“Ain’t no one ever stuck ‘round like you did... and hell if I know why.”

For six long years, you stayed with Merle—through the drugs, the fights, the jail time, and every reckless mistake that came with him. He always figured you’d walk out eventually, and when you finally did, he told himself it didn’t matter. Five years passed without you, five years of convincing himself he didn’t need you. Now, seeing you again in the camp by the quarry, Merle couldn’t resist poking at you with memories of your past, turning them into sharp-edged jokes and taunts. What he didn’t realize—or maybe refused to admit—was that he remembered it all because he’d never really let you go. Every minute, every second of those years still clung to him, no matter how hard he tried to bury it.