Some people's affability is more deadly than the violence of coarser souls. - Arthur Conan Doyle

July 10, 2010

"Where's Merle?"

Shane stiffens, the tearful joy at the reunion with Rick gone like he had a bucket of ice water thrown over him. Rick detangles from Lori and Carl and turns, while the rest of the Atlanta group all but hide. Damned cowards, afraid of a woman with a baby.

"Well, ma'am, Merle was out of control. He was a danger to us all, drugged out of his mind," Rick starts.

Blue eyes are assessing as she shifts the baby's weight to the shoulder opposite of the one her long, auburn braid drapes over. "Is he dead?"

"Well, you see, we're not really sure," Rick begins.

"Seems like something you should be sure of before you leave someone behind, mister." She turns away from Rick, seeking out Glenn. Despite Merle's racist antagonism toward the young Asian, she's always been openly friendly towards Glenn even if she seems only tolerant of the others in camp. "Where?"

"Department store over by the courthouse," he answers, looking anxious. She nods and walks away, passing the baby to the teenager in the Dixons' little sub-camp. Sadie takes the infant, shifting her to one hip and following as she is given instructions.

"Is she planning on going into the city?" Rick asks incredulously.

"I think so," Shane says. She opens one of the saddlebags on the motorcycle and slips on a shoulder holster. She slides out a gun box and loads a magazine into the handgun before holstering it and sliding two more magazines into the holster.

"Ma'am, we can go back. You don't need to go alone." Rick's words only earn him a cool look as she tosses a couple of water bottles, some ration bars, and a first aid kit into a backpack that she drops into the passenger seat of the Subaru she drove into camp. She rummages into the back seat, hauling the infant seat out and dropping it into the bed of Daryl's beat-up old Ford. She pops the back hatch and two good-sized duffel bags follow the infant car seat before she drops the larger half of the back seat to lie flat.

"She's not going to talk to anyone right now. She's too angry." Shane looks to where Sadie approaches, the baby tucked into a carrier on her chest and a diaper bag over one shoulder. "Guess you could say she's practicing the Golden Rule. We're supposed to stay with you, Deputy Walsh, til either her or Uncle Daryl gets back."

That baffles Shane a bit. "Why not one of the ladies?"

Sadie laughs in that derisive way of teenagers towards particularly dense adults. "She knows they all think we're trash. Carol doesn't, but Ed's a pervert. You're a cop so you don't have to like us to be polite to me and Merry." She shrugs. The baby waved a chubby hand at Shane, showing her bare gums as she grinned and babbled at him.

"You'd best shut your mouth about your betters, girl." Ed advances on the girl.

Before Shane could intervene, he hears the distinct firing twang of a crossbow as a bolt embeds in the dirt near Ed's feet. The man yelps and falls backward as Ellie stomps her way up and snatches the bolt. She shakes it at Ed.

"You will keep your words and eyes to yourself. The rest of these folks may be content to let a piece of wife-beating shit like you have free reign, but you've been warned about keeping your pedophile eyes to yourself where Sadie is concerned. That doesn't change just because Merle isn't here. He'd at least kill you quickly, like he informed you he would if he caught you laying hands in any more children in camp four days ago. Me, I'll feed you your balls in strips."

She flicks the bolt tip against Ed's cheek before slotting it back in the holder on the crossbow.

"If Ed's messing with the kids, someone should have let me know," Shane protests. He overlooks Carol's bruises, afraid the man would take his family back out where they'd lack even the nominal protection of the group. But he'd seen no indication of aggressive behavior towards Sophia.

"Pervert grabbed Sadie the other day. Claimed he was just directing her back toward our camp, but he left bruises on her arm. Wasn't the first time he'd been caught eyeing her. Didn't figure you'd be allowed to listen to me if I complained."

Shane frowns. "Allowed?"

Ellie scoffs. "Like every damn one of these women haven't tried to get you to put us on our way. I don't have time for this now. Just keep him away from them. I gotta go get Merle's dumb ass."

T-Dog squirmed uneasily. "He's handcuffed, Mrs. Dixon, up on the roof. I dropped the key, so I couldn't get him loose. I chained the door so nothing could get inside, but I don't have a key to that lock."

She pats a pocket on the leather vest she wore over the shoulder holster. "Had a cop teach me how to pick cuffs years ago with the right tools. Was the padlock a combo or key lock on the chain?"

"Key. Big Master Lock, I think." She nods, seeming unconcerned.

"You shouldn't go alone."

Ellie meets Rick's gaze. "Not sure there's anyone here I'd trust at my back, all things considered. Better to rely on myself." She turns to Shane. "I'll do my best to be back by nightfall, with or without Merle. Keep an eye on my girls."

