Menace or friend? (The Governor, Aubrey, Andrea and Michonne)

The Governor sat across from Andrea and Michonne in the starbucks that he had first taken Merle and Aubrey to. They were actually in the private room of the starbucks, a room only used by The Governor when he was talking to people to see if they would be good additions to Woodbury.

Right now he had to say that he wasn't too thrilled with their attitude. Andrea seemed to be on board with it, if only because she would be able to ogle him some more. Honestly, he was beginning to think she was undressing him with her eyes. Michonne was the opposite end of the spectrum and looked like she was planning on ways to kill him once she got her sword back. But honestly, did she think that he was just going to let her wander around with a ninja sword in a civilian area?

Not likely.

As the coffee was served he smiled a little bit at the two women and noticed that both Andrea and Michonne appreciated the revival of starbucks here at Woodbury. It was amazing what only one little coffee shop could do. He sipped his coffee a little bit,

"So what do you think about our little town here?" he asked them honestly, smiling a little bit, "Ain' it just a wholesome piece of america?"

Andrea nodded in agreement but The Governor was starting to get really tired of the way that her eyes were lingering on his chest. It was hot, he'd undone the top two buttons. Andrea nodded with a little smirk,

"Oh yes it's a beautiful place." she told him, waving her hand as if trying to cool herself down a little bit, "Rather hot too..."

Both The Governor and Michonne noticed that she wasn't talking about the town at the moment and while The Governor was able to hide his anger and disgust, Michonne was not able to,

"It's a town." she remarked curtly, "Just a big number of targets in this world."

The Governor smile a little bit but something cold and unforgiving in his smile made Andrea blink and Michonne reach for a weapon that wasn't there,

"Let's agree to disagree." he said, his tone pleasant, if distant, "I mean you could ask any Woodbury member and they'd tell you what a wonderful town this is."

Aubrey had heard from the Governor that there were some new people in the town and she was happily going to go and look for them, she was very excited to see who they were because Merle had also told her about them and said that she would find it really interesting when she went to go and meet with them. It had her interest well and truly piqued!

So she decided that she was going to go and take some of her newly made pastries to Starbucks where they were currently having their meeting, Phillip had told her that it would be okay to drop in for a little while and she thought that she would do just that. Maybe she could help give those people the same kind of hospitatlity she was given when she was first here at Woodbury.

It seemed strange it had been almost two weeks since she and Merle had come here, just over a week since she and the Governor had officially been seeing each other, although, it wasn't anything really serious just yet, it was nice to have the peace of mind that Rowan wasn't about to jump back into bed with him one night. Although he never would do that, the worry had been there none the less, she didn't trust Rowan all that much.

Knocking on the door to the little room at the back Aubrey wandered in with her little cupcake basket and she smiled brightly at the two people who were sitting with Philip, she thought that she recognised one of them and on further inspection she realised she did! It was Andrea from the Atlanta group!

"Andrea?" she asked, a little bewildered "What are you doing here all by yourself? Where's everyone else?"

When Aubrey realised she was being a little rude she smiled gently at Philip as she came to sit next to him, placing the basket on the table; "Me and Andrea know each other, we were part of the same group, until we got seperated from each other in a run in Atlanta city, I never thought I would see you again!"

Gesturing to the basket she smiled brightly at the other woman too; "Nice to meet you, I brought you guys some cupcakes, I made them this morning."

The Governor had to admit that Aubrey's timing was amazing as right now he wanted nothing more than to tell Andrea to keep her eyes to herself. And to tell Michonne that if she glared at him any harder her eyes might just pop. He chuckled a little bit when he recognised that it was Aubrey. She was the perfect person to tell them how great the town was.

Both The Governor and Michonne blinked in confused when Andrea and Aubrey seemed to know each other, prompting Andrea to stand up from her chair and rush over to give Aubrey a short hug. She grinned happily at Aubrey,

"Aubrey! We all thought you were caught by Walkers back in Atlanta!" she admitted, excited to see her again before she sobered slightly, "They were all at this farm but... There was a Walker Herd and we all got separated..."

