June 4th

Rick hesitated before he knocked on the door the Lori and Shane's house. He'd always felt equal to Lori, but this was the first conversation they'd have about Carl where he was on the same legal footing as her too.

He turned off the engine and took a few moments on the driveway before going inside. He always had to work himself up before going into Lori and Shane's house. The weird atmosphere, the memories that always sucked him back in, and Shane. He hated it all.

Carl opened the door with a smile. "Hey Dad."

"Hey son." Rick replied softly.

They'd likely never get sick of saying it.

"No Judy?" Rick looked round, waiting for the usual thundering of feet down the stairs.

"No she's on a playdate." Carl shrugged. He seemed calmer since the adoption, more at ease. Sure of himself suddenly.

Rick followed Carl into the kitchen to see Lori and Shane sat at the table. The air was thick with a weird kind of tension. "They had a fight." Carl whispered. "Right before you got here."

"Great." Rick chuckled.

"Good luck." Carl tapped his shoulder.

"Hi." Rick leaned on the fridge surveying the scene. "How are ya?"

He directed the question at Lori mainly because he could barely look at Shane these days. He was always harsher on Carl than Rick was, and lately Carl had been reporting that he'd been worse, more threatening and refusing to let Carl do things with his friends.

"Fine." Lori said in the same pinched voice she always seemed to have now.

Rick didn't wait for Shane's answer.

"Well I'm here to advocate for Carl's lake trip." He continued.

"He's not going!" Shane spoke for the first time.

Rick fixed his eyes on Lori. "His grades are good, he's going to college, his behaviour is vastly improved compared to where we were a few months ago. He's a good kid Lori, and he's almost 18. I think he needs some freedom."

"Nah Rick, we agreed that he's gonna stay here this summer help me paint the house." Shane said gruffly as he stood up from the table.

"Who exactly agreed that? Because I don't recall a conversation." Rick leveled his face with Shane's, refusing to look away, unflinching.

"Due respect Rick but you ain't here all the time. We can't call you up with every little decision about Carl." His smirk was making Rick's blood boil. He fought to keep his voice under control.

"That's fine, but I'd appreciate you looping me in on the big decisions. Or if it's something that he hasn't had a say in. He's almost an adult."

"He's under my roof he's a child, and children do what I say." Shane winked at Lori. She turned her face away from him.

"He's not a child Shane he's 17 years old." Rick growled.

"Rick let me tell you somethin'. I bit my tongue a lot over the years, but I learned that means people think they can just walk all over me. I don't have any respect in this house, least of all from Carl." He was getting closer to Rick's and Rick smelled a hint of alcohol. "That's gonna change."

"You've gotta give respect to get respect." He tried to keep calm, tried again to keep his voice to a reasonable level despite his heart thudding in his chest.

"He's gonna learn respect this summer when he helps me paint the house." Shane jerked his head as he spoke. An aggressive tick that always infuriated Rick.

"He's not doing that." Rick growled.

"Me and Lori decided." Shane shrugged.

"He's my son!" Rick's face was inches from Shane now, his finger pressed hard into his own chest as he spat out the words.

"Don't push me Rick." Shane was bearing his teeth. "I let you get one sucker punch in all those years ago but that was it."

"I'm not afraid of you. You might intimidate 17 year old kids, but you don't scare me. You are nothing! Nothing." Rick practically spat at him.

Within seconds Shane landed the first blow. It felt inevitable that it would come to this after years of tension, and of Shane steadily becoming angrier and more resentful. More drunk.

Rick didn't hit him back, he pushed his chest to try and get distance between himself and Shane's repeated blows.

"Shane! Get off him!" Lori's voice cut through the wooshing of blood Rick could hear in his ears.

"Shane!" Carl had run into the kitchen and was pleading with Shane. "Stop! I'm calling the police!"

"I am the police!" The punches had stopped, but Shane still held onto Rick's shirt collar as he pinned him against the wall. "I am the law! You don't ever forget that!" With each word he slammed Rick's body to the wall, eventually letting him go and letting him sink to the floor.

"Get out." Lori's voice was firm.

"I'm leaving." Shane walked past them, Lori and Carl staring at Rick on the floor in disbelief.

"You need to go to the hospital!" Lori said as she and Carl helped Rick to a standing position. "Come on."

"No." Rick put his hand to his face, feeling his lip and eye already swollen. "I'm fine."

"You could have a concussion!"

"It's alright. I'm ok." He said thickly. "Just...take the kids to your parents tonight."

"Please get it checked by a doctor...your eye!"

