A/N: Thank you very much to anyone still reading! I know there are many options to choose from, so I really appreciate those taking the time to try my story!


If Daryl thought his head was hurting before, it was nothing compared to how it was feeling now. He'd probably talked more in the last couple of hours than in the last couple of months. When Marissa told him they had all the information they needed, he'd jumped up and all but ran out of the living room, not wanting to risk being called back.

And now he was outside the door to his and Michonne's room. Their room. Where, he had just realized, there was only one bed.

Not that they hadn't slept close to each other before, they'd even had to make do with just one blanket once, to keep from freezing their asses off during a particularly cold night while looking for the Governor. But sharing a proper bed felt somehow different.

He slowly opened the door, trying not to wake Michonne, but he knew better. As soon as there were sounds of movement, he abandoned his useless effort and walked in to find her sitting cross-legged on the bed and still wearing the green dress. He stood there biting the side of his thumb while trying to figure out what to do next, eventually deciding to sit on the armchair and take off his boots.

"Sorry, I was tryin' to be quiet," he said.

"Don't worry. I don't think either of us will ever be able to not wake the other again," she responded.

"Yeah" he agreed. "Finally got away from all them questions. Still don't see how this can help."

"I don't either," she sighed wearily "Let's just wait and see if those two come up with anything worthwhile. We can still get one or two more hours of sleep," she said getting under the covers. "Here's something I thought I'd never say again: would you turn off the lights, please?"

He went to the light switch, flicked it off and once again stood there biting the side of his thumb and trying to figure out what to do next, eventually deciding to sit on the armchair, this time to settle for the night.

Michonne realized he hadn't laid down and looked back at him. "What are you doing?"

"I… um… well… I thought I might sleep here," he stammered.

"Don't be ridiculous, hop on" she said patting the empty space next to her.

His face flushed and, for a moment there, it seemed like his brain might actually short-circuit. Once he recovered, he got into bed, lying stiffly on his back and staring straight at the ceiling. She turned to look at him and had to bite her lower lip to keep from smiling too broadly at his nervousness. Before she realized what she was doing, she gently brushed his hair away from his face, gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, said goodnight, and faced the other way, leaving him to turn a shade of red he had probably never before attained, all the while wondering how the hell he was supposed to get any sleep now.


Some two hours later Daryl and Michonne walked into the kitchen to the sweet smell of coffee. They each happily accepted a cup and moved to the dining table where Jonathan and Marissa were poring over the road map. Lucas joined them, taking for himself Marissa's coffee mug, which he replaced with a glass of orange juice.

"So, was this exercise as futile as expected?" Lucas asked.

Marissa gave him with an indignant look, which turned into a downright murderous stare when she noticed the change in her beverage.

"Yes" answered Jonathan, getting a stare of his own. "Not enough time and data for a proper model. It was fun, though."

"OK, so it wasn't exactly a success, but we have some considerations, even if they are obvious" Marissa said.

"You have considerations. I had nothing to do with your dubious reasoning" Jonathan interjected.

"Shush" she told Jonathan before turning to the others. "In general terms, we think no one is likely to go north, seen as the situation in Atlanta was well known by all. Chances of people going west are also not high since humans tend to gravitate toward the coast as opposed to inland. That still leaves everything in quadrant IV, though." She paused to draw breath and continued "any children who got out by themselves would almost certainly have hovered around waiting for an adult to come by, with the possible exception of…" she stopped to consult her notes before going on "…Carl, who seems like he would choose to search for his father and sister."

Both Daryl and Michonne nodded in agreement.

"Which brings us to more specific educated guesses," Marissa said, getting an eye roll from Jonathan. She assumed an air of one who's going to give a college lecture and carried on "the brain is wired so that, in times of extreme stress, it relies on faster, more primitive regions, whose behavior is largely automatic under such circumstances."

"In other words, when things get complicated people tend to go back to what they know" Lucas interrupted, giving Marissa a no-one-cares-so-let's-move-this-along look.

"Alright, alright," she said and picked up her notepad. "This means that, um… Beth and Maggie would likely return to their farm, whether they got out together or in the hopes of finding one another. By extension, so would Glenn. There's a good chance anyone who used to live in Woodbury, and didn't personally go through a traumatic event there, decided that going back might be a good idea, especially with the infrastructure that was in place." She looked at her notes again and continued "with Rick it probably went differently because in all likelihood he'd be looking for his children. This, in addition to his being badly hurt, would have kept him close to the prison. He would still tend to end up in spots where he'd already been, though, particularly ones where he may have taken his son."

