Well my lovely readers and reviewers, we're back! Who all watched the new ep of TWD last Sunday? All of us? What did you guys think? I hope the dynamic between Rick and Carl stabilizes instead of continues to fracture….the scenes with the two of them were so heart wrenching. Ok, enough, onwards!
"How is it you didn't hear me on the porch? Made enough noise for a Walker half a mile down the hill could have heard." Merle's eyes narrowed with suspicion as he surveyed Luna carefully. His stance was still loose, but Luna could see the way he was eyeing the distance between them, and between the nearest gun that was hung on the wall.
Luna tapped her ear and twitched her lips. "I'm deaf." She tilted her head to the side and reconsidered. "Well, mostly deaf. I can hear loud sounds. Thunder, gunshots at close range." She paused and cocked an eyebrow at him with annoyance. "You screaming in my ear."
"But you can't hear me talking now? How's it you know what I'm saying?" Merle's pale blue eyes narrowed even further.
Luna all but rolled her eyes. "I can read lips, moron. Even in the dark."
"Hey now, no need to go callin' people's names. Especially when you sound like you've got your mouth full." A salacious light flickered in the back of his pupils and she wrinkled her nose in distaste. "So where's your dad and the rest of 'em? I know they're lurkin' around here somewhere."
She shook her head. "Dad ain't anywhere around here. Nobody is." Again she paused and shrugged her shoulder. "Least nobody you're expecting." She tilted her head to the side and whistled loud and clean. It was barely five seconds before she saw the rest of her friends come charging up the hill.
"Mind the traps!" she called down just before Simon's foot stepped into one. After that they picked their way through much more slowly until they finally reached the porch.
"Shit, what the hell happened?" Judith demanded when she saw the blood caking to Luna's skin from the cut on her hairline.
"I'm alright," Luna brushed away her sister's concern. Mal on the other hand marched straight between Merle and Luna and cupped Luna's cheek, turning her head to the side, trying to inspect the wound. She snagged his wrist and tugged his hand away.
"I'm fine," she told him curtly, trying to maneuver around him but he refused to let go. "Don't need you playing knight in shining armor now."
"Aww, what's that sweetheart? You brought you're little boy toy with you to keep you warm? Your daddy did the same you know. Kicked me clean off his porch like I was some mangy dog cause he had that little redhead bitch to keep him company." He sneered at her coldly. "Guess blood don't run as thick in this family as it used to."
"I won't let him hit you again," Mal growled, his eyes never leaving Luna's, his body still positioned between Luna and Merle.
"Merle would rip you a new one before you could even blink. Just let me handle it!" Luna hissed. She forcibly moved Mal out of the way and stood straight in front of Merle again, meeting his eyes without flinching.
"We need to talk, Merle. We came a long way and we're not leaving until we hash some shit out. So either we can make nice about it or we can do things the hard way. And this time, I know what's coming." Her fingers flexed within reach of the second pistol on her hip, and she was fairly confident she could have it aimed at him before he could reach the guns on the wall.
Merle spat out the side of his mouth and stared at her with a hard line to his jaw. "You can tell these freaks to get the hell off my porch. This is my land you're standing on girl, and I don't much like being threatened on my own damn property." His knuckles cracked and now Simon tried to take a pace forward, but Tau pulled on his wrist to stop him even as Luna stepped forward, putting distance between herself and her friends, but more importantly between Merle and them.
"This land ain't just yours. This is Dixon land, and it's been in our family since before the Civil War." He dared tried to play the history card with her; it riled her just like poking a rattler in it's cave. The growl in her voice deepened considerably. "Some of our blood runs the same. I have as much claim as you do. They're with me, they stay. Now, do yourself a favor and make this painless as possible. We have a lot to talk about. None of us mean you any harm." Her fingers tightened into fists. "If you try and force us to leave, we can stop you."
"And a lot of blood between us is different. Your dad ran off with that redhead whore and left me in the dust. I don't know what the hell you think you're doing on my land, but if you came here to pick a fight, rest assured girl, I can give you one." Moonlight burned off the knife affixed to his wrist as Luna's eyes swung back and forth rapidly. Anger blazed at the insults to her mother but the smallest amount of reason held her back. Picking a violent fight was not the way to get Merle's help. She inhaled deeply and settled back down into her skin, her nails digging into her palms to ground her.
