Michonne woke with a start.

She was laying in the dark, being strangled by the remnants of a quickly fading nightmare. The sound of walkers, snarling and growling, the cries of her children calling for her, crying out for her help, but she couldn't get to them, couldn't find them. All could see was blood and teeth and smoke.

"Hey."

Rick.

His voice was like a lifeline; clear and strong, pulling her back to the present as he came into view.

Rick.

Shirtless, partly leaning over her one hand cupping the side of her face, his thumb stroking a line down her cheek, urging her to calm down.

But all could see was blood and teeth and smoke.

"Hey."

His tone was sharper the second time, forcing her to focus and look him in the eye and see him. But even as the sounds of her nightmare finally receded, she realized she was breathing too hard, her breath coming in short, shallow, rapid breaths.

Oh God!

Michonne was hyperventilating, struggling to suck the air into her lungs as her eyes flitted about the room, working to acclimate to the darkness. Rick palmed her face, caressing her softly as he just lay there with her and for what felt like forever just breathed with her. Michonne felt the heat from Rick's body, the softness in his eyes and all of that combined with his tender unending touch worked to steady her and eventually she felt her breathing slowly return to normal as she felt herself finally returning to herself.

"The kids…" she attempted to lift her head from the pillow, but he stayed her.

"They're fine." Rick nodded. "'Chonne, they're safe. I have it covered. Ezekiel sent some help, he sent over some of his own guys as well, he vouched for them. They're posted outside." She didn't need to about the other thing. About who he had watching over the kids. It could wait.

Rick gently guided her back down to the pillow as he explained. "You fell asleep, we wanted to let you rest so the kids went back to their rooms."

Michonne sighed, seemingly satisfied at his words and allowed her head to fall back down. She looked around then, noticing the slivers of moonlight coming in from one of their windows. It had been broad daylight when they had come home, now it was way after dark.

"How long have I been out?"

"A few hours." Rick said softly. Michonne eyed her husband, it was pitch black outside, it had definitely been more than a few hours. She frowned up at him then, analyzing his striking features and those deep azure eyes in the dim moonlight. He was wide awake. How long had he been up?

"Rick…my nightmare…you've been up all night…watching me…watching over me…"

The side of his sinful mouth kicked up in a small smile just then "…and thinking. And yes, watching over you and waiting for you to wake up." He added and Michonne's frown deepened. Rick's tone had turned deadly serious with those last words. She knew her husband, could read his handsome features and see behind the smile that he was… angry. She instantly clutched a hand to the palm still caressing her face.

"Rick…"

"I almost lost you." He confessed. "Michonne, I was so so scared when I got that call…If anything happened to you or the kids…"

"But it didn't, and it won't." She declared and looked him dead in the eyes, reminding him, willing him, to believe they could do anything, they could overcome anything, together. But even she could see the worry and the anger swirling inside him now. He had already made up his mind about what he needed to do.

"I need to deal with this. I should have done it at the beginning. I need to keep you and the kids safe." He stressed.

"You do keep us safe." She lamented. She was mostly ok. It was just some minor cuts and bruises. But she knew he blamed himself for letting Mercer push his buttons, knowing he could have ended whatever this was before it started. It hurt her to see him like this, condemning himself, thinking he wasn't doing enough to take care of the people he loved.

"Babe…"

"I have to head out. I'm meeting Mercer at the CG." As if to drive the point home Rick's held her gaze for a long moment telling her everything she needed to know. Michonne knew this Rick, had seen this resolve in his eyes many times before. He was going to kill them.

A better person in a different world might ask him to stop. To let the Commonwealth take care of it and stay here with his family. But Rick had never been that man. He wasn't built to let others fight for him. And she could see this thing with the CG and today was tearing him up inside. This thing, whatever it was had hit too close to home. To Rick, this was no idle threat anymore. He would figure this out and find them, because this was a man who would do anything for the people he loved. And despite his kind, good heart, he didn't take chances with his family and had would annihilate any and all threats against them.

"Rick, you do keep us safe. You make me feel protected and loved and this wasn't on you. But baby,if we're doing this, we're doing this together." She said sternly, in a way that left no room for negotiation. It would always be together or nothing.