She laid the map closer to Daryl and Michonne and started pointing out places as she went on "If I were you I'd go look around Senoia because a) the farms is on its outskirts, and b) it's only about 15 miles from where you said the prison is located, so it's close enough for anyone to have reached, even those who couldn't, or wouldn't, have moved much. My second choice would be Woodbury. If I didn't find anyone at whichever location I chose, I'd just go east until I hit the coast."

Michonne and Daryl exchanged a we-need-to-talk-this-over look before she turned to the other three and said "thank you very much."

"No problem," Marissa responded. "I'm just sorry it was all so feeble."

"Not at all, you've given us a lot to think about." Michonne said.

After a slight pause in the conversation, Lucas got up and said "the plants need looking after, so we'll leave you to discuss your plans."

Daryl grunted a "thanks" and the three hosts left.

Not even one minute had passed before the door opened and Lucas returned. "I'd like a word" he said sitting back down.

"Sure, go ahead," Michonne responded.

"There are a couple of things we need that require raiding a pharmacy, something we haven't done before. Normally Jonathan and I would attempt it while Marissa stayed behind to look after the garden and the animals, but right now she can't be left by herself, which means one of us would have to venture out alone, and that's something else we haven't done before. I'd like to propose that I drive you wherever you choose to go in exchange for your helping me look for what we need on the way. I wanted you to take this into account when you consider what to do next. Talk it over and let me know what you think."

"We will" Michonne assured him as he got up to leave again.


Once they were alone, Michonne said "I have to admit, they, or rather she, actually had some good points."

"I s'pose. Where do you think we should go?"

"Well… you said we are about twenty miles from the prison, right? So, we walked what per day? Shit, I'm not even sure how long it's been since we were attacked. I'd say… two or three days?"

"Seems like it oughta be more, but I don't see how. We're sleepin' here tonight, so one day. Before that we was at the treehouse, so two. Like I said, I ain't clear on what happened before we met, but it couldn't've been more than another day 'cause I don't remember lookin' for water."

"OK, so let's say two days since that gives us a higher average, 10 miles per day. You think anyone is doing more?" she asked.

"If they got away on the bus, sure. If they is walkin', only if it's one of the adults and they couldn't be hurt or meetin' too many walkers."

"Sounds about right, if I had kept my head, I'm sure I would have moved further. The question is: moved where? What would you have done if we hadn't met?"

Daryl looked at her and thought 'that is the question.' And he sure as hell didn't have an answer for it. He hadn't even let himself think about it much, scared of what his brain might come up with. Out loud he said "I woulda tracked down the closest river or creek and set up camp nearby. Beyond that I honestly don't know, it would be my first time without anyone since this nightmare. How 'bout you?"

"I thought about it a lot while I was alone, and maybe it's the whole 'humans tend to go to the ocean' thing Marissa said, but I figured the coast was the best bet, better if I could make it to an island."

"Hmm… that does sound like a good idea."

"I know, right? But that was when I was thinking of where to settle, now our goal is to look for the others first. Would any of them attempt it when it's around 300 miles from here to the beach?"

"Probably not. Fuck, what the hell do I know?" he said frustratedly. He paused to ponder, biting the side of his thumb, and added "I say we go with what she said and look around Senoia. I can get us to the farm, no problem."

"OK. And do we help them with the pharmacy thing? It would get us there much faster."

"Why not? We done so many runs one more don't make no difference. We just need to tell him there's no guarantee and we ain't tryin' nothing too crazy."


After everything was agreed upon, they started getting ready to leave as soon as possible. Jonathan was preparing something for them to eat, Daryl and Lucas were getting the car ready and Michonne was in the mini-mart room with Marissa gathering supplies. They grabbed bags and started filling them with all kinds of necessities. When they got to the toiletries section Marissa spotted something in a middle shelf.

"Oh look, I forgot we had these stored," she said, pulling out a 36-count box of condoms. "Here, for you, I'm sorry I didn't think of it yesterday."

"Um… thank you, but it's OK, Daryl and I aren't together" Michonne said.

"Why not? You seem to get along quite well and, based on what you told us last night, I'm sure you've developed a bond. I mean, with the amount of time you two spend alone together, under stressful conditions no less, it's either that or you would have killed each other by now; there's really no middle ground in these circumstances." She handed Michonne some soap and shampoo before continuing "besides, even if you're not together, so what? Didn't the two of you define the current situation as 'everything going to hell'? That's no time to be creating difficulties for doing one of the few enjoyable things the world has to offer. Just make sure you don't get pregnant," she added looking serious. "Or maybe Daryl's not your type? I don't see why he wouldn't be; then again, we can't all agree on what makes someone handsome. Too bad you're not staying another night; if Lucas is more to your liking, I'm sure he would happily go for it if you wanted, and you would most definitely not be disappointed."

