KrisAnthemum221 - I'm not quite sure Merle would mistreat Carol too badly. He'd definitely try to intimidate her, but I think somewhere deep down he might actually hope that she could be good for Daryl. I think right now he's just being a bastard because that's how he rolls.
MollyMayhem84 - I'm looking forward to Merle meeting Carol too. He's kind of unpredictable sometimes. I guess maybe it's a Dixon thing.
Axelrocks - Oh wow, was it the big exciting eppie of SPN that you missed?! I'd be ever so flattered...I think the Lt. is just one of those guys who can get along with a lot of people, has good social skills, but I always like to see him as being the sort that can get along with kids and adults, but has poor luck when it comes to love. Like he strikes out a lot because he's so...different. There will come a moment soon where he addresses Eloise, the woman he brought up with Daryl, but couldn't finish the story.
jwoods592 - Thank you. *bows*
spygrrl99 - I've been doing research (because I'm a nerd) on post traumatic stress syndrome and wanted to give the Little Missy a few of the symptoms. She acts out a lot, but I like to think at heart she tries to be good, so yes, long explanation short, she does act out. But I kind of love her for it. Bratty kids (as long as they're not yours) are adorable.
earthbound68 - They are adorable together, aren't they? He's so easy going she just bosses him about and he follows her orders.
I'm actually waiting for the day he decides to stand up to her, maybe even just to bust her chops. I think it'd startle her if he ever disagreed with her orders.
Surplus Imagination - You asked for a meeting between Daryl and Ol' Merle, you got it! Enjoy!
Well, here's a lovely chapter. One of my personal favourites so far...
Chapter Twelve: Canaille
**Daryl**
Merle was sitting in the infirmary when Daryl joined him that evening, cards splayed out on the roll away hospital bed table before him, half the deck at the side, one card in his hand as he tried to find a place for it.
"Now that's just sad," Daryl greeted his brother. "That you're so bored you're willing to play solitaire."
Placing the card down and drawing another, Merle scoffed. "Have to do something to keep me sane, little brother. This place is dull as clay coloured shit."
Glancing over at the priest who sat in the corner of the infirmary with his rifle, Daryl nodded.
The man returned the nod calmly.
"So, you find your Carol?" Merle growled.
"I found some of the group, yeah." Daryl replied, moving to sit at the foot of his brother's cot.
"Fiddle-dee-dee, Darlina. Bring them in here and we can all have us a tea party."
"Merle, I have to stay with the group," Daryl said softly, worried his brother might take it the wrong way. "They're pretty devastated since the farm and they need the extra hands."
"This is the same group that left your brother chained to a rooftop, pretty boy." Merle snarled. "They'll leave your ass eventually too and I won't be there to stop them when they do."
Glancing about at the clean infirmary, Daryl worked the muscle in his jaw. "The convent seems like as nice a place as any," he began cautiously.
"Fuck that, baby bro! I ain't staying here like some fucking pet!" Merle stated, kicking the table over, sending the cards flying.
Daryl stood up calmly, eyeing his brother.
Merle's temper was legendary. If people thought Daryl had a bit of an anger problem, Merle was at least seven hundred times worse.
"What? You want me around, but don't want to be around me? You can't have it both ways, you little asshole!" Merle growled, pushing to his feet.
Standing his ground, Daryl eyed his brother. "I'm just saying, you'd be safe here, we'd be close! I could come and see you now and then. We can go hunting like the old days."
"I rather fuck myself in the ass with a barbed hook," Merle spat.
"Suit yourself, Merle." Daryl replied, his own ire beginning to rise. Storming across the infirmary, he paused at the door and turned back to his brother almost nervously. "Merle," he began.
His brother looked up from where he was glaring at the overturned table.
"I want you to stay away from her."
"I wouldn't dream of getting anywhere near your skank, baby bro."
"Don't call her that, Merle."
His brother smiled that sleazy grin of his that meant he was getting ready to be the ultimate asshole. "Sorry, Darlina, I'll call her your whore instead, how about?"
"I mean it, Merle. Watch what you call any of them."
"You want to try and stop me, princess? Come over here and shut Merle up."
Biting the inside of his bottom lip, Daryl tried hard to restrain his anger. No one knew how to push all the right buttons like Merle.
"Because from where I'm standing, you seem like you have the pussy in the relationship," Merle went on. "Come on, pull the tampon out and hit me, baby face!"
"Fuck you, Merle! You're always flapping your fucking lips! Hell if you shut up long enough, you'd be half tolerable to be around!"
"There's a bit of that bitchy anger, how about a little more? Huh? Got some testosterone in there, Darlina? Maybe that bitch of yours cut your nuts off in your sleep…"
Lunging at his brother, Daryl caught him unawares and the two of them fell against the wall between the cots, Merle bent over a bedside table, Daryl pummeling his face.
Beneath him Merle was laughing like a madman, pleased at the results of his prodding.
"Come on, Darlina, you hit like Aunt Gladys! Put a little stank in your swings, girl!"
