AN: Here we go, another chapter.
I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think!
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When Michonne woke up, she was too refreshed for a normal morning. She rolled enough to see that Daryl had obviously snuck out the room without waking her, but from what she could see through the part of the window that wasn't covered, it wasn't light enough outside for her to have slept the entire day away.
She was in the house alone…completely alone. She checked everywhere, but it seemed that everyone had gotten the bright idea to just leave her sleeping. They called it letting her rest, and she was guilty of doing it too from time to time when she could save someone from getting up so early, but it threw your day off too.
She stepped out of the house and almost felt like the community was abandoned. She could hear noises of people, though, so that meant there was life somewhere…everyone was just going on as usual.
She booked it, double timing her steps, down to headquarters and found Carol there, still cooking breakfast. It wasn't as late as she thought it was.
"You didn't wake me up," Michonne scolded as she got closer.
Carol chuckled.
"I didn't think you wanted to get up when I got up," Carol said. "I've been up…I don't know…since I went to bed."
Michonne snickered.
"Isaac?" She asked.
"Yeah…that's what they say," Carol said.
"Well, at least I didn't miss breakfast," Michonne commented.
Carol chuckled.
"This is the second round of breakfast, for everyone who got jipped because I didn't make enough the first time," Carol explained. "Muh and Beau are out right now…Muh's gone to get honeycomb and she took Beau to carry a box full of jars for her…"
"Honeycomb?" Michonne asked.
Carol chuckled and stood up from her work, wiping the sweat off the back of her forehead.
"Honeycomb…remember when Beau got those stings? Trying to knock that hive down a couple of days ago?" Carol asked.
Michonne nodded. Beau had come back to the community declaring that he was going to get honey, but that the bees had other ideas about his efforts.
"Well…Muh's going to get honey," Carol said.
"Is that a good idea?" Michonne asked.
Carol raised her eyebrows at her.
"Who was going to tell her not to go?" Carol asked.
Michonne chuckled.
"Daryl? Ty?" Michonne asked.
"Already gone down to start on some of the wood…Emma and Haralee have the kids…Rachel stayed behind today to help them out…they're at the barn so they're pretty occupied for the time being," Carol said. "Sadie came by and fed Zeb."
Michonne nodded to that too. It was nothing unusual. Every baby in the community was more than comfortable accepting milk from either Michonne or Sadie…and both of them commonly shared the joke that they'd never imagined that the end of the world would find them living as free range dairy cows.
Michonne glanced around. Now that she knew what the sounds she'd heard were, she could identify easily enough that the only sounds her ears could pick up were those of the kids down at the barn. And in the distance, she could hear the hum of the chainsaw.
She'd go down when they came up to bring a load of wood and help with that…she could at least run escorts back and forth with Blue.
"What about Lisette, Calista? Mercedes? Have you seen them?" Michonne asked.
Carol shook her head.
"No…that's one of the reasons I'm making more oatmeal. There's some rabbit in there to eat…but I thought they might want some of this…if they ever wake up," Carol said.
"We don't know how long it's been since they rested," Michonne commented.
Seeing that the oatmeal was obviously done, she offered to take the pot and carried it inside while Carol quickly doused out what was left of the small fire she was cooking over and then followed Michonne inside. They were just settling down, both on the couch, and Michonne was starting to eat her breakfast, when the door opened just a small piece and Lisette stuck her head inside.
"Hello?" Lisette asked as though she were unsure whether or not she was allowed to enter the house.
"Come on in," Michonne said, swallowing quickly the food and regretting it a little as the hot oatmeal stuck in the back of her throat.
Lisette stepped inside, looking uncertain at first but then dissolving into a smile.
"I didn't know if anyone would be here," she said.
"Carol's almost always here…or within shouting distance," Michonne said.
Carol got up, and she returned a moment later with a bowl of the oatmeal and a small plate bearing some of the leftover meat. She handed it to Lisette who almost looked surprised to be offered a meal so readily upon entering the space.
Lisette thanked her, though, and looked around before choosing to sit in one of the chairs that everyone made fun of because it was, possibly, the ugliest chair that any of the houses in the community had to offer up.
Carol returned to her seat beside Michonne and Lisette sat quietly for a moment, tasting at the food. She commented that it was good, and Carol thanked her.
Michonne thought that it had all the uncomfortable feeling of the first time you meet your in-laws and you're absolutely terrified that you're going to say or do something wrong and ruin something you, hopefully, consider a good thing.
And it made her feel sorry for Lisette. It probably felt to the poor woman that she was on trial…and that she might be asked to leave if she said something as simple as she didn't like oatmeal.
"Are your girls up? Are they hungry?" Michonne offered.
Lisette shook her head.
"I'm letting them sleep. Honestly, it's been some time since we had a chance to really rest. I didn't want to wake them," Lisette offered. "And Calista is my daughter, but Mercedes isn't."
Michonne smiled and nodded.
"I'm sorry…I didn't mean anything by referring to them as your girls," she said. "Sometimes…we're just used to mixing and matching with the people around here. There was another group who moved on, they used to call Beau my son…and he's clearly not."
Lisette nodded.
"I'm not offended," she said. "I just thought that you might have forgotten."
"Were you with a group?" Carol asked after a moment.
Lisette leaned back in the chair that she was seated in, as though she were preparing to tell a rather long story.
"When we left D.C…my husband was killed right outside the city," Lisette offered. "We had just met with a group of about forty or fifty people. We were all going to Atlanta…the Promised Land they said. That's when I met Mercedes. People came and they went from the group. We lost a lot of people. I lost my son…but we kept going. What else were we going to do?"
