D closes her eyes and breathes deeply, trying to ignore the churning in her stomach and the tightening in her chest. "Shit."

"D?" Michonne peers at the young woman, eyebrows furrowed and her hand halfway to D's shoulder. After a brief pause, she lowers it back down.

A flush creeps across D's cheeks, and she clears her throat. "Sorry." She looks away from the woman who saved her and her chest tightens again, this time for a whole different reason. She avoids Michonne's eyes. "Which way?"

The dark-skinned woman stares for a moment, but jerks her head in the direction she was heading originally before all of this happened. "The road's back this way."

D nods and clenches the black bag, hefting it onto her shoulder. She follows Michonne, but as she does, her eyes flick between the woman, her companions and the surrounding area. To be fair, she mainly stares at Michonne's dreadlocks and katana and glances to the leashed dead, sparing her environment brief looks. D's hand twitches with an urge to touch the other woman's hair, but she only tightens her grasp on the bag. She purposely looks away, while she bites down on a smile and does her best to ignore her red cheeks. Who would have thought, despite it all, D would be creeping through the forest with a legend like Michonne.

The sun is on its way down by the time the two women make it to the Highway. D stares at the abandoned cars, surveying the broken cement dividers and the grass and flowers where nature is returning. She brings a shaky hand to her forehead, her shoulders curls in and her voice catches. "Finally." She takes a deep breath and blinks back the tears as she uses a tree to keep her upright.

Michonne stops and glances at D, before shifting to look the other way. Her knuckles turn white with the grip on the leash and she focuses on her dead. She clears her throat, "Do you need a moment?" Before the end of the world, when she was a wife and mother, she would have comforted the girl without problem. Now however, with the new world, affection seems like a distant memory.

D sniffs and laughs to herself. "I'm sorry. I…" She takes another deep breath. "It's just been awhile since I thought I'd actually make it here."

Michonne merely nods.

"I, uh, I'm not sure where to go. I don't know if we should go…"

Michonne points to a fairly large gap between the side of the road and some vehicles. "It does look as though something has gone between them."

D tilts her head, and frowns as she watches Michonne walk closer to the vehicles.

"See," Michonne points to a white paint scrape on one of the abandoned cars. "Something large moved passed this, shoving it out of the way."

"Like a camper van?"

"Could be."

D nods and shifts the black bag to the other hand. "Okay, so we follow."

"We may be walking for a while."

"They would have stopped. Lauren and Daryl wouldn't have let the others go too far."

"But there is only two of them, against how many?"

D pauses and narrows her eyes, lips pursing as she pictures her people. "Rick…"

"He probably has a whole group to think about."

D glares at the woman. "He wouldn't go against her…"

"Or she wouldn't go against him."

Michonne looks away, steeling herself before turning back with a hardened gaze. "You can't be sure if they stayed. You need to be thinking about…"

"You don't know my sister." D glowers, for the first time thinking maybe she shouldn't have been so quick to trust this familiar, yet unknown stranger.

"Even if he threatened to leave, she would stay."

"You don't know that."

"I do." D hisses as she storms off, heading the way the camper van seemed to go. "you don't know her!"

"We should have left days ago." Daryl grunts, checking over his crossbow one last time.

"We might be out there for days, and we won't have time to hunt or cook your kills." The red head throws a dark look his way. "And if she's hurt, we need to have a basic medical kit, at least." She roughly shoulders her pack. "And no one is moving far without water. Sometimes you need a little preparation Dixon."

The Hunter scoffs. "And what do you have planned for when they find us gone?"

Lauren rolls her eyes, "I left a message for Rick and Carol. If they all want to go before we get back, I told them we'd meet them at Blue Ridge Lake, off Augusta Lane."

"And how we gonna find that?"

"It's called a map." She pulls out a map of the USA out from her packs side pocket. "Any other questions?"

He grunts and glares, before turning into the forest. They make good ground and with the use of both Daryl's tracking abilities and a localised map and compass the two are soon back on the track to Hershal's Farm.

They've only gone 50 feet when they hear a commotion behind them. Lauren grips her crowbar, heart racing, and turns towards the noise. Daryl aims his crossbow motioning her to fall behind him.

A lone dead stumbles from the bush but as Daryl lets a bolt fly, the tip of a machete pokes through one of its eyes.

Rick emerges and uses his foot to shove it off the weapon.

Lauren's mouth draws into a straight line, "Rick?"

"Were you going to tell me at all? Or slip off like criminals?"

Lauren clenches her fist and her eyes narrow. "I left a note."