Shane knows he ought to argue her going like Rick, or even offer to go with her, but he holds back for the same reason everyone else in camp does. Ellie Dixon might be more polite than her male family members, but everyone who tried to butt heads with her stubbornness lost.

"I'll keep an eye out." He is puzzled why she trusts him over, say, Dale, but maybe she just sees the older man as being too old. With Rick back, it isn't like he has to deal with Lori's irrationally strong dislike of all things Dixon.

She meets his gaze evenly. She finds whatever she is looking for, since she nods and strides off to slide into the driver's seat of the Subaru.

"Oh God, I'm going to regret this," Glenn groans, before dashing off to tap the glass on the driver's side before she can take off. She stares at him for a moment, then jerks her head toward the passenger seat. He snags the backpack out of the seat and drops into it, barely getting the door shut before she is on her way.

"Is that wise? Merle was pretty violently racist up there today," Rick asks.

"Ellie likes Glenn. She'd feed Merle his nuts if he messed with Glenn." Sadie smirks at the adults when they turn disbelieving gazes to her.

The baby squawks and grabs onto Shane's sleeve, looking accomplished at her capture of the deputy. He can't help laughing at the little girl, which apparently signals Sadie to lever her out and plop her into his arms. He grips the baby reflexively, and she lets loose with a delighted baby giggle, patting his chest firmly with the hand not tangled in his shirt.

Sadie sidesteps to keep Shane between her and Ed as the big man makes as if to approach.

"Think it's best you go back down to your tent," Shane orders, leveling his best cop glare at the man. Everything about Sadie's body language confirms what Ellie said. She is afraid of the man, and not much seems to shake the irrepressible teenager.

"Ain't going to be slandered and threatened by no white trash," Ed grumbles.

Shane knows Rick also noticed the girl's apprehension, because he maneuvers between Ed and Shane. "Be best if you wait for the adults to have that conversation."

Ed's searching look around the others finds him no sympathy, so he storms off, cursing.

Sadie lets out an audible sigh of relief, actually leaning up against Shane for a brief moment.

"Can I see where he yanked on your arm?" he asks. She nods and tugs off the open button-up shirt she wears over an Ironman t-shirt. The hand shaped bruise is a lurid purple, starting to edge yellowy green along the edges as it heals.

"He said I was giving Sophia uppity ideas and I'd best stop or I'd be sorry." She lifts her chin stubbornly. "All I was doing was telling her it ain't right, how her daddy is. I don't know if he was serious or not, but when Merle made him let me go, telling him no real man hurts kids, he made a rude comment like the pervert he is, and Merle punched him in the nuts so hard I'm surprised he didn't cough them up."

"What did he say?" Rick is using his trust-me voice, but Sadie never turns his way, brown eyes focusing on Shane.

"Old enough to bleed... He didn't get to finish it, cos that's when Merle hit him. Told him he'd kill him if he looked at any of us kids again, including Sophia."

Carol makes a strangled sound, clutching her daughter close.

Dale's voice is gentle. "Why didn't anyone tell Shane about it?"

Sadie shrugs, tugging her overshirt back on. "Wasn't like he was going to throw Ed out, cos he'd take Sophia and her mama away too and they'd have no one to keep them safe. His hands are tied."

Shane is actually surprised that any of the Dixons assessed the situation positively where he is concerned. Ellie is politely reserved in any interactions, Daryl rude and remote, and Merle borders on outright antagonism on his best days. Sadie interacts only with the kids, aside from limited replies to any direct question from an adult.

"Carol?" Shane speaks softly, realizing the grey haired woman is weeping softly.

"I'm sorry. I didn't think he was hurting anyone else," she sobs. Jacqui wraps her arms around the woman and her daughter, looking distressed.

"We'll figure something out," Dale assures her. All the men wear equally guilty expressions as they exchange looks.

Sadie leaves the shelter of being next to Shane to throw her skinny arms around both Carol and Sophia, working her way around Jacqui. "It's okay, but you gotta let them fix things now." It seems to soothe Carol somehow.

The baby breaks the tension by dipping her head forward to gnaw on Shane's collarbone, laughing when he yelps in surprise. The peal of baby giggles makes most smile reluctantly.

Sadie snickers. "Least it wasn't your nose. She licked Merle's eye the other day. His eyeball. It was so gross. Hilarious but gross."

Merry responds by wagging her tongue at everyone, eyes slightly crossed as if she is trying to see her tongue. She gives it up and snatches for Shane's necklace, making a valiant attempt at stuffing it in her tiny mouth before he gently retrieves it. She blows a raspberry and then settles for chewing on the collar of his shirt.

"I can take her," Lori offers, surprising Shane. She firmly abhors anything Dixon, including the baby, making rude remarks about how people like that shouldn't be having children.

