Author's Note: Thank you all for your reviews and continued interest in this story. The good news is I have pretty much written the rest of this story already. I wanted to commit to doing that before I posted anymore so there wouldn't be such long breaks between chapters because life kept getting in the way and I was tired of the excuses. So, a few housekeeping items. In order to prepare for writing the rest of the story I noticed a few continuity errors that I wanted to address.

First, Rosita is the Medical Examiner, not a bartender. I didn't realize I used her twice in different capacities. My apologies.

Secondly, there was an issue with the timeframe. Negan and Rick's feud did not start two years ago. They've had dust ups over the years. I never meant to narrow it down to a certain amount of time. It was always meant to be general and I realized in one of the chapters I did just that.

The rest of your questions should be answered through the remainder of the story, there are about four more chapters left of this one. Hope you enjoy!

"Ok, spill it."

"For goodness sake Glenn." Annoyed, Lori sat her coffee cup down rubbing her hands together as if trying to keep warm. "Just give me a second."

"I've given you," he looked at his watch "622 seconds. Now spill it. What were you doing at Negan's?"

"Why did Michonne have you following me? How disgusting." She flung her hair, desperate to change the subject.

"Well, clearly she wasn't that wrong."

"God." Lori buried her head in her hands. "I just don't know how I got here."

Glenn's knee bounced anxiously under the table. It wasn't that he was an asshole, but he was in cop mode tonight. Michonne sent him on a mission and he was silently hoping he wouldn't find anything. Actually, he was hoping he would be able to report that there was nothing to see and he could find a way to meet up with her and Maggie but that was a different story. Now instead of capitalizing on the flirtatious drunk texts that Maggie was sending him, he was sitting across from his coworkers guilty as hell ex-wife who was nursing a cup of coffee and taking forever to spill her guts. This tactic was one of the oldest in the book. Perps used it all the time to bide time to get their stories straight and now maybe Maggie was somewhere ready to take the next step, and this was the night he finally found a red herring. Lucky him. "Spit. It. Out."

But every bit of his impatience disappeared when Lori lifted her head and he saw tears in her eyes. "Shit." He handed her napkins from the silver dispenser on the table.

"Christ. I must really be pathetic." She dabbed at her eyes, took another sip of the black coffee while tapping her fingernails on the half clean linoleum table.

This time Glenn waited her out as the anxious tapping slowly gave way to a more relaxed posture. Whatever battle she was fighting in her head he had a feeling he was going to get some form of the truth. Whether or not he would have to pry the rest out of her would be a different story, so he tried a technique on her he learned in basic training. "Ya know when I was younger my dad would bring me to places like this. Just so we could have some one on one time."

Lori raised an eyebrow but kept silent while slowly sipping her coffee.

"I would do anything to have those times with him again," he paused and took a drink from his mug. "He passed away last year. Right before I joined the force."

"I'm sorry for your loss," Lori said touching his hand, curling her lip. "But cut the shit."

Glenn's eyes darted up.

She jerked her hand back and took another sip. "You think I don't know that trick. I was married to Rick for years. Say something sympathetic, get the person relaxed and vulnerable."

Glenn rolled his eyes and drained the rest of his cold coffee to hide his embarrassment.

"Yeah," she added. "I know a few cop tricks too."

"Fine, then get on with it. If you weren't taking all day to get the story out, I wouldn't have had to say anything." He put the mug down and crossed his arms. "Why were you at Negan's?"

She sighed. "He and I have...history."

Glenn leaned in. "What kind of history?"

When she hesitated, he assumed the worst. "Oh god. Did you?"

"No. I mean, yes. Kind of."

"Oh my god." Ricks wife. Well, ex-wife and his worst enemy. This was huge. He fumbled around for his phone and she slapped it away.

"Wait a minute. You don't even know the whole story."

"I-I- don't need to." He grabbed the phone back and punched in numbers, but she took it back again. "Give me my phone."

"Not until you listen." Stuffing the phone in her bag," she folded her arms on top of the table. "It's not as simple as you think. Get off my back. I was going through a difficult time. Rick wasn't talking."

"Oh, here we go."

It wasn't until she shot him a dirty look that he realized he said it out loud. "Sorry."

Sitting in the back of the squad car on a few nights he overheard Rick and Shane talking. Rick didn't want to mention it much, but he knew that Lori was the consummate victim and that Negan was his sworn enemy. Regardless of the in-between the thought of them having anything to do with each other made his stomach turn.

