I'm not happy with this chapter. It is a filler and every time I reread it I just dislike it more and more for some reason. Maybe it is just me. I certainly hope you don't hate it! It's also damn short. But at least it is something to read! Hope everyone has a great day!

Chapter Sixty Five

Carol felt so drained. She was worried about Sophia. She had never had a problem out of the girl. Never one. She had always listened to what Carol said, never talked back, never disobeyed. She had barely ever spoken at all. And now it was something new, and worse, every single day with the girl. And she really couldn't blame Merle. His reason for bringing the kids made sense even if it did infuriate her that they had been there. Merle would always do what he had to do and she figured he handled the situation the best way he knew how.

But if Sophia hadn't been outside to begin with, in the middle of the night, in a damn storm, to talk to that guy that could have been dangerous, then they would have never stumbled upon Merle to begin with. But she guessed she should be glad that the kids had done what they had done or Merle would never have known that Maggie, Daryl and herself had even been taken.

Daryl slipped back into the room and quietly shut the door behind him. He looked as tired as she felt and all she wanted to do was curl up next to him.

"You alright?" He asked as he eased himself down onto his knees in front of where she sat on the edge of the bed.

She had nearly forgotten about his shoulder until she saw the blood. She pushed his shirt off his shoulders and he let it slide off his arms and drop to the floor. "I need to get this cleaned up. It's nearly stopped bleeding on it's own."

She reached for the drawer where the first aid things were still kept from where he had been shot by Jimmy. He stopped her with a hand on her wrist. She looked at him questioningly.

"I got real shitty with her and made her cry." he said as he searched her face.

She wasn't sure what he expected her to say about that. She didn't want her daughter crying but she knew how bad she had scared the man over the last few days. "She'll be fine." Carol assured him.

He let go of her wrist so she started gathering the things she needed out of the drawer. She shivered when she finally let herself think about how close that bullet had come to actually hitting him. Her hands were shaking as she cleaned the blood away.

"We should have let Hershel look at this." She whispered in a shaky voice.

Daryl snorted. "This ain't nothin'. I've had worse."

She felt a small smile tug at the corners of her mouth. "You've told me that before." And she knew it was true. She didn't know a whole lot about his past but she knew enough to know that Daryl Dixon had suffered his share of harm. Her hands had been all over his body and it was body that held a lot of scars. He never talked about them and she never asked him where they had come from. If he wanted her to know then he would have told her. Everyone was entitled to their past and their secrets.

"You're shakin'." He frowned down at her hand that was washing the blood that had traveled down his chest.

"It's been a rough night. Even before everything happened." She whispered as she concentrated on her task and not the blue eyes that were staring holes into her face. His muscles were tense under her hands.

"Why were you out there?" He asked after a while.

She was placing a bandage over the ugly gash. She didn't meet his eyes until she was finished and when she finally did his brow was furrowed with worry. She reached up with a finger and smoothed out the lines. For some reason she remembered doing the same thing at the quarry and had been so flustered by that small touch that she had blushed furiously. "I had a nightmare." She said simply.

His frown deepened and she gave up on trying to smooth it away. "Well, I bet it wasn't worse than what really happened." He grumbled.

"It was actually. Nothing really happened tonight. A couple boys lost their innocence. You got grazed by a bullet. That was it."

"You and Maggie almost got..."

"But we didn't." She cut him off. "That dream was worse."

"Must have been a real bad one then." He eyed her curiously and she sighed and draped her arms over his shoulders.

"Sophia was a Walker. Ed was there. You died. You want me to keep going?" She asked as she arched a brow. She was trying to blow off the dream but it wasn't really working and she could feel him tensing up again.

"Sophia wont ever be one of those things. Ed is double dead and buried in a shallow grave. And I don't plan on dyin' any time soon." He growled.

"None of us plan on it. It just creeps up on us." She said wearily.

His face hardened and then he slid his arms around her waist. She moved her knees apart so he could get closer. "I ain't goin' no where." he grumbled. "You need to quick thinkin' that way. You'll drive your damn self crazy."

She leaned down and kissed him lightly. "You're the boss. I'll quit thinking that way."

He smirked. "That easy huh?"

"It is tonight. I'm too tired to fight with you. You're draining when you get started." She gave him a smile.

"No I ain't. And I ain't got time to fight with you either. I'm gonna take watch till the sun comes up. Keep an eye out in case any Walkers heard all that shootin'."

"You aren't going back to that barn. Especially alone." She said fiercely, instantly feeling a lot less tired than she had a minute ago.

He scoffed. "I thought I was the boss?"

