I hope you guys like this one. I'm not so sure about it, myself but I guess now it is up for you guys to judge ;) Be kind to me. It's been a bad week! I missed the last episode. On purpose. I've got a bit of writers block at the moment so bear with me here! Thank you all for reading and reviewing! You are the reason I haven't tucked tail, jumped this beloved ship and ran as far away from writing fanfiction as I could get. I hope you enjoy this chapter!

A Penny For Your Thoughts

Rick and Lori were a mess when they got there. There were a million questions in their eyes but they didn't voice any of them right away. They shooed Carl up to Sophia's room and then both started talking at once in low voices.

"Jesus, shut the fuck up for five seconds," Daryl growled as he rubbed his temples.

Rick pinched the bridge of his nose and took a deep breath before he sat down. They were still in the kitchen and Carol was pouring them all cups of coffee. "Look, Daryl. It had to have been one of us. It's the only thing that makes any sense. If it was you just tell us and we'll figure out how to handle it."

Daryl narrowed his eyes. "So the two of you fine upstandin' citizen's automatically wanna point your fingers at me, huh?"

Rick shook his head. "I know I wasn't the one that did it and since I took leave from work I know for a fact Lori didn't do it either. We weren't with you guys tonight. We just want answers. That's all. We need the truth."

Daryl tried to bite his tongue. He even felt Carol's hand on his arm to try to calm him down but this was a bunch of bullshit. Rick had been like a brother to him back at the prison but this wasn't the prison and before Daryl saved his ass over and over and proved himself time and again to the man, Rick hadn't trusted or liked him much. Daryl figured he looked down on him now just like he looked down on him then and the opportunity to put Rick in his place was right there at Daryl's fingertips.

He leaned into the table. "You don't want any goddamn answers. What ya want is somebody to point your finger at. But I got some truth for ya officer Grimes," he spat, "Considerin' everything I saw while we was all stuck together like we were I saw the truth. You're one shitty ass judge of character and as soon as the opportunity arises, your wife turns into a two timin' bitch. You don't want the truth Rick. You never have. You just want a scapegoat."

Rick was out of his chair in an instant and Daryl was just as quick. They glared at each other from across the table.

"Daryl!" Carol hissed and he felt her hand tugging his arm back. He hadn't even realized he was leaning into the table until he finally let her move him back a few steps. His eyes flicked down to Lori and he actually felt bad when he saw that all she was doing was looking down at her hands folded on the tabletop, one lone tear slipping down her cheek.

He took a deep breath and ran a nervous hand through his hair. "Look, I didn't kill the son of a bitch, alright? I never even thought of the asshole since all this started. This wasn't me."

Rick seemed to relax a little and he scooted the chair back up so he could sit back down. Daryl did the same. They had a long way to go before they become the two men that were closer than brothers. A long long way.

Lori wiped the tear away and looked up, meeting his eyes and making him feel like an even bigger asshole. He felt Carol glaring daggers at his face but he didn't glance at her.

"I never thought you did anything like that, Daryl. For what it's worth," she said in a hushed voice. "We all need to work together. Now more than we ever have before. Fighting and throwing accusations isn't going to get us anywhere. We all made mistakes then," her eyes went to Carol and Daryl lost his drive to fight then. She was right. Look at all the times he had fucked up himself.

He didn't offer up any apologies but he nodded and visibly relaxed in his chair. Rick was the one rubbing his temples now.

"So it wasn't any of us. Who could have done it?" Rick asked of no one in particular.

No one had an answer and the kitchen grew abnormally quiet. He finally risked a glance at Carol but she was staring into her cup, lost in thought. He thought about what Sophia had said to him earlier in the truck. It wasn't something that he wanted to bring up but he had thought about it a while and decided that maybe it was something that needed to be thrown on the table.

"There's somethin' Sophia brought up today that got me to thinkin'," he started hesitantly. Three sets of eyes settled on him, causing him to squirm a little in his seat. No one said anything so he went on. "She said it ain't right that we're savin' ourselves and nobody else."

