AN: I thought this would be a short one, due to the fact that I spent most of my evening watching Snow White for the third time and functioning as a recliner for a four year old, but when I got started I just couldn't stop writing, so here it is.
I also want to thank all of you, again, who keep reviewing, you really spur me on to keep writing and to keep going with our characters and what will become of them. I appreciate all of your comments.
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"What are you doing?" Michonne asked Beau. She had come to get a few sticks of wood for the fire they were heating to do laundry and found him burrowing around in the wood shed.
Beau jumped when she spoke to him and looked at her for a minute. Michonne waited on him to respond. It was clear that Beau still wasn't entirely comfortable with her, but she hadn't done anything to earn any distrust from him, and she wasn't wearing her katana while wandering around helping Carol with day to day tasks. She did wear a knife around her waist, just in case, but Carol had requested that she shed the katana.
"Lookin' for wood," Beau said.
"Well, you've come to the right place," Michonne said. "Anything in particular you're looking for?"
"A good piece," Beau said. "I'm tryin' ta make a bow for Carl, and the last piece I had just splintered all to hell. Pardon my French."
Michonne smiled at him.
"Well, I hope you find something good to use, we've got all kinds of wood here. It's nice of you to do that for Carl, I'm sure he'll really appreciate it," Michonne said, smiling at him.
Michonne started collecting up pieces.
"You need help with that?" Beau asked.
"I think I can manage," Michonne said.
Beau had frozen in his search and Michonne could feel him watching her. Finally she stopped.
"Here," she said holding out the wood that she'd collected, "maybe I do need you to carry it for me."
Beau nodded and took the wood from Michonne with a nod. She piled a few more pieces on top of the pile to make herself feel better about relinquishing the load to the boy. He started back toward where they were doing laundry with Michonne just behind him.
"Daryl told me you was havin' him a baby," Beau said.
Michonne smiled to herself.
"I suppose I'm having a baby for both of us," Michonne said.
"But it's Daryl's baby, right?" Beau asked.
"Yes, Beau, it's our baby," Michonne said.
"Well then you ought not to be carryin' no wood around, ought'n you?" Beau asked.
Michonne sighed.
"No, Beau, I guess I shouldn't be carrying the wood, it's a good thing I found you up there," Michonne responded. "Just make sure you get to work on that bow as soon as you put the wood down, I'm sure that Carl is looking forward to learning how to use it."
"Don't worry, I will," Beau said.
Michonne followed him right up to where they were washing. Carol smiled at Beau when he asked her where she wanted the wood and she directed him. For good measure he put a few pieces on the fire she had burning.
Michonne went to take her place next to Carol and was surprised to feel Beau catch her arm to help her sit down. She looked at him and smiled. He was grinning at her.
"Thank you," she said.
"You're welcome. I'ma get on back to makin' that bow now," Beau said. He nodded at Carol and trotted back off in the direction of the wood shed.
Michonne looked at Carol, who was grinning.
"What are you grinning at?" Michonne asked.
"Oh admit it, Michonne, you can't help but smile at the boy. He's got some manners, if nothing else," Carol said.
"He's a cute boy," Michonne agreed. "I think he's a little afraid of me," Michonne said.
Carol giggled, "It takes a while for that to pass," she said.
Michonne teasingly cocked an eyebrow at her, "Do you mean to say that you're not afraid of me, Carol?"
Carol splashed her with some of the laundry water.
"No, Michonne, I'm not afraid of you anymore," Carol said, "I might be if I had any reason to be, but as it stands, I'm not."
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"Daryl, we're going on a neighborhood run, you in?" Glenn asked, finding Daryl down at construction. He had mentioned that he'd be interested in going on a run soon, so Glenn thought he'd offer while they were figuring out who was going.
"Yeah, I'll go, who else is going? Maggie?" Daryl asked, stopping what he was doing and wiping his forehead.
"No, actually, she's staying here. Dominique is going and we'll probably take someone else," Glenn asked.
"Is Dominique good if we run into trouble?" Daryl asked.
"We haven't run into too much trouble but he seems to be able to hold his own pretty well with what we have seen," Glenn said.
