Evening all. Thank you for all the new followers, favorites and reviews. Guest reviewer i too wish Merle and Tara had met, their friendship is so sweet and i enjoying writing it. A big thanks to elsac2 for you help with this chapter, it means a lot. you should all check out her stories she is an amazing writer. Trigger warnings for this chapter.

Happy reading:)

Chapter 38.

January 26th

Merle's POV

"Oh my god." Tara cried, running toward the little girl whom dropped down onto her kneels. "I'm not going to hurt you, we here to help you." She said softly as she tried to help her.

"What the fuck?" still trying to process what his eyes could clearly see, Merle shouted as he looked around in shock.

This can't be real, I must be dreaming. What kind of person does this to a child.

Even as the thoughts run though his mind, he knew two things: one the scene was indeed very real and two, from personal experience he knew that people were capable of many unspeakable evil things. However, this, this was like looking at something straight from a horror movie.

A small child chained up to a wall with shackles cutting into her small wrists, she was covered in muck and blood. Merle and Tara could only imagine the child might be around 7 or 6 years old. At the horrid sight, Merle felt the bile rise from his gut and he slowly swallowed. There were more pressing things to attend to; clearly puking wasn't one of them so his body recovered.

He was numb and could barely think. From a morbid aspect, he couldn't tear his eyes away nor could he remember how to move. His feet were stuck in one spot, and he conveniently forgot how to breathe because the smell around that poor child was putrid. His eyes watered but he did not attempt to move.

This can't be normal surly, I should be feeling something, shouldn't just be standing here like a fucking idiot doing nothing, even Tara has managed to move. Come on do something, she could be your niece. As the last thought run though his mind, he found purpose.

Merle suddenly remembered why he was even standing in this room, in this house, this girl could be Daryl's child, and here she was obviously living in torture, just as Daryl did during their childhood. He could have done nothing to help Daryl, but the little girl he could save her. He could feel his blood boiling, rage sweeping though him, he clutched his fists, and letting air fill his lungs, he took a deep breath. He knew he had to do something, everything he could to help.

"Merle, what you doing standing there?" Tara called him out of his slumber.

"Merle ran towards Tara and the little girl and actively started to help.

"I can't get the shackles off her." Tara said with tears streaming down her face and voice filled with panic.

Merle looked at the little girl; she was frightened and kept looking between Tara and him. "It's OK, we gonna help you lil girl. I'm Merle and this is Tara. What's your name?" he asked trying to ease her.

The girl looked from him to Tara, trying to figure out if she could trust them, like he said. Where they really going to help her. She had been abused for a long time and trust was not an easy thing to give "Sophia." She whispered hesitantly before quickly looking away. she was still scared and weary.

"That's a pretty name." Tara said and with a bright smile to inspire confidence. It did help because she relaxed and finally looked at them.

"Sophia, sweetheart I'm gonna take a look, see if we can get ya out of this." Merle said gently.

"Sophia nodded. "OK."

Merle looked at Sophia wrists, the shackles were indeed cutting into her skin and left nasty rift of bloody cut. He gently held her wrists in his hands and she winced, he stopped but she eased again. looking for a way to get the shackles off her, he noticed there was a small opening on them, a lock which meant there had be a key around here was probably not in this room but definitely in the house somewhere, he just needed to find it.

"I need to find a key, the shackles are locked." Merle said looking at Tara. "I'm gonna have a look around the house, hopeful I can find one."

"Please… Don't leave me..." Sophia cried, scared they were just going to leave her like this, and not help as they promised.

"Sweetheart." Merle said gently, looking into her blue eyes. "We ain't leaving ya , Tara gonna stay with you, while I try to get my hand on them keys"

"No… please stay, cant she look?" Sophia pleaded, she felt safe with Merle, and she wasn't so sure about Tara yet. she didn't think she would hurt her, but then she didn't think her mummy would, but she did.

"Ya OK I'ma stay here just right here." Merle asked Tara not taking his eyes off Sophia, if she wanted him to stay than he would stay.

"Sure, I will have look, than I will be back." Tara replied giving Sophia a small smile.

Tara run out of the room as fast as she could, she began to search frantically the house for the key they desperately needed. She understood why Sophia wanted Merle to stay and not her. Her mum had obviously tortured her; the one person in this world that was supposed to take care of her, love her, and protect her from every monster out there was the actual monster.

Tara's heart broke for Sophia, while they weren't quite sure of the awful specific of what she lived. Anyone could tell just by looking at her that none of it was good or cheerful to hear. Tara had searched the whole downstairs of the house and so far, there was no sign of any key. She run up the stairs, they needed that key and they needed it fast.

She could only imagine what would happened if Karen came back before they managed to free Sophia, she knew that Merle would go ballistic and with very good reason, probably even end up murdering her. After the life he and Daryl had, there was no way he could stand by this type of abuse and let Karen continue her perverted act. Even if she wasn't Daryl child, he would still protect her, that was who Merle was and she knew that he had a soft spot for kids.

As Tara searched through the house for the key, she also noticed the fact there was very little photos of Sophia around, as far as she could see there was only two photos of Karen holding a baby Sophia and nothing else. Tara came across a room that she assumed was Sophia's room, but she was not quite sure seeing as there was very little in the room. A bed, a few items of clothing and a few toys, it looked nothing like a girls room should look at the age of 7 and more like a sage set for play or something, which was more likely to be true.

