AN: I wanted to thank you all for all your positive reviews and messages. I'm really enjoying playing around with the town of Sweet Junction and my future plans for our characters and I'm thrilled at all the positive response that the story has gotten. I really didn't know if it would be positively received, given that it's so dramatically AU from the show, but everyone has been really supportive!
I just wanted to give my thanks to you all!
I hope you enjoy!
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Michonne was almost done with this day. It wasn't so much that she was actually done with her work, as much as she was just tired of being in the office. At this very moment she wanted to go home, open a bottle of wine, and run a bubble bath. That wasn't going to happen though. She had too much to do and she already had evening plans, not to mention the girls would never stand for her even suggesting something like down time for a bubble bath. The closest she came to that these days was when Anjelica soaked her in Mr. Bubble by splashing around too much in the tub.
She glanced up at the clock on the wall. She was almost done here. She had a few more things to wrap up and she could drop off paperwork with Amy. Amy could do all the driving around and delivering things, that's what they paid the girl for anyway. Michonne was particularly pleased that one of the items she had to send out were the divorce papers for Carol. Ed's lawyer would have them by tomorrow morning, and Ed would know about them soon enough.
Michonne finished what she had to do at her desk, packed the rest of the papers into her briefcase, and got up. Before stepping out of the office she pulled on her jacket and switched off the desk lamp. Her father was already gone. These days he left usually by two, but sometimes he surprised her and stayed later if there was something of particular interest that crossed his desk. She made her way through the building and found Amy kicked back in the office chair, her feet on the desk, reading a magazine. Michonne cleared her throat as she rounded the corner and the girl quickly sat up.
"Are you leaving?" Amy asked. Michonne knew the girl was counting on being able to go home early today, but that wasn't happening.
"I am," Michonne said. "I've got an appointment to speak with a possible character witness for a client, so I need to make it to that on time. I've got some paperwork here that needs to be mailed." She dropped a bundle on the counter. "After that I need you to run this to county. They're expecting you," she passed Amy the divorce paperwork. "This has to go there today, and I mean that. It's very important. You can take off after you've delivered it."
"All the way to county?" The girl whined. Michonne fought the urge to roll her eyes. Amy was a sweet girl, but she was a bit spoiled. She seemed to think that the idea behind a summer job was to get a paycheck with little to no effort on her part.
"Today," Michonne said. "I'll be calling over there later to make sure it was delivered, so don't dawdle."
The girl sighed and took the envelope.
"Yes ma'am," she said.
"I'll see you tomorrow. I won't be in until sometime after lunch," Michonne said, smiling at the girl. "You can head out now too."
Michonne slipped out the door and got in the car. She had an appointment with a Mr. Tyreese Scott. She'd never met the man, but he owned Scott's Construction Company and had only recently moved to town. He was working on a new housing development not too far from where she lived. She'd passed by it a few times and admired the new little houses. They were cute, almost like something off of television. What mattered to her right now, though, was that he was Merle Dixon's current employer. She was hoping that he might have a few nice words to say about the man and that he might be willing to serve as some kind of character witness. If Merle Dixon was going to court for his little stunt against Ed Peletier, he was going to need all the help he could get. She'd never seen a paper trail of minor offenses that was quite as long as the one he had following him around.
She was also interested, of course, in meeting anyone new to Sweet Junction. It wasn't often that someone came there willingly. Usually you lived in Sweet Junction because you were born in Sweet Junction, and your parents lived there because your grandparents did. It wasn't exactly anyone's destination on a road trip.
Michonne had looked a little bit of information up on the man, though. His business was apparently thriving pretty well and he did jobs all over, not just in Sweet Junction. He even had a small branch of his business just outside Atlanta. It appeared that he wasn't interested in just the petty stuff, and it made her wonder why out of all the places he could have chosen to live, based on his work experience, he would come to such a wasteland as their fair hamlet.
He was also, consequently, Ed's only current competition in the way of construction, and that made Michonne like the man a little more right off the bat. Michonne doubted she could win the business itself for Carol, but she could probably get Carol a good deal of money from Ed's business. That would be just enough to make her satisfied, and also just enough to make Ed Peletier struggle to keep his shirt. Throw into the mixture the fact that one Mr. Tyreese Scott might run what was left of his petty ass business into the ground, and Michonne might just kiss the man for something he didn't even know he was doing.
Michonne pulled up to the address that the man had given her over the phone earlier. Normally at construction sites it was normal to see about two or three people actually working while the others all stood around looking like they were supervising or something. That wasn't the case here. It looked to Michonne like everyone was hard at work. They apparently didn't get off work early, either. She'd been worried that the men might lay off early and leave Mr. Scott to be anxious to go, but no one even seemed aware that it was likely only a half hour until their workday was through. Michonne sat in her car a moment and scanned the workers. She spotted Merle without too much effort. He was working, though, so at least she didn't feel like he was one of those sorry assholes who had a rap sheet a mile long and frequently changed employment because they were too lazy to do their jobs.
