Author's Note: I've been contemplating a sequel.

Lucy carefully opened the door, and they stepped out onto the sidewalk. "Do you remember which direction we came from?" she asked, looking down the dark street.

Merle shook his head, "Not really, I think we came out an alley, down there." He pointed to the left.

She thought about it for a moment, "Maybe we should go the other way, we don't know how many are lingering down there, and we don't have any weapons."

Merle nodded in agreement, and they started down the road.

"I wish we had a map," she said as they walked. "I don't know about you, but street signs weren't really something I was paying attention to when we were running for our lives."

He shook his head, "I'm not sure where we are either."

The group stopped, they could hear the sounds of the walkers before they even turned the corner. Daryl put his finger to his lips and slowly crept along the side of the building. He carefully peeked around the corner. "Shit!" he muttered, seeing the horde gathered. He could just faintly hear something else, obviously what had attracted them.

He turned and walked back to the others, shaking his head. "I don't know how we're going to get past them. There's too many."

"We have guns," Martinez said.

Rick shook his head, "I don't wanna use more ammo than we have to until we find Merle and Lucy."

"What do we do then?"

Daryl shrugged, "It sounds like music or something is coming from one of the shops, but I'm not sure. Maybe Merle and Lucy turned it on."

"Why would they do that?" Michonne asked. She knew Merle wasn't the smartest of people, but he wasn't a complete idiot, and Lucy wasn't either.

Daryl shrugged, sighing.

Glenn looked around, "I got an idea." He stood and walked over to the nearby alley, where he began climbing the fence.

"What are you doing?" Rick asked.

"If they got stuck inside one of the buildings, maybe there's a back way in." He paused at the top, swinging one leg over so he was sitting on top of it. He looked back down at the group. "If they're not in there, maybe they turned the music on to keep the walkers distracted while they got out. If they are out, then we can still sneak past by going down the alley."

Daryl grinned, "You're pretty damn smart!" he said, grabbing the fence and beginning to climb up.

"That's one of the reasons I love him," Maggie said as the others began following suit.

They made their way down the alley to the antique store, and Daryl readied his crossbow, "Sounds like the music's coming from in here." Slowly, they pushed the door open, and he stepped inside the backroom. He looked around, not seeing Merle and Lucy anywhere. He walked over to the door leading into the storefront, and carefully opened it, not wanting to attract the attention of anyone or anything that might be on the other side.

All he could hear was the music. He scanned the empty room, but didn't see any walkers. He opened the door all the way and stepped through the threshold. There was a dead walker by the door, a blood trail from where it had been killed and then shoved out of the way. A dresser was pushed in front of the door, and it looked as if it had moved some, clearly from walkers attempting to get in.

He thought about turning off the music, but then decided against it. As long as they stayed quiet, the walkers probably wouldn't leave that particular street. He walked back into the backroom, "They're not here," he said, shaking his head. "Let's go."

Daryl led the way down the alley. They got back out onto another street and turned in the only obvious direction. "They could be anywhere," Rick commented.

Daryl looked at him, an eyebrow raised, "So, what do we do?"

"We could split up," Michonne offered. "Groups of two, we each search in a different direction, meet back here."

Daryl shrugged, "What other choice do we have?"

Rick sighed, not wanting to separate anybody, but they could be out there for hours searching if they stayed together. He finally nodded in agreement. Glenn and Maggie, Rick and Michonne, and Daryl and Martinez each went their separate ways to cover more ground and find Merle and Lucy.

"Do your group members get lost a lot? Or is that just a Dixon thing?" Martinez asked.

Daryl frowned, Merle would've never been lost to begin with if he hadn't of been cuffed to a roof in Atlanta. And he wouldn't call being kidnapped getting lost, either. Then there was Sophia, she wasn't even a Dixon… Daryl shook his head, clearing it of the thoughts of the little girl he couldn't save.

An awkward silence fell on the two of them. After a block or so, Martinez sighed, "I heard about what happened with Phillip," he paused for a moment, gauging Daryl's reaction. "Sorry about that, um…" he reached up and scratched the back of his head before continuing, "I'm glad Lucy and Rick were able to find you."

