10: secrets
Sunlight was streaking through the window of the church attic, stirring Rick from his peaceful slumber. He'd been in the midst of a pleasant dream when his eyes fluttered open, finding Michonne staring back at him. His wife. He sleepily smiled at the realization and at her.
"Were you just watchin' me?" he squinted.
She ran a loving hand over his hairy cheek and smiled back. "Yep."
"Why?" His accent seemed thicker than normal when he first woke up, she noticed. One of many things she hoped to inherently know about him as the years went on.
"I just like lookin' at you," she shrugged. "Especially when you're at peace, like this."
He inwardly shook his head at her antics and sat up to meet her gaze, placing a small kiss on her lips. "Good morning."
She smirked at his statement. It had indeed been a good morning. And a good night. And a good evening. Truth was, they'd spend a large portion of the previous few hours consummating their marriage, and Michonne was in quite the good mood due to it. "Yes. Yes, it is," she finally returned.
He looked around the large, empty space, unsure of why they hadn't thought to utilize the attic sooner. It certainly would've been better than cramming everyone into the offices downstairs.
"How long you been awake?"
She shuffled in their makeshift bed so that she could lie back down. "Probably about an hour."
"And you just sat here, staring at me that whole time?"
"Not the whole time," she rolled her eyes playfully. "This kid is really doing a number on me in the mornings."
He nodded in realization. "Shouldn't it be going away soon? Once you hit the second trimester?"
"It's definitely not as severe as it was," she confirmed. "Or I'm just learning to keep it down better. But yeah, I'm getting there."
He was glad to hear it. He did not want her to be any more uncomfortable than she already was once they got back on the road. "I guess it'll be time to start telling people soon." That was another conversation he was dreading. After Lori, he didn't know if he could put them through that again. Much as he hated to acknowledge it, the actions of his personal life had a direct effect on them. If his wife was pregnant, it meant he had yet another priority besides them to focus on.
Michonne sighed, seeming to read his thoughts and feel his same hesitance about it. She was sick of feeling sick every damn day, and even more sick of trying to hide it from everyone, but it was for the best until they were either somewhere safe or she couldn't hide it anymore. The last thing she wanted was somebody risking their life trying to save her. Or even threatening her baby just to get to her or Rick. "Maybe we can hold off for a little while longer."
"You think so?" he looked down at her hopefully.
"They may suspect it. But we don't have to confirm anything until we're ready," she rationalized. She loved the prison group and they were certainly her extended family, but the people that needed to know, knew.
He was glad they were on the same page. That's all he ever wanted to be with her. "And how about us being married? That something you wanna keep under wraps, too?"
That, she wanted to shout to the whole world. But she wondered if that would arouse too many questions. Besides Daryl and Maggie, nobody knew what she and Rick had become. She kind of liked it that way. She shared him in so many capacities with this group, maybe she could keep this secret a little while longer, too. "My mom used to always tell me to keep my personal life personal," she replied softly. "Let's give that a try."
He had no complaints about that. After the melodrama he had with Lori and Shane, he couldn't have said it better himself. He really enjoyed the ease of their relationship, and hoped it would stay that way. He slid his new wedding ring off of his finger and handed it over to her. "Keep it safe for me?"
She hated to take her band off. She had never been much of a girly girl, into diamonds and sparkles, but she'd been enjoying the way it looked on her hand. Still, she removed it and glided them both onto the gold chain she wore, the one with the tiny 'M' attached. It would have to do for now. She smiled happily at her husband as she placed the chain back around her neck, letting her shirt cover the rings. "How's that?"
He didn't answer but leaned in to kiss her again, much more fervently this time. His tongue licked at her lips until they pushed their way through and found her own. The two of them were instantly wrapped up in each other again. She held her hands at his bare sides while his kisses moved down her face to her neck.
"You know we're going to hell for screwing in a church like this."
"We were goin' to hell anyway," he mumbled into her collarbone, licking every inch of her exposed skin. "Might as well enjoy it."
"Yeah, you're probably right." With a giggle she removed her shirt, ready to enjoy her man one more time.
Meanwhile, down on the main level, people were just beginning to awake for the morning. Glenn and Maggie were eating breakfast with Judith, Tara was attempting to make herself some oatmeal, while Daryl and Carol sat outside, sharing a cigarette.
