Hello and happy Sunday everyone!

Just over 50 reviews so far! Honestly, you guys are really amazing. Thank you, thank you, and thank you. I'm so glad that everyone is still enjoying Home Is With You, I am loving all of your comments and you would not believe the excitement when I got those little e-mail notifications about a review or a follow or a favourite... I am very thankful and I can't wait for you all to see what happens next.

Everyone seems to be glad about the return of Merle and Andrea but there are so many unanswered questions; how did they end up together? How will it affect the group now that they're back? Will Beth and Merle get alone? Will Merle coming back change Daryl?

So many things to answer and I am hoping I will answer most if not all of these questions in this chapter. There is more dialogue in this chapter than anything else, however we will find out how people are feeling from time to time.

OK... so my story is going to have a kind of 'Mid season finale' just over Christmas and New Year. On the 22nd December I will post my last chapter of the year and then I will be back on 5th January.

Anyway, let's commence with the chapter!

Writer347
Xx

Disclaimer: So, had a little chat with Robert Kirkman... he said I can't have The Walking Dead and Daryl Dixon. Don't worry! I don't give up that easily :p

Home Is With You: Chapter 14

Daryl
"What the hell man?" I questioned as I rushed over to Merle and hugged him, I don't even care if he calls me names or makes fun of me, he's my brother. I thought he was dead and to my surprise he hugged me back "What the hell happened t' you?" I asked him as I released from the embrace "Me and Rick went back f'r you... why didn't you stay put?" I asked him angrily, looking at his arm. He had made some kind of attachment that had a big ass knife on the end of it, he had buckles on it so he could take it off when he needed to. "And you... what the hell happened to you?" I asked Andrea "What happened at the farm?" I questioned.

"Man I was locked on the roof, I dint know you were gonna come back f'r me! Hell, I dint know if they would even tell yer what happened. There were biters tryna get in the door so I made sure I got out," Merle told me "Finally made my way back t' camp but no one was there. Found the buried folks though, so I went out on my own in the woods. Was there for a while on my own when I saw a whole lotta smoke and a whole lotta noise comin' from somewhere, figured there'd be people there so went in that direction and found Andrea here in the woods on her own," Merle explained.

"I got separated from everyone. We went to the highway but all of you had already left," Andrea jumped in.

"Damn!" I muttered.

"How is everyone?" Andrea asked.

"Alright, not everyone made it," I told her.

"Who?" She asked.

"T-Dog, Lori..."

"The baby?"

"She's doin' good," I told her and her face lit up at the mention of a baby "Hershel got bit and we almost lost him but Rick got a Goddamn axe and cut his leg off, saved his life," I said.

"Oh my God," She whispered and then tears started to well up in her eyes, Merle rolled his eyes and muttered a curse word but I gave Andrea a comforting smile, she hugged me tight "It's good to see you Daryl, real good," She told me a placed a kiss on my cheek which made me pull away from the hug.

"Where are ya'll stayin?" Merle asked.

"A prison," I answered.

"We passed there, totally overrun," Andrea stated.

"We cleared it and we've made it home. Hell, never thought I'd ever be so happy to be inside prison! We got walls, locked doors... no one can get in without us knowing," I told them.

"Can we come back with you?" Andrea asked.

"You're family," I answered.

"How's Shane doing?" She questioned.

"He didn't make it outta the farm."'

Everyone is gonna be real happy to see Andrea safe and well but Merle, I'm gonna have to talk to Rick and make sure Merle behaves himself. Hopefully Andrea can help me plead my case to Rick and the others who know my brother and may not want him there, prove that he can be useful and who knows maybe he's changed a bit... hell he probably ain't but you never know. I need this to go well because if it doesn't and Merle can't stay at the prison, I got no choice but to go with him, I can't leave him... not again. Beth would understand cause I know she'd do the same for Maggie, it'd be hard leaving her but if I have to then nothing I can do about it.

"Noticed the hands look a bit beat up baby brother," Merle pointed out, ten minutes into our walk back "You not been playing well with others," He teased.

"Shut up," I said harshly.

Merle's good hand grabbed my shoulder making me turn to face him; he looked me serious in the eye "What happened?" He asked.

"Long story," I answered.

"Walk and talk," He replied and carried on walking.

"I was out huntin' and some bastard took me and the person I was huntin' with. Beat us both up pretty bad but Rick and a couple others came and got us out," I said.

