"What is all this anyway?" Michonne asked, carrying another box into the house and shouldering past Andrea as she moved toward some of the back rooms of the downstairs level that they were using as storage.

"Does it really matter?" Andrea asked, slipping out the door to get another box out the truck without waiting on Michonne's response.

Andrea was feeling good. They'd found the house without any difficulty after their run and now the truck was nearly unloaded. They'd designated pretty much every space in the house as being open for storage except the living room which was currently serving as their kitchen, bedroom, living space, and anything else they needed it for.

Once upon a time, Andrea remembered entertaining the thought of how different life must have been before all their modern commodities. This had been, of course, when she thought that life wouldn't go on without all the things that they needed to be comfortable. Now those times seemed ridiculous. She could hardly believe that before the madness began she, like so many other people, had lived surrounded by so much stuff that she thought was necessary. Now even houses like this one seemed a little ridiculous. Unless the family that lived here had been rather large, she couldn't remember why it was necessary to have so much space.

When she'd first begun to camp with the group outside of Atlanta, just when life had been flipped upside down, it had been difficult to get used to the fact that everyone was in such close quarters. Andrea remembered feeling suffocated, overwhelmed by the constant presence of bodies. At every turn it seemed someone was there and the concept of privacy had taken on a whole new meaning. Then, when they'd moved to the farm, things had become progressively more confined. The spaces grew smaller and smaller. The distances between them, emotionally and physically, had lessened.

Now, with Michonne, things were even more drastic. At first there had been some sort of physical distance between them established in their camps, though it was clear that privacy was defined differently for Michonne than it was for Andrea. Michonne was emotionally private. She liked more to keep her thoughts to herself, but she'd had absolutely no physical privacy. Modesty wasn't a word that could be used to describe her in any way. She was not ashamed of her nudity, and she didn't she offer to cover herself at all when in Andrea's presence. At first, that had thrown Andrea. Even in the camps with the others there had been a degree of modesty, and even when safety dictated they bathe in close spaces, there had been the silent agreement that no one would flaunt themselves, nor would they study the others.

And at first, Andrea had felt embarrassed with Michonne, but she had quickly gotten over the feeling. She'd actually, much to her own shame, found herself studying Michonne, though she hadn't caught the woman looking at her. She excused herself, however, saying that it was natural to look when confronted with someone else's nudity because of the novelty placed upon it by the society in which she'd spent most of her life. She even excused her lingering glances with the thought that she was merely admiring the physique of the mysterious woman. Her body was toned and shaped in such a way that Andrea thought that it begged to be admired, from an artistic standpoint, of course.

Now that the hurdle, however, of nudity and constant close proximity had been one that Andrea had leapt, she realized that she enjoyed the nearness of her new companion. She'd even been the one to suggest that they begin sleeping together. She'd suggested it in the interest, of course, of sharing body heat and the comfort of the one sleeping bag, but she also enjoyed the feeling of safety that the closeness brought.

In fact, she'd become so accustomed to the presence of her ninja friend since they'd joined up in the woods, that now Andrea realized she didn't care for the feeling of being away from her. For their time in town and during the few hours that they'd spent slowly unloading the truck since they got back from town, Andrea found that she disliked the moments when they were at their greatest distances, searching out supplies or carrying boxes, and that she enjoyed the seconds spent passing each other on trips back and forth from the truck to the storage rooms.

Andrea heaved up the last of the boxes out of the back of the truck and started up the steps into the house with it. She gently kicked the door closed behind her and glanced into the living room as she passed. Michonne was sitting on her knees in front of the fireplace, no doubt trying to start a fire to throw together some sort of dinner for the two of them. They could eat their fill tonight. There was more than enough food to last them for a good while.

Andrea carried the box through to one of the rooms that was serving as a storage room for them. A quick glance around the room revealed that it had once been some sort of game room, or perhaps a man cave of sorts. Worthless electronics were homed in the room that now held their food and the other odds and ends that they'd collected in town and would likely spend the next few days sorting through. Andrea looked around, nosing through the boxes that she'd packed specially, in search of a few items of particular interest.

