"The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep."

― Robert Frost

Hours later, along a dark, Route 23, the Cadillac and RV traveled at a decent pace. Inside the Cadillac, Glenn was driving while Rick sat shotgun. Behind them were Michonne and Georgie, with Aaron in-between both women, who had his hands once again bound behind him for the drive.

Georgie was staring at the back of Rick's head at how the bottom of his hair curled and was growing just as full as his beard with each passing day. She was trying not to smile at how a man could be so incredibly dirty and still be sexy at the same. Not that she was one to talk, of course. Everyone was dirty and feeling gross. But there was something about the primal, wild and dirty look Rick had going on that attracted her to him like a fat kid and cake. She wondered what he would look like without the bear and shorter hair, wearing clean slacks and a dress shirt, but made her sad in a way because she really was digging his beard and hair. She did know what he looked like clean, though, from back at Greensboro after they'd all made use of the showers, albeit cold ones. The idea of him being clean shaven was another thing entirely.

The click of the glove compartment opening, snapped Georgie out of her daydreaming and she watched as Rick sat hunched forward slightly. The three of them in the backseat leaned toward the front seat and saw Rick was looking through a stack of license plates.

Aaron smiled. "Um, I'm trying to collect all fifty states. Put them all on a wall in my house."

"You have your own house?" Georgie asked.

"Mmhmm," Aaron confirmed with a nod. He then gestured to his envelope of pictures that was sticking out of his backpack. "See for yourself."

As Georgie flipped through the pictures, she noticed something missing, so she turned back to Aaron. "Why don't you have any pictures of your people?"

"Oh, I took a picture of the whole group, but I didn't get the exposure right. When I tried to develop it later, it just—"

Michonne leaned around Aaron to glance at Georgie, and then up at Aaron before looking forward at Rick. "Did you ask him the questions?"

"No," Rick replied quietly.

Michonne looked Aaron in the eye. "How many walkers have you killed?"

"I'm sorry, what?"

Aaron's confused tone sounded familiar to her. It was the same one she'd had when Carol had asked her the first of the same three questions; the term 'walkers' had been new to her, where now it was commonplace. She recalled, back in the barn, how Aaron had referred to the walkers as 'roamers.' For Georgie it had been 'ramblers.'

"How many?" Michonne pressed.

Aaron caught on after a moment. "I don't know. A lot."

"How many people?"

"Two."

"Why?"

"Because they tried to kill me."

As Rick lifted up a radio, Glenn looked back at Aaron angrily. "You were listening to us?"

"I already said I was watching you. Yes, I was listening."

"It means his people could have one, too," Rick said, getting anxious and angry. "They could've heard our plan. This isn't safe."

"Shit!" Glenn exclaimed as he slammed on the breaks.

Rick whipped back forward and the three in the backseat braced themselves as the Cadillac skidded across the road into an oncoming herd of walkers. Blood and guts painted the windshield and obstructing the view in the process as the younger man struggled to maintain the wheel.

"Glenn!" Rick shouted, looking behind them toward where the RV was supposed to be behind them, but with the darkness and all the walkers it was too hard to see.

"They were right behind us. They would have hit us. Now they can get out."

More walkers smashed into the car, spraying their blood and other rotting, bodily juices over the side windows. The entire ordeal seemed never-ending, as if all the walkers in the world had suddenly appeared on that very road all at once.

"Glenn! Wipers!" Georgie barked, gripping the back of Rick's seat.

"They're not working," he shouted back, irritably, before eventually bringing the car to a spinning, screeching halt.

They sat there, breathing heavily for a few seconds, and then all, except Aaron, jumped out of the car to the sounds of walkers snarling, in order to look for the RV. Georgie turned back toward the car and winced. She could barely tell that it was white by the way it was covered in so much blood and guts.

"I don't see 'em," Rick announced, referring to the rest of the group in the RV, as he looked up the direction of the road they had just come down.

