Author's note: Thank you very much to anyone still reading!

I want to apologize for taking longer to update then I have before, but I got stuck. I hope you enjoy what I managed to come up with.

I also want to say that I'm not familiar with a lot of the things that I need to include in the story if I'm to try and make it interesting. I try to research as much as possible, but there isn't always time to do it properly, so I ask that you excuse all the mistakes that I'm sure to make. Thank you!

P.S.: I like playing around with floor plans, so I made one of the basement to give a better idea of what I was thinking. Since I couldn't include it with the story, I hosted it. I had to get creative to put the link here, just put the following letters and symbols together in the order below:

ibb.

co/

VxXS

sw9


Jonathan switched on a flashlight and went ahead, followed by Marissa (carrying Elie), Michonne, Daryl and Lucas. They stopped while Jonathan opened a door at the bottom of the stairs, and Lucas tapped Daryl on the shoulder. "Hold this for me please?" he asked handing over a flashlight of his own. Daryl pointed it back where they'd come from and saw him locking a door before closing a second one, which looked quite heavy, and finishing off with a gate.

When they'd all cleared the stairs, Lucas closed another heavy door with a gate behind it and they walked through a doorway into an open-plan space. Michonne and Daryl were taken aback, that wasn't what they'd expected when they'd heard 'basement apartment'. And the lights were on! As they looked around, Daryl noticed Lucas closing some more doors behind them.

"You have electricity?" Michonne asked as Jonathan walked off towards a hallway without so much as a backward glance.

"Yeap. And running water, courtesy of my stepfather's fascination-turned-obsession with living off-grid. Ironically enough, he first got interested in the idea while watching shows about tiny houses." Marissa said. "We can go into details later if we decide we want to chit-chat. Anyways, let's get the tour out of the way. This, I suppose, is what you'd call the living area: dining to our left, kitchen back there, Jonathan's computers to the right and sitting room after that. The hallway leads to a powder room, laundry closet and three bedrooms with baths."

Daryl grunted. Powder room?

"So, what would you like to start with? Shower, rest, food, those maps, chit-chat? Something else I've forgotten?"

The woman was speaking so fast his head was spinning. Once he was able to gather his thoughts, the first thing that came to his mind was 'if 'Chonne says chit-chat I'ma take my chances outside.' Thankfully, though, she seemed to be thinking along the same lines as he was. After they exchanged a couple of looks, she answered "Maps, thank you."

"Lucas, amore, would you be so kind?"

"Sure, I'll be right back." Lucas answered, giving Marissa a concerned look before heading in the same direction as Jonathan.

"And I'll go organize a bedroom for you. It will be the one on the right, next to the laundry. Meanwhile, make yourselves at home. There's water and some fruit in the fridge and other stuff in the cupboards." After saying this Marissa left, Elie at her heels. The little dog followed her everywhere, even if she only moved an inch, it was as if the woman had a little dog-shaped shadow.

Soon they heard Marissa and Lucas talking before he returned. "I'm directed to tell you that there are clean clothes on the bed for your use" he said in a mock formal voice. "Now, on to the important stuff. This is what we have" he continued while putting a geography book and a road atlas of Georgia on the table. They concentrated on the last.

"We're here." Lucas indicated a spot between Senoia and Manchester. They were indeed in the middle of nowhere. "There isn't much of anything around, that was the main reason for her stepfather choosing this place; he wasn't what you'd call a people person. Any idea of where you need to go?"

At this point they were interrupted by some rather loud shouting. It sounded like Jonathan was letting Marissa know exactly how he felt about her trip upstairs and she was responding in kind.

"He never learns" Lucas said as he shook his head. "I'd better get in there." He started walking away but turned and said "Oh, all the doors are locked, so if you need to go back up for some reason come knocking, we'll be in the room at the end of the hall. If she doesn't kick us out, that is. Now, if you'll excuse me…" he trailed off before leaving.

When Daryl and Michonne heard "I FORBID YOU! ESPECIALLY NOW!" (Jonathan's voice) and "YOU FORBID ME?" (Marissa's voice), they looked at each other, grabbed some water and fruit and moved over to the sofa, setting the road atlas on the coffee table.

"The prison was around here" Daryl pointed just south of Newnan. "We walked southeast, as I figured. Looks like we only ended up 'bout 20 miles away, we musta moved in circles a bit. Truth is I don't remember much from before findin' you." He looked at her.

"Neither do I." She answered, looking back and holding his gaze for a few heartbeats.

They broke eye contact and stared at the map for a while before Daryl asked quietly "where do we even start?"

Michonne heaved a sigh and answered "I don't know."

After a little while longer she added "why don't we get cleaned up, eat something and maybe get a couple hours of rest? It might help if we start feeling like humans again."

"OK. Let's go see this bedroom with bath." He said. "At least I don't hear no more shoutin'."

"Let's hope it stays that way."


When they got to the room, Michonne said "You go first."

"You sure? I don't mind waitin'."

"Yeah, I'm sure. I want to look around."

"Alright" he said before picking up a towel and the clothes from the bed and heading to the bathroom. He stepped back out and said "your father would be happy, there's everythin' here you need to clean your teeth."

