Have I ever mentioned that I love writing Merle? Its probably because I have virtually free rein on being as lewd and/or whatever the Hell else with him that I wanna be and it can remain all in character. THAT being said - this chapter does contain gratuitous Merle-ish language, so please, you have been warned. It also has an extremely pissed off Daryl, which we haven't seen in a while and who is also very, very fun to write.
HaloHunter89: Oh God, your gonna love these next few chapters. That's all I'm going to say about that :)
Smittendebs and HermioneandMarcus: Glad you guys love the story so much - keep reading and hopefully you'll continue to love it :)
wickedclownsmile: Thank you SO much for spending that entire time catching up with the story! I keep wondering if people will actually read it because it is bordering on forty-something chapters but I still do get a steady trickle of people who like/follow it but no one ever really leaves a review - so thank you! And I'm glad you love my characters so much - I know I do :)
Anyway, onto the chapter!
PS - Apologies for the shortened chapter; they'll get longer next one hopefully lol.
Tessa had never felt more terrified in her entire life than she did sitting there tied to a steel foldable chair. The rooms around her, which had been separated into little individual rooms like a bee's hive, looked like some bare basement torture room that could only have come from a horror fan's worst nightmare and the basement itself seemed to be in some fortified town that she didn't even know where the Hell it was! Glenn and Maggie sat tied in chairs of their own in separate little rooms but she could hear Merle talking to Glenn faraway. She couldn't hear anything from Maggie and tears filled her eyes and slid completely unbidden from her eyes. Either Maggie wasn't there with them or she had been shocked into silence by what had so quickly happened to them that day.
Oh God . . . oh dear God, what was going to happen to them?
Torture was probably the most likely thing. Merle was one mean son-of-a-bitch and as smart as a damn fox when it came to reading people, there was no doubt about that. She also had no doubt in her mind that he had each and every one of their numbers and knew exactly what was going to make each of them crow like roosters.
He especially had hers.
Her chest started heaving then as even more tears spilled down her cheeks. What would he do to her? Holy shit, what would he do to her?
Oh God Daryl . . . oh my God, baby, I wish you were here! I don't think I do this . . . I don't think I have the strength to stay quiet . . . not like Glenn . . .! She thought desperately as sobs tore forth from her chest. Some of them tripped in her throat before finally tearing loose from her lips.
And then suddenly, she reared backwards in her chair and allowed her head to fall back against her shoulders as she let out the loudest scream she could in the form of Daryl's name. It was a scream laced with terrified sobs and tears and while she knew that he couldn't possibly hear her and come to her rescue, it still made her feel better, nonetheless. It gave her hope and strength, and hope and strength, at that moment, was what she so desperately needed.
Fuck praying - she'd just sit there and scream until her throat bled. At least then Merle wouldn't have the satisfaction of hearing whatever screams and sounds he would try and tear loose from her.
"Daryl, calm down!"
"Deddy, please, we'll go get her -!"
The group watched, frozen with horror, as Daryl angrily began pacing the common room like a caged, very, very enraged tiger. Every cord of lithe muscle in his body stood pronounced against his taut skin as he paced back and forth between them with a fluid, savage-like grace – the savage-like grace of a man about to go on one Hell of a bloody warpath. He felt the blood pounding in his ears and felt his vision narrow to an almost pitch blackness and he was pretty sure if he gritted his teeth any harder, he might pop a few out like some sick snuff film.
Michonne, however, the tall, willowy African American woman with the long black dreads and the gunshot thigh, watched him with an expressionless face. She had appeared at the fence with a grocery basket full of tins of powdered baby formula. After asking her what she was doing with it, she spilled everything – how she had witnessed three people hanging around outside a deserted supermarket and how they were happened upon by a man with a metal contraption in place of a hand – a man that sounded suspiciously like Merle, who then took the people hostage and forced them to drive off.
That was when Daryl lost it.
