A/N All characters belong to the writers and creators of The Walking Dead. Except those that arose from my own twisted imagination.
Chapter Ten-Reunion
"Dani! Over here!" Daryl turned and motioned for Dani to follow him. He knew Sophia had come this way. He'd spotted her tracks and found her doll. Just as he preparing to climb down the steep hillside, Dani caught up to him and put her hand on his shoulder.
"It's too late. They have her now." Daryl turned and saw Dani's dead, walker eyes staring back at him. He stumbled back and fell down the hill, his arrow impaling his side. As he struggled to get up, a boot stomped down on his chest.
"Wake up you ungrateful little shit!" Daryl struggled with the darkness, tried to open his eyes. The kick came again, straight to his gut and he rolled over onto his stomach, the wind knocked out of him. A hand grabbed his hair and yanked his head back. His eyes finally opened and he saw a bright blur. He closed them again. His head was killing him, as was his leg.
"What the hell…" he heard laughter just near his head.
"Well well well. Sleeping Beauty finally decided to wake up." Merle. It was Merle. He was there. Daryl's head started to clear and he remembered. The accident. He swerved to avoid a walker. Merle was there. He opened his eyes and saw Merle leaning over him.
"Rise and shine you little bastard," he said punching Daryl in the mouth. Daryl leaned over and spit blood. He looked up and finally saw Merle standing in front of him with two other guys with guns, trained right on Daryl.
"Merle, what are you…" he didn't have the breath to finish the question. His ribs hurt. He tried to move his arms but realized they were cuffed behind his back. Merle walked over and hauled him to his feet.
"So where exactly were you headin' baby brother? Were you comin' here to apologize for your lack of hospitality last night?" Daryl glared at him and said nothing. "What's the matter? You gone mute? You sure were a mouthy little shit last night." Daryl laughed.
"You sound just like Dad." Merle backhanded him and then grabbed Daryl's shirt.
"I did more for you than that son of a bitch ever did. Who was always lookin' after you? Who took care of you? That drunken asshole? No. I did. And how do you pay me back? By runnin' off with the sheriff that done cuffed me to the rooftop and left me there to die!" Merle grabbed Daryl by the back of the hair and pulled his head back, holding his blade to his brother's neck. One of the guys behind him stepped forward.
"Merle, the Governor wanted to see him first." Merle stood up and backed away. Daryl's eye was almost swollen shut. His lip was split and there was blood in his hair from the accident. Merle glared at him and then pushed Daryl towards the door.
"Aren't you lucky little brother? You get an audience with the big man himself."
Dani stood in the tower watching for Daryl to return. It had been three hours since he took off and she was beyond worried. She was mad at herself. She had pushed him too hard, tried to force him to confront his feelings on her terms, not his. With everything going on, with Woodbury, her daughter, Merle, not to mention the goddamn walkers…why did she decide now was the perfect time to try to build a relationship with someone she'd known less than a week?
She heard footsteps coming up the stairs. She turned as Rick walked in.
"Maggie said you were up here." She crossed her arms in front of her and resumed watching the road. "Dani, Daryl does this. He takes off on his own all the time, goes hunting, makes a run. He'll be back soon." She shook her head.
"Something's wrong Rick. He should've been back by now." She turned to face him. "Do you mean to tell me that after what happened last night you're not wondering where he is?" Rick frowned.
"I just thought…" Dani cut him off.
"You didn't think. If you'd thought, you wouldn't of let him take off like he did. You would've sent someone with him." She pushed past him and started down the stairs. He followed behind her.
"Where are you going?" She ignored him and walked straight into the cellblock to grab her Colt and a rifle. She turned to see Rick standing right behind her.
"You're not goin' out there alone to look for him." Dani glared at him.
"If you're not gonna look for him then I am. Something's wrong Rick. He wasn't thinkin' straight when he left. I can't believe you didn't notice it." Rick frowned.
"What makes you say that?" Dani pushed past him to the door and looked back.
"He kissed me. Does that sound like the Daryl Dixon you know?" Rick's stunned expression confirmed her suspicion. "Yeah, didn't think so." She threw open the door and walked out to the cars.
Daryl was dragged by Cash and Tripp down the hall of the warehouse, the same one where Maggie and Glenn had been kept. Daryl recognized it but wasn't sure exactly where he was in the building. He looked over at the guy on his right.
"You one of them that messed with Danielle that night you done killed her little girl?" The guy looked surprised but covered it with a smirk.
"So what if I was. What you gonna do about it big guy?" Daryl's good eye narrowed.
"You best hope they don't let me outta these cuffs." The guy laughed and opened the door to a room at the end of the hall. He pushed Daryl inside. Despite the pain in his leg, Daryl fought to stay on his feet. No matter what condition he was in, he wasn't going to show weakness to this son of a bitch.
The Governor stood with his back to Daryl, staring at a map on the wall. Merle sat on a chair by the door, watching.
"Thank you Cash you may go." Daryl turned around and looked eye to eye with one of the men that had raped Dani. Cash hesitated a moment when he saw the hate on Daryl's face and Daryl saw fear in the kid's eyes before he closed the door. The Governor turned to face Daryl.
"So this is Merle Dixon's little brother. I've heard so much about you." His jovial tone of voice pissed Daryl off more than anything. It reminded him of every single asshole that had considered him to be ignorant white trash and therefore must be talked down to. He raised his chin up defiantly and glared at the man. This was the guy who had forced Dani into his bed to pay for medicine for her daughter. The guy who had ordered a helpless little girl to be a lab rat and then kept alive long enough to execute her in front of her mother. He wasn't about to say one word to him. The Governor walked over to him and clapped him on the shoulder.
