MAISIE COOPER WAS hiding in a tree, currently running from four men. She only had her friend, Michonne, with her. The night at the farm is a memory Maisie will never forget, she remembers every action, reaction, and word. Michonne found Maisie and Andrea in the woods and helped them for months. They ended up getting accepted into a community, but Maisie thought something felt off. Michonne felt the same, so they ended up leaving. Andrea didn't go with them (which didn't surprise Maisie), but she felt a little heartbroken. Maisie and Andrea had been getting closer, then she threw it all away just to keep herself safe.

The tree bark was scratching Maisie's back as she tried to slide down so the men couldn't see her. She had scars on her back from before the apocalypse started so it was only hurting her more. Michonne was on the tree to the left of Maisie because they had a plan. The men kept screaming for the women, they also had guns. Maisie had an axe and Michonne had a sword. She hoped Michonne's plan worked, she couldn't die yet. She didn't want to die yet.

"You gonna leap out of the woods, two against four, all of us armed to the teeth and you with just a little pig-sticker?" A man named Merle was one of the men chasing the two down. Maisie hated him. As soon as she got there he tried acting flirty with her but she shrugged him off. "No, no, no, Michonne."

Maisie looked over to Michonne who nodded her head and the two women jumped down from the tree in unison. Maisie jumped onto a man's back and smashed her axe into his head. Blood splattered onto her face as she pulled the axe out and ran away with Michonne. Gunshots were ringing in her ears as Merle shot at them, missing every shot. But then, a groan escaped Michonne's lips when he grazed her leg. Maisie grabbed Michonne's arm and wrapped it around her shoulder as the two ran in sync, no thoughts entering Maisie's mind.

Her legs were hurting but she wasn't worried about herself, she was worried about Michonne. They needed to rest because they had been running for hours without a break. Maisie stopped running causing Michonne to furrow her eyebrows. Maisie took Michonne's arm from around her shoulder and sat her down on a rock.

"What are we doing?" Michonne asks, eyes wide in disbelief as Maisie takes off her t-shirt and rips it apart.

"Stay here, alright?" Maisie says, wrapping the ripped part of her t-shirt onto Michonne's leg. (she has a muscle shirt on btw)

Michonne didn't get to say anything because Maisie was already running towards Merle and the other kid. She was wondering why they sent out a teenager to fight against two adults, she hated that. She hated the fact that the man in charge didn't care for his people at all.

Maisie hid behind a tree and waited for the right moment to come up behind Merle. She didn't want to kill the boy, he seemed to be afraid. She noticed how he stood behind everyone with a look of fear in his eyes. He watched two of his men go down and was still forced to fight by Merle's side. That's what Maisie saw, anyway.

Maisie ran up behind Merle and as she was about to slice him open, the boy pushed Merle out of the way which caused Maisie to cut his stomach. It wasn't a huge cut, just a small one. Maisie kicked the boy in the stomach before turning to Merle and blocking the knife he was about to stab her with. The axe and the knife were scraping together which made an unpleasant noise that Maisie despised. Merle somehow managed to throw the axe out of Maisie's hand and then throw her onto the ground, right on her back. Merle inched closer to Maisie so she kicked his private which made him lean down in pain and she took that as an opportunity to kick his face.

Maisie heard the walker growls so she started to crawl towards the axe that was further away than she had expected. She couldn't breathe, she was coughing for air because when Merle threw her to the ground, she felt as if the air was sucked out of her body. While Merle was fighting off the walkers, he threw one towards Maisie. Maisie was unaware of the walker that was reaching out for her, that was until she heard a slice and felt blood and guts fall onto her back. Maisie turned around in confusion which also caused the guts and blood to get into her front side. Maisie scrunched up her face in disgust before grabbing her axe and taking the hand of Michonne who was also covered in guts and blood.

The two began to run away again and Maisie was able to breathe again. They came across some walkers so Maisie tightened her grip on the axe in her hands and Michonne started to take out her sword. But Maisie's face turned into one of confusion when the walkers walked straight past them. The two looked at each other before walking away without any second thoughts.

