This Night

Chapter 153

Author's Note: So, you would think that my next character chapter would be Jewel right? Well that's what I was planning. But see I have this big mouth named Merle Dixon yacking in my ear and being insistent. I tried to remind him that he shouldn't even be alive as of now, and if he didn't behave, I could kill him. He laughed and said Jewel would kick my but. He's right, she would. Sigh.

Red Angel 2463- I'm not sure if Lexi and Carl are gonna be 'together' they are only 14. They just mesh together. Lexi is a mix between Ty and Sasha. Things bother her, but she has to move forward. Carl's just moody!

Please review!

Merle and Jes POV:

Merle fired at people as they came through the gate. "Daryl! I'm going to give Jes backup!" he told his brother as he squeezed his shoulder. "Be careful lil' brother," he told him.

"You too big brother. Better find the bus, and meet up, other wise, Jewel's gonna kill us both," Daryl told him.

Merle nodded as he let go of his brother's shoulder and fired his gun a few more times as he ran toward the guard tower Jes was in. "Jes, get your ass moving down! Now!" Merle told her.

"Aint taken down most of the Son of a Bitches yet!" Jes yelled back.

Merle sighed as he used his hand with the knife on it to kill a Walker. He glanced over and saw his bike and ran to it and started it up and pulled it over to the guard tower. "The prison is lost, now the best thing we can do is not go down with it. They have a tank, a big old tank. They've already taken down one tower, so get your ass down here, get on this bike and we're gonna meet up with the rest of the group. Don't you make me come up there and get you woman!" he hissed.

Jes glared at him. "Merle watch out!" she yelled as one of the Governor's men held up his gun and went to shoot Merle. "Hey you dickhead! Yeah you! Think you're man enough to shoot me? You're aim that good?" she yelled as she tried to distract him from Merle.

The man raised his gun and looked up ready to fire, just as Merle tackled him and hit him. "No one ever tell you not to hit a lady?" he asked.

The man was able to grab his gun and shoot Merle in the shoulder causing him to fall backward. The man raised his gun to finish him.

Merle glanced backward as the gun shot came out of nowhere hitting the man's head perfectly. "You should have taken the damn shot to begin with instead of taunting him!" he told her as he stood up.

"I was trying to distract him so he wouldn't shoot your sorry ass!" Jes told him.

"Good that did, I got still got shot," Merle told her.

"Shoulder wound, at least it wasn't in the head," Jes said. "You gonna stand there all day or we getting the hell out of dodge? I'll look at that later," she said as she hopped on the back of the bike. "You got enough gas to get to the cabin?"

"Yeah, Axel filled up all the vehicles. Jewel always had this damn second sense about bein' prepared for the worst," Merle said as he got on the bike.

Jes looked back at the carnage as he started the bike. "This time she was right."

Night time:

Merle took a swig of whiskey as Jes dug the bullet out of his arm. "You should have a drink with me, to honor Hershel….he was a damn good man."

"I'm a little busy digging this bullet out of your shoulder. What is it with this arm and yours, it can't take much more abuse," Jes told him.

"Next time I get shot, I'll ask them to be nice enough to shoot me in the other arm," Merle said.

"Novel idea, how about not getting shot?" Jes responded back.

Merle huffed. "Once again, you should had shot him and not taunted him," he told her. "Guess I don't have to worry bout Officer Friendly leavin' me handcuffed somewhere anymore."

Jes looked at him. "You think he's dead? You think there all dead?" she asked as she put the bandage on his arm.

"Shouldn't have let Summer go out there, should have went out there myself," Merle said as he took a swig of the whiskey.

"We should go looking for the bus tomorrow. It got away," Jes said as she finished with the wound.

"You got any idea where to start lookin? Cause I sure the hell don't," Merle said. "Really wish I had found some kind of drugs, would be good right about now."

Jes shook her head and stood up. "What good would that do Merle? That would just make you the same person you were before. Your family needs you Merle, they need you not to be that person."

Merle shook his head. "Why do you even care Jes? I envy you. You aint got no blood, so you don't know how hard this is."

Jes tensed and turned and looked at him. "Well thank the hell a lot Merle! No, you're right, I don't have any blood, but do you think that makes it easier? I thought you knew me Dixon, I thought you got it. You don't think I'm feeling pain? You don't think I'm worrying about Joey and Summer? You don't think I'm hoping not only for you but for me, that somehow someway, they all got out? Don't you think I know this is MY fault? That I didn't hunt long enough? Hard enough? That if maybe I had stayed out a little bit longer, watched Martinez longer, that I could have put a bullet in the Governor's brain and that would have been the end?" she asked as she put a fist to Merle's chest. "I couldn't save them…" she said almost in tears.

Merle grabbed her hands and pulled her to him. "Who couldn't you save Jes? This isn't bout the prison is it?"

Jes tried to pull away. "Let me go, Merle. We don't talk, we don't get personal, that's what's good about the way we are."

"Jes, stop tryin' to pull away. You listened to me at Woodbury, listened to my bitchin' about Jewel possibly opening' her legs to Officer Friendly, listened to me just wantin' to be reunited with my family," Merle told her. "Look, sweetheart, I'm sorry bout what I said about them not being your family. That was wrong, I know you care, I know you love 'em all, even if you don't show it. Hell, even a small part of you loves me, darlin'," Merle told her as he kissed her.

"Don't flatter yourself Merle," Jes told him.

Merle laughed. "Haven't seen you tear up in all the time I've known you," he said as he sat down on the bed with her. "Now enough bullshit, this isn't about the prison. Who couldn't you save?"

Jes shook her head. "It's not important Merle," she said as she tried to pull away and stand up.

Merle pulled her back down. "Look, we aint goin' anywhere until you tell me what almost had you in tears. I've known you bout a year and half now Jes, and you know me well enough that I don't do all the touchy feely crap. Hell, maybe bein' around Daryl and Jewel and all there feeling crap, rubbed off on me. I want to know what the hell had you so damn close to losin' control. If that means we sit here for hours, a week, hell a month, then we sit here. That also means the likely hood of finding Daryl, Mar, Mitch, Jewel, Summer and hell even the Chinese kid and Officer Friendly, diminishes," he said.

"He's Korean, Merle," Jes said as she shook her head. "You're putting this on me? Seriously just a few minutes ago, you asked why I cared."

"Come on, you know you don't listen to half of what I say," Merle told her.

Jes sighed. "You know if I spill out my heart, our whole relationship changes."

"What? You mean I can't be a pain in the ass? Now you wound me," Merle said.

Jes sent him a look. "Merle Dixon, you'll always be a pain in the ass. But you acting like you care, well that's a whole side I'm going to have to get used to. I mean I knew you had it in you," she said.

"Better take your chance now that I'm feelin' all generous, I may come to my senses," Merle warned her.

"Never told anybody what I'm telling' you," Jes said. "I told you I joined the Army to make a new start, and that's the truth. I was 14 years old. My family was all gone, cause of drugs, I was heading the same way. I needed to stand up, fight so this didn't happen to someone else."

Merle put his arms around her. "What did you do?"

"Pissed off the wrong people," Jes said. "They tried to have me killed. I knew I had to disappear. Changed my whole identity, Solana Cabera died that day. I became Jes Sanchez, I was suddenly older. I couldn't help them, my family, but I could try and help others who needed it. Was doing a damn fine job at it, until the end of the damn world."

"You don't think you helped people since the end of this world? Joey survived because of you. Jewel, she survived this because of you. Hell, I wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for you. I don't know who Solana Cabera was, but I know Jes Sanchez, and she's a damn fine woman," Merle told her. "And she's gonna help my sorry ass find our family."