"Fine. I can smell the whiskey from here; invite me in. You and me can have a drink, talk about some things, and then you can decide whether we can stay or not. I think you owe me that as your niece." She exhaled the breath at last and loosened the death grip of her balled up fingers.
Merle tipped his head to the side and let his gaze swivel between the kids watching him until he finally settled on Judith. He swung one step forward and turned to face her directly. She stiffened marginally but didn't back down.
"You're Officer Friendly's brat ain'tcha? You got that same quiet look he had too. But you're a tricky little bitch I bet." Merle's sneer curled over his entire face and Luna's blood burned but her sister took the words in stride.
"My name is Judith Grimes. Rick is my father," she growled firmly.
Merle cocked his eyebrows and let out a hum of consideration. His eyes switched back and settled onto Leland now who was standing very close to Judith. "And lemme guess, you're the Chink's spawn, his and the tight little brunette always clinging to him. Only really saw them once, but you're a mutt if I ever met one." His eyes narrowed. "One foot in two doors and never invited into either." He spat at his feet again.
Leland bristled and began to advance towards Merle but Luna caught him by the shoulder and held him back while Judith laced their fingers together. "He's not in our family by blood. None of them are but Judith and me. They're kids from the CDC." She gritted her teeth as she stared at Merle in the face. "Don't talk shit to them. Ever. They're braver than you ever could think about being and they're just kids."
"What you know about the CDC girl?" Merle demanded coldly.
"More than you do, I bet. Invite me in and we'll talk about it," Luna said, crossing her arms over her chest, leaning back on the balls of her feet lightly.
After a pregnant pause in which Luna could see the gears inside his head turning, Merle tipped his head to the side. "Aight then. They stay here." He carefully opened up the door and waved Luna inside. Before she went she turned back to Mal and squeezed his wrist reassuringly. To Judith she signed "Keep an eye on things. I'll yell if I need you."
Judith rolled her eyes. "Yeah, you said that before," she signed back, indicating to the blood still dripping down her sister's face. Luna shrugged and then turned to follow after Merle who had already disappeared inside the house. The door closed with a sharp snap that Luna couldn't hear and temporarily the air was sucked from her lungs at the total darkness she found herself engulfed in, but just a few seconds later a soft amber glow filled the house as Merle lit several lanterns.
"This the house you and Dad grew up in?" she asked as she followed him to the kitchen table.
"The very same," Merle drawled as he went into the kitchen. Luna followed and was surprised when she was presented with a clean piece of cloth. "Clean yourself up. No need to go gettin' blood all over the place."
Luna dabbed at the cut on her head, feeling it out through the cloth. A significant gash, but not that deep if the level of the pain was any way to judge. Probably wouldn't scar.
Shame, then Mal could kiss that one too, her mind trailed. She refocused her gaze onto Merle as he began to rifle through one of the top cupboards.
"I was saving this for a special occasion, but I guess this is as close as I'm likely to get." He set out two shot glasses on the table and poured out a measurable amount of amber fluid from an unlabeled bottle that he set aside. "The first batch I made after I got this place back. Distilled five times, aged it for five years." He picked up his glass just as Luna did the same. "Let's see if Daryl's daughter can shoot as good as her daddy used to."
They tipped their shots back in unison. Luna was surprised at the clean flavor of the whiskey, but it wasn't long until the musk she had been anticipating came up to greet her. The burn dug meat hooks into her mouth and throat as she swallowed but the sear was the good sort of pain. She set her glass down and took a seat at the table with Merle, exhaling carefully, trying to avoid the urge to wince at the burning sensation carving it's way down into her guts.
"If you weren't a Dixon before, you sure are now," Merle noted as he set his glass aside. "So what brought you to my doorsteps, Luna? Bit of an interesting name if I may say so myself."
"My mom's doing," she said in reference to her name. "I know you used to work for the CDC. For Edwin Jenner. You don't have to tell me the story about Phillip, I know my dad killed him. But Jenner is still alive, and he's been having his soldiers steal kids off the street so he can experiment on them. He's looking for a cure still. Me and Judith were snatched up in Wyoming, taken to the same base that my family broke into in Colorado, and then shipped all the way to Atlanta."
Merle whistled a little but then shrugged his shoulder. "You can't tell me it was a personal vendetta. Jenner doesn't give two shits about one person or another. All he cares about is his lab."
Luna shook her head. "No, it wasn't personal. But my family, your little brother, are still alive. They're alive, they know where they took us, and they're coming. They're coming to get me and Judith back."
