AN: As any of you still reading know, we've got a good many plot lines taking place "currently" in our story. That, of course, slows down the progression of the story until we've reached the end of those lines…or at least until some loose ends are tied up. That means that things move more slowly right now.

I squeezed this chapter in for everyone, and I hope you enjoy it. As we progress I'll be doing these as something like "episodes" that slowly move us forward in our plotlines.

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"It's rainin' buckets out there," Daryl said.

"You're right, it is," Michonne said. She was sitting beside Daryl on the bed listening to the rain pounding against the roof. The rain had come upon them rather suddenly while several people were milling about moving furniture and such for Libby and her little family. They'd all had to move what they could at the last minute and abandon the rest of the mission for another day.

Daryl leaned over and kissed Michonne and she responded.

"I got somethin' for ya, 'Chonne," Daryl said when he broke away from the kiss.

"Oh?" Michonne asked. She couldn't imagine what Daryl had for her, so her curiosity was peaked.

"Yeah…well, it's kinda for me too," Daryl said. Michonne smiled when she saw him blush a little.

"What is it, Daryl?" Michonne asked.

Daryl crawled out of bed and walked over to where his pants were thrown over a chair in the corner. It was the only method of putting away clothes that Michonne could get Daryl to go along with. He fumbled around in the pockets for a minute and then stood there with his hands behind his back looking a little sheepish. Michonne was curious now.

"Well, I mean it ain't nothin' really, but I saw it when we was movin' some stuff that Maggie picked out for Libby an' Emma an' I thought I might get it," Daryl offered.

"What is it, Daryl?" Michonne repeated, trying to hide her amusement.

Daryl came back, crawling onto the bed and seating himself just to the side of her, facing her. He held out his hand and she took the item he had balled in his fist. When she examined it, she found it to be possibly the most hideous pair of earrings that she'd ever seen. She turned it over, looking at them for a minute.

"You like 'em?" Daryl asked.

Michonne considered her next move for a moment. The earrings were fake, very long, and covered in gaudy rhinestones. In a word, no, she didn't like them. She had no idea who in their right mind would like them. Then she looked back at Daryl's face, looking first at them and then back at her.

Daryl liked them.

Suddenly Michonne was grateful that they didn't live any longer in a society where it would be not only acceptable, but expected, that Daryl buy her jewelry from time to time.

"What exactly made you decide to get these for me?" Michonne asked, skirting Daryl's question for a moment.

"You got them holes punched in your ears, 'Chonne, I figured you could wear 'em," Daryl said.

"I can wear them, Daryl, but what made you decide to get them for me?" Michonne pressed. Daryl's face was one of concern, but she couldn't tell if he was upset or not.

"I thought they was pretty, 'Chonne," Daryl said. "I thought you might like to wear 'em for me."

Michonne smiled.

"So you got me these to wear for you, huh?" Michonne asked.

"Well, yeah," Daryl said. He chewed his lip and eyed her. Finally his facial expression dissolved from concern to irritation. Michonne had seen it before. He was bothered by her response, but he was about to be an ass about it to try and cover it up. She could see it coming even before he grabbed for the earrings. "Forget it," he growled. As he grabbed for them she snatched them out of his reach.

"Easy, Daryl," Michonne said. "I didn't say I wasn't going to wear your earrings."

Daryl sat back again and looked annoyed. Michonne tried hard not to smile at him. She looked at the hideous earrings again.

"Why do you like these earrings?" She asked.

Daryl shrugged. He was pouting now. She'd have to give in to his game soon if she wanted to salvage his mood for the evening.

"Is it because they're shiny, Daryl?" She asked.

In response Daryl bit at his thumbnail. The earrings were like the shirts, Michonne decided. She had acquired a veritable rainbow of shirts, all for Daryl's tastes. He didn't care what the shirts looked like, he didn't care if they fit. The only that that seemed to matter to him in these little scenarios that he created was that the color was right, or was as close to being right as she could manage to scrounge up. The earrings were no different. Daryl couldn't care any less what they looked like, what mattered here was that they were shiny, and apparently he wanted her to wear gaudy, shiny earrings for him.

I'm married to a man with the same visual stimulation as a magpie, Michonne thought. If I wrapped myself in aluminum foil he'd probably lose his mind.

She got up out of bed slowly and started toward the bathroom carrying Daryl's treasure.

"What'cha doin'?" Daryl asked behind her.

