The Good Life - Chapter Two

Around ten o’clock most of them were ready to call it a night. Only Maggie, Glenn, and Carl elected to stay up to watch a movie in a room that was stacked with video games and DVDs and a huge seventy-inch TV. Rick checked on him, saw they were watching Terminator 2, and left them to it, heading up to the master bedroom he now shared with Michonne. She was giving Judith her second dose of medicine.

“This will hold her through the night. Her fever has broken,” she said.

“I’ll watch her,” he said. “You mentioned wanting to take a hot shower.”

“Do I ever,” she said, and had to pry Judith’s hands out of her hair. The little girl wailed, even with her daddy holding her. He made himself busy while Michonne disappeared into the bathroom.

When the water hit Michonne’s skin she moaned out loud. A hot shower was something she’d never expected to enjoy again. The steam smelled of the soap she used to lather up to wash, literally, weeks of grime and gore from her skin and hair.

Out in the bedroom Rick tried to get Judith to drink some water but she fought him on it. It was only her own thirst that finally overcame her desire to cry for Michonne that shut her up long enough to guzzle a full bottle. As soon as she was finished she went right back to crying. He was trying to soothe her when he heard the moan as the water hit Michonne’s skin.

It was a sound he’d never heard her make outside of the fantasies he indulged in with increasing frequency. He tried to ignore the twitch in his dick and he refused to allow himself to go to the bathroom door on some thin pretext of checking on her while really in the hopes of getting a glimpse of her naked.

Twenty minutes later the water shut off and Michonne emerged, wrapped in a towel. Water slicked her skin and she looked mildly embarrassed.

“Sorry. I forgot to take a change of clothes. You want to go in now? The water is nice and hot.”

“Yeah. I would. You can…um…change. I guess there’s some clean clothes in the dresser.”

She nodded and he all but ran for the bathroom, hoping he didn’t get an erection at the sight of her dripping wet and wearing nothing but a powder blue towel. He closed the door behind him and leaned against it, getting his bearings before he was enticed into the shower to test it out for himself.

Michonne had been right. The water was nice and hot and he nearly moaned himself as the spray enveloped him with enough pressure to feel like fifty fingers massaging muscles he hadn’t even realized were bunched up and tense. The showers at the prison had been pump operated and weak. Not to mention cold. This was like heaven, standing in the steamy water, lathering up, rinsing, just feeling the warmth over his body.

Not for the first time he wondered if he was dreaming all of this. Perhaps he was really lying somewhere on the side of a road or in an abandoned barn, dying of hypothermia, and this was his dream.

…

When Rick emerged, having only a towel around his waist because he, too, had forgotten clothes, he saw Michonne standing by the window. Judith had finally fallen asleep on the four-poster Queen-size bed that took up most of the wall opposite the bathroom. Another small twin bed was shoved into the corner.

The clothes she’d found were clearly made for a very tiny woman. The sweat shorts were tight and rode high on Michonne’s powerful thighs. The tee-shirt was positively indecent, hugging her firm breasts. It was easy to see she wasn’t wearing a bra. She’d probably found a few and they were all much too small if these clothes were anything to judge by.

“Something wrong? You see something?” Rick asked, tearing his eyes away from Michonne’s legs.

“Yeah. Look.”

He put his face to the window to block out the light in the room and quickly found himself smiling. “Snow,” he said. “It’s really coming down. The ground’s already covered.”

“Isn’t it beautiful?” she said quietly.

“Very.”

She realized he was standing beside her in only a towel and allowed her eyes to flicker over him.

“I’ll take the small bed.”

“No no. Judy will want to sleep with you instead of the crib. You take the big bed. I insist.”

She nodded. “If you insist. I’ll keep my eyes closed.”

“What?”

“While you change.”

“Oh! Right,” he said, smiling sheepishly. “I’ll find something and…change…”

“Right.”

She turned away, looking as awkward as he felt, and climbed onto the bed with Judith where she began to lotion her long legs. He found some jeans that were his size and tee-shirt and headed over to the small bed to change. He had a hard time concentrating. Especially when Michonne bent over to rub at the back of her thighs.

Jesus, he thought, watching her. He was just glad when she was done and he was fully dressed and could get under the covers.

“We may have to burn our old clothes,” she said, looking back at him. “They’ll never wash clean.”

He laughed at that. “No doubt…Goodnight, Michonne. Thanks for being here for Judy. It means a lot.”