While on the run, one thought in particular had struck Andrea. She realized that while on the run she was being given a chance to prove herself to Michonne. In some way or another the woman was allowing her to show that she had a place with her, that she was a worthy companion. Andrea was grateful for the chance, and she felt that she'd done a good job. That feeling helped her to feel a little more secure in the idea that the woman was not likely to leave her. She'd been worried before, that was true, but now she was comfortable believing that Michonne may not have intended to share her company, but now that she had it she was not likely to simply abandon her somewhere.

It was, however, after that realization, that Andrea had another thought. It was a thought that struck her as odd, and one that she couldn't explain, but she'd taken action against it. The thought was that, now that they'd found the house that offered them the luxury of a protected fireplace, Michonne might realize that they didn't need to share the same bed. She might decide that there was plenty of room in their living space for separate mattresses, and the availability of other mattresses upstairs would mean that it was possible for them both to have equally comfortable places to lie. The fireplace could also diminish the importance of sharing body heat, since it could easily make it comfortable to sleep separately.

Andrea was surprised that when she thought of this, she realized that she didn't want that to happen. She liked sleeping with Michonne, and she liked how safe she felt only inches from the woman. That had led her to go on a special quest while searching out items to create a nest, of sorts, that would be the most comfortable bed that she could fashion. She thought, however simply, that if she could create a bed that was irresistibly comfortable, then Michonne wouldn't consider, even for a moment, relinquishing her spot there to put distance between them and occupy a less appealing mattress elsewhere in the room.

Andrea drug all of her spoils out of the cardboard boxes that she'd packed them into. Her arms full, she heaved the items up, catching the ones that threatened to spill out, and made her way back to the living area, dropping everything onto the mattress there and beginning to assemble her nest.

"What are you doing?" Michonne asked, crawling across the floor toward a box of food that she had placed there.

"Making the bed," Andrea said, nonchalantly.

"I thought it was made," Michonne responded.

Andrea smiled over her shoulder. Apparently the run today, and perhaps Michonne's growing confidence in her, had brought the woman out of her shell a bit. It appeared that Andrea was going to at least engage her in some kind of idle conversation.

"It was, but I'm making it better," Andrea said. "You'll see. Don't worry about it."

"I thought we went for supplies," Michonne said.

"And we got supplies," Andrea responded. "There's nothing wrong with a little luxury when you can have it, though, and everything I got today was at a killer price."

There was no response except the clanking of a metal utensil inside of a pot. Andrea turned her entire focus on building the dream bed that she'd imagined in her mind and left Michonne to preparing the meal.

Andrea would have hated to explain to her old self, or even to her rational self, why this was so important to her, but it was, even if she didn't entirely understand it. Perhaps, she thought, on some deep psychological level the group leaving her had stirred up some deeply buried abandonment issues, or maybe it wasn't anything so serious, but all she knew at this point was that any closeness she felt to Michonne was something she wanted to hang onto, and she hoped to gain more in the future.

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After they'd finished eating, Michonne watched as Andrea spread out the map that she'd gotten while they were in town. They both hovered over it in the dimly lit living room, their foreheads almost touching as they studied it from different sides of the creased paper.

"See, this is where we lost Sophia," Andrea said, drawing a circle on the map with a marker. "Around here, this is where the farm was, and that means that here, in this area is where you found me. This water, this must be the creeks that you've been following, and hopefully the ones that we'll find tomorrow when we go looking for water."

"Which town were we in today?" Michonne asked, trying to read the map upside down.

"This one," Andrea said, putting her finger over the spot where the town was marked on the map. "So if we stay here for a while we can clear out these towns, they shouldn't be too far to go, and when we leave here we could still follow the creek line a little further."

"Sounds fine to me," Michonne said. "It's just the same scenery over and over."

Andrea moved away from the map then and sat back on her feet on the floor. Michonne sat up to, the map lying between them like some kind of barrier.

"Where do you think we'll end up? I mean I know you don't know, but do we have a destination?" Andrea asked.

Michonne shrugged.

"The coast? At least there we've just got land on one side of us. We don't have to be on guard against Walkers from every direction we turn," Michonne said.

Michonne watched Andrea in the flickering light. The blonde gazed off at the ceiling for a moment. She was obviously daydreaming, but Michonne didn't know if she was thinking about the future or remembering the past. Both looked the same across someone's features.

"So what, Michonne?" Andrea asked after a second, turning her gaze back on Michonne. "We just live by the sea? Sounds more like a poem than reality."

