Riiiiiiinnnng
Where was that coming from? Michonne wasn't even sure it was a tangible sound. She'd recalled Rick's hallucinating phone calls with Lori. Perhaps the stress of things was getting to her, as it had after she'd been forced to put Adam, Terry and the girls down. She looked around and saw Daryl Dixon looking just as puzzled.
"You hearin' that too?"
Michonne looked down at a black backpack stashed in a corner. She recognized it as the one Merle had brought with him on their little "joyride" a few weeks ago. Daryl shook his head.
"Hell's goin' on?" he asked.
Riiiiinnng…
Michonne quickly unzipped the bag and pulled out the old rortary phone. Why had Merle brought this thing with him that day? Not sure what to expect, she lifted the reciever off the cradle and put it to her ear.
"Hello…?"
"There's my Nubian Queen!" came the recognizable Southern drawal of Merle Dixon. "Ya miss me?"
"How the hell are you doing this?"
"Oh, I'm hurt, darlin'. I let ya go, sacrifice myself for ya and my baby brother and I don't get so much as a 'thank you'?"
Michonne sneered into the reciever.
"What do you want, Merle?"
"Just checkin' up on ya'll, Sugarplum, that's all. I'm gonna ask ya to put Daryl on the line in a minute. First, I got some folks who wanna talk to ya."
Michonne slapped Daryl's hand away as she heard the sound of the phone changing hands on the other line. A pair of children's voices piped up.
"Hi, Mommy!"
"Mommy! Hi, Mommy!"
Clutching the receiver very tightly, Michonne slumped a little, Daryl having to hold her steady.
"My babies… Are you girls okay?"
"Yeah, we're fine! Uncle Merle's been playing with us since Daddy went on ahead. Aunt Andrea's really nice and pretty and Uncle Milton lets us have tea parties with him! When do we get see you?"
Michonne choked back tears.
"I…I don't know. But you two behave yourselves. Can you put Uncle Merle back on? His brother wants to talk to him."
"Okay, Mommy! Bye-bye!"
"Bye, Mommy! We love you!"
There was the sound of the phone changing hands again. Michonne handed the reciever to Daryl before pulling her knees into her chest and sobbing.
"Hey there, baby brother. Ya gave me quite the headache back there."
Daryl cleared his throat.
"Yeah… Well it was you or me, ya know."
Merle laughed.
"I guess ya do have balls after all."