"I'm not the one that should be apologized to," Daryl said, trying to keep his anger down. He didn't want to be reminded of Sophia, every time Merle called Lucy by her stage name; it reminded him of his failed search for her. The days he had spent in the woods, calling her name, begging her to step through a door way or step out from behind a tree. Now on top of that, he was being forced to recall the images of Lucy being tortured.

"I'm sorry," Martinez said, keeping his voice low. He hadn't meant to upset the smaller Dixon.

Daryl just shook his head again, not bothering to reply.

Merle and Lucy rounded another corner, "Shouldn't we have circled back by now?" Merle asked.

Lucy sighed, "I don't know. Maybe we should've just stayed put."

Merle put his arms around her, pulling her to him. "Who knows when they would've found us if we had of done that. And I doubt they'll be out here all night looking for us…"

Lucy opened her mouth to reply, but then stopped. "Daryl would."

Merle frowned.

"Rick too, probably whoever else is out here looking for us." She paused, "When Daryl was left in Woodbury, they came back for him, and you…"

Merle looked at her, an odd look on his face, "How do you know that?"

Lucy stopped, "I…"

"Yes?"

She sighed heavily, "I had been spying on you for a while."

Merle pulled away from her, looking at her. "You were spying on me?"

"I saw you when you were hunting Michonne. I wasn't sure it was you, and then in the town, after you took Glenn & Maggie…"

"And you didn't feel the need to show yourself sooner?"

"Merle…" She sighed, not sure what to say. "When Daryl didn't make it out of Woodbury with the others, I was gonna go in myself and get him, but they went back."

"When you knew where I was in Woodbury, why didn't you come there? I wouldn't have let anything happen to you. And when we were on the road, and Daryl left them, why did you wait? Why didn't you come out of hiding then?"

She shrugged and shook her head slightly, "I don't know. I guess…I guess I was still a little afraid of you. I was afraid of falling back into the old patterns."

"When you were following us in the woods, why did you reveal yourself when you did?"

"Because of Daryl, when you ripped his shirt…" she paused not sure what to say next.

Merle looked at her, shook his head slightly, turned, and started walking again, leaving her standing there.

"Merle!" he ignored her, "Merle! Dammit, look at me!" He kept walking. She ran to catch up to him. She grabbed his forearm, tugging on it so he'd turn around, "You're mad at me."

"I thought you died in Atlanta! I thought I would never see you again. All I had left was Daryl, and then for a year I have fought and killed, all I wanted was to get my brother back. You saw me, you knew where I was, and you decided not to do anything. Not to say anything. You couldn't walk up to me and say, 'Hey, Merle, I'm alive, I'll help you find Daryl.'"

"Merle, I'm sorry…" she was about to cry. She never saw Merle upset. She saw him angry, but never upset. She grabbed his other wrist too, her fingers just barely touching the heel of his palms. "Please, Merle…"

"Why couldn't you just tell me?" he asked again.

"I was scared. I had fought so hard, and I didn't want to go back to that."

"But you were willing to in order to protect Daryl."

"I was afraid you'd hurt him."

"He's my brother!"

"After all the times you hit me, how was I supposed to know you wouldn't do the same to him?"

He ignored her question, a thought occurring to him. "Did you know…did you know about the scars on his back?"

She bit her lip, trying to find the right words to say. Finally she nodded.

"So you and Daryl are a lot closer than I thought. You knew about his scars when I didn't, he knew you were pregnant, but neither of you felt the need to tell me—"

"Merle, please, it's not…" She sighed and closed her eyes, her shoulders slumping. "You don't understand."

"No, I don't understand. I don't understand why my brother is closer to the girl that I wanted to make my wife then I am. Or why he was able to show you his scars, but he couldn't tell me, why he never bothered to mention to me that our piece of shit father beat him."

Tears started to fall down Lucy's face. "Merle, I'm sorry. We were able to talk to each other, it wasn't…Neither of us really had anybody, and with the way you were…" she shrugged. "It was easy to talk to each other. Please, don't be angry."

"I'm not angry," he told her. "I'm disappointed." He pulled out of her grip and started walking away again.

She followed quietly behind him.