This is one of those chapters that I didn't much care for but will still hopefully entertain. Some Merle and Sophia which is always fun. I love them =) Thanks to you all for reviewing. I was nervous about last nights chapter and I'm extremely happy you all seemed to like it so much. And for those of you that asked for it, don't worry, there is more ;) Hope you all have a great morning!

Chapter Thirty Eight

"Mornin' love birds."

Carol's eyes shot open at the sound of Merle Dixon's voice. What happened between her and Daryl last night came rushing back to her, causing her to blush. When she remembered that Daryl hadn't even put any clothes back on she blushed even deeper. She raised up on her elbows and glared at the man standing in the doorway. She was about to say something but Daryl beat her to it.

"Go away, Merle." He mumbled.

He didn't go away at all. Instead he came further into the room, shutting the door behind him. She had to admit that he looked much better. He didn't look all the way better but from the looks of that stump last night he was better than he should be right now. He was a tough son of a bitch. She had to give him that.

"Hey, you two owe me. Sophia was the one that said she was comin' to get you up. Ya'll rather her come in here with all these clothes on the floor and the two of ya in the bed like that?" Merle clucked his tongue and bent down to pick something up.

When he stood up he tossed her pajama bottoms to her with a smirk.

"Thank you. Can you get out now?" She said tersely as she slipped her pants back on under the blanket. She was surprised Daryl hadn't said anything else to the man yet.

He picked up Daryl's pants and tossed them too him. Daryl caught them and groaned but he did the same as she had and put them on. "Merle, shouldn't you be in bed or somethin'?"

Merle put his hand on his hip and leaned against the door. "Got up to have me some breakfast with the rest. Guess them girls wanted to celebrate so they cooked up a big meal for everybody. Ya'll missed it. Musta had yerselves a long night." He winked. "What's it been, little brother? Fifteen years? Maybe it wasn't that long a night then." He grinned.

Carol didn't like the thought of Merle with the others unsupervised. She really hoped he hadn't been too bad, especially since Sophia had been with him. God, she wished she had gotten up earlier.

"You got up to eat breakfast with the rest of the group?" Daryl asked as he sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed. He sounded just as concerned as she felt.

Carol finally decided that the man wasn't going anywhere so she got out of bed and went to her bags to find something to change into. She was rummaging through her stuff when she heard Daryl's annoyed voice.

"Goddamn it, Merle! Get the fuck out. Now!"

She turned her head towards Merle and then stood up quickly. She had been bent over as she looked for her clothes and he had been staring at her. She turned, put her hands on her hips and stared him in the eye. The eye contact didn't last though as his gaze swept down the length of her.

"Well look at what you was hidin' back at camp." Merle smirked.

Her eyes didn't waver when his finally met hers again and he looked a little surprised by that. "You done now?" She asked quietly, eyes flashing.

The smirk turned into a grin as he looked over at Daryl who was just getting his shirt buttoned and then back to her. His eyes narrowed. "It was you." He said knowingly.

She felt the hard look on her face transform into one of confusion. "What?"

"I kept thinkin' on it, ya know? Wonderin' why the hell my baby brother here would go all massacre on Ol' Ed. It ain't his style. Couldn't figure it out. But I figured it out now."

Daryl's head came up and he was standing in front of Merle before she could even blink. "Go." He growled as he opened the door and pushed Merle towards it.

"It's true, ain't it? She did it?" He seemed excited by the idea. And when he looked back at her there was a new spark in his eye.

"Bye, Merle." Daryl grumbled as he slammed the door in his face.

He turned around and stared at her, his face unreadable.

"What?" She asked in a guarded voice.

"Merle." He said and then he shook his head. "I hate to think what might have came out of his mouth this mornin'. We might as well get to packin' cause Hershel ain't gonna want us around after that, I'm sure."

"I've been a little worried about that myself. This is his home and now all these people that he barely knows is here. He seems more comfortable now but surely he wont offer to let us stay. And then what? Where would we go?" She handed him some clothes but he just tossed them onto the bed and pulled her to him.

Her breath caught in her throat as she thought about his hands on her waist. And then she instantly started thinking about all the places those hands had been the night before. Get a grip Carol, she said to herself but when she looked up he just happened to be running his tongue over his bottom lip which took her mind to somewhere else. Maybe if they were really quick about it they could...

"Where was we headed when we left the CDC?" He asked lightly.

She shrugged. "We didn't know." She swallowed hard. He had no idea what was running through her head and she was glad. He was being less observant today. She couldn't yank her eyes away from his lips as he spoke. She barely even heard a word her said. She really needed to pull herself together.

"Exactly. There's somethin' out there for all of us. And this place ain't real secure anyway." He mumbled as he looked past her towards the windows. "And from what Rick tells me, Hershel don't think there's a reason to make it secure. He thinks the Walkers are people who are sick and that he's sure there's a cure. Milton's been talkin' to him about it though." He let go of her waist and then grabbed the clothes off the bed.

He kissed her quickly and then left the room, most likely to shower, which was something that she needed as well. She sighed and picked up her clothes but spun around again when the door banged open and Daryl quickly came in and grabbed her by the hand, pulling her along with him.

"Where are we going?" She asked as he started up the stairs.

He turned around and grinned. "Everybody's outside."

She frowned. "So." She had to smile as he stared at her. "What are we doing?"

He turned around and pulled her along again. "We're gonna conserve some water, woman."

~H~

"You did real good, Merle." Sophia said as she sat on the step next to the man.