It took a moment, but eventually Rick nodded.

"We will." He assured her. "When you're rested. Take the day…or two. You killed dozens of walkers yesterday. You need to take a break. I need you to take a break. But together…when you're rested."

Michonne wanted to protest but she hurt from yesterday. She hadn't realized until just now how long they had been away from the fight. She mentally chastised herself for letting life in the Commonwealth make her this soft. But for her family she would get stronger and the next time she would be ready.

With another heavy sigh Michonne's other hand came up, to softly stroke Rick's face and trace the outline of his jaw and move up and around his neck pulling him closer to her. She sank her fingers into the soft mass of curls at the base of his neck, threading her fingers through his hair the way she always did to anchor them to each other.

"Whatever you do, just make sure you come back to me, to us. We come back to each other Rick, always. No matter what."

That was the promise they made on their journey back home from the Cascadia base. They would never been separated from each other like that ever again.

"Until my last breath." He whispered.

His voice was a low breathy growl and for a moment they just lay there like that, stroking and petting and staring into each other's eyes. Michonne was intensely aware of Rick's closeness, could feel his warm breath on her skin, the delicious feel of his half-naked body, lightly weighing down on her as he touched the side of her face. And in that moment she was acutely aware of the way her nightshirt was bunched up, resting just below her breasts. Of the sensitivity of her pert nipples pushing against the cotton fabric there. And in the darkness of the bedroom she could hear their breathing changing, and she felt the heaviness of Rick's dick growing long and thick and heavy in the space between them.

Michonne licked her lips.

And saw the way Rick's gaze followed the slight movement, pools of desire turning his eyes dark blue as he eyed her mouth. Then his eyes moved back to hers and she felt his hold on her tighten. Michonne was sore, and hurt in places she didn't even know she could hurt. But that didn't stop her from getting wet; didn't stop the moist heat of arousal from rushing to her pussy as she stared at her husband.

Rick knew he should go. He should get up and get dressed and go out and find the assholes who had put his wife and his kid's lives in danger and put a bullet between their eyes. But in that moment all he could think about was how good his woman felt in his arms.

"I don't want to hurt you." He said, his voice low, almost a whisper. Even as his lust filled gaze travelled down the length of her body. Barely holding it together as his eyes scanned her curves.

"Baby, you're not going to hurt me." Her voice was a rough whisper. Then slowly she moved her tongue over those soft sexy lips.

And that was all the invitation Rick needed.

Rick's lips crashed instantly into Michonne's with a raw urgency he couldn't conceal any longer. He was hot for his wife. And kissed her hard to show her just how much, his cock lengthening as his mouth claimed hers. Michonne moaned her pleasure at the assault on her lips and pulled him in closer. Her plush lips were soft and inviting as he kissed them and savored the taste of them, running his tongue along her hers and sucking at her bottom lip. Her mouth was hot and warm and wet all at once, as Rick drank from her lips and pressed her further into the mattress.

In his mind he knew he should wait. Michonne had been through an ordeal today. He had eyed the cuts and bruises as she slept, the site of them fueling a need for vengeance.

But that vengeance didn't quite quell the way she tasted on his tongue.

She tasted like chocolate and brown sugar, from the hot drink the kids had made her before bed. The scent of vanilla and cocoa butter from her lotion surrounded him and filled his senses and made his dick want to punch through his sweatpants to get to her.

Fuck.

He shifted over her in one fluid motion, to the space between her thighs and lined his cock against her slit. Michonne released a long guttural moan into his mouth when he pressed his painfully hard dick into her, feeling the wet spot in the fabric between them.

Rick moaned as well; the sound low and deep with longing when he felt her.

This was good. This was mind-blowing…and so fucking close, but still not enough.

Rick pressed into her, kissing her harder, claiming her mouth with a renewed hunger only Michonne could match as he grinded his large cock into her. In turn she tugged at her nightshirt hard, clawing to be rid of it. Rick obliged her by pulling back to help pull the offending cloth off her. He bit into his bottom lip at the sight of her sexy dusky skin and he could swear his wife glowed in the moonlight.

