I decided to split the day into two parts. It was getting a little too long. Hope you enjoy!

Day 3 (Part 1)

Porter, VA - Population: 299

Michonne didn't particularly care for jogging outdoors.

The gym in her upscale contemporary apartment building afforded her with all the exercise she desired and she never had to set foot outside. Unfortunately, after the mammoth meal her mother presented during their dinner for two, she didn't have the luxury of stepping into an elevator to climb onto a treadmill or exercise bike.

It was for that reason she found herself standing on the sidewalk outside her mother's house at six in the morning, stretching her muscles before her run. Thankfully, her joyride with Rick gave her a general idea of the town's layout.

She peeked up at the large house across the street as she lunged back with her right foot, holding her stretch. Now that she was closer, she observed the ivy ferns that grew against the sides of the house, the eerie silence, the waterless stone fountains. Against the early dawn light, the remnants of the merrier times filled with splendour were almost visible.

She smiled thinking of the man behind the walls with his dark curly hair and his mesmerising ocean blue eyes. She wondered if she would see him before he joined her and Maya for dinner that evening and secretly hoped for that possibility.

She turned on her exercise playlist, popping her earbuds in her ear as she turned away from the house.

The balmy air of the early spring morning swept against her skin as she started her run down the sidewalk in the direction of Town Hall. Her steady gait is almost soundless as her feet pushed rhythmically against the pavement. The two houses are soon behind her, replaced with a different variety of Porter's scenery.

She ran past the large white church building that doubled as the Town Hall, toward the road overlooking the valley to Main Street.

She stopped outside the small Post Office, sitting on a sidewalk bench to catch her breath and enjoy the early morning bustle before the return home.

"Hey out-of-towner!"

A smile formed on her lips when she heard the familiar voice. From the periphery of her vision, she saw him approaching from the direction she came from, in a slow jog of his own. Her gaze slid to the side and she offered a smile to the dark-haired mayor, drenched in sweat.

There was something about Rick Grimes, his magnetic smile, his gentleness and earnesty, that drew her to him. Perhaps it was attraction.

"Morning Mayor Grimes," she called teasingly. It was obvious he wasn't much of a runner. He was dressed in a brown t-shirt and a pair of dark navy blue running pants with 'police' written on the side in gold lettering."Enjoying your run?"

Rick stopped in front of her, leaning over to catch his breath. "Yeah," he answered, between his heavy breathing. "I like trying new things. I think I might actually do this more often."

She smiled at the indirect confirmation that he was indeed jogging through the streets of Porter in the early morning because of her.

"You and me both," she said. "This was way more scenic than a treadmill overlooking a concrete jungle."

"I bet it does." He sat down on the bench beside her, a grin on his face. "So, same time tomorrow? I'd love a running partner."

"Well since Maya will most likely cook another meal big enough to feed an army tonight, we're both going to need some exercise."

"Oh, I can't wait to have more of Maya's cooking," he said, leaning back against the bench as he conjured the mental images. "I've been daydreamin' about it since last night when I had to force down some pretty terrible steak."

"I'm hoping for some of her red rice tonight. I know she's going to go all out tonight," she said. "I'm jealous you live next door to all that good homemade food."

He shifted his body toward her, his blue orbs locking with her chocolate browns. "Visit more and there'll be no need for jealousy. I don't mind sharin'."

"We'll see. If this place makes a good impression by the end of the week, maybe I will."

His eyes widened in faux surprise as if she just dropped the bombshell of the century. "We haven't made a good impression yet? As the president and only member of the welcoming committee, I feel like a damn failure. I must not be doin' my job right."

"You're doing fine for now." she leaned her arm against the back of the bench, half-facing him. "I'm just a little hard to please."

"Challenge accepted." His eyes continued burning into her, almost as if he was searching for the depths of her soul. "Wanna grab some morning coffee with me? I'm gonna need it if you're planning on running back to Belcher. It's almost seven, Morgan should be opening soon."

"That run didn't fully wake you up?"

"Oh it did," he said. "And then it drained all my energy. It's a good thing it's my day off."

"Your legs are going to be so sore tomorrow," she laughed.

The pair rose from the bench as Rick lead the way to the only coffee shop in town.

"I'll stop by the house today sometime after one or so, to do my part with the turnips as promised," he said as he held the door open for her.

"I almost forgot about that."

"Morgan! How's it goin' man?"

"Rick. You're here early. You were waitin' for me to open or something? Miss me?" The man emerged from behind the counter, with a warm smile for his first customers of the day. Michonne recognized him as one of the board members from the meeting in Town Hall. "Hello."

"Hi."

"Maya's daughter, right?"

"That's right." New faces certainly didn't escape the notice of the people in Porter. News seemed to travel fast as well.

