Michonne kept tapping her foot against the floor of the car in her place in the passenger seat. She stared straight ahead, moving her head from side to side while she looked out the front windshield. He had no clue what she was looking for. All there was around here was the paved road in front of them and a bunch of trees on either side.

"Why you keep doin' that?" He snapped, a bit annoyed by her constant actions. Michonne had been antsy all day long as they were on a run for some ammo. "It's distracting."

Michonne released a sigh the showed her own annoyance by the question. "If you must know, I'm looking for familiar surroundings. I want to get back before the sun sets. It looks like we're close to the prison from here."

"Why?"

"I made a promise to Beth that I would show her something."

Michonne doesn't divulge any more details. She kept it plain, simple, and very vague. It's her usual way of communicating. She is much like Daryl in that way but at this point that was not good enough for him to go on.

However, it peaked his interest. "Show her what?"

Michonne chuckled and swiveled her head so she was looking over at him. "Defend herself."

Defend herself? What? Was Michonne teaching Martial Arts classes in her free time now?

"How you gonna do that?"

"What's with the third degree?" Michonne questioned with a skeptical tone laced in her voice. "You know curiosity killed the cat."

He knew then that he was going to have to drag this out of her.

"Good thing I ain't a fucking feline then. And it ain't a third degree. I just wanna know."

Daryl took his eyes off the road for a mere two seconds to throw Michonne one of her well known glares even though that would not get him any closer to the answer he was looking for. When his eyes went back to the road, he jerked the car sideways to avoid a walker he hadn't seen in the road until the last minute. Damn bastard came out of nowhere.

Michonne grabbed onto the side handle of the door and threw a glare right back at him. If looks could kill he'd be dead right then. "Maybe I should drive from now on."

Daryl gripped the steering wheel. "Don't change the subject."

Michonne chuckled to herself again. "I'm not changing the subject. I'm actually highly intrigued as to why you want to know so much about what I plan to teach Beth. Are you worried I might corrupt her with my skills?"

There are thousands of questions that he wanted to ask her but her comment made him bite his tongue and not do that. Highly intrigued? What was she trying to say to him? As far as Daryl is concerned, there was nothing wrong with wanting to know what Michonne was going to do with Beth.

Daryl lightened up his voice so the urgency and annoyance wouldn't come though as strongly. "Do I gotta ask you again?"

"I'm teaching her the simple stuff, Daryl. The things she needs to know like how to protect herself when—if needed." Michonne shifted in her seat and reached for her katana. For a second he thought that she might threaten him with it so he would stop asking questions but she took her sword half way out of the case and examined it instead. "And I'm gonna let use this baby right here."

Daryl is speechless. He flashed back to the conversation he had with Beth in his cell about weapon use. This sparked his curiosity further, wondering why Beth was taking an interest in this. "What? You're gonna let her use that?"

"Yes."

She said it without any questioning or hesitation in her voice, as if they were talking about Beth borrowing a shirt.

Daryl quickly glanced over at Michonne suspiciously before he looked back to the road. "You feelin' alright?"

"Yes. I'm feeling fine," Michonne assured him, though he is not completely sure of that. "Relax. I'm not giving it to her for her to keep. I'm simply showing her how to maneuver sharp objects. I thought, hey, what better than this and who better than me to teach? Don't worry. She's not going to be running around the prison with a sword in her hands. It'll just be for a few times."

Daryl fell silent for a minute, trying to wrap his brain around this whole situation. It didn't make any sense at all. Michonne was possessive over her katana, which he understood since he didn't like it when anyone attempted to touch his crossbow. Hell would freeze over before he handed his crossbow over to somebody willingly. And here she was, telling him that she was going to voluntarily give her most prized possession to Beth to learn how to use all because she thought Beth should learn to maneuver sharp weapons. Thing is, the last time he checked there were not an abundance of swords lying around the cells. So when would Beth ever need to use something similar, or when would there be the availability to use something like that as a weapon?

Was he missing something?

"She ask you to use it?"

"She never asked to. But I figure I'll teach her on the side. I'll be teaching her the ins and outs of everything else first and then see how it goes with this." Out of his peripheral vision, Daryl could tell that Michonne had gone back to admiring the shiny blade of her weapon. "It'll bring me back to the days when I was learning. Beside all of that, Beth made a good case to me. I know she takes care of Judith but she thinks she needs to learn. She feels like she's the only one of the group who doesn't know how to do that sort of stuff. It makes sense for her to learn." Michonne stopped for a second and continued in a more serious voice. "If anything where to happen I'd want her to have some defensive moves down. Don't you think so?"

