The Good Life - Chapter Seven

“How’s Judy?”

 

Rick was careful to keep under the covers so Carl didn’t see the state he was in.

“She’s fine,” he said, hoping he didn’t sound as tense as he felt. “We overslept so we’ll be a little late for breakfast.”

His son nodded. If he had any idea what he’d broken up he gave no hint of it now. “I’ll save a couple of plates. Daryl’s a bacon hog. So is Tara.”

“Thanks, son.”

As soon as Carl left Rick hurried over to the bathroom door and knocked. Michonne opened it and pulled him into the room, which was steaming from the shower. She pulled him into a kiss and wrapped one of her long legs around him. His hips instinctively thrust forward and he gripped her ass, something he’d been waiting far too long to do.

Michonne ground her pelvis against Rick's erection, eliciting a deep moan from him. He pushed her against the door and pressed into her, putting pressure on just the right spot. Her head fell back and he took the opportunity to slip his tongue across her skin and was rewarded with a sigh.

“We need to finish what we started,” she growled.

He agreed, wholeheartedly, and backed her toward the sink. The mirror had fogged over, offering him a hazy reflection of himself. He turned Michonne around to face the mirror over the sink while pushing her shorts and undies down. Once again he sought her out with his fingers, running them over her sensitive flesh until she was dripping wet, panting, begging for more with the way she rubbed against him. They locked eyes in the mirror as he pushed deep inside of her, finding that her body was even more warm and giving inside, and as well matched, as he imagined she'd be.

...

Two plates waited in the oven when Rick and Michonne came down for breakfast.

Tara looked pale and tired while she shipped her coffee.

“I hate hangovers,” she complained.

“The price of a good party,” Michonne said. “You say anything to Carl yet?”

She shook her head and closed her eyes. “He’s waiting for you. Said he wants to feed the horses and the chickens. Abe, Daryl, and Sasha are defrosting the guard tower ladders and clearing paths around the property. I don’t know where Maggie is, or Glenn.”

Michonne took Carl out to the barn where the animals were waiting for breakfast. A narrow path had been cleared and salted so travel was easy.

“I told Dad you love him. Or at least like him. I wasn't wrong was I?”

Carl had this hopeful expression on his face. She’d dated a man once who’d divorced his wife and his daughter had loathed her. She was relieved Carl seemed open to these idea of her and his father in a relationship but she wasn’t sure where they were going.

“I do care for him,” she said.

His face fell. He'd obviously been hoping for better than she cared for his father. “Oh.”

They worked in silence for awhile before Michonne said, “I really care for him but it’s complicated. It’s new, to me, opening up to your father after what happened with Mike. I want to try. I think Rick does too. I just don’t want to promise anything this soon. We need time.”

Carl nodded. “It’s just cool when you do stuff like look after Judith and Dad and... Stuff...”

He was so young. Almost fourteen. He was still tender enough to want a mother. He was trying so hard not to put pressure on her, or to scare her away, while also asking for what he needed. He liked having her take care of him and he wanted to tell her. He just didn't know how.

“No matter what does or doesn’t happen between me and your father, I will always be there for you and Judith. Till my last breath, which will be a long time from now. You’ll be an old man before you get rid of me.”

He seemed to take comfort in that, and they went back to work, with him telling her about the game he was playing.

…

The sun was up when Carl and Michonne returned to the house but clouds were moving in. There was a kick to the wind that Daryl said smelled like snow.

“You can smell snow?” Glenn said skeptically. “Literally smell it?”

“Picked it up from my grandfather,” he said, nodding while Glenn snorted in disbelief.

“Don’t laugh,” Abraham jumped in. “I had a cousin who could sense how much snow or rain was in the air and he was never wrong. It’s a real gift.”

“How many inches?” asked Glenn.

“I'm calling between two and three feet.”

Glenn snorted again and shook his head.

“A blizzard,” Daryl clarified. He looked at Michonne, motioned her over. “I got a tree in the shed. Rick and I are gonna go into town to look for stuff for gifts and some wrapping paper. Want anything special?”

“I’ll find something around the house. I’d rather you didn’t leave. I have a bad feeling about it. We have everything we need here. Gifts aren’t necessary.”

“That’s what I thought,” he agreed. “I’ll talk to him.”

“Hey. I’m happy for you and Sasha. You make a good match.”

His smile was shy when he said, “Yeah, we do.”

“You seen Maggie?”

“She’s in her room. Hung over.”

“I’m gonna take her some seltzer tablets.”

