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What Future is There?

Chapter 18

Most of the people had gone to bed, but Daryl wasn't sleepy yet. He and a few others were sitting around the living room, listening to Maggie read aloud from a book. Daryl and Michonne shared one of the mattresses that they used as couches, with him sitting on the far end of it and her lying down with her head in his lap. This was fairly common at night and had become the closest thing to television that they had.

Glenn was already asleep, stretched out on one of the mattresses. Rick and Rachel occupied another mattress, both sitting side by side, but not touching. Maggie shared another with Carol who was halfheartedly reading over Maggie's shoulder as the story continued on.

Daryl wasn't interested in this book. It was a chick book and had a lot of words that he didn't understand, and a lot of "heaving bosoms". He could easily understand how Glenn had fallen asleep. From the looks of the others, they weren't far behind. The only reason that Daryl knew that Michonne was still awake was because he was entertaining himself by tickling her face and ear with one of her dreadlocks and she kept swatting at it every now and again when he must have hit an especially ticklish spot. It was irritating enough to be funny to Daryl, but apparently not enough to make Michonne move, which was the perfect balance in Daryl's opinion.

These quiet nights were nice, but Daryl worried that they were drawing to an end, and he knew that Rick was worried too. It was starting to warm up a little outside, with the promise that it would be warming up even more. They had already unanimously agreed that the Governor would probably be in touch with them soon, it was just a matter of when and how. Daryl hoped he sent one of his men for what Rick called "negotiations", but they were all more than a little nervous that they would wake up to find another hoard of Walkers knocking at their door before breakfast.

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Daryl was on watch alone. Tyreese had been with him earlier, but Daryl had excused him. Things were quiet and Daryl didn't really want the company. He would have preferred if Michonne had been on duty with him, but she had already told Maggie that she would help her. They were supposed to be finding a place for a garden and working on getting it cleaned up so that it would be ready for them to plant seeds when Hershel said it was time. Daryl had watched them through his binoculars and what it really looked like they were doing was wandering around aimlessly, staring at the ground. He was fairly certain that neither had a clue what they were doing, and he hoped Hershel would help them before they wasted anymore time.

As Daryl surveyed the landscape again, he could see someone walking in the distance. At first he thought it was just another wandering Walker, they had begun to see a lot more of them now and he was guessing they were migrating through or whatever Walkers did, but now it was closer and he could see that it was moving much quicker than any Walker would have.

Daryl put the binoculars down and picked up the long range rifle that they kept in the watch tower. The scope on it was better than the binoculars. He looked through it. Yep, it was a man, and he was carrying a sheet or a towel.

It was one of the Governor's men. Daryl knew that every time one of them came for negotiations, they were always carrying some kind of white cloth. They're sign for "peace" since the only wanted to negotiate. The bastards never came to negotiate. They only came to make demands. The Governor was a coward and didn't have the balls to come himself.

Daryl should go get the others and alert Rick that someone was coming, but he knew what would happen. They would go down to the gate, let the man in, and they would discuss what the Governor wanted and the fact that any refusal to comply would result in another attack of whatever manner the Governor had cooked up this time. Each time they'd done this, the man would leave empty handed and a few days later some kind of attack would happen.

Rick hadn't been too stable lately, and Daryl wasn't comfortable with him. If he tried to hand Michonne over, Daryl would have to fight him. There wasn't any telling what would happen then.

Daryl did the only thing that he could think to do. He raised the gun and waited as the man walked into range.

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When the gunshot rang out, no one really knew what to do. A quick look around didn't reveal any threats, but Maggie and Michonne, unarmed, ran back toward the prison. Rick and Glenn ran out, brushing past them.

Daryl was coming out of the watch tower.

"Tyreese, go up." Rick said, trotting over to Daryl. Tyreese obliged him and went to take Daryl's place.

"What was that?" Rick asked.

"One of the Governor's patsies." Daryl said.

"Alone?" Rick asked.

"There was only one shot, weren't there?" Daryl responded.

"Was he coming to negotiate?" Rick asked.

"No, he was comin' to tell us the Governor's on his way. We should expect him in a few days." Daryl said. "And he'll be short one man." He added, turning away from Rick and walking toward the prison.

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Rick had stomped around the courtyard for a while. Inside the prison no one was talking, least of all Daryl. They were all sitting in the living room looking at each other. They knew what this meant. This meant that something was going to happen…unfortunately there was no way of knowing what was going to happen or exactly when.

When Rick did finally enter the prison he looked around the room, rubbed his face nervously.

"Table meeting now." He said.

Daryl, Hershel, Glenn, and Josh got up to join him. Michonne also got to her feet. Rick turned to her.

"Table meeting…just the men."

