"Do you like it?" Ellie questioned lifting up her picture she had drawn practically shoving it in to Merle's face for him to look at, Merle moved back slightly tearing his eyes away from Jenika's back to look at Ellie's picture, she was only coming up to four years old so it was just a few squiggly lines but he gave her a nod watching a huge grin break out on her face, she nodded back putting it back on the ground on her finished pile to make another picture. Merle had found her some paper and pencils and she hadn't stopped colouring. He was looking after her while Norma did something or another; she had wanted to talk to Hershel about something. He wasn't too sure where anyone in his group really was, Cedric had gone off to talk to Rick, Mary and Alfred were walking while Annabelle slept, Julius was entertaining Michael, Noah he had seen talking to Hershel's youngest Daughter which he had been doing a lot over the last three weeks, Little man's got a girlfriend.
And Jenika well he glanced up staring straight in to the cell across from them. She was still there a statue waiting for her baby to awake. She looked so ill, so pale and so lifeless, he hadn't really seen her move for nearly three weeks straight, he had moved for the bathroom or rare occasions, but that was it. She hadn't eaten or drunk anything. Norma said if she didn't eat or at least drink soon, she'd be the one dying. He tightened his fist at the thought, he was going to lose both of them, Nikolai and Jenika the two who had helped him in more ways than they or himself even knew, he couldn't lose his family he just couldn't.
"Daddy do you think Niko will like it?" Ellie questioned bringing Merle's attention to her, he nodded again. "Nanny sayed Niko is having a big sleep because he not well, will he wake up soon so we can play together"
She stared at her drawing, her hands stilling in there motions as she spoke, Merle stared down at her he could see the gloss in her eyes as she stared at her drawing, she was going to cry, Nikolai was her best friend practically her brother and she was too young to understand what was going on but she knew something was wrong with him. Poor kid, Merle reached over to her, resting his hand on her head, feeling his hand she looked up curiously.
"When he wakes up you can tell him off for sleeping so long"
"I will I won't let him sleep ever again" She nodded a determined look on her face as she went back to drawing, Merle snorted silently taking his hand off of her head, he could picture her doing just that, but then again he was going to do the same.
"I don't want to talk about it anymore" A voice screeched through the cell block bringing Merle out of his thoughts he turned his attention to the voice that echoed and watched Carol storm away from his brother, both of them looking extremely pissed, but he noticed the small twitch of distress on Daryl's features. Daryl called after her moving to follow but she yelled 'Leave me alone' stopping him in his tracks. Merle raised an eyebrow at Daryl when he glanced over in his direction but with a shake of his head Daryl stormed to his 'room'.
"Lover's tiff" Merle heard one of the old woman mutter shaking her head as she continue to knit. Lover's tiff? Merle repeated silently. Don't tell me my brother's dating her? He questioned to himself, planning to corner him later for answers. He didn't like the woman much she had been a frail thing when he had first met her which he didn't like, but now her whole new attitude he respected that she wanted to survive and would do what it took to survive but she had threatened his family demanded they kill Nikolai and that he didn't like not one bit, when he had heard her say it he had to hold himself back from shooting her the temptation had been high. But if Daryl's happy…can't fuck it up for him. If his brother was dating the woman he'd have to put up with it he didn't want to give Daryl reasons to hate him again they had only just made up after nearly twenty years of falling out. Sighing heavily he turned his attention to the footsteps coming towards him seeing and hearing a laughing Norma followed by a grumbling Julius who was rubbing at the side of his face.
"Thank you for looking after Ellie, have you been a good girl" Norma questioned when she was close enough crouching down in front of Ellie, who nodded rapidly showing off her picture. Julius sliding down the wall beside Merle, Merle turned to the man raising an eyebrow about the look on his face and the redness of it.
"What's wrong with you?" Merle questioned Julius who huffed slightly before replying.
"A wall"
"Yeah I feel like that to" Merle sighed staring at Jenika.
"No I actually HIT a wall"
"What? How and why did you do that?"
"Like I did it on purpose…Michael decided he wanted to play Tag and the wall appeared out of nowhere"
"As they do" Merle snorted. "Where is Michael anyway?"
"Playing with the other kids…One of the little boys invited him to play power rangers"
"And he actually went?"
"Yeah he didn't get a choice this little girl kinda grabbed his hand and ran off with him"
"And you let them?"
"Well at this point I was feeling the effects of the wall you know"
Merle chuckled patting Julius shoulder. "Starting to think your more Flynn rider then Rapunzel"
"With these golden locks and my Frying pan skills?"
