Disclaimer: I do not own The Walking Dead.
Her Angel, His Strength
27 The Suicide King
"Kill 'em! Kill 'em! Kill 'em! Kill 'em!" She could hear them, but she could not wrap her mind around the fact that they wanted Merle and Daryl to kill each other. The guy's a completely psycho. Lily thought, looking as Merle and Daryl eyed each other. This was not the reunion they were expecting.
"I asked you where your loyalties lie. You said here. Well, prove it. Prove it to us all. Brother against brother." The crowd cheered on. "Winner goes free. Fight to the death."
"Y'all know me." Merle said to the people. "I'm gonna do whatever I got to do to prove..." He punched Daryl and Lily's heart stopped beating. What are you doing? "That my loyalty is to this town!" She almost screamed if not for Maggie's hand on her arm, asking without question for her to keep quiet. Merle sent blow after blow at his brother who took a while to start returning it.
A few men had brought walkers on them, closing the brothers in a tight circle. When the two of them got up, back to back, Lily felt relief wash over her. Merle's as loyal to Daryl as Daryl's to him, do not doubt him.
When a walker got too close to Daryl, Lily fired, giving away their position. Rick dropped the grenades as Maggie and Lily shot the people and walkers that were trying to kill the brothers. Lily tried to no hit any civilian, though in the chaos, she could not be too sure.
"Daryl." Rick screamed at him, trying to guide him through the sound of his voice. "Let's go."
"This way." Merle shouted, at them, not waiting to see if they followed him.
"You're not going anywhere with us." Rick said, catching up with him.
"Ya really want to do this now?" He asked.
"Come on, man. Rick, come on. We've got to go." Daryl pleaded, going after his brother. They followed Merle behind a fence, just to see him killing a walker as more crawled around him.
"A little help would be nice." Merle said, causing all of them to start killing the walkers as well.
"We ain't got time for this." Daryl said.
"Let's go." Rick agreed.
Their walk back was tense, with Rick shooting Merle looks that said plenty. He was not welcome on their group, which Lily thought unfair, considering Merle was part of the group even before Rick came along.
"Sweetcheecks," he greeted Lily, walking closer to her. "Ya lookin' better than I remember. Who'd guess the roles would reverse, huh?"
"Think I can handle myself now?" She asked, remembering the time he asked her to punch him. Smiling at him, she said, "I'm glad you're alive, Merle."
"What did I tell ya? Only a Dixon can-"
"Kill a Dixon, yeah! I remember." She finished, her hand squeezing his arm.
"Shh. Quiet now." Rick said, looking utterly annoyed at Lily.
"Glenn!" Rick called when they finally got close to where they had parked the car.
"Rick. Oh, thank God."
"Now we got a problem here. I need you to back up."
"What the hell is he doing here?" Glenn shouted in outrage, pulling his gun at Merle. Michonne followed suit, drawing her sword.
"Put it down!" Rick yelled at her.
"He tried to kill me!" She snarled, her eyes fixed on Merle. Lily stayed where she was, her, Daryl and Rick the only ones who weren't drawing their weapons.
"If it wasn't for him-"
"He helped us get out of there." Daryl interrupted.
"Yeah, right after he beat the shit out of you." Maggie accused.
"Hey, we both took our licks, man." Merle said, his face amused.
"Jackass." Daryl turned around to look at his brother.
"Hey, shut up."
"Enough! Hey, hey, relax! Put that down now!" Rick required them, his last warning towards Michonne, trying to get things under control.
"Get that thing out of my face!" Daryl demanded from Glenn, pushing away the weapon that Glenn was holding against Merle.
"Man, look like ya've gone native, brother."
"Merle!" Lily scowled at him. It would seem she had forgotten what a mouth Merle had.
"No more than ya hangin' out with that psycho back there." Daryl retorted.
"Oh, yeah, man. He is a charmer; I got to tell ya that. Been puttin' the wood to your girlfriend Andrea." He said, looking at Michonne and licking his lips in an obscene gesture. Lily's eye widened. Andrea? "Big time, baby."
"What? Andrea's in Woodbury?" Glenn asked in surprise.
"Right next to the Governor." Daryl confirmed. Michonne went for Merle's head.
"I told you to drop that!" Rick snarled. "You know Andrea? Hey, do you know Andrea?"
"Yep, she does. Her and blondie spent all winter cuddling up in the forest. Mm-mmm-mmm." Merle stated. "Yeah. My Nubian queen here had two pet walkers. No arms, cut off the jaws, kept them in chains. Kind of ironic now that I think about it."
"Merle!" Lily repeated.
"Shut up, bro."
"Hey, man, we snagged them out of the woods. Andrea was close to dying." He told them.