That was one reason Michonne wanted to see Maggie. She needed someone to talk to and she knew Maggie best of the women in the family. She grabbed some Alka-Seltzer and a cup of water and went to Maggie’s room. She found her lying in bed and she moaned when Michonne entered.

“Drink this,” she said, plopping the tablets into the water. “You remember the old jingle? Plop plop, fizz fizz, oh what a relief it is? They really do help.”

“They taste awful,” she groaned, but drank it down quickly, getting it over with. She could feel the stuff start bubbling in her stomach, and she knew the aspirin in it would help ease her throbbing headache.

“You okay?” she asked, picking up that Michonne had something on her mind.

“Rick and I had sex this morning.”

Maggie’s face broke into a smile. “Oh, my God. It’s about damn time. How was it?”

Michonne took a deep breath. “Awesome.”

Maggie found herself giggling. “You know I’m gonna have to have the dirty details.”

Michonne threw her head back and sighed. “Well, not too many details. Judith wet the bed and so I climbed into the small bed with him.”

“Well of course!” Maggie said, nodding with a look of the purest innocence on her face. “Who wants to sleep in a wet spot. Oh, wait…you ended up sleeping in one  anyway, didn’t you?”

“You’re disgusting!” Michonne said, laughing outright for the first time in a long time. “No. He and I started fooling around but Carl came to tell us breakfast was ready and so I ran to the bathroom. After Carl left Rick came in and…”

“You did it in the bathroom! Tell me he bent you over the sink and you two stared one another in the eye through the mirror while you did it. That is so hot.”

“Actually, that’s exactly what happened.”

“Bathroom sex is awesome. Glenn and I don’t do it nearly enough. But you’re not just here to dish about the dirty, are you?”

Michonne shook her head. “I don’t know where we’ll go from here.”

“Where do you want it to go?”

“Honestly? I want it to go as far as it can. Marriage. Kids. A lifelong commitment. I just…I’m scared.”

“Of what, Honey?”

Maggie took hold of Michonne’s hand. It was a comforting touch.

“That he just wants a fling. That he’s lonely. That he could want the same thing I want and we marry and have kids and then I have to watch him being torn apart by monsters or he’ll end up seeing that happen to me.”

Maggie was silent for a long time, biting her lip as she lost herself in thought. “I wanted all of those things. Then, for awhile I lost Glenn and Beth, right after losing my father. I found Glenn. I got him back and I felt like the luckiest woman in the world. I only wanted Beth back, then life could be complete, no matter how hard it was. I tried to make myself give up on her…”

“Maggie,” Michonne said, when tears fell from her friend’s eyes.

“I thought it would be easier if I didn’t know what happened, that I could move on, so I pretended she died with Daddy that day. I should have talked about her. I should have thought about her more but I didn’t. I’ll never forgive myself for that. You remember! We got to the hospital and she was gone. I wasn’t there for her. I was too late. I really did lose her the day I lost Daddy. I just didn’t know it. I’ll regret that for the rest of my life. Michonne, you can’t pass up an opportunity to take all you can get from this life. Happiness is rare and precious. If you get the chance to love someone, and be loved by them, grab onto it with both hands and don’t let go. You will lose it someday. Somehow. Even if it’s just to old age. Take what you can while you can. You be with Rick. You be a mother to his children because they need that, and they want that, with you. Be happy for as long as you can. It’s the good memories that keep you going when the bad times roll back around.”

She touched Michonne’s face, her fingers tenderly pushing back her braids.

“Be happy. Be with him. Most importantly, tell him. He needs to hear it. I mean, we can all see how he feels about you. Trust me: he’s not going to reject you.”

Michonne pulled Maggie into a tight hug. After a few moments she released her friend so she could lie back down and get some rest.

“Thank you. I needed to hear that.”

She went to the door but stopped and looked back at Maggie.

“Beth loved you. She knew you loved her. I don’t think she’d want you to beat yourself up.”

Maggie nodded but the pain was still vivid in her eyes. Michonne shut the light out and pulled the door closed.

…

Michonne came downstairs from her talk with Maggie and put herself into the job of helping with chores. Judith was feeling much better and insisted on playing with the new toys they’d gathered for her. All Michonne had to do was take her around with her as she dusted and swept floors and she was satisfied. By lunch, however, she wanted a diaper change and her bottle.

“She’s had an exhausting day,” Michonne told Rick, when he came in from prepping the guard towers for use.

“Oh yeah?”

“She did some hardcore playing while I cleaned.”