Merle cocked an eyebrow with the most careless expression imaginable. "So what?"
"Atlanta is overrun. I know it, you know it, anybody alive within a hundred miles knows it. If my family comes and tries to get into the CDC, they'll be torn to pieces." Her voice was grave and even raspier thanks to the shot of whiskey that still burned through her flesh.
"Well you ain't at the CDC anymore girly. So I don't see the big deal. Or why you had to go and lead a guerilla raiding party on my house at three in the god damn morning." His eyes narrowed at her as he reached for the whiskey bottle again.
"My friends and I are going back to the CDC. Jenner is holding those kids against their will, and he's getting ready to test another 'cure'. Every time this happens, they die. It's never worked. They always die, Merle. And I'm not going to let it happen. Me and my friends are the only ones who can do anything about it." Her knuckles cracked ominously as glass chinked while Merle poured both of them another drink.
"If the city is a no go, how do you and your slippery little pals keep getting in and out?" he questioned. He sipped this shot slower this time and she did the same, tasting the deep smoky flavor from the charred barrel it must have been aged in. Her father had some at home as well, not nearly as potent in flavor, but all the burn was still there.
"There are tunnels underneath the streets. The biters still get in, but it's the only way to get around now a days. Leland, the one you called a chink, he knows the tunnels. He helps us get in and out of the city. We need him to get back to the CDC so we can bust those kids loose and burn that motherfucker to the ground once and for all." She tossed the shot down her throat at once, the burn mimicking the anger that all of a sudden rose through her like liquid fire in her veins.
"Easy girl. That shit will put you on your ass faster than you think it will," Merle warned as she set her glass down again. He set his own still mostly full cup down as well and stared her in the eye. "What is it you want from me?"
"There's only one road in or out of the city. If you're laying in wait for Daryl and the others when they come, you can warn them. Tell them that Judith and I are alive and what's going on. Stop them from getting killed." She exhaled again, feeling the whiskey make her head spin slowly as she shifted in her chair. Unbidden, memories from her father rose up to greet her, the first time she'd been hung over after she and Judith had stolen his stash of whiskey and drank it all themselves.
"It's fun to spin for a while isn't it? Not so fun when you can't make it stop, or when you're puking bile huh? You're a Dixon, I knew you'd have a taste for whiskey. But let this be a lesson not to drink what you know you can't handle. Or what don't belong to you."
Merle narrowed his eyes at her coldly. "What the hell makes you think I'd want to put my ass right in the line of fire of a bunch of fucking biters on a one in a million chance that they show up? And besides all that, your daddy up and left me for dead, not once, but twice, so why the hell should I go risking my neck for him after twenty years?"
Anger so hot it paled the whiskey's fire roared through her veins. Luna bared her teeth and shoved herself up to her feet. "How dare you say that? How dare you say he ever betrayed you?" She slammed her fist down into the table, leaning over the surface, getting into Merle's space, the whiskey silencing her inner warning to be careful around this man. The anger was too strong, the memory of the first time she'd seen the marks all over her father's body too powerful to ignore, the message of a lifetime of cruelty beaten and scratched into his skin, never to truly heal. "He never left you," she snarled. "Never." Her fingers squeezed around her shot glass, the urge to smash it against his skull making her shake. "You left him. You always were the one who walked away." She swallowed hard, the shared pain of seeing the hurts written on her father's body sinking its teeth deep into her bones. "You walked away and left him alone with a monster." The only time her father had ever truly been angry with her had been her attempts to pry into the reasons for his scars, before he knew how to answer her. He'd spurned her angrily, sending her away and refusing to ever say anything else about it for many years. She'd only been ten years old when she'd turned to her mother for answers.
"Your father's father was a bad person, Luna. Something inside of him was twisted and wrong, something rotten that had died probably before your father was ever born. He hurt your father."
She'd tapped the small scar on her hand that she'd earned from a slip with the boning knife. "But how? His are a lot bigger than this. How could he hurt him like that?"
Her mother had swept her up into her arms and pulled her close, squeezing tightly before pulling back so Luna could read her lips. "I don't know, Luna. I don't know how a father could do that to their son. But please, don't ask him about it anymore. It hurts him too much to talk about."
"Has he told you?"
Her mother had nodded, the light in her eyes darkening perceptively. "Yes, Luna. But it's not something he wants you to know. If he wants to tell you about it one day, he will, but don't expect him to. And don't ever say anything to anyone else, not even Judith. If they've seen the scars, then they know, and his silence is the only answer they need."
