Days after the community lost their devil in disguise, one of the elderly residents, Edna Niedermeyer, passed away in her sleep. She turned, and since she lived alone she was stuck in her house for days until Aaron went to check on her. Father Gabriel officiated a small ceremony in the chapel before the community had a funeral and buried their friend. She was the first member of the neighborhood to pass away, and Deanna dedicated an area outside the gate for a cemetery.
Daryl and Beth offered to move into the now-vacant house, giving their guests more privacy, but Rick turned down the offer, saying that the couple claimed the house as their own before the large family arrived. The late fall weather allowed the windows and door to be left open for a few days to try to remove the stench of decay.
Eventually, the Grimes family moved in. In the five bedroom house, rooms were shared with family, which was determined not by blood but by bond. Carl, Andre, and Michael took one, Shannon and Julia another, and twins Kelly and Kelly shared their room with Catherine, who looked more like Rick every day.
Rick took the master bedroom, and Lori and Michonne shared a room with two twin beds. In the week since the sheriff and the samurai arrived at Alexandria, there was no sexual contact between anyone. Michonne felt like an outsider when she saw how easily Rick and Lori reconnected, and the brunette grimaced when she thought about her husband being with another woman.
xxxxx
It was evening when Carl was watching his siblings and Rick was meeting with Deanna discussing how to make the area more secure. Michonne went with Lori when the brunette returned to her former house. She became emotional, thinking of all the times she received beating for no reason, or when Shane held her down to force her to have sex, even in front of the children.
The toddler beds had already been moved into the Grimes home, so the trip, which Lori said was the last time she wanted to be in the house, was to the two gather anything of personal value. Michonne walked around the house, noticing dried blood spatter on different walls.
"Oh, sorry. I thought I got that." Lori mumble when she walked into the kitchen and saw Michonne, transfixed at the now brown stains on the edge of the kitchen hutch.
"S'alright." The black beauty replied, casting an empathetic gaze at her friend. She looked around at the family room. The walls were stark white, and no pictures adorned the walls. The room was outdated with furniture was dated with 1990's era furniture.
While gathering the few toys the children had the women continued to talk about their past, and the circumstances in which they found themselves in. The two sat on the sofa, the same one on which Lori sat by herself just a week earlier when the second Grimes family entered the Alexandria gates.
Although the atmosphere in the home was comfortable, they were sitting in awkward silence for a few moments until Michonne spoke first.
"Lori, I'm sorry. Twenty years with Rick, it's gotta be hard to see him with someone else."
The brunette nodded, then nodded her head. "But he told me about you. You saved him."
"I like to think he saved me too. He loves you. The first day I met him was at a quarry, and he was so sad. I never knew a man could cry that much."
Outside the sun was setting, casting an amber glow and filling the dimly lit room with an orange haze. The two continued talking, "Are you still in love with him?" Michonne asked.
Lori nodded vigorously. "Absolutely. He's my first love. We met in high school. When Shane told me he was dead I wanted to die. But I had Carl and I was pregnant with Michael. He's the only one in the world I want to grow old with. You love him too?"
Michonne paused, and eventually said, "Yes. I'm in love with him."
The tension was thick. Both women loved the same man and wanted to live a life with him.
"Hang on a second," Lori said, before hopping off the couch and going into the kitchen. She returned a few minutes later with two bottles of wine and two juice glasses. "It's wine o'clock, isn't it?"
Michonne, after not seeing alcohol in years, smiled and clapped her hands together.
"Hell yeah it is!"
Lori opened the first bottle and poured the reddish liquid into each glass which the women clinked together and said "cheers."
xxxxx
An hour later, when the last drop of wine was gone, the women were laughing like old friends, and telling secrets they would usually keep to themselves.
Lori told Michonne about the time Rick pulled a double shift and was exhausted, but wanted to be intimate when they crawled into bed. Michonne was laughing so hard she was almost gasping for air when she was told her Rick had fallen asleep while going down on her. They talked about sex, and how tender Rick was. Andre's father wasn't as romantic as Rick, and Lori didn't even mention Shane.
"Like, he's good, but I have to do the final push sometimes." Michonne giggled.
"Oh my GOD yes…like one time I wanted to say to him Ii 'if you don't know what you're doing, don't do it faster.' 'Cuz sometimes a quickie is like ten seconds. Does he still sound like a puppy when he cums?"
"Yes!" Michelle shouted in laughter. "You haven't done it yet?"
"No…it's weird."
"Say no more…I understand. Well, I think a woman knows what to do. I had a girlfriend on law school, and it's like…only a woman knows what a woman really wants….you know what I mean?"
Lori was nodding and laughing.
"C'mere. Let me show you." The former lawyer said.
Michonne leaned forward and cupped Lori's face in her hands. She pulled her ally toward her and the black beauty brushed her thick, plump lips against the brunette's lips.
A strange expression broke over Lori's face, a look of pure shock. Then it slowly dawned on her like a creeping chill that before her lay a new experience. Michonne had already established herself as a confidante and close friend, and knowing she prevented Rick from doing the unthinkable gave her a special place in Lori's heart. Now, after her first same-sex kiss, and with a bottle of wine in her system, Lori's light brown eyes locked with Michonne's bark browns.