Michonne didn't know how to respond. No matter what they tried to call a plan for the future, Michonne had a hard time believing that anything could be realistic or reasonable. She had a hard time believing there was any real hope for a future right now. The world seemed too bleak. It seemed like anything they could hope for would be nothing more than a daydream.

"If we found boats," Michonne said, "then we could find an island. Even if it was overrun with Walkers, once we got them cleared out then they wouldn't be able to repopulate. I don't suppose they could swim that far, if they can swim at all."

"And then what?" Andrea asked.

Michonne sighed. Again with the constant questioning like she was going to have some magic answer.

"Don't huff at me," Andrea said suddenly. "We're talking. This is what people do. I'm not holding you responsible for what the hell happens to us, I'm trying to figure out if you've got ideas. We go to an island, great, but then what? We just wait there to die? We live as fishermen?"

"Yes, I suppose we wait there to die," Michonne said, losing her temper a little at Andrea's frustrated tone of voice. "Or we wait here to die, either way it's coming. At least if we were on an island we're not looking over our shoulders constantly. You do realize, don't you, that when we leave here it won't be just because we got tired of the house. It'll be because we've got to fight our way through a herd of Walkers just to keep going."

"But alone, Michonne?" Andrea asked. "Your plan is just to go alone to an island?"

"Did you have someone you wanted to take with you?" Michonne asked.

Andrea was silent for a few minutes and Michonne got up from the spot she was occupying. She cleaned up the trash from where they had eaten and moved the pots and utensils to the side. Tomorrow they would go and find the creeks and then they could bring back water to do things like wash dishes and bathe themselves. Doing all those things inside the house, especially using the small fireplace for all their heating needs, was frustrating and limiting, but it was safer than trying to do it outside. They needed some sort of protection from the winter weather that would be upon them soon, and they couldn't risk drawing too much Walker attention or they'd be run out before they got really settled.

"I know that you don't like the idea of trusting people," Andrea said, "but if we were going to take over some kind of island, don't you think it might be a good idea to take others with us? Or what if there's something here? What if we don't even have to go to an island?"

"What do you think we're going to find?" Michonne asked. She busied herself straightening up their items, though she was really just trying to find something to occupy her hands so that she had an excuse not to be looking at Andrea for the moment.

"I don't know," Andrea said. "I can't believe that there's just nothing left out there. Somewhere there's got to be people that are rebuilding society. It can't all just be some kind of barren wasteland."

"I've thought of that," Michonne said. The truth was that she had thought about it many times. When she'd first set out on her own that was what she thought she might find. She might eventually run into people who were reconstructing life as they'd known it before. Or maybe there was even some hope that the plague or whatever it was that had brought the dead to life hadn't reached everywhere. Maybe somewhere there was a place that was left untouched. As time had worn on, though, she'd begun to put those thoughts out of her mind. If this was an isolated incident, and only Georgia or some small area was experiencing it, then surely there would have been some kind of help that was sent by now.

"What if we found my group?" Andrea asked. "Would you trust them? They were my friends. We could all go to this island together. We could build our own little society there if we don't find anything here."

"They were your friends?" Michonne asked, turning around. "Andrea, they left you. Are you really going to go running back to them with open arms if you see them?"

"I'm sure they have an explanation for why they left," Andrea said. "I told you before. The herd that attacked was the biggest we'd seen. We got separated. They probably had every reason to believe that I was dead."

"How long did you stay to look for the little girl?" Michonne asked.

Andrea looked at her, struck for a moment.

"How long did you stay?" Michonne repeated.

"I don't know," Andrea said, "a while. I didn't exactly keep a calendar. We were hoping to stay on the farm for good. It was a safe place, or so we thought. We didn't just stay for Sophia. We stayed for Carol, and we stayed because we thought we could build a life there…"

"So you went to the farm in the first place because you thought you could build this fairytale life there?" Michonne asked. She put down the things she was holding in her hands and moved back to the center of the room. She sat across from Andrea again and studied the blonde's face. There were tears brimming in her eyes.

"We went to the farm because Rick was there with Carl. We were staying until he got better, and Sophia was lost in the woods, so we were going to look for her while we were there. It was only then that we started to think that the place would be a good place to stay," Andrea said. "And Lori was pregnant, so Rick wanted her to stay there."

