This is very AU. I'm also stretching the timeline of Season one's Walking Dead by a lot and other things are just completely different. I just want to bring characters in and out of Merle, Daryl and Emily's lives, very few will stick around for any length of time. Oh and here come the MacManus brothers. I'm no good at Irish accents.

Chapter 5

It had been about a month and Merle was right, he'd fucked her more than anything else, every time she got the littlest thing right, she got excited which in turn got him excited and Daryl would end up with a free show. Still, she'd learned, she had to, living day in and day out with them. Merle was confident that if they got separated for any reason, she'd be able to survive till they found her. He didn't bother thinking too hard about the fact that he would be willing to look for her to begin with. Their life had settled into a comfortable little routine, so naturally that is when they ran into other people.

They had been moving around the woods, never staying in one place for more than a few nights. Neither one of the Dixon brothers wanted to get comfortable anywhere and Emily went along with whatever they said, to Emily the more they moved the more likely they would run into her sister. They had found a quarry, it was beautiful and stocked with fish, they decided to stay a while and rest up.

"Hey…uh…Emily," She looked up to find both Merle giving her a nervous look.

"Yeah?" whatever was making Merle nervous couldn't be good.

"You on the pill or somethin'. We ain't been careful…none of us." She almost laughed at how afraid he looked.

"No." she let him sweat it for a bit, Merle's eyes widening. He looked like he was ready to bolt, then she did burst out laughing.

"I can't have kids, doctors told me a few years ago." Her smile slipped a little as she gazed off into the distance. "It's why my boyfriend broke up with me….he wanted kids one day." She shook her head, almost like her head was an etch-a-sketch and she could just shake away the painful memory.

"Anyway, it's pretty convenient now. Who wants a baby in this mess." She went back to arranging the wood for the fire without looking up at Merle.

"Yeah, convenient." He murmured back. She had to be the most self-repressed woman he'd ever met. He had the urge to comfort her, make her acknowledge that she was upset, one day she was bound to explode from all the shit she bottled up inside. He turned around and walked into the woods to take a piss. It was a good thing that it was Daryl's turn with her tonight, he needed to separate himself from her for a bit, they'd been going at it like jack rabbits and he was starting to get annoyed whenever Daryl grabbed her for some alone time. He was getting attached and he needed to fix that fast.

If she'd given him the time of day before the world went to hell he would have given it a shot. He would have most likely screwed it up, but she was cute and she could be funny and damn did they have some fun in the sack. He leaned up against a nearby tree, he had a feeling Emily might be getting attached to him as well, she initiated affection and pampered him more than Daryl. Daryl didn't mind, outside the bed he was always distant, it was why most of his girlfriends dumped him. He rubbed his head in annoyance, all the reasons that would have been their undoing before the destruction of the world were invalid now. She wouldn't dump him because he was high, or selling or because he'd gone on a bender and disappeared for days without so much as a phone call and he wouldn't be meeting her parents which to this day had never gone well, not once. All those things weren't a problem anymore, but they had all been replaced by two other (much more dangerous) pressing problems. For one she wasn't likely to last long, with her lack of fighting and survival skills, being in a relationship with her would make watching her get killed a hundred times more painful, and two, Daryl was his top priority and he needed it to stay that way. He'd let his brother down so many times, he couldn't do it again, not now when the stakes were higher than they'd ever been. He'd figure out a way to keep that girl at arm's length. The answer to his prayers came much quicker than he thought, but sometimes answered prayers are a curse in disguise.

The second day of their stay brought a caravan of cars to their camping spot. While the brothers were on alert for trouble, Emily searched for the face of her sister among the crowd, heartbreakingly disappointed when she found nothing but strangers. She said her hellos and walked back to the stump in front of her tent, the brothers followed her a little later. They began talking about whether or not to join with these people, Emily let them make the decisions as usual.

By the end of the day Emily knew she had a problem. Merle and Daryl had found interest in two blond sisters that were part of the new group. She noticed how the brothers immediately focuses their attention on the pretty woman. She was back to square one, being ignored by both Dixons and unsure of her future. She tried not to feel the pain of seeing Merle flirt with another woman, she wasn't his girlfriend, he'd never told her he cared about her. She had no right to be upset, she set about making herself busy around the camp. That night she waited in the tent nervously, maybe they would kick her out.

