This all started with a conversation that Andrew Lincoln said he had with Laurie Holden during filming of Season 3. I thought it was cute and this was born.
First Up Rick Grimes.
Enjoy...
It took exactly thirty-two seconds to figure out that the baby Lori was carrying was not his and that was the beginning of the end.
How could she think he'd believe it was? He'd only been back a few weeks, it wasn't impossible but it was improbable and he'd have to be a complete idiot to miss all the angry looks that Shane was throwing him every other moment.
He'd have to be an even bigger idiot to believe Lori when she told him it had only been the one time and though he'd grown up in what many of his companions would deem a hick town, Rick Grimes was no idiot nor was he the leader they all expected him to be.
But he played both parts because what else was he supposed to do? It wasn't like he could ask for a divorce or tell Lori he was moving out. So instead he kept his mouth shut and did the job nobody else wanted, didn't matter if he wanted it or not.
He lost his wife to his revelation of killing Shane and lost so many during the farm massacre. He lost his will to be what people wanted and became what he had to be; it was no longer a democracy.
Then after more time than he cared to think about and while cleaning house, he heard Andrea's shouts and found her killing walkers with the determination that he had been missing of late, determination leeched by a wife that mourned his friend.
He pulled her into his arms and she stayed there while he checked that she was indeed okay. He spent days apologizing to her and she spent days telling him to go away but he'd found someone to occupy his mind during the cold lonely nights and he was not going to give that up too.
Then she'd kissed him and ran, he chased and kissed her back and they spent the next few minutes apologizing and making it up to each other. He might not be the leader he thought he should be but she supported him and fought with him when he was wrong but she never ever shut him out and he made sure to always look where she was whether he was coming or going.
She became his partner and he knew he couldn't ask for a better person to love.