"I'm cleaning these things with alcohol," Michonne said, digging through the box in the bathroom. "I have no idea where they've been and I'm not sure I want to know anything about the person who had them before. Besides, I haven't worn earrings in a while and if I'm going to stick these things in my ears I'd rather not get an infection from it."

Michonne cleaned the earrings and watched Daryl out of the corner of her eye. He was sitting on the bed watching her.

Michonne put on the earrings finally and grabbed a tie to tie up the dreadlocks that normally fell around her ears and face. She walked back into the bedroom, stopping beside the dresser to strip out of her underwear, the only thing that she was still wearing.

"What else do you want, Daryl?" Michonne asked, pulling open one of her drawers and fingering the various items inside.

"What'cha mean?" Daryl asked.

"What else do you want? Any certain shirt, underwear?" Michonne asked.

Daryl looked at her, barely even blinking.

"No, 'Chonne, nothin' else," he said.

"So you just want me to wear the earrings?" She asked.

Daryl nodded his head.

"I look kind of stupid just wearing these earrings, Daryl," Michonne said, though she realized that she looked pretty stupid wearing most everything that Daryl requested.

"No ya don't, 'Chonne, you look real fancy," Daryl said.

Michonne smiled and came over to the bed to join him. When she was situated, Daryl kissed her. When he pulled away his hand went to the one of the earrings, moving it just a little so that it glistened in the lamplight. He kissed her neck, sucking at it and she tipped her head back to allow him better access.

"I'm only wearing these in the bedroom," Michonne said, swallowing as he kissed her jaw. Daryl only grunted his understanding in response. His mouth trailed back to her neck and down her chest, his lips searching out her nipple. When he clamped down on it Michonne moaned. "You know," she panted, "I'm always dressing up for you, when are you going to dress up for me?"

Daryl stopped teasing her nipple with his tongue and looked at her.

"What'cha want me to dress up as?" He asked.

Michonne thought about it. The truth was that she really didn't want him to dress up as anything. She had just said that to tease him, and now he was waiting for a genuine response.

"Nothing, Daryl. I like you just the way you are," she said. She smiled at him and pulled him to her to kiss him again. Daryl didn't respond to the kiss, though. Instead he pulled away. "What?" Michonne asked. "What's wrong?"

"Take 'em off, 'Chonne," Daryl snapped. "I don't want'cha ta fuckin' wear 'em."

Michonne was taken aback by Daryl's tone almost as much as she was by his facial expression. He looked angry and hurt right now.

"Daryl, really, it's fine," she said. "What's wrong with you?"

"I like ya just the way ya is, 'Chonne, and I don't want ya thinkin' no different. Take the fuckin' things off," he growled. He made a grab and she moved, worried he might actually try to snatch one out of her ear. She'd never seen him act this way, not toward her. She felt her eyes brimming with tears without her permission and she tried to blink them back, swallowing the lump that was also rising in her throat.

"Daryl, what's wrong?" She asked. "I didn't mean anything. I know you like me like I am."

Daryl eyed her. Suddenly she wished she hadn't teased him at all. She wished she'd just put the earrings on and gone on with the evening as he'd obviously planned.

"I'm sorry, Daryl," she said, swallowing again. "I'm not taking them off. You like them, and it's fine that you like them. I shouldn't have teased you for it."

Michonne watched Daryl shift uncomfortably for a moment.

"Can you forgive me?" She asked, pushing him a bit.

"'Course I forgive ya, 'Chonne," Daryl said after a minute. "I just don't want ya thinkin' that I don't like ya like ya is, 'cause I do. I just wanted ta see what you'd look like wearin' them shiny earrings, that's all."

Michonne smiled then, even though the lump she'd been trying to swallow wasn't gone completely. She blinked and felt one of the tears escape.

"You just wanted to see what I'd look like when I was 'fancy', right?" She asked.

Daryl's nodded. His hand came up and he gently brushed her cheek, wiping away the escaped tear.

"Why ya cryin'?" He asked.

"It's nothing," Michonne said. "You just scared me for a second, that's all…when you grabbed at me."

Daryl looked worried then.

"I didn't mean to scare ya none, 'Chonne, honest. I wouldn't never hurt ya," Daryl said.

"I know you wouldn't," Michonne said. She took a deep breath and swallowed again. She wasn't upset anymore, but once the feeling had started it was difficult to get it to go away. "I know you wouldn't," she repeated. "Can we make love now, or do we have to keep fighting?" She asked after a second.