"He was mad at me when I asked…" her fingers trembled as she slowly formed the signs. "Would he ever hurt me?"
At this her mother had clutched her fiercely, as though a hurricane was trying to rip her away. It was so long before she answered that Luna almost forgot the original question. Her mother set her on her feet but dropped into a crouch to be at eye level with her, her fingers signing slowly but without any hesitation.
"Never. Luna, you are the light of your father's life. It's too much for you to understand now, but maybe when you're older, you'll know how much you mean to him. But I promise that he will never, ever, hurt you. You caught him off guard when you saw his back, he felt cornered, just like a bear trapped in its cave. There's nothing you could ever say, nothing you could ever do, nothing you could ever be, that would ever make him hurt you, or love you any less."
She'd accepted her mother's explanation then and left it at that. It wasn't until much later when she had dared to ask him again about the scars that he had offered her to drink from his whiskey and hoarsely had told her that in the world that was, people didn't understand how important family was. A world where fathers could beat their sons close to death without repercussion if nobody knew. Luna was unfamiliar with the emotion that had etched its mark against her father's skin but she knew its name. Shame. After all this time, he was still ashamed. She'd silenced his words and set the whiskey aside before situating herself against his chest, humming softly in her throat.
"I like this world more than the one Before," she had said. He'd leaned his cheek against the crown of her head, his fingertips tracing the signs into her arm as his answer.
"I do too, little one. I do too."
She didn't move out of Merle's face as the harsh word continued to tumble from her lips while the memory reel kept playing. "I've seen the scars on his back. And I know you have the same. You're too proud to ever say why, but I know why. Your old man beat the two of you half to fucking death more times than you can probably count. Right here in this house if I had to bet on it. And don't you dare give me that bullshit you didn't know. You knew. If he could hit you, the only thing he had close to the son he actually wanted, then you knew he would beat Daryl bloody too. And you ran like a fucking coward. You left him here while you were out playing soldier and failing at that miserably. And then when shit the fan, when the Walkers showed up and the world went to hell, you had the chance to go back for him after you got loose from the roof in Atlanta. You had the chance, and you didn't. You left without him and for what? To do a mad man's dirty work? To nearly beat your brother's woman to death? To let a psychopath rip her face open?" She bit down on her words as she gritted them through her teeth, the nearly insufferable anger so much that she could hardly begin to comprehend it. "You owe this to him, Merle."
Merle gritted his teeth and looked up at her, anger burning all the way through his winter sky eyes. "Back yourself off of me," he warned. He got up to his feet and stared her down but she didn't budge one inch. She couldn't hear it, but she could tell by the tension in his throat and jaw his voice was stretched thin and laced with a double-edged blade. "You don't know anything, girl. You think you do because your old man told you stories, because you've spent your life listening to Officer Friendly and your ma while tucked away in the mountains away from the hellhole of the cities. I don't owe that boy anything, and I never did. I did the best I could for him and if he can't get over the fucking past than that's his problem."
Luna bared her teeth, her fingers biting into the wood of the table. "Seems like it's your problem too." She snatched the whiskey and dispensed with the glass and drank a mouthful straight from the bottle. The liquid kicked and scorched and clawed it's way down her throat but all her hesitation burned away along with the pain.
"What are you on about?" Merle growled, clear aggravation and annoyance splitting every syllable.
Luna smirked at him, gesturing loosely, the bottle still in her hand. "You can't let go of the past either. You just can't get over that Daryl sent you away. That he dared pick someone else over you. You can't change the past. You can't go back and protect him; you can't go back and take him with you. But you have the only chance you're ever going to get to make it right with him now." Her expression eased up and became less conniving. She set the bottle down and dared to take a step or two closer to Merle, still resting her weight on the balls of her feet. She knew that if she drank anymore she'd be too impaired if things came to a fight. Already the whiskey was whispering in her ear, urging her to keep talking, and she listened.
"He hurt you bad when he chose my mom over you, didn't he? Tore you to pieces I bet. Cause I know he was all you ever really had. I bet you drove all the way back here kicking and screaming at his memory, but you never could get rid of the pain, could you? No matter how many Walkers you took down, no matter how much homemade brew you could drink. You never could get rid of the way it hurt. And you like to think you hate him now. Hate him for choosing her and Rick and the others over you. But you don't. You can't. Because you know there was a reason for it. You know he chose them over you because you screwed him up almost as bad as your own father did, because you were the one who should have protected him and you didn't. And the worst bit is that Daryl knows it. The guilt must eat you alive every single day." Her voice was much softer now, rasped by the whiskey, but had lost all it's bite. She dared to come a pace or two closer, within striking range now but a combination of the alcohol and her intuition had burned away all her fear.
