GIVEN TO FLY [Daryl Dixon]

XXV.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
[ before we die ]

THE FIRST THING SHE HEARS IN THE MORNING IS CHILDREN'S LAUGHTER. There are so many of them now, all safe and sound, all happy. So many people have come over the past months, taking refuge within the prison walls and becoming part of their group's big family. It has been a strangely comfortable and prosperous few months post-Governor.

Daryl, at her urging, has stayed closer to home more often, giving up his relentless search for the Governor. I'm more concerned with you getting hurt out there than making sure he's dead, she'd told him, after letting it go on far too long. I won't let him live, not after what he did to you, had been his response. All she had told him then was, simply, I'm okay. But if you go out there you might not be, and I couldn't handle that. This, paired with a stern talk from Rick at her request, seemed to keep him behind the walls more often from then on.

Michonne, however, did not heed her many pleas to stay. Even now, her friend is out there somewhere, doing god knows what and in god knows what state. Her past few nights have been plagued with unrest and worry because of it.

But Michonne is due back this afternoon, and she can hear children playing downstairs. Today is a good day.

She swings her legs over the side of her bed and pulls on her clothes for the day. As she laces up her boots, she takes a look around her cell, cluttered over the months with various knickknacks and gifts, almost all brought back by Daryl from one of his runs. And he brings her something every time. Her favourite flower (though she is still unsure how he'd learned this), a book she'd mentioned once, a portable CD player that he'd managed to find along with a few of her favourite CDs and batteries to get it to work, and various other miscellaneous gifts he'd given her that he'd known she would love.

It all brings a smile to her face, especially because she knows that his cell — yes, after months of prodding, she had convinced him to move into the cell on her other side — looks the same, cluttered with things she'd brought him.

As she vacates her cell for the day she checks on Addie, peeling back the blanket hung in front of the bars for privacy and peering inside. Her daughter is still asleep in her bed, both eyes shut in a peaceful slumber. This too makes her smile, the sight of her daughter getting to be a kid for once, getting to sleep in late without having one eye open at all times. It is with this smile that she jogs down the cell block steps and outside into the courtyard.

It's full, as always, with people new and old socialising as they eat their breakfast, prepared, as every morning that they have fresh meat, by Carol. Each one shouts a greeting at her, and she replies with a nod or smile or wave. She makes her way across the courtyard, hoping to get something to eat before starting the day.

Before she can, though, her name is called and she turns to find Rick walking toward her. "Morning," she greets with a friendly smile. Already, he is covered in dirt and sweat from an early morning tending their substantial number of crops.