AN: Thanks for all the amazing reviews of the first chapter! I personally view this is as a happy story. It's about falling in love. If you've guessed where I'm going with this, it's going to be a fun ride. So, here we have Chapter 2 which I intended to post like two days ago, but I've been nervously holding on to it. Hope you guys like this one!

Chapter 2

For as long as he knew her, Michonne had an uncanny tendency of always being right. The following day was an instance where that rightness was still present.

The world was certainly far too small.

It was the morning following their run-in and Rick —wanting to get away from his questioning mother— ventured out to a Market Street coffee shop for some deep introspection on the current state of his life.

That was when he saw her.

Michonne was sitting at the far side of the quaint little shop, sipping from a teacup while staring intently at her laptop screen. As if she felt him staring, her eyes rose to meet his and she offered him a tentative smile.

"Hey," he said, walking over to where she was sitting. It seemed like the friendly thing to do since apparently they weren't on as bad terms as he originally thought. "I see we're going to keep running into each other."

"Seems so."

Rick attempted to inconspicuously survey their surroundings, in search of her fiancé, emerging from some previously unseen nook.

"I'm an early riser," she explained. He remembered that much about her. "I thought I'd surprise everyone back at the B&B with some of the best coffee this town has to offer."

"Yeah, I came for the coffee too."

She closed the laptop, smiling up at him with that same look of uncertainty. "You can sit, if you want. I don't know if you still wanted to talk."

From the overhead speakers, Eartha Kitt's uniquely sensual voice crooned on about extravagant Christmas gifts while Rick's gaze shifted between Michonne's deep brown eyes and the table.

"I don't want to im–"

"It's fine. I was gonna be here awhile anyway."

He pulled out the chair across from her, slowly slipping down into it. "Work?" he questioned, pointing to the laptop to make conversation.

"Yeah. Even on vacation, it's really hard to get away from everything. There's the so much I want to get done."

"What do you do?"

"I work in medical research," she responded vaguely.

A waitress showed up and he ordered coffee and sausage, egg and cheese on a plain bagel. "I'm sorry," he said sincerely, once the woman had left to get his breakfast.

Michonne quirked a brow. "For what?"

"Everything. How things ended between us."

"It wasn't meant to be," she said simply. "No need to apologize for something like that. We thought we were in love and neither of us knew how to do that maturely. We're both over it now, so it's fine."

"Yeah I just—"

"So I'd really appreciate it if you'd stop acting like that," she said coolly. "I'm not some broken-hearted girl you think you left behind. We're both fine. No hard feelings."

"I know." It made sense. After everything, it seemed like it was him who couldn't let go. At least Sasha apparently still held some contempt for him for supposedly breaking her sister's heart.

Rick and Michonne always had a close relationship. Scarily so, at times. They were each other's first love and for a long time he was ecstatically convinced that she was the one he would spend the rest of his life with.

He was one year ahead of her in school and as he entered his last year, their easy going relationship started facing real challenges. Challenges one would face upon entering adulthood. On top of all that, neither of their families was pleased pleased with the way they were essentially structuring their young lives around each other. Rick was on the verge of giving up a full ride just to remain home an extra year with Michonne and when her time came around she was prepared to make an even more drastic decision.

Countless arguments and a pregnancy scare later, it took Michonne herself to finally convince him that a brief separation would be best.

It wasn't until the fall after he left (right on the cusp of December), that their brief separation became a permanent one.

"What about you? What do you do?"

"I didn't go to law school like I said I would." He was sure she remembered the plans they made centered around that dream. "I actually sort of fell into photojournalism."

"That sounds pretty interesting. Adventurous," she said, impressed. "Will I be hearing about a Pulitzer soon?"

Rick laughed. "I don't know about that." He told her about his trips abroad and his recent work with Wildlife sanctuaries to help end animal poaching.

"You know, I was supposed to be the one super into the environment and all that stuff," she teased. "Personality wise."

