Michonne was up far before daybreak for a bathroom break, and when she came into the room, she found that Daryl was awake and waiting for her.
"Come 'ere," he growled. She could hear the sleep in his voice. He wasn't entirely awake, but he was working on it and it was clear that he had ideas.
Michonne sauntered toward him, stripping off her clothes as she walked. When she reached the edge of the bed Daryl got up. He grabbed her shoulders, turning her around and gently tossed her backward onto the bed. Michonne tried to suppress the laugh that threatened to escape.
Michonne lie still for a minute, while Daryl fumbled over the side of the bed coming up with the robe that she'd shucked off only a moment before from her bathroom run. It had actually been one that she'd brought for him, but she liked it, and he never really used it. He quickly unthreaded the belt from the loops and collected her hands together, quickly tying her wrists. She raised an eyebrow at him, willing herself not to smile.
Michonne didn't really know what she was supposed to do, what he wanted her to do, so she waited patiently for some sort of instruction from him. He crawled around behind her and she suddenly felt him loop his arms through hers, dragging her backwards. Michonne decided not to complain. When he tied her arms to the bedpost, she stifled another laugh when he tucked a pillow under her head. It was a little difficult to bear in mind the seriousness with which he was trying to go about this with him being so thoughtful. That was Daryl, though. Even when he wanted to play some kind of tough role with her he couldn't completely abandon his almost impulsive need to take care of her.
"Pick your ass up," Daryl said. Michonne lifted herself with her legs as best she could while Daryl continued fumbling around, preparing the scene he'd apparently seen in his head while she was outside. "OK, you're good," Daryl said. She lowered herself and realized that he'd tucked another pillow underneath her lower back. Michonne turned her face into her arm, stretched beside her head, in order to hide her smile.
"This OK, 'Chonne?" Daryl asked, leaning over her and looking concerned for a moment.
"Daryl," Michonne said, softly, "I'm just going to say this once. It takes some of the fun out of it if I've got to reassure you. If I didn't want you to do something to me, I wouldn't let you do it."
Daryl nodded slightly and responded by kissing Michonne deeply, one hand trailing down to her breasts and rolling her nipple roughly between his fingers. She responded by moaning into his mouth. He kissed her jaw and made his way down her neck, nibbling her skin lightly. She knew that he knew he was driving her crazy.
He continued to knead her nipples, first one and then the other as he bit and sucked at her neck and collarbone, stopping a second to place a kiss just below her collarbone, the spot where she knew the scar from her gunshot wound was located.
Michonne closed her eyes and swallowed hard, attempting to block out every thought except those surrounding what he was doing to her. She could already feel herself building toward an orgasm, and she knew Daryl well enough to know that he would consider this the "just getting started" point.
When his mouth replaced his fingers at her breasts, biting gently at her nipples, Michonne cried out involuntarily with pleasure. He paused a minute, but settled back in before Michonne could protest his pause. She was thankful that just this once he wasn't attempting to have some sort of random conversation at intervals to drag her away from reveling in the pleasure she felt coursing through her body.
Daryl worked his mouth down Michonne's body, licking and biting. He was listening to the moans and whines that were escaping her. He had stopped once or twice to see if they were genuinely of pain, or if she was enjoying herself. The fact that she had her eyes closed, her mouth half open except when she was biting her lower lip, and the fact that she kept squirming beneath him made him fairly sure that she was enjoying herself.
Michonne was screaming at Daryl in her head, as she often did, to relieve her from her build up. She started to move and realized that he had her hands tied. He had done it just to keep her from taking care of things herself. They were pretty tight, too. She could get out if she really needed to, but it wasn't worth the effort right now.
Daryl paused at her belly, kissing her, licking her, and she thought she'd explode when she felt his hand drop to pleasure her exactly as she'd been thinking of doing herself. As he dug two fingers into her, his thumb doing its job from the outside, Michonne ground the best she could against him, raising herself up with her legs.
