A/N: Okay, so I think it's best to skip the usual excuses and go directly into the update, so I don't embarrass myself yet again.

Thank you to those who are still giving the story a chance! :)


Michonne and Daryl returned to find everyone gathered close to where Beth and Maggie had settled on the ground. As they approached and handed off the canteens, the group automatically arranged itself in a circle of sorts, Sasha being the first to speak.

"We need to go!" she exclaimed.

"Yeah," Bob agreed. "But go where?"

Mostly everyone turned to Rick at this point.

"Um… it's probably best if we spend the night here," Daryl said, looking like he wanted the ground to open and swallow him whole. He would never have said anything, but 'Chonne had nudged him and offered silent signs of encouragement, so he'd taken a deep breath and blurted it out. It was important information, after all, and it felt nice that 'Chonne seemed to agree.

As far as the rest of the group went, most where still facing Rick with bewildered looks on their faces, as though trying to figure out why his mouth wasn't moving when they'd heard words that had surely been spoken by him.

Rick, who was also sporting a confused expression, quickly recovered, turned to Daryl, and asked, "You think so?"

This seemed to wake everyone up, so they all followed suit and turned their attention to the archer.

"Yeah," he answered. " 'Chonne and me was talking' and we think it's best to leave tomorrow real early, 'cause there's very little light left now."

All eyes went back to Rick, except Carol's, which were moving back and forth between Daryl and Michonne.

"I'm not crazy about the idea, but I suppose you're right. Let's get settled and figure out the watch schedule while we think about where to go tomorrow," Rick stated.

"Actually… 'Chonne had a good idea," Daryl offered, looking at her, and by now he was a bright shade of red.

Anyone who had missed the ' 'Chonne' from when he had first voiced it, definitely caught it the second time around. This, coupled with the fact that he was speaking again, took them all a tad bit of time to process, which gave Michonne the opportunity to flash Daryl a smile and give his hand a squeeze.

Once the processing was over, attention was focused on the woman with the idea, so she offered it. "Back before I met you guys, I had this plan of going to the coast, maybe trying to make it to an island."

As people pondered the notion, more and more heads started nodding in agreement while utterances of 'yeah' and 'good idea' were heard, until eventually most eyes fell back on Rick.

He looked around at everyone, nodded, and announced, "It looks like we're going to the coast." The mood of the group instantly improved, some of them even smiled a little. Amazing what having a goal could do.


As the gathering broke up and people started discussing the things they needed to do, Daryl placed a hand on Michonne's shoulder to get her attention and motioned with his head for her to follow him.

Once they'd gotten out of earshot, he said, "I was thinkin', you know, we can't just up and go, we need to make some plans."

"I was thinking the same thing."

He looked pleased she agreed; he'd been afraid that, in trying to get as far away as possible from their recent hell, she might want to just go and figure things out as they went. "Okay, good. Well, I was thinkin' if them three idiots we found wouldn't maybe help us out with that."

"What? Marissa, Lucas, and… shit, I can't remember his name," Michonne remarked.

"Yeah, them three," Daryl confirmed. "They have that map, and they did give us a bunch of stuff."

"I don't know," she started, doubtfully. "I mean, it was just the two of us. Now we're what? Twelve?"

"I think so," he replied, after a quick headcount. "Plus Lil' Ass Kicker."

"That's a lot of people. My guess is they won't be very welcoming, or willing to share what they have. I know I wouldn't be."

"Yeah, well, I woulda kicked our asses out when it was just us two, so…" he trailed off.

"You've got a point, I suppose, but still."

"Maybe we don't ask them for no stuff, we just see if they let us copy that map of theirs," he suggested. "We shoulda done that when we were there, really."

"That would have been a good idea," she agreed, in a how-stupid-of-us tone of voice. "You know, if she's still talking as much as she was, we could probably get her to point out a few places nearby for us to check for supplies."

Daryl quickly considered this and nodded in agreement before saying, "I was also thinkin' about all those head pills that boy got. Maybe one of them could help Beth."

Michonne looked at him and couldn't help but smile. "That's sweet of you, to think about that," she started, and his face turned the usual tone of pink. "Unfortunately, I don't think that's how this kind of medication works, she'd have to take it for a while."

"Oh, I didn't know." He looked a little downcast as he uttered this.

"Hey, it's okay," Michonne stated as she gently pushed his chin up so she could look into his eyes. "You were trying to help Beth, and that's great, it just so happens that this particular way won't work. But we'll figure it out, as long as we don't stop trying."

