Tomorrow Will Come

Fourteen

"I'm proud of you." Mary said suddenly to Michonne, smiling at her.
"I'm supposed to say that to you. Why?" Michonne half laughed.
"'Cos you didn't have to do this for them. You didn't, at all. I'm proud that you're takin' this risk."
"Yeah, well," Michonne scoffed, "you'd have never shut up about it if I didn't. Damn stubborn girl."
"Get it from dad." Mary shrugged with a laugh, and her mother chuckled back.
"Yeah, being headstrong runs in the Grimes family. Not too sure why Jay is such a sweetheart, because when you was that age, you were still stubborn and fierce."
"He's been raised a little differently." Mary pointed out, and Michonne nodded thoughtfully, the pair going silent for a few minutes.
"Carl wouldn't have spoken to me for a month if I'd sent them back out there. I was thinkin' about him. About how you're so alike."
"Best compliment." Mary said gently, and Siddiq smiled over at her.
"Hey, how much further have the patrols cleared?" Michonne called to DJ.
"Till the route D river bend. Their rig's about five miles past that. If their story checks out."
"You'd feel better if you just say it." Michonne said suddenly to Siddiq, and he looked at her with his face screwed up.
"What makes you think I wanna say something?"
"I'm not hearing you deny it."
"I was gonna tell you that I'm glad you changed your mind about them."
"But you think I should've let them stay in Alexandria." Michonne finished, and Siddiq laughed softly.
"Well, you're going pretty far out of your way not to. Considering."
"Considering what?"
"Considering that you like these guys."
"Really, that's really what you think?" Michonne scoffed.
"Uh-huh. I mean, I'm not hearing you deny it."
"'Cos she does like them." Mary commented with a smile, and her mother sighed.
"Doesn't mean I trust them."
"You should." Mary retorted, and Michonne sighed, but her reply was cut off by Magna hissing to Luke petulantly.
"I want my damn knives!" She whined, and Mary laughed, Magna reminding her even more of herself.
"Look, I'm sorry about Magna, she can be a bit hotheaded." Yumiko apologised to the four Alexandrians, as Magna shrunk back to the cart, almost embarrassed.
"That's one word for it."
"She's been on edge since we lost Bernie."
"Was he with you long?" Siddiq asked, interested in their story.
"Long enough. He loved getting under Magna's skin. He, um, used to wear this absolutely horrid shirt, it, like, looked into creation itself, but god was in paisley! But Magna hated it. She said just looking at it gave her a migraine. So Bernie wore it every day for a week. Honestly, I think she came around on the shirt, like she came around on him."
"Like family." Michonne nodded, and Yumiko smiled back at her.
"This place, Hilltop, it's safe?"
"It is."
"What's it like?"
"It's been a while since I've been there."
"Then how do you know it's safe?"
"It is," Mary promised, "I go once a month. It's safe. They're good people. Our family too."
"I promised Judith that I would get you there, and I will. You're just gonna have to trust me." Michonne added, as Magna glared at her; trust evidently wasn't in her vocabulary.
"The leader? What's he like?" Luke questioned.
"One of the best men I know." Mary answered simply, and Luke nodded back at her, approving of her answer.

