You Be Good Out There
Michonne looked at the clock on the wall for what seemed like the hundredth time. Rick was 1 hour overdue back from a run. With lack of cell phones or land lines, she understood why he was such a stickler for giving a time to be back home, when that time passes, you go looking. She was already dressed to go find him; hearing the words he so often said, 'if you're not back, we'll come.' She grabbed her katana and backpack, and just as she was walking to the door, someone knocked. She opened the door and there stood Daryl with his crossbow and backpack.
"Let's go find him." Daryl said turning and walking to the car he had already pulled up to their house. "I saw him before he left, and he told me the area he would be in."
Michonne let out the breath she had been holding the minute after the time Rick said he would be back. She was grateful Daryl watched and paid close attention to his friends. She hadn't told him that Rick was overdue, but he knew. Daryl Dixon's personality was such an enigma. Clearly a diehard son of the south like his brother, but with a heart that contradicted his harshness.
Daryl noticed how silent Michonne was. She was never overly chatty anyway, but this was more than usual.
"We'll find him, don't worry." Daryl said waiting for the gate to be opened.
"I know." Michonne said under her breath. She was worried more about what they would find when they found him. "How far out did he go?" She adjusted nervously in the seat, not wanting to think about who they were out looking for.
"About 10 miles. It was a house we cased last week."
"Did he go alone?" Michonne asked suddenly, her nervousness threatening to overtake her.
Daryl looked at her having the same concern.
"I don't know."
They both looked forward and didn't comment further until they reached the house.
"The door is open." Michonne said getting out of the car and unsheathing her katana. They both approached the house with caution. Daryl took the lead followed closely by Michonne.
They stood at the opened door for a few moments listening for walkers. Daryl kicked at the opened door to draw out any walkers in the house. They did hear the faint sound of walkers, but they sounded far away. The house was a very old house made mostly of wood. Daryl motioned to Michonne to take the left, and he took the right side of the house. The floor boards creaked as they made their way toward the back of the house. About 8 feet from the door, Michonne saw and cautiously approached a gaping hole in the floor. She lay down flat on the floor and shined her flashlight into the inky darkness. She could see the walkers against one wall. They were partially buried under what used to be the floor.
"Rick!" She said as quiet as she could.
"Michonne?" Her relief was both joyous and terrifying.
"Are you hurt?"
"Yes." He said coughing.
Michonne's heart sank, but she refused to let her fears overwhelm her.
Daryl joined her on the floor, and looked around as Michonne moved her flashlight around until she located Rick. He held his arm up to block his eyes from the bright flashlight. She saw he had a cut on his head, but looked well enough. There was debris and several wooden beams covering him.
"He's hurt and there are at least three walkers down there against that far wall."
"I'll try the basement door." Daryl whispered to Michonne. "Hang in there man. We'll get you out as soon as we can." Daryl said getting up to locate the door.
"Rick, where are you hurt?" Michonne asked calmly.
"I'm not sure, but I'm pretty sure I have some broken ribs."
The next question was very difficult to formulate in her mind let alone ask.
"Rick, were you bit?" Her voice cracked, and he understood how she must feel.
"No." He said recalling the event of falling through the floor. "The floor gave way under me when I walked into the house."
She again had to remember to breathe, and scanned around the damage for any weak points in the basement structure.
"Sweetheart." He said hoarsely, speaking to her intimately so she would comprehend his concern. "Please don't come down here. I'm not sure how stable things are down here."
He sounded tired and weak.
"That's not the deal." She said already formulating a plan to get into the basement. "If it's necessary for me to come down there, I will."
He mentally shook his head knowing she would do what needed to be done no matter what, just like he would.
She heard Daryl at the basement door. He could only open it a crack. He shined a flashlight in and saw that his way was blocked with planks and beams that fell from the ceiling and floor above. The three walkers in the basement were blocked against the far wall by heavy metal shelves.
"I can't get to him from here." Daryl said.
Michonne shined her flashlight into the basement again to gauge exactly where Rick was compared to where she planned to drop down. Directly in front of her, were cross beams sticking out from underneath the broken floor. She lowered her katana into the basement and let it fall to the ground. Securing her pack across her shoulders, she slowly lowered herself down into the basement hanging from one of the cross beams. The basement ceiling wasn't very high, so she swung herself just enough to drop down on some boards that piled up from the broken floor. She was grateful that the pile she landed on was steady, and a good distance away from Rick. She squatted down and carefully climbed down from the pile of rubble. She quickly went to the three walkers and killed them with her knife. She retrieved her katana, and then went and removed the debris from the basement door enough to let Daryl in. She then quickly went over to Rick.
She looked at Rick and examined the wound on his head.
"Hi." Rick said managing a smile. "I really would like to see you do that again."
