"The best thing one can do when it's raining is to let it rain." ― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The dining room table in the house was large and made of mahogany that seated ten; eight on both sides and two at the ends. It allowed most of the group to sit around it together. Plus, there were four more chairs from the table in the kitchen that had been brought into the dining room for extra seating. It really only left two people without chairs, since Judith was content on her father's lap. Daryl had left the house very early that morning to go hunting and Sasha chose to wander around the property with her rifle to keep watch, which meant everyone that needed a seat, had one. They were seated there, talking, planning out the day in regard to searching for food, supplies and gas and who would be doing which of those things.
Abraham, Rosita and Tyreese decided to go looking for gas for all their vehicles, while Glenn, Maggie, Michonne, Tara and Noah decided to go look for food and supplies. Eugene and Gabriel weren't much in the way of help, so they were asked to stay put and to, more or less, not fuck with anything. Georgie mentioned the driveway at the beginning of the road they had passed the previous morning, which was blocked by those two cars, and that they could check out the house there for supplies as well. Rick nodded, agreeing that was a good plan, and offered to go with her while asking Carol to stay with Carl and Judith. Once everyone had their tasks, they left the table and went off to change out of the pajamas they were wearing, which was still so strange and nice to be able to do, and change into regular clothes they swiped from the closets. The fact that there was something for everyone to wear, except Judith, could practically be construed as a miracle.
Rick appeared shortly after in a new — to him — pair of jeans and a rust brown colored T-shirt, pulling his belt on with the holsters for his weapons. His jacket was back on as well when he approached Georgie who was standing at the base of one of the two staircases. Carol was seated on the third step from the bottom with Judith on her lap and smirked up at Rick when he walked down the stairs beside her.
"Lookin' good, Officer Grimes," Carol quipped. "No longer living up to your last name."
Rick shook his head, trying to hold back a smile. "Not lookin' so bad yourself, Carol."
"Why thank you."
Georgie looked between the pair and just chuckled slightly. She was very happy with the clothes she had found for herself. Especially the black leather jacket she had gotten to, beating Rosita to it. Standing confidant in a pair of black jeans and a blue V-neck shirt underneath the leather jacket, Georgie hooked her thumbs into her pants pockets.
"Ready?" Rick asked her.
She patted her hunting knife sheathed on her right hip and a Beretta 92FS holstered on her left hip. "I am, are you?"
Rick smirked. On left was his red-handled machete and on his right his Colt Python. "I am."
After he kissed Judith on the head, Rick and Georgie walked out the front door, side by side. Neither was saying anything about the night before in the kitchen, but it was somewhat obvious it was on both their minds by the way they maintained a slightly awkward silence with each other.
At the end of the driveway, Rick unlatched the gate, allowing them slip out before latching it back up. Their silence remained until about halfway down the road when they spotted the listless walkers in both cars blocking the other house's driveway up ahead.
"Should we put 'em down?" Georgie suggested.
Rick shook his head. "They ain't goin' nowhere." When they got right up to both cars, he gestured to the driver's side door of the one. "My guess is this guy was leaving and got T-boned by the woman. There are old tire tracks on the road, behind the car. She must've been hightailing it onto this road. It was enough to fatally injure them both so that they both died and turned. No other walkers would've gotten in or out of the vehicles to bite them. The guy's driver side door is pinned against her grill. He couldn't accidentally climb out if he tried."
Georgie was looking at Rick now more than both cars. She smirked at the way he had one hand on his hip and pointed around with his free hand, all official-like. "You really did used to be a cop, didn't you?"
He caught on to her meaning, tilted his head a little and smiled. "Is it obvious?"
She shrugged. "It's just in the way you carry yourself, how you talk sometimes. Even how you can tell how this wreck was caused. You've probably been at the scene of plenty of car accidents before, am I right?"
"I have." After a moment he gestured to the male walker's car. "We'll need to climb over to get through."
"Okay."
