Bree & Merle back together again! This chapter shines a light on some of what Bree went through before the apocalypse hit.

Vote of Confidence: P1

The Georgia forests of nowhere are still and peaceful, their pine needles and grass tinged with white frost, the other trees with no green left to spare. Two pairs of feet tread lightly through the winter-deadened woods, one with a stumbling, erratic gait, the other more natural, swaggering, and leisurely-paced.

When Bree first saw Merle, staring up at her tangled in his trap, looking just the same as all those months ago when she'd been taken away to Sanctuary, she'd felt so much relief. It was like she could drop the mask she'd been wearing at Sanctuary that forced her to be this tough person she wasn't quite sure she was. Finally, she could stop running and have someone to rely on again. She was safe.

No sooner had she thought that had Merle unceremoniously chopped the trap loose, sending her crashing to the ground. She laid on the frosty grass, writhing in pain, and holding back words her dad would certainly wag his finger at. In a flash, Merle tied her wrists in front of her, ignoring all her confused questions and angry squirming.

Now here she is, following behind Merle as he tugs her forward by a rope attached to her bound wrists. Her face is drawn; she's exhausted and dazed from hunger. Merle is singing some raucous tune as they travel together, apparently unconcerned about the walkers. He's got a bottle of Scotch that he's drinking like water.

"Merle..." Bree tries to be heard over his migraine-inducing yodeling. "Merle! Would you take these ropes off me? Can we talk about whatever the heck this is that's happening?"

He continues singing, so she repeats herself, louder this time.

"Is all of this really necessary—"

"Is this really necessary," he mimics her with a higher-pitched drunken voice. "Well, it's necessary to me." He gives her a look over his shoulder. She's taken aback by how void of emotion it is. "Gotta look out for my safety. From what those folks at Alexandria tell me, you're not as sweet and innocent as you act. Wife to the crazy man with the baseball bat, siphoning … all kinds of information to him." He giggles humorlessly at this. "Had us all fooled, didn't you?"

Bree follows after him, guilt twisting at her insides and clamping her mouth shut. He was right in some ways; she still can't fully explain why she reacted to kissing Negan like that or why she finds it so hard to kill him.

Deciding she has a right to be at least somewhat indignant, she says, "Merle, you really think I wanted to be paraded around in front of Rick's group to demoralize and embarrass them? To make them hate me?"

"I don't know the way your brain works, gal. Thought I was starting to."

"I'm not his wife. Whatever he has going on over there is not marriage."

"Huh. Whatever lies make you feel better. Either way, ropes stay on 'til we get to the Graveyard, and your brother decides what to do with you. You remember you have a brother, don't you?"

"Merle! Would you listen to yourself? Can't we talk about this?"

"Dang, I thought I was the one giving orders here," he guffaws. "Who got caught in whose trap again?" He gives a self-satisfied laugh . "I thought I was gonna have to set out some watermelon or somethin' like that to catch you with how sneaky you were being, and then you just trip right in it. Man, you're slacking, girl. I taught you better than that! Been too busy playing house with Baseball Bat Boy Toy, huh?"

Bree glares at Merle for a moment but nearly trips, so she has to continue watching her feet as Merle tugs her along. "I went there to trade places with you, remember?"

Merle doesn't say a word, and all Bree can see is the back of him as they walk through the cold forest. Finally he says, "Yeah. Guess I 'member that. Of course, that was before ol' Sheriff told me you were working with Megan or whatever his name is and have been from the start. So that straightened out any of your so-called 'heroic deeds' right there, baby girl."

"I told you... I was trying to save Sasha," she declares, trying to keep her cool.

"Maybe I'm getting the details mixed up, but Sasha is dead, ain't she? Hell of a job you did saving her."

Bree looks at the ground, guilt sealing her lips once again. She tries to remind herself that she hadn't caused what happened to Sasha. She hadn't….

Just like you didn't save me, Harry's voice whispers in her ear.

"Negan said he'd hurt her if I didn't pretend to be on his side!" she argues at both Merle and herself. "He wanted me to break my ties with everyone, so I wouldn't jeopardize the Saviors…. But I-I didn't know she was already dead!"

Merle seems to be getting less talkative and more contemplative as their conversation progresses. He chuckles, and to Bree's dismay, it sounds full of disbelief.

"You a real good actor, you know that?" he says boredly. "That's what you used to do, right? Act? Or was that another one of those … those stories, like the one you're telling me now about Sasha? And about finding your precious little family? Alonso was just a lucky appearance for you, right?"