Michonne continued to lean on Maisie due to her leg. She was limping a lot and Maisie couldn't have that. She wasn't supposed to be walking with a graze on her leg in the first place. Maisie found a place where they could rest. No walkers were around but they heard a truck approaching. Maisie quickly pulled Michonne beside a car and the two looked through the window and watched as a red car with a white stripe pulled up to the front.

Maisie pulled Michonne down when two people got out of the car. She didn't know if they were safe, she didn't know if they were from the community they just escaped.

"Clear outside." Maisie's heart dropped at the voice. She immediately stood up and looked at the two people who had arrived. Her eyes widened in disbelief, her heart was beating quicker than ever. Glenn and Maggie were right in front of her, shopping like the world was still alive.

She froze in her spot and ignored the confused look Michonne was giving her. Maisie watched as they talked about getting a duck for a kid growing up in a prison. She didn't know if they were talking about Carl and Sophia, they should've been 13 by now. They kept bringing up a prison which was confusing Maisie. Have they already found a place to live? Maisie, Michonne, and Andrea came across the prison, it was overrun. She wasn't really surprised her group cleared it out.

"Those are my people." Maisie softly whispers to Michonne. Michonne looked over at Maisie who was smiling, waiting for her to react. A small smile appeared on Michonne's lips and Maisie nodded to herself in happiness.

Just as Maisie was about to leave from behind the car, Michonne grabbed Maisie and pointed to Merle. He was walking over to them with a gun in his hands, blood covering his face. He was alone, the boy was nowhere to be seen. Maisie cussed to herself, Merle should've been leaving by now.

"And where is it y'all good people are calling home?" Merle questions, gun pointed right at Glenn's head.

*

Maisie saw Merle basically kidnap Maggie and Glenn, she couldn't just sit back and let it happen. She told Michonne to find the prison and warn their people, Michonne did what was told. Maisie went back to the community she just escaped and when she was sneaking in, she got caught. She was put into an unknown room, it was empty, and nothing but a metal chair and table in front of her. She was tied down, knots were too tight for her to untie herself and they were too thick for her to cut off with Daryl's pocket knife. She was surprised Daryl didn't want it back, he just let her have it without any words. The day she took it from him was the day they met. She thought about him every day.

She had been screaming for them to let her out for hours. She heard a bunch of gunfire and it made her worried. The ties on her wrists were rubbing against her skin and it was hurting. She hated how stupid she was at times. How she cared about everyone but herself. She always seemed to put people before herself. She heard Glenn grunting in the next room while Merle beat him up. She hated hearing how much Merle was hurting him.

"Let me outta here!" She screamed, wiggling around in the chair and attempting to get out. She knew that wasn't going to work, it was just wasting her energy.

Suddenly, the door opened and it revealed a man with dirty blond hair. He had a small ponytail in the back with some of his hair behind his ears. Maisie has seen him around with Merle, she thinks they're brothers. The man left the door open and started walking over to her.

"Gotta hand it ta ya." He says, going behind her and untying the knots, "You're pretty good with handlin' things." Once he finished untying Maisie, he grabbed her by her arm and picked her up. Once Maisie was up, he tied her hands together but this time it was in front of her.

"What the hell are you doin'?" Maisie asks, watching as he pulls out a potato bag from his pocket and puts it over her head. Maisie could only see some things, but other than that it was dark.

"Don' worry 'bout it."

He starts pulling Maisie out of the room, telling her where to walk and just making small talk so it isn't awkward. Maisie didn't reply to him, but he seemed like he was a respectful man just following orders to survive. Maisie didn't even realize it was dark outside, she didn't realize how long she'd been locked up in that room, how long she had been screaming for.

They suddenly came to a stop. Maisie heard a bunch of yelling and cheering, she heard the governor speaking loudly. She wanted to kill him for letting his people hurt her family.

"-It was you. You lied, betrayed us all. This is one of the terrorists. Merle's own brother." Maisie figured out that Merle was Daryl's brother because Glenn had said it when he and Maggie were talking with Merle.

