Daryl was pulled from his thoughts by a loud knock on the door. Getting up he opens the door and see Abby standing there in a white dress smiling up at him.

"What ya doin' here so early?" Glancing at his watch it was barely nine in the morning.

"Merle promised to take me fishing today." She said. "Is he here?"

"Yea, he's in his room. I'll get em for ya." He said and started to walk towards the back.

"Wait! It's okay! I'll get him." She called out and walked in.

"Ya sure? Merle's not a very happy person in the mornin'." He remembered once Merle nearly beat him for waking him up before noon.

"I'm sure! It's no problem!" she said and skipped happily to Merle's bedroom.

Daryl sat back down on the couch and waited to hear him yelling and her cryin' but neither happened. He almost fell of the couch when he heard Merle's booming laughter from his room and the unmistakeable giggling from Abby. Jumping up and walking as quietly as possible he peeked into the room and saw Merle bent over Abby's tiny frame on his bed with his hands at her sides tickling her as hard as he could.

Shaking his head he walks into his room and lays on his bed and tries to go to sleep and just as he started to fall asleep Abby came busting into his room making him jump.

"Damn it girl! You can't just come bargin' in a man's room!" He yelled.

"Oh!.. Daryl, I'm sorry. I just wanted to come ask you to come fishing with us and I guess I got so excited that I wasn't thinking." She said rubbing the back of her head sheepishly.

"Why ya want me to come?" He asks curiously.

Putting her hands on her hip and tilting her head to the side she smiles. "Cause I like ya! Why wouldn't I want to hang out with you?"

His heart stated beating hard and his hands started to sweat when she said "I like ya." He wasn't stupid to believe that a girl like her would "Like, Like" him but it felt kinda nice to know that she wanted him to be around her.

Grunting he gets up and grabs his leather vest and followed her outside to meet Merle out in the truck and almost laughed when he watched Abby trying to hop in. She was tiny and getting in the truck would be hard for any normal sized girl and it seemed almost damn impossible for her.

Before he could realize what he was doing he leaned over and picked her up by her hips and lifted her in and when he pushed her into the truck her ass was level with his eyes and he could clearly see her panties through he thin white dress and with it being such a sunny day her dress was almost sheer. Jerking back and letting her go, he caused Abby to lose her balance and fall backwards and tumble down on him and he instinctively went to steady her by wrapping his arms around her to protect her during the fall.

From their position on the ground he felt Abby freeze in his lap and he worried that she some how had gotten hurt. That thought flew from his mind almost immediately once he heard his brother's obnoxious laughter. He then realized that when he grabbed her during their fall, that he didn't grab her waist like he thought, Daryl had ended up cupping both of her tits instead.

Letting go he jumped away from her and glared at his brother who was still leaned over in his seat holding his stomach from laughing so hard.

Reaching down he hoists up Abby who was still sitting in the dirt in shock. He doesn't look at her for the entire ride to the lake and even then he made sure to stay at least a few steps away from her at all times.

Abby had sat there on the small dock and listened to Merle as he explained how to hook bait and how to find the best places to cast the line when she felt the pain starting back. She was almost always in pain and tried to keep from taking the pain pills her doctor gave her, but the longer she sat there in the hot sun the more painful things got and she just couldn't take it anymore.

"Um.. I'll be right back. I'm going to get something I left in the truck." She said and hurried to the truck to get to the bag she brought. Dumping everything out of the bag she took deep breaths to help calm the pain and sighs in relief when she finds the small bottle of pain pills. Popping open the top and shaking out a small white pill she tosses it back and dry swallows it while gagging at the nasty medicine taste.

She lean against the tail gate and then slid down to where she was laying back on the tire and closed her eyes hoping the pain would stop. She squeezed the prescription bottle in her hand and breathed in deeply as the burning began to fade away to an uncomfortable throbbing and opened her heavy eye lids and stared off at the woods.

She was so out of it that when she heard the light foot steps heading her way that she didn't have time to hide the pills so she moved the bottle behind her back and hoped whoever it was wouldn't notice. The foot steps finally reached her and she found herself looking up at Daryl. She didn't know what to do so she just gave him a tiny smile and prayed that he would just leave so she could get up so she could return her medicine to it's hiding place.

"ey, you alright?" He asked squatted down in front of her.

"I'm fine I just got over heated. I'll be back in a minute once I cool off." She lies.

She wasn't sure if he bought it or not but he just nodded and stood up and walked away. Relieved she jumps up and opens her bag to put them away when a hand shot out and grasped her wrist.

"Ah!" she yelled in shock.

Turning around to face Daryl she sees that he was glaring at the pills and then glared at her. "What? You an addict or sumthin'?"

"No! I..i just have bad migraines!" she said panicking.

"whatever ya say.." he said not entirely believing her but leaving it alone.

They head back to the dock and Merle finishes teaching her the basic and helps her cast the line. The sun was going down and she had yet to catch anything. Merle and Daryl had both caught at least two fish each and she was sad that she hadn't got a single fish.

"Aw man..You guys make it look so easy!" she says pouting at Merle.

"Well we had a lot of practice." Merle says smirking.

"But I reallyyy wanted to catch something!" she said still pouting.

"Well I guess we can stay a little bit longer and ol'Merle with help ya." He said ruffling her hair.

Daryl just scoffed and leaned back on a tree and pulled out his pocket knife and started cleaning his nails.

Merle's smirk just got bigger and turned to his brother. "What's wrong lil'brother? Sumbody jealous?"