Grabbing hold of the front of Merle's shirt, Daryl yanked his brother to his feet only to push him onto the floor, where he fell upon him again.
The beating went on for a good two minutes, before the soft, dangerous click of a bolt being slid into place on a rifle stopped both men.
Over them Father O'Rourke stood calmly, eyeing their fight with his rifle aimed.
"Would you two kindly mind breaking it up before you wreck the place?" He asked. "We do have to live and operate here long after you leave."
Giving Merle one last glare, Daryl pushed to his feet and stormed out.
..-~-..
..-~-..
He had volunteered to take watch for the Sisters while they ate, not at all minding the solitude. He didn't care much for people anyways and the incident with Merle was still weighing on him.
Walking the entire perimeter of the wall, he studied the place for the first time. Taking a moment to look outside himself and the situation with his missing group to finally get his bearings.
There were five or six buildings in all. The main one being the one that housed the dorms, the kitchen and the dining room, the church, the infirmary and two sheds, the other seemed to be a small house of sorts. He assumed it was where the priest stayed as he saw the man pass in and out of it earlier.
As he circled the place, he found a small cemetery at the back of the church filled with creepy old wooden crosses. He assumed it was where the nuns buried their own, even before the end of days. There was also what once was a flower garden of sorts, but now seemed overrunning with tall grass as the spring growth pushed up through the dry stuff.
All the while he was making note of his new surroundings, he was thinking of the group. It was hard to predict Rick's moves. He would either head for familiar territory in the hopes of regrouping (as they had done with the farm attack) or he would go directly after the Governor without wasting time for the asshole to get his act together.
Daryl wasn't sure where to start looking to be honest. It was easy to track a man through mud and grass and leaves and dirt, but a man who didn't want to be found was a man who covered his tracks.
"Little help?" Carol called up to him.
He peered down at her as she struggled to mount the wall and hesitated. The last time he helped her up onto something beside him, she had gotten frisky and he damned near made an ass of himself.
Walking over to stand on the wall above her, he gave the forest outside the convent wall one last glance, before kneeling.
"What's the problem?" He asked gruffly, pretending to be the dumb assed redneck people often took him for.
She hopped a little, trying to get a hold of the top of the wall, despite the fact she was about a foot from reaching it even by jumping. Enjoying her look of intense concentration as she tried to get up, Daryl rubbed a hand over his face to cover his amusement and continued to let her struggle for a moment longer, before offering her a hand.
Her hand was tiny in his, so dainty and feminine that Daryl nearly dropped her on her ass from the distraction. As he hauled her up beside him as carefully as he could, he noticed she was far too light and made a note to go hunting as soon as it was light enough. He could swing a hunt before leaving to track the rest of the group, it didn't make much difference.
Settling on the wall at his side, Carol smiled a little at him as they both dangled their feet over the edge of the wall, watching the forest. "You would have watched me struggle all night, wouldn't you have?"
"Short people trying to jump gives me a fucking thrill in life," he growled.
She laughed softly, bumping her shoulder against his. "I'm not that short."
"Short enough," he replied.
Sensing her edging in closer to him just a little, Daryl glared at the trees. It was getting dark, but he could still make out the shadows of them falling on the forest floor.
Since the walkers started taking over the place, the animals didn't make much noise, not like they used to. Whereas before the world went to shit there were crickets and frogs and birds making their presence known in the evenings, now there was eerie silence.
Daryl actually missed the sound of the crickets at night. It reminded him of his mother, when she was alive and would leave the back door open on warm summer nights to cool the house down. He could always hear the crickets from his bedroom and some nights he'd even take his bedding and pillow and head out onto the porch to sleep.
It may have been his first introduction to nature, how he enjoyed being so close to it. There was nothing but the night and the crickets in those days, at that moment curled up in his blankets on the wooden porch floor.
Things were actually alright then, before his dumb assed mother passed out while smoking. After that, they moved to a cheap place on the low rent end of town, his old man took to drink and Merle took to drugs.
Beside him Carol was quiet and he stole a glance at her.
He had never realized how regal she looked when she was at her most comfortable.
She sat so tall and proud. Back straight, shoulders down with her long, beautiful neck on display. Daryl was reminded of a bust of an Egyptian queen he had seen once in a book on mummies that he had found while shooting rats at the junkyard with Merle.
Her head turned and she caught him looking.
Daryl scowled as a knee jerk reaction to cover his embarrassment and looked away. He could have ignored her until she left, he supposed. The woman made him uncomfortable.
Something brushing against his hand had him flinching instinctively, preparing to lash out, but he stopped himself when he realized it was the side of her hand brushing against his on the wall between them.
Daryl tensed up immediately.
"I'm glad you're okay," she said softly.
It was fucking weird to him, but whenever Carol said something nice, her voice inflected in a way that actually seemed sincere. She was honestly kind when it came to his sorry ass and it bothered him. He was used to sarcasm and snarls, but kindness was something foreign.
He was only just adjusting to her kindness, despite how hard he fought not to adjust to it, it would mean she could get at him better if he was lulled into a sense of security with her.
