AN: This is probably it for me for a few days, but I wanted to get another little chapter out to advance the story and do some character/plot development.

I hope you enjoy the chapter! Let me know what you think!

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"Look, I'm just sayin' he's liable ta come lookin' for me too, an' it might not be a real good thing if he brings this fella with him," Daryl explained.

They'd gathered everyone together, and Carol was finally feeling strong enough to come out and join everyone, in order to discuss the situation about Merle.

Carol sat in one of the chairs they'd pulled into the circle around one of the tables in the dining area and held Rick's daughter, whom Carl had named Judith, while the tiny infant slept.

Daryl had presented his argument well, or so Carol thought, but people were reluctant. He'd presented the fact that Merle was his brother and he couldn't leave him in this town with this man that several of them thought was crazy. He'd presented that Merle was never a high ranking saint or anything of the like, but that his involvement with the man could likely be explained like many of the things they'd all done since this insanity descended upon them. You do what you must to survive, and Merle, though an asshole, had probably not had the easiest time of things since losing his hand.

Daryl had also just presented a very good fact. Merle knew he was alive, and Merle's feelings were much like Daryl's on family. That meant that Merle wasn't likely to feel satisfied knowing that Daryl was in the area and not going in search of his younger brother. If Daryl went back to Woodbury, with some people for backup, to get Merle, then they stood a better chance of getting him out of the town and avoiding conflict and contact with the crazy Governor individual for whom he was working. If, however, Daryl tried to ignore the fact that his brother was there and didn't go back, they stood the chance that Merle come looking for him and that he alert the Governor of their presence, assuming he didn't already know about it.

"He tried to kill me with a Walker," Glenn said.

Carol glanced in Glenn's direction. She was torn because she understood so many sides of this argument and she couldn't say that any one side had reason over the other. Merle wasn't a good man and he probably wouldn't be good for the group. He was responsible, she'd learned, for trying to gut Alice, for shooting Michonne, Alice's new companion, for beating and attempting to kill Glenn, and for taking Maggie to the place where she'd had some one on one contact with the Governor that she wished not to really delve into with the group.

Bringing Merle back didn't sound like a great idea.

On the other hand, he was Daryl's brother and in this world if you had anyone left, you wanted to hold onto them.

"I ain't sayin' he ain't done wrong," Daryl argued.

Carol could tell that Daryl was getting frustrated. He did his best to present himself as a man who had no emotions, but she didn't believe it for a minute and tonight it was more and more evident that Daryl truly was an emotional man and that his brother was one of the souls capable of stirring up said emotions.

"What if we offered him a trial basis?" Carol offered, looking around for anyone who might be willing to give her some support on the matter.

Rick cleared his throat and pinched at the bridge of his nose.

"What kind of trial?" Rick asked. He shook his head at her. "We bring him back here and then what? We lock him up? We let him go free around the prison? How long does the trial last and what do we do if he fails it?"

Rick looked in Daryl's direction and Daryl bit at his thumb. Carol was afraid that he was going to lose his cool before too long and that wasn't what they needed either. The situation was a touchy one and the air was tense enough without having Daryl lose it with everyone too.

"I don't care what kinda fuckin' hoops y'all want his ass ta jump through," Daryl said. "He'll jump through 'em…"

"And if he doesn't?" Michonne asked. "He shot me. He would have killed me," she put her hand on Alice's shoulder who was sitting next to her. "He would have killed us both."

Alice nodded and Glenn sighed.

"He would have killed Maggie and me too," Glenn said. "What if he doesn't play nice when he gets here? We bring him back here to finish the job?"

"Fine," Daryl said. "I'll go get him myself. We done fine on our own 'fore all this shit, we'll do fine now. I ain't leavin' him, though."

Carol felt her heart leap into her throat and she didn't think she could say anything. She was looking desperately at everyone, hoping they could see that they had to stop Daryl. They couldn't let him go off half cocked to this place and disappear with Merle.