When they arrived at the groups of camp, Mary's heart sank for them; it was absolutely demolished beyond repair. She looked to her mother, and in that second they both thought of how the prison, their old home, looked as they fled. Abandoned, destroyed.
"Oh no! No, no, no. Sickos tore the damn place up! Look at this place!" Luke sighed, as they got out of the cart.
"I didn't think it would be this bad. Is this all that's left?"
"The herd you ran from did all this?" Michonne asked in disbelief, realising if Judith has taken on a herd of that force, she'd wildly underestimated the child.
"No," Magna denied, "a bigger one must have come through here."
Mary helped them gather belongings as they killed any Walkers that were left.
"I'm real sorry." Mary said sincerely, and Yumiko nodded.
"Thanks."
"This is the first instrument I ever played as a kid," Siddiq laughed pleasurably, grabbing a recorder, "my aunt got it for me for my birthday, and I had it a whole week before my mom decided for "her own sanity" that I liked painting better. Well..."
"Oh, maybe got my sanity, you don't." Michonne teased, plucking the recorder from his hands.
"Yeah, she won't even let RJ learn the ukulele. She likes the music. Doesn't like the learning part." Mary retorted, and Michonne laughed softly.
"Well, it's enough of a mad house already."
"It has to be here, it just has to be here!" Luke hissed insistently, making Mary and Siddiq walk over.
"What's going on?"
Connie signed intently to Luke, and the man scoffed to her. "No, I'm not telling them that. Yes, I have a love of the musical arts, but Connie here does not appreciate my- no it is not a fetish! Not a fetish. It's not a fetish! Can you please just help me find it? Thank you!"
"What's a fetish?" Mary asked Siddiq with a screwed up nose, as Connie teasingly taught them the sign for the new word, the two adults laughing.
"Hey!" Mary insisted, and Siddiq laughed even harder.
"Kid, it's about sex. I can't explain that I'm detail." Siddiq explained with a laugh, and Mary's face screwed up in disgust.
"DJ, collect all their weapons." Michonne ordered, and Magna scoffed again.
"Hell no! We're taking what's ours!" Magna hissed, and Michonne's fierce anger bubbled up yet again.
"No! I'm not letting my men, my kid, take five armed strangers into Hilltop!"
"Your men? How about you?" Yumiko asked suddenly, picking apart Michonne's words.
"I came to see if your story checks out. It does. Siddiq, DJ, and Mary will take you the rest of the way."
"Mom! The hell!" Mary snapped, and Michonne simply sighed.
"So, not only have you not been to this place in who knows how long, you aren't coming with us, and we can't have our weapons."
"I've been. I was there the other week." Mary retorted.
"You want your weapons? Take them! Then you're on your own out here."
"Michonne."
"You want an escort to Hilltop, a chance at something better, then stay with us." Michonne said firmly, and silence loomed in the air, then the small group began to discuss their choices.
"I vote for the second one." Luke decided, and Magna sighed.
"So we're just supposed to trust her, if she doesn't even trust us?"
"I mean guys, we, we made it this long. I-I say we take our chances out there." Kelly suggested, and Luke sighed, his face full of determination.
"No. Second one. You with me?"
"Stop it. Luke's right. They wouldn't put us back together just to pull us apart again. They wouldn't. Magna, cut the bull too. You said for yourself that you trust the kid. You said we'd be there by morning?"
"That's right." Michonne nodded, and Yumiko sighed, turning back to her group. Mary smiled, immediately pinning the woman as a peacemaker. Her favourite thing to do was guess what people did pre-Turn, and she decided Yumiko was in some form of law enforcement; a sheriff, a lawyer, a judge, a politician.
"Look, I know you don't like her rules, I don't either. But we made it out here a long time on less than this. So for a real chance for a safe place to live, can make it a few more hours. Okay?"
"Sun'll be down soon. We should find shelter." Michonne announced, looking to the group for approval, and Magna nodded.
"'T's a plan."
"We can use the warehouse. Daddy made it into a half way house, between here and Hilltop." Mary suggested, and Michonne nodded.
"You know," Mary began teasingly as they rode out to the warehouse, "when I come, I can make it in a day."
"Girl, shut your trap," Michonne scoffed lovingly, "you know it takes a day on that speedy horse of yours. With a cart, and horses as slow as these others? And you take all the off road short cuts, and set off at dawn."
"'Cos I'm the best."
"You're right about that one. Hey, here's something I found the other day." Michonne smiled softly, leaning over from the saddle and passing Mary a minuscule plastic bag.
"What is it? A leaf?"
"It's a four leaf clover. They're lucky." Michonne smiled gently to Mary, and the girl grinned, then put it in her chest pocket.
"I'll keep it forever." Mary grinned, and Michonne just smiled, her face full of pride.