Glenn climbed atop the car to stand on the roof. "No, they're gone. They got away," he assured before climbing back down with the help of Georgie as she spotted him in case he slipped in the blood.

"Alright, we'll circle back and find them. Let's go."

Before Glenn got back into the car, he used his arms to wipe the blood and guts of the windshield as best as he could. Rick, meanwhile, was trying to study their map and figure what to do next.

"They're okay?" Aaron asked.

"Yeah," Michonne replied.

"All right, we can take a left a couple of miles up 23. Jefferson Avenue," Rick rattled off, his nerves a bit frazzled, to say the least.

"Jefferson Avenue," Glenn echoed with a nod of his head as he climbed back into the car and shut his door.

"We got to get out of here," Aaron urged.

The engine sputtered as soon as Glenn turned on the ignition, much to everyone's displeasure.

"Come on," Rick pleaded, more toward with the vehicle than at Glenn as the snarling of the walkers got closer. "Come on."

"We got to get out of here," Aaron repeated.

"Come on. Come on."

"Let me see what I can see," Michonne suggested, hopping out of the car.

"They're coming right for us," Aaron whined.

"Yeah, we know," Georgie snapped as she jumped out of the car as well. She wasn't about to leave Michonne all alone out there in case she needed back-up.

Running around to the front of the car, she saw a lot of the issue was body parts and guts caught in the grill and inside the slightly ajar hood. Grabbing an arm here and an intestine there, Georgie and Michonne worked hastily side by side while throwing cautious glances over their shoulders at the mass of walkers stumbling toward them.

Then suddenly, a red light in the distance shot up into the sky; the light from a flare gun gone off.

Georgie looked briefly at Michonne before running around to the side of the vehicle Michonne had been sitting.

"Did you see that?" she asked, just as she pulled the back door open and Aaron kicked at it from the inside.

The force of it hit her in the stomach and knocked her back a couple of feet. Her ass broke her fall and she skidded to a stop on the pavement and then tumbled back into the dirt of the side of the road along with some walker blood to boot.

"Georgie!" Rick shouted.

"I'm okay."

"Michonne, leave him!" he yelled after the other woman who was starting to chase Aaron into the woods. "We need to find our people."

"They saw that flare. They'll think we shot it. This is how we find them," Michonne insisted, heading off.

Rick pulled out his machete and ran around the front of the car and pulled a wheezing Georgie up to her feet as she unsheathed her knife. With Glenn behind them, the pair followed after Michonne, leaving behind the car. Walkers were following them, too, and being on foot, in the dark, made life just that much harder.

Walkers snarled and ambled closer. The four of them aimed their weapons; shooting, stabbing or slicing. They were getting swarmed on all sides, keeping their backs to one another and it was starting to feel like this was the end; that this was when they were going to finally die. Georgie panicked, wondering if she had enough bullets left in her gun to shoot the others and herself if they all got bit and were about to be torn apart.

"Where's Glenn?" Rick shouted.

"He was just here," Georgie replied, sinking her blade into the temple of an offending walker and then whipping around to see that it was just her, Michonne and Rick. Looking to her left, she pointed. "C'mon, this way."

There was a small window of opportunity for the three of them to head off into a section of the woods away from the walkers and they took it. However, the walkers, of course, followed after them.

"Glenn!" Rick shouted for their friend. "He's got to be somewhere around here."

"Glenn!" Michonne and Georgie echoed.

Rick fired a couple more shots before only clicking happened, meaning he was out of bullets, so he pulled out Aaron's flare gun and shot it into the eye socket of an approaching walker. The flame sparked and shined bright with a reddish pink glow inside the walker's skull, before dropping it dead to the ground. The fizzing light from the flare drew the other walkers nearer to the trio because the light revealed them more to the herd.

Georgie tried her gun as well and, sure as shit, she too was out of ammo just like Rick. She didn't have time or her nerves were too addled for her to stick the empty weapon back into her jeans so she simply let it drop to the ground as she was forced to rely solely on her hunting knife, the same as Michonne relied on her katana and Rick on his machete. However, the other two had the added benefit of longer blades which allowed them to keep them at a safer distance and also easily slice into the skulls of walkers whereas Georgie had to be more one on one.

