Nox: This story became so much. And I have all of you to thank for that.

Disclaimer: The Walking Dead belongs to Kirkman and AMC

Promise

She reached forward, about to place her hand against his chest, not thinking. He gripped her wrist hard, stopping her. The fuck she mean, yes. He weren't fuckin' bein' real. He was a real piece of work. Even he knew he was messed up to look at. Ain't nobody would want him, not even in this fuckin' day, with the world gone to shit.

He weren't stupid.

"Just do what yur supposed ta woman." She swallowed hard, nodded. Pulled her hand back.

"Carol," she said.

"Don't matter. Won't be here long anyway." She grabbed a towel, placed it on her knee.

"Matters to me," she said. "You matter to Daryl." Merle didn't respond. Didn't matter what Daryl wanted. What mattered was the Governor.

She braced his shoulder, took a deep breath, and started to dig the bullet out.

"Fuck." He forgot what it was like not havin' nothin'. No fancy medical stuff. Nothin' to get this bullet out quick and less painful.

"Sorry," she muttered, still digging. Her hand was soft against his shoulder, a sharp contrast against the pain shooting down his back. The fuckin' bullet was a bitch.

He needed to distract hisself.

"You take care a my brother too?" Her brows drew together, confused. She didn't stop her work though.

"Shit," she muttered. She paused momentarily, wiped at her forehead with her free hand and then continued with more ferocity. He grit his teeth.

"I don't do nothing for Daryl that he don't want," she responded. Merle thought bout that.

Maybe this woman, Carol, were something different after all. Maybe she weren't so bad for his brother.

It's not like she didn't know somethin' of what they'd gone through. Obviously she'd seen his brother, fuckin' scars 'n all. Which meant she had some kind a idea of what the hell they'd been through. And still she were there. Still she never flinched from the sight of him. Not even hisself. And he'd seen what kind of a man her husband was the moment he'd laid eyes on the sonuvabitch.

Maybe, she was just as scarred on the inside as they were on the out. Maybe, she was just what Daryl woulda needed.

Didn't mean he liked admittin' that. "Daryl, he don't let nobody in." She stopped mid-work. Looked him square in the face, eyes wide. "He don't let nobody touch him neither."

He squinted his eyes at her. "But then there I sees ya, touchin' him and shit." She shook her head.

"That's different. When he needs my help, he'll take it because he needs it." A little smile broke out on her face as she started wiggling the bullet out. She bit her lip, determined now that she had purchase on it. A little hiss escaped him.

"But it's taken a long time for him to come this far." She sighed, thinking back on what they'd gone through to get here. "We've been through a lot to get to this point," she whispered softly.

"Well that's a Dixon. Nobody ever gave us nothin'. Less it was gonna hurt, or make us bleed, we don't know what nice is." And then, finally, she pried that bullet out. He pounded a fist against his leg, grinding his teeth hard.

"Fuck woman, you tryin' to kill me?" She smiled a little.

"Think you'd know if I was." She poured some whiskey on it, and then offered him the bottle. He took it, gratefully.

She placed the towel over the wound, staunching the blood.

"My brother 'n me, we never knew how to make nice. The ol' man…" Merle trailed off, thinkin' back on what life had been like. There was too much there, to even try and make sense of that mess.

"The ol' man made us who we are. Shouldn't a come to this. Should a been better'n this." He took another swallow of whiskey.

"Daryl always was the better one. Always takin' care a me. He never did any drugs, never got in no trouble with the law. He never got with no women neither." He looked at her then, brows going high. "I ain't lyin' bout that one. Baby brother always was a pussy when it came to the honey pot." Carol's lip twisted at his language, but didn't interrupt. Merle didn't seem to notice, because he just kept going, his voice drifting off. "The ol' man musta known he was the sweet one…"

Carol watched him, watched him try to explain a whole lifetime of who they were and how they became that way.

But it didn't matter to her. Daryl was who he was and she cared about him no matter what. But she sensed that Merle needed to talk about it, so she let him.

"Daddy never let Daryl have nothin', never let him do nothin'. Always beatin' on him, makin' him do the tough shit. Like he was tryin' to make a man out of him or somethin'. As if he weren't a man." He swished the bottle round, watching the copper liquid spin.

"Daryl was more a man than either of us," he muttered.

He looked at her then, looked her hard in the eyes.

"I know I ain't gonna be round much longer. The world ain't never been kind to us Dixon's and to hell if it starts now." He dropped the bottle and gripped her by the arm, squeezing tight.

"You promise me somethin' woman." She nodded, knowing that was what he needed her to do. But also, because she would do whatever he asked of her, especially if it was about Daryl.

"I ain't never asked nothin' of nobody. Ain't never had to. I always been there, to take care of my own shit." She could smell the whiskey off his breath. She didn't think he would do nothin', but his eyes were wild.

"I always been there to take care of Daryl." His head dipped low. "But you promise me," he seemed to struggle with this, asking her something. She knew it was hard for him, hard for a Dixon to ask for something.

"Promise you'll take care a him," he whispered hoarsely.

That admission stole her breath. For Merle to ask her to take care of Daryl went against everything she ever thought.

"No matter what he may do, no matter what he may say. Daryl'll keep you away, push back anything you try to do fer him." Merle loosed his grip and picked the bottle back up, taking another drink.

"You can't let'im." He leaned back in the chair, dropped the bottle of whiskey and rubbed at his stump absently.

"He's gonna need lookin' after," he whispered to no one.