"Welcome to Porter," he said, reaching out to shake her hand. "First time, right?"

"Yes, and it's about time I visited. I've always been curious about the reclusive little town that my mother is so in love with. I can see it has its charm."

"That it does," he agreed. "What can I get for you two?"

"The usual for me," Rick answered, before turning to Michonne for her response.

Michonne glanced up at the blackboard menu with the drink written in chalk. "Those are some...unique combinations you have there. Turnip coffee?" They had everything from maple bacon coffee to wine inspired iced teas and whiskey brewed coffees. In fact, there were more unique flavors than ones regularly seen at coffee shops.

"Limited edition," he grinned, looking back proudly at the menu. "It's only served during the month of May, in time for the Turnip festival."

"Well, when in Rome," she said with a shrug. "I'll have the Turnip coffee then. I'll save trying the whiskey brew for some other time."

"It has a really...unique taste," said Rick. "You either love it or hate it. No in between."

"I don't know how I feel about that."

"So did Dale really file a complaint yesterday?" Morgan asked as he went back behind the counter to prepare their drink orders.

"A complaint?" His brow furrowed in confusion.

"About Eugene. That's what I heard," he said. "Thinks you're going too easy on him. What with everything that happened with...you know." His eyes flitted to Michonne and it was obvious whatever he was referring to wasn't something he wanted to delve into in front of a stranger.

It was probably something personal. Probably something filled with deep small town secrets.

Rick's expression visibly hardened, his nostrils flaring as he made a sweeping arm gesture. "That's not what I did what I did. There are better ways to deal with things than immediately going the punishment route. He doesn't like it, then he's free to file his damn complaint. Eugene is harmless. Sometimes people can't help the way they are."

Morgan chuckled, shaking his head as he grabbed a cup for Rick's drink. "To be fair, we had four fires for the year so far."

"God help us if there's a fifth," Rick said with humorless laughter. "Old man Horvath will blow a gasket."

"So, how are you enjoying your stay here?" Morgan asked, changing the subject to include Michonne. "You probably haven't seen much. You should go down to the river before you head back. It's beautiful. Especially in the early morning or evening."

"We used to go over there to ditch school when we were younger."

"That's right!" Morgan capped Rick's drink sliding it across the counter. "I would have been a rocket scientist if it wasn't for this guy! Now I serve overpriced coffee to exploring hipsters while he single handedly runs a whole town."

"You're welcome," Rick retorted with a broad grin.

"Now the house special for the lady of the hour." He poured the unique concoction into another cup, serving her with a friendly smile.

"Thank you, Morgan." She took the drink from him. "I actually can't wait to taste this." She brought the cup to her lips taking a dainty sip. She winced as the bitterness of the drink washed over her taste buds.

"You don't like it?" Rick asked.

She wrinkled her nose, pushing her tongue forward with a grimace. "This is pretty —"

"Pretty damn terrible?" Morgan finished for her.

"It's so bitter."

"The real reason it's only served once a year probably," Rick laughed. "It's an acquired taste. I personally don't mind it, but I guess it's not for everyone."

"Well this probably isn't a taste I'm looking to acquire." She gave Morgan an apologetic smile. "Sorry. It's just not to my liking."

"That's absolutely fine." He waved her off. "Half of the people who order it hate it. It's basically Porter's version of pumpkin spice during October. It really is an acquired taste. I'll make you some regular coffee."

~...~

"Have you always lived in Porter?"

Rick spread out the photographs of the church building they would somehow be recreating out of turnips. Maya rushed out of the house, shortly after he arrived that afternoon, exclaiming that she had an almost forgotten errand to run in town.

She remembered feeling a little silly at the giddiness that filled her at the sight of him entering the house with his tousled hair and casual wear. She'd known the man for barely three days.

"Yep. Been here since birth. I was actually born right there in that house across the street."

"Really? So, you probably grew up with most of the people here."

"Yeah," he nodded. "Morgan and I were attached at the hip growing up. He moved here to stay with his grandparents when we were nine and we've been best friends ever since."

"That's actually nice," she mused. "Everyone is like one big happy family. If your family had like three hundred people."

"That's one way to put it."

"So, your whole family still lives here in town?" she asked casually, her curiosity piqued. "Seems like you live alone over there."

"Well technically, it's just me in town. My father moved into a cabin on the trail over the creek a few years ago."

She remembered Maya asking about the man the previous day and the comparison he drew between the man and Eugene. She wondered if he had anything to do with Morgan's cryptic line of questioning in the coffee shop earlier that morning.

"You guys are close?"

"You can say that. Not as close as we used to be, but we get on well and I try to see him often enough."

"Between your fifty-leven jobs," she joked, playfully nudging his arm. She could feel the heaviness when he spoke about his father and could tell it was likely a sensitive subject.