With a sly smile, Lori let herself be kissed again, and when she felt the other woman's tongue at her lips she gladly gave it permission to claim her mouth.
"I think I may be a little drunk" Lori slurred as she smiled.
"Ya think?" Michonne giggled. "We each drank a bottle of wine."
Brown hands ran through black hair as long, white fingers played with the curls that covered the other woman's head.
Michonne was the first to remove clothing, letting her shirt and bra land on the floor, joining the empty wine bottles. Lori didn't need much coaxing when Michonne started to tug on the brunette's pants.
"Sometimes it's okay to just lie there and enjoy it. Let me do all the work." Michonne smiled.
xxxxx
When his meeting with Deanna was over, the two shook hands, agreeing that they need more coverage for the blind spots. It was dark when he went back to his house, and after he shut the door he shed his jacket and was about to toe off his boots when he saw Carl enter the hallway.
"Hey bud. Mom and Michonne here?"
"No. They're not back yet."
Rick's heart froze. He didn't want to scare his son, so he casually said "they're probably just talking. I'll go check."
He slipped the jacket back on and left the house, heading to the only place he knew they were…at Lori's former home.
He jogged to the house, his heart thundering in his chest. The two women in his life were missing. One he went years without seeing, and the other healed his soul. He bounded up the steps and opened the front door, placing his hand on the butt of his gun as he walked through the darkened house.
"Lori? 'Chonne? You guys here?" He asked, trying to control the panic in his voice.
The moans got his attention, which he followed to the living room. Only one lamp was on, giving the dark room just a twinge of light. He thought he was hallucinating again. He was transfixed, not being able to take his eyes off the sight that was on the sofa. Both women were naked, Lori's long legs were draped over Michonne's shoulders, whose head was firmly planted at his wife's center.
Lori's head was back, her eyes closed, almost as if she was lost in her own world.
The two didn't hear him come in, nor did they hear him walk back to the front door and engage the deadbolt. His feet carried him across the room to where the two women were.
"Should we let him join in?" Michonne joked as she watched as Lori's body shake slightly from another orgasm.
Lori wasn't able to answer her question, she was simply staring at her husband. She knew that there was nothing else in this world she wanted than to feel him inside of her again.
xxxxx
The three walked back to the house, the women trying to hide the blatant fact that they were falling down drunk. Rick directed Carl and the younger kids to go into the room they converted into a playroom for the children while Lori and Michonne stumbled upstairs and decided to take a shower together.
xxxxx
Rick woke up as the sun began to flood the master bedroom with a warm glow. He had barely slept in the easy chair that rested in the corner of the large room. His mind was racing, trying to remember what happened. He thought it was because of the booze. He and Lori had watched porn together dozens of times over the years, and while she loved watching a man go down on a woman, she was "freaked out" by two women together. A smile touched his lips when he vividly remembered her taking him into her mouth as he watched the two women together. Their sex life was always very healthy.
Michonne never mentioned she was bi-sexual, but that would explain how she was so eager for the three to live as a family. He was sleeping alone, as to not hurt either woman's feelings, but he hoped that would change. He loved both women, for different reasons, and the intense and all-consuming love he had for one didn't diminish the feelings he had for the other.
They could make it work, he reasoned to himself. The world had ended, and societal norms didn't apply anymore. It was nobody's business what happened in their home, and if they wanted an unconventional relationship, he could make it happen. He'd do anything for the women he loved.
He stood and walked over to the king sized bed. Both women were still passed out, Michonne lying on her side, facing away from Lori, and the latter on her stomach, her long black hair splayed across the pillow and her left arm hanging off the mattress.
Rick looked at the woman who tore his heart out when he thought she was dead. After years he finally claimed her again the night before, although she may not remember much. He hoped it wasn't taking advantage. He knew it wasn't. She meant more to him than the next breath that filled his lungs. He would never hurt her. His lips teased a smile when he thought about having mind-blowing sex with his wife again…something just weeks ago he thought would never happen again.
He pulled back the covers to look at his naked wife. Her back was completely cover with deep scars, bruises, and welts. Criss-crossed white scars littered her back. He saw some healed burns, and the tattoo she got two months before the shooting, of lovebirds sitting on a tree branch, their initials "RMG and "LAG" surrounded by hearts, looked as though Shane tried to cut it off. The RMG was illegible, and the scabs were still present. He sighed, thinking of what she went through. She was the woman who kept his heart carefully guarded and locked up tight. He replaced the blankets, washed up in the bathroom, and quietly left the room after putting the trash basket from the bathroom next to Lori's side of the bed for the inevitable vomiting.
xxxxx
He left the bedroom and went to the kitchen, seeing all the children but Carl. Rick was about to ask Andre where his brother was, but Michael gingerly walked up to the man who he is learning to call "dad" and said he had to use the bathroom. Rick nodded and took Michael's hand, escorting him to the hallway bathroom.
Carl was startled when he realized he forgot to lock the door, and Rick screamed when he saw his son, sitting on the bathroom floor, razor blade in his hand and horizontal cuts from his ankle to his knee.