"You left a note? What kind of bullshit is that?"

"We're wasting time." Daryl snarls.

"Go back Rick, we'll meet up with you and the others once we've found D." Lauren turns to follow.

Rick grabs her arm and pulls her back. "No, we're leaving now."

"Rick." Lauren yanks her arm back and dodges his second attempt. "I understand you and the others want to move on. I support you in your decision, hence meeting you in Blue Ridge, but I will not, under any circumstances, leave without D."

"She's gone!"

"D's a survivor Rick." Daryl grunts, glaring at the Sheriff.

"But it's been days, weeks. And there's no sign of her."

A derisive snort comes from the red head. "Look around you Rick, it's practically the middle of nowhere, without phones, radios or walkie-talkies. How the hell do we say she's gone after days. You never gave up on Sophie or me, so why now."

"Lori." Daryl snorts. "She's in his ear."

Lauren flinches, the thought of the EX being near enough to Rick to change him. "If you want to leave so bad, then go. Pack up and leave. I will not abandoned my sister when she needs us the most." She takes a step back when he reaches for her. "I survived with Soph and a broken ankle."

"We can't stay here. There's more of these things turning up every day."

"Then go!"

"Not without you." He pauses for a moment. "What about Carl?"

There's a moments pause, when even nature itself seems to hold its breath, and no one sees the open palm that rushes to meet Rick's cheek. The echo fades, Rick turns back to the red head and gingerly touches his face. Lauren's eyes are cold, hard and flinty.

"How dare you." She points her free hand at Rick. "You do not get to throw him at me when I make a decision you don't like."

"Lozzie!" A familiar, distressed voice cries out.

Lauren's eyes widen, she spins on her spot to see D appear from the shadows. The two girls throw themselves at each other and collide, gasping and sobbing into each others shoulders. They hold on to one another hard enough that breathing becomes difficult. D's companion falls back, at least enough for her leashed pets to stay hidden, and watches as the two girls reunite. Thankfully the others are aware of their surroundings, as two walkers stumble into the open. Daryl shoots one in the head and Michonne stabs the other between the eyes.

"We need to get back to the others." Rick puts a hand on the redhead's shoulder, but she glares and shrugs him off.

Michonne steps a bit more into the fading light and the groaning of her two followers catches everyone's attention. Lauren eyes them warily, but backs up and takes D with her, who is looking between Daryl and Michonne. Rick and Daryl share a frown, and while Daryl glares at the new woman, his crossbow aimed at her dead, Rick eyes the way she shifts on her feet as he stands in front of Lauren and D.

"They're not dangerous." Michonne frowns, her grip on the leash tightening.

"They're fuckin' walkers!" Daryl snarls.

"They don't have a jaw, or arms." Michonne glares at him.

"Why the fuck, you have them anyway?"

Michonne contemplates not answering, but a look to D and she reluctantly explains, enough.

It's a long, tense trek back to the RV Camp. With Lauren and Rick on the outs with each other, Daryl switching between suspicion for Michonne and joy for D - as much joy as someone like Daryl can show - and Michonne not trusting anybody, save D, the young had-been-missing woman is eager to finally make it back.

"Are they alright?" D asks as she watches Rick walk after Lauren.

Daryl snorts. "They're fine."

"They don't seem it."

"Rick's got a lot of pressure, the others want to go…" He pauses briefly, "They haven't given up on you…"

D frowns. "Well, they sure seem to be eager to leave."

"More dead are starting to show up. Most are concerned, Rick gets the brunt of it. Red's done her best to support him and talk with the others, but they don't want to wait so long in the open." He eyes Michonne warily but continues. "Me and Red decided we'd start looking for you. She wanted ta make a plan, so it took awhile."

D smiles and shakes her head. "Sounds like her."

When they arrive, Carl and Sophia race towards D, talking over one another as they embrace her. While Sophia openly cries, Carl does his best to suppress his tears. The two lightly battle each other for her attention.

Glenn sniffs, eyes red but a large smile takes up space and he's pulling D away from the kids smothering her in a hug. "I prayed every day for you to return to us."

"You're not religious." D laughs through her own tears.

"I nearly became," he squeezes a little harder, but steps back, "but I never lost faith in you, nor our stubborn red head."

D turns her head to see Lauren smiling widely at her with sparkling eyes. "I owe her."

"You got back on your own." Maggie adds, pulling D into a hug. "Well, somewhat." All three turn their eyes on to Michonne, who stands awkwardly near Rick and Lauren. "I think we owe the stranger a thanks." Maggie drags Glenn off to the dark-skinned woman.