AN: I haven't forgotten about this story. I got sidetracked reading Civil War Team Iron Man ff over on AO3.

To the last reviewer: I know it seems like Michonne and Daryl are back seat (somewhat) but I wanted to have a strong character like Michonne who would take charge. Michonne is, understandably, uncomfortable leading (I think). She'd been on her own and Rick ran the prison. The show glossed over a lot, but I would think still having run teams would be counterproductive (unless it was for something special). With Rand, I'm trying to show another character that Michonne could put her trust in and not have it abused.

Slow burn, truthfully, for Michonne and Daryl. My OC's have a little bit of a limelight for a few chapters. As far as Daryl being interested in Michonne? It'll take him a while. He's...shy around women.

"It is." He saw Rand put her fork down. "This?" she waved her hand around. "This is our life now. I'm not sure how much you know of history, I assume some as you said you were a teacher, but when civilizations fall its chaotic. It's chaotic, it's messy, it's ugly and it's killing. It's killing to stay alive. I'm not going to teach her to kill every living person she sees or every walker she sees, but I will teach her to defend herself. Because this is our life now. She'll never get to go to the movies or shopping, get her hair done for prom or her wedding or some other ridiculous made up ritual we used to use to celebrate milestones. This is what Jenny will grow up with. Walkers and dicks. Waya's teaching Tsula to hunt, use a knife. Hell, I'd like Mark and Lupe to learn. At least to hunt, if they don't already know, but I'm not their guardians. I'm her guardian. So being a responsible guardian, I'm going to teach her to kill people and walkers, in the hope that one day, her great, great, great grandchild will be able to celebrate those types of milestones with other ridiculous rituals."

Helen cleared her throat. "I've been put in my place," she sniffed.

"You have. I didn't tell you all of that to make you feel small. I appreciate the fact you feel you can call me on what you see are my childrearing shortcomings. I've never had a child so I'll probably need some advice. You don't have to agree with what I'm doing with Jenny as long as I'm not abusing her. Let's try and save some vestiges of civilization by agreeing to disagree on the issue."

Rand put Jenny to bed. The girl had a hard time keeping her eyes open, even with her and Helen's rather loud disagreement on teaching her to kill people. She took KP duty, moving Daryl and Michonne to tomorrow. Tom had fits when his schedule was messed with, but she needed to be by herself, which didn't seem like it was going to happen anytime soon. She'd needed someone else to know where those women had been, but she needed some damn alone time. Rand heard a sound. "Just put them on the prep table," she told whoever was behind her.

"Did you need some help?"

Rand hung her head before turning to face the woman. "No thank you, Helen."

Helen moved dishes around. Rand could tell she was nervous. "You're right, you know." She moved more dishes. "About everything."

"I didn't tell you that to be right, either."

"I know. You feel responsible for this girl and you want to make sure she survives as long as she can."

"I do. I miscalculated. I seem to do it a lot."

"You've made quite an impression. Graciela is asking Waya for hunting lessons."

"Good for her. You should know how, too."

She shrugged. "Perhaps I'll ask Daryl."

"Another good choice."

Helen straightened up and smoothed her blue t-shirt. "I raised two boys. My other son didn't make it. I'm not sure how much of my advice you should listen to."

"What I've concluded since this started, Helen, is anyone still alive is lucky. Some more than others. Jenny wasn't as lucky as most of your group and your son wasn't as lucky as she was. I'm sure you did the best you could, but luck is a fickle bitch."

"I'll see you in the morning," she nodded and left.

Rand went back to doing dishes.

Michonne found Rand in the kitchen, still. She'd waited what she thought was a decent amount of time after Helen left. When she walked in she saw her putting away the last of the dishes.

"Were you a lawyer?"

Rand turned to face her with a look of incredulity. "What?"

"Were you a lawyer?"

She wrinkled her nose. "No. Were you?"

"Yes."

Rand's mouth dropped open. "Really? Personally, I was going for independently wealthy but you jetted all over rock climbing or some shit."

Michonne rolled her eyes and Rand laughed. "I don't think about what people did in their last lives. It probably shaped, in some way, how they are now and it's all that's important." She leaned against the prep table. "A lawyer. It makes sense."

"Why?"

"Your rationale regarding what you think are your limitations."

If that wasn't a rebuke on not leading the castle. "You should have been," Michonne could dish it out as much as Rand.

"I don't know if I should be insulted or not."

"Our reputation was one step above politicians."