"Like I said. We were going through a difficult time. Rick wasn't talking. One thing led to another."

"Did you sleep with Negan?" He asked her point-blank.

Lori slammed her hand down on the table. "Jesus would you shut up. You must be a shitty detective if this is how you grill people."

He started drinking his water hoping it would stop him from talking.

She took his silence as her cue to continue. "Anyway, no. We didn't sleep together to answer your question. He was going through a hard time too. He had just gone through a bad divorce and with what I was going through we were just there for each other."

She took a sip from her mug and Glenn stifled a yawn. It was taking forever but he knew there was more to it and he wanted to hear her out.

Lori looked at him expectantly. "So?"

He shrugged. "So what?"

"Aren't you going to say something?"

"What is there for me to say?" He shrugged nonchalantly. "You keep telling me to shut up."

"Oh, for god's sake. You wanted the story and I gave it to you."

Glenn shook his head and looked at his watch. Thirty minutes had passed, and she had given him nothing. "No, you haven't. What you gave me was a smokescreen. You gave me a half-ass story of what happened between you two some time ago, and you're a little cagey on the time frame. None of that explains what you were doing at his place tonight."

"I actually wanted to talk to him about how he's treating Rick. Tell him to back off."

Glenn rolled his eyes.

"I'm serious," she said defensively. "It's affecting my family. My kids," she quickly amended. "I know you don't believe me, but I really am trying to make things better. All this tension." She drew her arms around herself again. "It's all getting to be a bit too much."

"Then do the right thing." Glenn leaned in. "Tell Rick the truth."

"I am telling you the truth. I know it sounds juvenile and simple to you, but you've never been married. Losing a spouse is hard. It's not just some hookup. And with Lucille it was just out of the blue."

"Wait." Glenn stopped in his tracks. His mind wandering. "Did you say Lucille?"

"Yeah. What about it?"

Something about that name was familiar to him and he couldn't figure out why. Time was getting away from him and he couldn't waste it putting the puzzle pieces together right now, so he started texting Michonne.

Lori startled. "What are you doing?"

Glenn didn't look up and kept texting instead. "Texting Michonne."

"Why?"

"To see where she is."

"Why? And you never answered she had you following me?"

He ignored her, texting Maggie instead to see if she knew where Michonne was. She answered instantly saying that Michonne was already at Rick's.

"You already know why. Because she doesn't trust you." A second later a picture of Maggie in just her underwear came through and he let out a groan. "Shit."

"What?" Lori leaned over and he jerked his phone back.

"Nothing." He threw a couple of bills on the table. "Come on let's get out of here."

"Where are we going?"

"To Rick's."

"To Rick's?" She shrieked and drew back further in the booth as if she wouldn't move. "I didn't even tell you everything that happened."

"I know. You don't need to. You need to tell him. Come on."

She looked around while Glenn continued to try calling Michonne on her cell and didn't get an answer. He had an idea what she was probably doing but he didn't care. This needed to get settled tonight. Whatever the history was between Lori and Negan, she needed to come clean. And despite how fine Maggie looked in her silk lace panties, there was something eating away at him about Negan's past with Rick that he had to figure out. "Let's go."

Lori braced herself, taking a few deep breaths. This was going to change her relationship with Rick forever and possibly her children. Judith was young but Carl. He was already showing signs of pulling away.

"Let's go," he said again.

"Ok."

Lori dreaded each step she took to the apartment door. As Glenn knocked, she kept a few steps back, mindlessly rummaging through her purse. Glenn knocked again this time a bit more impatient.

"Dammit. They must be in be— ". He caught himself and looked over at her awkwardly. "They must be watching TV. I think I hear the volume up."

She huffed and rolled her eyes. There's no telling what they were doing. Right when she was starting to feel a little more annoyed than nervous, the door opened, and her heart dropped again.

"Hey, I have Lori with me."

She barely could see Rick behind the door and stepped a bit closer. When she got closer, she saw he didn't have his shirt on.

"Oh, for god's sakes."

Rick stood wedged in the door. "Give us a second."

He closed the door behind him. When the lock clicked in place, she laid her head against the wall, exhaling. "Jesus, how did I get here?"

"You'll be fine. Just tell the truth," Glenn offered her as the door opened.

