A/N: Hey guys, sorry for the long wait between updates, but stuff kept coming up. Hopefully I'll be able to update more frequently. I really hope you guys like this chapter. I'm happy so many of you have liked the first two chapters and happy to see all the reviews, especially the longer one. I like that this take on the story makes peoples imaginations run wild lol. So keep them coming, all of them but especially the detailed ones. And I want to thank my Beta for helping me to review and edit. I'm well aware of the mistakes in the first two chapters, and I plan on going back to edit them when I get the chance. But here's chapter 3.
"But I wanna come with you, Mommy," Andre whined as Michonne held him in her arms.
She was getting ready to go on the supply run with Rick, Glenn, and Daryl. They had gotten up that morning and eaten breakfast before preparing to head out. She kissed the boy on the forehead.
"I'm sorry baby, you can't," she told him. "Mommy's gotta go find us some food. You don't want to run out of those Teddy Grahams, do you?"
"But I don't wan' you to go," The child replied.
"Aww, I know Peanut," she said hugging him closer. She knew that Andre hated it when she left, and she hated leaving him even more. For one, she hated having to put the burden on someone else at the camp to keep him safe. She should have been able to trust his father with that responsibility, but truth was, she didn't. And that made her angry, but their group had to pull their weight if they were going to stay anywhere, not just with this group. Unfortunately, she was the only one capable of bearing that load.
"I don't understand why you have to go," Mike offered from the corner. He had been brooding ever since she had announced that morning at breakfast that she would be joining the team that would be going on the run.
She ignored him and instead focused her attention on her baby. "But, I'll bring you back a surprise," Michonne said trying to placate the child. "Do you want a surprise?" She poked the child's side gently, causing a small smile to come to his face. She continued until he started to giggle and replied with a shy, "Yes." He followed up with, "What are you going to bring me?"
Michonne laughed, "I can't tell you that silly," she said poking the boy more causing him to laugh and try to grab at her attacking hand. "It's a surprise."
She and Andre continued to laugh and play around on their cot as Mike watched from the cot across from her and Terry from his sleeping bag on the floor of the tent. "Or you could just stay here with him and not risk your life out there," Mike offered again.
"We are 'out there', Mike," she snapped at him, unable to quietly tolerate his comments anymore. "Or haven't you noticed that?"
"Well it's safer here than going digging around looking for trouble," he added.
She squinted her eyes at him. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. It was like he was a different person. How could the man she had fallen in love with at some point turn into the exact opposite of what she thought him to be. And to think she thought that he had actually been tying during the last few days. He seemed to be trying to kick himself out of his funk. She had tried initially, but at some point it had become too much of a burden to bear, so she had focused on keeping them all alive. All the adults would have to be responsible for their own emotional states. The last couple of days he seemed to have been actually trying to contribute more to the group, where he could. It wasn't much, but all she had wanted was the effort. She knew it would take a while for him to climb out of the rut he was in, but now it seemed even that effort was a facade.
"He's right Miesh," Terry added. "Let them go. They don't need you."
"We have to pull our weight, somehow," she said sitting Andre on the bed and stuffing her jacket into her backpack. "And I don't see either of you volunteering to go."
"Michonne, don't go," Mike pleaded one last time as she scooped up Andre and prepared to take him to camper so Andrea and Amy could watch him until she got back.
She had only made two steps out of the tent before she saw Rick strutting towards her, a wide smile on his face. "Mornin'," he greeted. She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down and not let on to the inner turmoil in their smaller group.
"Good-," she was cut short as she felt someone grabbing hold of her arm. She turned around and immediately came face to face with Mike.
Rick slowed his approach before coming to a complete stop. He wasn't standing next to them, but he was close enough to hear and for them to know that he could hear them, even in their hushed tones. But he didn't move, instead opting to play invisible, and afraid that if he moved he would make the situation more tense.
"Where are you taking him?" Mike demanded.