Daryl stopped for a moment and Michonne let out a sound somewhere between a whine and a whimper. He repositioned himself and moved between her legs, nibbling at the delicate skin there, lapping at her. She involuntarily jerked away from him, riding out the pleasure, and he grabbed her by the waist roughly, pulling her back where he wanted her.
"Don't run away from me, woman, I ain't give you permission for that!" He said.
He returned to what he'd been doing before, holding her waist tight to prevent her from jerking away from him. He didn't stop until she'd rode out her orgasm, cursing at him, though he knew that all her curses at this moment were actually positive things.
She was still panting from the wave of pleasure when Daryl finally thrust into her, hard, pulling her knees up over his shoulders. He smiled at the fact that she still hadn't opened her eyes and silently congratulated himself before continuing to reach his own release, and with any luck, to bring her to another.
Michonne only realized again that her hands were tied when she felt Daryl tugging at the knot on the belt, freeing them. When she was free, he dropped back down beside her, supporting himself on his elbow and smiling at her. She rolled her eyes in his direction first and then turned her head slightly, stretching her shoulders. She couldn't help but smirk at the grin he had on his face.
"Proud of yourself?" She asked. His grin broadened.
"You're welcome," he said.
Michonne smiled at him.
Daryl trailed his hand to her belly and started rubbing it gently. He was impatient to be able to feel the baby move, but Michonne knew it wasn't time yet. He'd have to wait it out a little longer.
"Daryl," Michonne started when her breath had returned to normal, "when you and Beau go out there today, don't act like heroes. If you find that other group, don't try to do anything on your own."
"We weren't goin' to, 'Chonne, we just gon' find the group an' then we'll come back here so y'all can know where they are. We gon' send Sadie in before anyone does anything," Daryl responded.
"I know that's the plan, Daryl, but I know that you can be a little impulsive and Beau's got a streak of that too. I just don't want you two trying something and getting in deeper than you can handle," Michonne said.
"Ain't nothin' to worry 'bout, 'Chonne, we just goin' to find 'em," Daryl said.
"I'm always going to worry, Daryl, when you go out there alone," Michonne said.
"I won't be alone, 'Chonne, I'm takin' Beau," Daryl said.
Though Michonne had confidence in the boy's skills, and she had an almost infinite amount of confidence in Daryl's abilities, she didn't like the idea of the two of them going out into the woods alone, looking for a group that may be violent simply because they noticed the two of them. She couldn't imagine what the group might do to them if they tried some sort of attack without back up.
"Just promise me, OK?" Michonne asked.
Daryl responded by leaning over and kissing her.
"I promise, 'Chonne. You don't worry none, we'll both be home in time for supper, you just make sure Carol don't skimp on the food 'cause we'll probably work up a good hunger roaming 'round in the woods tryin' to find these people," Daryl said.
They were both quiet for a few minutes.
"Speakin' of food," Daryl said, "how 'bout we go an' see if Carol's got breakfast for us?" He threw a leg over Michonne, meaning to crawl over her and get off the bed on her side.
"I love you," she said, reaching up and catching him around the neck, pulling him down to kiss her again.
"I love you too, 'Chonne," Daryl said when they'd parted.
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After breakfast everyone was scrambling about. Maggie and Glenn were preparing to go out sweeping the surrounding areas for added protection for their upcoming battle. Rick had taken a handful of the younger members of the group onto a neighboring street to start working with them on target practice, and Beau and Daryl were about to head out to go in search of the other group. Michonne had left Hope playing with Judith and followed Daryl around while he was finishing his preparation.
Each of them took a bag of food that Carol had packed for them and a canteen of water. Michonne and Carol both followed them over to the fence where Beth was keeping a halfhearted watch.
At about the same time they all noticed Sadie outside the fence. Her knife and her machete were hanging from her belt, and in one hand she held part of a length of rope and in the other she held a pitchfork.
