The next few weeks find me taking on the challenge of helping Shane help Lori and Carl get through this disaster.
The poor guy's not only without a partner, the County's without a Sheriff.
Everyone's trying to pick up the slack but this only results in 12 hour shifts 5 days a week from the cranky men, mine included.
Shane's two days off he's either sleeping or at the hospital and I'm not sure how much longer he can keep this up.
It's midnight on a Friday and I'm watching a rerun of Breaking Bad, trying to come up with an inoffensive way to broach the subject of Shane having taken too much upon himself when he shows up. Or at least I hope it's him, I think to myself, as I sit bolt upright in my easy chair.
The sound of my door falling short against the security chain practically gives me a heart attack. I automatically reach for the cordless phone lying nearby, wondering if I should call 911 or just cut to the chase and call my boyfriend if this is in fact an intruder.
Shane's apt to get here faster in all honesty considering how swamped they've been at the station, and-"Savannah?"
Not an intruder, thank God. Shane. "You awake, Savannah Jane?"
Probably the only person who could not only call me by my middle name at will, but give me goosebumps while he does so.
"Coming!" I call before muting the TV and going to open the door to him.
I hadn't exactly been expecting Shane, but I couldn't necessarily claim surprise at the fact he'd turned up, either.
Perversely, the trauma of Rick being shot had brought us closer together than ever-he'd even taken me to meet his crazy Grandma Gene
with the spoon and thimble collection who approved heartily of me. I was glad to see him.
And him me, judging by the way he came right in for a kiss and a cuddle. "I see you listened about the chain."
I think back, hazily remembering the night before, when I'd slept through the car pulling into my driveway, my neighbors dogs barking to sound the alarm and the sound of my latch being thrown. The weight on my bed, the shifting of my mattress is what stirs me.
Shane, already stripped down to his boxers is silhouetted, the first thing I see as I come fully awake.
"Hi," I smile sleepily, cringing at the rush of cold as he throws my duvet back to climb underneath it.
"Girl, what'd I tell you about that security chain?" Shane scolds. He'd told me to keep it latched at all times while home alone.
But if I'd done that he wouldn't be next to me right now after coming off the night shift, so I pretend I hadn't heard him speak.
"What time is it?" Shane groans, stretching out next to me. "After two. Go back to sleep."
I'm not about to protest this, not at 2 AM when he's in my bed, spooning against me, hands splayed on my stomach and face buried in the back of my neck, taking my breath away-he's freezing.
"Holy cow," I protest, my voice hushed although I have no idea why, not when it's just us. "You're cold!"
"Cold outside." Shen mutters. "Go to sleep, S'vannah."
He's well on his way, and I join him, leaving him to sleep it off as I go into work the next morning.
"I did. Didn't want another creep crawling into bed with me,"
Shane kisses me again, ignoring my snark.
"Mmm," I sigh happily. "Hi,"
Shane, who looks dog tired, smiles as he runs the back of his index finger over my cheek. "Hey, baby."
Still in his uniform when he'd gone in at 11 AM, so I know he's here straight from patrol.
I ask the same question any self-respecting Southern woman would: "Have you eaten?"
He shakes his head at me, rubbing his face and yawning hugely as his rough hands rasp over his way-past 5 o'clock shadow.
"Sit," I command and Shane practically falls into the chair at the head of my dining room table.
He looks good there, I can't help but note. Better than the sad card table at his place that serves as both desk and dining room.
"I made lasagna," I offer, waving the Tupperware around before scooping a healthy portion onto his plate.
"You want bread? Shane?" He snaps out of his day dream, or more aptly, waking daze at the sound of his name.
"What? No, no." I stick the plate in the microwave and start the timer before starting over to him cautiously-I never quite know when he needs his space.
"Hard night, baby?" I ask inanely, laying my hand on top of his head, tugging at his curls in a way I know he likes.
He is in desperate need of a haircut.
"This whole day's been shitty." Shane confides, leaning into me just a little. "Some guy bit his wife, you believe that?
We got there too late and she died up at the Hospital." Wow.
"People are crazy," I soothe, rubbing his back trying not to be completely rattled by this news.
"I'm sure you all tried your best, Shane,"
He pulls me in for a kiss and my hand reaches up to squeeze the back of his neck, causing him to sit straight up as if I'd just electrocuted him.
"Hey Savvy? Let's go on to bed."
His voice is as sexy and raspy as his almost-beard and almost enticing until my microwave beeps, snapping me out of it. "But your dinner-"
Shane's standing, sweeping me into his arms before I can finish.
"Hell, it's already been re-heated once. Besides, I need you a whole hell of a lot more than I need your lasagna right now."
I smile as he presses his hips to mine suggestively-I can't help it. "Are you saying you don't like my cooking?" I tease.
"I love your cooking, girl," Shane says right in my ear in-between pressing kisses along my neck and jaw making me shiver and clutch him tighter to me. "Just not as much as I love you." This is the perfect answer.
Abruptly I'm lost in him and neither one of us can make it to my bedroom fast enough.
It's times like these I'm glad we at least have a runner in the hallway.