"Who was you hunting with?" Andrea asked, surprised that I would go hunting with someone.

"Beth,"

"Who's Beth?" Merle asked.

"Hershel's girl Beth? Beth who slit her wrists?" Andrea questioned in shock "Didn't have her down as a hunter," She said.

"She's learning," I answered.

"She ok?"

"She's getting better... she was real hurt. We both were,"

"You kill that son of a bitch?" Merle asked angrily.

"No, he's still out there," I told him.

"Don't worry baby brother, we'll get him."

Beth
Daryl has been gone for almost 9 hours, he told me he'd only be a couple hours and he wasn't going far. Why isn't he back yet? What if that Governor guy got him again? I've spoken to my daddy and Rick and asked them if they were worried but Rick said that Daryl can sometimes get sidetracked when hunting and it's not unusual for him to go in the woods for a day or two, no one is worried about him yet but I am. I swear to God if he is not back here in the next hour then I will go out looking for him myself, Daryl's taught me how to track and I'm not a bad fighter now either... Daryl taught me. God, I hope he's ok and if The Governor has him then I will kill him and feed him to the walkers myself, I can kick his ass.

I sat in my cell looking at the flower sitting on the desk which was placed in a bottle with some water in, Daryl got me it yesterday, told me that he was beautiful and it reminded him of me. It was sweet and I promised to look after it for him. I'm so worried about him and I know he probably is fine, but what if he isn't? Yes, Rick said it's not unusual for Daryl to lose track of time hunting but he promised me that he wouldn't be gone this long, he knows how I worry. Especially since what happened to us, it's not even been a whole week yet, I'm sure he's still hurt and I know his hand is still bad, what if he gets attacked by walkers and he can't fight them off or defend himself properly. I should have gone with him, or someone should have at least, I don't care if he says he does better on his own when he's hunting, we shouldn't be going anywhere on our own!

"Hey," I looked up and saw Michonne standing there in the doorway "You ok?" She asked.

"Daryl isn't back yet, he promised me he'd be a couple of hours," I told her.

"I know you're worried but if there is one person we don't have to worry about surviving in the woods, it's him. He knows the woods better than anybody, he'll come back and he'll be ok," She told me and came in to sit down next to me.

"What if The Governor's found him?" I asked.

"I don't think that's what's happened. The Governor knows that people came for you, he knows we're a group and he doesn't know how big or small the group is. He isn't going to risk an attack from us until he knows what he's up against. When he took you and Daryl, he must have thought it was just the two of you or just a small group. He knows what we can do now; he knows we'll fight to the death. Taking Daryl just means that we'll come for him again and do more damage to his little settlement," She explained.

"If he isn't back in 45 minutes, I'm going to look for him. Will you come with me?" I asked her.

"Beth-"

"I'll go on my own, I'm just asking if you would go too," I interrupted.

"Ok. If he's not back in 45 minutes, I'll come with you." She promised.

Daryl
Damn. Beth is gonna be so pissed at me. I was supposed to be back hours ago but we came across a huge horde of walkers, more than 200 of them. It took the three of us to find a way around them without being seen but then we had to try and find our way back towards the prison and avoid coming into contact with the horde again. Thankfully, the horde are not going towards the prison, they are going in the completely opposite direction, thank God, however I need to make sure that everyone knows that there is a large horde out here and although it's not coming our way, something may change that so we need to be on guard.

She's going to be losing her shit, I hope she doesn't do anything stupid like come out here and look for me, I don't want her getting caught up in that horde. I've been trying to make my way back to the prison as quickly as I can, just to stop her worrying and coming out here but it doesn't seem to matter which way we go, there are walkers everywhere. What's brought all of these walkers this way? I haven't come across anything that would bring this many, there's been no fires, no gun fights, no explosions... maybe they've just been wandering this way for a while but if that is the case, why haven't they come in contact with the prison? It's a large place with a lot of land, surely we woulda seen them coming. There's always someone in the watch towers and on watch by the gates. Hell, I come out here a lot to go hunting and I've never seen anything suggesting there was a horde of this size.

"We might have t' camp somewhere f'r the night," Merle whispered next to me as we hid behind a tree, Andrea was just a stone's throw away from us, we could see her.

"Where?" I whispered back.

"Double back to that cabin," He answered.

"The cabin is a good couple hours away by now," I argued.