Georgie went first. She hopped up onto the hood and then climbed up onto the roof as Rick followed after her. Once they were on the trunk, they jumped down and looked back at the car and how the male walker was trying to turn and reach for them to no avail.
Up the long driveway they went to this second house, which was a red brick Georgian style home with large white columns in the front. Just like the one they were all staying in, the grass and landscaping was overgrown and many dead leaves covered the ground. The garage was situated off to the side and, from what they could tell upon approaching, one of the two or three bays was opened. Rick suggested they go in the house that way, since the male walker had obviously been from this house and, if he had been leaving in a hurry, would've exited from the garage entrance and left it unlocked.
Rick went first this time, turning the knob and pushing the door open slowly. Georgie stepped inside behind him and they found themselves in a mudroom off the kitchen. Balling his fist, Rick banged on the wall and whistled in case there were walkers inside the house; to lure them out so they could take care of them first before continuing on.
No walkers came out and they breathed a sigh of relief. However, they still remained on guard. Just because the downstairs was apparently safe and clear, didn't mean the upstairs would be. They weren't about to count their chickens before they hatched.
Once they stepped out into the open area of the kitchen, they went straight for the cupboards; pillaging for canned goods. There weren't much of anything; no more than ten or eleven cans. Though, there was a box of pancake mix and something else that would prove useful. Georgie climbed up onto the counter to reach far back into the cupboard, pulling out another box and smiling as she did.
"What is it?" Rick asked.
She turned and showed it to him. "Powdered milk," Georgie replied. Giving the box a slight shake, her smile faded considerably. "Well, there might be a third of it left. Still, it's something." She sat down on the counter and gave pause for a moment. "We can mix it with water. It'll give Judith something more than just water to drink. Should last us maybe a week; two if we use it sparingly."
"Same with that pancake mix." Rick pointed at the other box. "Stove don't work but there's pans in the cupboards back at the other house, and a fireplace. We can build a fire, mix that in a bowl, pour it on the pans and hold the pans over the flames." Georgie grinned at him, and he at her. "We'll eat like paupers."
Georgie laughed. "Better than we have in weeks."
"Yeah." Rick lined up the cans and the two boxes on the kitchen island and then leaned up against it, looking back at Georgie as she remained seated on the counter. "Almost forgot; what do you miss?"
Maintaining her smile, Georgie stared up toward the ceiling in thought. "Hmm, lemme think." She could feel his eyes on her as she did so, and knowing it made her skin feel flush. "My iPod; just listening to music, in general," she finally answered. "What about you?"
"Going to the movies," he replied. "I used to be all about the action flicks; the bigger the explosion and death toll the better. But now I'd give my left kidney for a romantic comedy."
The two of them began to chuckle, thinking about how nice both their answers were.
"It doesn't even have to be a new movie," Georgie remarked, adding to his reply. "If we had electricity, we could find some DVDs; watch them on that big, flat screen TV in that house."
"If only," Rick smiled ruefully.
"If only," she repeated.
Offering his hands to her, Rick helped Georgie down from the counter. They turned their focus back to looting the house of supplies, and especially something to carry it all back to the other house with. Georgie looked in the bottom cupboards and a few downstairs closets for plastic bags or those reusable linen bags everyone had starting using more of in the last decade before the outbreak. She found two rolled up above the fridge when she backtracked to the kitchen from a downstairs hall. There wasn't anything else on the first floor they could use or needed, so they made the wary trek up the stairs to the second floor.
As a precaution, Rick withdrew his machete and aimed it in front of him. He stopped just before the top step and hit the wall with the blade, whistling once more and shouting out 'hey' to draw out any walkers that could be upstairs.
They both held their breaths and listened.
Silence.
Rick looked back over his shoulder at Georgie and nodded, signaling the coast was clear again.
Splitting up, Georgie went left and Rick went right.
"Keep the doors open, so we can hear each other, just in case."
