Michonne walks in the house and in to the basement. She begins to gather tools to be taken to the bar later in the evening. She vigorously looks for a box or a crate to start piling tools in. As she comes back upstairs through the kitchen with a crate full of tools she sees Carl and Judith sitting on the couch in the living room.
"So what happened down there?" Carl asks.
Michonne places the crate on the kitchen floor and says, "Your dad banished him."
"You mean her." Carl corrects her.
Michonne looks at Carl confused, "Jane, you mean he banished Jane right?" Carl says.
She unfurrows her brow and remembers that Carl didn't know about James. So she walks over to Carl and Judith; picks Judith up and all three go in to the kitchen. "No, he banished James. It was James, Jimmy and Eugene that attacked me last month." She tells him.
"Eugene? Really?" he asks, "I always thought of Eugene as being a scaredy cat. He was always afraid to fight walkers."
Michonne sits Judith on the counter, wets her bib with a little bit of water and wipes her face off and says, "Well Carl, for the most part rapists are cowards so he definitely fit the bill."
"So why didn't my Dad send Jane with him?"
Michonne places Judith on the kitchen floor to crawl around; then she pulls out and a can of baked beans. As she opens the can of beans she grabs a pot out of the dish drain. She tells Carl, "It's just like your dad said, it's not that simple."
Rick goes back up the block to Daryl's house. He looks at the front door and decides to go around back to start gathering stuff out of the shed for the run later. Once he reaches the backyard he can see that Daryl is already in the shed getting items ready.
Rick walks through the muddy yard over to the shed and ask, "Hey, your hand alright", Rick asks.
"Yea, its fine," Daryl answers, he stops moving stuff in the shed and tells Rick, "Look, now that we've lost James and Jimmy…maybe you or I should stay here. It feels like we are losing people faster than normal…if there's such thing as normal these days." He continues to move more stuff toward the shed entrance.
"You don't think I should've banished James?" Rick asks.
Daryl shrugs his shoulders and asks, "It was Michonne's decision right?"
Rick shakes his head yes and grabs some items from the shed entrance to take to the car. "I'll stick around here tonight" he says, "You, Tyreese and Glenn go to the spot as soon as possible. See if you can get one of those mac trucks moving. If we can get one of those it'll make it easier to move everything at once."
"Yea, you're probably right about leaving right away…", Daryl says looking at the sky as the rain becomes steady.
After putting the items in the back of the S.U.V, Rick stops to in order to wipe the rain from his face, "We good, You alright?" Daryl asks.
Rick sighs, "I won't know until sometime tomorrow. Ask me again when you get back."
Daryl looks at him puzzled and says, "Alright." He looks in the back of the car, "I can probably get 3 or 4 crates of ammunition in the back, why don't you gather up some of the tools in basement. After I put the crates in I'mma tell Ty and Glenn that we gotta get ready to go."
Rick walks in the house and starts walking toward the kitchen when he hears Michonne talking with Carl.
"It's just like your Dad said, it's not that simple. If Jane is pregnant whether or not Rick is the father is irrelevant. He's the leader of this group; Jane just lost one brother a couple of days ago and the other one was banished today. Your father is not the type of man or leader to send a pregnant woman out in to the world alone no matter what she's done." She explains.
Carl looks at Judith crawling over to him and asks Michonne, "Do you think that he's the father?"
She turns around towards the stove and pours the beans in the pot, and shakes her head no, "But it doesn't matter. He's got an added responsibility now of making sure she's provided for because he is the leader." As she grabs a couple of bowls for the beans she says, "Let's say he stays here then over the next 4-6 weeks Jane begins to show. What do you think the group would say given the fact that he lived with her for at least two months prior to her showing. Or, let's say he tells the group that it's not his kid and everyone believes him. He's still not going to leave Jane to fend for herself."
Once the baked beans start to boil, Michonne turns the burner off and pours some beans in the bowls for Carl and Judith then places the bowls on the table. She opens the silverware drawer grabs some spoons.
"One day you're gonna find out part of becoming an adult is knowing when to make the right decision even when it's the decision you don't really want. As it stands right now, your father has been making decisions that are for his benefit and not the benefit of the group." She tells Carl.