"I told you," she told him before attempting to turn and walk away from him again.
Again, he stopped her by holding onto her arm. They stared at each other for a moment.
"Michonne," Mike started, "he's my son." Rick could hear the hurt and desperation in the man's voice. Michonne must have heard it too because she broke her cold stare and looked off to the side.
"I have to keep him safe," was her only reply.
"And you think I can't do that?" Mike asked still sounding hurt, but more offended now. "You think some stranger can do a better job at protecting him than me." Michonne didn't answer and Mike leaned in slightly, trying to re-initiate eye contact with her. "I'm his father."
"Then maybe you should start acting like it," she told him.
"I've been trying, Michonne," he pleaded, pleaded with her to notice his efforts, pleaded with her to forgive him for his shortcomings, pleaded with her to allow him the chance to be a father to his son once again, the chance to feel like a man again.
"You caught one rabbit," she told him, shooting him down quickly.
"Well shi…," Rick could see the man caught himself after realizing his son was staring straight at him, observing and probably committing to memory every word and minutia of mannerism. At least with everything that he hadn't been doing, he was still trying to be a good role model for his son. "That's something, Baby." He said addressing Michonne. Rick felt a slight pull of sadness at his heart. He had somewhat settled his initial infatuation with her in the last couple of days, probably because they had spent a lot of that time together getting to know each other while plotting to get their group into safer territory, but the problem was that the reality of her did not disappoint that initial infatuation. Hell, that infatuation paled in comparison to how captivating she actually was once getting to know her. She was the closest person to him amongst the strangers he had met and it made him a little jealous that there were people, other than her son of course, that were higher on her companionship list than him. It was similar to the way he felt when Shane got his first real girlfriend when they were fourteen years old. He had had "girlfriends" before, but this was the first girl that Shane had actually ditched Rick to go and spend time with. Yeah, that had been a rough summer for him. Thankfully they were only kids then and by August he had had his friend back.
"I'm trying," Mike said, holding his hands out in a pleading fashion. "That has to count for something." Michonne just stared at him, Andre on her hip. "Now, I'm going to keep trying no matter what, but you gotta work with me, Michonne. Just...let me spend time with my son. Let me take care of him, please."
Michonne still stared at him, and Rick found himself readying to grab her just in case she put the boy down and went for the katana on her back. The look she was giving the man was in no way friendly or sympathetic. Mike must have seen that too because he turned his attentions to his son.
"Dre, don't you want to stay with Daddy?" he smiled at the boy. Dre just looked at his mother before looking back at his father. He knew his father hadn't been acting like himself much, and that made him sad. The only thing his mother would tell him was that his father and Uncle Terry were sick. He was afraid at first but she later explained to him that they weren't sick like the stinky monsters, but in a different way. He was happy to see that his father was starting to act like his old self, but he wanted his mother's approval.
"We can have fun, like we used to do," Mike said poking the boy in the side, causing him to smile as he tried to hold in a laugh, causing a hint of a smile to come to Michonne's face. "So what do you say?" he stopped poking the boy. "You wanna stay with me?"
Andre immediately nodded his head and Mike reacted by reaching his arms out to the boy. Andre immediately fell into his arms, and surprisingly Michonne let him. Rick let out a sigh of relief. He thought he was about to witness a lover's quarrel, he'd wanted to exit the situation a while ago, but they both saw him standing there and he figured leaving would make it slightly more awkward.
"That's what I'm talking about," Mike said, holding up his hand for Andre to slap him five and responding with an enthusiastic, "My man," once he did.
Rick found himself smiling as well at the now giddy boy. The situation got tense again though as Michonne offered a firm, "Watch him. Keep him safe."
"I will," Mike replied with a more serious tone.
She then turned her attention to the boy, her demeanor more light hearted as she kissed him goodbye. She then turned to Rick. "Ready?"
"Yep," he replied, falling in step behind her as she passed him. He stayed quiet. He could tell the decision that she'd just made was weighing on her.