Daryl is sure that those were the most words Michonne has ever spoken to him in one straight shot. But he saw the point of all this, why it was necessary.

"M'not sayin' it's a bad idea. It's good. It's just…you think that her having that is a good idea?" He motioned over to the katana that Michonne had in her hands.

"You're asking a lot of questions," Michonne remarked as she resumed to stare out the side window. "That's not normal for you. You're never this chatty."

Daryl shut his mouth and focused on the road. He felt like he hadn't gotten anywhere with this and Michonne was getting too assuming for his liking. Sure, it was abnormal for him to ask a lot of questions but that didn't mean that he never had them; he just usually didn't feel the need to voice them like everyone else did.

"You're not the only one who is close to her, Daryl. I spend plenty of time with her and Judith. The two of them are nice to be around. She trusts me. Give me a week or two and that girl will be a fine tuned version of the girl she is right now. She'll probably be able to—oh!" Michonne moved her head back to the side so she could look over at Daryl with a smirk on her face. "Is that what you're afraid of? Beth Greene being able to knock you on your ass?"

Right. That's what he's afraid if. It's more like Beth being taught how to defend herself by the woman who could slice a man in half from head to toe if she wanted to—and he is surprised he hasn't seen it happen yet. Excuse him if the idea of Michonne letting Beth mess with her katana raised his anxiety level.

Daryl snorted and shook his head from side to side. "You know I could drop you off right here? I'm sure it would be a hell of a nice walk back to the prison."

"And you know I could kill you in your sleep without a trace when I got there."

—

Things at the prison could switch out of nowhere. It was like night and day. One hour there were few walkers at the fences, next there was about a hundred all spread out around the fences. He only heard about it because Glenn came by and told him that that Rick requested him outside for fence duty to help get rid of the walkers.

He had been with Hershel when Glenn passed by them and told him that Rick needed him by the fences. Unfortunately, Hershel was in the middle of stitching Daryl's arm up after he slipped up and partially fell down a hill while out trying to hunt. Another goddamned hill. As if the one the back by the Greene farm didn't do enough damage after that horse kicked him off.

Daryl never believed in déjà vu until the moment he went falling to the ground off a fucking hill.

This time there was no horse to blame. It was his own damn fault that he was injured. But, hey, at least he didn't shoot himself with another arrow. That was on the plus side, right? Explaining that wouldn't have been pleasant. He could imagine what he could say if that were to have happened—'hey everyone, guess what? I'm an idiot who likes to fall down hills in my spare time and injure myself with my own weapon. Aren't you glad you keep me around? A talented asshole I am.'

Yeah. He's happy he didn't need to do that.

He had been reckless, not paying as much attention to his surroundings as he should have. It wasn't like him to be that way. He had been too distracted by other thoughts. The ground had slid out from underneath him without warning and he was gone. It would not have been as bad if his crossbow hadn't gauged into his arm and opened up a fresh wound. Then again, it looked worse than it was.

"You're not going anywhere fast, you hear me? I need to finish this up so it doesn't get infected." Hershel's voice was stern and Daryl felt the need to comply with the man. After all, he couldn't go outside with a needle and thread still stuck in his skin. What could he do? Stick the needle into his skin for safe keeping and tell Hershel to finish it later? No way. Getting walker blood into his wound could be a death sentence.

He saw right through Hershel's act though, he was stalling now. Hershel didn't want him going outside to help because of his arm. Sure, his arm was fucked up but that didn't mean it was immobile. A lot of the blood had been wiped away so it wasn't as bad as when he first walked in.

Beth walked in at that moment with extra medical supplies when she noticed Daryl sitting in the chair and Hershel about to get up and leave. "Hold this," he told Daryl, handing the needle that had the thread through it over to him.

Wait a minute. He was sure that doctors were not allowed to hand over stuff like this to the patient in the middle of a procedure. Yes, Hershel was a veterinarian, but still. Didn't he know better?

Daryl grabbed onto the needle with his other hand. "You serious?"

"I need to go get some scissors to finish this up and cut the thread." Hershel turned towards his youngest daughter who was hovering just past the doorway and looking on at the both of them. "Bethy, keep an eye on him. Make sure he doesn't up and walk out on me before I'm done."

