A/N: Thanks to those who are still reading. This chapter is leading up to the reunion.

Michonne laid on the floor, a glass of water near, and glanced over to the playpen. Seeing two children sleeping, she smiled and looked at Rand, also on the floor.

"I think I hate Megan," the woman groaned.

"You know this was a good idea, Rand." Michonne rolled her eyes.

"I do. It's a spectacular idea, but I never realized yoga was hard."

"Me, either," she agreed.

Yoga, Megan recommended, was a good way to build stamina and regain flexibility after having a baby. She swore by it. She had been a yoga instructor before so she would know what she was talking about. She and her son, Paul, did it regularly after they came to live at the castle. Megan swore it was why they had lasted as long as they did when Michonne and Daryl had found them near Charlottesville.

After Jasper's birth she needed to get back in shape. Not for before reasons, for practical reasons. She needed to be ready if something ever happened and they had to leave. At first, Daryl had been hurt. He thought she didn't think he could protect them. He thought it was a good idea after she explained she trusted him, loved him, but Jasper needed both parents and yoga would help her get back into fighting shape. Plus, it was her and Rand.

Between her, Daryl, Waya, Adrian and Seth they had put the woman on lockdown after they came back from Blue Mountain, empty handed, with the news she was pregnant. The man in question had lied. He thought he, his wife and daughter would be more protected if they thought he was a doctor. Asshole. Juan, she guessed from what Rand had told her, had been pissed.

Daryl had laughed his ass off when he found out while Michonne had smiled evilly at her friend. Turnabout was fair play. She'd been banned from night watch, heavy lifting and no coffee. It made for a very interesting time with both of them pregnant. It was worth it, she thought, as she looked over at the playpen again. Jasper and Andy were sleeping curled up against each other. She wanted to take a picture.

"I hope she takes after Waya," Rand said as she stared at the playpen.

Andromeda Benetton looked almost like Waya, but with Rand's eyes. All three of them doted on her as if she were their own. Maybe she was. There were several residents that were taking care of children that weren't born to them. It really did take a village to raise a child now. Seth, Adrian and Waya doted on Jasper like they were the father and Daryl returned the favor. Tsula and Jenny had adopted them as younger siblings while Mark was the older cousin.

Michonne hoped that Jasper Dixon took after both her and Daryl. He did physically. He had lighter shade of brown then she was, a mop of black hair and light brown eyes. Daryl was loyal, kind, smart and good. She was practical and loyal, when it was deserved. She might be biased but her and Daryl's son was perfect.

"You think anyone else will send people?" Michonne asked the question that had been nagging everyone. After Robert said he wanted to send someone on patrol with them Rand had discussed it with her and Daryl. She thought it was a good idea. Daryl did, too, but was skittish about who they would send. They hadn't met anyone from the Fort. She and Daryl had been the main contact with the Training Grounds before the patrols started. The patrol found Blue Mountain and that place up by Willow Grove. The Four handled Lenny personally. It made her breathe easier they hadn't found any other communities like Alexandria.

"Robert, obviously. I won't know until the meeting next month," she replied. "They're benefitting from this as much as we are. Lenny. He could be a problem."

"He sounds weird, Rand," she commented as she sat up and drank water.

Rand did the same. "He is weird, Michonne. Who isn't?" She shrugged before standing and wiping away the last of the sweat. They both stood over the playpen, watching. "Can I tell you something?" she asked.

"You can tell me anything, Rand."

"I hope our kids are friends."

Michonne looked at the woman in shock. "Why wouldn't they be?"

She shrugged again. "Because I can be an ass?"

"You can. But it's alright. We compensate," she teased.

"You're an asshole." Rand rolled her eyes this time.

"So you've said," Michonne laughed before picking up Jasper and putting him up to her shoulder. It was nice to see Rand do the same to Andy. The woman had been a wreck during her pregnancy. It had unnerved Michonne to see Rand so rattled and it was good her friends had metaphorically kicked her ass. Rand had mostly looked to her for advice and she broke down and told her more about Andre. Those conversations, in her mind, cemented their friendship more. They, Michonne liked to believe, were more like sisters. Not that Rand ever said anything like that, but Rand didn't like talking about feelings. It wasn't Michonne's favorite subject either and maybe they didn't need to acknowledge it out loud. It just was.