"She ran right past me. Didn't even see me sitting there," Carol was telling Daryl quietly as she took a drag. It was turning out that she was quite the gossip, it seemed. "She came back a few minutes later looking almost guilty. Or maybe sickly is the better word."
Daryl offered a chuckle at her story, but he didn't know why she was so concerned about Michonne one way or another. "Maybe she just went for a jog."
"Shortest jog I've ever seen," she mumbled.
"Well what do you think it is?"
"If I knew, I wouldn't be asking you..."
He continued to bite at his thumb nail, unsure of what to tell her. Even if he did know what her mystery run was about, he wouldn't have just betrayed her trust and told Carol. Michonne was too private for that.
"You've been with her longer than I have. You really haven't noticed anything off about her lately?"
He shrugged absently, taking the cigarette that she was passing over to him. "Maybe she's pregnant," he joked with a puff, having no idea how accurate he was.
"Please," she scoffed looking out to the scenery ahead. "Don't even joke about that." She shook her head in concern. "Can you imagine? Having another baby on the road?"
His head rested against the pillar where he stood as he thought about what that would mean. The previous winter had been rough on them. They'd survived, and he figured they could do it again, but man... "Remember some days Lori couldn't even move."
"We were all running on empty," Carol recalled hopelessly. "And being pregnant is no cake walk anyway. Let's just not even put that into the atmosphere."
Daryl nodded in agreement and turned to look inside the sanctuary, seeing Rick walking towards him. He noted the disheveled look of his hair, contrasted by the expression of absolute calm on his face, and he knew exactly where he'd been the past few hours. He could only shake his head in amusement as he approached.
"What's wrong?" he asked, oblivious to his obvious sex hair.
"Nothin'," Daryl smirked at his friend. "What's up?"
"You feel like goin' for a walk?"
"Depends on who's goin'." He'd about had it with babysitting Gareth while Rick was off doing god knows what.
"Just you and me," Rick promised. "Bring your crossbow."
As if he would do anything but. He frowned in confusion as Rick disappeared just as quickly as he'd arrived. Turning back to Carol with a joking roll of his eyes, he told her, "He's probably the one you should be worried about."
Just a few hours later, Rick and Daryl were back on the train tracks. They had just finished decimating all the nearest signs that directed people to Terminus, and now they were in search of a car. In reality, though, they were primarily just talking.
"I'm glad you got a plan," Daryl was telling Rick upon hearing what he had in mind for Gareth. Besides supply runs for food, gas, and ammo, they'd all been hanging around the church like they had nothing better to do. He'd begun to worry that Rick's resolve was waning. "I didn't know what the hell you've been doin' these last couple days."
"I've been preoccupied," Rick admitted. "Having Judith back…" His sentence trailed off into the air before he mentioned the fact he and Michonne had gotten married. "But I've been thinkin' about what to do with them and I really don't see any other way. They don't get to live."
"It's quick and dirty," Daryl shrugged casually. "I'm with you, man."
Rick nodded, relieved. If he had Michonne and Daryl's support, he felt the others would align with that. "Hopefully, the others have had enough time to rest up."
"Hell, they're probably restless at this point."
Rick looked back at Daryl, trying to gauge whether that was a judgment. "First thing tomorrow," he reminded him of the plan.
It was Daryl who nodded this time. "Then we're off to Washington to save the world?"
"We're off to Washington to see what happens."
"You don't believe this guy, do you?" Daryl was referring to Eugene and his claim to be a scientist. "I'm more likely to cure this thing than that mullet."
Rick sighed, having had the exact same thought. There was about a 1% chance that Eugene wasn't full of shit, but… it was better than nothing. He couldn't take hope away from his people like that. "The chances of all of us finding each other again were pretty slim, you know. But we did."
"I'm still gonna guess they were higher than Eugene even knowing somebody in DC."
"You're probably right," Rick acknowledged quietly. "And maybe I know that, and you know that, but those people back there? Those people that have had everything taken away from them? If they wanna believe that this is even remotely possible, then we're gonna go to Washington and find out."
