Daryl couldn't believe his eyes, the man standing above Rick was his brother Merle who he thought was dead. "Merle ya asshole!" He called out to his brother who was also surprised to see him. "Well, that ain't anyway to treat your brother." Merle shifted his gaze to a very pissed off Daryl. "What the fuck are you doin?" Daryl aimed his crossbow at his brother as a warning to back off of Rick. Merle put his make shift hand and other hand up and backed off, confusing the long haired blonde he had come with. "I was just tryin to repay officer friendly for leavin me on the roof." Rick stood up and brushed himself off. "We went back for you." Rick tried to defuse the situation. "He could have fuckin died by the time you came back!" The girl yelled in Merle's defense. "Ellie is right! You handcuffed me and left me to die!"
Lacie heard the blonde yell, she sounded familiar like a ghost from her past. This prompted her to run to Daryl's side in attempt to get a good look at the female intruder. /Bella!/ The others continued to bicker until they noticed the short black haired girl make her way toward the blonde. In an attempt to stop her Daryl attempted to grab Lacie's arm, he wasn't fast enough. "Who's this bitch?" Merle didn't bother trying to protect Bella for he knew she could protect herself. "Lacie?" The blonde met her half way and the two girls hugged tightly, confusing everyone around them. "You're still alive! I was so sure you were dead!" Bella said while letting go to get a good look at her long lost friend. "I thought the same about you! You look great though!" Lacie felt more excited then when Daryl started teaching her how to use his crossbow. "So who's this guy you're with?" She teased. "Just some idiot. Tell me about you how did you get with this back stabbing crowd?" Lacie was taken back by Bella's statement, she looked around at all the on lookers. "What are you talking about? These are good people." Taking Merle's left arm in to her hand Bella raised it to show her friend what these "good" people had done. "This doesn't look very fuckin nice to me. They left him to die without a care!" Merle's make shift hand had confused Lacie, these people who had taken her in couldn't have done that. This started a bickering amongst the two intruders and the camp. Instead of turning on her new group though Lacie walked over to Rick. "Why does she say you guys took this mans arm?" Rick tried to speak to her but the bickering was too loud, prompting Lacie to take her gun out and shoot it once in the air. A quiet lull came over the group and Rick began to tell the story of how Merle was being a dictator on the roof in Atlanta, hurting anyone who opposed his rule. After she allowed Merle to tell his side of the story about the roof top. Not that she felt it was her place, but Lacie passed the judgment that both sides were at fault. "You're a big boy aren't you? Get over it. If you can't take your chances with the walkers. They sound hungry." Merle was pissed on how this little girl spoke to him. "You little!" He was cut off by Daryl getting in between the two crossbow still raised. "She's right. You can't stay 'ere if yer gonna get after everyone." Merle was smart and knew he had lost this battle for now. Daryl didn't like treating his brother that way, however it was the only way to protect his brother and family at the prison. Reading Merle's body language Bella understood it was over, then lowered her gun.
The night sky was lit up by the rays of the moon which fell through the windows of the prison. Rick had told Daryl and Lacie that Merle and Bella were their responsibility. Rick also thought it was best if the two intruders were to stay in a locked cell, when the two weren't watching them. The agreement was made, and the two headed to see their "company". Daryl couldn't help but notice the smile on Lacie's face even after all the drama. He also felt a twinge of happiness that his brother was here and okay. The cell Bella and Merle were in was a bunk bed cell, Bella got top. "Hi guys" Lacie said as Daryl unlocked the door to the cell. "Lacie! I can't believe you guys didn't put us in different cells this bastard is going to drive me crazy all night!" Lacie pulled a chair into the room and sat in the corner. "At least it's one of the bigger cells." Daryl stood in the corner closest to the door after shutting it. "So what have you been up to this last 9 months?" Bella laid down on her bunk as if the question she asked Lacie would result in a bed time story. The men started their own conversation about the same topic, basically what's happened since the last time I saw you. However unlike the ladies the men were half listening to the ladies conversation, trying to figure out more about the girls that they had been traveling with. "Well after we got separated at the asylum Max and I tried to move forward. Actually he tried to move forward, I was at a stand still. By then as you know I had to off my dad as a walker and saw so many people get mauled I started to wonder what the point was? If you weren't strong enough in this new world, I knew I wasn't." Lacie turned to the bars of the window and looked toward the stars. "Max was basically dragging me around like a corpse. It took a whole month before I figured out I was being an idiot. I mean I never gave up before, so why start now? I decided to live for the both of us. So things got better for a little while. Max and I were