"You didn't mean to hurt him. You did what you thought was best. You thought if you could toughen him up the rest of the world couldn't hurt him just like the rest of the world couldn't hurt you anymore. It never did quite take with him as much as it did you, and who the hell knows why. It doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is the fact you have a chance to wipe the slate clean."
"How you figure that?" She didn't need to be able to hear to know his voice was hoarse. She could see the tension wracking every inch of his skin.
"You saw what he did when he came to take my mom back from Jenner and Phillip. What do you think he'd be willing to do to bring his flesh and blood home? Because I was his second chance. Everything his family ever did wrong by him he could do right by me. And he did. There's nothing more redeeming you could do than to help us."
Merle took the whiskey bottle out of her hands and poured himself a measurable amount and drank half before he answered. "You spin a real pretty yarn, Luna, but I have a feelin' no matter what I do, ain't nothin' gonna be good enough for your ma. Or Officer Friendly. So you have bled your little heart out all over this table for nothin'." He shrugged his shoulders as he sank back down into his chair, staring up at her pointedly.
"It's not that much a secret my mom hates you," Luna admitted. "But what she told you all those years ago when you first came crawling back still stands. She won't lay a hand on you. She knows that you were trying to keep Daryl from getting shot when Phillip was taking a buck knife to her face." Her knuckles cracked as she sank back down into her chair as well, her eyes never leaving Merle's. "It will never be an easy thing. But if you help us, I'm damn sure my mother could learn to live with it."
"And ol' Rick?" Merle asked, rolling the name on his tongue with a decided sneer. Clearly he still blamed the former sheriff for his missing limb. Luna tipped her head to the side in consideration, feeling the way the whiskey made the room sway. She noticed a stack of bottled water near the back door and without being invited got up and retrieved one, downing almost half in one go. She turned back to Merle who had twisted around to watch her, his eyes never leaving hers.
"You help bring his daughter home, I'm sure the two of you could work things out," she said with an easy shrug of her shoulders. She leaned up against the table and was surprised by the way a smirk twisted Merle's features.
"She ain't his kid," he drawled loosely. "There ain't a drop of Rick's blood in that girl."
Luna stiffened marginally, her heart slamming in her throat, nausea welling up in her lower belly. "What makes you say that?" she demanded coldly.
"I knew Shane. An idiot if I ever met one, but he had fire in him without a doubt. He was a loose canon. Ol' Rick and his real blood Carl might have tamped it down in little Judith, but it ain't all gone. I saw it in her. It's all in the eyes. You'd know all about that, wouldn't ya Luna? Cause I can bet sure as the sun rises if you can't hear you can see better than most. And you see her, don't you? See the way she has to bite her tongue, the way her hands shake when she doesn't get her way, the way she bends everyone else to do what has to be done." As he had spoken he'd slowly pressed in on Luna's space. The smell of smoke, whiskey, gun oil, leather, and sweat roiled into her nose, so harsh and abrasive, and yet not unfamiliar. It struck a sharp chord in her, one that rang with memory, and one that hurt as much as it reminded her of home.
"Nobody knows." The rasp was soft and thick with the taste of a lie. She was going to continue but Merle cut her off.
"Everybody knows," he sneered. "Everybody but her, right?" He fixed her with an almost deadly stare, and they refused to back down from each other. She lifted her chin in defiance and he smirked at her. "Just like everybody knows I'm the devil, your daddy's the saint, and your ma is the bat shit crazy lunatic. That where your name came from sweetheart?"
"I think Dad would forgive me if I punched you in the face," she snarled coldly. "It would be no more than you deserve."
"So do it then," Merle growled. "You talk a lot of shit for such a little bitch. Your ma was the same way." He smirked a little at her, the expression twisting almost towards a leer. "If she would have just shut her mouth all those years ago, I wouldn't have had to hit her so hard."