Michonne blandly looked him in the eyes and examined the wound on his forehead.
"I'd like to see that too, I missed most of it." Daryl said working quickly to remove planks and boards from around Rick.
Men she thought to herself. "How do you feel?" She said smiling sadly at him.
"Okay." He said with a tired smile, but a smile just the same. Assessing that he was okay, she helped Daryl remove some of the heavier boards.
"Why were you here alone?" Michonne asked.
"I wasn't." Rick said looking to his right.
There was a young man nearly buried under the debris, he was dead.
"The fall killed him."
"Did he turn yet?" Daryl asked
"Yeah. I couldn't reach him to use my knife. I had to shoot him."
They finally cleared him, and when they tried to stand him up, he stifled a yell followed by rapid breathing. He was in extreme pain, but he could stand albeit on shaky legs, and was able to walk slowly towards the basement door, and carefully up the stairs. When they got him to the car, Michonne stood in front of him for a moment looking sadly into his eyes. When he understood what she meant, he nodded and she proceeded to search him for bites or scratches. She found none and went to her bag and pulled out a blue sheet of plastic. She wrapped it around Rick's chest, connected the attached Velcro, pulled a red pin at the top of it, and the plastic slowly inflated. He started to breathe easier and it made him smile.
"Where did you get that?" Rick asked with a much stronger voice now that he could breathe.
"Dr. Carson."
She stood up and pulled his shirt down in the back. Rick sensed her anxiety and took the opportunity to put an arm around her shoulders, pulling her slowly to him and he pressed his lips to her temple. She gently put her arms around his waist. They stood there together for a brief moment.
"Take me home lady Samurai." He whispered.
They got him, with much coercing, to lie down in the back seat of the car. Daryl started the car driving as carefully as he could. Michonne glanced in the back seat, and noticed that Rick had passed out.
"I feel sorry for you." Daryl said glancing in her direction.
"Why is that?" She said curiously.
"Rick as a patient."
"You really think I'm going to have trouble with him?"
Daryl looked at her for a moment and laughed.
"No ma'am. For a second I forgot who I was talking to."
"Yeah, I'm putty in her hands." Rick said from the back seat surprising both Daryl and Michonne.
"How do you feel? You were out." Michonne asked.
"I'm really sore."
"We'll be home soon." Daryl said with his eyes on the road.
Just as Daryl spoke, a truck came toward them fast, driving in the middle of the road.
"What the hell?" Daryl said pulling off the road.
The truck stopped blocking their way.
"What is it?" Rick said
"Three men." Michonne said. "You stay down."
"We're gonna have to deal with them." Daryl said.
"Michonne." Rick said in a hushed tone.
"We got this." Daryl said slowly putting his gun on his lap.
The truck stopped and the men got out and started walking toward them. Michonne got out of the car and stood behind the opened door with a .45 in her hand.
"Stop right there." Michonne said sternly.
The tone of her voice caused them to stop where they were.
"What do you want?" Michonne said.
"Just a little conversation, maybe some directions, we seem to be lost."
"If you're lost at this stage of the game, you'll stay lost." Daryl said sizing them up.
"I'm sorry, we don't have time to chat with you." Michonne said.
"Maybe you have something we might need." The truck driver said.
"Are they saviors?" Michonne whispered to Daryl.
"No." Daryl said.
"What would that be?" Daryl asked the man who spoke.
"Food, guns." He said speaking to Daryl, but looking at Michonne.
"Nah, we don't." Daryl said picking up the gun in his lap.
"Mind if we check."
"Mind if we kill you?" Daryl said getting impatient with this banter.
"There's no need for that. We might have something you need."
"I doubt it." Michonne said getting impatient. "We have an injured man here and need to get him some help."
"Where are you taking him?"
"Nowhere you need to know about." Daryl said putting his gun in his hand.
"Just keep on your way and you won't need to die today." Michonne said getting angry.
The men started to laugh. With a signal from the driver, they moved toward the car. The laughter stopped abruptly when they heard the unmistakable click of a revolver.
"I'd do what she asked." Rick said sitting up in the back seat. "She's a handful you don't want to tangle with, and count yourselves lucky we don't want what you have."
The men defiantly stood where they were, and Rick put a bullet at the feet of the man in front.
Daryl pulled out his weapon also, and the men slowly backed back to the truck and got in.
"If you follow us you'll regret it." Daryl said.
The men drove off in the direction they were heading. Rick, Michonne and Daryl all sighed in relief.
Michonne got in the car and turned around and glared at Rick.
"I'm alright." He said wincing.
"You're not." She said still glaring. "A few minutes ago you were buried under several hundred pounds of rubble. You could barely breathe."
