Violeta27 - Well...since it's just for you...I guess I can keep going. Yes, I no sooner posted a new chapter then I got a notice about a lovely review from you. Sorry I couldn't give you due honour in that last chapter. This is a thanks from me to you, darling. *imaginary cake* You get the non-existent cake!
MarionArnold - Yeah, I think Axel's alright. I mean he's scruffy and hit on Carol, but the guy isn't a total spaz, so he gets some respect and love. Of course Daryl doesn't know about the whole hitting shamelessly on Carol thing...
Anonymous Reviewer - Oh, mysterious love from someone! Thanks for the review. I hate original characters too, but this idea popped into my head and wouldn't work with anyone but an original character. It's probably why I'm so nervous, I know how people hate originals...
The love you reviewers provide me with is enough to make me want to do something dangerous, like going outside my home. Wish me luck with that.
Chapter Six: Le Grande Beede
**Merle**
He couldn't remember drinking, so there was no reason why his head was fucking throbbing like he got fucked up on a three day binge.
Raising his right hand to his face to rub the sleep from his eyes, he smacked his nose with the cold metal of his blade base and it sliced the bridge open from the force.
"Jesus fuck tits," he grunted, struggling to sit up and get his bearings.
He found his left wrist was bound to a simple wrought iron headboard and his ankles bound at the foot.
"What in the good goddamned?" He snarled, slowly becoming aware of his situation.
Over him a woman in a black dress…no a nun, hovered, her rosary clacking against his chest as she studied his new cut, applying a bandage to it quickly and quietly.
"Calm down, sir. You've had a rough few days."
Merle gaped at the woman for a moment, eyeing her face, then her loose habit, then the subtle shape of her tits under the black material, before dragging himself back to priorities.
"Where am I?" He demanded.
"Veil of Tears Convent," she said. "You're safe here."
"Good, how about untying me then?"
"I think I should wait until the Lieutenant comes back with Daryl."
"My brother? He's here?"
"Not at the moment, he went off to the prison with the Lieutenant." She placed a strong, small hand on his chest and pushed him back onto the mattress gently. "Just lie back and relax until they get back."
Merle eyed the hand on his chest, before smiling. "You like ol' Merle tied up, huh?"
The woman didn't react the way a normal one would, with either anger or disgust (and on the very rare, but exceedingly pleasing occasion's eagerness), she just eyed him for a moment, before sitting back in the chair she was in when he woke.
"My name is Sister Mary Claire," she said. "I understand your name is Merle Dixon."
"Sure is." He returned. "How about untying me long enough so I can take a piss at least? Think you can do that for me, sugar tits?"
The woman blinked at him, before reaching for a box of rubber gloves off the side table and a funny looking bottle. She snapped the glove on with an emotional deficiency that Merle didn't like.
..-~-..
..-~-..
He felt violated, but wouldn't let the woman know that as she 'helped' him piss. Turns out he couldn't when someone was aiding him so professionally. So he held it stubbornly, shifting every now and then on the bed in discomfort.
Lying on the bed like a sack of shit later that afternoon, he eyed the priest who stood in the corner with a rifle in hand.
"Jesus, you guys pack heat now, Father?" He teased. "Like genuine cowboys."
The man moved across the room to sit at Merle's bedside. "How's your shoulder? It was pretty torn up."
"I've had worse," Merle replied. "Should have seen the other guy." Merle looked about, trying not to let the man know just how much he hated being tied up. He'd been held down once in his life, just once and he didn't take to it. "Where's that's pretty Sister of yours? I liked her better. Had nicer tits."
The priest blinked. "What's wrong with my tits?"
Merle blinked back at him, before smiling and wagging his stump at him. "You got you a smart mouth on you, Pops."
"Sister Mary Claire was feeling a little uncomfortable in your presence, I told her I'd watch over you from now on."
He couldn't help smiling. "Really? How uncomfortable did I make her?"