Beth allowed a brief smile to appear on her face. She must have known that Daryl would contemplate doing something like that. She knew what her father was up to as well—keeping him here on purpose so he couldn't go outside. Apparently he wasn't supposed to do anything strenuous that would rip out the stitches. As if that would stop him. He could suffer through the pain until the walkers were gone.

"Will do." Once Hershel had passed through the door Beth spoke up again and said, "I heard about what happened. Are you alright?"

"Fine. It's just a scratch," he grumbled towards the floor, ignoring the embarrassment he felt. He hadn't told anyone about the falling down the hill part, strictly the falling on his crossbow part. And that was bad enough already. He wasn't even sure if people believed him.

Beth walked over to examine his arm more closely. He saw the worry in her eyes as she looked on. It was actually kind of nice to see that she was concerned. People usually didn't pay much attention to him in that way. No one had his entire life.

"Scratches don't usually result in twenty stitches." She shuffled around in her arm-full of supplies. When she found what she was looking for she shook a bottle out in front of the both of them. "I've got pain-killers that aren't expired yet. Need one?"

"More like five," he retorted. His arm badly stung from the wound and from the stitching. Believe it or not, having a needle pierced into your skin repeatedly and a thread pulled through is not a lot of fun. It's torturous, and from the look of it Hershel still had a couple more to do. How exciting.

He is thankful when Beth popped open the bottle and handed him over two white tablets that he swallowed without water. If only the pain would go away instantaneously. He still needed to go back outside and help the others once Hershel was done. The man could stall all he wanted but that was not going to prevent Daryl from going to the fences. He was not about to let his injury stop him from doing his duty. Once it was stitched completely Daryl was out of there.

Just then Daryl spotted a perfectly good looking pair of scissors on the counter in the far corner, making him roll his eyes. "Tell your dad to let me go do fence duty. He's keeping me here on purpose. Rick needs me to help with the walkers."

"No need," she said over her shoulder while walking over to the counter, meeting his eyes. "It's already taken care of."

"What do you mean? Glenn just came by and said they needed help."

"I mean that I just told Rick that I could cover for you while I was on my way here. He didn't know about your arm." She held up the medical supplies that was in her hand before setting it down on the counter by the other supplies. "I was just coming in here to drop this off before heading back outside."

Daryl let out a loud sigh. "You don't have to do that. The stitches ain't a big deal. I'm fine to—"

"Stop it," she interrupted. "Don't you dare be stubborn about this. That's what friends do, Daryl, they help each other out. You're injured and you have stitches that will hurt like hell if you pull them out. I know you. I know that you'll go out there anyways. So I said I'll take your place. No big deal."

A friend? Did she really consider him that? Of course, the feeling is mutual with Beth, he thought of her as a friend too. Which, by the way, was beyond bizarre to him. If someone would have said to him a year or even a few months ago that he would end up being friends with Beth Greene then he would have laughed in their face and told them they needed to be checked into a psychiatric ward. He would have thought that person belonged in a nut house if they thought that way—Beth Greene would never in a million years want to be his friend.

Yet here they were.

They were proof that this world worked in strange ways.

He contemplated mentioning something to Beth. Was it any of his business to be asking about the whole lessons with Michonne thing that was already arranged and underway? It had been four days since Michonne had told him about that. He had remained eager to understand what the driving force behind it was. Before Beth could leave he said, "Michonne told be something interesting about you."

"Oh, really?" The way she said it made him realize that she specifically knew what he was talking about.

"Mmm-hmm."

Beth gave him a sly smile. "I think it's about time that I start pulling more weight around here," she confessed, brushing off her hands. "Carol offered to help with Judith more so I thought, why not? I want to learn. I'm tired of being the weak link of the group."

The wording of 'weak link' made him clench his teeth together. The fact that she thought that about herself bothered Daryl way more than it should have. He needed to say something that would help the situation. "You ain't a weak link, Beth. Ain't like that at all."

"Not for much longer, hopefully," she countered.

He would have liked to tell her in a better way that no one saw her as the weakest member of the group. He sure didn't. However, he got the feeling that Beth had made up her mind that she was already. She also had her mind made up that she was going to change that.

"Why Michonne?"

She rolled her eyes, as if the answer was obvious. It wasn't to him. "Because she's Michonne. She's great at stuff like that. I figure she's the best one to teach me. My first thought was you…but I figured you wouldn't want that responsibility. And you're busy all the time so I asked Michonne. She said she didn't mind."

