So I've FINALLY got this out. Sorry, it's been mostly done for a while but I started taking University classes a couple months back and that's taking up a large chunk of my free time. I will finish this, just slowly.
Anna sat on the front porch of their home, with her back to the corner post as she cleaned her pistol. It was a beautiful day, much like the day before but until like the previous day, she'd be stuck behind the walls with her dog as company.
Yesterday had been an all around shitty day. Not only had the day gone south for the construction crew but for those who'd gone on the supply run. While scavenging a building, the walkers made an appearance, then stupidity of one man had killed one of Deanna's son, and injured Tara. Then the said stupid man, abandoned them in the middle of trouble, and would have driven off without them if Eugene hadn't stopped Nicholas. Then, because Nicholas had left them high and dry, Merle, Glenn and Noah had to divert to a different door and the lost Noah, as he sacrificed himself to save Glenn and Merle.
Merle had gone into great detail, when he told her the story, pacing angrily as he told it. Not surprising, Nicholas had returned with several bruises and probably not just on his body. By the time he was done, it was all Anna could do to prevent him from going and seeking Nicholas out in that moment, to teach him the real meaning of fear-again. Anna totally understood how he felt, one man had managed to kill two people and injured another with his incompetence, and despite Merle's tough bravado, he cared about people. Merle especially didn't like it when young people died, especially when they were as young as Noah.
Anna was broken away from her thoughts by shouts coming from one house over. The one voice sounded like Rick's and the other sounded like Pete, the doctor. Anna carefully got to her feet when she heard a crash from within the building and started hobbling down the steps. Just as Anna reached the corner of Pete's porch the front window as Pete and Rick came flying through it.
"Hey!" Anna shouted as they rolled off the porch onto the grass then down onto the road, grunting and punching the whole way.
Jessie came stumbling out of the house, hands covering her mouth as she cried, clearly in shock. Normally Anna might try get to physically involved, instead, she whistled, and Juno came hurtling across the lawn like a bolt of lightning. Anna gestured towards the men, although it was likely unnecessary, to indicate her target then watched as Juno latched onto Pete's and started thrashing around viciously. Anna hadn't given Juno a specific target just pointed in the general direction of the men, and she wasn't particularly fond of Rick, it just so happened that Pete was on top at that moment, so Juno saw him as the aggressor.
Pete yelled in pain and tried to hit Juno on the head, but she was familiar with human behavior and saw the hit coming and latched on to the more juicy appendage. Rick tried to move in and take advantage of Pete's distraction, but Anna stepped in between him and Pete, and back handed him as hard as she could.
"You've done enough, ass." Anna snarled, earning a black glare from Rick but he just stood up woozily as Pete continued to scream.
"What's going on here?" Deanna demanded glaring holes into Anna.
"I'm just breaking up the fight." Anna said indignantly. "Ask these two morons what's going on?"
Merle broke through the crowd, then let out a loud hoot of laughter. "Officer Happy!? I'll be damned, never thought you had it in you!" Merle said as he waltzed over and put an arm around Rick's shoulders only to have it violently shrugged off. "I wanted to beat the shit outta this turd since we first got here, but she told me I couldn't." Merle said, pointing his thumb towards Anna. "But Rick Grimes has his own rules."
"Shut it, Merle." Anna growled at him as Pete continued to scream.
"Get this damn dog off of me!" He shrieked in a high pitched voice.
"Juno, release. Guard." Anna ordered. "If you take a swing at my dog, she'll tear your throat out, so do yourself a favor and stay very still."
"Rick, what the hell do you think you're doing?" Deanna demanded. To her credit, despite her recent loss, she seemed reasonably in control of her emotions.
"He attacked me!" Rick snarled. "Jessie asked him to leave, he tried to intimidate her, so I asked that he leave with me and he attacked me!"
"You have no right." Pete moaned. "She's my wife and that's my house."
"He's right, Rick." Deanna said. "We had this discussion this morning. You need to drop it."
"Or what? You'll kick me out?" Rick laughed derisively. That same crazy man she'd seen in the barn was coming to the surface again, and it made Anna a little uncomfortable.
"You sayin' you knew this turd was beatin' his wife an' kids but its just think none your business?" Merle asked, his amusement turning to anger. "That is you ignore it, it'll go away?"
