Over the next few days, Michonne's excitement at Carol and Tyreese had been less and less. They were settling into things. It was becoming fairly obvious to the group that the two of them were attempting to build something, and it was obvious that it was still in its beginning stages. Tyreese wasn't going to pressure Carol and Carol was still figuring out exactly what was going on and how she felt about it.
They were still housecleaning at intervals and Michonne was finishing up a box that she was going to carry over to storage to be sorted. She'd already been through at least five boxes in this house.
"People had a lot of stuff." She said to no one. She was sitting on the floor, emptying the contents of a bathroom cabinet into a box.
Sometimes cleaning out the houses made you feel like a detective. You could figure out so much about people while you cleaned out their house. Pictures gave you information, but really it was what people had and how their house was that really spoke to you. This person, for instance, had an obsession with hygiene. Their bathroom cabinet was loaded with a wide variety of bottles of various soaps, face washes, and other grooming goo. Most of the bottles were half empty, suggesting that the person couldn't really stick with anything they'd found, they were always looking for something better, that was obvious since most of the bottles said "New and Improved Formula" on them.
Michonne liked this kind of work. It gave her time to think. She'd requested to do the house by herself today, not really feeling in the mood to have to make small talk with anyone. Luckily no one questioned it when she wanted to be alone. Finally they had mostly come to understand that sometimes she wanted company and sometimes she just didn't. Today she just hadn't wanted any.
The box was full, so Michonne got to her feet and heaved it up, heading down the stairs and out the door, toward the supply house. She felt like she needed to feed Hope soon. She just had to locate her. She'd left her with Daryl, but Hope and Judith both changed hands a lot throughout the day. Michonne didn't mind much because she trusted everyone that had a tendency to want to hold the babies. Maggie was good with them, Beth was good with them, Glenn was a little awkward with them, but he didn't pose any real threat, Carol was, of course, good with them, Dora kept them entertained, even Frank was good with the babies. They seemed to really like him, even though he never really said anything. He would just hold them, and he let Hope play with the dog tags that he wore around his neck, which she seemed to enjoy almost as much as she seemed to like trying to yank everyone's hair out.
"I'm going to need another box." Michonne said, coming into the sorting room in the supply house. Carol and Dora were sitting on the floor sorting. Michonne could hear the voices that were clear evidence that others were busy in the supply house putting things in their designated areas.
"There are a few empty ones in the other room. I haven't brought them in here." Carol said.
Michonne chewed her lip. "Where's Hope? I hope she's getting hungry because I'm starting to suffer a little here."
"She's napping with Frank in the other room." Dora said.
Michonne walked through. Hope was sleeping peacefully on Frank's chest, her thumb having found its way into her mouth.
"How long has she been out?" Michonne asked Frank, picking through some of the empty boxes and trying to find one she wanted to take back to the house.
"Not too long." Frank grunted.
Frank seemed fine to just sit and hold babies or watch Judith toddling around identifying objects. Michonne wondered what he thought about, but then these days there was no telling what filled anyone's minds when they just quietly sat and contemplated. She didn't want to wake Hope up. She'd be fussy if she got woken up before she was ready to be awake.
Michonne passed back into the room with Carol and Dora. Carol was getting up to move one of the filled boxes out of the way so that someone could take it to its area.
"I have something for you." Carol said, putting the box down.
"What?" Michonne asked.
Carol walked over to some of the other boxes waiting to be sorted and from it she produced what they'd been searching for in all of the houses that had apparently housed small children.
"Finally!" Michonne said. "I was starting to think we weren't going to find one."
She took the breast pump from Carol. They'd been looking for a manual one for a while, but all they'd found was electric. It was amazing to think how dependent society as a whole had become on electricity.
"You'll need to boil some water to sterilize it." Carol said. "Do you want me to get a little fire going for you?"
"Please." Michonne said. She could start a fire, but Carol had become a pro at it and it would take her less time than it would Michonne. Everyone respected Carol's fire starting abilities, among others that she possessed.
She followed Carol out while she made the fire.
"Now we can start trying Hope on cereal. I think she's old enough to start venturing into trying a little solid." Carol said, while she was getting the water on to boil. She and Michonne were staying close to the fire, trying to enjoy some of the heat it was giving off.
"Yeah, I think she's ready to start." Michonne said. "So where's Tyreese?" He'd been hanging around Carol for the past few days almost constantly.
"He went off with Daryl. Something about one of the brick columns that Daryl wanted them to work on." Carol said. "Daryl keeps a check on all of them. He doesn't want Walkers being able to push the fences down anywhere."
"I don't think anybody wants Walkers inviting themselves in." Michonne said. Carol snickered.
