Daryl and Tero start walking toward the first bar across from the motel. Once they get close enough they can see that a group has already ran through it because of the front door is hanging off the hinges.
"You think we should check it out", Tero asks.
"Might as well, if we're lucky all the walkers have probably walked out by now." He says shrugging his shoulders.
Daryl cautiously walks toward the entrance and shines his flashlight inside the bar. Panning around the room he hears a raspy moan so he shines the flashlight over toward the noise and he sees one lone female walker wearing a pole dancer's outfit pacing around stage floor. "Damn after all this shit she's still working", he says with disgust.
Tero pops his head in the doorway and looks at the walker, "You got jokes Dixon."
They walk in and look around the dark bar. The only light in the bar is coming from the large front window by the front door. Daryl gestures to Tero to shine the flashlight on the walker so he can kill it. He hits her straight through the eye socket then walks over to retrieve his arrow.
As he walks over to the dead walker he sees that the table and chair were thrown across the room, "Yea, some people already been through here."
He walks behind the long oak bar and starts looking through the shelves below and behind him for some alcohol. When he finally reaches the other end of the bar he finds two lonely bottles of peach schnapps. "Damn, why the hell do bars have this Schnapps shit if nobody likes", he says holding up the bottle for Tero to see.
"Damn!" Tero says with a foul look upon his face, "It's the end of the fucking world and we can't find one decent drink!" He walks over to end of the bar and sits down, "I guess this is what you're supposed to drink when your living in hell." Tero laughs.
Daryl grabs two shot glasses and he pours two shots for him and his war buddy. Right before they throw the shots down their throats Daryl states, "Hell sucks ass man!"
Tero gestures for another shot, "So what's up with your man and his women?"
Daryl does a quick one shoulder shrug then pours another shot for the two of them, "I don't know…" he downs another shot this time with a sour look on his face from the burn in his throat from the schnapps, "…they just got some shit to work out that's all."
He lifts his shot up in the air, "Well here to hoping that ditch that baggage soon before it's too late."
Daryl pours another shot for himself and says, "I'll drink to that."
Tero hands Daryl a pack of smokes and some matches then he hands him a joint out of his shirt pocket.
Daryl lights the joint and takes a hit then passes it over to Tero. When Daryl blows the weed smoke out he thinks he hears a faint banging coming from the bar.
"Damn T this some good shit cause I'm hearing shit already," he chuckles. "You hear that, right?"
Tero blows the weed smoke out and listens, "Yea I hear it, sounds like its coming from the floor or we're really high, he laughs.
Daryl snickers a little then quietly walks toward the other end of the bar. He stops right in front of an extremely large bar mat. He bends down to lift up the mat and sees a trap door. He clearly hears banging and scratching noises coming from it.
Rick and Michonne start walking down the corridor checking in the empty motel rooms that they cleared earlier. They're placing items in the hallway that they'll be taking with them once they leave. In one of the rooms Michonne finds a netted bag of sports equipment. She smiles at how excited Carl will be once he sees the football. She's thinking that maybe Carl and Rick will have some down time to play catch.
She pulls the football out of the netted bag and walks out of the room.
Rick slowly walks out one of the other rooms reading a manual. He looks up at Michonne and stuffs the manual in is bag, "Where did you find that?" he asks holding up his hands for her to through the football.
She throws to him, "It was in here."
She shows him the netted bag full of sports equipment. He walks closer to the bag to get a better look at what's inside and grins, "It might be nice to do something recreational in the neighborhood besides killing and building."
Michonne looks up at him shaking her head in agreement.
Rick looks down both sides of the hallway, "Alright, you wanna check out that diner attached to the lobby down stairs?"
"Yes, I am starving." Michonne admits.
When they get in the small motel lobby they check behind the check-out desk and in the back office for supplies. When they walk in to the manager's office they can easily see that people have already been through it.
Rick walks behind the desk and checks all the drawers, then he bends down and looks underneath the desk to see if there any hidden compartments.
Michonne looks at him strangely, "What are you looking for down there?"