"Yeah, I distinctly remember you being the one who called the high school Biology teacher a heartless psychopath and tried to stage a protest against frog dissections."

Michonne erupted into a fit of laughter at the memory.

"Then you threatened to dissect her."

"I did not!" She defended, through breathless laughter. She said it a bit louder than intended, earning them a few stares. "You weren't even there for that part. This is how it happened. I asked her how would she feel if I had to dissect her. She wouldn't like being sliced open with a sword or something the way she was slicing them with that scalpel. The woman just took half of what I said and ran with it."

"She told the principal you threatened her!" He shook his head, chuckling at the memory. "That lady was an overdramatic mess."

"She really was. I was just an impassioned teenager with a stubborn streak. I had very strong beliefs and I didn't let go of them easily." She pounded her fist against the palm of her other hand, barely holding back laughter.

"So, I take it you're not into that sort of research."

She bit her lip, fighting a sheepish smile. "Would you believe me if I told you those impassioned beliefs sort of changed a little?"

He shrugged. "It's part of growing and maturing."

"Well, I had to make a few amendments for the greater good. I'm not totally against it."

"I wonder what happened to her."

Michonne's eyes filled with mischief and she shot him a wide grin. In that moment, it felt like old times. The Michonne he grew up with, fell in love with, and locked away in the back of his mind was sitting across from him with her breathtaking smile, conjuring up nostalgic feelings. "You think she still lives in town?"

"Maybe." His mouth curved into a smile to match her humorous mood. "Why? You want to apologize to her?"

"Hell no," she snickered. "After all the trouble she got me into? I was actually thinking of collecting an apology."

"You're definitely the same you." That was what he liked the most about her. Whenever they were together, there was never a missed opportunity for laughter and conversation. There was never any pressure to fill silence with needless chatter either.

They were comfortable.

The waitress returned with his breakfast, just as Bobby Helms' Jingle Bell Rock came through the overhead speakers. "If it's one thing I hate about this season, it's the annoying Christmas music."

"Are you kidding? That's the best part!" She exclaimed, lightly swatting his shoulder. "When did you turn into Ebenezer Scrooge?"

"It's the same twenty songs over and over again in an endless loop and it's everywhere. It's honestly a little scary."

"It does get a little repetitive," She agreed, taking a sip from her cup. "It's all snow, Santa, and presents. But still. It's only once a year you get to hear it."

"That's still way too much for me."

She regarded him carefully with her big brown eyes and it honestly felt like she was staring into his soul. He knew she was probably wondering about his current disdain for the holiday season when as far as she remembered he was dispassionate the worst when it came to the holiday season.

"My family still goes all out. The B&B looks like a Winter Wonderland," she shared.

Her parents owned a local Bed and Breakfast. They never named the place, so everyone referred to it as "The Bed and Breakfast" (it was the only one of its in the area for a long time) or "The B&B."

He remembered the nights when he would sneak over. She'd slip out of her bedroom window and they would lay underneath the stars enjoying each other's silent company.

"My mother also has her Christmas playlist on repeat," she continued. "All the classics."

"You must love that."

"That's where I got the holiday season fanaticism I used to have from." She nodded. "Sasha's a Scrooge like you, so she's starting to get extremely annoyed. I'm not quite as crazy about the celebrations as I used to be though. I mean, I'm sure you remember. I used to go nuts."

"Oh I remember." He gave her a small smile. "The new headgear and accessories every day of the month leading up to Christmas. There were reindeer antlers, the elf hats in multiple colors, the elf ears, the sweaters… I could go on," he teased.

Michonne smiled, but didn't give the sarcastic teasing reply he had been trying to evoke. There was a certain sadness in her eyes and he could almost physically feel her retreating into herself and putting up a barrier between them.

She cleared her throat, fiddling with the zipper of her laptop sleeve. "Yeah, I went all out."

"So…" He wanted to ask a question, but he was hesitant of shifting the lighthearted mood even further in the other direction. Then he figured it couldn't do any more harm than what had already been done. "When's the wedding?"

