A/N – Merle and Karen, S3 at Woodbury. And they played a little different to how I originally intended. I checked Karen's character profile on Wikipedia, Noah wasn't her son. And I've played on the fact that Merle and Tyrese's characters are of a physical type, not a mental type, just physical. And thus Karen has a 'type' if you will. Enjoy.

Merle watched her settle into Woodbury. She was an interesting woman. Dark curly hair, lithe body. No real attitude to speak of, but something about her intrigued him anyway.

He watched her as she blew off the Governor. Maybe that was why. He'd tried for her and failed and the Governor had moved on to the one he got to do his fucking PR without any issue.

Stupid, fucking stupid. He'd take personality over vacuous any fucking day. Unless vacuous sucked like a vacuum. Snorting, Merle laughed at his own joke.

"Something funny?" She had turned back toward him.

"Nah, inside joke." He grinned toothily down at her, expecting her to step away. Most women avoided him like the plague. But she didn't move.

Instead she stepped forward. "You be wantin' something sugar?" He asked, loosing another toothy smile on her.

"I want lots of things Merle, good pair of boots, nice book I haven't already read a million times over, decent blanket to ward off the cold, or better yet a nice strong body to share it all with." She said it all to him matter-of-factly as she turned and walked with him.

"I'll keep an eye out for some boots for you." He says as he looks at her feet, deliberately ignoring the rest of her words.

"And that nice strapping man too?" She blinked up at him and wiggled her eyebrows when he looked silently down at her.

"Sure thing sugar." He said, flirt dropping off him like he'd shrugged his shoulders to get rid of a cloak he was wearing.

"Karen. My name's Karen Merle, I know you know it, why won't you say it?" A faint hint of irritation colours her tone as she stops now and just stares up at him.

"Oh you know, if I call y'all sugar or darlin' I don't gotta remember the name of whoever I roll off of in the middle of the night now do I?" He cursed himself as he told her the truth.

Merle had taken another half-dozen steps before he realised Karen had stopped. Her brown eyes were staring at him flatly. Her arms crossed under her breasts, pushing them up, giving her the illusion of cleavage she didn't really have.

Raising an eyebrow at her, he waited for the tirade he was sure would come. Instead she asked him a question. "How old are you Merle?" She moved forward slowly and stopped a couple of steps from him.

"Ain't gonna see…forty-five again shall we say?" He gave her a hint, let her know he wasn't a spring chicken that mostly got rid of a lot of women looking for a man to save them these days. Not that he himself had experience with that sort of shit, but poor dumb fucking Shumpert though? Fuck, he got propositioned every other day.

"Never been married, had a long-term relationship or anything have you? With a woman I mean, family doesn't count."

"Well, if you're bein' specific I guess not." Merle answered her laconically even as his mind worked at warp speed trying to see where the fuck she was heading.

"Uh huh. Okay, I guess then yeah. Sugar and darling are okay to use. Shame though, I think we could have maybe had something." Karen smiled at him and then looked over his shoulder, called out to some dumb fuckwit and strode away.

##########

Could they have had something? Merle pondered on it over the next few weeks. He watched her move around the town, she had balls for a woman but she was quiet about it. Did her job, didn't shirk any shit duties she was given. And she bonded with the asthmatic kid, took him in.

Karen – and when the fuck did he start thinking of her by name – was nothing like that fucking blonde cunt back at the quarry. That bitch had strutted around like a bitch in heat. Only difference being she wanting to fuck someone, not be fucked.

Now she epitomized penis envy that one. Karen though? She was different. And so one night, after his wall shift had ended, Merle went back to his apartment and took a shower. He threw on some clothes, stamped his feet into his boots and left the laces undone. Then, grabbing up the sack he'd put on a seat, he took off again.

Huffing and calling himself a fuckwit of epic proportions, Merle knocked quietly on the bedroom window in the small house he knew Karen and the kid lived in.

When a candle came to life, he stepped back, trampling the flowers she'd planted a week or so ago. Shit, that was going to piss her off.