He starts to pass the baby over, figuring she'll be happier with a female, but Merry's expression turns thunderous and she bucks away from the slender woman. She buries her face in Shane's chest, body stiff until he adjusts his hold to reassure her he isn't handing her off.

The baby's antics seem to disburse the remainder of the open guilt over the Ed situation. "Looks like I've got a buddy for a bit."

Rick's gaze goes to the teenager still part of the group hug. "I'm sorry about your father," he begins, but he has about as much success finishing a sentence with this Dixon as the other.

Sadie's head pops up and she frowns at Rick. "Merle's not my father."

"I'm sorry. That's what the others told me." He frowns towards the group who went to Atlanta.

"Then what is he?" Dale asks kindly. "Your stepfather?"

They all debated the relationship of the Dixons, noting Sadie's general features aren't the same and she was the only one who doesn't have blue eyes. But Merle's regular oversight of the girl seemed to indicate a paternal role. None of them seem to use any family titles, other than Sadie calling Daryl uncle.

"Merle's never been married." Sadie frowns. "Why would you think he's my stepfather?"

"Isn't Ellie your mother?" Lori asks.

"She's my sister-in-law." The teenager looks genuinely puzzled. "I came to live with her two years ago when my mama died of cancer."

"But we thought Ellie was married to Merle," Dale explains. It was the conclusion they drew despite the age difference, based on the wedding set Ellie wears and her willingness to boss Merle around fearlessly and Merle actually complying about half the time.

"Oh God, that's disgusting. This ain't Alabama. Merle's Ellie's dad." She emphasizes dad as if they are all severely mentally impaired. "Ellie was married to my brother til he died last August. Although I guess Ellie is technically my mother. She legally adopted me after Isaac died so that if anything happened to her, I wouldn't be separated from Merry and Merle and Daryl."

Shane can't help the reflexive hug he gives the baby as he realizes she lost her father before she was ever even born. At least he had a father for long enough to remember him.

"We should have asked, not assumed," Dale notes.

"Not really me you've been offensive to, and at least most of you were polite enough to let us be out of earshot before you were rude, not like those two." She tilts her chin toward Andrea and Lori, both of whom look offended. "Don't look so huffy. Y'all act like Ellie's deaf or something, all high and mighty, when she's probably smarter and more educated than both of you put together on your best day."

"I don't see how," Andrea begins. "I was an attorney before."

"That's just a fancy master's degree, right? Ellie has her master's plus extra. It's really funny cos y'all are always so rude to the only person here with medical training."

Curious, Shane musters for his most polite tone. "She a doctor?" He can't wrap his mind around Merle Dixon fathering a doctor, but there are dead up and walking, so damn near nothing is impossible, it seems.

"No, she got her master's in nursing from Emory. You know, the one where you can work without a doctor always around, more or less. She worked at Children's. But she was on maternity leave when everybody started getting sick."

Shane hadn't questioned too closely, not really wanting to tangle with Merle any more closely than he had to. The other Dixons made it easy by not seeming to interact with the others much at all. He knows Merle made supply runs specifically for their smaller camp, which is why he caved and asked him along as firepower for the bigger run.

Ellie being on maternity leave still confirms the camp guesses that the baby was two, maybe three, months old when they arrived.

Merry turns a little less happy, making that grumpy face that Shane remembers Carl making whenever he was hungry at this age.

"Hey, Sadie. Got any nibbles for the baby in the bag?"

Once Merry's settled, him serving as her high chair while Sadie scoops peas into her mouth, he can't help but glance toward the road.

What kind of cop does it make him that he watched Merry's mother leave with only Glenn for protection?

A/N: Long for this first chapter, minimal after this to avoid padding word count.

This is one of three beginnings I wrote when I began the Homestead Georgia series. I ended up going with what became Repair Broken Men, and that has been/still is a wild and wonderful journey. But the other little tales keep niggling in my mind, so I'm going to post them both. They won't have the regular schedule that RBM has (which is every 1-3 days), but probably at least once a week or so.

Chapters will run smaller than RBM (which averages around 4-5k), probably settling around 2500-3000 words per chapter. The canon timeline diverges as of the rooftop scene and may go wildly freeform from here.

This one may run solely as a Shane POV (there are four fully complete and ready to post chapters, all from Shane, so far).

Recent discussions with another Shane fan reminded me how precious few fics there are that are pro-Shane. She posed a Toni Morrison quote that fits this niche of TWD fanfic well: "If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it."

Final note, Sadie makes a bit of a jackass comment regarding Alabama, so if you're from there, forgive her. If you aren't from the South, it's really common humor for Southerners, faced with some implication of incestuous behavior, to state it's not their home state that's guilty, but some neighboring state. Where I'm from, we usually use Tennessee, but that's because it's one of the few Southern states where it's actually legal to marry one's first cousin. o.O