Conversation ceased as they approached a minivan on the side of the road, appearing to have been in function somewhat recently, just based on the fact that the windshield was clean. The two of them moved into stealth mode, studying the thing from all sides before opening its doors. No keys, but a couple of gallons of water sat on the passenger floor. There were no signs of death, walker or otherwise.
"Somebody's comin' back for this," Daryl noted.
"Probably went to try and find some gas or food," Rick agreed. "'Course they could've died on their way back."
Daryl eyed Rick carefully, understanding what he was saying, but still surprised he was saying it. He was finding it hard to get a read on the man ever since the night he bit out Joe's throat. He would have to learn to stop underestimating him. "I'll get it started, we'll see what we're workin' with."
Rick went to pop the hood, the two of them having been through this same routine a dozen times. He checked the water and oil levels while he waited for Daryl's instruction.
"It's about time for Carl to be gettin' behind the wheel," Daryl called out from the driver's seat. "You ready for that?"
Rick looked up at him through the windshield, knowing that it was uncharacteristic for Daryl to make small talk. "Did he put you up to this?"
"Say what?"
Carl and Daryl had been spending more time together as he and Michonne took more opportunities to be alone. And Carl could be quite the talker when he wanted to be. It wouldn't have been at all surprising if he talked Daryl into bringing up the subject with his dad. "You can just tell Carl he doesn't have to worry about driving any time soon. There's absolutely nowhere for him to go."
Daryl chuckled to himself. He would have to let the kid know his old man was sharper than he gave him credit for.
"Thank you, by the way," Rick called back after a moment. "For keepin' an eye out for him."
"It's nothin'," Daryl shrugged. He went underneath the steering wheel for a moment, fiddling with a series of wires when Rick came and took the passenger seat. "You got a good kid," he looked over to tell him.
"I know," Rick nodded thoughtfully. "I have it pretty good, considering…"
That was true, Daryl thought. Rick had two kids, a badass girlfriend, a pretty damn capable group of people following him. "You got it better than most."
"If you'd asked me a year ago, I'm not sure I would've said the same."
"I know for sure you wouldn't have," he smirked. "You and Lori, man…"
Rick let his head fall back against the headrest. He still hated to think about it. "Don't even remind me," he chuckled. "Y'know, the other day, Carl asked me if she had sex with Shane."
Daryl laughed out loud – something he rarely, if ever, did. "Can't say the kid is shy."
"No, he most certainly is not." He shook his head at that entire conversation. "Had a million and one questions about me and Michonne, too. It's gettin' to the point where I just wanna lie to him."
"He ain't the only one with questions about you two," he informed his friend with a smirk.
Rick looked over at Daryl, surprised that he even cared. "Seriously?"
"Not me," he clarified with a shake of his head. "Carol was onto you two back at the prison. Then again, so was everybody. But now she thinks Michonne has the vapors or somethin'. I don't know."
"What?" Rick chuckled in confusion.
"I dunno," he repeated. He got the two wires he needed and put them together in an effort to start the car. The engine revved and they looked at each other in surprise. "Got enough to get back to the church," he noted of the gas gauge.
"That's a start," Rick shrugged. One car with an empty tank was better than nothing. They started on their journey back to camp, glad they they still had plenty of daylight left to continue their search. "Now that you know the plan, we can go back and get a couple of the others, maybe Sasha, Glenn, and let them know what's goin' on," he advised.
Daryl nodded in compliance. "You told Michonne already," he guessed.
"Yeah," he let out an exaggerated sigh. "Supposed to tell your wife that kinda stuff first," he added, looking over to catch Daryl's eye.
"Your wife, huh?" His choice of words weren't lost on Daryl. In fact, he hadn't missed it the first time he said it, back at Terminus. "I guess that's why your boy had me searching for weddin' rings yesterday mornin'."
"Yeah…" Rick found himself blushing and he didn't know why. "We got married yesterday."
Daryl squinted at him, unsure whether he was serious. When he called Michonne his wife, he thought he meant it in the same way he'd called himself his brother. "Bullshit," he smirked.
"I'm serious," he chuckled. "While y'all went on the gas run. Father Gabriel officiated."
"Well shit."
"What?"
"After all the pussyfootin' around y'all did back at the prison, I thought you were gonna take forever to lock that down." He gave Rick a genuine smile. "Good for you, man."
