Playing With Fire (A Merle Dixon Story)

Chapter Twenty-Four

Author's Note:
Ah! Hi everyone! I'm seriously in awe right now at how awesome you all are. PWF has almost doubled in views and votes since I first starting posting it a few months ago. I am so, so, so appreciateive of all the votes, views, comments, and messages. You all make me smile a ton and I am so happy I can write something that so many people enjoy! Here's the next chapter! Also, FYI...I'm so excited about the next chapter. More updates soon and I promise to update LILB as soon as I can! Thanks again! :)

-Nikki

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Harlow

 

Three weeks. Three weeks and I was starting to believe more and more every day that asking for time in the first place had been so incredibly stupid. I sure as hell knew that there wasn’t enough time in the world to change the way I felt about Merle. Actually, it was sort of counteractive. The more time I spent keeping myself away from him, the more I wanted him. No matter how much often I told myself that this was what I needed right now, there was still this annoyingly persistent voice in the back of my head that kept telling me I was an idiot, and that I should just forget about being smart, forget about common sense, and just be with Merle. So far, that voice hadn’t won. Some days, though, it came pretty damn close.

I sighed, pushing around a lumpy pile of baked beans on my plate. Sooner or later, Merle was going to get tired of waiting around for me to make up mind, or whatever he thought I was doing. Or he’d just lose interest. Whichever happened to come first. Why was this so hard anyways? I know what I wanted…why was it so hard for me to just take a chance on something that might actually be a good thing?

“Not hungry?”

I glanced up to see the smiling face of Dr. Waters.

“I guess not.” I shrugged, returning her smile with a small one of my own. “Too much on my mind, I guess.”

She slid into the empty seat across from me, a cup of the town’s infamous bitter coffee between her hands. “You want to talk about it?”

“No, not really.” I admitted, shaking my head. “I’m not much of a ‘talking’ sorta person. More of ‘keep it bottled up until I explode’ type of person.” I offered her another small smile.

She let out a laugh. “Ah, one of those. Sounds like how my husband was.” I tried to hide my surprise at the mention of her husband. All this time in Woodbury, and she had never mentioned him once to me. I could tell by the slight tinge of sadness in her voice, though, and the wistful look in her eyes that she had lost him a while ago. I had lost all my family in the epidemic, but I still couldn’t imagine the kind of pain caused by losing a husband, someone meant to be your other half. “Anyways, the Governor’s putting on another fight tonight.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Again? That’s the third time this week.” I tried, but couldn’t keep the anger from my voice. He was lucky no one had died yet, although at least one person came pretty damn close every time.

Dr. Waters nodded slowly. “Again. The people like it, I guess.” She answered. “However, I know how much you hate it so I’m alright covering the clinic by myself this time. We don’t need two people for this. Usually nothing more serious than a couple of stitches anyways.”