"Yeah. I don't think many of them made it. With good reason. You can only bury your head in the sand for so long before someone comes along and bites you in the ass."

Michonne nodded in agreement, accepting the change in topic. "Daryl's having Seth look at a couple of those guns we brought back."

"Good. Anything else?"

"No."

Rand walked by her to the door. "I'll see you in the morning."

Daryl looked up at the sound in the doorway of the solar. "Sorry," Rand apologized and turned to leave.

"Can come in. I won't bite ya."

She turned. "If I come in here, will you please not talk to me?"

"Yeah."

She seemed to relax. "Thank you." She headed to the bar and poured herself a scotch then headed for one of the sofa's and laid down. Daryl wondered how long the drink would last. The woman was damn smart. She was also jittery. She was makin' him jittery.

He sat in the chair across from the sofa and watched as she'd tilt her head up, take a drink then put her head back down. He noticed she took her boots off and stared at the ceiling. He'd never been one for conversation, except with Chonne, Carol and Rick. That one time with Beth, but he ended up yellin' at her.

"You okay?"

"No. You?"

"No."

Daryl didn't know how long they stayed like that. Her drink was almost gone and his was gone.

"You really gonna teach that girl to kill people?"

"Yes. I am."

He grunted, stood up, put his glass on the bar and left.

Once Daryl left Rand finished her drink, put the glass on the table and tried not to fall asleep. She gave Jenny the bed and figured she'd take the rollaway. Not ideal, but until she could get the girl comfortable being on her own. She snorted. Wonder Woman.

She miscalculated with Diana, but Seth had a point. She might have had her shit together but walkers don't care. She needed to work on a fence. Take down the one that surrounded the moat and put another one up that surrounded more land of the castle. They needed to fix the drawbridge. She'd like to keep the wooden one, it was nice and reminded her of castles she'd visited in England, but she needed to be realistic. Shit. None of this was realistic.

Maybe she was overthinking things. If the leaders of her other places didn't think of these things why should she? The same with this Rick and Deanna, whoever the hell they were. Leaders of Michonne's old places. She wondered which one was the dick. It didn't matter. A dick was a dick. Michonne used to be a lawyer. Great. A cop and a lawyer. All they needed was a judge. She was tired. She got up and quietly crept in her room before falling asleep on the rollaway.

Waya was shocked when Rand headed toward him in the dining room.

"Gotta minute?"

"Sure."

She turned and he followed her down to the office. "Questions."

He nodded.

"Do you think I'm overthinking things?"

He raised his eyebrows. "Like what? Don't you usually ask Michonne and Daryl for their advice?"

"I do, but I need another opinion."

"Regarding what?"

"Where we're getting our water for one."

"No."

"Why?"

"Because we may not have it readily accessible in the future."

"What I thought. Thanks. If I left and didn't come back would you really try and find me?"

He sat in one of the chairs in front of the desk she leaned against. "Are you planning on it?"

"Not yet."

"Probably. We have a better chance of making it staying together. You've had us do an incredible amount of work here. We don't have to do go out for food or supplies, which we did at my last place."

"I always thought it was stupid to keep going out there. Take everything you need from the get go. Less worries."

He acknowledged the logic. "We didn't have the room."

Rand tilted her head. "Did you want my opinion or are you trying to make me feel better?"

"Your opinion. I'm curious."

"Fine. You should have made the room, even if it was only tarp or tents."

"Protection?"

"Trickier. Did your group kill walkers?"

"They did."

"Maybe pits or something. I don't know where you were or what it was like."

"Hmm. Yes. Pits."

"Thank you."

Waya stood, understanding she was finished asking his advice. "You are a good leader."

"We'll see," she sighed.

Michonne sat in what was becoming 'her' chair of 'their' office, Daryl taking 'his' chair, beside her. Rand sat on the desk in front of them, her hands braced on the top.

"News. Seth and Adrian are checking out a few possibles for a backup place. We need things for a fence and pits."

"Pits?"

"Pits. I like the animals, no question. We don't have enough room for them to graze. We need more land around the castle. I won't lie, I'd like a bit more breathing room between us and any future dick encounters. We have a posthole digger from Bradford's place. We probably have more from the hardware store. I'm having Tom find out. We need fencing and barbed wire."

"Big job, Rand," Daryl noted.

"It is. It's a big job. I don't know about your places, Daryl, but my places, the last one was the only one that was set up when I got there. Other people, aside from dicks, made it. You were lucky. One of your places was a prison." She held up her hand to stop his objections. "You know what I mean. It was ready made, like this place. One of the reasons I wanted it. Michonne, too, if I'm not mistaken."

