Jackson volunteers to drive in case Daryl's head isn't quite into paying attention to the road after the bad news about his brother. The young man glances in the rearview mirror at the large pick-up truck following them, Michonne at the wheel. The bed is full with four large oak barrels of wine, and what little clothes, food, and gear Michonne and Andrea wanted to bring.
Daryl, who has been staring out the open window, turns his head to his son. "Hell you keep looking in the mirror for?" It's about the sixth time Daryl's seen him do it out of the corner of his eye, and it hasn't been a quick glance. Jackson's eyes have lingered there, when they should be on the road.
"Michonne's hot. I mean, scary. But hot. Scary hot. How old do you think she is?"
"Over thirty. More 'n ten years older 'n you."
"That's not that much older. Especially not now."
"If you make a pass at 'er, she'll cut your dick off with that cut-tan of hers."
"Katana. It's called a katana."
"Whatever the hell it's called, you don't want it anywhere near your dick, trust me."
"She has an artistic air about her, don't you think?" Jackson asks. "She kind of reminds me of that girl I dated in high school."
"The one who got you hooked on LSD?"
"I made my own choices. Poor ones, but I made them. No one else. I own that."
"You made 'em so you could get in that girl's pants," Daryl mutters. "Look, man, if you need to get laid that bad, better take Beth up on her offer 'fore you get yourself into real trouble. 'Sides, Michonne's a carpet muncher."
"What? First of all, that's an insensitive term. You could be a little more enlightened."
"Why, are the P.C. Police stopping by later this evening?"
"Second of all," Jackson asks, "What makes you even say that?"
"The woman's clearly got a thing for Andrea."
Jackson glances in the rearview mirror again. "Andrea's pregnant. And she's apparently had two boyfriends since the world collapsed. She's not a lesbian. If anything, it sounds like she's got a thing for men who exude power."
"Didn't say 'Drea was a lesbian. Said 'Chonne was."
"Based on what?" Jackson challenges.
"You saw how possessive she is of Andrea. Didn't want her hooking up with the Governor."
"Because he was insane!" Jackson exclaims.
"She couldn't of known that at first."
"Michonne probably has really good intuition." There go Jackson's eyes in the mirror again.
"And then she didn't want 'Drea to go with that group up north," Daryl says. "Wanted her to stay back with just her at Terminus."
"Because that Eugene guy was probably making that whole story up just to stay alive. And travelling that far would have been risky for a pregnant woman."
"And she didn't want to come back with us either. Wanted 'Drea to stay all alone with her in that house on the hill."
"Well…" Jackson trails off. He has less of an explanation for that. "She's just being cautious. Like Addison and I were when you invited us back. But she came around. She agreed to join us."
"I'm telling you - that fur trader's a real oyster slapper."
Jackson turns his head slowly from the wheel and raises an eyebrow. "Are you serious right now with the terminology?"
"Sorry," Daryl apologizes. "Was just channeling my inner Merle for a second there." He slams his head back against the headrest and sighs. "I miss that asshole."
Jackson drives quietly for the next few minutes, navigating around road debris and abandoned cars here and there on the country, two-lane highway. After a while, he says, "I'm sorry you lost your brother."
"Sorry you lost yours, too," Daryl tells him. "And your mother. And your father."
Jackson glances at him, and then looks back at the road. "I was lucky, though. I found a second father. Who expects to do that, at the end of the world?"
Daryl sits up a little straighter in his seat, steals a glance at Jackson, and then says, "Hell, son, go for it."
"Go for what?" Jackson asks.
"Michonne. If you're lucky, maybe she swings both ways and likes robbing the cradle."
Jackson laughs.
[*]
Carol has just clipped the last bit of laundry to the line on shore when she hears the sound of an engine approaching the gate. Her heart leaps for a second, relieved not only that Daryl is back, but happy that he's back in time for their date. She was beginning to think it wasn't going to happen tonight.
Addison, who helped her do the laundry in the lake (which was icy cold) drops the empty basket she has just picked up. "Why are there two trucks?"
Instinctively, Carol reaches for the handgun in the holster at the side of her hip, but then remembers she took it off and left it in the boat to keep it from getting too wet while she did the laundry. Her hand falls to the hilt of her knife instead. When she turns, in the distance, she can see T-Dog swinging open the gate. Two trucks - one theirs, one not - rumble in and pull to a stop. A blonde, pregnant woman gets out of the passenger's side of one of the trucks, and T-Dog embraces her. It takes a moment for Carol to realize who it is, and then she smiles and jogs along the shore toward the gate. Addison follows at a slower pace.
Others leave their work to run to the gate as well, and soon the whole camp is gathered around the trucks. Laughing or wide-eyed with surprise, everyone embraces Andrea one by one (except Addison, who embraces her brother). Hershel and Maggie are a little cooler about their greetings than the others, probably because Beth almost committed suicide on Andrea's watch. Beth isn't cool, however. She's all smiles and excitement and may, in fact, be the happiest of them all to see Andrea alive.
People keep stealing glances at Andrea's pregnant belly, but no one has dared ask about it yet. Another woman has slipped out of the driver's side of the strange truck. She's lean and dark and walks gracefully but eyes them all coolly, as if sizing up a threat. Carol introduces herself with an outstretched hand.
"Michonne," the woman says and takes her hand and shakes it cautiously.