"What the hell is the crazy bitch doin'?" Daryl asked. There were two walkers coming right at her, and she didn't look like she was preparing to take them out at all.
"I don't know," Carol responded. "She didn't say. She just asked if she could have the stuff the she found and I told her she could. I didn't even know what she had."
They all stood watching her for a minute. She waited patiently as the closest Walker approached and she stabbed it through the middle with the pitchfork, holding it away from her. She kicked her leg out, snatching the Walker's feet from under it and sending it dropping backwards. Quickly she reached down and tied the rope around the Walkers leg. As she heaved the pitchfork up, the Walker rose with it, and she finally snatched the pitchfork out, stepping several steps away from the Walker. He quit moving forward at that moment, having reached the end of his rope. It was only then that Michonne paid attention to the fact that all the fence Walkers that were trying to get through at the gate were actually tied together in a similar fashion and tied to the fence.
"She's collecting Walkers," Michonne said after a minute.
"What would anyone want to collect Walkers for?" Beau asked.
"I don't know that," Michonne said, "but I'm sure I'll find out."
Daryl sucked his teeth. Sadie was a character that he didn't understand at all.
"Come on, we better get a move on," he said to Beau. He kissed Michonne gently, squeezing him to her with one arm and releasing her quickly, and then he started toward the gate that Beth already had open, Sadie insuring that no Walkers made it through.
"Be careful not to distract her," Michonne called, watching Sadie repeat the routine with another Walker, "one wrong move could be bad."
Daryl gestured at her and the two of them slipped out the gate, moving away from Sadie's growling chain of Walkers and toward the creek where they would begin their search of the other community.
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Michonne and Carol had stopped a few minutes with Beth to watch Sadie's repetitive actions with the Walkers. When she had about twenty tied together, she tied the extra rope to the fence and came back through, panting and covered in sweat and Walker mess.
She stopped in front of the two women, fanning herself. She smiled for a second and made a face to indicate that she was tired.
"Tired," she said, smiling again.
"What are you doing collecting Walkers?" Michonne asked.
Sadie cocked her head to the side a moment and then smiled.
"Practice," she said.
"You practice collecting Walkers?" Michonne asked.
Sadie giggled.
"No! Practice for the others. It's safer in here, no chance of them bunching up on us. We take them somewhere else," Sadie looked around the community and then shrugged, "some other part of the area. Then we bring the others and let them go one at a time. Hands on practice, training."
Michonne smiled at the woman. That was actually not a bad idea. It would create similar conditions for the training that she'd done with Beth. It would at least give them an idea of how the newer members would fare against Walkers since they'd never seen many of them in that situation.
"That's a good idea," Michonne said.
Sadie made the gesture that Michonne now recognized as "thank you" and smiled again.
"Are you crazy?" Carol asked. "I can tell she is, but are you, Michonne? She wants to bring Walkers inside the community. What if they get loose? I know they're hobbled right now, but what if Sadie isn't exactly the Boy Scout she thinks she is at tying knots?"
"It's not crazy, it's genius," Michonne said. "It'll give everyone some hands on training with their weapons and a chance to brush up a little." Michonne turned to Sadie, "I'll get my katana, you go and start rallying the others for training."
Sadie nodded but didn't leave immediately.
"Your katana?" Carol asked.
"Yes, Carol, my katana," Michonne said.
"Michonne," Carol started.
Michonne held her hand up.
"Don't start, Carol. I'm just going to be there to back up some of the others, so that if they hesitate I can take the Walker out before it gets to them. There's only maybe twenty Walkers on that chain. Even if they all got loose, with my reflexes, and apparently with Sadie's, we could have all of them down before either of us broke a sweat. There's no possible way for me to overdo it just by working with some of the others," Michonne said, her tone of voice leaving little room for argument.
Sadie watched the interaction, but didn't intervene in any way. She finally turned and started down the road in search of people to train.
