HarleyMasiff82- Thank you! I truly appreciate that. Sometimes I just feel like one of my chapters isn't the greatest, but all of the amazing reviewers (you included) make me feel so much better about it.

Violet Lylybelle- I literally almost called Merle Gavin's uncle last chapter haha. Thank you so much, that's always great to hear! I agree. And I feel like maybe if the things with Lori had gone differently (and he had someone to whip him into shape, he wouldn't turn into such a…a I don't really know how to put it…closed off? Dark? Something along those lines…

Smittendebs- I try! Thanks for the review!

AshleyWhitener- I don't plan on stoppin' any time soon :)

Ragelovejimmy- I'm glad! I try to as soon as I can!

Onyxus- Lol, I appreciate that! I try to update as much as possible...I will try to again like sunday or monday.

AN: This may sound like a stupid question to some of you…but what does AU mean?…I can't figure it out for the life of me…

"So what are we gonna do today?" Gavin asked his mother.

"I don't know," she admitted.

"Hey babe?" they both heard Daryl call, and they turned to see him walking down for his and Marie's cell.

"Yeah?"

"I'm gonna teach ya how to shoot this," he held up his crossbow. "Ya end up with it if I'm hurt or somethin' anyway. Might as well know how ta shoot it."

"What 'bout me?" Gavin asked.

"When ya get a little older I'll teach ya," Daryl promised ruffling his hair.

"Can I go talk ta Uncle Merle?"

"It's Uncle Merle now?" Marie asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Well, Uncle Rick's yer brother and Uncle Merle is Daryl's…I jus' thought…"

"Does 'Uncle Merle' care if you go talk to him?"

"He sayed I can talk to 'im anytime."

"Be good," she leaned down and kissed his forehead. "And if he starts bein' mean or anything, you come and tell me. I'll set him straight."

"Thanks Momma!" the young boy ran off. Marie looked over at Daryl, who was eyeing her carefully.

"He's trying. I get that," she reasoned. They began walking towards the outside. "It has to be hard…I mean nobody really wants him here and they're scared. At least he's trying…"

"Do ya want 'im here?"

"I'll be honest with you. I didn't, hell I didn't want you here either, when both of you arrived. But Daryl, he's your brother. And as long as you want him here, and he doesn't overstep with me or my son, I don't care."

"An' if he does?" Daryl knew Merle, and Merle wasn't good with being 'put in his place'.

"He won't know what hit him. I'm not the type to just let someone talk down to or mistreat people. Me and Rick are alike in the sense."

Daryl didn't reply. He wasn't sure how things would turn out if Marie and Merle got into it. Merle typically wasn't one to his women, but he was always kind of a wild card. And if Merle did hurt Marie, he would have Daryl to answer to. Just the thought made his blood boil. He truly hoped his brother had changed and things would be okay between them. They walked to the edge of the woods, not so far that their run back would be terribly bad. Daryl handed his crossbow over to Marie.

"Ya know how to aim?" he asked.

"Line up the scope with my target?" Marie asked. Daryl nodded.

"Aim for that walker over there." There was one facing away from them, near a tree. It hadn't caught wind of their smell just yet, so it would make a fine target.

"Okay," Marie said. She set got the once man's head in her crosshairs. She could see that half of his face had rotten off and he had a rather large chunk of flesh missing from his neck. She breathed out slowly and squeezed the trigger. The arrow flew with a wizzing sound, and found home in the lower cheek of the walker.

"Not bad," Daryl commented. He was pretty impressed. For that being her first shot, she still took out the necessary target. He walked up and retrieved the arrow before handing it back to her.

"You hear that?" she asked. There was a faint whining sound to their right. Daryl nodded, signifying that he'd heard it to. She started to reload the crossbow, but the amount of strength it took, was actually a lot. Her arms wavered as she attempted to lock the arrow into place. Now she knew how Daryl's arms got so muscular. Finally, she got it into place, refusing to ask for help. They took cautious steps toward the noise. What they found was not what they had expected at all. "Aw," she cooed and kneeled down to the level of the dog. She held the crossbow out in Daryl's direction as she did so.

The dog couldn't have been more than a few months old; he was white and gray with blue eyes. A Siberian Husky if Marie wasn't mistaking. She picked up the paw that the animal was holding up. In the pad there was a thorn. She pulled it out as gently as he could.