"I would never lie about any of that!" she snaps feeling herself grow angrier. "I only went to Sanctuary to help! Negan would have tortured or killed you, and he's planning to kill Rick! I thought I could make him change his mind because, yes, we did know each other at the start of this, and I thought maybe he might listen to me. I should have been more open about that, but a lot of stuff happened at Sanctuary I wasn't ready to talk about. But you are my family now, you and the others, and I was just trying to protect you, even if I'm not very good at it!"

Merle stops and faces her fully, a hard look on his face as he searched for the truth. She stops walking as well and meets his eyes.

"You're funny, gal," he snarls. "That man put my brother in danger, beat him like a puppy, wants to take over the world or something crazy like that. Now I'm hearin' you're all buddy-buddy with him, and you're back out here, free as bird again. Look at your new shiny clothes and fancy haircut—payments for your service?" He sneers at her.

Bree's eyes fill up with tears of anger and hurt. "Maybe you should trust me because I've been traveling with you for two years now!" she shouts. "I would trust you no matter what I saw or heard if you asked me to because of all the crazy stuff we've been through together!"

"If the Governor wasn't Walker food and I skipped willingly back to him and then showed back up here, would you trust me?" Merle asks, voice full of steel.

She wipes her eyes with her shoulders and nods. "Of course."

They glare at each other for a long time before Merle's cold stare begins to soften somewhat.

"You really not with Sanctuary?" he wonders.

"No. I made my choice when I ran away."

Merle regards her for another second before downing the rest of his flask's contents and then stepping towards her. "Well, alrighty then." He uses his knife hand to slice through her ropes.

Bree rubs her sore wrists gratefully and smiles at Merle, who is walking again. "Thanks."

He scoffs. "Didn't say I don't still suspect you."

They walk in silence for a while before Bree asks, "…Is Alonso okay?"

"Ooh yeah, ol' boy is just fine! He's about to drive us all crazy with these new rules he keeps comin' up with. No offense, but he's something of an a-hole, ain't he?"

She tries to answer but suddenly her mouth feels like it's stuffed full of cotton. The white and green landscape suddenly blends together into a blur. She stops walking and puts a hand to her head.

Merle asks her what's wrong, but his voice sounds as though she's been pulled beneath the waves while he remained on shore. She lowers herself to the ground. When Merle approaches her, she tries to wave him away.

"I-I'm fine," she mumbles, but she's already beginning to slip into unconsciousness.

Merle tries to shake her awake, feels the back of her neck, curses.

-/-/-/-/-/-/—FB-/-/-/-/-/

A younger Bree was sitting in her class, scribbling in her notebook as the teacher droned on about Algebra. She was smiling at her notebook, the tip of her tongue pushing out from between those smiling lips.

Suddenly, the teacher grows quiet, and Bree's aware of someone watching her. She quickly slides the piece of paper she'd been writing on behind a few pages and continued scribbling up until the moment her notebook is lifted into the air.

The teacher looks at her notebook with a coolness as Bree twiddles her thumbs in her lap.

"Yes, Mr. Grayson?" she wonders innocently.

"Just making sure you're taking notes. You seemed a little more enthusiastic about math than usual." He places the notebook back on her desk and returns to his lecture, checking other students' notebooks as he passed by them.

Quickly, she pulls the paper back out and begins writing again, smile still on her face.

After school, Bree goes to the auditorium holding a coffee in one hand and her notebook in the other. She is quiet as she enters since the actors are onstage, rehearsing. She uses her butt and foot to close the door behind her without a sound. Then she walks slowly towards the front of the audience seating area, where Mr. Brigham is sitting, watching the show. She smiles shyly at the back of his head before resuming her pace.

She sits beside him, placing his drink in the cup holder between them. He doesn't look over; his attention is solely on the stage where Ava and Bruno are acting out a scene from Grease.

"Danny, are you alright?" Ava asks while running over to Bruno, who is pulling himself off the ground.

Bruno looks away from her as he brushes imaginary dirt from his school clothes. Ava huffs and crosses her arms.

"Danny, talk to me!" She demands.

Bree smiles and jots down something in her notebook.

Growing even more frustrated, Ava says, "The least you can do is talk to me
after the way you treated me!"

Bruno spins around and stares at Ava in astonishment. "The way I... ?" He shakes his head in disbelief. "Sandy, I told you I was sorry."

Ava smirks. "Got you talking."

Bruno and her laugh together and then they begin walking together around the stage.

"You sure you're OK?" she wonders.

He nods shyly. "Yes, I'm fine. So, still dating that jockstrap?"

Ava tap her chin. "Well..."

Bruno looks downtrodden. "Is he taking you to the dance?"

"Well," Ava drawls out. "That all depends."

"On what?" he asks.

She shrugs cutely and replies, "On you."