Merle walked into their tent to find Emily sitting cross legged on the floor, mending one of the few shirts she had, she didn't look up when he walked in. He studied her for a bit, she was still cute, he was still very attracted to her. He looked around the tent, she had mended all of his and Daryl's clothes and made herself her own bed. He almost asked her what she was doing, she had been sleeping with him after all, but decided against it. She had obviously noticed him flirting with Andrea. The Blonde was hot but her attitude was shit, he wouldn't be able to stand her for long, but that didn't matter, he would fuck her if she let him. Emily getting upset was collateral damage, she was getting too close and he needed to get them both back on track. They had a business deal, not a relationship.

"Come here."

Emily got up without a word and stood in front of him. He began kissing her neck as took off her clothes, he avoided kissing her and she didn't try to kiss him. He had her on her back and was pushing himself into her within a minute, she lay still beneath him, her head turned to the side, still managing to avoid looking at him. They were back to where they had been a couple of months ago, he might as well have been fucking a doll. He closed his eyes and brought back the memory of their last coupling. She had initiated the romp after she'd skinned her first rabbit perfectly. He was picturing her grin as he climaxed, rolling off of her he let out a breath and covered his eyes with his arm. Almost immediately he felt the warmth of Emily's body leave his side, he moved his arm to find her putting her pants back on and moving to her bed. She laid down with her back to him. He was an asshole, he'd fucked her after flaunting his pursuit of another woman in her face. He rubbed his face with his hand and rolled over, giving her his back as well. This was best for both of them.

Emily was laying on her side, staring at the canvas of the tent, trying not to cry. He hadn't asked her to leave, that was a plus, he'd still fucked her that had to be good news too. She clenched her fist, he didn't kiss her, he didn't ask her to sleep with him, things that up until now, he always did. She pushed thoughts of him out of her head, if she thought about this latest rejection she'd go crazy. Instead she focused on her sister. This group of people had renewed her hope in finding her sibling. These people had come together through traveling, her sister would probably have come across people too and once she found her she could join her sisters group. She went to sleep envisioning sweet reunions with Eleanor.

The next morning Merle woke up cold, he blindly reached for Emily before remembering he was sleeping alone. He sat up and stretched, Emily was still laying on her side with her back to him, it didn't look like she'd moved an inch throughout the night. Daryl hadn't come back to the tent last night, maybe he'd gotten lucky with the younger blond. He got dressed and peeked at Emily before heading out, she was still asleep. He noticed a bit of moisture on her cheek, he turned and ducked out of the tent before he could wipe away the tear on her cheek.

Blondie was up stretching in front of the RV, giving grandpa with the bucket hat a show. She smiled when she saw him and he strutted up to her. He wasn't sure why she was giving him a shot, there were at least four young attractive men in her group, there was a former cop that stomped around like some roided out freak, a Chinese kid that seemed pretty eager to please and a couple of Irish fucktard brothers. Whatever the reason he didn't give a damn as long as he ended up between her legs, maybe all those men had caught on to what a twat she was and didn't want anything to do with her, he didn't care, he'd fucked plenty of women he didn't like and a few he down right hated.

Emily woke up alone with no desire leave her small bed, her bladder however, had other plans. The first thing she saw as she exited the tent was Merle leaning on the RV with his left hand as his right brushed a lock of hair off Andrea's face. She turned away and headed into the woods to relieve herself, on the way back she heard some rustling to her left, creeping carefully she headed towards the sound. There not five feet away was Merle making out with Andrea, she swallowed the lump in her throat and backed away, before she could make her get away she heard Andrea ask.

"Isn't your girlfriend going to get angry that you're out here with me?"

"Emily ain't my girlfriend, she's just a chick me and my brother have been helpin' out." He grinned down at the woman he was holding.

"Well then.." she gave him another kiss and started unbuckling his pants. Emily turned and ran.

Daryl was coming out of their tent when Emily got back to camp.

"You seen my brother?" he asked her. She pointed in the general direction she'd come from.

"He's with Andrea." She noticed some women gathering up clothes to wash and headed towards them without waiting to see what else Daryl had to say. She needed a job to do, a distraction and she needed it now.

"Do you need help?" She asked an older short haired black woman.

"Sure honey, I'm Jackie and this is Carol. We were headed to the quarry."

Emily nodded, Daryl and the younger blond, Amy she thought her name was, walked by, he actually smiled down at the girl. Emily grabbed a basket of clothes and followed the women with a heavy heart.

