It feels like magic, having both my momma and my daddy here with me, one of them on each side of me. I never ever thought this would happen again. I hoped it, of course, but I didn't truly think it would happen. 

But it's real. I'm here one hand in my mom's hand and the other in my dad's hand. I keep swinging our arms all together because I'm so happy, but Dad tells me to cut it out 'cause he's old and sore. 

We've been walking for a really, really long time. The sun has come up, though, which is good because when it was all dark out, I was getting real chilly in my pajamas. I'm glad we got out of there when we did, though, or else I probably would have had to meet the Governor like Momma said. 

"How much longer we got?" I ask, looking over at Dad. 

"I don't know, June," Dad tells me. He's really exhausted. I can hear it in his voice. 

"We're almost to the car," Rick assures me with a small smile and a nod. When he turns away from me, his smile drops, though, and that's how I know it wasn't real. Rick's been doing a lot of fake smiling lately. I know why and I don't blame him. I would be faking it all, too. 

We walk through the woods, and I keep crunching pinecones with my feet, since it's the type of forest that's got the really tall trees that drop orange needly things and big pinecones that are good for crunching. 

"Glenn!" Rick whisper-shouts out of the blue, making me squeeze my parents' hands a little tighter for a second. Gosh, couldn't he have warned us first or something?

"Rick," I hear Glenn's voice say. I'm so glad he and Maggie are okay. When Momma told me that Merle was lying, I really was worried, but Glenn and Maggie are alive so it's okay now. Glenn's got blood and bruises all over his face, though, not that I'm seeing him as he comes running up toward us. "Rick. Oh, thank God. You have June."

Before I can thank Glenn for worrying about me, Rick's already gone all panic and stress mode, for some reason. He holds his arm out in front of himself and keeps his other hand on his gun. Glenn's with this lady I've never seen before, which is odd, and it's also odd that Rick seems to be worried about her in particular, because if he's worried about her, then why would he leave Glenn with her? I feel very out of the loop, which totally stinks. 

"Now, we got a problem here. I need you to back up," Rick tells the new lady as we all get closer. 

And turns out it isn't only the new lady who Rick's worried about. Glenn is the first to get all angry. He whips out his gun and points it right at my Uncle Merle. "What the hell is he doing here?!" he shouts. 

The new lady takes out a freaking sword, which is totally awesome even though she apparently wants to kill my uncle, too. Boy, he makes a lot of enemies. 

"Hey, hey, hey, hey!" Rick yells over and over "Put it down!"

"Woah, woah, woah!" Merle huffs, holding his arms up in surrender. 

Dad lets go of my hand and moves in front of Merle. "Put it down!" he yells just like Rick. 

"He tried to kill me!" the new lady shouts. 

"Merle! Why're ya always tryin' to kill people?!" I ask as I turn to him, putting my hands on my hips like how my momma does when she's real annoyed about something. Merle rolls his eyes at me and Momma tugs me back to her side, shaking her head.

"Stop it!" Rick's still shouting at Glenn. Maggie's sided with him now, sort of, 'cause she's by Glenn's side but she's always pointing her gun at the new lady. It's all real confusing when everyone's yelling stuff all at the same time. 

"If it wasn't for him, Maggie wouldn't-"

"He helped us get out of there!" Dad interjects. 

"Yeah, right after he beat the shit outta you," Rick spits, which really doesn't make much sense because I thought he was on Team Don't Kill Merle. 

"Hey, we both took our licks, man," Merle argues, holding a hand out and shrugging. 

"Jackass," Dad mutters. 

"Hey, shut up."

"Enough!" Rick yells right in Merle's face. Then the sword lady steps closer to him and he has to yell at her again. "Put that down now!"

And then everyone's shouting over each other again and I can't really make out what each and every one of them are saying all at once. All I know is that Merle's all backed up against a tree, shrugging like he doesn't even know what he's done wrong, and every person he ain't related to wants him to drop dead on the ground right now. Except some of them know that probably shouldn't happen right now and the others really want it to happen right now. 

"Get that thing outta my face!" Dad practically screams at Glenn, knocking his gun away. 

Merle lets out a loud chuckle from behind him. "Man, looks like you've gone native, brother."

"No more than you hanging out with that psycho back there!" Dad argues, turning back to Merle and swinging his arm around like he always does when he's super angry. 

"Oh, yeah, man. He is a charmer. I gotta tell you that," Merle says. He turns to the lady with the sword and wiggles his eyebrows. "Been puttin' the wood to your girlfriend Andrea. Big time, baby." He starts making weird noises and sticking his tongue out like a weirdo. 

"Merle, please," Momma huffs, rolling her eyes and hitting his shoulder real hard. I don't even know what he's trying to say. He's so weird. 

"What?" Glenn asks. His voice is all scratchy and I sort of hate looking at him because he's got all this purple around his eye and it makes me feel sick. "Andrea's in Woodbury?"

Oh. The same Andrea? The Andrea who was at the camp with us and shot me in the head?

"Yeah, and she can stay there, for all I care," Dad huffs out in response. 

