"So this Walker knocked me down," Andrea is saying, her face animated in the flickering firelight as everyone listens intently to the story.

"Sounds to me like you tripped again," Daryl snorts, earning an elbow from Carol at the interruption.

Andrea just pauses and grins at the man as the two take a moment to share some apparent memory within the glance.

"Anyway," she resumes, "it was right on top of me and I had nothing left. No exit, no weapon, no energy. I couldn't even scream I was so sure that that was it. Then this sword comes in from out of nowhere and takes the thing's head right off. The corpse fell beside me and I just laid there staring up at this hooded figure holding the bloody blade and all I could think is, 'Oh shit.'"

The group chuckles as prompted by the way the scene is retold with everyone taking random moments to sneak peeks at the stranger in their midst.

Michonne had positioned herself by the entryway, keeping close to an exit point rather than approach the fire for the warmth he'd offered.

Rick understands her reservation and hopes she'll overcome it. The woman had saved Andrea and seen the blonde back to the group; Rick is sincere in welcoming her to join them. In his eyes, the newcomer was part of their dysfunctional family now whether she chose to be or not.

"You can't imagine what it was like to just lie there with her standing over me," Andrea looks to the woman being discussed, "to look up at you in that instant. I had no idea if my fate had just gotten better or worse. You had the cloak and hood and sword and those..."

She trails off for the briefest of moments and Rick would have missed it if his eyes had been doing anything other than taking in everything that Andrea is doing. He looks discreetly back at Michonne and sees the silent communication between the women. There's a secret there, between those two, and Rick will learn it if he's to trust this stranger among them.

"It was just this utterly surreal moment," Andrea hurries on before anyone else even notices a pause in the story.

"What is up with that sword?"

All eyes turn to Michonne at T-Dog's question, including Rick's.

She holds up well to their scrutiny and seems almost to have been expecting the question; to have answered it many times in the past.

"We were getting ready to hole up in my house to wait for whatever this was to blow over. So sure it would pass. I went to our neighbor's house to look for supplies. I was hoping for a gun by way of weapon but only found this," the woman almost unconsciously fingers the hilt of the sword on her hip. "The boy collected them. I had hated that about him. Would swear he killed our dog with a sword. Why else would I have found the thing sharpened? I had done some fencing as a kid, so I figured 'why not' and just grabbed the biggest one. It's kept me alive ever since."

She ends with a shrug and he can tell she's uncomfortable having said so much.

"It's a Katana," Glenn offers, speaking for the first time since Rick had made his confession and laid down the new law.

"It's awesome," Carl adds, beaming up at Andrea from his prized position beside the woman. "We should all get swords and use them instead of guns."

"You'll just have to keep your eyes open for an abandoned dojo to arm us all," Andrea grins at the boy, giving his shoulders a squeeze.

She has yet to stop touching them, he notices, as if she's as disbelieving of having found them as they are at her being alive. Her left arm has held Carl since they all sat down and her right hand remains clasped in Carol's, the older woman having taken Andrea's other side.

"What's a dojo?" Carl turns to ask Glenn.

"It's just a name for a place where they teach martial arts," the young man answers on cue. "A Japanese term, which I would obviously know because I'm Korean."

The deprecating tone is all that's needed to make Rick flush in embarrassment at his son's thoughtlessly racist assumption that Glenn, the Asian, would be the only one able to answer the question. Before he can do more than think of apologizing, everyone laughs, including Glenn.

In that moment, Rick realizes that all the tension has magically gone from the group. Everyone's gathered together around the dying fire listening to Andrea's tale like it's a campfire story to pass the time on a routine camping trip.

He knows that no one has forgotten the horror of the day or their fears and reservations for the future, but this is just more important. This is a rare opportunity to celebrate the fact that, for once, they had been proven wrong for the better.

Their belief that they could find Sophia alive had been ground to dust when the barn emptied for the undead girl to shamble out. His hope that Jenner had lied or just had had no idea what he spoke of had been proven false after stabbing Shane and having his corpse rise to give chase until shot down by Carl. All of Hershel's efforts to maintain his family's farm, to keep it as a haven for them all through this madness, had been laid to waste by the herd that they had fled.

But Andrea, whom they had so easily written off as gone, somehow is back and so vibrantly alive.

"How did you find us?"

He asks the question without really thinking and the moment of laughter fades to seriousness.

"I started out just running. No thought or direction; just taking any path that took me away from the thick of them. The woods helped me lose some as they fell over rocks, trees or roots; so I just kept to the trees."

"Weren't you scared of the dark?" Carl asks, cuddling closer to her side.

"Petrified," she confesses, "but it would have been scarier to stop. There was no hiding from them until they passed. It was like they had my scent and I just knew they wouldn't stop until they got me."

The mental picture is chilling and Rick's jaw clenches at her being put in that nightmarish scenario. He can tell it affects the others as well to imagine her in that position. Beth huddles closer to Hershel's side. Maggie slides her arm around Glenn's waist and props her chin on his shoulder as they keep their focus on the storyteller. Carol's hand tightens visibly around Andrea's in a silent offering of apology and support.

