Rick sighed irritably as he opened the front door. The community's supplies were low, and yet another day of searching the surrounding countryside had turned up nothing. Even with careful rationing, he supposed the ASZ would run out of food in about three weeks.
As he swung open the door, music floated down the hall, accompanied by the sound of a smooth alto voice. Rick felt the cares weighing him down lighten a little at the lovely sound. He followed the sound of the melody.
In a back bedroom, sitting at what he had thought was a forgotten piano, was Michonne, her fingers moving skillfully over the keys. Carl sat next to her, strumming on an acoustic guitar. His skill was obviously less than hers, but he managed to keep up well enough.
Together, they were singing:
Meanwhile back at mama's
The porch light's on, come on in if you wanna
Supper's on the stove and beer's in the fridge
Red sun sinkin' out low on the ridge
Games on the tube and daddy smokes cigarettes
Whiskey keeps his whistle wet
Funny the things you thought you'd never miss
In a world gone crazy as this
When the chorus was finished, Michonne looked up and realized Rick was standing in the doorway. She covered her mouth with her hands and laughed, a joyful sound almost as velvety smooth as her singing voice.
"Dad!" Carl protested. "You weren't supposed to be back yet!"
Michonne shook her head regretfully even as she still smiled. "We were going to surprise you when he got really good, so we've been practicing when you go out."
Rick smiled at his son. "Sounds pretty good to me."
Carl nodded his thanks, then excused himself. Once they were alone, Rick squeezed Michonne's shoulder lightly. "It's really thoughtful of you to teach him to play."
She shrugged casually. "It's good for him to have something new to learn, something he can see himself getting good at. It takes his mind off his eye."
Rick's eyes met hers, his gaze intense with the joy this woman gave him. How he came to be blessed with such a friend in this mad world, he would never understand. But he would always be thankful for it.
A/N: Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed this. Life is too busy for me to do much fanfiction writing, so I hope to publish some short one-shots. The song lyrics came from Tim McGraw's Meanwhile Back at Mama's.