"My boss used to have a desk similar to this with a hidden a compartment; he kept two bottles of whiskey in it. Poor guy stayed drunk." He says in a muffled voice from under the desk.
Michonne hears a click then Rick places two unopened bottles of scotch and whisky on the desk, "See." Rick stands up and puts the bottles in his bag, "Come on let's see if we can find something to eat around here."
Once they go in to the diner they see plenty of broken glass and toppled shelves sprawled out on the floor. The two aren't surprised but they had hoped that something was hidden away that scavengers may have over looked. Michonne ventures in to the kitchen and sees that it too is pretty empty. The walk-in freezer door is wide open and bare. She walks around the long stainless steel cutting table looking underneath it to see if there's anything that neighborhood could use but there was nothing.
She walks to the other end of the kitchen in to a storage room just as Rick is about to enter front of the kitchen.
Rick hears her gasp and quickly walks toward the outburst, "Chonne, Chonne what wrong?!"
When he finally reaches the storage room, he sees Michonne trying to open a huge jar of onion pickles and relaxes his stance a bit as he fondly watches the little girl in her try to open the jar.
"I used to eat these damn things all day a kid", she tells him.
Rick walks over and chuckles a little, "Give it here."
Once he opens the jar the smell sharply hit is nose, "Oh that smells awful", he tells her with a sour look on his face. He laughs handing the jar back.
Michonne places the jar on the shelf and grabs one of the onion pickles then proceeds to peel a layer of onion skin.
Rick watches her with some revolt as she eats the peeled onion skin.
"What? It's sour but it's good!" She explains while chewing the skin; she starts peeling another layer off then slowly strolls closer to Rick ready to taunt, "Try one," she says with a naughty grin.
Rick jerks his head back, "No, I don't want any of that shit!"
"Come on, it's good", Michonne laughs as she gets closer.
Rick chuckles, "No, I told you don't want it", as she gets closer to him he stops moving back and grabs her wrist with the onion skin in her hand and smiles at her display of playfulness.
Nonetheless, in that short playful moment the mood changes, Rick wraps his other arm around the back of Michonne's waist and gradually pulls her in close; smoothly places her wrist around his neck and locks both his hands around the back of her waist.
He looks down at her pickled juiced lips and quietly presses his lips to hers. A few seconds later Rick pulls away from Michonne lips just a little bit and licks his lips.
"Oh, that doesn't taste all that bad." he remarks in a low seductive voice.
"See, I wouldn't tell you try anything that I wouldn't try myself." She says.
Once they start their lip embrace again; Michonne starts to feel awkward because this kiss isn't lustful; in fact it's a bit too personal for her.
She starts to pulling away from him; the only time she felt comfortable with him this close is when he they're about to get very nasty. Intimate moments still didn't sit well with her. Passionate moments were sort of fleeting for her so she could handle those stages of intense affection but, to do it just for the sake of being close was a big problem for her.
Michonne looks away from Ricks aqua blues and nervously pulls herself out of his grip and places the lid back on the jar, "We had better go check, I mean find Daryl and Tero", she tells him.
Rick notices the quick mood change in Michonne; he sees the same reaction from her every time he wants to show her tenderness. But he snickers to his self a little bit as he grabs the jar of onion pickles.
Rick and Michonne walk across the parking lot in silence.
Rick's checking out the signs on the some of the other buildings when he decides to ask her, "Michonne, are you…", they stop abruptly when they hear someone laughing in the distance.
As they get closer the bar the laughter becomes louder; when they look inside they see Tero with his head on the bar, but they don't see Daryl.
Rick walks in slowly, "Hey, hey, where's Daryl?"
Tero turns around. "I'm on the floor down here!" Daryl laughs hysterically.
Rick and Michonne walk to the end of the bar and see Daryl holding his stomach in pain he's laughing so hard.
"Are you having a good time?" Rick asks smiling down at Daryl.
Daryl warily gets up and laughs, "It's this old man"
Michonne sees the partial roach burning in the ash tray and giggles, "No, it's probably that." She bumps Rick's arm and points to the ash tray.
