⌜ chapter sixteen ⌟

It's after sunup by the time they make it to the cars that Rick told them about before. MJ can't move very fast on her leg, not to mention how exhausted she is.

"Glenn!" Rick calls out as they make their way through the woods.

"Rick."

"Now we got a problem here." He says when they see Glenn moving toward them. "I need you to back up."

"What the hell is he doing here?" He questions when he sees Merle.

"Hey, hey, hey." Daryl moves forward with his gun raised when Glenn pulls out his own, and Michonne raises her sword.

"He tried to kill us!" Sam yells as Dean grabs him.

"If it wasn't for him—"

"After what he did to Maggie and MJ." Glenn says.

"He helped us get out of there." Daryl argues.

"Yeah, right after he beat the shit out of you." Rick says, glancing over his shoulder at Daryl.

"Hey, we both took our licks, man." Merle argues.

"Jackass." Daryl glances back at his brother.

"Hey, shut up."

"Dad, stop it!" MJ yells as she shoves on John's chest. "Enough!"

"Hey, get that thing out of my face!" Daryl yells at Glenn, and Merle starts laughing.

"Man, looks like you've gone native, brother." He says, and Daryl turns to him.

"No more than you hanging out with those psychos back there."

"Oh, yeah, man. He is a charmer, I got to tell you that." Merle looks between Michonne and Sam now. "Been puttin' the wood to your girlfriend Andrea. Big time, baby." He makes provocative noises and kisses at them.

"You shut the hell up!" MJ snaps as she tries to move toward him, but Daryl grabs her.

"What?" Glenn questions. "Andrea's in Woodbury?"

"Right next the Governor." Daryl says as MJ pushes away from him.

Michonne raises her sword again, and Rick gets in her path. "I told you to drop that!" He makes her back off. "You know Andrea?"

"Sam?" MJ looks at her brother.

"Yeah." He nods. "We met her months ago, out in the woods. We saw smoke and went to see what was going on. She had just killed two of the dead and another was on her. We saved her, and she stayed with us."

"The fire at the farm." Dean says. "You were that close the whole time?"

"Don't leave out the part about your two pet biters." Merle says. "No arms, cut off the jaws, kept them in chains."

"Didn't I tell you to shut up." MJ looks at him.

"We snagged them out of the woods." He continues. "Andrea was close to dying."

"She was sick." Sam tells them.

"Is that why she's with him?" Maggie asks.

"Yeah." Merle says. "Snug as two little bugs. So what are you gonna do now, Sheriff, huh? Surrounded by a bunch of liars, thugs, and cowards."

"Shut up!" Rick glances back at him.

"Oh, man, look at this. Pathetic. All these guns, no bullets in them. You can't even keep your girlfriend safe."

"Merle, shut up!" Daryl snaps.

"Shut up yourself! Bunch of pussies you roll—" He's cut off when Rick hits the back of his head with the butt of his gun.

"Asshole." Glenn turns away from them.

"Who can't I protect?" Rick asks, confused.

"Me." MJ says, and they all look at her. "He thinks that you and I are together because you handcuffed him up on that roof in Atlanta after he grabbed me."

"When he slap—"

"Yeah." She nods. "That's why he did this to me. It was supposed to be his revenge. He was gonna beat me to hell and then take me back to you so that you could see what he did, how he hurt me. I'm guessing that sicking the walker on me wasn't part of his original plan, but Glenn and I pissed him off."

"And your shirt?" He asks as he looks at the one that Ash gave her. A few buttons at the top are done, but she couldn't get them all the way down, so she tied the bottom together.

"I broke the chair that I was duct taped to, barely managed to kill the walker. He came in awhile later, all smiles." She scoffs as she looks at the ground. "Said that I put up a hell of a fight and he knew I was his kind of woman, then he cut the front of it open."

"I'm gonna kill him." Dean takes a step forward, but Addy and Jo stop him.

"I'm fine." She looks at her brother.

"You look worse than you did when I saved you from those asshole hillbillies." He argues. "Don't lie to me."

