TTWH 19
Meanwhile, the person who had been watching the camp for sometime, waiting to make their move watched the pretty blonde girl leave the Dixon. Looked like they were getting cosy, she had looked upset and he couldn't hear what he said to her but apparently he'd been trying to make her feel better.
He wondered how much Merle had told his brother, probably had been filling him with poisonous lies and he decided that it was time to make his presence known. Besides, his joints were getting arthritic and strong as he still was, the pain in his knee was a bitch when you had to hunt for survival. Damp and cold weather like it had been lately didn't help either. Normally, he would have preferred to stay alone but he hadn't known that his sons were still alive. And together and not zombies.
Then again they were Dixons and anything less would have been an insult to him and his name.
Because eventually, to survive this new world, you had to find your group. Even Dixons had to.
His eyes narrowed as he saw Merle approach his brother and jerk his head to the woods. Where he was crouched down watching. Clearly, he was asking him to go on a hunt - he'd even bought Daryl's crossbow with him.
His eyes narrowed in suspicion as Merle took Daryl's hand as soon as they were far enough from the camp like he remembered them doing when he was a toddler. But they weren't children any more.
What are ya up to with him, Merle?
His mind whirled because he'd always known. Merle was as sick as he was...he just had to hope that Daryl remained untouched by the Dixon sickness.
That's when they stopped and caught sight of him. Dead in their tracks although he thought he was well-hidden – another sign of his deteriorating tracking abilities and with them, his mental faculties.
Will Dixon grunted and got up to his feet, doing his best to conceal the sharp pain from his right knee that was creaking in protest.
'Well, well. Bet ya thought I was dead, didn't you, boys?'
'Ya mean hoped ya were, you bastard.' Incredibly, it was Daryl who spoke when if their father remembered correctly, he usually let Merle do the talking. Little, shy Daryl. While Merle backed off behind his brother like he'd seen a ghost. Which in a way, Will guessed he had.
'Now, now, that's not the way to greet ya father after years apart. No mail, not even a phone-call in all that time. Don't I even get a hug, Daryl?
Will half-mockingly held out his arms but Daryl spat at him. 'I know what ya did.' Like the Dixon he was raised, Daryl didn't waste words getting right down to the nitty-gritty. Will smirked exactly like Merle did sometimes.
'Daryl...' Merle had recovered somewhat as he put a restraining hand on his brother's shoulder.
'Pretty girl ya were jus' talkin' to. That ya girlfriend, son?' Will ignored Merle
'A bit young for me, ain't she?' He snarled back with open scorn. 'We don't all like to fuck kids. Ya stay away from her. And us.' Daryl snarled back making his father actually flinch. So he told ya then Will thought but didn't say. His son's words had left no room for doubt.
'Come on, Merle.' Daryl pulled his arm.
Merle turned back and gave his father a hard look but didn't say anything.
'What if he follows us?' Will heard him ask Daryl like he was the little brother now. Merle sounded so young. Could seeing his father again do that to him?
Daryl shrugged and spoke deliberately loudly. 'Then we kill him.' There was a new hardness in his voice that hadn't been in there before the events at Woodbury as he turned back to their father.
Meanwhile, Will stamped his feet in rage and suppressed the urge to yell after them. Order them to stop and face him. He hadn't expected this need to not be alone. Well, the rejection was more than likely but Merle telling Daryl their little secret? He couldn't believe it – something must have happened because he knew how protective Merle was of his little brother. In fact, that's what he'd counted on when he'd started. Yet all that had happened years ago!
'Come on.' Daryl urged his brother again looking back to check the old bastard wasn't following them. 'Let's get in our tent.' He could see Merle was shaking and having trouble breathing, like he used to.
They got some curious looks as Daryl was forced to half-carry his brother.
Despite their dislike of the older Dixon, Rick and Carol shot them concerned glances as they came out of the woods with no prey.
'He OK?'
'Yeah...jus' got a slight fever, I reckon.' Daryl called back. 'He was feelin' faint.'
'I'll make ya pay for that.' Merle muttered darkly while Daryl grinned.
'Take him to the Infirmary.' Rick ordered. 'Check it's not contagious.'
Daryl didn't answer, intending not to obey but he didn't want Rick to know that because Merle's sudden illness was more of the psychological kind and not catching.
'Come on, bro. Ya embarrassin' me.' Merle grinned weakly at that and it was like he really was sick.
'Sh...' Daryl helped him lay down. 'This all because we saw Dad again?' He whispered.
Merle looked pale as he nodded.
Daryl decided to push him gently. ''Cos of what he did?'