Daryl glances at Tero, "I'm aint talking to you no more T", he tells him as he gradually calms his laughter down.
Daryl finally stops laughing and motions to everyone to be silent and points to the trap door in the floor of the bar.
He gestures everybody to stay quiet so they can hear the banging and scratching noise coming from it. "We figured we should wait for back up before we check it out." He whispers to Rick.
Rick and Daryl stand on the side of the trap door opening and then he motions for Tero to open it up, he explained to him a few minutes before to open the door in small controlled bursts so they can kill the walkers trapped in the cellar one at a time.
About a half dozen walkers later, Rick throws a cracked ash tray down the hole making sure all the walkers are out.
Michonne walks down the cellar steps with a flashlight and begins to look around for movement; walking around the large cellar she can see that most of the stuff down there is unopened. There're all kinds of beer kegs and bottles of wines. Crates full of alcohol and shelves with large jars full of olives, cherries and other drink garnishments.
In the far corner there are stacked boxes of pretzels, peanuts and chips. Everything looks as fresh as the day it was brought there. At the other end of the cellar is a wide ramp that lead to some doors, she tries to open them but its locked from the outside.
Rick and Daryl make their way into the cellar with their flashlights, "Holy shit! A Tero the good stuff is down here!" Daryl shouts.
Rick scans the wall for a light switch; he flips on some dim ceiling fluorescent lights, "Must've been some kind of backup generator; the owners must have tried to hide out here or something." Rick explains.
He points to the dry pools of blood by the wall, "Or maybe someone got shot or bit and died down here...where the hell is she?" Rick adds.
Daryl points down to the far end of the cellar.
Michonne starts walking back toward Rick and Daryl, "I don't know how we are gonna get all this stuff back to the block."
"We aren't", Rick says, "Nobody knows about this so far. We'll take what we can and close it back up tight; that way if we should ever have to leave the block in a hurry we will have spot with shelter and food. But for now we need to get some of this stuff out of here and in to our vehicles."
"Well those doors down there are locked from the outside." She informs them.
"Aight then, me and T will drive around to the back." Daryl tells them while going back up the cellars stairs.
"Check to see if there are some keys on any of those walkers for the locks, hopefully Tero has some bolt cutters." Rick yells back.
Daryl and Tero begin walking outside towards the back of the bar; once they turn the corner they come face to face with 7 walkers. Daryl quickly pushes one of the walkers back away from him.
Tero bashes one in the head with his weapon; but once the walker dies it falls on top of him causing him to fall straight back on to the pavement knocking all the wind out of him.
Daryl shoots a couple walkers with his crossbow while Tero gets up, "T, you alright?" he shouts.
Tero manages to get up and kills a few more walkers.
After Daryl and Tero finish with the walkers in the around the back of the bar, Tero starts coughing uncontrollably and places his hand on the brick wall of the bar for support.
While attempting to cover his cough with his hand; he realizes that he's coughing up blood.
Daryl walks over to him seeing the blood in his hand, "Damn T, are you alright?"
Tero finally stops coughing, "I'm alright", he says.
"Man you re coughing up blood, I would hardly consider you to be alright." Daryl says.
Tero lifts himself off the wall and tells him, "Its nature's way of tell me my time here is coming to a close." He takes a handkerchief out of his back pocket to wipe the blood off his hand and his mouth, "Ever since Shelia died I've been waiting out the days alone in that house waiting for the end. When they needed volunteers to meet up with you I spoke up. I was lucky enough to be able to come out here, have few drinks and have some good laughs in the process. And I haven't had a good laugh in a while; all in all this has been a great day for me."
He can see how pissed Daryl is that he came on this run knowing full well that he's very sick, "Daryl, we all have an expiration date. Things being the way they are now…" Tero pauses, "...Look, just remember, every day that you are alive and kicking is a damn good day."
Daryl grabs the bolt cutters off the ground and starts walking over to the back of the bar, "Come on let's see if there's a lock on this back door."
Michonne walks over to the one of the wine cabinets and pulls out a bottle of white wine. The last time she had white wine was a few weeks before her, Mike, Terry and Andre' left for the refugee center. She inspects the bottle like a connoisseur; smiling at the memory of that night with Mike.
