Sorry it took so long to update this! I've been super distracted. This chapter was kind of a prompt so I hope some of you enjoy it. Thanks for reading!

Chapter Eight

Daryl slid the window open and slipped into the dimly lit bedroom as silent as a cat. He'd had a lot of practice since Jenny had caught him sleeping in here. He had been smarter about it lately, staying most of the night, but remembering to set the alarm on Carol's phone so he could be out before Jenny was up.

He usually waited a little later to come over, just to make sure Jenny was sound asleep and wouldn't bust him, but he hadn't been able to stand it anymore. Teaching their asshole siblings a lesson was one thing but he'd never in his life expected to be put in a position where he had to treat someone he cared about so goddamn bad. He'd almost not been able to go through with it but Carol had convinced him that to get to Merle, that's what he needed to do.

Still, it messed his head up a little bit and the only thing he had been able to think about since she had driven away was seeing her again.

She sat up in bed, pushing the blankets down when he grabbed her ankle and gave it a hard shake. "I didn't hear you come in," she whispered sleepily.

He didn't even give her any time to get her bearings. He grabbed her hand and tugged her until she was standing right in front of him and without a word he cupped her face and pulled her forward, his lips meeting hers almost desperately. His arms went around her and a surprised sound bubbled up from her throat, dying suddenly as her lips parted and the kiss deepened. He knew the rules but tested them every time and he knew that he had just a few more seconds before she pulled away, caught her breath and forced that cool composure that she excelled at.

Right on cue she pulled back slightly, meeting his eyes and working on catching her breath. This time she didn't pull away completely though and he marked it as a silent victory. "Did Merle beat you up?" she asked, searching his face.

He shook his head, scowling hard. "No but he wanted to. All these years that son of a bitch has tried to get me to be some kind of miniature version of him and as soon as he thinks it's started he blows his fuckin' top. Amber ain't allowed at the house no more by the way."

She grinned. "That was the whole point though, wasn't it? Show them that we weren't so bad."

"Yeah, well, I'm done. You know how goddamn hard that was? And if Merle knew me at all he'd know I wouldn't ever do that to you. Jesus, I wanted to kick my own ass. And I'm tellin' you now. You're wastin' your time going to college. Your ass needs to go straight to Hollywood cause you can act."

She kissed him again, quickly, and then smiled. "I think we all did a pretty good job."

"Well, it wasn't fun at all. Had to sit in my room for damn near an hour with that stupid girl."

"You could have talked to her," Carol said, eyeing him when his hands slipped up the back of her shirt.

"Oh yeah. Cause that's me. Mr. Conversation."

"She's nice," she said, resting her head on his shoulder instead of pushing his hands away.

"She's a bitch. She only helped us cause you said you'd give her twenty bucks and she'd get to meet my asshole brother. She ain't nice."

"She isn't so bad. Sure, she was but not now."

He grumbled but she was still standing close, he was still tracing patterns onto the skin at the small of her back and he wasn't about to try to argue with her for fear she'd back up.

"I missed you today. That was probably the worst part of this whole thing. It gets lonely without you, even when Jenny's home," she said, keeping her voice quiet so she wouldn't wake her sister.

"Yeah, wasn't much fun for me either. Merle's a screamer. If I have to hear him bringing up how I ain't abandoning his fuckin' nephew one more time I'm gonna get sick."

She leaned back, raising one perfectly arched brow at him. "So, he cares about our future son but never mentioned his future niece, huh?"

Daryl stared at her like she had lost her mind, his stomach tying itself into a knot. "So in Carol's perfect future, me and you got some kids huh?" The thought was kind of weird because that wasn't ever something he had considered before. Not even when he tried to picture what the distant future would be like.

She grinned at him and then shrugged. "We have a long time before we need to talk about things like that."

He let go of her waist, gripped the sides of her face and kissed her forehead quickly before giving her a gentle push towards the bed. "I'm beat. Today was taxing as fuck. Your door locked?" he asked, just like he did every night.

She nodded and then crawled in before grabbing his hand and yanking him down with her. He had barely had time to remove his boots. "I don't know if she'd bother coming in to check up on me anyway. She isn't speaking to me anymore unless you consider her grumbling under her breath speaking, which I don't."