Michonne got out of her car and stood by it for a moment. She didn't know what Mr. Scott looked like, so she wasn't sure what she was looking for. There was nobody within sight that was clearly superior to everyone else out there, so she was beginning to worry that her only method of finding the man was going to be interrupting the workers and asking them where she might locate him.
She didn't have to wonder long, though because a man began to cross the lot coming toward her after a few minutes. From behind her shades she couldn't help but take a moment to appreciate him. He was filthy and sweaty, obviously owing to an honest day's work, but he was certainly sporting the well-defined muscles of a man who wasn't afraid to use his hands. She stood still by her car and felt a little ashamed at the fact that she was admiring the man's arms and shoulders so much like a schoolgirl instead of like the respectable mother of two that she was supposed to be. If this was Mr. Tyreese Scott, she certainly had a new appreciation for him. He wasn't just the owner of Scott's Construction Company, but apparently a worker as well. Nothing quite like brains and muscle.
"Are you Mrs. Williams?" The man asked, approaching. He pulled a rag from his pocket and wiped his hands before offering his right hand to Michonne. She took it and shook his hand, noticing his grip.
"I'm Michonne Williams," she said. "I'm Merle Dixon's attorney."
"Tyreese," the man said. He smiled and Michonne couldn't help but smile at him in response. "Would you like to step into one of the houses? The one just over there is pretty much what we're using as an office right now. At least it's air conditioned."
Michonne nodded, smiling again.
"That sounds nice," she said. It was hot. It was always hot in the summer time in Sweet Junction. The evenings might cool down a bit, especially in the shade, but Georgia was Georgia and the devil could sweat during the days.
"This way," Tyreese said, motioning with his hand toward one of the houses. It wasn't far to walk and Michonne followed him, only occasionally cursing her high heels to herself when the ground was unsteady.
She followed Tyreese into one of the newly constructed homes. As soon as they were inside it was clear that it was being used as an office of sorts. There was an island built into the kitchen that was covered with papers, most of which she was sure she wouldn't understand if she tried. Everyone had their specialty, and construction certainly wasn't one of hers.
The house was cute, though, and she could imagine that they would sell well if they were decently priced. There were a few old developments in town that were only a few cockroaches away from being condemned and torn down. Perhaps Tyreese's goal was to upgrade the poor people that lived in them into more habitable dwellings. He might, she thought, even get the contract to tear down and rebuild the old developments if he was lucky. She'd far rather it go to him than to Ed.
"I'm afraid we don't have much in the way of seating," Tyreese said apologetically, leaning against a kitchen counter.
"It's fine," Michonne assured him. "The houses are nice."
"Thank you," Tyreese said. "They're actually based off my designs. I just thought they fit the landscape."
"What made you decide to come to Sweet Junction?" Michonne asked.
"I passed through here on accident one time," Tyreese said. "I thought it was such a charming little town. I almost didn't believe it was real. It seemed like something out of an old movie. I was in college at the time, but I decided that when I got settled I'd like to live somewhere like this. You know, the kind of town where everybody seems to know everybody else." He smiled and Michonne mirrored the smile.
"Someone voluntarily coming to Sweet Junction," she said. "That's not a story that you hear every day."
"You're from here, then?" Tyreese asked. Michonne nodded.
"Most the people in Sweet Junction are from here," she said. "How long have you been here?"
Tyreese shrugged.
"I've been setting up the business here for a while, but I only moved here about a month ago. The first house we finished in the development is mine, actually," he said. "I haven't gotten to know the town well, though, I've been keeping busy with work."
"I know how that can be," Michonne said. She realized, then, that as nice as the idle conversation was, and as long as she might like to stand there and prompt the man to smile at her, she was actually there on business. "So, Merle Dixon…" she started.
"What do you want to know about him?" Tyreese asked.
"Well, I know he's only been working for you for a bit, but how's he working out?" Michonne asked.
Tyreese seemed to consider the question and moment and then shrugged a little.
"Merle's a hard worker," Tyreese said. "He's here before we start in the morning and he's here when we pack up for the day. He usually takes his lunch here, so he'll pick up little jobs during his lunch break sometimes."
Michonne nodded her understanding.
"So you'd say he's a good employee?" She asked. Tyreese chuckled a little.
"Yeah, he's a good employee. One of the best I've got out here," he replied.
"How does he get along with everyone else?" Michonne asked.
Tyreese responded with another shrug.
