Lily is My OC and the rest of the Walking Dead belongs to its respective owners.

Rick gathered everyone but the dark skinned woman named Michonne and Merle so they could talk everything out.

"It ain't gonna work," Rick said.

"It's gotta," Daryl protested. Lily understood that he wanted his brother back, but after the last few hours she was siding with Rick.

"It'll stir things up."

"Look, the Governor is probably on the way to the prison right now. Merle knows how he thinks and we could use the muscle."

"I'm not having him at the prison," Maggie said calmly. "He put a gun to our heads."

"Do you really want him sleeping in the same cell block as Carol or Beth or your girlfriend?"

"He ain't a rapist."

"You still haven't you told him?!" Glenn asked Lily. She looked away from him toward her feet.

"Told me what?!" Daryl asked. Hours ago Lily and Glenn were having the same conversation but it had not been finished.

"She hasn't told you because she doesn't know how."

"And you do?"

"No, I don't, but it needs to be said." Glenn turned to face Daryl. "The Governor is the second man from the cabin all those months ago who used to rape her."

"Yeah, she told me that earlier. Stop talking, Glenn."

"No! Second, I heard Merle rape her. He then left her room and was going to go after Maggie next."

"Bullshit!" Lily kept her eyes on the ground and started shaking. Daryl walked over to her. "Tell me it isn't true. Tell me it isn't true!" Lily covered her face with her hands.

"It's not true, but if the Governor hadn't stopped him, it would have been. He'd have done it without a second thought."

"Third, then I heard Lily get up and shout at Merle to keep him away from Maggie."

"That got me tossed in with Glenn," she said finally getting her voice back. "There I came up with the idea to break Merle down to confuse him and make him leave. That's why I told him you had died. That pissed off Merle so much, he slammed me into a wall knocking me unconscious. Then he proceeded to carve me up like a bar of soap."

"You're lyin'. Didn't you even try to stop him?" He lifted the vest from her abdomen and saw the scar still fresh and bleeding spelling 'LIAR'. "Merle would never touch you. You're mistaken." He said trying to reassure himself than anything else. He reached out his hand to touch her abdomen to see if it was real. She hissed and sucked her stomach away from his hand when it touched stepping out of his reach.

"Of course I tried to stop him! It was the least I could do but the Governor held me back. She protected my girlfriend when I was unable to."

"I didn't want her to be like me. Being afraid of everyone is no way to live," Lily said sucking in a breath of air looking at Maggie.

"She was protecting you, Daryl," Maggie said placing her hand Lily's arm. "By telling Merle that you were dead, she was giving you a chance to live away from him. The chance to live your own life."

"That's not for her to decide! That's my brother! I couldn't just leave him there!"

"But you could leave me?!" Lily shouted. "You came in there for me, Glenn, and Maggie, but the second you heard about Merle, all of us were forgotten. You stopped trying to get us out and turned all your focus to Merle, your perfect brother. Then you just disappeared! Did you really expect me to leave YOU with people like THAT? And when you see me, you're angry I came back! Not grateful that I was trying to help you like you helped me! I've taken a bullet for you. TWICE! Been stabbed and raped and you just expect me to just accept the man who has caused me the most pain I've ever felt like nothing ever happened?"

"Lily..."

"I don't want to hear it."

"But he's family. Wouldn't you do the same for your sister?"

There was a silence among the group as the words sunk in. "My sister is dead," she responded calmly. "I accepted that a long time ago. Your brother was dead and because of it you became one of the best people I've ever known. I never say this, but having a death in your family was the best thing that ever happened to you and there should be another one."

As Lily turned to limp away, she pulled the pistol from Maggie's pocket and walked in the direction of Merle. Daryl looked as if she had just slapped him again. They watched as she drew closer and lifted the gun drawing the hammer back.

Rick and Daryl were shouting at her, but Merle's voice was all she heard.

"Go on, blondie. You won't do it."

She looked him straight in the eyes and saw him smiling. That crooked tooth grin with blood still running down his face. He was right and she knew it. There was no way she could go through with killing him but it felt good to hold him at gunpoint. It was time for him to feel a taste of his own medicine. She began to lower her arm, but Daryl crashed into her knocking her arm out of the way.

Daryl pulled her other arm to her chest and held it under his.

"Calm down," he whispered in her ear. What surprised Lily the most was how she felt Daryl shaking. "It's all right. It's all right. You're gonna be okay. Everythin's gonna be okay."

Merle chuckled. "She certainly keeps you on your toes."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Daryl asked her calmly.

"Would you have believed me?!" she snapped. "Could you accept that your brother would do something so horrible?"

"Did he know about you and me?"

"Would it have made a difference?!"