"Is that why she's with him?"
"Yeah. Snug as two little bugs. So what ya gonna do now, Sheriff, huh? Surrounded by a bunch of liars, thugs, and cowards-"
"Shut up!" Glenn screamed.
"Oh, man, look at this. Pathetic. All these guns and no bullets in them."
"Merle, shut up!" This time, it was Daryl.
"Shut up yourself! Bunch of pussies ya roll-" He didn't finish his sentence as Rick knocked him unconscious with his gun.
"Asshole." Daryl nodded in appreciation to Rick.
They walked away to discuss what they were going to do with both Michonne and Merle.
"It won't work." Rick shook his head at Daryl.
"It's gotta."
"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." Daryl tried.
"I'm not having him at the prison." Maggie denied.
"Do you really want him sleeping in the same cell block as Carol or Beth?" Lily frowned at these words.
"He ain't a rapist."
"Well, his buddy is." Lily gasped. She looked at Maggie who shook her head no at her, but Lily didn't know if she was saying 'not now' or 'no, I wasn't'. Either thought wasn't comforting.
"They ain't buddies no more. Not after last night."
"There's no way Merle's gonna live there without putting everyone at each other's throats." Rick tried to reason.
"Merle is not that bad." Rick looked at Lily as if she had lost her mind. "He isn't! Neither is Michonne." That riled Daryl up.
"Look! Look what he did, Lil. He took us, tried to kill me!" Glenn faced her.
"So ya're gonna cut Merle loose and bring the last samurai home with us?"
"She's not coming back." Rick placated him.
"She's not in a state to be on her own." Maggie frowned at him.
"She did bring you guys to us." Glenn defended.
"And then ditched us."
"At least let my dad stitch her up."
"She's too unpredictable." Rick shook his head.
"That's right. We don't know who she is. But Merle, Merle's blood."
"No, Merle is your blood. My blood, my family is standing right here and waiting for us back at the prison." Glenn hissed at Daryl.
"And you're part of that family. But he's not. He's not." Rick said.
"Man, y'all don't know. Fine. We'll fend for ourselves."
"That's not what I was saying."
"No him, no me."
"Daryl?" Lily turned to him, her voice meek; Daryl could not meet her eyes, not wanting to bring himself to ask her to leave the safety of the prison to follow him and his asshole of a brother to the road again. Even if Merle is not that much of an asshole to her.
"Daryl, you don't have to do that."
"It was always Merle and I before this."
"You serious? You're just gonna leave like that?"
"You'd do the same thing."
"What do you want us to tell Carol? What about her?" Rick asked, pointing at Lily.
"I am going with Daryl." Lily said, not really grasping just what was happening, but she was sure she would follow Daryl anywhere he went.
"Carol'll understand. Ya sure about that?" He asked Lily. "We got nothing. No food, no-"
"It was the plain, right? Before all this." He nodded, not wanting to be apart from her either. It was unfair of him to ask her to go with him, but since she decided on her own, Daryl tried to tell himself he could take care of her, that he could, and would, make sure she was fed, and warm and safe. She was his, after all. He found her.
"Say good-bye to your pop for me." He told Maggie, walking away.
"Lily, what the hell?" Glenn hissed at her, his face furious.
"Tell me you would do any different if you were me."
"I wouldn't have to! Y'all like Beth just fine!"
"I'm sorry Glenn." She tried to give him a hug, but his body was tense and he didn't return it. "It's Daryl. We both know he'll come back." She whispered in his ear, trying to assure both him and herself. She gave Maggie a reassuring smile and received a begging look in return.
"Lily, don't do this. Please." She just shook her head sadly at him, and walked away, after finally managing to escape Glenn's tight grip on her arm, ignoring his words. "Lily, stop. Lily!"
"Daryl!" Rick called, walking after him with Lily. "Hey. Hey. There's got to be another way."
"Don't ask me to leave him. I already did that once."
"We started something last night. You realize that, huh?"
"No him, no me. That's all I can say." He finalised it, taking their bags from the car. "Take care of yourself. Take care of lil ass-kicker. Carl. He's one tough kid." They walked over to where Merle was standing.
"Daryl! Lily!"
"Come on, bro. Ya followin', sweetcheeks?"
"It was you who asked if I would, wasn't it?"
They walked adrift for a while; Merle hadn't stop talking what he thought of their group for one second. 'That's what they do to ya; leave ya behind.' 'Ain't worth our presence, anyway.' 'Told ya, baby brother.' 'We don't need them, ya'll see.'
"This governor, what's he like?" Lily asked, wanting a break from his badmouthing their friends.
"Got a way with words, I'll tell ya. Could make ya tell all your big dark secrets in one conversation."
