HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas and an amazing New Year night. I hope 2020 and this decade brings you all nothing but happiness, health and love because you are the best guys ever and you deserve nothing but the best!

I have so many fun things for you guys this year that you're not going to know what hit you! I've got more The Walking Dead stories as well as Beauty & The Beast, Arrow, The Bill, Bitten, Power Rangers, Primeval, Lucifer, Punisher, Sons of Anarchy, Vampire Diaries, Vampire Academy, Fifty Shades of Grey, Avengers, Captain America, Terra Nova and maybe even a little bit of Teen Wolf thrown in for good luck!

There's a lot... I know but I am very excited for this year.

Disclaimer; I'm hoping this is my decade to own The Walking Dead :P

Home Is With You: Chapter 17

Daryl
It has been one crazy and dramatic week; after Maggie spoke to Hershel he calmed down and admitted that he may have over reacted a little bit and he is willing to give our relationship a chance, however I was warned of what would happen to me if I so much as make Beth shed one tear. I can't say Hershel is my best friend now but he is civil to me and that's good enough for now... I know it is a lot to take in but I'm glad I've got the chance to prove myself. Maggie has actually been a big help to me, she's helped me understand Beth in a way that I didn't before and helped me understand some of Beth's thoughts and how she thinks. I'm thankful that she has given me the chance too because I know this would have been a lot harder on Beth had both Hershel and Maggie been against it.

Since Hershel and Maggie knew and so did Michonne and Merle, we decided it was finally time let the cat out of the bag and let everyone else know what was going on. Everyone was happy for us, Carol was happy that I had found someone because she was sure that I wouldn't... thanks for that vote of confidence Carol... Carl hates me because he has a huge crush on Beth but it is clear where everyone stands; if I upset Beth in any kind of way then they are all going to shoot me.

I mean, it's nice to know I have their vote of confidence but also nice to know that if something bad happens in our relationship they are going to blame me for it. It's good for me to know that Beth is so loved and I'm glad she has so many people around her to care about her and love her. I know that I'm probably going to die before her so it's nice to know she is going to have lots of people looking out for her.

As it has been so dramatic this week I just wanted to take a time out and get out of the prison for a little while and clear my head, I need some quiet time, Merle noticed and he offered to go hunting with me for a couple days and talk about some things that have happened whilst we've been separated. We still haven't really spoke all that much because of everything that's been going on, also him and Beth have not been getting on so well. He thinks that she's a bit of a 'know it all stuck up bitch' and she thinks that he is a 'red neck waste of space shit head'. I was hoping they would get on but I guess we can't have everything.

Beth was worried about me going on this hunting trip for one reason; Merle, and I can't say that I blame her because it's my own fault because I've told her stories about when me and Merle went hunting and some of the wild things we used to do together. She doesn't think that Merle is that responsible, which I guess he's not, she's worried that if something happens to me then Merle won't be there to help. I've tried telling her that all through my childhood it was Merle who helped me get out of scrapes and stuff, if it wasn't for him I woulda been in prison for a lot of things and probably be doing life when this whole thing went down.

I'm going to try and use this hunting trip as a way for me to change Merle's mind about Beth and make him see what a great woman she is and how good she is for me and then hopefully the two of them can start getting along. Beth has promised to be civil from now on to Merle and I'm hoping that I can get him to make the same promise, I don't need them to be best friends but I don't want them calling each other names and being at each other's throats all the time.

I'm actually looking forward to this time with Merle. It has been an age since the two of us just went hunting cause we felt like it. There is so much I wanna fill him in on and I'm sure there is stuff he wants to fill me in on as well, like what was going on between him and Andrea when they were alone. I think they were banging in the woods... Andrea and Merle are the kind of people who pretend to be fine on their own but they're not and they will use the first person they see to try and fill that loneliness, bit like when Andrea was banging Shane at the Greene farm. They were both the outcasts that no one wanted around and then they came together.

I'm not stupid; I don't think he's actually going to tell me anything. He'll let me suspect and call me a gossiping queen or something but I just wanna know that my brother was ok without me. I know I got here thinking he was dead but I struggled because my whole life was following him around and then it was just me. Yeah there were times he was in prison but I knew he was coming out and I would see him again. When I found that roof empty, I wasn't sure if I was gonna see him again and it scared me.

I have only been truly scared a handful of times in my life, one of them was when I got a call from the prison Merle was in to say he had gotten into a fight with some fellow inmates, Merle had come out good in the fight and had kicked the shit outta someone. He was due to be out six months later but got another year added to his sentence and that meant I had to stay with good old dad for another 18 months minimum.

Flashback

"I'm sorry baby brother," Merle said from behind the glass.

"Why did you get in that stupid fight?" I questioned "You've just added another year to your sentence," I added.

"I know but it was a respect thing," He argued.

"What happened to keepin' yer head down, doin' yer time and comin' home... for good?" I asked.

"Look, I know I ain't ever been the best brother but when I get outta here, I'll be better, I promise," He said.

"Promise me somethin'," I started and he nodded "When you get out, don't leave me with him again," I pleaded like a pathetic little bitch.

"He hurt you?" Merle asked.

"No," I lied.

I didn't want Merle knowing that our old man beats the shit outta me like he did when Merle was younger. If Merle knew, Merle would kill him and I'd lose him to prison forever and I would be on my own forever.