"It was an accident, Dad. Stop bein' all mean," I say, furrowing my eyebrows at him. 

"What? What was an accident?" Momma asks with a concerned look on her face. 

"Doesn't matter," I try to tell her. 

But Daddy ain't having that. "She shot her. And if she wants to be all cozy with the Governor, then who the hell cares? Fuck her."

"She shot her?!"

"No! She grazed me!"

"Yeah, right in the head," Dad scoffs. He grabs me, and even though I try to shove him away, he tucks my hair back behind my ear, revealing the ugly scar across the side of my head. Mom's eyes widen and her face gets red, and I don't like seeing that, so I turn and press my face into Dad's side. "I'm not  goin' back for her."

"No one's sayin' we should," Rick says with that serious voice he sometimes has. 

Suddenly, the sword lady takes another try at getting at Merle, but Rick is quick to stop her. "I told you to drop that!" he yells. Merle's smirking behind him, all annoying and everything. "You know Andrea?" Rick asks the lady. She doesn't say anything. She just glares at him. "Hey, do you know Andrea?"

"Yep, she does," Merle answers all smug. He's really good at getting on people's nerves. "Her and blondie spent all winter cuddlin' up in the forest. Mmm-mmm-mmm. Yeah. My Nubian queen here had two pet walkers. No arms, cut off the jaws, kept them in chains. Kinda ironic now that I think about it."

"Shut up, bro!" Dad shouts for what feels like the millionth time. Wish my uncle wasn't so annoying and racist and offensive. He's so stupid sometimes. All the time, actually. 

"Hey, man, we snagged them outta the woods. Andrea was close to dyin'."

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

"Yeah. Snug as two little bugs," Merle says. He sounds like he's trying to be annoying, which is stupid because if he keeps on being all super-duper annoying, everyone's gonna wanna leave him to the walkers. Again. "So what you gonna do now, Sheriff? Huh? Surrounded by a bunch a' liars, thugs, and cowards."

"Shut up," Rick huffs out at him. 

"Oh, man, look at this. Pathetic!"

"Merle," I groan, rolling my eyes and tilting my head backwards. 

Merle doesn't care about nobody but himself, though, so he keeps on going. "All these guns and no bullets in 'em-"

"Merle, shut up!" Dad shouts. 

"Shut up yourself! Bunch a' pussies you roll-!"

Next thing I know, Merle is laying unconscious on the forest floor because Rick knocked him in the back of the head with the base of his gun. And even though Merle's my uncle and all, I am glad that he's knocked out. It's like he's trying to make everyone hate him sometimes. 

Maybe he just thinks that everyone will hate him, anyway, so if he makes everyone hate him by hurting their feelings, then he knows why they hate him instead of thinking everyone just hates him for being him. Or maybe I'm too sympethetic and I just wanna think that everyone has a good reason for being how they are, even though that ain't always true. 

"Asshole," Rick mutters quietly at Merle's unconscious body.

Momma huffs out a sigh, wraps her arm around my shoulder, and starts marching me to the road. I can hear everyone else following along behind us, since their footsteps are all lazy and swishing the needly things around. 

Rick makes the sword lady, who I learn is actually named Michonne, stay and wait by the car while the rest of us go off about twenty feet away to keep arguing about what we're gonna do. I just wanna go back to the prison, even though all I wanted to do before was the get out of it. Now I'm missing my uncomfortable bed in my dingy cell. But I'm missing the others the most. Especially Carl. I'm worried about Carl. 

"It won't work," is the first thing Rick says. 

He doesn't specifically say what he's talking about, but I think we all know. He's talking about Merle coming back to the prison with us. No one is gonna want him there, but we can't just leave him. He's my uncle. Me and him and Dad all have Dixon blood running through our veins. 

So, "It's gotta," Dad says. 

"It'll stir things up," Rick insists.

"Look, the Governor is probably on the way to the prison right now. Merle knows how he thinks and we could use the muscle," Dad explains. He's mad at Merle, too, but Merle is his brother. It's real hard when you feel like you hate someone you love. 

Maggie looks like she wants to scoff, but she shakes her head instead. "I'm not having him at the prison."

"Do you really want him sleeping in the same cell block as Carol or Beth? Or your daughter?" Glenn asks. 

"He ain't a- man, he ain't like that," Dad scoffs, a look of disgust on his face. 

"Well, his buddy is," Glenn spits. Maggie stares at him with this sad, frustrated look in her eyes, but he doesn't seem to notice. 

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

"There's no way Merle's gonna live there without putting everyone at each other's throats," Rick says, shaking his head. He's acting like he wishes Merle could stay, too, but I know he doesn't. He really hates Merle just like everyone else. 

Dad, however, is stuck in his ways. Even if he's mad at Merle, that's his brother and he ain't leaving him behind. "So you're gonna cut Merle loose and bring the last samurai home with us?" he asks in that voice people use when they want to roll their eyes, but don't.

"She's not coming back," Rick tells him. 

"She's not in a state to be on her own," Maggie points out. 

"She did bring you guys to us," Glenn reminds us all. 