"Fine," Daryl said, "let's take Beau and see what he can do. He ain't never been on a run and we might as well break him in."
"Sounds good," Glenn said. "I'll go find him and we'll meet at headquarters."
"Fine, I gotta go get my crossbow and tell 'Chonne we're goin' out for a while," Daryl said, starting in one direction while Glenn started in the other.
When Daryl got his crossbow he went down to headquarters. Maggie was down there and she had the girls. He stopped to pat Judith on the head, but she was too occupied with the ball she was playing with to pay him too much attention. He took Hope from Maggie for a moment and kissed, her lifting up and blowing on her belly so that she would laugh at him. He handed her back to Maggie and went over to where Michonne and Carol were scrubbing laundry.
"I'm going on a run with Glenn, we shouldn't be gone too terribly long," Daryl said.
He walked over to Michonne. She reached out to him and he helped her get up. She kissed him gently and hugged him.
"Be back before dark?" She asked.
"You know it," Daryl said. He smiled at her and kissed her again.
"Knock that mess off!" Glenn said, walking up. Daryl knew full well that he'd already said his goodbyes to Maggie.
Dominique and Beau sauntered up behind them and the four of them loaded into the two delivery trucks, with Daryl and Beau in one and Glenn and Dominique in the other. Rick and Rachel open the gates and cleared the Walkers out of their way to allow them to pass.
"So what we do on these 'runs' anyway?" Beau asked when they were following Glenn through the streets to whatever neighborhood he had picked out to loot.
"We go house to house and get as much useful stuff as we can get without gettin' tore up by Walkers. Keep your eyes peeled for people too, kid, they ain't always good news," Daryl said.
"Oh, I know that," Beau said.
"Your uncle," Daryl said, "you said he got shot by some people in North Carolina, what they shoot him for?"
"I don't know," Beau said, "they just shot him."
"They ain't had a reason to shoot him?" Daryl asked.
"Not that I know of," Beau said. "He went down to ask 'em 'bout tradin' for some food ta eat an' the next thing we knowed they shot him."
"Where were you?" Daryl asked.
"We was hidin' in the woods, my brothers an' me. He didn't want us to all go down there in case they weren't real nice, an' I reckon it was a good thing we didn't go," Beau answered.
Daryl didn't respond, but the boy's story did confirm something he'd been worried about for a while. Even though his group had decided that they wouldn't kill anyone without at least some sort of a reason to do so, that didn't mean that there weren't other people out there who weren't against killing just for the sake of killing. It made him feel even more uneasy about the prospect of encountering others, and what those encounters might mean for how his group was going to be forced to interact with others. It would be a sad day when you had to assume that anyone you met might kill you just for being there.
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The run was going pretty well. They'd chosen a central location to park the trucks and had spread out to clear houses. Dominique and Beau were sticking close together while Daryl and Glenn worked houses. The trickiest part was getting the supplies from the houses to the trucks, since there was a fair number of Walkers sauntering around the streets, and it seemed like every time they got them all cleared, another cluster appeared.
Still, they tried to keep a steady stream of boxes and bags of things flowing out of the houses and into the trucks, trying to keep a record of which houses they'd looted by tying bits of cloth around the doorknobs of houses that were clean. Glenn and Maggie had started the idea when they'd figured out it would take far more than one run to clean out this neighborhood, since each house afforded them a wealth of various supplies.
Daryl was only vaguely aware of the time, but he was starting to get a little hungry. He was upstairs in one of the houses packing burlap sacks full of everything that he could find in the bathrooms. Glenn was downstairs raiding the pantries. There had only been two Walkers in that house, but Daryl hoped more than two people had lived here for the amount of stuff they had. It was an example of how much stuff people had been comfortable hoarding before all this madness had begun.
"Glenn, what time is it?" Daryl asked. He clearly didn't mean an hour, since it had been ages since any of them had kept up with time, but he did expect some report on how late it seemed to be getting in relation to nightfall.
"You might want to come on, Daryl," Glenn called up the stairs. "We lost track of time and it's going to be getting dark soon."