"No," Daryl said, already knowing what she was thinking. They couldn't bring a dog back to the prison. What would it eat?
"What do you mean no?" she asked as she pet the dog's fur.

"We ain't keepin' that thing."

"Why not? He's cute! And, he could be a good guard dog!"

"What's he gonna eat?"

"Clearly he's figured that out for himself, look at this face. Don't tell me you can say no his precious face," she moved over next to the pup and gave him her best pouting face.

"No."

"Aw come on Daryl!" she stood to her full height once more. "He's hurt, you can't tell me you're gonna just turn him away! Please…Gavin loves dogs…and it'll be good protection for the baby."

"I'm allergic," Daryl tried.

"No your not, liar." The dog whined and hopped over to Daryl's side, and began sniffing his pant leg. The Husky sat obediently as if he knew what was going on. "See? He likes you."

"We don't need no damn dog."

"C'mon Daryl! He can keep watch for us…y'know when we want some adult alone time…" she suggested with a seductive hint to her voice.

"Ya really thing that's gonna work?"

"Yes!"

"Fine get the damn dog."

"I love you!" she exclaimed, wrapping her arms around his neck and pressing a kiss to his lips.

"Yeah, yeah. Get the damn dog an' let's go." Daryl tried not to break a smile. It was nice to see Marie smiling and happy, even if it was over a damn dog. Marie took his hand that wasn't holding his crossbow and pulled him towards the prison.

"C'mon, boy," she called to the dog.

"Merle, why aren't ya a dad?" Gavin asked curiously.

"Don't like kids," the brown eyed boy looked at the older man curiously. "Yer a'right though."

"I miss my dad," Gavin admitted. Merle was teaching Gavin how to play poker with the only deck of cards they had.

"Thought ya never met 'im," Merle recalled from when he first met Marie and Gavin.

"I did…one we finded the camp with Daryl and everybody."

"What was yer daddy's name?" Merle was a little curious now.

"Shane, I think…" Gavin had only picked up what he'd heard from the rest of camp.

That asshole cop from the Atlanta camp? Merle thought to himself. "Hm, that's real interestin'."

Suddenly they both heard the sound of barking. "Shut that damn thing up," Daryl grumbled.

"Shh," Marie hushed the dog. Daryl, Marie, and a dog came into view.

"A puppy!" Gavin exclaimed, and ran to the dog. "What's his name, momma?"

"He doesn't have one yet," Marie said.

"The hell you doin' with a damn dog?" Merle asked. "We don't need no Goddamn dog in here."

"Sure we do," Marie reasoned as her son began petting the dog. "C'mon, Gavin. Let's get him set up in your room."

"He's gonna sleep in my room!?" Gavin exclaimed.

"Yep, so you can stay safe," the two of them made their way back to where all of the cells were and Merle looked at his younger brother.

After setting up the dog's little bed on the floor, Marie went in search of Sophia. She hadn't seen her much that day, and figured that she should check on her. She happened to find her sitting in Beth's cell feeding baby Judith. Marie took a seat on the bed next to Sophia. Beth was on her other side.

"Sophia tells me you're gonna have a child?" Beth asked. Marie nodded. She couldn't exactly lie, and the whole group would know sooner or later. "I've always wanted a child."

"I'm gonna glamorize motherhood, but it has it's moments. Now though…it's a scary thing."

"Is Daryl happy about it?"

"Um, as happy as he can be, I guess. Soph here, is ecstatic," the young girl blushed and looked away. They all heard a commotion coming from the other side of the cell block, and Marie went to investigate.

Gavin was with Daryl, Merle, and the dog, still learning poker.

"Damn this kid's good," Merle commented, as Gavin beat both him and Daryl for the third time in a row. "Someone teach ya how to play this 'fore?"

"Nuh uh."

Marie walked in and saw her nephew, Michonne and her brother all back, carrying a few things.

"This all ya got?" she asked, not very impressed.

"No," Carl said. "There's a lot more in the car."

"Well let's go get it!" she exclaimed happily.

"I don't think that's a good idea," Rick said. "This stuff's heavy."

"So?"

"You're not supposed to be doin' any heavy liftin'. Tell Daryl and Merle to come help me."

Marie sighed, but complied anyhow. "Rick wants your help getting all of the stuff in here," she said. Daryl stood, but Merle continued to sit.

"We're in the middle of a game here, girlie, so that can wait."

"Look, I'm just the messenger here. I'd be out there myself if I could."