Rick observes her smiling at the bottle of wine and walks over to her, "What are you smiling about?"
She quickly shoves herself back in to reality and put's the bottle back on the shelf; with a nonchalant side step she averts the closeness of the moment with Rick by walking away and saying, "I bet Judith will love cherries."
Rick puts his weapon down on a mini wine shelf against the wall of the cellar, "Chonne...are you trying to avoid being close to me?" he inquires.
She turns around and squints at him absurdly, "Really? You're gonna ask me that after what took place in the motel room this morning?"
Walking over to the boxes of pretzels she adds, "I'm pretty sure every position you had me in earlier used to be illegal in this state." she jokes.
"Besides, I think we know each other well enough, right?" She picks up one of the boxes and moves it closer to the loading entrance then, with more farce she adds, "We don't have to be like Glenn and Maggie constantly reassuring one another over and over again about how we feel, right?"
Rick gradually walks over to Michonne and intently stands in her personal space.
Feeling the awkwardness of the moment; she starts to back away slowing attempting to put more space in between them but, every time she steps back Rick steps closer. They continuing doing this in silence until her back is against the wall.
Rick places his forearm against the wall over top of Michonne's head; he tilts his head slightly then leans in closely looking in to her sparkling brown sugar eyes and subtly says, "I mean close like this."
Michonne looks down at the floor then the walls trying to avoid eye contact with Rick.
He uses his hand to adjust her chin so she can look in his electric blue eyes, and with all modesty he asks her, "Chonne, the only time your comfortable being near me like this is when we are having sex?"
He reaches down to hold her hand in an effort to gauge exactly how rough it is for her to be still with him.
A double honk from Tero's car horn saves Michonne from answering Rick's question and it releases her from this extremely perplexing moment. She slides her hand out of Rick's, "We better get started with moving this stuff."
As Michonne starts walking away; Rick stares at her as she grabs one of the trolleys. It was never easy for Rick to express how he felt about anyone unless it was to Carl or Judith. But for some unforeseen reason he felt the need to express his self to Michonne.
Rick and crew head back to the motel with a box of pretzel and a box of chips under each arm.
As the small group begin to walk to their cleared motel rooms, Rick places the boxes on the floor while Tero keeps walking down the left side of the corridor. Michonne walks up to one of the box next to Rick and grabs a couple of bags of pretzels then walks to the room where she left her bag.
Rick and Daryl sit on the floor of the corridor, "So you wanna tell me how you found her?"
Daryl starts checking his bow when he explains, "I was tracking a buck and I heard some walkers nearby, when I went over to the noise I saw the walkers surrounding something, I thought it may have been the deer I was tracking. I was about to walk away when I heard someone's voice, when I looked back again I saw her trying to get away but one of them grabbed her hair stopping her from getting away. So I shot the one holding her hair then the others. Then this morning on the drive over here we ran in to bunch of walkers on one of the bridges", Daryl stops checking his bow to look at Rick, "I don't know what was making her run away from them yesterday but she cut a shit load of them down this morning. That's why I said she's good now."
Rick nods at his brother, "Well I'm glad you were there to help."
Daryl goes back to checking his bow and says, "Me too. So are the two of you…good now?"
Rick looks down at his weapon, "As good as it can be for right now."
Daryl gets up off the floor then looks down the corridor where Tero was walking, "Old people are always teaching whether they know it or not. Tero said something earlier…", Rick stands up waiting to hear what Tero had to say to Daryl, "…we ain't got the luxury of carrying baggage anymore," Daryl smiles to himself as he repeats Tero's words, "Every day that we're alive and kicking is a damn good day."
Rick considers Tero's observation and says, "Yes it is."
The two men walk in opposite directions down the corridor; Daryl knocks on Tero's door, "Hey T you alright for the night?"
Tero opens the door and grins at the fact Daryl is checking on him, "Yea Dixon I'm good."
Daryl nods and starts walking toward his room.
