Rick sits on a stool in the small modern kitchen of the big house scratching his latest scar which is now three weeks old. His black jeans and white tee shirt are adorned with splotches of orange baby food from his efforts of trying to get Judith to eat her lunch.
With everyone out doing their assigned jobs and Carl hanging out with his new friends before the afternoon school session, the house is quiet except for the sheriff's pleading words to the little girl slouched in the high chair that is pulled up next to the island. "Come on, Judy. Just a little more."
Judith turns her tear-stained face at the sound of the front door opening and he inadvertently paints her cheek orange with the creamy food. "Hey, Carol," Rick says with a slight frown as he wipes Judy's face with a napkin.
"Hey you two."
"How was work at the pantry this morning?" Rick asks with a fresh spoonful ready to slip into his daughter's mouth.
Carol closes the door behind her and joins them the kitchen. "It was good. The guys brought back a ton of supplies last night." She sets a grocery bag on the counter next to the sink and turns back around to place a tender kiss on the top of Judy's fair hair as the baby swallows a mouthful of goop from Gerber. "I just wish Daryl didn't have to leave so soon already."
"I know. But we need those solar panels desperately."
"Yeah, but it still sucks. How was our Li'l Asskicker this morning? Feeling any better?" she asks with a warm caress down the back of Judy's head.
"Still cranky but at least she's eating now."
"Listen, I'm making lasagna tonight and there will be plenty. Why don't you ask Kate and Josh to join us? I'm sure they've come to love tofu as much as the rest of us," she says with a slight smirk.
Rick glances up at Carol with an answering smirk of his own as he measures her words carefully.
When he doesn't answer for a few moments, she continues, "I know you have your routine of eating over there every other night, but she might like to come here occasionally too."
"You don't think anyone would mind?" he asks skeptically.
"Of course not, honey. We all adore her," she says while restocking the cabinets with supplies from the pantry.
Rick gives her a dubious look as he drops the baby spoon into the empty jar with a series of melodic plinks.
"Okay, Abraham may not 'adore' her but he likes her well enough now since she pulled that metal splinter from his hand last week," she says, pointing a long box of spaghetti at him before placing it in a cabinet.
"Are we eating here tonight or next door?"
"Here. I offered to cook since Rosita and Tara made the stew last night."
"Alright. If we're eating here, I'll ask them to come. Thanks, Carol."
"You know," she pauses, stretching on tiptoe to set a can of soup on the top shelf. "If you wanted to just move in with her on a permanent basis, you could still come over and have dinner with us a few nights a week. We're not going anywhere, Rick, and neither is she. So maybe it's time to stop sneaking into the house every day at the crack of dawn. Really, sweetie, you aren't fooling anybody."
"But Carl-,"
"Carl knows your routine better than anyone. He's just waiting for you to stop dragging your feet so he can move in with Josh."
"He told you that?" Rick asks with his eyebrows nearly hitting his hairline.
"In so many words, yes. I think he's still not used to having his own bedroom and would like the company."
"I know he still has nightmares but they're getting less frequent. And what about Judith?"
"You'll bring her over here every afternoon. I'll watch her while you make your rounds, just like we've been doing. Nothing has to change, Rick. Except maybe you'll sleep later," she adds with a warm smile.
"I don't know, Carol."
"You do not have to feel guilty for leaving us. You're not abandoning us, honey, you're just moving forward, as you should be. Hell, if anyone has a right to be happy – it's you. And she makes you happy so don't let anything hold you back from that. After everything you've done for us, I think we can let you move three doors down."
Silence stretches between them for a few moments until Rick clears his throat. "Yeah, it's really not that big a deal, right?"
"No. It is a very big deal, sweetheart, but for us – it's only a few hundred feet."
After spending a nice evening with Rick's large family the night before, Kate is delighted to have him to herself - more or less - once again. Standing at the kitchen sink with a sponge in one hand and a dinner plate in the other, she smiles as she hears him tease the boys as they set up a DVD in the living room.
Last night they'd enjoyed a lovely dinner, though be it a rather quiet meal considering the amount of people sitting around the dining room table and perched about the kitchen. The conversation was relaxed but sporadic and she didn't know if it stemmed from them savoring the food that they had gone so long without, or the fact that they are still so in tuned with each other that they continue to communicate almost wordlessly.
It was a remarkable thing to witness and she was honored to have been invited into the fold. Rick had seemed adorably nervous but they all made her feel welcome and she really had a lovely time. She had especially enjoyed teasing him with a bare foot rubbing provocatively against his calf as his knee bounced restlessly beneath the table. She remembers the way he had tilted his chin to fix her with a light warning glare, and then how he had taken a deep calming breath at the sight of her drawing in and releasing an exaggerated amount of air for his benefit.
She recalls the tender smile he gave her when he took her hand and squeezed it affectionately as he pulled it into his lap. It was that silly, insignificant moment that she realized that she loved him with every fiber of her being; every crevice of her broken heart, every notion of her terrified mind and every remote shadow of her lonely soul.
The thought had shaken her to her core, both completely terrifying and profoundly comforting all in a single breath. She'd squeezed his hand back, steadying herself as his knee ceased it's momentum in a race for a gold medal.
She returned his smile, knowing that this man was her partner in every sense of the word. He was her light in the darkness and the promise for a hopeful future in a fucked up world.