"Come on in."

Watching the floor, she walked in a few steps behind Glenn who closed the door behind them. Rick shuffled around but when she looked up, she noticed him picking up remnants of Michonne's purse from near the door and placing them on the counter. "Sorry about that."

When she heard Michonne still shuffling around in the background, she already knew what she interrupted and scoffed. Of course, they had been going at it like rabbits. It seemed to be all they did nowadays. And her nervousness turned to anger.

"Can I get you something to drink?" Rick asked in a way that was clear he didn't exactly expect them to say yes. She at least still recognized that about him.

Glenn answered first. "No thanks," and then looked towards her.

"I'm fine," she answered even though she was anything but.

"Sorry to interrupt—I mean stop by unannounced," Glenn said catching himself while Rick glanced at her awkwardly. "It's just that Lori and I ran into each other and I felt like she had something to tell you.

She rolled her eyes at him and folded her arms. "Subtle Glenn. Actually, we didn't run into each other as much as your girlfriend had him follow me."

Rick nodded not giving her much of a reaction at all. "You knew about this?" She asked in disbelief, her eyes narrowed.

"Knew about what?" Michonne asked walking in looking every bit as half put together as Rick. She wore one of the shirts that Lori remembered buying him one night he had been at the station for 3 days straight. She wanted to surprise him after a long day at work and now here was another woman wearing it. Yet another blow. "I was asking your boyfriend if he knew you had me followed."

Michonne rolled her eyes. "Yes, he did. I told him. Well I just told him," she corrected herself.

Lori's attention went back to Rick expecting some kind of reaction but got nothing. "So, you're just okay with this?" She asked trying to evoke some kind of reaction. They would fight over things much simpler and suddenly Michonne was exempt? It didn't seem fair.

Rick blew out a breath and straightened his disheveled clothes. "Just get on with it." He waved his hand, urging her along. He was in no mood for the theatrics tonight, or anymore nights actually. His conversation with Michonne was still lingering in his head.

"I was at Negan's. That's where Glenn found me. I went to talk to him."

Rick's jaw tensed. "Why were you there?"

She shrugged. "I told you to talk to him."

"About what?" He asked, his hands on his hips.

"I told him to stop what he's doing to our family."

Both Rick and Michonne's eyebrows lifted at not only the use of "our family" but the fact that she felt she had any pull over him whatsoever. "Is that so?" Michonne asked.

Rick was less inhibited. "Let's be clear. We have children. So we are a family, ALL of us." He said looking back at Michonne making it clear that she was part of the unit. "But why on earth would you think you have any kind of pull with that man? Why would you involve yourself and make things worse?"

"I was just trying to help!" She snapped.

"Why did you think you could?"

"Oh please, I'm not helpless."

Michonne stepped in, annoyed. "That's not what he meant."

"Oh be quiet."

"Don't you- "

Glenn stepped in "Okay everybody enough."

Before Glenn could get close, Rick was right next to him as if he wasn't there, his blue eyes focused on Lori. His nostrils were flaring. "That will be the last time you talk to her like that. I have had enough. Do you understand me?"

His chest was heaving, and the intensity was radiating off him. Lori's anger had her breathing hard as well. She was contrite when she first came but now she was sick of it all. Watching him constantly defend Michonne after she'd wrecked their marriage and coming down on her when she was trying to stop this whole thing from spiraling.

"See this is precisely why I went to him the first time."

Rick lifted his eyebrow, for a moment confused. "Went to who?"

"Negan."

Michonne and Glenn exchanged looks. Glenn looked terrified and that told her all she needed to know.

"You went to Negan before?" Rick asked. His voice was still, calm. So calm, that everyone was afraid to move.

"Yeah," she answered, some of the bravado she had a second earlier already slipping. "I have."

Rick waited her out, his breathing becoming more and more labored waiting on her to answer.

She cleared her throat, almost wilting under the stares around her. It was now or never. "He and I were..friends at what point."

Rick nodded, folding his arms. "Friends."

Glenn moved towards the door again, "Rick I'm just going to go."

Rick kept his eyes trained on Lori, not hearing the door shut behind him. "When were you and Negan friends?"

"A few years ago." Suddenly she felt tired but couldn't bring herself to sit down while Rick was towering over her.

"When we were still married, you were friends with Negan," he said as a statement instead of a question.

She nodded.

