AN: As always, I just wanted to remind you all that I'm thankful for your comments, reviews, PMs etc. They are really wonderful and cherish all of them. I have been trying to spend most of my free time updating for everyone so I haven't been able to respond to them individually, but I want you to know that they are greatly appreciated!

I hope you enjoy as we continue with our story!

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When Daryl got back to the apartments, he found his empty. He crossed the hall and knocked at the door, Lincoln announcing his presence from within. Carol swung the door open a minute later, standing there in her pajamas with Lincoln in her arms.

Daryl stepped into the apartment. Andrea was on the couch with a blanket over her and a big bowl of popcorn resting on her knees. She looked over her shoulder at him when he came in.

"What are you doin'?" He asked.

Carol closed the door and put Lincoln back on the floor. He bounded around to the couch and sat looking up at Andrea who tossed a piece of popcorn at him.

"We're watching The Wizard of Oz," Carol said, "and eating popcorn. Your boy's night over already?"

Carol walked around and crawled on the couch, flipping the cover back over her and leaning back against Andrea's legs so she could see the television better.

"Merle's drunk down at the bar. I need help gettin' him home," Daryl said. Neither one of the women looked away from the television. Daryl sighed and leaned against the counter. "Come on," he said. I need some help."

"We're busy," Andrea said, packing her mouth with popcorn.

"Andrea, don't be a bitch about shit, Merle's damn near passed out," Daryl said.

"So he can stay that way," Andrea said. "I'm not being a bitch but nobody told him to go down to the bar and get sloppy drunk. I've been watching this whole movie just to see the horse of a different color and I'm not leaving this apartment until I do."

Daryl looked at the television. He thought he might have seen this movie back when he was a kid but he didn't remember much about it. Something about some magic land or something. Right now, though, he was concerned about Merle being left down there at the Water Ho, and he wanted to get his stupid, drunk ass back here so that he could maybe talk his way back onto the couch instead of having Andrea occupy what was supposed to be his spot while she ate what was most definitely his popcorn that he was supposed to be sharing with Carol.

"We can't just leave him down there, Andrea. Ya know how he gets an' he's gonna go wanderin' off if we don't go after him," Daryl said.

"Loretta won't let him wander off," Andrea said. "She'll call the cops first."

"Ya want Merle ta end up locked up?" Daryl asked.

Andrea put the bowl of popcorn over Carol's head and into her lap and she got up quickly enough that Carol spilled backward onto the couch, not anticipating the sudden removal of her backrest.

"You're right, Daryl," Andrea said. "Let me drop everything and go with you to get your stupid ass brother who could have just as easily gotten shit faced drunk across the damn hall with the liquor cabinet that's stocked up for him. Let me find my damn shoes and we'll go."

"Ya goin' in ya pajamas?" Daryl asked. He shot at look at Carol who was now getting up and either looking for Andrea's shoes or looking for something else on the floor.

"Yes, I am," Andrea said. "What's it going to do? Embarrass him that he had to have people come and carry his sorry ass out of a shithole bar and they came in their pajamas because they were at home relaxing instead of out in public making an ass out of themselves?"

Andrea slipped on her shoes and Carol put the popcorn on the counter. She had on shoes too and apparently was part of the pajama parade.

"Ya pissed?" Daryl asked. Andrea didn't answer. She just glared at him and he could tell that she was clearly pissed. He sighed and slipped out the door. The two women followed behind him, closing Lincoln inside and Carol locked the apartment.

Daryl slipped down the stairs with the two of them behind him and went to the truck.

"There ain't gonna be enough room for all a' us," he said, opening the driver's side door.

"Merle's going in the back," Andrea said. "I supposed there's plenty enough room back that and when he hurls all over the damn thing we can hose it out tomorrow."

Daryl cringed a little at the idea, but he knew right now he didn't feel like fighting with Andrea. She was obviously pissed and he wasn't sure if it was because Merle was drunk, because her movie had gotten interrupted, because they had to go and get him, or a combination of everything.

When everyone was piled into the truck, Daryl drove them down to the bar and parked in front. It wouldn't be too long before the place closed, but still it was pretty crowded with the dedicated souls who had a tendency to shut the place down.

