December 31st
Rick awoke to the sound of his phone buzzing on the nightstand, his heart jumped in panic when he saw Michonne's name on the screen. She didn't normally phone him, especially this early.
"Rick..." Her voice was shaky. "I think something's wrong."
"Ok." He sprung out of bed. "I'm on my way, ok? Just...don't panic."
Rick grabbed the nearest clothes he could find, an oversized hoody and his gym shorts, and made his way to the underground parking garage. His fingers fumbled as he typed Michonnes address into the integrated sat nav in his SUV, hoping to miraculously find a route that wouldn't take him through traffic. It was only early, but there wasn't such a thing as non-rush hour in Manhatten.
He pulled out of the garage into gridlock traffic. The GPS jumped to read 27 minutes. Rick sighed. He called Michonne back.
"Hey." She answered straight away. "You on your way?" She tried to mask the panic in her voice.
"Yeah I'm coming as fast as I can, but it says 27 minutes on the map...I'm sorry." He said weakly. "What's happening?"
"I woke up cos I felt really bad cramping, I googled it and it said it was normal, but when I woke up again it was worse. And now I feel dizzy." Her voice shook as she felt another cramp. "Just get here fast ok? I'm going to call the doctor."
"Ok." Rick felt powerless as he crawled along in the early morning traffic. The constant honking of car horns was doing nothing to calm his mood, he rubbed his hand over his face as he tried to compose himself. The phone buzzed again, he pressed to answer immediately. "You ok?" He practically barked.
"Yeah. The doctor said to meet her at the hospital."
"Alright I'm about 10 minutes away still, can you get outside?"
"Yeah."
The rest of the drive felt like it took an hour. Rick pulled up onto the sidewalk as soon as he saw Michonne waiting. She looked alright, he convinced himself. She was definitely in pain, but she looked alright. He stepped out the car to help her to the passenger side, holding her hand as he lowered her into the car.
"When did it start?" He asked as he sat back into the driver side.
"A little pain last night before bed, then it got worse about 30 minutes before I called you." She bit her lip as the pain returned.
He nodded. "Ok, I'll get us there as fast as I can."
Neither of them said much as he drove to the hospital. As Michonne rode the waves of the cramps, Rick put a reassuring hand on her knee. Several times he tried to think of something to say that didn't address what was happening. He couldn't think of anything so he stayed silent.
They arrived at the hospital and Rick practically ditched the car in the drop off zone.
"Are you alright to walk?" He helped her out of the car.
"Yeah I'm fine." She grimaced. Rick put his arm around her waist and gently held on to her elbow as he led her towards the huge imposing double doors. He helped her sit down in one of the green plastic chairs before heading towards the desk.
"Michonne Hawthorne here to see Doctor Carson." He said to the receptionist, who in turn processed his request with a painstaking slowness.
"Doctor Carson's just got in. She'll call her through when she's all set up." She barely looked up from her screen.
"Ok, but she's in a lot of pain. Is there any way..." Rick looked from the receptionist to Michonne.
"Sir. The doctor will be ready soon." She gestured with her hand to the row of seats where Michonne already was. "Please take a seat next to your wife."
Rick sat next to Michonne. "Is there anything I can do?" He whispered as she rested her head on his shoulder.
She shook her head.
Rick drummed his fingers on the armrest of the chair, his eyes darting to the closed door of the doctor's office to check for any sign of movement. Finally an officious looking woman poked her head out from behind the door.
"Michonne Hawthorne?"
Rick helped her to the examination room before excusing himself to wait outside and give Michonne some privacy. After what seemed like an eternity Doctor Carson opened the door and peered round the room.
"Rick? Come in." He got up and followed her into the room.
"I want to do a quick scan to double check everything is alright, but it looks like a kidney infection." She said to the pair of them.
"Kidney infection?" Rick's relief was palpable. "I thought..."
He felt Michonne exhale from beside him. He didn't need to say it, she'd thought the worst too.
"Like I said, I'll need to do a scan to double check. But it's very likely the pain you're experiencing is due to the infection. We'll keep you here overnight just to kick start the antibiotics and monitor your fluids. And get you some kind of pain relief too." The doctor stood up and left the room.
"A nice new years eve getaway for me then?" Michonne muttered.
"I know. But everything is ok that's the main thing." His hand rested easily on top of hers, his thumb stroking along her knuckles.
"Yeah." She rested her head back on the mound of pillows and closed her eyes.
"Shall I go to your apartment and pick up some overnight things?"
Michonne nodded. "The keys in my coat pocket, I'll text you a list." Rick stood up. "And Rick...maybe change out of your gym shorts?"