"What the hell are you doing?" She asked him as she pushed the window up.

"Didn't wanna wake your boy." Merle answered her truthfully.

"Couldn't wait until morning Merle?" She asked now as she jerked her head toward the front door.

Merle stepped back some more and bent quickly, shoving the plants back into the ground haphazardly before he moved to the front door, wiping his hands on his pants as Karen opens it.

"Got you somethin'." He says as he shoves the sack into her arms.

Turning, Merle sits down on the steps of Karen's house and listens to her pulling out her present. "Holy God, these are… wow, thank you Merle." She says quietly as she sits down beside him.

Merle jerks a little when her warm lips buss his jaw, her slender forearm resting up his shoulder as she leans in to do so. For an infinitesimal moment, Merle leans back.

Remembering himself, he sits upright and while Karen moves her lips away, she keeps her forearm there, on his shoulder as she looks down at the boots Merle had searched high and low for.

"Spare laces too? Fantastic." She says as she shoves them into one of the boots. "Thank you, thank you so much."

"Yeah well, fuck knows what'll happen, best to be ready for the worst by havin' good footwear." Merle mutters as he feels the tips of his hears begin to burn. Fuck, he was glad it was night. He hadn't blushed like a fucking schoolgirl since before his mama had up and burned herself to death.

Dixon's didn't fucking blush.

Shifting uncomfortably, Merle went to rise, but Karen's forearm pushed and he stayed down. "Do you think something is going down?" Karen asked him quietly.

"Nothin' in particular. But this world, the way it is now? It could all go in the blink of a fuckin' eye Karen, best to be prepared for anything. If it don't happen that's a win." Merle spoke plainly to her.

He could see the way the town was moving. While he thought democracy was overrated, especially in the world they existed in now, that didn't mean he wanted a dictatorship either. Or worse, a fucking dystopian society. That shit never ended well.

And though he'd never admit it, Merle was getting sick of killing and fighting. His body count was up to double digits now. He didn't want to make it more. Mentally shaking himself, he goes to rise again, but Karen stops him once more, this time with her other hand as she pulls his face around to her.

Their lips meet. Her kiss is sweet, gentle and tender. Nothing like he himself is. Clenching his hands into one giant fist where he's holding them between his knees, Merle forces himself not to give in to his base urge.

Because that's what it was, what he was. Base, Instinct. He ran on nothing but instinct. See, want, take. Instinct. And feral instinct at that.

"Merle." Karen pulls back on a smile. "You can kiss me back you know, I've wanted you to for a while." She smiles at him again, but Merle doesn't return it.

"No, I can't. I'm not gentle Karen. I'd hurt you." Merle surges to his feet and walks away ignoring Karen's soft calls.

##########

A few days later Merle finishes his shift and comes home to a covered bowl outside his front door. When he lifts the cloth, the still warm fragrance of a lovely looking juicy stew wafts up to him.

Moaning appreciatively, Merle scoops a finger though it and sucks on the juice. It tastes even better than it looks.

He drops the bowl and cloth back, clean and empty in the morning before Karen or Noah are up and around.

The next thing is a bowl of macaroni and cheese. Boxed yes. But Karen had added fresh vegetables to it and some goats cheese from their fresh animals. He knew she'd been put on barnyard duty, stood to reason she'd get the pickings of the dairy stuff. It was divine.

After he drops that bowl back, the next gift to appear is some fresh-baked bread. Still warm when he bit into it and a tiny knob of butter.

The piece de résistance though was the cherry cobbler with the fresh custard. Merle didn't even want to know how she'd managed it, but she had and it melted in his mouth.

After a single bite, he puts it down. Going into his bathroom, he takes a shower and shaves and dresses in some clean clothes. Then he takes up the cobbler and makes the journey to Karen's.

Calling himself all sorts of a fool, he knocks on her door. Noah opens it and grins at him with the dish. "Hey Mister Dixon, it's nice isn't it?" Merle nods.