The Governor accepted the answer that Aubrey had given him and grinned when she sat down next to him. He was tempted to pull her in to sit of his lap but Andrea might not join the town if he did that right now. Instead he just smiled at her,

"Well well, it surely is a small world!" he declared with a grin, "You, Andrea and Merle all from the same group meeting up here... kind of speaks of destiny if you're inclined to believe in it."

Andrea grimaced at the fact that he'd mentioned Merle but didn't say anything. The Governor would have said something but Michonne took one look at Aubrey and the cupcakes and seemed to think she had found a target to take her agression out on,

"Who makes cupcakes when the world's gone to hell?" she demanded, as if the very idea sickened her. The Governor placed a comforting hand on Aubrey's shoulder and told Michonne, in a polite tone,

"Someone who wants to make other people feel better." He declared, causing Michonne to wince with guilt. He turned to Aubrey, "They were just wondering about the town, why don't you tell them what you think of the place? Warts and all don't worry."

Aubrey hugged Andrea back when she gave her the short little hug, she was really happy that she had got to see her again, she wondered what had happened to the group after she had left and she was sure that they had been killed in the big explosion in the CDC sometimes because they never foudn any trace of them when she and Merle had been looking for them.

"No, me and Merle worked together really well and we got each other out, we went looking for the group, got as far as the CDC on foot but when we got there the whole place was burnt down, even Merle couldn't pick up your tracks." Aubrey elaborated with a small pout on her lips.

She was very very happy to see someone that she knew here at Woodbury and she really did hope that Andrea and this other lady chose to stay here with them, although she didn't know anything about the other woman and she did look quite scary she thought that if you got past the scariness that she might be really worth knowing, and quite sweet.

"It certainly is strange, especially after all that time, I really did wonder what had happened to all of you, Merle will be happy to hear that everyone is okay, or, they were when you last left them." she stated with a bright smile on her lips.

When the scary woman snapped at her and gave her such a strong glare, Aubrey almost dropped all her cupcakes on the floor so that she would stop glaring at her. Lowering her gaze to the table, Aubrey felt really bad, she was only trying to make them feel welcome;

"Well...I just thought you might want one after all you've been through, but, you don't have to have one if you disagree with it..." when the Governor asked her to tell them more about Woodbury she perked up a little "Woodbury is great, there are so many things here I never thought I'd get to experience again, hot water for one, a Starbucks coffee, there's a great supply of food here, the only bad thing I suppose is the curfew, I kind of like being able to go where I want when I want but, its a small price to pay for living somewhere so safe."

The Governor hadn't heard most of the story and to be honest it was rather fascinating. They had gone to the CDC and the building had exploded at some point? Now that was a bit of a shock. Andrea blinked a few times at something Aubrey had said before speaking,

"You mean you found Merle and helped him out of the cuffs? Damn... Daryl was really distressed when we made it to the rooftop later to find her was gone." she told Aubrey with a little frown before nodding in quiet agreement, "Yeah we got to the CDC and the guy let us in but... well it was running out of power and that meant, for some reason, the facility had to explode."

Neither The Governor nor Michonne knew what to say at this point. It seemed that there wasn't much place for them in the current line of conversation. The Governor turned to Michonne, thinking about striking up a conversation. A glare from her made his mind quickly. Andrea chuckled a little bit,

"When I left some of us were fine... Shane was gone when I left and so was Dale." she told her quietly before shaking his head and rolling his eyes happily, "You mean to say that Merle will be happy to know that his brother was alright."

Both The Governor and Andrea glared at Michonne for her overlly harsh words and the black woman seemed to sigh in defeat before mumbling, "Sorry..."