Rick actually looked like he had thought of the same thing before but never brought it up. "We can't save the world. We've been given a chance. I don't understand why, but we don't have enough time to warn the world about this. We'll look insane."

Daryl nodded. "Maybe so. But so far we've been focused on the group from the quarry. But it wasn't just the quarry group there at the end. Good people went up to bat for us. Oscar died helpin' us save Glenn and Maggie. Michonne wasn't just an asset. She was a good woman that put her ass on the line for our group. Tyreese and his sister. Hell even Axle."

Rick shook his head. "I don't know any of these people yet."

Daryl met his eyes. "Does that matter?"

Glenn cleared his throat. It was the first sound he had made at all since they had all gathered there. "He's right," he said quietly as he stared down at his hands. When he looked up there was an edge to his appearance that Daryl hadn't even noticed was missing until now. "We have to try to do something. These were good people. These were our people. Not just them either. Hershel's wife and Maggie's brother. Patricia and Otis. Jimmy. If we could get to them in time then we can save them all."

Daryl sighed, "What the hell do we do? You think we should go try to orchestrate a prison break? Cause that's where we'll find Oscar and Axel."

Glenn almost smiled. "Axel might have given you a little competition, Daryl. Don't underestimate the man."

Daryl frowned and followed Glenn's gaze to Carol's blushing face. He growled. "What the hell is he talkin' about?"

Carol's head shot up and she gave Glenn a loaded look. "Nothing. He was a sweet man."

"He had a thing for Carol," Glenn corrected.

"What?" Daryl said in a low voice. He didn't know anything about the creepy little bastard having a thing for her and he never knew that she thought he was sweet either. "You had a thing for that convict?"

She grimaced. "No! He had a crush or something. It was sweet."

He snorted. "Sweet? Since when are you into sweet? And why the hell didn't I notice any of this shit?"

Carol met his eyes. "You weren't there." Her tone wasn't accusing at all but he felt guilty all the same.

He looked away, deciding it was better for him to just sweep this one under the rug. He was tired and there wasn't a damn thing they were going to get accomplished tonight. If they didn't get some damn sleep then they would be nearly useless tomorrow too. "Y'all wanna just stay in your room tonight or drive back home? Either way, I'm done. Ain't shit we can do tonight."

Rick and Lori shared a look, Rick was the first to break it. "No. We'll go on home. It's getting late though. Do you two mind if Carl spends the night?"

Carol shook her head. "Not at all."

"Suit yourselves. I'm goin' to bed." When he looked up Rick and Lori were looking at him. "I shouldn't have said what I said. And that's all the damn apology you're gettin' from me." He didn't miss the the eye role and the smile that Rick and Lori shared as he got up and left them all sitting there without another word. He was quick to jump Carol's ass for getting herself too worked up but he was starting to feel a little crushed by the pressure himself. Now he was just tired and tomorrow was going to be another long tiring day, with the added stress that he was going to get a phone call saying his brother had been arrested for murder and kidnapping.

That was the thing. He wouldn't put it past Merle to kill Philip Blake. He had done it before. But the kid didn't make any sense. Merle wasn't the type to take a kid. He had no use for them. Maybe he hadn't thought that far ahead and he killed Blake before he realized the girl was even there. Merle wasn't known to be the type to think too much ahead.

His head hit the pillow and he closed his eyes against the dim light of the single lamp that they had left lit. He didn't want to think about it anymore. All he wanted to do now was sleep.

~H~

What had he done? How could he have let this happen? Why hadn't he came up with a better plan? Merle paced the living room. The girl sat on the couch, eyes wide and fearful but dry. He wasn't making her any less nervous with his pacing but he couldn't stop. He was crashing from his high and he was in deep shit and he was goddamn scared.

"Are you sure you know my daddy?" the girl asked for the second time.