Georgie nodded and headed off alone, first to a bathroom that came up empty of any supplies, like shampoo, soap or even disposable BIC razors for the ladies. Next was a little girl's room which looked as if it had been turned upside down by a tornado at some point. The drawers of the dresser were pulled out and clothes piled and scattered all over the floor, nothing that would fit Judith, but then Georgie smiled. She spotted an oversize teddy bear wearing a onesie.
"This'll do," she muttered to herself.
Crouching down she picked it up and then sat down on the bed to remove the onesie from the stuffed animal just as Rick poked his head in.
"Now's not the time for playing with toys," he teased.
Georgie lifted her head and snickered at him. "No, it's wearing a onesie. Judith could fit into it. It's cute, too." She successfully pulled it off and showed it to him. "See?"
"That is cute."
Narrowing her gaze at him, Georgie asked, "Are you making fun of me being excited about this?"
"No, I swear," he replied, holding up his hands in mock surrender. "It is very cute."
Georgie wasn't entirely convinced, but smiled at his insistence. "We might be able to use some of the T-shirts on the floor here. They'd be more like nightgowns on her, but it's still something."
Rick simply smiled back at her in response. "I didn't find anything in the two rooms down the hall except for a dried out stick of deodorant."
"We could soak it in water; get some moisture back into maybe so it'll work again?"
He shrugged. "There's not much to it anyway." Watching as she stuffed the onesie and a few T-shirts into her bag, Rick gestured over his shoulder with his thumb. "There's one more room over here we should check."
Rick looked to his left at a closed door about ten feet away. Out the corner of his eye he could tell Georgie had stood up to join him, but not before swiping a smaller teddy bear off the dresser for Judith. As they walked down the remainder of the upstairs hall, they noted the door to the last room wasn't shut all the way, which felt a bit suspicious since the rest had all been left open.
Using his machete once again, Rick pushed the door open with the tip of its blade and hesitated before peering inside the room. Before either could even take a step inside, they were hit with a horrible stench, followed by the sight of a woman, dead and decaying on the bed in what was clearly the master bedroom.
Covering their nostrils with their hands, they approached slowly and saw that the woman had a gunshot wound to the forehead. Old, dried blood was painted on the wall above the headboard, which now looked brown rather than red, and there was also a dried pool of blood around her head that had soaked into the mattress.
"I think he killed his wife and ran," Georgie gasped, trying to avoiding inhaling the scent through her nose. "I wonder if she was even a walker when it happened."
Rick looked at her and shrugged.
"I don't think we'll find anything in here," she continued. "Her husband or whoever is in that car back there probably took what was useful."
"Yeah, you're probably right. We should check the master bath first though, just to be sure."
"Alright," Georgie agreed. She followed him into the bathroom which was considerably larger than the one out in the hall.
He pulled back the shower curtain in hopes of finding shampoo, conditioner and/or soap; anything to help with hygiene. Georgie opened the medicine cabinet and found a bottom of aspirin, a box of Band-Aids and some ointment to treat rashes; shoving them all into her bag while Rick crouched down beside her to open up the doors under the dual sinks.
"Toilet paper," he announced, glancing up at her.
"We'll eat like paupers tonight and wipe our asses like princes," she quipped, inciting a laugh out of Rick.
Once he stood up, they gave each other a nod and then covered their noses again before leaving the bedroom.
"Wait," Georgie spoke.
Rick turned back to watch her grabbed the duvet and pull it over the woman's body, covering her face in the process.
"Okay," she continued. "Let's go."
Once they made their way back downstairs and then into the garage, Rick began rustling around the work bench. He nicked a bottle of lighter fluid and some matches. Nothing else was of importance to them.
Slowly, they walked back down the driveway toward the collided cars.
"If he had a gun to shoot his wife in the head, and he fled…I didn't see a gun in the house," Georgie remarked. "He probably has one with some ammo in that car.
