"I think it'll work out. We'll move on in a couple of days and then we'll figure out where we want to stay." Tyreese said.

"Where do you think we'll stay?" Sasha asked.

"Someone said a gated community that we could turn into something like Woodbury." Josh said. "Do you think we could find one safe enough?"

"We could certainly make one safe enough." Tyreese said. "I'd been thinking a hotel might work too. You know, we could board up the doors downstairs. Even better if it had a fenced in pool area or something because Carol could use it for cooking and not have to worry too much. We could sleep on the second floor. Walkers can't climb stairs very well, and they can't unlock doors, so we could lock the doors to the stairwells on the first floor at night and we wouldn't have to worry about Walker surprises while we sleep."

"You know, that could be a good idea if we could find a place like that." Sasha said.

"I'll suggest it to Daryl in the morning." Tyreese said.

Their group of four had chosen to take over a space in the back of the barn. The four of them, the four Woodbury people, since Rachel slept with Rick. Rachel wasn't really a part of either group. When Rick wanted her around, she was allowed access into the prison group, but when he didn't seem in the mood for her, she was put back into the Woodbury group. That's how it felt to Tyreese. He heard them all talking about "the group" all the time and what was best for "the group", but Tyreese thought everyone failed to notice that they weren't really one group, they were two groups.

Some of the prison group was nice, and Tyreese felt that many of them would open their arms entirely and integrate the Woodbury group entirely, thus really making this one group, but Rick had never fully allowed it. He'd said they were welcome, he called them part of the group, but there was a pretty clear dividing line, especially when it came to discussing the future or making decisions. They ate together, they worked together, and when the rare opportunity arose they played together, but Rick rarely seemed to care at all what any of them thought about things or how they saw things playing out in this situation.

Daryl might be different. Daryl was a simple man, but he seemed like a pretty fair and reasonable man. He also wasn't a man that was afraid to accept help or suggestions from others. Rick seemed like he wasn't OK with accepting anything from anyone else, and he wasn't really open to suggestions. If Tyreese talked to Daryl, at least Daryl would listen to him, and maybe they could actually start working together to keep both groups going. Maybe even one day, they could actually become one real, whole group.

11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111 1111111

Daryl had been massaging Michonne's shoulders and arms for a long time. She knew his hands had to be throbbing because he kept taking brakes to squeeze at his thumbs. She'd told him a few times that he could stop, but it was clear that he wasn't going to until he was ready. He'd decided that the massages might help with the soreness, and even though it had hurt pretty badly at first, Michonne had to admit that she was enjoying it now.

"Everybody really liked my idea, 'Chonne." Daryl whispered. Though he didn't see it, she smiled. Daryl was so proud of himself. Everyone had liked his idea, and it had surprised him that the group had unanimously agreed it was the best way to move forward.

"Of course they did." Michonne whispered back. "It's because you're such a smart man."

"Nah, I ain't smart 'Chonne. I ain't hardly got no learnin'. I quit school when I was a kid." Daryl said.

Michonne knew that Daryl lacked almost all self-confidence. It was fairly clear. She also knew that he wasn't textbook smart. She wasn't sure what Daryl's reading level was, but she thought it probably wasn't very high. She knew he counted on his fingers. There were a lot of things that Daryl didn't know; that was for sure. She wasn't exactly waiting for him to woo her with any Shakespearean sonnets.

But Daryl was a smart man when it came to the things that he knew, and one of those things was strategy. Daryl was a pretty good problem solver. Sometimes he needed a little help along the way, but he could work his way through most things. Michonne had seen it herself in regular situations all the time. Daryl might not think the highest thoughts, but Daryl was a thinker and he did well moving from one point to another as he considered something. He hadn't actually figured out any way to solve all their problems, but he had made a pretty good start. It was possible that there was no solution, but if there was, Michonne was fairly confident that given enough time Daryl would arrive at it.

"You are smart, Daryl. You don't have to know things out of books to be smart. You know life things, and you've already answered a lot of questions about our future for us. They were questions we couldn't answer, so that's pretty smart, I'd say." Michonne said.

Daryl didn't respond. He worked her shoulders for another minute and then it was obvious to Michonne, by the hand that he reached around to her breast and by his nibbling at her neck, that Daryl wanted to engage in other activities. He made her shiver, nibbling the spot on her neck that he had learned always got a reaction.

