"I never will forget those nights.

I wonder if it was a dream.

Remember how you made me crazy,

Remember how I made you scream.

Now I don't understand what

Happened to our love.

But, baby, I'm gonna get you back,

I'm gonna show you what I'm made of."

Sinclaire was interested to learn that Merle sang. He didn't sound particularly amazing, and he didn't do it loudly, but if a song he knew came on, he sang. There were a surprising amount of songs he knew. Boys of Summer had to be her favorite of them though.

"What ya lookin' at?" he asked curiously.

"You. I wouldn't have thought that you'd sing."

"Voice like this?" Merle said with a grin. "Shame not to share it. Why don't ya sing?"

Sinclaire shrugged. "I can't compete with that and I know it. Anyway, I only sing along with musicals."

"Musicals are fuckin' weird. If I ask somebody a question an he starts singin' at me, I'm gonna punch him in his face."

Sinclaire laughed. "I bet you would."

He started to turn at the bar, but she suddenly said, "Hang on, okay? Park it."

He parked it. "What is it?"

"We've still got one thing to talk about." Sinclaire tucked on leg underneath her and turned to face him.

"Yeah?" Merle realized that his heart had kicked up a few notches.

"Yeah. The Governor."

"Oh. That guy. What the hell is there to say?"

"A lot. We still need to talk to Marie-"

"So talk to her."

"No shit. Bowhunter got weird about it. I don't think he wants us to bring him up to her."

"Him who?"

"Him whom."

"Huh?"

"The Governor!"

"Back up and start over," Merle ordered.

"Your brother didn't agree with asking Marie about the Governor!" Sinclaire said impatiently. "Where do you go when people are talking to you?"

"My happy place," he drawled sarcastically. "Anyway, he'll just have to get over it. Ain't really none of his business what she does no way."

"I know. I just feel bad when I ignore what he wants. Maybe we could talk to the preacher," she said suddenly. "He might know, and then that way we don't have to dredge up bad memories for Marie."

"Might could," Merle agreed. "But if he don't know, we ain't gonna have a choice."

"Hey, Fletchley," Merle called once the group outside had looked at his new car and Daryl had chewed Sinclaire out for being gone so long.

"Yes?" the preacher asked, turning back from the bar.

"Gotta ask ya somethin'." Merle waved him over to the box truck where Sinclaire was waiting. "'Bout Marie."

"What about her?" Amos asked warily.

"This Governor guy, the one she's so freaked out over. What can ya tell us about him?"

"Nothing much," the preacher answered. "I wasn't in Woodbury. I met Marie on the road. All I can really tell you is that she was terrified of him. Of me. Of everything, for a long time afterward. He...he hurt her. Badly."

His warm dark eyes met Sinclaire's and Merle felt her repress a shiver.

"So we know that he deserves to die," Sinclaire said tightly.

"But that's not the information you came looking for," Amos said. "If you need more than that, you'll have to ask Marie."

"Yeah, we're going to have to," Sinclaire said after the preacher had walked away. "There's no other option."

She waved Marie over quickly, while Daryl was busy talking with Glenn and Rick.

"What's up?"

"I've got to tell you something," Sinclaire said with a sigh. "And then I have to ask you some questions."

"All right." Marie looked a little nervous.

Sinclaire told her about finding the tank and the soldiers.

"Okay," Marie said. "So..."

"So do you think that it seems like something this Governor guy would do?" Sinclaire asked, having decided that the best way to soften the blow was to stun her with it.

Marie sat down on the tailgate of the truck and rubbed her arm. "Yeah. Probably. Do you think it was him?"

Sinclaire winced at her tone of voice. It was flat, dead, and easily recognizable.

"I'm worried that it is," she said honestly. "He's pretty far away, but if he's got some kind of way to keep himself mobilized."

"He's got a fuel station."

"Fuck my life. Are you serious?"

"Yes."

Sinclaire sat down too. "Then we have to face the very real possibility that this dude could show up here."

"Don't say that!" Marie said so shrilly that conversation near them stopped as everyone glanced their way.

Daryl and Merle walked over quickly.

"Look, I know it sucks to hear," Sinclaire said and Merle was surprised to hear how soft her tone was. "But it's the truth and we need to get mobilized now so we don't end up like those guys."

"We won't!" Marie said firmly. "We've got Daryl and you and Nate and Rick. We'll be okay."

"Thanks fer the vote of confidence," Merle muttered.

"This really somethin' we need to talk about right this second?" Bowhunter asked, looking from Sinclaire to Marie.

"Well that depends," Sinclaire said. "How much do you like the thought of being ambushed?"

"Ya really think he could?"

"Based on what little Marie has said, yeah. He's got a fuel depot."

"And an army," Marie said tightly. "And a whole town that loves him. Most of them don't know what he does...and the others are too scared to stop him."

"Fuck my life," Merle muttered.

"That's what I said," Sinclaire agreed. "We need to make a plan and we need to make it now."

Sinclaire waved Rick and they decided that they'd sit down and work the whole thing out the next day after Nate came back from hunting and everyone finished up their chores.

"We pretty much know we're going to have to leave," Rick said, rubbing his face with his hands, thinking of the conversation and the packing that lay ahead of them. "But there's no point in alarming everyone right this second."

Rick was right about one thing, and totally wrong about the other one. It would have been way better to alarm everyone right that second. But packing didn't turn out to be necessary.

*Yeah, I've been gone for a long damn time and then I left you a cliff hanger. Bwhahahaha Mine is an evil laugh!*

But seriously, I'll have the next chapter up waaaay sooner, promise!