Daryl grabbed up the bags he had and started down the stairs, meeting Glenn just before the front door. Daryl strapped the bags across himself so that they would hang on him and allow him to use his arms, one of Maggie's great ideas, and lifted his crossbow, ready to cover Glenn who had his hands full.
As they stepped out on the porch, though, Daryl became instantly aware that they weren't going to make it down the street to their trucks, at least not right now. There was a very distinct herd of Walkers coming, and they wouldn't be able to beat it. Daryl was also certain that the two of them alone wouldn't be able to fight them off. They retreated into the house and shut the door.
"What are we going to do?" Glenn asked in a low voice.
"We're going to wait them out," Daryl said. "There ain't nothin' else we can do. We can't go out there in that. We'll just have to let 'em pass and then we'll head back."
"It's going to be getting dark soon," Glenn said.
"I know, and I don't like that anymore than you do, but we ain't too far from the community. We'll let the herd pass, load the last of this stuff, and we'll drive straight back to the community, no stops for nothin'," Daryl responded.
"What about Dominique and Beau?" Glenn asked.
"Where are they?" Daryl asked.
"The last I saw them they were two doors down from us," Glenn said.
"Well if they got any sense between 'em they'll stay put 'til this herd passes on through," Daryl said.
He wasn't sure how big the herd was, but he could hear them passing outside in the street. Their growling and groaning made his skin crawl. They were slow moving, and it sounded like there was a lot of them, but it also seemed like they had no interest whatsoever in exploring any of the houses, and Daryl was thankful for that.
"Maggie is going to be worried sick," Glenn said. "We should have kept better track of the time."
"If it weren't for this herd we still coulda made it back with decent time," Daryl said. "Besides, if you think Maggie's gonna be worried, just think how 'Chonne's gonna be," he added. He hated that she would worry, and he was sure she would, because they weren't going to make it back before dark. As the light outside was fading, he was sure of that much.
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"What the hell do we do?" Dominique asked, crawling around on the floor and looking out the window of the house. Beau was sitting with his back to the door. They'd been alerted to the time by the groans and moans of the passing herd and now they were trapped in the house as it grew increasingly dark.
"What'cha mean what we gon' do?" Beau asked. "Ain't you been on no run before?"
"Well, yeah, but we always left before dark. They always came and got me if it was getting late," Dominique said. "And I've never seen this many Walkers just roaming about."
"You don't think they left us, do you?" Beau asked.
"I don't know, I can't see the trucks from here," Dominique said, peeking over the top of the window frame.
Beau got up and started up the stairs. When he got up there he went to the far bedroom and looked out the side window. The trucks were still there. Daryl and Glenn hadn't left them, but there was a sea of Walkers below them.
Beau came back downstairs.
"Dominique, man, leave the stuff, but bring your knife. We gotta go find out what they wanna do," he said.
"Are you crazy?" Dominique said. "We can't go out there!"
"We ain't goin' outta the door. We gon' go another way," Beau said.
Dominique followed Beau upstairs.
"What are you doing?" Dominique asked when Beau opened the window.
"We got an easy way to get to where they are," Beau said. He started to climb out the window.
"Beau, I don't know if you've noticed, but we're two stories up," Dominique said.
"Shhh…" Beau hissed. "I know we are, but Nasties can't climb trees, just follow me," he whispered.
Before Dominique knew what was happening, Beau flung himself out of the window and into the branches of a tree that was growing between the two houses. Dominique was not entirely sure of this plan, but he watched as Beau, apparently unnoticed by the herd below him, made his way through the tree and onto the roof of the porch for the house next to the one they were in. Beau stopped a moment when he was securely on the roof and motioned to Dominique. Dominique took a deep breath, said a quick prayer and leapt toward the tree. He was surprised when he made contact securely among the branches. He clung there for a moment before proceeding on, finally reaching the porch roof and feeling Beau pull him up.
Together the two boys carefully made their way across the front of the house. Beau paused before they got to the end of the roof. There was another three there, and the branches reached the side of the other house just as perfectly as he could have hoped for.
