A/N: Homophobic language warning: Gorman makes slurs toward Amanda, and she thinks about problems with him in the past along the same lines.
Rick is in the middle of cooking supper when Carl gets home in a whirlwind of chatter and clutter. He's laughing even as he realizes the door didn't close behind Carl, which is unusual. One of the security features is that it can't stand open. Setting aside the wok spatula, he cuts the burner off, since the food's ready.
The reason the door is stuck open is Daryl Dixon, because he's waiting on one of the building staff coming this way with a delivery cart. When he sees Rick, he shrugs, even as Naomi hides her face against her father's shoulder. "They went into the staff elevator as we were coming up. Recognized Carl's school uniforms."
Rick thanks him, accepting the dry cleaning and the two packages when the employee reaches the door. Signing for delivery and ticking the box for the tip, he steps back into the apartment as Daryl follows with Naomi. By the time he's back from hanging up his part of the dry cleaning, Carl's at the counter, collecting both packages and his uniforms while telling Daryl about the electronic components for his latest project.
Next to the gas cooktop, there's a bottle of the cream bourbon Rick sampled his first night at the bar. Arching a brow at Daryl, who's taken a seat at the breakfast bar and is peering into the wok, Rick fiddles with the bourbon bottle. Naomi toddles after Carl the second he goes to take his things to his room.
"Smells good. More of your healthy food?" Daryl asks.
"Considering how much I've eaten at Merle's bar lately, gotta balance it out somehow. You and Naomi want some?" Visiting the bar has been every other night or so when Beth works, with him not going tonight because Carl's back home. Rick goes to pull bowls from the cabinet, pausing to see if he needs four and not two.
He's surprised when it's not an immediate no, Daryl even taking the wok spatula and nudging the contents of the wok. "Sure. Need to talk to you about something, and Lori's got some sort of planning meeting tonight."
Chuckling, Rick sets the bowls on the counter. "Trying to decide if it's worth eating?"
"Nah, man. Smells good, and I'm not picky even if some of your damn tofu was in there. But Naomi? She's not as adventurous right now."
"I remember that stage. Carl wanted to live on fish sticks." Rick pauses before he dishes up the last bowl. "If she's not going to eat it, I can fix something else."
"She's stuck on noodles. She'll eat anything with those."
"You know these aren't actual pasta, right?" Rick motions to the zucchini on the other counter. "Spiralized some of those. And it's spicy."
"Looks like noodles. She'll eat it." Daryl grins. "Girl ate a damn jalapeno whole yesterday. Snagged it right out of her mama's veggie basket from the garden and ate it like she had a hold of a candy bar. Spicy is just fine."
Whatever Daryl needs to speak to him about isn't something he wants to bring up in front of the kids, so supper is leisurely on the balcony. Naomi devours the food quickly enough that Daryl mutters about buying his own spiralizer gadget. Rick just laughs and sends Lori a link to the recipe from his phone.
"Hey, Carl? You mind taking your sister inside? Need to talk to your dad without little ears." Daryl asks as soon as the food is done.
Carl nods, even gathering up everyone's dishes with Naomi 'helping' by carrying her own bowl. Rick watches them head to the sink, Carl obviously chatting to the toddler, before turning back to Daryl. "If this is about the new baby, Lori told me when I dropped off Carl last Friday."
"Ain't gonna live down yelling at you I wasn't only marrying Lori 'cause she was pregnant with Naomi, am I?"
Not either of their finest hours, back when Rick really didn't understand exactly how well rough around the edges Daryl fit with Lori's more finicky personality. Rick smiles, leaning back in his chair. "Not likely. But if not the baby, is it Carl? How'd the first week of school go?"
"Kid's been looking a bit like a deer in headlights from how different it is, but his mama says he'll adjust." Daryl takes a drink from his glass, glancing out at the view of the skyline. "Merle needs some help."
That gets Rick's full attention. Considering how often Rick sees Merle these days, he can't imagine why the man wouldn't just ask directly. Thinking about the behavior he's seen Gorman exhibit during his nights at the bar, Rick straightens in his seat. "Is this about that bastard that's been stalking Beth?"
The girl's slept in Rick's den every night this week, even the ones she didn't work. Hell, Rick's been trying to figure out how to keep that up without pissing Carl off. His son will never believe Beth's only sleeping in the den. Rick hasn't slept with anyone in over six months, but it hasn't eased Carl's suspicions on the subject.
Talking to Shane has them both on alert, collecting information, and trying to decide their next move on the unsavory cop. But they're just watching for now, trying to figure out what the man has planned, considering he's ballsy enough to stalk another cop.
Daryl sighs, rubbing a hand over his face, looking as worried as Rick's ever seen him. "Yeah. 'Cept the man's more than just a pervert. He's trying to blackmail Merle into participating in his little criminal enterprise he's got running."