"Yeah," he chuckled. "It's actually a lot easier than it sounds. Things are pretty quiet over here, so it's a perfect place to have multiple jobs. Very little action."

"You and Maya seem close."

"Yeah it's been great having her as a neighbor. I would've never thought I would be participating in the Festival like this again. I usually just go just to be there," he said. "My family used to go all out when I was young. It's refreshing to see."

She picked up a turnip, spinning it around in her hand. If someone told her she would be building a model of an old church out of turnips with her mother's neighbor slash mayor, two days ago, she's have called them crazy. "So, any idea how we're going to do this? I don't even know what the hell a turnip sculpture is supposed to be, but I wouldn't be surprised if this is also part of your skill set."

"Uh not really. Sorry to disappoint you," he said. "Maya said you were the artist. I'm just here to follow orders. I know nothing."

"Well I'm a graphic designer. Hardly any sculpting experience there." She crossed her arms. "Other than what little I've learned from watching my mother that is. And that's not much."

"Okay, so she at least left us some instructions to start off," he said, producing the yellow legal pad with neatly written words. "We just have the follow 'em. Can't possibly be that hard."

"It's going to look like something a group of preschoolers did, isn't it?"

"Where is your confidence?" he laughed. "I mean she did abandon us with her project, but we're probably halfway competent combined."

"You just have to go along with her every whim, it usually pays off in the end." She reached for the knife in the holder. "Let's just chop them in small pieces and stack them like popsicle sticks. Does this even have to be edible? I don't even know the rules of this thing. I'm still trying to make sense of this competition."

"Could be edible, yeah, but I don't think it's actually a criteria. Turnips don't even regularly taste that good anyway. Think of this like butter sculptures at a state fair. Those are serious."

"Except it's a root vegetable and a very tough one at that." She moved around the table, leaning in to read the instructions that were still in his hands. Their closeness of their bodies sending tingles on her skin. "So, I guess we can start with the steeple?"

"Sounds easy enough." He grabbed a knife for himself and the pair got seated and started the tedious task of peeling the vegetables.

"So, what about you?" He lifted his eyes to meet hers. "Always lived the city life in Alexandria?"

"Basically," she said, with a shrug. "Not one single city though. We moved around a lot for Dad's work in the early years, but we settled in Alexandria. I still live there now."

"Maya always tells stories about her travels," he said, nodding his head. "She's done amazing things in her life."

"She did. Still does in this place."

"That's what I like to hear! We are making a good impression." He winked at her before looking back at their instruction sheet. "Sounds like we'll be seeing more of you. You and Maya seem close."

"It must look pretty awful that I've never been here to visit her, I know. I don't see her as often as I should. She's the one that always takes the trips out to see me," she blew out a breath. "I think I've been so focused on work and everything else for so long, I've definitely been slacking in other aspects of life." She wasn't sure why she was volunteering all that information, but he was easy to talk too.

"That's just life sometimes," he said, in a somewhat sombre tone, his soft eyes on her. "I know that feeling very well. It's natural to try to fault yourself."

She gazed at him thoughtfully, searching her mind for a response, but not wanting to delve too deep into what she felt were her shortcomings. "Yeah. Let's talk about something lighter." She nudged his ankle with hers. "So about this creek I keep hearing about."

He shook his head, grinning widely. "It's best to look at sunrise or sunset the first time. When the light hits the water it almost looks like it's not even real. It's hard to explain."

She held his gaze quietly. "Detour for our morning run tomorrow?"

"Yeah." He patted his leg, with a playful grin. "Hopefully, I'm in still working order tomorrow. I think I pulled a muscle tryin' to catch up with you this morning."

"You should have stretched," she shrugged.

"No time. You were halfway down the block, by the time I decided to pick up this new hobby. I nearly busted my ass gettin' downstairs."

"Poor thing." She rested her palm under her chin. "I'm glad you didn't though. Then I wouldn't have any company to watch the sunrise by the creek tomorrow. I'd drag Maya out, but she's still recovering and she's not a morning person."

Their eyes remained locked and there was a charged energy in the room. It was as if the world stopped for a moment and they were the only two beings left. The feeling both excited and unnerved Michonne.

"You know, I think I have a perfect stand for this sculpture statue thing. Whatever it's called. It'll make transportin' in a lot easier" he said, standing up suddenly, breaking the spell. "Come on. I'll show you."

She shook her head, attempting to clear the buzzing in her head. "Where? Your place?"

"Uh, yeah."His face reddened shightly just as his phone started chiming angrily in his pocket. He handed her the legal pad, reaching for the noisy device. "Grimes."

