Chapter 70- Old Friends

Michonne's P.O.V.

One month later

Michonne walked out of the house and walked down the stairs. She looks at Scott as he walks over to her. "Jesus, Aaron, Clementine, and Kenny are back," Scott tells him. She nods as she starts to walk towards the gate. She stopped when she saw a woman, dirty disheveled, and looking exhausted.

"Jocelyn?" Michonne stares as if seeing a ghost. The woman looks up at her and smiles, unbelieving right back.

"Michonne?" Jocelyn says with a smile as she walks up to Michonne and hugs her tightly, the two having tears in their eyes...letting go Jocelyn beamed. "Look at you. You're pregnant. Where's Mike?"

"Mike's dead. He's been dead for a long time," Michonne informed.

"Oh." Jocelyn stopped for a moment. "Well, I would like to meet this special man."

"You will, but you need to go to the infirmary first," Michonne says. "So do those kids."

"Okay," Jocelyn says.

"Come on," Lilly says as she leads Jocelyn away with the kids.

Rick's P.O.V

Rick looked at Michonne, inquisitive, as she walked back into the house. "So you knew that woman?"

"We were friends in college," Michonne says as she sits down.

Rick nods as he walks up to her, cane gently patting the floor. "Well, if everything goes over well and Lilly gives us the all-clear, she should be staying here." Rick says.

"We have to let her stay, Rick. She has kids with her. We can't send them back out there," Michonne begged. Rick held a hand up, nodding in understanding, as Carl comes into the house, looking distressed.

"Mom, Your friend is freaking out. She said she needs to get back to them." Carl tells Michonne. Michonne slowly stands up, a hand on her stomach and leaves the house with Rick and Carl close following. They go towards the infirmary and see Jocelyn talking to Lilly.

"Jocelyn," Michonne says as she grabs her shoulder. She spins around and grabs Michonne's shoulder.

"I have to get back to them!" She says frantically.

"Them? Who are they?" Michonne asks calmly.

"My kids, I need to get back to them," Jocelyn says.

"We'll take you," Carl says. "I'll get a group together, and you can show us where these kids are."

"Who are you?" Jocelyn asked, seeing the one eyed young man who seemed to carry authority.

"I'm Carl Grimes. Nice to meet you" Carl says as she shakes her hand.

"This is Rick. He's my husband and the father of my baby." Michonne gently placed a hand around Rick's arm.

"You can trust my son. He'll get you and your kids back here safe," Rick reassures her.

"Who will you bring?" Jocelyn asks.

"Scott." Carl says, calling the man over to him. "Go get Clementine, Jesus, Enid, and Kenny," Carl tells Scott, who nods as he walks away.

"We can watch the kids you brought while you're gone," Michonne tells Jocelyn, who nods. "I'll get them safe, I swear."

Jocelyn slowly nods. "Let me get my gear, and we'll go get them," Carl tells Jocelyn before walking away.

Carl's P.O.V

Carl walks beside Jocelyn as they walk through the woods. "How do you know Michonne?"

"She's my best friend, she's also my stepmom, but she's always been there for me whenever I needed her." Carl says. "She's happy to see you. She thought that all of the people she knew from the old world were dead." Carl says.

"I thought she was dead too so no surprise there. Damn near had a heart attack when I saw her standing at the gate. Do you know what happened to Mike and Andre?" Jocelyn asks.

"She told me once that she went on a run, and when she came back, the fort she and them were staying at had fallen, and they were dead. She had Mike and his friend in chains for a while as walkers. She went down a dark path for a long time," Carl says.

"We've all been down a dark path, even the children." Jocelyn reassures gently, not blaming her it seemed.

"I went down one after my Mom died. I killed a kid who was giving his gun to me. He was surrendering his gun, and I shot him through the head," Carl says. "I've done my best to make up for what I did to that boy. All we can do now is make up for the bad things we have done." Jocelyn stares at him and nodded as they come across a factory.

"Children, it's me?" Jocelyn says from outside. The door opens, and several children run out of the factory, but stop when they see the group.

"Who are they?" One of the kids asks, eyeing the Alexandrians warily.