"I said, I'm fine." She repeats, and he shakes his head. "I'm not some broken, fragile little girl. I don't need you to come to my rescue anymore. I've been taking care of myself for a long time now."

"Mom." Jr. gets her attention, and she looks at him. "I love you, but taking care of yourself has never been your priority."

"That's not true."

"No?" He questions. "Tell me something, when you were fighting that guy who was choking you — were fighting to survive or were you fighting to get to and save him?" He motions to Daryl.

"What's the difference?" She shrugs. "Either way, I had to live. Whether it was for him or for me — it doesn't matter."

"Yeah, it does."

"We need to get her back to the prison." Jo says, interrupting them. "Her shoulder and her leg are both bleeding. Matt needs to stitch her up."

"I'm going to the car." MJ tells them. "Let me know what I'm supposed to do next. Or, am I even allowed to go to the car? A walker could come and if I'm standing there alone, I might just let it kill me. You know, since no one else is gonna need protection."

"Stop being an ass." John says, and she scoffs.

"Says the biggest ass I've ever met." She shakes her head as she walks away from them. She leans against the silver car.

"It won't work." Rick's saying as they walk out of the woods.

"It's gotta." Daryl argues.

"It'll stir things up."

"Look, the Governor is probably on the way to the prison right now. Merle knows how he thinks, and we could use the muscle."

"I'm not having him at the prison." Maggie says.

"Do you really want him sleeping in the same cellblock as MJ after what he did to her?" Glenn asks.

"He ain't a rapist." Daryl says.

"No, he just cut her shirt open because he's a nice guy." He says sarcastically as Dean walks over to his sister.

"I think this is yours." He tells her, and she takes the angel blade from him. "Adam found it after Merle took you guys."

"Adam?" MJ looks at him, and he nods.

"Yeah, he's at the prison." Dean tells her.

"There's no way Merle's gonna live there without putting everyone at each other's' throats." Rick says.

"So, we're gonna cut Merle loose and bring the last samurai home with us?" Daryl questions as he motions to Michonne. "And what about MJ's family? We got more damn Winchesters and their friends than anybody else."

"Ash saved my life after your psychotic piece of shit of a brother kidnapped us, and tried to kill me and Glenn." MJ says as she looks over at him. "I'm not living with him. End of story. If he comes back to prison, then I'm gone."

"We don't have any other safe place for Jack." Dean reminds her. "The prison's the only place with angel warding."

"Speaking of angels." She looks up. "Get your ass over here! Gabriel!"

"Quiet down." Rick tells her.

"I couldn't help you." Gabriel says as he shows up next to her. MJ swings the angel blade at him, and he quickly moves back.

"What the hell do you mean you couldn't help me?" She questions. "I have done everything that you've said for months. I've looked for Cas, and I kept Jack safe. I put everything on the line, and you couldn't step up one time? Raphael tried to kill us. And we were almost torn apart by walkers, and another group. You could listen to me ask you to tell Ellie and Jack that I was sorry for failing them, but you couldn't lift a Goddamn finger to help me?"

"I'm doing what I can."

"What have you done?" She asks. "Found my family, and then refused to tell me where they were. Heal a few bumps and cuts, a broken bone?

"A wendigo tried to eat us, Meg tried to kill me, Crowley was harassing me. Angels, demons, walkers, monsters, people who are so screwed in the head... And all you ever do is watch." She throws the angel blade at him, and he ducks. It flies toward Rick, and Daryl quickly pulls him out of the way. "All you have ever done is watch.

"Except for when you killed me and Dean a hundred times over. Sam told me about it, you got real creative. Shot, hit by a car, piano fell on us, got mauled by a dog, food poisoning, electrocution, slipped in the Goddamn shower..." Tears fill her eyes and she shakes her head. "I am done being a piece that you move around on your board. Screw you. And screw Chuck. I'm not your little bitch that you can manipulate and toy with anymore."

"You know what's sad? Everything that everyone says about you is right." Gabriel says. "You think so little of yourself that you don't care if you live or die."

"That's not true." She argues.

