Chapter 4

It had been two weeks since they had gone to talk to Lina and both Merle and Daryl had been busy. Daryl had looked up the cost of a paternity test and found out they could be anywhere from 100-2,000 dollars. To be safe he and Merle decided to get as much money as they possibly could in a two week period before going to talk to Lina again.

Daryl had worked hard, taking as much overtime as he could at the garage and fixing some farming equipment on the side. Merle had gone out and done some deals that Daryl wanted to know nothing about. At the end of two weeks they had met up and pooled their money. In total they had 3,050 dollars. They would have had a few hundred more, but Merle couldn't keep away from the strip club for a whole two weeks.

"Alright little brother, let's go get Lina and head to that clinic in Atlanta." Merle picked up the cash and shoved it in his pocket.

Neither brother stopped to think that maybe Lina had plans and couldn't just drop everything on a dime for them. They got into Daryl's truck and headed across town. On the ride over Merle began to get cold feet. He already thought of the kid as his, what if he wasn't. He looked over at Daryl. Shit! Why hadn't they thought this through more? Daryl spoke up, as if reading his thoughts

"I don't really want to know, Merle." he had been thinking also, and realized if the baby turned out to be Merle's he might actually be devastated.

Merle pulled the truck over.

"So, what the fuck? We just walk away?"

"No, we just don't find out, or, you could walk away if you want."

"Fuck that! He'd be family either way." Merle rubbed his face

"Fine, fuck it, we won't find out." He started to turn the truck around before Daryl stopped him.

"Keep going to Lina's"

"What! Why?"

"So we can drop off the money."

"Why'd the fuck would we do that? We ain't taking the fuckin' test!"

"She probably has to buy diapers and shit, give her the fuckin' money!"

"Oh, right. Fuck this is gonna be a pain in the fuckin' ass."

"Fuck off then!"

"Fuck you! Daryl"

Merle spent the rest of the ride to Lina's scowling at the road, Daryl spent it half wishing that Merle had backed out of being involved with the kid.

They parked behind Lina's trailer and Merle didn't bother to knock before opening the front door and barging in, Daryl hot on his heels. Lina had just gotten out of the shower and was rummaging through her clean laundry in only a pair of cotton shorts, looking for a bra and top. When the front door slammed open she let out a startled scream and covered herself up with a wet towel. Johnny was startled awake by her scream and began to cry.

The three adults froze for a minute staring at each other. Merle recovered first,

"What ya hiding for. We already fucked ya." He let out a short bark like laugh and made himself comfortable on the love seat.

Daryl recovered next and made a beeline to the crib to pick up his son. Lina stayed frozen in shock until she noticed Daryl picking the baby up.

"Just make sure you support his neck." She wrapped the towel more securely around her top half and helped Daryl adjust his hold. Once the baby was secure, Daryl went over and sat next to his brother. Merle smiled down at the child and began bopping his nose to see if he could get a reaction from the infant. Lina stood a while longer, taking in the strange picture of Merle and Daryl Dixon fawning over a baby.

"Hurry up and get dressed. We gotta talk." Daryl ordered without looking up

Lina grabbed the basket of laundry from beside the crib and hurried into her room to change. She didn't want to leave her baby out in the living room with virtual strangers. One of those strangers is his father she reminded herself. Pulling on the first bra she saw and a baggy blue t-shirt, she rushed back out to check on her son.

"Do you always leave the door unlocked?" Merle asked as soon as she returned.

"No, I must have forgot to lock it after I brought in the laundry." She had an uncomfortable feeling that she was about to be scolded.

"Yeah, so Johnny was out here with the door unlocked while you were in the shower? What If someone were out to rob yah? I always love me an unlocked door." Merle scowled at her "Be more fuckin' careful with our son."

"Our?" something about the way he said that confused her.

"Our, Mine and Merle's….and yours." Daryl fixed her with a hard stare

"Yours AND Merle's? What does that mean?" Lina looked back and forth between the brothers.