"We aren't discussing this here." Deanna said firmly.
Rick chuckled again as he shook his head. "You still don't get it. None of you do! We know what needs to be done and we do it! You…you just sit and plan and hesitate. You pretend you like you know when you don't. You wish that things weren't what they are. Well, you want to live? You want his place to stay standing? Your way of doing things, are done. Things don't get better because you…you want them to. Starting right now, we have to live in the real world."
"The man has a point." Anna said, earning a surprised look from Rick. "Ya'll living in a fantasy here. One day it'll end, and you'll die because you don't know jack 'bout surviving. Lettin' parasites like this jack ass, live within your community, will only make your community go all the faster."
Rick nodded his. "Yes, exactly. We have to control who lives here."
"That has never been more clear to me than it is right now." Deanna said icily.
"Me?" Rick asked derisively. "You mean me?"
"Shut up Rick, you made your point." Anna growled. "You'll only make things worse." Anna turned back to Deanna. "Yes, Rick went about it all wrong but so did you. Even I could see something was wrong here, and I've only been here a short while. Yet you've been here for years and you ain't done nothing for that poor family. Your way is going to destroy this place!"
Deanna's face darkened. "We've done just fine up until now."
"Because someone in here must have a horseshoe shoved up their ass, but luck can only go so far. It runs out eventually."
"I appreciate your input miss Ford but that is enough." Deanna said then looked back at Tobin. "I believe we should take Rick into custody until we have a community meeting."
"Excuse me?" Rick asked, angry.
"Just go with them!" Michonne hissed, startling Rick as he hadn't realized that she was right behind him.
Rick looked passed her to where his son stood with a girl Anna had never actually met before but had seen around town. Carl's face was neutral as he stared back at his father, not at all shocked by his father's behavior.
Rick sighed as he nodded. "Fine but he doesn't get to see his family." Rick said pointing to Pete.
"That isn't your call." Deanna said irritably as she indicated for Tobin to escort Rick.
Rick glared at Pete one last time, but Pete was too preoccupied by the big snarling Belgian Malinois who was watching him like hawk. Finally, Rick turned and brushed passed Tobin, apparently knowing where they were going to take him.
"Call off your dog." Deanna ordered Anna.
Anna looked towards her dog. "Juno, heel."
Like a flash, Juno as standing by her side, looking up at Anna, waiting for her next order. Deanna then indicated for Glenn to go towards Pete.
"Take Pete to the empty house on the other side of the community, patch him up." Deanna said.
"I can patch myself up." Pete growled.
Once Pete was also escorted away, Deanna looked at Michonne and studied her. "Will I have problems with your people?"
Michonne shook her head somberly. "You don't have to worry. We'll all behave." Michonne said confidently.
"Good." Deanna said then turned and walked off with the few remaining residents, most of whom had departed when Rick had been escorted away.
When she was gone, Anna followed Michonne, Glenn, Merle, Carol and Carl as they all walked to the house and went inside. Just at they all had sat down, Abraham and Rosita burst into the house, looking concerned obviously having just heard the news.
"What the hell happened?" Abraham asked as he followed Rosita into the living room. "I heard Rick went ballistic and has been detained."
"A very simplified version of what happened." Anna said dryly.
"Pete was beating his wife, and Rick offered her his help." Carol explained. "She accepted it and when she asked Pete to leave, Rick tried to escort Pete out of the house, but he attacked Rick. Rick fought back."
"The dumb ass shoulda never gone in there a lone, shoulda had back up." Merle said shaking his head. "The shit woulda never done that if I was there. When he see's Rick, he see's mister nice guy, somebody he can possibly beat in a fight. He see's me, he see's an aggressive redneck with a pension for chaos. Someone accustomed to fighting. Wife beaters are one thing; cowards."
"He's right. Rick shoulda never gone in there alone." Abraham agreed.
"Well we can't change what happened." Carol said.
"I heard Rick got pretty beaten up." Rosita said, leaning on the back of the couch behind Anna.
"He did." Glenn confirmed.
"I'll go patch him up." Rosita said as she straightened up. "Abraham will fill me in later."