"Let's just talk about this shit," Alice said after a second, her eyes having fallen on Carol. She shook her head. "So we bring him back here…let's go with that. What the fuck do we do with him?"

"You want him here?" Michonne asked sharply.

Alice shrugged.

"Fuck! I don't know! I'm just playing the devil's advocate here. Let's say he comes here and he's not a dick about it…we could use more people," Alice said.

"And if he decides to try to finish what he started?" Maggie asked, a little bitterness in her voice.

"Don't jump my ass," Alice snapped at her. "If he's a dick then we run his ass out…I don't know. Fucking forget it. Do whatever the hell you want."

Rick sighed audibly.

"Would everyone be alright with a trial period?" Rick asked. "We bring him back…strip him of weapons…maybe keep him in the holding cell?"

Daryl chuckled a little.

"Ya can't fuckin' cage him up like a dog…" Daryl said.

"Sounds reasonable," Alice argued. "Until we know if he's rabid or not we put his ass somewhere and watch him."

Daryl sighed and Carol held back from reaching over and touching him, not wanting to do anything that was going to make him anymore stressed out over the situation than he already was.

"It might be the only way," Carol offered softly. "Maybe not the holding cell…or maybe not constantly…but something of a trial until everyone feels more comfortable."

There were some that were simply neutral. Hershel's concerns were his family, of course. He didn't want Merle coming back here if that meant that he might do something to harm anyone that he cared about, but beyond that the old man had few concerns about the eldest Dixon brother, especially since he'd never met him.

Carl and Beth were essentially children, and although they were both allowed to join in the discussion, there really wasn't anything that either of them could contribute anymore than Judith could at the moment.

Rick nodded his head at Carol finally.

"Anyone opposed to Merle coming back here?" Rick asked.

Michonne, Glenn, and Maggie all three raised their hands and the action illicited a sigh from Rick who was keeping his eye on Daryl for the most part to make sure that the man didn't leave the room until they'd actually decided on a course of action.

"Even with a trial?" Rick asked.

"I guess I could be fine with a trial," Glenn said. Maggie didn't respond, but everyone pretty much took whatever Glenn said to go for Maggie and vice versa. They'd become thought of more as a Greek chorus than as individuals given their tendency to always agree with one another.

"Does it matter?" Michonne said, her voice low.

Rick glanced at Alice, but Carol saw the woman shrug. She wasn't going to protest this, though Carol wasn't entirely sure why unless it just had to do with keeping Daryl from trotting off to go and be alone with Merle in the world out there.

Rick nodded.

"Fine…tomorrow night, then, Daryl. We'll go back to Woodbury to get Merle," Rick said.

"Alone?" Carol asked suddenly. "Is it dangerous?"

Daryl glanced in Michonne's direction.

"I'm not going back to Woodbury," Michonne said. "There's nothing there for me."

"I'll go," Alice offered.

"You're still injured," Hershel spoke up.

Alice shrugged.

"So I won't do any of the heavy ass lifting. I'll go to keep an eye out or whatever," Alice said.

"Then I guess that's settled," Rick said. "The three of us will go."

Michonne sighed loudly.

"Fine," she said, her voice cold. "I'll go, but I'm not going in to get Merle. I'll go in to be your backup if you need me, but I want it to be known that I'm not doing this for him."

"Duly noted," Rick said, nodding his head at her.

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Daryl had been distracted after conversation about Merle. He'd gone out to check the parameters and he'd take a part of a watch, so Carol had left him alone to give him time to deal with whatever demons it was that were plaguing him. She knew now, at least, that he would come and talk to her when he felt that he had enough control over them to talk about them, and she wasn't going to push him until he'd reached that point.

When Daryl did come to her cell, though, he hadn't come to talk. She hadn't really been sure what he'd come for. She'd stayed up, lying in bed with the lamp on and reading over a book that she had, and waited in case he did need her.

Daryl had come quietly to the cell. He'd slipped in and without saying anything at all to her he'd stood there a moment, hovering close to her. She looked at him, but she didn't speak, waiting for him to break the silence or somehow hint at what he might be thinking.