"It is, is the lady of the house in?" He asks as he follows Noah's gesture and steps inside.

"Sure is, Karen!" Noah turns and shouts down the hallway, deafening Merle in the process.

"For an asthmatic kid you've got a set of lungs on you." He says and Noah turns to him.

"Yeah, I used to swim, it was good for lung capacity. Don't know how I'll be now." Merle watches him withdraw and puts a hand on his shoulder, shoves him a little and laughs.

"Kid, you'll be fine, you got Karen, this town, we ain't gonna let anything happen you hear?" He does something he'd never done to another soul other than his brother and grips the back of his neck and shakes him affectionately.

"You should run, ain't the same but it'd help." He says as Noah looks up at him.

"Yeah?" Noah asks him now. "Around the town and stuff?"

Merle nods. "Yeah, around the town. Bein' fit will give you an edge and we need all the fuckin' edges we can get these days." His curse rolls of his tongue without thought and Noah's eyes widen.

"Uh, shit, uh…" Trying to backpedal Merle hears a faint laugh.

"I don't think you can dig yourself out of it Merle." Karen says as she stands in the hallway in a long, over-sized shirt that she'd been sleeping in when Merle had interrupted her to give her her boots.

"Maybe, what if I promise to be the warm body? Will that help me?" He asked as he cocked a brow at Karen and eyed her lasciviously in a very obvious way making Noah gag.

"Yuck, I'm going to bed. Please don't wake me." He begged as he turned and walked past Karen to his bedroom and shut his door soundly.

Merle looked at Karen and then down at the cobbler still in his hands. "Thank you, I've always loved cherries." He motioned with the cobbler. "How did you mange the custard?" He asked now.

"Well, cleaning up after the animals means I get to take what dairy I need." Karen shrugged. "I like animals better than I like people most days."

It's a blunt statement from her. One Merle never thought he'd hear. "I thought you liked being around people?" He questioned as he stepped forward and placed the dish on the table before he continued forward to stand in front of Karen.

"Not if I can help it, trouble is I don't really have a choice these days. Being around people equals survival." Karen says to him as she tilts her head, gaze meeting Merle's head on. "So the way to your heart Merle Dixon is through your stomach?" She teased lightly as her hands slide up Merle's arms.

"No." Merle's hand fists in Karen's hair. "I got an itch I think you can scratch." He kisses her before she can say anything, figures she'll toss him out for being so crude, it's his pathetic last-ditch effort to scare her off. He knows that if he has her, he won't give her up. She'd be stuck with him, because he didn't share.

Pulling back, Merle sees Karen look up at him. Her eyes roving his face. "You shaved for me." She says eventually as a fey smile crosses slowly over her face.

"Ah.." She cuts him off before he can say anything else.

"I don't share Merle, if you come into my bedroom tonight and be with me, you don't get to go out and be with another woman. Not unless we discuss it and decide we don't want to be together anymore. I'm not dancing around this with you. I deserve more."

And that was the fucking crux of it. She did deserve more. More than him. But Merle was too selfish to step back. "I got it sugar." He says as he leans down and slides his prosthetic around Karen's waist, pulling her up to him with his sheer brute strength.

His mouth opens on Karen's and he eats her, his teeth nipping at her lips, sucking her tongue into his mouth so he can nibble on it too. He eats her mouth as he plans to eat her pussy. With lustful enjoyment. "Gonna fuck you Karen, fuck you good. You're gonna feel me tomorrow." He says to her in a dirty whisper as he pulls back.

"Thank God. I thought you'd never change your mind." Karen said to him as she leaned up and took Merle's earlobe between her teeth and tugged on it making his balls ache.

"You been courtin' me woman?" Woman was new, not sugar or darlin', but woman, because she was his woman now.

"Maybe?" She pulls back again and licks her lips with another of those smiles.

Rolling his eyes at the thought that he, fucking Merle Dixon had been courted, Merle pulls Karen back up and his left hand hitches her legs around his waist as he walks them to her bedroom.