"One more time, man, an' we're home free," Beau said. He leapt into the tree and Dominique watched him make his way toward the upstairs window of the other house. Dominique followed suit and soon he wasn't far from Beau on the branches. Beau was trying to quietly pry the upstairs window open with his tomahawk. "Don't know why the hell you lock your upstairs window," Beau whispered, "who the hell would break into it?"
"You would," Dominique whispered back. Beau snorted.
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They had eaten dinner already, or rather Carol had made dinner to keep herself occupied and most everyone else had picked at it. Some were trying to ignore the fact that it was dark and the group hadn't returned, but others couldn't ignore it. Carol was worried sick, but she was desperately trying to hold it together for the others.
As soon as Carol dismissed them from the meal, Maggie got up from the plate that she left untouched.
"Maggie, Beth, Stella, y'all come back to our house," Carol said. "I'm not doing dishes tonight, we're going to go back to the house and wait for them to get back. Anyone else who wants to come is welcome."
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The living room was pretty full.
Tyreese was sitting in one of the chairs and Carol was sitting between his legs. He kept squeezing her on the shoulder, knowing that she was fighting back her own nerves for the good of the others there. They'd put the girls to bed early, and luckily neither had protested the impromptu bedtime. Carol kept casting nervous glances at the others in the living room. Stella and Chelsea sat on the floor, hugged together. Maggie and Beth sat at one edge of the couch, Maggie hugged into Beth, both occasionally sobbing, as did the girls on the floor. Michonne was sitting on the far end of the couch attempting to remain straight-faced and appear calm. Carol might have believed she was calm if she didn't know her better, but she knew that Michonne's nerves were just as shot as everyone else's. She'd gotten sick once, excusing herself with morning sickness and sat clutching the arm rest, obviously nowhere near as calm as she hoped to indicate, refusing to speak a word to anyone.
"They're coming back, though? Right?" Stella said.
"They have to come back. I mean Dominique got us through a lot of bad situations, he's going to come back…" Chelsea said.
"They're coming back," Carol said in the most reassuring tone that she could manage.
"What if they don't come back?" Beth asked, quietly, hugging Maggie closer to her.
"They're coming back, Beth," Carol said sternly. She noticed out of the corner of her eye that Michonne took several deep breaths, trying to steady herself again.
"They're never gone this late," Beth said.
"There's a perfectly reasonable explanation for their lateness, I'm sure," Carol said. "They'll be back, and we'll be here waiting on them when they get back." She was quiet for a minute. No one else dared say a thing at the moment. She didn't know how long they'd been waiting, but it felt like it had been an eternity. "I need to get together some wood, Tyreese, I know it's late, but they'll probably want a hot bath when they get back," Carol said.
"Just wait a little, Carol," Tyreese said, squeezing her shoulder. "I'll help you get it when they get back."
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Daryl heard something upstairs, and he couldn't figure out what he was hearing. The herd outside was still passing, but there were fewer now than there had been. He knew that Walkers weren't making the noise, they'd cleared the house well and would be aware if there were any Walkers in there by now.
"Do you hear that?" He asked Glenn.
"All I hear are Walkers outside," Glenn said. It was dark enough in the house now that Daryl could barely see Glenn.
"I'm going upstairs to see what it is," Daryl said. "Do you got a flashlight or anything?"
"Yeah, I found one in the kitchen," Glenn said. He dug around in the box next to him, studying objects to try to determine what they were in the dark. Finally he found the flashlight. The batteries, though dull, were enough to shine a little light.
Daryl took the flashlight and started up the stairs, an arrow in his hand, fearing hand to hand combat if there were any threats there at all. Once he got upstairs he followed the sound to one of the bedrooms and found that there was someone scratching at the outside of the window. He walked to the window and the dull beam fell across Beau's face.
Daryl switched off the flashlight, unlocked the window and raised it.
"What the hell are you doing?" He whispered. Beau was already making his way into the window.
"We were comin' to find out what we were supposed to do, an' also ta make sure y'all didn't leave us," Beau whispered.
The boy was confident as he crawled through the window, but Daryl tugged him in anyway. He reached out his hand for Dominique, who seemed much less confident crawling around in the trees, and the boy took it. He pulled him through the window and gently closed it back.
"You coulda got yourself killed," Daryl said when the window was closed.