He can see a telltale tick of muscle in T-Dog's cheek and wishes he could blame all of this on the man. The guy had had seen the woman fall to the ground with Walkers surrounding her and her demise had seemed the obvious conclusion. His telling them that hadn't been a malicious or selfish act, he'd been mourning the loss when he'd said it. Also, it had been Rick who had taken the information and made the decision to stop Daryl from going back to search for the woman. There had just seemed no hope of her surviving or finding a way clear of the chaos.

Her presence is the most improbable of outcomes and Rick doesn't know when he'll be able to really accept that she is alive and among them again. The relief is almost enough to distract him from his guilt.

Almost.

"When the sun came up, I soon realized that I was in the woods we'd searched for Sophia," she gets on with the story, pausing briefly to give Carol's hand a squeeze back. "Some of the markers were still hanging on trees and something just clicked in my head. I remembered the grids," her eyes lift to lock with his, "I remembered your strategy and how it all led back to the road. I had no real idea if I was moving toward the highway or not, but it just felt like the right direction and I knew you would have all gone there. That car, with our message to Sophia was the only one thing that we all knew, so it was the only place we all would have thought to go. When I met up with Michonne and explained she agreed. She'd been moving along the highway, seen the smoke of the barn burning and was heading toward the farm to investigate when our paths crossed."

"Damned bit of luck there," Daryl said softly, shaking his head as they all knew what would have happened without such a series of events leading to Michonne's arrival.

"We actually weren't far," Andrea acknowledges the interruption with a nod but keeps on without losing focus. "After all the running I'd been doing, it seemed to take no time at all for us to get to the road and find the car. When I saw that no one was there…"

For the first time since rejoining them, she wavers. Rick finds himself wishing that he had taken a seat at her side so that he could put his arm around her shoulders as Carol does. Immediately chasing that urge is a smack of guilt that pulls his eyes from the blonde to seek out Lori among the group.

She's off to herself, near Hershel but somehow apart from the group; huddled on the ground with her chin propped up on her up drawn knees as she watches their son interacting with the others. As if sensing his eyes upon her, she cuts a glance his way and he sees only more of the same fear and judgment she had shown before Andrea's return. When her gaze drops to the ground before returning to Carl, he's relieved to be receiving her version of the cold shoulder as long as it keeps him from her scrutiny. She's his wife and the mother of his children; theirs is a relationship he knows he has to mend, but just then he's too tired to even think of tackling those obstacles.

His attention returns to Andrea and he forces himself to stifle the growing voice within him that asks if he really wants to overcome those hurdles.

"I saw Hershel's truck," the blonde resumes her story after taking in a deep, calming breath. "I knew that that meant some of you had made it to there," her glance touches upon Lori, Beth and T-Dog who had all fled the farm in the old blue Ford. "If you'd gotten there and left the vehicle, I assumed it meant you had found others here. I knew you'd gotten away," her eyes meet his and her lips twist wryly. "I had tried to flag you down, but you didn't hear me."

As killing blows went, those words are probably the most effective Rick has ever had said to him. She hadn't meant them with any cruelty, unlike some of the cutting comments Lori had made to him on her moodier days, but that fact somehow makes them hurt more. To know that he could have spared her the horror of her near miss by just hitting the damned brakes of that Chevy to give her a chance to catch up to the vehicle on the farm…

He has no idea how he can ever make such a thing up to her yet it's evident to him that she sees no need for amends.

"After I made sure that there was gas and it started, to be certain you hadn't just abandoned it for another car because it had broken down," she is explaining to T-Dog while Rick wrestles with his own guilt. "I convinced Michonne to come with me to find you."

"I made it very difficult for her," their newest member adds dryly. "She asked if I'd like to meet her friends and I got in the truck."

The comment brings back the distraction of laughter and he watches Andrea send the woman a grateful smile.

"I just turned the truck around, pointed us in a direction away from the farm and started driving. Until I rounded a curve and nearly plowed into Shane's Hyundai. Do you realize you left if parked in the middle of the road?" she asks suddenly, looking around for the culprit that had been driving the vehicle.

"That'd be more of our Chinaman's driving skills," Daryl snorts and leans forward to playfully nudge Glenn's shoulder.

"How could I have possibly known anyone else would be on the road tonight?" the young man asks, blushing at being called out on the deed.

"I'm glad it was there," Andrea soothes, giving her friend a smile. "All the other vehicles were so nice and neatly pulled over to park on the side of the road," she grins teasingly, "that I might have driven right on past without recognizing them. Even after slamming on the brakes to avoid collision with the car, I was still all ready to go around it and continue on until the headlights picked up the Chevy and then Daryl's motorcycle. It was the bike that really kind of sank in that I'd found you," she looks to the hunter and gets one of his nods of various meaning in return. "I just couldn't believe I'd found you at all let alone managed it within hours."