Merle's chuckling died out. "Wait...you're tellin' me that you two...?" The look Daryl gave him sent Merle into another fit of laughter. "But she's so tiny! She's just a teeny little toothpick. I'm surprised I didn't break her."

"Shut up, Merle!"

"Hey, it's truth telling time apparently so I ain't gonna deny what they said happened."

The look on Daryl's face was one of complete shock. He'd just heard his brother admit to almost raping his girlfriend.

"Look at me, Daryl!" she shook free from his grip and pulled up the vest showing her stomach. "Look at my stomach! I told him you were dead and he carved 'LIAR' into me! That will never go away! Your brother cut me, shot me, beat Glenn almost senseless and almost raped me because someone told him to, and you still want him around! How is that supposed to make us feel?!"

He didn't know what to say. The two people who meant the most to him absolutely hated each other.

"He's not coming back to the prison," Rick said.

"But Merle, Merle's blood."

"No," Glenn piped up for everyone. "He's your blood. My blood, my family is standing right here and waiting for us back at the prison."

"And you're a part of that family," Rick said. "But he's not. He's not."

"Man, y'all don't know. Fine. We'll fend four ourselves."

"That's not what I was saying," Glenn said.

"No him, no me."

"Daryl, you don't have to do that," Maggie said.

"It was always Merle and I before this."

"Don't."

"Daryl," Lily reached out and took his arm.

"You serious? You're just gonna leave like that?"

"You'd do the same thing."

"What are we supposed to tell Carol?"

'Carol was alive?'

"She'll understand." He looked at Maggie. "Say good bye to your pop for me."

"No, please!" She held on tighter as he walked away, but he shook her off.

"Daryl, are you serious?" Glenn asked.

"Daryl!" Rick shouted, but he didn't stop walking. Rick had to run around in front of him to get him to stop. "Hey. Hey. There's got to be another way."

"Don't ask me to leave him. I already did that once."

"He left you," Lily said. "You went back for him, but he was gone. You didn't leave him."

"We started something last night. You realize that, huh?" Rick continued.

"No him, no me. That's all I can say. Take care of yourself." He rifled through the trunk gathering things to leave. "Take care of lil ass-kicker. Carl. He's one tough kid." Lily ran up to him as he walked toward his brother. She didn't know if she was going to say anything or just wanted to look at him one last time but she wanted to be near him. "You comin'?"

She saw Merle smirking at her from his place between the trees giving her a small mocking wave. Daryl's blue eyes looked expectantly into hers and she shook her head.

"I've said my piece." She heard Rick shuffle behind her on the pavement. "I love you, Daryl, but I can't live with him."

"You won't feel safe 'round him..." He continued as if he hadn't heard those three words.

"Think about it. Would you? After what he did…He shot me, beat me and almost raped me because he was told to."

"I wouldn't touch a purtty lil hair on your purtty lil head, baby cakes. Not again," Merle shouted from the tree zipping his trousers. "You belong ta my brother."

"If you had known about Daryl and me would it have made the slightest damn difference?!" she asked him.

"I was just following orders, blondie."

"Just like a frickin' Nazi! Daryl, I'm not going to intentionally run away with someone who raped me because someone told him to."

He understood. Merle was not the best person in the world and Daryl knew she didn't need to be around someone like him, but he wasn't going to abandon his brother.

Again Daryl held her gaze asking her to come with them, but she couldn't. He just attacked his brother so easily as if they had been doing it their whole life. What if Merle and Daryl picked up where they left off? She'd be ignored and who knows what Merle would do to her when he was thinking for himself. Daryl had changed so much since he had been with his brother last. He had become so much more caring and loving towards others and was more than happy to help when needed and she was afraid of how he was going to change with Merle's return.

"Your brother terrifies me, but I'm more afraid of losing you," she spoke as her voice cracked. "And I just can't-"

"No Merle, no me," he said cutting her off turning to leave. Merle smiled as his small brother approached.

"Com' on, little bro. We don't need 'em anyhow." Merle snickered at Lily from over his brothers shoulder. Daryl shot him a stern glance threatening him.

"The hell with y'all. Everythin' I've done for you and you choose them over me? You're gonna cry anyway. I hate tears."

"You chose your brother..." she inhaled sharply, "...over me. You made your choice. You made that choice a long time ago. Now just leave." His back was to her when she spoke again. She shoved him. "Leave! I'm through crying over you! I knew you were too good to stay."

His step paused but he did not turn to look over his shoulder before joining his brother and melting into the trees.

"We patch you up and then your gone," Rick told Michonne as everyone filed in the car. Maggie crawled in the middle seat in the back and took Lily's hand. She rubbed her back with the other.

The drive back to the prison was in silence.