Chapter 6

Over the next week Glenn had made a few trips to the city to get supplies. One morning before he was about to head out, Tabatha approached him.

"Hey! I was wondering, you know, if it isn't too much trouble, if you could pick up some things for me." She said with a hopeful grin.

Glenn smiled back, "Uh, sure. What were you thinking of?"

"Yay! I made a list, just in case you said yes."

Glenn looked down at the list she had given him as she walked away. He scratched his head before hopping into a car and heading on his supply run.


He got back a few hours later and brought Tabatha her stuff. She gave a grin and a quick hug before taking the bags and heading for the RV.

"Whatcha got there?" Shane asked, stopping her before she reached the door of the RV.

"Just some stuff," she said with a shrug while looking at him like he was stupid.

He took one of the bags from her and looked in it. "Seriously? You had him go out and get you booze? Trying to get drunk while the rest of us are trying to survive is really not the smartest thing to be doing right now." He said with a scowl.

She took the bag back from him and composed herself, she really hated it when men talked down to her. "I have my reasons, okay. Besides, I wasn't going to drink it all, I was planning on sharing with anyone that wanted to partake."

"This is just stupid, Tabby," he said, using the nickname pretty much everyone had started using for her.

"Shane, calm the hell down, it's not like I'm an alcoholic or anything, I just wanted a drink or two."

"Why? Gimme one good reason why and I'll shut my mouth." Shane replied, matching her irritated look with one of his own.

Daryl walked by on his way down to the quarry to clean off, he had heard the conversation and knew her reason. He also knew that she wasn't going to tell anyone that reason either, which meant this argument was going to last way to long for his likely. So he decided he'd help out a little bit. He popped her bubble without missing a step on his way down to the water. "It's her birthday."

Tabatha glared at his back as he walked away, cursing herself for forgetting his unnervingly good memory. He had always remembered her damn birthday, even making sure to tell her grandparents to tell her 'Happy Birthday' from him every time they called her on it.

"Why didn't you just say so," Shane said with a big grin, stepping out of the way so that she could get into the RV. "Happy Birthday," he said in a half sing-song voice.

"Thanks," she replied with a bit of a sigh as she walked into the camper.

Later that night people started filing into the camper to partake in Tabatha's birthday drink fest. Lori, Carol, and Miranda stayed in their tents with their kids. Jim was on watch up on the roof of the camper with Dale, but everyone else was in the camper. Everyone had held their breath when Daryl stepped in, thinking that him and Tabatha would get into it again.

"Ya don't mind if I join ya?" he had asked before taking a seat on the passenger seat.

"Nope, I said anyone that wanted to partake was welcome." she replied, not meeting his eyes.

About an hour later the camper was pretty much empty, most of the party goers having gone to bed. Leaving Tabatha, Merle, Daryl, and Andrea still drinking. Andrea was the only one seriously showing signs of being drunk.

"Why the hell aren't you guysh drunk yet?" she slurred with a little hiccup.

"Your kiddin right?" Tabatha asked with a little grin. "These two could probably drink a whole biker gang under the table. And me?" she shrugged,"must just be my awesomeness."

"Ah, Hell, Tabby Cat. Ya know ya been drinkin almost as long as Daryl." Merle said with a grin.

"Well whose fault is that?" she asked with mock offense.

"Yars." he drawled with another lecherous grin.

"Bullshit," she laughed. "I was what, 14 when you bought me my first drink?"

"14?" Andrea asked with a shocked expression.

"Ya asked for it hun." he replied.

"I also asked for cigarettes and pot, all these things are things you really shouldn't get for a teenager just cuz they asked for it, silly." she said with a giggle.

"Wait, shso I thought you were some big badassh who didn't like anyone, but anything sshe ashked for you got her?" Andrea asked, looking even more confused.

"What can I say? She was a pretty lil' thing." he said, sending a wink her way.

"Blow it out your ass Merle. You know I was the ugliest damn kid you'd ever seen. You just always had a soft spot for me." she stuck her tongue out at him when he flipped her off.

The whole while Daryl just sat there, watching them. He had never really understood why Merle had always taken such a shine to her. But it had been that way since he was 6 and Merle had forced him to play nice with the cute little girl down the street. Hell, he'd always treated her better than he did Daryl, his own flesh and blood.

"Hey, Tabby Cat. You member anythin bout that night?" Merle asked with a smile and a glance at Daryl.

"Not really, it's still really fuzzy when I try to think about it." she said shooting him a confused look. "Why? Do you remember it?"