Kicking the door shut behind them, Merle just falls on the bed, his elbows bracing himself so he doesn't crush Karen under his weight.

"Hmm, I like your size, makes me feel good, like you could break me." Karen murmurs as she runs her hands up and down Merle's biceps.

"You like big?" He questions her as he pulls back.

"I do." Karen smiles at him again and Merle finds himself rolling his eyes. He felt like he should beat his chest or something.

"Gonna be the death of me." He mutters as he leans down and takes her mouth again. Lazy and slow this time, his tongue twining with hers as he gets to know her and how she kisses, learns her mouth.

They kiss for ages, his cock hard and throbbing but ignored, just like the warmth he can feel between Karen's spread legs is ignored as well.

Eventually, Merle kisses down her neck, letting Karen's nimble fingers open her blouse and unhook the front clasp on her bra, her breasts spilling out for him in their erect, brown-tipped beauty.

"Nice." Merle breathes as his mouth closes over the tip of one and he sucks strongly.

"Ha, uh, thank you." Karen whispers brokenly as Merle's other hand rolls her other nipple. Merle assaults her senses in every way.

He wants, needs to make this good for Karen. The best thing that's happened to him in too long to remember. Karen made him feel good, about life. And about himself.

She made him feel clean. Merle was beginning to think she could just make him.

Moving his hips slowly, Merle kicked his boots off and then worked his hips back and forth, his hard cock thrusting slowly against Karen's body intimately as he dry fucked her, arousing her, making her mindless.

"Jesus, Merle." She said after a time, her legs wound around his hips, her heels digging into his butt cheeks.

"Hmm?" Merle answered her absently as he pulled back and looked down at her breasts. Karen's nipples were dark brown now, hard swollen nubs, sensitive too Merle noticed when he breathed over one of them and Karen squirmed.

"Inside me, I need you inside me." Karen says to him as her hands push and pull at their clothes as much as she can with Merle helping her very little, not wanting to get go of her.

He lets her manhandle him though as he's let no other person, not even his family when he'd been drunk and high.

Eventually, Merle is naked and on his back. Karen crouching over him. He watches as she leans back, bares herself and spreads her legs. Eyes her appreciatively. She was going to be his, his hope. His salvation.

Sliding her hands over his right arm gently, Merle watches as Karen unbuckles his prosthetic. He watches as she slowly pulls it off and then reaches over him to place it carefully on the bedside table.

Then she surprises the fuck out of him by bringing back some lotion with her and uncapping it to squeeze some onto his arm.

Massaging his arm, from his shoulder to his stump, including the burned flesh, she focuses on what she's doing as Merle watches her.

"Why me?" He asked her finally.

Karen stopped and leaned over him again to put the lotion back, then she knelt beside him on the bed and looked at him, a hand reaching out and stroking over his jaw, over his brows, gently over his eyelashes.

"Your eyes, you've got an old soul. Wounded, battle-scared, but not beaten." She says finally.

Merle doesn't pretend to misunderstand her. "I've done stupid fuckin' shit, still doin' it." He says. Wanting to make sure she knew what she was getting into.

"Me too." She answers him simply. "What do you say we do it together from now on?" And without giving him a chance to answer, she turned and straddled his face, her mouth opening on his cock and taking him in.

Groaning, Merle let her swallow him and set up a rhythm as he stared up her. Her pussy hair was dark brown and curly, flattened now from being pressed against her panties all day. One hole winked at him and the other opened and flexed, fluid dripped from it, slowly moving down Karen's thighs.

Evidence she'd liked what they'd been doing. Evidence she liked Merle. Stroking his left hand up her thigh, taking the juices, Merle brings them to his mouth and inhales her scent.

Woman, she was woman. Female, ripe. His. Groaning again, he leaned up and licked a broad stripe over all of her. His tongue stabbed over her clit, swam through her pussy and laved her wrinkled hole.

"Jesus!" Karen pulled away from Merle's cock as she spoke and then began to go down on him again. Merle felt her licking and sucking on him her tongue swiping around his head, stabbing in his slit, sucking out his pre-come.

