A/N: Thanks to everyone who followed/favorited since the last chapter! Stomach flu really through me off guys, but I'm back and eating solid food again and an extra long chapter to make up for it.
-galwidanatitud: Yeah it is! There will be more reuniting to come in this chapter!
-LeneReedus: Reunification! There's going to be a bit more to follow in this chapter and then things get serious again! I am glad you are enjoying it so much!
-snowflake2410: Yours needs to wait until the end!
-SPARKLES77: Thank you!
-Micky-Moo: Thanks, glad you did!
I buried my face in Daryl's neck. He smelled like sweat and dirt, something I had come to associate with Daryl. I ran my fingers through his hair before pulling back and smiling up at him. He pulled an arm back and ran a hand across my cheek.
"Shoot, little brother, if I'd known ya had a piece of ass to come back to, I woulda let ya come back sooner." I sighed and turned back toward the prison, but kept my place beside Daryl.
"Shut up, Merle." Daryl leaned over and grabbed his crossbow off the ground before putting a hand on my back, pushing me towards the prison. "Get inside."
I walked quickly ahead of Daryl as we all filed back into the prison yard, locking the last fence keeping the walkers out. As a group we all moved back into the prison and I hovered around Daryl constantly stopping and turning to make sure he was with me. It was completely unnecessary because Daryl never took his hand off my back, sometimes even gripping my shirt in his fist. When we got into the cell blocK, Rick grabbed Merle's arm and pulled him to a cell on the far end.
"Rick!" I heard Daryl behind me and Rick turned pointing at Daryl.
"He goes in a cell, no compromise." Daryl huffed behind me, but said no more. I stumbled a bit as he shoved me towards the stairs.
I started up the stairs and watched Daryl jog past me. As I watched him, I felt my lips slip into a frown and my jaw clenched. Now that I was passed my relief of him being back and unharmed; I realized that he ditched me! I glared at his back as I followed him toward the perch. He opened the door stepping inside and I smacked him on the side of the head. His head snapped to the side and I smiled a bit, but let it drop quickly as he turned around.
"What the hell?" I crossed my arms and stepped inside before he shut the door behind me.
"Don't you ever leave me like that again!" He set the crossbow onto the table and turned to look at me, rubbing the back of his head.
"Didn't Rick tell ya I was comin' back for ya?" I rolled my eyes put my hands over my face for a minute.
"That's not the point Daryl!" I grabbed his shoulders. "You could have died out there and I never would have found out!" I stopped when I felt the thick cord along his shoulders. I went up on my tippy-toes and saw that his shirt had been crudely stitched back together with what looked like shoelaces. "What happened to your shirt?"
"Merle and I got into it a bit, he ripped my shirt." I turned around and grabbed a different one from the piles I had made. He pulled off the ruined shirt and tossed it to me before pulling on the new one. "I think that's why he followed me."
"What do you mean?" I looked at him confused before tossing his old shirt on my sewing pile.
"Saw my scars." I looked back at Daryl and crossed my arms.
"Didn't he know about them?" Daryl shook his head, finishing with the last button. I stared at him expectantly and he sighed.
"My dad left me alone up until Merle left. I never said anything to Merle about it and I guess he thought Dad had left me alone." I walked over and wrapped my arms around his shoulders tightly. He gripped me tightly around the waist and leaned his head against mine. "He was a mean SOB, but even he didn' deserve havin' his guts ate out." I froze before pulling back a bit to look at his face.
"Your dad was still alive when this all went down?"
"Yeah, he and I and some guys were on a huntin' trip."
"And you'd been with him all that time?"
"I moved out and got a trailer when I was 18, but pretty much." He leaned forward and kissed me and I responded quickly, but I couldn't stop thinking about what he said. I had always thought Daryl's dad had died years ago, or at least that they had stopped speaking years ago. I couldn't believe that he hadn't left as soon as he was old enough, but I guess I hadn't either. Daryl pulled back and I opened my eyes once more. "Come on, we gotta get back out there."
We left the perch and I sighed a bit knowing that we were going to have some very tough decisions ahead of us. At least while we were gone the group had filled Rick in on what's been going on.
"We're not leaving." Rick sounded firm, but that wasn't enough to make me feel any better about staying.
"We can't stay here." Hershel was maintaining his stance of leaving, but now that the Governor knew exactly where we were, I didn't think leaving was a real option any more.