Maisie felt the man holding her by her arm tense. If he was Merle's brother, that meant he was Daryl's brother. It was easy for Maisie to piece things together like that.

"Bring 'er out!" Maisie heard the governor shout. That's when the man holding her started forcing her to walk. A couple of steps later, they stopped. Maisie felt multiple eyes on which made her nervous. Her hands started to shake and she started to fidget with her fingers. The potato bag was then ripped off of Maisie's head, "She killed our people! What should we do with her?!"

Maisie started the breathe heavily when everyone started saying to kill her. Her hands were noticeably shaking while she looked around. That's when she saw him. Maisie made eye contact with Daryl. His eyes were slightly watering and he looked sweaty. He was staring deeply into Maisie's eyes, regret filling them up. He had blood covering his cheek as he looked around at everyone in disbelief.

She watched as the governor pulled out a knife and put it to Maisie's throat. She tensed, but she didn't move. Daryl took a step forward but then he stopped himself and continued to move around in his place. Andrea emerged from the crowd and tried to lunge at the governor, but a man grabbed her and another one pointed his gun at her.

"I asked you where your loyalties lie." The governor points to Merle, "You said here. Well, prove it. Prove it to us all. Brother against brother. Winner goes free. Fight to the death." The crowd began cheering and that's when the governor cut off Maisie's ties and picked up her hand, "Now with her, I'm gonna let y'all choose which finger I get to cut off."

The crowd only cheered louder. Maisie glared up at the man, she hated his guts. The governor placed the knife against Maisie's thumb-no one said a word. He moved it to her pointer finger. Silence. Her middle finger, still nothing. But when he put it on her ring finger, everyone started screaming and cheering.

"Then it's settled. Once they've finished, you'll be short one finger." The governor announces, looking at Merle and Daryl and removing the knife from Maisie's finger.

The crowd was cheering for Merle, shouting his name. Daryl looked scared. That was the first time Maisie had seen Daryl even have a bit of fear in his eyes. She wanted to go over there and hug him, but she couldn't.

"Y'all know me." Merle raised his hand in the air, "I'm gonna do whatever I gotta do to prove..." Right in the stomach. Merle punched Daryl right in the stomach. Maisie lunged forward but the governor grabbed her and pulled her against him, "that my loyalty is to this town!"

"Stop it!" Maisie screams over the loud crowd, watching as Merle punches Daryl who is on the ground. She was trying to get over to them, but the governor would let her go.

Suddenly, walker growls were heard. Maisie looked over and saw a group of people bringing walkers over to them. Daryl was on the ground and he finally was able to punch Merle in the face. They were whispering stuff to each other, and Maisie watched closely. She watched as the two of them got up and went back to back. The governor positioned Maisie's hands so they were behind his arms and that's when Maisie's fingers grazed his knife. She was waiting for the perfect moment to grab it and stab him.

A gunshot went off so that's when Maisie took it as a sign. Other than the loud screaming and all of the gunshots, Maisie grabbed the governor's gun and stabbed him in the side. The governor pushed Maisie to the floor but she immediately started crawling over to him. She raised the knife to try and stab him, but another gunshot went off and she felt blood running down her arm. She looked over to see a graze in her arm. She noticed a fog surrounding everyone then she felt a familiar hand interlock hands with her. She looked up and it was Daryl pulling her towards the gate. Maisie found it weird that as they were holding hands, Daryl had them hidden behind his back as if he showed everyone they were holding hands, everyone would treat them differently.

The group ran out of the town, and the sun was coming up. Maisie took her hand out of Daryl's and walked over to Maggie before quickly embracing her in a tight hug. Maggie sobbed into her shoulder before letting her go so she could hug Rick. When Maisie finished hugging Rick, she went to hug Daryl but he pushed her off of him in a harsh way. Maisie scrunched up her face in confusion before pushing him back, the same way he did her. She noticed how he kept glancing at Merle and their other brother. Maisie still couldn't figure out his name.