He stopped in his pacing and gave her a quick nod. Jesus Christ what had he done? He was coming down now. He wasn't just coming down, he was crashing hard. Very hard. He had scored some good stuff on front from a buddy of his and the shit was a lot better than he had thought it would be. He had everything planned out perfectly. Or he had thought so, anyway. The only thing he had been thinking about was taking out Philip Blake before the man could do any damage. The way Merle had looked at it, he was being the good guy here. He had saved a lot of lives by killing Philip. He had just forgotten one crucial thing during his vigilante mission.

"Do you think my dad is okay?" Penny asked, her eyes overflowing again.

Mother fucker! He didn't know the first thing to do when it came to kids. He didn't understand them and he didn't like them. With that said, he couldn't just leave the kid there because he knew that once the biters came, she was dead. It wouldn't matter who ended up with her after her dad was dead, she would be eaten alive and whether he liked kids or not, he couldn't let that happen to the little shit.

He had went into Philip's house shortly after he saw the lights go out. He didn't have much of a plan at the moment, other than killing the man and making sure he didn't take the fall for it. It had been quick and clean and he was just about to make a break for it when he had heard her voice behind him.

He had panicked and told her that there were men out to get her dad and she had to come with him. Maybe he would have left her there but she was looking right at him and she would have been able to identify him to the police when they questioned her. And he hadn't wanted her to be the one to find the body. So, in a panic of her own, she had left with him without putting up a fight. Philip was a real son of a bitch for not teaching his daughter any better than to leave with someone like Merle Dixon, but she had and he had been glad because he couldn't kill her so he would have taken her anyway whether she put up a fight or not.

Now here he was, playing nanny to some kid and the drugs were wearing off and he was realizing now how bad he had royally fucked up. He had fucked up big time in the past but nothing, nothing he had ever done in his life, rivaled this. This was a complete shit storm. He shouldn't have went to that house. He knew that now that he was sober enough to know exactly what it was he had done.

"Look, kid," he said as he ran a hand over his close cropped hair, "I got a spare bedroom you can sleep in tonight and then tomorrow we'll figure everything out, alright."

She nodded and stood up from the couch, following him wordlessly down the short hallway. She was crying again and it was grating on his nerves something awful. She wasn't sobbing loudly but every small sound that escaped her seemed to scrape along his brain, causing his head to hurt. He didn't think it would be a good idea to yell at her to shut the fuck up so he clenched his teeth and ignored it. She settled into Daryl's bed and pulled the quilt up to her chin. "Am I gonna get to see my daddy again, Mister?" She asked right before he walked out of the room.

Merle stopped in his tracks but didn't turn around. He glanced over his shoulder, his finger hovering over the light switch. He could tell her a lie so she would make it through the night but then what? She would have more questions in the morning and he didn't even want to think about that shit. So he figured that he would treat her the same as he had treated Daryl when he was nothing but a scared little kid.

Daryl was about this girls age when he had looked Merle in the eye and asked him if things would ever get better for him. Merle hadn't flinched when he told him the truth. No. Things didn't get better. Life was full of pain and deceit and the sooner the boy realized it the sooner he could prepare himself for it.

"Your daddy's dead," he deadpanned. Without another word he turned off the light and closed the door to the sound of the girl's cries.

~H~

Sophia heard her door open but she didn't move an inch. Daryl checked on her a lot. She had woken up several times when he had done so. If it was him she wanted him to think that she was asleep. Even though sleep wasn't something she would be doing any time soon. She wasn't sure if Daryl would check up on Carl, probably not, but if he did she hoped Carl was smart enough to fake sleep himself if he was awake.

They had heard everything that their parents had said and Sophia wasn't stupid. She knew who did this. It was Merle. Of course it would be Merle. And now that little girl was with him and probably scared to death. She didn't think that Merle would hurt her but that still didn't mean that he would be a good person to have around her. According to the news she was only nine years old. Sure, that was only three years younger than her and Carl but that girl hadn't gone through the things that her and Carl had gone through. Penny was still very much a child and right now she needed help.