They piled out of the truck and Daryl glanced one last time at his pajama clad comrades, still a little in disbelief that they were going into the bar dressed that way. Still, there wasn't much that he could say and they were here now.

Daryl pushed into the bar with Andrea and Carol behind him. He tried not to look around much, though the fact that a few of the drunks thought it OK to howl at what Andrea and Carol were wearing made him burn hot. They might not have been well suited to the bar, but that didn't give the men a right to make the fuss that they were over some cotton shorts and t shirts. For some reason, it bothered Daryl more knowing the men were ogling Carol dressed like that than it did to know they were ogling her in the scanty uniform that she usually wore to work there.

Merle was right where Daryl left him, slumped over now, on the table. Daryl tugged at Merle's arm and Merle stirred, sitting up and looking around. The good thing was that Merle was fairly capable of staying up on his feet once you got him going. On rare occasions he fell flat on his face, but for the most part he needed a good start and some support to keep him moving in a somewhat straight line, and he could keep the one foot in front of the other going.

Daryl wouldn't need Carol really, only Andrea, if he could get Merle going, though Carol might be useful when they returned to the apartment building and had to conquer the stairs. A little added assistance would be nice with that obstacle.

"Get'cha ass up," Daryl growled at Merle. "Ya goin' home. Me an' Carol an' Andrea, we gon' take ya home an' ya can sleep off all ya done drunk there."

Merle mumbled something but his speech had gone entirely intelligible. There wasn't really any way to distinguish that what he was saying was even composed of words, and Daryl knew from his condition before that even if the words could be understood there wouldn't be any meaning to his brother's mumblings.

"Yeah, yeah…what the fuck ever, Merle, come on," Daryl said. Finally Merle decided it was in his best interest to abandon the cracked and aged booth and slide out where Daryl could help heave him to his feet. As soon as Merle was up, Daryl looped one of his arms around his neck, not wanting to think for a moment how often he'd had to do this. Andrea came around without being asked and looped the other arm around her shoulder. Without saying anything to anyone, Daryl and Andrea both started walking Merle forward and he obeyed, shuffling forward a little at a time.

"Goodnight, Loretta," Daryl heared Carol call as he and Andrea maneuvered Merle through the heavy wooden door of the bar and out into the night.

Once they were on the sidewalk, the both stopped for a minute and Merle swayed back and forth between them, beginning to mumble again. Daryl, at this point, was praying that nothing he had to say came out clearly because it had a good chance of being some rant about Carol, some rant about Andrea, or some rant about some other woman that Merle would get a piece from given the chance. And Daryl wasn't sure that the women wanted to hear all about pussy from a drunken Merle that had drug them out in their pajamas.

"I'll open the tailgate," Carol offered, starting toward the truck while Andrea and Daryl took their breather.

"Ya know you was what set him off," Daryl said to Andrea.

"How the hell did I do this, Daryl?" Andrea asked. "I haven't even been home most of the fucking day. I got home and you two were down here already trying to drink Jack Daniels out of business."

"That's what the hell set him off," Daryl said, "but he ain't gon' never admit ta it. Ya weren't home an' he didn't know where the hell ya were. Reckon he mighta thought ya left."

Daryl was aware that Merle was semi-conscious and could probably hear everything that they were saying, but the thing was that he wasn't likely to be able to respond to it and he wouldn't remember it later. When Merle was in this condition it would have been safe to tell him government secrets and shit because he never would have been able to drag the information out again, even if his life depended on it.

"Am I supposed to tell Merle everything I do?" Andrea asked. "Because from what I get from Merle he doesn't care when I come and go…so that means it shouldn't fucking matter if I have something to do."

"Ya know Merle runs his damn mouth," Daryl said.

"Yeah, I know that, Daryl," Andrea said. "I also know he gets piss drunk to deal with shit."

"Come on, let's get him ta the truck," Daryl said. Carol was waiting behind the truck at the open tailgate. Daryl and Andrea walked Merle around and more or less pushed him at the back of the truck. Daryl wasn't positive how it was going to work in practice, but it worked out better than he initially thought. As soon as Merle felt the tailgate behind him, he helped them heave him up on it.