"It's that or the prison but to get to that prison, we gotta go through the middle of them," He said.

"I gotta get back," I told him.

"Man, they're not gonna miss you for one night," He reasoned and was shaking his head at me like I was a madman.

"I don't want anyone comin' out here lookin' f'r me. I was kidnapped less than a week ago, in case you weren't listenin' to me earlier. I don't want them thinking I'm in trouble, come out here and get in the middle of that horde. We'll go out to the main road, see if we can find a car and go that way, the woods is overrun right now," I explained.

"Ok baby brother, on your head be it." He finalised and made it over to Andrea to tell her the plan.

Beth
I was standing at the gate, waiting for any sign of Daryl. He had ten minutes to get his ass home before I go out them gates and go looking for him. I know Michonne and everyone else thinks he's fine but I can't stop this feeling of dread I get each time I think about him out there, Michonne doesn't really wanna come with me but she knows it's better if she comes with me rather than me going out there on my own.

"He's back!" Maggie shouted from the watchtower.

I used the binoculars that were hanging around my neck and used them to see Daryl coming out of the woods, running as fast as he could with two other people, I took a quick look at them. Andrea. She made it out from the farm? I thought she was dead... I didn't recognise the man with her but I noticed the sword he had for an arm!

Something was wrong. They were running fast, away from something. They made it to the gates which Carl opened for them and Glenn came out from the cell block with everyone else. Daryl started running up with the others towards us and telling us to go inside, everyone, no one is to be out.

"What's going on?" I asked him in a panic.

"There's a large horde headed this way... at least 200 of them," He told me and everyone gasped in shock.

Glenn went to go and get Maggie from the watchtower and everyone else made their way inside. Everything was happening in a blur. I didn't get a chance to talk to Andrea, as soon as we were all in the cell block, we were on lock down. Everyone went inside the cell room itself and we locked that door at both ends, although it was unlikely they were going to make it this far, I'd be surprised if they made it past the gates to be honest. They've got nothing bringing them towards the gates itself; they don't know we're here.

Hopefully the walkers will just stay in the woods or use the land around the prison to move on... we don't have the weapons or ammo to take them all on. We're not a large group and my daddy still isn't great on just one leg, we need someone to stay back with Ass-Kicker, God I hope this misses us.

"No one make a sound... we're not lighting any candles tonight. I don't want the walkers to know we're here," Rick stated and everyone agreed.

"What if Judith starts crying?" Carl asked.

"Hopefully she doesn't but if she does, let's hope they won't hear it," Rick replied "Now... Merle... we gotta talk," Rick said to the man standing with Daryl and Andrea.

Merle? As in Daryl's brother Merle? I thought he was dead? Rick locked him to a roof in Atlanta and someone lost a key, Daryl said that although they found evidence of his brother getting off the roof, he was dead.

"Look Officer Friendly-"

"He's my responsibility," Daryl jumped in "He's my brother, can't turn him away," Daryl argued.

"Your behaviour in Atlanta... can't have that here. You work with us here, you step one toe outta line, I will throw you to that horde myself," Rick stated.

"Whatever you say Officer Friendly," Merle replied with a stupid smile on his face... I have a feeling that Merle has been punched in the face a lot in his life.

"Merle," Daryl warned "We gotta talk." He said and pulled his brother away from the group.

"Beth?" I turned to see Andrea, we smiled and hugged each other "Daryl said you two got in a bit of trouble a week ago, you doing ok?" She asked sincerely.

"I'm better, thank you. How did you make it out from the farm?" I questioned.

"Luck I guess, I wound up in the woods when I got separated from everyone and found Merle there," She answered "Never thought I'd be so happy to see him." She joked.

Woo! Thank you for reading. Considering the last chapter took me 3 months to write, can you believe that this one only took me an hour and a half... crazy. I like this chapter better then the last one as well. I hoped you guys enjoyed this chapter too, I think it leaves a couple of unanswered questions.

Will Merle behave himself?
Why did the horde change its course and head for the prison?
When are Beth and Daryl going to tell Hershel?

So... writing this chapter, I thought of a MAJOR bombshell that could ruin relationships and make someone really angry and not themselves. I've not seen it done on here before; if someone else has done it, please let me know so I can have a read. It will be happening in a couple chapters... maybe chapter 16/17. I actually can't wait to write it and have you guys read it.

Don't forget to review, follow and favourite me and my story!

Writer347
Xx