"Our game can wait a few minutes," Daryl told his brother. Merle muttered something in auditable and followed Daryl out to help anyhow.

"Momma, I's winnin'," Gavin grinned. He had the biggest rock pile of the three.

"Good job, I used to be pretty good at poker myself," she smiled.

"Really? We shoul' all play."

"Yeah, maybe in a little bit."

"I thought of a name for da puppy."

"And what's that?"

"Dug. Y'know, off of Up?"

"Squirrel!" Marie exclaimed with a laugh.

"Yeah! An' he can help Daryl catch squirrels."

The two laughed. "That's a wonderful name." By this time, the group was bringing in all of the supplies. Carl walked over to Gavin and Marie.

"Here, is this one okay?" he set down a stuffed penguin.

"This is perfect, thank you Carl." She kissed her nephew's forehead. "Me and Daryl found something out in the woods today. You wanna see?"

"Sure…" Carl knitted his brow. He wasn't quite sure what Marie was showing him, but he figured he could play along. She led him up to Sophia and Gavin's cell and he saw a dog sitting on the floor.

"His name's Dug!"

"Like the dog from Up?" Carl asked. Marie nodded. Carl grinned and made his way over to pet the dog.

"Babe, I need to talk to ya 'bout somethin'," Daryl said, peeking into the cell.

"Yeah, just a sec," she wasn't quite sure what this was about. His tone said that it was something bad. "You two be careful in here, I'm gonna go talk to Daryl." The two made their way to a more secluded area of the cell block.

"So uh, Rick an' them found a bunch a weapons while they were gone," he started.

"Okay…" Marie was very unsure where he was going with this.

"Hell even found me a new crossbow. So I figured…Betsy ain't gonna be put to use, so I thought I'd give 'er to ya." He held out the crossbow with the orange and with arrows.

"Really?" she knew how big this was. Daryl's crossbow meant a lot to him.

"Ya, yer the only one that can shot it anyhow. Thought it'd better keep ya safe."

"Thank you," she hugged him and accepted the bow. "I love you."

"Love ya too."

"This'll come in handy tomorrow," she commented when they pulled away.

"What do ya mean?" he asked. He hoped she meant when she stayed at the prison and kept everyone else safe.

"I'm goin' with you and Rick tomorrow to the meeting with the Governor."

"No yer not," he said immediately. There was no way she was getting within a mile of that psychopath.

"It's too late, I already talked to Rick."

"An' what 'bout the baby?"

"It'll be fine, I'll wear a bullet proof vest. Besides, you two need me. There's nobody else y'all can take."

"Michonne," Daryl suggested.

"You really trust her to be right there and not kill him?"

"Carl."

"He's just a kid, despite what everyone else thinks."

"We can handle it by our selves. You just need to keep yer ass put."

"Daryl, I'm not gonna argue with you about this, my mind's made up. I'm going."

"So's mine. Yer stayin'. Gavin needs ya."

"Elizabeth can look out for him, we're not gonna be gone that long. Plus, he has Dug."

"Who's Dug?"

"The dog! And what happened to you not trying to control me? If I recall correctly, you went off on Shane for the very same thing!"

"This is different. Yer carryin' my kid."

"That doesn't make me any less of the same person I was before you knew that. I was when I went on the formula run. You just didn't know it then. It doesn't enable me any."

"This guy's a sicko, we don' know what he's gonna do. He coul' plan to kill us all while we're there!"

"Maybe it should be me forbidding you to go then. The baby can't lose it's father."

"Well it needs it's mother more. Ya need to jus' sit this one out."

"You act like I'm helpless, Daryl. But I'm not. And, you both can trust me out there. I can guarantee that the Governor is gonna be bringin' a much bigger force than just three." Daryl stayed quiet for a moment. "How 'bout this, I go on this one run, and I don't do anything else for the next year, if avoidable."

"Two years," he said.

"Only if that excludes goin' into the woods with you."

"Fine," he reluctantly agreed. She gave him a nod, knowing that he wouldn't forget about their agreement. And, she would be feeling useless for a while, but she would have another kid to raise in that time, so it was okay. It wasn't so much that she wouldn't have gone even if he forbade it, she was her own person after all, but she wanted his blessing at the very least. Although, she knew that tomorrow was going to be quite a day…she didn't know what would happen.

AN: It was longer than the last chapter at least. Hopefully I'll get to update again soon. Thank you for all of your reviews, I hope you continue to leave them! Thanks a lot guys!