"You can take 'em off, 'Chonne, if ya want to," Daryl offered.

Michonne smiled at him then.

"Oh, I'm going to take them off, Daryl, but I'll let you have your fun first," she said.

"You sure there ain't nothin' you want me to do for ya?" Daryl asked.

Michonne smiled. She slid down in the bed, resting her head on the pillow. She grabbed his pillow and shifted her weight, putting it under her back.

"I said there wasn't anything I wanted you to put on," she said. "I didn't say there wasn't anything I wanted you to do for me."

Daryl smiled at her now.

"What'cha thinkin' 'bout?" He asked.

Michonne smiled at him and spread her legs.

"Well, if I'm a fancy woman, we have certain expectations about how we should be treated," she said.

"Yeah?" Daryl asked, looking at her and grinning.

"Yeah, we do," Michonne said. "We like to be taken care of," she said. "So I guess if you're going to have a fancy woman then you'd best start taking care of her, don't you think?"

Daryl grinned. He moved then and repositioned himself, his mouth going back to her breasts. He teased them both for a moment and then licked a trail over her belly, making her shiver. He moved between her legs and teased her with his tongue. Michonne moaned and grasped at the sheets under her hands.

"This what'cha had in mind," Daryl asked, stopping for a moment before suckling at her. The only response that Michonne could wrestle up was to bury her hand in his hair. He stopped again for a second, the teasing only making it unbearable for her. "Ain't a bad trade, huh? That what'cha sayin'?" Michonne responded by tugging at his hair, guiding him back down.

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The rain showed absolutely no signs of letting up. Rick was alone in his house. Carl had trotted down to Beau's house some time back to do whatever it was the two of them did when they hung out like this. Beau had decided to remain in the same house he'd always been in once Carol had taken care of the smell and offered him something to put in his room that smelled nice, promising him that it was a very manly thing to have. Rick wasn't sure how it would go for Beau and Carl to spend the day cooped up in the house with the "wild ones", but Rick imagined that most everyone would know about it if anything happened that the two boys couldn't handle.

Across the street he could see that Sadie and Mark were occupying the porch. Occasionally they chatted, but mostly Mark was busy reading something while Sadie sat lazily rocking and gazing off at nothing. Rick decided he'd pay them a visit.

As Rick crossed the street, undeterred by the falling rain, he noticed that Mark got up from his spot and disappeared inside with the baby.

"Need some company?" Rick asked, coming up the porch steps.

"What?" Sadie asked. "You're all wet now," she said with a smile.

Rick smiled back at her.

"I am all wet," he said, "but it doesn't matter. Do you want some company?"

Sadie looked around and Rick wondered if she hadn't noticed that Mark had gone inside with the child.

"Sure," she said, shrugging.

Rick responded by walking around her and pulling the second rocker so that it was at an angle. He was almost beside her, but he was slightly angled toward her so that it would make conversation easier.

Rick was sure that he wanted to have a conversation with Sadie, but he really wasn't sure what he wanted to say. Right now he'd grasp at anything just to get it started.

"So, that's a nice shiner you got there," he said. "I guess it's true that you got in a fight with a kid?"

Sadie looked at him a moment as though she was considering what he had said, her head cocked slightly to the side. She nodded a little.

"She hit me," Sadie said. She shrugged. "I didn't know what she was going to do, but I wasn't going to just let her keep hitting me."

"Good strategy," Rick said. He reached up and gently put his hand on Sadie's jaw, directing her face more in his direction and turning it slightly, looking at the black eye. He found it strange. The black eye and the busted lip, battle scars from her cat fight the day before, did nothing to detract from her beauty. "You've got beautiful eyes," he said.

Sadie smiled at him then, but it wasn't a genuine smile, it was more of a smirk.

"And now you're going to kiss me?" She asked. Rick didn't know what to say for a moment. Her tone didn't exactly change much, and he wasn't certain if it was a genuine question or not, though the smirk on her face warned him that it might not be.

"Do you want me to kiss you?" He asked.

Sadie reached up and gently pushed his hand away from her face. She sat up, leaning toward him.

"I know about Rachel," she said.

"What about Rachel?" Rick asked. "We broke up," he offered.

Sadie continued to wear the same smirk.

"I know that too," she said. She was quiet for a minute, but her eyes never left his. She was staring at him intently. "Why did you break up? Because she wanted to be with Seth? What about you, Rick? What did you want?"