Daryl didn't say anything but just glared at him then went back to fiddling with his knife. Eventually we had to leave and Merle promised to take me fishing again since I couldn't get anything and we drove home. By the time we left it was starting to get really dark and with a tiring day and a long ride Abby fell asleep.

Daryl was staring out of the window when Abby's head fell over onto his should. As he watched her sleep he thought back to earlier when he found her by the truck. The way she reacted to him seeing the pills had him wondering why she was taking them. He wasn't sure what they were but with Merle's history he knew that they must have been strong pain pills. She said they were for her head but something in him thought otherwise by the way her eyes twitched. He knew that she had to be lying and he was disappointed with her. If she was addicted he and Merle could try and help her. Merle was finally trying to get clean after he almost died by an overdose and if he could get clean then she could too.

A minute later they were back at the trailer park and he gently woke her up and when she saw that she had slept on him she apologized and blushed which he thought was cute. Wait...since when did he think she was cute?! She was just an annoying brat with a drug problem...Oh who was he kidding. His feelings for her were growing stronger and he needed to get her out of his head before he did something that would get him thrown in jail.

When he and his brother walked into their place he told him they needed to talk about something.

"What?"

"When I was baiting my hook I noticed Abby had been gone for awhile and so I went to check on her and I found her sitting on the ground and she said she was just over heated but I thought something was up so I walked away but came back and she was tryin' to hide a bottle of pain pills from me and when I asked her about it, she froze up and stuttered sayin' they were for migraines. Merle I think she was lying."

"Ya think she has a drug problem or sumthin'?" he asked.

Daryl nods. "Yea, I don't gotta lot of proof but If she does have a problem then you'd be able to find out."

"What do ya want me to do? Search her room for them?"

"Yea, you'd know what to look for. Merle if she is addicted then we needa do sumthin'."

"True lil' brother. I know how hard it is and I wouldn't be able to stand it if she went down the same path I have. She's too good for that kinda life. I'll do what I can." Merle said.

Merle was worried. He had grown close to her and the thought of that sweet girl doing the things he did was making him sick. He won't let her do that. He just recently started to clean up his act and after almost dying from a stupid overdose, he knew how short life was and he would do everything to help that girl from making the same mistakes.

Merle decided to go right then to check her room to see if It was true. He used the spare key under the potted plant by the front door and let himself in. He waited for a little while and checked to make sure she was asleep before he began searching. He looked in the living room, kitchen, and bathroom and didn't see anything. He then went into her room lastly and looked around. She was in her bed clutching the pink rabbit that he had given her and frowning in her sleep. He checked in her drawers and on the dresser and desk but couldn't find anything. Her bag that she had brought with them was laying in her desk's chair and he lightly pulled it open and dug around and pulled out the prescription bottle. Looking at the label it was prescribed to her and he thought it was too high of a dosage to be for headaches. He searched for a bit longer but couldn't find anything else and went to leave. He was about to shut her door when he happened to glance down to the underneath part of her bed and he noticed a hot pink bag shoved under. Going back into the room he pulls out the bag and quietly unzips it and finds several prescription bottles. They all had her name on the label's but there were so many there and the dates where ranging from a few years ago until just recently. He memorized the name of the pills and re-zipped the bag and left the room. Walking into the hallway there is a calendar hanging up and curiosity got the best of him and he went to checked it out. Nothing really stood out to him. All there was is a few dates written down and he flipped back to the last month and there was one date stood out to him. On it had the words "Chemo-Treatment" in bold letters and he realized that two days later was the day he took care of her after she passed out on him. He could feel his eyes widen and his heart felt like it stopped. He must be imagining it. It had to be a mistake but he knew what Chemo was for. He just hoped that he was wrong about it though. He made his top priority to find out what that medicine is for before he jumps to conclusions.

That night Merle couldn't sleep. He tossed and turned all night long and it didn't help that when he got back that Daryl wanted to bomb him with questions and all he could say was he didn't find anything. He tried and tried to sleep but soon he just gave up and sat up for the rest of the night thinking. As soon as it hit eight in the morning he got up and got dressed and drove to the local clinic. He walked in and waited until he was called in and a doctor came out and showed him into his office.

"Hello, My name is Dr. Jones. What can I do for you?" He asked leaning back into his chair.

"Doc, I wanted to ask ya if you know what Gleevec is?" He was afraid of the answer but he needed to know.

Dr. Jones leaned over and began to type of his computer and after a few seconds he looked back over at Merle. "Gleevec?"

Merle Nodded.

Clearing his throat he looked at the screen then looked to face him. "Gleevec is a medicine used to help prevent certain cancers from spreading and reproducing in the body."

"Cancer?" Merle asked. He could feel his mouth go dry and his chest ache.

The doctor just nodded his head.

Standing up Merle heads to the door and stops. Turning to the doctor he thanks him and leaves the office and heads to his motorcycle. Sitting down he lays his head on the handle bars and he could feel his body shaking.

How could fate be so cruel? To give a sweet, innocent girl cancer? Abby was just a teenage! She had barely lived and was cursed to die young! He suddenly felt angry. He had grown to like the girl, heck maybe even love her, and he didn't know if she would be here for long. She comes into his life and for once he cares about another person other then his brother and fate has decided to take her from them! Even though Daryl denies it, he knows that deep down, he cares about her too. Slamming the key into the ignition he stomps on the gas and speeds back to the house. He needed to talk to Abby and ask her if it was true.