"Johnny is ours, it don't matter who did the deed, he was always going to belong to both of us. No use in wasting the money checking." Daryl shrugged

Lina had no reaction to the news, at least none that any normal person would notice, but Merle wasn't a normal person. He was good at reading people, he could put a profiler to shame and he noticed the minuscule twitch in her brow as she tried to work out exactly what this meant for her and her son. Merle was hit with a realization, Lina was innocent, she really had no clue when it came to social situations. They could tell her whatever they wanted, apply whatever rules they chose, and she would accept it with very little questions if any at all. Merle felt his chest swell with power as he grinned up at the girl.

Daryl had realized the power they had over Lina sooner than Merle. To be fair he had a little more information than his big brother. Daryl had seen how easy she was to manipulate on the night he fucked her. That night he had gone to "The Flying J" with the purpose of screwing Lina. He'd been lusting after her since high school but refrained from acting on it because of Merle. He had always liked her, she never tried to hurt anyone and she was smart, well, book smart anyway.

He had been pissed at Merle for getting to her first and for getting his fool ass arrested again, and had gotten drunker than he expected. Deciding to abandon his plan for the night he was about to head home when she had approached him in the parking lot. It was unbelievable easy to get her home and in his bedroom. The entire time she was completely unaware of his intentions. She had innocently taken him at his word that he needed help and neatly fallen into his trap. She only questioned him once, and he shut that down with one comment, insinuating that she was supposed to have sex him because she had, had sex with his brother. Once again she had innocently taken him at his word and submitted to him.

Yes, both brothers had figured out that Lina was basically a ball of clay they could mold for their purposes. Daryl was thinking it was a power he would have to be careful with, and Merle was thinking he hit the jackpot.

"What does that mean for Johnny?" Lina's question brought the brothers out of their musings.

"He'll have two dads, except it won't be like that fuckin' fag shit." Merle nodded "only thing better than a Dixon is two Dixons."

"So both of you are going to claim him?"

"No!" Merle answered sharply. Daryl gave her a strange look she couldn't figure out.

Finally Lina gave in to her exasperation, she would have to ask them what was expected of her, because she was doing an awful job of figuring it out for herself.

"What am I supposed to do then?"

Daryl shook his head Girl, just gave them the reins to her life and didn't even realize it.

"You're supposed to keep your mouth shut. Daryl and I will see the kid when we can. Here," Merle reached into his pocket and pulled out the wad of cash. "This is for the kid," he threw the money onto the coffee table in front of him, "I better not find you using the money to buy yourself clothes or partying and shit. Got it."

"You're giving me money?"

"For the kid, not you." Merle gave her a stern look.

"Of course, Merle. I didn't expect anything."

"Yeah, well, don't start bugging us for money. When we can spare it, you'll get it." Merle frowned, giving away money was his least favorite part about this whole situation.

"You need to tell us if he needs something, though." Daryl wasn't about to let his child go without if he could help it. Standing up he put his son back into his crib and turned to Lina.

"Give me your keys." He demanded holding out his hand, shaking his fingers impatiently.

"What? Why?"

"I'm getting copies made, hurry up. I'm not waiting around outside to see my kid if you're not here when one of us shows up, we wanna wait inside."

She walked over to her diaper bag and pulled out her key ring which held exactly two keys, one for her front door and one for her car, she stared at them in her hand for a moment before handing them over to Daryl.

"I'll wait here Darylina," Merle pulled out a cigarette "put the kid in the bedroom, I'm gonna have a smoke. Do you got beer here?"

She shook her head as she lifted Johnny from his crib.

"Get some cold ones on your way back, bro." he reached over and plucked out a twenty from the stack of money they had just given her. He went to hand it to Daryl but he shook his head.

"I got it. Be back in a couple of hours."

"Yep," his brother was making himself comfortable on the couch, putting his feet up on the coffee table.

Daryl stood at the door until Lina disappeared into the back bedroom with Johnny.

"Don't fuck her Merle," he warned in a low voice.

