Slowly the days seemed to be shorter. The winter closed in around the community slowly, but surely, chilling everything. Much of the outside work that still remained to be done was being finished with as much attempt to hurry as possible. They were trying to beat time, but time was beating them. That was always the funny thing about time. No matter how much the world around them seemed to change, one thing always remained the same, there was never enough time.
Jeremiah came calling one day at the gates, riding along on the same ass he'd brought before, flanked by a man that they would later learn was named Jackson who was riding a rust colored hinny not much taller than the ass that Jeremiah dismounted at gates.
Jeremiah had come for two purposes. He had come to introduce the community to Jackson who would be representing the other group that Jeremiah's small clan was in contact with, and he was there to ask Muh if she would return to their community because several of the people had fallen ill without warning and they were afraid that the fresh chill in the air would kill them without her assistance.
Muh stood at the gates, working her jaws and listening to Jeremiah's description of what was wrong with the people in his group. Haralee, the faithful shadow that she was, stood only inches from Muh and listened from beneath the cloak that Muh had fashioned for her out of some of the clothes that she had found and thought weren't suiting.
"I shall go," she said. "But I shall not make promises that I cannot and will not keep. Old man winter brings with him the death days of many and blessed are those who end their journey in the winter, for it is the most proper time to say farewell."
Daryl stood by, worried by the whole situation. He'd already told Rick that when and if the council thing should be formed, he wasn't going to be stepping into the position as the speaker of the group. He had a son that would, according to Muh, be debuting at any time and he wanted to be there to welcome him. He wanted nothing taking him away from that. Rick had understood and offered himself to step into the role.
Now Muh was threatening to leave the community, and Daryl had no idea when she would be back. Though he knew that Carol and Mark had studied for this and were more than capable of brining his son into the world, there was something about the little old crone that made him think that somehow she could do it better, easier…he almost wished he had some authority by which to keep her there.
"What about the baby," Daryl asked. "What if he comes and ya ain't here?"
Muh smiled at him.
"I will be here," she said. "I will return before the child comes, but if you are fearful that I shall not deliver him, then it is a gentle ride for Beau to retrieve me. I should like to see how his old mule rides anyway. It is a fine animal."
Daryl nodded, chewing at his thumb.
He stood back and watched as Rick chatted with the Jackson fellow. Jeremiah, happy to hear that Muh was returning with them, helped her onto the back of the ass that he'd been riding.
"I shall be leaving Haralee here," Muh said, directing her attention to Daryl simply because he was the only one paying her any attention. "This is the first of journeys that I shall take without her. I have not yet chosen who shall care for her in my final absence. Therefore, I leave her to you, son. She will not want for much, but kindness would dictate that you offer your home to her."
Daryl eyed Haralee and she eyed him. Neither spoke to the other. Daryl seldom spoke to the girl since she never spoke to anyone. He wasn't sure exactly what they would do with a ten year old girl in the house, but they would make do he supposed.
"Fine," Daryl said. "We'll watch her 'til you can get back."
"I will be back soon," Muh said. "Haralee will be good until my return."
Daryl didn't doubt the child would be good. She didn't speak and she didn't do much of anything except follow the old woman around and wait on her when she requested it. He hadn't seen much indication that the girl was capable of doing anything else.
Seeing that Muh was ready to go and Jeremiah was anxious, Rick took his leave of Jackson and he and Daryl watched as the small group left the community and disappeared in the direction of Jeremiah's clan.
"So Muh just left?" Rick asked.
Daryl glanced at Haralee.
"Yeah, said we gotta watch after the young'un," Daryl said. "Said she's gonna be back in time for the baby…and somethin' about winter and journeys, you know the drill."
Rick chuckled.
"The Jackson man seems pretty nice. He said there's something like a trade ring in place. Apparently a lot of the passing groups bring things with them that they don't need and trade them out for things they do. He also said that about eight miles from here there are at least three small groups camping. They say they're staying for just a short time, but he suspects they'll decide to stay until spring. He says they don't seem like threats, except that one group seems to be a little too anxious for female company and therefore it might be best to make sure that none of the women leave the community unattended, just in case this group gets ideas," Rick reported.
