Abby was laying on her bed on her stomach taking a nap with her ear buds in listening to "Pumped up kicks" by Foster The People when she felt someone lightly stroking her hair. Opening her eyes and shifting her head she sees a big hand gently helping her up. Confused she looks up at Merle wondering what he was doing here and why he was petting her. He doesn't answer her but just sits down beside her and pulls her over towards him. She could see him taking a deep breath and he seemed really nervous about something.

"Merle? What's wrong? Are you okay?" she asks.

He just starts chuckling. He looks at her and shakes his head. "Your askin' me if I'm alright? Darlin' is there sumthin' your keepin' from me?"

She starts to panic. He knows..How can he know?! She was so careful to hide it from them! "Merle...I..I'm not sure what you mean..."She lies.

"Baby girl. I know about the cancer." he says frowning.

Abby's heart stops. He really does know. She can't stop the flood of tears from flowing. Merle could feel his chest squeeze and he had to swallow his emotions back down. Grabbing her and pulling her into his arms he holds her to him as tight as possible with hurting her. He can feel her relaxing in his arms and soon her breathing evened out and she was asleep. Knowing her parent's won't be back anytime soon he lays down with her still in his arms and falls asleep with her in his warm embrace.

Daryl was wondering where Merle could have gone. It had been hours since he last saw him. Last night he came in an refused to say anything when he asked if he had found anything at Abby's place and then when he woke up he had already left. Shaking his head he gets ready for work and leaves. He wonders what cause Merle to be actin' so weird.

He spends the next six hours working on rebuilding the engine on an old pickup and fixin' the motor on a bike. By the time his shift was over he was covered head to toe in motor oil and grease and had cut his palm open on a jagged piece of metal. His day was long and frustrating and he had to bite his tongue to keep from cussin' out a few of the customers who couldn't get it threw their head that it would take a few weeks for their parts to arrive. All he wanted to do was head home and shower and have a few cold beers.

Merle woke up to Abby moving around and checked his watch. He needed to head on back but he didn't feel right leaving her alone. He sighed and got up and moved a pillow where he was and covered her up. He quietly left and walked over to his place and went inside. Daryl was lounging on the couch drinking a beer and watching some hunting channel when he walked in.

"Yo. Where you been at?" Daryl asked.

"I was at Abby's." he replied. He decided not to tell him what was wrong with her. It wasn't his secret to tell and he knew Abby must have a reason she didn't want them to know and he would respect that. "By the way, Abby isn't an addict. She really does take them for her head."

Daryl nodded.

"Daryl?" Merle asked.

"yea?"

"Be nice to the girl. She don't need the stress." He said and went to his room.

Daryl was confused. Be nice to the girl? She don't need the stress? Whats that supposed to mean? Since when did Merle care about someone other than himself? The girl was truly something if Merle likes her enough that he'd say sumthin' like that.

Abby woke up and stretched. Looking around the room she noticed that Merle was gone and she frowned. He probably went and told Daryl all about her. She was terrified that they would treat her differently now. Would they ignore her? Or treat her like she was glass? She was more afraid of how Daryl would act. She really liked him and the thought of him being different towards her made her chest ache.

She needed to get away for a little while. Maybe she could call Glenn and hang out for a little while until she could calm down. Picking up her phone she dialed his number and after a few seconds he picked up.

"Hello?"

"Hi, is this Glenn?" she asked

"Yea?" he replied

"Great! It's Abby! You know, from the pet store?" She said

"Oh! Abby! Its awesome to hear from you! What's up?" he asked

"I wanted to know if you wanted to hang out today?"

"Sure. What do you have in mind?" he asked

"Wanna come over to my place and we can play some call of duty or something?"

"Uh yea sure. I'd like that." He said.

We spoke for a little long then she told him where she lived and he said he'd come over in half an hour. She got dressed and brushed her teeth and was combing her hair when there was a knock on the door.

She hurried and opened the door to see Glenn standing there awkwardly. Smiling she gave him a hug and pulled him inside and showed him around. Opening her bedroom she pulled out the games and they played a few rounds of call of duty and then they spent the rest of the time talking and watching movies on her computer. Glenn even showed her an online game where you can be a wizard and fight to save the wizard world. She really like Glenn. He is a major nerd but he is really nice to her. Sadly Glenn had to leave a bit later to go to work and Abby hung out in her room playing the game Glenn showed her but inside she was going crazy. She was bored of being by herself and desperately wanted to go next door but she was too scared to face them.

Merle stopped by Abby's and frowned. A young chink was walkin' outta her house with a big smile on his face. Merle couldn't help but smirk when the kid caught sight of him and hurried to his car. He waited for a couple minutes then invited himself in and went to Abby's room so they could talk. Opening the door he laughs. Abby was laying on her bed on he back half way off the bed and when she heard him come in she fell of the bed.

Walking over he lifts her up off the floor and sits her down on her bed and sits down beside her.

"So I guess we needa talk" He says patting her head.

"I didn't mean to lie..I just am tired of people treating me differently."She says

"I understand ya. I just wish I could do sumthin' to help ya." He replies

"The only thing that can help me is the chemo. If they could find a bone marrow donor then I could get better but so far the doctors' have not found a match that's willing to help me." She says wiping at her eyes.

"so if ya was to get someone willing that's a match then you'd be all better?" He asked.

"there's a chance it won't work but it's possible."

Merle decided then and there that he would do everything possible to help her. First thing he would do is find out If he was a match and if so he would give her all the bone marrow she needed.