"How long are we gonna let them simmer?" he asked, staring up at the ceiling as she slid next to him, her arm going around his middle.

She smiled, her head going to his chest. "Not long. I think we've probably knocked a few years off their overall lifespan as it is. Why is your shirt still on?" she asked, tugging lightly as the flannel.

"Why is yours?" he countered, hoping she'd drop it. The reason he kept his damn shirt on was because he cared about her. It sounded stupid but if he stripped down to his jeans before getting into her bed, his mind kind of ran away from him and he was finding it increasingly difficult to keep himself in check. As soon as his head would hit the pillow her hands were on him, fingers running lightly over his skin, and he'd have to grind his teeth together and force his thoughts away from her. It was damned inconvenient.

She laughed and then sat up, looking down at him with a mischievous look in her blue eyes. Her hair was mused and her eyes were still heavy with sleep but the smile she gave him was as sultry as he had ever seen before and his pulse kicked up a notch. It actually leaped in his chest when her fingers went to her pajama top and started working the buttons down.

Coming up on his elbows he swallowed hard and forced himself to keep his eyes on hers, even though he wanted to look down, his brain having serious trouble believing what she was doing. Finally, when he knew she was on the last button his eyes slid down and then he scowled.

She grinned down at him and shrugged off the top, revealing a tank top underneath.

He growled, sitting up and grabbing her quickly before she could scoot away, dragging her forward and then rolling until she was pinned beneath him. "Real cute, Carol," he grumbled, staring down at her with narrowed eyes. He had her hands pinned above her head.

The grin widened and she tried to hold back a laugh. "You should have known better, Dixon. It isn't my fault you're easily excited."

She was getting bolder and the teasing was killing him. "Yeah, well, you ain't the only one that can play dirty. Remember that."

She arched a brow. "Oh, really? I think I have a lot more control over my..." her voice trailed away when he shifted slightly, only because he knew that he was probably smashing her but the repositioning put him right between her thighs and her voice trailed off. He hadn't done it intentionally but it seemed that way. She cleared her throat, "Over my, uh..."

His eyebrows shot up at the dazed look that came over her and she wasn't bothering trying to pull her hands free anymore. He realized then that maybe she was bluffing. Maybe, just maybe, she struggled with this just as much as he did and that could be the reason that she was always so quick to put the breaks on.

A few tense moments passed as he tested his restraint, but finally he couldn't take it anymore and he kissed her, deep and slow, and let go of her hands, because if she wanted to push him away, if that's what she decided to do, he didn't want her to think he'd actually restrain her. But as soon as her hands were free they went to his chest and started opening buttons with a speed that surprised him.

He had only been playing with her, really, when he'd put the two of them in this precarious situation but it was escalating quickly. She kissed him back desperately and every time he moved, even a little, a small sound would escape her and it was driving him out of his mind. He had to break the kiss when she started shoving his shirt away, managing to shrug it off without moving too far away from her and as soon as it was out of the way she gripped the back of his neck and pulled him back down.

After all these months of her careful self control he was shocked that it was crumbling so quickly, and he knew it was crumbling too when he ran his hand up her side, fingers catching the hem of her shirt and she didn't protest. He stopped once he reached her ribcage, knowing that he shouldn't push his luck, knowing that soon she would come to her senses and tell him to stop.

Her skin was hot and smooth under his hands and she didn't try to squirm away from his touch. Instead her legs bent at the knees, her heels digging into the mattress as she pushed up into him. He froze, every instinct in him telling him to push back, telling him to take the risk and push the shirt the rest of the way up, telling him that if he wanted it, this was it. He could have it.

But he didn't. His hand slid out of her shirt and he broke the kiss, staring down at her with wide eyes as he worked on catching his breath. She stared right back, boldly holding his gaze, her lips slightly swollen and parted as her chest heaved. She looked wild, her inhibitions all but gone and he tried to reconcile this wild girl with the one he had begun the summer with. The one that blushed often, who had never truly opened up, not even to him. It was like day and night.

