A/N If you've just stumbled upon this here and have yet to read "Echoes of a Dream", this will make absolutely no sense to you. So I strongly suggest that you read that first and then come back here for a continuation of Rick and Erin's love story.

This is the first in a series of one-shot deleted scenes that will highlight special moments of their relationship, both in and out of the dream. I will try to update once or twice a month, so look for me on those groggy Monday mornings.

This installment takes place in the final chapter (58); after meeting for the first time when he wakes up, just before the epilogue.

Let me know what you think!

Enjoy…

Erin bites the end off another french fry but doesn't really taste it. Her senses have shifted, molded from five separate factions to one commanding force, concentrated behind her eyes to focus on the sight of the man sitting across the small table.

She doesn't smell the loaded cheeseburger that Rick is devouring. She doesn't hear the flurry of activity from the nurse's station out in the hallway or the light patter of rain against the third floor window that shrouds the sunset in dusky gray. She doesn't feel the cold plastic of the Propel water bottle as she lifts it to her lips to wash down the fries. But she sees each wavy strand of dark hair that sits high on Rick's forehead, the prominent cleft that splits his chin with an adorable little divot, the curve of his sensuous lips as he grins in modest humility through the outrageous tale of his dream, and the bright light in the beautiful blue eyes that are gazing back at her with cerulean tenderness.

He is charming and thoughtful and sexy as hell, especially now that he has traded his hospital gown for street clothes. Dressed in a pair of dark sweatpants and a light gray tee shirt, with the emblem of a small police shield covering his heart to boast his department in King County, he looks as commanding as he does in his full uniform, which Doc Morgan informed them would be staying in his closet for several more weeks while he continued to heal and regain his strength. With the news that he wouldn't be released from the hospital for at least two more days, Shane had taken pity on him and offered to run by his house and pick up some clothes that would restore some dignity during the last of his stay. And dignified he did look. He'd insisted on showering and shaving before Lori brought Carl over earlier, and with his dark hair combed back and jaws razor clean, he looks a bit thin but fresh and fairly healthy.

Erin will never forget the look on Carl's face when he saw Rick sitting up in the chair, wide awake and smiling brightly. She'll never forget the expression of pure joy she had seen on Rick's face as well, hugging the boy fiercely as Carl cried in his arms. She could see Rick fighting his own tears, happiness fused with relief, as if his son had been the one in danger of being lost forever.

She'd left them to have a nice long visit while she took care of some personal things, and counted every minute before she returned with their dinner from Five Guys. Now she continues to absorb every syllable as he wraps up the wondrous story of their fight for survival during a zombie apocalypse.

"And then I woke up here," he finishes with a nervous look after swallowing the last of his dinner. "So now is the part where you tell me what a lunatic I am," he says with a forced laugh before taking a sip of his own water.

She'd stayed quiet through his recounting of the dream, hanging onto every word without making a sound, even when she'd wanted to jump in at the parts that she knew he'd edited greatly. Unless she is wrong and he really didn't dream of their special relationship and all the times they had made love. But after five weeks of living a fantasy inside her head, she knows him well and she knows that with every glance down at his food or beyond her shoulder, he was keeping the memories of their tender times to himself. "Wow, that was a crazy dream," she agrees, and then moves full steam ahead before the blushing flutter in her belly can change her mind. With a witty grin and a playful spark in her eyes, she says, "And can you imagine how completely insane it would sound if you'd dreamt of us making love in the water at the bottom of that quarry, or the two of us getting it on against the railing on a balcony at Tybee Island?" His eyes widen as his pale cheeks darken to a warm crimson, but she doesn't let up. Reaching across the table, she gently glides a fingertip across the back of his hand and continues, "Or licking coffee cream off of each other at your grandfather's cabin, or handcuffing me to the headboard in a bed and breakfast hotel? Yeah, that one I wasn't too crazy about at first..." She rolls her eyes with the misty memory of being held captive. "But in the end you made up for it, didn't you." She nods her head with a sinful gaze of wanton lust that deepens his rosy cheeks to a lovely shade of scarlet. Mission accomplished.

"Oh my God. How do you know?"

"Because I was there, honey," she says softly, grinning around the lump in her throat. "Everything you dreamed, I dreamt it too. And maybe we just met here in this room today, but I know you, Rick. And you know me, better than anyone ever will."

Moisture brightens his eyes as he tilts his chin, like she'd seen him do so many times before in her dreams. He lifts his wrist to link their fingers and presses his palm to hers, the heart of his soul seeping into hers through the warmth of his touch and the love in his gaze. "You're my wife."

She nods as tears spill from her own eyes. "And you're my husband."

He smiles brightly, chuckling through his tears. "How is this possible, Red?"

"I don't know, sheriff. I just know that every day I'd come to work and I couldn't get through my shift fast enough so I could come up here and sit with you. Every day I'd walk in this room and wonder, is today the day? Will he open his eyes and look at me?" She swallows hard and chokes on the tears that are thickening her throat, her voice breaking with emotion as she whispers, "Will he know me?"