"What if there's another sniper? A wood pallet won't stop one of those rounds." Maggie seemed to have gotten her at least some of her spunk back and it made me smile. Daryl pushed a bit on my back and I walked away from the door and down the hall.
"We can't even go outside." I glanced at Beth while she spoke as I walked past her.
"Not in the daylight." I looked over at my mom while I leaned against the railing and felt Daryl stand close behind me.
"Rick says we're not running, we're not running." Glenn seemed to be a lot more confident in Rick's leadership now that they were on the same side.
"No, better to live like rats." I turned to look at Merle, from where he spoke inside the cell.
"You got a better idea?" Rick
"Yeah, we should have slid out of here last night and lived to fight another day." Merle let his arms hang between the bars while he spoke. "But we lost that window, didn't we? I'm sure he's got scouts on every road out of this place by now."
"We ain't scared of that prick." I could feel Daryl's chest move against my back and it calmed me some.
"Y'all should be. That truck through the fence thing, that's just him ringing the doorbell. We might have some thick walls to hide behind, but he's got the guns and the numbers. And if he takes the high ground around this place, shoot, he could just starve us out if he wanted to." Maggie glared at Merle before turning back to address Rick.
"Let's put him in the other cell block."
"No. He's got a point." Daryl moved around me to stand beside me at the railing.
"This is all you; you started this!" Maggie shouted at Merle and it was surprisingly Beth who stepped in next.
"What difference is it whose fault it is? What do we do?" She walked around my mother and started down the stairs while she spoke.
"I said we should leave. Now Axel's dead. We can't just sit here." Hershel spoke up while Rick started to leave the cell block.
"Get back here!" I don't think I had ever heard Hershel yell before. He grabbed his crutches and going over to where Rick had stopped at the edge of the room. "You're slipping, Rick; we've all seen it. We understand why, but now is not the time. You once said this isn't a democracy; now you have to own up to that. I put my family's life in your hands. So get your head clear and do something."
"I'll check the field." Rick walked out of the room and Hershel didn't follow him. I turned and grabbed Daryl's arm, tugging it slightly.
"Come on, I want to show you something." He followed me back towards the perch and I pulled him into the cell across from it. I dropped his arm and let him look around a bit. "It's sort of a living room-nursery combo. Judith can stay here until Rick decides that he wants to have her with him at night. And it will give us room for if we need our space."
Daryl looked around the cell nodding before he looked back at me. I reached forward and grabbed his neck kissing him hard. He stumbled a bit, but caught himself and turned towards me quickly, pulling me against him. I pushed my tongue into his mouth and he gripped my hips hard pulling me flush against him. I moaned into his mouth and he slid his hand up the back of my shirt. His hand felt hot against my skin and I knew if I didn't stop him soon we'd end up having sex on what I referred to as Judith's nursery. I pulled away from Daryl just enough to look him in the eyes. He looked down at me and I smiled a bit, playing with the hair at the base of his neck.
"Hi." He leaned his forehead against mine after I spoke.
"Hey."
"I missed you." I buried my face into his neck and sighed.
"I missed you too." Daryl pulled away from me before leaning down to press a short kiss to my lips. "Come on, we should get back out here."
I left the cell and headed to the stairs, as Daryl threw an arm over my shoulders. I turned, smiling up at him and he smirked down at me before kissing the side of my head quickly. Glenn, Hershel and Michonne were still hovering in the common space, but everyone else was gone. We had barely stepped off the staircase when Rick came back inside speaking almost immediately.
"Field's filled with walkers. I didn't see any snipers out there, but we'll keep Maggie on watch."
"I'll get up in the guard tower, take out half them walkers, give these guys a chance to fix the fence." Daryl spoke up, leading me over to where the others had gathered around Rick.
"Or use some of the cars to put the bus in place." Personally I liked Michonne's plan better. Being the cars was safer for everyone.
"We can't access the field without burning through our bullets." Hershel was right and with the governor on our asses we needed ever spare bullet.
"So we're trapped in here. There's barely any food or ammo." I sighed at Glenn's words.
"Been here before. We'll be alright." Daryl adjusted his arm on my shoulder, rubbing his hand along my arm and I couldn't help, but believe him.
"That's when it was just us. Before there was a snake in the nest." I sucked in a breath as Daryl quickly turned towards Glenn.