The Governor shook his head a little bit. She was like some kind of petulant child. He chuckled a little bit and nodded, wrapping Aubrey up in a one-armed hug,

"Yeah those are the two main things we get complaints about... the curfew and when Starbucks runs out of cupcakes." he told all three of them in the room with a little smirk before shrugging, "The curfew isn't unreasonable though, it's fine as long as you have a decent reason for going around at night. We had a couple of incidents where teenagers went out at night to just hang out and have fun... the noise attracted biters and it was too dark for people to help. I'm thinking of pulling the rulle back a bit considering we have walls now."

Aubrey grinned and nodded her head she was really proud that she did what she did, when she did, the walkers looked like they were going to burst through the door at any minute they couldn't have hung around and waited for the group to come and get them, if they were going to get them at all. Although Andrea looked like she was frowning at what she did, she was sure that wasn't what she must mean.

"We couldn't have hung around the store was full of walkers, I'm quite proud though, that pipe was hard to bust him off of, I guess I must be a lot stronger than I look." she laughed softly, before taking out a cupcake and eating the little jelly diamonds off the top of it "Wow...it sounds like you guys have had it as rough as me and Merle when we were out on the road, but you're here now! It's much better here."

Hearing that the cute and loveable Dale had died, Aubrey pouted and tilted her heat to the table, she knew that Andrea had been close to Dale, and she wondered where Amy was, surely Amy wouldn't have left without her sister, those two were inseperable.

"I'm sorry to hear that Dale didn't make it, I always did like him, but at least Amy was okay the last time you saw her right?" she stated with a cheerful smile on her lips, trying to cheer her up a little bit.

Giggling a little bit, Aubrey waved off Michonne's apology; "Don't worry about it, I know it seems kind of off when you've spent so much time living off crappy food, but, why not when you have the ability?"

When she heard that the Governor was thinking about reducing the curfew Aubrey tilted her head to one side, she didn't think that he had been before this conversation, he'd not mentioned it to her, but then she supposed she didn't really need to be told about it. If it was just a thought, he would probably want to make sure he knew what he was doing before he voiced it.

"Well if you're thinking of doing that I guess the only thing left to do is for me to go and make more cupcakes to stop those complaints." she grinned.

The Governor was rather amazed at how well Aubrey seemed to be taking this reunion, especially seeing as Merle seemed to have been left on the roof of a biter-infested building by Andrea and some of the other group. He made a mental note that whoever would do such a thing was not to be trusted. That was practically a death sentance after all. Andrea smiled a little bit when Aubrey said she was proud of herself,

"Well you should be proud! That pipe was really thick from what I saw and if you got Merle out that means that he wasn't strong enough to do it from where he was. Means you must have been working out girl!" she joked happily before she nodded a little bit, still rather sore about losing Dale right after fighting with him, "Yeah well I met up with Michonne too. It's been quite fun on the road with her sometimes. Although I must say this place seems perfect..."

The air in the room changed when Aubrey mentioned a woman called Amy, who The Governor had never heard of. Michonne stiffened ever so slightly and Andrea's face fell again. She smiled weakly at Aubrey,

"That's right... you wouldn't know..." she sighed a little bit, "There was a Walker attack on the camp after we went back for you and Merle... Amy and Jim... well they didn't make it."

Michonne smiled ever so faintly, so faintly that The Governor thought that he might have imagined it there for a moment. She reached out tentatively before taking one of the plain cupcakes. She held it up a little, "Is it alright if I have this?"

The Governor could tell that Aubrey was a little bit surprised that he had been contemplating lowering the curfew. He smiled a little bit. She was suspicious to be sure but she trusted him enough not to question why he hadn't been shouting it to the rooftops. He chuckled a little bit,

"Well how about you round up some helpers if the orders get too high? Some of the older kids spend all day smelling you baking now." he teased her slightly before turning to Andrea and Michonne, "Now no one is going to ask you to make a decision right now but I'd like you to think about it..."

He reached into his pocket and took out a couple polaroid pictures of some of the smaller, but still nice, houses that had been recently cleaned up and made suitable for living in again. Andrea looked at the pictures with undisguised happiness and Michonne looked on with something close to... sadness? Guilt? The Governor didn't know. He smiled a little bit,

"We can offer you a house like that to share, we've just cleaned up the neighbourhood." he offered before turning to Aubrey with a small smile, "That's where Merle's new home is going to be. You could have your own one if... you know... you don't want to move in with me."