Rick stopped walking and looked at her. "You're probably right." He stared at the back end of the car before them and considered the option at hand. After a moment, he handed his bag over to her. "Take this."
Grabbing a solid hold on the machete, Rick vigilantly approached the passenger side of the car which was unable to be open since the car was pushed up against a short stone pillar that 'announced' the end of the driveway. Instead, Rick pulled at the back passenger door, but to no avail.
"Damn child safety locks," he mumbled.
Pausing for a few seconds, he looked back at the passenger door before taking off his jacket and wrapping it around his right hand. Pumping himself up slightly, he then punched the window with his fist, which shattered from the force he exerted. It also probably helped that the window was already cracked from the crash. Pushing away the broken glass, he then dropped his jacket to the ground and grabbed his machete. Sticking it forward, he shoved it through the walker's head as it tried reaching for him. The walker fell forward on the wheel and suddenly the horn sounded.
"Shit," Rick spat, leaning inside the car further to push the walker back off the wheel.
Jumping back away from the car, Rick whipped his head around to see if the sound had alerted any possible nearby walkers. Georgie was doing the same when they made eye contact. Turning back to the car, Rick leaned back inside and grabbed a bag off the passenger seat and pulled it out. Dropping it onto the driveway, he crouched down and zipped the bag open.
Sure enough, there was a single handgun with a box of ammo. Rick smiled up at Georgie over the find.
"Good instincts," he remarked.
She just smiled back. She then nodded over at the woods to their right. "Why don't we go through there and then get back onto the road. It'll be easier than clamoring over the car again with these bags."
Rick nodded. "Yeah, okay." Lifting the walker's bag over his shoulder, Rick also picked up his jacket before taking the extra bag back from Georgie before putting his machete back through its loop on his belt.
Quietly, they entered the trees and stepped carefully as the ground became somewhat steeper as they went. Pushing branches out of their way, Georgie and Rick came upon a rabbit not a few feet away, mere moments after beginning their trek into the woods.
"Where's Daryl when you need him?" Georgie quipped.
"Hunting little ones like that."
Smirking, Georgie stopped walking completely and set her bag down onto the leafy ground. Crouching down, she placed a hand between her knees to maintain her balance as she looked at the rabbit and tutted at it to get its attention.
"I used to have a pet rabbit when I was about ten years old," she recounted. "We kept it in a cage outside, and then that spring this freak tornado rolled through town and the rabbit's cage went flying. Our roof was blown completely off, but what I thought was most amazing was that we found the rabbit's cage two houses down and the rabbit was alive and completely unharmed." Georgie stood back up and placed her hands on her hips. "And yet there was this old man one street over who was in his living room when a random wooden post that had been uprooted from someone's fence busted through his window because of the winds and impaled him to his recliner. Talk about luck of the draw, huh?"
Rick made a face. "Damn."
"Yeah," she nodded. "Makes me wonder about this world we live in now all the more. Like, as in why it happened? Was it biological warfare, was it an accident, was it an act of God? Or, maybe, one too many people refused to forward those stupid chain letters."
Rick let out a chuckle. "Definitely the latter."
There suddenly didn't seem to be a rush to get back to the house. They hadn't been gone long and weren't expected to return anytime soon. Rick leaned back against a tree and looked at Georgie, watching as she had smiled at his response. Then, all at once, the image of her the night before wearing that oversized T-shirt and those boxer shorts came back to his mind.
"Is it weird to almost feel safer out here in the open than in that house, even as nice as it is?" she asked, running a hand through her unruly ginger locks.
Rick shook his head. "No, it's not weird. I think we're all just so used to being out in this," he gestured to the trees surrounding them. "In there, it's a reminder of what we ain't got no more, what we've had taken from us."
"And then it reminds us of how dangerous the world has become," she added. "Nature's always been nature. But houses are mausoleums now. Sometimes I forget how to…I dunno."