He loved looking at her; the sexy curve at the base of her throat, her small waist opening into the soft flare of those sexy hips and the luscious curve of those, perfectly sized, tear-dropped shaped breasts and the erect blackberry nipples that called to him. Michonne moaned again when he lowered his mouth to her skin, to trace the scars and bruises she had sustained in the fight with his tongue, before wrapping it around one pert nipple and sucking hard as he slid his painful erection along her soaking wet folds.

Her deep moans filled the room and she pulled at the hair at the nape of his neck, making his dick twitch even harder and moistening the tip.

But still it wasn't enough.

Rick sucked harder on her second nipple and heard a whimper escape her mouth as she held him. He popped the second breast from his mouth and Michonne instantly moved to sit up. Hastily tugging down her sleep shorts before hurriedly, clumsily, shoving at his sweatpants to finally set his pulsing cock free. Michonne released a deep breath and his eyes followed hers to his shaft at the juncture of her thighs, where her dripping pussy juices glistened along his cock. The contrast was sexy as hell and his balls tightened at the site of his precum dripping into her as he slid over her excruciatingly slowly; back and forth, back and forth, as he tried his best not to come.

Rick hissed as he watched and felt his dick become hard as a brick.

But still it wasn't enough.

Rick flared his nostrils and tried to remember to breathe as he decidedly levered his upper body so that he was hovering over Michonne, with his right hand planted on the headboard, and his bionic hand on the bed next to her shoulder. He caught and held her gaze as he slid over her opening again.

"Baby, put me inside you." He said through gritted teeth.

Michonne's eyes sparkled at the sexy command and held his for an agonizing moment. Then she was wrapping her hand around him, her hand barely circling his thickness as she guided the head of his cock into her.

The moment he breached her opening Rick pushed into her slick wet tight heat in one long stroke, lowered his head, closed his eyes and groaned in relief. A second later his mouth crashed into Michonne's again, swallowing her whimpers as Rick kissed his wife again and again.

His mouth and tongue stayed on hers for a long time after; swallowing her screams as he pulled back slowly and drove into her deeper and deeper, pounding into her tight pussy with long hard bottomless strokes. And as she finally shattered beneath him, lifted from the bed by the force of her own orgasm, Rick finally let himself come, filling her with every ounce of his creamy thick essence as he emptied himself inside her and whispered in her ear.

"I love you so so much."

And still it wasn't enough.

Rick shivered as he felt his dick already growing hard again inside his woman.

With Michonne none of it would ever be enough.

Nothing would ever sate his unending love for her, or quell this need he had to be with her, in her. He loved this woman, with everything he had and everything he would ever be. For her he would destroy all threats and thwart all enemies. For and for their family, he would burn down the world.

"What the fuck happened!"

Kaede kicked at the trash can, sending it flying across the room. "I thought we had them! How the fuck did she do that? How did they take out over three dozen fucking walkers alone." He punched out, sending his brute fist flying through a wall, leaving an angry gaping hole in the wall of the house.

Across from him, the other man in the room just sat there, watching him under a hooded gaze. Unflinching against the erratic behavior being displayed before him. For a moment he watched Kaede pace. It was interesting to watch someone so big have so little control over their emotions. So powerful, yet so undisciplined. He never ever saw the bigger picture.

"Kaede, you need to calm down. Today was a good day."

"How! She took out those walkers like it was nothing! We were going to make them suffer! Make him pay!"

That had been the plan, unleash the walkers on his family, enough to overwhelm them, but slow enough so he would be in time to watch them suffer. But he hadn't anticipated the wife. Hadn't expected her to be an expert swordsman who could eliminate a herd of walkers with the kind of speed and agility reserved for his lieutenants. Actually, scratch that, he had never seen anything like it, a Katana-wielding soccer mom. It would make him chuckle if he had any laughter left to give. But as luck would have it, all of that joy had been sucked from his life, replaced instead by a deep dark seething hatred that punctuated everything he did. He had no room left for laughter, just a pure unadulterated thirst for revenge that could only end one way.