Emily's plan had worked she'd managed to concentrate on the laundry and the conversation that was happening between the two older women. They had been washing and making ideal chit chat for about half an hour when Jackie made a joke and got all three of the women to laugh. Ed, Carol's husband took offense to their laughter and began giving his wife a hard time. Jackie tried to come to Carol's defense only to escalate Ed's anger, before Emily knew what was happening he began attacking his wife. Emily threw herself between Ed and Carol, trying to get him off the woman and wound up getting pushed violently on the floor. Before she could register what had happened a dark haired tattooed man came out of nowhere and began beating on the abusive man.

Emily watched as he beat Ed senseless and smiled, the son of a bitch deserved it. Eventually another light haired man, also covered in tattoos, stopped the beating. They had a funny accent, she thought maybe Irish but she guessed it could be Scottish, she wasn't good with that sort of thing. Now that the fight was over, she began picking up the clothes that had been dropped.

"You ok love?" She looked up to find the darker haired man smiling down at her. She realized he looked quite a bit like Daryl only much younger, darker and she thought he was much more handsome.

"Yeah, I'm fine. You really beat the shit out of that asshole." She smiled at him.

"I like a woman who can curse." He laughed. "Reminds me of me Ma."

Emily shook her head "Sorry, I can't help it."

"Naw, I mean it. I like a woman with a good sailor mouth on her." He nudged her with his elbow.

"Hey Murph! You wanna help with the water?" The lighter haired man yelled out to him.

"Murph?" she asked

"Murphy MacManus," he held out his hand for her to shake. "That's me twin Connor."

Emily shook his hand "Emily, pleased to meet you."

"See you around Emily." He smiled again before jogging to his brother.

That afternoon Emily sat on the log in front of their tent hopping one of the Dixon brothers (mostly Merle) would come and sit with her, maybe talk. She was working on her one other pair of pants, they had a hole on the knee and she was trying sew through the thick denim fabric. A laugh caught her attention, she saw Merle was sitting with Andrea and Daryl was nowhere to be found. A lump formed in her throat, she threw the jeans back into the tent, grabbing her knife she walked off into the forest as quickly as possible. For the second time today she'd walked off by herself and nobody had noticed. Before this group had showed up Merle had watched her like a hawk, but now that she was old news it seemed that her safety didn't matter.

She didn't know how long she walked before she found a tree with a low hanging branch. Climbing on she sat down and leaned her head against the tree trunk, the tears came streaming down, it didn't matter, nobody would have to know that her heart was broken over someone she literally sold herself to. A twig snapped to her left and she sat up lifting the knife in the defense mode. Murphy stepped out from behind a tree.

"Easy Love, Just me."

Emily wiped her face "Murphy! What are you doing out here." She cleared her throat.

"Your boyfriend making you cry?"

"I don't have a boyfriend." She hopped off the tree branch.

"So that man all over Andrea, that's not your boyfriend, you stay in his tent."

"No, why are you here?"

"No one should walk off on their own, it's dangerous."

"I prostituted myself to him and his brother." She blurted out. "I didn't know how to survive on my own so I let them fuck me for food and shelter. I'm just a hole to them and now they found something better and I'm shit out of luck."

Murphy didn't react to her outburst, he took a pack of cigarettes from out of his pocket removing two cigarettes he lit them both and offered her one. She took it with a shaky hand.

"You aren't out of luck, you got the luck of the Irish on your side." He scratched his lip."You are more than welcome to join us, no….uh….payment necessary."

"Why would you want someone like me around? I'm a whore who was stupid enough to fall for her john."

"It isn't that bad, love. Merle don't know what he's getting himself into, that woman is a stubborn pain in the ass. She tried with me brother, when he turned her down, she went after me."

"Why didn't your brother want her, she's beautiful, Merle was practically drooling the second he saw her."

Murphy shrugged "He likes brunettes, I do too. Come on." He tilted his head urging her to follow him. "We should get back it will be dark soon."

She puffed on her cigarette as she followed him silently.

"If you don't have a place, you can stay with us. No funny business it isn't how we operate."

"Thank you." She stopped to put out her the butt of her cigarette.

"Why are you being so nice to me?"

"I like you." He shrugged "You were the first one up to help Carol, you're a good person. It is our job to help the good flourish."

Emily smiled to herself, it had been a long time since someone gave her a real compliment.