Rick laughed, remembering how Daryl caught he and Michonne either pre or post sex on more than one occasion. He was glad to be able to share this news with him. "Thank you."
"Y'all tellin' the rest of the group, or what?"
"Not quite yet," he turned to look out of the passenger window. "Michonne likes to keep her personal business personal."
Daryl nodded, recalling the first conversation he'd had with Michonne about Rick. She was certainly a hard nut to crack, he was actually surprised by how easily Rick seemed to have done it. "Y'all didn't waste no time," he commented with a light chuckle.
"We wasted a lot of time, honestly," Rick simpered. "But she knocked me off my feet, and I just haven't been the same since."
Daryl listened as his friend began to wax poetic about his new wife, and his thoughts drifted to Beth. He certainly didn't have the feelings for her that Rick did for Michonne, but in their short time on the road together, something within him had definitely rose to the surface. It wasn't quite butterflies, but maybe a moth had found its way into his stomach when he was around her. He considered talking to Rick about it, but decided better of it, given the fact that there was nothing he could do about it – she was gone. Still, he wondered if he'd ever experience that again.
"Where'd you go just now?" Rick questioned, seeing that he'd suddenly begun to drive faster than they normally did.
"Huh?"
"You're gonna use up all our gas if you don't slow down," he chuckled. "You all right?"
Daryl quickly shook away his thoughts and focused back on the road. "Yeah."
"That wasn't too much information, was it?"
"Nah, it's good to hear some good news for once."
"Yeah, I guess it is," Rick agreed with a sigh. They stayed silent until they pulled back up to the church, both of them surveying the property with regard to their plan for the next morning.
"I'll find Glenn, you find Sasha?" Daryl suggested before opening his door.
Rick nodded, but stopped him from exiting the car just yet. "Hey, what did you mean when you said Carol thinks somethin's wrong with Michonne?"
"I really don't know, man." He shut the door, knowing this was about to be another conversation. "She got some female sense about her, said somethin' was off."
Rick exhaled again, a bit exasperated now. It was obviously going to be harder to keep their secret than the two of them might've thought. "Michonne's pregnant," he blurted out, wincing as the news hit the air.
Daryl looked at him, waiting for him to go on, but he didn't. "You just full of surprises today, huh?"
"I guess I am." He rubbed his temple with his left hand, unsure of whether he should've let that one out of the bag. "You don't tell anyone about this. Last thing I need is-"
"You know you can trust me, man."
He did know that, which was probably why he was comfortable enough to spill the beans. Daryl was right up there with Carl and Michonne in the hierarchy of who he relied on most. "I know. I just know I've thrown a lot at you today."
He sure as hell had. Between Gareth, Eugene, the wedding, the baby, he wasn't sure where he was gonna put it all. "The price of brotherhood, right? I carry some of the weight so you ain't gotta do it all yourself."
"Lighten the load…" Rick agreed contemplatively.
"How long we got?"
He knew he was referring to the pregnancy again. "We think she's due late November, early December."
He hated the thought of being on the road, yet again, with a pregnant woman to protect. Carol was right, he shouldn't have put that out there. But he pushed his worries back down, they weren't doing him any good now. He found himself chuckling instead. "Goddamn, man. You tryna repopulate the Earth yourself?"
Rick laughed heartily, but at this point, he really did have to be responsible for like 10% of the children born after the apocalypse. "They literally don't make condoms like they used to," he shrugged. "What can I say?"
"Yeah, you and your wife better calm down after this one. It's gonna be hard enough coming up with a nickname as good as Lil' Asskicker."
"Don't worry yourself too much about it," Rick rolled his eyes playfully as the two of them finally retreated from the car.
"Hey," Daryl called out to his best friend before they could part ways. It was extremely rare for them to be this candid with one another, but he had enjoyed it. It was a nice change of pace, having a brother that wasn't on every drug under the sun. "I'm happy for you," he told him genuinely. He was also scared shitless for them, but he wasn't gonna tell him that.
A/N: Okay, not super exciting but some necessary thangs were said. By the way, huge shoutout to dc1tob, because I read your review and truly cracked up. So thank you for that line, I personally think it makes this whole chapter, haha. Next one, I promise more Richonne, and we'll finally be rid of those pesky Termites!