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What Future is There?

Chapter 14

Daryl woke up when an elbow jabbed into his chest.

“Shit.” He said.

“Sorry.” Michonne whispered. Daryl sighed.

“Can’t you get still?” He asked. She’d been tossing and turning for three nights and it was driving Daryl crazy. He’d considered going back to his perch when it was time to go to sleep, but it was too cold, and he didn’t really want to leave her, he just wanted her to be still.

“No, I can’t.” Michonne said. She shivered and Daryl pulled her in closer to him and sacrificed part a blanket that was on top of him.

Michonne was miserable. It was cold. It was bone cold. That’s what her grandmother had called this kind of cold. Bone cold…so cold it settled all the way down into your bones. That’s why they hadn’t seen or heard from the Governor in so long. Even a person as crazy as he was wasn’t going to come out into the cold just to continue fighting over some stupid grudge.

It was too cold to sleep. Michonne hated being cold more than anything. She didn’t care if it was 100 degrees outside, but she had no tolerance for this. She lie there, remembering that she used to have an electric blanket. She had loved that thing. When she had gotten a divorce from her husband she used to tell the women at the office that she didn’t need him. As long as she had that electric blanket she was warm at night…and the blanket was never an asshole.

She used to think that all men were assholes. Not Daryl, he was different. Daryl made her feel special. She felt like she was important to him. It was never anything big, but it wasn’t really the big things that mattered in this world anymore. It was things like the fact that he knew she liked fruit cocktail, so every time they had it he would save his portion till last and then slide the bowl across the table to her. He never said anything; he’d just kind of half smile at her and slide the bowl across the table. Michonne kissed his fingers and he stirred a little.

“Not again, ‘Chonne.” He mumbled. Michonne felt a little bad for him. The only time she wasn’t cold was when they were having sex. She knew he didn’t mind, but lately she’d been treating him like an amusement park ride. “I’m already dehydrated…try to sleep a little.

” “Daryl…” Michonne whispered. Daryl moaned.

“I told you, ‘Chonne, three times is my limit without sleep.” He said.

“No, it’s not that.” She said. “What is it?” He asked. “Did you ever have an electric blanket?” She asked.

“What?” Daryl wasn’t sure he was awake right now. He was completely exhausted and wanted to sleep desperately, and Michonne was chatting with him? It was the middle of the night and she was chatting?

“Did you ever have an electric blanket?” She repeated.

Yep. She wanted to chat. When Daryl wanted her to talk he could barely get four words out of her. Now that he wanted her to be quiet, she was going to start chatting. Daryl always thought he didn’t understand women, but he knew he didn’t understand Michonne.

“No, ‘Chonne. I never had an electric blanket.” He groaned.

“I did. I loved it. I wish I had an electric blanket. I wish we had electricity.” She said. Daryl moaned. He’d give anything for her just to go to sleep right now.

“I don’t need one.” He said. “I’ve got you.” He pulled her tighter to him, trying to transfer as much heat to her possible and reached over and flicked another piece of blanket on top of her. He might freeze to death this winter, but he’d at least like to do it on more than an hour of sleep a night.

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When Daryl woke up Michonne was already gone. He got dressed quickly and headed to the kitchen. Most everyone was in there. As he came in the door, everyone was staring at him awkwardly.

“What? What’s your problem?” He asked, sitting down and rubbing his eyes. Carol quietly put a bowl of oatmeal and a cup of coffee in front of him, but no one said anything.

Finally, Glenn started clapping and everyone else burst out laughing and followed suit, clapping. Daryl was so confused.

“What the hell? Has everyone around here lost their minds?” He asked. He knew cabin fever could do that to people and they did spend a lot of time shut in together. First Michonne wanted to talk all night and now these dumbasses were applauding him for eating breakfast.

“We’ve just been having an interesting little conversation.” Maggie said, giggling.

“’Bout what?” Daryl asked.

“Well, we’ve decided to vote you and Michonne noisiest couple in the prison.” Maggie said.