She opened her mouth to respond and then she froze. It was a fleeting moment, but he noticed. "Oh, mine?"

"Yeah."

"Uhm...we haven't set a date yet." She looked everywhere, but at him. "It's probably going to be a long engagement. I mean, it will be. We agreed on that. The two of us...There's no rush to have some grand thing."

"I'm happy for you," he said truthfully. His heart was heavy, but he always wished the best for her and if her happiness was someone else, he'd be okay with it. "You seem to have everything together. Just like I knew you would."

"That's what everybody says," she replied with a humorless laugh.

"You don't agree?"

Instead of answering the question, she posed a different one. One she had probably been wanting to ask for a long time. "You asked me why I never came back," she started. "Why didn't you?"

There was more to her question. Back then, he had a habit for self-sabotaging behavior. That was the entire root of the end of their relationship.

He opened and closed his mouth, trying to formulate an answer. "I thought it was for the best. I wanted to give you time to move on because I thought everybody was right."

"You thought we'd hold each other back," she said, repeating his first parting words.

"We didn't make good decisions together. Michonne, you were planning to run off with me. I know I asked, but...and then I went off to college and got caught up with experiences—"

"And had the nerve to get mad at me over a date you didn't even know the details of. Like I was supposed to..."

"Wait for me?"

"I did and that wasn't what I was going to say," she said. "But I get it. You didn't have a reason to come back either."

"We were such idiots."

"Maybe we still are." She smiled and he knew she wasn't upset with him. "I didn't mean it, you know," she said so quietly, he almost thought he didn't hear it. He was going to ask her to elaborate, but he knew what she meant.

"Well go then," younger Michonne screamed through teary eyes. "Go back to your stupid new life. I really don't give a fuck. Just go back and stay there because I don't ever want to see you again." They woke up her entire house and the B&B guests in the process.

Michonne touched the home button on her cell phone, checking the time. "I should head home. Everyone will probably start wondering where I disappeared to. I didn't leave a note or anything."

"Oh right," he said, remembering where they were. "I should get going to. I have...things to do."

He lied. He had nothing else to do.

He sat quietly as she gathered her things from the table and when to the front counter to get the 'coffee to go' that she came for. She bid him a hasty goodbye and disappeared out the front entrance.

~OUAC~

Rick spent the rest of the day avoiding the festivities, which had a tendency to overtake every corner of the town. In the later part of the day, he left his parents' overly festive house in search of some respite. He knew better than to return in time for dinner. Although she attempted to not make it too obvious, he knew his mother was planning to set him up with the new woman in town.

Sometime after six in the evening he found solace when he came across a quiet-looking bar about a mile outside town. It was the only place, seemingly untouched by the season.

He opened the old wooden door with the worn sign and the sharp scent of stale beer and peanuts wafted out and it calmed him.

The inside of the bar was very simple. There were gray stone floors and wooden paneling. Some tables were spread about the far side of the building and the long counter of the bar stood at the center.

Johnny Cash was singing about prison blues.

He approached the seemingly deserted bar and pulled out a creaky wooden bar stool as he searched for a bartender. There were only two other people there. A woman fiddling with the jukebox and a man slumped over a table, passed out drunk. He prayed the woman would leave Johnny alone and not attempt to replace him with saccharine Christmas music.

"Hello?"

"Hey there! What can I get you?" A familiar voice asked.

Mr. Horvath was standing behind the bar. This time in a dusty brown sport coat instead of his bright green elf costume.

"Mr. Horvath? You work here?" Rick asked incredulously.

"Elves are only in demand once a year. Gotta do something to make ends meet on the off season," he said distractedly as he started searching the bar shelves behind him. "Call me Dale."

He retrieved a jar from the lower shelf, holding it up questioningly in Rick's direction. "Moonshine?"

"If it's strong, I'll take it," he shrugged.

"Got something on your mind?" He poured out a small amount for Rick and some for himself.

