AN: OK, sorry, I've been on hiatus. I had to take a little break, find the muse again.
I've been working on one of my other fics that's been popular, but I'm missing my friends here and I'm ready to come back. It may take me a little to get totally back into feeling it, so if this chapter isn't 100% great, please forgive me. I'm just falling back into things, but I promise I'm not running away again. I'll try and have another chapter for you in a few days at most.
I hope you're still with me and you're still enjoying the story. As always, I love to hear your comments, so drop me a line and let me know what you're thinking!
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Tyreese knew that Daryl was in a mood. Even though the fight the night before had apparently been resolved, since no one had been on the couch when he'd gone downstairs early with Carol to carry firewood for her and show her the ash box that he'd built to her specifications, but resolution or not it had soured Daryl's mood and made his temper shorter than it typically was.
Tyreese had gone down to look over and map out their future project before he started recruiting all the hands he needed. While he was down there, Sadie showed up to ask what she should do and he put her to work, and now he was headed back in search of Daryl when he heard the commotion. Coming upon the scene, he was sure that the fences around the community were strong because surely every Walker in the area was trying to get in them right now.
"You ain't doin' nothin' but makin' a fuckin' mess!" Daryl protested.
"For your information, Daryl Dixon, I am making lye water, and your filthy ass will be grateful for that when we run out of soap because it's not going to last forever!" Carol snapped back.
They were squared off at each other, and Michonne was nowhere in sight. Tyreese wasn't sure if he should break them up or watch the rest of the fight. To add to the confusion, Judith was lying, sprawled on the grass, and crying about some woe in her life.
"Can I help you two?" Tyreese finally called, deciding that keeping Carol and Daryl from engaging in fist to fist combat was probably the first thing that he should do.
"I think we've got it just fine," Carol said. "Daryl here has his ass on his shoulders and thinks that I should be doing something instead of just wasting time over here trying to follow some stupid pioneer guide to make cleaning supplies."
Daryl was chewing his thumb in silence, brooding.
"How the fuck was I supposed to know that's what you was doin'?" He spat finally.
"You weren't supposed to ask! I don't think I need a lecture from you on the fact that there are things that need to be done around here! I think I understand that!" Carol shouted back.
"OK, OK," Tyreese said. "That's enough. Carol, finish with your soap, Daryl, I'm ready for you so we can get started."
Daryl eyed Carol for a minute, but she stood there, hands on her hips, like she was waiting for him to say something else.
"Man, fuck you too," Daryl grumbled at no one in particular. He picked up the tools that he'd been carrying and walked away.
Tyreese turned back to Carol a minute before following him.
"What is wrong with Judith?" He asked.
"She's fine," Carol huffed. "I put concentrated lemon juice on her hands so her fingers taste nasty and now she's practicing for her Oscar. Apparently everyone is feeling dramatic today."
Tyreese could tell that she was in the mood to be "feeling" very dramatic herself, so he decided not to push it. He walked past the toddler who stopped crying for a second and sat up. Upon seeing that he wasn't going to rescue her from her wretched state, she dropped dramatically back to the grass and resumed her screeching.
Tyreese caught up with Daryl walking down the street.
"So did you want to talk about it?" Tyreese asked, "I know having a fight with a woman can be difficult, but it's not the end of the world."
Daryl stopped and turned, eyeing him. He didn't say anything. Finally he just turned and continued walking.
"Ain't got nothin' ta talk about," Daryl said.
"Then why were you after Carol?" Tyreese asked. "She's been reading books for weeks trying to figure out this lye soap business, I even had to build her that ash box. She was really excited about telling everyone when she had it figured out."
"Ain't got nothin' to do with her neither. I didn't know what the hell she was doin' with all them ashes and water, and 'round here seems like people are forgettin' that winter's comin' an' there's still a whole lotta shit that's gotta be done 'fore it gets here," Daryl said.
"I think everyone knows there's a lot to be done, Daryl. Most everyone is working right now," Tyreese offered.
"Maggie an' Mark are goin' on about parties like we ain't got enough to do to keep busy," Daryl said.
Tyreese chuckled to himself.
"Maggie is going around looking for clothes and things for the party, yes, but the last I saw Mark he was mending clothes and watching Paul and Hope so that Carol could make the soap, Sadie would be free for work, which I already put her to doing while I came to get you, and Michonne could do whatever it is that she's doing," Tyreese said.
"I don't know what she's doin', probably somethin' stupid," Daryl growled.
Tyreese chuckled again.
"Listen, we heard your little battle, Daryl, so if you want to talk about it, let's just get it over with. It would be a lot easier for everyone working today if you're not snapping at everyone," Tyreese said.
Daryl didn't respond. When they finally got to their destination, Rick was standing to the side talking to Sadie, who was leaning on a sledge hammer.
"You two supposed to be workin', not talkin'," Daryl said, walking up.
Rick turned and raised his eyebrows. Sadie turned when Rick turned, being none the wiser to Daryl's words.
