Day 1 - Fatigue

They watch as the man, Daryl, hugs and soothes his wife, Sasha. He rubs her back and caresses her face before moving to rub her extended belly. Michonne's stomach and heart drops simultaneously with a distraught ache at the sight of the woman. Thunder roars above them seconds before lightening lights the darkening skies, their situation becoming direr with pregnant woman.

"She's pregnant," Michonne breathes.

"Yea…" Rick says with a heavy sigh.

"What are we going to do?" she asks staring at Rick with frantic eyes.

"First, we're going to finish saving and helping as many people as we can."

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Every part of her body aches. Michonne pulls the skinny chocolate skin boy out the water and collapse next to him. The cold water laps at her thighs as she stares up at the night skies, trying to will her body to move but fatigue claims her to the depth of her marrow. The rain suddenly stopped some time ago, the sun set about twenty minutes prior plunging them into the night only illuminated by the dancing stars of the dark night.

Their search for the day at an end until the sun rises again, giving the light to search for any other survivors. Michonne prays that anyone still alive in the freezing water survives the night. Turning her head she looks at the boy who lies next her, he stirs and groans in pain but he's alive and for the moment that's all that matters to her. She looks away from him and closes her eyes while she does a mental inventory of her own body. Her muscles are sore and aches from her constant running, swimming, and pulling people from the mouth of the ocean.

Weariness succumbs her moments before she sees a flicker of light behind her closed eyes. She forces her eyelids open and looks up to the tall man with a medium build, broad shoulders and dark hair. He wears a pilot uniform and holds up a makeshift torch. Even in the flickering light Michonne can tell he's attractive but there is something that automatically grates on her nerves and causes unease to boil in the pit of her stomach. She tries to pull herself up into a sitting position but her muscles screams in protest.

"I GOT TWO LIVE ONE HERE!" He calls out into the night.

Within a minute Michonne hears two set of footsteps shifting on sand towards her; she tenses as a tall black man with board shoulders and a shorter Hispanic man with a hard face come into view, both men looking annoyed as they take in Michonne and the young boy besides her. The pilot hands the Hispanic man the torch before he bends down and picks her up. Michonne groans in pain and frustrations at the lack of control over her fatigue body, she cringes as the man touches her.

"Shhh… I got you." He whispers dropping his lips near her ear. She shudders with disgust at the gesture, thinking it's the cool night the pilot pulls her closer. Her eyes fall back to young boy who's being scoop up by the black man carelessly. The earlier heaviness of weariness flees from her body as she's carried by the pilot to the gather group of survivors. She recognize the pilot from earlier; he was one of the able survivors who focused on saving people from the part of the plane that crashed into the boulders. She's thankful for his help even with gnawing unease clawing at her chest.

As they near the improvised camp Michonne notices that someone started a fire, it's a decent size but still small for the amount of people gather around. The group of five make their way to the larger crowd, the tall black man drops the young boy onto the sand almost haphazardly while the pilot gently lowers her onto the ground near the flames. He smiles but the gesture doesn't quite reach his eyes, the smile only causes the gnawing to intensify. He caresses a stray lock of hair from her face, Michonne suppresses another shudder from his touch. Her inner compass instructing her to get away from this man while the gnawing feeling churns her stomach.

"Thank you," She mumbles.

"You're more than welcome," He says with another smile, this time his eyes light up but in a crude and dark way that causes her to shiver. Thinking it's the cool wind from the dark ocean he nods towards the fire and tries to lift her again.

"Let's get you closer to the fire. Warm you up and dry you out."

Summoning all of her strength she holds up her hand and pulls herself up onto her feet.

"Thanks but I'm fine."

Michonne checks on the boy she pulled from the ocean, a young woman with shoulder length brown hair in a flight attendant uniform bandages his leg. Once the boy is okay, she tiredly moves away from the pilot feeling his eyes crawl all over her. She searches the desolate faces of the survivor, not sure what she's looking for until she sees Carl. He sits close by the fire with the dark forest behind him; Michonne's eyes goes from Carl to his father, Rick, who sits close while he talks to his son. As she approaches them Rick's eyes flashes up to greet hers, his face lights up at the sight of her.

She pushes a tired smile across her face as he quickly ambles to his feet. He moves like she feels and meets her halfway, once the distance between them is close Rick gently places his hand on her shoulder and gives her a light squeeze. At the contact Michonne immediately relaxes as he guides her to Carl's side and instructs her to sit in the spot he just vacated. Once seated, he removes his hand and sits on the other side of Carl placing some distance between them. Michonne misses the gently contract but is satisfied with his nearness.

"Michonne!" Carl smiles with delight at the sight of her. "Dad was just saying he was going to go look for you."

Another smile pulls at her lips, she looks from Carl to Rick who hides his blush with the shadow of the campfire.

"Really?"

"I haven't seen you in a while, I was starting to worry."

"I told him you were okay but he was going to go back in the water looking for you," Carl confesses. She can see the hints of fear from the thought of his father going into the dark waters.

In the midst of the dire situation a giddiness at the thought of a concern Rick Grimes causes a lightness to flutter in her chest, she can't bring herself to look into his eyes as says, "That's sweet and thoughtful but I'm okay."

"Are you?" Rick asks waiting for her eyes to come to his before he continues, "Are you okay?"

"Everything hurts," She confesses.

"Me too," Carl whines.

Rick chuckles, he nods in agreement, "I'm feeling every bit of my age multiply by ten."

"Muscles I never knew I ever had hurts," Carl adds.

Michonne agrees, "My muscles' muscles hurt."

Carl snickers and nods his head causing his long brown hair to fall across his forehead and partly in his right eye.

"Try and get some sleep, the both of you."

"What about you? You need to rest as well."

His eyes twinkle at her concern, a half smile pulls at the corner of lips. It is the combination of his eyes and pull of his lips that she likes. It is much different than the pilot's terse smile, Rick's causes her to relax and feel hopeful in the midst of the unknown.

"Y'all go on and rest. I'll be okay."

"Are you sure?"

"Yea, now go ahead."

Carl lays back and closes his eyes while Michonne and Rick lock eyes. The attraction from their first meeting reignites as Rick takes in her salacious dark eyes and lush lips as Michonne's eyes commits his cobalt eyes to memory. The air between them heats up the cool night's wind, neither one looking away. A distance roll of thunder moans above them but it is a muffle cries of a survivor on the other side of the fire that pulls Michonne's attention from the intense gaze.

"Get some rest, Michonne," He whispers softly. Avoiding his gaze, she nods and moves closer to the fire hoping to dry out some as she lays down, almost immediately Carl inches closer to her. She smiles at his action remembering her own son, wondering if she'll ever get to see him again.

"Rick?" She murmurs against the wind.

"Yea?"

"Are we going to be okay? Will we survive this?" She asks trying to keep the fear from her voice but failing.

"We will, Michonne. We're going to be okay."

Cold, wet, sore, and hungry Michonne trusts and believes in the resolve in his voice. With his words ringing in her ears she closes her eyes and sleep sweeps over her covering her in a thick blanket of darkness.

A/N: A slightly longer chapter. I know several people asked for longer chapters but... *shrugs*.

Also... one guess to who the pilot is.

Thanks for reading, commenting, favoring, and following. As always it is appreciated.