As they labored on, panting heavily, a succession of gunshots rang out and took down the immediate onslaught of walkers.

The trio whipped around to look behind them where Glenn and Aaron stood, holding guns.

Aaron held his hands up as a sort of surrender. "If you really want to tie me up again, that's fine, but hurry up," he said, dropping his gun.

"No time," Rick replied, picking up the weapon and then pointed away from them. "We're going that way."

Running through the woods, they headed in the opposite direction they had originally come from and eventually made it onto a different road, which was labeled with a highway marker stating it was Route 16, the very route Aaron had claimed was clear earlier in the day.

Georgie didn't say it out loud, but she also knew she couldn't be the only one thinking it; that they should've just trusted Aaron by taking 16 instead of 23. They wouldn't have had to go through all that trouble they just went through. But, she knew Rick's heart had been in the right place when he made the decision to go against Aaron's directions, and that's why she kept her mouth shut.

"Where are they?" Rick questioned, getting in Aaron's face, after looking in both directions on the empty road.

"I don't know," Aaron replied.

"If this is a trap to get us back where you want us, your people are going to die tonight." Turning away, Rick began to stalk up the road toward a water tower that was just barely visible through the trees. "The flare was towards the water tower.

Soon enough they found their way to some buildings where the sound of a whistle echoed off the walls. Quickening their pace, Rick led them into an alley where the RV was parked and that had a faint glow coming from some unknown light source within the building to their right. He then mimicked the whistle and added to it, just as Daryl stepped out into the light with his crossbow in hand and waved them down.

A door opened up and out came Maggie and Carl, running up into the arms of Glenn and Rick, respectively.

"Dad!" Carl exclaimed, happily.

"Your sister okay?" Rick asked, hugging his son tight, which brought a pleased smile to Georgie's face as she watched the reunion.

"Yeah. Yeah, we're fine."

"Eric? Eric?" Aaron began to call out, looking around at the group piling out into the alley. "Eric?"

"In here," came an unfamiliar voice from inside the building.

"Eric!" Aaron shouted, bursting through the door.

Georgie was approached by Carol and both women hugged and then Carol moved on to hug Rick who was distracted by Aaron running off inside. Georgie, having only heard Carl say Judith was okay, but not actually seeing Judith herself, followed Rick into the building. Together they first came upon the little girl sitting in cardboard box with her blanket draped around her.

Judith looked up when she saw the two adults approach her and gurgled as a little smile appeared on her lips. Instinctively, Georgie swooped Judith up into her arms and held her close. Rick stepped up to them both and placed a hand on his daughter's back while kissing the top of her head before looking over it at Georgie.

"You good?" he asked her, after everything they had just gone through. He placed a hand on her stomach, where the door had hit her and when she nodded she was fine, Rick let out a sigh and placed his other hand on her the side of her face and pulled her in for a brief kiss. "Good."

The sound of Aaron and 'Eric' talking in another room grabbed their attention and they walked cautiously to it. Stepping out of the shadows, they saw Aaron hunched beside a man who had his ankle propped up with a makeshift split.

"Hi," the injured man greeted them with a smile. "I'm Eric."

"Rick," Rick answered, quietly.

"Georgie," she offered up, still holding Judith close.

"It's okay," Eric said to Aaron, who stood up and walked out of the room to where the rest of the group had reconvened and were talking amongst themselves.

"Excuse me. Excuse me. Everyone," Aaron was saying, getting all of their attention, while Rick and Georgie remained in the dark of the doorway, just listening. "Thank you. You saved Eric. I owe you. All of you. And I will make sure that debt is paid in full when we get to our community. When we get to Alexandria."

Georgie smirked. It was actually quite nice to have a name to go with the community.