“I’ve heard Michonne say more at night in the last three nights than I’ve heard her say during the day in the last three months.” Rachel added.

“Shit…” Daryl said. “Can’t get no damn privacy. What are y’all listenin’ to us for anyway?”

“It’s hard not to hear everything that happens in this place.” Hershel said. “Don’t worry, son, you’re just being vibrant… healthy people.”

“So is she still trying to sleep off your little love fest?” Rachel asked.

Daryl was confused.

“No, I thought she would be in here.” Daryl said. He looked at Carol who shrugged and shook her head.

“No, I haven’t seen her all morning.” Carol said.

“Did she have watch?” Daryl asked.

As if on cue, Michonne came through the door, and leaning her katana in the corner, sat down at the table. Carol gave her some breakfast and she thanked her. Carol was starting to forgive her and Daryl and Michonne was relieved. When you were around someone as much as all of them were together, it wasn’t good to have disputes. She thought that in the beginning Carol thought it was going to be some kind of temporary thing between them, but as the months had gone on, she had settled more into the idea that this was something that worked for them. As odd as it may be, they just worked.

Michonne stared remorsefully at the oatmeal. She didn’t want to eat this. She didn’t really want to eat anything. She wasn’t feeling great. She knew she needed to eat, though, or it would be a while before lunch. She picked up her spoon and brought it part way to her mouth. Suddenly she wasn’t cold anymore; she was very, very hot. She put the spoonful of oatmeal in her mouth, but just as soon as she did, she realized she was about to hurl. She put her hands over her mouth and ran out the kitchen door, nearly knocking Glenn over in the process.

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Carol found Michonne outside, on her hands and knees, still retching. Carol went over and sat beside her, putting a bottle of water next to her.

“I know my oatmeal isn’t that great, but I didn’t think it deserved such harsh criticism.” Carol said. Michonne glanced at her for a second and then promptly returned to heaving. Carol reached over and rubbed her back. “Take some deep breaths, it’ll pass.”

Finally the wave of nausea did pass and Michonne sat down. She accepted the bottle of water from Carol and washed her mouth out, spitting the water out and wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.

Carol was just looking at her. Michonne didn’t know what to do. Why was Carol just staring at her like that? She had just a hint of a smile on her face. Michonne just stared back.

Carol realized that this could be a long process if she didn’t say anything. A staring contest with Michonne could go on for hours and it was too cold out here for that.

“I know it’s a long shot that you would, but do you want to talk about it?” Carol asked.

“Talk about what?” Michonne asked. She sipped at the water and the action immediately caused her to start retching again.

“It was too soon to try to drink the water.” Carol said. “I brought it to you for washing the taste out of your mouth, not for drinking yet. Try to take some deep breaths. It’ll pass.”

The retching did pass and Michonne sat again, panting.

“Point taken.” Carol said. “The baby doesn’t like oatmeal.”

Michonne looked at Carol as though she had just sprouted another head. She went to absent mindedly take a drink of water and Carol reached over and took the bottle out of her hand.

“Not yet. You’ll just start it up again. For now, just breathe.” Carol said. Michonne wrinkled her forehead in response and Carol stifled a laugh. “I had terrible morning sickness with Sophia.”

Michonne was trying to process everything. Was Carol insinuating that she was pregnant? Was she pregnant? Michonne tried to remember back to when she’d been pregnant with her girls. Some women said they just knew when they were pregnant, but that hadn’t been the case for Michonne. She also didn’t remember ever getting sick. She found out because she quit having her period, but that was something she hadn’t paid attention to in a long time. When it happened she took care of it and the rest of the time she didn’t think about it.

Carol could see that Michonne really hadn’t thought about this before. “Not to pry,” she said “but I do all of the laundry here…I kinda have a good idea of everyone’s schedule. It’s also been a while since you came by the supply room for any tampons.”