"And what did you want?" Michonne asked.

Andrea shook her head.

"I don't know what I wanted," Andrea said. "Sometimes I wanted to stay, sometimes I wanted to go. I felt like the odd man out there."

"So you want us to go out and find this group of yours, this group that made you feel like the odd man out? The same group that stayed on the farm for all that time but left you behind? You want to find them and try to make the rest of our lives with them?" Michonne asked.

Andrea looked at her and Michonne couldn't read what was going on behind her eyes. She felt bad for obviously hurting her feelings, but she couldn't bring herself to believe that this was a group that they needed. She'd been doing fine on her own, but if she was going to travel with Andrea now, if they were going to work together, then she didn't feel like this group was something they needed to pursue. They were going to have a hard enough time surviving without having all those other people to worry about, especially if they weren't people that could be depended on.

Andrea shook her head again, but she didn't say anything. She was crying, but it was obvious to Michonne that she was trying not to cry. Michonne wasn't sure what to do. She crawled closer to Andrea and pulled her into a hug, hoping to calm her down.

"I'm sorry," Michonne said, rubbing her back. She was silently kicking herself now. Andrea had opened up to her. She'd spilled everything about her story so far, everything that had destroyed her or threatened to destroy her since the madness took over. Michonne realized that she'd just used that against her, though she hadn't really intended to do it when she'd opened her mouth. Andrea didn't know her story yet, and Michonne wasn't sure she'd ever feel comfortable telling her everything, or that she could even bring herself to say it all out loud, but she knew that she would never want Andrea to use it against her if she did. "I'm sorry," she repeated. Andrea wrapped her arms around her and they stayed that way for a few moments until Andrea obviously calmed and pulled away.

"No, don't be sorry," Andrea said, swiping at her face with her hands. "You're right. I wanted to believe that they were my group…that we all cared about each other…but you're right. Rick was in charge, and what was important was only what was important for Rick."

Andrea sat there a few minutes, now wiping her face with her shirt. She shrugged a little and offered Michonne a halfhearted chuckle.

"The only reason we even looked for the little girl was because Rick felt guilty for leaving her in the woods. I don't know if he even cared about her…or if he even cared that Carol had lost her kid, you know?" Andrea said.

Michonne nodded, feeling her chest tighten.

"Those things happen these days," Michonne said, softly.

"Not to Rick and Lori they don't," Andrea said. "Maybe to everyone else…but not to Rick and Lori. Especially not Lori."

Michonne settled back, sitting close enough to Andrea that their knees were touching. She knew so many stories, or snippets of stories from the other group, but she listened to them over and over when Andrea wanted to tell them, or when she felt like she needed to. Michonne had heard about Lori a few times, but she didn't have a clear understanding for the woman. Sometimes she seemed like someone she was supposed to like, other times she seemed like someone she would likely hate. If she'd been reading the stories in a book she wouldn't have had any idea what to do with Lori as a character.

"If Rick was leading the group, and everyone was doing what he wanted," Michonne said, "then I guess it was only reasonable to him to use that in order to take care of what was dear to him."

"Yeah," Andrea said. "And to do what was going to make him feel better. He had to do what was best for Lori, and Lori certainly had to do what was best for Lori." Andrea sat there silent for a few minutes. She reached her hand out and absentmindedly touched Michonne's hand that she had resting on her knee. Michonne didn't say anything, and she didn't pull away. "You know, I almost left them…" Andrea said.

"You almost left them?" Michonne asked. The confession seemed utterly bizarre since Andrea seemed so dead set on finding them sometimes.

"Yeah, I did," Andrea said. "I thought that…I don't know…I thought that I could leave with Shane. He was so wrapped in Lori, but he was outside of the group too. I thought that if he left, and if I went with him, that maybe we could make it. Maybe we'd find something better, or build our own group. It would be something where I would feel like I was just as important as everybody else instead of feeling on the outside."

Michonne swallowed. She nodded her head and turned the hand on her knee over, wrapping her fingers around Andrea's hand.

"So now it's you and me," Michonne said. "We're not a big group, but if you want to stay, I'd say that neither of us is any more important than the other. This place isn't much, but it's just as much yours as is it is mine."