'Is he still there?' Merle pushed his head out of their tent worriedly but no-one was there. So, he put his head back in and did the zip back up.
'Jesus! I've never seen ya like this before.'
'Yeah? I never saw ya act like ya did after they rescued ya from Woodbury.'
Daryl punched him on the nose for that. 'Asshole!'
Merle looked at him sheepishly. 'Sorry...shouldn't have mentioned that...'
'No, ya fuckin' shouldn't have!'
Merle turned away and buried his head in his knees. He was shaking like crazy when Daryl thought he was the only sissy in the family prone to panic attacks.
'Merle...' Daryl put his hand on his shoulder.
'Get off me. Merle shrugged it off. 'Is he still out there?' He lifted his head.
'He ain't comin' back. I told him to get lost.'
'Oh, yeah? Ya think that's gonna stop him?'
'I won't let him near ya. Promise.'
'P...P...Promise?' Merle looked up at him with big, blue eyes and it was freaking Daryl out. Where had his tough, reliable big brother gone?'
'Merle, snap the fuck out of it!' He gave him a rough shake. 'Is this all because Dad came back?'
He didn't answer but his shaking got worse.
'Come here.' Now it was Daryl who put his arm around his brother. 'I'll kill him if it'll make ya feel better.'
Merle snorted at that and looked up. But now he looked more like himself.
'I mean it, Merle!'
Merle chuckled, a rapid change in his mood and chucked his brother under his chin. 'You? My sweet little brother?'
Daryl released him and grinned back. Yes, it had been a real shock for both of them to see him again when they thought he must have died. Turned out that they had underestimated the old bastard.
'Merle...what if he hurts the group?'
He opened his mouth to answer because Rick was unzipping their tent after calling out a warning.
'Daryl! Merle! Ya in there? I got news for ya.'
'Oh yeah?' Daryl leaned back on his elbows, wondering how much of their conversation the leader had heard.
'There's a man outside sayin' he's ya father! Will Dixon, right?' Rick was nervous and it showed in his voice, after all he didn't know how they would react. A few people knew about the scars on Daryl's back and guessed how they got there.
'Yeah. Must be him. Tell him we'll be out in a minute.' Merle saved him from awkwardness.
'Fuckin' asshole!' He hissed to Daryl as soon as Rick was out of earshot. 'We should have killed him while we had the chance!'
….
They were sitting around the campfire and the atmosphere was muted, to say the least. Nobody was really happy about another Dixon who wasn't Daryl in their midst and Merle wondered why Rick wasn't being careful like he was with all new arrivals and vetting him out carefully. If he knew what he was...
Thinking about that, Merle involuntarily shuddered and couldn't help but put his arms around his brother and draw him to sit between his legs, even if it did draw some curious looks because he hadn't done that for a while. Not least from their father who raised his eyebrows but wasn't stupid enough to challenge him.
Merle sneered back and tried to tell him with his eyes that he was a soon to be dead man.
Everyone else, however, was being extremely polite, even Will. After all, he was being fed and watered and sheltered for free. Daryl noticed wryly that he even said thank-you when Andrea passed him his bowl of food.
People did their best to ignore him – when he wasn't looking, Andrea, Carol and Maggie glared at him while Rick did his best to keep his face impassive.
Every time Will tried to open up conversation with his sons, mainly with Daryl – like what they'd been doing the ten years that he hadn't seen them before the zombie apocalypse, he was shot down by their one word replies or grunts. Telling him clearly that they didn't want to talk to him.
Carol exchanged looks with Rick and Herschel – there was going to be a meeting tomorrow about what to do with the oldest Dixon. If he would be an asset or an added burden. More importantly, perhaps, whether he could be trusted but if he was upsetting the boys, especially Daryl, he should go.
Of course, they should be asked first. He was their father after all.
….
Later, as the group around the fire broke up, Merle looked back and saw something that gave him the chills.
Their father was bent down talking to Carl, fuck knows what he was saying to him, looking for all the world like a harmless grandfather. But that wasn't it...it was when his fingers brushed the boy's trouser leg as if by accident...except Merle knew that it wasn't, there was something dangerously familiar about that. He looked around to see if any of the others had seen, especially the boy's father but Rick was distracted, talking to Carol and Herschel.
Unwrapping his arms from around his brother, who'd he been holding tightly, Merle was about to to go over there and shove his Dad away from the boy but then Herschel went over to tell him about his accommodation arrangements. Merle sighed with relief when he realised that he wouldn't have to deal with him.
'Come on.' He barked a little sharply at his brother. Daryl frowned but trotted after him obediently.
Merle was back to being big brother again.