"Don't nobody go nowhere alone," Daryl said. "Not 'less it's me or maybe Beau or Libby, and they tend to go together wherever they got to go. Muh slips out when she pleases, but I don't reckon there's too many men taking a fancy to a woman old as she is."
Rick laughed.
"I told him that our women don't often go anywhere alone. Honestly I think some of them would be just as able to take care of themselves as they would be likely to be taken care of by one of us. Still, we might want to raise the concern, just to make sure that no one decides to start a new practice. Beau and Libby might want to be careful too," Rick said.
"You can bet'cha ass that ain't no man gonna tangle with Libby," Daryl said.
Rick laughed again and nodded.
The more that Libby snuck out of her shell, the more that it was evident that Libby was a lit firecracker. She seemed to think that any disagreement was better handled with her fists than with anything else. Beau had taken a shine to the girl, though, and seemed to know how to handle her, though Daryl had seen them go a few rounds here and there where it looked like Beau was really more interested in playing defense than anything else. Daryl wondered, from time to time, if there was something going on between the two, but he wasn't exactly sure that either of them knew what to do with it if there was.
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It had been exactly six days since Muh left. Daryl knew because he'd been keeping track of it, a little fearful that the woman wasn't going to return. Michonne was miserable more than she wasn't and she had trained Judith to rub her belly and repeat "baby come out please" any time that she found a place to sit or lie down. Hope tried to repeat the mantra along with Judith, but it was less understandable when she yelled it, since Hope was a point where she seemed to think that nearly everything she said needed to be said in the loudest voice her tiny body could manage.
Daryl came into his house rubbing his hands together from the chill outside and was met at the door by Hope who commanded that he pick her up. He did, and then he surveyed the zoo that was his living room. Michonne was on the couch with Carol and Judith was repeating her mantra over and over to Michonne's very swollen belly. Paul crawled around in the floor, having finally mastered backward but having yet to figure out exactly how to reverse gears.
Haralee sat quietly on the floor near Paul, dragging him back into the middle of the floor every time he hit some piece of furniture that served as a roadblock to his backward journeys.
And then Daryl figured out what Michonne and Carol were looking at. In all the living rooms there were fireplaces. None of them had been used as of yet. The houses had chimneys, but Carol had assumed from the time they moved in that all the fireplaces had mostly been for show given that there were very few houses that had any of the necessary tools that one would need to actually operate a burning fireplace. She also reasoned that the houses were clean and the brick in the fireplaces showed no signs of having housed burning fires. They had, therefore, almost forgotten about the fireplaces entirely, considering them nothing more than some wasted space or a place to sit in the living room of headquarters.
And now Daryl realized that Sadie was inside his fireplace. Or rather, part of Sadie was inside his fireplace. The rest of her spilled out onto the area around it. He stood, bouncing his daughter on his hip and staring at what could still be seen of the woman.
"She stuck?" He asked finally.
Michonne shook her head.
"We don't think so," Michonne said. "We didn't really think it through that well, though, and we realized that once she got her head in there we didn't have any way to really communicate with her, so now we're waiting."
"The fuck is she doin' in there anyway?" Daryl asked.
"Daryl," Carol scolded.
Daryl didn't respond. The women were always on him about his language in front of the children. Michonne argued that she didn't want Hope using profanity before she was even fully potty trained…or whatever you called it these days.
"She's trying to see if the fireplaces are actually functional," Michonne said. "Daryl, we're going to freeze to death this winter if we don't get some kind of heat. If it's this cold already you know it's going to get worse."
"But why the hell did ya put Sadie in there? Like ya said, she can't hear ya," Daryl said.
"She's the only one that would fit," Michonne argued. "I can't get in there and Muh doesn't even want Carol breathing in much of the cold air so I doubt she wants her going up a chimney."
"Go get Libby an' shove her up there," Daryl said. "She's skinny enough she could go to the top without getting stuck."
Daryl put Hope on the floor and walked over, tapping on Sadie's leg. She said something, but it was muffled by the fireplace. Daryl tapped on her leg again, a little rougher this time.
"Damn it," he said. "I can't even ask her if she's stuck 'cause she can't hear me."
He finally decide the woman was likely stuck and started to pull on her legs. He would have continued pulling if it hadn't been for her finally wrestling her arm out of the hole and swinging it at him while she yelled something that had the echoing resemblance to the word "stop." He quit pulling, sitting down where he was, and a few minutes later, she shimmied out of the hole.