"Alright," he replied. "So, do we go talk to those three tomorrow?"

"Yeah, I think so," she stated. "But it's probably not a good idea for all thirteen of us to show up. I think she said something about a neighbor travelling with her parents, right? Why don't we clear that house and everyone stays there while we go talk to them?"

"Sounds good." After thinking a little, Daryl added, "I just hope Rick thinks it sounds good too."

"We can always make our case to the rest of the group if he disagrees, you know" Michonne observed, in as nonchalant a manner as she was able to pull off.

Daryl turned to her with a confused expression, as though going to the others with an idea Rick had already discarded was an alien notion.

"Just a thought," Michonne tacked on.

Daryl considered this for a few moments before he seemed to shelve it future thought. He then got an abashed look about him, his face flushing, and Michonne knew he was working up to talk about something he thought embarrassing, so she patiently waited him out, wondering what was on his mind.

"So… I didn't think about this before, but, um… are we, like, a secret?" he finally asked.

"Would you like us to be?" she enquired, curious to find out how he felt.

He gave the matter a quick consideration and answered, "no." They weren't doing anything wrong, and he wasn't keen on the idea of pretending he didn't care for 'Chonne.

"Are you absolutely sure?" she asked, getting confident nods in response.

She smiled at him, put her hands on his shoulders and guided him down for a quick kiss, rendering his face brick red, since they were out of earshot but not out of sight. Even she was blushing a little, but her complexion didn't give it away.

The move also managed to surprise the hell out of Glenn, Sasha, and Bob, who were still around. Rick was present as well, but he wasn't so much surprised as he was suddenly aware of something that had been lurking in the back of his mind. And he wasn't happy.


Except for Sasha and Bob, who had volunteered to take first watch, the group was scattered about on the floor of the little shack. Actually, 'scattered' wasn't the right word, as the space was so small. It was more like 'distributed at short, unequal intervals.' They were eating what little food Michonne and Daryl had still been carrying and, well, mostly shooting the two of them a curious look here and another one there. It seemed like in the half hour it had taken for them to gather inside everyone had been made aware of what had happened.

After 'Chonne had brought their lips together in such a public way, Daryl was sure he would never be able to look at his friends again without turning beet red, what with his having done his best to be as invisible as humanly possible throughout most of his life. Oddly enough, though, that wasn't the case, he was taking the attention in his stride. Well, as much 'in his stride' as it was feasible for one of Daryl's shyness levels, which is to say he was sporting a permanent red tinge on his face but was otherwise fine.

As soon as the food was gone, Carl took Judith from his dad and joined Beth, Maggie, and Glenn in one of the corners of the space, which left a good opportunity for Michonne and Daryl to pull Rick aside. They approached him and Michonne said, quietly, "hey, Rick, could we talk outside?"

Rick looked none too happy at the prospect but motioned with his head for them to follow him. When they were by the cars, he turned to the other two and waited.

" 'Chonne and me were talkin' about us planning things out and preparing before we start for the coast."

Each time Daryl said ' 'Chonne' Rick had to make an effort not to flinch.

"Yeah, I was already thinking about that. We're gonna need to find a temporary place and do a few runs for supplies."

"That's what we figured as well, and it's why we wanted to talk to you" Michonne explained. "When we were trying to find you all, we met these people…"

"Damn!" Rick exclaimed, interrupting Michonne as he pinched the bridge of his nose and squeezed his eyes shut. "Is this more people we have to worry about? What did they do to you?"

"Nothing, they didn't do anything," Michonne quickly assured him. "It was only a girl and two guys, and they actually helped us." This elicited a very surprised look from Rick.

"I know," Daryl agreed with his brother. "Couldn't believe it myself. I woulda definitely run our asses out of that house. But they took us in."

"A house, huh?" Rick was intrigued, but then his expression had turned skeptical, "what did they want?"

"Not sure," Michonne responded. "We did end up helping one of them raid a couple of pharmacies, but he gave us a ride in return."

"Yeah," Daryl was nodding. "Plus that food we just ate and some other stuff."

Rick's skepticism increased with this new information. "This is all sounding too good to be true."

"I know what you mean, but they were quite nice," Michonne remarked.

"Bit much, if you ask me, but harmless," Daryl interjected.

"They weren't that bad," Michonne said, getting a 'uh-huh, right' look from Daryl. "Anyways, the point is that we thought about going back to them to see if they would be willing to help us prepare for our trip."

