Chapter 29
The days flew by and Daryl never ending up calling his brother. He was busy working at the dealership and taking overtime when they offered it, busy with learning to live with Gabrielle and busy simply enjoying himself just too much to want to deal with the complications that Merle always brought with him. Daryl was enjoying married life more than he ever thought possible. This was nothing like when his parents were married. Sure he and Gabrielle didn't agree on everything, but they didn't have screaming arguments and he would never raise a hand to her like his old man did to his mother. They respected each other, which his parents never did.
Daryl wished he had met her years ago, so they could have had more time together, but then again he was a stupid dick back then and she would have probably hated him. They certainly didn't start off on the right foot to begin with even though there was an underlying attraction between them. This was probably the way it was meant to be, so who was he to question it.
They were getting together with Rick and Michonne fairly often. Sometimes it was to go out to dinner or just hang at one of their houses. The two pairs of best friends had married and became two couples that spent a lot of time together. For Daryl it was good not to be the third wheel with Rick and Michonne anymore. Daryl realized the benefits of being in a relationship when it came to other couples. He felt like he finally belonged for a change.
In the meantime, while Daryl was living and loving his life, and forgetting about his toxic brother- Merle didn't forget about him. He was still pulling small burglaries in order to get money for food and drugs. He was hiding out from the dealer that he owed all that money too, but that was getting harder and harder to do. Word on the street was - Merle was in big trouble.
It took Merle almost two weeks, but he used his tracking skills and some desperation to find Daryl. The one good thing the learned from their father was to track and hunt. He applied a variation of those skills to the tracking down his errant brother and was proud of himself that he had finally found Daryl.
He thought that Daryl may be living close to the only other person that was important to him…his buddy Rick, so Merle drove around Parkvale numerous times trying to find either one of them. Merle had never liked Rick. His selfishness always wanted Daryl at his beck and call, and Rick got in the way of that, plus Rick stood up to Merle, which of course didn't go over well with him. Rick was also a cop and Merle hated cops as it seemed all they wanted to do was give him a hard time or put him in jail. That he deserved to be locked up behind bars never entered his mind. Merle never thought anything he did was wrong.
One day he, he was parked at a fast food joint debating if he should check the garbage can for uneaten food, when he saw Rick driving by in his cruiser and he carefully followed him. He stayed back far enough so it wasn't obvious on what he was doing. He wasn't stupid. Merle watched the car pull into a driveway and park. Since he entered the house without knocking, Merle figured Rick lived there.
So during the week he hung out around town, trying to find Daryl on his fancy motorcycle, but he didn't have any luck. Then that weekend he parked by Rick's house to see if his brother ever showed up. Merle was lucky that it took only one Saturday of lurking in his beat up car, for Daryl and that bitch he married to show up. His little brother sure had it hot for her, as even walking up to the house he had his hand on her ass. "The slut loves it," he said out loud. " Ol' Merle here could teach her a fuckin' thing or two. That's for sure. She'd be screaming for more once she felt how good this piece of meat felt fuckin' her. I bet she's the type who likes it hard and rough…yeah the rougher the better."
He drove by slowly noticing the make and model of the car, plus the tags. It probably belonged to the bitch, he thought even though Daryl was driving it. Then he drove around to back to where he had been hiding to watch the house again. About twenty minutes later, he saw them all leave in two separate cars and Merle followed slowly behind them. They eventually pulled into the parking lot of a Mexican restaurant and they all went inside. Since when did his little brother start eating in restaurants? "He was so fuckin' whipped," Merle thought to himself. "That bitch has ruined him."
It was about an hour later when Merle, who was sweating as he sat in his hot car, finally saw Daryl come out of the restaurant and light up a cigarette. He figured his brother probably has a few drinks under his belt, so now as good a time as any to approach him. Merle got out of the car and headed towards the restaurant.
Daryl needed a quick hit of nicotine, so he popped outside to take a fast smoke break before their dinners arrived. He missed the days where you could smoke inside bars and most anywhere. He was going to take one last drag before going inside when he saw his brother walking towards him with a big smile on his face. "Fuck," he said under his breath. He just knew that Merle was going to mess up his night.
"Hey little brother, how you and wifey doing?" Merle asked slapping him on the back.
"Fine. What do ya need, bro?"
"Now why do you think I need anythin'? Can't I just want to say hi to my brother?" This wasn't starting out good. Daryl already thought he wanted something and well he did.
"Because I told you I would find you when I wanted to see you again and here you are suddenly outta the blue. How did you find me?" Daryl asked. No way Merle just happened to drive by and see him smokin' outside this restaurant. Plus, Daryl was completely aware that not one single car had come into the lot while he had been outside. Merle was here waiting for him and that made Daryl extremely suspicious.
"C'mon bro. We're brothers and I ain't seen ya in a real long time," Merle told him. "I'm sorry about Mack's. You know my mouth just runs off at times. No harm, no foul, right?"