"Point taken your still Rapunzel" Merle smirked watching Julius flick his hair over his shoulder.
"For men who are supposed to be "Big and manly" you seem to know a lot about Disney Cartoons" Norma mused amusedly as she stared at Merle and Julius with a raised eyebrow.
"Yeah well Disney is a classic can't be Disney" Julius shrugged turning to Merle. "What's your excuse?"
"We had two channels in my house and some Disney movie was always on god damn one of them, I'll tell you what though never watch a Disney Movie when high" Merle muttered shaking his head, he had watched Arthur and the magic Sword when he was high once and he had struggled between what was real and what wasn't which had led to a large hole finding its way to his kitchen wall, among many over broken things.
Norma and Julius chuckled in response.
"I'm sure you had plenty of adventures when high"
"with some of the shit I took yeah" Merle nodded in agreement scratching at his chin, catching sight of Noah walking towards him, he was fidgeting with his hands looking nervous and extremely pale.
"What's up boy?" Merle called as Noah paused in front of him.
"Well I er I"
"Don't start ya stuttering again"
"Slow and steady" Julius chimed moving his hands up and down in a yoga way to symbolise breathing. Noah nodded slightly taking a deep breath.
"Well Michionne is going on a scavenging mission and I-I want to go and she said I had to have parental permission first"
"So you want Merle to sign your permission slip so you can go scavenging with the lone warrior?" Julius question when Merle said nothing in reply, Noah nodded rapidly but Merle simply eyed him through narrowed curious eyes making Noah fidget more, he watched the boy squirm for a few seconds before Noah glanced over at someone; Merle followed his gaze seeing Beth watching him curiously biting her nails. Was she putting him up to this? Or was he trying to impress her? Whatever the reason Merle wasn't too comfortable with Noah doing anything this dangerous.
"Why don't you tell Michonne what you need and she'll get it"
"I-I want to do it" Noah whispered staring down at his feet. Merle sighed rubbing at his chin; he wanted to say no, to not let him out there but was it the right move? He turned to Norma for a second opinion. She stared over Noah as well her eyes as ever calculating and shrugged.
"You've taught him how to protect himself and he'll need to start taking more responsibility soon, Michonne is a strong woman I'm sure she'll protect him… if you think he's ready for it and Noah want's to and if he's careful does as Michonne says"
Merle nodded turning back to Noah, who was still fidgeting nervously. "Don't like it in the slightest boy, but if you wanna go I aint gonna stop ya, but you watch ya self out there and come back in one piece ya hear me?" Merle ordered pointing a finger at Noah who nodded rapidly in reply as he turned to run over to Michonne.
"I will dad promise"
You better…can't lose you to kid.
"I guess you're right, but both parties need to be on the same page" Rick nodded to Cedric as they walked back to the cell block, Rick had gone to check the back of the building and Cedric had wanted to talk so he had followed.
"It won't take much to Convince Merle, he's a good man at first he's an asshole to strangers but deep down under at least two thousand layers of protection is his heart" Cedric joked, causing Rick to chuckle in reply, he had known Merle as a cruel abusive man that liked to be in control, but as of lately he had kept an eye on the man he had watched Merle how he was with his group he had defiantly changed. He didn't seem to be the man Rick had first met. The open storage room door caught his attention as they turned the corner, they could hear shuffling, both men dropped their hands to their weapons creeping towards the room Rick in front, he was ready to strike but as soon as his eyes landed on Hershel he relaxed and stepped in to the door way.
"What are you looking for?"
Hershel jumped slightly turning to look at them before moving back to the boxes he was looking through his crutches balanced under his arms. They didn't have many supplies but there was enough to fill a few boxes.
"We have some medical supplies in here but for the life of me I can't find the bag"
"It's that one top shelve" Rick pointed before moving in to the room taking the bag down for him, Cedric standing at the door way waiting for Rick so they could continue chatting, they had been chatting for a while about merging the groups for their stay and till the governor was dead, Rick hadn't been too keen but Cedric had made some good points about the numbers and skills. "Why do you need them anyway? Isn't there enough in the medic room?"
"Norma wants me to find some sedatives"
"Why?" Cedric blinked from the door way, as he and Rick watched Hershel rummage through the bag pulling out a syringe and a bottle of sedative fluids. Nikolai was already out for the count and there group members that were ill didn't need any, they needed them awake and alert.
"Because" Hershel started, as he filled the syringe with the fluids, flicking it twice and pressing it slightly to make sure the syringe was okay, when he was satisfied he turned to Rick and Cedric a serious look on his face. "We're going to sedate Jenika"
