Rick brought Michonne a cup of tea and joined her on the floor in the living room. Judith was sleeping peacefully on the sofa behind them. The living room was illuminated with candles. Michonne had hoped that the lavender fragrance burning from the candles would relax her. She inhaled sharply then pushed the air out of her lungs. She still felt wired. The next time she closed her eyes. Michonne breathed in but choked as the lavender tickled throat.

"Hey are you alright?" Rick asked as he rubbed her back. Michonne shook. His hand felt like hot lava on her bare skin.

"Yeah I'm ok."

Rick looked skeptical. "Are we going to play this game, Michonne? You've been jumpy all evening. Can't say that I've ever seen you this way."

Judith stirred. Michonne ignored Rick. She turned her body towards the sofa and rubbed Judith's stomach. She couldn't look Rick in his eyes especially as he slid his hand over hers as she comforted the baby. He rested his head on Michonne's shoulder and wrapped his free arm around her waist.

"Sometimes I wonder what I'm going to tell her about Shane and Lori. How am I going to tell her how she came to be?"

Michonne pushed her nerves aside despite her heart drumming in her ears. Back in the house she had told Rick she was done taking breaks. She was all in...for Carl at least. But now, in her next few moments she was going to make her biggest commitment ever since giving Andre life. Inhaling deeply, she turned to Rick and took his face into her hands.

"Don't worry. When that time comes, we will face that together, Rick."Michonne assured him, still uncertain they all would survive long enough to face that reality. Rick faltered for a moment, admiring the reflections of the candlelight dancing in Michonne's concerned eyes.

"I have so many dreams for her that definitely doesn't include telling her that there's a chance that I'm not her father." Rick shared.

"But you are her father."

"I just want her to be happy. I want Carl to be happy."

Rick paused again.

"Now it's my turn. Are you ok?"

A soft smile formed on Rick's face.

"Yeah I'm good. I just want all of us to have some form of happiness even if it's not completely real. I need to figure out how I'm going to keep all of us safe."

"I don't need to be kept safe."

Rick laughed. "Would you just indulge me for a moment!"

Michonne nodded.

"I have so many dreams for us...no matter who may be joining us." Rick whispered as he lay in Michonne's lap. He pressed his lips against her midsection. Rick's breath tickled the skin around her navel. She jumped.

"Are you ever going to tell me what's wrong?" Rick mumbled into her stomach.

Michonne still couldn't bring herself to explain the true reason for her edginess. She diverted.

"Word is Rick Grimes has a fiancé."

The words broke him from his fantasies of loving on a swollen, pregnant stomach of his beautiful samurai. Monroe had told Michonne what he had said. Rick wasn't sure if he should be angry or die from embarrassment.

"When I went to talk to Monroe about the walls he tried to use you to get under my skin."

Michonne raked her fingers through Rick's hair as he continued to rest his head in her lap. She smiled mischievously. "Oh, just what did he say?"

"It's not important."

"Well it was important enough for you to mention!"

"He implied that I was too backwoods for you and that I would eventually leave you for a woman of my 'kind'."

"Your kind of what, Rick? M&Ms? Ice-Cream? Pizza?"

Rick placed his hands over his eyes and sighed. "Michonne you know what I mean."

" I do but I need to hear you say it. Ignoring it will not make it go away. Before all of this happened you had the luxury of ignoring stuff like this. But now you don't have that privilege anymore. Say it, Rick."

"I just don't understand people. The world has gone to hell and people are still clinging to racial shit. It's like I told Merle when all of this first went down. There's only white meat and dark meat."

"You know that I want to agree with you."

"But."

"But even in this reality, race still matters, you know? It's always going to be with us. I've lived with it long enough to know. Remember those people who stared at us this evening? You tried to explain it away to spare my feelings but it's who I am. That's always been my reality."

"Well it's fucked up."

"That's the understatement of the century."

"I've got a lot to learn."

Michonne nodded.

"But it's not your responsibility to teach me."

"Just don't ever say anything as asinine to me as you don't see color or you don't think of me as black. Anytime I heard someone say that it was clearly bullshit to me. Rick your "fiancé" is black."

Rick caught the way Michonne revisited his conflict with Monroe. " I don't want you to ever feel like you're an experiment."

"You don't have to marry me to prove a point to Monroe! Who cares about him!"

"It's a moot point anyway."

"What do you mean?"

"We're already married."

"Come again?" Michonne questioned feeling as if she were hit with a brick.

Rick sat up and stroked Michonne's face. "You heard me the first time."

"I don't understand."

"Yes you do."

"I'm afraid that I don't."

"We've taken vows, Michonne...well over a year ago."

Michonne laughed, nervously. "Maybe I need to take you back to the hospital."

"Just think about it and you'll know it's true." Rick whispered. He leaned in and nibbled on Michonne's ear. Immediately she shot up and sat with Judith on the sofa.

"Damnit Michonne would you tell me what's got you so jumpy this evening!"

"Lower your voice or you'll wake Judith."

Rick slid next to Michonne. He wrapped his arms around her. She looked away, unable to look at him.

"I knew it when you came to my room this evening."

"Knew what?"

"That tonight would be our first night together."

"I'm confused Michonne. When we were in the truck you seemed ok with it then."

"But I didn't have time to think about it the other day. Tonight, it's all I've been thinking about."

"So tell me how that's a bad thing." Rick said, amused.

"There's no turning back. It'll be you, me, the children. We could have a baby, and Andre. The children-I don't want them to die. I don't want you to die. I can't lose the children. I can't go through that again Rick! I can't!"

Rick felt Michonne's trepidation in his veins. It was difficult seeing her battle with her fears so outwardly. She had made so much progress yet he saw that she still had far to go to free herself.

"I'm not going to make promises I can't keep. I don't know how our journey together will end but I promise you I will be your champion along the way. Just try and let go, at least for tonight although afterwards I'm not going to be able to spend another night without you lying next to me."

Michonne still had her back to Rick. She didn't respond. His hand traveled to the back of her white halter top. He slowly pulled at its strings. Before he loosened the tie Michonne caught his hand and stopped him.

"What about Judith?" She asked.

Rick knew this was her way of saying yes to him. He got up from the sofa and pulled a Michonne into his arms. They kissed through their tears, unsure of from where the tears were born. It was love, yet there was joy, relief, fear, sadness even, flowing in their cheeks.

Rick broke free. He picked up Judith and placed her in Michonne's arms. He blew out all of the candles. He then pushed the couch in front of the door. He rushed to push the kitchen table in front of the backdoor.

"Let's go to bed."

He cradled his family in his arms as the three of them made their way upstairs for the night.