"Goddammit." Rick is on his feet, pacing. Merle's history makes him a soft target for a corrupt cop. It pisses Rick off, because he can't stand that sort of thing being used against someone who really did rehabilitate himself after prison. "Why didn't Merle come straight to me?"
"Because we think our sister's already tracking these cops, and Merle says she's doing it alone. She's there tonight, and I said I would try to talk to you while he keeps an eye out on Mandy."
Rick stops in his pacing, leaning against the balcony wall and groaning. "Please tell me you're not asking me to work with Amanda Shepherd."
The grim smile on Daryl's face tells him all he needs to know, and that Daryl probably already knows Amanda's low opinion of him. Rick runs a hand through his hair. "Alright. Tell me what you know, and then you gotta do me a favor in return."
"Anything, man. Asshole is messing with my family."
"Convince your sister to meet with me." Feeling like his weekend off duty just got far more complicated than he expected, Rick takes a seat and listens as Daryl begins to speak.
Amanda is so fucking angry that pissed doesn't even begin to describe it. Merle looking the other way about Beth and her sugar daddy is one thing. His moral compass has never quite pointed north. But now Daryl? What in the hell is up with her asshole brothers?
But it's almost eleven, and she hasn't even asked the girl yet. When she closes her book with a thump, it startles Beth where she's clearing a table nearby. The blonde looks her way, venturing a smile. "Need your check?"
Amanda nods and taps her fingers on the table while she waits, trying to settle the anger so she doesn't take it out on Beth. By the time her check arrives, she's centered again, sliding her credit card into the holder. "Hey, Beth? Want a ride home? No boyfriend tonight."
The girl blinks at her, looking surprised. "I'm fine taking the bus. He's spending the evening with his son."
Making this cheerful young woman his dirty little secret. Rick hasn't changed, like Lori claimed he was trying to do, just gotten better at hiding his girls. "It's near my apartment anyway. No sense in a long bus ride when you can go right there."
Beth hesitates, shifting her weight from foot to foot. "I was actually going by Rick's place tonight."
It's another exercise in self control not to growl, but Amanda manages a shrug. "Is that still on the way?" No sense revealing she knows where the man lives.
"Yeah, actually." Beth smiles brightly. "If it's no trouble, I would appreciate it. Your check is my last one, so I'm clocking out after."
After she heads off to finish up, Amanda tucks her book into her messenger bag. A shadow drops across the table, and it's far too large to be Beth. When she looks up, Gorman is looming over her, smirking. "Trying to score with the pretty bartender, Shepherd? Always wondered what your type was."
Amanda shrugs, giving him her iciest stare. She's been aware of the speculation for years by cops of Gorman's ilk that a woman like her can't be anything but a damned butch dyke. It keeps them from actually nosing into her personal life, so she has never argued it.
"Ain't no way you can compete with that pretty thing's sugar daddy. I've seen where he lives, and that place? Nothing someone as uptight as you about how real money is made can compete with that, not even even if you're the best cunt licker in the world."
Years of this sort of bullshit makes keeping her temper manageable, but barely. She gives him her best asshole smile, learned from years as a Dixon sister. "Her boyfriend is a cop, Gorman. We don't poach from cops, do we?"
The older sergeant steps back, assessing her and pursing his lips. "No, we do not. Good to know you have some loyalty to your own kind." As Beth passes by him with Amanda's credit card, he even gives the girl room rather than making her brush against him. Strutting off, he goes to the bar to presumably settle his own bill.
"I already clocked out. Just gotta drop off your signed slip and grab my bag from my locker."
Amanda nods, doing her best not to react to Gorman's open staring when she and Beth leave the bar. Just as he's done every night, Gorman follows in his flashy truck, proving it's Beth and not Rick he's stalking. Sighing, Amanda abandons her plan to insist on taking the girl to her dorm. She's safer with the innocent midlife crisis idiot versus the creep following them.
The first inkling that there's even more going on than Daryl asking her to give Beth a ride is seeing her brother leaning against the tailgate of his work truck in the parking spot assigned to Rick's apartment. He points to the one beside it and waits as Beth slips away to the elevators, pulling out an access pass and letting it whisk her away.
"Mandy? We gotta talk."
Rick never expected to have help explaining to Carl the fact that Beth is all but living with him at the moment. But Daryl not only agreed to help get Amanda here, he even talked with Carl. So he's in the clear with his son for once, although it's definitely an odd feeling to be babysitting a sleeping Naomi Dixon while Daryl tries to convince his sister that Rick isn't sleeping with Beth Greene.