Pushing himself off the tree, Rick nodded, agreeing with whatever it was she couldn't find the words for, as the pitter-patter on the leaves above them distracted them for a moment. When drops of water soon fell on their face, they looked upward, realizing the sky had become overcast and it was now raining. It wasn't a heavy rain; it was probably nothing more than a passing rain cloud which would be gone in a few minutes.
Rick brought his attention back to Georgie as rain clung to their hair, slowly beginning to mat it down, while the water also began to roll down their faces. It felt nice and refreshing, but it didn't distract Rick enough to remove is attention completely away from Georgie who was standing there with closed eyes. And he couldn't help it; he found himself a little enthralled by her. He hadn't felt this way about a woman since in the earlier years of his marriage to Lori. It was a heady experience that got his blood pumping.
When Georgie reopened her eyes and found Rick staring at her, she felt a wave of heat run through her body. Her face flushed with color, she was sure of it. Her amused expression due to the rain faded to something more serious and a little anxious as she bit her lips together.
That same energy in the air they had begun to draw them near each other the night before was returned, and this time it was tenfold.
Rick tilted his head, dropping his jacket and the bags to the ground. He stepped right up to her this time without any hesitation until his face was only inches from hers. They locked eyes for a moment, and then his lingered down a little to stare at her lips and her skin felt like it was now on fire. Instinct was slowly taking over as she reached her hands out and touched the dampening material of his T-shirt covering his abdomen. His lips were parted slightly and she could feel his warm breath against her face. Casually, he lifted his hands and then, without warning, leaned all the way in and claimed her lips with his own.
His bushy, graying beard tickled her chin, making her smile into his kiss. Impulsively, Georgie snaked her hands around his waist and pulled her up against him and he went with the gesture. He walked her back into another tree, pressing her up against it as he deepened the kiss, tasting her tongue upon his; exploring this new territory and feeling as though every nerve ending in his body was sparking to life like the encore of a fireworks display on the Fourth of July. Their hips pressed against each other; his enjoyment becoming more noticeable, which in turn set her body more alight.
The kiss was sweet and gentle, while somehow rough and hungry at the same time. It was the perfect combination and who knows how much further it would've gone…
…Because a familiar groan and haggard shuffling snapped them back to reality.
They both turned to find a walker was about to be on top of them.
They had been so engrossed with each other that they had not seen or heard it approaching until almost the last minute.
At the same time, both Rick and Georgie pulled out their machete and hunting knife, respectively, and lunged forward, jabbing them into the walker's skull. As they removed their blades, the walker slumped back onto the ground like a sack of bricks. Their attention returned once more to each other, their faces close but now they were more alert of their surroundings and they were in more control of their libidos.
Rick opened his mouth to say something, and then Georgie did, but no words came out of either.
Quietly, they sheathed their blades and picked up the bags of their findings.
Leaving things unsaid for the time being, both began to walk off toward the house.
It was a few hours later and all their food findings were lined up on the kitchen table. Rick and Georgie still hadn't broached the subject of their kiss in the woods; not that they had the opportunity to talk about it once they returned to the house. Maggie, Glenn and Tara had returned a while later with a small bag of canned goods which included mostly spam.
"It's not much, but I found maple syrup," Glenn revealed, pulling it out of his bag to show the others. "It's never been opened, so it's gotta be good still, despite what the expiration date would like you to think."
Georgie chuckled. "What do you know? Rick and I found pancake mix."
"Whoa, seriously?" Glenn grinned. "Wow, I haven't had pancakes in forever. We're gonna make some, right?"
Rick nodded. "Yeah, we'll do it over the fire later," he said, taking a swig of water from a glass he'd grabbed from one of the cupboards.
A short time after that, Abraham, Rosita and Tyreese returned with gas for the cars. They had then taken the fuel containers with them to fill the tanks in their vehicles they'd left out on the main road the morning before and when the cars came driving down the road, Rick and Carl were waiting at the base of the driveway to holding both sides of the gate open. Georgie was holding Judith by this point and watching as father and son walked back up toward the house, behind the cars which parked around the paved circular part of the driveway surrounding the fountain.