Finally, Daryl started silently undressing. Carol didn't say anything. She just watched him as she stripped out of his clothes and piled them in the corner of the cell.

He stood in front of her, in his boxers, and nibbled at his cuticle.

"This alright?" He asked, keeping his voice low.

Carol smiled softly at him and patted the bed behind her. Daryl crawled onto the bed and slid under the covers between her and the wall, his arm looping around her in the manner that he'd learned, it seemed, to enjoy.

Carol sighed a little, hoping he didn't notice it. She wasn't sure what he wanted or what he was expecting, and he was silent.

"Do you want to talk?" Carol asked.

"No," Daryl grunted.

Carol sighed again.

"Do you want me to blow out the lamp?" She asked, closing the book and sliding it onto the table.

Daryl grunted in the affirmative and Carol blew out the lamp, sliding down into place in the bed, Daryl's arm wrapping a little tighter around her and pulling her against him.

Carol had no idea, not really, what was happening between her and Daryl. She knew that she loved him, but she wasn't sure how he felt about her. She would have been fine with everyone openly knowing about them…knowing that before all this had happened they'd been having sex and now Daryl was sleeping in her cell…but she didn't know how he felt about it. She didn't even know if and when they'd resume having sex. She honestly felt like she had no idea what any of it was about.

In some ways it felt like they'd take some steps forward, but in others it felt like they'd taken some steps backward, and she had no idea how throwing Merle into the mix was going to shake up the dance.

Still, there would be time, once Merle was here and she could see how that affected Daryl, to discuss everything later. For tonight, Daryl was apparently sleeping in her cell, coming especially to spoon her, and she'd take what she could get.

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Carol strolled slowly through the yard the next day, making her way behind Alice around the fences, both of them stabbing Walkers through the fence without any great show of enthusiasm.

"So why are you going tonight?" Carol asked, satisfied that they were out of earshot of the group.

"What?" Alice asked.

"Why are you going tonight?" Carol repeated. She knew that Alice didn't know Merle as more than the man that tried to kill her, so it would be difficult to believe she had any affection for the man.

Alice shrugged a little, gagging slightly at a particularly putrid Walker whose skull she sunk her knife into. Carol covered her own mouth with her hand, the smell overwhelming her for a second as well.

"Jesus, these are some nasty fuckers, aren't they?" Alice said, slinging her knife and moving farther down the fence to escape the lingering odor. Carol followed behind her.

"You're avoiding answering my question…" Carol said.

"Really?" Alice responded. "I'm going so Michonne would go. They might need her to show them how to get there…how to get in. Believe me, I'm not going because I believe I'm any great asset to their cause."

"You're not completely useless either, you know," Carol said. "You survived on your own for a while…a lot of us can't say that."

"Pure dumb luck can happen to anyone," Alice said. She stopped stabbing and turned to face Carol. "Don't every let yourself think that the reason you made it this far is because you're the shit…even if it's true."

Carol nodded. She understood what Alice was saying. Though confidence was a good thing, over confidence was often deadly. It had always been truth, but now it was, perhaps, more truth than before.

"What about Michonne?" Carol asked.

"What about her?" Alice asked, returning to the Walkers that seemed to be a pretty much never ending supply.

"Is there something going on there?" Carol asked, raising her voice to reflect her interest in the subject. Honestly, she would be happy for Alice if there were. They didn't have a lot in this world…so even a somewhat surly samurai was better than nothing. Carol did know they were sharing a cell.

Alice shook her head and chuckled.

"Nothing like that," Alice said.

Carol reached out and pushed the woman in front of her between the shoulder blades for echoing the line she must have said to her a thousand times.

Alice stopped and turned around, a half smile on her face.