Aubrey couldn't help but smile triumphantly when she heard that Andrea was proud of her for what she had done, although she wasn't very strong in real life there was something about being in that situation that made her turn into some sort of bionic woman so that she was able to save both herself and Merle from the walker infested building. Ruffling her hair a little shyly she blushed at the praise;

"Well thanks Andrea!" She grinned "I have been working out especially while I was on the road with Merle, being here is kind of cramping my style if I'm honest I've not killed a single walker since I've been here...I might get a little rusty."

When she heard the other woman's name for the first time she grinned and waved to the rather quiet lady who was really quite scary in some situations; "Pleased to meet you Michonne, I'm glad that Andrea had someone to take care if her like I had someone to take care of me, I was getting a little bit curious as to what your name actually was."

Heart sinking when she heard about what happened to Amy, Aubrey clasped her hand to her mouth and shook her head, she and Amy had gotten on really well because they were the same age and things. It really upset her to think that she hadn't survived this thing;

"Oh Andrea I'm so sorry..." She whispered "I shouldn't have asked, it must be very painful for you still please forgive me for mentioning it."

Nodding her head Aubrey smiled at Michonne she could have as many cupcakes as she wanted shed made them for the two of them after all; "Sure have as many as you like!" She answered happily.

When she saw the little photos of the houses, Aubrey smiled and picked up the little cure one with ivy growing up the side she saw it was a three bedrooms one and she showed it to Andrea and Michonne she would love to share a house with them because it looked they they could all get along pretty well together. Maybe Michonne would be a bit difficult at first but she seemed nice despite her stern look.

"Look guys we can share!" She grinned before Aubrey blushed softly and tucked some strand of hair behind her ear "You want me to move in? Already? I...I suppose I could, it would be kinda fun I've never moved in with a guy before."

The Governor had to admit that being able to save a very capable man like Merle spoke very highly of Aubrey's abilities. Not that he had ever doubted that she was a very capable woman mind you. So had spoken to him about how Merle had been working with her on fighting Walkers. Andrea chuckled a little bit, glad that another of the women from the Atlanta group had managed to learn how to take care of herself. She had begun learning on the farm but Michonnne had certainly helped a lot,

"Well tell you what you little toughie." she teased Aubrey with a little grin, "When we want we can both go just outside the wall and see if we can't keep our skills up while protecting the town eh?"

The Governor was less than pleased with the idea of Aubrey being put in danger but she was strong enough to take care of herself. Michonne gave a half smile, "The feeling is mutual Aubrey, Andrea has mentioned you a bit. Though you'll have to forgive me... conversation isn't a strong suit of mine."

Andrea snorted in amusement and Michonne glared at her, but this time lacking most of her usuial anger and venom, just a small amount of amusement that died when the conversation turned to Amy. Andrea waved her hand a little bit,

"It's fine, I've come to terms with it." she told Aubrey with a faint smile, "I'm just glad she doesn't have to be afraid of this new world anymore..."

Michonne nodded in gratitude towards Aubrey before taking a bit out of the cupcake. Her eyes widened a little bit and she quickly polished off the cupcake. Digging into the basket she took two out, savouring one herself while handing Andrea the other. Michonne smiled a little, "These are very nice cupcakes. I don't remember having any this nice before."

The Governor could tell that all of the women in the room, even Michonne, were enjoying the photographs of the houses that Woodbury had to offer. They wanted to make the people feel welcome here after all. Andrea looked at Michonne hopefully and the other woman sighed a little bit before nodding,

"We'll think about it." she said honestly before snorting a little bit in amusement, "We could but Andrea snores like a chainsaw."

As Andrea rushed to berate a silently sniggering Michonne, The Governor blushed a little bit as he tried to talk to Aubrey about her moving in,

"Yeah... I mean... I know it's sudden but..." he smiled a little bit and held her small hand in one of his larger ones, "I think we can make that step together, if you want..."