"Nah," Beau said, "Nasties don't climb trees."
"You coulda fell out the tree," Daryl said.
"I don't fall out trees," Beau responded.
"I might have fallen out of it, though," Dominique said. He was still a little panicked.
"Looks like the Nasties are almost gone," Beau offered. He didn't bother to tell Daryl how long they'd been out there, scratching at the window in hopes that he could get it open without the loud noise that breaking the pain would have caused.
Daryl switched the half dead flashlight on to lead them downstairs.
"All the damn pups we got ain't got no sense," Daryl said to Glenn as a form of explanation when he reappeared in the room leading Beau and Dominique.
"I think the coast is clear," Glenn said. "I haven't seen any Walkers pass since you went upstairs."
"We better wait it out another minute or two," Daryl said. "Let 'em get a lil' distance between us and them 'fore we try to make a run for the trucks."
They weren't sure exactly how long they had waited before they finally decided to take a chance running for the trucks. Glenn and Daryl darted out the doors first, carrying what they could of supplies. It seemed like the coast was clear, and Daryl didn't bother to look back, sure that the two boys were right behind them. They threw the last of the items into the back of the trucks and closed them as quietly as possible. As Daryl turned to start for the driver side of his truck, he was surprised by three Walkers that seemed to almost appear out of nowhere, and then he was sickeningly aware that there were many more than three growling in the area.
It was almost too dark to see the Walkers. The only thing that let him know their locations was the growling and the occasional brush of one. Daryl kept his back to the truck and fought all of them that he became aware of. He could hear sounds of exertion from Glenn, not far from him. He had absolutely no idea what had become of the boys.
A cry in the darkness told Daryl that all was not right with the boys. He tried to make his way back toward where they had been, cursing to himself that the darkness made it impossible to see. He bumped into something and before he could turn to stab it he heard Beau's voice, whispering.
"It's me," Beau said, "they got Dominique."
The cries continued and Daryl hesitated for a moment, not sure what he should do.
"Get in the truck," Daryl whispered to Beau.
"You can't save him, they're all over him, it's our only chance to get out and he's as good as gone," Beau said.
Beau didn't like the truth any more than anyone else. He'd seen it before, lost both his brothers in a similar fashion, but once that many had someone, there was no way to save them.
"We gotta go," Beau said, tugging at Daryl.
Daryl started back toward the truck, hoping to run into it, since he could barely see the silhouette of the vehicle. He heard another walker and turned, feeling himself make contact, the Walker fell, but the sound didn't die down. Suddenly he heard a thud, and the sound quieted. Daryl continued back to the truck, getting in and closing the door. Beau appeared suddenly in the seat next to him, closing the door.
Daryl cranked the truck, the illumination of his headlights revealed a mass of Walkers in front of them, in the direction from which they had come, and his stomach flopped. The Walkers were feeding, and Daryl wished that he didn't know what they were feeding on. He pulled the truck forward a little, turning it around in the street. He realized that he didn't know what had become of Glenn. As he turned, though, the other truck roared to life and the headlights came on. Daryl pulled up beside Glenn and Beau rolled down his window. Glenn rolled down the passenger side window.
"Dominique?" He asked.
"We gotta go, man, follow me," Daryl said.
Glenn understood him perfectly. Silently he rolled up the window and pulled forward to turn his own truck around, sadly eyeing the Walkers which were beginning to grow curious about the growling of the engines.
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Josh and Brenda had swung open the gates for them, clearing out the Walkers. Both of them had immediately embraced the three of them as they spilled out of the trucks. They weren't going to bother with unloading the trucks tonight, they'd just leave them in the streets until morning. Daryl was exhausted and heart heavy. He started toward the house as everyone came spilling out of his front door, and other front doors.
Maggie bounded out the house first and pushed ahead of the crowd. Behind her danced the light of several lanterns, illuminating a few figures. Maggie leapt into Glenn's arms, crying and Beth ran over to wrap herself around both of them.