"You know," the man began, "I went through a phase where all I could think of was sex too. It was called puberty."
"I don't think you know who you're talking to, Pops." Merle replied.
"I know exactly who I'm talking to, son." The man replied sharply. "You think I haven't met your sort before? Horndogs looking for their next lay, hoping to fill that empty pit inside them with meaningless sex."
"Preacherman done taught me a lesson," Merle taunted. "Hallelujah."
The priest's face darkened ever so. "These are my girls, son. You treat them with some respect while you're within these walls."
"Or what, Pops? Huh? Gonna fire at me with that little BB gun of yours?"
Ignoring his taunts, the priest sat back in his chair, calmer and kinder looking. "Now, you treat these girls good and we'll give all we can in ways of food and protection."
"I'd rather saw my other hand off with the same old dull blade than live in a convent surrounded by tight assed nuns and a dick of a preacherman," Merle grumbled.
"Suit yourself."
The two of them glared at each other sullenly for the rest of the afternoon.
..-~-..
..-~-..
By the time his baby bro showed his pretty boy face, Merle was ready to gnaw his arm off if only to get out of being tied down. He was a Dixon, not used to just sitting on his ass while hours of his life burned away.
Daryl came to stand at the foot of the bed, eyes narrowed, muscle in his jaw taunt and tense.
"Hey, little brother," Merle greeted. "What say you untie me and we burn out of this house of horrors?" He was mildly insulted when the little shit hesitated, eyeing the soldier boy who had arrived with him. "Hey, don't look to lover boy, get me out of these ties, Darlina!"
Daryl sighed. "Your convent, your call, man." He addressed the soldier.
The soldier took a good, long look at Merle, grey eyes narrowed at him. "We untie you, you behave, yeah?" He asked in a silly Cajun accent.
"I'll be as good as gold," Merle replied in a taunting, sweet tone.
"I'm probably going to eventually regret this," the soldier muttered, moving close to Merle to untie him.
Merle allowed the man to finish with all his ties, before he slowly sat up in the bed. His shoulder hurt like hell, but he wasn't complaining. A bad day was when he didn't wake at all, so therefore - in his mind - he was still winning the human race.
"Well, fiddle-dee-dee, Darlina, look who's free," he stated pushing to his feet. "Come on, get your shit, let's get out of here."
"Can't," Daryl replied.
Stopping halfway down to tie his bootlaces, Merle realized that not only did he forget he couldn't tie the fuckers, but that his baby brother was giving him some resistance.
"What?" He asked.
"I'm going in the morning," Daryl said.
Merle paused. "Where?"
"Got a trail to follow. Think I might find the group at the end of it."
"They left you?"
"I think the Governor may have chased them out of the prison," Daryl said.
Merle could remember Daryl when he was a young pup, how he'd get his hopes up whenever their asshole father would go off on one of his benders. Despite the fact the old man beat the shit out of him, the little idiot still looked for their dad every day he was gone. He knew that look of hope Daryl would get and while Merle would never admit it to anyone, that look made him sick, because he knew how hard Daryl took it when he was let down. He didn't want Daryl to get that look, because it only ever meant he would get let down again. Merle had always tried to kill hope before it got to his baby brother, but sometimes he wasn't fast enough and the little dumb ass got crushed under it.
"They're probably glad to be rid of your ass," Merle said bitterly, hoping his baby bro would get the hint and just let things go. "Don't need 'em anyways, you got me brother. Ain't I the only one that matters?"
Daryl shifted ever so on his feet.
Turning on the soldier and the priest who were quietly observing the two, Merle scowled. "What is this? Free fucking entertainment? Give me a minute alone with my brother, won't you?"
The two hesitated.
"It's okay," Daryl said.
They both gave Merle one last look, before leaving the room.
"Hey, Darlina," Merle said. "We're better on our own, right? Dixon brother's don't need nobody but each other."
Daryl chewed on the inside of his cheek.