Jesus was in the backseat of the minivan with Brock and Cindy from the Training Grounds. Tony, and Linda were in the front, Jess and Ash in the middle seat. He looked out the window as they drove down route 81. He saw a lot of nothing. He could hear Linda, Tony and Ash talking, but Brock and Cindy weren't saying much of anything. The trip was supposed to take a little over an hour according to Brick. Cindy pulled out some headphones and laid her head against the window.

"Tom? How's it looking?" Rand asked him when he walked inside.

"Fine. The tent is up, the tables are out. Helen and Michonne are finishing up the food."

"Hard to say that with a straight face, isn't it?" she murmured.

"Yes it is," he agreed.

"I'm going to feed Andy. Let me know when someone arrives."

"You think they'll come early?"

"I would."

"Not everyone is like you, Rand," he coughed.

"Damn good thing. Like us, they don't have much to do. Probably less than us. They'll be early." She paused. "Robert will definitely be early."

"Right. I'll have coffee on."

She frowned. "Not too much. We'll have to do another run soon."

Robert and Pauline pulled up to the spiked fence and he whistled. "Nice place." Beyond the fence he could see a stone walkway spanning a makeshift road with people and guns, more stone walls and stone towers.

Pauline frowned. "Yeah. It's real castle, isn't it?"

"It's what the papers said."

A young Hispanic man in jeans, a t-shirt and a gun opened the gate and approached their car. Robert rolled down the window.

"You can park over there," the man pointed to an empty area near the fence. "Make sure your armbands are on."

He rolled the window back up and parked the car. They got out and went through the open gate. "The tent has chairs. I'll let Rand know you're here," the man said as he closed it.

"Thanks," Robert adjusted his red armband.

"You think they'll all show?" Pauline questioned as they headed for the tent. Robert grinned. It looked like something set up for a tournament, minus the flags. He counted five small round tables in a semicircle with three chairs at each table. He and Pauline took seats at the one farthest on the left before noting a long table with plates on it.

"Yes. Food." He pointed.

"Good. I'm hungry." She paused as an older white man with a coffee carafe entered the tent and put it down. He smiled a little before leaving. "You know," she continued as she eyed the carafe, "we didn't need to leave so early."

Robert laughed. "I know."

They sat and watched as two young girls and a young boy brought food and silverware and placed it next to plates. Robert looked around as they waited. He couldn't see much because of the trees, but what he did see was the fence disappearing into the woods on both sides of the stone walkway. He wouldn't have been surprised to find out the fence circled the entire castle. Movement caught his eye and he watched as Rand and her bodyguards showed up with their swords and blue armbands. He and Pauline traded looks. They looked kind of scary when they were grouped like they were. Rand headed straight for their table.

"Robert." She nodded.

"Rand," he greeted. "You remember Pauline."

"Yes."

"Rand," she acknowledged. "It's a real castle."

"It's a real place," Rand shot back with a smirk.

Pauline snorted.

Tony pulled up beside the other two cars that were parked outside the heavily spiked fence. "Nice place," he commented. Inside the fence he saw a stone bridge over a gravel road and stone walls in the distance. The bridge had a few people walking on it carrying rifles. The fencing went into the woods on both sides of the bridge. Looking through the windshield, he saw a squat stone tower.

"Holy shit. It is a real castle!" Ash exclaimed.

Linda turned with raised eyebrows. "It is. It was in all the papers. It was supposed to be some kind of theme park," she pronounced before she got out of the car. She, Brock and Cindy headed to the open gate.

"Hell. Do you think we could get a tour?" Jess asked.

"We can ask," Tony replied as they all got out of the car. He slowed a little when he got a look at the four people dressed in jeans, t-shirts, blue armbands and tennis shoes with swords on their backs, waiting. He recognized Seth and nodded once.

"They look like they mean business," Ash muttered quietly.

Tony couldn't disagree.

Jesus raised his eyebrows. Shit. A real castle. The woman, surrounded by the men, swords on their backs, did look like they meant business. He followed Jess to the last table in the semicircle.

"Feel free. We have some coffee." The woman pointed to the table off to her right. He looked around and saw the other groups with plates, eating and talking amongst their own tables. He went to the first group, a black man and Hispanic woman, for their extra chair. Linda and her group, seated at the table next to them, headed right for the coffee.