"At what part of our marriage?"

"Rick— "

"What. Part?"

Her eyes lowered and for a moment she forgot that Michonne was there. "You know we were going through problems Rick."

Rick took a deep breath and stepped back from her. He didn't need to be too close to her while they had this conversation. "I asked you over and over again if you were faithful to me."

Lori looked down, not wanting to look him in the eye. "You asked me if I was sleeping with anyone else."

Squinting his eyes in confusion. He took a seat on the sofa and finally she felt like she could sit down too. The weight of everything was almost making her knees buckle. "You never asked if I was faithful," she continued. "You asked me if I was sleeping with anyone else and the answer was no."

Rick ran his fingers through his hair. "You really want me to believe that you and Negan just got together to braid each other's hair and talk about the latest movies that were out. Of course, there was more to it."

And then she felt like an ass. While riding on a technicality of his words she was forced now to describe just how intimate they had been. "We never—I mean we did stuff."

Rick watched her intently waiting for her to go on. This was humiliating. How could she explain to her ex-husband that she was making out and going to third base like she was a teenager? Especially in front of Michonne.

Lori glanced up when she realized just how quiet everything was and noticed that Michonne was gone. She didn't know when she had left the room and she didn't think Rick realized either. He was perfectly content having this conversation right in front of her.

"We only fooled around a few times."

Rick huffed, on his feet pacing back and forth. Clearly, he didn't believe her.

"It's true," she pleaded. "We didn't go all the way because it just felt—wrong."

Rick stopped pacing and looked over his shoulder at her like she was a stranger or a fool, or maybe both. "It was wrong?" He questioned. "Of course it was fucking wrong. We were married," he bellowed.

"We may as well had been separated," she yelled in her own defense.

"We. Were. Married. Period. You don't get to decide what our relationship status is based on how you feel that fucking day," he yelled back and looked towards the bedroom. At that point, he realized Michonne was no longer in the room so all bets were off. "You accused me of all this shit just for you to be acting like some floozy in the streets with fucking Negan of all people."

Lori tried to interrupt. "I didn't realize you guys didn't get along."

"Oh bullshit," he countered. "I told you about the shit I was dealing with at work."

Lori stood firm. "No, you didn't Rick. Don't you see? That was the problem."

For a moment he seemed to hear her but shook his head as if to fight off the thought. "No, you aren't going to turn this around on me."

"I'm not trying to; I'm just trying to tell you the truth."

He began to pace again and then stopped suddenly behind the couch. "Is Judith mine?"

The color drained from Lori's face. "You sonofabitch."

"Is she mine?" He asked again.

"Of course she is!" Lori screamed. "Did you not hear a fucking word I said? I just told you I didn't fuck him."

"As if I can believe anything you say."

"Look," she tried to reason. "I didn't have to admit anything but I'm here trying to be straightforward with you."

"Yes, you did. You got caught. Glenn caught you, that's the only reason you're here."

Lori stood up, folding her arms. "The only reason Glenn caught me is because your little girlfriend doesn't know how to mind her damn business."

He marched back into the living room, meeting her defensive stance. "I am her business. This whole thing is her business. It affects her too."

He was right. As much as she hated to admit it, he was right. She said she did this for her family and the truth was that Michonne was a part of that whether she wanted it or not. It was over.

"You're right," she admitted.

She could tell by the dumbstruck look on Rick's face that he wasn't expecting her to cave.

"You're right," she repeated. "It is her business and I lied back then about being faithful. But not about Judith. I swear to God she's your daughter. I swear."

Rick's cold stare had her worried but then she saw the wrinkles beside his eyes soften. He knew she was telling the truth.

"I know. I'm sorry I accused you of that."

"We can get a paternity test if you— "

Rick waved her off.

It was the smallest bit of cordiality, but she would take it. "Thank you. And I know you may not believe this part but I really was trying to help. I wanted to try and appeal to his logic and tell him to stop all this nonsense. I thought if he cared for me at least a little bit that he would stop all this nonsense between the two of you."

"And you actually thought that you could appeal to him."

Her lips thinned. "I hoped I could. I don't want to see you go to jail or get in trouble. I know we don't always see eye to eye but...you're the kids' father. They need you. Carl's growing up so fast and Judith worships the ground you walk on."

