"That's it for security projects, the joint committee meets tomorrow morning to talk about the Skins. We'll have to circle back on resources needed for whatever they come up with. Now on to the Diva's" Rosita said, opening a green notebook
Michonne smiled "You mean our highly skilled engineers?"
"Highly skilled at being a pain in my ass. The brick and plumbing stripped for the Kingdoms repairs has been delivered. Our part is at the quarry, getting the lime for the concrete. The drama is over the best way to prepare the lime to be mixed into mortar and if we use the Sanctuary for the work now that it's vacant or set up operations at the quarry. You and your fellow Coalition ambassadors are going to have help me get this one over the finish line."
"They should all be here tomorrow, is it all four engineers?"
"No, just the Alexandria and Hilltop. Oceanside is bagging and delivering sand, that's their contribution. We are providing the quarry labor, Hilltop will make the mortar, and Kingdom will do the community work. This should be so easy. I can't with those two, you're the only one who can get them to shut up long enough to listen. One worships you and the other is afraid of you."
"Afraid of me? Who? Since when?"
"We know which one worships you, so that leaves Eugene. Afraid of you since you told him to shut up or you'd cut out his tongue."
"That was what, eight years ago?!"
"I guess it made a lasting impression"
"I rescinded and apologized"
"He acknowledges that, but believes it was more of a promise than a threat"
"It was, which is why I rescinded."
"Whatever, use it to my advantage. This is the last big project before we move into winter operations. It needs to get done; Kingdom's plumbing will not survive the winter."
Michonne nodded "I'm on it. Speaking of scaring people, what was up with you this morning?"
Rosita rolled her eyes "You noticed that, huh? Siddiq and I had a fight, we're only aligned on two of the three F's"
"What are the three F's?"
"Fun, Fuck, and Fight….my Tia Evie's three keys to a great relationship. Siddiq can make anything fun, and we fuck like rabbits, but fighting…..you know that motherfucker told me to calm down this morning? I may be the mother you're fucking but do not tell me to calm down!"
"Ohhh good doctor" Michonne shook her head in secondhand embarrassment "You guys will figure it out, I have faith in you both"
Rosita nodded "I know we will, I just wish it was as easy as the other two. You and Rick always seem to be on the same page, what's your secret?"
"Every couple is different; we are more two peas in a pod and you guys are more opposites attract. There just isn't room for bullshit now and that's how I move in this world and so does Rick. I gave up way too much of myself in my last relationship. I want to be a considerate partner, but consideration and partnership has to go both ways. For us, we talked about how to disagree, and we have things we say to make sure the conversation stays on the rails, and we get to a place of understanding. If we can't agree we at least try to understand and approach each situation from a place of positivity"
"We were so far off the rails; I don't even remember what started the fight. Oh well, at least we get to have make up sex."
Michonne laughed "See? That's a place a positivity, you got this Ro!"
Rick and Siddiq sat on a bench in the play area watching Coco and RJ play. Born eight weeks apart, they are inseparable, and this playdate was a daily occurrence.
"So, how's newlywed life?" Rick asked
Siddiq exhaled "Not much different than engaged life, I still can't quite figure out how not to piss her off"
"Rough morning?"
"Things got hectic with Coco, Rosita was in the shower, and I had someone at the door needing me. I guess she didn't like the way I asked her to get out of the shower, and I told her to calm down…."
"Ohh man….."
"I know, it's patronizing among other things. But she'll just snap, then I'm reacting, and it's never good. You get us outside the walls, and we are in-sync, but the domestic stuff? You've been married twice, got any advice for me?"
"I never mastered that in my first marriage. By the time the world ended, there was too much resentment and pain, everything we had was broken."
"Do you know how you guys got there?"
"Now I do. Mid-way through my senior year in college, her junior, we got pregnant. We were so young. We loved each other, but we weren't making plans for a future together. Hell, it was years before I even knew who I was and by then we were in it, you know? You can't get out without breaking everything and everyone."