"It restores faith to have things so obviously happen for a reason," Hershel speaks up to say. "You very likely wouldn't have found us if we hadn't had to stop for the night. The Chevrolet is nearly empty on gas and the consensus was to make camp for the night rather than continue on or scavenge for gas."

"You may have a point there," she smiles at the old man. "The Ford has half a tank that you can siphon in the morning, so long as Michonne and I can hitch a ride."

"Done," Rick declares on a burst of unexpected laughter at the ways of fate.

Having gotten the cliff notes version of her escape from the farm, the group seems done with such conversation and turns to other topics. No mentions are made of those who had been lost with the farm and the word Walker doesn't arise again.

Rick watches and marvels at the scene.

Andrea continues to hold court; either telling some story to provide distraction or having one of the others vie for her attention with a joke or story of their own. It goes on for what seems like hours before they begin to fade from the extremes of the day.

Carl is sleeping soundly against the blonde's chest as she unconsciously rocks herself back and forth to soothe him.

Rick is reminded sharply of how she had held Amy's dying hand and stayed with her sister through death and turning to undead fiend. It makes him wonder briefly at how one with such maternal instincts could be childless, but discards it as the will of Fate. He didn't want to think what it would have been like for the woman to have had a child and lost it as Carol had Sophia. Amy's loss had pushed Andrea to the brink of opting out, he had no doubt that she would have gone mad with grief to have a son or daughter taken from her. Carl's getting shot had almost been more than Rick could bear; if he were to ever lose that boy he couldn't even fathom how he would react.

As if sensing the sudden intensity of his gaze upon them, Andrea's head lifts from it's study of Carl's sleeping face. Her eyes are questioning as they meet his across the fire and he forces his lips to curl in an imitation of a reassuring smile. She doesn't buy it, he can tell from the slight wrinkle of concern on her forehead, but she can't press the issue in their current circumstances so she lets her attention drop back to the boy she holds.

He forces his attention away from them; oddly affected once more by the sight of that blonde head bent so caringly over his son's dark head.

The others are all settling down on the cold, unforgiving ground with no blankets to cover themselves and no pillows for their heads and not one complaint is uttered. They have been without a bite of food or more than a sip of water for hours now, but no voice makes comment on the hunger or thirst they feel.

Somehow the miracle of Andrea's return has reminded each one of them that all the rest is minor.

Morning would come and with it the warmth of sunlight. Sunlight would give them illumination to hunt and scavenge in for something to eat and food to drink. With those basic needs met they would be able to move on in search of shelter to provide safety and a base for them to rebuild.

Rick feels the bubble of hope within himself, much like what he had felt earlier that day when he'd heard the familiar rumble of Daryl's motorcycle approaching on the highway. He doesn't know what any of it means or matters anymore, but they're all back together to sort it out.

That togetherness meant a great deal to him, despite his earlier declaration of a singular rule.


Quick notes: For anyone unfamiliar with the comics, Michonne's story of the Katana in this chapter is taken almost word for word from "Michonne's Story," a 6 page origin piece for her character that was published in the April '12 issue of Playboy and has since been scanned for sharing on several Walking Dead fansites.

WOW and thanks for the quick reviews to the posting of the first chapter. :) Got these while I was working on this part and just wanted to address each one.

Dani, I'm almost willing to bet one of my Daryl Dixon action figures that that truck was left behind on the highway as a deliberate move on the writers' part to give Andrea means of reuniting quickly with the group. It's just the way I see it happening, so it's the way I wrote it in Left Behind and this and probably any additional Andrea-centered fics set after the finale. ;) Just makes sense to me.

OnlyOneZen, I'm right there with you. The idea of Andrea/Rick has been sleeping in my head since so many moments from the first season, but it took a conversation with a hat for my muses to jump up and say, OKAY, we're shipping this! I left the category on this as general, but it is, at the core, a romantic piece, so feel free to read it as such.

LillianMW, much thanks for the award and I will strive to honor the recognition. There's no way I can let this grow into a series like my ongoing Carol/Daryl WIPs, but I fully intend this to be a 3 chapter minimum. I really want to see this pairing grow in popularity, so don't think that this will be the only thing I'll write for Andrea/Rick. ;) The ideas for them are currently holding my Caryl muses hostage, so I have to write this story so I can get back to work on those stories so I can write another Andrea/Rick without feeling guilty. Does this pairing have a name meld yet? Can we pick it? Andrick? Ricrea? Suggestions?

SuperNeos2, hehe. This bug got in my brain because of the comics, but there's so much more complication and complexity to it all there. They don't even really address or acknowledge this until the 91st issue. Considering Andrea's been in the print series since the 3rd issue, all that happened in between there keeps me from being too into the idea of them together in the comics, but the way they met on the show makes it such a great 'ship for this forum. I intend to try melding the two worlds and look forward to seeing what the writers do with it on the show.

katiescarlett78, there will be more. :D