Michonne wasn't really in the mood, but she appreciated the significance of this. Daryl didn't seem concerned that everyone would hear them, or maybe even see them. They didn't even have the protection of the prison walls here. He also hadn't asked her if she felt like it, and usually he asked before he made any move at all to initiate a coupling.

Michonne didn't say anything, but she did lie down and position herself in a way that told Daryl she was fine with his proposal. As he moved into position and entered her, she whispered "Don't worry about me."

Daryl knew, because she had explained it to him, that Michonne sometimes wasn't in the mood to concentrate on sex, but that didn't mean she didn't enjoy herself. When she told him not to worry, he wasn't supposed to focus on her, just let her be along for the ride. Daryl knew, though, that she usually finished the trip with him, even if he wasn't worried about her.

11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111 11111

"I think it's a good idea. I mean it makes sense and that way we have an outside too." Daryl said. He was standing over Michonne telling her about what Tyreese had said about adding a hotel as another possible option for long term cover, depending on where they stopped and what they could find. She was sitting on the pallet feeding Hope, her arms feeling much better than they had the day before.

Rick had been stomping and snorting all morning. He came in through the door of the barn, closing it behind him and stomped over to Daryl, slamming something into his chest and taking Daryl completely off-guard.

"If you're going to keep fucking her, be smart about it and at least use condoms. We don't need Fertile Myrtle here having more kids to get the rest of our group picked off." Rick growled.

"Don't you ever fucking talk about her like that again!" Daryl yelled, grabbing Rick by the shirt and raring back like he was going to hit him.

Daryl's reaction surprised Michonne and it must have surprised Daryl too, because he lowered his arm, but he didn't let go of Rick's shirt for a minute. The two of them just stared at each other. Finally, Daryl let go of Rick's shirt and Rick stomped away.

"I'm sorry 'bout that." Daryl said after a minute. He dropped the box of condoms on the pallet.

"Don't worry about it." Michonne said. It was obvious he was worrying about it, though.

"Here…" Michonne said, offering him Hope. "She's done. Why don't you take her on a walk around the barn?" Walking always helped Daryl when he was worried about something.

Daryl took the baby and kissed her. He smiled at her for a minute before starting his tour around the barn.

Michonne knew Rick disliked her. She was pretty sure he even hated her, but she didn't really know why he hated her. She was going to ask him one day, just so she could understand. The thing about Merle had been that he had hated her, but at least she'd known why. For a moment she wondered what Merle would think about his baby brother who was pacing around an old barn cooing at Hope.

Michonne couldn't figure Rick out, as much as she tried. She didn't know too much about him. She did know, however, that somewhere along the line Rick's train had clearly derailed. She remembered that her father used to say that some people "had gone off their rocker". Rick had clearly gone off his.

He stuck his finger in my bullet hole. She thought. When she'd first arrived at the prison, wounded, Rick had been interrogating her. She could understand that he was leery of people, she could understand that completely, but he had stuck his finger in her wound to prod her on when he'd felt she hadn't responded quickly enough. Even if she didn't trust someone, she would not have prodded at their wounds for any reason unless it could be to their benefit.

He had blamed her for the entire Governor escapade, forgetting that she wasn't exactly the president of the Governor's fan club. He had been angry with her for getting pregnant with Hope, even though Judith was another clear example of the fact that accidents happen. Now he was blaming her, or blaming Hope, for Hershel's death, and even if he blamed Hope that came back to her since he had acted like the entire thing was some kind of conspiracy that she'd come up with.

11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111 11

Daryl couldn't understand Rick. Rick had never explained to him why he didn't like Michonne, and as far as Daryl knew, she'd never done anything to him. In the beginning he had understood it completely, they didn't know her and they didn't know if she could be trusted. That was just using good common sense not warm up too quickly to her, especially since she wasn't a very open and inviting person anyway, but now Daryl couldn't understand it.

He looked down at Hope, rubbing her cheek a little. She was sleeping. He lifted her up and kissed her, nuzzling her cheek with his nose. Her breathe always smelled sweet, like Michonne's milk, after she ate. Daryl liked the smell. She smacked her lips a little, but didn't wake up.

