Rick had gone off the grid three months ago after wrapping up a long and stressful press tour for his last movie. An on-demand actor since the age of twenty-five, this sort of thing didn't faze him anymore - not as far as those closest to him would say. His agent Sasha Williams swore he was in a good mood throughout the whole ordeal. His parents, whom he'd visited shortly after landing back home, said he was tired but happy. Then, the next day, he called Sasha, told her to clear his schedule, and to wait for him to call back - and then he vanished. The last person to hear from him had been his sister Maggie, whom he called from LAX, saying he was taking a long break.

At first, it seemed like he went on an old school celebrity vacation - but when his face didn't show up anywhere fancy like St. Lucia, Cozumel, Paris, when no candid shots of him were seen, they started to worry. He was recognizable, the guy could hardly go out to pick the paper without being photographed or asked to sign things or body parts. The vanishing act was just unusual. Then, they found out from Sasha, he had no next projects lined up, which was just unreal - he never stopped working, never - the man had a filmography the size of Europe. When he wouldn't answer his phone or respond to texts, that was when Michonne was called in.

Not arbitrarily, they didn't find her in the phone book or anything. Michonne Taylor grew up three houses down from Rick Grimes. They went to school together, they were in a lot of the same classes, they were part of a tight little group of neighbors who still talked to each other over the fence on the Fourth of July, who still got together to drink bubbly champagne on New Year's Eve. Well, their parents did. Rick was far away in L.A. like any actor his caliber, and while Michonne was still in the city she grew up in, she had her own place.

She was doing her own thing. Her own single, childless, career woman in her forty's thing. But their families were still tight, and they still saw each other at least once a year on the holidays. So, naturally, Maggie, Rick's sister, sought her out in her hour of need. If anyone could be discreet about an A-list actor in his forties may be having a midlife crisis, it would be Michonne - the one with the law enforcement career. It also may be helped Maggie probably still entertained the idea Michonne still carried a torch for her older brother after all these years.

No matter what Maggie imagined, she really needed someone to really care about her brother having a meltdown somewhere and wanting to protect him as much as she could.

At age fourteen, Michonne used to draw little hearts and stars around their names in the back of her school notebook. It was your standard puppy love. Later, by age sixteen, Michonne was already brushing aside any romantic feelings for her friend, due to the fact he went through her girlfriends like he was running a damn marathon - and why wouldn't he? Rick was already a very uniquely handsome young man, athletic, blue-eyed with a captivating smile and warm personality. He was the perfect specimen, a jock - and girls in their predictable girly nature all fell for that sort of thing like dominoes, one after the other, consistently.

Michonne was, like her fellow girlfriends, not immune to mother nature's evil designs - but, having grown up with the guy, and being close enough to be continuously exposed to Rick being in female company, she decided she had better stop that silly girl train straight away. She had important shit to do, after all, she had no time to compete for his attention or any other boys for that matter.

She always wanted a career in law enforcement, Michonne Taylor had had to fight, and cry, and scratch her way to the top to be taken seriously. No one in her life understood why she couldn't have picked something less… what had her father and brother called it? Oh yeah... manly.

But she had remained undeterred and moved forward until she'd proven to everyone she could and would do it. In a strange way, she was saved from becoming a victim of unrequited love by being too busy to pursue it.

But of course, Maggie, sweet Maggie, eternally romantic Maggie, always sort of gave her the look whenever she caught Michonne and Rick talking in any subsequent yearly get-togethers between their families and neighbors. The look like she'd expected something momentous to happen, like in a romantic comedy, or in a wartime drama. Nothing ever did happen. It just had never been meant to be. He'd always be her secret childhood crush. She had a deep fondness for him, but she had no designs on the guy - even if Maggie thought she was exploiting her weakness.

And so here she was, in a smudge beachside inn in the middle of nowhere, where Rick Grimes, A-lister, Oscar winner, and two times People's Magazine Sexiest Man Alive extraordinaire was currently hiding.

Mission accomplished.

So now what?

Shower, nap? Then go out for a drive and try to find out what's going on. It seemed like a good plan.

The shower was pretty decent, the bed was too. Her phone dutifully woke her up at six and she rolled out of bed feeling rested enough, and hungry. She realized the last time she had eaten had been on the road, before lunch, which she'd skipped altogether. She washed her face, brushed her teeth, and found something to wear in her duffel. She didn't think they were going to any fancy diner in a town like this, so she chose her comfiest jeans, the dressiest sweater, and dusted off her jacket - hoping it didn't smell bad after she'd worn it for the entire road trip. She tamed her locs with some hair-pomade and nodded approvingly at the mirror - she looked presentable. Not movie-star worthy company, but she tried not to let that bother her. She wore makeup on a date, that's not what this was. She hadn't even packed a tube of lip gloss.

She sat down in the empty lobby, her eyes searching for Dale who was absent. She tried not to be spooked by the complete silence as she checked her messages. Maggie and Sasha wanted updates. Her mother wanted to remind her they were going gift shopping together next week, and her partner, Abraham, checking in. She replied to her mother but left everybody else for later.