"Fucking asshole." Maisie scoffed and rolled her eyes, walking back over to Maggie to give her another hug and walk beside her.

They continued to walk back to the car, going through the quiet forest to find it. Rick started calling out for Glenn which he happily responded. Glenn made eye contact with Maisie and the two quickly started walking towards each other. Maisie gave Glenn a quick hug before moving on to Michonne.

"Now we got a problem here. I need you to back up." Rick says, putting his hands in front of Glenn, Michonne, and Maisie. Maisie quickly stopped hugging Michonne before pulling out the pocket knife that belonged to Daryl and walking over to Merle.

"What the hell is he doing here?" Glenn shouts, anger in his tone before he pulls out his gun and points it at Merle.

"Hey, hey, hey! Put it down!" Rick yelled, running over to Michonne who had taken out her sword and pointed it at Merle.

"He tried to kill me!" Michonne says from beside Maisie, not putting her sword down no matter what anyone says.

"Drop it," Rick demands, glaring at Michonne as if he couldn't look away from her.

"If it wasn't for him-"

"He helped us get out of there." Daryl interrupted Glenn, standing in front of Merle while looking at the other brother who wasn't helping defend Merle.

"Yeah, right after he beat the shit out of you," Rick states aggressively, pointing his gun at Michonne. He wasn't going to point his gun at Maisie, he knew Maggie or Daryl would've flipped out.

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

"Jackass." Daryl mumbles, slightly turning to Merle before making eye contact with Maisie. She didn't know if she was mad at him yet. Daryl felt bad for shoving her, he wished he could've hugged her back but he didn't wanna seem like he turned soft while his brothers were gone. He missed Maisie, he thought about her every day. But his family was more important. Keeping the image he had with his brothers was also important.

"Hey, shut up," Merle looks at Daryl with a dirty look.

"Shut the hell up!" The other brother says which caused everyone to turn to him. Daryl and Merle listened. Maisie could tell he was the middle child. Merle looked the oldest and Daryl looked the youngest.

Everyone began shouting again which made Maisie roll her eyes, she just wanted to give Merle a lesson. Her arm was still bleeding from the graze which caused her to wince and softly place her hand onto the wound.

"Man, get that thing outta ma' face!" Maisie looked over to Daryl to see him talking to Glenn.

"Don't yell at him, asshole!" Maisie yells, walking over to Glenn and getting in front of him. Maisie and Daryl were basically glaring at each other, no one would've ever thought that would happen. Maggie and Glenn looked at them in slight shock, they were the ones to always want Maisie and Daryl together.

Maisie looked behind Daryl when she heard Merle laughing, "Man, looks like you've gone native, brother." He was leaning against the tree while the other brother began walking over to them.

"No more than you hangin' out with that psycho back there." Daryl points back to Woodbury, his glare hardening when he looks at Merle.

"Easy there, ladies. No need to raise your voices." The brother says, stepping in between Merle and Daryl. He seemed to be the more calmer and respectful one.

"Shut the hell up, Ethan. You were just spectatin' while we was out there fightin'. Ya didn't even try ta help us." Daryl looks Ethan up and down, his eyes softening a bit.

"My bad for wantin' ta live like you do." Ethan says sarcastically, putting his hands up in surrender, "I knew you'd pull through 'cause I saw you all slippin' in. You ain't as sly as ya think."

Everyone began to shout again when Michonne tried to lunge at Merle. Maisie understood where she was coming from, Merle almost killed both of them and he didn't even seem to care. Maisie knew a way to stop the argument. She didn't know if it was going to worsen the situation or stop it fully. But she didn't care, she needed to tell everyone this.

"Andrea's in Woodbury." Maisie plainly says, putting away Daryl's pocket knife and clipping it in her pocket. Ethan eyed the pocket knife, he knew it looked familiar but he wasn't sure if it was Daryl's or not.

"Andrea's in Woodbury?" Glenn snapped his head towards Maisie, repeating her words in a question.

