[A/N: For those of you leaving reviews, thank you! Hearing your thoughts makes my day.

Just a short one again, but the next one has some length, and aiming to get it up before the New Year.]

Asha stared into the darkness. She was locked back in the anteroom with Merle, who was laying quietly on his side of the room. The whole cell block was quiet. The faint gleam of moonlight through the bars in the high window provided just enough light to etch the walls and furniture in hard dark lines.

She couldn't sleep.

Her mind was turning over all the things she'd learnt today— Andrea, Shane, Lori, Carol … Nash. No matter how she tried to keep her mind away from it, she saw again the flash of sympathy in Andrea's eyes as she confirmed that Nash wasn't at Woodbury.

Asha didn't feel strong enough to face it, but she'd been holding it at bay all day. Laying in the dark and the quiet, there wasn't much else she could do.

The loss had hollowed out her chest. She ached with it. The worst part was it meant she had no real lead on Nash's location. She supposed that logically she wasn't really any worse off than she'd been two days ago. But she felt worse. She was back to the river. She could see it in her mind, black and slick under the night sky, it stretched out for an eternity. An impossible distance to search and lose her brother on over and over again.

She knew it did no good to dwell on things at night, the darkness leached away all perspective and left everything warped. But knowing and doing aren't always the same thing, and as she lay there empty and aching, she desperately didn't want to go back out to the river on her own again.

There was a rustle of sound from across the room, and the shadow looming towards her in the darkness resolved itself in the faint moonlight to be Merle.

Seriously? Were they going to go through this again?

He nudged her with a foot.

'Awake girly?' He whispered.

Asha nearly told him go to hell, but then she saw the faint gleam of moonlight on a glass bottle in his hand. He tucked it under his arm and then unscrewed the cap. The sweet, sweet scent of Southern Comfort wafted into the air. She quickly scooted into a sitting position, back against the cold concrete wall, and patted the thin mattress next to her.

Merle lowered himself to ground beside her. He drained off a long swig from the bottle, tipped his head back to rest against the wall behind him and exhaled contentedly. He held out the bottle and Asha took it smiling.

She took a long swallow enjoying the burn at the back of her throat.

'Oh Merle,' she murmured appreciatively. 'That is...delicious'

'Tastes like civilisation don't it?'

She chuckled softly. 'Don't know if i'd go quite that far.' But it was a welcome remnant of civilisation, that was for sure. 'Where'd ya get it,' she asked.

Merle held his hand out, Asha took another quick gulp before handing the bottle back.

'Had a little rummage through my baby brother's things this arvo. He always was partial to a bit of Southo. Been holdin' out on me the ungrateful little shit.'

'Guess you've got more of a communal sense of title, huh?'

There was a pause. 'What's that supposed to mean' he grumbled.

Asha pointed at the bottle. 'What's his is yours right?'.

'That boy'd be nothing without me, without what I did for 'im growing up. I protected him,' he spat. 'The god damn old man,' he muttered under his breath. 'None of these bastards get that.'

'But Daryl gets it?' There was only half a question in her voice.

Merle grunted. He took another long draught from the bottle, then dragged the back of his hand across his mouth. 'These people, they look at me like I'm scum. Ya think I don't know that they think I'm some sort of...' He trailed off.

'We are what we are,' Asha said quietly— Merle's eyes narrowed at her— 'but that doesn't mean ya have to be what other people think you are.'

He snorted softly. 'Ya don't know what I've done, girly.' He watched her out of the corner of his eye.

She shrugged and reached for the bottle.

'These pussies don't know, really know, what it takes to survive now. The Governor, for all his fucked up crazy shit... he sure had a firm grasp on that.'

Asha took a long swig, mulling it over. 'Sure he had that part right?'

'Didn't matter what I was sure about. He was sure enough for everyone, for a whole fuckin town.' There was a long pause while Merle stared at the ground in the darkness. 'Pass us that,' he said, hand out. He took a gulp, then started turning the bottle around in his hand. 'Had this way of makin' ya think it was your idea. But somehow ya wound up doin' exactly what he wanted.'He leant off the mattress and spat onto the ground.

'Oi,' Asha said, whacking him the chest with the back of her hand. 'I've still gotta sleep here when you go back to your bed.'

'You'll cope princess.'

He stared into the darkness for another long minute. Asha reached over him and took the bottle back, savouring the warmth that spread through her chest. She passed him the bottle.

'What would ya do, if ya found Nash with the Governor, and he wouldn't leave?'

'You and Andrea both reckon he's not there.'

'We don't know everyone, or he could show up there today.' He persisted. 'What would ya do?''

'Nash would leave.'

'Take your word for it would he? Woodbury casts quite a spell. Looks to be just what everyone's looking for, until ya scratch the surface.' Merle raised both eyebrows at her in the dark. 'Trust ya judgement that much does he girly?'

Asha flinched before she could help it, and her throat constricted, despite the alcohol induced mellow.

'Ah, so he doesn't trust ya.'

'Fuck you Merle,' she hissed. You perceptive prick. 'He'd wouldn't have to trust me about the Governor. He could make up his own mind—once i told him about that trick with the van, about you, Michonne, all of it.'

There was a long silence. They passed the bottle back and forth again. Asha's head had started to spin, but not in an unpleasant way.

'Yeah, my baby brother used to trust my judgment once,' Merle eventually said. 'Till Officer Friendly got a hold of him. Now he's forgotten what's important. Forgotten his blood.'

Asha shook her head. 'He's got new blood here. Besides, it's not like you've got a great track record of making good calls right?' She grinned at him in the dark to cut the sting in her words. 'Maybe it's time for you to trust him?'

Merle grunted noncommittally. 'Things coulda been different.'

Asha helped herself to the bottle again. 'Yeah, things could always have been different, but he hasn't left you much choice this time right?'

'No gratitude that boy, after everything I've done for him.'

He fixed Asha with a long look, long enough that she started to get a little uncomfortable.

'What?'

'So why wouldn't your brother trust your judgment?' he asked. 'So far you seem to have your head on straight...Fairly straight. That trick in the woods was pretty fuckin' stupid.'

Asha snorted and took another long swig. The words were out of her mouth before she'd thought them through. 'I proved in fairly spectacular fashion, that I shouldn't be the one making decisions for us.' Damn alcohol.

Merle's eyes gleamed at her in the darkness. 'Whadya do girly?'

For an instant, she thought about telling him. Merle—with all the marks on his soul—might even understand. But as she turned the bottle over in her hands, eyes fixed unseeingly on it, an echo of how she'd felt in the days after—when Nash had abandoned her—swamped her. She didn't have the strength for it. She took a long swig of the burning liquor instead.

'I'm going back to sleep, old man.' She held out the bottle to him. 'I think this has just about found the off switch in my brain tonight,' she lied.

In the darkness, it was difficult to see Merle's face. The curiosity was there for certain, but there was something else too, something that looked strangely like compassion. He took the bottle gently out of her hand. 'Yeah, well...that ain't such a bad thing these days.'

He patted her familiarly on the knee and pushed himself to his feet. 'Sleep well girly.'

'Don't fucking snore and maybe I will.'

He grunted quietly and started back to his mattress.

'Hey Merle,' she called softly, laying back down on the mattress and pillowing her head on her arms. 'Thanks for not being an ass and sharing with me.'

Merle half turned and there was the gleam of moonlight on the bottle as he lifted it in a silent salute to her.

Asha smiled and closed her eyes.