Rising from his chair as quickly as he can manage with the stitches in his side, he steps around the table and pulls her into his arms. "How could I ever forget you?"

She buries her face in his chest and wraps her arms tightly around his waist. "I'm so glad you didn't."

"I'm so glad you waited for me." His arms tighten around her shoulder blades as he crushes her within them. "Christ, I'm sorry it took me so long to get back to you." The husky gruffness of his words rumbles low against her ear. "Thank you for waiting for me."

She nods her head, rubbing her cheek against his chest and inhaling the scent of him; the heady aroma that she knows so well. "I'd sit with you for hours and just watch you lying there, watch your chest rise and fall with the beeping of the monitors. I'd mention the dream we had the night before and pray that you would respond."

"And you remembered it all?"

"Most of it, yes. Some parts were hazier than others, but my feelings for you were always there when I woke up. The fears would fade quickly when I recognized my bedroom, but the memory of our time together would stay with me." While the horrors of the dream would linger briefly and then dissipate within moments, she had always recalled their lovemaking in vivid detail. When she held him close in her dreams, she would try to keep him close upon waking, closing her eyes and holding onto him until he became just a memory once again, her body losing the whisper of his skin upon hers. And then she would count the minutes until she could get back to the hospital to see him again.

"I'd hate to leave you," she says, her fists clutching his shirt at his lower back. "But at the same time, I couldn't wait to get home and go to sleep so I could talk to you, hear your voice and see your blue eyes looking back at me." She sniffles softly as he rubs soothing arcs across her back. "And when I'd wake up in the morning, I would replay the dream over and over in my head so I wouldn't forget it. I was afraid that maybe you weren't sharing the dream with me, but then I knew – I just knew, that you were. Especially after we got married under the big tree. I brought in the bandana with the rose and I swear you moaned when Morgan was teasing me about it, but he said he didn't hear anything. But I know I did, and I knew that you knew what it meant, and you were thanking me for it."

"I know what it means, sweetheart. And I love it. Thank you."

"The last sponge bath I gave you, I was so tempted to use the bandana, thinking that maybe it could be the trigger that woke you up."

"I gather you didn't use it?" he asks and she nods again. "But I do like the idea of you giving me that sponge bath." She can practically feel the wide grin against her hair and her flutter beams blissfully, deep within her core.

"Oh God, you don't know how hard it was to keep my hands from wandering all over you. I mean, I knew every inch of your body underneath that hospital gown." She slips her hands beneath his shirt now, feeling the warmth of his skin at his back. "But I had to keep it professional, you know? Imagine me trying to explain that to Morgan; Uh, yeah, it's a new technique to revive coma patients. Got to get in there real close and personal, give them a reason to wake up," she says in a pseudo-stern voice that begs to breathe authority.

He chuckles against her hair and then she feels his lips press lightly upon her temple. "Well, the next time you want to give me a bath, I promise I'll stay awake for it."

"Mmm, next time it won't be in here with all my friends around, that's for sure."

He chuckles again and squeezes her tightly. "Shane said you would play chess in here, moving my pieces as well as yours. Tell me honestly now, did I ever win?"

"Yes, you did actually win once or twice."

"Took pity on me, huh?"

"More like a bribe. But it didn't work."

"Why not?"

"You didn't wake up," she replies sadly, recalling all the times she had begged him to open his eyes.

"I never was any good at accepting bribes. I'm so sorry I put you through that, honey."

"It's okay. It brought us together, right? We found each other. Who knows if we ever would have gotten together if you didn't get shot and drag me into your dream." Her warm smile is full of forgiveness as she burrows deeper into his neck.

"I would have found you one way or another, dream or no dream."

She looks up to meet his gaze, and finds that the sincerity in his eyes is as deep as the faith that lives in her heart. She has no doubt in her mind that they would have found each other somehow. "I believe you."

"Yeah?"

"Yes. You're just one of the miracles in my life that I'll never quite understand, but will be eternally grateful for; I wasn't supposed to live to see seventeen, but here I am. You came to me in a dream once, and kept coming back until you made me fall in love with you. I don't know how it happened, but I'll be forever thankful that it did."

"Well, just to be clear – you made me fall in love with you first. I didn't stand a chance," he says softly as he strokes her cheek with a tender thumb.

"Was that the first day in the hospital? When you saw me with the drunken rabbit? Or the first dream at the quarry?"

"Definitely when you assaulted the Easter bunny." He laughs around a huge grin, and then his mouth softens to an intimate smile. "I thought to myself – now that's the girl of my dreams… and then you were."

When he lowers his chin, she meets his lips with tenderness and trust; giving her heart for him to hold as their souls come together, filling the fissures in each other with a boundless love that was forged in the promise of a distant dream.