He grunted when she dragged his face back down to hers, digging her heels into the bed again and his own inhibitions crumbled when her teeth sank into his bottom lip, pulling slightly. His mouth moved from hers, trailing down her jaw as she clung to his shoulders, not stopping until he reached the long pale column of her throat. His teeth sank into the sensitive skin there, causing a gasp to escape her that ended in a moan.

He wanted to hear it again, the sound winding through his bloodstream like fire, and he decided right then that he'd gladly spend the rest of his life being the reason for that airy little sound. His head dipped lower, his lips pressing against the space between her collar bones. A small part of him understood Merle's fascination with the female body now. It really was an amazing thing, but unlike Merle, one of the reasons he appreciated this moment the most was because everywhere his lips touched her, he knew that it was only him that had ever been there. And that was something a person like Merle wouldn't be able to appreciate.

~H~

She knew that in some ways this was very wrong. She never should have let things get this far out of hand, but she had never felt more excitement in her life. Her heart almost sang and her body felt like a live wire, like she had been asleep her whole life and was just now starting to rouse. His lips were hot, almost feverish against her skin and his body fit against hers perfectly.

Her face flushed even more when he had to readjust himself over her again and she knew that he was having problems of his own. The evidence was clear right there against her and fear spiked the adrenalin pounding through her veins.

His hands started lifting her shirt again and she squirmed, seeking that friction and smiling slightly when he groaned as if in pain. Suddenly he was moving, sliding down until she felt his lips pressing against the taught skin of her stomach, his teeth nipping and causing her muscles there to jerk in response.

She needed to tell him to stop, that the reason she was so outraged by her sisters accusations was because they were completely unfounded, that maybe neither one of them were ready to plunge right in. She knew those were all things that needed to be voiced but she wasn't able to voice them at all.

"Fuck!" he hissed, his head coming up, his eyes wide. He raised up on his knees.

"What?" she was having trouble catching her breath.

"Merle," he growled, crawling off of her and standing up.

She went up on her elbows and now that the blood wasn't pounding behind her ears she could hear the distinct rumble of Merle Dixon's motorcycle. She launched herself off of the bed, pushing her shirt back down and shoving him towards the window before he could even lace his boots up. "Why would he come here? In the middle of the night? My sister is gonna kill me! Not to mention what she's gonna do to you."

He shoved the window up just as the bike's rumble shut off. "Don't forget to unlock your door. Just say you ain't seen me," he said quickly.

She caught his eye in the moonlight and blushed furiously before kissing him one last time before pushing him away. Once he was out she shut the window and turned the latches, dashed to her door to unlock it and then dove into bed just as the sound of someone pounding on the door hit her ears. Pulling the blanket up to her neck she rolled over, facing the wall, her heart hammering in her chest as she tried to control her breathing.

Jenny stomped down the hall, grumbling to herself and Carol could have sworn she heard her sister mutter Merle's name. The town was small, and everyone knew everyone else, and Jenny had obviously recognized the sound of Merle's bike. Carol silently prayed that Merle wasn't here to tell her sister about what he thought he had learned earlier in the day. If Jenny thought she was pregnant she would kill her. She would string her up by her feet. Jesus, Merle couldn't tell her that!

She waited, listening to the voices but they were too low to make out. Eventually, her stomach twisting painfully, she heard footsteps coming towards her room. She closed her eyes, controlled her breathing and waited for Jenny to storm in like a human tornado. The door clicked open quietly and she waited as the light came on.

"See," Jenny hissed. "He isn't here." Her voice was hushed, like she didn't want to wake Carol up. She crossed the room. "The window's locked and my sister is asleep. I don't know where your bother is but I'd sure like to find out myself."

Carol rolled over and sat up, blinking against the glare of the overhead light Jenny had turned on. At least she didn't have to fake that part. Her eyes really weren't adjusted to the glare. "What's going on?" she asked, looking from Jenny to Merle, forcing her voice to sound sleepy and confused.

Merle eyed her. "Lookin' for my brother. You seen him tonight?" he asked.

Carol shook her head and had to look away. This was it. Merle was going to spill the beans right here and now.

Merle swiped a hand over his face. "Yeah, I was afraid of that," he muttered.

Jenny scowled. "You were concerned that he wasn't here? Are you telling me that you were hoping to find him in my sisters room?" Jenny was outraged.