"Hershel know about this?"

Oh, God. He he went again with the third degree. Stop interrogating her.

Beth crossed her arms. "He knows. Now you relax and take care of your arm while go do fence duty. And don't you even think about coming outside with your arm still like that."

It was kind of unbelievable that Beth Greene was taking his place for fence duty and ordering him to stay inside so his injury could properly heal. He didn't know how he felt about this, not following up on going outside. But there wasn't much he could do about it now. Beth had left and he sat there waiting for Hershel to come back and finish up his stitches.

While he was the only one in the room, he thought about how Beth showed so much care towards him not injuring himself further. She wanted him to get better and not force anymore pain onto himself. She volunteered to take his place doing one of the worst jobs at the prison that would result in walker brains all over her without hesitation, even though he was willing to do it despite his arm. He decided that he liked that, liked the feeling that it gave him. Knowing someone truly cared was something he was still getting used to, something he didn't know how to react to half the time. Maybe eventually he would figure it out.

—

It didn't take long for the wound to heal and he was back in the game, back to his normal routine. Daryl climbed up the stairs to the guard tower to relieve Michonne of her position. He found her in the usual spot, standing up against the edge of the wall, staring out the window with a blank face on. Sometimes he wondered what that woman could be thinking about.

He cleared his throat to let her know he was there. Daryl usually moved stealthily out of habit and the last thing he wanted to do was sneak up on her. Michonne could do some serious damage with one swift flick of her wrist with that katana of hers. He sure as hell isn't looking to lose any body parts tonight. He quite liked having his arms attached to his body. "Go on inside. I'll take over from here."

"You sure? I don't mind being out here."

"Been out here all day. Get some sleep," he told her.

She didn't argue back. Michonne collected the semi-automatic she took out here that was propped up against the wall. She reached her hand back to touch the edge of the katana that was placed around her back in its usual spot. He guessed she did that to make sure it hadn't magically disappeared on her. Perhaps she had been practicing with it inside the guard tower and wanted to make sure it was back in its rightful place.

Daryl did that often. Not the practicing part but before he closed his eyes at night he had to make sure that his crossbow was close to him. Sometimes if he woke up in the middle of the night he would reach out and make sure that it was still there and he could easily grab it if necessary.

It's a weird quirk of his.

Before she could leave, he asked, "How has teachin' Beth goin'? Been at it for a little while now."

Michonne smile devilishly and crossed her arms over her chest. "Let me tell you, that girl is a natural. A lot like me in that way when I first started out, not to brag or anything. I didn't expect her to pick up on everything so quickly. I think she has most of it down pat as long as she keeps up with it all. She was very determined. I admire that about her."

Daryl admired that about Beth too. She could do anything if she put her mind to it. Beth had a faith that could move worlds if she wanted to; faith in herself and faith in others. Nothing could destroy that.

Daryl eyed Michonne's sword and tried to imagine what Beth looked like with it. "You let her have that yet?"

Michonne looked like a proud PTA mom who had a kid with straight A's. "Yes, I have. A few times. And damn can that girl swing a sword when she wants to."

Who would have thought? Michonne the walker slayer slash miracle worker.

"Don't be tellin' me we're gonna be havin' another samurai 'round here," he lightly joked. "One's enough."

Michonne only smiled and headed for the latch to go down the stairs of the guard tower. "No. I think she's more comfortable with a gun in her hands than my sword." He can't even begin to explain how crazy that was to hear. "She knows how to use them but not very well. Guns are clearly not my specialty. I told her that she should talk to someone else about that. Want me to send her your way?"

He didn't think before he spoke. "I guess."

"Bet she'd be pretty good with that thing too." She nodded in the direction of the crossbow that Daryl was holding at his side with one hand. He looked down at it and pondered the idea. "Just a thought for you. Goodnight."

"Night."

A/N: Watching The Walking Dead marathon made me love Michonne's character all of again so I decided to throw her into this chapter. I love a strong Beth character and I thought to myself, who would be the best person to train Beth? And Michonne was the first person to come to mind. Hopefully it's not very OOC for her but it's the direction I really wanted to take.

I also need to say thank you again to all you wonderful individuals who consistently read. I am shocked by the number of follows/reviews/favorites this story has already. Consider me amazed :)