"Whatever," he growled, that hand of hers brushing against his was a distraction and he couldn't put the proper amount of mean into his tone.
They fell silent again, the awkward lack of sounds in the Georgian countryside disconcerting as all hell.
Daryl was about to get up and go back to patrolling the wall like he should have been doing, when Carol moved fast as a rattlesnake and pressed a kiss to his cheek.
His first instinct was again to strike out, but he turned it into a flinch at the last moment, recoiling away from her a little on the wall.
Turning - what he hoped were - glowering eyes on her, he found her looking away, eyeing the encroaching darkness casually.
Daryl wasn't sure how to react. She had stolen a kiss from him before, but he was too injured to react at the time except to snarl something at her, this time he wasn't and he didn't know how to brush the incident off.
It wasn't like he didn't like her kisses, he just didn't know what to make of them. Was she messing with him? Was this some kind of entertainment to her? Baffling the dumb redneck?
No, Carol wasn't like that, but still…what did she want from him?
He glared at the forest. What the hell did she want from him?
"Thanks for saving us," she said finally, still looking out at the oncoming night.
"I'm just doing what Rick would want me to do," he replied darkly.
"You didn't have to look for us," she said. "You could have just left with Merle now that you've found him."
Did she want him to go? Was she trying to give him the hint that he wasn't needed or wanted around them anymore?
Realizing she was waiting for a response, he shrugged.
"I'm glad you didn't," she said then. "I like having you around. Makes me feel safe."
Daryl finally looked directly at her then, seeing an open honesty in her beautiful blue eyes that he often saw when she looked at him.
Without realizing it, he was offering her a small smile and she was returning it with a broad grin.
..-~-..
..-~-..
He was cleaning his crossbow the next morning, getting ready to go hunting before they left to continue tracking the rest of the group, when a small form plopped down beside him.
"What's that?" The little convent girl asked.
Daryl didn't know her name, it wasn't provided by the Lieutenant and he had only ever seen her yesterday playing with the hem of the Mother Superior's habit.
"Crossbow," he replied gruffly, hoping she'd leave him alone. He liked kids, but he wasn't sure this one was supposed to be hanging around him since both the Mother Superior and the Lieutenant seemed very protective of her, almost to the point of shielding her with their own bodies.
"How's it work?"
"Like a charm." He stated.
She giggled. "No, couyon, how does it work? Like what does it do?"
Amused by her use of whatever the hell slang the Cajun had used often, Daryl scoffed. "It kills things."
"Those monsters outside the walls?" She asked.
"Yeah."
Digging her bare toes into the dewy morning grass, the little girl sighed and began pulling up blades of budding grass to toss aside idly.
Daryl looked at her. She was a young girl, about five or six, he'd guess (although his experience with kids was little to none so she could have been any age young enough to be considered a kid), with long dark hair pulled into two braids that fell on either side of her head. She had big brown eyes and a shade to her skin that led him to believe somewhere close by in her blood line was a black ancestor. Maybe a parent even or one of her grandparents had been black. Of course Merle saw to it that he was never around a lot of minorities for long, the girl could have been of some kind of Middle Eastern descent or Latin American for all he knew.
She was a small thing, sickly looking, with twiggy limbs and a sharp featured face that looked fragile, like any second she could burst into tears.
"I'm Annie," she greeted softly, looking at him with curiosity.
"Daryl," he returned.
"I'm from Savannah," she went on. "You ever been there?"
"Once."
"My mom and dad have a cabin up here somewhere in the woods." She pointed out.
He nodded.
"Are you mean?" She asked.
"Yup."
She giggled. "You're not!"
"Sure I am. I'm mean as the devil." He replied.
Glancing around, her eyes widened. "I gotta go! Bye!"
Daryl watched her scurry off, hiding on the other side of the church steps as the Lieutenant moved across the lawn from his garden shed, heading towards Daryl.
"Annie Louise," the Cajun drawled. "Don't think I can't see you, Little Missy."
The little girl poked her head out from her hiding place. "Geez, you're creepy sometimes, Lieutenant! You always know things!"
"Yeah, that's 'cuz I have eyes in the spirit world, boo. Get inside now before I drop some heavy bad gris-gris on you."
"Possede!" The girl exclaimed, sticking her tongue out at him and running off.
Waiting for a good minute until the girl was out of sight and earshot, the Lieutenant laughed and flopped down beside Daryl.
"That girl is the devil," he laughed.
Daryl quietly waxed the strings of his crossbow with a chunk of softer candle wax he found in the church. "Where'd she come from?"
The soldier shrugged. "Showed up one day at the gate like a little lost kitten. Been here ever since."
Slinging his crossbow over his shoulder, Daryl pushed to his feet and sniffed casually. "I'm going to go and hunt before we head out."
The Lieutenant smirked and pushed to his feet. "What a wild coincidence, I was about to ask if you wanted to join me this morning. I have a turkey I know whose day has finally come."
The Cajun Dialect
Canaille - Sly, sneaky.