This is not a new story.  Far from it actually.  I think it's been 5 years since I posted the one and only chapter over at FF.net (FF.net--that alone should tell you something, lol).  

I posted it over there and not here because the prologue, as you'll soon see, is very Merle-heavy, and being new to the scene here at 9L at the time?  I wasn't so sure how well that would go over on a Caryl centric site such as this one.  Nevermind the fact that the story as a whole would eventually include a significant amount of Caryl, would actually morph into their story.  What can I say?  I was new.  And nervous as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs. 

I also planned to have a little bit of everybody in this fic, some side pairings and characters I hadn't as yet written too much of at that time.  I had lots of plans, period.  This fic was to be Shae's DARK FIC. 

Still might be if I can scrounge up the motivation to pick it back up.  I'm hoping posting it here will be the jumpstart I've desperately needed. We shall see.  If nothing else, it'll be nice to have all my Caryl fic in one place.    

Because I'm still deficient on categorizing my fics adequately here all these years later, I'll just give you lovelies a blanket warning here:  this fic is rated M--with the option to be changed to E--for adult language, sexual situations, angst, mentions of abuse, and more.  There'll be fluff interwoven in there but I don't feel the need to warn you about that.