-e-

She couldn't shake the feeling that she was being watched. Merle had found her looking through the rifle scope that morning, feverish with the need to calm herself. She had told him she was just keeping watch, not wanting him to think she was crazy. The hairs on the back of her neck were standing straight as she finally gave up her search. She hadn't found anything but that didn't ease her mind any.

The man was starting to irritate her. His anger was still so sharp, every time she offered him the slightest bit of kindness. He was like an abused dog not understanding the hand being offered was not raised to hurt. Edens mother had been a social worker, one that brought her work home with her more often than not. Eden tried not to let her empathy get her too attached to the man, especially since he was planning on leaving the next day.

Merle had spoken more in the last few hours than he ever had with her. His excitement to find his brother clear as day. His name was Daryl. He had brown hair and blue eyes. Was a fantastic hunter and could track just about anything. Merle told her stories of Daryl growing up, about the quiet kid who followed him everywhere he went.

"He's a better man than me, too." Merle said quietly running his fingers along the forming scars on his arm. The somber moment was interrupted as the man let out a loud burp before throwing his can of soda out into the yard. "Better get back. Gonna be dark soon." He waited for Eden to climb off the porch and out into the street, as always taking the rear. They had fallen into a rhythm of sorts as they scavenged. Merle had called her lack of attention 'bullshit', and had quickly decided he wanted to recheck every corner. He also called her trust in him to not shoot her in the back 'bullshit', but she decided to choose her battles.

"Do you want to come up and have a beer tonight?" Eden asked after she pulled her crowbar out of the head of a woman who had been laying face down in the street. One thing Merle had complimented her on was this. She wouldn't tell him that it wasn't because of any skill she had but because she was to damn afraid it was going to pop up behind her and scare her to death. Fucking horror movies and video games were somehow saving her life. Who would have thought. "I still have a little bit of that dry ice left." Eden suddenly felt nervous about her invitation. Was it bad to offer beer to a recovering addict? Was he going to flip out for some unknown reason?

"Roll up some of that stuff I caught you smoking, and we have a deal. Gonna celebrate." It was clear that was all she was getting but it was enough for her. "Slow your happy ass down, woman. I'm carrying every damn thing in the state of fucking Georgia." Eden looked back and Merle was a good 10 yards behind her but his tone was more joking than completely angry and her mood continued.

-m-

He took his shoes off before stepping into the tent a gesture he was happy that didn't go unnoticed, but she didn't say anything which helped quell the ball of anger rising in his chest. That and the smell of warm food. The girl had worked her ass off to make something out of their meager rations.

She made him work for it too. There was a whole argument about why she couldn't stay by herself, miles from the safety of the store, just so she could watch the damn food cook. Then he had to wait for her to prepare the damn thing, which "...takes patience, you fucking asshole.". She didn't know how to work the grill and then she was worried about the temperature difference. When they were walking away from the old trailer she kept talking about all the things she didn't have to cook with. All the foods she could have made if she just had this or that. Merle was almost going crazy by the time it took them to get back to the store, load their gear and drive back out to the trailer. He only yelled at her twice, yet it didn't fucking fase her.

"Don't make fun of it." She said after he sat down on her bedding. It was a million times softer than his own downstairs. "It's really hard to bake a casserole in a grill. There wasn't any butter and I definitely picked the wrong house for spices." Merle took a huge spoon full of the concoction, burning his mouth, and giving her an exaggerated hum of approval. It was definitely the best thing he had eaten since before the turn, even without all the extra shit she had bitched about.

Eden gave him a huge smile before digging in herself, her loud hum more genuine than his own. The tent was nice a cool, the table they had their food on was just tall enough for him to put his legs under, and Eden didn't fuss at him for his feet being beside her. They didn't talk and before he even finished his last bite she had put another helping on his plate. The beer was warm but after the first three he didn't care.

"I put these in my air conditioner before we left again." Eden put a bowl of cool peaches on the table next to his fourth beer. Merle leaned forward on the table and watched as Eden went to work rolling. Her small thin fingers worked quickly and before Merle could eat another peach, she was lighting the end.