"Hell yea I do. I didn't get shit faced like ya did tho."


"Tabby Cat? Ya drunk already?" Merle asked the little stick of a girl who was laying flat on her back on the floor.

"No way! The walls are just moving, is all." she slurred, making him laugh.

Across the room a 15 year old Daryl was watching TV, just a little bit drunk, too. And sitting a little bit closer to the drunken Tabatha was one of her few other friends, Janice, she was about 15 too, and was much more interested in the pot Merle had brought than the booze.

"Hey Tabby! I have a great idea! Why don't we play truth or dare?" she asked with a sly little grin.

"Okay!" Tabatha replied, her cheeriness coming back into her voice.

"Kay, I'll go first. Truth or dare?" she asked.

Tabatha hiccuped a little after taking a hit and passing the joint back to Merle. "Truth."

"Hmmm, do you have a crush on anyone right now?" Janice asked with a knowing grin.

Tabby blushed and mumbled her answer, "Yeah." Then she cleared her throat and looked at her friend, "My turn! Truth or dare?"

"Truth," Janice answered.

"Are you a virgin?" Tabatha blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

It didn't work. "Nope!" she replied, grinning at Merle who sneered at her. There was no way he was touching that piece of jail bait, even if she begged, he didn't roll like that.

"My turn again! Truth or Dare!" Janice asked, knowing exactly how drunk Tabatha was..

"Ummmm, dare?" Tabby answered, a little uncertain.

Janice grinned triumphantly, her friend was smashed enough that she knew she could get away with this. "I dare you to kiss Daryl." she said with a grin.

Daryl's head shot up at the mention of his name. "What?"

Tabatha got up and stumbled over to him. "I'm supposed to kiss you." she said, her heart fluttering in her chest.

"No fucking way! That's just nasty!" he yelled.

Tabby started moving in, trying to kiss him. Maybe if she just got to kiss him he'd like it. The closer she got to his lips the move he struggled to push her away, finally he pushed her off of him and took off to the bathroom, locking himself in.

She stumbled back into the living room where Janice was laughing at her. "God, you're so pathetic!" she said with another laugh, that was quickly cut off by Merle grabbing her by the hair, dragging her to the door and physically throwing her ass out. By the time he got back to the living room, Tabatha was no where to be seen. He found her about an hour later, out in the garage, passed out in the front seat of one of the cars.

He sighed and picked her up, taking her back in the house. He laid her down on the couch and covered her up. He really wished he'd been paying more attention to her and her dumb ass friend. Merle had a feeling that bitch was trouble.

"Just hope ya don't member none of this shit in the mornin'" he mumbled as he pushed her hair behind her ear and then headed to his room to pass out.


"Holy shit! I didn't remember any of that, but for some reason I never wanted to talk to that cunt again." Tabatha said laughing.

Daryl grunted from his seat, he remembered that night, too. He spent the rest of the night locked in the bathroom. But it wasn't for the reason her friend had thought. He didn't run away because she was ugly, honestly, he'd never looked at her like she was more than a boy before that night. But the way she had been crawling on him had made his dick get hard, he was so embarrassed he had locked himself in the bathroom the whole night.

As he sat and watched Merle and Tabatha talk for about another, reminiscing about the 'good ole days', he wondered why he had never talked to her as easily as his brother could. The whole time they were together they never talked about anything but how shitty his day had been. He hadn't even tasked her about her day.

Andrea had passed out, and Daryl reclined in the seat and rubbed his hands over his face. He started to drift off to sleep listening to her voice, telling stories about her life since him to Merle, and with the gut wrenching realization that he was not only a horrible husband, but a shitty friend, too. She hadn't been the only one that got them stuck in their situation, but he had always treated her like getting pregnant had been her grand scheme to trap him.

When he finally passed out the last thought that went through his head was how much he wished he could go back to the start of their marriage and fix it all. He knew he could of been happy if he hadn't fucked it all up.


Thank you to all my reviews of my last chapter, I'm trying to keep up with all of you as much as possible =-): cuberftw, eloquent dreams- and if I missed anyone I'm sorry. My e-mail is all jacked up right now. I do use your suggestions and thoughts, just ask eloquent dreams, she gave me an idea with one of her reviews and I liked it so much it's now become part of my plot lol. I love getting the e-mails alerting me that this is getting added to peoples favorites and their alerts. I love, love, love reviews =-) Thank you all so much.

Oh, and I'm taking Merle in a less jackass direction, because I've always liked the actor who plays him =-p.