"Yeah, me and Michonne were with her all winter. This jackass and his people found us, and offered us a place to crash." Maisie explains, looking at Rick the whole time, "But me and Michonne thought it felt off, so we tried to leave with Andrea. She chose to keep the governor's bed warm instead."

"Is that why she's with him?" Maggie asks, staring at Maisie with furrowed eyebrows. Maisie looked at Maggie with a soft look in her eyes before nodding her head.

"Snug as three little bugs." Merle steps into the conversation causing Maisie to roll her eyes and glare at him again, "So what ya gonna do now, Sheriff, huh? Surrounded by a bunch a' liars, thugs, and cowards."

"Shut up!" Rick finally looks away from Michonne and slightly turns his head to Merle. He hadn't looked away from Michonne the whole conversation and Maisie was not going to leave that alone. That reminded her of Lori, she was excited to see her. Maisie was excited to see everyone, especially Reaper.

"Oh, man, look at this. Pathetic." Merle continued, looking around at everyone with a smile on his face, "All these guns and no bullets in them."

"Merle, shut up!" Daryl pushes Ethan out of the way so he can see Merle.

"Shut up yourself!" Merle gets in Daryl's face but Ethan aggressively pushes him back which caused Merle to get into Ethan's face, "Bunch a' pussies you roll w-"

Maisie pushed her lips in a line and hid her smile behind her hand when Rick hit Merle with the back of his gun. Merle passed out on the ground while Rick looked at Daryl and Ethan to see if they cared and they didn't.

Maisie wrapped her arm around Maggie as they both walked back to the car with smiles on their faces. She was very excited to see Maggie again. Maggie, Daryl, and Reaper were the only people and dog on her mind. She missed them very much.

*

Maisie was waiting by the car with Michonne. She could've been beside the others while they talked, but she didn't want to be. Maisie was watching Merle and Ethan closely, they were in the woods across from her. She knew Ethan wasn't so bad, but Merle was. Merle tried to kill Maisie, he flirted with her. She didn't like him. Maisie has spoken to Ethan twice and he was respectful during both of those conversations. He seemed to know what he was doing, he could change the way he is if he wanted. He knew how to control his emotions more than Merle could.

Maisie looked over to the group and saw how they were all looking at Daryl like he was crazy. She wanted to know what they were saying, but she would find out soon. Maisie turned her head to Michonne and saw her leaning against the car, also staring at the group.

"I'm gonna make sure they let you stay." Maisie's voice snaps Michonne out of her thoughts as she turns to Maisie with a look of confusion, "If they make you leave, I'll go with you. I'm not gonna let you stay out here alone anymore."

"Thank you, Maisie." Michonne smiles softly before turning her head to all the shouting that the group was making. Maisie looked over and saw all of them chasing after Daryl, basically telling him what he was doing was crazy.

Rick tried talking to him, but Daryl just started walking away. He glanced at Maisie before opening the trunk and grabbing his stuff. Maisie stared at him in disbelief, he was leaving? She just got back. She didn't want him to leave.

"No them, no me. Tha's all I can say." Daryl says, not giving Rick another look as he zipped up his backpack, "Take care of yourself. Take care of lil ass-kicker. Carl. He's one tough kid." Maisie was becoming confused. Daryl didn't look at Rick, he looked at Maisie before he walked away.

Maisie followed after him, taking her hand out of Rick's when he tried to pull her back, "Hey. Hey." Maisie repeated herself and when Daryl didn't turn around, she turned him around. Daryl tried to avoid eye contact, but he couldn't, "You're really leaving? I just got back."

"I can't stick around. Ain't gonna abandon ma' brothers again. Just so ya know, I've been thinkin' 'bout ya every damn day an' missin' ya, but we can't do this." Daryl whispered, putting his rough hand on Maisie's neck, eyes flickering between both of her's before he looked behind her and separated himself from her. She watched as he walked away, he didn't give her one last look or anything. He just left with Merle who was happily smiling and Ethan who wasn't even looking at the group.

She just got back, and he already left her.

- i tried to make this as short and not boring as possible, but i dont think either of those worked