"We should all go back to what we were doing anyways, they may think we're plotting." Carol said standing up. "We'll talk about this later."
Everyone but Merle and Anna left then and just as Merle opened his mouth to say something, he looked passed her, surprised. When Anna turned to see what Merle was looking at, she saw Juno licking Jessie's offered hand. Merle put his hand on her hip as he bent forward and pecked her on the cheek.
"We'll talk later." He murmured then nodded his head as he walked passed Jessie out the front door.
"I'm sorry, I don't mean to interrupt." Jessie said, looking up at Anna then at the door that Merle had just exited.
"You didn't interrupt anything." Anna said waving her hand dismissively. "How are you and the kids doing? This whole thing has to be hard on them."
"Ron's angry, although I don't know if he's angry at me or Rick." Jessie sighed. "Maybe both of us. Sam is scared and confused; he doesn't understand what's happening."
"And you?" Anna asked as she indicated for Jessie to take a seat as she sat on the sofa.
Jessie sat down beside Anna as she looked at her hands. "Shocked, confused. On the one hand, the thought that Pete won't be able to hurt me no more, gives me a small spark of hope. On the other, a part of me still loves Pete and he's the father of my boys…"
"I'm going to stop you right there, he might've contributed to their DNA, but he is hardly their father and if you love those boys, you'll cut ties with him." Anna said firmly.
"You're not married or a parent, you couldn't possibly understand." Jessie said, sounding slightly defensive.
"Have you met Merle and Daryl?" Anna asked.
"Passingly, I try to keep my boys away from them." Jessie answered, looking at her confused. "They seem very dangerous; I don't know why Deanna lets them stay here…no offence."
"Merle and Daryl are the product of the exact same situation your boys are in, the only difference being that they were poor, and you were rich. Merle told me he grew up watching his mother get the tar beaten out her. Eventually she turned to alcohol to deal with the pain, then the old man started coming after him when he reached a certain age. Merle started using drugs when he was fourteen, smoking and drinking when he was twelve. He was in juvie six times before they considered him an adult then was in prison twice. He was on his first stint in prison when his mother drank herself unconscious while smoking in bed and burned their house down with her in it."
"My boys will never become that." Jessie said firmly. "I love them."
"Merle said his mother loved him and his brother quite a bit, even tried use her own body to protect them when their old man turned his fists on them. He says she's the only reason he learned to respect women…sort of. From what I've seen, Ron's well on his way to becoming violent like Merle. He needs to get away from Pete, all of you do."
"So, I should just trade Pete for Rick?" Jessie asked sounding slightly high pitched. "I mean look at what he just did, I mean I know that was my fault…"
"Firstly," Anna said as she put a hand gently on Jessie's. "You don't need another man in your life if you don't want to, you need to do what makes you happy. Secondly, you need to stop blaming yourself for things your husband and other people do. Rick shouldn't have been at your house by himself if he wanted to remove Pete and Pete should have never taken a swing and started a fight with Rick. It's their fault not yours."
Both women startled slightly as Carol entered the room and put a hand on top of Anna's whose hand was still on Jessie's. "Take it from someone with experience, Anna's right. I left and went back to Ed so many times, although not as many times as he had put me in the hospital. I went back because I loved him, and I swear I still do but him dying back at the start was probably one of the best things that happened to me. I don't have my little girl anymore, my Sophia, but you still have your boys, fight for them. You're stronger than you think you are, just like I found out that I am strong."
"Thank you, both of you." Jessie said as she wiped the tears from her cheek. "I'm glad I came here. I should go find my son's, explain things to them."
Jessie got up and left the house. When the door clicked shut, Anna looked carefully at Carol. "I had heard about you having a husband, but I hadn't heard about you having daughter. Did she die before or after?"
Carol closed her eyes for a moment and took a breath to compose herself. "You know it's an unspoken rule to not ask people about the people they've lost, even if they bring it up."
Anna looked at her sympathetically. Abraham refused to talk about Ellen and the kids as well, just that they had died. Whenever she'd bring them up, he'd get mad at her.
"I'm sorry." Anna said with considerable feeling. "I've never been able to keep my thoughts to myself. Irritates the hell out of Abe and its what makes Merle both like me and trust me."