She looked back at the tent once, twice, and Rick stopped, his hand twitching at the extra gun in his belt. A thought entering his mind.
"Hold on," he said finally before they had gotten too far away from the tent. She stopped and turned around to see him walk back over to where Mike stood with Andre. She watched still as he took the gun from his holster and handed it to the man.
"Here," Rick said as he offered the gun to the man.
Mike only looked at Rick for a while before looking down at the gun in his hand, then back up at him. "I don't…," he tried to say but the blue eyed man cut him off.
"Just in case," Rick told him. "I know you don't plan on using it but, take it. Just in case," he reiterated. Mike still hesitated. "You promised her you'd keep him safe, I'm just trying to help you keep that promise." Mike hesitated still but Rick still held his hand out, offering him the weapon. If Mike was going to work his way back into being her go to person, Rick wanted him to at least be worthy of that and able to fulfill that role competently for her sake as well as Andre's. Mike seemed like a good guy, but he definitely need to step up, for his family's sake if not for his own.
Finally Mike took the gun from Rick. "Thanks," he uttered eyeing the man. Rick wasn't sure if it was sincere or sarcastic but he nodded still in response.
He then turned to Andre, smiled and touched his head. "Have fun with your Dad, Buddy. I'll make sure your Mom gets back in time to tuck you in. See you later," Rick said.
"Bye Cawl's Daddy," Andre waved causing all three adults to laugh.
"You're killing me kid," Rick said as he shook his head and began to walk back towards the boy's mother. "Twenty five years, I didn't even have a son, was my own person, and within a matter of days, you've managed to reduce me to nothing more than Carl's Dad."
Michonne laughed, as she blew a kiss at Andre before she and Rick turned to walk towards the front of the campsite where Daryl and Glenn were waiting on them. "I'd say that's a pretty amazing title, if you had to pick one," she told him. He agreed.
"We get all that we can outta here, then we head back across the street to the weaponry, then we head back to camp," Rick informed his group as they entered the small clothing store.
They had already hit up the local grocery store and had gotten a fair amount of food. They'd decided to find some clothes for the group as well, as the nights were starting to become unpredictable. It was by no means approaching winter time, the days were still sweltering and the nights were usually still pretty humid as well, but they'd figured they'd better be safe than sorry since they were approaching the end of summer and they had gotten an unusually cool night. So they'd pick up a few long sleeved clothes and pants to tide the group over, just in case their numbers became permanently cut down.
Daryl and Glenn nodded as Michonne continued to travel deeper into the store, seemingly looking for something more specific.
"We should check those cars we passed on the way in as well," Glenn suggested. "A few of them still look like they run."
"That's if they've got gas," Daryl reminded them.
"We'll check them on the way out, but if it's too much trouble, we leave'em," Rick responded slightly distracted as his eyes followed Michonne until she disappeared behind a clothes rack. She had been a little off all day. She wasn't her usual self, and it seemed like the further and the longer they were away from camp she got quieter. He figured it was because she was worried about Andre.
He followed her around the clothes racks and found that she had made her way into the little boy's section, unsurprisingly. He watched her as she grabbed a few shirts and pants and stuffed them in the back pack. She didn't acknowledge his presence, other than the annoyed sigh that left her. He figured he'd speak up and say something.
"Aren't those a little too big for Andre," he said in a light hearted tone. "It almost looks like Carl could wear those." He smiled as he walked over to her.
She didn't look at him but continued to search through the racks.
"Yeah, well, just because the world is rotting away, doesn't mean he's going to stop growing. I figure this'll last for a while, throughout this winter," she replied, not taking to the easiness that he was trying to bring to the exchange.
He studied her a little while longer. He could tell that she was more stressed than she normally was. "You okay?"
She paused for a split second and turned to look at him, before turning away again and stuffing a few more items in the now full back pack. "I'm fine," she told him.