"There haven't been any problems. Merle likes to make fun, but everyone seems to appreciate that he's pretty easy to get along with. He can be noisy, but that's part of construction work as well," Tyreese said.
Michonne smiled and nodded again.
"That's good to hear," she said.
"Is Merle in trouble or something?" Tyreese asked. "I mean he's a good worker, but I don't need trouble around my business."
Michonne shook her head.
"Not exactly," she said. "He had a bit of an altercation with an individual and I'm trying to prove, if I have to, that the problem was more owing to the nature of the individual and not to Merle's character."
"Well, I haven't seen any trouble out of him," Tyreese said. "I think he likes to drink a little, and he likes to have some pretty racy conversations with some of the guys, but there's never been any trouble. He gets his work done and he seems to play well with others."
"That's mostly what I needed to hear," Michonne said. "Would you be willing, should the need arise, to either make a statement to that effect or perhaps even act as a character witness for Mr. Dixon?"
"As long as there are no surprises and that's all it is, I wouldn't mind that at all," Tyreese said. "I'd need advanced notice, of course, because I'd have to make arrangements."
"Of course," Michonne said. "We're a small town, and we mostly work with county when it comes to matters of court, but we follow all regular protocol."
"That would be fine, then," Tyreese said.
Michonne stood there a moment longer looking at the man. Then she realized that she was through talking and needed to take her leave of him.
"Well, thank you very much, Mr. Scott. I'll be in touch with you," she said, extending her hand. He shook it and smiled again.
"Tyreese," he said. "I'm sure I'll be seeing you again. Sweet Junction doesn't exactly seem to be the kind of place that one gets lost easily."
Michonne smiled and shook her head.
"No, it isn't that," she said.
"I'll walk you back to your car," Tyreese said. "It's about time for me to tell the guys to knock off for the day anyhow."
Michonne nodded to him and turned to leave the kitchen of the small house with Tyreese following closely behind her.
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"And shoulders like a Greek god, I'm not even kidding!" Michonne said.
Carol cackled and quickly clasped her hand over her own mouth. She hadn't meant to be so loud, and they were trying to be conscious not to make too much noise and wake the girls.
Michonne was taking at least half the day off the next day and Carol didn't have to work, so Michonne had commanded that she spend the night with her as a girls' night to celebrate the fact that divorce papers were being served to Mr. Ed Peletier. They'd ordered Korean food and put the girls to bed early and now they were lounging in the living room floor, around the coffee table, in their pajamas, working steadily on their second bottle of wine.
Carol couldn't remember having ever drank so much in her life, and she couldn't remember the last time she'd enjoyed herself as much as she was this evening. Michonne was telling her about some man that she met that day who had apparently tickled her fancy.
"You've had too much to drink," Carol said, unable to control her laughing.
"I am just getting started," Michonne protested. "As long as the girls stay down, we're good for the night and I thought ahead to pump enough milk that I don't even have to be sober when I wake up."
"So who was this guy, anyway? I mean some construction Adonis, I got that much, but who is he?" Carol asked. She finished off the glass of wine that she'd been drinking and Michonne leaned over to refill her glass.
"The father of my future children," Michonne said. She laughed at herself, then, and Carol giggled in response. "Well…maybe not…he's a big guy…on second thought I might not want to have those babies…"
"So you're planning children with this man, does he know this?" Carol asked.
"Of course not," Michonne said. "He's probably forgotten the entire meeting. He's probably married. I bet he has a wife and a Collie."
"A Collie?" Carol asked.
"He's all about Sweet Junction being some kind of little movie town, so I bet he has a Collie named Lassie," Michonne said. She drained her own glass and immediately refilled it.
"And a son named Timmy?" Carol asked.
"Mmmmhmmm…" Michonne said, taking another drink of wine. "Except there are no wells in Sweet Junction for Timmy to fall in."
"Yes there are," Carol protested. "On the outskirsts of town there are wells at the farms."
"On the outskirsts?" Michonne asked, mocking Carol's slip of the tongue.
"You know what I mean," Carol said.
Michonne nodded.
"So how does it feel to know that Ed Peletier's about to be one sorry son of a bitch?" Michonne asked.
Carol smiled.
"Pretty damn good," she said. "I can't believe I didn't do this sooner."
"Well here's to now," Michonne said, lifting her glass. Carol brought hers up and they clanked the glasses together, both taking a swallow of wine.
"And here's to your newfound Greek god," Carol said. "May you have many imaginary babies together." She giggled and raised her glass. Michonne laughed and clanked hers to it. "So," Carol said after a moment, "now that you're having imaginary kids with this guy, is it safe to assume that you finally broke it off with Damion?"
Michonne nodded.
