Ch. 5
Thank you so much for reading and reviewing!
I'll be updating this fic on Wednesdays and Sundays from now until complete.
Side note: Several weeks have passed between Ch. 4 and Ch. 5.
Enjoy!
Merle paced the prison yard, watching as Rick tilled a fucking garden.
Months ago, he had said that he was a damned mystery to himself, but now, he was pretty sure Rick was in the same boat. The man had put down his gun—refused to carry the damn thing. Merle thought it was the stupidest decision ever, and he had seen and done a lot of dumb shit in his time.
"I know he's attractive, but I don't think he's gonna like you like that," Carol said as she walked up beside him.
He cut his eyes at her and paused in his walking. "Ya ain't nearly as funny as ya think ya are."
She shrugged and the corner of her lip twitched up.
Over the last few weeks, him and Carol talked a lot more. Most of the time it was trading barbs, but they had serious moments, too. Those usually brought on uncomfortable feelings that made his skin feel too tight.
One of those moments happened a few days before when she had cleaned and wrapped his arm because his stump had gotten raw from the knife appendage.
She talked the whole time about shit he already knew. How she had stopped going to the hospital after they looked at her with nothing but pity in their eyes. How if he ever got a broken rib or dislocated shoulder, she could fix him right up.
Then she looked him in the eyes and started talking right to him. Carol asked him if he liked her hair, and when he nodded, she told him what the inmate that had been killed in the Governor's first attack on the prison had thought about it.
"He thought I was a lesbian," she laughed humorlessly. "Do you know why my hair was so short when we met?"
Merle swallowed hard and held her stare, sensing she was testing him in some way. "Ya got your hair buzzed off to keep that asshole ya married from grabbin' somethin' when ya tried to get away."
Carol nodded. "He got a hold of it once and yanked a handful out. One of the most painful things ever." She paused. "I'd like to think if he came through that door right now and told me to come on, I'd tell him to go to hell."
"He wouldn't make it through the damn door," Merle muttered and hopped off the table. "Thanks," he said as he walked past her.
"Keep the knife off for a couple of days."
Merle nodded but didn't look at her until he was at the door then he turned around and saw her leaning against the table with her shoulders slumped.
"I can't remember a time my old man didn't beat the hell outta my momma. She tried to leave, too, but she had me, then Daryl came along, and she was trapped for a whole lot longer. It killed her in the end. She had a fuckin' concussion and passed out with a cigarette hanging from her lips. Took down the whole house.
"Pops was at a bar and Daryl was out trailin' after the neighborhood kids. I got there right after him. I ain't never heard someone scream like he did that day." Carol had lifted her head but still faced away from him. "Some people get trapped and can't do shit about it."
"I got away," she whispered. "Went to a shelter in Atlanta with Sophia." When she turned to face him, she looked so sad. "I lasted three days before I ran back to him and took my daughter back to that life. She deserved better than me."
Merle shook his head. "Ya both deserved better than the man ya got. I saw ya with her, remember? She thought the sun rose and set with ya."
"Then I lost her." She shook her head.
"Ya didn't lose her," he argued. "Bad shit happened s'all."
"Your brother looked for her more than I did."
"Ya didn't know what to look for."
Carol looked away. "This is the only family I got now. I'll protect 'em better this time."
"You're a hell of a shot," he agreed.
That made her smile a little. "Daryl taught me."
Merle hummed and chewed on the inside of this cheek before he said, "He was pretty happy to get ya back when they all thought ya were walker food."
"He's a good guy."
"Y'all ever..." He trailed off and waggled his eyebrows, trying to make it seem like more of a joke than being something serious to him. Hell, he didn't even know why it felt like he needed to know.
"No," Carol laughed. "He's my friend. the first real male friend I've ever had." She sighed. "I'm holdin' you up. Besides, I got story time with the kids now."
Carol slid beside him and out the door and he followed her until they reached the library then went on toward his cell.
Even know, standing beside her in the middle of the yard, he didn't know what to make of the tension under their interactions.
He had known women, and most of them were very up front about what they wanted. And he was happy to give them that. There had been a few relationships over the years, but none of them stuck. As soon as a woman started nagging him about shit, he was out.
All that old stuff didn't compare to the concern and genuine care he felt for Carol, though.
"So, your brother brought back some rabbits," she said, and he turned away from her, afraid she could see the confusion he felt when they were together.
"He should've by now," Merle muttered. "Takes that girl with him out in the woods and ya know they ain't trackin' a damn thing."
Carol laughed and bumped her shoulder against his arm. "Be happy for him."
"I'm his brother. It's my job to be an asshole to him about the woman he's with, and since this is the first time Darla's been saddled, I gonna give him as much hell as I want."
Carol rolled her eyes. "I think it's just the Dixon in you."
Merle grinned and tilted his head. "Ya want some Dixon in ya?"
Her choked laugh came with a shake of her head. "You must've been a ladies man before all this."
He shrugged. "I've got a rugged quality about me."
After another snort, she touched his arm and nodded to the little shaded rest area they had built up. "Help me cook the rabbits?"
"I guess," he said and followed after her, trying to recall the last time he went so easily with anyone besides Daryl.
Daryl lay in bed, unable to move out from underneath the covers. Beth was so damn warm wrapped around him that it made it hard for him to want to do anything but stay put.