"You just told Daryl—"

"I said I'm not afraid to die. I never said that I was okay with dying. I don't want to die. I want to live." MJ tells him. "But not like this, not at your disposal. Maybe Michael was right. Maybe all we are is pathetic. But if all I have is this pathetic little life, then you can be damn sure that I'll live it how I want. Not how you say, not anymore. So you can go now."

"MJ—"

"No, I'm done." She shakes her head. "There is nothing else to be said here." She tells him, and he nods before he disappears. She then looks at Daryl. "Merle isn't coming back to the prison. Not after everything that he's done. I'm sorry."

"Fine. We'll fend for ourselves." Daryl says.

"No, that's not what I'm saying." She takes a step forward, but hisses and grabs her leg. A sharp pain shoots through it, but she just ignores the ache. "You're a part of this family. We all want you at the prison."

"No him, no me."

"Daryl, you don't have to do that." Maggie says, seeing the hurt on MJ's face.

"It was always Merle and I before this." He tells them.

"Don't."

"You serious?" Glenn questions. "You're just gonna leave like that?"

"You'd do the same thing." He looks over at MJ. "You know you would."

"No, I wouldn't." She shakes her head. "If I would, I would've left after my dad showed up on the farm."

"What do you want us to tell Carol?" Glenn asks, knowing that the two of them became close during all those months on the road.

"She'll understand." Daryl says and then glances at Maggie. "Say goodbye to your pop for me." He starts walking away.

"Ponch, wait." MJ's voice is low as she grabs his arm when he starts to walk past her. He turns to look at her. "Come on. I..."

"No him, no me. That's all I got to say." He tells her. "I already left him once. I ain't doing it again."

"What am I supposed to tell Jack and Ellie?"

"Tell 'em whatever you want. Or don't tell 'em anything at all." He starts to walk away from her, and she turns to look at him.

"You're better than this. You're better than him." She says, and he stops walking. "He terrorizes people, and threatens them. He tried to kill me and Glenn. He doesn't care about anybody but himself."

"You don't know anything about me or my family!" He snaps as he turns around to face her again. "How the hell would you? You're just a girl with a knife! Back off, woman."

And just like that, she's completely given up. And they all see it clear as day. Her shoulders slump and her face softens as her expression saddens. There's no longer that hardened determination in her eyes, just hurt and pain. She takes a deep breath as she stands up a little straighter, trying not to look as broken as she feels.

"You're right." MJ nods. "I clearly don't know you at all. Because the man that I thought was my friend, the one that I confided in all this time... He never would've thrown that in my face." She scoffs as she looks down. "Take care of yourself, Daryl."

She then turns around and limps away from him. His jaw tightens as he moves to go back over to his brother. It hurt, hearing her call him by his name. He can't remember the last time he heard her say it. She's called him Ponch for months now — whether she was talking to him or talking to someone else about him. He knows how much he hurt her just by the last thing she said to him.

The group piles into the cars, leaving to head back to the prison without Daryl. MJ's sitting next to Addy in the backseat of her dad's car. She's on her left side, so she sees her wedding ring on her finger when her gaze falls to her own lap. She reaches over without thinking about it and takes Addy's hand, still looking at the silver band. She starts absentmindedly fidgeting with her best friend's hand as she looks at the ring.

In all honesty, MJ hasn't paid any of their wedding rings any mind in years. Hers is in her backpack, zipped up in a small compartment. She hasn't even looked at it in years. She swore off all relationships after she and Matt divorced. It hurt too much for her to ever even think about risking getting that close to someone again.

She had built this wall around her heart and refused to let anyone get close enough to knock it down. She stopped dating, never spent more than a night with a man after the divorce. Though she always remained close with Matt, sometimes it seemed like they were still together. It wasn't until after the outbreak that that changed completely.

Slowly but surely, Daryl had chipped away at that wall around her heart. She let herself care about him, feel for him. And now she's heartbroken because of a man who was never hers to begin with.

She told him things that she never told anyone else, she trusted him in ways that she rarely trusted anyone. And now he's gone, taking a piece of her with him. Reminding her how easy it is to get hurt. And she hates it. She never wanted anyone to have that kind of power over her again. She wasn't supposed to let anyone get close enough to break her.

But that's exactly what Daryl did.