That was a look Merle hadn't ever seen on his baby brother's face, it was a new look entirely. He squinted at him. "What's eating your ass, girl?"
"They wouldn't leave me," Daryl argued.
"But they did and they ain't coming back."
Just like pa.
Merle took a step forward. "Come on, you and me, baby bro. Kick some walker ass."
Daryl seemed to wince, his lips parting, twitching back and up a little.
This new look on his baby brother's face was interesting and Merle cataloged it mentally. "Talk to me, little brother."
"I have to join up with the group," Daryl stated. "I have to be there."
"What do you owe them?"
"They need me." Daryl replied, suddenly looking everywhere but at Merle.
"Who?" Merle demanded. He wasn't one for soft tones, but he tried his damnedest with his brother sometimes. Especially when he got all skittish and girly on him.
"They got a baby now, little Ass Kicker." Daryl said.
"So?"
Daryl chewed on his thumbnail and moved back from Merle. "She's only little and she's out there in the cold somewhere."
"Is she yours?" Merle wasn't sure he was gone from the group that long and he was certain Daryl never seeded any of the women while they were holed up at the quarry, but his brother was sneaky at times and hell if Merle couldn't keep track of him all the time.
"No."
"Then why do you fucking care? She ain't a Dixon, she ain't nothing to us."
His baby brother seemed to be thinking this over in his little squirrel brained head and Merle waited for a moment, giving him a little time to mull it over.
"Come on now," Merle insisted. "Let's you and I blow out of here, nuns can kiss our asses on the way out."
Shifting on his feet, Daryl tilted his head, still thinking over something.
"You did miss me, didn't you, baby bro?"
"'Course I did."
Moving up beside Daryl, Merle hefted a strong arm around his brother's shoulders. "And ol' Merle's still kicking, ain't I?"
"We went back for you," his little brother said suddenly. "Rick and I."
"So? Didn't need your help, did I? Got down off that roof all on my own."
"Why didn't you wait?" Daryl asked. "I couldn't find you anywhere."
Growing impatient with the simpering nature of the conversation, Merle removed his arm from Daryl's shoulders and sighed. "Like those soft asses would have let me just stroll back into their fucking group. Wouldn't trust any of them any further than I could throw them and neither should you." He growled. "I'm going to take a piss."
..-~-..
..-~-..
By the time Merle returned to his brother's side from where he took a leak outside against the building, he found Daryl in basically the same spot, nibbling his thumbnail down to nothing.
He slapped Daryl upside the head.
"Goddamn stop that! I told you before that's a nasty fucking tell," Merle growled, pissed off with Daryl for being such a pussy all the time. "No wonder you lose at poker all the goddamned time."
Daryl dropped his arm.
"Now are we getting out of here or do I have to take you outside and beat some sense into your dumb ass?"
"Thought I saw you strolling around outside," the soldier boy broke in, stepping into the infirmary from the outside. "Old Missy told to me come in here, that maybe you two would like a little tour of the place."
"Don't need one," Merle said. "Ain't going to be here long enough."
The soldier boy stopped in the middle of the room as stared long and hard at Merle.
"Got a problem, Rosie?" Merle snapped.
"Naw."
"Then get the fuck out."
"Ever hear the saying 'beware the fury of the patient man', couyon?" The man asked.
Merle scowled. "Ever hear the saying 'he beat his ass until he shit blood'?"
Scratching at his eyebrow with his thumb, the soldier frowned a little. "Naw, that...that's a new one I must admit."
Not expecting the man to just ignore the threat of an ass kicking, Merle blinked, before speaking again, "you got a name, Cajun?" He demanded.
"They call me Lieutenant."
Sneering at the man, Merle shifted on his feet. "Raised by wolves, huh? That's a damned shame. I'm gonna call you Pete." Turning his eyes on his baby brother, Merle found Daryl still quietly thinking things over. "Alright, fuck it, show us around this nun factory of yours, Pete."