He listened quietly, his brow furrowed. "Wait, slow down. Killer bees?" He ran a hand through his dark curls his expression becoming more alarmed by the second. "How is that even…? I thought he was scheduled for yesterday…" he listened as the voice on the other end gave a lengthy explanation. "That's just...Wow. Alright I'll give them a call and I'll be there in five...No I'll come straight there. I can't do anything down there. I'm sure they have it handled."

"What is it?" she asked when he hung up, seeing his clear agitation.

"There was a bee attack," he answered, his tone one of disbelief.

"A bee attack?"

"At Town Hall. Apparently it's a huge swarm and they're aggressive. They said it could be about a million of them."

Michonne simply stared at him, her mouth agape. "Are you being serious?"

"Serious as a dead man walking. It's actually not as crazy as it sounds. Come on." He reached for her hand as he moved to exit the kitchen. "I'll explain on the way."

"Wait a minute. Why exactly are there killer bees attacking at Town hall?" she asked, speed-walking to keep up with him as he approached the front door. She kicked off her house slippers, hopping around as she tried to get her sneakers on. "And what on earth are you supposed to do about a bee attack? Is that another side job? You're a beekeeper too?"

"Of course not. I'm actually terrified of those things in large swarms. We'll just have to call in an exterminator or something. Apparently the bee specialist that was hired to get rid of them got attacked and he's pretty banged up." He opened the front door, before turning back to face her with a serious expression. "I swear, things are not usually this exciting around here."

The bees, Michonne learned, were living within the wall of the old church for years, Rick informed her on once they were in the car. They passed Town Hall without stopping, seeing it covered with yellow police tape. There was an ambulance out front along with people wearing protective clothing and veils. The sidewalks were blocked of in an attempt to keep away roaming pedestrians who could come into contact with the aggressive bees.

"We recently hired this specialist guy to get them out because they were getting pretty bad and we didn't want the swarm growing more and people getting attacked. Especially with the festival coming up," he explained. "Clearly that didn't help. The guy was a little shady anyway."

"You're not going to Town Hall?" she asked pointing behind them as they sped past the building.

He shook his head. "No, Public Safety department. Can't do anything here. Bee wrangling isn't one of the careers I've conquered and I don't plan for it to be one."

Rick Grimes really was the glue that held Porter together. When they entered the public safety department, people orbited around him. He was the type of man everyone loved. A natural born leader with a killer smile.

He was a marvel to watch.

She drifted into the background, strolling around the office space as people made frantic phone calls while shifting through the organized clutter on their desks. From the sound of things, they needed to call in some serious outside help.

She looked out the front glass window at the people bustling about Main street, enjoying their daily lives. Her eyes found Maya across the street as she exited the butcher shop. She glanced up squinted, as she saw the familiar figure looking at her through the long glass windows of the brink building.

Michonne waved and she waved back mouthing 'what are you doing in there?'

'Wait,' she mouthed back, gesturing that she would be out in a minute.

As if sensing her eyes, Rick's rose to hers in the midst of the chaos as soon as she turned around. He offered a small smile, strolling away from his busy desk to meet her by the window.

"Maya." She nodded to the woman across the street who wore an impish grin. "I'm probably going to head back with her to help out with dinner and everything."

"Sorry about that," he said, apologetically as he took a step closer to her.

"It's fine. You're Mr. Jack. It's only natural to get pulled in every direction." She was hyper aware of his close proximity. She wanted nothing more than to move closer. "See you at dinner later?"

"Wouldn't miss it."

They awkwardly shuffled around each other, not knowing whether to walk away or initiate some form of physical contact to express their temporary goodbyes. "Later.

"Later."

"Fancy seeing you here," Maya said, placing her hands on her hips when Michonne exited the station. "You abandoned your post! We have less than forty-eight hours to get this thing done. Luckily, I'm in a forgiving mood."

Maya's eyes shifted back to the window behind Michonne where Rick still stood watching. He gave a half wave, when she caught him staring, stumbling back to his desk.

"I'm sure you are," Michonne said, not bothering to hide her amusement. "You heard about the bee specialist guy, the town hired to get rid of the infestation? He got attacked by a huge swarm of African bees. Thousands of them. I know news travel fast in small towns."

"Oh that's what all that chatter was about," she said, looking back at the butcher store. "I hope he's okay. That's why you and Rick are out here."

"Yeah, he's got his hands in multiple places right now, and it's his day off from public safety. I'm thinking he'll be busy until dinner."

"Hmm." She gave her daughter a once over. "Then it's back to you and me for this competition. It's nice to see you're actually mingling though." They started walking toward her vintage, cherry red car.

"Mom."

"What? I said it once and I'll say it as many times as necessary." She shrugged her shoulders unapologetically. "Anyway, you can continue with our entry while I get started on dinner. And we still have a lot of catching up to do. Wait till you hear about the afternoon I had."

Hope you're still enjoying this! Thanks for reading!