"It's fine." Rick opened the door. "Your husband is a fucking jackass." He stumbled out into the open air, his head spinning as he fumbled for his car keys. He wanted to get back to the city, back to Michonne.

It wasn't a long drive back from Shane and Lori's house, and the traffic was thankfully quieter than usual. Rick struggled to keep his injured eye open as he traversed the city. Thank god he knew the streets like the back of his hand. He breathed a sigh of relief as he pulled up in front of his house.

He dragged his tired body to the door, hoping he wouldn't see anyone on his way from the car to the sidewalk. Blood soaked his white shirt from the cut above his eyebrow, he could taste it in his mouth too. He made it inside. He took his phone out of his pocket, the screen was cracked likely from where Shane had slammed him against the wall, but luckily it still worked.

"M'chonne." He said as soon as she answered.

"Rick? Where are you?" His strange sounding voice already rousing her suspicion.

"Home."

"Is everything ok?"

"Fuckin' Shane..." He mumbled.

"Shane? What did Shane do? Are you ok?" She had already slipped her sneakers on and was scrambling around for her purse.

"Yeah...'m fine." He said though his swollen lip. It felt like a struggle to even stay awake. "I just... I really need you."

"I'm coming."

Rick staggered to the bathroom and turned on the tap, he finally caught full sight of himself in the mirror. It wasn't good. His cut lip was about five times it's normal size, as was his right eye. There was bruising coming out already along his cheek. The worst was the cut above his eyebrow where Shane's ring had caught him.

He washed himself up as best he could and peeled off his blood stained shirt. The buzzer rang and he let Michonne in, waiting for the slam of the front door to let him know she was inside before he collapsed on the couch.

"Rick! What the hell happened?" She ran over to him.

"Shane went mad. We were arguing about that trip that Carl wants to go on and he just lost it!" Rick's voice was thick and his words had become slightly slurred.

"What about Carl? And Judith and Lori?" Michonne struggled to keep her voice - and breathing - under control.

"They're fine, they're safe. He's gone anyway and it was only me." His head began to lull from side to side.

"We need to go to the hospital. You need stitches." She grabbed a tea towel from the kitchen and fashioned an ice pack out of some frozen peas. Returning to the couch she placed it gently against Rick's face.

He shook his head. "I just need you." He pulled her on top of him on the couch, bump and all. She laid her head on his bare chest. "I don't wanna go anywhere." He mumbled into her hair.

"Honey, you need to. I'm sorry. Let me find you a shirt." She got up with great difficulty and headed to the master bedroom to get Rick a new shirt to wear. "Come on, sit up. We'll take your car, give me the keys."

"So..." The doctor held up the X-rays he'd taken of Rick's head and face. "...I'd say you're a very lucky guy. No fractures or breaks, just some nasty bruises."

"That's something." Rick winced.

"I'll need to stitch you up, and unfortunately it does look like you have a mild concussion. So I'm afraid your wife is going to have to wake you up tonight every couple of hours." He looked at Michonne. "Sorry about that, but it'll be good practice." He gestured towards her protruding bump.

"As long as he's ok." Michonne forced a shaky smile.

"He'll be fine. Let me just get the suture kit, then once that's done you're free to go."

He left the room leaving a smirking Rick.

"What?" Michonne said sternly.

"Nothing." He was laughing now. "It's just...I love it when people think you're my wife."

"Well assumptions are all you're ever gonna get, Grimes!" She furrowed her brow, but allowed the slightest hint of a smile to form at her lips.

"You sure about that?" He winked.

"You almost caused me to go into premature labor!" Michonne chastised.

"I know. I'm sorry."

"It's ok." She stroked his hair as he laid back on the pillows. "Just promise me you won't scare me like that again."

"I won't."

"Why is Lori even with him any more? He's such a dick."

"God knows. I think she's just kinda trapped. She stopped working when Judith was born, Shane's injury settlement had just come through when she and I divorced so she never pursued alimony or anything. I gave her money for Carl but she just put it away for his college I think. But I guess that means everything belongs to Shane so..."

"It's all smooth sailing when you're in love isn't it?"

The doctor returned with the suture kit and lidocaine injection to stitch Rick's eyebrow.

"So I'll have to file an incident report. Are you sure you don't want to press charges?" He said as he set to work. "The guy sounds a little unhinged."

"Nah." He said through gritted teeth. "It was just a misunderstanding."

The doctor raised an eyebrow in Michonne's direction, she returned an I'm-not-gonna-get-involved look with a shrug.