"Man, we gonna go through this again?" Daryl dropped his arm from around me and got in Glenn's face. "Look, Merle's staying here. He's with us now. Get used to it."
"Hey." Rick spoke gently trying to stop Daryl as he began to leave.
"All y'all." Daryl moved past Rick quickly and I sighed.
"Daryl!" He ignored me and kept walking. I groaned and tries to catch up with him. "Daryl, it's not going to be easy. You just have…"
"Go help Maggie on watch." He jogged up the stairs leaving me behind and I sighed. I toed the ground watching as he disappeared into our new cell before I turned to go on watch with Maggie.
"What happened?" I turned away from the chain fence and looked over at Maggie.
"What do you mean?" She laughed a bit.
"You've been pouting ever since you got out here; what happened?" I sighed and leaned my gun. Against the wood pallets we had stacked against the fence for more protection.
"Glenn is raising a little but of hell about Merle being here, which I can understand, but Daryl's not having it." I looked over at Maggie and she was just staring at me. "Daryl wants to stay here, but he won't stay without Merle and I don't know what to do."
"I'm not Merle's biggest fan, but we need him. At this point I don't think there's anyone that I would turn away if they were willing to help us." I sighed and ran a hand though my hair.
"I need to talk to Daryl, just let him know that I'm on his side."
"Everything'll work out, you'll see." Maggie leaned forward and hugged me with the arm that wasn't holding her rifle. I smiled and hugged her back tightly.
"Thank you." I walked inside and up the stairs quickly, but slowed to a stop when I heard Daryl talking.
"This is a tomb." I leaned back against the railing and listened.
"That's what T-Dog called it." So it was my mom in there with him. "Thought he was right till you found me. He's your brother, but he's not good for you. Don't let him bring you down. After all, look how far you've come." My jaw clenched a bit as I heard them laughing. It was a few moments later that my mom walked out of the cell. I turned and walked with her down the stairs before I pulled her over bear the row of stairs.
"Don't do that." She looked at me confused.
"Do what?"
"Don't try to drive a wedge in between Daryl and Merle. You don't know what you're talking about." She shook her head at me.
"You can't make excuses for him, Merle is not a good man."
"Merle's not a great man, but he is a good man. He loves Daryl; he just doesn't know how to express those feelings." I stared at her and sighed a little bit. "Merle is not like Dad. I know you're just trying to protect Daryl, but it's not the same thing." She stared at me, eyes softening a bit and I moved around her to go back out with Maggie.
When I got back outside, Carl had joined Maggie and I smiled at him before picking up my rifle. We stood quietly for a while, Carl scanning with his binoculars pointing out things for Maggie or I to check with the scope.
"Something weird out there." Carl broke the silence pointing out beyond the field. Maggie lifted her rifle and lined the scope up with where Carl had pointed.
"Andrea." Maggie whispered, I stared at her surprised and she pulled away from the scope and looked at Carl. "Get your dad and the others."
Maggie and I stood ready guns pointed out at the field scanning back and forth for any snipers that might be hiding in the woods. It didn't take long at all for the rest of the group to come out of the prison heavily armed and moving quickly across the lot. They were hiding behind barriers and making sure to always leave someone to cover them if necessary. Rick was the first one to get to the gate and once he was there Maggie and I joined everyone in the yard.
"Are you alone?" Rick shouted through the fence.
"Open the gate." Andrea held a walker by the neck with a long metal collar.
"Are you alone?!" Rick shouted louder this time, leaving the gate locked.
"Rick!" Andrea looked insulted that he hadn't opened the gate yet.
"Open it." Rick tossed the keys to Carl and he unlocked the gate pulling it open, as Andrea shoved the walker she was holding away from the fence. Once she was in Rick grabbed her by the arm and threw her bag away from her. "Hands up! Turn around. Turn around now!" He shoved her up against the fence and started to pat her down until she screamed when a walker ran into the fence in front of her. Rick pulled her away from the fence and forced her to her knees in the yard. "All right. Get down, on the floor. I asked if you were alone."
"I am." Rick handed her gun and knife over to Daryl before he walked back over to her.
"Get up." He grabbed her arm and pulled her off the ground. "Welcome back."
-snowflake2410: The anger came after being happy to see him again! I don't think it's quite what you were thinking though!