Author's Note: I did not expect it would take this long between chapters, but real life got very complicated and I had to deal with all of its twists and turns. I can promise that the next chapter will be up very soon.

Thank you all for supporting this story and all your feedback. It is truly appreciated!

Rick didn't know what stunned him more about Michonne's confession: that she had found the letter he'd written over four years ago or that she had handled a woman that had changed their lives and that of their children for eight years. On second thought, he was more stunned by the latter than the letter. He felt like hopping off the couch and doing a jig, but instead pulled Michonne onto his lap and kissed her. "You killed Jadis?"

"Yes." Michonne curled her arms around his neck. "I shouldn't say I enjoyed it, because you know I did try with her."

"Oh, I know. It was your idea to invite her to be a part of the community."

Michonne's face scrunched. "That wasn't a mutual decision?" she asked quizzically.

"Nah, the inviting part was all you. I agreed to it," he admitted, "because we had decided to put our all into making Carl's dream real, as hard as the undertaking would be, but it was your suggestion. I was done with her after she asked for your cat back, but then she turned on us, shot and kidnapped me, had you beaten, and had the nerve to suggest…" Rick shuddered.

"I remember." Michonne groaned, pressing her forehead to his. "But I was thinking of Carl. My love for him was greater than my dislike for her, and she was alone. The Saviors had been just as bad, a lot of them worse in some cases, and since we had invited them to be a part of what we were building, I figured we should extend the same to all of our adversaries. Enemies closer and all."

"Yeah, I agreed with your rationale. That's why I told Morgan he could ask her."

"I really thought she was trying. She got close to Gabriel, was actively involved in everything, and doing runs. I should've gotten a clue when she went from Jadis the strange to Anne the stalwart so effortlessly. Ugh! I wish I would've never –"

"Hey, no." Rick held her close. "It wasn't your fault, Michonne. It was all her," he said, recalling the moment that started the eight-year upending of his life.

Rick groaned. His body felt like it had been trampled in a stampede. Everything hurt. "Michonne," he murmured, slowly opening his eyes and blinking to clear the blurry haze. "Michonne."

"You shouldn't talk."

An unnerving sense of dread washed over Rick at the sound of Anne's voice. His blurry focus cleared to the sight of the tall, strange woman, dressed completely in black and sporting a hideous haircut, staring down at him. This wasn't Anne, if Anne was ever even real. "Jadis. What happened? Where's Michonne?"

"You were hurt," she replied.

"I figured." Rick shifted on the bed, grimacing in discomfort. "Where's Michonne?" he repeated.

"She's not here."

The woman's lack of forthrightness was starting to reach maddening levels, and Rick was quickly losing all patience. A situation not helped by his excruciating pain. "I can see she's not here. That's why I asked the question. Why aren't you answering me? Where is my wife?" He scanned the room. It looked like a hospital. A very functional-looking hospital, right down to the machines and light blue gown covering him. "Where the hell am I?" he demanded, attempting to leave the bed and being stopped by white-hot pain in his side. He fell back in agony.

"You're going to pull out your IV." She touched his shoulder. "You need to stay still."

"I need Michonne, some answers, and for you to keep your hands off me," Rick said, shrugging off her unwanted and unwelcome touch. He covered his aching side, feeling a thick padding of bandages and remembering the impalement and the exploding dynamite. Where was Michonne? As hurt as he was, there was no way she wouldn't be with him. Did he stop the walkers? Was she hurt? "There was an explosion and walkers. Was Michonne injured? Where is she?"

"As far as I know, she's in Alexandria and she's fine."

"As far as you know?" Rick replied. "Where am I?"

"Not Alexandria."

Rick huffed. "Damn it, get to the point!" He grunted from the pain. "Where am I, and why are you with me and not Michonne?"

"Where you are isn't important, but it's far from Alexandria and the Alexandria Safe Zone. Michonne isn't here because there wasn't time. I had to get you into the helicopter."

"Helicopter? A helicopter happened to be around and Michonne didn't have time to get in it, but you did? You gonna convince me that was a coincidence or just tell me you're lying?"

"I found you at the riverbank burned, bleeding, and barely conscious. You needed help, and I got you that. You're safe and getting the care you need. The how doesn't matter. As for Michonne, you don't need to worry about her. Not anymore."

"What the hell does that mean?" Rick asked, his initial dread growing stronger. He'd seen a helicopter a couple of times over the last few years, but never thought to flag it down. How did it manage to show up and land when he was hurt? "What have you done?"