"Yeah, I was. It'd mean that they were back together anyway and I wouldn't have to fuckin' worry about him anymore," Merle snapped back.

"Back together?" Jenny shot Carol a concerned look.

"She didn't tell you?" Merle asked

"Tell me what?" Jenny nearly growled the words out and Carol braced herself. This was it. After this her sister would think that she was actually sleeping with Daryl.

"That my idiot brother cheated on her? That she caught him red handed today at the house."

Carol had never seen her sister look so angry before. It was shocking, really. Her cold eyes landed on Carol then. "And you didn't think to tell me about this over dinner tonight? You acted like you had a great day? What is wrong with you? And ignoring college? Over a boy that would do something like that to you? Where the hell is he?" she growled, her gaze flicking back to Merle.

Merle rolled his eyes. "If I knew do you think I'd be here lookin' for him?" He looked over at Carol now, his eyes narrowing. "And what the hell does she mean you acted like you were havin' a great day? You left my damn house cryin' all over yourself!"

"You were crying?"

Carol never considered the thought of Merle and Jenny actually talking about any of this.

Merle cut in. "And what the hell is she talkin' about, ignorin' college?"

"Don't worry about her," Jenny nearly yelled, "You worry about that brother of yours!"

Merle glared. "The only goddamn thing I'm worried about here is the baby! I'd think you'd care more about that than her education right now. Jesus, what the hell is wrong with you?"

"Oh God," Carol breathed, clutching the blanket. The room had grown completely silent as the blood seemed to drain from her sister's face.

"What are you talking about?" Jenny whispered, like she couldn't voice the question any louder out of fear of what the answer was going to be.

Merle swung his head around towards Carol. "You haven't even told her yet?" He looked disbelieving.

"Oh no," Jenny shook her head, her eyes wide. "No, no, no. She can't be... Are you?"

Carol held her hands up, wishing that her and Daryl had never came up with such a stupid plan to torment their siblings. "I'm not. I'm not pregnant, Daryl never did anything with that other girl and I have every intention of going to school, okay?"

Merle and Jenny shared a look but neither of them looked as though they believed her at all.

"First thing in the morning we're taking you to the clinic to find out how far along you are. In a few months you'll be eighteen and you get the money that mom and dad left for you and you can use it to pay for the doctor's bills. Merle and I can sit down and discuss visitation for Daryl but I don't want to see him step foot on this property again."

Carol gaped at her but before she could say anything at all, Merle and Jenny stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind them.

"Oh my God!" Carol hissed, jumping from the bed and grabbing her phone. She knew he wouldn't be home yet but she had to try to get a hold of him now. This was getting way out of hand.

~H~

Merle stepped out onto the porch and pulled Jenny out with him.

"You think it worked?" He asked.

Jenny grinned up at him. "Did you see the look on her face?"

He chuckled. "Poor kid. I almost feel sorry for them. Almost."

Jenny nodded, sighing. "Yeah, well, it serves them both right. Did they forget who they were dealing with or what? They're both smart, I'll give them that, but they're also arrogant. Smart or not, you and I are a lot more devious than they are."

Merle caught her eye and winked. "Yeah, no shit. By the time we're finished they'll both wish they had just stuck to what they're good at. Which is bein' the good versions of the two of us."

Jenny laughed, grabbed his jacket and pulled him forward. "I'm glad you called me," she said. "If you hadn't then their little plan may have actually worked."

He flashed her a grin and then kissed her hard, knowing she wouldn't resist it. It had been a long time but he'd never stopped wanting her and she knew it. He would have to remember to thank his brother later for being an idiot and giving him a reason to see her.

~H~

Daryl slipped back around the side of the house, unable to believe what he had just heard. "Those sneaky sons of bitches," he grumbled before tapping on Carol's window. He knew she'd be in there losing her mind. He had stuck around to hear what was being said and something had told him to go around to the front instead of slipping into the alley behind the house.

He should have known that he couldn't go up again his brother when it came to stuff like this. Merle was a damn master at fucking with people and, apparently, Jenny was just as good.

Carol shoved the window open and stared out at him with wide eyes but before she could say anything he grinned.

"Change of plans," he whispered before he tugged on her hand until she climbed out.