He gave her a dirty look and then shook his head. "I kept my mouth shut. I had plenty to say though."

Sophia nodded. "I know you did. But I don't think anyone even knew. Your poker face is impressive. And at least you're getting taken care of proper. That water you drank in that shack was the last I had. We'd have been pretty hard up if Daryl hadn't come when he had."

Merle's head swiveled around and he looked at her unhappily. "Are you stupid or somethin'? The hell would you do that for? You coulda dehydrated out there and your last water was wasted on some mean fucker that ya didn't hardly know and wouldn't have done the same for you."

"I tried to tell her the same thing." Carl grumbled from a few feet away. It was obvious he did not like spending time with Merle.

"Shut up Carl." Sophia snapped.

"Yeah, shut up, boy. I know exactly where you get your attitude from. You're daddy likes to leave folks in the dust too." He held up his bandaged stump, causing Carl to look away. Merle turned back to Sophia, "Well, explain yourself, girl."

She glared at him. He seemed to be trying to make things easier on Daryl but he could still work on his manners a bit. "I don't have to explain myself to you. But, I will say that I couldn't let someone die alone like that and not try to do something to help. That's what you aren't understanding. The whole world ain't bad."

He snorted. "You gotta lot to learn."

She smiled at him. "So do you. You ready to go back in yet?"

He shook his head and settled himself sideways against the banister. "Sick to death of bein' inside. Ain't shit to do in there. But go on if ya got somewhere ya need to be. I don't need no damn babysitter."

Carl looked up at her with a hopeful expression but she just sat there. "I don't have anywhere to be."

Carl stood up and shoved his hands in his pockets. "I'm gonna go see what Jimmy is up too. He told me earlier that he'd show me around the farm." He said as he walked away.

Merle blew out a breath. "I didn't think that kid would ever leave."

"Carl isn't bad. He's never done anything to you." Sophia defended her friend lamely.

"Don't care. I don't like kids." He grumbled.

"You like me." She tried to hide a smile.

"No I don't. But like I said, I owe ya one. So I put up with ya is all."

"Sure Merle." She turned her head away so she could smile without him getting mad about it.

She stiffened as she watched Shane come around the corner. He offered her a smile but she just turned her head. She still didn't like him and after what she saw in the woods that time at the quarry she had a hard time looking at him. She had always stayed pretty quiet around him but sometimes she just wanted to tell him to go to hell. Maybe some day she would.

To her dismay he sat himself down on the other side of her. The steps were wide so he was a good four feet away but she found herself scooting closer to Merle. He'd never said anything mean to her or anything but she didn't feel very comfortable around a man that she'd seen naked. She felt her face flush bright red just thinking about it.

"I'm glad you and Carl made it back safe and sound." He said as he looked from her to Merle.

Merle didn't like him either and she could tell that he was having a hard time with the whole keeping his mouth shut thing. She offered him an encouraging smile. He glared at her in response.

"But you on the other hand, no pun intended, Merle, I don't guess any of us are all too happy to see you back."

Sophia watched as Merle's eyes turned to steel. She knew what Shane was doing. And from the looks of it Merle did too. She wanted to turn to the other man and give him a piece of her mind. But she had never given anyone a piece of her mind before, other than Carl, and she was too afraid to do it.

Merle turned his face towards Shane and then after giving him one more hard look he finally shrugged his shoulders. "Guess it's a good thing that I don't much care whether ya'll are happy or not."

Shane smirked and it bothered her so much she felt her hands clench into fists in her lap.

"Is that right?" Shane said casually. "Well, maybe you should start thinkin' about carin', Merle. It'd probably be in your best interest."

"Maybe you should start thinking about shutting your annoying mouth, you hotheaded jerk." Sophia snapped and then she felt her heart hammering against her chest. She hadn't meant to say that out loud. She'd never say something like that. Especially to a man that was a lot bigger than her and a lot stronger than her.

"What'd you just say?" Shane asked, his voice filled with disbelief.

She unconsciously pressed herself further into Merle's side when she looked at Shane again. He seemed more shocked than angry. "You need to just leave him alone. He hasn't done a thing to anyone since he's been here and all you're trying to do is start something. So stop."

Shane's eyes went wide. "Your momma gonna appreciate you talkin' that way to a grown up?"

"I think Daryl will."Sophia said quietly. "Especially if I tell them that you're out here trying to make things harder for Merle."

The door opened then and Daryl came out with her mom close behind. She met Shane's eyes but all he did was smirk.

"Hey Shane."

Sophia looked up at her mom quickly and then frowned. Why would she be happy to see that clown? She watched them warily for a few seconds and then when she glanced at Daryl he was eying Shane with the same look his brother had eyed him with earlier.

She felt Merle nudge her with his elbow. "Hey, girl, is it just me or did the tension out here just up a whole lot?" He whispered.

She nodded slightly without looking. "Let's go Merle. I know there's gotta be some cards in there somewhere. You can teach me how to play poker."

"Nah, lil miss. Looks like things out here are bout to get a bit interestin'." He grinned in Shane's direction.

"Merle." Sophia mumbled.

He blew out a breath and let her take his hand. She led him inside with the others watching them in shock.

Sophia was mad. It wasn't like she didn't already have her hands full with Merle, but now she had to keep a look out for Shane. She rolled her eyes but couldn't hide the smile on her face when he gave her hand a slight squeeze.

"I think I did pretty good." He muttered.

"You're doin' great, Merle." She said, and she meant it.