Rick and Carl seemed to be talking about something which brought a smile to both their faces, which in turn made Georgie smile. When the Grimes boys got nearer, Rick gave his son a playful shove in the arm and then looked up at the house, letting his eyes settle on Georgie and Judith.
Rick stopped and placed his hands on his hips, taking everything in; the sight of Abraham, Rosita and Tyreese smiling as they hopped out of the vehicles and made their way back into the house while Carl ran over to Georgie and grabbed Judith from her, placing a kiss on his baby sister's head. That left Georgie and Rick still alone outside and he began to close the distance between them.
Once they were both standing on the front stoop together, Rick reached a hand out and took hers, giving it a squeeze. He looked over her shoulder at the front door Carl had left open and he knew anyone could walk by and see at any moment, but he felt compelled nonetheless.
Georgie looked up at him, and she felt rather peaceful for the first time since before the outbreak happened. She closed her eyes when Rick leaned in, brushing his lips against hers and pressing his forehead to hers; his beard once again tickling but she made no mood to suggest it had.
No words were exchanged between them.
None were needed.
Rick pulled back slightly before leaning forward again just to plant a small kiss upon her cheek near her ear. He then gave her hand another squeeze and gestured for her to head back inside the house first.
"I know you said not to fuck with shit while y'all were out getting supplies and whatnot," Eugene said just before nightfall. Everyone was more or less gathered around the dining room table again, this time eating the pancakes Georgie and Carol had managed to make over the fire in the living room's fireplace. "But I went lookin' around this house; thought maybe there was stuff in the attic that could be of use, but I only found dust and boxes filled with photo albums and other odds and ends like that. But, I did find something of interest in the basement I think was overlooked yesterday during the initial sweep of this house."
All eyes trained on the man with the mullet.
"What's that?" Abraham asked.
"There's a false door down there," Eugene answered. "I opened it up to a small hallway with a door at the end. I was thinking maybe it's filled with more food and supplies."
Abraham looked across the table at Rick. "Sounds like something we should look into."
Rick nodded. "Definitely."
"There's only one problem," Eugene continued.
"There always is," Sasha mumbled.
Eugene looked at her and then over to Rick. "It's bolted shut, and not just with a deadbolt. Someone bolted it all the way down on both sides."
"So then we grab an ax and hack it apart at the middle," Glenn suggested.
"It's a metal door, Jack Torrance."
"Alright, well, there's a garage here; there are power tools that run on batteries I'm sure we can use," Rick commented. "If there's something we can use in there, we need to know."
"Are we not going to talk about the fact that someone clearly didn't want that door opened? Whoever did it, they went through a lot of trouble to keep it closed." Maggie looked around at the others. "I mean, who deadbolts a door from the outside unless you want to keep something in?"
"Either way, we need to know what's in there; whether it can harm or help," Michonne piped up.
After dinner, Carol and Georgie cleaned up the dishes, which felt weird to be able to do. They had boiled water over the fire in the fireplace so that they had hot water for cleaning the dishes and they couldn't help but smile at doing basic chores like that. Meanwhile, Rick and most of the others had gone downstairs to inspect this supposed door. During that time, Daryl finally returned with a handful of squirrels and one rabbit; the latter of which got Georgie smiling. It made her think back to the rabbit she and Rick had seen in the woods earlier in the day, and then that kiss with Rick that had followed.
"You're dripping blood on the floor," Carol chastised at Daryl. "Bring it over the sink."
"Seriously? We've walked around cover in our own stink and walker guts before and you're worried about the tiling?" he question with a shake of his head, but also a hint of a smile in his eyes. He obliged Carol anyway and then grabbed a towel which he threw to the floor, using it to wipe up the trail of blood drops with his foot. "Ya happy, woman?"