"Oh, I thought…" Michonne blurted out before quickly stopping herself.

"That we were together?" Marissa completed the sentence and nodded a positive response. "Since we all were fifteen. But I have two, so who am I to limit them? Jonathan never branched out, but Lucas did all the time."

Michonne didn't quite know how to respond to all this personal information. Not that it mattered, though, since even if she managed to come up with something she'd be lucky to get more than two words in.

Marissa turned the package around and read something before continuing "anyways, take the condoms. I don't need them, and it would be a shame to let them go to waste. It looks like they'll expire in six months, so to be on the safe side you should be good for three or four, just in case we haven't kept proper track of time." She rummaged around the shelf and pulled out two more boxes "I think this is all we have, so you'll have to pace yourself."

Michonne still had no idea what to say.

"And think about it. We've only met yesterday, so I could be entirely wrong, but Daryl seems like a good person, as do you. I also have an inkling that there's a sweet guy hidden under all his gruffness. Plus, he's hot. Just imagine looking into his beautiful blue eyes while you run your hands over his strong arms, and other body parts I didn't have the pleasure of seeing but which I'm sure are just as desirable. You clearly believe you're lucky if you make it to the end of each day, so why pass that up?" Marissa said as though she was advising Michonne to consider Daryl as a partner for something like a card game. "Alright, let's move over to the MREs."


Michonne and Daryl were in the bedroom packing the last of their things when they heard a knock.

"Come in," Michonne said.

Marissa entered. "Hi, how's everything?"

"Good, we're almost done, should be ready to leave in 15 minutes," Michonne answered.

"Great. Can I borrow Daryl for a few minutes?"

Michonne turned uncertainly to him, who looked alarmed and somewhat indignant. He eventually shrugged and walked out of the room muttering something that was best left untranslated. Marissa smiled and winked at Michonne before closing the door and following him, which had the latter apprehensively wondering what the other woman was up to.

Marissa led Daryl into the indoor garden and said "I need to release water with nutrients into the system but it's going to take a stronger pair of hands than mine, and Jonathan and Lucas are upstairs. It's these valves, they're too tightly closed."

Daryl looked at the thirty or so valves and got started, surprised to find that they were indeed unyielding."

"The things you and Michonne told us last night were disconcerting, you've been through a lot," Marissa said, getting a grunt in response. "You must be well trained in combat by now." Another grunt. "The katana Michonne carries is impressive, is she any good with it?"

This time Daryl felt compelled to speak " 'Chonne is amazing," he said, his demeanor instantly softening. "I found more than twenty walkers she killed by herself just three days ago. No one I rather fight with."

"Amazing, huh? Almost makes me want to see her in action. What does she look like?"

"Oh, it's a sight, all focused and hittin' just right. Many times she takes out two walkers with one swing, I even seen her do three once," he said in admiration. "She's fearless."

"Impressive. And you definitely look like you know your way around that crossbow. How lucky you found each other. I mean, who would want to mess with such a formidable couple?"

Daryl froze like a deer in the headlights and Marissa patiently waited for him to recover. When he finally did, he turned fire-hydrant red and mumbled "we ain't a couple."

"No? You surprise me; you are so well suited to each other. Haven't you ever considered it?"

Daryl didn't respond, but it got him thinking. The answer was no, he hadn't. He'd given up on wanting things he couldn't have long before any of this ever happened and he couldn't, even in his wildest dreams, imagine Michonne wanting to be with someone like him. Well, maybe every now and again one of those dreams betrayed him, but that was beside the point. The fact was that she was out of his league and he'd do well to put an end to these musings.

"You know," Marissa started when she saw that Daryl was done with his internal conversation, "there are things that happen throughout history which change our mating dynamic, and this virus is one of them. The basic idea remains the same, we subconsciously look in each other for the characteristics we think would give our offspring the best chance of survival, even if we don't want children. The definition of what these traits are, however, alters according to what society is experiencing at the time. From what you told us things are like outside, this disease, devastating as it may be, turned both you and Michonne into very desirable partners. Equally. You are now an eligible bachelor and she is an eligible bachelorette. It's something to consider."

Once he had opened all the valves her manner transformed into a somber one and she pleaded "please take care of Lucas for me. Don't let him do anything stupid. He won't say, but I know whatever it is he wants to get is for me, and there's nothing I could possibly need more than I need him."

Daryl was taken aback by the sudden shift in the tone of the conversation but got over it when he sensed the woman's distress. Fighting through his feelings of awkwardness caused by the display of emotion, he responded seriously "we will."


A/N: I hope you enjoyed :) Please let me know what you think, your comments keep me motivated.