"I mean it. You can't go back out there." She knew that she was starting to sound desperate but she didn't care. She couldn't stand the thought of him out there again. Not tonight. Not as far away as that damn barn. He wasn't the only one that thought of Walkers possibly hearing the gunshots.

"I'm gonna be right on the porch. I might see if T-dog or Merle will take the back porch. Just in case." He stood up then and she followed.

"Why can't Rick and Glen do it?" She grabbed his arm.

"Because they took first watch. I'll be right on the porch." He gave her a curious look.

She knew it would do no good to argue with him. He was stubborn, but she couldn't stand even the thought of being away from him. Not right now. Not after the night they had had. So she ripped the blanket off the bed and balled it up, tucking it under her arm. "Fine." She shrugged. "But I'm going with you."

She expected him to argue with her but he didn't. He actually grinned. "New scenery?"

He raised one eyebrow and then she couldn't help it. Stressed out or not, she laughed. "Definitely not." She followed him out and was surprised to see T-dog already out there.

T-dog grinned. "Shoulda known you'd be out here."

Daryl nodded. "You wanna take the back? Those shots got me worried."

"Sounds like a plan." He slapped Daryl on the back, shot Carol a warm smile and then headed off around the side of the house.

Daryl leaned his rifle against the banister, sat the crossbow down in front of him and then sat down so he could look towards the woods. She sighed and wrapped herself up in the blanket like it was a cocoon. She curled up, nearly on his lap and closed her eyes, her head buried in the crook of his neck. His arms came around her and she smiled against his shirt. It was getting colder and she made herself believe that she was helping him out by offering him some body heat. It didn't take her long to drift off, still smiling.

~H~

Merle didn't like kids. He didn't like women either. They both got on his goddamn nerves. So why the hell was he laying in the middle of his bed with Sophia on one side and Maggie on the other? Sophia had started out just sitting with him, talking, with her back pressed against the headboard. She had fallen asleep and eventually had wiggled her way down so that she was lying next to him. When he heard the door open he was glad, he thought that it would have been Daryl and then he could have moved her. Merle would have moved her himself but he didn't want to look like an asshole.

But it wasn't Daryl. It was Maggie. She smiled when she saw Sophia sleeping next to him, curled up right under his arm. He knew he was scowling but when her smile faded and she looked at him with large questioning eyes he forced his face to smooth back out and he offered her a small smile.

She apparently took this as some sort of permission because she came around the other side of the bed and slid in on his other side. She put her head on his chest and draped one arm over his waist and fell asleep just as quick as the kid had.

He sighed but couldn't help but wrap his arm around Maggie's shoulders. It had been a stressful night on all of them and he didn't blame them for not wanting to be alone. Even though, technically, Sophia was never alone. She slept only a few feet away from him on the couch every night. The ever present pain in his ass.

"You saved me tonight." Maggie whispered.

He had been sure she was asleep but she raised her head off his chest and looked at him intently. He just shrugged. "We're even now."

She frowned. "Is that why you did it? Because you thought you owed me?"

He shook his head slowly. "No."

The ghost of a smile crept into her eyes. "You know how dangerous that was? You could have gotten killed yourself."

"I ain't scared to die, girl. We all do eventually."

Her frown returned. "You might not be scared to die but you should think of what that would do to the people that care about you. You ever think that just cause you ain't scared to die doesn't mean people ain't scared to lose you? That should make you more cautious."

He narrowed his eyes. "If I wasted time thinkin' about shit like that then you'd be on your third or fourth man by now, if you was even still breathin' and my brothers woman would be dead for sure, so don't talk to me about caution. Sometimes there ain't no time for that."

He felt her body tense where it was pressed against his side. "Ya know, sometimes you can be a real asshole, Merle." She whispered harshly and then she tried to get up but he held her there with his arm around her shoulder. "Let me up."

"Didn't ya know that I was an asshole before you started this little thing, darlin'?" He wasn't going to let her go while she was all pissed off. That hadn't turned out good for him last time.

She didn't answer him right away. She kept her eyes guarded but finally she smiled. "Merle Dixon, did you just call us a thing? Are you sayin' you're my boyfriend now?"

He scowled at her. "I never said that." he hissed.

"Yes you did. You said thing. Even if you didn't mean to say it out loud that's still what you were thinkin'."

"I ain't never had a girlfriend. It even sounds stupid." He scoffed. "Girlfriend. You're outta your goddamn mind, you know that? Now get the hell outta my bed."

She shook her head and laid it back down on his chest. "Ain't nothin' wrong with layin' with your boyfriend. I'm gonna stay right here."

"Jesus Christ, sometimes I really can't stand you." He growled as he slowly skimmed his hand up and down her back.

He felt her smiling into his shirt but all he could do was growl once more and shake his head angrily.