She placed her hand against his arm, gently. "I promise." He took a good long look in her eyes, and she didn't look away.

He cleared his throat, shifted his feet. "Good. Now finish yur business so I can get on my fuckin' way."

She checked the wound, making sure it had stopped bleeding. Merle's request echoed in her mind.

Merle never needed to ask. She would take care of Daryl no matter what. They had this unspoken pact to look out for each other. But to know that Merle loved his brother that much, that he needed to ask her to look after him, touched her heart.

She'd never expected to know Merle like this.

"Merle…" She placed the gauze over the wound, taping it in place. He took a glance at her.

"Daryl still needs you." She'd finished, her hands falling away from his shoulder.

He laughed half-heartedly at her words. "Baby brother don't need me no more. He got a new family."

The look on his face, when he said family, made her chest ache. He looked dejected and angry and sad. She'd never seen that look before. Not on a face so familiar to her. Not since Sophia.

She took his hand in hers, carefully, measuring what was safe and what wasn't. She could feel callouses against her hand, the minute scars. It was the only one he had left.

She took a chance, looking into his eyes. This was an intimacy that she'd never even tried with Daryl. And she could tell by the look in his eyes that she was on dangerous territory.

"You will always be his family Merle." He wasn't pulling his hand away, wasn't looking away from her gaze. She took that as a good sign and plundered on.

"You'll always be his brother." He jerked away from her then, jumped out of the chair. It tumbled to the ground. The action scared her, sent her heart thundering in her chest. Merle paced the tiny, confined cell. She could see then, the fine similarities between the brothers. It was unnerving.

"Don't fuckin' matter who I am. What fuckin' matters is what happens out there!" He swung his arm toward the door but she knew he was talking about the outside. Their world beyond the prison walls. The walking dead.

"You're not dead Merle. You'll still be around. The group can work something out…" He snorted derisively, swung the stump in her direction and continued pacing, taking another swallow of whiskey.

"Yur fuckin' stupid if ya think that fairy tale is gonna happen."

She rose to her feet, her hands spread in a passive gesture. "Merle, listen-"

He pinned her against the wall, his six foot frame filling up the space in front of her. His well-toned arms blocking her on both sides. His face came in close, so close that she could see the flecks of gray hidden in the blue of his eyes. She never noticed that in Daryl's.

"No you listen bitch!" He slammed the metal arm against the wall, cracking the concrete next to her face. She flinched away from it. He gripped her by the chin, squeezing hard. She froze, not daring to move, even though her jaw ached. "I didn't ask ya to look after me, I asked ya ta look after him." And Merle jerked his arm toward the entrance, implying his brother. She couldn't help the glance and her eyes widened.

There he stood. Her knife gripped tight at his side. Face lit up in rage, eyes narrowed at the sight he was taking in.

Merle turned where she was looking and smirked.

This time, she really was scared.

Not for herself, but for them.

"Hey there baby brother." He sounded so cocky, so confident. Daryl didn't even breathe.

"Just havin' a conversation here, with ya woman." Daryl's hand flexed around the knife, and he took a threatening step toward them. Toward Merle.

"Step away Merle." Carol knew that look. She'd seen it cross his face many times when he was looking down the barrel of a gun, or facing off a walker or another living person that meant him harm.

"Don't do this," she pleaded but to who even she didn't know.

"Fuckin' shut up you dumb bitch." Daryl jerked in her direction and Merle moved with him. Instead of being pinned by his hand, now she was pinned by his metal arm, the piece heavy and odd against her chest. Merle held out a hand and Daryl stopped, unsure of what Merle had in mind.

"Fuckin' back away Merle."

"Or what baby brother? You gonna stick me with yur little toothpick there?" Daryl growled, venomous and harsh, something Carol hadn't heard in a long time.

"Fuck you Merle!" And Daryl tackled him. Carol pressed herself tight against the wall, and watched in horror as they struggled with each other on the ground. Daryl on top at first, before Merle quickly overtook him.

And Carol became increasingly worried. Merle just kept punching him, in the face, in the chest, on the arms, in the stomach. It wasn't long until Daryl was lying on the ground, bloodied, quickly bruising, panting on the ground. He still looked pissed at Merle, even if he was losing the fight.

And then Merle was standing over him, boot raised over Daryl's face.

When Carol threw herself over him. Merle's face pinched in fury.

"Fuckin' move woman, or you'll be a part a this." She didn't flinch at the look in his eyes, because she knew he meant it. She could feel Daryl, breathing heavy beneath her, shaking hard against her chest, his breath coming hot against her neck.

"I made you a promise." Merle visibly flinched then, his foot dropping some.

"And I intend to keep it." She never took her gaze from his, never let go of Daryl. She wasn't going to let anything happen to Daryl as long as she was there to stop it. And if that meant standing in the way of Merle Dixon, then so be it.

"So go ahead. Do it." Merle's foot hesitated for a fraction of a moment, before he dropped it. She thought he was going to spit something at her, words of hate, anything, but he just turned on his heels and stalked out of the prison. Carol felt herself breathe again.

"Better hold onta that one baby brother. Real tight."

A/N: This fic, the very first in the line of many Maryl, has long been completed, but I love getting reviews for it. I have never been more proud of something in my life then this. So don't be afraid to leave me a few a words before you go!

The prompt: A Merle confessional to Carol, asking her to take care of his brother because he can't. Took 3 chapters to get there but I did!

There is a sequel titled Never Let Go. Please check it out when your done here!