Rick's eyes watered and he cleared his throat to keep them at bay. For years the long hours kept him from being the kind of father he wanted to. But since Judith's birth he had been better and tried to make up for it with Carl. When he and Lori divorced and he couldn't even sleep in the same home as his children or have the benefit of them running up to him at the end of a long, miserable day at work, he thought he would end up being a shit father. He tried his hardest to be there as much as possible. Hearing that they needed him, made him feel like he wasn't completely failing them.

"I know. I want to be there for them."

"And you are," she assured him. "And I wanted to keep it that way."

He gave her a silent nod of understanding.

"So, I take it that your rationalizing didn't work?"

She half chuckled. "No, you could say it didn't."

They sat in awkward silence for a moment before he spoke up, his voice raspy. "It really is gonna be alright. It's taken care of."

Lori shook her head. Rick was as always a man of few words but now he had a different type of confidence that she couldn't quite place. "You think so?"

"I know so. Trust me."

She gave a tight-lipped smile and finally relaxed for the first time since she'd been there. They sat in silence for a moment and Rick thought about asking additional questions but it didn't matter. Naturally he was curious exactly when it started and how long it lasted but ultimately it didn't really matter. Their past although jaded and complicated was their past. He would never fully trust her which was a shame because they had to continue to coparent for years to come, but for everyone's sake he had to get to a good place with her.

"Look it's late," he said by way of breaking the moment and getting back to Michonne who he noticed slipped from the room.

"Oh yeah. It is. I need to get back to Carl and Judith. Olivia is with them."

"I'm sure Carl is loving that. Did he give you the spill about being too old for a babysitter again?"

Lori laughed softly and tugged her coat closer to her. "You know it. I know he's getting older but Judith is such a handful and dramatic. I don't think he can handle her alone yet."

"I wonder where she gets that from," he joked.

Her head tilted to the side to watch his reaction and when she saw it was a legitimate joke, she smiled again. "Yeah. Yeah."

She paused at the door and turned around to him. "Tell Michonne I'm sorry. I'll try and do better. Overall."

"Thank you."

One more tight-lipped smile and she was gone.

Rick scrubbed his hand down his face and fixed himself a glass of water at the sink. What a turn tonight had taken. Right after talking about baggage and then it came knocking on the door. He was tired. Of Negan, of Lori's shenanigans, work, all of it. It just felt like a huge weight on his already fragile shoulder. It all affirmed his decision. He was doing the right thing.

Emptying the glass in the sink, he shuffled to the bedroom to find Michonne typing furiously away on her phone.

"You ok?" He asked hesitantly.

She gave him a sad but reassuring smile. "I just thought the two of you needed some time alone. To work through everything."

Rick unfastened his shirt and sat on the edge of the bed near her, his hand caressing her leg. "Thank you. I think we did work through a lot of stuff. And thangs. I think she's going to be better."

Michonne chortled in disbelief.

"No, I'm serious. I think she's humbled, at least for now. Hopefully it sticks."

Michonne sighed not wanting to waste too much time thinking about Lori and her inconsistent temperament. "Hopefully."

Rick was silent, staring at her.

"What?" She asked.

"I need you to promise me somethin'."

Michonne sat up, running her hands through the curls at his nape and pushing it behind his ear. "Ok. Anything."

"Promise me that we will talk through whatever is wrong. That even if I'm tired or distracted or you're tired or distracted that we will talk. No matter what."

Her heart broke watching this beautiful man pour his heart out. "I promise." Taking his hand in hers, she put it on the side of her face and kissed his palm. "We will always talk Rick. And I promise when we don't talk, we will write or touch or go to therapy or whatever we have to do. We will always communicate babe. I promise you that." She kissed his palm again.

Rick reached for the top button of her shirt.

"Ah ah, not again Mr. Grimes. It's late and we both have work in the morning."

Rick smiled and continued to unbutton her shirt while Michonne chuckled. "You are a fiend. Rick, we need rest."

He leaned in and pressed a kiss to her chest, neck and then softly on her lips. "Michonne I don't have work tomorrow."

She furrowed her eyebrows, looking at him expecting it to be a joke. "What do you mean?"

"I don't have work tomorrow. The doctor wasn't the only place I went today. I also went to the precinct, talked to Hershel." She eyed him expectantly realizing more and more that he was serious.

He took her hand. "That's the other part I had to talk to you about before we got sidetracked. I handed in my papers. I'm not working in Homicide anymore."