(A/N – I have decided that my other Walking dead story 'The snake's fatal bite' will include the ships of Carl/Sophia, Daryl/Carol and Merle/Beth so as a taste of what you can expect, this latest update will include obvious content of all three ships.)

Love's dark side – The trouble with women

"Pass it here, kid" the older redneck ordered as he held out his hand to Carl Grimes from where he sat between the young teen and his brother, Daryl. The boy in the cowboy hat took one last swig of Merle's personal alcohol (which had been only his third) before forcefully pushing the glass bottle of vodka into his hand for it to only be taken off of him by Daryl, who took one big swig. "Eh man" Merle said in frustration. "I've got the biggest problem out of any of us, now give it here." With that, the handicapped redneck snatched the bottle of vodka from his sibling, all three of them having frowns on their faces.

They had all mucked up in some way or another in the last day and that was why it was only them three currently within the cell block; everyone else was in the prison courtyard relaxing and at least two of the adults were on watch for walkers or soldiers of Woodbury. Within their hearts, Carl and the Dixon brothers knew that they would rather be out in the warm, grassy courtyard than in the cell block but they couldn't go out there. Why? Three sources of 'eternal wrath' were currently in the same location.

The source that Carl was avoiding was of course, his girlfriend Sophia Pelitier, the human-zombie hybrid. The young couple had had another argument except this time, Sophia hadn't been the one in the wrong; Carl had. Whilst the rest of the group had been eating their lunch, Carl had gone outside the prison's protective fence to claim the bright blue flower that he wanted to give to his girlfriend. When he returned, she had been happy and even rewarded him with a peck on the cheek but when she found out he had gone outside the prison fence to get the flower, her attitude had changed completely. As punishment for his 'recklessness', Carl had suffered a half an hour lecture on how he wasn't safe with walkers without Sophia and to his displeasure, NO ONE tried to help him out. In fact, if anything, the group had been smirking at him whilst Sophia screamed at him.

However, that was NOTHING compared to the mess Daryl was in.

Daryl had discovered he had feelings for Carol Pelitier when the group first overtook the prison. Not wanting to appear as if he had turned soft, Daryl had decided to simply look at her from afar but like all men, it was only a matter of time until Carol unknowingly broke the redneck's defences down and he was unable to resist her anymore. Unable to hold himself back any longer, Daryl had confronted the woman who had seized his attention one night and luckily (and surprisingly) for him, Carol had revealed that she had feelings for him since the time period of him constantly volunteering to look for Sophia in the woods. The two had officially become a couple after that night but this was where Daryl had messed up – he didn't want the group to know about his and Carol's relationship. In response, Carol had clearly stated that she didn't want a repeat of her marriage with Ed and she wasn't going to be Daryl's 'guilty secret'. That had happened yesterday and Daryl had been avoiding her since.

Carl and Daryl did not know why Merle had been sulking with them for the past day because he refused to tell them the full story; all he had said about his situation was "if they lay their eyes on me for even one second, I will be sleeping with major injuries for at least a week." Even though this was all Merle had told his brother and Carl, it didn't take them long to realise that for some strange reason, it was Beth Greene that Merle was avoiding; the main bit of evidence being that both males had been awoken by the sound of Beth's voice shouting "MERLE DIXON!" in the angriest tone they had ever heard from her and before the redneck had disappeared with the Greene girl dragging him by the hand, everyone swore they could see fear in his eyes.

Merle took a swig of his vodka bottle as the other two sighed. "I'm being honest right now" The Dixons heard Carl begin. "We must be the dumbest humans left on this planet." Even though Carl had been insulting them as well as himself, Daryl and Merle couldn't help but grunt in agreement. For the next ten minutes, the trio sat in a frustrating silence; it was only interrupted when Daryl's curiosity got the better of him. "Eh, Merle" he began. "You said that you have been with me and Carl recently because if a certain member of the group laid their eyes on you, you would be spending the next few days in a great amount of pain." Merle looked Daryl directly in the eye before nodding and taking another swig of his vodka, signalling for his brother to continue. "Now, if doesn't take a genius to realise that after putting the evidence into consideration that it's Beth who's pissed at you and me and Carl came clean so you should too." For a second, Merle just looked at Daryl like he was mad but after a small staring contest; the older redneck handed the vodka bottle to Carl and cleared his throat.