She nodded.

"See? If the prison wasn't your last place, when you found you your last place, was it set up?"

He nodded this time.

"Right. The castle is a good base to begin with, but we need to set it up. We'll start with the posts. We'll need fencing, cement and barbed wire. Pits. I'd like to booby trap those, any suggestions?"

"Spikes," Michonne recommended.

"Good. Spikes. If we find a construction place we could use rebar. Cement them in. Well?"

"Big job," Daryl repeated before he shrugged. "Don't got much else to do."

"Right. We don't have much else to do. I'm thinking four feet or so for the pits and fill them up with dirt. Loosely," she smiled evilly.

Daryl huffed out a breath. "Sounds good." Michonne knew he was remembering the prison and the Governor. If they'd had pits, it might not have stopped the tank, but slowed it down. Maybe.

"Put spikes on the prison gates," Daryl told Rand.

"That was smart."

"Not enough."

"Tank?" Rand raised one hand, "spikes on gates?" she raised the other, like she was balancing them. "I'll go with the tank as the winner."

Rand stood up to get everyone's attention when she spotted more empty plates than full ones during breakfast. She hated this. When she was sure all eyes were on her she laid out her plan.

"Okay, there's no question we need more room for the animals to graze." She saw Bradford wince a little. "Don't get me wrong, Bradford, we're happy to have you and the animals but realistically we need more room. Breathing room. We're going to install some fencing. Daryl said it's a big job. It is. It's important though. Michonne and Daryl are going to pick a few people and get us started."

"How?" Jenny asked.

"They're going to take a few people and find what we need. It's called 'scouting' or 'doing a run'. We'll handle this in stages. The run team will find what we need then they'll choose who they want to go with them to get it." Helen's eyes widened "Right. A big job. We'll need everyone for this. It won't be easy. While they're out looking a few of us will take the three posthole diggers and start digging holes. I think enough to pass the brick walkway, should be sufficient. We'll cement the poles in then string the fence and top it off with barbed wire."

"Like a prison?" Jake raised his voice in shock.

"Like a prison. Bad connotation, but necessary, Jake. We're doing it around the entire castle. Ideally, I'd like to get it finished before it starts to get cold."

"The cement won't dry properly if it's cold," Bradford nodded in understanding.

"Right. The cement won't dry properly. When I say everyone I mean everyone. The kids," Rand looked in Graciela and Ray's direction. "The kids won't be doing the hard backbreaking work, they'll bring us water or do a watch. Jenny will be killing any walkers that take an interest in our activities."

The girl smiled. She didn't know how to use a knife, but the girl was smiling like she'd just won the damn lottery. Mark looked pissed and so did Tsula. She wasn't touching that with a ten foot pole. She did see Waya and Tom exchange looks. Again. Michonne studied her plate. Hard. Rand sighed. She'd rather take down trees.

Tom traded a look with Waya. He knew they were both thinking the same thing. The wood disagreement between both children had been heartening. Since they came here, Mark seemed to bounce back. Tom wasn't under any illusions Mark was fine, but children were resilient. It gave him hope for the future.

He didn't want Mark to ever have to kill a walker. He knew it was an unrealistic expectation. His son would grow up and he wouldn't always be here. Tom had wanted to wait until Mark was older to teach him to kill walkers. He never wanted Mark to kill another living person. Yet another unrealistic expectation with the situation they were in. It was useless ranting against how wrong this was because nothing would change. They'd still be surrounded by walkers and dicks.

Like Jenny, Mark wouldn't play sports, go to prom or college. Get married? Maybe not in the traditional sense, but hopefully he'd find a woman to settle down with, have children with. He needed to learn to kill walkers and defend himself against dicks.

"Runs are basically stealing," Jake repeated for the third time.

Daryl rolled his eyes. "Yes they are," Michonne answered from the passenger seat.

He didn't know how Rand roped him into takin' Jake and Graciela with him and 'Chonne on this run to find construction supplies. It felt good, them tryin' to make their place better. They'd have to figure out a way to make those rebar spikes pointy.

"Money doesn't work anymore, Jake," Graciela sighed from beside him. Daryl thought she looked eager to do this. Too eager. "This will be good. Perhaps we should have done this," she mused. "We might not have had so many problems."