Carl's in his room, talking on the phone to Sophia. Apparently part of his project is something she's interested in. It isn't a school night, and Sophia's a freshman in college, so Rick is just content not to have his son outraged by the fact that there's a twenty one year old girl using the shower in Rick's bathroom.
When his door opens to admit a not very happy Amanda trailed by Daryl, he braces himself. She's here, so something Daryl said got through, but she does not look happy about it. Daryl just looks stoic, calling out a goodbye to Carl before gathering his daughter up from the couch.
"I'll email you that proposal," Daryl tells him, letting Naomi loll against his shoulder. "Get the work done in an afternoon."
Rick nods, standing up and following Daryl to the door to buy time not to deal with Amanda just yet. In the hall, the other man turns and looks back. "Did my best, man. You gotta close the deal, though."
Rick just smiles. "Might need to wish me luck. Drive safe."
The elevator arrives, and Daryl gives him a thumbs up as he steps inside. Rick locks the door after closing it and turns to face the music. Amanda is holding the bottle of bourbon, turning it in her hands.
"You want a drink?" Rick asks, not sure how to even start.
"Where's Beth?" Amanda asks instead of replying to his question.
"Shower. She says she always smells like alcohol and hamburgers after a shift." Rick pulls a beer out of the fridge and offers it to her, a little surprised when she accepts it. Getting out another, he motions to the balcony. No sense in this conversation being overheard by Beth or Carl.
"What's Daryl sending you a proposal on?" Amanda asks as they step out onto the main balcony. There are two smaller ones for each bedroom, but neither are as impressive as the one off the living room, which is more terrace than balcony. It doesn't seem that she wants to start this conversation either.
"Landscaping. He's apparently offended by the building's efforts at such." Motioning to the planters, Rick leans against the railing and sips his beer.
Amanda runs her fingers through the leaves of some evergreen plant. "Invasive species, actually. He'll definitely want these gone. Says it's as bad as kudzu."
Taking a deep breath, Rick finally broaches the subject. "We've got a common enemy. I think we need to start over."
"I have it under control. Daryl had no right to bring in a partner for me, especially an outsider. I don't need an arrogant rich boy playing at being a cop helping me."
"Thing is, there's a reason no one goes undercover without support. And as judgmental as you are about me, making up your mind without seeing beyond your first impression, how are you going to manage something alone that requires so much personality analysis just to stay safe?"
"There's no one I trust in my precinct." It sounds so bitter, and Rick can't imagine being that uncertain of the cops you work with.
"Go higher. Internal Affairs."
She scoffs, downing enough of the beer to leave him torn between impressed and concerned. "I don't have enough evidence to risk going to IA. And I don't need the help of some deputy who's been rotting in rural Georgia all his career."
It's not the first time Rick's heard slander like that. The big city cops usually do think that the volume of crime they face trumps the experience of rural officers. The earlier jab about his family money isn't new either. He just smiles slowly. "I'm already on their radar, Shepherd, if you hadn't noticed. And I have an advantage you don't."
"Money?" She waves her bottle at their surroundings. "I've got news for you, Grimes, money is not the solution to everything. Money is not going to fix this shit for me, or protect my brother from these bastards."
Rick laughs, but there's no actual amusement in it. "Oh, I'm sure it'll be a big help in this, but no, that's not it. My best friend happens to head up the department that oversees Internal Affairs for our county."
As the penny drops, he takes a slow drink from his beer, staring at her over the bottle. Her eyes widen, as she clunks her empty bottle on the table. She's on board now, he thinks, but he sweets the deal.
"We make this an official investigation? Shane can bring Merle into the investigation as an informant. Beth, too, since he doesn't seem to be letting up there." Rick moves to set his own bottle down, gripping the edge of the wrought iron table with both hands and staring at her. "And our county has no agreements about not working inside the city limits of Atlanta."
She stops shaking her head, eyes intent on his. He notices for the first time that they're some shade of green he can't determine in the dimmer outdoor lighting. "You're going to get me killed." But she smiles, belying the severity of her words.
"I promise you that won't happen." Reaching across the table, he offers his hand, smiling as she shakes it. "Partners?"
Giving his hand one last squeeze, she nods. "Partners."
When planning goes into the early hours of Saturday morning, Amanda's stomach rumbles embarrassingly loud. Glancing inside, she sees that Beth is still up, too, but no longer curled on the comfortable looking couch with a textbook and her laptop. Clad in an oversized Georgia Tech shirt as a nightshirt that brushes mid-thigh, the blonde is rummaging in the oversized, stainless steel fridge. Amanda scowls at the amount of bare skin on display, letting it fade after glancing to Rick and seeing all his attention is on the notes he's been taking.
Rick seems to sense her attention and looks up and smiles tiredly. "You're welcome to raid the fridge. There's plenty in there."