Carol smiled slightly then sighed. "She got lost in the woods, Rick and Daryl tried their hardest to find her, but they never did. Hershel…Maggie's father, when we met him, he didn't see walkers as dead just extremely sick people. Whenever a walker would walk onto their property, they'd lock them up in a barn. Then Shane found out, and let them out against both Hershel's and Rick's wishes and we shot them as the came out and then Sophia…what once was my little girl…"
Tears, genuine tears had started flowing as she spoke. Anna had gotten a very distinct wolf in sheep's clothing impression when she had first met her and while she hadn't known her long, that impression hadn't changed. Carol dashed away the tears as she looked up at Anna.
"The reason I came in here…I heard you talking to Jessie. The way you talked with her, it almost sounded like you were speaking from experience, also." Carol said, her voice one again in control of her emotions.
Anna sighed as she looked down at her hands. "His name was Derrick Grainer. Him and I were a thing while I was serving overseas…Abe knew about him, but I ended it with him before we came back. We were both were SEALs but on different unit, assigned to the same base when things went down the shitter. He was the highest ranking officer to survive and it being a military base, that made him king."
"I think I see where this is going." Carol said studying her carefully, probably trying to figure out if Anna was telling the truth or if she was telling her what she thought she wanted to hear. Carol really was very suspicious of people. "Did you end up leaving willingly?"
Anna sighed. "I wish I could say that I stood up for myself or better yet, stood up for the community and got kicked out or fought my way out but I didn't."
"Abraham spoke of it a little, but he didn't seem to know what happened. He just told me that you had been on a base when the walkers rose up, but he didn't seem to know what made you leave." Carol said as she stared at the fire place.
"I guess we haven't really talked about our experiences before we found each other, mostly because Abe avoids the subject like the plague." Carol looked back at Anna inquisitively, but Anna shook her head. "He has his reasons and I get it if he's not ready to talk to me about it, but its not my place to tell anyone what I know."
"Loyalty." Carol said nodding her head. "I get that and respect that. It's the most important thing in this day and age."
"It is." Anna agreed, nodding her head. "Anyways, I don't entirely know what happened. It happened in the night. The only thing I can think of is someone came back infected, didn't tell anyone, died in the night then attacked the others. Our base was completely self-reliant, even had our own power grid but no alarms were ever raised. We had very specific plans to deal with outbreaks within the walls, but I woke to silence. If it wasn't for Juno and another survivor, I'd have never made it out of there alive."
"What happened to the other survivor?" Carol asked eyeing her suspiciously.
"He was bit, but he had activated alarms on the far side of the base, to draw the walkers off so I could get out without having to deal with too many." Anna laughed mirthlessly as she shook her head. "I'd lived on that base with Emilio for a year and I don't even know who he was, yet he went out of his way to save my life."
"Unfortunately, it seems like most of the good people died first." Carol said as she sighed and got to her feet. "Anyways, I better go shmooze some people. Maybe you should make sure Merle doesn't make things worse."
111
Anna groaned as a hand shook her awake. Over the last week, her and Merle had officially started sleeping in the same bed. While they had spent the night, usually in her bed, on several occasions it would never be said that they 'lived together'.
"What?" Anna groaned as she put her pillow on top of her head. The sun had barely begun to peak over the horizon, and she'd become accustomed to sleeping in.
"I want ya to go huntin' with me." Merle said pulling the pillow from her hands.
Anna squinted at him like it was bright in the room, although she could barely make out his shape in the dim light. He stood there, bare chested but had apparently already pulled on a pair of jeans.
"You're a big boy, you don't need me there to keep you safe." Anna said sleepily, smiling up at him cheekily.
Merle pinched her ass, making her giggle as she rolled away from him. "Sue me for wanting your company." Merle growled as he climbed on top of her and wrapped her up in his arms and legs.
Anna chuckled as gently nipped at her neck. "There are better places to get laid than in the woods." Anna said as she closed her eyes as Merle's nips turned into kisses.
"I ain't askin' you to come with me so I can bang ya, we do that most nights." Merle said.
After one more solid grope, Merle rolled back out of bed and bent over, picking up his muscle shirt and red plaid button up. "You comin' or not?"
"I'm pretty sure they won't let us take guns." Anna said sitting up and stretching.