Aubrey giggled softly and she nodded her head, striking a tough guy pose as she showed off her muscles, she would look forwards to the time where they got to go and kick some zombie ass together, just those girls together, maybe even Michonne would be happy to come with them as well. It would be nice to stick it to the man, although in this case the man was the Doctor.

"I think that would be awesome, we can totally stick it to the man!" She stated with a teasing wink the Governors way "It would be fun I think, and useful as well to stop walkers getting too near to the main camp, just as a reason to let us do it." She winked.

With a soft smile on her lips Aubrey nodded her head; "I understand, don't worry!" She grinned "You've been speaking about me...I hope it's only the best of things about my awesome skills around the camp! You best spill Andrea!" Aubrey teased softly.

Unable to stop herself from beaming when Michonne seemed to like the cupcakes, it took the mood away from the awfully sad mood that had arisen from her talking about Amy, she felt do bad but she didn't want to talk any more about it, she just wanted to move on in the conversation. It wasn't something she thought they needed to dwell upon, it would only make Andrea more upset and Aubrey didn't want that.

"I'm so glad you like them, I'm planning on trying to make some other things too, maybe ill try some sausage rolls later on today...pastry is a challenge I think I can rise to." She beamed, her eyes were sparkling with happiness that her food was liked.

Pouting softly when they said they hadn't decided yet, Aubrey stopped and decided that it was their choice whether to stay or not she was just glad that they were going to be thinking about it, it would be nice to have some female friends about.

Running her hands through her hair Aubrey blushed as she felt Philip clasping her hand in his own. Moving in together it seemed pretty exciting....how could she say no? He looked so vulnerable when normally he was so powerful and confident; "Sure, I would love to move in with you Philip, but until you sweep all your skeletons away you don't want me to see, I'll bunk in this house for now you just let me know when you're ready."

The Governor chuckled a little bit when Aubrey began to act like the poster girl for girl power, especially when Andrea gave a fist pump, enjoying the light-hearted bantering apparently by the looks of it. Even Michonne looked amused. Or she was in pain, The Governor couldn't red her when he face's resting expression seemed to be a frown. Andrea was very thrilled with this idea actually,

"Damn straight! Girl power isn't just some slogan from 90s girlbands!" she declared with a grin before chuckling a little bit and patting Michonne hard on the back, earning a mild glare, "I'm sure even tall, dark and moody will join us!"

Michonne chuckled a little bit when Andrea suddenly looked a little bit sheepish. The sword-weilder shook her head a little bit, "She told me that you were bright and friendly, like Amy, and that you wanted to be a lawyer like her. She told me that you were dead... but she obviously got her facts mixed up there."

The Governor had to smiled when both Michonne and Andrea began to eat the cupcakes with gusto, both of them muttering how good they tasted between mouthfuls. He had to admit that the cupcakes were to die for, especially if you hadn't had anything like them in a long while. Andrea nodded her head urgently,

"Yes!" she blurted out before blushing a little bit as everyone looked at her, "Hey, when I was in college I only survived because I ate sausage rolls almost non stop whenever I could afford them."

Michonne was still thinking about the offer to live in Woodbury but Andrea had tuned her out and was currently trying to shush her. Eventually shushing, Michonne turned to watch what she was watching, which turned out to be the blushing Governor and Aubrey. She raised an eyebrow but watched silently. It was... settling, to know that the man had some human element to him.

The Governor was trying to get rid of this damned blush even as he stared into Aubrey's eyes. It was a losing battle and he knew it but he didn't care too much. When she made her decision his eyes lit up happily and he grinned. He was dimly aware that Andrea had made a girlish little squeak of excitement when he leant in and gently kissed Aubrey on the lips,

"Thank you... I just know that we'll have such happy times together." he told her happily before chuckling a little bit sheepishly, "I'll push all of my skeletons into my closet like everyone else... then you can see them one at a time. I'm not going to keep anything from you Aubrey."