Sweet and Salty ~ Carl Grimes

Strangers With Memories - 072

After the barn was nearly infiltrated with walkers in the night, Brooks didn't sleep. Most of the group were able to wander away after the attack because the walkers were blown away in the wind, but not Brooks. She stayed awake, she kept pacing in front of the door and peering through the gap. Her family kept trying to get her sleep, but she wouldn't, she couldn't. She couldn't leave her post, despite her eyes begging her for sleep.

However, the deadly storm wasn't the only reason she couldn't sleep. Sebastian. The boy and his father haunted her every other thought. Does she tell Abraham? Does she tell him that his son suffered with depression for a year before he... Before he didn't suffer with it anymore? Does she tell him all the pain and the agony the boy suffered? From losing his family, to his house, to watching Nick get shot dead in front of him, to finding out of his mother figure's demise? What if another member of the group saw the photo and told him? Then he'd only resent Brooks for not telling him when she had the chance.

Even once the sun started to rise, light flickering through the wooden gaps in the wood, Brooks didn't rest. Simply, she pushed open the doors to peer outside, and what a damage the storm had done! Trees were toppled over, there was a random car on its back - a car that had been nowhere in the area that they were aware of, which meant that the storm carried it. The entire area was destroyed... Yet, the barn stayed there, untouched. The flimsy structure barely experienced a leak while everything around was torn to shreds.

The work of our Lord. Brooks was preparing herself for Gabriel to say as soon as he saw it.

"Didn't sleep?" Merle's voice took her back to barn, as she looked to him. Her head simply shook, and he continued. "Most the group's wakin' up now. I'm gonna head out, hope this storm injured a deer or summin, make a quick and easy hunt."

Brooks' eyebrows raised slightly. "That's usually Daryl's gig."

Merle wet his lips, before speaking. "Yea, well, I could use the air. It's always nice after a storm. Good way to clear my head, too... You look like you have somethin' on your mind, Bambi." Merle said tentatively, worried that he'd spook her from the conversation he was desperate to have with her. Merle never cared what it was, he just wanted his girl to talk to him, look at him. Brooks didn't even realise each day of her existence was breaking the man's heart.

She nodded. "I do." The words left her lips before she could even think, and a tense silence settled between them. "Can I..." Her throat cleared, before she continued. "Can I join yo-"

"Yes." Merle responded, before the words even finished leaving her lips. He cleared his own throat, embarrassed at his obvious desperate response. "Yea, honey, you can."

Brooks nodded. "Cool... I'll just go tell Rick."

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

The two left the barn and headed into the forest in an awkward silence. They hadn't been properly alone in... Years. Brooks thought about it, and realised it had been four years since it'd just been the two of them. They were back to where they were at the start of the apocalypse, strangers. But, this time they were strangers with memories. Merle wanted the silence to end, because he wanted to take this opportunity to actually speak with his daughter. "You cold like that?" He asked, noticing she was still wearing her same attire from the scorching afternoon before.

Brooks grinned at him, but shook her head. "Too humid."

Merle hummed. "That it is." The silence settled, but Merle knew how to get Brooks to break it. "Why does it get so humid after a storm?"

"The rain evaporates and transfers its moisture content to the surrounding air." A grin tugged at her lips. "Actually, it's really interesting, you see-" and that was it, Brooks was talking his ear off for twenty minutes about humidity, and its importance. She didn't even realise that Merle hadn't spoken a word, just hummed a nodded. Merle took in every word the girl said, but not for the factual information... Just for her voice. The old man had to sniff away his nostalgic tears, because for the first time in four years, his daughter was really talking to him. Well, it was more at him, just excited to share her facts, but it was to him. Too a man she once said: "I could die happy if I never had to see your ugly mug again."