He stared at her a little longer, knowing that she wasn't but trying to remember that they had only met each other a few weeks ago. He didn't want to overstep his boundary. He nodded before turning away, but she called to him, "Hey."
He turned back to face her. "Why'd you pick Morales for the CDC run and not me?"
He smirked at her. "You really wanna be that far away from Andre for that long?"
He saw her demeanor shift, but she didn't answer. He could tell this was hard on her. For all intents and purposes, she was a single parent with a young child in the middle of all of this, and it was clear that she trusted very few people with the safety of her child. Plus having to haul around the responsibility for Mike and Terry, it had to have been hard on her.
She nodded and then turned to the rack next to the one she had just taken clothes from. "Give me your bag," she said. He handed her the one that he had been holding. She proceeded to open it, as well as an extra one she had and filled it with slightly bigger clothes from the boys' and the girls' racks. He figured it was for his son and the other kids at the camp.
He tilted his head as he looked at her, wondering how she could still think of others with all that she had weighing on her. She really was remarkable. She filled the bags up and handed his back to him. He hesitated before he took it from her. "Look, Michonne," he started, not really knowing how to continue, "I know you kinda have a lot going on, with your group," he stuttered.
She smiled and patted his shoulder, "I can handle it Grimes."
He placed his hand on top of hers before she could remove it as she tried to walk past him. "But if you ever feel like you can't," he said looking her in the eyes, "I'm here." He nodded, "We all are."
She stared at him and a small smile played at her lips, before she could respond Glenn's voice rang throughout the store. "Hey you guys, they have speedos. I could use these for the lake."
They both burst into laughter as they heard Daryl and Glenn start bickering over the younger man's comment. "Unfortunately," Michonne said in reply to Rick's comment, causing him to laugh harder.
Andrea sat staring at the flames. It had been a long day, but every day was a long day she had decided. When there was no electricity for air condition in the heat, all the days were long, and the nights were even longer. She, along with most people at the camp, could never sleep more than a few hours at a time. She remembered a time when she would be begging for the sun to hold off it's ascent into the sky so she could grab another hour of sleep, but now she woke at least four times a night, wishing it was daylight already so she wouldn't have to continue to pretend to want the miserable sleep she was getting. Between the stickiness of the heat and the fear of walkers creeping up on their camp, sleep just wasn't what it used to be.
"Sweetie, they're fine," Lori's voice broke her from the trance the flames had put her under. She looked up to see the woman running her hands through her son's dark brown locks. "You know how your daddy is," she continued to reassure him. "Always finding something else to do while he's already doing something."
It was dark now and the group had yet to get back. She'd figured they would be back right around sunset, but that was a couple of hours ago. She wasn't going to panic just yet, because she knew her friends were capable of taking care of themselves, but she was starting to worry a little.
The boy looked at the flames for a moment before replying, "Yeah, you're probably right. Him and Michonne could probably kill all the walkers in Georgia."
"And you know they would do anything to get back to you and Andre," Dale added, for emphasis, trying to help comfort the child.
Carl smiled at Dale, and Lori smiled at him. Andrea laughed to herself as she looked over to where the tents were. Carl was definitely captivated by her best friend. She had overheard him going on to the other kids about Michonne after he had seen her take down a walker for the first time. He had likened her to a 'real life superhero'. She sighed, beginning to worry again. Andre was already asleep. His father had taken him to the tent about an hour ago, their small group deciding to turn in early. She prayed Michonne would come back soon, another hour or so and she would really start to panic. And she feared what would happen to the small boy sleeping in her tent if he was left under the care of his father.
"We're out of toilet paper," she heard her sister yell from behind her, and turned just in time to see a walker grab a hold of her arm, she screamed as he bit into it. Her vision became tunneled on her little sister, and within a few seconds, their peaceful camp was turned into chaos.