Rick was obviously doubtful. "Help us how?"

"Well, they have a roadmap of Georgia, for starters, so Daryl thought we could copy it. And the girl is from the area, so she might be able to point out a few places that would be worth checking out for supplies," Michonne said. "But, most importantly, we need food and water until we can go on these runs, and, if they decided to help, they'd be able to give us that."

"Really?" Rick was once again intrigued. "But how do you know we can trust them? I mean, trusting people hasn't gone great for us so far."

"I know," Michonne remarked, "but I think we can. They treated us quite well."

"Yeah, Rick, I'm with 'Chonne on this. They're weird, and the girl talks a hundred miles an hour, but they seem like good people."

"Okay," Rick said. "If we go, how do you propose we do it? I don't see thirteen people walking up to them as being a good idea."

" 'Chonne thought about that too. The girl mentioned the house next to hers was empty when this whole mess started, so we figured we'd clear it, and everyone could stay there while we go talk to them."

Rick took some time to consider their conversation and finally declared, "let me sleep on it."

"Right," Michonne said, taken aback by the authoritative tone of Rick's voice. She didn't remember his being quite like this at the prison, certainly not during his stint as a farmer. Daryl didn't seem to find it odd, though.

An awkward silence fell between the three of them, from which they were saved by Glenn's arrival. Apparently, people had started to play a made-up trivia game and Daryl was needed to settle a bike-related dispute, so he went inside. Michonne was just about to follow when Rick started speaking.

"So… you and Daryl, huh?"

"Yeah," Michonne agreed, with a shy smile.

"When did it happen?" Rick enquired. "If you don't mind my asking, that is," he quickly added.

"No, it's fine," she responded, "it was a couple of days ago." After a few seconds, she continued, "but we realized it's been building for a while."

"Oh," Rick interjected, with a not-what-I-was-expecting inflection.

"I hope it won't be a problem (?)," Michonne half said, half asked. She knew they had all grown very close during the time they'd been surviving together, and she didn't want Rick to think she would somehow keep Daryl away from the group.

When a little time had gone by without a response, she questioned, "Rick?"

That brought him out of his head, where he'd been in for the past few moments, trying to process this turn of events. It had been building for a while? What did that even mean?

"I'm sorry, could you say that again?" he requested.

"I said I hopped it wouldn't be a problem." When he still looked a bit confused, she added, "Daryl and me."

"Oh, of course not," he waived the notion away. "It's fine… it's great."

It didn't take a perceptive person to notice that 'fine' wasn't exactly the word to describe the way Rick was behaving, much less 'great', but Michonne wasn't clear on what the problem was.

"You don't have to worry," she decided to say.

"Worry?" He asked, still looking a little out of it. "No, no. Why would I worry?"

"No reason. I just know you all rely on Daryl, and I want you to know that I won't draw him away."

"Oh," he repeated, with the same not-what-I-was-expecting inflection. "We rely on you too, you know," Rick declared. He then walked up to her, looked straight into her eyes, and added, "I do."

It was now Michonne's turn to utter the surprised "oh." She looked away and, after a little while, she emitted a second "oh," this time with an oh-shit-I-think-I-just-got-what's-going-on inflection. Could she be right?

She took two steps back, giving herself a couple of seconds to think, and declared, "I'm happy to contribute. You are all very important to me."

Rick understood exactly what the "all" in Michonne's sentence meant. He had to get away from her immediately, so he said, "right… well, I'm gonna check the woods, just close to the cabin, make sure everything looks good for the night."

"Of course," she responded.

And, with that, they went their separate ways.


Daryl woke up with a start and reached for his crossbow, which prompted Michonne, who was lying against his side, to also wake up with a start and reach for her weapon. From then on it was a chain reaction as each person awoke whoever was closest to them, until everyone was looking around trying to understand what was going on. Good thing it was just about daybreak anyway.

Despite the commotion, Daryl had been able to identify what, or rather, who, had roused him – Carol. He noticed her just as she was slipping out, a bag slung over her shoulder, and thought it best to go check what she was up to.

He turned to Michonne and was unable to hold a shy smile.

"Hi," she offered, along with a non-shy smile. When she realized he was getting up, she frowned a bit and asked, "something wrong?"

"No," he answered, "I'm just goin' outside real quick."

When she still looked a little worried, he added, "I'm just gonna help Carol, I think she went to get the cars ready for us to leave."

"Okay," Michonne responded as she also made to get up.