"I unloaded the asshole a while back," Michonne said. "Do you know he had the nerve to ask me if I could pick up his electric bill again? I told him that I wasn't trying to raise him too. Rumor has it he's sniffing around some girl that works over at the hospital. All I can say is I hope she knows what the hell she's getting into."
"Those little houses," Carol said. "Any idea when they're going to be on the market?"
"Are you making that kind of money working those waitressing jobs?" Michonne asked.
"No," Carol said, "at least not yet, but I'm thinking ahead. Maybe your boyfriend could get me a deal on one. Then you could come over to my house and come up with excuses to borrow things from him."
Michonne laughed.
"OK, you've got to stop, he's not my boyfriend and if you keep saying that you'll slip up somewhere and the poor man will be mortified to find out that I was running my mouth," Michonne said. "I'm sure it wouldn't be hard to find out how much the houses are going for, though, if you think you're ready for a mortgage."
"If I get the money from Ed that you keep promising me then I might not even need a mortgage," Carol said.
"How is life in Sweet Junction Apartments, by the way? Are all the roaches keeping up with the rent?" Michonne asked.
"Stop it!" Carol said. "I like my apartment."
"And your neighbors?" Michonne asked.
"I don't know anyone in the building besides Daryl, Merle, and Andrea," Carol said.
"What's that like, anyway?" Michonne asked. "Rowdy crowd?"
Carol shrugged.
"No, not really. I mean I never really hear them," Carol said. "And it's good that Andrea is living across the hall. I never have to go home alone from The Watering Hole."
"You really don't mind that job?" Michonne asked, helping herself to another glass of wine. Carol drained the one she had and watched as Michonne refilled it. She decided not to point out that a nice splash of it ran onto the table.
"I don't, actually," Carol said. "The place is gross, but the job is a job."
"You have to work with Andrea," Michonne said.
"What's wrong with her? She doesn't bother me too much," Carol said.
"She was always such a bitch in high school," Michonne said.
"Most of us aren't who we were in high school," Carol said. She sat there for a moment and then chuckled. "Don't get me wrong, she's still a bitch when she wants to be, but so are you."
Michonne scoffed at her.
"Carol! I am not a bitch!" Michonne protested.
"You kinda are," Carol said, giggling. Michonne laughed.
"OK, you might be right," she said. "I've actually always been kind of proud of my bitchiness." Michonne said, smirking. She sat there for a moment, contemplating her wine glass. "I don't really know much about Andrea anymore, but her little sister is a spoiled brat."
Carol considered it. She knew Amy, but she didn't know her well. She'd always been that kid around town that you heard about because they won every kind of award that the school ever gave out and they seemed to win every pageant or competition they entered as well.
"I don't think Andrea and Amy are anything alike," Carol said. "Andrea never talks about her."
"What about the Dixon men?" Michonne asked.
"What about them?" Carol responded.
"What are they like? I mean I've only ever seen them on their best behavior," Michonne said.
Carol shrugged.
"They're alright. I think I hurt Daryl's feelings because you said I couldn't ride with him," Carol said.
"You said that like I'm your mother," Michonne said. Carol laughed at her.
"Sometimes I wonder…" she said.
"I'm sure he'll get over it," Michonne said.
Carol shrugged.
"Still, I hated having to hurt his feelings," Carol said.
"Why does you not riding with him hurt his feelings?" Michonne asked.
"I guess he thinks that I was putting him down. You know, that I might look at him like you do because he lives in Sweet Junction Apartments," Carol said.
"I don't look at him any way because he lives in Sweet Junction Apartments," Michonne said. "If I didn't know any better, I'd think you had a crush on him."
"I do not!" Carol protested. Michonne raised her eyebrows at her. She smiled.
"Methinks the lady doth protest too much," she said. She smirked again. "And too quickly. Do you have a crush on him?"
"No!" Carol said. She picked up her glass and took another swallow, eyeing Michonne over the top of the glass. Michonne smirked at her again. "And you can stop making that face. I don't!" The smirk lingered on Michonne's lips. She raised her eyebrows again. "What?" Carol said, putting the glass down. "I don't! Stop looking at me like that!"
"Like what?" Michonne asked, a smile spreading across her face. "I'm not doing a single thing."
"You know what you're doing," Carol said. She laughed at Michonne's expression then. "Stop it right now!"
Michonne nodded a little and laughed suddenly, obviously unable to hold it back any longer.
"Are you planning his imaginary babies?" Michonne asked.
"Stop! It's not even like that!" Carol protested. "He's just a sweet guy, and he's sensitive, so I feel bad that I hurt his feelings."
"Did you want a boy or a girl?" Michonne asked, taking another sip of wine. She smiled at Carol again.
Carol reached behind her on the couch and grabbed one of the throw pillows, flinging it in Michonne's direction.