"Fine," Carol said, realizing that there wasn't any reason to argue with Michonne at this point.
"I'll be fine, Carol. I promise. I'll take a break if I even feel so much as winded," Michonne said.
Carol nodded and turned toward headquarters. Michonne jogged toward the house to bring her katana out of hiding, excited at the prospect of holding it in her hands again.
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"Looks like they ain't even tryin' ta cover their tracks," Beau mused.
"We don't cover ours," Daryl said.
They were both staring down at such a cluster of footprints that anyone could have found them, whether or not they had any knowledge of tracking at all. Beau's prediction had been correct. They'd easily found, about a half a mile or so from the spot where they got water, a cluster of footprints at the water's edge, clearly caused by heavy foot traffic. There was a worn path as well, indicating that it was a regularly travelled route. Daryl and Beau both suspected it would lead them to the other group. If they were lucky, they might not have to employ any tracking skills at all. The path might lead them right to the doorway of the others.
"Do you reckon' they don't know 'bout us, an' that's why they don't care we could find 'em like this?" Beau asked.
"I don't know," Daryl said. "That could be one reason, or either they're big enough and strong enough that they don't care." Daryl was more worried about the second possibility. "Come on," Daryl said, turning to start down the path, "let's go see what we're dealing with.
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Michonne had silently led the string of Walkers while Sadie had walked beside her, backwards, pushing them off with a board so that they wouldn't get too excited by the prospect of food. Unlike her pets, these Walkers still had the total ability to mutilate anyone that fell within their reach.
Their trainees trailed silently along behind them. They'd decided to only take Jimmy, Junior, Chelsea, and Stella for the time being, leaving Rick to work with any of the others that he wanted to work with.
They'd found a good spot and Sadie had secured the rope so that the team of Walkers couldn't progress any closer to them than they intended. The first thing they did was identify the weapons that each person would be working with, having had to find something for both Stella and Chelsea who had apparently only used firearms for defense prior to this.
Michonne had given Sadie Junior and Jimmy to work with and she'd taken the girls, suspecting they might be less experienced than the two boys and require more interaction. Junior and Jimmy seemed a little more seasoned, perhaps from trying to help defend Dora and Frank. It appeared that the girls had relied heavily on Dominique during their time being separated with him.
Michonne had given them both the same speech she'd given to Beth, but it hadn't worked as effectively as she'd hoped. They weren't really motivated to save anyone else, neither of them feeling like they had anyone that close to them anymore. They were willing to fight for the group, all of whom they were coming to care for, but they didn't have anyone whose lost fanned a fire within them. All that Michonne had to go on after reaching this realization, then, was the hope of fanning a fire within them for self-preservation.
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When they'd finally come to what Daryl suspected was their final location, he'd been surprised and tried to get Beau away from it and hidden in the wooded area nearby so that they could check out the location without being noticed by anyone.
It was a middle school, and it was a pretty good distance from their community, but not too far to be something Daryl was comfortable with.
This group had the protection of a chain link fence that surrounded the parameter of the school. Just like at their own fences, there was a collection of Walkers milling about and pressing themselves against the fences.
Daryl couldn't make out much about the rest of it, though, and he only saw two men from where he was crouched down, walking around.
Maybe they're doing parameter checks. He thought. What he could see, however, only gave him a location for the other group, and not much else to go on.
Daryl turned to get Beau's attention, but Beau was gone.
Somebody outta put a damn bell on that kid. Daryl thought for a second. Then he heard a hissing above him and looked up. Beau was perched in the tree just to Daryl's right.
"There's two men," Beau whispered down. "They got guns. Looks like military or somethin', they're wearin' uniforms."
"Anybody else you can see?" Daryl whispered back. He had no desire to draw the attention of neither the men nor the Walkers hanging about the fences.
"No," Beau called back, "it looks like they ain't but two people there."