"You felt trapped?"
"Looking back on it, I think we both did. We agreed rather than decided to get married because we were having a baby and that's the way it had to be. She left school and came home with me after I graduated. In the early years, we talked about her going back to finish school; she wanted to be a journalist. But life got in the way, and we kept pushing it back. After a few years we just stopped talking about everything she wanted for herself. She gave up on it and I let her. Honestly, I was relieved, I didn't want to move or change jobs. We didn't say it out loud, but I think we both realized we didn't want the same things. Wasn't long until we were both miserable, her misery was loud and mine was quiet. Because we didn't know how to talk about it, we turned on each other."
"I can see that happening to us, the turning on each other. We make up, but don't get to the root of the problem and end up right back in the same place every few weeks."
Rick nodded "That frustration builds, and you say and do things you can't ever take back. If you're gonna have a grown-up relationship you have to figure out how to disagree. It doesn't have to complicated, we say "I don't understand" or "I need you too." We talked through it and agreed that's how we focus on getting to a solution or agreement. Sometimes it's just agreeing to disagree, but when one of us hears that it's brings everything into focus."
Siddiq smiled "Grown-up relationship, huh?"
"Yeah…shit, I was a kid when I got married the first time. This is different, because of who I am now…. because of who Michonne is…..and who we are is a result of what we learned from past relationships and what we've lived through together. She's the love of my life and everything important to me starts and ends with her."
Rick spotted RJ trying to pick Coco up to put her on the swing, he smiled and moved toward them "Let me help son, put her down please"
Siddiq watched as Rick lifted Coco into a swing, then RJ. Rick pulled both swings back and wiggled them, making both giggle before launching them forward. He could hear Rosita in Coco's laugh, everything important to him started and ended with Rosita. Time to grow up.
"Daryl, you copy?"
Daryl raised the radio "I copy Rick, you alone?"
"Yeah, Aaron said you wanted to talk to me"
Daryl looked at Kyla "I'm at the red barn out on Mill's Road. I need you and Michonne to come out here."
"Now?"
"Soon as you can, bring a car"
"You're okay?"
"Yeah man, I'm okay. Y'all gonna come?"
"We'll be there, just need to get someone to look after the kids"
Daryl turned to Kyla "They're coming."
"Thank you" Kyla replied, relieved "I know this has to be a shock"
"Lil bit, but we couldn't find no trace of Carl on the ground. There wasn't nothing to tell us he was alive, but nothing to say he was dead either. I helped them look for him for years, Rick damn near lost his mind."
She thought of her own parents "Is he okay now?"
He nodded "Took a good while but yeah. So how did you get away from that city?"
"G…Carl, told them I was dead." She took a deep breath to control her emotions "Whatever he's doing, he didn't want me involved so he reported I died on a mission."
"That seems pretty extreme"
Kyla agreed "Yep, I think so too…..it's kinda his thing. He makes an extreme effort to be logical, if that fails he pivots to making an extreme effort at lunatic shit. Drives me fucking crazy."
Daryl smiled "Sounds like his dad. Rick's prone to going batshit to get things done"
"I've heard stories." Kyla smiled shyly "My dad had a few batshit moments early on, kept us alive."
"Where y'all from?"
"New York City, Brooklyn."
"Was it crazy up there at the start?"
"We were in Florida, we went down during Spring Break to try to convince my grandmother to come back with us. We were there ten days when everything went to hell. I was twelve and the twins had just turned two. She had this survivalist nutjob boyfriend, Alan, we were headed to his place when we stopped at her studio. He had a stockpile of guns, ammo, explosives, food….. end of the world shit. It was an underground bunker that looked like a military warehouse. Alan was dead when we got there, carbon monoxide poisoning from his generator. Zumu got bit when we stopped at her studio. We buried them both and hunkered down for a bit, it was in the boonies and pretty soon it felt like we were the only people in the world. My parents are both engineers and ex-military, so they just started going through Alan's stockpile to try and come up with a safe way to travel. We loaded up after a few weeks and it didn't take long to realize there was no safe place. We were turning around to try to make our way back, in Kentucky, when we came across our community."