"What?" Alice said. "I'm serious…I don't really even know her. She was at Woodbury when I got there. I heard she wasn't comfortable with the place…or overheard it really. She and her girlfriend had some public fucking breakup in the street…they were letting Michonne leave but the girlfriend wasn't leaving because she'd hopped all over this Governor guy's dick…so they got in a fight. I got sucked in out of pure damn interest because you don't see a lot of public dyke drama. Then I thought I'd get the hell out of there while they were letting people go, and I split as a last minute decision."

"So you didn't decide to go together before?" Carol asked.

Alice shook her head.

"No…not really. I followed her. Told her I was sorry about her girlfriend, tagged along. She'd have probably told me to go to hell but then Daryl's brother tried to fucking kill us…and well united we stand, divided we fall. That's pretty much all the hell there is to it. Now she's just a friend…or she's somebody who needs a friend," Alice said.

"So you're her friend?" Carol asked.

"Are you jealous?" Alice teased.

Carol chuckled.

"Maybe I am!" She responded. "I'm trying to find out if I've been replaced."

Alice chuckled then and turned full to face Carol, reaching an arm around and playfully pulling Carol toward her.

"No…you first friend," Alice said, faking an accent at her…a very bad one.

Alice straightened up then.

"You're first friend and that's what you'll be…" Alice said. "Especially now, though, no one is so rich as to throw away a friend, and that's certainly the truth for me. Michonne doesn't have anybody…and I don't have anybody…we might as we be fucking nobodies together."

Carol sighed.

"But she's a lesbian, though?" Carol asked, realizing that there might not be anything there at the moment but there was the possibility.

Alice shrugged and went back to the Walkers.

"She's a woman, isn't she?" Alice responded.

"So you're one of those?" Carol asked.

"One of what?" Alice responded.

"You believe every woman is secretly a lesbian?" Carol asked.

Alice laughed.

"Yes…and no," Alice said. "I believe in the continuum."

"And?" Carol asked.

Alice stopped again, turning back and putting her hands on her hips.

"OK…if you take being a lesbian back to where it comes from…back to what it means…back to the Island of Lesbos and our Lesbo ladies…our Sapphic sisters, if you will…or even the Amazons…being a lesbian isn't about eating snatch. It's about the sisterhood of women. The continuum states that every woman, therefore, belongs on it somewhere. There's just no black and white. If you've ever had a significant relationship with another woman…you're on the continuum. That goes from mothers and daughters all the way to your bonafide dykes. As the theory states, the community of women doesn't necessarily rule men out of our lives, but it's the relationships we have with women that make life more bearable," Alice explained. "So…yeah…I think every woman's a lesbian. I just don't necessarily think that every woman falls at the far end of the continuum."

Carol nodded a little.

"I guess that's fair enough," she said.

"So yeah…" Alice said. "Michonne's held a few different spots on the continuum…I'm sure of that. She certainly got a little worked over by her ex…the bitterness is strong in that one. It was probably a first love. That shit stings the worst."

"Voice of experience?" Carol asked.

Alice chuckled again.

"And how…lost mine…got her back…lost her again..." Alice said. "First loves are slippery as fuck."

Carol smiled and nodded, turning her attention, first this time, to the Walkers at the fence.

She thought she could relate. She was beginning, more and more, to believe that Daryl was her first love…she was realizing that she never loved Ed. She never felt about him the way that she felt about Daryl. And now that she was worried about what would happen with Merle…now that she was worried that her love for Daryl would be unrequited at best and lost completely at worst…she could understand the pain that someone might go through when they lost their first love…and even if they felt like they just couldn't seem to get a hold on them or keep whatever hold they got.

Seeing her turn back to the Walkers, Alice redirected her attention as well and they continued on in silence, both of them probably thinking about their own situations, but both fine with being in the company of the other while they shared their contemplation and passed the day killing Walkers that no longer shared the concerns of the living.

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AN: The continuum that Alice talks about comes from the sociological and psychological studies of Smith-Rosenberg and later Rich, though Alice simplifies them greatly and paraphrases the ideas. I thought I should drop this in here to let everyone know, though, that these are not my original thoughts, nor are they hers. They are borrowed.