Daryl saw Michonne coming, running almost as fast as Maggie, and when she wrapped her arms around him he thought for a minute that it might strip him entirely of breath. Daryl didn't think he'd ever been hugged so tightly. Michonne was gasping, heaving for breath, and the sound that issued forth from her was one that Daryl hadn't heard before. She was shaking and he realized that she was crying violently, wordlessly. Daryl wrapped his arms around her, holding her up, sensing that she was no longer really capable of supporting her own weight. He was completely unaware of anything else that was happening around him at that moment.
Daryl had never imagined that he'd have had the effect on anyone that his absence had apparently had on Michonne this night. He knew that she was worried, but he'd never imagined that she would react this way, grasping at him, sobbing into his shoulder, shaking. She still hadn't said anything, she'd just continued the cries. As she started to calm a little, Daryl started to look around. Maggie and Glenn had finally parted. Carol was hugging Beau, and he could see that close to her Stella and Chelsea were hugging each other and audibly sobbing. They would know by now that Dominique wasn't coming back.
When Michonne finally quieted, she pulled away from Daryl, apparently not caring that they were in the street, surrounded by others who were discussing what had happened, and were mourning the loss of one of their family members.
"You came back," she said, smiling a little through the tears that were evident on her face. She ran her fingers through his hair.
"I told you I was comin' back," Daryl said.
Michonne's face contorted like she was going to start crying again and Daryl pulled her to him, shushing her and rubbing her back.
"I come back, 'Chonne, I'm right here," he said. He almost wanted to cry right along with her. This was the worst he'd ever seen her cry.
When she calmed again he pulled her off of him and kissed her.
"We needa go inside, 'Chonne," he said. "I need a get a bath, and we can go to bed, you look like you need to sleep."
Everyone else had started to disappear. Glenn and Maggie were gone, Beth was walking away with Stella and Chelsea, and Beau had started off in the direction of his house. It was just Daryl and Michonne standing in the street, and not far from them Tyreese stood with his arm around Carol, waiting for them.
"Come on, 'Chonne," Daryl said, pulling away from her again. As he started to lead her toward the house he felt her step falter a little, and without saying anything he put his arm around her, supporting her.
As he got closer, Carol came over and hugged both of them.
"I'm glad to see you made it back," she said. Daryl could see tears glimmering in her eyes, and her voice was cracking.
"We didn't all make it back," he said solemnly.
"I know, Daryl," she said. "Sometimes we don't all make it back…but I'm glad you did. Why don't you take Michonne upstairs, I'll bring you some bath water and things will look better in the morning," Carol said. She sighed.
"Yeah," Daryl said, "I'm gonna take her upstairs."
Daryl led Michonne upstairs and to the bed. She had stopped crying now, but she was fairly expressionless otherwise. He figured that she'd probably used up whatever energy she had left worrying and crying, and maybe she didn't feel like talking anymore.
While he was waiting on his bathwater, Daryl carefully undressed Michonne, who was still sniffing occasionally. He helped her into bed and noticed that she watched him as he stripped himself down finally, having accepted the bathwater from Carol. He washed quickly and then brought a cloth over to the bed, washing Michonne's face gently. She allowed him to do it.
Before Daryl could get into bed good, Michonne was sliding up tight against him. He put his arm around her and hugged her.
"I love you, 'Chonne," Daryl said.
"I love you," she said. He heard her voice crack a little and she started to shake again.
"Shhh…" Daryl said. "Don't cry no more, 'Chonne. I'm right here, I told you I was gonna come back, and I come back."
"I got so scared," Michonne said. "I was so worried that you weren't going to make it back, that I wasn't going to see you again."
"Shhh…" Daryl repeated. "Go to sleep, 'Chonne. I come back. I'll always come back. You ain't gonna get rid a' me that easy," he said.
Michonne chuckled a little in spite of herself.
"I don't ever want to be rid of you, Daryl," she said.
"Good, 'cause I ain't goin' nowhere," Daryl said. "You're pretty much stuck with me. Now get some sleep."
Michonne closed her eyes and sighed. Daryl pulled her tighter and she felt the familiar scratching of his beard as he nuzzled the back of her neck. She fought back the tears again, so thankful that she could fall asleep that night with the same safe, comforting scratching. He was asleep before her, snoring softly, and she let the sweet sound lull her off to sleep.