Rick leaves game night shortly after Michonne, figuring he should relieve Beth of her babysitting duties so she can catch the tail-end of the party. Before making his way upstairs, he stops by Michonne's cell located almost directly beneath his. He's surprised to see her dressed in a baby blue vintage pajama set with navy trim.
"That's new," he comments, chuckling at how conservative she looks. He leans against a wall at the entrance of her cell, an unspoken threshold. She tilts her head to the side and smirks, "Keeping track of my sleepwear, Rick?"
A small thrill runs through him. She rarely says his name or anyone else's for that matter, when speaking to them directly. It has a subtle bite to it, teasing. Making him want more.
He shifts his weight nervously, folding his arms across his chest.
"Well, this is kinda hard to miss. It's nice. Cute, even." He can't help it; she's adorably tiny, fully covered in such loose clothing relative to what she normally wears. Michonne's eyebrows fly into her hairline, then a smile spreads across her face as she looks away.
"Picked it up yesterday. I figured this is as close to a home as it gets. Might as well enjoy it." She shrugs like it's no big deal, but Rick can see the thrill in her eyes. She's delighted to have the breathing room to change in the evening, rather than remain in the day's clothes like a soldier. He nods in understanding. For a split second, he wonders if she's wearing a bra or not but dismisses the thought decisively, the skill of a grown man with self-control. Instead, he switches gears.
"Sounded like you were having fun tonight."
Rick is naturally reserved, so he's not prone to public displays of laughter, and he'd never seen Michonne outright laughing before. Sure, when she taught Carl or walked with him, she grinned or smiled coyly. More and more as the days passed. But a belly laugh was unheard of, another thing she'd had in common with him and Daryl. Rick only knows the 'after' version of Michonne, but tonight, he'd caught a glimpse of the real woman, a life-of-the-party type to complement his wallflower.
She's still light from the evening, her eyes bright and happy. She shakes her head, chuckling: "Maggie's ridiculous. You've heard her Obama conspiracy theory?"
Rick smiles: "Unfortunately, yes. Hershel must've had his hands full with her growing up. I should get some pointers from him on how it's done."
"On your way to Judy-watch?"
"Yea, Beth's done enough. She's been sleeping all evening, as far as I can tell. So I should probably take her to the library now before she wakes the whole cell block at 3 in the morning."
Michonne starts, searching for something in a dark corner of her cell. "Here. I found this."
Striding back, she thrusts a black rectangular object into his palm. "To keep you and Judy company in the middle of the night."
Looking closely, Rick chuckles in surprise and recognition. It's a microcassette tape player with earphones neatly wrapped around it.
"Haven't seen one of these in a while," he murmurs, squinting his eyes in amusement. "So what's in it?"
He glances up at Michonne only to catch a mischievous look on her face. Slowly, she brings her left hand out from behind her back and pushes an empty cassette case into his other hand. Lifting it up for a closer look, Rick's close-lipped smile splits open into a full-on grin as he briefly glances sideways out into the hallway in disbelief.
Staring back at the mystifying creature in front of him, he arches an eyebrow. "Really?"
She shrugs. "Can't go wrong with the classics." She gives him a wide, carefree smile before glancing away. "Good night, Rick."
"Night, Michonne."
Sure enough hours later, Rick is awakened by the sound of Judy's hungry cry. After rocking her back to sleep, he reaches over for the cassette player and places the buds in his ears. The grin finds its way to his face again, as the opening bars of Abba's "Mamma Mia" fill his ears.
I've been cheated by you since I don't know when…
A/N: It's been a while. I needed to see the Michonne/Governor story play out first to visualize how to steer this.
My goals w/ this chapter: 1) Unravel Michonne, "the woman before," little by little. I think an exquisite and subtle set of pajamas is her style (based on the flashback of Season 4, Episode 9), but then again I may just be projecting. 2) Explain how Rick is listening to country tunes ("Precious Memories" by the Stanley Brothers) at the beginning of Season 4, Episode 1.
Next steps: Figure out how to trigger Michonne's retreat from the group and Rick back into the "hunt down the Gov" mindset we see in her in at the beginning of Season 4.