Now they knew Michonne. Though Daryl didn't know everything about, just like he didn't know everything about Rick, he knew enough. The whole group knew enough. Michonne, though she could never be described as chatty, had opened up to all of them that were kind to her. Sometimes Daryl would even tease her about it saying that he was jealous because now she gave his smiles out pretty freely, and they weren't the same prize they had been before, though they really still were a prize to him, even if they came more often. As far as Daryl could tell, the only person that Michonne didn't get along with was Rick.

It made him mad that Rick called her names and talked bad about her. Daryl already knew that Michonne felt a little guilty about Hershel's death, even though it was ridiculous for her to feel that way, and Rick didn't need to go insinuating that she had had anything to do with it.

He looked at the baby again. Stopping his pacing again to rub one of her tiny hands. It could have happened anytime. Sure, she'd been crying but that was because Rick hadn't told them to stop. Michonne had told Daryl later that she knew they needed to stop a long time before because if she didn't feed Hope on time then it was painful for her. She told him the only reason that she hadn't told him about it was because she knew how dangerous it could be and she had hoped she could just hold out until they got somewhere.

She cried. She's a baby, and she was hungry, and she cried. That didn't make her responsible for anything.

Eventually Rick was going to push him too far, and Daryl didn't want that to happen. He wished he could just tell Rick to get over whatever problem he had, but Rick wouldn't listen to him anyway.

111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111

Of course the confrontation between the two men had not been missed by anyone. When you live in one space together, no matter how large that space may be, no one is going to miss something like that. Carol was sitting on her pallet reading a book that she'd read about twenty times but really liked. She'd looked up when Rick had come stomping in the door, knowing that Rick's stomping could almost always indicate some kind of trouble brewing, and had seen the entire interaction. She was close enough to them that she hadn't missed a word of it.

If Rick caused Daryl to snap then there would likely be a fight, and Carol wasn't sure what the outcome of something like that could be. She was certain, though, that when it came to Michonne or Hope, Rick would do better not to prod at Daryl.

11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111 1111111

"Do you think he would act like that if I got pregnant?" Maggie asked Glenn. She had heard Daryl's reaction, but she hadn't heard what prompted it, so she'd been rolling around possible things that Rick might have said while she waited for Glenn to get back to the loft with the crackers he'd gone to get. He'd just filled her in.

"I don't know." Glenn said, stopping to chew a bite of the stale cracker. "I think it's just a Michonne thing."

"What's he got against Michonne?" Maggie asked. She'd come to really like Michonne. Michonne was pretty quiet, but when she did talk, she had a good sense of humor.

"Don't know that either." Glenn said.

"You know, if Daryl's plan works out, having babies might not be a bad thing anymore." Maggie said. "I mean life won't be what it was, but it could be pretty normal. It would just be seasonal."

"Yeah, I mean if we move like he says we're going to move then it shouldn't take too long to get to our next place. If someone were pregnant we could definitely do without them while we cleaned up our little space and got settled in." Glenn responded.

"There are seldom enough Walkers in a pack that we couldn't stand to be less one person for a cleanup job…especially not in a small space. It's not like we're going in to clean up the entire town at once." Maggie said.

Maggie couldn't explain how she felt right now. She was aching on the inside for the loss of her father, and she still half expected to hear him right now chatting with Carol down on the ground. In fact, when she closed her eyes, she could still hear him chatting with Carol and laughing, one of the familiar sounds of the prison. He had spent most of his time with Carol while she cooked or washed clothes, and it seemed like they had never run out of things to say to each other. Maggie missed him…but she understood why he had done what he did. Carol told her that he had said that he was ready and that he'd seen enough death. Maggie could understand that. They'd all seen enough death and they were likely to see more. He hadn't wanted to add to the death toll and he wouldn't have survived anyway if Michonne had gone down.

The thought made Maggie even sadder for a moment. She glanced down below and thought that the barn could have been a lot emptier today. She knew he did what he felt he had to do and what would be best for them all.

Glenn, noticing a few tears from Maggie's eyes, reached over and wiped them.

"Hey…" He said, "We're going to make it." He didn't know if she was crying for Hershel or crying because she was afraid of what was coming, but he felt optimistic. Glenn always tried to be optimistic, but right now he actually felt optimistic. He could see the possibility of a future, maybe even a family, and a different, but somewhat normal, life ahead of them.