Rage exploded like a comet careening into her chest, the heat scorching behind her ribs so hot that there was no hope of containing it. She flung her fist out and struck him right in the nose, her knuckles almost buckling with the force of the blow. Merle's head went snapping back as he staggered, the force she exerted causing him to tumble over, knocking the chair to the floor as he collapsed onto the ground. His arm had smacked into the leg of the table, causing the whiskey bottle perched there to topple over. Luna's reflexes snapped and she snagged the bottle before it could shatter on the floor, delivering a solid kick to Merle's calf before stepping around him carefully as he groaned, a fresh coating of blood starting to spill down his face from his broken nose.
"Don't ever talk about my mother to me," she said, air gasping through her lungs, softening the edge of her word, but all the fire was still in her eyes. "You hate her because you think she stole Daryl from you. Get something through your head, you stupid idiot, people can't be stolen! People choose who they want to be, and who they want to be with! And you just can't stand the thought that Daryl chose someone else over you! Because you know that nobody else in the world could ever love you, but he could. And he did. And he still does."
Merle dragged himself up to his feet, straightening the crooked bridge of his nose with his hand, dabbing at the blood spilling onto his lip before staring at her with a mixture of surprise, anger, and the smallest kernel of respect.
"You're just like her you know," Merle muttered as he grabbed the rag Luna had cleaned off her own blood with and pressed it to his nose. "I hate to hear her voice with his eyes looking at me."
Luna shrugged. "Ain't nothin' to do about that." She set the whiskey bottle on the table and Merle made to grab it and she tilted her head at him. "I don't think that's gonna help any."
"Might help to keep from stomping your ass like it ought to be." He took a heavy pull on the bottle and stared at her, the alcohol doing absolutely nothing to dull the sharpness in those pale blue eyes. Struck by curiosity Luna unfolded her arms and sat back down at the table, most of the anger in her dying as quickly as it had rose.
"You both have blue eyes," she started. "But mine and his are darker than yours. Are those from your father or your mother?"
Merle huffed softly as if taken by surprise at her question. "Mother," he answered quietly. "He looks more like her." He tipped his head at her, his eyes narrowing considerably. "You look more like your mother too, from what I remember. But not the eyes."
"You see things too, Merle." She spoke softly now, determined once and for all to bring him around, the same way her father would do with her when she was being stubborn. She had too. Too many lives depended on it for her to fail.
"This is the only chance you have to make it right. He means everything to you. He still does. After all this time, he's the only thing that ever meant anything to you. He hurt you and you hurt him; you traded scars, and I can't guarantee open arms and drinks when this is all over, but what I do know is that you will never get a chance like this again." She paused and looked him straight in the eye and he was watching her with the same intensity, his whole body pretending to be a mask of indifference, but she could see the truth underneath as plain as day.
"Please tell me you're not stupid enough to hold onto your pride and let this slip through your fingers. And if you tell me you are, then you might as well blow your own brains out because what do you have to live for? Honestly I don't know how you made it this long on your own. I couldn't have. Dad couldn't have. You're stronger than most. This is the time you can prove it."
Merle shrugged his shoulders and leaned back in his chair. "What do you and your little gang out there plan on doing? When you get back to the CDC I mean." The blood seemed to have stopped dripping from his nose finally but she could see the swelling already starting.
"Jenner will probably throw me and Judith into cells. Mal will come bail us out and then we'll hack the security and get the kids out and anybody else that can be trusted. Then I'ma light that son of a bitch on fire and watch it burn."
Merle chuckled, a twisted smile playing with his mouth. "And what happens if it goes wrong? Jenner's insane but he ain't stupid. He'll know Mal's hopped into your bed, he'll know not to trust him. What happens if you're all trapped down there with no rescue coming? Then what?"
Luna rolled her shoulders. "We'll get out," she said firmly.
Merle snorted dismissively. "And if you can't, Jenner will kill you all. And who gets to be the one to tell Daryl and the rest?" All the rueful humor died in his face as he fixed her with a solemn look. "I don't want to be the one to tell him his daughter went on a suicide mission for a bunch of backstabbing skanks."
"I'm not going to let him kill those kids, not without a fight. Not without trying to get them out," she repeated.
"Did anybody ever tell you you're not that bright? You're already home free, with the closest thing you've got to blood already trailing along behind you. Why the hell are you going to risk your life for those people?" He sounded genuinely confused. Luna shrugged her shoulders and stood up again from the table.
"You wouldn't understand," she said quietly.
