Disclaimer: I do not own 'The Walking Dead' or any of its related characters. Those are all property of Frank Darabont, Robert Kirkman, AMC and all others who hold copyright to this franchise. However, all original characters made up in this story, like Audrey, are mine.


Rick lie in the dark very much awake. It really wasn't his choice, but between Audrey burying herself beneath him, the front door knob rattling incessantly and the loud snores issuing from the other adult male in the household he gave up on sleep hours ago. As he lie there on his back staring up into the pitch black of the living room, his mind began to play back the horrifically long day. Starting with waking up in the hospital then ending here on this floor with three complete strangers. He thought of Lori, Carl and that abominable letter, causing a swell of emotion to rise inside of him. Hot tears sprung up at the corners of his eyes and he resisted the urge to sob with reckless abandon at the moment. It couldn't be true… Could it? How could she just forget about him like that? How could they, his wife and best friend, simply hook up without a pinch of guilt? Was Carl hurt by this? Did he even care? Probably not. Rick never did like that little bastard to begin with. The only comfort he had was knowing that Shane and Lori were using condoms.

His train of thought switched tracks to the latest topic then, concerning the living dead. So according to Morgan, as was the strange man's name, the world had decided to go to shit one fine sunny day whilst Rick was in his coma and now there was dead people walking around. Literal dead people. At first, Rick had laughed, believing the man to be a murderous fruitcake. Of course he was proven drastically wrong when he went to leave the house only to be met by a sickly-looking woman. She was not sick, however, but dead. She was not alone either-the entire street was filled with stumbling, moaning living corpses. It turned out the woman was actually Morgan's late wife. Sadly she'd contracted the virus or whatever it was that caused a person to die and reanimate. Understandably, Rick felt terrible for what he'd said to Morgan before this enlightenment. Morgan was a nice guy though. He easily forgave Rick and allowed the cop and his blonde buddy to stay the night, for which they were grateful.

Don't get bit. Morgan's words echoed in Rick's head.

Laying there pondering the daunting aspect of going outside tomorrow to face that ghoulish world once more, he did not notice the woman beside him stir.

"Rick? Psst! Rick, are you still up?" Audrey's loud whisper makes him start.

"Yes!" he hisses, annoyed. "I am. I thought you were asleep? Why aren't you asleep?"

"I was, but then I had a nightmare." she explained.

Rick sighed, rolling away from her. "It's not real, Audrey. Now go back to sleep."

"Yeah, but those things out there are." she persisted.

"Just go to sleep, Audrey." he ordered wearily.

There was a long pause where the policeman thought she'd actually listened to him. This presumption was swiftly blighted, however.

"Rick, thank you for letting me cuddle with you," she breathed on the back of his exposed neck, causing the hairs there to stand on end. "Because I'm kind of scared. You know, with all the dead people and stuff?"

"I'm not cuddling with you." he growled quietly.

"Well, whatever this is that we're doing, I thank you," the blonde considered her next words carefully. "You're a pretty sweet guy, Rick Grimes. I'm glad you found me today."

"Good night, Audrey!"


A/N: Really, really, really short chapter, I know! But, it was just too perfect standing on its own. If I'd added more, it would just not fit right, you know? To be honest, I should have just put this on the end of the last chapter instead, but, oh well. What's done is done.

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