Soap Opera!AU. Maggie and Glenn are getting married! With all the main characters gathering at Greene farm, secrets will be released and scandal will run rampant. Rick is in the wake of dealing with Lori's infidelity; Philip is hell-bent on finding out who killed his wife and daughter in a car accident; Carol is trying to find her footing in the wake of leaving her abusive ex-husband with the help of Daryl, who is wrestling his feelings for Beth; Abraham is suffering from major PTSD after being dishonorably discharged from the army; and Sasha must deal with the guilt of being unable to save a family from a fire. Rated M for sex scenes, violence and language.
Rating: M
Pairings: It's a soap opera, so more pairings are subject to occur, but for right now it's: Beth/Daryl, Rick/Lori, Governor/Andrea, Bob/Sasha, Lori/Shane, Maggie/Glenn, Beth/Jimmy, Rosita/Abraham. I don't discriminate and basically ship whatever, so we'll see how that goes.
Disclaimer: I don't own The Walking Dead.
Main Characters: Rick, Maggie, Daryl, the Governor, Michonne, Carol, Andrea, Abraham, Sasha
Recurring: Lori, Carl, Shane, Hershel, Beth, Shawn, Merle, T-Dog, Ed, Amy, Jimmy, Zach, Rosita, Eugene, Tyreese, Gareth, Milton, Tara, Lilly
Episode 1
Two lines. Two faint pink lines stared back into disbelieving bright blue eyes. Rick felt an unfamiliar tug in his lower stomach. His ears rang as if a shot had been fired in a closed tank. He felt faint. And then the door was wrenched open, and he could suddenly hear again when his name met his ears. He turned. Lori. Wide brown eyes and a slightly open mouth. Rick cocked his head to the side and waved the pregnancy test at her.
"We haven't had sex in weeks."
"Rick-"
"How?"
Lori stared at him. Her eyes showcased unshed tears. "Rick, listen-"
"Answer the question. How?"
"I...I…" Lori fumbled with her words when trying to come up with an explanation. "I was drunk…"
"I don' want to hear it," said Rick, dragging his free hand down his face. Lori made a move to grab his outreached arm that held the test, and he snatched his arm away, throwing the test across the room. It hit the wall with a pathetic "clink!" and dropped to the ground, the two faint lines still boring into his pupils. Lori opened her mouth to speak. "I don' want to fucking hear it, Lori!" he said, voice steady and unwavering, finger pointing toward her belly with one foot forward. "I do not want to hear about how you fucked another man-"
"Rick-"
"No."
"Dad?" a voice came from behind the door. Immediately, a temporary truce was settled between Lori and Rick with a single glance as Lori twisted the handle to open the door, only revealing her still-stricken face to Carl.
"Oh...hey mom, have you seen dad?"
Rick dragged his hand over his face once more and turned to face the mirror. His eyes weren't that bright blue that they were before. They were bloodshot, red standing out against white. "I'm in here, Carl." In the reflection, Rick saw Lori open the door wider, revealing Carl wearing a t-shirt with a paw on the chest, the home phone clutched in his hand.
"Shane's on the phone," he said, holding out the phone for him. Lori made an indistinguishable noise in the back of her throat and left the bathroom.
Rick nodded to him and took the phone from him, checking the caller ID before pressing the phone to his ear. "Shane."
"Rick! Did you get the invitation?"
Rick's eyes narrowed and brow creased as he exited the bathroom and entered the master bedroom. Carl now sat on the floor, playing with the stray cat that they had taken in about a week ago.
"What invitation?"
"You mean you weren't invited? Well, look at that Shane Walsh plus one invited to the wedding before Sheriff Grimes."
"Weddin'?"
"I'm sure you got invited, but I was callin' to ask you who I should take. Becky's the one who's always on my ass about global warming and shit, and the other one, Sandra, she's pretty borin'. Just the other day, I took her to that aquarium, you know, the one downtown…"
Rick tuned Shane out as the cat jumped on Carl's chest. Carl erupted into laughter and laid back, letting the cat paw on his face and meow. He gave Carl and sad smile, and looked through the bedroom door where he could see Lori walking in from getting the mail. He nodded to Carl, and walked down the hallway. Lori looked up when he approached and handed him a thick envelope, with green cursive writing on the front.
Rick and Lori Grimes
122 Manchester Ave.
Senoia, GA 30276
The return address was instantly recognizable: Hershel Greene. Based on the weight that the envelope had in his hand, Rick assumed this was the invitation that Shane has glossed over in his phone call. He was still yammering about the two chicks that he was torn between.
"Shane?" interrupted Rick.