He stood up as well and they met each other measure for measure one more time. "Oh I understand just fine," he muttered. "You've got your honor. That damn need to do the right thing as you see it. Your daddy has that too. Just can't stand to see innocent people suffer. I always told him it was going to get him killed. It's gonna get you killed too, and then you'll wish you woulda listen to me."
"Everyone dies, Merle. I've already got one person telling me I'll die young. It doesn't scare me."
He shook his head at her. "Her words. His eyes. It'll never sit right with me."
She went for the door but before she left she turned back to him. "You gonna give me an answer or not?"
"Why should I?" he growled.
She paused with her handle on the doorknob. This was her chance. This was her chance to make it count and if she failed, she'd be forced to choose between her family, and a bunch of people who she'd decided to lead on a suicide mission, and one weight was just as heavy as the other.
"There are a lot of reasons. Every scar across his back is a reason. Every name you ever called him is a reason. Every step you took that put distance between the two of you is a reason. Because this is the only chance you'll ever have to tell him you're sorry for everything that happened. That's all he ever really wanted you know. And I know you are sorry, Merle. I know that if you could go back and change it, you'd of killed that bastard. You can't go back, but this is your chance to prove that if you could, you would. That you would do it differently. I know him just as well as you do, and I can tell you, that's all he ever wanted."
She yanked on the handle and let herself out, allowing the door to slam behind her. Her friends were sprawled on the porch but as soon as the door moved they jerked upright.
"Well?" Judith demanded.
She beckoned them all to follow her off the porch and down the yard quickly. "Come on. We're moving out."
"What do you mean, what the hell? Will he not help us?" Leland demanded while Tau started to cuss a blue streak.
"I didn't say that!" Luna barked over the rising sound of dissent. "He'll help us. Especially if he thinks he's too late." She didn't give them more of an explanation, just lead them back down the drive out of sight of the property, going at a quick pace down the zigzagging trail it took to get up there.
"We can't make it all the way back to the quarry tonight, we have to rest!" Simon growled even as he struggled to keep pace.
"There's other houses around here that will probably be clear, we can use one of them. We just have to keep out of Merle's sight is all," Luna soothed. Judith maneuvered up to her side and caught her sister's eye quickly.
"What exactly did he say?" she signed.
Luna returned her sign language, happy to give her throat a rest, especially after several shots of whiskey without much of a chaser. "Didn't say anything one way or another whether he'd help us. But he will. I hit him where it hurt. I laid out the truth without any bullshit to cover it up. There's no way he won't help us."
"Did he at least seem open to the idea?" Judith pressed.
Luna shrugged. "Not really. But that's just listening to the words." She smirked a little bit at Judith before relaxing her shoulders. "He'll help us. He might be kicking and screaming all the way, but he will."
"What makes you so sure?" Judith asked heavily.
"Merle is a stubborn, proud man, but he's no fool. He's not about to pass this up. Not when Daryl was the only thing he ever had and he has the chance to make it right."
A quarter of a mile further down the hill they did find another house that they cautiously approached. Upon inspection they realized that the place had been abandoned for years. After using several pieces of furniture to secure the door on a one in a million chance Walkers tried to get in, they hit the deck. Most of them were asleep within minutes, but Mal tugged Luna in close, combing her hair back as they lay on the floor underneath the window together.
"I'm ok," Luna murmured softly, speaking for the first time in a while. "It's just a scratch."
His thumb traced the cut gently before he let his fingers brush down against her jaw as he angled his head up and kissed her softly. "You taste like whiskey," he said, his voice slow and thick with sleep, something she couldn't hear but she could see in the lazy movements of his mouth and throat.
"Merle gave me a drink. Or two. Maybe three. Lost count eventually," she told him. She felt him laugh and she looked up at him questioningly.
"Shoulda known you liked whiskey. Bet you could drink with the best of 'em," he said. He touched her cut again and nibbled on her lower lip with his teeth gently. "And brawl too, apparently."
She rolled her eyes. "He asked for it." She returned his affection and nuzzled his throat, teething the firm column of flesh pointedly. "You know when we go back we're going to be in hell, right? It won't be easy anymore."
He sighed quietly and shifted a bit, tugging her closer to him. "Nothing has been easy since I met you."
"That a bad thing?" she asked softly.
He shook his head as his fingers brushed away several pieces of hair from her neck. "No. I never would have thought I can do what I've done in just the past twenty four hours, let alone what we're going to try to do." He looked her in the eye with a concerned expression. "Are you really going to try and burn the CDC down?"