Rick smiled and kissed Judith on the cheek while she finished off her bottle. He lovingly stroked her hair and said, “Were you a good girl for Mommy today?”

Judith rewarded him with a smile that turned into a yawn. Rick sat down at the kitchen table and put together a sandwich with the tuna salad Michonne had made. She joined him, along with Daryl.

“You’re okay with not going into town?” Michonne asked.

Rick nodded. “We have everything here. I don’t mind staying put.”

She looked relieved. “How goes work on the towers?”

Daryl answered, “The steps are cleared and so are the ladders. We’re putting weapons and ammo up. Scores have already been set up. We just needed to clear the ice of ‘em. We’re setting up other supplies and some boards to block the wind.”

“The radios are charged up,” Rick added. “There are bells we can ring in an emergency.”

“How is the view up there?” she asked.

“The towers are pretty tall. We can see the main road that leads past the gate when it’s clear if we use the scope. Otherwise the trees are pretty dense, even without leaves. When the trees are in bloom they’ll provide cover from travelers who may pass by on the road, or use the woods for cover from walkers,” said Daryl.

“My chief concern is the sheer size of this place. It was populated by a big group at one point,” Rick told her.

“How many?”

“Nick told us twenty but Tara was on the computer and found old duty logs and supply lists and a roster. Used to be forty people here when it all started,” Rick answered.

Michonne exchanged uncomfortable glances with Daryl and Rick. “Forty people? Now there’s no one from the start left?”

Rick nodded. Daryl sighed and scratched at his chin and said, “I wonder if there’s something Nick didn’t tell us,” he said.

“Like was he part of a group that took this place from the people who built it?” she wondered.

“Or if they were attacked by another group and won but with heavy losses,” said Rick.

“This place started with forty people to defend it. Here we come with only nine. We could do it but it won’t be easy,” said Daryl.

“It’ll come down to numbers, not supplies,” said Rick. “We’ve got supplies to last two lifetimes. It’s numbers that we’re lacking. You know what they say. There’s safety in numbers.”

“You open to the idea of taking people in like we did at the prison?” asked Daryl.

Rick thought it over. “When the weather changes, if we encounter someone needing help, we can feel them out. I don’t mind helping survivors as long as it’s a few people at a time and not a big group who may try to stage a coup.”

...

They finished lunch. Judith was asleep and Michonne took her to the TV room to clean. She saw Rick come in and close the door.

“Hey,” he said, somewhat awkwardly.

Michonne felt herself tense inside. Was this it? Was he about to tell her they’d made a mistake that morning? Would what she had thought was sexual tension brewing between them for months turn out to be only in her mind, on her part and not his?

“You want to talk?” she asked.

Rick nodded. “Yeah. I want to talk about what happened between us this morning. I know it must have seemed sudden. I don’t want to put too much on you too quickly.”

Michonne did her best to look like she didn’t care. She wasn’t going to let hurt or disappointment show so she began to dust.

When she didn’t say anything Rick continued. “I’m just not sure where you stand, or what you want. I really enjoyed what happened and I liked being close to you and... I didn’t want it to be a one-time thing. It can be if you want--”

She almost dropped the duster in relief and she laughed.

He looked confused. “What?”

“I thought you came in here to blow me off.”

She walked over to him.

Now it was his turn to laugh. “No, not at all.”

“You want to know what I feel?”

Rick nodded and Michonne showed him with a slow deep kiss. He rested his hands on her hips and pulled her close.

“What I want is you. I want a life here with you, and Carl, and Judy. I want a real life, to be happy and whole...”

“That’s what I want,” he whispered, his forehead pressed to hers. “We can have that here.”

She swallowed and nodded. “I worry that we’ll run into another Governor type.”

“That’s always possible. I won’t pretend this place is some impregnable fortress but it’s set up well. We have supplies, we have weapons and ammo and we can make it work. All we can do is our very best and hope that’s enough. I promise you one thing: I’d die to defend you and the kids.”

Michonne nodded, feeling a pool of dread deep in her belly at the very thought of that happening. “That’s my biggest fear. That you’ll die or I’ll lose one of the kids.”

“We can’t hide from death forever but I’ll avoid it as long as I can.”

Rick pulled Michonne closer, pressing her body flush against his.

“I really want to kiss you again.”

Michonne draped her arms over his shoulders and clasped them behind his neck. “You never have to ask.”

He pressed his lips to hers. They were so caught up in the moment they didn’t see Carl ease the door shut, his face split in a grin from ear to ear.



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