"Now before you start about how immoral it is that I'm seein' multiple women-"
"No, Shane, I think I just got the invitation." Rick said, pressing the phone between his left ear and shoulder and tearing the envelope open. Paper fell out onto the foyer table, and Rick sifted through it, reading the centered lines quickly, allowing a small smile to grace his features. "Well, I'll be damned. Glenn and Maggie finally tyin' the knot?"
Shane laughed on the other end while Rick read over the invitation once more.
"Poor kids," he muttered, throwing the invitation back down on the table.
A beer can fell from the coffee table as Daryl kicked his feet up onto it. Five more shifted around, two falling onto their side. He ignored it and pulled out the cigarette that was behind his ear, lighting it with the lighter he pulled from between the cushions. Inhaling the nicotine, his pulse slowed down and his shaky hands steadied. He caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror that was adjacent to the television and swore when he saw a black eye.
"Goddamnit, Merle," he muttered, hauling himself off the couch to get an ice pack from the freezer. He pressed the cool compress to his eye and trudged to the mirror, shrugging off his shirt to check for any other bruises. He noticed a cut on his forearm, but other than that, he had managed to walk away from the fistfight with his brother unscathed. The cleanest he had ever been after one. His eyes trailed over his many tattoos, and noticed movement in the reflection.
Daryl whipped his shirt back on in seconds and dropped the ice pack to the ground. He spun around and faced the lady that stood in the doorway to his apartment, her eyes wide and jaw open.
"I'm-I'm sorry. Your mail was in my box again and your door was open and I thought I'd-" explained Meryl or Carol or whatever her name was. Her bright eyes shone with unshed tears at the sight of him, bruised and battered. She had most definitely seen the scars on his back.
"It's alright," grunted Daryl, too tired to give the lady the yelling she deserved. But he knew she had seen the scars more than once, when Daryl had escorted a one night stand to the door shirtless. She had bore the same expression then as she did now. Pity. "You said somethin' bout mail?"
"I guess the mailman can't tell the difference between 'Carol' and 'Daryl'. They do rhyme, after all," said Carol. She waved a nice-looking envelope in the air and tentatively placed it on his kitchen counter.
When she made no move to leave, Daryl grunted, "You need somethin'?"
Her eyes widened, and she quickly explained herself, "Um. No. I just-I got the same letter, or invitation I guess I should say."
"Mm."
"I wasn't aware that you knew the Greene's as well?"
Her question surprised him. He hadn't seen Hershel Greene and his family in two years, since he had rode off with their horse and their cash and nearly killed himself in the process. Daryl shifted uncomfortably.
"Used to," he muttered. He strode across the room and snatched the envelope from the counter, reading the front before ripping it open. "Hm. A wedding."
"Maggie and Glenn," offered Carol. "It's in a month. Do you think you'll go?"
Daryl grunted in response, and Carol took that as her response to leave, but not before getting a final word in. "I hope you do," she said. "The Greene's are great people."
When the door finally closed, Daryl spoke.
"I know."
Lifeless eyes. Two pairs of lifeless eyes. Two brown eyes, two green eyes stared back at Philip without so much as a blink. He kept waiting… kept waiting for them to blink, for a smile to crinkle the eyes and a laugh to be ripped from their body. But there was none. Nothing. Not so much as a twitch. And he kept waiting.
The parlor room had emptied by this point. It was nearly an hour after the funeral had ended, and two weeks since his life had been ripped to pieces. Philip stood, completely alone, save for his personal assistant standing by his side, waiting patiently for Philip to finish staring and snap back to the present. But it had been an hour. And standing for an hour in front of the two dead bodies of a man's best friend's wife and child took a lot out of Milton, so he finally snapped.
"Philip-"
"No."
"Philip, we have to leave now. They are preparing for the next-"
"No."
Milton fell silent once more. Another fifteen minutes passed, with the aching slowness of molasses.
"Okay," Philip finally said.
Milton nodded and gestured towards the door. When Philip turned, however, he did not see the emptiness of the room that he had expected. One woman, skin as dark as mahogany, sat in the third row, ninth seat. Her head was bowed, and she was silently mouthing words.
"Oh!" said Milton as he turned. "Didn't see you there, miss. They're about to prepare for the next one, so if you could make your way to the exit…"
The woman slowly looked up at him and nodded once. She stood and gracefully made her way to the exit, leaving Philip and Milton to stare after her. After a few moments, they regrouped and exited the room, walking at a brisk pace down the hall.
"Anything on the calendar for the next week?"
"You have a meeting with the Senators at 2 o'clock this Wednesday, so you'll have to prepare for that."
"Anything else?"
"Well, this isn't news really, but I thought I should let you know that you got invited to Maggie Greene's wedding."
Philip halted right before they reached the double doors that led out to the overcast day. "Really?" he asked, raising his eyebrows.