Andrea smiled, her eyes still damp, and squeezed Michonne's hand.

"Do you really mean that, or are you just trying to get me to shut up?" Andrea asked.

Michonne half smiled at her in response.

"There's that too, but I do mean it. I wasn't bluffing when I said we'd find an island together somewhere, but I can't guarantee we won't be alone there," Michonne said.

Andrea nodded.

"Well, I guess we'll just have to see what it's like when we get there," Andrea said. "It might not be so bad not to have a bunch of people around."

Michonne could see that Andrea was feeling a little better. She imagined they would hit a lot of rocky spots emotionally if they continued to travel together. That couldn't be avoided. They both had a lot of things to deal with. You couldn't escape it if you'd survived this long in this world.

"Hey," Andrea said after a second, bringing Michonne out of her momentary lapse into a daydream, "you gotta try my bed. We got a new comforter and those sheets are 800 thread count. Plus, I got them big so the sleeping bag is under there as an extra level of softness."

Michonne couldn't help but smile at the look that Andrea was giving her. She had her eyebrows raised and was nearly smiling, as though she was congratulating herself on the impressive bed that she'd made for them.

"Why so special?" Michonne asked.

"If we're going to stay here for a while," Andrea replied with a shrug, "we might as well as enjoy it as much as we can."

Michonne nodded. She didn't want to admit it, but she was tired and Andrea's description did make the bed sound heavenly. Before all this had happened Michonne's bed had been something she'd always taken some kind of pride in. It was always the best for her bedroom. It was, after all, her sanctuary away from everything else.

"Well then let's go to bed and try this out," Michonne said with a smile. "We need to rest. Tomorrow we've got to find water."

"And don't forget that shed," Andrea said.

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Andrea stripped out of her clothes leaving just her shirt and underwear on. They'd never been able to sleep in pajamas or anything of the like when they were camping in the woods, but that was owing to the fact that they were exposed to the elements and they were also exposed to any possible passing Walkers. Most of the time they even slept with their boots on.

Here in the house, though, they didn't have to leave everything on. They could be a little more relaxed and not be worried about being caught naked by a herd descending upon them or catching their death of cold.

Michonne stripped down to her shirt and underwear too, and Andrea waited to the side while Michonne slipped into the bed, moaning a little as she snuggled down under the cover.

"Comfortable?" Andrea asked, smiling. She slipped into the bed too, and hugged her pillow under her head, rubbing her face against the soft pillowcase.

"I don't even want to go to sleep," Michonne said. "I don't want to miss how good this feels."

Andrea snickered.

"So I did good by picking up a few extra things for the bed?" Andrea asked.

"Excellent," Michonne said. "You're on bed duty from now on."

"I could handle that," Andrea said. She snuggled a little more into the bed and pulled the comforter up under her chin.

Sometimes she hated talking about the group. It brought so many emotions. Some of them were good and others were bad, but sometimes she just wanted a break from all of them. She was conflicted because she felt like she'd never been the kind to want to be alone in the world. She'd always had a lot of friends and she'd enjoyed her social circles when she was in school and when she'd found her job. Andrea liked people.

It seemed, though, that she was now going to be spending a good deal of time with someone who didn't like people. She wasn't entirely sure how she would adapt to that. Though the more she thought about what Michonne had said, the more she realized that Michonne may be right to some degree. It could be difficult to find people out there that weren't just looking out for themselves, or their special little people, and who were actually interested in your needs and wants.

Andrea heard Michonne's breathing grow steady beside her. She inched just a little closer to her, careful not to wake her, and enjoyed the heat radiating off her skin. They were almost touching, though not quite, and it was as close as Andrea dared to get.

Maybe they'd continue on like this…and maybe one day they'd find her old group or another group. Maybe they'd find some spectacular place where people had rebuilt the world they used to know and society was functioning normally. Or maybe they'd end up on Michonne's island and just grow old together, alone. Andrea didn't really know what would happen, and she honestly didn't know what she wanted to happen.

She may not have people around her right now, and she may never have a group again for a while, but for right now she was pleased that Michonne was opening up to her and that they were at least discussing possibilities for the future…possibilities that included both of them. Andrea might not have people right now, but she was starting to enjoy her person just as much as she ever had the group.