Michonne nodded her head. There was something about Lisette that made her feel oddly at ease. She was one of those people that from the very moment that you meet them, you almost feel like you've known them forever…or that maybe you knew them in a past life. Michonne glanced at Carol and could tell, from the way she leaned on the couch, relaxed, that she was at ease with the woman as well.
"We've all done that, I guess," Carol offered.
"When did you three separate from that group?" Michonne pressed.
She'd heard a list of Daryl's concerns…questions he wanted answered, so she might as well get what she could from the woman and have something to take down there and share with him while they all slaved over cutting wood. It would probably go over a lot more smoothly than grilling the poor woman in frong of the whole group at dinner time or something of the like.
Lisette sucked in a deep breath and seemed to carefully be considering it.
"Honestly?" She asked, laughing lightly. "I've forgotten exactly when…but I can tell you where. We never reached Atlanta. At least, we never reached Atlanta proper. The dead were there in…droves…it was absolute madness. We were stopped before we ever reached the city. A lot of the group didn't survive."
"But you did," Michonne offered.
Lisette nodded her head.
"And once we were…safe…or at least as safe as we could be…it was just me and the girls. I vowed to myself that I wasn't going to fail them," Lisette offered. "I didn't know that I could keep that promise, but it's one that I made to myself, and I've done everything I could to keep it."
Before they could continue on with the conversation, the door to the house opened and Muh shuffled in with Beau behind her, carrying a cardboard box.
"Put it here…" Muh directed, pointing to counter. When Beau put the box down, Muh moved it a little, obviously being very precise in her placement. Without acknowledging anyone, really, she came straight to the couch to face Carol. "I require a cast iron pot…about this deep…with a well-fitting lid."
Michonne almost laughed at the directness and the seriousness of tone of the old woman, but Carol…now accustomed to Muh's commands simply got up and rifled through the cabinets that they'd packed with nearly everything they could find in the way of cooking utensils.
When she offered something for Muh's inspection that obviously failed, she rifled a little more. Michonne glanced at Lisette who was watching the scene without any type of committed expression on her face. Finally, satisfied with two of the things she was offered, Muh commanded Beau to take them, assured herself through questioning Carol that she would find a shovel and a hoe in the barn, and disappeared as quickly as she'd come.
Carol came back, sitting down on the couch, and it was then that Lisette decided to speak.
"What is she doing?" Lisette asked.
Carol and Michonne shrugged in unison.
"Muh seldom explains herself," Michonne offered. "And we don't ask her too often to explain herself."
Carol chuckled.
"There's a popular belief that if you make her mad, she'll curse you…so we try to let Muh have pretty free reign. She never does anything that isn't beneficial in some way, so there's usually no harm in it," Carol added.
"Curse you?" Lisette asked, raising an eyebrow.
Michonne realized how ridiculous it would sound. Before she'd known Muh, it would have blown her mind that anyone could have ever believed that the tiny, toothless old woman could do much of anything. But Muh had turned a lot of their belief systems on their heads.
"She's a healer…" Michonne offered. "She's also…something of a…"
Michonne stopped. Her vocabulary, although impressive by most normal standards, still seemed to be failing her at the moment.
"Something of a soothsayer?" Michonne made a face, not liking her own word but not knowing what else to do with it.
Lisette furrowed her brow for a moment, but relaxed it slightly, leaning forward in the quest for more information.
"Soothsayer?" She asked.
"She makes…predictions," Michonne offered. "And so far, they come true."
Lisette nodded her head and Michonne couldn't help but laugh.
"And now you think that we're crazy," she offered.
"No…actually not at all," Lisette offered. "I grew up in Martinique…I moved to the states with my parents when I was twelve. We visited my grandparents often, though. There were a lot of stories of women like that. And my husband, George, he was from Trinidad…he had lots of stories about the women who practiced hoodoo there."
Michonne nodded.
"We've been reluctant to put much a name on what Muh is or what she does," Michonne admitted. "She says she's a healer…so that's what she is."
Lisette laughed and nodded her head.
"It's better to call people by the names that they choose anyway," she said.
They all three sat there in amicable silence for a moment, but then Carol got up to inspect the box that Beau had brought in. She picked up one of the jars, admiring it.
"I know why she needed the sieve now," Carol said. "She already got the honey out…or whatever you call it…I guess I should go and find out what she's up to now, though…and check on the children."
Michonne got to her feet and took her bowl over to the metal pan where dirty dishes were stored until Carol took them out to wash them.
"Do you want me to wash these? Or bring water?" Michonne asked.
Carol shook her head at her.
"They brought some up this morning…I'll wash them in a bit, before lunch," Carol offered.
Michonne nodded her head.
"Then I think…I'm going down to barn…top Zeb off and Lela if she needs it…and then I'm going to help with the wood," Michonne said.
"Sounds good," Carol said, now busying herself with rearranging the jars of honey that Muh had brought her.
"What can I do? I can wake Calista and Mercedes…" Lisette offered.
Michonne turned to address her.
"Why don't you relax today?" Michonne offered. "Let them rest…you take it easy. I think we'll manage just fine. If you really want to do something…keep Carol company. She's always got something for someone to do."
Lisette looked at Carol, raising her eyebrows as though she were asking if that was something she wanted.
Carol smiled and nodded.
"Yeah! You can keep me company…get to know our little ones," Carol offered.
Lisette nodded and said that she could do that, thanking them both again for breakfast as she put her dishes where she'd seen Michonne deposit hers.
And Michonne, feeling like things were probably under control, and feeling much better about their newcomers, went in search of any babies that might need a refill so that she could escape the confines of the community for a little while and help with what would hopefully be a productive day for their wood harvesting.