"I helped you, and that help came at a price. All the groups working on the bridge think you were killed in the explosion. Michonne thinks you were killed. You should look at that as a gift, a comfort, because you're never going to see her again."

Rick laughed, a mocking incredulous laugh that hurt like hell but was a necessary hell. "You are out of your damn mind if you believe I'll never see Michonne again." He pressed a stinging hand to his achy forehead, feeling pain and a greasy, jelly-like substance. He rubbed his hand on the bed. "You will never be able to keep us apart."

"It's already been nearly three weeks. You were seriously hurt: first and second-degree burns on your face and hands, blood loss led to shock, and you developed a severe infection from the wound that just missed your large intestine. If not for me, you would be dead. You have a lot of recovering to do, but you will be okay because you are at a place that can help you beyond anything you could imagine. As I see it, you owe me, and your debt will be paid. I know Rick Grimes can do anything, even survive nearly blowing himself to bits to save those nearest and dearest to him, but this is different. You're not going anywhere that you're not told." She backed up to the door. "Get your rest. If you're thinking about trying to leave, don't. Not only are you still too weak, there's an armed guard outside." She turned and reached for the handle.

"I should've let the walkers get you at that trash heap you called a home."

"Well, you didn't." Jadis turned to him. "Now, your Michonne believes you're dead."

"She assumes that, but because there's no body, thanks to you, she'll never truly accept it. You don't know Michonne, and you don't know us. You said you got me here by helicopter. If you communicated with someone, you could've contacted her to tell her where I was when you found me. Why didn't you?"

"You needed help fast."

"Fuck that. It's because you're a cruel bitch! I didn't ask you to save me, and I'm not going to thank you for keeping me from the people I love and who love me. Don't fix your lying mouth to tell me you did it out of the kindness of your heart, because the fact you kept me from Michonne this long, when I was as close to death as you say, proves you don't have one."

"You're angry, but so be it. You'll still have to get used to your new reality, and it doesn't include Michonne, Judith, or anyone else you left back there."

"I didn't leave them, you took me away, and you will regret this."

"Hasn't happened yet, and I promise it never will. I'm here, you're here, and best of all, Michonne isn't. I see that as a win. You need to recover, but after you do…"

"After, I'm going back to Michonne. The woman I love." Using all of the limited strength he had, Rick pulled himself forward, training his angry gaze on the woman and watching her shit-eating grin disappear. "No matter what you say or try to do, you cannot keep me from my wife and daughter. And if you ever put your hands on me again, for any reason, or make the slightest lewd suggestion, I will kill you. Don't even breathe in my direction. That's your only warning. You understand me!" He fell back to the bed, sore, winded, angry, and scared.

With a shrug of her shoulders, Jadis opened the door and walked out. Rick caught sight of a man and a young boy of about seven through the crack of the closing door. The man, a tall, intense Asian fellow, turned all attention to Jadis as she walked out, but the boy, with skin of warm chestnut and kind brown eyes, looked at Rick with curiosity and gave him a quick, friendly wave just as the door clicked shut.

"That was the beginning," Rick said, touching his forehead to Michonne's. "I couldn't have known it then, but Danny, the little boy, would become the first and only person I truly trusted here. He helped to keep me 'me' when I was losing so much of myself."

Michonne raked his curls. "I can tell he means a lot to you," she replied.

"He's the only person I'll miss when we get out of here, and we will get out of here and to our RJ and Judith. I have a plan, and there's a lot more I need to tell you, but first, I have to know how you got here and found Jadis. I wrote that letter long before I nearly killed her."

"Yeah, I put that together when I found her. Let me go back. There was trouble with a new enemy back home. These people had skinned walker faces and used them as masks, and whispered to each other as they would attack."

"The Whisperers."

"You – you know about them?" she said.

"I know a little about a lot of strange and dangerous things, Michonne."

"The Whisperers were both. We lost a lot of people."

Bracing himself, Rick asked, "Who?"

"Jesus." Rick hissed. "He was killed in one of our first battles with them," Michonne explained. "Tara, Enid, Henry, and Saddiq were all casualties of these people and their danger."

"No." Rick brought her head to his shoulder. "I'm sorry."

"There were even more losses. It was brutal. Losing Henry almost killed Ezekiel."

"We know that feeling, don't we?"

"A little too well." Michonne lifted her head. "But Ezekiel, it appeared he was going to…" Her drifting words and serious look spoke volumes.

"What?"

"I found him looking over a cliff, and he was so broken. He – he kissed me."