She sat, for a moment, cracking her back and grimacing. Daryl didn't know how far up she'd tried to go, or what she'd encountered in there, but he didn't much imagine that he wanted to go up the inside of the chimney.
"It looks open," Sadie said, shrugging. "I think it will work."
"So now what?" Daryl asked.
Sadie shrugged at him a little.
"We try to build a fire. If it's open the smoke will go up," she said.
"And if it isn't?" Daryl asked. Sadie looked around the room.
"Everyone should go outside, just in case. The smoke will fill the house. We'll have to air it out," she said. "But, if it's open, that means that most of the houses are built the same way. We can keep fires going. We have to be careful with the babies."
"There were a few sets of fireplace tools in some of the houses," Michonne offered from the couch. "I know that we put a couple of them in the storage house just because we didn't know what to do with them. I don't know how many there are around, but we could get someone to see if there's enough for each house to have a set."
Daryl waved at her a little, pulling Hope into his lap to stop her from trying to climb up his back.
"We might be gettin' ahead of ourselves," he said. "I reckon we just need to go to storage an' get the one. Then we gotta test the damn thing out 'fore we decide we just gon' set all the houses up," Daryl said.
"Fine," Michonne said. "I don't care how you do it, Daryl, but it's cold and I don't want to freeze to death, so could you please get started on it?"
Daryl chuckled.
"Right this minute," he said. "I was hopin' that'cha was gonna find me somethin' to do."
He sat there for a moment, waiting to see if she'd respond, but she didn't. He sighed and pulled Hope up to him, kissing her neck and making her squeal.
"Dada 'tahp!" She commanded in her loud voice.
He smiled and put her down.
"I'ma get'cha later," he threatened. She was ticklish…very ticklish, but the funniest thing about her was that she simultaneously loved and hated to be tickled. Michonne didn't tickle her, saying it was some kind of torture, but she all but begged Daryl to tickle her.
Daryl pulled himself up to his feet and then he reached over and heaved Sadie to hers.
"Come on," he said. "Let's go see if we can't make this shit happen 'fore my wife builds a fire in the middle of the living room floor."
"Don't think we weren't discussing it," Michonne called after him as the two of them slipped out the door. Daryl chuckled and started down the steps with Sadie.
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On the eighth day after her departure, Muh returned to the community riding on the ass and being led by Jeremiah. Daryl heard Carl yelling about their arrival and almost dropped the armful of wood that he was carrying. In his mind, he had decided that the woman would come and her arrival would signal the consequent arrival of his son. It was only after a second that he reminded himself that it wasn't true, and that in any case the baby wouldn't be born instantly.
He at least had time to deliver a few more armfuls of wood to the houses, all of which now had chimneys that issued forth at least the occasional puff of smoke.
Muh's return to the community had everyone stirred up. In her short amount of time there, she'd become something of a mascot. Whether or not she was actively doing something, her very presence was something they all enjoyed and saw as promising of good days.
The woman brought with her, though, several things that they weren't expecting. She brought gifts, which Jeremiah said were her things and therefore she could give them as she pleased, and in her lap she brought, tied in a bundle, a small baby.
"Agaliha didn't make it," Jeremiah said. "Uwa was Agaliha's grandmother, and she had no other family left. We offered to keep the girl and adopt her out to one of our women, Anissa even said she would take her, but Muh insisted that the child come with her."
Daryl shrugged.
"We got a whole damn flock a young'uns," Daryl said. "Don't know what the hell another one's gonna hurt."
Jeremiah nodded at him.
"This winter isn't going to be easy," Jeremiah said. "We lost two and Jackson's group lost one. I hope your community isn't hit with problems. It's the old ones, the young ones, and the weak ones…those seem to be the ones dying."
"What'cha reckon it is?" Daryl asked.
Jeremiah shrugged.
"There's no telling. Could be something like pneumonia, but I'm no doctor," he said. "I'm going to head back now, but you send Beau if there's any trouble here and you need us. Leland can ride out for Jackson's group at any time."
Daryl nodded his OK at Jeremiah and the man left.
