AN: Thanks for the reviews! I seriously laughed out loud when I read them; reason being: I feel the same way too. I had to remind myself of why I would write Rick in such a way. It just seemed pretty out of character for him to just get romantically involved with someone else, when he had such a build-up with Michonne. I wondered,(SPOILER) if the writers of the show plan to bring someone else into Rick's life romantically, and quickly as some are saying, how could that realistically look (seriously, how realistic could it look when the viewers have been fed these two as co-parenting team…and the stares between these two…). That's part of my experiment with this. But at the end of the day, this fanfic is a Michonne show. Without further ado…
Chapter 2:
Michonne had not been at ease since everything changed. Her level of paranoia was at a new level, conflicted with the pseudo safe environment and corruptness it cultured. She had seen similar types of structures before, but obeying the law was bullcrap nowadays. Shit…she and Rick were the law. If he was thinking anything like her, that Pete guy would soon be dead.
She thought of this as her morning jog encircled the length of the safe zone. The sun was barely out, and only a few people were out for an early start to their day. There were some moans and scratches from the other side of the walls, but everything seemed normal enough. Her steps came to a pause and she shook her limbs. While on her toes, she arched her back and pointed the tips of her fingers beyond her back. The energy flowed through as her spine curved. Muscles reawakened even more when she squatted with her fingers pointing forward, still maintaining her tip-toed stance. Eventually she lost track of how many yoga poses she was doing. Maybe, faux normalcy was okay.
A slight shift in the wind stirred the tiny hairs on her arm. Michonne instinctively left her warrior's stance to punch at her right, which was blocked.
"Whoa, whoa," yelled a male's deep voice. "I mean no harm. I just wanted to introduce myself – I never saw you around here before." He was a cocoa man with hazel eyes, taller than Michonne, and a skinny frame.
She did not relax. "How long were you watching me?"
"Watching? I wasn't watching. I just happened to be passing by."
"Who are you?"
"Jordan," his hand reached out, "nice to meet you."
Michonne's hands rested on the elastic band of her sweat pants. "Michonne, I'm a constable. What are you doing out so early," she scowled.
"Working out, just like you." She did an once-over to see that he donned gray sweats and sneakers.
She looked at her watch to see that it was 5:30 a.m. "Jordan, see you around." She pretended that she didn't hear him asking if he could jog along with her.
-00000-
No one was asleep at the apartment, naturally. No one fully rested in in the woods. Sasha was cooking some eggs, and Carol was sharpening a knife.
"Scrambled eggs, not scrambled squirrel I see?" joked Michonne as she grabbed a bottle of water.
Sasha chuckled as she fixed some plates. "I know! I forgot how these things taste like. I used to hate them, but now like filet mignon!"
"Oh, but what this has done to poor Daryl," remarked Carol. They all looked at each other and shared a laugh. "He'll be fine, but he went outside the walls to go catch some real food."
Michonne shook her head. "It helped, but those squirrels had no meat on them. I'll eat some eggs while I have the chance."
"Alright then, so you two tell me if I still know how to cook some?" Sasha stood back and watched her two friends as they chewed. There was silence until the plates were free of any food. "Well?" Sasha was starting to get concerned.
Michonne swallowed. "It could have tasted like shit; I wouldn't be able to tell."
Carol agreed, "Everything tastes like squirrel to me nowadays!"
"Oh, can y'all just say if it's good or bad?!"
"It's good, it's good," replied Michonne. "How are you liking the fire station?"
"It seems pretty good, but some people still have that outdated mentality that women can't be firefighters. Dumbasses. We've been fighting walkers, but for some reason we can't save lives," Sasha frustratingly crossed her arms. "At least you two have jobs where you're respected."
"True," agreed Carol. She hid her thoughts away of how she really didn't want to be involved with children activity, but nonetheless accepted being a teacher.
Michonne said nothing. For the first time, she wished she could fight alongside with someone else other than Rick.
-000000-
The police station was located on the first floor of a small building. Above it was the main part of the hospital/clinic, with the ER next to the station. Alexandria was not a huge town; it was practically a small neighborhood.
Michonne sat at her desk, contemplating the previous night's events. That Pete character could be working upstairs as she sat there playing detective. Why in the world would a doctor, a practicing doctor, think it would be okay to harass and bully residents? Wouldn't that make patient-care awkward? Something didn't make sense about this. She was tempted to go up there right now and handle this. She tapped her ankle and waste to make sure her small knives were hidden before she got up from the desk.
"Chonne?"
She looked up to see Rick standing over her desk. "Oh, good morning Rick."
"Yea, good morning. Carl and Judith thought you were gonna drop by earlier." His face expressed concern.
She sighed. Before words could escape out of her mouth, she stared at his eyes that avoided her gaze. She was so close to committing herself to that unity they all once had. "How about you tell Carl to bring Judith to my place tonight? Everyone in the house would love to see them."
His eyebrows raised. "Oh, okay. The kids do miss you." He smiled at a thought, "Judith was saying your name when I got back last night."
"What woke her up?"
"She wanted some milk." His finger traced the desk. "Are we okay?"
No. "Why would you ask?"
"It seems like we don't talk like we used to."
Michonne shrugged her shoulders. "We're in a different environment. People can change when they don't have to fight for their lives every day."
"We didn't have to fight for our lives every day at the prison. I did wish that I saw more of you back then." There was an odd silence between them as Rick's fingers tapped the desk.
"What do you want Rick? It's the beginning of our shift…"
"We need to have a serious talk. Maybe not now, but soon. When we were out there, we were all family," Rick explained. "No matter what, I don't want that to change."
Michonne intensely glared at him. "Let's talk about this Pete person. How do you plan to play 'chess' against him?"
Rick took a deep breath. "That woman Samantha that you've seen me with? Well, they're married." He waited for a response. "I'll get information from her. We just got here, so we can't just arrest someone who has ties with Douglass. We have to figure out an effective way to solve this."
Michonne slowly unwrapped a Big Kat and started to munch on it. "So," chump chump. "You mean to tell me," chump chump. "That you're screwing with our suspect's wife?" Rick grimaced. "Better yet, I'm just gonna go up there and handle this."
Once she got up, Rick grabbed her arm. She swiped it off. "This is not the Rick I know. I don't know what the fuck is up with you, but we won't be able to work together too well if this keeps up!" She stormed off with him following behind.
When she opened the door to the shared hallway of the ER and precinct, a slightly familiar face beamed.
"Michonne? Funny bumping into you here."
"Jerome?" she inquired.
"No, Jordan. From the jog earlier."
"Right," she nonchalantly reacted.
Rick probed, "you went jogging earlier?"
"I always have a morning run…you know this," Michonne groaned.
"Well, are you gonna introduce me to your jogging buddy?" Rick inquired.
Michonne quickly said, "Jordan, Rick. Rick, Jordan." She suddenly noticed Jordan's white lab coat. "Jordan, do you work here?"
"Yes, I'm an ER physician."
"Do you know Dr. Pete Baker?" questioned Rick.
Jordan bit his lip. "I know of him. He works upstairs, so I don't deal with him too often. If you could excuse me, I have some patients to see. Nice seeing you again Michonne."
Michonne watched him walk off, ignoring whatever Rick mumbled. "He might or might not be some help. I'm still gonna go interview Pete."