"Now, I'm not sure about you, but I'd rather not do any more driving tonight," Aaron continued with a laugh, and everyone else seemed to smile in response. "Maybe we can hit the road tomorrow morning."

"That sounds fine," Rick agreed, stepping a little more from out of the shadows. "But if we're staying here for the night, you're sleeping over there." He pointed to a corner beyond the others.

"You really think we gotta do that?" Maggie questioned.

"It's the safe play," he replied, eyeing Aaron. "We don't know you."

"The only way you're gonna stop me from being with him right now is by shooting me," Aaron dared.

As he stepped defiantly forward, Glenn held a hand out.

"Whoa," Glenn spoke. He leaned in toward Rick to whisper. Georgie was only privy to what the younger man was saying because she was still standing behind Rick with Judith. "Rick, he told us where the camp is. And he really was only travelling with one other person." Both men eyed each other.

"They're both unarmed. One of them's got a broken ankle," Georgie gave her two cents in a hushed voice.

Glenn looked at her; a silent thanks sent her way for agreeing with his train of thought before looking back at Rick. "I want us to be safe, too," Glenn assured. "I can't give up everything else."

"I know what I said, but it does matter," Georgie added, referring to their conversation at the Shirewilt Estates. She placed a hand on the back of Rick's arm to help convince him.

Rick looked between Glenn and Georgie and nodded slightly. "Alright."

Stepping aside, Rick allowed Aaron to head back into the other room to be with Eric and the rest of the group settled into their own areas, chatting once more about the prospects of the Alexandria, and most of them seemed genuinely happy and excited by it. Rick, however, still seemed on the fence, but was allowing the majority to dictate for a while.

Sometime later, Rick was seated on the floor near the entrance to the other room. Most everyone was asleep, especially his children. Carl was curled up a few feet away near Daryl, who sat awake as well, while Judith lay in Rick's arms. On his left, sat Georgie; who had her left hand holding her stomach and the index finger from right hand was being held by a sleeping Judith. Rick and Georgie leaned their heads against each other and listened to the near silence around them.

Daryl and Rick locked eyes for a moment and Daryl gave a nod in Rick's direction, along with a faint but sly smile. Rick was aware it was in reference to Georgie who he felt very at home with, and his friend, the archer, seemed approving, which meant a great deal.

Casting a glance down at her left hand, Rick frowned. "You sure you're okay?" he questioned again in a whisper.

Georgie turned her head toward him slightly. "Mentally, yeah."

"How bad is it?" he asked, concerned.

"It's nothing. Just a little bruising."

Her dismissive tone made him more concerned. Rick turned his head completely to stare at her, reaching a hand out to lift the bottom of her shirt. In the minimal light of the dark room, he could see the discoloration forming on the skin of her abdomen, and feared that the door kicked against her by Aaron had caused some internal bleeding they were unaware of. And thinking back to the chaos of getting away from the walkers in the woods, another concern arose.

"Were you bit at all back there?" His nostrils flared and his breath shook a little.

Georgie reached her left arm around her chest and placed her hand on Rick's shoulder. "No, I wasn't bit," she assured. "If I had been, I would've shot myself in the head by now."

Rick scowled. "Don't joke about that."

"I'm not joking," she insisted. "If I get bit, and if it's in a place that can't be amputated and that I can survive from, then I want a bullet in my brainpan. I don't want to go through the suffering that follows getting infected. I don't want the slow death of Bob or Tyreese. I don't even want to know it's about to happen."

Rick was clenching his jaw tight and blinked a few times, a little more rapidly than normal, so Georgie gave his shoulder a comforting squeeze. "Well, that ain't gonna happen. Not as long as I'm drawing breath."

"Okay, that's great," Georgie smirked. "But if you're not there to save me like some knight in shining armor, that's what I want done. Carol knows it. Our first night together, over a month ago, after you first kicked her out of this group, she and I agreed to kill the other if we got bit. Of course, that's when we initially thought it was going to be just the two of us on the road; two brave ass women facing the world alone."