When the water was finally ready they sterilized the pump.
"You have no idea how excited I am about this." Michonne said. She produced a lot of milk, and it was more than enough for Hope. She'd been relieving herself, but doing it by hand was much more of a chore. She'd actually convinced Daryl to help her out, though it had been quite the battle to convince him to do it in the beginning. She hated to admit that she'd actually really enjoyed it when he finally agreed, and he hadn't had much to complain about either once he got the hang of it. This was going to make her life a lot better.
"I bet. I might use some of the extra to see if Judith will take it with cereal. She could probably use some of the extra vitamins." Carol said.
"I don't mind." Michonne said. "Hope never eats enough to empty me out. I'm going back to the house to pump, but I'll be back later."
"No problem. Take your time. Don't pump too much, though, you never know when Hope's going to wake up." Carol said.
"I won't, just enough to get the pressure off. Will you bring her if she cries?" Michonne asked.
"Of course." Carol said.
Michonne started back to the house.
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"What'cha doin'?" Daryl asked. He had come into the house just as Michonne was getting situated on the couch.
"I finally found a manual breast pump." She said.
Daryl sat down next to her on the couch. "That's one weird lookin' contraption." He said.
"Hey, it works, so I don't care how weird it looks." Michonne said. "Did you get the fence fixed?"
"Yeah, I think so. Me and Glenn and Tyreese looked at it. I just thought that one of the columns looked like it needed a little work. I don't want it collapsin' in and causin' us no problem." Daryl said.
Michonne didn't respond, and Daryl just sat back, watching her.
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When Beth had come to the door, a little out of breath, telling them that someone was at the gate and Maggie was holding them, Daryl and Michonne had both bounded out the door after her. As they were walking down the street it was obvious that the commotion hadn't spread yet. No one had come out of neither storage nor headquarters. Maggie had a young man standing in front of her, his hands up, and she had her knife out. Daryl raised his crossbow as he walked and Michonne unsheathed her katana.
Dominique was certain that he had just made the biggest mistake of his life. When this girl had drug him inside the gate, he'd immediately found a knife in front of his face.
"Don't move or I'll cut your fucking throat." She had said, and he believed her. She'd sent the other girl off to get someone named Daryl. Now what he saw was a man approaching him, with a raised crossbow and a very angry looking woman with a sword.
"Oh shit." He said.
"Don't even think of trying to do anything." Maggie said, not realizing the two were coming up behind her.
"Listen…" Dominique stammered. "I just pissed my pants and I weren't thinkin' about doin' nothin' other than that. I ain't crazy!"
"What do you want?" Daryl said. It was only then that Maggie realized he and Michonne had joined her. She didn't lower her knife though.
"Please don't kill me. I've got two girls…" Dominique stammered. "I've got two girls and if I don't come back they're not going to make it. Please don't kill me."
"What do you want?" Daryl repeated. He could already pretty much tell that this kid was probably harmless. He had very obviously pissed himself. He didn't lower his crossbow just yet though.
"I was just out, looking to see what was around." Dominique said. "I left them alone, please don't kill me." The boy stammered.
"Dominique!" Jimmy called out. The others were slowly gathering around them. "You're alive, man!"
"Jimmy? Junior? Holy shit! You made it!" Dominique said, his attention turned away from his execution team momentarily.
"Daryl, he's a good kid. He was with us before." Dora said, approaching.
Slowly Daryl lowered his crossbow, Maggie put away her knife, and Michonne sheathed her katana.
Dominique wasn't sure if it was safe to move yet, so he just stayed frozen with his hands in the air.
"Do you got anyone with you?" Jimmy asked.
"I have Chelsea and Stella." Dominique said. "As far as I know no one else made it. I didn't even know you guys made it."
"We wouldn't have, if it hadn't been for Frank's quick thinking." Jimmy said.
"How many of you are there?" Daryl asked.
"When all this went down, we hunkered in our dorm for a while. When we finally left there was maybe thirty of us." Jimmy responded. "By the time we met up with the other group there weren't nowhere near that left."
"I guess we're down to five from our original group." Dominique said. "Unless of course some others made it out."
Daryl sighed. "Where's your camp?" He asked.
"It…it isn't really a camp." Dominique said. "We found this store in town and there's been some sort of massacre of Dead ones there. We've been staying in a storage room in the back of it. It stinks to high Hell, but the Dead won't come near it."
"We know the place." Michonne said.
"Was that your group who killed all those Dead?" Dominique asked. He had finally lowered his arms.
"Four of us." Daryl said.
"Four of you?" Dominique said. This group was a lot better at this than his last group had been.