"It's such a shame that I was unable to have both you and Merle on my team. The two of you would have been a powerhouse. Merle tells me you're an expert with a crossbow and an excellent tracker. That's definitely a skill we could have used here." The Governor turned his back on Daryl and walked back to the map. "It really is such a shame. You would have been an asset to this group." Daryl couldn't keep his mouth shut any longer.
"Probably would have expected me to stand aside while you and your crew rape women and kill little girls too." Merle got up and drew back to backhand him but the Governor raised his hand.
"It's unfortunate that you only got to hear one side of the story. True Danielle Robertson and I had…a relationship…while she was here. She sought me out, you understand. There was no force involved there. As to what a handful of young men may have done, well, that's just unfortunate it got out of hand." The Governor pulled out a chair and sat down. "With Danielle's daughter, once she learned Abigail's condition was untreatable with the medicine we have, she gave her consent to allow us to study the effects of the biter virus and it's evolution in children. We have already had a number of people, older people, sick people, allow us to study their reanimation." He paused a moment. "It's quite possible that Danielle had a change of heart after it was too late and I'm afraid that may have broken her already unstable mind." Daryl couldn't believe the bullshit this guy was trying to sell. He was exactly like some of the preachers at those tent revivals his mother used to occasionally drag him to before she died. They would get the crowd worked up and believing in miracles but all Daryl ever saw was a slick actor with a loud voice dancing around on stage while people collapsed at their feet.
"You got an answer for everythin' but you're a liar. You might be able to sell that shit to the people you got livin' here but I ain't buyin' it." The Governor frowned.
"I see that's how it's gonna be then. Well," he stood again and walked to stand right in front of Daryl. "I could just hang you, or shoot you, or feed you to the biter's but where's the fun in that? What lesson could that possibly teach those people that would seek to destroy what we have built here? Hmmm?" He thought a moment then turned to Merle.
"I think it's time to get the arena ready." He smiled at Daryl. "This community loves a good brawl."
Rick and Oscar joined Dani in going after Daryl. They turned down the road, driving slowly, looking for any clue as to where he may have gone. As they approached the first hairpin corner, Dani asked Rick to stop. She got out of the car and ran to inspect the fresh tire tracks on the road. It looked like whoever it was had swerved to avoid something but there was no clue what that something could have been.
"Daryl must have wrecked. But where's his bike?" Dani wondered to herself. Rick placed his hand on her shoulder.
"I'm sorry Danielle. You're right. I shouldn't have let him leave like that." At that moment Oscar, who had been looking through the overgrown brush on the side of the road yelled for them to come over. He pulled Daryl's crossbow out from the tall grass. Dani shook her head.
"He has to be hurt. He'd never leave that behind." She walked back to the tire tracks and knelt down for a better look. There was a puddle of thick, congealed blood. Walker blood. She looked up at Rick.
"Someone set him up. Daryl had to have swerved to avoid a walker. However did it must've planned it, took Daryl and his bike and then got rid of the other body." They continued to search the grass and finally came across the body of a walker. Dani leaned over and checked the mouth. Its teeth had been removed.
"It was Merle. Shit." Dani kicked at the ground in frustration. "He took Daryl back to Woodbury. Goddammit!" She walked back to the car. Rick and Oscar followed and the three got back in the car.
"How do you know that for sure?" Rick asked as Dani flipped a u-turn and sped back towards the prison.
"One of the things the Governor liked to do was have these arena fights. They'd match up two or three guys to fight until one was left standing. To up the ante, they'd surround the fighters with walkers on leashes. Only a handful of people in the crowd knew they pulled the teeth out to make sure that the danger was almost nonexistent. One of the girls on my supply team, her boyfriend was on Merle's crew that trapped the walkers in pits outside of town." Oscar leaned forward on the seat.
"So what's the plan? We go in there like we did with Maggie and Glenn?" Dani shook her head.
"I'm going in alone." Rick shook his head.
"Hell no. I cannot allow that." They pulled up the driveway and Axel opened the gate. Dani pulled to a stop and jumped out of the car. Rick grabbed her arm to stop her.
"You are not just gonna go walkin' back into that town. Do you think you'll just be welcomed back with open arms?" Dani smiled.
"They have to. Because they sure as shit haven't let out what exactly happened to me or to Abigail."
Merle walked behind Daryl and uncuffed his hands.
"Now I'm doin' this to prove to you that I'm on your side in this little brother. Don't do anything stupid and I won't have to hurt you no more." Daryl watched him warily and tensed for an attack. Instead, Merle pulled up a chair and sat down in front of him.
"So, those people at the prison. They treatin' you good?" Daryl stared at him, surprised by the question.
"Yeah. They're good people." Merle nodded.
"Yeah. Good people always leave a man behind on a roof to get ate alive by biters." His voice was bitter.
"We went back for you but you'd took off already." Merle smirked.
"You expected I'd just stay up there cryin' like a little bitch?" Daryl stared at his brother.
"What happened to you Merle? Even with everything you've done in your life, you'd never of stood by and watched a little girl get killed." Merle shrugged.
"Wasn't my kid." Daryl shook his head in disgust. Merle leaned over to him. "And she wasn't yours neither. You're more upset about that dead little girl and her bitch mother than you are your own kin. Your own flesh and blood." Daryl glared at Merle.
"If this is how you are," Daryl said slowly, "then you ain't my brother. Not no more." Merle's jaw twitched. He slowly got to his feet and walked towards the door.
"If that's the way you want it baby brother, that's fine by me. It'll just be a shame to watch you die." Merle walked out of the room and slammed the door, locking it behind him.