The church walls were bathed in the soft yellow glow of candlelight, and the sounds of conversation and laughter echoed throughout. After dinner, the group had agreed to Abraham's proposal to head to Washington, DC to pursue a cure and safe haven. The mood was light and optimistic which was a welcome change from the past few weeks.

After handing Judith off to Tyreese and Sasha, Rick grabbed one of the opened half full bottles of communion wine Father Gabriel had given them access to and made his way back to the front where he had been sitting next to Michonne.

He sat down on the floor, and tilted the bottle towards her offering first dibs on the wine.

"Just a little bit. I'm taking watch next," she answered. He poured a small amount in her glass before she held up a hand to stop him, then he filled his. They clinked glasses and started to drink.

He watched her out of the corner of his eye with a bemused expression as she swirled the wine in the glass and held it up to her nose for a sniff before taking a sip and closing her eyes. After a few seconds she opened them to find a laughing Rick who asked, "What are you doing?"

Refusing to allow him to get the best of her, she looked him in the eye and unapologetically replied, "I'm savoring my wine, thank you very much."

He mouthed an exaggerated 'oh' and followed up with, "Good?"

"The hell if I know. Everything smells and tastes like stagnate water and walkers after this morning," she said referring to their trip to the food bank.

They both laughed and grimaced at the recent memory. After the laughter came to an end, they sat quietly sipping their wine for a minute before he said, "Bet you lived in the city, didn't you?"

"What makes you say that?" she asked.

"Besides the fancy way you drink your wine? You like soy milk and art-"

"Wait, how do you even know that?" she interrupted.

"Carl," he said grinning. "He tells me all sorts of things about you. He thinks you're the coolest and I always feel like he's tryin' to rub it in his old man's face."

Michonne let out a huff and shook her head smiling at the thought of Carl sharing parts of their relationship with his father. She also felt a little nervousness creep in given Carl knows much more about her past than trivial facts like those. She told him that the disclosure about her son wasn't a secret, but he had promised to hold it in confidence anyway. She started to wonder if maybe he had told Rick, but pushed the thought to the back of her mind so as not to ruin a rare nice night.

"So that's it? Wine, soy milk, and art? Shaky case. There's a lot of evidence to the contrary," she retorted as she took another sip of wine.

"Nah, I've thought so for a while. Just something about how you carry yourself. And when you get to talkin sometimes something in your voice just gives it away. All that other stuff just seals the deal." He looked at her with a cocky grin that made her either want to smack him or grab him right there and kiss him. "Well, am I right?"

She sighed. "Born and raised in Atlanta. Lived in a high rise building in Midtown before everything happened. So yeah, you got me," she conceded. ""Although I'm far from 'fancy' anymore."

He smiled and nodded his head, nowhere near the gloating she expected from being right. "What did you do?" he asked simply.

"I was a lawyer."

"That makes a hell of a lot of sense..." he trailed off. She wanted to press further to see what he meant, but left it at that.

"I was thinking on the walk back from the food bank today that I hardly knew anything about you. We've been traveling together for weeks and I'm just now gettin around to it," he said shaking his head as if lightly scolding himself.

"I've never taken offense. You do have more important things to worry about than my favorite color," she offered with a quick smile.

"Purple?"

"Seriously? Because I'm a girl?" she asked in a mock offended tone.

He glanced down at her chest and pointed his finger, "Your shirt's purple. Jeez."

She looked down and realized he was right, but she wasn't willing to let him win again, so she decided not to confirm and move on to another topic, "So what about Rick Grimes? Tell me something about yourself."

"What's there to tell? Everybody already knows every last damn detail of my life whether I want them to or not. It's all out there," he said with resignation in his voice that was a change in tone from their light conversation.

She couldn't counter that. She wasn't around for the demise of his marriage, but what happened between Shane and Lori was common knowledge. She also witnessed his breakdown after Lori's death along with the entire group. She had always been empathetic to Rick because his heartbreak struck so close to home for her. On one hand she felt lucky that she went through her darkest times without an audience because she had no one to remind her of it now except herself and each day it became easier to push to the back of her mind. On the other hand, she also didn't have anyone to help bring her out of it until she met Andrea and then Rick's group. It scared her now to think of what could have been and what she'd have missed if she hadn't come around. She had previously shared with him that she would talk to her dead boyfriend as a way of comforting him and letting him know that he was not alone in his grief and that he would come back from it in time. In this moment, she felt the urge to comfort him again. A sympathetic nod or "I'm sorry" wouldn't be enough, she wanted to show him that everything could be OK, not just reassure him with those words that now seemed empty. She felt compelled to share the entire story with him as a way of letting him know that he wasn't alone and didn't need to continue to punishing and shaming himself for the past.

She gave him a slight frown to acknowledge what he had just said and buy herself time as she tried to gather the courage to tell him her story. She lost her nerve and decided to try to continue the light mood for as long as possible since she couldn't guarantee that they would have the luxury to do so tomorrow or the next day. "Oh, I don't know about that. I have so many burning questions, things that I've just been dying to know," she said in an exaggerated tone.

"Is that right?' he said wincing as he braced himself not knowing where on earth she was going with this.

She was quickly trying to come up with something that could make him laugh and take him off guard when she felt someone approaching them. She looked up to find Daryl who had just come in from outside. "You ready, Michonne? It's been quiet out there, hopefully you won't have any problems tonight."

She nodded and started to stand up. Daryl patted her arm, and added, "Holler if you need anything," as he walked way.

"I will. Thanks," she said in reply.

She grabbed her sword and shook out her legs which felt a bit numb and heavy after sitting for so long. Before leaving, she turned back to Rick. "Gotta go, but this doesn't mean you're off the hook. To be continued?"

"Yep," he nodded in confirmation. He watched her walk towards the front of the church with a grin on his face.