Rick scoffed. "I'm sorry, Ezekiel what?" he barked. He knew the man had eyes on his woman. The King might've been broken, but his lips seemed to have worked just fine.

"It was an awkward, meaningless kiss that took me completely by surprise, and he apologized, Rick." She tapped his chest. "Okay?"

Rick nodded, feeling much better. "Okay."

"After Henry, he and Carol couldn't make things work, and then the Kingdom folded after limping along since losing its soldiers. He took over as leader of Hilltop and the Whisperers knocked a tree onto the gate and crushed the barns. Ezekiel was bereft, just in a bad place, and I understood that. He's my friend, so we talked, and I left him in a better place."

"Your kisses are magic."

"I didn't kiss him, he kissed me."

"Well, your lips." Rick pecked them and stroked her hair. "I'm glad you could help him. Really."

"Me, too. Later, Judith and I and a few others went to Oceanside because Rachel thought the Whisperers could be targeting them due to some security breaches. We discovered they were caused by Virgil, this guy trying to steal a boat and sail to get home. To make things right, he offered to give us guns from his island to fight the Whisperers. It was a naval base located two days away. I wasn't afraid of him and I didn't really trust him, but we needed the guns. Judith and the others went home, I cuffed Virgil to the railing, and we sailed to his island."

"Did he have guns?"

"No." Michonne retrieved her bag from across the room and returned to the couch. "But I did find these."

Rick stared in awe as she pulled out and extended familiar old shoes. "My boots."

"I was shocked and ready to kill Virgil because I thought he had done something to you. He had drugged me earlier, and…"

"Whoa, what?" The boots dropped to the floor as he cupped her cheek. "He drugged you?"

"I'm okay." She kissed his open palm. "It was a tea that gave me some horrible hallucinations, but nothing lingering. Virgil was a lost, grieving man who lied to get me to that island to bring peace to his reanimated family. He had accidentally caused their deaths, it was a sad situation, but it led me to a clue to you. He said he'd found the boots on a boat that had washed ashore. I got to the boat and found a phone engraved with your name and a picture of Judith and me, and a log with the last listing being a shipyard in New Jersey. I radioed RJ and Judith, and when I told her what I'd found, she insisted I find you. The Whisperer threat was over, she and RJ were fine, but maybe you weren't. That after so long, you probably needed my help."

"Judith was right." Michonne handed him the phone and he pressed it to his chest. "This dead phone gave me life." Rick brushing his thumb over the screen. "I thought it was lost forever."

"I thought the same of you. That you were lost to me. I saw what happened, it haunted me. My head said you were gone, our children accepted it, but my heart couldn't, wouldn't. Not even after I found your gun."

"You found my gun?"

"I gave it to Judith," she said. "Did Danny do that picture?"

"Yeah. I talked about you and Judith so much, he said it was like he could picture you both."

"'Believe a little longer,'" they both said together. Rick tilted his head, amazed she knew the phrase.

"I had to find out what those words meant. It was written in Japanese, I thought it could be a clue. My plan was to head north because of the log book, but maybe this was another clue and I should head very far east."

"It was a clue, but for me. Danny's father was raised in Japan, so Danny is fluent. He said he wanted to give me hope that I would see you and Judith again, and he did. He's very bright, with an old soul and a caring spirit. Considering his father is the head of this organization, his decency is astounding."

"His father is Jacob Pride?"

Rick didn't know why he was surprised by her level of awareness. "How much do you know about the CRM?" he asked.

"Not very much. Jadis shared a little with me. Mostly, she was just smug and tried to rile me with outrageous suggestions about a perceived closeness between you two."

"I can imagine." Rick rolled his eyes.

"I know, and I'm sorry about that." She rubbed his hand in comfort. "I stumbled upon Jadis five months ago, a few months after helping Larry and Jill, a pair I met early on my journey to find you, get settled in a – community doesn't seem like the right word. It's where I got Millie, these clothes, and so much more. Eden is like a functioning city. Delaware's answer to Alexandria on steroids times ten. Wind and solar power, vast agriculture, livestock, and industry. They're thriving. Getting there took several months, and I ended up staying longer than intended thanks to an unusually horrific winter and some outrageous walkers. The Whisperers were a challenge, but they were living people gone mad. These things…"

"That – that was the CRM," Rick disclosed, managing to not lower his head from the unyielding shame and guilt he felt. "What I was telling you earlier, the things I've done, those walkers were a result of it."

More to come.

~Thanks for reading!~