"How did you wind up with him?"
"He found me, wanderin' the streets, all by maself. Had almost passed out from blood loss. Took me in, took care of me, patched me up pretty good" He motioned the tourniquet on his arm.
"But… You're saying he's not that bad?" Her tone showed her disbelief of her own words.
"Didn't say that, did I? Nah, he saw the potential in me. Needed someone like me. Ohh yeah, babe, he knew ol' Merle had the balls for the job." Lily frowned, not wanting to know just what that job was.
"Do you think he'll go after the prison?" She asked quietly.
"Know he will. Wanted it even before y'all came around playin' the rescue team for the china man and his girl."
"Why?" Lily was trying hard not to think about Glenn or the others, not liking the feeling inside her that said it was a mistake to leave without thinking it through.
"Cause he can. He-"
"Shut your traps. Ya scaring all the game, don't ya wanna eat tonight?" Daryl scowled.
"How about you go over there, while me and sweetcheeks here go the other way around and meet ya later?" Daryl looked at her, his doubtful expression was clear. Lily smiled and nodded, walking towards Merle. Daryl appeared to be deep in thought before he agreed, walked over her and kissed her deeply on the mouth. Merle's laughter didn't make him break the kiss.
Once Daryl went away without a look back, Merle whistled.
"Thought he'd be pissin' all over ya afterwards."
"What?"
"Don't tell me ya didn't know this was his way of markin' his territory?"
"Daryl's not… He didn't…"
"So, ya sweet on my brother?"
"I… Yeah?" She blushed, not wanting to have that conversation with Daryl's older brother.
"Oh, dontcha go blushing around me! I knew it even before ya!"
"What do you mean?"
"I saw it. The way he looked at ya in Atlanta. There's not many things my baby brother can hide from me, sweetcheeks." Lily smiled. Merle's tone was rude, but she could see the affection underneath it. She almost asked him if he thought Daryl could ever love her back. "So, ya doin' him?"
"What! Merle! No! It's not like that."
"Ya tellin' me ya've been holdin' on him all this damn time?"
"I'm not- I'm not holding on him." She said, uncomfortable.
"Ohh ho ho! I knew he lacked balls, but didn't know just how-"
"It's not like that. I was… You know." She fidget with her bow, looking away from him. "I never…"
"Ya virgin?" Merle's face was so shocked Lily did not know if she wanted to laugh or cry.
"Was. You know- you know what they did to me." She whispered, and Merle's face turned dark, understating her words.
"Ya still are." Lily shrugged, unsure. They did not talk much after that, not knowing what to say. "So, ya here for him? Must be pretty serious, huh?"
"As much as I'm here for you." His scoff made her serious. Stopping, Lily grabbed his arm. "I haven't forgotten, Merle. They all did, Glenn did. But I could never- You were there, Merle. You saw me. Could have denied, walked away and pretended you never found me. I wouldn't have blamed you, you know? Another mouth to feed, another person without any skills to look after… I was as good as dead. I was wishing I were. I remember praying you two were there to kill me. You were there as much as Daryl was."
He nodded, not looking at her, and finally he decided to do some serious hunting, requesting her silence. He did not have any luck, though, so they set off to find Daryl, hoping he had found something for them.
"What did you do? To them?"
"Do ya wanna know? Nothing they didn't deserve, sweetcheeks. Stop thinkin' about that. It's done and over and they're rottin' right now while ya got to enjoy this handsome company." She nodded and dropped the subject. It obviously made even Merle uncomfortable.
Daryl only had gotten one squirrel, making their dinner very poor in comparison to the food in the prison; nonetheless, Lily was grateful. She should stop thinking like that, it was done and there was no point crying over it.
Lily went to sleep early that night. She was completely spent, their day was so full of pain and loss, and she just wanted it to be over.
"Did ya know it?" Merle asked, his voice low so he wouldn't wake their companion up.
"No." Daryl didn't have the need to ask what his brother meant. They both knew he was within hearing distance when Lily and Merle were talking earlier as he did not feel too comfortable with leaving her alone with his brother.
"Ya didn't know and still made no move on her? Afraid she'll see ya have a pussy too?"
"She has nightmares, asshole." Daryl snarled. "Almost every night. Don't need to be a genius to know what about. I'm waitin'." Merle scoffed.
"Better stop. She's a woman. Ya wait too much; she'll star gettin' ideas of ya not wantin' it." Daryl frowned, tuning Merle out and mulling what he said over his head. He sighed looking at Lily's asleep form and got up to lay down next to her, ignoring his brother presence and chatter.
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English is not my mother tongue, if you find a mistake, please let me know.
Thank you,
Mel.
