Daryl stared after their retreating forms, and then back at Rick, who looked like he was struggling to say something.
"Daddy, ya still havta tell me about where yer hand went! Daddy, I still wanta know, ya never told me last night—an'…" Dean's voice faded into the distance, and Rick looked like he was trying to suppress a shudder. He still looked like words were failing him, but Daryl had no doubts as to what they would be.
So Daryl saved him the time, and made his stance be known on the matter, "He ain't a monster, he's my brother."
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Jimmy found himself sandwiched in between Merle and the wall.
Dean had pushed him into the chair, not noticing that the rest of the group was quickly selecting seats as far away from them as they could get. Merle elbowed him roughly, grinning dangerously as Jimmy fumbled with his small ration of porridge.
"What's yer story, kid?"
He shrugged, feeling his cheeks burn, "Same as everyone's. Used to work as a farm hand, next to Hershel and his family, now I live in a prison. No story, really." The man beside him shakes for a moment with silent laughter, and Jimmy watches as he lets Dean swing off his stump.
Merle looked over to the Greene family, where Maggie glared back at him, and Beth only averted her eyes immediately, trying to pretend like she hadn't been staring, "And tha' girl—ya ever get any action with her?"
The question is crude and Jimmy shakes his head so fast that he almost gets whiplash, "Uh, no, no… What about your story?" He suddenly asks, and then regrets it.
Merle considers the question for a moment, setting his cracked bowl down to better facilitate Dean's climbing, "Got fucked over before, an' am still getting fucked over now tha' there's walkers everywhere. No difference."
They're interrupted by Dean reaching his destination of Merle's shoulders, and he beamed at Jimmy with a smile that Jimmy has only seen a few times. Daryl reached up and snatched Dean down, pretending to drop him for a split second so Dean can make that terrified giggles that never fails to lift Jimmy's mood.
"Yer getting' too big fer that, kid," Daryl grunted out, depositing Dean back onto his chair, but Jimmy leaned forward and winked at him anyway.
Jimmy watched Dean interact with his father for the rest of the morning, unconsciously running his remaining fingers over the space where his other two used to be. The raised scars didn't even twinge any more, and he sighed heavily as the rest of the group continued to avoid them.
Merle was crude, and loud, there was no denying that. Jimmy kept his thoughts to himself while he observed the awkward side of Merle when it came to Dean, the man not knowing quite how to react as his son ran in circles around him and chatted nonsense for what seemed like hours. Merle was perhaps too rough at times, too unsure of himself to properly get involved in Dean's elaborate game.
He couldn't quite see the monster that was visible to everyone else.
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Daryl sought Jimmy out in the mid-morning, wanting to talk to him properly before everything went to shit—as it was likely to.
"Kid," He said, by way of greeting, and lowered himself to the ground where Jimmy was sitting. The teenager acknowledged his presence with a shrug, his eyes fixed on the distant figures of Merle and Dean. "Wanted ta talk about my brother with ya."
"I don't care," Jimmy said after a few moments, not looking up, "I don't care about what the others say about him. It might be true, might not. But you've been decent to me, and if you want me to give him a chance, then I will. I'll make my own opinion of him, my own judgements of people these days."
He let the words sink in, and then nodded, "I appreciate it, kid. My brother ain't an angel, but neither are most people now. Ain't nobody who's perfect."
"Dean's only wanted his daddy back this whole time. That's all he talks about, when you're not with us. You and Merle. He needs you both," Jimmy said simply, and the statement affirmed everything that Daryl had been fighting for for so long. A negligible amount of the pressure eased from his heart, but even then Daryl could see that look in Carol's eyes, the way Glenn had spat his disappointment out at him.
Daryl had been about to tell Jimmy about the threat of him having to leave with Merle and Dean, but something stopped him. He didn't want to say the words aloud, because then the reality would have been so much clearer. So he leaned his head back against the wall, and allowed himself the luxury of closing his weary eyes for just a minute.
He could fix this.
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This is so overdue that it hurts. Not sure if anyone is still interested in this, but I'm determined to finish it. Any suggestions or comments would be welcomed, or scenes you want to see happen. Thanks for all the support over the past few months, I've been trudging through—ready to start running again though.
Thanks for reading,
ArmedWithMyComputer xx