Muh was speaking to those who had gathered to welcome her back, handing out presents here and there. She turned to Daryl when she saw him.
"I said I would be back," she said. She smiled up at him.
"Reckon you was right," Daryl said.
Muh nodded. "There, that can that was tied to the ass…" she pointed and Daryl followed the direction of her pointing to a decent sized can that had a rope netted around it. "That is for your wife," she said. "It is for when the baby comes. Give it to her to have on that day."
"When ya reckon he's coming?" Daryl asked.
Muh squeezed his arm.
"He will be here before three days' time," she said. "I returned for him."
"And what'cha reckon ya gonna do with that one?" Daryl asked, pointing at the tiny baby she had tied around her.
"Walela is a gift," she said. "I am going to take her to her parents."
Daryl looked at the tiny baby he now knew was a girl. She was about the same color as Hope was when she was born, though Hope was a little darker now, and she had black hair. She seemed to be sleeping peacefully in the bundle that Muh had made for her.
"Who are her parents?" Daryl asked.
"The girl who mourns so the end of journeys," Muh said. "For Walela here journey so far has contained little more than the celebrations of the ends of others. Now she will teach the girl that the end for one is only the beginning for another. Walela is impatient, at times, and she will be good for showing the girl that she must not wait forever to accept that her journey continues. They will grow well together."
Daryl watched, then, as Muh walked off carrying the baby, Haralee trailing behind her carrying a piece of wood in each hand. Daryl shook his head, took the can he was to deliver to Michonne, and left the old woman to deliver the shock of a lifetime to whom he reasoned to be Glenn and Maggie.
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"You got a present," Carol said to Michonne, putting the can down on the dresser in Michonne and Daryl's bedroom and sitting on the edge of the bed while Michonne paced between the room and the bathroom twisting her locks.
"What is it?" Michonne asked.
Carol chuckled softly. She was healing with leaps and bounds from her accident, but there were still a lot of actions that were obviously uncomfortable to her. Laughing was among them.
"Looks like grease, or oil of some kind," Carol said. "Doesn't smell bad, but apparently it's for when the baby comes."
Michonne stopped what she was doing a moment to look with question at Carol.
"Grease? For what?" Michonne asked.
"I don't know that," Carol said. "It's for you, or the baby, or both of you. That's Muh's doing."
Michonne went back to what she was doing, trying to figure out the little old woman and her ways.
"Well is she going to grease me? Or grease the baby? I mean what do we need grease for?" Michonne asked.
"I told you, Michonne, I don't know," Carol said.
She offered another one of her very light chuckles.
"Maybe she's going to grease the baby up and it'll just slide right out of there," Carol said.
Michonne shot her a look.
"That's not funny," Michonne said.
Carol snickered.
"It is funny, Michonne. I mean you have a can of grease…what else do you think she might do with it? She's going to make this real easy on you," Carol said.
"You're getting too much enjoyment out of this," Michonne said. "I'm glad you're feeling better, but really, you're getting too much enjoyment out of the whole thing. Out of me being huge and miserable, out of the whole birthing experience, and now you have a can of grease to entertain you."
"No, Michonne, you have a can of grease," Carol corrected.
Michonne rolled her eyes at her.
"That's fine, yuck it up now," Michonne said. "I'm remembering all of it. Every single joke and every single time you tease me about waddling. I'm storing it all up."
"Oooh, so vengeful," Carol teased. "I would think you'd be happy about the grease plan."
"Mmm hmmm," Michonne hummed. "Keep going. Make sure you get every last bit out, because when Isaac is on his way, I'm getting it all back, tenfold."
"Isaac, Isaac, Isaac," Carol said. "You're as bad as some of the others. You actually believe that old woman can predict the future, Michonne?"
"I don't know, Carol," Michonne said.
"I'm not pregnant," Carol said. "Not even close."
"You wouldn't be," Michonne said. "Not yet. Isaac's got to come right about the time that next winter comes. You've got some time. And I don't know if she can predict the future or not, but you keep teasing me and I'm going to lie awake at night and pray that this is one time she nails it."
"I hope this baby comes soon," Carol said, some of the humor having left her voice. "The bigger you get, and the closer it gets, the crabbier you get."
"And I'm remembering that one too," Michonne said, circling around to the bathroom again.