Rand waited until everyone had filled their plates and cups. When she saw some empties she cleared her throat. She hated this shit.

"I thought of putting out those name tag things," she tried to joke.

One of the purple armband people smiled. "Yeah."

She took a deep breath and let it out. "Instead, we'll pretend like it's the first day of English Lit class. I'm Rand. I run the Castle."

"Seth, one of the knights," he bowed.

"Waya, a knight," he nodded from behind her.

"Adrian, a knight," he bowed.

She closed her eyes and sighed.

Robert laughed before he stood up. "I'm Robert. I run the Fort. My right hand, Pauline," he introduced. She nodded.

Juan, green armband, stood next. "I'm Juan and I run Blue Mountain. My lieutenant, Miguel." He pointed to the stocky Hispanic man sitting down.

"Linda. I run the Training Grounds. Two of my people, Cindy." She pointed a white woman with long dark hair. "Brock." She pointed to the white man with short dark hair. All of them were wearing their yellow armbands.

"Tony. My sister, Ash. We run Crazy Ass," he said as his sister called it the Bunker. Rand almost laughed at the looks they shot each other. "Two of my people. Paul." He pointed to a white guy with longish brown hair, purple armband. "Jess." He pointed to a white woman with short blonde hair, purple armband.

"Thank you for coming. It's nice to put faces with the names," she stated. "I'm not going to keep you long. I'm sure you have other things to do than to listen to me babble. A few reasons I asked for this meeting. One was to put faces to the names. I'm not sure if you were interested in who the other leaders of the communities are, but I'm nosy."

"No. I like it," Robert agreed.

Head nods all around.

"Good. The second was about the patrol. Robert approached one a few months ago and asked if his people could participate. We don't run the Trail. We're doing this because we have a vested interested in staying alive and so do you. We don't care. If any of your people." Rand pointed to the other groups, "want to join, I say the more the merrier. If it's something your groups would be interested in, we'll gladly take the help."

"How would it work?" Linda raised her hand.

"The patrol starts here. We can pick up members at your respective places, take them with us and once my people reach the Castle, your people would go home. The only issue I can see is that place up by Willow Grove."

"The Bunker," Ash exclaimed.

"Crazy Ass," Tony interjected.

"The Bunker slash Crazy Ass. This isn't easy. My people are gone anywhere from two to three weeks. It's a big area we cover. Not only do we check in with all of you, we check out anything…unusual."

"Like what?" Juan questioned.

"The leader of one patrol went further than Mount Jackson. Just to see what was up there. We found a few of the towns cleared out of things a group would need like food, gas, batteries, matches, etc." She got nods. "So, we sent more people to look around and found Crazy Ass."

"That's how you found us?" Ash frowned.

"It's how we found Robert. It's how we found Juan. The other option is you come here, we'll watch your cars or horses or whatever form of transportation you're using, until you get back. We've lost one person to walkers in the entire year we've been doing this. No losses from live people. We've set up places for the patrol to stay at night. If you want to do this, we do ask you contribute to the supplies we've left in each place, mainly food."

"Six people, right?" Pauline verified.

"Yes, we send six people. If you want to do this you need to be sure you can lose however many would like to do this for at least two weeks."

"We'll come here. One person, right now," Robert volunteered.

"Great." Rand addressed the others. "You don't have do this. Almost everyone has done, aside from the kids, at least one patrol."

"I'd like to talk it over with my people," Linda responded.

"Us, too," Tony said.

"Just let the next patrol know. They'll leave in two weeks. I hate to sound like an arrogant ass, but how many know what month this is?"

"It's April," Jess answered.

"Close. It's June."

"How do you know?" Miguel spoke in heavily accented English.

"We have some electricity. We have a laptop. Internal clock. The third reason is trading. We've cleaned out a building in Bridgewater and put in a septic system. We'd like to have a quarterly market day or two. Not to say other trading couldn't occur, but I thought it might be a little easier to see all the goods available. There are rooms close if you think the market should last two days or if you just want to rest. Thoughts? Ideas?"

Robert chuckled. "You are ambitious, aren't you, Rand?"