"They are our friends. They are going to take us somewhere safe." Jocelyn says with a motherly air. "So go get your things." The kids nod as they go inside.

Rick's P.O.V.

That night the group had a large bonfire outside. Rick, Jocelyn, and Michonne sat inside talking. "So, how did you two meet?" She asks, curious.

"Well, she showed up at the prison covered in walker blood, shot in the leg, and had baby formula." Rick says.

"That must have been quite an interesting meeting." Jocelyn says with a smile at the sight of that.

"You have no idea." Rick says, shaking his head.

"He threatened to kill me a bunch of times, but he let me stay in the end." Michonne deadpanned, causing Rick to very lightly tap her on the arm, causing her to smirk at him.

"Carl convinced me to let her stay. He saw her for who she was. He was the first to do it." Rick says.

"Well, I'm glad your son is so smart." Jocelyn praised.

"Carl said that those kids took down a deer on the way back. That's impressive." Michonne says.

"Kids need to know what they are doing in this world, especially the kids who aren't lucky enough to have a place like Alexandria. When the kids know what they are doing out there, they can do anything," Jocelyn says.

"They survived this long. They most are able to," Rick says. Jocelyn nods as they continue to talk.

Clementine's P.O.V

Clementine was laying A.J. down that night at their house, After she made sure the boy was asleep, she stood up and stopped as she looked outside through the blinds. She saw a large group of kids moving, and she could see Gracie and Judith with, and Jocelyn was in front of them. Clementine withdraws her gun, not sure what was going on, and quickly leaves the house. She followed them down the street and sees Jocelyn by the walls with the children. One of them had started to climb it. "What are you doing?" Clementine asks causing them all all to stop and look at her, the boy on the wall pausing and gazing at her.

"Clementine right? You should go inside and forget you ever saw this." Jocelyn says, in a tone that was almost a warning.

Clementine heard that tone before, when the man took her from Lee before.

"Judith, Gracie, come here," Clementine motioned them over. Beaming at a familiar face, the two girls ran over to her, ignoring Jocelyn's yells.

As the two stood next to Clementine, after a moment Jocelyn grabs for her gun, but Clementine raises hers as if by instinct and shoots Jocelyn in the neck. The woman looked at her with wide eyes and grabbed her throat, the girl staring back wide eyed. She backed up, and her back hit the wall as she slumped to the ground and choked on her own blood. Clementine looked at the kids who were staring at Jocelyn, then slowly turned their gazes to her, all of them murderous and almost gritting their teeth. Suddenly two of them pull out their knives before they charge Clementine, screaming for blood for their caretakers death.

"Wait wait please!" Clementine saw the two girls clutching around her waist and knew she had to keep them safe. She then raises her gun and shoots the two kids in the head, them falling to the ground unmoving, now her form shook in horror as if realizing what she did. Another kid grabs for his knife, but before he can draw it, they hear footsteps as Rick, Aaron, Carl, Jesus, and Enid show up with their guns, clearly awakened by the commotion, Carl and Rick stopping seeing Michonne's old friend dead against the wall. Carl grabs the boy before he can charge Clementine as more people show up and grab the kids before doing anything, many of them struggling to be kept down, snarling almost like animals. Clementine dropped her gun as she looked at the bodies of the two kids.

"Clementine." Rick called out. Clementine looks at him before she turns around and runs.

Michonne's P.O.V

Michonne, Rick, Carl, Aaron, Jesus, Lilly, and Enid were inside Rick's house, the lights on...Michonne sat on a chair, dazed. Having just gotten her friend back and losing her in the same day. "They are burying Jocelyn and the two children. According to one of them, Winnie, She was trying to take the kids, and Clementine stopped her." Rick says, rubbing his eyes in exhaustion, clearly stressed from almost having his daughter kidnapped under his nose.

"How is she?" Lilly asks tenderly.

"Nobody has seen her. Kenny said he's going to talk to her soon, but what are we going to do with kids?" Enid asks.

"We can't kick them out. They are kids," Jesus protests.

Rick held a hand up "no one is suggesting that. But their dangerous, they seemed to almost worship Jocelyn. Apparently she made them killers and did this before with a few other communities."

