Sweet and Salty ~ Carl Grimes

Drugged Up - 024

The evening came quickly, so Brooks was helping her brothers set up the two tents. They only found a limited number of tents at the shopping centre, so now Brooks had to spend the night with Merle. Daryl had argued the fact that he'd shared with her at the CDC. The two brothers bickered in front of her as if she was such a burden to be around. Really, they were both too awkward because they both knew that they were in the wrong for their arguments, but neither Dixon brother would admit that.

Brooks crawled into the orange tent with Merle, luckily, there would be plenty of space for the two. Merle opened up his bag, and pulled out the meth. Brooks looked between him and the power. "You ain't serious, righ'?"

"I've been trudging through them woods all day, I'm gonna do the same damn thing tomorrow. Every day until someone brings that boy home. I'm allowed something to make myself feel a little better. Especially since my go-to tactic is off the table with you in here." Merle answered, lining the cocaine up on the ground. 

The young girl nodded, taking off her shoes. "What's your go-to tactic?"

Merle let out a snicker, before inhaling the meth, smiling brightly at the feeling. "Boy, did I miss that. Woah!" Brooks couldn't help but grin at Merle's relief. "Is that Miss 'I hate you and our entire family'  smiling at me?"

Brooks forced a frown. "No."

"Sure, Bambi." Merle rubbed his nose. "Look, I uh... I'm sorry. I shouldn't have hit ya, like I did. I didn't like doin' it, you just make me so mad sometimes. I couldn't help it, but I ain't gonna do it again."

Brooks let out a breath. "It's okay."

"Really?" Merle asked.

"Before dinner I had my first proper session with Cam. He's helpin' me. I ain't gonna hold on to all that anger no more. He says it ain't good for me. It's a workin' process though."

Merle nodded. "You ain't need a shrink to tell ya that ya shouldn't be so mad with me and Daryl, but alrigh'. The cyborg ain't so bad, I s'pose." 

"He's real nice."

Merle laid down on his back, putting an arm over his eyes. "Just get ready for bed 'n' go to sleep. I can't have nice dreams 'bout Kylie Minogue if you're still awake."

Brooks furrowed her eyebrows, starting to change. "Who?"

Merle groaned. "You're so uncultured that it hurts me, Bambi."

/----------\

The next morning, Merle was gone by the time Brooks woke up. So was Daryl, Rick, Shane, Andrea and Cam. Daryl had gone by himself, Andrea had gone with Cam, Rick and Shane had gone together, Merle also decided to go solo. Brooks got changed and left the tent she was sharing with Merle. She passed Lori and Carol who were doing the laundry, before she headed inside the Greene's house. Brooks knocked on the bedroom which had Carl on the inside. She hadn't seen him, yet, and despite her hatred, she thought it best.

"Come in." Carl's muffled voice responded.

Brooks opened the door and saw he had a mouth full of bacon that Patricia had kindly prepared for him. "Hey-"

"Oh, it's you." Carl interrupted.

Brooks scoffed. "What crawled up your ass and died?" She closed the door, heading over to sit at the bottom of the bed.

"I don't want to see you, Brooks! Go away!" Carl shouted.

"Your dad said you were askin' 'bout me and Sophia."

Carl rolled his eyes. "To be polite, not because I wanted you to Florence Nightingale me."

"Well, I wasn't 'bout to read you a bed time story. Why you so pissy this mornin'? I know you got shot but it ain't that big of deal, ya fricken' princess."