We were running through the forest when dad suddenly picked me up. "Hi, daddy." I said in shock since I wasn't expecting it.

"What happened?" He asked.

"With the Governor? He called me Penny; said I was his daughter." I responded.

Dad looked confused. "He-... What?"

"He's a bit of a nut." I nodded.

"Why you wearing that?" Dad asked. I shrugged. "Princess, I need you tell me."

"He said it was a gift. When I didn't wanna wear it, he hit me... To be fair the me trying to strangle him with a plastic bag probably didn't help. I wasn't going to kill him, but he didn't know that." I replied.

"We'll circle back to that. What else happened?" Dad pushed.

"Damnit, Daryl, be straight up with the girl." Merle shook his head. "Did the Governor touch you?"

"He hit me, touched my cheek and grabbed my hair. Other than that, no. He left the room when I changed as well, cause I pissed him off." Dad sighed in relief. I realised what he was panicking about so I hugged him tightly.

"Are you alright, darling?" Dad whispered.

I sighed quietly, clinging onto him tighter. "I'll be fine."

"Glenn!" Rick called when we got closer to where we left the car.

"Rick! Rick! Rick!" Glenn repeated as he and Michonne entered the forest. "Oh, thank god."

"Now, we got a problem here. I need you to back up." Rick ordered.

Glenn raised his gun, Michonne raised her katana, dad put me on the floor so he could concentrate, and I was out of the line of fire, just in case. "He tried to kill me!" Michonne yelled. Glenn and Michonne had noticed Uncle Merle and they didn't seem happy.

"Woah, woah, woah." Rick tried as Maggie, dad and he stood in front of Glenn and Michonne.

"He helped us get out of there, drop it." Dad ordered Glenn.

"Oh yea, right after he beat the shit outta you." Rick added.

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

"Jackass." Dad shook his head. I was just standing to the side, watching the encounter.

"Hey, shut up." Merle ordered my dad who rolled his eyes.

"Enough!" Rick yelled at Merle. Michonne took this as an opportunity to go closer with her katana. "Hey, back up!"

"Man, get that thing out of my face!" Dad yelled at Glenn.

Merle laughed. "Man, looks like you've gone native, brother."

"No more than you, hanging out with that psycho back there." Dad angrily responded.

"Oh yea, man. He is a charmer, I got to tell you that." Merle said before turning to Michonne. "Been putting the wood to your girlfriend Andrea. Big time, baby." Merle made a weird tone and stuck his tongue out slightly.

"Your niece is right there." Rick pointed at me as I looked at my uncle confused.

"You ain't given her the talk yet?" Merle laughed at my dad.

"Shut up, man!" Dad yelled at him.

"You know Andrea?" Glenn changed the subject, looking at Michonne. "Andrea's in Woodbury?"

"Right next to the Governor." Dad responded.

"But she didn't like what was happening. She tried to help." I pointed out.

Michonne went for Merle with her katana again, but Rick got closer to her. "I told you to drop that!" Then he lowered his voice. "You know Andrea? Hey, do you know Andrea?"

Michonne didn't respond, so Merle did. "Yup she does. Her and blondie spent all winter cuddling up." Merle hummed. "My Nubian queen here had two pet walkers. No arms, cut off the jaws and kept them in chains. Kind of ironic now that I think about it." Merle chuckled.

"Shut up, bro!" Dad yelled at him.

"Oh, don't get your panties in a twist just because you're actually spending time with your coloured daughter now." Merle rolled his eyes.

"Do you want me on your side? If so, then you better shut your mouth!" Dad kept his voice raised. Dad looked angry before he turned back to Rick and the others, Merle was slightly behind the others. I looked over to his grinning face as he was already staring at me, and he winked at me. I furrowed my eyebrows before turning back to the others.

"Hey, man. We snagged them outta the woods. Andrea was close to dying." Merle continued.

"There's no way she's with him." Maggie denied.

"Yea. Snug as two little bugs. So, whatcha gonna do now, sheriff?" Merle questioned. "Surrounded by a bunch of liars, thugs and cowards."

"Shut up!" Rick ordered.

"Oh, man." Merle laughed. "Look at this, pathetic. All these guns with no bullets in."

"Shut up!" Dad shouted at Merle again.

"Shut up, yourself! Bunch of pussies you roll wi-" Merle was cut off when Rick hit him on the back of the head, so hard he fell to the ground unconsious. 