His own mouth went to work as he licked and sucked at Karen, his tongue circling her clit, his teeth nipping at her pussy lips making her jerk just a little. His left hand came up and he spread her a little. Looking up, Merle glanced at his stump and then he rubbed the rough end over Karen's clit.

"Merle!" She pulled off, gasping his name now making him chuckle.

"You rang?" He asked her as he laughed a little.

"That was…dirty." Karen said as she sat up and moved down the bed to turn around and look at Merle. She sat on his cock, trapping him in her warmth though he wasn't inside her yet. "And I mean dirty in the best possible way." She clarified before Merle could say anything and he grinned lightning fast at her.

"Yeah? You want me to fuck you with it?" He pushed his stump into her hip a little, letting her feel him even as his left hand spread over her curls, middle finger seeking her clit to tease.

"Maybe." Karen sat back, kneeled up and took his cock in her hand. "Right now, I want to fuck the traditional way." So saying, she looked him straight in the eyes and then sank down on his cock.

"You go right ahead." Merle said as he felt himself encased in her warmth. She was wet, he knew that already. She was also tight, clamping down on his cock like a vise. Letting his eyes close, Merle revelled in her heated warmth as Karen chased away his demons.

His toes curled as Karen rose up and then sank down again. Keeping still, Merle allowed Karen control, something he'd never given over to another woman in his life. Evidence enough that Karen was different.

Resting his arms on Karen's thighs, Merle lets her set the pace, slow and languid. He watches her move on him, her skin tanned and unblemished in the low light of the lantern she'd left on the bedside table for when the electricity was shut off.

Sliding his left hand up, Merle's thumb brushes a nipple and then the other. Rubbing them, one at a time, pinching them lightly, he teases them as Karen fucks his cock. His thighs are trembling with the effort of staying still, of giving up his control to her.

But he won't do it, this first time should be hers. Arching his back, letting his neck fall back, Merle bares himself to Karen vulnerably. He feels a sudden movement and before he can move, Karen is kissing his neck, licking and sucking at him before she sits back, her teeth scraping over his neck harshly as she lets go.

Then she braces her palms flat on his chest, her fingers digging into his greying chest hair and her middle fingers brushing his nipples before her nail's are scraping them tantalizingly.

"Gonna come." Merle says in a breathy whisper. Shit, was that his voice? That whining sound? "Fuck." He said now, trying to sound manly and failing horribly.

"We are. Touch me." Karen asks, breathless herself as she moves a hand to her clit, fingers circling over it lightly.

Moving his left hand there too, Merle rubs Karen as she does. Their fingers tangling together as Merle watches her move over him. He can feel his balls drawing up and lets his orgasm roll forward.

Arching his back again, he feels Karen jerk around him as she begins to come. Her spasm's bring on his own orgasm and his balls empty into her welcoming depths. Pushing his hips up into Karen, Merle moves until he is drained.

Even then, he stays pushed up inside Karen until he is so soft that when she takes a breath in, he drops away out of her body with a moaned protest. Watching, he sees Karen push her fingers inside herself and then put them in her mouth.

Watching as she licked his come from her fingers, Merle shook his head. "Dirty in the best possible way woman." He returned her earlier words.

"Woman? Do you call anyone else woman?" Karen cocked an eyebrow at him.

"Nope." Merle rolled on his side and pulled Karen down to face him as he threw an arm over her waist. They were sharing her pillow, noses almost touching now.

"Okay then, you can call me woman." Karen said to him as she leaned forward and kissed his nose.

"Yeah yeah." Merle grumbled as he tried not to be pleased by the fucking almost Eskimo kiss.

##########

The next morning as he's eating leftover cherry cobbler for breakfast with Noah, a thunderous noise races overhead.

Out the door with Noah on his heels, Merle just stares at the helicopter as it flies overhead.

"Too low, they're in trouble." He says. "Tell Karen I'll be by later." He throws over his shoulder at Noah as he takes off at a dead run.