"Dominique, man, you pissed yourself!" Jimmy said, laughing.
"I couldn't help it." Dominique said. "I was worried about which one of them was going to kill me. By the way, you've got one Hell of a welcome wagon here."
Daryl snickered. "We don't take kindly to newcomers if we don't know they're alright." The kid looked a little less terrified now. "Go in that house over there," Daryl said pointing to headquarters, "and change your pants. Then we'll go get your girls."
Dominique nodded and started toward the house.
"So they're alright?" Daryl asked Jimmy. He nodded.
"Yeah, they're alright. I'm real sorry that they're all that's left." He said.
"I'll go with you." Rick said. "You'll need cover."
Daryl looked at him a moment and then smiled. "Fine…Rick, is it too soon to say welcome back?"
Rick shook his head. He knew what Daryl was getting at. He didn't respond, just patted Daryl's shoulder.
"I'm coming too." Michonne said. "If you run into a herd like we did, the two of you aren't going to be able to pick them off alone."
Daryl wanted to argue with her that she should stay with the group, but he knew better than to argue with Michonne when she'd made her mind up on something.
When Dominique got back, they piled in the car and headed to the store to retrieve the girls.
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It was getting dark, and it made Daryl a little nervous. He didn't like to be out this late. As they got out the car, there were five or six ambling Walkers that developed a sudden interest in them.
"I got it." Michonne said, unsheathing her katana and walking toward the group. Lopping the heads of two in her first swing and quickly turning to get the other three.
"Atta girl!" Daryl said.
Dominique decided that that woman was one he didn't want to annoy.
Rick realized that he'd brought his gun, but he'd forgotten to bring his knife. He voiced it to the group.
"Don't shoot it unless you absolutely have to." Michonne said. "Daryl, you and Dominique go get the girls and I'll stay out here and keep watch with Rick."
"OK, we'll be back in a flash." Daryl said.
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The car had barely pulled out of the gates and Maggie had just rechained them when Tyreese noticed an obvious change in Carol's demeanor. He thought about it for a minute. Most of her world had just gone out those gates. She turned, like she was heading back to storage with the others, and he caught her arm.
Tyreese pulled her to him, hugging her against him.
"Hey," he said softly "they're coming back. No worries."
Carol looked up at him and he thought he saw tears brimming in her eyes. Already he felt destroyed by the look on her face. He never wanted to see those tears again. The more he was getting to know her, the more he realized how much she was carrying around. It was so much that she seemed to just swallow and keep down inside. He was afraid that one day it would be too much. He didn't want to see her break completely.
"It's Rick, Michonne, and Daryl." Tyreese said. "They're coming back." He repeated, emphasizing his words.
Carol nodded and hugged him again. He'd stand there, hugging her, until they did come back, if that was what she needed.
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Eight Walkers later, they piled into the vehicle. Michonne, putting her katana in the back, took Daryl's lap to make room for the new people piled into the car. She could feel him pressing against her leg. Apparently the closeness of sharing a seat had excited him.
"Got a little problem, 'Chonne." Daryl whispered into Michonne's ear, his breath tickling her a little.
"Think about something else." She whispered into his ear, turning a little on his lap.
He was trying to think about something else, but all he could think about was her sitting against him, on his lap, and how many times this had been an entirely different experience for him.
"Ain't workin'" He whispered.
Michonne whispered some less than desirable images into his head. It worked.
"Thanks." He whispered. "You're gross."
Michonne smiled a little.
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When they got back, the new people immediately went to Dora and Frank's house, reasoning that they would figure out sleeping arrangements the next day.
"This place is gettin' like a frat house." Daryl said when he was in bed with Michonne.
"It's fine, it's just three people." Michonne said.
"I just get worried when we bring in new people." Daryl said.
"They're good kids, though. Dora and Frank trust them and I didn't get any negative feelings from them." Michonne said.
"Yeah, but it's more people to feed. I don't want feedin' all them to run us outta here earlier." Daryl said.
"I don't think three people is going to reduce the supplies that much." Michonne said.
Daryl looked a little worried. She kissed him, hoping to make him interested in her more than in worrying.
"You was hot today." Daryl said. "I like watchin' you when you kill Walkers." Daryl admitted.
"Oh? Well I killed fourteen today." Michonne said. "Is that hot?" She kissed him, and moved her hand down to tease him.
"Mmm…" He moaned. "Yeah, that's pretty hot." He said.
"Hot enough?" Michonne asked. He was becoming aroused. "Hot enough for you to want to do whatever I want?"
"Mmm…" He moaned again. "I'd do whatever you want anyway."
"Good, because I've got some ideas about following up on that car trip." Michonne said, moving to kiss his chest.