I nodded. "Kinda deserved that, can't lie."

"It won't work." Rick stated.

"It's gotta." Dad nodded. Me, dad, Rick, Maggie and Glenn were all standing together. Michonne was leaning against the car and Merle was knocked out in the woods. We were about a hundred yards away from the car, Rick wanted to make sure Michonne couldn't hear what was being said.

"It'll stir things up." Rick shook his head.

"Look, the Governor's probably on his way to the prison right now. Merle knows how he thinks, and we could use the muscle." Dad argued.

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

"You really want him sleeping in the same cell block as Ellie, Sophia, Beth, Carol-" Dad cut Glenn off when he realised what he was suggesting.

"He ain't a rapist." Dad shook his head, defending his brother.

"Well, his buddy is." Glenn said casually. Maggie looked at Glenn horrified. I stared at her, she shook her head. If that didn't happen, I wondered what did, but it wasn't my business, so I looked back to my dad.

"They ain't buddies no more. Not after last night." Dad responded.

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

"So, you're gonna cut Merle lose and bring the last Samari home with us?" Dad questioned.

"She's not coming back." Rick denied.

"She's too sick to be on her own. She's hurt." I stated.

"She did bring you guys to us." Glenn reminded him.

"And then ditched us." Rick added.

"At least let my dad stich her up." Maggie asked.

"She's too unpredictable." Rick shook his head.

"She'd clearly been through a lot at Woodbury. She had stuff she had to take care of. It's not her fault, please don't send her out there alone." I tried. Rick sighed as he stared at me with a sad look on his face.

"We don't know who she is. But Merle? Merle's blood." Dad pointed out.

"No. Merle is your blood, my blood, my family is standing right here." Glenn pitched in. "And waiting for us back in the prison."

"And you're part of that family. But he's not... He's not." Rick shook his head.

"Man, y'all don't know. Fine, we'll fend for ourselves." Dad shrugged.

"That's not what I was saying." Glenn stated.

"No him, no me." Dad denied.

"What?" I breathed out.

"Daryl, you don't have to do that." Maggie pointed out.

"It was always Merle and I before this." Dad informed us.

"Don't." Maggie shook her head.

"You serious?" Glenn raised his eyebrows. "You just gonna leave like that?"

"You'd do the same thing." Dad defended.

"Daddy, I need time to say goodbye to everyone. I can't just leave." I pointed out. Dad sighed and squatted down in front of me, taking my hands. I knew that look in his eye. "No. You're not- you're..."

"You can't come with me, baby." Dad said sadly.

"But... No. You're just gonna leave me?" I asked. "Leave Sophia? After what you said?"

"I owe your Uncle Merle. Owe him everything. I can't leave him." Dad shook his head.

I snatched my hands back. "But you can leave me?" I scoffed and shook my head. "I don't even know why I'm surprised at this point. It's what you do, isn't it? You leave. Mum was right about you." I said, fighting off the angry tears in my eyes. 

Dad stared at me sadly. "I love you-"

"Yea, sure you do." I interrupted. "Go on then, if you're gonna go just do it. I'll see you on my birthday... Then again, I probably won't. You've spent enough time with me over the last nine months to count as a hundred birthdays and Christmas'. That's enough for you, right? That's your parenting shit done." My voice cracked.

"Honey, it's not like that." Dad tried.

"Sure, it ain't." I said sarcastically.

"Ellie-" Dad started again.

"There's no need for the speech. I've heard it before. I know the routine. Go on then. I hope you don't get eaten by a walker. It was nice knowing you." I shrugged. He stayed still. "You're just dragging this out. We both know you're gonna walk away so just do it."

Dad looked at me a little longer before standing up and walking past me to go to the car. "Daryl!" Rick called after him before following my dad. 

Tears started to stream down my face and a sob escaped my lips. Maggie squatted down next to me and pulled me into her. I hugged her tightly as I cried. I felt Glenn gently put his hand on the back of my head. "I'm sorry, Ellie." Glenn said softly.

I pulled back and wiped my face, I plastered a smile on my face, but I was still shaking. "I don't know why I'm crying. It's what he does, it's his thing. Old dogs never change, right? We better get going, I miss Teddy." I said, before turning to walk back to the car. I saw dad walk off in the woods with Merle. I tour my eyes away from him, continuing to wipe my face and try to sniff away my pain.