Bree is scribbling in her notebook as Brigham calls out, "Alright, let's take a break there. We'll move onto the diner from here, so I need the rest of my actors ready in ten minutes." She blinks and returns her attention back onstage.

The actors move off stage, laughing and talking with one another.

"Hey, Brigham, can the coffee runner go get us some water bottles?" Ava calls out. "We're running out back here."

Brigham looks confused for a moment before turning to face Bree, who is scowling. He grins brightly at her, causing her to drop her disgruntled expressions and return his smile.

"Whoa, you can tell I'm stressed!" he laughs. "I didn't even notice you there! Is this coffee for me?"

"Yes sir, hope you like caramel," she says. "It's all they had at the front office."

"The more sugar and caffeine, the better," he laments. "We only have a few more weeks before our first show, and, between you and me, I find it to be an utter crap show at this point."

Bree can't help but to laugh at a teacher using language like that with her. She felt like a co-conspirator of sorts, and it was a good feeling.

Brigham downed the coffee in a few swigs and then let out a relieved "Whoo!" He shook around and then grinned at his young assistant, who was getting out of her seat.

"Where are you going? I'm hoping you took some notes you can share with me. I think we also should probably talk about what kind of extra credit you're going to get for helping me out."

"Uh, I was going to get water bottles for the actors," she says.

He gives her a warm smile. "You don't have to do that. They may act like primadonnas, but no one here has a personal assistant besides me. And even I wouldn't ask you to do what I'm able to do myself."

She smiles and sits back down. Flipping through her notebook, she shyly tilts the notebook towards him. "So... I think everyone's doing a great job. And I'm not trying to make anyone feel bad. But I think the chemistry between Sandy and Danny needs to be tweaked. Sandy is polite, kind, and slightly playful in that scene with Danny, but still shy. Danny, on the other hand, is being his normal self—shy, boyish, sweet. With that in mind, Ava could be a little less assertive in this scene. She came off a bit aggressive at the beginning. Danny could also benefit from having less bravado. They're both slightly delicate in this scene as they want to make peace with the other person, and they come to the realization that their romance can still work."

Brigham smiles and nods as she talks, and he grows more excited. He claps his hands.

"Yes, precisely. That's precisely what I was thinking!" He stands up and faces the stage. "Change of plans! Ava, Bruno, let's go through that scene one more time. Bree just gave some great advice on how to really clinch this scene."

Ava and Bruno come back out, confusion evident on their faces. Bree sinks back into her seat, heart fluttering in her chest as Brigham tells them what she said.

"What? I think it's fine," Bruno says with a dismissive shrug. "It's not like it's a very big scene anyway."

"Yeah, everyone else thought it was great. And I've played Sandy before, so I think I know her personality more than most people," Ava adds without even glancing in Bree's direction.

Brigham shakes his head. "Is this the level of professionalism I'm to expect from my senior actors? This is going to be your final performance of high school, and you don't think we should do our best to give our audience something good and believable? I didn't feel the chemistry between Sandy and Danny, the most iconic couple in American plays! You want to leave it at that?"

Ava and Bruno shuffle around a bit, before Bruno nods. "Sorry, Mr. B. I can get it right. What should I do?"

Ava says nothing.

Mr. Brigham looks at Bree, who clears her throat and informs them of her notes. Bruno agrees with it while Ava gives her a look of disapproval, but she goes along with it.

While the actors go through their lines again, Mr. Brigham gives Bree a thumbs up, making her smile.

After practice, everyone files out to the parking lot to get in their cars and head home. While the actors make plans to hang out or ride together, Bree heads towards her Jeep alone. She passes Ava, who is talking loudly with some of the other actors about "the new coffee runner", saying she's weird and doesn't know anything about acting. Her temper flares, but she ignores it.

As she gets in her car, Mr. Brigham passes her and says "have a nice evening! Thanks for all your hard work! And make sure you check that notebook of yours! I thought I might have saw something fall out of it!"

Panicking, Bree flips through her notebook to see if anything's missing, but she instead finds a slip of paper that says, "How does free food and taking about musicals sound? Meet me and some of the other students at Dave's at 9 so we can start talking about turning Grease into something near perfection —Mr. B."

She looks up and sees his Prius pulling out of the lot. She reads the note again, before stuffing it away. She starts up her car, classical music on, and heads home.

-/-/-/-/-/-

When Bree awakens, she immediately recognizes how hot and weak her body's become. She's no longer collapsed on the ground but being carried on someone's back. She thinks back to who she was last with.

"Merle?" she mumbles.

He shifts her weight and grunts, "How you holdin' up, big mama?"

She puts her head back down, but laughs a little. "You don't have to carry me. Your arm."