She smiled and thought 'Yes!' before setting out to explore the room. As she'd expected, it was spacious, the furniture being of high quality and latest design. Everything was neat and tidy; aside from some discreet personal touches, one might think the room wasn't used at all, just sat there ready for guests that wouldn't come. Except now they had come.

There was a desk in the corner with a few essentials on it. The drawers housed a laptop, various papers, office supplies and some odds and ends. Next to it sat a large TV atop a horizontal bookcase which, Michonne was extremely excited to see, held a lot of medical books. The opposite wall had an armchair with a foot stool and a very comfortable looking bed between two side tables, the drawers of which contained the tv remote, flashlights, batteries, some over the counter medication, papers, a couple of books and a few mismatched items. Lastly, she opened the wardrobe and found it full of men's clothes.

As she closed the doors Daryl came out of the bathroom and she was dumbstruck. Only when he looked himself over, slightly concerned, and said "what? Somethin' wrong?" did she realize she had been staring. She actually liked his usual disheveled, scruffy, I've-just-killed-20-walkers look. But she was now learning that there was a lot to be said for a fresh-out-of-the-shower, t-shirt-and-jeans-clad Daryl with water still dripping from his hair.

"Nothing wrong whatsoever. You clean up nicely. My turn now." Was her answer. His face flushed as she picked up her things from the bed and moved to the bathroom smiling.


Daryl absentmindedly walked to the bed and laid down. 'Chonne thought he looked nice? That was a whole new territory for him, no one had ever thought he looked nice, much less someone like her. He'd always thought she was good-looking (damn hot, if he was being honest). It had been confusing in the beginning, what with Merle's stupid ideas rolling around in his head, but he'd soon realized what a prick his brother had been, even if he did love him, and started noticing her more. When he'd first seen her smile, he'd almost fallen over she'd looked so beautiful. And now she was telling him he cleaned up nicely. He continued along this line of thought until he eventually dozed off.


Michonne was looking at a dress. A dark green dress. A short, loose, spaghetti-strapped, dark green dress. That's what the woman had left her, a dress. Nothing to be done about it now, she wasn't going to keep wearing her dirty clothes, so she put on the damn dress. But not for long. She threw open the door, found Daryl's clothes and quickly walked to the laundry closet she had heard Marissa mention. The woman did say they were to make themselves at home.


Daryl woke up suddenly and caught a glimpse of someone whooshing out of the room. Seeing the bathroom door open he figured it must have been Michonne and started for the hallway but stopped short. It was now his turn to be dumbstruck and hers to say "what?" This, however, didn't seem to register with him. What did register was how different yet equally attractive she looked. And as soon as she smiled, 'attractive' turned into 'absolutely beautiful'.


They walked into the 'living area' to find Marissa in the kitchen.

"Oh hi, did you find all you needed? If I missed anything, let me know and I'll see if we have it" she said, still speaking too fast for Daryl's liking.

"Everything was perfect, thank you very much." Michonne answered. "It's so good to take a proper shower."

"I'm glad you enjoyed it. The food is almost done, it's just pasta but Lucas is a great cook, so it's always tasty" Marissa said. "Here he is", she added as he came out of a door behind the dining table carrying a few boxes of spaghetti.

"Hi, I'm about finished with dinner. Have a seat." Lucas said and put the noodles in a pot of boiling water. It was all so normal it felt abnormal

"Watch the sauce for me?" he asked Marissa, giving her a peck on the cheek before walking towards another door, this one between the computers and the entrance.

Michonne and Daryl sat at the table and poured themselves some water from a glass pitcher. As they did so, Jonathan came in from the hallway, said "hi" and walked over to Marissa, who was stirring the contents of another pot. The two of them had a whispered conversation and hugged. Daryl hopped this meant no more shouting. Michonne thought this would probably mean a different kind shouting.

Once they were done with the pasta, which was indeed very good, Marissa produced a bowl of fresh berries for dessert.

"I'm sorry but I've got to ask, how do you have fresh fruit?" Michonne said.

"Hydroponic system and bonsai." Jonathan answered.

"Huh?" Daryl this time.

"We grow produce and bonsai trees in that room" Marissa said pointing at the second door Lucas had come out of. "Come, we'll show you."

Daryl had never seen anything like it before. There were what looked like PVC pipes and plastic bins with tubes going in and out all over the place, and they had all kinds of different stuff growing in, on and out of them. He thought he even saw a couple of watermelons hanging on some nets. There were also big containers with bubbling water, a worktable, a bunch of bottles with liquids and powders, a few buckets with some foul-smelling liquid, a lot of different looking light bulbs and, in the corner, a collection of tiny trees. He could hear a constant low buzzing sound.

"Wow, how did you manage all this?" Michonne asked.

"Dumb luck." Jonathan said.

"I think they might want a bit more information than that, Jonathan." Marissa said, petting his arm. "Come, let's have a look at the other two rooms and then we'll sit down for that chit-chat, if you want."


Author's note: I hope you enjoyed :) Please let me know what you think, your comments are a welcome incentive for me to keep writing.