Merle looked up from examining the unfamiliar remote control he'd found on the couch.

"Or what?' he asked amused

"Don't need another fuckin' kid and I know you ain't got rubbers."

"You sure that's the reason, Daryl."

"Just don't Merle." With that he was out the door, before the conversation could get any deeper.

Merle was staring at the door thoughtfully when Lina returned from the bedroom. He looked towards her and patted the seat next to him.

"You got cable?"

She took the seat next to him on the couch, "Yes," she spent a lot of time at home, so the money spent on cable was a good investment.

"You can spend a little bit of the money we give you on cable and beer. I don't want to be bored out of my fuckin' mind when I come over."

Jesus, how often are they going to be here? This was overwhelming in every way. She had gone from no sex life to two partners in one week, from no family to a son and two fathers, from never having had someone over for company to handing over the keys to her home so that the two Dixon brothers could come and go as they pleased. She wanted to cry, her usual calm detachment crumbling in the face of the whirlwind that were Daryl, Merle and Johnny.

The hard calm shell that she showed the rest of the world, that she had spent years perfecting, fell apart in an instant. Lina began to cry, more than that, she was sobbing into her hands, in front of Merle Dixon. She was mortified now on top of everything.

"Well, Fuck! What the hell is this girl? Why are ya crying, I didn't do shit to ya." Merle nearly jumped off the couch."

"I'm sorry," she tried desperately to quell the wave of emotions that were threatening to overtake her.

"But, what the fuck girl? What is it?" Why the hell was he pushing this? She had given him an out, now he was gonna have to listen to all her damn feelings.

"I just…..I….." She huffed out a breath "I don't know what normal is. I don't know how to deal with all this new interaction. I don't know how I'm supposed to treat you and Daryl. I mean, what do you want? What do you expect? I don't know how to do this!" She began sobbing into her hands again and whispering "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I can't stop."

Merle watched her cry for a bit before he burst out laughing. Lina looked up startled as he took a seat next to her. Merle put his arm around her shoulders and shook her gently.

"There is no normal for this, honey. You ain't normal, Daryl and me ain't normal, and that kid in the crib over there don't have much chance of being normal neither. We do whatever the hell we want, you're just gonna have to get use to us girly. We're gonna be here to see our kid and there isn't much you can do about that." He turned her body to face him.

"Dixons aren't easy I'll give ya that, but I ain't never gonna piss in your ear and tell ya it's raining either. When we want something, will tell you. We aren't your boyfriends, this is between the three of us and everything else goes on like it always did. If I see you at the bar or the store, we aren't gonna be shooting the shit or even saying hi, alright. Everything is the same except we're gonna be over here to see our son. You should be happy, you got two men helping ya out. It's more than most get."

He kept hold of her shoulders and watched her face. She looked very pretty as she looked back at him with watery scared eyes. Before he could think too hard on it, he leaned in and pressed his lips to hers. Lina gasped in shock and jerked away, but Merle followed her.

"Why hide honey? We done more than this."

"You didn't kiss me last time. Your brother did, but not you."

Really? Merle tried to think back to that night. No, he hadn't kissed her, it seemed too intimate at the time. We got a kid now so, fuck it.

"First time for everything." He leaned into her again and again she backed away.

"I don't really know how….I…"

"Just shut up Lina." Merle grabbed hold of her chin and attacked her mouth. She really didn't know what she was doing, she was too hesitant and unsure. Lucky, for both of them, he was in a patient mood. Using his lips and tongue, he guided her gently, letting her know without words what he wanted from her. She was a fast learner and picked up on his cues quickly. Before either of them knew it, he was on top of her grinding and groping as they continued to explore each other mouths.

Just as he had decided to fuck her, condoms and his brother be damned, Daryl walked in the front door. Hoy shit! Had they been making out for an hour? He sat up and turned on the TV without a word. Lina sat up and straightened her shirt. Daryl rolled his eyes and set down his purchases on the small kitchen counter.