Baby on the Brain

Daryl and Abraham were having a conversation one afternoon, after a chance run in. Abraham wanted to mend fences for Michonne's sake, and Daryl was excited to talk about his technical achievements, to someone other than Carol and Merle; because unlike Michonne who went out of her way to avoid her neighbor's, the residents of the building usually went out of their way to avoid Daryl and his family.

"It uses facial recognition along with the police data base to keep track of criminals. I kind of hoped it would help Merle stay out of trouble, because than the software would prove he had nothing to do with the crime... but, it kept catching him doin' stupid shit, and he got mad at me instead of cleaning up his act."

"Let me guess, he wanted you to tweak the program, so it wouldn't catch him?"

"Heh, you like that word a lot don't cha, but yeah. I'm gonna keep working on it, I know the right path now, and I aint gonna help Merle destroy himself no-mo, and take me with him... "

"But you said this was the newer program you're working on. Whats the one that's been making you all this money?"

"Its called Merwire. It was my first success after college. Its a surveillance system that runs on green energy, so even during blackouts they'll have enough power to record. It got real popular since its less grainy than most severance systems, when you zoom in real tight on somethin'.

"... Now I feel like shit about what I said up there. I dubbed you as this illiterate redneck, but I'm eating a pile of shit covered toast, finding out you some kinda computer genius."

"Yeah, I like proving assholes like you wrong."

Daryl laughs as does Abraham, who can't deny that he's an asshole.

Michonne ascends steps leading to the double doors of her building. She maneuvered around a young man on his way out, that took a moment to hold a door open for her. She thanked him, as he smiled with reddened cheeks.

She fanned the exposed skin of her neck and chest, cooling unhidden cleavage, left by the few unclasped buttons on her blouse. The clicking of her heels against the marble floor, forced Abraham and Daryl away from their conversation, as they acknowledge her entrance. With poise, the sway of her hips accompanied secure steps towards the two men, huddled together by the mailboxes.

"Abraham." She speaks his name with some suspicion, then uneasily greets Daryl. "Hello Daryl."

He looks down nodding. "Hey Michonne."

Opening the small sliver door, she collects her mail, looking back and forth between the two men. They were equally silent and avoiding the curiosity of her stare. Her words are directed at Daryl. "Nice seeing you again." She smiles.

"Yea, nice seeing you too," Daryl half smiles at her, then shyly looks at the ground, missing her side eye Abraham.

The two men watch her go. Abraham's eyes are on the back of her head, watching the sway of her dreads. He grows tense realizing Daryl's sights were set a lot lower on her vacating figure. An action Daryl quickly broke from, once catching himself.

"I'll see you later" the red head says, then pats Daryl on the shoulder before running after Michonne.

"Hey Mich, wait up!" She feels the heavy weight of his arm draping over her shoulder.

"I don't know what you're up to with Daryl, but stop it."

"I'm making friends with the Dixons, and they're the best type of friends, friends people fear."

"He's a good person, if you can't be genuine than leave him alone."

"Hey I actually like Daryl as a person, if I didn't I wouldn't bother talking to him. You've gone how many days without the smell of smoke in the air? I'm an unrecognized hero. So that little second strike, we can get rid of that, right?"

"I don't understand why you care about these strikes."

"You made me care about them the other night!"

Michonne shoves his heavy arm off, before climbing the staircase. After reaching the final steps to her floor, she strolls the narrow hallway, hearing his heavier paces behind her lighter ones. "You make a decent amount of money, enough to stay at a Hotel."

"I don't know Dakota or Abagail who'd search through my stuff if I were in a hotel. I'm wearing out my welcome this soon?"

"I'm sure that day will come, but not yet." Opening her apartment door, she walked in and sat on the living room couch, to sort through her mail. Abraham locks the door behind him.

"Is the rent due? I wanna pay it while I'm staying here." He announces while approaching her on the couch.

"That's sweet of you, thanks." Michonne searches through her collection of envelopes then pulls one free, handing it over. She starts dividing her mail on the table, hearing his fingers taring at the envelope. There's silence, as the redhead is displeased staring at the written amount.

"Son of a dick."

"Uh oh, you're dicking up your vocabulary again, something wrong?"

"This is an inhumane amount of money, is this place built on satin's wet dreams?"

"You made the offer, now you're gonna complain about it? Give it back then."

"No I'm still paying it." He says walking into his room, passing Michonne's annoyed eye roll. He sits on the bed, debating on paying with a check, or just throwing cash right in her landlord's face, but jumps when Michonne enters the room.

"I forgot, I didn't tell you about the phone call I got the other day. Its only when you walked away like a child that I remembered. Guess what? Sasha and Glenn are having a baby!"

"Why would you ask me to guess and then just tell me?"

"Because I'm bursting with joy, think of how gorgeous the kid is gonna be. I'm getting them the biggest bear I can find...apparently Sasha is pretty far along."