"What, you think you've out-toughed Merle Dixon? You may be heavy as a sack of bricks, but it ain't nothin' for me, even with one hand. I told you about the pigs I used to tote?"

"Thanks for the compliment," she remarks.

Merle chuckles. As she falls back asleep, Merle looks worried again.

-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-

That night, Bree is at the nearly empty bar restaurant on the outskirts of town, seated at an empty booth. Her notebook is laid out in front of her. The only other patrons, two loud and raucous bikers, are playing billiards. The tired bartender hadn't bothered her for an ID yet, and Bree makes it a point not to look in her direction. She discovered the food here was tasteless, so after a few fries, she pushed them aside and focused on her writing.

Suddenly, Mr. Brigham comes in, wearing casual clothes, black scoop neck long sleeve shirt, skinny jeans and boots, that made him seem younger and even more handsome. Bree feels herself blushing as he comes over and sits across from her.

"Okay, you're the best assistant ever," he exclaims. "First one here, even before my sorry late butt! Sorry to ask you out so late, but I do my best thinking at night. How about you?"

"Early in the morning before the rest of my family is awake," she says with a nervous smile.

"Oof, I wish my dog would leave me alone in the mornings so I could write and grade papers in peace. He's like a pooping alarm clock with four legs."

Bree laughs at this, and she's feeling more comfortable. Noticing this, Mr. B grins and motions at the bartender. She moves over, smiling at him.

"Hey, Gio! You want your regular?"

"Yeah, and get my partner here the same," he says. The woman smirks and moves back to her counter. Gio begins talking enthusiastically about the play to which Bree listens, enthralled. The bartender comes over, carrying two tall glasses of beer. She puts one in front of Gio, the other in front of Bree, then promises to return with the chicken fingers.

"Oh, I... I'm not old enough to drink," she informs him lamely.

"Man, I'm dumb. Sorry, I'm scatterbrained. Alright, two for me, orrrr... you can have a sip and I'll pretend to look the other way."

Bree eyes the cup and her grinning, handsome teacher. Deciding to leave it alone, she points out that Bruno improved but Ava was still struggling to capture that innocence of Sandy. But maybe she is making a big deal out of nothing.

"Don't be absurd; perfection isn't achieved by settling," Gio sing, hands moving animatedly as he talked. "Sandy is the epitome of innocence, at least until the end. When she transforms into this twisted, unrecognizable version of herself."

"And Ava has that 'Pink Lady Sandy' down pat," Bree says. "Ugh, I've always hated what they did with Danny and Sandy at the end, though."

"Oh, it was horrible," Gio chimes in. "She was perfect the way she was. There was absolutely no need to change!"

"And then they blast away in Kenickie's car," Bree giggles.

"Right! Like, hey, you're bringing that back, right?"

The two laugh, and Bree feels his foot brush against hers.

"So look, you're here helping me even when none of the students showed up. I can't give you extra credit in my class since you're not in it. But there has to be something I can do for you?"

Blushing, she looks at the notebook again and says she doesn't really need extra credit, but if he finds her to be a good assistant, she would love for him to write her a letter of recommendation to an acting school.

He blinks. "You want to be an actor? How come you've never tried out for any of my plays?" he wonders.

"I just never had the courage," she admits.

"What changed?" he asks.

"Having someone like you give me encouragement helped."

He smiles at her. "You're a sweet girl," he says. "And I'll write you as many letters as you need."

They walk out of the bar together, Bree nibbling at the leftover chicken fingers.

"Thanks for meeting with me tonight! I think we are going to make a great team. Oh, I should probably give you my number so we can trade notes every now and then, and coordinate on orders."

Bree finds his request a bit odd, but they swap numbers and part ways.

At home, her mother expresses happiness at her hanging out with friends.

"I was with the teacher I'm TA-ing for," Bree corrects her. "He does his best work at night, and he invited me for food and to talk about the upcoming play."

The mom turns around from washing the dishes, seeming concerned. "A teacher?"

"He's cool, Mom. He even paid for the food. None of the other students could make it, but we still got a lot done."

"Hm... Just make sure you're with someone IF there is a next time. No student should be out with her male teacher at night. But thanks for being such a good kid and telling the truth."

Bree goes to her room to get ready for bed when she gets a text message. She sees it's from Gio, who she's taken the liberty of naming his contact info as "Mr. B".

"Thanks for joining me~"

She smiles at the text message. On her phone, we see the only other person she texts is someone called Gabbi and her mom and dad.

She hesitates before writing back that she had fun. She puts her phone away and sits on the bed thinking before moving towards the bathroom, closing her bedroom door behind her.