"Good morning to you too, sunshine," Rick said. "Sadie was just explaining to me what we're supposed to be doing, but now that the foreman's here, I guess you can handle it."
"You'll have to forgive Daryl's attitude, Rick, he's just discovered what marital spats are like, and he seems to think that means he needs to spread the love around to everyone," Tyreese said.
"Man, shut the fuck up!" Daryl said.
Sadie, apparently not having any interest in the conversation, heaved up her sledgehammer and started back inside to the job that she had halted when Rick had asked what he needed to do.
"We need to figure out how to take out enough of this wall so that we can frame it up as a door," Tyreese explained to Rick, ignoring Daryl for the moment. "We're going to leave as much intact as possible, saving ourselves whatever extra labor we can. Sadie's already working on the inside, so once we get this part figured out we can recruit more hands to handle the little pieces. This is going to be our hardest part, I think. Whatever we do, we don't want to compromise the structure."
Rick and Daryl both followed Tyreese and started helping him as he pointing out what he wanted them to do bit by bit, all of them understanding that this was an experiment at best.
"So did you and Michonne have a fight or something?" Rick asked, smirking.
"I ain't gossipin' with you two like a bunch a' hens," Daryl said.
"They did have a fight," Tyreese said. "I think it's the first one, and our boy Daryl, here, doesn't quite know how to take it."
"She called me a fuckin' kid," Daryl said. "And she's bitchin' just 'cause I don't want ta do stupid shit like this party they plannin'. We got enough goin' on that we don't need to be wastin' time with stuff like that. I told her I'd do it, but I don't think it makes any sense."
Rick chuckled.
"So you told her you'd do it, huh?" Rick said. "So are you mad about the fight, or mad because she won the fight?"
"She ain't won the fight!" Daryl said. "I just said I'd do it to be nice to her."
"Daryl, any man with a woman in his life has given into something to stop a fight or to end one, there's no shame in that," Tyreese said. "Am I right, Rick?"
"He's right," Rick said. "If you've only had one good fight with Michonne, and you've already got Hope and she's walking around looking like she's smuggling some kind of melon in her shirt, then I'd say you're doing pretty good for yourself. When Lori was pregnant with Carl I think we fought pretty much every day."
Daryl huffed and stopped tearing at the board he was trying to pull lose for a moment, wiping his forehead.
"I supposed you don't care about gettin' all gussied up for some stupid party?" Daryl asked, turning to Tyreese.
"No, I don't," Tyreese said, working his own crowbar into place. "I look at it this way, I get cleaned up and dress up. Carol gets cleaned up and dresses up. In return, I get to ogle her all evening while I hang out with people I was going to hang out with anyway, she gets all hot and bothered over the idea of me dressed up, and then I get to take her home. What exactly is supposed to be the down side of this?"
"And I'm dressing up and hoping for an invitation to escort someone," Rick said. "You should be happy that you get the chance to go with Michonne. It's not like it's going to be something terrible."
Daryl didn't say anything for a moment, but he went back to work. Finally he paused again.
"Fine, but we're gettin' home before you an' Carol get there," Daryl said.
"I'll take that challenge," Tyreese said, chuckling.
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Beau had gone hunting just after breakfast. He came back with his prey, nothing to be especially proud of, in his opinion, and he cleaned it for Carol, dropping it off at headquarters. He headed back to his house to drop off his bow, thinking that he'd head down to the other end of the community after that to see what he could involved in. There were always things that needed to be done, it was just a matter of finding out where they wanted you.
As Beau climbed the steps to the house and tore open the front door, he was surprised. His door was gone…or rather, it wasn't so much that it was gone, as that it was covered up.
Beau stood there a minute, confused. He tried to figure out what had happened. Clearly someone had boarded up the door to his house, and they'd done it from the inside.
Libby.
Beau went around to the window and found that one of them was boarded, so he quickly ran to the other. It wasn't boarded, so he tried to get it open. Surprisingly it gave way and opened up. He climbed through it.
"Libby?! Libby?! What'cha done gone an' done to tha door?" He called out.
Libby appeared in front of him a moment later with a hammer in her hand.
"Fuck's it look like I done?" She said. "Ain't safe havin' 'em like they was an' I ain't just waitin' 'round here for them nasty assholes ta come an' get us. We just sittin' like ducks on a pond."
Beau walked through the house, finding that she'd also boarded the other door to the outside and, from what he could tell, all the downstairs windows except the one.
"How we s'posed ta get in an' out like this?" He asked.
"Ya got in, didn'tcha?" She answered.
"Ya know we safe here, don't'cha Libby? We ain't got no Walkers here. I'd say you's 'bout the biggest threat we got 'round here right now," Beau said.
Libby was a scrapper, so he kept his eye on the hammer in case she had half a mind to whack him with it. The other kids weren't so bad, at least not when she let them out of the room, but she typically kept them closed in there under the impression that she was protecting them from something.