"No rest for the wicked, Robert." Rand looked at the other community leaders. "I've given you a lot to think about. No decisions have to be made right now, just when the patrol is in your area a yea or nay is sufficient. If you don't think the market thing is for you, we'll still trade. If you do, I'd like the first one to be in September."

"What building in Bridgewater?" Juan inquired.

"It's a hotel, actually. We'll clean the rooms or you can send people to clean the rooms, it doesn't matter to us. Like I said, just let us know so we can make plans. Any other questions?"

"Can we get a tour?" Jess held up her hand.

"Why don't we table that for right now," Rand replied blandly. "Let's work on these other things first."

"My sister and I would like to talk to our people about this market thing, too. Right now, we don't have that much surplus to trade." Tony admitted to Waya. Ash was kind of surprised he was Native American. The other knights and the queen had settled in at different tables to answer questions. Rand, nice looking woman, was sitting at Robert and Pauline's table. Adrian, also a shocker he was English, was with Linda. Seth was sitting with Juan. She wasn't trying to listen but she was sure they were all speaking Spanish.

"Fine. Just jump in when you feel you can or want," Waya responded. "As Rand said, you don't have to do this if you don't want and we'll still trade with you, if needed."

"But you already fixed up a hotel with a septic system," Ash commented.

"We have. From what we've seen, people aren't moving around unless something happens, like the group you got eight plus months ago. If a group were to find us we don't have enough room for them. Rand decided we should make another place for a group like that. It's close and we could help them get settled."

"Hm," she murmured. It was a good idea. If another group liked Grimes' showed up what would they do? Make them go away? If they were assholes they'd just kill them. She watched Tony nod. It seemed he agreed it was a good idea as well.

Jesus thought this Rand woman was pretty smart. If the Bunker (Crazy Ass) hadn't taken them, yeah, they would have gone somewhere else. It would have been a bitch to start over, but they could have done it. If a place was semi setup? Better.

"Does it have walls?" he questioned.

"Not now, no. We recently put the septic system in place. It was time consuming. It's our next project. Walls or fences."

"Would we have to help with doing it?" Jess leaned forward, coffee cup in hand.

"If you would like. We're not making anyone do anything they don't want to do. This is for us as much as you."

"Quarterly?" Tony raised an eyebrow.

"Quarterly. If we find more communities the interval may change. We can have the patrol drop off a reminder a month before the market."

"I like the idea. It's good," Tony hummed. "When will you start on the walls?"

"Soon. We don't have a set schedule. We'll have to go find the fencing first. We're inclined to do fencing, heavily fortified with spikes. The fences will allow everyone to see out and your people may not feel as comfortable trusting the Castle to do watch."

Jesus had to concede the man had a point. For the most part, people trusted their group. The Castle had done some good things, wanted to do more good things, but you trusted your group first. There were more questions about the hotel Waya answered, except for the location. "We prefer to get all the questions out of the way and confirmations first."

Jesus could understand that, too.

"Alright. Can we let you know ahead of the patrol? If we do this we'd like to get a head start," Tony relayed.

Waya nodded. "Understandable. You can. You know where we are. We'd like you to wait at least a week. To give everyone time to discuss it with their residents. The other groups may want to get a head start, too. There's one more thing. We'd prefer no guns in the market. It's a preference."

Jesus saw Tony nod again. "Good policy."

"We don't allow guns inside our walls," Waya conveyed. "We'll have lockers available for everyone or bring your own."

"Can see why you don't," Ash snorted. "Damn stone walls. Probably don't need them. Assholes would have to do a lot to get inside."

"Hm. Yes they would," he agreed dryly.

Jesus found himself liking this Waya guy. After more conversation with him Ash headed over to Robert and Pauline's table. He watched as the three shook hands and started talking. He and Jess stayed where they were while Tony moved to Juan's table and Linda was speaking with Rand and Miguel. Cindy and Brock headed to their table and sat down. "Interesting," Jess muttered.

"Sounds good to me," Brock responded. "We're the first group the Castle contacted and they've done alright by us."

"I like it. A chance to meet new faces at any rate," Cindy smiled a little.

"True," Jess agreed. "A chance to meet new faces."

"Knights," Brock snorted.

"I thought it was funny," Jesus said.