She waited, breathing evenly with her eyes closed and then nearly jumped out of her skin when she felt a hand on her arm. Daryl checked on her sure, but he never came into her room and he never touched her. He always poked his head in, made sure she was there, and left again.

Her eyes snapped open and she sat up straight. Carl was standing next to her bed with his finger to his lips. They had tried to talk about what they had heard but they had both been ran off to bed and hadn't been able to try to devise a plan. That was why she hadn't been able to go to sleep. She had actually came up with something and she was scared to death to carry it out. But for that little girl, she would have to try.

"Are you insane? If Daryl catches you in here I hate to think of what he would do to you," she whispered.

"We need to talk. What are we going to do about Penny?" He whispered back as he sat down on the edge of her bed. She scooted up so her back was pressed against the headboard.

She took a deep breath and then met his eyes in the dim light. "I think we need to get her from Merle," she said evenly. Carl might not like her plan but it was the only one she had.

She could see him roll his eyes at her. "And how do we do that? Call Merle and have him bring her on over? You said yourself that he still hasn't talked to his own brother. He won't listen to us."

She crossed her arms over her chest. He was wearing the clothes he had came over in, not expecting a sleepover. She was wearing pajamas but it wouldn't take her but a minute to get dressed. "Go to your room and fix the blankets so it looks like there's someone in the bed. Daryl or my mom may try to check on you. Meet me by the back door."

He stared at her for a few long seconds, frowning. "What the heck for?"

She scrambled out of bed and placed her hands on his shoulders. "Penny is just a kid Carl. She's younger than us and she's probably scared out of her mind right now. Remember how scared we were in the beginning? She's probably just as scared. We're going to get her."

Carl took a step back. "Have you lost your mind!" He hissed, causing her to flinch.

She shook her head. "We have to help her. Merle did a good thing tonight. We won't have to worry about the Governor coming for us but he isn't the best person in the world for a kid to be around. He's..."

"He's an asshole," Carl whispered, "But she's his problem, Sophia. Until he brings her here anyway. We can't do this. No matter what we've seen and what we've been through, we're still just a couple of kids."

"We're getting that girl," Sophia said, her voice determined.

"We can't even get there! It's an hour away from here and we don't know if he took her to his house."

She shook her head. "Something tells me that there isn't anywhere else he could have taken her. I doubt he's very popular and he doesn't trust anybody. She's there. We're going to get her."

"How?"

Sophia's eyes slid from Carl's to the bedroom door and she took a deep breath to try to settle her racing heart and push her fears to the back of her mind. "We're gonna borrow my mom's car for a little bit."

Carl groaned. "Jesus Christ. You really are insane."

~H~

"We have to go talk to your brother tomorrow," Carol said as her finger traced the scar running down his chest.

He sighed and caught her hand with is own. "I can do that myself. Ain't gotta be no we to it. He's gonna be a goddamn mess if he's done somethin' to that little girl." He didn't really believe that Merle was capable of hurting a kid but men did crazy things when they were high and there was no doubt in Daryl's mind that Merle had been half out of his mind when he had done what he did.

"I'm going," she said stubbornly.

He wasn't going to argue with her. Maybe now Merle would actually listen to them and they could sort everything out. He had hope anyway. "Well, you probably need to go anyway. That little girl is gonna need somebody there that knows how to handle kids. That ain't somethin' me or Merle know how to do."

Carol raised her head and stared at him. "You're kidding. They way you are with..."

"That's different," he said, cutting her off.

She gave him a small smile and then laid her head back down on his chest. He was half tempted to go make sure the kids were alright one more time before he fell asleep but he decided not to. He had checked on Sophia twice and he knew that Carl was too chicken to try anything sneaky. He closed his eyes and felt himself drifting off. The kids were fine and they were going to do what they could to fix this thing with Merle tomorrow.