sleeping in my Jeep and making our way around Georgia." She looked back to Bella who was on her side now staring at her friend. "However one night I woke up and the Jeep was surrounded by walkers. I woke him up lightly but he freaked out anyway and yelled at me to start the Jeep. I did and we sped off through the woods. Apparently he thought it was a good idea to grab the wheel and we ended up ramming right into a tree. I had enough mind to grab all my stuff from the Jeep. Max just got out and ran. I didn't see him after that." Lacie smiled at her friend to reassure her that she was going to be okay. "I spent 6 months by myself. Sleeping in trees and hunting animals. When I was bored I went around stabbing walkers. it also got some aggression out. In a way I realize I was looking for trouble. It was when I wasn't looking for trouble it found me. I helped a guy get away from walkers after he made me miss my kill. I thought he should replace that deer I almost got. His camp got wind of my skills and thought it to be wise to capture me and use me as a hunter. I tried to escape quite a few times but they all resulted in my ass getting kicked. Then one day that guy who got me into the mess decided to get me out of it. This resulted in his death and me meeting Daryl." Daryl had never heard any of this before, it had answered a lot of the groups questions about the bruises Lacie had when she first got there, and why he and Glenn had found her alone. "What about you?" Bella rolled on to her back to look at the ceiling. "My time wasn't as eventful as yours. After the asylum I spent my time room hopping and using walker blood on doors to deter them. I picked up what little food I could find on the way and eventually I met that jackass on a roof. We drank and smoked until the walkers over ran the damn place. We took the fire escape, the asshole saved me and we took a truck back to Woodbury." Bella folded both of her arms behind her head.
The room was silent for a few moments before Bella spoke again. "Lacie you always have vodka on you. Can we have some?" Daryl looked at Lacie not knowing when Bella was talking about. He had never seen Lacie drink, nor had he ever smelt alcohol on her breath. "Yes if it will help you sleep." Lacie got up and left the cell to go get her bottle. "Yer friend has booze? Aren't we lucky?" Bella sat up and looked at Daryl's confused expression for a moment then answered Merle's question, as if it was rhetorical. "Yes even before the apocalypse it was the only way to get her to sleep." Her eyes went nonchalantly back to Daryl and saw that he seemed satisfied with her answer. When Lacie returned she had her whole backpack and sat back in her chair before taking a large bottle of Grey Goose Vodka. "Why don't we all drink tonight?" Bella laughed looking at the size of Lacie's vodka bottle. "Hell yeah Ellie!" Lacie looked at Daryl then sheepishly handed the bottle to Merle. She felt like she had betrayed Daryl by not telling him that she had the bottle, or that at times when she ran out, she would sneak away to the liquor store when they were getting supplies. Merle took a large gulp of the stuff then handed it to Bella who did the same. When Bella finally handed the bottle back to Lacie, she looked for disapproval or anger in Daryl's face but found none. "Ya didn't kill us over it." He said noticing his friend's discomfort. Wrapping her fingers tighter around the bottle, she tilted it upwards against her lips and took a sip. Daryl contemplated the repercussions of having a drink but in the ended decided a little won't hurt, he hadn't drank with Merle in a while. Before they all knew it the bottle was empty. The four of them were drunk off their asses. Bella even fell out of the top bunk twice onto Merle, who just laughed it off and put her back in to her bunk. Lacie and Daryl knew it was time to lock up and go back to their cells, so they stood up a bit wobbly, said their "Go the fuck to sleep's, then locked Merle and Bella in. The room was spinning and Lacie wasn't walking straight, she even fell in to Daryl with a nervous laugh twice. The two wondered how the hell Lacie was going to get up the stairs to her cell, if she couldn't handle flat ground. "Hey!" She yelped when Daryl picked her up bridal style. "Shhh. Yer gonna wake 'em up." He decided it would be best just to carry her. Arguing at this point was useless not that she had a real argument to begin with. The redneck placed her lightly in her bed. "Night Lace." Before her drunkin mind could gather that he was leaving he was already gone. "Night Daryl."
Lacie was woken up by Hershel the next day in the afternoon with some lunch. "Morning Lacie. Were you up late last night?" The old man's smile was always comforting, he always seemed to know everything she did, but never judged it. "Kind of." She ran her black hair through her hands then jumped up after remembering that Bella was her responsibility, and she had been sleeping all morning. "Don't worry your two friends are still fast asleep." He handed her the tray with cooked squirrel and a cup of water. "Did Daryl go out already?" Holding the tray she sat back down on her bed. "No, he's waiting for some company. So eat up and go find him." He tapped her knee and left the cell. There wasn't much so it was easy to stuff her face as quickly as possible. After doing her hair, changing her cloths, and getting her gear on Lacie went out to find Daryl.
