"She's not cooperating." The Governor had his back to him as he stared out of his apartment window. Michonne was walking around the main street in town, a scowl on her face.

"Yah, she don't seem to like you much." Merle agreed. He thought the ebony beauty was smart but just shy of smart enough, or else she'd play stupid and not get herself killed.

"She wants to leave." the Governor rubbed at a long cut on his neck. Merle could guess who gave him that.

"Alrigh'." Merle waited for the order.

"Let her go, then put together some men and take care of it."

Merle nodded his head and left. He found Michonne sitting on a park bench glaring daggers at Shumpert who'd been trailing her all day.

"Hey girly," Merle sat next to the woman. "I hear you wanna leave?"

Michonne's eyes were widened as she took him in, almost as if she was shocked he would have the balls to sit with her and chat.

Merle laughed, "Get yer shit then and be on yer way brown sugar."

She let out a huff through her nose as she looked him up and down, not an ounce of fear in the woman, he liked that, bitch was tough. He studied her back and realized he didn't want to kill her. She was tough but she was still a woman, a lone woman, is that was he was going to be reduced to now, killing women? What next? Children? How far was he willing to go for comfort while searching for his brother?

Everything he'd done till now could be argued for the greater good, even killing all the men he'd killed, the deserters, the soldiers, they could have brought trouble to the town, but this woman, alone, she wasn't a threat and the Governor wanted to kill her anyway, the man was going more and more insane, obsessed with power.

Take the soldiers they had just killed, that had already been pushing his limits. They had ambushed them like cowards and it didn't sit right with Merle, but he could see the bit of sense in it. Military was used to being in charge and they might have wanted to take over. They had already proven they couldn't protect their citizens, it was argued that the Governor had done what they could not and giving the military their control back could very well be the end of Woodbury. It was an argument, not terribly good and not terribly bad, so Merle had gone along with it.

Now he was being sent to kill Michonne and there hadn't been an argument for or against it, it had just been an order, because now they killed for the fuck of it, it seemed.

Michonne let out a small hiss and he realized he'd been staring at her, "Watch yerself girly." he knew she was smart enough to get the warning but was she smart enough to know it wasn't him she needed to watch out for. By the way her lip curled, he'd guess that was a big fat, no. He shook his head and got up.

"Meet ya at the gate in 20." he strolled over to the barrier to wait.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Daryl had a strange feeling, Merle was on his mind even more than usual, he had a renewed sense of purpose with regards to his brother, he was ready to get right back out there and start searching again, maybe this time he'd go the opposite way, could be his brother was forced to go west instead of east, maybe he was making his way back around.

He couldn't explain it but he was sure that he'd find Merle soon, but first he had to deal with the prison. Rick was still not quite right and if they were going to make a real effort at making the prison a home, they still had a lot of clearing out to do.

"Hey Daryl," he looked up from the crossbow he'd been cleaning to find Glenn running up to him.

"yeah?" he answered looking back down.

"I've been calling for like five minutes, man." Glenn finally arrived out of breath.

"Sorry man, been thinkin'. I'm gonna go out and look for Merle again, after I clear that hallway over by the infirmary."

"You can't do that on your own man?" Glenn's eyebrows scrunched up. "Are you crazy."

"I can." Daryl growled back, ignoring the last part of the question. He had been taking more risks than were strictly necessary, the stress of losing Merle and Beth on top of all these people looking to him for help and guidance was taking it's toll and if the Dixon's were anything, it was self-destructive.

"No man, you can't. At least take T-Dog or Axel or something."

Daryl took a deep breath, Glenn was a good guy, he was worried about him, that wasn't something Daryl was very used to. "Yeah, sure." he relented, after all he couldn't find Merle if he was Walker chow.

"Cool man. Hey, Maggie and me are going to make a run for more formula, need anything quick?"

"Smokes." Daryl gave the younger man a crooked half smile, it was what he always asked for.

"Duh, anything else?" Glenn gave him an eye-roll, "Something that wont kill you?"

"Nope." Daryl snickered and got back to his weapon.

"Alright man, see ya later." Glenn ran off again and Daryl got a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. He fought the urge to tell Glenn to come back.

"Jus bein' stupid." he mumbled to himself.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Did you notice that Merle and those other guys left almost as soon as that woman was let out."

"Aye." Connor puffed on his cigarette before facing his brother. "Things are getting strange. We might have to clean house."

"Are you talking about killin' Merle?" Murphy looked at him curiously.

Connor shook his head, "I don't know. He isn't a good man, but he isn't bad either. Something is happening here, we need to know what it is."

"Emily wouldn't forgive me." Murphy's lip curled as he made the statement, clearly upset that she still cared for the redneck.

"We have our calling brother, are you talking about giving it up?"

Murphy looked away and shook his head, "No, I couldn't do that anymore than I could walk away from you."

"Aye, well you'd have to because I will do what we were put here to do…..always."

"She's delicate. I think staying here this long might have been a bad idea." Murphy rubbed his lower lip.

Connor was more of the mind that Murphy and Emily were a bad idea but didn't say so. His brother should get some happiness.

"If they are what I'm thinking they are, we were meant to be here."

Murphy nodded, "You got a plan brother?"

Connor nodded, "Keep Emiiy away from it, if you can. We'll wait till Merle comes back and find some things out."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Merle was tracking Michonne through the woods, just as he thought, she was a bad bad bitch, he couldn't help but smile, she'd already taken down nearly all his men and the kid he was left with was probably scared enough to lie with him to the governor.

"She'd in the red zone now, she's as good as dead." Merle was positive the woman wouldn't come back to Woodbury.

"What? No! She killed two of our guys. What would we tell the Governor?"

Merle scowled "We tell him she's dead, she might as well be I shot her and she's in the red zone." he hadn't meant to shoot her, just graze her, make a show of it for the guys but his aim was good even when he wasn't trying, he hoped she'd be OK but he'd done his part as well as he could.

"We can't, we need to finish this!" Merle could see the determination in the kids face, the blood lust was strong in his eyes. "I'm finishing this."

"Allrigh'," Merle grinned, the kid wasn't perceptive enough to see that the smile didn't reach his eyes. "Yer manin' up kid." he gave the guy a pat on the back. "Hey,…you hear that bird?" the kid looked up and in that second of destraction, he blew the young man's brains out. It was for the best, he wasn't going after Michonne and if the kid went on his own he'd be dead anyway, he was no match for that woman.

He turned to head back to Woodbury but was stopped by horde, "Fuck!" the gunshots had attracted too many of them, he'd have to follow Michonne after all.

Set up for the Dixon brother's reunion and Prison vs. Woodbury. Thanks for reading! Especially the guests that I can't PM, your comments are always welcomed :-)