"I am," Carol grinned.
Georgie looked away toward the fridge went something white underneath it caught her eye. Crouching down and reached a hand down.
"I didn't get no blood over there, so it wasn't me," Daryl commented, noticing Georgie's movements.
"No, it's not that," she replied. Pulling at the object, she picked up a piece of paper that must've fallen loose from one of the magnets on the fridge door. "It's a child's drawing."
As soon as she stood up and looked it over, Georgie let out a scream.
From downstairs in the basement, Rick heard the scream and his first instinct was to run toward it. Pulling his Colt out of its holster, he flew up the stairs with a few others behind him. In the kitchen he found Carol with her arms around Georgie and Rick's brow furrowed in concern.
"What is it? What happened?"
Carol just looked calmly over at Rick and offered a kind smile as Georgie pulled away and turned to look at Rick with tears in her eyes and rolling down her face. She, too, was smiling, which only served to confuse Rick and the others.
"What's all the screamin' for?" Abraham demanded.
Wiping the tears away, Georgie walked up to Rick and handed him the child's drawing. "Look."
Hesitantly, he took it. At first glance, it was just a simple picture drawn with crayons of a family. There was a daddy, a mommy and two kids. On closer inspection, Rick could see the mommy's hair was red and curly and the names above everyone's heads were listed as 'Daddy', 'Mommy', 'Me' and 'Avery.'
It took a moment, but it finally registered with Rick. He looked back up at Georgie and smiled. "Is this—?"
Her smile grew bigger.
"My son drew this," she replied, placing a hand to her chest. "My son was here, and he drew this."
"Are you sure?" Abraham questioned.
Georgie looked at him and rolled her eyes. "My hair is red and curly, so is the mom in this drawing. Also, my daughter's name was Avery. What are the chances? Seriously…" She looked back at Rick. "My son was alive when he was here. I mean, there's no one here now, but that means he was with people. They left, but he's alive."
"Or he was when this picture was drawn," Abraham continued. "Ain't nobody been here in almost six months, at least."
"No," she insisted, shaking her head. "He's alive. This…" Georgie looked down at the drawing Rick was holding and tapped it before looking back up at Rick. "This is the hope I needed. Tristan is alive. He's gotta be."
"No, yeah," Rick nodded. "Whoever was here with him, they probably stayed here for a while like us, and moved on. Maybe they were headed to DC, same as we were."
Georgie let out a sigh of happiness, taking the picture back. She then looked around at the other faces staring at her and felt sheepish. "Sorry for screaming like that. I didn't mean to give any of you a scare. I just got so excited."
They didn't look upset though, but instead they looked happy for her as well. This was the first time Georgie had seen Maggie and Sasha truly smile since Bob and Beth died.
"It's okay," Maggie assured, stepping forward and placing a hand on Georgie's shoulder. "This is a good thing. I think this is something we all need to be happy about."
The others dispersed; either heading back down to the basement to see about how to open the door and a few went to the garage to find tools that might work. Daryl pulled out a knife from his gear and proceeded to skin the squirrels and the rabbit over the sink while Carol looked at Georgie and gave her a hug again.
"Your son made it out of Georgia and he was alive and well; well enough to draw this picture," Carol offered with a smile. "I hope he's still well."
Georgie nodded. "Thank you. I do, too."
Rick touched her elbow then and asked to see the picture again. When she gave it to him, he walked over to the fridge with it and stuck two of the magnets on it to hold it up for all to see. He then stood back to admire it when he noticed Georgie pulling something out from inside her shirt that she must've had tucked away in her bra for safe keeping. The gesture, in itself, held Rick's attention. He then watched as she stuck two photographs to the fridge underneath her son's drawing. One was of a little girl, no more than three years old, with red curls like Georgie, but much shorter. The other was a school photo was of a boy, about six or seven years old, with blonde hair, smiling at the camera with one of his upper teeth plainly missing.
"Those your kids?" he asked.