Him, 'Chonne, the others, knew what to do on runs. Bradford and his family? They'd been on their farm. He guessed it was a good idea to get them some trainin', too. This was just to find the shit, not get it. It'd take pretty much all of them to get everythin' on that damn list. Lists. They'd done it in their heads at the prison.

He grunted. Tryin' to find what they needed first was a good way to train. It's not like they didn't have the gas. Markin' it down on maps was good. They wouldn't have to be scramblin' to remember where they'd found all the shit they needed. He wanted to get started. Now. So they'd be in a stronger place. He didn't wanna lose another one.

Michonne stood up straight and groaned. Digging holes for the fencing was tiring. Not as tiring as taking down trees, but damn close. She wiped her arm across her forehead then Jenny was beside her, offering her water, which she gratefully took. The girl was getting better. As better as anyone could these days. Rand taught her to kill walkers, so she and Mark, who'd learned under Tom's watchful eye, were the protection duty for the fencing crew. They'd needed two people. Now that the walkers knew they were here they'd started appearing more. Not enough to be a hazard, but more than enough to be a nuisance.

It was good to see almost everyone out with them. Rand was pouring cement and Waya was holding the post as Seth put a board against it to hold it in place. It was getting cold and the cement was taking longer to dry, but Rand wanted to get as much done as they could. They could work on the pits later. Daryl had figured out how to sharpen the rebar they'd taken from the construction sites. She liked having natives to the area. Bradford and his family had been good additions to the castle.

She looked at Thomas, Janet, Steve and Jamal. More good additions. They'd found them when they'd gone looking for the construction supplies. They'd been staying in a construction trailer, doing runs to stay alive. After Daryl almost killed them they asked if he had a place. She and Daryl had interviewed them on the spot, without using those stupid questions. They'd killed people, they had been ready to use their guns on her and Graciela, until Daryl pointed his crossbow at them. When she'd asked how they survived Jamal had laughed harshly, telling them they'd killed skineaters and assholes and stole what food they could. She hadn't even been pissed when they told her later they ran out of bullets. Now it was protect yourselves at any cost.

"'Chonne?" Daryl got her attention. She looked over at him and saw he was smiling a little. "Last one," he pointed. She looked down the line, what she could see of it, and saw nothing but empty, woods, walkers and fence posts.

"We did good." She felt good about this. She had helped to make their place better. The prison already had this. Alexandria already had this. She, and the rest, this was their place.

Rand took the last dish of stew from the kitchen and put it out on the tables. She'd noticed all the fence posts were up, not to soon in her opinion, and all they needed to do was put up the fencing and barbed wire. Winter would be here, everyone could feel it, and she wanted to have that much done. She turned when she heard sounds behind her.

"Rand," Michonne greeted.

"Michonne."

"It was my turn," she said.

"Yeah, I know, I'm screwing up the schedule."

She laughed a little. "You make Tom crazy when you do that, you know."

She shrugged. "I know. He can handle it. I," she paused. "We busted ass. We did damn good. I wanted to do something. For all of you."

"You do something for us all the time, Rand."

"Maybe. I don't know. I don't think it's enough. Basically, I would have done this. We're a lot farther ahead then I'd be by myself, so I wanted to make dinner for everyone." She looked at the tables, filled with plates, silverware and cups. "You can take my place tomorrow."

"Okay. Anything else?"

"I'm not sure about Daryl, or you, but staying cooped up was never my thing. I don't like the winter. One of the drawbacks of living in the mountains. Worth it."

"Walkers and dicks?"

"Walkers and dicks. In the winter, people don't want to move around. Walkers are the same. They're very slow. It made sense to me as our bodies are mostly water. I was wondering if you and Daryl wanted to do a run to Assateague Island."

"For the horses."

"For the horses. You saw that brochure, too?" Rand smiled at her.

"It was on my list of possibles."

"Mine, too. Not that we've been out a whole hell of a lot, but I'd like a few. I don't want to waste the gas just mindlessly driving. We know, at one time, Assateague had wild horses. They might be dead. Walkers and people." Michonne wrinkled her nose. "Right, but food is food. We'll need them. Realistically speaking, gas will run out. I don't mind walking, hauling crap. The donkey is good. If we could find horses or another donkey or some mules, it'll be easier on us. In the future."

"We'll leave after we get the fences up."

"Thank you." They both turned when they heard more people coming into the dining room. She smiled a little at the disapproving look on Tom's face.

"Come in. This is a celebration dinner," Rand waved her hands to the tables.