"And she just told you this recently... wow what a friend. I guess she remembered to tell you this the second she couldn't see her feet past her stomach or something." The red head rolls his eyes making the woman hold her hips in contempt.

"I know Sasha, okay. She must of had a good reason, so your tone is very unnecessary. If you need me I'll be out getting that bear. Baby girl Rhee is gonna need it."

"Baby boy Rhee."

"Excuse me? That baby is going to come out being a stunning little girl, and you're just going to have to deal with it."

"You know what?" He gets up, "I'm coming with you. I want to get some toys for the boy. Since all that cutesy stuff you're about to get him will be worthless."

"No more worthless than the sight of you."


"What are you doing? Bears are not neon, you'll warp his mind."

"She will love a neon bear. She's a baby. Babies are attracted to bright colors."

"Until the family camping trip when he sees a neon bear. He wont know that its dangerous and to run, the animal's radioactive. He's gonna hug it and die glowing."

"This is a game to you. You just want to go against everything I like."

"That's not true."

"Okay, you see that baby bedding with the pink and purple polka dots, and yellow trim? I like that, I think its beautiful, we should get it."

"That's not fair, that thing is butt ugly, you're setting me up like you always do."

"That's not what I'm doing, but you're proving my point anyway, you didn't even give it a chance. Find the beauty in it." Michonne walks away. Abraham stays behind rubbing his head, while his artistic natured friend is going for yet another unnaturally colored animal. He views the drop in her shoulders, when releasing a deep exhale. Her hands were now aimlessly playing with a baby rattle, before placing the toy down, when she feels him beside her.

"You ever want kids?" He asked her, but at the same time was treading very lightly.

"Eventually, I suppose."

"How many?"

"As many as I can handle. What about you?"

"Yea...I want like...ten."

"Just like a man to want the amount of a football team."

"There aren't ten players to a team Mich-"

"You're missing the point. Ten kids, doesn't seem a little extreme to you? Why would you do that to a woman?"

"I want a big family. I spent a lot of time lonely and wishing I had siblings when I was a kid. I had friends growing up, but they're different than family. I never had anyone to gang up on my parents with, or blame shit I did around the house on. Defiantly cudda used someone else around, to take the heat off, whenever my father decided I wasn't shit."

Michonne didn't know what to say. Something like "I'm sorry" felt disingenuous because it was too common of a thing to say. And this was the first in a long time he'd been venerable with her. She stepped towards him and carried her arms around his torso, pressed her ear to his beating heart. He brought his arms around her, holding her tighter then she held him.

His base heavy voice loomed over her head's position below his resting chin. "Am I going to get a hug every time I give you some sob story, because I stubbed my toe this morning..."

She laughed and pulled back slapping his chest. It was back to the jokes with this one, but she wont allow the humorous detour to last. "I like when you tell me personal things, especially when they're sad. And though we can't change the past, who would we be without it?" Abraham stared down into the warmth of her eyes and smiled with a nod.

"Glenn and Sasha having a baby got me thinking about my situation. Work was only supposed to take over my life for a few years. I was supposed to find a good woman and build that life with her. The older I get, the smaller my window of opportunity is. I don't want to start a family too late in life, and be to old to be there for my children."

"You still have time...you sound like you're giving up."

"Don't say that, because you don't look too hopeful in me."

"Its because I can't relate to you."

"What do you mean?"

"When asked, I usually speak as if I'd be open to kids, but I'm not sure. I never thought about having a family. All I wanted in life was to be successful. My mother was this big art dealer, met my father and decided she wanted to be a full time mother to me and my sister. She was happy, but all I could remember were the times when I knew she missed work. I wouldn't be happy if being a mother was the only thing I had, but I can see myself being happy if a job I loved, was all I had."

"Why does it have to be either or? You can have both."

"Because one would have to take precedence over the other, and how bad would it be if I had this child and actively put my career before it. This is how I know you'll be a good father when the time comes. Your kids would be yearned for, and you'd stop anything in a heartbeat for them."

"You afraid you'll be missing out?"

"For the most part, not really." She sighs. "I don't know." She shakes her head wanting the wind to dry her budding tears. "And this is embarrassing to admit but, sometimes I feel like I'll end up alone. Most men would want a family." She looked down at her the baby rattle she'd quietly retrieved. His large hands set on her shoulders, gaining the attention of her unsettled gaze.

"There are a lot of men in this world. Men that will want what you want. You've got too much to offer to end up alone. I could get a lineup that would chop their dicks off for the chance to treat you like a queen."

"Oh hold on now, I still want the firework, even if I aint gonna shoot it into the sky." She adds with her own spin on her Abe like euphemisms to lighten the mood.

He smirks, "attagirl. Come on lets get your neon bear, and some other useless gadgets the baby with grow tired of in a year. Boys are adventurous that way." As they turn, he wraps his arm around her, while her hand moved across his back, then held his side.

"You are going to look like an even bigger idiot than you do normally, when that baby comes out to be a girl."

He stares down at her, with a raised brow. "Why do you have to be so mean? We just had a good moment here."