"Bullshit." Michonne said. "Whatever you say in there affects all of us. We all should get to have our say." Rick looked like he wanted to hit her, but Michonne didn't flinch.

"I'd like to be part of it…" Maggie said from across the room. "I mean if the Governor's coming, he's coming for all of us."

"They're right, you know." Glenn said.

Rick looked back at Michonne.

"I'm not under any illusions about what you want to do Rick. I just want my say." She said.

Rick finally agreed and everyone went into the kitchen, getting as comfortable as they possibly could.

"We know he's coming back, and we know it's soon." Rick said.

"I prob'ly bought us a little more time. He's gotta realize that guy ain't comin' back." Daryl said.

"We don't know what he's going to do. We don't know what's at stake here." Rick said.

"We know exactly what's at stake." Daryl said. "Everything's at stake. That's why we stand our ground. The assholes got one less man now; we can handle him and his so called army."

"We haven't exactly got the greatest army ourselves." Rick said.

"We took down over a hundred Walkers, Rick. Over a hundred of 'em." Daryl said. "I ain't afraid of seven assholes with guns."

"You don't know that there's only seven. He could have been building his numbers all winter. We don't know many survivors are out there." Rick glared at Michonne and she glared back at him.

"Then we kill however many of them come." Michonne said. "We've got no other choice. The Governor isn't going to leave you alone, Rick, not even if I walked out there and right into his arms. He'd just tie me up and turn right back around and come back for the rest of you."

"That's easy to say, Michonne, when we don't know how many people are coming or what they're bringing with them." Rick said. "It's also easy for you to say...we'll be fighting your battle."

"If it comes down to a fight, I'm fighting too." Michonne said.

"Michonne, in your condition…" Hershel started.

"My condition isn't what's important." Michonne said. "If we don't win, he'll kill me anyway, and I'd rather die fighting than die as a part of one of his twisted games. Whether it's my battle or our battle, I'm fighting."

"Well, if it's your battle it's my battle. I'm sick of this Governor and the fucker's gonna die, one way or the other." Daryl said.

"I agree." Glenn said. "We've got no other choice. First he wants Michonne and then he'll just want someone else. This is our battle."

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"I don't like the idea of you fightin'" Daryl said. Michonne was lying beside him on her back, staring at the ceiling and he was propped on his side, leaning on his elbow. He had repeated the same phrase every few minutes for the past hour at least and Michonne hadn't responded in any way. Now she was getting tired of hearing it.

"I told you, I'm not discussing it." Michonne said. She still didn't look at him.

"What about the baby?" Daryl asked. He was relieved that she was finally talking.

"The baby will be fine." She said. "If I live, the baby will be fine."

Daryl didn't like the last part of her statement. He wished he knew where the Governor was hiding. He'd go tonight, alone if he had to, and find a way to kill him.

Michonne knew that Daryl was worried. Everyone was worried. They had no idea what was going to happen. She had watched everyone; casting glances at everyone else, wondering who might not make it out on the other side of this battle. She too had been on the giving end and the receiving end of those glances. She didn't know if she'd make it out or not, but she prayed that if she didn't it was at least a quick death, and if she did, she prayed that nothing happened to Daryl. She wasn't prepared to be without him. She had made it on her own before, but now she felt like she couldn't make it without him.

"I still don't like the idea of you fightin'." Daryl said. He reached over and started rubbing Michonne's belly.

"Well, I'm not sitting inside while everyone else fights." Michonne said. She couldn't live with herself if she did that. If someone got killed and she hadn't even been out there trying to help, she knew she'd always feel like it had been her fault or that she might have prevented it. "Here…" She said, moving Daryl's hand to a place where she could feel the baby moving. She'd felt it for a little while now, but it had only been in the past few days that Daryl could feel it, and only when it was particularly strong. Daryl held his hand there a minute. "Can you feel it?"

"Yeah, I can feel it." He said. He put his hand on her cheek and turned her face toward him. He kissed her, holding it for longer than usual, and then pulled away. "'Chonne…" He said.

"Yeah?" Michonne gazed back at him.

"I love you." Daryl said. He had never said that to a woman before. He had thought when he did say it, it would be the right word, but he didn't really feel now that it even came close to expressing what he wanted to say.

Michonne rolled over to face him. Until now neither one of them had said it. It had been something that was just understood, and something that they both understood that the other couldn't say.

"I love you too, Daryl." Michonne whispered back. She kissed him this time, and when she broke away she lingered there, her face close to his on the pillow.

"And I still don't like the idea of you fightin'". Daryl said suddenly. Michonne started giggling and Daryl couldn't help but laugh at her.

​ "Grrr…" she growled at him through her laughter, "you always have to ruin it." She said. Daryl kissed her again.

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