Maybe Karen only used this room if she thought someone was going to come round and she wanted to put on the act of playing the devoted mother, the happy family. Tara could feel tears streaming down her face at the thought of poor Sophia having to live this poor excuse of a life. It wasn't living but merely existing. Tara could feel her legs give way as she crumbled to the floor, her lungs burned as she fought to breathe past the lump in her throat. She started sobbing as she understood the full picture of the horror.

Merle was kneeling on the floor in front of Sophia; he still hadn't taken his eyes of her. His heart broke in two, tears were threatening to fall from his eyes, and Merle wouldn't let them fall. He didn't want to upset or frightened Sophia any more than she already was. Thoughts were racing through his mind. Just what had Karen done to her?

How could a mother hurt her own child so much? He was glad that she seemed to trust him, at least trusted him more than she did Tara, or any other woman for that matter. He knew that this was something Sophia would always have to live with, her trust in woman and probably anyone had been shattered. She was going suffer both physically and mentally for the rest of her life, and probably she would be plagued with nightmares for years to come.

He knew all of this because he had already lived it; he knew how hard it was to carry on living after suffering through years of abuse. while he wasn't sure just how long Sophia had been living like this, it was obvious that it was not something new to her and it had probably be going on for quite a while, month, years. Merle was going to help Sophia come though this, he was not going anyway, and he would be by her side always; protecting her, even if Daryl wasn't her dad. He would be there for her, he would look after her, and he would care for her himself if needed. He was never leaving her; she would be going home with him.

"Sophia, sweetheart." Merle said careful with a small smile. "I promise, we will get ya out of there, I will look after ya."

"Ok." Sophia nodded.

"How old are ya sweetheart?"

"I'm 7." Sophia chocked

Merle smiled, he knew that she wasn't going to talk too much; it probably hurt her to talk. He didn't knew how long she had been like this, how long it had been since she last ate or drank anything. However, he needed to ask her and just hopes that she didn't stop talking nor did stop trusting him. "How long have you been here for?"

"I don't know, mummy leaves me here when she goes out."

"Your mama, leaves ya like this?" Merle said keeping his voice calm.

He kept the anger he felt at bay, while he knew that Karen did this, a part of him was still hoping that he was wrong. Unfortunately, the thing about hope was that it constantly fluttered to leave behind ugly reality. Merle was starting to see that hope often hid misery.

"Yes, just when she goes out, mummy lets me out when she comes home."

Before Merle could say anything else Tara come running back in. "I've got the key."

"Sophia, sweetheart Tara is gonna to unlock ya, she is gonna have to touch ya'r wrists to do this, it might hurt, just keep ya'r eyes on me. then ya'r be free and we can get ya cleaned up." Merle said softly.

"Tara quickly unlocked the shackles the best she could without hurting Sophia too much, once she was free Merle gently scooped her up into his arms. "Well done sweetheart, ya are so brave, now let's get ya clean up." Merle carried her out of the room and upstairs to the bathroom, where Tara had already filled the bath with warm water and laid rest, clean cloths out for her.

"You're gonna have to stay with Tara for a bit, let her clean ya up."

"No..." Sophia cried wrapping her arms around Merle tightly. Merle's heart just kept on breaking, the pain he felt for this little girl was overwhelming. He knew she was scared but he had to let Tara clean her up, it wasn't right for him to stay in the bath with her. "Your be fine sweetheart, she won't hurt ya and I'll be just outside the door promise."

"Promise your come back."

"I promise sweetheart."

"I will look after you." Tara said gently.

"OK." Sophia whispered.

Tara gently took Sophia from Merle's arm. "We get clean up, when we go find you something to eat. You hungry?"

"Yes." Sophia said wrapping her arms around Tara.

"Alright than, let's get you into the bath."

"See ya in bit Sophia." Merle smiled, before turning around to walk out of the bathroom.

"Merle...Promise your be outside the door." Sophia called.

"I promise sweetheart."

An hour later Sophia was cleaned, dressed in fresh cloths, they had all ate some cheese sandwiches with drink of juice that Merle had made. Now Sophia was lying in Merle's lap with her arms wrapped around him, her head buried in his chest as she slept soundly. Merle had his arms wrapped her around tightly, holding her close. Tara was sitting next to him on the sofa.

"What we going to do now Merle?" Tara asked.

"I don't know Tara, but we ain't leaving her here."

"I agree; do you want to wait here for Karen to come back, or go back to the motel and come back in the morning."

"I'm not sure, we don't know long Karen has gone for or when she is gonna to come back, but I don't really wanna to move Sophia at the moment."

"Why don't we stay here for night, seeing as it's late? That way we don't have to wake her up."

"Alright." Merle nodded. "Tara, thank ya for helping today."

"Anytime Merle, now get some rest, we sort anything else out tomorrow."

"OK, night Tara."

"Night, Merle."

Notes: After writing this chapter I'm not sure if i should have Daryl turn out to be Sophia dad or not, as i really like Merle and Sophia together. Merle being protective and caring for Sophia is so sweet. Please let me know what you all think, do you want Daryl to be Sophia dad or would you like Merle to be one to rise her.