He turned away from Kaede's pacing, redirecting his gaze back to the screen he had been watching.

"Come, see what I see." He extended a hand to the empty seat beside him. His tone was soft but like the obedient guard dog that he was Kaede ceased his pacing and came. He waited until Kaede was seated to restart the video.

Grainy black and white surveillance video, stolen from Commonwealth Hospital. Video of Rick Grimes pacing up and down the halls like a madman. His eyes wild and desperate, uncaring as he almost drew on a member of the Commonwealth guard. It wasn't until he was led away and reunited with his children that the rabid look finally disappeared. But it was too late, the cracks had shown themselves to him like a gift.

"You see." He said to Kaede as he paused the video at the same place as he had before. The moment Rick Grimes tearfully reunited with his children. It was a touching scene. The love of a father on full displayed as he reunited with his children, holding them close with no notion of the darkness that dogged his every step.

"Killing them would be too easy…This way we make him suffer. Through his children."

Aaron stared at the walkie as he parked his car, frowning at the silence.

Dammit! Gracie knew better.

She better not be talking with that boy again.

He lifted the walkie, turned a knob or two to make sure it was still on and sighed. He loved the hell out of his daughter but someone should have warned him about the pains of raising a temperamental teenage daughter. Gracie was his bright shining star in the dark of this new world and he would literally do anything for her. But this new stage of adolescent development, the boyfriend stage, was really starting to piss him off.

Aaron sighed and stared out and up at the dimly lit façade of the inconspicuous industrial looking building on the edge of town. It was still in the Green Zone but far enough away from town so as not to rouse suspicion about why a group of people were meeting secretly under the cover of darkness. He scanned his surroundings, noting the few vehicles already here before exiting his car. He was fidgeting with this radio, hoping against hope that Gracie's voice would crackle the two-way. So that he didn't see the shadowy figure until he was practically upon him.

"Holy! Shhhh..." Aaron literally jumped, reaching for the large hunting knife at his side. In front of him, his would-be assailant was anything but bothered, as he confidently practically glided over to him. "Gabriel! You scared the shit out of me! What are you doing here, lingering in the dark?"

"Aaron." Gabriel acknowledged with a slight nod, his expression impassive, dressed as usual in his all black attire, clergy collar and crown bolero hat . "I'm not lingering." He stated simply. "I was out in the open. I watched you arrive, you were distracted." He cocked his chin at the walkie Aaron was holding in his other hand. "Problems?"

Aaron exhaled.

"Be glad Coco is still just a toddler. Teenagers can be…infuriating." He conceded. Gabriel scowled, that signature scowl with his arched eyebrows and intense stare, made all the more imposing by the milky white cataract in his right eye.

"Is Gracie ok?" he questioned. "I heard she was there, on the field trip."

Aaron nodded. "She was. And she's fine. Gracie is a survivor. A little shaken up but she's going to be ok. She's staying with a friend." Gabriel just continued to scowl, his signal that he didn't understand the problem. Aaron released a sigh. "She's dating." He admitted finally. "…Which apparently means missing chores, ignoring curfews and forgetting to change the batteries in her walkie so she can check in."

Aaron knew he was rambling but couldn't stop himself. It was Gabriel and that stupid collar of his, it made him want to confess everything. He rubbed a frustrated hand down his beard as he continued. "I dunno Gabe, she's a sophomore, he's a senior. Sometimes I worry, that I let her get away with everything. But she's lost too much. She never had it easy. For a long time, without Eric, I just felt like I was treading water, keeping us alive. She's lost too much in this life and maybe I just wanted her to have something for herself." He confessed and Aaron realized it was the first time he was admitting this even to himself. The real reasons why he let Gracie have just about anything she wanted. Aaron shook his head at the memory of his daughter's buffoon of a boyfriend. "…But this guy…"

"You should cut it off." Gabriel offered up suddenly and Aaron frowned.

'What?"