"We could split them up. Maybe they won't try anything if they aren't together. There are 6 of them. We send two to Hilltop, two to the Kingdom, and two can stay here." Carl suggested. "We take their weapons until we know they aren't a threat."

"Who will take care of them here?" They all turned as Michonne spoke, still staring out the window.

"We can take one." Aaron says.

"You sure?" Rick asks.

"We'll take the other," Enid says, looking at Carl, who nods.

"Okay, let me radio Beth and Ezekiel." Rick says as he walks away. Everybody left, and Carl looked at Michonne, sitting next to her.

"This wasn't your fault. You know that, right? You couldn't have known," Carl says. "I let her stay. If it's your fault, it's mine too." Michonne nods. Carl hugs her as she starts to cry.

Clementine's P.O.V

Clementine sat inside of her room with her back facing the door. Her eyes were red from crying. She heard the door open. "Clem," Kenny says.

"Leave me alone, Kenny," Clementine says softly.

"You know I can't do that, kiddo. Lee would have my ass if I did that." Kenny says as he walks over to the bed and sits down. "Clementine, you did what-"

Kenny is cut off by Clementine pushing him off the bed. "I said leave me alone!" She shouts at him. Kenny stands up.

"Clem," Kenny says softly as he reaches his hand out to her. She smacks it away.

"Get out!" She shouts. Kenny stares at her for a moment before he leaves the room, leaving Clementine in the darkness.

Two days later

Clementine barely left her room after that night. She left to eat, drink and use the bathroom. Once again, she sat with her back facing the door in her darkroom. She had shut the curtains and turned off the lights as she kept replaying that night in her mind. She heard the door open again. "Kenny. Leave." She says firmly.

"I ain't Kenny." Daryl says as he shuts the door. She turns around and looks at him, clearly hearing that accent and voice.

"What are you doing here?" She asks, confused

"Kenny asked me to come. He told me what happened." Daryl says softly as he walks up the bed. "I'm going to sit, and if you push me off this bed, I'm going to be pissed." He says as he sits down.

"I killed them, Daryl. I killed two kids. I shot them in the head like I would a walker." She says after a few minutes of silence.

"I know what you're feeling, Clem, the guilt of what you did."

"How could you possibly know the feeling? The amount of guilt I feel?" Clementine asks. "You ever kill kids?"

"Nah, but I got Glenn killed. You want to blame it on yourself. Let that guilt kill you. You did what you had to at the moment, the adrenaline in the body, and you didn't think you just shot. You had no choice, I did, and I made the wrong choice. Our situations may be different, but I understand the guilt because it is heavy. You didn't have a choice. You had to protect Judith and Gracie. They could be dead if it wasn't for you. You couldn't save those two kids, but you did save the other six and Judith and Gracie. They are getting a chance at a better life because of you." Daryl says. "You can't change what happened that night, that woman had to die, and you should have never been the one who had to do it, but you were, and now you got to live with it. You can't close yourself off, though. I learned that when I came back. You need your friends and family to get through this. So you can cry, shout, hit me, but you gotta get the anger your feeling out. That's the first step to getting rid of some of that guilt."

Clementine looks at him. "I hate her," Clementine says. "I hate her!" She shouts as she hits Daryl's chest. "I hate her so fucking much!" She says as she slaps her chest. "She made those kids into monsters! She used them! She made them killers! She made them think she loved them! Because of her, I had to kill them!" She says as she slaps his chest. Daryl grabs her arm and pulls her into his chest. She cried as he hugged her.

Daryl's P.O.V

Daryl walked out of the room after Clementine had fallen asleep. He looked at Kenny. "She needs time; I'm going to stay with her till tomorrow," Daryl tells Kenny, who nods. "I'm going to go sit in there."

"Thanks, Daryl," Kenny says. Daryl nods as he goes back into the room, sits on the chair, and watches Clementine.

Thanks for reading. I planned on this being the next big arc, but then I was reminded of this, so I wanted to do it. The next chapter will be the start thought. I loved showing Daryl and Clementine's relationship in this chapter and how close they have grown. As always suggestions, ideas, and feedback are welcomed. Until next time.