“But…” Michonne started. She stopped. She didn’t know what she was going to say next. She didn’t know if she was pregnant or not. She didn’t know how she felt about it. How was she supposed to feel about being pregnant right now? Suddenly she felt sick again.

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Everybody was more than happy about it when Michonne told them she was going to lie down because of this stomach flu or whatever she had. While she was gone they had decided that it couldn’t be food poisoning since they all ate the same thing. It now had them all panicking that she was going to spread it to the rest of them. Ironically, since all this shit had happened and they’d discovered that they were infected with pretty much the most disgusting virus ever, no one really ever got sick. There just didn’t seem to be as many germs around. Now that Michonne was sick, they were beginning to worry about a winter of passing it back and forth to each other.

Carol was the only one that wasn’t worried about it. When she came back in, Daryl asked her about it, unsure if he should go with Michonne or go help Rick with one of his projects. She had patted him on the arm and assured him that Michonne was fine and really just wanted to be left alone, so reluctantly he had followed Rick.

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Michonne spent most of the day lying on the bed, staring at nothing. The nausea kept rolling over her, but she hadn’t really been sick. Carol had brought her a trash can and put it by the bed just in case.

She couldn’t believe she might be pregnant. It just didn’t seem right. That’s not what this world was about anymore. It wasn’t about creating life, it was about death. Everything was death and decay. Sure, they had Judith, and look what happened to her mother. Things had not worked out very great in that situation. And what about the Walkers? Could she even swing a katana when she was huge? She’d be pretty much totally defenseless…and since this had broken out, that wasn’t a way that she liked feeling. And then there was Daryl. They were still fairly new at this whole relationship thing. How would he react if she told him she was pregnant? How would anyone react for that matter?

Michonne didn’t know what time of day it was when Carol came into her cell and sat down on the bed. She was carrying a mug with a spoon in it.

“I brought you some soup.” Carol said. “Chicken noodle, and I crumbled some crackers into it to soften them up. I made yours just a little saltier than everyone else’s. The salt will help keep your stomach settled.”

Michonne sat up and thanked Carol, taking the soup. When she took the first swallow, Michonne thought she had never tasted anything more delicious in her life. She didn’t realize how hungry she was and the soup was like some kind of nectar from heaven. It was warm and salty and soothing.

“Take it easy.” Carol said. “Don’t get too excited or you could make yourself sick again.” Michonne held the mug in her hands for a minute before taking another swallow.

“Why are you being so nice to me?” Michonne asked after a few minutes. The feeling that she was getting from Carol right now was unlike any that she had felt from Carol in all the time that she knew her.

“You’re not a bad person, Michonne, and Daryl loves you…and I care about Daryl.” Carol said. She paused for a minute. “And I like taking care of people…and I like babies.”

“I don’t even know…” Michonne started. Carol reached in her pocket.

“I thought you might say that.” She said, handing Michonne a pregnancy test. “Glenn and Maggie picked up a bunch of those just in case. Do it first thing in the morning. It’s more accurate that way.”

Michonne thanked Carol and they both sat in silence while Michonne finished her soup. Carol took the mug, instructed Michonne to rest, and then started out of the cell. She stopped just before she exited it and turned around.

“Also, Michonne, I had a daughter once. I’ve been there before.” Carol said. The look on her face was far off and a little sad. Michonne felt sorry for her for a moment. She knew that look.

​“Me too.” She said. Carol looked at her for a moment, but didn’t say anything. She simply turned and left the cell.

Notes

Sorry for all the typos, I never can catch them all.

Comments

Just discovered your story and love it so far. Always thought Daryl and Michonne would make a good couple!

Grimesgirl63 Grimesgirl63
1/28/18

Really great story!

cemmia cemmia
7/18/14
I love it! start writing again!!!
neentje neentje
8/6/13
I love your story. Keep up the good work
SVJohnson21 SVJohnson21
6/23/13
This is very well writen and I enjoy reading it.
Thewalkingdixon Thewalkingdixon
5/27/13