AN: I'm very happy to see that the first chapter of my first fanfiction has had a good reception thus far.

Siancore:First off, I love the stories you've given us on this website. Secondly, you're right. There are a lot of grammatical errors with the first chapter. Believe it or not, I wrote that on my smart phone while at work (hey, when you want to get a story started, you got to get it started whenever and however). I'll make sure to look over my work before posting from now on, lol.

Midnights-AM-Child:When these episodes first aired, I wondered why Rick was so hostile towards Michonne. She didn't really talk and that can always put off others. Still, she helped save his people. I get some of it as, in a world like their's, it would be hard to trust anyone easily. However, I think he wanted to push away the temptation she brought and how mysterious she was. And yea, he probably thought she was gay lol.

Guest: Thanks, and I'll make sure to pump out more chapters.

It's the holiday season. I'll still update this story (and others) as much as possible before the show returns (OMG I can't wake). I hope y'all enjoy and have a great time with loved ones!

Chapter 2: Patience

When you're "alone", bad memories become the present. Past and future are intertwined. There's no one to remind you of the concept and importance of time. Mike and Terry can't respond to my monologues, but at least they give me what they should have given to the innocence they were supposed to protect. Every day, my emotions melt between anger and nothingness. Maybe the world has truly ended and it's just me. Maybe there's no one left, because I'm not here as I drift with those who have nothing but craving and decay. And now I find her, the blonde one a herd has apparently been wanting to eat.

The change of the world did not have to teach me how to be patient. Old lessons, depending, still helped in survival. It took patience to watch and hope for Andrea to wake the hell up to see that that "Governor" was full of shit. No. Really, I didn't have patience for that. I did practice patience as I stood at that fence, with a bullet in my leg, and amongst the dead. The stench was nothing new. The threat of being eaten alive by what was once the living was not unfamiliar. What I saw on the other side was somewhat inspirational. I held the basket as a bargaining chip, but I didn't expect him. The blue eyes got lost in me as I got lost in him. He looked through me… Time froze for a second, but the dead don't pay attention to the imagination of time. It was all a daze as I did what I normally did to survive, until my back found the ground.

The cowboy and his son did save me, but it wasn't in a damsel in distress type of situation. He may have had some kindness in our first interaction when he laid me down on the concrete floor of the prison, but I did notice how wary he was in saving me. I could not blame him. I did not fall for the Governor's Mayberry scenery, the peacefulness of and ignorance of his townspeople when there was mayhem across their walls. True to form of a prison, there was no welcoming committee. He wanted to know who I was, but that information was never given out easily. I have never been an idiot – it was too suspicious that I was even there with the bounty of the couple who were kidnapped by Merle. Despite there being a kind one-legged man, and anime-eyed teenager, and a baby that the cowboy held, I was not gonna let my guard down.

It wasn't long before his finger dug into my wound. The air was tense ~ he and his redneck wanted me to talk but weren't satisfied with the answers delivered. Any curiosity I had about this place was gone – if he ever put his damn hands on me again, I'd kill him. I think he got the picture, but he didn't have a problem in constantly invading my space with his crazy eyes and colt. At times, I didn't know if I was looking in the mirror.

They got what they needed, I made sure of it. I closed the door and made sure I paid a visitor to a certain Governor. Of course Andrea got in the way of his death. I had been so long without it, but obviously the "D" had won her over. Was I that dead inside that I could not become a fool for it? No, I just wasn't a fool. However, I encountered another one of my many interrogations with the cowboy, piercing into my being again with those damn icy blues and demanding why I didn't stick with the group. They had what I needed. They had true humanity. "You need me," was all I can say.

There should have been a timer for how often the cowboy pointed his gun in my face. This time, it was because of that fiend Merle exposing what he knew of me. The cowboy looked at me as if I was supposed to tell him anything about me the moment we "met" (hi, how are you? I walk with my dead boyfriend and his friend, and also have a vendetta because my best friend is an idiot). Glenn and Maggie seemed to be the only ones who appreciated that I helped, in any kind of way. The cowboy seemed to have other things on his mind ~ it appeared he just lost his brother Daryl to his real brother Merle. He stormed up to me, which had become his norm, and pronounced, "We patch you up, and then you are gone!" For the first time in a long time, I actually shuddered at that thought.

Hershel patched me up nicely. Rick decided that I should take a trip with him and his son back to their old town to get ready for war. Maybe Andrea's visit proved I wasn't some rogue. This trip wasn't just for weapons.

"We have common interests," he informed Carl. Did this mean when the interests were met, he'd decide to send me back out there? How often would he decide what determined my stay?

Rick's old station was wiped clean. He laid out a plan, and waited for me to counter it. I wondered if he was used to people second guessing him, although he used to be a sheriff and was currently a leader. "No, I don't have a problem with that." Really, I didn't have much of a problem with what he did most of the time. I might have not liked how we dealt with each other by then, but I got it – understood why he did what he did. Why he always stared off and seemed "off" in a world turned upside down. Were we crazy, or were we sane because we probably weren't? He thought I looked at Morgan as someone who lost his hold on reality. No, that man was dangerous.

I did become alive a bit that day. Carl reached out to the past so that baby Judith would one day know her mother. To say I was touched would be an understatement. I began to feel a type of love again that I thought died when he died. Carl became a child again for an instant… Whatever happened, I wanted to make sure that this man-child was safe.

…But back to his father. He looked off at a ghost as he often did. It was fortunate that he didn't stroll off into the woods to touch a person who was no longer there. I felt it, that pain, that sadness, the lack of time to mourn and truly say good-bye and apologize to people who were your foundation for living. I get it, and there was nothing wrong with him. "I talk to my dead boyfriend," I let him know. Rick wanted me to reveal everything, but wasn't ready himself.

"You wanna drive?"
"Okay."

"Yea, because I see thangs."

The keys twirled in my hand, playing back memories of how men used to stutter in my presence before everything changed. Right, he saw thangs.

My leg had been patched for a while, and I still was there. Wait, I take that back. Merle did offer me the chance to take out the governor with him and Daryl. I salivated at the thought; maybe should have taken up the offer. That Merle would do whatever it took to do what he had to do, and that entailed kidnapping me as a gift for the Governor. Seeing how we took out walkers, we probably had a chance on destroying everything that was precious to him. That was not happening. Instead, I was stuck in a car with a person I would have never crossed paths with in the past, telling me that I was on the outside just as much as he was. Rick considered sacrificing me for his people. Thinking of things I've done in the past, I did not grow fury in my heart.

My respect for Daryl had grown. We were "cut from the same cloth" when it came to a world such as ours. I knew that when I saw him track his brother in the wilderness, that either one of them or both would not come back. It didn't make sense to plead with him to stop, because Merle was going to handle his own redemption, and Daryl had to be there.

I strolled into the prison yard. His eyes could be felt from the watch tower, so many yards away. Rick's presence was surprising and expected in my cell later that evening. He pinched the brdge of his nose, not staring me down as he often did. He might have played with the thought of sending me off to be raped and tortured in order for everyone to sleep at night. There was no dispute about it, though. He needed me.