"Yeah. You could say that. That's why I'm here to escape my troubles." He didn't intend to make it to dinner with his parents and neighbor. He glanced up at the clock above the bar, noticing that both hands were stuck on twelve o'clock. He was glad he wouldn't have a constant reminder of the passing time.

"God, I love this job. Bar stories are the best," Dale grinned, gulping down his share. "It's a woman." It wasn't a question.

For some reason, Rick decided to tell the man exactly what was bothering him. After all, what else would one do at an empty bar with an inquisitive bartender.

"Yeah, it's a woman. I used to date her back in high school and into my first year of college," he said. "She grew up around here too. I haven't seen her in like twelve years and all of a sudden here she is. It just...it brought back a lot and now I guess I'm realizing in hindsight that I have a lot of regrets and it bothers me more than I think it should."

"Why do you think that is?"

"Well, I thought I broke her heart. I was trying to," he confessed. "I loved her, but I didn't know how. Everybody was telling us it wouldn't work and she was about to give up her dream school in California to be closer to me. I couldn't let her do that and I made everything worse instead of just talking to her."

"Sounds like a complicated situation."

"Tell me about it." He groaned, knocking back the drink. "I should have stayed in New York. I didn't come here to relive my past relationship drama. I'm just trying to be a less shitty son."

Dale watched him silently. "Well why don't you apologize to her? Make amends and try again."

"I did apologize. She didn't want an apology. She's completely unaffected by all this," he said, baffled. "What's even worse is that she's here with her fiancé. I would be here with mine too, but I realized couldn't stand her and she couldn't stand me, so we called it off instead of spending years, making each other miserable before divorcing after 1.5 kids."

There was a glimmer of understanding in Dale's eyes. "The one that got away."

"I just...I don't even know why I'm bothered by this," he sighed. "Maybe because there was no closure. We ended things kind of abruptly and went our separate ways."

"And the fiancé. What's he like?"

"I don't know. I never met the guy, but I'm sure he makes her happy. Better than I would have been able to."

"You think so?"

Rick didn't respond. He wasn't sure that he knew the answer to that question. He ordered another drink instead.

As Dale started preparing his drink, Rick reached into his coat pocket in search of his phone to distract himself and to avoid spilling even more of his person business to a practical stranger.

His hand brushed against something small, round, and metallic. He pulled it out, examining the golden coin Dale had gifted him the day before. He balanced the golden coin between his fingers.

"I bet you wish you could do it all again," Dale said. "Wish you could see what would happen if you two had stuck it out, instead of listening to everybody, but each other."

"Well, what's done is done. I try not to live life with too many 'what if's'. It's not like I can go back and change any of it."

"We don't always get what we try for." He smiled and something about it gave Rick pause. It was almost as if he knew a secret Rick didn't know. "Sure, I wish I could do it again, but that's useless. Things are already the way they are and I just have to live with it."

Dale's eyes followed the movement of the coin in Rick's hand as he placed the drink in front of him.

As he shifted on the stool to reach for the drink, the coin dropped to the floor. It was almost as if it leapt out of his nimble fingers. As if there was an external force pulling it away.

As he went to retrieve it, he had an odd tingling feeling inside. He nearly tripped over his feet in surprise at the seemingly vibrating air and the eerie feeling in his bones.

He felt as if his limbs were elongating, but visually he seemed completely fine. As did everything else around him.

"You okay?" asked Dale.

"Yeah," he replied, absently looking around the now empty bar. He didn't hear them leave. "I just had a really weird feeling. Like goosebumps." He looked down at the little raised circles on his arm, shaking his head. "I really should have stayed in New York."

"You never know." Dale leaned against the counter, resting his chin in the palm of his hand as he took in a conflicted Rick. "Things can always flip in your favor and then you might be singing a different tune."

"I doubt that," Rick said dismissively, reaching for his drink as he reclaimed his seat at the bar.

It was going to be a long night.

Still here? A lot is happening with Rick. Let me know what you think!