Rick couldn't get into Georgie's lighthearted demeanor. "Seriously, that ain't gonna happen," he insisted. "If I can't be there to keep you or my kids safe, then I will have Daryl do it, or Glenn or Abraham, or Carol. Anyone." He held her gaze. "I will not and cannot go to my own grave worrying that all your days will be drastically cut short."

"Maybe we'll all die at the same time," she egged.

Rick gave her a stern look. "Stop it."

Pursing her lips together and smiling sheepishly at him, Georgie reached her hand off his shoulder and up to his bearded chin, giving it a soothing stroke. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "I'm not trying to upset you."

Sighing, Rick gave a nod of his head and then let his shoulders sag slightly. "I know you ain't."

Glancing briefly back over at Daryl, Rick gave the other man a nod and then gestured down at Judith. Daryl got up to his knees and leaned forward as Rick lifted his daughter up and passed her over to the archer to hold for a while. Georgie looked curiously at Rick who climbed up to his feet and then held a hand out to her.

She just hesitated, confused about what was on his mind.

"C'mon."

"Where we going?" she asked, as he helped her to her feet, raising an eyebrow. "Second date already?"

He didn't respond. He simply led her into the room where Aaron and Eric were. The candlelight was still glowing and both men were lying side by side, still awake and just talking quietly amongst themselves. They turned their heads toward the pairs stepping out of the shadows.

"Is something wrong, Rick?" Aaron wondered.

Rick nodded. With his hand up against Georgie's lower back, he pushed her gently forward into the light and then lifted her shirt enough for both men to see her bruising. He pointed accusingly at Aaron. "You did this."

"Rick—" she began to chastise.

"No," he cut her off, maintaining his gaze on both men, but mostly Aaron.

"I am so sorry about that," Aaron implored, genuinely apologetic. "It was an accident."

"It's okay," Georgie said to him.

"It's not okay." Rick was sure as stubborn as they came.

"And I said it is," she threw back, taking a step away from him so he would look her in the eye and know she was just as serious as he was.

Rick stared at her for a few moments, and it was as if they were dueling with their eyes to see who would back down first. His jaw clenched and unclenched a few times and his fists balled and unballed. Shaking his head, Rick turned away and back toward Aaron and Eric.

"Maybe she's okay, maybe she's not. She could have internal bleeding."

"I don't," Georgie stressed.

Rick whipped his face back toward her. "You don't know that for sure."

"And you don't know for sure that I do."

"Well, I'm not taking that risk, Georgie," he glared at her, but in a caring way. "I ain't gonna be helpless again and lose another woman I love."

Pulling her face back, the weight of what he just said hit her like a ton of bricks and her heart somersaulted while she found her breath caught in her throat. She could feel Aaron and Eric's awkward gazes and sense they probably felt as if they were the ones who intruded into the room, into a private conversation, and not the other way around.

Rick realized what he said, too, and his gaze softened. Licking his chapped lips, he let his eyes slowly drift away from her face and back toward the men. "Can either of you just humor me. Just…is there anything or anyone in Alexandria that can help make sure her injury isn't serious?"

Georgie found herself looking over at Aaron and Eric, trying to keep a calm and collected demeanor and pass off Rick's Freudian slip as no big deal.

Eric smiled sweetly at the pair. "It's alright, Rick. We understand your concern, and Aaron is very sorry for doing harm to your wife."

Aaron whispered something in Eric's ear just as Rick began to say, "She's not—" but then allowed himself to not finish the sentence.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Eric remarked. "Honest mistake, I guess."

"Point is," Aaron continued. "I am very sorry about earlier tonight, and you don't have to worry. We do have a doctor back in Alexandria who has been with us a couple of months and who we've both seen do some amazing things."

"He can take a look at Georgie at our infirmary as soon as we get home," Eric informed with a reassuring smile.

Rick nodded his head. "Thank—thank you," he replied meekly. "That's all I ask."