Merle's intent had been to ride sitting on the tailgate. Daryl's intent had been to move Merle back into the bed a little and have someone sit in the back with him. Andrea's intent was a little different. As soon as Merle slid back into the bed a little, Andrea slammed the tailgate shut, spilling Merle further back into the bed with a thud. She walked around, then, without saying anything to Daryl or Carol and got into the cab.

Daryl looked at Carol. Carol didn't respond in any way. Not a shrug, not a smile, nothing. She walked to the passenger side and crawled into the truck beside Andrea. Daryl shook his head and regarded his brother who appeared not to care about his current situation. He was beginning to curl himself around a spare tire that was back there and Daryl wondered if he would happily spend the entire night back there. Daryl sighed and got in the truck, driving back to the apartments and parking.

For a moment the three of them sat in the cab in the dark.

"Why ya so pissed?" Daryl asked. He figured it didn't hurt to ask it in front of Carol. She was going to find out about the conversation anyway from one of them.

"Because your brother is such a big stupid head, to put it in playground terms," Andrea said with a sigh. "I mean look at him, Daryl. He's so drunk that he doesn't care that he's passed out in the back of an old truck. He doesn't care about anything right now, and that's just the way that he wants it to be."

"I reckon that was the idea behind it," Daryl said. He had to admit that he thought his brother was a big stupid head as Andrea had put it, but this wasn't the first time he'd been like this and Daryl would have probably died laughing if someone had suggested it would be the last. "He's done this a million times before," Daryl said. "Why ya so damn pissed tonight?"

Andrea sighed.

"Because…I don't know. I just thought it was going to be a nice night. I got a new job today, that's where I was. I'll be working part time at the Korean restaurant that the Rhee's run. I'm going to be making some extra money. I'm looking into some things, Daryl…things to make life better. I just thought that I'd come home, cook some dinner, and we could just have a quiet fucking night. Just one nice night…and I come home to find out that he's already down at the Watering Hole drinking the fucking place dry with you," Andrea said.

Daryl felt a little sorry for her. It wasn't easy with Merle to have a nice night, and it especially wasn't easy when he decided to get like this. Daryl had been living with him long enough to know that most nights you weren't going to just have a quiet evening, you were going to spend at least part of it tending Merle's sorry ass.

"I'm sorry," Daryl offered.

Andrea chuckled a little.

"It's not your fault, Daryl," Andrea said. "And the sad thing is that it isn't Merle's fault either, not really."

"How ya figure that?" Daryl asked, looking over his shoulder and checking on his brother still sleeping in the back.

"Whatever happened, Daryl, in your life and in his life…that's where the fault lies. I watched my mama do this shit too, and it was no more her fault than this is Merle's," Andrea said. She sighed and shoved at Carol's shoulder. "Come on, let's get the asshole upstairs before he really passes out and then we can't move him."

Carol didn't say anything, she just opened the door and got out with Andrea spilling out after her. Daryl heaved his own door open and crawled out to wrestle Merle out of the back of the truck.

Getting Merle out of the back of the truck and back on his feet proved to be a three person job and really Daryl thought they could have maybe used a fourth or fifth. Once he was up, though, he took on all the qualities of Frankenstein's monster and began shuffling with them toward the stairway. Daryl let the women take the front then and he started pushing at Merle's back. At least if Merle toppled backwards and took anyone down the flight of stairs it would be Daryl and not Carol or Andrea whom he might have crushed.

When they got to the landing, finally, everyone was exhausted. Daryl opened the apartment door and waited for Andrea to come and retrieve Merle and take him in to do all the happy little night time routine stuff that she did with Merle when he was like this. She stood beside Carol, though, staring at him.

"Ain't'cha gon' take him in?" Daryl asked.

Andrea shook her head.

"Not tonight," Andrea said. "We were in the middle of our girl's night when your boy's night crashed our party. You and Merle went out, you and Merle got drunk, now you and Merle have a beautiful evening together."

Daryl couldn't believe this. Andrea had her arms crossed across her chest, and though she didn't look pissed anymore, she definitely looked serious. Beside her, Carol was trying not to laugh with her hand clasped over her mouth.

"Carol, is she serious?" Daryl asked. Merle groaned something and mumbled and Daryl moved him so that he was leaning against the wall.

Carol nodded.

