A Dixon's Heart

~Three~

 Nate is bolted awake when suddenly he's grabbed from his resting spot on the tree. "What the hell?" He almost tumbles right out of the tree if it wasn't for Merle holding onto him a bit angry.

"What the fuck you think you're doing?" Merle spits out into his face, causing Nate to glare at his uncle.

"Let me go." Merle chuckles and does just that, causing Nate to stumble out of the tree and fall right out of it. "Shit." He lands very badly on his arm, causing him to wince.

"You said to let you go." Merle says, jumping down from the tree with a look of satisfaction at seeing his nephew holding his arm in pain.

"What the hell did you want?!" Nate snaps angrily, holding his probably sprained arm.

"Rise and shine, kiddo. Daryl's looking for you." Nate must have slept in later than he thought if Merle came looking for him. Merle smirks down at him before heading back to camp.

"Fuck." Nate hisses as he tries to move his arm, but can't. His dad's going to kill him. There's no way he can go back to camp and not have people noticed that he sprained his arm. Nate won't be any good hunting for a while, his main weapon is a recurve bow, there's no way in hell he can fire it with one arm. "Shit." Nate growls as he stands up, holding his arm. "I fucken hate that bastard." Nate grumbles out, glaring at his uncle, who is just getting out of eyeshot.

Over the years of living with his uncle Nate has learned that telling Daryl about Merle hurting him only gets Merle to hurt him ten times more. Ratting Merle out does nothing, but pisses him off, so Nate just got to face the consequences of whatever lie he can come up with.

"Nate!"

"Great." Nate sighs as he hears his father's voice. Nate still feels agonizing pain, but he has grown used to pain and can block it out quite easily now.

"Hey, Nate, Merle said you went and got yourself hurt." Nate curses under his breath, before turning to look at his father. "Jesus Christ, Nate." He moves to Nate and looks at his sprained arm. "What the hell did you do this time?"

"I... uh... fell out of the tree." The look Daryl gave him is enough to send most men screaming bloody murder, but Nate's used to these looks. "I heard Merle call my name and it startled me because I just woke up and.... I kind of landed on my arm bad."

"I'd say, you're arm is defiantly sprained." Nate whimpers in pain as his dad tests his arm out. "You're no use hunting now."

"I'm sorry dad." Daryl sighs and looks at Nate, a pain expression on his face.

"Don't be, I'll take your sister today. I want to try and find a deer today, so I want you to stay at camp-

"What? I can still track-

"I want you to stay at camp and I'll be back maybe in a few days, depending on if I can track a deer back here."

"That's not-

"Nate, you're injured, I'm not having you out in these woods with a sprained arm not with walkers possibly around. You're staying at camp." Nate knows it's best not to argue anymore, so he nods in acceptance. Daryl shakes his head and look at the already swollen arm. "We got to get this wrapped and you need to rest."

Daryl leads Nate back to camp and Nate finds it almost empty. "Where is everyone?"

"Women down at the creek, some people just went off to the city to scavenge some food, kids are off playing."

"I thought only the Chinese kid goes to the city."

"They think more people means more food and things we need. Merle went with them." Nate is happy to hear that because that means he gets a whole day just to rest in peace. "Come on, let's get you laying down." Nate goes into the tent, kicking his boots off and pulling his shirt over his head.