"They got bows and I can set up traps." Merle answered as he tightened his belt.
Anna studied him a moment as she pulled up her own pants. He seemed anxious and looked a bit like a trapped animal. Once she was dressed, Merle opened the door for her then followed her and Juno out of the room and down the stairs. They walked together to the armoury and found the armoury guarded by three men, only one of which Anna recognized.
"You aren't allowed in there." Tobin said tersely, eyeing Merle suspiciously.
"We don't need to go in there, we just want a bow and a full quiver, so we can hunt." Anna said as sweetly as she could as Merle crouched down and scratched Juno's neck, doing his best to ignore the men's glares.
Tobin shifted from one foot to the other as he studied her, then sighed. "Fine, one bow and only five arrows. That should be enough for one hunting trip."
Anna had to bite down on her tongue to prevent her from saying the venomous words she was thinking. Merle glared up at the men and when he slowly stood up, causing them to take a step back. They were clearly terrified of Merle, everybody in this community was. Anna didn't blame him for wanting to escape the walls.
"Then how 'bout you stop pissin' yerselves and get us that bow?" Merle asked, smiling his shit eating grin like he thought he was being funny, but they clearly didn't think so.
After a moment, Tobin turned walked inside the building leaving the two other guards staring at Merle uncertainly as he wrapped his arms around Anna and kissed her neck. When Tobin came back outside, Merle stopped hugging her so she could step forward and take the bow.
"Thank you." Anna said as genuinely sounding as she could.
"Are you sure you don't want someone else to go with, say your brother?" Tobin asked looking suspiciously at Merle.
"Why? To protect Merle from me?" Anna said grinning and making Merle gaff as she slung the bow and arrow across her back. "Merle should be safe with me. Funny how you wanna look out for me because my boyfriend is a big ol' redneck but because Pete was a pretty boy doctor, you didn't care that he beat his family."
"That's not…" One of the guards started but Anna held up hand.
"You keep telling yourself that buddy. C'mon Merle, let's go find some food and hump in the woods." Anna said then grabbed Merle's hand by his middle finger and pulling him along behind her.
111
Merle flew down the highway, looking like a thunder cloud as he clasped the steering tightly. After fifteen minutes of Merle driving down the highway at the cars top speed, he slowed down then turned into a field and rolled to a stop. Instead of immediately exiting the car, he just sat there, staring towards the woods.
"What's wrong Merle?" Anna asked putting a hand onto Merle's arm and looking at him worriedly.
"If I ever loose my shit an' try to hurt you, put the beat down on me. Hell, stab me, shoot me, I don't care, I'll deserve it." Merle growled.
"Is this about what happened yesterday?" Anna asked studying him carefully.
"I knew that shit was happening, I could see it, but I didn't do nothin'. I didn't want to screw up things for you or for my brother. You saw how those guys look at me, and I ain't done nothin'. Imagine if I'd done what Rick had? They wouldn't be thinking 'bout throwing me out, they just would and none of Daryl's friends would care."
"I'd care." Anna said leaning in and kiss Merle's bare shoulder. "And I doubt Pete woulda messed with you."
"Maybe but Jessie woulda never trusted me to help her out. Everybody just see's me as this jackass, my whole life, so I became that jackass. I didn't see the point in tryin' to fight against it." Merle didn't move a muscle as he spoke, just kept staring straight ahead, at the trees.
Anna sighed. "You can't change how people see you, but you can control how you respond to them and to situations. You've already taken great steps in the right direction, Merle."
Merle finally turned his head. "I am who I am, and I don't know if I want to change."
Anna studied him as she put her hand on his inner thigh and leaned her shoulder against his. "Then don't. I like you as you are. If those people can't handle us, then we'll leave. We don't need them. We were doin' just fine on our own."
Merle put his hand on the side of her face and placed his forehead against hers. "But we do. Maybe not necessarily these people, but people. Strength in numbers and all that. We should stay with these people, or at least long enough to find another group. I just need to get some air, and to vent. I'm good."
"Are you sure?" Anna asked softly.
"Let's go bag a deer!" Merle said, ignoring her question as he finally exited the car.
I hope it was worth the wait. Again sorry.
-Shockra