Where He Goes, I Go

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am I affiliated with, The Walking Dead in anyway

Warning: Dixon Swears (It's told from Merle's POV)

Note: This is a companion piece to my story "Dixon Family Matters". The group is at the CDC, Merle is still with them

He had known this place wouldn't be any use. But had any of them listened to him? No, of course not. Not even Daryl had listened to him. It seemed that in Merle's short absence, before he had managed to get himself off that roof and back to camp, Daryl had gotten quite friendly with these sons of bitches. Even Officer Friendly, the bastard who had chained Merle to the roof in the first place!

His little brother seemed especially close that mousy lady, Carol. Merle had accused Daryl of this, but his brother had just brushed it off, saying Christian was friends with Sophia. Merle had laughed at his brother's excuse and told him he didn't need to be embarrassed about getting some. Daryl had just told him to piss off which only made Merle laugh harder.

And now here they were, sitting in some room in the CDC. Merle had followed his brother and nephew cause where they went, he went. And Daryl said he was following the group, but Merle suspected it was more Where Mousy Went, Daryl Went.

"Man, what are we still doin' here?" he complained loudly.

"Shut up Merle," Daryl said from the bathroom where he was helping Christian get cleaned up.

"Seriously Darylena, there ain't nothin' here 'cept that prick who don't know nothin'!"

"Merle," Daryl sighed. Merle heard him instruct Christian not to move as he went to stand in the doorway and face his brother. "We don't know what he knows yet, but d'ya think ye can go one night without bitchin'? There's food, warm water, an' a place ta sleep, so what're ye complain' for?"

"Shit man, we've gone without them things before, 'specially these past few weeks," Merle said, "The hell's it matter we got 'em now?"

Daryl opened his mouth to reply, but a cry from behind him had Daryl turning away from his brother and hurrying over to Christian.

Merle watched as Daryl squatted in front of Christian and tilted the boy's head back to get the soap out of his eyes.

"Thought I told ya not ta touch anythin'?" Daryl said.

"You told me not ta move," Christian sniffed as the stinging in his eyes continued, "The soap was right there so I didn't hafta move."

Merle snorted at that. Damn kid, too much like his daddy the way he thought of everythin' so much.

"There we go," Daryl said as he started drying Christian off. "Still hurtin'?"

"A bit," Christian said.

"It'll go away soon," Daryl assured him, "Next time listen, a'right?" Christian nodded and Daryl pressed a kiss to his son's forehead before helping the boy into his pajamas. Merle watched the exchange silently, thinking.

"Daddy, can I play with Sophia and Carl for a bit before bed?" Christian asked.

"If they're still up," Daryl nodded, "C'mon, lets see if we can find 'em." He took the boy's hand.

"D'you wanna come Uncle Merle?" Christian asked.

"Naw, I'm gonna get some shut eye kid," Merle replied. "Ye and yer daddy go on."

"Okay," Christian ran over and hugged him tightly. "Night Uncle Merle." He ran back over and took Daryl's hand again as the two of them left the room, Daryl glanced back at his brother one more time before the door closed.

Merle sat there for another moment before collapsing back on one of the couches.

Food, warm water, and a place to sleep... Merle knew why Daryl cared about those things. Same reason Merle hadn't done drugs at 'home' for the past five years; same reason he had stopped bringing random girls back to their place five years ago and started going to the girl's place instead.

Maybe Darylena had followed Mousy here, maybe he'd followed the sheriff here. It didn't matter which really, cause at the end of the day Daryl only had one reason for doing the things he did. And if Daryl thought following this group would be best for Christian then that's what Daryl would do, no hesitation. And as much as he hated it, if Daryl followed the group, then Merle followed Daryl.

"Buncha pricks," he grumbled, "Well, too bad fer them cause us Dixons ain't goin' nowhere. We're gonna stick with em' just ta piss the hell out of 'em."

So this idea had been floating around in my head since I started "Dixon Family Matters". I had originally been thinking about keeping Merle with the group and this was an idea I had had if I was going to follow that. However, I didn't end up doing that in the story, but wanted to write this scene anyway.

This is my first time writing from Merle's POV so this was quite the experience! Hope you liked it!

Also, I apologize for any spelling errors! I did spell check and tried to catch everything, but it becomes a little more difficult when you're spelling some thing wrong deliberately.

Thanks so much for reading and let me know what you think!