Rick, turning his attention from Andrea, looks at her. "So you're joining our camp, Michonne?"
"We'll see," she answers. "I'll stay for the night anyway."
Andrea introduces her friend to everyone in the camp, except Addison, who she doesn't know. Jackson introduces his sister to both of them.
"Well, you two can stay on my houseboat," T-Dog volunteers. "It has two bedrooms. You can each have one. I'll move to the couch." He grins, and Carol thinks maybe he's delighted for the company, and perhaps delighted that Carol is not the only single woman in camp anymore.
Michonne scans the dock. "Looks like there are enough houseboats for us to have our own."
"The empty ones don't have solar panels," T-Dog explains. "There's no electricity. We only live on five of the boats."
"We don't need electricity," Michonne insists.
"And they don't have any filtered water in the water tanks," T-Dog says. "We keep the tanks of our boats full. You won't have clean water."
"We'll manage," Michonne replies firmly.
"Michonne," Andrea chides, "I'd like access to clean water. And electricity. We haven't had that since Woodbury. We can trust T-Dog. He's probably the nicest guy in this camp."
"Hey!" Glenn exclaims. "What am I? Chopped liver?"
Andrea smiles. "In a tie with Glenn."
Lori leans her head toward Rick and says, "Well, I think you're the nicest guy in the camp," and he smiles.
Carol catches Daryl's eye, tilts her head ever so slightly farther in-shore, and walks off away from the trucks and the group. Daryl follows. When they're out of earshot of the others, Carol asks him, "Is she safe, do you think, this new woman?"
"She ain't safe, no. She'll slit your throat faster than green grass through a goose if you give her reason to." Daryl glances back at Michonne. "But Andrea trusts her. Think she'll be all right."
"Where's Andrea been all this time?"
Daryl gives her a summary and tells her what happened to Merle. His head falls when he reaches the end of the tragic news. "Oh, Pookie." Instinctively, she kisses his bent forehead. When he lowers it down onto her shoulder, she hugs him. He seems to welcome the embrace for a while, but then he shifts back awkwardly two steps and out of her arms.
"We'll take a raincheck on the date," she tells him. "I'll fix us something to eat tonight, we can freeze the quail, and you take your – "
"-Nah! Said I was gonna cook for you tonight. So I will."
"Daryl, you just – "
"- Don't wanna think 'bout it. And this'll give me something else to think 'bout. Something…better."
She smiles. "Are you sure?"
He nods.
Now she looks back at Michonne's truck. "What's in the barrels?"
"'Bout 300 bottles worth of wine. In each one. And there's more where that came from. Jackson and I are gonna go back to snag more barrels next week."
Carol laughs. "Really? Great. We can use the fertilizer in the gardens in the spring." They're already covered for the winter.
"Fertilizer?"
"Wine has nitrogen. It actually makes a decent fertilizer."
"Well that was one use I hadn't thought of."
"I wouldn't mind a glass tonight though." She smiles. "It would be romantic, wouldn't it?"
"Don't worry. You'll get your wine. Not whatever cheap shit is in those barrels, though. Wait and see."
Rick has wandered over to them now. "Jackson said you got a lot of formula. Thank you."
Daryl nods.
Rick glances over his shoulder. "Michonne seems wary of us." He returns his attention to Daryl and Carol. "She's insisting on staying on one of the gas-powered houseboats by herself. Andrea says she's staying on T-Dog's boat."
"Well, fine, let 'er," Daryl says. "If that's what she wants."
"Think we can trust her on a boat alone?" Rick asks. "She's not got sneak off and steal a bunch of our things at night and leave?"
"We got a watch," Daryl reminds him. He looks at the top of the boathouse, where no one is standing watch at the moment. Glenn had been up there, but he scurried down when he saw Andrea.
Rick, seeming reassured, leaves them and rejoins the others.
"Did Andrea say who the father was?" Carol asks. "I guess he's not with her anymore."
Daryl looks over her shoulder, and when Rick is farther away, he answers, "Was Shane."
Carol blinks twice and laughs slightly. "I guess that timing makes sense. I didn't know they…I thought he was too obsessed with Lori."
"Yeah, but I guess he took long enough a break in his plotting to steal her from his best friend to get his dick waxed by someone else." He shakes his head. "What a fucking asshole that guy turned out to be. And I thought he was gonna be a better leader 'n Rick."
"Does Andrea know? What happened to Shane?"
"Just that he's dead," Daryl answers. "That he died that night we all fled the farm."
"Maybe it's best if we keep it that way. Though I guess gossip has a way of getting loose." She looks back at Andrea, who is now talking to Lori. "Speaking of which, I wonder how similar those babies are going to look. And if Rick's going to notice."
"If he does, he'll pretend not to," Daryl assures her. "Shit. I didn't even think 'bout that! They're gonna be half-siblings."
Carol turns to him again. "Yep."
"Shit. What if one's a boy and one's a girl and one day, years from now, when they're teenagers, you know – "
"- Someone will have to tell them before it gets to that point."
"Damn."
"Well," she says as she glances at the trucks driving on down the shore and coming to a stop near the boat house / rental office they use as a storehouse and watchtower, "I better help Jackson and Michonne unload. But I think you have a dinner to cook." She smiles at him before she strolls toward the spot where Jackson is exiting the truck.