"Dude, you completely disrespected me and Gabrielle. That wasn't cool." Daryl took a final drag off his cigarette before stepping on it. "Listen, I'm busy now. Why don't you call me and we'll meet up at 'The Junkhouse' for a beer one night. Okay? I gotta get back." Daryl turned to head back inside, but Merle grabbed his arm.
Anger flew through Daryl instantly. Merle knew better than to grab him that way, it was always an instant flashback to their father. Either he would start screaming at them as they tried to get away or he'd start to beat them. He roughly shook Merle off. "Bro, I have people waiting and dinner comin'. I ain't got the time right now."
"Yeah, you're a busy man now with no time for your only kin. I can't wait to see ya. I owe money to a guy and I need your help. You gotta have something you can give me. I'm livin' in my god damn car," he pleaded.
There it was. That was why Merle was looking for him. Not that he wanted to apologize or reconnect, he needed money. He always fucking needed money. "What you in for and I thought you were living at the ol' man's place?"
Their father had died a quite a few years ago and the old shack he lived in had stayed vacant all these years. Daryl had heard that Merle moved there after the big fight they had and Daryl had left. There was no money to pay the rent in the small apartment they had. "Couldn't stay there no more, the roof was caving in. I need….like…almost three grand."
Daryl's mouth dropped open. "Are you fuckin' crazy? Three grand? You know I ain't got that kinda money or anything close to it. What the fuck did you do?" This was not good at all. This was a whole new really bad Merle. "You're using again, ain't ya? I can see it in your eyes, bro. Don't tell me you owe for that shit."
Merle looked at his feet for a second. "I was selling for this guy, but then I was using a bit too and then I needed to pay for a motel and it kinda got outta control. You can spot me the money, right?"
Even if Daryl had the money, which he technically did in the bank, he would never give it to Merle. That would be the same thing as throwing it away. Daryl made the split second decision that Merle was on his own. He was a grown man that finally had to take responsibility for his own problems. He was not going to bail him out anymore.
"Bro, I ain't got that type of money. You know that. I live check to check." Daryl could see the wheels spinning in his brothers head. "Yeah, I got a new bike, but that's financed thanks to Rick cause my old one crapped out. I'm paying it off and Gabrielle just started her own business so money is tight. We don't got it."
"Daryl, I need the money!" Merle said raising his voice.
"I don't got it! You're on your own. You fucked up, so you fix it. It ain't my job to get you outta another jam. Those days are long gone, bro. I gotta get back to dinner." It was time for his brother to handle his own problems. He was no longer Daryl's concern.
Daryl turned to head back inside and once again Merle grabbed him by the arm. "I need the money, man. The guy is gunning for me. C'mon you gotta help me out! You can take that bitch wife out for a fancy dinner, but you can't help your brother?"
Fire flew out of Daryl's eyes as he wrestled his arm free. Was his brother fuckin' kidding him? "You don't talk about my wife that way! I fuckin' told you that. We're done Merle. Done! Don't come lookin' for me cause I ain't got a brother no more. We are done!"
Daryl grabbed open the door and quickly walked inside before Merle could stop him again. If he did there stood a good chance that they would end up in a fistfight in the parking lot. He had hoped those days where long behind him, but Merle was pushing his buttons…bad.
His brother sure had gone downhill since they parted ways. It was no one fault but his own and Daryl was no longer going to clean up his shit anymore. He had his own life and a wife to take care of. Merle was going to have to deal with this on his own. He created the problem, so he could fix it. Daryl heard Merle yelling as the door closed behind him. Hopefully, it was also closing on that chapter of his life.
He tried to compose himself as he made his way back to the table, but Gabrielle saw through it right away. Unfortunately, so did Rick and Michonne. This is why he sucked at playing cards, his face gave it all away.
"What happened?" asked Rick.
"I'm fine. Where's dinner, I'm hungry," he said trying to change the topic.
"No, you're not fine," stated Gabrielle. "You were gone pretty long, what happened, Daryl?" Guaranteed they weren't married long, but she already could read her husband quite well. There was definitely something big bothering him. Even Rick and Michonne picked it up, that's how obvious it was that he was extremely angry.
"This ain't the place to talk about it, I'm just gonna say, I saw Merle when I was outside smokin' and it wasn't good. Let's just eat and leave it at that." Daryl did not want to talk about this here. He actually didn't want to talk about his brother at all, but he knew with Gabrielle there would be no way to get around that. He learned being married meant he had to share shit like this, even when he didn't want to. With Rick being a cop, it wouldn't sit well with him the trouble that his brother was involved in. This was always a fine line that Daryl had tried to balance throughout the years.
"But Daryl…."
"Princess," he said interrupting her. His steely eyes met hers, "Not. Now."
Luckily for Daryl, the food arrived and they could all now concentrate on eating dinner. Daryl tried to enjoy himself, but the enchiladas he was looking forward to ended up tasting like paste. Merle had ruined his dinner. As he forced himself to finish most of what was on his plate, he knew he had to cut ties with his brother permanently. His life was going great now and Merle's was in the gutter. He was not going to let him drag him down like he did for years. Merle was on his own…no matter what.