She hands Carl a spoon then picks Judith; smiles at her then says in a motherly voices, "Come here mommy so I can feed you." As she feeds Judith she clarifies, "Rick shouldn't have come after me the other day. That was a job for Daryl or Abe…anybody else except him." She spoons some beans in to Judith's mouth then looks at the disappointment in Carl's face. "Carl," she waits for him to look at her, "…I am not more important than the group. You father holds a responsibility to you and Judith first then, he holds the added responsibility of a leader to the group as a whole, not just one person."
Carl aimlessly pushes the beans around in the bowl and says, "I heard you and my Dad talking out on the deck earlier, sooo does this mean that we have to go back to staying with Jane?"
She looks at Carl cheerfully says, "Of course not, I mean unless that's what he wants. But I certainly want you guys to stay."
"And what about the two of you, I mean you said that you don't believe that it's his kid." Carl says.
Michonne can feel the stinging in her nose as she holds back her tears. She feels the emptiness in the pit of her stomach as she comes to grips with her decision to Rick's ultimatum. Carl looks at with empathy cause he can see the disappointment and sadness in her face and body language.
She swallows her despair whole and with a hidden trembling voice says, "Like I told you, When you're an adult sometimes you have to make decisions that are best for everyone; even though it's not the one you really want." She does another sniffle and gives Judith another spoonful of beans.
After hearing their conversation Rick sits down on the couch closest to the kitchen entrance. He closes his eyes and pinches the bridge of his nose realizing why Michonne decided to end it between the two of them. How she's willing to go without their relationship for the sake of group. He felt sicken by the ultimatum he gave her earlier. It wasn't until now that he understood why she didn't mind going back to the way they were before. At least they would've had something instead of nothing even if that something was only in the shadows.
Michonne started to feel a flood grief enter her chest and she didn't want to openly ball in front of the kids; so she stood up and handed Carl the bowl she was feeding Judith with, "I'm going to put these tools in the car…" She grabs the box of tools and wipes one of the break away tears coming from her eyes with her shoulder, "…then, I'll need to get some sleep for tonight's watch."
"Aren't you gonna eat?" he asks
"No…I am not hungry", Michonne answers in a somber tone.
When Michonne walks out of the kitchen and notices Rick on the couch. She knows that he heard some if not all of their conversation. She closes her eye long and hard; looks down at the box of tools and continues to walk toward the front door.
Rick watches her as she leaves the house then he walks in to the kitchen just as Carl finishes feeding Judy the last of her baked beans. Rick wipes Judy's mouth; picks her up and kisses her chubby cheeks.
Carl looks at his father, "Dad do we have to go back down there? Can't someone else look after Jane?" he asks.
"How about this…' Rick switches Judith to his other arm, "…Let's wait til tomorrow. For now, go see if Daryl needs anymore help with packing up the car for the run. And if then find out where Maggie's gonna stay while Glenn's gone."
Carl places the empty bowls and spoons in the sink; walks over to the patio and watches the rain comes down harder and harder. He opens the patio door then looks at his father, "Dad, she knows that you're not the father of Jane's baby." Then he walks out and shuts the patio door behind him.
Rick gradually walks over to the living room window and watches Michonne as she rearranges the supplies in the back of the truck for maximum space. She's trying to stay under the hatch door to shield her from the rain. Moments later, Carl and Daryl come running in the rain from the backyard with more stuff; they hand it to Michonne to pack in the trunk. He looks at Judith and then raises her arm so that its pointing at Michonne, "Who's that Judy? Who's that? Is that Chonne?" he asks. Judith starts to smile and claps her hands together, "Chonne' I tat tonne" Judith responds.
Michonne shuts the hatch door and runs back in the house. Once she steps inside she shakes the excess rain off of her arms and shoulders then looks over at Rick and Judith in the corner of the living room by the window. She gives the two a gloomy smile and walks over to Judith and kisses her hands.
Rick watches Michonne kiss Judith's hand and begins to say, "Chonne, can we discuss…" Michonne looks down at Judith's little hands and interrupts with, "No, I've listened and spoken way too much today." As she begins to walk over to the stairs, "I'm really, really tired Grimes." She exhales blowing the air out through her cheeks, "I know I should be used to having moments of joy to misery in matter of hours but…I'm not." She slowly stars walking upstairs, "I need to get some rest and get my mind right for my watch tonight."