"Where the fuck are they?" He asked her, his voice dangerously quiet. "Because, so help me, if ya don', then ya gonna have a much bigger problem than a Goddamn gunshot wound on ya hands!"
Rick's body tensed, as did everyone else in the common room. Right then, at that moment, Daryl didn't need his crossbow to be dangerous. He was so spitting fire angry that if he lunged at her, they doubted if any one of them would try and hold him back. At that moment, he was as opt to rear back and turn his hell-fire and brimstone anger down onto them as he would her. All they could do was hope and pray that this woman was smart enough to know when she was stupidly staring Death in the face.
No one fucked with Tessa.
The woman's teeth gritted as she eyed him defiantly. "Find her yourself."
Either the woman had a sick fascination with toying with her own life, or she was just plain stupid.
It was like someone had just dropped a nuclear bomb into the room. Everyone froze for a moment and it was in that moment that Ethan coolly and calmly stepped in-between his father and her. Daryl tensed, knowing good and well what his son was doing. Ethan knew Daryl wouldn't barge past him to get to her but that didn't mean that he couldn't simply just step out of the damn way and then run for her.
"Deddy, listen – we'll find momma, okay? We'll find her and we'll get her back – with or without this bitch telling us where they are." He assured him as he shot Michonne a dirty look over his shoulder and Daryl swallowed hard. He felt himself calm down slightly at his son's words but continued to shoot her death glares over his son's shoulder, nevertheless.
Rick moved to step in front of them then and his eyes were cold and unfathomable as he glared the woman down. "You came here for a reason . . . I think you have forgotten that." He spoke, his voice lowering substantially. It was now as dangerous as Daryl's was – not a good combination. The woman looked away and Rick knew he had her then.
"There's a town," She finally spoke. "It's called Woodbury and has about seventy-five survivors from what I could tell," Her eyes fell onto Daryl's then. "She and the others were probably taken there. God help them, too, for only he knows what they have gone through." Daryl's hands curled into fists at the words and he swore violently under his breath.
"There's a whole town?" Rick asked and Michonne nodded.
"It's run by this guy they call 'the Governor'. He's a pretty boy – charming, Jim Jones type."
"He got muscle?" Daryl asked and Michonne nodded again.
"Para-military wannabes. They have armed sentries on every wall surrounding the town."
"You know a way in?" Rick spoke this time and Michonne looked away.
"The place is secure from walkers, but yeah, we could slip our way through."
"Rick, we gotta go after 'em!"
Rick turned away from Michonne then and nodded in agreement as he crossed eyes with Daryl. "I know . . . I know, Daryl, but right now, what we need is a game plan -!"
Rick never finished what he was saying. For with the speed of lightening, Daryl had let out a snarl of anger as he grabbed up Rick by his shirt collar and hurled him into the nearby concrete wall. Rick temporarily saw stars as he was jolted by the impact but he quickly regained his senses as his eyes focused on Daryl's angry eyes boring holes into his. Ethan and Seth immediately started forward but Rick quickly backed them down as Daryl began speaking, his voice coming out slightly slurred as the words fought their way through his tightly clenched teeth. Daryl was so angry at that moment, that taking ahold of him and trying to pull him off, was probably not the best solution. Right then, the only thing Rick could think of to avoid getting his neck snapped, was to allow the enraged man to say his piece.
"Look, ya fuckin' sonofabitch! Ma son and daughter will die without their mother!" He knew he was exaggerating – that they had more than enough formula to feed all three of the babies for the time being, but at that moment, his feelings towards the matter were just that damn primal. The twins were still considered newborns – they still didn't have their teeth and they couldn't even crawl yet. The mother to the twins – the mother to his babies – the woman who would fight tooth and nail to protect them if it ever came to that and the woman who had risked her life and went through excruciating pain and untold danger to give them life – could be undergoing horrors unimaginable to them at that moment. Hell, she could even be dying!
At that moment, Daryl didn't want to calm down – he didn't want a game plan!
"Daryl . . . Daryl, please, calm down!"