Aaron and Eric simply nodded back in response, as Georgie reached her hand out to Rick.

"C'mon," she urged. "Let's leave these two to get some sleep and do the same ourselves, okay?"

Looking her back in the eye, Rick nodded. "Alright."

"G'night," Georgie wished, smiling politely to the couple on the floor.

Aaron and Eric smiled back and waved goodnight as she dragged Rick out of the room. However, he stopped her once they reached the shadows of the doorway.

Throwing a look toward the door that led back to the alleyway, Rick gestured over to Daryl who had spotted the pair returning.

"What's up?" Daryl inquired, quietly, cradling a still sleeping Judith.

"Can you keep an eye on this one, in here, for tonight?"

Daryl nodded but was curious. "Anything wrong, brother?"

Rick paused and shook his head. "No, it's just…a little cramped in here and Georgie got hurt earlier so I want to just make sure she has a more comfortable place to sleep for the night."

"That code for sex?" Daryl snickered.

"I will not hesitate to end you," Rick whispered with a smile creeping onto his stern face as he leaned in closer to Daryl's. "And no, it's not code for sex."

Reaching a hand out, he flicked his thumb and index finger at Daryl's ear. The other man winced slightly in response as Rick took Georgie and led her out into the alley, making sure the door to the building was closed behind them.

Silently, the pair walked over to the RV, while looking to their left and right to make sure the coast was clear; that there were no walkers around. Once inside the RV, Rick gestured to the back where the bedroom was and for Georgie to lie down on one of the twin beds.

When she sat, she looked up at him expectantly. "What happens now?"

Rick undid his belt and pulled it off, which caused Georgie to raise her eyebrows. When he saw her look he chuckled a little. He pointed to the machete which was sheathed only through a loop hanging off the belt.

"It's just so I won't accidentally cut you while we sleep," he informed.

Setting the belt with his machete and his empty Colt in its holster on the other bed, Rick leaned down to do the same to her, since her belt held her sheathed hunting knife and her empty gun. Tossing her things down with his, he casually kicked off his boots and helped her get hers off as well.

"What happens now?" she repeated.

"More than five minutes of uninterrupted privacy," he replied with a smile.

"Oh?"

Rick tutted. "Get your mind out of the gutter, woman."

Leaning down, Rick sat down next to her and then pulled her back down onto the bed with him; turning their bodies so that he was spooning her, both facing the window to their immediate right. They shared the same pillow as he stretched his right arm under her neck and wrapped his left around her waist, so that he could cover her left hand with his. In response, she pulled their hands up against her chest and his next move was to bury his face into her neck and press his lips against the skin behind her ear.

"Rick?"

"Yeah?"

"What you said back in that room to Aaron and Eric—if it was just a slip of the tongue and not what you meant to say, I understand."

He was quiet for a minute while nuzzling her neck, his beard tickling her shoulder a little. "I meant every word I said in there."

Rick didn't repeat the sentiment in actual words, and he didn't need to. Georgie could feel them in the way he held her up against his body.

They remained that way in silence for a few more minutes before letting their eyes droop.

Shortly thereafter, sleep claimed them.

When morning came, Abraham appeared in the doorway to the RV's back bedroom. He was looking down at Rick who was lying there, fast asleep still, with Georgie wrapped in his arms. The burly ginger haired man wasn't some stone cold bastard. He found the scene to be sweet. However, it was dawn and the group needed to get moving.

That's why Abraham leaned down and slapped Rick across the ass with the back of his hand.

"Rise an' shine, Captain Greybeard. The fleet needs to set sail for safer waters."

Rick practically jumped out of his skin, and immediately reached for his weapons out of instinct, but then sank into the bed, realizing he had removed them the night before. Turning his head, he squinted at the other man who was staring down at him and Georgie with a smirk.

"Why are you waking us up with nautical metaphors?" Georgie grumbled.

"Michonne found us another vehicle; a real shit-ass lookin' car, but it runs," Abraham continued. "We're leaving in ten minutes, not a minute later."