"I'm breathing okay now." Rick said trying to match her glare. Given his current state, he was in no condition to argue with her, so he gave in and lay back down. She turned back around in her seat and looked at Daryl who was looking at her.
"What?" She said to Daryl. Her breathing calming down.
"Nothing." Daryl said starting the car and smiling.
When they arrived at Alexandria, they noticed Dr. Carson was standing near the gate talking to Tobin.
"Dr. Carson, what are you doing here?" Michonne asked getting out of the car at the gate.
"Actually I came to talk to Rick, have you seen him?"
"Yes, he's hurt. Daryl has him in the car."
Dr. Carson walked the short distance from the gate to the house with Michonne. He helped Daryl get Rick inside and up the stairs to put him in bed.
While the doctor was with Rick, Michonne walked to the Miller's to get Judith. They often asked to just have Judith over whether she needed a babysitter or not. Since losing their children and grandchildren, they were more than happy to spoil Judith.
When Michonne returned, Dr. Carson was walking down the stairs.
"Michonne, he's going to need a lot of rest, no exceptions. He's badly bruised, but no broken bones. His blood pressure is a little high, and his body is stressed more than it appears."
"No surprise there, he's been out in the middle of it from the beginning."
"He told me. I left him some muscle relaxers to help him rest. He will probably experience some muscle spasms."
"Thank you Harlan."
"You're welcome Michonne. How have you been?"
"Resting. Staying busy."
"Good, that's the best thing for battle stress."
She smiled sadly and walked him to the door. She went to the kitchen and poured a glass of water for Rick. When she got to the bedroom, she gazed at him and he appeared to be sleeping. She walked over and placed the glass of water on the bedside table next to him and bent over to pick up his clothes from the floor.
"You fool around?" Rick said sounding groggy.
"If you can, I can." She said sitting on the bed beside him.
"Maybe a raincheck. I'm not at my best right now."
She ran her hand over his hair to get it out of his face. He looked at her and smiled sadly.
"You okay?"
She shook her head.
"From now on we go on runs together. Will you agree to that, for me?" Michonne said clearly shaken.
"Of course." He said pulling her down to his chest. "I prayed while I was down in that basement. I hadn't done that since I was a small boy. I thought Hershel was foolish for doing it, and ignored father Gabriel when he referred to it, but I found at that moment that's what I was compelled to do. I thought I was done for."
She sat up and looked at him seriously.
"You knew we'd come didn't you?"
He didn't answer and it made her go quiet and sad.
"I didn't let myself hope for that. I wasn't sure anyone would be able to find me. I forgot Daryl knew about that house."
He winced in pain as he tried to adjust his position in the bed.
"I prayed that God would allow me to see you and the children again, and help me get out of that basement. I prayed for help, and help came." He said quoting father Gabriel. "Both my prayers were answered in the same day. I'm debating on whether or not to tell that to father Gabriel." They both laughed.
"He would probably recruit you for the priesthood."
"I thank God for you, and for you always being there."
"Thank you." Michonne said fighting back tears. She was grateful to see him in one piece. Despite the fact he is the most incredible man she has ever known, he is still just a human, and can break like anyone else.
"For what?"
"For everything you just said. Please go to sleep now. Harlan said you have to get rest. That's doctor-talk for saying that you're wearing your body out."
"Well we can't have that." Rick said settling down in the bed.
"No we can't, I plan on getting more use of it before I'm done."
"I'll make sure to get plenty of rest then."
She smiled and kissed his cheek.
"I'll bring your dinner up later."
"I'll come downstairs so I can eat with the kids."
"We'll see how you feel later. I have something special planned for your dinner."
"I asked for a raincheck on that."
Michonne laughed, so did Rick, but quickly regretted it and groaned in pain.
She kissed his mouth and then his cheek again.
"I'll check on you in about an hour."
Rick closed his eyes and was soon sleeping.
An hour passed and Rick woke and sat up in bed. He swung his legs over the side of the bed and reached for the pair of jeans Michonne left for him on the chair. A soft knock at a low position on the door indicated that it was Judith.
"Who is it?"
"Ju-it." Judith giggled knocking on the door again.
"Come in." Rick said smiling.
He turned toward the door and in ran their little whirlwind followed by Michonne and Carl.
"Daddy!" She squealed slowing down and stopping at her father's legs. Usually she jumped into his arms; clearly she had instructions from Michonne not to jump on him today. Rick reached down and carefully lifted her up and onto his lap.
"How are you dad?" Carl said looking seriously at his father.
"I'm good."
Judith put a tiny hand on each side of her father's face and gave him a quick kiss on his lips.
Michonne and Carl had brought up trays of finger foods and laid them on the bed.
"This is special." Rick said smiling at Michonne.
"Yes we are." Michonne said smiling at Rick. He looked at her and a loving smile slowly spread across his face.