Andre rolled over and blinked a few times, trying to get his eyes to adjust to the darkness. There was a gloomy light coming from the corner of their tent and he could hear some people's voices outside of the tent. He looked where he saw the light coming from and saw his dad and Uncle Terry sitting around a little candle lit lamp. The area they were sitting in looked hazy, smoky almost. He let his little head fall back to the pillow and snuggled into the covers, hiding himself in them as they smelled of his mother. He was about to doze off again when he heard some scratching at the entrance of the tent.
He heard one of the men say something then footsteps coming near him to open the tent up for their visitor. The next thing he heard was screaming and his little eyes popped open to immediately see one of the dead corpses lunge at his father, taking him down to the ground. He froze, fear gripping his little body. He watched still as two more of the things ambled inside of the tent going for his Uncle Terry who had now begun screaming as well. Tears sprang to his little eyes as his mother's voice started to sound off in his head. "It's like keep away, Baby. Freeze tag," she said speaking of games but her tone implied nothing playful. "Whatever you do don't let them touch you, Dre. If they come for you, you always try to hide somewhere they can't get you or get away if you can." She had then proceeded to tell him all the places where they couldn't get him. Not wanting to waste another second and finally being able to move again with his mother's voice encouraging him, he jumped off of the cot and ran out of the now open tent. Thankfully the walkers were occupied with the two larger bodies they were now feasting on.
He looked around when he got out of the tent and saw that there were also some of the dead things in Sophia's mommy and daddy's tent. He then heard a scream and turned towards where he last remembered the other adults being, but he was cut off as a walker stepped in his path. He quickly made a U turn and headed for the nearest tent he could find. He slipped inside the slightly open tent and ran to the back as he watched the walkers claw at the opening. He was trapped.
"Can't believe we had to drive all the way around," Glenn grumbled as they walked the last half mile towards the camp, hauling as much of their things as they could with them. "Then we ran out of gas."
They had run into, or almost ran into some trouble on the way back. They had left the town they had been scavenging after another group had entered the scene. They didn't look too friendly and they had decided to sneak out another way. They couldn't make it back to the car they had come in but thankfully they had found another on the other side of town. They had then been diverted the long way back to their camp by either deserted cars, walkers, or other debris blocking the road. They had then run out of gas a few miles away from the camp and opted to hide the car in some trees. They took everything they had found on the run and headed back to camp on foot. They would get gas and go back for the car in the morning.
"Aww," Michonne said pinching his cheek. "Are you grumpy, Glenn?" she teased with a laugh. "Is it past your bedtime?" Daryl smirked and Rick laughed, while Glenn just pouted. "It's okay, we're almost back. And I'll tuck you in and read you a bedtime story. How does that sound?"
He tilted his head to the side, "Great actually."
"Yeah, can I get in on that?" Daryl agreed.
"Oh, to be a kid again," Rick finished off.
"Yeah," she agreed with them.
They all stopped short as they heard a scream coming from the direction in which they were walking. They listened, it was followed by more screams and gunfire. They all took off running as fast as they could in that direction.
"Lori, get him down!" Rick heard Shane yell as they broke through the last of the trees hiding their campsite. He saw Lori quickly get to the ground, taking Carl down with her.
It was chaos. Michonne and Daryl both dropped their bags. She reached behind her unsheathing her Katana and started going to work as did Daryl with his crossbow. He and Glenn did the same, using the guns they had gotten from the weaponry.
Suddenly Michonne froze and her head whipped in the direction of the tents. He shot a walker making its way towards her. He was about to call out to her but then he heard it. A small voice crying out for help. She ran in that direction.
"Michonne," he tried to call after her, but he doubt she even heard him, and if she did he knew it would have done nothing to stop her. He took another one down and looked in the direction that she had just disappeared. He then looked to Carl and Lori who were crouched at Shane's feet.
"Go, go help her," Daryl yelled at him, making the decision for him.
"Yeah," Glenn said. "We got this." He watched as the younger man took down three more walkers with the rifle, before heading off to find Michonne. He knew his family was safe. The dead would have to go through his best friend to get to them and he trusted his best friend with his life as well as his family's.