"And then ditched us," Rick says. 

"At least let my dad stitch her up."

All this adult arguing is getting really boring, and I'm super tired of hearing about it, so I decide to go over to the grass and sit down. I watch them from far away, so if they come to a conclusion, I'll know, but I won't have to listen to all their arguing. It's real obnoxious. Anyway, I pick at blades of grass and try to tie 'em together to pass the time. 

Out of the corner of my eye, I can see Michonne- that sword lady- leaning against the green car everyone must have taken to get here. She looks real tough and I kinda like her, even if I barely even know her. She just seems like someone who is tough and strong, but kind on the inside at the same time, kinda like my momma. I don't know for sure, though. They've known her longer, so if they think it ain't safe to have her around, I'll just have to trust them. 

When I hear some crunching ground a ways back behind me, I twist my body to see Merle waking up. He drags himself to his feet, rubbing the back of his head where Rick hit him with the gun. Part of me feels bad for him, being so hated, but I also hate him, sort of. It's very hard feeling bad for someone you really want to hate. 

Then, I hear Glenn shouting my daddy's name. I twist back around to look at them all again, and I see Dad walking off all annoyed with Rick and Momma following behind him. Rick says something, Dad says something back, and then they start walking again.

"Get up, June. We're goin'," Daddy says as he passes me. 

What the heck does that mean? We're going back to the prison maybe?

I get up off the ground and start following behind Dad, Momma, and Rick. And now that I'm walking with them, I can hear them talking again, which sort of stinks because they're still arguing about all this. 

"We started something last night. You realize that, huh?" Rick asks very quietly, like he doesn't want everyone to hear what he's saying. 

Dad goes to the trunk of the car and opens it up. "No him, no me. That's all I can say."

"What's that mean?" I ask, looking up at Dad. 

For a second, Dad looks at me, and then he looks away. That's what he does when he's feeling guilty. That doesn't make me feel good. What's he got to feel guilty about? What's going on? I look up at Momma, now, instead. She looks sad. 

"Daryl, is this really the best choice?" Momma asks. She sounds sad, but also annoyed. 

"What d'you want me to do, Birdie? Leave my brother alone to die in the woods?" Dad spits as he stuffs some things into a backpack he's got in the trunk. 

"What's goin' on?" I ask.

"We're leavin'."

"Leavin' where?"

Before Dad gets the chance to answer my second question, Rick interrupts with his own question. "You really think this is what's best for her right now?" he asks in a quiet, but serious voice as he gestured to me. "We just got her food, water, a place to sleep, and you wanna take her back out to live on the road again?"

"What?" I ask again.

"She's sick, Daryl."

My face burns and I can see Mom's eyebrows furrowing with confusion. I bet Dad thinks I told her about it, but I didn't because I don't even know how to explain it, and I don't want her to know, either. I don't want her to worry about me like everyone else does. 

"We'll figure it out," Dad grumbles. He closes up the backpack. "Take care a' yourself. Take care a' lil' ass-kicker. Carl. He's one tough kid." He swings the backpack over his shoulders and puts a hand on my back, gently pushing me to get walking towards the woods. "C'mon, angel," he says quietly, leading me towards where Merle's waiting. 

"Dad, we're not leavin' them," I say, furrowing my eyebrows.

"Ain't got no other choice," Dad tells me. 

"What about everyone else?" I ask, my voice getting more whiny than I want it to. I want it to sound angry and tough so that he'll listen to me, but the lump in my throats makes that hard. I shove his arm away from me so that he'll stop trying to get me to keep walking. "We can't just leave everyone, Daddy. Just 'cause your stupid brother showed up and they all hate him, we're gonna leave the people we been with all winter? That's not fair!"

"He's my brother and your uncle. He's blood. We're goin' with him whether ya like it or not, Juniper, so quit your whinin' and start walkin'," Dad says very sternly. 

"You can't make me!" I shout at him. 

"You wanna stay with them, or come with me, Merle, and your mom? Those are your two choices, June."

"Daryl," Momma says. 

Dad looks at her, and his angry look goes away. It's just sad and desperate, and it makes me feel bad for him even though I'm mad at him. Even though I don't wanna leave everyone for stupid Merle, I know my dad just wants his brother around. Just like I always want my mom and dad around 'cause they're family. 

"Birdie," Dad says in return. They look at each other's eyes with those same desperate looks. "I don't got a choice. He's my brother."

And Momma's just like me. She understands Dad even when she doesn't want to. She knows that Dad feels like he can't just leave his brother. Merle took care of him when Grandpa Will didn't, even if he wasn't so nice when doing it. He still took care of Dad, and now Dad feels like he's gotta return the favor, sorta. 

"He lays a hand on her, I'll shoot him," Mom whispers. 

"He won't," Dad replies. 

"She gets hurt, sick, needs that doctor that woman was talkin' 'bout, we're goin' back, with or without Merle."

"Yeah."

Momma turns to me and tucks my hair behind my ear. I stare at the ground with hot, angry tears slipping down my cheeks. "We have to go now, sweet girl," she says.

And so we go.