"No, it's okay," he said. "You take your time waking up. We got it."

Daryl hesitated a couple of seconds as a heated debate took place in his head on whether he dared kiss Michonne before he left, but she solved his dilemma by doing it herself. It wasn't much more than a quick meeting of their lips, but it had him just giddy enough to get his day off to a good start. He met Glenn on his way out, sitting on the steps as he kept watch, and looked around for his sister.

"Hey," Daryl offered as a greeting.

"Hey."

"Didja see where Carol went?"

"Yeah, just through those bushes."

That was strange. Where the hell could she be going? He'd better hurry if he wanted to find out.

By the time he caught up to her, she had covered quite a bit of ground.

"Carol, wait!" Daryl called to her.

She kept walking.

"Carol!" he called again, a little louder.

Again, she kept walking

"Dammit, Carol, wait!" he ended up shouting.

This got her to turn around. "Do you want every walker in the vicinity coming our way?!" she asked, in a mixture of a whisper and a yell.

"Sorry," he responded, "but you wouldn't stop."

"Maybe that's because I didn't want to stop."

"What do you mean?" he asked, his brow furrowing.

"I mean exactly what I said: I'm walking, and I don't want to stop."

He considered this for a few seconds before he asked, "you mean… you're leaving? By yourself?"

She took a deep breath, looked at him, and declared, "yes."

"Why?"

"Why?!" she repeated the question in a tone one uses to show the answer should be obvious. "Because I'm clearly not needed anymore."

"Whatcha talkin' about, 'not needed'? You saved all our asses yesterday!"

"Exactly – yesterday. Now you're all out and can take care of each other, so I´m on my merry way."

"Is this about what happened at the prison?" he asked. "Because if it is, that ain't no reason for you to leave; what's done is done. It wasn't right, but Rick shouldn't have thrown you out neither. Your place is with us."

" 'With us', huh?"

"Yeah, we're a family."

"I see… and who am I, in this family of yours?"

"What?" he asked, looking confused.

"Who am I?... To you?"

"To me?" he repeated, "well… you're family," he responded, trying to avoid a ´duh!´ tone of voice.

"So you've said," she remarked. "Which part of the family am I? That's what I'm asking."

"Well… you're my sister," he answered, surprised she had to ask.

"Sister!" Carol exclaimed. "Yeah, I thought it'd be something like that from your display yesterday."

Daryl was utterly bewildered. They were having an argument, that much he could tell, but he couldn't understand why, or what it was about, and he got the impression that admitting to this lack of information was not a good idea.

"When did you start calling her that?" Carol asked.

"Calling who what?" Daryl was even more confused now.

"Michonne," she responded. "When did you start calling her 'Chonne?"

"Oh…" Daryl uttered as his cheeks turned pink. "I dunno… few days ago."

"Why?"

"Um… I dunno… it feels right." The pink hue was quickly deepening and was now accompanied by a bashful smile.

Carol couldn´t take it anymore. She looked straight at him and spat her next question, "Did you fuck her?"

"What?!" Daryl exclaimed, astonished at first, but on his quick way to indignant. The red shade that was overtaking his face was no longer only due to shyness. "That is none of your business," he stated, evenly but firmly, looking straight back at her.

She recoiled, as though he had slapped her, and turned away.

Daryl couldn´t understand how they´d gotten to this point. He didn´t think he could bear losing anyone else, so he took a few deep breaths and said, "something good is finally happening in my life." After another couple of breaths, he quietly added, "you're my sister… why ain´t you happy for me?"

Carol had to take a number of deep breaths of her own to maintain any semblance of control because, each time he said 'sister', it felt like another slap to her face. "I…." she didn´t know how to answer him. "I'm sorry, I just can't right now. You need to go."

"I'm not gonna leave you here. It's okay if you're mad at me, let's just go back," he responded.

"No, I need to be alone right now." When she didn't hear him walk away, she turned and almost yelled, "just fucking go!"

Even though Daryl didn't like it, he thought it best to comply. He did, however, ask before going, "you're coming too, right?"

"No!" she responded, automatically. She then calmed down a bit and continued, "I don't know… maybe." He gave her a pleading look and she sighed, frustratedly. "Yeah… I'll be back before it's time to leave."

Daryl didn't look entirely convinced but thought this was as much as he was likely to get, so he walked away resignedly, hoping against hope that she would indeed join them.


A/N: I hope you enjoyed the chapter! If you have the chance, I would love a review/comment with your thoughts. Thanks! :)