"Ah hold up…", Tero grabs his car keys, a small baggy of weed and Bamboo papers then hands it to Daryl, "…hold on to this for me. I don't want to hold ya'll up if you have to make a quick getaway."
Daryl looks at him oddly, "We don't leave no member behind T."
Tero looks at him with appreciative smile and tells him, "I'm afraid you're gonna have to."
Rick walks in to the motel room where Michonne was staying; when he walks in he sees the balcony door wide open. So he closes the door behind him and grabs one of the chairs by the small writing table and props it up against the door handle.
He walks over to the balcony door and sees Michonne sitting on the balcony floor, "Aren't you gonna get some sleep?" he asks her.
"No I can keep watch. I don't mind." She replies.
He places his weapon inside the room then comes back out and leans on the balcony railing watching a walker far off in the distance as the last remnants of daylight are swallowed up by the night. "So what's up...why can't you be still with me?"
Michonne presses her lips together and makes a deep sigh, "Rick, when I lost…" she gets choked up momentarily, "…I lost everything. I had nothing and nobody. I wanted to cry over losing my baby but I couldn't because I had to keep going. So I had to push all my grief, all my sadness and guilt deep down. I put it some place in me where I can't touch it. Being out there by myself all that time I realized I missed something more than what I lost at that refugee center…I missed people."
"So far you haven't experienced being alone but, I don't think there can be anything worse in this world than to be alone. Human beings need contact with other human beings. Day in and day out all I wanted was to see someone anyone. It was like I was the only person left on the planet. I lost my mind out there because I had no one there to console me over the loss of my baby, no one there with me to enjoy finding something as simple as an apple tree, or a can of spam. I had to learn how to survive without one of the most fundamental basic needs that every living thing on this planet must have…a connection to others. That's how I ended up talking to my dead boyfriend. I was out there for months by myself. It could have been a year for all I know."
"What about this morning? How do you explain that?" Rick asks.
"Rick did you ever notice that whenever we do what we do it's always in a place where danger is less than a heartbeat away. That need that we fulfill for on another could easily be anything having to do with an adrenaline rush, we could probably accomplish the same thing by fighting one another but, I like what we do better." The two of them blush and smile at each other.
"When we get grimy its primordial not intimate, I have been sitting here considering what you asked of me earlier, I don't think I can be what you need me to be anymore. I don't think I can be that person I used to be. You've been lucky enough to maintain your role as a leader, protector, and father. My role changed the second that refugee center got over run, I had to stop being a girlfriend and a mother, all of that good stuff that makes a women a women…I don't have that anymore and that's something that Judith and Carl should have. They have to have it. I can't get close to anyone anymore Rick, because if I remember what intimacy feels like and loose it all over again…I won't make it; I know I just won't make it."
The clouds in night sky part for a few moments and moon takes center stage. Rick lifts up of the railing and looks at Michonne and extends his hand to her, "Come with me."
She gets up a little annoyed because she thinks he hasn't heard a word that she's said and she really doesn't feel like having "primordial" sex right now.
Rick pulls Michonne inside the room and moves the small writing table against the balcony door.
He opens the curtains allowing the moonlight to enter the room;he takes his jacket off while Michonne sits on the side of the bed.
As he lays down on the bed she says, "Rick I am not in the mood for…" he interrupts her.
"I guess I'll have to fix your issues with intimacy as often as I can." He grabs her arm and gently pulls her down next to him wrapping his arm around her stomach and pulling her in close.
They lay in bed oddly still.
Michonne considers getting up and moving over to the other bed because she feels so very uneasy. Instead, she lifts Ricks arm from around her stomach then sits up to look down at him.
He looks at her face in the moonlight wondering why she's changed her mind about laying down with him.
She doesn't like being nervous or scared about anything; so she gives in to this still moment with Rick. She turns around and lays back down on the bed with him but, this time she places her head on his chest right under his chin, wraps her arms around him and curls up to him as close as she can.
Rick readjusts so that he's laying flat on his back then he wraps both arms around her; smiles then kisses Michonne's forehead while tenderly caressing her back. In a soft and gentle voice he tells her, "Don't worry I'll fix it."