She ran to her tent and pulled the flap open and gasped at the site she saw. Mike sat on the ground, bleeding profusely from a shoulder wound and Terry lay next to him, clearly already dead, his guts spilling from his body. There were three walkers with head wounds sprawled out around the tent and she saw the gun in Mike's hand. She smelled the weed, she saw the lamp, and the leftover marijuana but she didn't see Andre.
"Where's Andre?" she said shakily, causing Mike to open his eyes and look at her.
"Hey, Miesh," he said clearly happy to see her. She did not return the sentiment.
"Where's my baby, Mike?" she asked once again, firmer, anger and fear gripping her.
The small smile he had on his face slowly disappeared. He shook his head, "I'm sorry Miesh."
She felt the tears spring to her eyes, her vision becoming blurry. "Mike?" she said shakily, her breathing becoming deeper as she didn't know if she was going to puke or pass out.
"I don't know," he finally replied.
She quickly left the tent and began looking around for any signs of her son in the darkness. Then she saw it, well first she heard it. The familiar growling of hungry walkers. She saw them, clawing at one of the tent openings and watched as the zipper slowly began to give to allow them inside. Then she heard the sobbing, and another cry for help. She noticed the little hand prints pushing at the backside of the tent, then the zipper gave before she could take a step, then she couldn't move as she felt her skin grow cold and clammy in less than a second, feeling as if all her blood had pooled at her feet. Her throat started to close and she was sure her heart had slowed to a point where it couldn't sustain life anymore. The first thought that registered was to run to him, but she knew no matter what she did, she couldn't get to him fast enough. She was on the other side of the tent circle and the walkers were already starting to get into the tent. She took a step towards him, blade drawn but before she could take a second she saw the shadow of another body emerge from the trees. She watched stiffly as he placed his hands where the little hand prints were making their impressions in the tent, gauging where the boy was. She hadn't noticed the knife in his hand until he raised it, stabbing it into the back side of the tent, making a hole. He then reached inside, quickly finding what he was looking for and pulled his arm back, birthing her three year old from the tent of walkers. He stumbled backwards as a walker arm and head quickly emerged through the hole, and lost his footing from the force he had used to pull the boy from the tent. Her baby landed on top of him and Rick raised his gun to shoot the walker still trying to come after them in the head. Three more ripped through the tent and she knew that this was her chance.
She made quick work of two of the walkers as Rick shot the third in the head from his position on the ground, causing him to fall on top of the one that was already on top of him and Andre. He could feel Andre's little hands clinging to his shirt and hear him grunting, seemingly trying to cry but not being able to as he was currently being crushed between himself and the weight of the two corpses on top of them. He tried to push them off with the hand that held the gun, the one that wasn't trapped between the boy and the bodies. Suddenly it became a little easier as he looked up to see Michonne had rolled the top walker off of them, making it easier for him to push the last one off.
He heard Andre gasp and then begin to cry. He was about to get up but felt a weight being added on top of him again and he realized he was being straddled and the boy being pulled from his arms. He allowed him to go only after he realized that it was the boy's mother that had descended on them.
"He okay?" He asked, breathless as he pushed himself up into a sitting position trying to see if the boy had any wounds, but he couldn't with the lack of light and the fact that Michonne had him encased in her arms as she sobbed softly.
He was about to remind her that they still had to fight, but before he could say anything, he saw T-dog walking over to them.
"Yall good?" the man asked in his usual relaxed manner.
"Yeah," Rick then realized that the ruckus at the fireside had died down. He could hear Shane's voice asking where the hell had the walkers come from. Rick nodded towards the camp.
"Yeah, we got'em," T-dog confirmed.
Suddenly he felt his upper body being tackled as he felt the familiar weight of the small boy being pressed back into him. "Thank you," Michonne sobbed quietly into his neck. He nodded against her shoulder and was about to ask her if she could allow him up so he could go check on his family, but before he could he heard Carl's voice.