Carol and Daryl were sitting at the picnic table in the gazebo. Lacie could tell they had chemistry, however she decided not to ask about it. Daryl didn't speak much about what was going on with him emotionally or anything serious for that matter. "Hey!" Lacie smiled and walked up to the two. "Hey Lace. Ready to go?" Daryl stood up then put his crossbow on his back. "Hell yeah. That way I can get a deer bigger than the one you caught yesterday!" Scoffing Daryl put his arm around his friend and they headed to his truck. "Ya know ya ain't gettin anythin bigger than that buck." Before they could get into the truck Rick walked over. "Did you two forget about Merle and Bella?" Honestly they did for a moment, not that they didn't care about the two they were just excited to hunt. "I'll go get'em" Rick gave Daryl back the key to open the locked cell. "Lace get in the front." With that he headed up to the prison. Lacie hopped in to the light blue pick up, and Rick walked up to the window. "I hate to ask you this...But do you think we can trust your friend and Merle? We have lost enough people." She nodded at Rick confidently, she had a lot of respect for Rick. He had the fate of the whole group on his shoulders even when he tried to split the responsibility, they all ended up looking to him. "Alright. I trust you. Have a good hunt." Tapping the door he went off to continue taking care of the and Bella jumped into the Truck bed looking exhausted from last nights drinking event. Crossbow first Daryl got into the driver seat and the four of them headed out.
Normally where they would take a left to the forest Daryl took a right toward the town."Are we doing a supply run today too?" Lacie questioned leaning on the metal part of the open window. "Ya could say that. We drank all y'ere booze fer sleepin. I figured we could get some." The town was a half an hour away, they should siphon some gas while they were their she thought. Merle and Bella started arguing in the back about who could handle their alcohol better. "Maybe we should make them walk back." Lacie joked. "Nah they would trail the walkers behind'em." The two finally quieted down when Daryl parked the truck in front of the liquor store. "Now this is what I'm talkin 'bout little brother." It turned out that prior to intruding on the prison Merle and Bella were on an alcohol run of their own. Inside the liquor store the shelves were well stocked only missing a few bottles here and there. Lacie grabbed a bottle of Grey Goose then dropped it off in the truck before going to the market two doors down with Daryl to get some odds and ends. She wouldn't had felt right if they had came all this way just for her, she was apart of a family now. Merle and Bella decided to hang back at the liquor store, they wanted to stock up. Inside the market Lacie flipped on a flashlight and the two headed to the baby isle, Judith needed more formula and Lacie wanted to get her a few toys. Only if there were any without blood on it. Four containers and two toys later Daryl and Lacie decided to split up but not to go more than two isles away from each other. She ended up in the first aid isle, there was a lot gone but Lacie grabbed what ever she deemed necessary. At the end of her isle there was a display with condoms on it, she decided to grab some for Glenn and Maggie. After stuffing their bags with canned goods and Tylenol they went back to the truck. Merle and Bella were already in the back of the truck drinking. "Hey look their alive! We don't need to steal meh little brother's truck!" Lacie found herself rolling her eyes at the older Dixon before grabbing the gas can and a tube. "Hey Lacie! Can you talk officer friendly in to letting us stay another fuckin night? I missed." She nodded and went to the closest car. "Are you sure ya don't want me to do it?" Lacie knelt down and stuck the tube into the gas tank. "Yeah, you drove out here for me. I know we ended up getting stuff for the camp but that was a side idea." The first two cars were empty but thirds the charm, Lacie kept at it until she filled up the 5 gallon gas can, which took four cars. They left the town without an incident and headed towards the hunting grounds.
The wind was just hard enough to ease the heat but just weak enough not to smack you in the face with your own hair. Merle thought it would be a good "peace offering" if he and Bella helped. The group decided to split in to two groups, Merle and Daryl then Bella and Lacie. In a way this was also a way to spend some long waited time. Bella was not a trained hunter and Lacie knew that, so she planned to catch something and have Bella lie about it. Daryl and Merle both knew what they were doing and caught six different forest animals. Lacie tracked two foxes and a rabbit before she saw three walkers wondering through the trees. Killing walkers was something Bella was very good at with that bat of hers. She also had to get some aggression out for not being able to hurt that damn officer friendly. Bella went in swinging after attaching the rabbit to her kill belt Lacie took out her Katana and stabbed the one in the head that Bella had yet to get to."Let's go!" Lacie grabbed Bella's arm when she saw another eight come into view. "I have to find Daryl." Having kill on you makes you a bigger target for walkers, for they smell the fresh blood. The once quiet forest was in an up roar of growling. /Daryl! Where the fuck are you?!/