"if he's hurt you-"

"He hasn't," I replied quickly "I just hate the guy," I said.

"Another eighteen months. You can handle it." Merle told me.

End of Flashback

I was only 14 at the time and Merle was nearly 30 and on his second stint in prison, he had only been out of the army a couple of years. The first time he went to prison the judge was lenient because he thought that Merle had some PTSD that hadn't been dealt with but the second time, the judge came down on him hard. He could see that Merle was loose cannon and not used to holding in his anger so he made him complete an anger management course in prison but it didn't do anything. Merle went back to being his old normal self by the time he came out.

"Darylina, yer ready?" Merle called from the door to the cell block.

"Why do you let him call you that?" Beth asked annoyed as I picked up my backpack.

"I do it to him too, I call him Muriel when he's being a little bitch, it's just somethin' we do," I told her.

"Well don't let him mess you around out there," Beth said to me sternly.

"Yes Ma'am," I mocked and placed a kiss on her lips.

"Darylina!" Merle's voice called again.

"I better go before he blows what small brain cells he has left." I said and kissed her again before leaving.

Merle and I found a lake, a crystal blue lake that had a load of fish so decided to do some fishing. We couldn't afford fishing poles and stuff when we were growing up so we came up with a trick. We stand in the water, the fish will swim away at first from the movements we made but we stand in one spot, really still, let the water go calm again and then use a net to grab the fish. You could catch 3-6 each time, Merle did bring a small net with him, just the one but that's all we need.

We didn't have a cool box to bring them back in but Merle's pack was empty for the haul so we were gonna put them in there and cook them when we get back so they should be ok until then. We're not that far from the prison, about a 45 minute drive.

We decided to take a car so we could go somewhere we hadn't been yet and see what was on offer, it was a good call because we found the lake and we could come here a do a bit of fishing. Find some real fishing poles and stuff, it would be good for us. We got the woods a bit further down the road so we got some game we could bring back too.

"All we're missin' is a couple-a beers," Merle said.

"The good ol' days," I commented.

"I wouldn't call 'em 'good' days," He replied.

"We coulda had worse," I said.

"I don't know what coulda been worse then ol' papa Dixon," He said.

"He was a piece of shit, I know, but if it weren't f'r him... we never woulda knew how to hunt, track and fish. Hell your first punch was at dads face, that's how you learnt to fight," I argued.

"Why you makin' out like he was a good dad... he was shit," Merle argued back and he was getting pissed.

"I know he was. He should never have been allowed to have kids but he did," I told him.

"He was a bully," He stated.

"I know what he did t' you," I muttered and Merle looked surprised "I use t' hear him beatin' yer and I wanted t' come an' stop him but when you're four years old... it was scary," I admitted.

"At least he didn't do it to you," Merle said matter of factly.

"He did," I confessed.

"What?" He asked angrily.

"I remember the first time like it was yesterday... you were in the army, momma had only been dead a couple months and I was eight years old..."

Flashback

"You piece of shit! You stole it!" Dad yelled at me.

"I didn't take it... I swear, I didn't," I told him.

"Well beer don't just grow legs and walk away!" He shouted and started walking towards me, I was taking steps back to get away from him and backed myself into a corner.

"I'm gonna tell Merle!" I shouted.

He started laughing.

"What is Merle gonna do? He's in the army, hopefully getting shot at," He teased with a sick smile on his face "Now, I'm gonna show you what happens to thieves in this house." I stated and started to take his belt off.

I know what was going to happen next, I've seen him do it to Merle when he lived here. I used to hear the sound it made when it landed on Merle's back, I never heard Merle cry or make a sound. I have to be brave like Merle now; I can't cry or show him how much it hurt.

End of Flashback

"That wasn't part of the deal," Merle muttered and started to get outta the water.

"What wasn't part of the deal?" I asked as I followed.

"He promised that cause he hit me, he wouldn't hit you. He was a piece of shit but I thought he actually stood by that agreement," He said.

"Don't worry about it," I told him "It's done, buried history," I added.

"No you don't understand... It wasn't the deal but part of the deal," He said.

"You're not makin' sense." I told him in frustration.

Merle's face changed; he started to look guilty and sad, it was worrying me. What the hell was he going on about? I know this isn't drunken or high rambling because... well there are no drugs or alcohol here. I really don't know what's going on and Merle looks like he's arguing with himself to tell me what the hell is going on.

"Before I tell you the whole story, I want yer t' know that I really thought it would be better, I thought you'd be better off," Merle started.

"Just spit it out!" I shouted at him, I was starting to lose my patience.

"Will Dixon wasn't yer old man," He blurted out.

"What?"

"I asked Will to take you on when you was born," He said "I made him promise me he would take better care o' you then what he did me. He promised me, you wouldn't be hurt an' he'd do what he could," He said.

"So... if Will Dixon isn't my dad... who the hell is?" I questioned.

"Me."

DUN DUN DUN...

So Merle Dixon is Daryl's real father.

That leaves a lot of unanswered questions;

Who is Daryl's mother?
Why did Merle and his mother not raise him?
Why did Merle think Will Dixon would live up to his promises?
How is Daryl going to react to the news?
What will happen to their relationship after this?
What is Beth going to say?

Writer347
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