Miraculously, it was Wren's small, scared voice coming from the gateway to the rest of the cellblock, that caused the much older man to immediately calm down enough to find the sense to release Rick. Everyone turned a startled glance onto the small young girl standing there and she swallowed hard as she moved further into the room. Her eyes pinned themselves to Daryl's then and she shook her head as she moved to stand in-between her brother and Ethan. "We don't need this right now! Rick is right, you need to calm down and think of a way to get back Tess that doesn't include any of you guys dying!" Her eyes filled with tears then. "Haven't we lost enough? Hasn't enough bad shit happened lately to even think about adding more to it?"
They stayed in silence then as Michonne let out a dry laugh. "You guys would do good to listen to the little girl. She speaks more wisdom than your hot-head over there wants to believe!"
Daryl tensed again at her words but Wren's small hand on his forearm made him calm down again and he nodded as he immediately took her into a one-armed hug. Rick heaved a sigh then as he turned to face Michonne again, grateful that Wren had been there to diffuse the tricky situation.
"This is Daryl, the husband of the woman taken," He spoke, pointing to Daryl standing behind him and she nodded.
"Yeah . . . I figured that."
"That boy standing right there next to him – he is their son. They have two sleeping newborns up in the guard office there too – so don't for a moment think he is that angry just for himself! That man there," He pointed to Hershel then. "That's the father of the other woman taken. He'll patch you up the best he can." He told her before he shared a pointed look at Daryl then before marching from the room. Daryl wasted no time in following him, handing Wren over to Beth and her brother as he did so.
Daryl shook his head as they entered the cellblock. "Look, I'm sorry Rick for losin' ma cool back there, but ya gotta understand tha' we gotta find her! God only know what they're doin' to her as we speak . . .!" Rick nodded in agreement as he glanced behind him.
"We will. Don't worry, Daryl, we will. I don't want to leave Tessa there any longer than we have to, too."
Tessa didn't think her heart could beat any damn faster than it did when Merle finally entered the room she was being held in. The leer that immediately spread across his face at the sight of her too, didn't help matters much either.
"I heard ya little temper tantrum all the way over from where I was with Glenn. Are ya done yet, 'cause ya scarin' the children and the men whose balls haven' dropped yet." Tessa replied with a glare of death and he chuckled as he moved to sit on the edge of the table in front of her. "I'll take tha' lack of a witty retort as evidence tha' ya screamed yaself raw. Good; now maybe I'll be able to speak in peace then!"
"I'm not telling you where the camp is, Merle." She immediately spoke, her voice the same as it ever was, and Merle laughed and shook his head.
"No, no, I already got tha' info. Funny . . . once we brought in the other woman half-naked and made her watch as we put a gun to her boyfriend's head, she ended up squealin' everythin' so nicely!"
"You fucker – if you touched her -!"
"Who - me?" Merle actually looked insulted then that she had dared to insinuate such a thing. "Oh nah, nah, buttercup, I never laid a hand on her or, err . . . blade . . ." He glanced at the metal contraption strapped to his arm in distaste for a minute before giving a shrug and returning his attention onto her. "Nah, I didn' touch a pretty little brown hair on her pretty little head! Now, the Governor on the other hand . . . he was quite taken with her! But me, nah . . ." He chuckled then as he leaned in closer to her. She could feel his hot breath on her cheek and recoiled as far back from him as she could possibly get. "I got ma girl right here . . . ma baby brother's beautiful little Cherokee squaw that I still can' understand how he managed to rope!"
Tessa felt her skin crawl underneath his breath and gritted her teeth to force back the tears that rose completely unbidden in her eyes again. Like last time, she would be damned if she would show him any of her tears. She hadn't before and she certainly wouldn't then.