"That's what I would do with Coco...I would cut it off. Or kill him, I don't take chances anymore. We can't." Aaron glowered up as his friend, viewing him suddenly through different eyes. Like him, Gabriel has lost a lot; he too had a daughter who would grow up without a mother. Time in the new world and the many battles they had endured had left him cold and callous. But listening to him now, this even sounded unsympathetic for him. Kill him? What the…

Aaron was about to dig further into Gabriel's crazy ass statement, when something just occurred to him.

"Wait," he shifted his gaze from side to side in the quiet night. "What are you doing here?"

Gabriel shrugged. "I got a message from Ezekiel, said Rick needed help. So I came. What are you doing here? Alone, in an abandoned warehouse on the edge of town."

"Same." Aaron offered simply. "I got the same message from Ezekiel…" he eyed the few cars outside, hidden from sight from the road. "It looks like we aren't the only ones who got a message." He turned his gaze back to the man in front of him. "Sorry, didn't mean to come across all suspicious. I'm just surprised is all..." He added carefully and Gabriel nodded knowingly. Aaron and Gabriel were friends…more than that, they were family, tied together by binds forged in the fire of a new world they had all fought to survive in. They had fought many a battle together, and persisted in a harsh world filled with the dead. And they had cried together over the ones they lost and more recently bonded over their journeys into fatherhood alone.

But still they hadn't discussed what had gone down between Gabriel and Rick.

Rick and Michonne had been back almost a year now. Rick's return from a presumed death had been overwhelming to say the least. That this man, this friend and leader, had survived near-death after sacrificing himself on that bridge, had been one of the most incredible miracles Aaron had lived to see. But something had happened with Gabriel and Rick. One minute the group was celebrating the joyous return of their de facto leader and the next minute Gabriel was talking to Rick in hushed tones and then he was gone. Things had been strained between the two men for a while after that night, and all Aaron knew for sure was that it had something do with Jadis.

"Rick is still Rick." Gabriel said after a few seconds. "Regardless of what happened he's still the man who showed me how to survive this world, who saved me from that boulder next to a church. Who taught me how to fight. I would walk through fire for him."

That affirmation made Aaron smile, just as they both turned and followed the distinct sound of footsteps approaching. Each man reached for his weapon.

"Jerry?"

Aaron exhaled in relief again for the second time tonight as the large man emerged from the shadows with a stark look of surprise.

"Dudes?"

"Dudes!"

The look of surprise transformed into the biggest grin Aaron had ever seen as Jerry all but scooped them up in a group hug. "You came!"

"Jerry, you're squeezing me to death," Aaron muffled the words into Jerry's beefy arm.

"Jerry, I could have shot you." Gabriel's said a little too sternly when he was finally released and could get a word in. "What are you doing here?"

Somehow Jerry's grin grew even wider. "Same thing you're doing here. We're getting the band back together! Come on my dudes, everyone's waiting inside."

"What the hell it this?"

Rick said as they pulled up behind the industrial building shrouded in darkness on the edge of the Commonwealth. He glanced at the man beside him with a scowl. It was just him, Ezekiel and Ezekiel's man Kenny. The kid was young but Ezekiel had vouched for him, said he was a fighter, and that Kenny was like a son to him and trusted him with his life.

And Rick trusted Ezekiel.

So here they were, pulling up to what looked like an abandoned building under the cover of night.

Fuck!

Rick grimaced. He didn't have time for this crap. He hadn't pulled himself out of bed, fought against every instinct in his being to stay in bed with his incredibly strong, amazingly beautiful and bad-ass wife. The woman who had passed out trying to fight for those kids and their family.

The thought of her being out there with no back up made him what to hit something.

"Look, Zeke, I don't have time for this. We're supposed to be headed to your office. I need to get my hands on that guard schedule and those personnel files." He needed to figure out who was sabotaging their fences. If he could figure out who was compromising the Commonwealth then he could figure out who led that attack on the field trip and put an end to this.

"Ezekiel, we don't have time for this." He growled again, his trigger finger itched as they got closer to the building and Rick scanned the back of the building where they were esconded, and tried to figure out what the hell they were doing here.

"Well, you said you needed a team. A team you could trust." Ezekiel offered.