"Yeah, we went thru a few places before we found home. You gonna go back to your family?"
She sighed "I'll try, eventually, but I need to do this first."
Daryl nodded "Right, I'm gonna take a walk around the building, check the perimeter, and scout a bit. You be alright here?"
Kyla nodded "Yeah. And Daryl, thanks for helping. I know all of this must sound crazy."
"Nah, ain't no such thing as crazy, not no more. And Carl's family, so that makes you family."
Rick watched the gate close as they drove off "We haven't done this in a while"
"True" Michonne agreed "We've been pretty good about one of us staying behind since RJ was born. Although that could change with the Whisperers"
"Things are quiet with them right now, but it feels too quiet. I don't trust them, any of them."
"I think we'll all feel better with some contingency plans in place"
"I'll feel better when we find that herd she's holding over our heads. Could be that's what Daryl wants to talk to us about."
Michonne smiled "Maybe he wants to tell us he finally asked Connie out"
"Maybe" Rick agreed, playing along "I'm tired of watching him scream I love you in his head anytime she's close by"
"Oh, is that what he's doing?" Michonne asked, laughing "And how do you know that?"
"Because I did the same thing once upon a time, for a good year from the prison to here."
"Well, you weren't as obvious about it as him. It's weird how he can all of a sudden exercise some impulse control"
Rick laughed "Yeah, maybe we come up with a plan for him to do it and when he gets frustrated after five minutes he'll just ignore it and go in headfirst."
"Right?" Michonne agreed, laughing and mimicking Daryl's voice "Nah, I ain't doing that!"
"They should just go on a run and come back a couple like Rosita and Siddiq did"
"Yeah, you should suggest that to Daryl. I'm still not sure which one of them planned that"
"Siddiq is worried that they've been fighting…."
"Really? So is Rosita, she said they're only good at two of the three F's. What did you tell him?"
"I told him what we worked out, what did you tell her?"
She smiled "Same. It's good that they're both concerned, they'll be okay"
"They will" Rick agreed "What are the three F's?"
"Fun, Fuck, and Fight. According to Rosita's aunt you have to be good at doing those things together to have a lasting relationship."
"Smart lady. She's right, we're living proof. Next anniversary is ten years…."
Michonne shook her head "Hard to believe, seems like just yesterday that you seduced me on the couch with a roll of mints"
Rick smiled at the memory "I was in love with my son's best friend, I didn't know what to do. Then you asked for that toothpaste, I was damned if I wasn't gonna find something."
Michonne reached over to run her fingers through his curls "You found your moment"
"Is this one?"
"You tell me? Do you have my toothpaste?" She teased "Baking soda and spearmint….."
"I know" Rick laughed "That's your favorite. I'm still working on it…."
Daryl greeted them as they got out of the car "Hey, thanks for coming so quick"
"Of course," Michonne replied "What's going on?"
"You didn't say much over the radio" Rick noted, looking around "why'd you drag us out here?"
"I got somebody I want y'all meet" Daryl replied, "She's inside."
"Who is it?" Rick asked
Daryl jerked his head toward the barn and moved toward the door "I'm gonna let her tell you, she didn't tell me a whole lot. Just enough that I knew I had to get y'all out here. C'mon."
Rick and Michonne shared a look. Almost anyone else, they would have drawn their weapons before going in; but this was Daryl. He was being weird, but it was still Daryl.
They followed him into the barn to find a young woman sitting cross legged on a stack of pallets. She leapt up when they entered, staring at the trio.
"Hi, I'm Rick" he gestured for Michonne to join him "this is my wife Michonne."
"I know. I'm Kyla" she inhaled sharply, blinking away tears. "Sorry, I just…..didn't expect to be here without him"
Michonne felt her stomach drop "Without who?"
"Your son...Carl…"