"We safer now," Libby said. "Ain't nothin' safe, though, ain't'cha seen what them things can do?"
Beau wrinkled his brow at her. Since Mark had chopped at her hair while she was fighting him trying to get her cleaned up, she looked like an angry pixie. Beau had agreed to keep living with her, and he'd gotten her to talk to him just a little, but nothing more than this type of conversation where he spent most of his time trying to figure out what she was thinking.
"'Course I seen what they do, we all seen what they do. That's why we got this here place like we got, an' that's why we all aimin' ta keep from havin' ta move on, but I don't reckon we really gotta have the door all closed up like that," Beau said. "Ya been outside, ya been ta the fields. Ya know it's safe."
"Well ya ain't takin' it down," Libby said, squaring off with him. "We gotta sleep in here, an' I ain't waitin' for 'em ta come in the middle of the night and take my whole family!"
Beau sighed. He didn't want to fight with this girl, and he supposed that climbing in and out of the window wasn't that big of a deal, not if it was going to keep her from going crazy. At least she would leave the house now, sometimes, so he might as well let her board up the door if it was that important to her.
"Fine," he said, "but ya gotta leave that window alone."
Beau didn't wait for any response from her. He started up the stairs and left his bow in his room. When he came back down, she was gathering up the scraps that she had left over from her project.
"Where ya goin'?" She asked as he started back through the window.
"Got work ta be done. Ya better put all that stuff back where ya got it," he said, ducking through the window.
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Michonne knew that Daryl was still irritated about the fight. She was still a little bothered herself. She'd stayed away from him most of the day, clearing Walkers away from the fence lines and helping a little down at the fields. He'd been involved with starting the project to build a barn for the animals. She'd watched it from a distance for a few minutes, from time to time, to see the progress that was being made, but it was a job she knew better than to volunteer to help with so as to not ruffle his feathers any further.
She'd be allowed to help with the "indoor rabbit farm" they were planning in another house, at least to some degree, since it would be a much easier project, but the construction work they were doing at the time would definitely be something that Daryl would not deem "safe" for her to do.
When Michonne finally came through headquarters and accepted dinner, she found Daryl already sitting down eating with Hope in a high chair beside him. Hope called to her the minute that she walked through the door, but Daryl didn't look up.
Michonne walked over and kissed Hope, pointing at her plate and telling her to eat. She knew the little girl was happy to see her after she'd been away from her most of the day, and most probably she wanted to have a discussion with her about obtaining some milk, but even though Michonne's breasts ached she wasn't in the mood to feed her just yet.
"Can I sit here, sir, or is this seat taken?" Michonne asked, standing next to Daryl.
"What the hell's all that about, 'Chonne?" Daryl asked, looking up with a wrinkled forehead.
Michonne smiled at him.
"So you are talking to me," she said.
"I'm talkin' to ya," he said. "Sit down and eat."
Michonne sat down beside Daryl, leaving him closest to Hope, and ate her dinner. She kept stealing glances at Daryl who was primarily focused on his food, taking breaks from time to time to offer a bite of this and that to Hope. Daryl didn't really look mad anymore, not quite like he had looked over breakfast, when she'd really realized that he was sulking. Now he just looked tired more than anything. She imagined that the barn construction had probably been a lot.
Michonne slipped her left hand up under the table and rested it on Daryl's leg. He glanced at her sideways a little. She smiled a little at him, and slid her hand up his thigh.
"Stop that," he growled in a whisper.
Michonne simply took another bite of food in response, and slid her hand up a little more. She could see that Daryl was bothered by it, but not really in a bad way. She left her hand where it was until she'd finished her dinner. Without saying anything, she got up and took her plate. She reached and took Daryl's plate as well. When she returned from the kitchen, she picked up Hope and asked Daryl if he was ready to go home. He grunted his goodnight to everyone and they made their way outside.
"What the hell was that, 'Chonne?" Daryl asked when they were walking down the sidewalk.
"What?" Michonne asked.
"First we fightin' last night an' then ya go and do that where anybody coulda seen tonight?" Daryl asked.
They mounted the porch steps and Michonne was quiet until they closed the door, stepping inside. She waited for Daryl to light one of the lamps they kept near the door and hand it to her.
"Daryl, I'm going to teach you a little something about married life," Michonne said, "that is, if you want to learn it."
"What?" Daryl asked. Michonne could tell that he was bothered, or confused. She smiled.
"The only good thing about fighting," she said softly, "is when you decide to make up."
Daryl narrowed his eyes at her. She leaned in, kissing him. As she pulled away from him, she snagged his bottom lip with her teeth and tugged at it.
Daryl grinned.
"Ya mean what I think ya mean, 'Chonne?" Daryl asked.
"You just go upstairs and think about how you want to make it up to me while I feed Hope and think about what I'm going to do to make it up to you," Michonne said. She started up the stairs with Hope, leaving Daryl dumbstruck for a moment.