Daryl knew that something wasn't right. There was no way that this group only had two people when Sadie had reported four men being part of the attack that robbed her group of thirteen people. Either this was the wrong group, or the majority of the group was on some sort of lockdown inside the school.
Daryl was fairly confident, though, that this was the right group. The foot traffic that had led them there was not the work of only two men. He lamented momentarily that there was no way for them to get closer, no way to further explore the interior of the camp they'd made, without being seen and probably shot. If they sent Sadie in as they planned, she'd be the one that would have to do the inside exploration when she went to find the others.
Even though Daryl felt that they hadn't found out all that they wanted to know, at least they knew where the other group was now. Daryl turned and looked around him, trying to get his bearings to figure out what would be the quickest way back to the community. He wasn't sure and determined that they would have to take the long way back. He memorized the name of the school quickly, hoping that Michonne would have some idea of where it was located and what would be the most efficient route for their group to take for their future visits.
"Come on, Beau," Daryl whispered, "let's head on back an' tell 'em we found 'em."
Beau dropped down almost silently beside him and they both crouched, crawling through the wooded area until they were far enough out of sight to take the path back to the creek.
Daryl wondered how they were doing at home, anxious to get back and tell them the location, and to further examine their possibilities for moving forward and eliminating this possible threat that hung in the air.
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As practice had gone on, Michonne had time to be surprised at a few things she was contemplating. One was the skill level of Sadie. Watching her collect the Walkers had been interesting, and she'd made two runs since then, bringing back a chain of Walkers with Jimmy and Junior fighting them back. Another thing entirely, though, was her focus when she was working with them loose. You couldn't distract her if you tried. It made Michonne curious as to how Daryl had been able to injure the woman and, assuming that what Mark said could be taken seriously, it was likely only because she had let her guard down under his assurance that all would be fine.
Michonne was also surprised at how much work it had taken for Chelsea and Stella to even become Beth level adept at Walker killing. It truly made her wonder how they'd survived so far. Dominique must have had some skill at Walker killing to have gotten them to the point where they found them, huddled in the supply room at the store, or either they'd all three had some pretty superior luck. She was confident that if the group hadn't found the three of them they wouldn't have survived another week.
They were getting better, though, and more practice would help a lot. It was getting close to time for dinner, though, and Michonne had to admit to herself that she was growing tired of holding the guarded stance behind the two girls. She was ready to rest a little for the evening.
Michonne waved her arms at Sadie, who was busy with Chelsea, trying to get her to kill another of the approaching two that were free. Sometimes it happened, other times Sadie brought her machete crashing into the skull of the Walker. Apparently noticing Michonne trying to get her attention, Sadie didn't give Chelsea the opportunity this time and the Walker dropped instantly. Sadie snatched her machete free and walked over to Michonne.
"Something wrong?" Sadie asked. She was more than visibly tired.
"Time to call it a night," Michonne said. "We'll work some more tomorrow. I need to help Carol with dinner and you look like you could use a breather."
Sadie didn't say anything but she nodded.
"Head on back," Michonne commanded to the group. "Stella, Chelsea, you'll be out here tomorrow with the next group we train. Jimmy, Junior, I think you're best with Rick."
No one responded, but the all sauntered back toward their respective homes. Michonne walked toward the four Walkers that they still had tied up, stepping carefully over those that littered the ground and would have to be gathered together to be burned later. She lopped two of the heads off in one swift movement and noticed that Sadie took her cue, quickly taking down the other two.
"So were you ever scared of Walkers?" Michonne asked Sadie, pausing for a minute to sheathe her katana and regard the woman in front of her.
Sadie shook her head.
"Not for a long time," Sadie said. "I was at first, but then they were after my babies, and I wasn't scared anymore."
Michonne only responded with a nod, heading back toward headquarters with Sadie walking along beside her. It would be time soon for Daryl and Beau to make their way back, and she was anxious for them to get there, wondering what they might have found out, if anything, about the group they'd be going up against.