This is a short one featuring Rick and Carl. Thank you to my friend Robyn (PrintDust) for giving a prompt and looking it over for me.
Rick Grimes was prepared for many things in life. His job required him to be prepared at all times; he'd seen car crashes and robberies, drug busts, and shoplifters. He and his wife Lori had prepared themselves to welcome their firstborn son into the world. They had a room ready for him and more baby stuff than he even knew existed, or what to do with. He was even prepared for watching his wife's abdomen get sliced open in the surgical procedure that officially brought the baby into their lives and started their family. Love and pride filled his heart as he watched his wife hold their son, Carl, for the first time. He wavered a bit, but still held it together.
He was not prepared, however, for the moment his wife passed the tiny, red, wriggly bundle into his arms. He had seen his son plenty of times on the ultrasound screen, felt the baby move around and greet his father from his mother's belly with quick, sharp kicks or a little elbow or hand pushing back at his own. He thought he had gotten to know Carl pretty well. But meeting him outside of the womb and seeing his little face with tiny, perfectly formed features was a completely different thing. He was a new person, a new life with part of Rick and part of Lori. Breathing, crying, blinking, and then his eyes landed on Rick's. In that moment the new father realized that no matter how much preparation was done, he never would have been fully ready for the shift in his life. He thought he had a deeper and fuller understanding of love when he married Lori. But this was an entirely different level that he never could have known without Carl. He would never make a decision again without thinking of this life that was part of him. And when he placed his index finger in the tiny palm of his son's hand and felt the boy instinctively grip it, he knew that he was prepared to give his own life without a moments hesitation in order to protect that of his son.