The warmth of his palm against hers was soothing in its familiarity and the strong foundation of his thigh beneath her wrist was reassuringly solid as she finished her meal one-handed.
Now, as her mind drifts to the way that muscular thigh had rubbed against her flesh as it parted her legs somewhere beyond midnight, a band of warmth spreads low in her belly as she imagines having him inside of her again, filling every inch of her body and soul as he moves over her in a sensual dance of carnal passion.
Getting lost in her erotic thoughts, her head tilts to the side as she absently scrubs a Corelle salad bowl. When she feels two large hands warming her shoulders, she straightens abruptly and nearly drops the slippery soaped-up dish.
"Hey." Rick presses a kiss to the back of her hair and she wipes a dripping finger across the base of her neck to cool her heated flesh.
"Hey. Everything all set up in there?" she asks a little too brightly as she tries to rearrange her stimulated mind.
"Yeah, they're watching 'Mall Cop'… again," he says as he picks up a dish towel and folds it over a glass from the drying rack.
"What about all the other movies that Aaron and Daryl brought back?" she asks, looking forward to snuggling up with Rick sometime to watch one of the romantic comedies she had seen in the slew of thin plastic cases covering the large table in Alexandria's library.
"They want to watch that again and then move onto 'Mission Impossible' and 'Night at the Museum'." He places the newly dried glass in the cabinet with its mates and pulls a bowl from the rack.
"Sounds like a long night."
"After all the running around they did today, I doubt either one will be conscious by the time Paul Blart finishes with them."
She chuckles at the memory of their impromptu soccer game on the northwest field. It was a small group of three on three but what they lacked in numbers, they made up for in unsportsmanlike insults and she hadn't heard Josh laugh so hard in a very long time. "Yeah, today was fun." She smiles at Rick as the sound of her son's laughter continues to echo warmly inside her heart.
"Yes, it was." He returns her smile briefly before giving her a stern look. "Except for the fact that you gave up four goals."
"Hey, the last two were not my fault. That freakin' snake practically attacked me and then Tara distracted me with the piece of black rope!"
"Excuses, excuses. I can't believe I'm in love with such a lousy goalie."
Kate flicks her fingers at him, sending a handful of droplets into his face. "I am not a lou-. Wait, what?"
"I said you're a lousy goalie," he teases, wiping his wet cheek against his shoulder.
"No, the other part." She shuts off the faucet and takes the towel from his hands as she turns to face him.
"What?" he asks innocently as he lays his hands on the curve of her hips and pulls her against his body. "That I'm in love with you?"
"You are?" she asks softly, the damp towel balled up in her fists as they lay against his chest.
He tilts his head as he smiles tenderly at her, eyes shining with cerulean adoration as he caresses the small of her back. "I am."
"Oh, honey, I love you too." She tosses the towel onto the table and wraps her arms around his shoulders. "I love you so much," she whispers into his neck as she hugs him fiercely, swallowing the small lump lodged in her throat as she presses her soft flesh into the hard plane of his chest.
His arms fold across her back and squeeze her tightly. "Thank God," he breathes against her hair before kissing his way from her temple to her jaw and across to her lips to claim her mouth in a fervent testimony of hope, desire and love.
Kate leans forward on the chaise lounge and stretches her arms above her head with a satisfied groan, freeing the kinks in her body that had twisted into knots as she lay curled beneath Rick's arm for the last two hours. She reaches for the remote control to stop the endless scroll of movie credits and feels Rick's fingertips against her lower back as they glance across the strip of bare skin beneath the hem of her red tee shirt. She turns off the DVD player and television, leaving them in gray shadows from the soft light filtering in from the recessed lighting beneath the kitchen cabinets.
As grateful as she is that her house is back on the power grid, she is even more thankful for the bond that Carl and Joshua have developed. She looks at the slim form of her son and the longer, lankier form of Carl where they lay side by side on the floor, heads resting together on one king sized pillow from upstairs. For a moment, she imagines another figure lying on the other side of Carl, a smaller, dirtier version of Josh that would have really liked Rick's son too. She swallows the lump in her throat and smiles at the sleeping boys before glancing over at Judith's round bottom protruding up from the center of the playpen against the wall.
She feels the cushion shift beneath her as Rick leans forward on the long chair, pressing a knee at either hip and rubbing his hands over her shoulders to help with the kinks. She drops her chin to her chest in listless relief and feels his warm breath tickling the downy hairs on her nape.
"I should probably wake him up now," Rick says, drawing his thumbs up and down the column of her neck.
"Or just throw a blanket over him and wake him up in the morning," she mumbles into her chest as her body melts under his hands.
"It's tempting." He replaces his hands with his lips at the top of her spine and weaves his arms around her middle.
"Do you really have to take them home?" she asks, laying her hands across his forearms and turning her head toward him. "Just let them sleep here tonight and you won't have to sneak out in the morning."
"Funny, I was just talking to Carol about that yesterday."
"What? Letting the kids sleep over?"
He looks at her somewhat shyly. After hesitating for a few moments he answers softly, "Moving in."
"Oh." She begins to smile but quickly smothers it for fear of getting her hopes up. She turns in her seat to face him squarely. "Do you want to?"
"Yeah… I do. If you'll have us."
She leans in to press her lips to his, her heart filled with joy at the thought of living with Rick and the kids on a permanent basis. "Of course we'll have you."
