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Chapter Thirty Six: Beauty and the Beast

This was the last thing anyone in the group had seen coming.

After Maggie and Glenn were successfully rescued from Woodbury, it had taken Daryl two days to get back to the prison, and he wasn't alone. There had been a very… lively, bordering on violent, discussion on what to do with Merle. Daryl had threatened to leave if Merle couldn't stay, and they couldn't afford to lose him, so Rick reluctantly allowed Merle into the prison. Rick relieved him of the blade fixed to his arm, then locked him in a cell close to Daryl's perch, which Daryl appreciated.

Once the excitement died down, Carol took Daryl up to his perch and tended to his superficial wounds. Then she encouraged him to eat before she convinced him to lie down and sleep for a little while.

The tension in the air was thick, but Merle seemed to be on his best behavior, at least until he saw Beth.

Carol was the first to notice anything. It all started innocently enough, with Beth volunteering to take Merle his dinner and wash his clothing. Carol was uncomfortable, but it wasn't her place to say anything. Besides, she had her hands full enough with the younger Dixon brother. And she was fairly certain Merle would have little interest in the youngest Greene girl.

How wrong she was.

Late one night, footsteps woke Carol from a light sleep. She was tangled up with Daryl (that had taken a lot longer than she'd hoped) and at first she thought she was hearing things. Then she heard Beth's soft voice, followed by Merle's low gruff. The cell door didn't open, so Carol felt slightly better. But the day it did, she knew there would be problems. Beth was eighteen now, a grown woman capable of making her own decisions, but her father wouldn't take kindly to her being with Merle, even if her options were so limited. She would need to have a talk with Hershel on the young girl's behalf. Maybe it wasn't her business, but she cared about Daryl and Merle was his brother. She wanted to keep the peace among the group for as long as she possibly could.

She settled back down in Daryl's arms and closed her eyes, thinking of how she had smoothed out a lot of Daryl's rougher edges just by being there for him. Maybe Beth could do the same for Merle.

Carol supposed that wouldn't be such a bad thing.

The End.