"You're good at that." He said, her smile was genuine. "Cook good too." Her smile grew wider, her straight white teeth disappearing in a breath of smoke. He had never seen her or anyone smile at him like that. Her eyes meeting his own, nothing but happiness in them, her smile too big for her face making her cheeks puff out. It began to make him uncomfortable, how open she was being with him. "Needed more pepper though." He needed her to stop smiling at him, and to his disappointment, she did.

"You had pepper right beside you." Her eyebrow was high again, challenging him as she handed him the blunt. Merle looked to the left at the pepper sitting clear as day beside the leftovers she had packed neatly in a large container. Merle couldn't even say anything bad about her rolling, it was straight and hit smooth. A part of him pushed for another asshole comment but this time it felt more out of habit than from anger. Instead he slid the bowl of peaches towards her, the tension in the air faded as she dug in. "Thank you for not hogging them all. I love peaches."

"I know. It's why I ate all of them." Merle said laughing at the instantly serious look on her face. "I hate peaches. I'm more of a pineapple type of guy." Eden surprised him again, laughing loudly behind one hand and reaching for the blunt with the other.

"You're the biggest asshole i've ever met." Her laugh was infectious and soon Merle found himself with a sore gut and wet cheeks. He looked down at the half drank beer and to the blunt he couldn't have hit more than five times and began laughing again. It had been so long since he had gotten so buzzed with such little. "I started giving you aspirins instead of your pain meds a week after you woke up." She laughed, her face going serious for a moment. "Not...not cause I wanted you to be in pain but because I didn't want you to be fucked up when you left. I just thought it was something that could be laughed...about...now." Merle stopped laughing.

"You're not coming?" The realization hurt him more than he wanted to admit, the warm fuzzy bubble he had been in moment ago popped. "So all this was what? A goodbye?" Merle looked around her tent and began noticing that all her clothes were still thrown around. Nothing of hers was packed.

"I didn't know I could."

"What?"

"I didn't know I could come with you." There was a hopeful look in her eyes as she fidgeted across from him.

"Figured you would. That fucking cop is gonna need a doctor when I find him." Merle huffed, taking the considerably smaller blunt and laying back against the soft material under him.

"I'm not a doctor, Merle." Her could feel her move around him but he was once again in that warm bubble and had long closed his eyes. He felt the warm air seep in as she moved the table outside.

"You'll learn." The woman scoffed as she zipped the flap back closed and went back to her spot across from him. "Don't start arguing with me." He grumbled almost picturing the scowl on her face as she would tell him all that she knew about becoming a doctor. Opening one eye Merle said, "I'll teach you how to take out a bullet and how to check for broken bones. Some other stuff I learned in the Marines too." The dim light behind his eyes darkened for a moment as Eden leaned forward at took the unlit roach.

"Wanna talk about being in the Marines?"

"No." Merle opened his eyes and leaned up on his elbows. "Don't get fucking mushy on me." He grumbled at the doe eyed look she had on her face. "I mean it now, Eden." In an instant she went from overly concerned to her usually annoyingly smiling self.

"That's the first time you said my name." She joked nudging his rib with her pink socked foot. Merle caught it quickly the woman giving a quiet yelp.

"This is the first time you're not annoying me to fucking death." Fuck Merle was high as hell. Whatever she had rolled had been a million times better than any of the dirt shit he had been use to recently. He was feeling reflective and he didn't know if he liked that.

"I'm afraid of what's going to happen." Her voice was so quiet that he almost didn't hear her. He was once again aware of how young she was. They hadn't ever talked before, not like this. He had wanted so desperately to keep her at an arm's reach to not put himself in a position for another disappointment.

"Of the geeks?" He asked, his hand still wrapped around her small foot. The solid feeling of her anchored him to the roof. It had been so long since he had touched anyone so casually and the realisation hurt.