Rick stopped for a moment. It was hard to say exactly what he wanted. He couldn't put it into words when he wasn't certain of it himself. He liked Sadie. In the beginning it had simply been that he'd found her very attractive, unnervingly so at times, but now he thought it might be a little more. He found her intriguing. On many levels she was so readable, so open, so honest, but there was also something about her that was somewhat mysterious. He wondered if it was that mystery that drew him to her, that made him cross the street in the rain just to sit with a woman that may or may not engage in conversation with him.

"I don't know, Sadie," he answered. He decided the best thing was to be honest with her. She seemed to have some strange ability to read his mind anyway, so why should he lie and complicate the situation further? "I'm not always sure of what I want."

Sadie considered his answer a moment, sat back in her chair, and watched him.

"Do you know what you want?" He challenged.

Sadie smiled then.

"No, I don't," she responded. "Not anymore. I knew what I wanted before, but it's changed a lot since then."

"Hasn't everything changed?" Rick asked. He knew that if he saw himself now through the eyes that he'd once seen the world he wouldn't even recognize himself. He knew that he'd changed. He could see that the others in the group had changed. Those he had been with the longest were, at times, barely even shadows of the people they had been when they were outside of Atlanta. They all retained traces of the people they were, that much was certain, but the characteristics that remained the same seemed minimal at best. This world, their world, seemed to make them into entirely different animals.

Sadie nodded her head.

"It has changed, you're right," Sadie said. "I know, though, what I don't want. It seems like no matter how much I lose the ability to say what I want out of life…out of this life…I never lose the ability to say what I don't want."

"What is it that you don't want?" Rick asked.

"I don't want to be anybody's Rachel," Sadie said. She looked at him again, then, locking him in with her stare.

Rick realized what she was insinuating and he didn't quite know how to respond. He'd never intended for her to take the place of Rachel, at least not literally. He wasn't sure that he'd ever really thought that anything would actually happen between them. He suddenly felt as awkward as he'd often seen Daryl act. He cleared his throat.

"I…well, I wasn't expecting you to be Rachel," he offered.

Sadie smiled.

"Good," she said. "If I wanted to be like that, if all I wanted out of this life was someone to have sex with me, I would have kissed Beau back," she offered.

Rick had heard from Carl that Beau had kissed Sadie. Apparently she'd rejected the boy, placing him firmly in the position of a friend. Carl had told Rick that Beau had not taken the rejection lightly and that he harbored, at least to some degree, a little bitterness at her lack of enthusiasm about the kiss.

"If I wanted someone to just sleep with me," she continued, "then I could have molded the boy into someone who did everything I commanded, exactly as I wanted it done…but I didn't want that."

"I didn't come here to sleep with you, Sadie," Rick said after a minute, "and I didn't come here to be molded into anything. I came here to have a conversation with you." He paused for a minute and watched her watching him. "I don't know what I want, Sadie, and I don't know if I will ever know what I want, but I do know that I never wanted you to be Rachel."

Sadie looked satisfied then. She nodded and took a deep breath. A half smile crossed her face.

"Good," she said finally. "What do you want to have a conversation about, Rick?"

Rick realized that at least one elephant was out of the room. He wasn't sure what would happen from here out, but he knew where Sadie stood to some degree. She wasn't looking for a physical relationship, at least not a purely physical relationship. If he was going to get closer to her, it was going to take some effort to connect with her on a different level.

"Well," he said, trying to think of something to engage her in conversation about, "I've been spending more time with Judith lately. Do you think you might have any advice for me?"

Sadie smiled at him again. This time the smirk was entirely gone and the smile was the most genuine that she could offer.

"What do you need advice on?" She asked.

"Everything," Rick said. "You said you had five children and three of them were girls. Tell me what I need to know about little girls."

Sadie laughed.

"There's a lot to know about little girls," Sadie said. Rick recognized in her face that she was teasing him a little.

"We've got a while," he said. "The rain doesn't look like it's going to stop anytime soon."

He leaned back in his rocker then, establishing physically for her that he had no intention of leaving. She smiled and leaned back in hers, turning her head toward him. Rick decided then that nothing may ever happen between the two of them, but he was pretty sure he was going to enjoy seeing where this might go. He listened as she began to tell him about her daughters. He tried to soak it in, gathering from what she said anything that he might use to help establish a firmer relationship with Judith on the one hand, and anything that he might use to get closer to Sadie on the other.