“No problem, Rick. Goodnight. Sweet dreams.”

“You too.”

He flicked the light off and settled onto the small bed and stared out the window. He couldn’t see the snow now. It was too dark. He thought of how happy Carl was going to be when he woke up to the snow cover in the morning. Hell, he’d be happy too.

…

Just as Rick expected he awoke the next morning to Carl shaking him enthusiastically.

“Dad, you gotta see it!”

“Snow?”

“Yeah, but look.”

He hadn’t seen Carl this excited about something since before the turn. He threw the warm blankets off and climbed out of bed, noticing Michonne was already up and feeding Judith, who looked much better. She smiled at him before looking back down at the baby.

Once at the window Rick whistled. It was, literally, a winter wonderland outside, with snow still falling lazily in fat, fluffy flakes. The iron sky looked like it may offer a break in the clouds by noon.

“Over two feet, Dad,” Carl said. “I wanna see if there’s a sled somewhere.”

“After you’ve made your bed, gotten dressed, and had breakfast,” said Rick.

Carl rolled his eyes.

“No, Carl. Not without me. We don’t know this area. We don’t really know the layout yet. We’re all going on a tour of the property together today to get to know it. Then we’ll have time for some fun and games.”

“Okay,” he relented, and then headed over to kiss Judith.

To Michonne’s surprise, he pecked her on the cheek too before rushing off to get his room cleaned up. He’d made a mess with soda cans and candy cane wrappers the night before, and he still had to make his bed.

After Rick relieved his bladder he opened the bathroom door to see Michonne needed the space. After she was done they ended up brushing their teeth in silence. She was still wearing that too-tight tee-shirt and a slight chill in the air had her nipples perked right up, tight under the thin material. He ignored it and then they rummaged for something to wear.

“I’m going to bag up our dirty clothes. Tara’s doing laundry today. She may have to wash these a couple of times to get them really clean,” she told Rick. “At least I know they fit.”

“You look…”

He’d almost told her she looked damn good to him in the tight clothes but he caught himself.

“…all right.”

Michonne fully grinned at that and shook her head before putting the toothbrush back and going to change Judith and get her ready for the day.

“How is she?”

“Fever’s gone. She’s not rattling as bad, or as cranky. Rick, I’m gonna stay in with Judith and tour the area later. She may fall asleep but I don’t want her to wake up alone.”

“Okay. That’s fine,” he said, and they headed down for breakfast.

…

Once they were finished eating breakfast they bundled up and started for the door. Rick nearly didn’t manage to catch himself, having almost kissed Michonne after kissing Judith on the forehead. It was a habit. Kiss the baby, kiss the woman. He thought he saw understanding and amusement in her eyes when he suddenly jerked back and nodded to her.

The property was bigger than they’d expected. They all huddled in their heavy winter coats and trudged through two feet of snow to examine vast fields. There was a lookout tower that was too icy to climb. In the misty distance they saw that the property was lined with them. A wall had been built to cross over the creek. Rick and the others wore themselves out, slipping and sliding, to reach the wall. Rick looked back, feeling anxious about leaving Michonne and Judith alone in the house.

“They’re okay, Dad,” Carl said, wiping at his red, running nose. “This place is secure.”

“No place is fully secure, son,” Rick reminded Carl, who nodded.

“These hills provide a natural barrier,” Abraham said. “This wall seals off the property fairly good. Made of heavy stone and I see rebar in the reinforcements. A tank would have a hard time downing this bastard.”

Rosita said, “That’s good. Still, something happened here to wipe Nick’s people out.”

“He told us. One of them opted out and came back,” Daryl said. “He attacked people who turned and attacked. Just like what happened to us at the prison.”

“I don’t trust easily. We stick together, at least in pairs, until we’re familiar with how to keep this place up,” said Rick.

“How long we staying?” asked Glenn.

“Until the snow thaws, at least.”

Maggie and Glenn, Rosita and Abraham all shared a glance.

“What?” questioned Rick.

“This place is a goldmine,” Abraham said. “Why leave it?”

“You want to stay permanently?”

“Eugene admitted he didn’t think there was anything even in Washington,” said Sasha. She remembered some of his last words, just before he died, not long after her beloved brother.

Rick saw Daryl take a step closer to Sasha. He looped one finger around one of hers and he felt a jolt of surprise and wondered, When did that start?

Next