"They're so...fucking terrifying." She whispered, a shake in her voice. "It's not just them. I thought I would live my life stuck in a dead end job somewhere. I hated to think about it but at least I knew. This world is made for tougher things than me but I keep living somehow." Oddly enough he had felt the same way about the world before. When he was in the marines he had a a direction forward. The fighting and the scraping by, he could do that. When he got home though, it had been different.

"Before the world went to hell, I felt the same way." He said before he could catch himself. He squeezed her foot, more reassurance for himself than her, and when she didn't pull away he continued. "It was hard going from constant combat and order to suddenly having to get a job and live for what I fought for." Now the world was hard in a different way, in an old way that lifted the heavy stone that had been pushing him down for so long. "I can do this. Paperwork was what terrified me." His joke had worked when Eden gave a small chuckle, but Merles heart sank as she pulled her foot away.

"Get this one while you're at it." She said, her pink foot disappearing and a blue one taking its place.

"Ain't you just fucking spoiled." He barked out a laugh taking the damn thing as she wiggled her toes at him. "Don't go thinking this is an everyday thing." He pulled her leg hard and fast her body scooting forward a good foot. The woman gave him a more genuine chuckle while slapping his shin.

-e-

Eden took watch that night, leaving Merle to try and get some sleep in her tent. She felt better at least, talking about what was bothering her and him not brushing it off had felt good. It was something she had been missing since Aaron had died. Humans need that social connection, she was no different and it seemed Merle wasn't either. She wondered what had happened to the man that had broken him so deeply.

She wondered about his sobriety, wondered if she had ruined it by letting him smoke. Then again he was a grown man and she didn't let him do anything. It worried her still, he seemed to want to be sober.

Movement along the treeline caught her eye. The darkness shifting with something passing slowly along the inner edge of the surrounding woods. It was slow moving but faster than any dead that she had seen. It stopped suddenly, half hidden behind a tall tree, the first rays of sunlight lighting just enough for her to see a crouched shape and nothing more. Eden refused to move her eye from it as she began to lift the rifle in its direction. In the millisecond it took for her to take her eyes off the shape and look through the scope it was gone.

Edens stomach twisted into a knot and she thought for a moment that she might throw up the leftovers she had been snaking on earlier. All her worries and panic felt wrapped around her throat.

"Okay, i'm thinking we find one of those small grills and just lug the thing with us. I want a hot breakfast and I know just the woman to make it." Merles voice was still laced with sleep as he crawled out of the tent behind her and began pulling out the bedding and taking the tent down. "What are you looking at?"

Eden couldn't bring herself to look away from the treeline just yet, the paranoia eating at her. Was there really something out there or was this consequence of too many sleepless nights. "Just one last sunset from my favorite spot." Merle gave uninterested grumble and finished his task. When the sun had fully risen and there was no sign of anything moving, Eden climbed off the ladder and met Merle in his old room.

"Found this old thing." Merle said, holding up a worn brown backpack. "It has to be yours with all this crazy shit in it."

"It was my brother Aarons." She said, pulling the pack to her chest. In all the complications that came with Merle in the last month she had forgotten she had left in down there. "He was always coming up with new things to keep the dead away." There were old jars full of various fluids that was sure to have a hell of a smell. A jar full of jingly bits to bring out any hidden dead. A bunch of other odds and ends and to Edens surprise at the bottom of the bag, a picture of Eden and Aaron at her graduation. He had been so proud of her. Her eyes teared up.

"Guess its not true what they say." She hadn't realised Merle was leaning over her. "I guess once you go black you can come back."

"Wow, Merle. Way to be a fucking asshole." The man was laughing as she mad her way to the car, his shadow following after her.

"Was it something I said?"

Thank you once again for reading. I'm really excited about Merle and Edens friendship or should I say understanding. It was a big thing for Merle to confide in Eden. His feelings aren't something he ever talks about. What do you think about Edens paranoia? Is it justified or is there a bigger issue hidden with her underneath it all. I have so many plans for this story guys.

For those of you who have been with me through each of the reboots, you know what's coming ;)