"About two weeks ago, me and Girlie were on watch together after being assigned the duty by officer friendly. For the first hour, everything was pretty normal – She stayed up in a guard tower with a sniper rifle whilst I patrolled the fence with an assault rifle. However, out of the blue, a large group of walkers appeared out of nowhere and even with all my bullets and hers, there were too many walkers to take out so I had to resort to using my bayonet." Merle paused as he raised his metal 'hand' with a knife on the end.

"I took them out one by one, being sure to keep an eye out for Beth up in the tower every once and a while. However, at one point, it appeared that I had been paying more attention to her safety than my own because before I knew it, there was a stray walker gnashing at my neck from behind me. With him snipping at me and about ten more walkers at the fence, I honestly thought that my time was up but then who should come to the rescue? Little miss Greene."

"I didn't have a chance to thank her or nothing because she randomly put her arms around my neck and started bawling her eyes out, going on about how she thought she had lost me, how she wouldn't be able to forgive herself and how she would feel guilty in every way. Eventually, I managed to shut her up for a moment and sat her down, telling her how it couldn't happen because of our age gap but she wouldn't have any of it...

And baby brother, you know how much I like tough ladies."

Both Carl and Daryl just stared at the older man in shock at his story. "Wow" Carl started, still in disbelief. "That's quite a story, Merle." Said redneck gave a small nod but then sighed. "Don't matter though" he said. "We all fucked up, big time." Daryl, who had taken the vodka off of Carl, took the last swig from the bottle before dropping it to the ground, allowing it to shatter before saying "There has to be SOMETHING we can do. I mean, I don't normally care about losing a woman but Carol is... different. And it's not like we can ignore them for the rest of our lives."

Carl let a small smile take over his face. "I don't wanna lose Sophia, guys. There are so many things I'd miss about her." Both brothers looked at him and raised an eyebrow each, asking him 'what would you miss?' "I'd miss snuggling with her at night, I'd miss holding onto her small, fragile form but most of all, I think I'd miss her... smile. If I don't fix this, I won't be able to see her smile the way again." After hearing a subtle 'aww' from Daryl, Carl turned to him and asked him "Anything you'd miss about Carol?"

The redneck looked away from his friend and brother as recent memories invaded his mind. "She's special" he began. "Carol is different from all the other girlfriends I've had and that's only about five." A small chuckle broke out of Merle's voice box but that didn't stop Daryl. "She's got a spark about her, she's got a lovely personality, she just makes me... happy." A frown appeared on his face as his smile disappeared. "And I fucked it up because I'm afraid of what others will think." Daryl looked towards his brother. "What about you, Merle? Got anything you'd miss about your 'little Greene girl?"

Merle smirked. "I guess if I was going to miss anything about her it would have to be her constant bickering." Carl and Daryl's face scrunched up in confusion but they wouldn't be like that for long. "It shows that she hasn't given up on me, like many people have. She thinks that I'm still worthy of what a normal human has and for that, I'm grateful and I love her for it but like you two, there's just something about her... smile that lights up my day." Carl and Daryl both smiled small smiles before all three of them locked eyes and smiled at each other.

"That's really sweet."

All three froze. They turned slowly to the worst sight of their lives.

Sophia Pelitier, Carol Pelitier and Beth Greene. All Smirking.

Confusion replaced the horrified faces of the three males for a second as they wondered how their girlfriends had heard them, they had been out in the courtyard and they hadn't been shouting so they couldn't have heard them from outside. Suddenly, anger overtook the faces of Carl Grimes and Merle Dixon whilst a pale straight face of fear appeared on Daryl's features as they realised how their girlfriends had heard them.

Daryl had dropped the glass vodka bottle.

The three girls were unable to forgive their boyfriends until dinner later that day because Carl and Merle had been pre-occupied chasing a frightened Daryl all over the cell block.