Rick sat up and picked the sleep out of his eyes. "Aye, aye," he mock saluted as Abraham turned around and walked back toward the front of the RV. Leaning over Georgie, he questioned, "Did he seriously call me Captain Greybeard?"

Georgie simply chuckled as she rolled onto her back and stared up at him. Reaching a hand up, she tugged at his bushy whiskers and puckered her lips. He took the hint and leaned down to kiss her.

"Good morning."

"Good morning," she echoed, and stretched.

"How'd you sleep?"

"Like the dead."

Kissing her once more, Rick then leaned back up and looked down at her stomach. He proceeded in lifting her shirt to inspect her bruising in the light of day and he frowned. "I guess it's not that bad," he relented. He touched his fingertips to the purple discoloration and she winced a little. "Did that hurt?"

"It's tender."

"I still want that doctor to make sure you're okay."

"Yes, sir, Captain Greybeard."

"Knock that shit off or I'll—"

"—You'll what?" she cut him off, provoking him with a grin.

"I'll throw you overboard."

Snickering, Georgie gave his arm a shove.

A while after DC had come into view, just outside Alexandria, the RV broke down.

By that point, Eric was the one occupying the same twin bed Georgie and Rick had slept in, and Aaron was with him. The only ones who weren't traveling inside the RV where Rick (who was driving the car Michonne found), Michonne (who was in the backseat with Carl and Judith), and Georgie, who sat in the front, beside Rick.

But at the moment, everyone was sitting outside both vehicles, wondering if anything could be done to fix the RV.

"The fight's over. You've got to let it go. I know it's hard; after it's kept you warm and fed and alive. But the fight; it turns on you. You've got to let it go," Michonne was saying to Rick who clearly still had his reservations about Alexandria.

"That's what Bob was trying to tell me back at the church," Rick commented. "What to risk. When it's safe. When to let someone in." He sighed, looking over his shoulder at Georgie, who was leaning down inside the backseat with Judith, changing her diaper. "The rules keep changing."

"They did for me," Michonne said.

The engine to the RV roared back to life and the group around it cheered and clapped.

As Georgie approached with a freshly changed Judith, Rick muttered to both her and Michonne, "Before we get going, I got to take a moment."

Both women nodded and watched him walk off toward the woods alone.

"Is my dad alright?" Carl wondered, taking Judith from Georgie.

She nodded. "He's alright."

"This is a big change for us," Michonne spoke. "He's trying to come to terms with it."

Rick wasn't gone ten minutes when he returned, and as soon as he had everyone piled back into both vehicles and continued up the road about a mile.

Taking the lead the remainder of the way, Rick brought the car to a halt as they came upon the gates to Alexandria. As he parked, he let the car idle as he took in the gate and the wall. Georgie reached her hand out toward the steering wheel and patted his hand encouragingly, and she watched as he hardened gaze softened and his tight grip on the steering wheel loosened.

Turning, Rick looked at her and she smiled at him, giving him a nod.

We can do this, was the message her eyes conveyed.

"Ready?" Georgie asked.

He nodded and she could see he was still a bit shaky with anxiety. "Yeah," he finally answered. "Yeah."

As he turned off the ignition, the rest of the group had already piled back out of the RV with their supplies and weapons in hand. Georgie hopped out of the car, followed by Michonne and Carl, with Michonne grabbing Judith. When Rick eventually climbed out, he reached for his daughter.

Rick smiled at her. "Hey. Hey, sweetheart. Come here."

Carol sidled up beside him. "Even though you were wrong, you were still right."

Looking after Carol as she walked away, he glanced back at Judith and chuckled. Georgie stepped around to his side of the car and offered him her hand which he took without hesitation.

"Should we go?" he asked her with a hopeful smile.

"Yeah."

As they walked hand in hand up to the gate, he whispered, "What do you miss?"

Georgie didn't answer. She just looked up at him and smiled back.