She nodded. "Yes. I have to. This can't be allowed to continue. If there ever was a cure out there, Jenner's not going to find it. He's had damn near twenty years to try and find it. It ain't out there."
"What if it is though?" Mal pressed. "You could be burning down our only chance at curing this thing."
Luna growled softly in her throat with aggravation. "It ain't out there. There is no cure. The only thing you can do for those sorry bastards is to put them out of their misery."
Mal tilted his head down at her. "Maybe we don't have to burn it down. Maybe just get rid of Jenner."
She shook her head. "As long as that place is still standing, things like this will continue."
He fixed her with a sharp look, the steel of his eyes sparking with blistering heat. "You sure about that? Or is this because you hate them all and you want to see it destroyed?"
"Does it matter?" she growled. "One way or another, I'm going to burn that son of a bitch to the ground."
He exhaled a long breath and arched up to kiss her forehead gently before lowering himself back down. "It does matter, Luna. But I think maybe what matters more is that even if you were going to burn it down just because you hate them is that I'm still with you." He let his hands run against her back while a thick croon hummed in her throat. "I am with you, little wolf."
She turned in his embrace so her back was pressed to his chest and settled down on the pilfered cushions and his arm to sleep. She could feel the warmth of his breath against her neck murmuring something but without seeing his lips she didn't know what it was. Her stomach turned at the thought of what it might be, and if she could ever echo it back.
Do you love him too, Luna?
DarylDixon'sLover: I hope they find Fox and Daryl x
Oh there will be a reunion of epic proportions my friend, I promise this.
mrskaz453: OMG... doing my happy dance... Merle is back! I have to say that I'm glad you continued on with Luna/Judith side of the story... While, I can't wait to read what the others are up too, the continuation with Luna/Judith was perfect...so perfect...Luna/Mal was hot... One word... DAMN! Luna/Judith's convo was funny for me... Lori's daughter lecturing about safe sex...LOL Okay, so that was a dig at Lori, but I just couldn't help it... Luna's nickname is Wolf and her mama is Fox... I love it...I loved the memories she had of Daryl telling her about Merle and his home... She knew right where to go... Luna meeting Uncle Merle... OMG... I loved, loved, loved it... I love to hate Merle and hated what he did to Fox & Daryl, but deep down Merle loved Daryl, he just didn't love him the way he should have.. I love that he could tell who she was by her eyes...I love the way you wrote that... and loved Merle's reaction and response... He hasn't seen Daryl in 20 years, but he's never forgotten... it makes me sad for Merle and his stupid mistakes all those years ago... I just hope that Merle has changed, some...(LOL) You must update soon... I can't wait to see what happens when next... I"m also anxious to see what happens when Judith finds out the truth about her bio-dad...that is going to be awesome... Please update soon... .Awesome chapter
Merle is so back baby. He was another character on TWD that took me ages to like, but I finally did warm up to him, mostly because of the fact that he really does care about Daryl, and is also a total bad-ass. Hah, I definitely wanted to bring a little bit of sexiness to Luna and Mal, because as in all things she is aggressive, but Mal is not to be outdone by a long shot. And I'm glad the humor played out nicely too, there needs to be comic relief in a world as serious as TWD. Of course Merle has never forgotten, he could never forget. Daryl was all Merle ever had, and not only is his pride and ego deeply wounded, emotionally Daryl choosing someone else over him was like a knife in the back. There's a small part of Merle that understands why, which is the only thing that would make him even consider helping them now. I really do think that the dynamic of the older/younger brother is what helped shaped both Merle and Daryl's personalities (uh oh, here comes all my psychology classes), and I so wish that they would have left Merle alive on the show, because he was FINALLY starting to come around. As for Judith and her finding out that Rick isn't actually her father…oh good lord, yes, as you said, it will be awesome xD
Brittney: *Squeals* OMG! They meet at last! Loved this chapter :D Keep up the great work
They do meet! I had originally planned a much more passive meeting between the two, but I thought that the throw down was more realistic, given Merle's suspicions and Luna's temper xD
Emberka-2012: Yes, Luna was right - Merle immediately knew who she was. This is quite logical her mother, well, very memorable lady. Ha.
Merle would know those dark blue eyes anywhere. And you are quite right my friend, Fox certainly does know how to leave an impression, something Luna inherited for certain.
RedneckBunny: Wow... so much awesomeness in the last few chapters! Can't wait to see what happens next with Merle!
And there is only more to come my friend!