"Yes, Daryl. You and Merle decided to go out tonight, which is fine, but that was your decision. Both of you made it. Andrea and I wanted to stay in and have a quiet night. We're all going to go now and finish the kind of night that we started. You're with Merle and we're having a slumber party," Carol said.

Daryl realized that the only thing harder to understand than a woman was two women, especially when they were banding against you. He growled a little under his breath and grabbed Merle by the neck, steering him off the wall and into the open door of the apartment.

"Goodnight, Daryl," Carol said.

"Goodnight," Andrea offered.

The women pushed into Carol's apartment and closed the door just as Merle went toddling through the kitchen and crashed into the card table, sliding it a few feet before dropping to his knees. Daryl went into the apartment and slammed the door, wrestling Merle back to his feet and shoving him toward his room.

By the time he finally got Merle into his bed, full clothed, Daryl was boiling mad about the entire situation. Merle was trying to sleep, mumbling a little.

"You're a giant fuck up!" Daryl yelled at his brother. "You're fuckin' content ta fuck ya whole damn life up! Why the hell ya gotta do this shit no way? Why couldn't ya just sit ya fuckin' ass home one night an' eat fuckin' supper like a normal human fuckin' being?"

Daryl yanked Merle's shoes off and threw them, deciding his brother could sleep as he was other than that. He hoped he was uncomfortable too.

"I wish ya weren't so fuckin' drunk so I could beat ya ass for bein' so fuckin' stupid!" Daryl yelled. It made him even angrier to think that Merle wasn't listening to him and wouldn't remember what he'd said in the morning.

Daryl left Merle and stomped back through the apartment. He opened up the cabinet where the half empty liquor bottles were stored and pulled the trash can out from under the sink. One by one he emptied the liquor bottles down the drain and threw them into the trash can, not caring about the loud clanking of the glass.

This shit…this same shit…it had turned his old man into the raving asshole that he was. It had turned his mother from the woman that he loved into the woman that would whip them both with a belt given any reason to do so or no reason at all. It had led to countless beatings for both of them. It had led to their old man finally killing their mother in one of his drunken rages and it had haunted them since then, following them all over the state, place after place, causing them to one lose shitty residence and piss poor job after another. These fucking bottles had all but destroyed who they were and every hope they'd ever have of being anything or of having anything better than a borrowed five gallon bucket to piss in.

And Daryl knew that it had done the same damn thing, in one form or another to Andrea. He didn't know the whole story there, but for some reason her father had left, her mother had drank herself to death, and her father hadn't bothered to give a shit about her. Daryl didn't need the details to figure out the rest of the story.

And Carol? Daryl knew that Ed drank. He didn't even pretend that he hadn't noticed the nauseating scent of Ed the night that they'd all been involved in his attack. Daryl was sure it wasn't the first time that Ed had been drunk and he was positive that alcohol had probably caused a good bit of the torture that Carol had to endure.

Merle might be content to piss his life away drinking gallon after gallon of the liquid poison that fucked up anyone and everyone it seemed to touch, but Daryl was done with this shit. He was done with the whole fucking idea of it. He was getting the shit out of the house. The apartment might be a dump and it might smell like fucking goat piss, but it wasn't going to smell like liquor, vomit, and goat piss. Not anymore.

When morning came, Daryl was going to have it out with Merle. One damn way or another he was letting his brother know that he was ridiculous. Merle called him a pussy for a lot of things, but hiding behind the contents of a bottle was what was making Merle the real pussy here. Daryl figured they'd probably fight when he confronted his brother about his shitty behavior, but at least if they were going to do it, they had the apartment to themselves.

Daryl felt a little calmer as she slammed the trash can full of clanking bottles back under the sink. He walked to the bathroom to brush his teeth, but realized he'd left his toothbrush at Carol's apartment. He did the best he could for the night with his finger and toothpaste and decided it would have to do until morning. He slipped into his room and cringed at the sight of his unwelcoming bed. At least if they were going to make some changes around here, and if he won the fight some changes were indeed going to be made, the first think he could do was get himself a new mattress for whatever nights he ended up stuck across the damn hall babysitting Merle instead of spending the night with Carol.

He sighed and switched off the light, knowing he'd be up well before Merle to prepare exactly what he intended to say when his brother got up to start nursing this hangover.