Milton stopped as well, hand halfway to the door handle. "When you were...grieving...Hershel and Annette showed up. They extended an invitation. The wedding's in about a month."
Philip exited the building then, only to be met with an onslaught of cameras and yelling. A blonde woman in a black trench walked up and put her arm around him, talking loudly over the paparazzi to try and escort him to the black car that waited on the road. Philip accepted the help without question.
"Governer, can you tell us about your plans-"
"Will you be running in the upcoming election-"
"In the wake of your family's death-"
"Governor-"
"Governor-"
The noise finally ceased when Philip, the blond woman and Milton were safely tucked into the black car. The blond woman barked an order at the driver that Philip chose to ignore; instead, he rested his eyes on her face, taking in her pretty features and soft blue eyes. When she turned to face him, however, he realized she was more menacing that she seemed at first glance. Her face was full of determination.
"Governor Philip Blake," she greeted. "Andrea," she extended her hand for him to shake.
The Governor took her hand, but cocked his head at her, questions in his eyes. "Andrea?"
"Your lawyer."
"Sasha, babe, please open the door."
Sasha stood against a white door, her skin in stark contrast to it as she pressed her back further into the wood. Tears were streaming down her face, and she couldn't stop her body from shaking. Bob's knocks pounded against the door, matching the rhythm of her heart, which hammered against her ribcage.
She shook her head quickly. "I can't," her voice cracked, and she swallowed the frog that threatened to leap from her throat.
"Babe, please, I know you're happy to see me."
A smile broke across Sasha's features, her scared and stricken expression being replace by sheer happiness. "I can't open it, Bob, you can't see me in the state that I'm in." Her breathing was ragged as she tried to slow her pulse.
"I guess you don't want to see the state I'm in, then." Bob tried to keep his words under his breath, but they reached Sasha's ears despite the loudness of her sobs.
"W-what?" Sasha spat out. The invitation that she had previously been clutching in her hand fell to the ground. She whipped around and yanked the door open. "What are you talking about Bob Stookey?" She warned, her voice dangerously low. As she spoke, her eyes raked over his body for any signs of injury while he was away. His army uniform hid any injury though, so she found herself pulling back his sleeves in search.
Bob smiled and tears rose to his eyes at the sight of his girlfriend. "Babe," he said, taking her hands in his and looping them around his neck. "I'm fine. I'm alive. No injury."
"But-but you said-"
"I'd have said anything to get you to open that door," said Bob. His smile turned into a playful smirk, and despite herself, Sasha found herself grinning back at him, hugging him fully. "Aren't you gonna invite me in?"
Sasha yanked herself away and slapped him on her arm. "Like hell I'm gonna invite you in after you played me like that!"
Bob wrapped his arms around her, then. He buried his nose into her shoulder, breathing in her scent as best he could. "What's this?" he asked, breaking the hug and stepping around her. He picked up the letter that Sasha had dropped off of the ground.
"I see you're just walkin' into my apartment now, no invitation necessary," chided Sasha. She plucked the papers from his hands and walked further into the apartment.
"Well what is it?" asked Bob.
"A wedding invitation."
"Do I know the lucky couple?" said Bob. He followed her into the kitchen, where she tacked the invitation onto a corkboard that held a calendar and other letters.
"In fact, you do."
"Are you gonna tell me or am I gonna have to guess?" Bob walked up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. He kissed the top of her head, then nuzzled her neck.
"Maggie Greene and her boyfriend."
"That Asian fellow?"
"The very one."
"Lucky them."
"56% compatible."
Maggie stared at the older lady. Her lower lip quivered as the boy that was sitting next to her smiled. "56%. What a relief! To be honest, I thought it was going to be closer to like, 10. This is great news! Right, Maggie?"
Maggie pulled her hand from Glenn's grasp. "Is there any way that that could have been a mistake?"
The lady sensed her apprehension and jotted something down on her clipboard before speaking. "About all marriages are around 50% compatible."
Maggie vaguely heard Glenn say, "Hey, we're six more percent compatible than average!" She felt the blood rush from her head as she stood; she swayed slightly as her vision went dark and could feel Glenn jumping to her side to steady her.
"Are you okay?"
"I'm fine; headrush."
"No, I mean, are you okay with 56%?"
Maggie didn't answer.
Glenn sighed.
They pulled away.
A/n: So it's obviously gonna get more soapy but I think it's pretty dramatic for a first chapter. The next will be everyone getting ready for the wedding, and I'll do vignettes on other featured characters, like Andrea, Carol, and Abraham, who are also main characters. Please please please favorite, follow and REVIEW! I've written facfiction before and there's nothing greater than getting that notification email. Let me know if you like this, because reader response will basically determine whether or not I will continue this. Also, it's completely unedited or revised, I literally finished it and decided to post, so I'm sorry if there are any grammatical errors!