"…Yeah well your man Mercer wasn't too happy about that." Rick and Mercer had stood toe to toe and almost come to blows the last time they had been together. But Rick wouldn't budge on this, not when it came to the safety of Michonne and Judith and RJ. "Look Zeke, I get it. You're the Governor, your between a rock and a hard place. You have people to protect, a community that depends on you. But you need to know…I'm not gonna stop. With or without your help I'm going to find who did this to my kids, my wife, and end them." He said it as plainly as he could. He wouldn't lie to Ezekiel. He respected him too much.

Rick didn't know what we excepted when he said the words but he didn't expect Ezekiel to simply nod as Kenny pulled them up to the building and Zeke and Kenny began to exit the vehicle.

Rick followed suite, and it was then, as they walked up to the dimly lit back door that he saw an outline of a vehicle hidden in the darkness.

What the hell was this!

Rick felt his muscles tense and reached for his gun, unholstering with crazy lightning speed, even as he saw the wide smile spread across his friend's face where he eyed the huge revolver.

"I know you won't stop Rick." He smiled. "I don't expect you to, that's not who you are. That's why I'm giving you exactly what you need."

Minutes later as they walked through the doors of the building, Rick couldn't believe his eyes. The space they had walked into was wide and open, a large room scattered metal top tables , a drawing board and few chairs. It damn near looked like a command center. But it was the small crowd of familiar faces that stopped him in his tracks.

Aaron, Gabriel, Jerry, Eugene…and the others Magna, Yumiko, Lydia, Kelly, Elijah…he didn't know them well. But he knew they had stood by kids and his wife when he couldn't. And that Michonne knew them and trusted them, and considered them family. And they're all here…

"What the…" He stared out at all their faces, now frozen in place, staring back at him and Ezekiel expectantly. Ezekiel simply shrugged.

"You wanted a team…"

"Zeke, I can't ask these people to do this," he said in hushed tones more to himself. These people, his family, his friends, they had different lives now. They had jobs, families. Eugene had a wife and a daughter, Rosie. Jerry had Nabila and the kids, Aaron and Gabriel were everything their daughters had. He couldn't ask them to give that all up or put it at risk.

"You're not asking us to do anything." Aaron spoke up. "We wanted to be here, we asked to be here."

"He's right, boss," Jerry added, "Michonne saved Ezra's life. We want to help, no question."

"Michonne would do the same for us." Magna stared at him with a hard stubborn expression, eliciting nods of agreement from the rest of the room. It stunned Rick, that these people would have his back like this after so many years. He wasn't their leader, that time had long come and gone, yet here they were, willing to follow him into the fire.

"We don't even know what this is," Rick raised his voice to the room, his voice booming as he addressed them all. "This could be anything, I can't ask you to risk yourselves, your families, when we don't know what we're fighting."

"I-I mean no offence Rick," Eugene said as he eyed the room, "but I believe the group would agree that the unknowns of our current predicament are far outweighed by the gravitas of this situation. An attack on our children is indisputably an attack on us. Thus it is perpetually, all for one and one for all. And you yourself made it so, since time in memoriam. And as our Paragon and indubitable champion, we are here for whatever you need."

Rick stilled for a moment, letting Eugene's verbose words wash over him. Eugene had always been wordy, often times annoyingly so. But even he couldn't deny the impact of his statement. The weight of worry seemed somehow suddenly lighter knowing that he had these people, people he had fought side by side with, people still willing to stand with him after all this time.

It humbled him.

Rick brought a hand unconsciously to his forehead and rubbed at his brow.

"I can't ask you to follow me. We don't even have a lead." He explained.

"You've never asked us to." Gabriel's words rang out clearly in the room as he looked Rick in the eye. "But we have, and we will."

"And we do actually have a lead." Michael Mercer emerged from the shadows like the forcer that he was. Rick narrowed his eyes as the large man approached him. They hadn't exactly ended things on great terms the last time they had spoken. But despite his furious expression Rick sensed a change in him as he walked up to him with a stack of files.

"Personnel files." He said and handed them to Rick. "We cross referenced guard schedules with the times and dates of the walker incursions at the wall, and came up with a some persons of interest. Eugene helped." Rick took the files, eyeing them before turning his gaze to Ezekiel first then Mercer.