"So, tell me somethin' Tess . . ." Merle began as he heaved a sigh and he withdrew from her and made himself more comfortable on the rough wooden table that sat before her. He didn't even have to continue – Tessa already knew that she wouldn't like what he was going to say. "Answer a question for me tha' I've been havin' floatin' 'round in ma head for the longest damn time now. Can ya do tha' for me?" When she didn't reply, he merely continued on, a small smile appearing on his face as he did so. "When ya scared and ya holdin' ma baby brother close to ya . . . when ya bodies are entwined and he's so deep inside ya that all ya wanna do is pull him as close to ya as ya can, do ya sometimes think of me?"
"Fuck you, Merle!"
The words came so fluidly and effortlessly from her lips that for a moment, she thought someone else had said them. However, when he merely chuckled and continued on, seemingly taking delight in watching her squirm, she knew they had come from her. "When his lips are all over ya . . . here and here and oh, let's not forget here! . . . They feel so good, don' they Tess? When they move down here . . ." The dangerously sharp blade of his missing hand trailed slowly down her black tank-top, puckering the fabric as it drew in-between the valley of her breasts to her stomach, Tessa closed her eyes and shook her head as tears sprung to her eyes again. "Do ya sometimes think of me when he goes down on ya, sweet-pea? When his tongue's in ya cunt and ya can' help but -"
"I swear to God, Merle, if you don't shut up -!"
Merle laughed as a tear streamed down Tessa's cheek then, causing more and more to come flooding down the sore flesh. Her heart broke when she realized that she was showing him the one thing he had never before seen - something that only Daryl had ever really seen - and she found herself yearning even more for the mans he loved. She yearned so much for the possibility that she would wake up at any minute to being cradled in Daryl's arms in their bunk in the guard office with their twins sleeping soundly in their makeshift cradle beside them, and that this whole thing would be just some horrible damn dream. However, she knew she wouldn't be that lucky.
"What are ya gonna do if I don', sweet-pea?" He cooed as he stood up and leaned over her in the chair, his lips meeting her ear seconds later. She cringed and again tried to recoil as far back from him as she could get but it seemed futile. There was only a finite amount space she could move and unfortunately, she had already used that space up. "Hell, if ya think 'bout it, it's like that day in the barn, ain' it? Ya trapped, with nowhere to go . . . no one to scream for – no one who will come flyin' to ya rescue like some Knight in Shinin' fuckin' Armor . . ." He grinned then. "Will ya come for me, Tess? Will ya come on ma cock like ya did the last time? I swear I won' tell Darlina, even though I know ya murmured his name when ya -!"
Merle's words were immediately cut off and he let out a roar of pain instead as Tessa took a leaf out of a walker book and took a nice big bite on the side of his neck. Blood immediately spilled from the minor wound in his neck as he lunged off of her and Tessa immediately started struggling, trying vainly to free herself of her bonds, however, it seemed futile. They had been tied too securely.
Then, Merle was back, rage thumping through every part of his body as he sunk his hand deep into her ebony hair and held her still as he sliced off her bonds. She let out a pained shriek as he threw her forward by her hair and slammed her belly first onto the table. His hard body folded over hers and she could again feel his hot breath on her neck.
"Does this position seem familiar to ya, Tess?" He asked, his voice angry and gruff as he spoke and as he reached his hands around to undo the button and fly of her jeans. Tessa's heart immediately began pounding again as she frantically turned to pin his eyes with hers.
"Wait, wait, wait, Merle – stop! You can't! I just – I just gave birth a few weeks ago! Y-y-you can't!"
Merle immediately came to a stop as he held her gaze. "Are ya shittin' me, girl?" He asked and she immediately shook her head.
"No, no – I had twins! Danny and Aayla – they were born just a few weeks ago. I . . ." She gave him a pleading look. "Please Merle, me and Daryl, we . . . we haven't even had sex yet, we . . . we were waiting until the soreness went away! If you -!"
She didn't have time to finish. For not that soon after she began speaking, a loud 'BOOM' split through the air and everything around them shook like an earthquake. Tessa's heart leapt up into her throat as Merle began screaming for someone to come back him up – to tell him what was going on.
Tessa's heart leapt up into her throat because she knew, at that moment, that Daryl was coming for her.