Normally, she would refuse, but giving in to hunger means a chance to talk to Beth, too. Just because Daryl believes one thing, doesn't make it true. She heads inside, with Rick following, but he disappears down the hallway. "Anything good in there?"
Beth grins. "Depends. You like Thai drunken noodles with spicy honey chicken?"
"I can't say I've ever tried it."
Scooping a serving into a bowl from a labeled Tupperware bowl, Beth swaps the bowl into the microwave and sets her own steaming hot bowl at a spot on the breakfast bar. She seals the Tupperware and returns it to the fridge. "I had a bowl earlier, while y'all were first talking. It's worth the second round."
The blonde moves around the kitchen with ease, obviously knowing where everything is. Setting a second glass next to hers, she fills both with iced tea from a pitcher instead of a store bought jug. Amanda perches on a stool, a little bemused, as Beth brings everything to their seats.
"Fork or chopsticks?"
"Fork, I guess." Chopsticks have never really interested her, and fiddling with them with an audience definitely doesn't. Beth hands her a fork and digs into her own bowl with chopsticks and a happy noise. The chopsticks aren't the disposable kind delivered with takeout, but a pretty carved set with some sort of bird pattern.
The food is really good, and she considers asking where it's from after a bite or two. The whole area is full of smaller, quirky restaurants, mostly on the ground floors of high rise buildings. It's enough to distract her from talking while she eats, and she actually begins to wonder where Rick is when he doesn't reappear before she's done. "You're staying here full time now?"
"Yep. Shane advised Rick it would be a good idea. I wasn't complaining, because seriously? Sharing a single dorm room sounds nice for the financial end, but in reality? That's too many girls in one space."
"And here?" It is hard to picture Rick just opening his own home to Beth, who he didn't even know before Merle asked this favor of him. She knows Merle feels he owes the Greenes a debt for how they helped Carol after she and Sophia escaped life with Ed. If she was staying there, or even with Daryl and Lori, that would make so much more sense.
"Can't speak for weeks that Carl is home, but this one's been mighty quiet. I'm not even sure Rick watches TV."
Based on the number of well-filled bookshelves Amanda sees just in the main area of the apartment, she suspects reading is Rick's habit of choice. The books aren't cheap paperbacks, either. "I suppose it's like a vacation of sorts for you then?"
Beth nods, taking their dishes to the sink and giving them a quick wash. She yawns and looks at the clock on the microwave. "I think I'm stopping the studying for the night. There's an episode of Supernatural calling my name."
"When do you sleep?" Amanda asks, because it really is late, and the girl's had classes all day, plus a work shift. She vaguely remembers all nighters from her time in college, but she doesn't enjoy them anymore.
"It's Friday night. Can't go out with my friends, but I can find other guilty pleasures, right?" With a cheeky grin, Beth gathers up her laptop and book and heads down the hallway Rick did, making Amanda frown. All of the apartments in this building are only two bedroom units. She remembers that from that long ago official business visit. Where is Beth sleeping? She knows Carl's room is on the other side of the living area.
Rick returns once Beth disappears, still toweling his hair dry after a shower. He's dressed in soft pajama pants and a faded black t-shirt, feet bare on the hardwood floors. It makes him look younger, somehow. "Beth get you squared away?"
Amanda nods, watching as he heads for the fridge and fills a glass from the water dispenser. The whole kitchen probably costs as much as her car, and that's just the appliances. The place still makes her uneasy, but she agreed to try to ignore what she sees as the excess in his life.
"I think we've got enough to get Shane started. I'll go see him tomorrow at home, take Carl for a visit. We're over there enough no one will think much of it if Gorman does get froggy and follow me. Can you meet me back here in the evening?"
"Sure." It's not like she wants him in her apartment, and she's less likely to be noticed here than him and that damned yellow car at her place. "What time?"
"We should be back by six. Just text me, and I'll come let you up."
"I'll see you then." Amanda slides off the stool, watching for a moment as Rick heads to his son's room, slipping the headphones off Carl's head and settling the snoring teen to sleep correctly in bed. Combined with the memory of the man relaxed on the couch with tiny Naomi sleeping next to him, it makes something shift in her stomach.
When he returns, she gets a tired smile even as he leads her to the foyer. "Elevator doesn't need anything special to leave, just to come up."
After their farewells, while she's waiting on the elevator, she stares back at the apartment door and thinks of just how different their lives are. Any tingles she's getting over seeing that man with children can just go the hell away. They're partners, and she's not even entirely sold on that being a good idea.
But that bastard Gorman is making this personal, trying to mess up Merle's life. The look on Daryl's face today in the parking garage? That fear that they might lose Merle back into the system he fought so hard to be clear of? Gorman's hurting both her brothers, and his days are numbered.