She hadn't wasted any time moving her little bit of stuff into his cell and using her old one for when she kept Judith during the day.
Her little accident sign looked a whole lot better than the kiddy shit from before and the darker curtain she had hung over their bars kept it more private. He liked it, liked her there with him.
Daryl stretched a little and tried to move her off of him, but she held on tighter.
"Don't go," she whispered. "Let's just stay here in this little room all day."
"Can't do that, arrow. I'm runnin' lead with Michonne. It's a big job."
"I know." She yawned and slid off his chest. "It sounds real dangerous."
"Ehhh." He slung his legs off the bed and leaned his forearms on his knees. Beth curled around him, planting a few soft kisses on his back. "'Bout like every other day." He picked up her hand off his chest and kissed her palm.
He stood up and pulled on his sleeveless flannel shirt then his jacket and vest. Beth had laid back against their pillow and watched him get ready to leave.
Things had changed a whole hell of a lot since that day in the woods. He knew every single inch of her body like it was the back of his own hand, and she had done plenty of exploring, too. She kissed his back, and her fingers running over the scars there didn't bother him at all anymore.
They had yet to close the deal, so to speak, and that's another reason he was going on the run. He needed condoms and he would be damned if he went and asked Glenn for a few or anyone else.
Beyond that, he was teaching her how to track and hunt, and she was getting a whole lot better than he had ever imagined. They been out in the woods the other day, and she was the one who caught the slight disturbance in the leaves that led them to one of the rabbits they had killed.
She would joke and tell him that she wouldn't need him anymore, and he would stand behind her and nod where she couldn't see. Beth was right. Before too long, she wouldn't need his help at all.
He watched her sit up and scoot off the bed then grab her jeans and pull them up her legs. Daryl shifted a little and watched from behind his hair as she tugged on her boots, taking in every movement.
"Is Merle goin' with ya?" She asked as she tied her hair back.
"Nah. That thing's done messed up his arm again. Carol ain't lettin' him wear it, so he ain't goin' out."
"I don't like it when ya go out without him," she said and sighed.
"Why?" He asked and picked up his bow.
"I dunno. I think y'all work better in a pair, I guess."
He snorted and leaned back against the bars of the cell. "I got Michonne, Glenn, Tyreese and Sasha all there watchin' my back and me watchin' theirs. Even that Woodbury kid's comin'."
"The one that asks ya what ya did before everythin' went to hell?"
Daryl hummed and looked her over as she put on her belt that held her knife. "He's got a big crush on ya," he said without really meaning to.
Beth's head shot up and her eyes were wide. "Really? Oh my gosh, I've been waitin' for this day," she said and started walking toward the cell door and he caught her arm and pulled her to his chest. "You're crazy if ya think that I'd trade ya for someone else," she whispered.
Daryl kissed the top of her head and stayed quiet. He didn't think there would ever be a time that he didn't feel like she was going to disappear from beside him.
"I's thinkin' that I could go check the snares while you're gone. That way ya ain't go so much to do when ya get back."
He shrugged. "If ya want to or we can go once I get back."
Beth leaned back and rose up on her tiptoes to kiss him. "I'll just do it. I wanna try out my new bow."
"Ya be careful," he said seriously and squeezed her in a tight hug before he let her go.
"You, too."
The Big Spot was a bust.
They had spent so much fucking time getting all the walkers out of the triage area that had been set up and the store itself, but there had been a ton of those bastards on the fucking roof.
Along with a damn helicopter.
What the fuck?
Michonne parked the truck in the prison yard, and Daryl got out as soon as it stopped. He tried ease some of the tension in his shoulders, but he couldn't. All he could think about was that fucking store. He had been walking through, picking up shit and putting it in his pack. He got things on everyone's list, and things just for him and Beth.
They hadn't been in the store ten minutes before the ceiling gave way.
Walkers rained down. The chopper was holding on by a thread.
Zach.
That poor damn kid stuck under a shelf full of wine, getting chewed on by a walker.
Daryl walked toward the cellblock, leaving everyone else to decide who was going to tell who what. Once he was outside their cell, he leaned against the bars and watched as she wrote in her journal.
He had meant to get her some more pens, but he hadn't gotten that far.
Beth looked up at him and her breath caught. She knew just from seeing his face. "Who?" She asked quietly and stood up.
"Zach," he said and cleared his throat. The lump there was getting too much to hold back.
Beth walked over to the stupid accident sign and ran her hands over the letters before moving toward him. "Are ya okay?"
He shrugged and looked down. "Just tired of losin' people s'all."
"Me, too," she whispered and wrapped her arms around his waist.
The comfort he was used to getting felt so foreign to him in that moment. It was like the clusterfuck at the store had pushed him all the way back to who he had been before. After a few seconds, he gripped her elbow in his hand, and when she started to pull away, she looked up at him from under her eyelashes.
"It's okay to be sad, Daryl. He was a nice guy."
He shook his head. "I'm glad I knew him. Even if he looked at ya like some puppy dog."
Beth grinned. "Did he ever guess what ya did?"
Daryl shook his head and thought back to the kid's questions and guesses. How he had thought Daryl was some kind of white knight, a good guy, through and through.
"No," he said gruffly.
There was a part of him that was glad that he would never find out.