"You've had those pictures all this time?" Carol wondered, impressed.
"My bra was the only place I knew they'd be safe," Georgie nodded. "I rarely ever took them out, even to look at them." She then looked at Rick briefly before pointing at the pictures. "That's Avery, my daughter. That was taken at her third birthday party. And that's my son Tristan in his second grade school picture."
"Cute kids," Daryl commented, having turned his attention away from his skinning. He threw a look over his shoulder at Georgie, giving her a nod of approval.
"Yeah they were." Then, she corrected, "Are."
Carol touched hand down to Georgie's arm and then excused herself. It was starting to get a little late and she was going to get Judith from Carl and give the little girl a bath. Daryl returned to what he was doing and everyone else seemed engrossed in other activities. Eugene and Gabriel were playing checkers in the family room where they would once again be sleeping that night and when Georgie and Rick cast a glance their way, they seemed to link up to the same wavelength; once again thinking back to last night and just how close they've become in the last day.
"You wanna get some fresh air with me?" Rick asked her.
"What about that door in the basement?"
He shrugged. "They'll manage without me. Too many hands in the pot or something like that."
Georgie looked around. No one else seemed to be paying attention to them. "Yeah, okay."
Rick led them outside and he pulled up two patio chairs for them to sit on.
They were quiet while they sat there, both looking off toward the tall trees surrounding the back of the property. Above the trees, in the night sky, the stars were infinite and shined brightly. The pool water before them was still and calm from no wind or breeze to ripple the surface, except there seemed to be the occasional bug that touched the water in spots to drink, but it was hard to tell for sure in the darkness. Crickets sang together in the overgrown grass and with all the candle light coming from inside the house which was shining out through the windows onto the back patio, it felt like any other night before the apocalypse; peaceful and free of the constant death and dangers they had all come to know in the last year and a half.
Up in the sky, unseen to the untrained eye was the moon. It was a new moon, so there was no light from the sun shining off it to the earth below. There was the outline of the moon though and with no light pollution from the planet anymore, spotting the darkened moon was an easier task than it would've been in the past.
Rick pointed it out first and Georgie followed his gaze, but only for a moment. She looked back at him, how he sat back in the chair with the ankle of his right foot cross over the knee of the left leg, and then at his profile.
He sensed her eyes on him and turned his own to her. Tapping his fingers on his chair's armrests, Rick smiled a small smile at her. "Your daughter looked just like you; just as pretty as her mama."
Georgie grinned and looked down at her hands. "Yeah, she did. Tristan is all his daddy; down to the blonde hair and blue eyes. Basically, your typical all-American boys," she quipped.
Rick opened his mouth to say something his own children; how he thought Carl was the perfect blend of him and Lori, but his thought process ceased when he considered Judith. She was his daughter, in heart and in name, but he would never be one hundred percent certain if she was his daughter by blood or if she was Shane's. He supposed time would tell when she got older. So, Rick kept his mouth shut. It was not something he felt like bringing to the table just yet. Instead he felt the need to talk to her about their kiss in the woods and the smaller two kisses they shared outside the front door after the others returned with the fueled-up cars.
Just as he went to say something about it, anything, a large cloud rolled in, shielding the stars from view.
"Looks like rain again," Georgie commented. She sniffed at the air. "You can smell it."
Rick did the same, and then nodded. "Yeah," he agreed, pushing down his idea of talking about their stolen moments.
Then, the clouded opened up and spilled out its contents upon them. They both initially flinched, but made no move to get up and head back inside the house. Instead they simply stayed put. As the rain once again seeped into their clothing and clung to their hair — and beard in Rick's case — they looked at each other and chuckled a bit.
The rain felt wonderful.
Reaching her hand out, Georgie offered it to Rick and he took it as he smiled at her with kind eyes and a hint of desire within them for good measure.
Turning their heads back up toward the sky, they tilted their heads back, closed their eyes and let the rain fall.