"I need you both to know I'm going to do what I need to find the people responsible." They needed to know he respected the Commonwealth but he wasn't going to go by the book on this. He couldn't.

Mercer nodded. "My wife Princess was supposed to be on that field trip. She was excited to go and only cancelled at the last minute because of a stomach bug. That lady who was killed had taken her spot. Princess could have died out there. So you do what you gotta do Grimes, and let me know what you need."

Rick saw the expression in Mercer's eye. It mirrored his own after he found out how close his family had come to being hurt. He nodded at the other man and for the first time since he had met the man Rick felt like he and Mercer were finally on the same page about finding the people who did this and making them pay.

"I can't promise you I won't kill 'em." He said suddenly, loud enough so only Mercer could hear. And it took a moment, but he again slowly Mercer nodded at him and sighed.

"I know."

When Michonne woke again it was after dawn.

It was still early morning but the sun was high in the sky, washing their bedroom in streaks of sunshine.

She woke with a start again. But this time the memory of Rick caressing her and kissing her on the lips and on the forehead, whispering that he loved her forever enveloped her. Making her feel safe and warm the way he always did. The feeling assuaged her but only for a moment. Then she was getting out of bed.

She needed to get out of here and find Rick. He needed her, need her help!

Her body still hurt but she felt miles better as she ran through a quick wash routine in the bathroom and combed out her locs. She looked a mess, but her energy was back and none of that wooziness from the day before had returned. All that mattered now was making sure her kids were ok and getting to Rick.

Michonne grabbed a pair of hip-hugging jeans and a bright yellow tank top and dressed as quick as she could. As she pulled on her brown leather hiking boots she looked around the room for her Katana. Rick would have retrieved it for her, he would have made sure it got back to her somehow. It might be in its spot above the mantle. But she could worry about that later. First she needed to see her kids.

The sounds of voices and children's laughter hit her just as she opened the door. Their bedroom was at one end of the house and as she made her way to the stairs she could see across to the other end of the hall, that the kids rooms were empty. From the top of the stairs the voices weren't loud, but even from up here she could hear multiple voices coming from downstairs. She remembered what Rick had told her, about Ezekiel sending a detail to their house to keep an eye on her and the kids. Just in case.

But those voices, they didn't sound like Commonwealth Guards patrolling her house. These voices sounded different…yet somehow familiar.

Michonne could smell the tantalizing aromas of fresh baked biscuits as she descended the stairs…and the unmistakable laughter of children. And as she got closer she could make out some of what they were saying.

"I heard there were a lot of them…" A young male voice was saying.

"Three dozen, maybe more…" Judith said clearly.

"Geez, that sound scary" Silence. Then Judith spoke.

"It was. But my mom was there…she got most of them. And she made me brave."

"That's cool that you took so many out. That's bad-ass!" The unfamiliar voice said again in awe.

"I got one too." RJ piped up and the unfamiliar voice laughed.

"Hell yeah you did. That's awesome dude!" The sounds of hands clapping as they a high fived. Something about the way the voice spoke to her son warmed her heart, even as she descended the stairs in confusion.

And when the kids came into view the first thing Michonne saw was the owner of that voice and her heart stopped at the site of the dark haired handsome young man.

Glenn!

She could swear she felt her heart stop as the young man looked up at her and smiled.

"Herschel?" Her tone was breathless as she stared back at the spitting image of her long gone friend.

"Hey Aunt Michonne." Herschel said to her, with that easy sweet smile that made him look so much like his Dad.

"What the…" Michonne shook her head in disbelief, and it was then that she caught sight of the woman pouring over a plate of biscuits near their oven. The woman was tall, slender, dressed casually in jeans and a blue plaid shirt, with her longish brunette hair tied up in a messy bun. The woman turned, her chestnut eyes smiling as she wiped her hands on the kitchen towel laying over her shoulder and stared back at Michonne.

"Oh, you're up." She said easily, like it was any other day.

"Maggie?"

Maggie was still wiping her hands as she walked up to her and offered her that gentle easy going familiar smile and answered.

"Hey stranger."