"Dad!" he heard. He felt Michonne unwrapping him and pulling Andre away only for him to be side tackled with his son's embrace. He felt Michonne's weight lifting off of him as he wrapped his arms around his boy and breathe a sigh of relief.
"I'm okay, son," he reassured him as he kissed the top of the boy's head.
Satisfied with his answer, his son's attention turned to the sobbing toddler and his mother.
"Is he okay?" he asked as he looked up at Michonne and T-dog. T-dog was shining his flashlight on the boy as Michonne checked him over for bites and scratches. He let out another breath when they confirmed that they didn't see any. He laid back down on the ground looking up at the night sky and thanking the stars, but perhaps he had been too hasty as he registered the crying coming from back at the campsite. They heard someone coming their way and saw Lori emerge from the bushes. She rushed over to them and dropped to her knees, embracing her husband and her son, confirming that they both were okay.
From his position on the ground he watched as Michonne slowly wandered back over to her tent, still holding a crying Andre close to her. She stood at the opening, just looking inside. He blinked hard, before looking up at T-dog. "How bad is it?"
The man only replied with a look, and that answered his question.
"Com'on sweetie, let's go check on Sophia and her mom," Lori told Carl, leading him back to the campsite. She had seen Ed's dead body and Sophia and Carol sobbing at their tent on her way to find her son.
T-dog reached out a hand and Rick took it, allowing the man to help him up. "It's a good thing yall came back when you did," he said quietly before walking back toward the fireside.
Rick watched him, almost not wanting to go back as he still heard the sobs coming from that direction. He hated to see how much of their people had perished in the ambush.
"No baby, don't look," he heard Michonne say calling his attention back over to her.
She pressed Andre's head into her shoulder. The boy's sobs had slowed some and were now softer. He walked over to her and stood next to her. His mouth fell open as he peered inside of the tent. Terry was dead, and Mike was dying.
"You found him," Mike sputtered after opening his eyes and realizing that the woman he loved was back, now holding their son.
She didn't respond, just stared with hatred in her eyes. "Michonne, baby I'm sorry," Mike tried. She only turned and walked away from him.
"Michonne?" Rick called after her. She didn't respond. "Where are you going?" No response. "We have to put him down," he tried again.
"Let him turn," she said as she walked back towards the fire side.
He was quiet. He didn't know how to respond to that. He turned back to look into the tent and saw that Mike was watching her walk away as well, and from the new tears springing to his eyes, he assumed he had heard her. While Mike got control of his emotions, Rick surveyed the tent and saw the drug paraphernalia. He then saw the hole in Terry's head and the gun in Mike's hand. The man sniffed before turning to Rick. He just looked at him for a moment before slowly lifting his hand, extending the gun to him.
Rick understood what he was asking him to do. And as angry as he was with Mike right now for being so irresponsible, they had all made a commitment to each other to kill each other before they would let them turn.
He took the gun and turned it over in his hand. He then looked back at Mike who looked him in the eyes for a moment. He could see all the hurt, shame, and regret in the man's eyes before he looked away. He pointed the gun at the man's head, but turned his eyes towards the front of the tent. He hesitated, obviously too long as he felt Mike grab his hand and press the muzzle of the gun up to his head. Rick closed his eyes, before pulling the trigger.
A/N: Hope you had as much fun reading it as I had writing it. Don't forget to review guys!
So I sat down and watched a few episodes from season 5 with my cousins this weekend at our family get away, and it was the Them episode where Judith is crying in the barn and all I hear is my mom saying from the kitchen, "Who is that crying baby? I bet that's Judy, isn't it?" I couldn't help but to laugh and feel proud, I've officially turned my mom into a deadhead, calling the characters by nick names and everything. Also WHAWGO...I still have to announce to the room that I'm not crying when I watch that episode.