He laughed, the tension was beginning to leave his chest. "Yeah...it's pretty cold."
"Ok..." Rick appeared at the door to Michonne's private room a few hours after he'd left. "...I think I got everything on your list." He laid it all on the table next to her bed. "Toothbrush, toothpaste, cleanser, toner, moisturiser, night cream..." He raised his eyebrows at the array of lotions. "... deodorant, shower gel, a whole bunch of clothes, phone charger, iPad, the book from your nightstand..." He bent down to get another bag. "And I stopped at the store too, I got you some club soda, Graham crackers, ginger ale, sun bites, cookies, peppermints and ice tea!"
Michonne giggled. "Wow! Thanks."
"No problem." He sat down in the chair next to her bed. "How are you feeling anyway?" He gestured to the two drips she now had in her arm.
"I feel a bit better already." She nodded sleepily. "They're taking great care of me here. Managed to get my fever down, apparently that's why I was feeling dizzy."
"Good." He smiled. "Do you want me to leave? I'm happy to stay..."
She shook her head. "I don't want you to leave...unless you have somewhere to be?"
"No, nowhere." He lied, sending a quick text on his phone. "I'll stay as long as you need, alright? Try and get some rest." He propped his feet up on the metal of the bedframe and busied himself scrolling through his emails as Michonne drifted back off to sleep.
He was in the same position three hours later when she woke up to the early evening light to find a tray of food on her table.
"Wow how long was I out for?" She yawned.
"A few hours." Rick gestured to the plate of mac and cheese in front of her. "I had to hazard a guess at what you wanted to eat."
"This was a good guess!" She smiled as she began to eat. "And chocolate fudge cake too? Well done Grimes!"
"Thank god!" He grinned. "I've been worrying about that for an hour."
"You want some?" She offered out of politeness, but made no movement to actually make the food accessible to him.
"I'm good, the nurse got me a sandwich." He gestured to the empty packet in the trash. "And I noticed a pretty well stocked vending machine out there too."
"That's kinda sad, your last meal of the year was a sandwich!"
"I don't mind." He smiled. "You feeling any better?"
"You know what? I actually am. It's nice to have an excuse to just stay in bed sometimes."
"Good, I'm glad. That nurse I sweet talked into giving me a sandwich is letting me stay here tonight." He blushed as he stammered. "If you want me to, that is...I just don't want you being here alone on New Year's Eve."
"I'd like that." She beamed. "But you're sure you have nowhere to be? I swear Jesus talked about a party that you and Daryl were going to..."
"It's not important. I've been to a thousand parties with Daryl, I've never spent a night in a hospital with the most beautiful girl in the world before...so..." He blushed again, but his eyes met here unfalteringly. At a loss of how to respond Michonne just laughed.
"I'm beginning to see how you charmed that nurse."
"I didn't even need to." He flexed his arms and accentuated his southern drawl. "She musta just loved what she saw."
Michonne shook her head as she finished her chocolate cake.
"Well since you're staying here, you could make yourself useful and help me to the bathroom. These drips are a pain in my ass."
"Course." He stood up and helped her maneuver herself down from the bed, careful not to tangle up the tubes. He supported her the 6ft distance to the bathroom. "I won't listen." He joked.
"Rick! Now I won't be able to go!"
"It's fine! I'll be by the window."
As soon as Michonne emerged from the bathroom Rick rushed over to help her back to the bed.
"I may as well get ready for bed." She said as she retrieved the bag of clothes Rick had brought for her.
"I'll head out to see what the vending machine has to offer." He said as he eagerly made his way out of the door.
He returned laden with candy and pretzels to find Michonne in the same outfit just some new soft pants.
"I forgot I can't get changed with these drips in my arm." She rolled her eyes. "Can't even take my bra off! What'd you get anyway?"
"Anything you could possibly desire." He dropped the load of food on the bed, sifting through the candy and chocolate to find the peanut butter twix he'd had his eye on. "Want half?" He offered the packet.
"I'm good." She smiled, feeling bad he'd only eaten a sandwich while she'd had pasta and a whole slice of fudge cake.
"Phew." He joked, his mouth full of chocolate. "What do you normally do for new year?"
"Depends. My mom usually has a family party, so I head to that or if I'm staying in the city then Sasha normally has her eye on the hottest party where the tickets are ridiculously over priced and there's some celebrity or other in attendance that I probably haven't heard of." She rested her head back on the pillows, glad that this year she had an excuse not to go out on what she felt was one of the most over rated nights of the year. "This year though I was only gonna stay in anyway."
"You should have said." Rick rested his own head against the back of the plastic coated hospital chair. "We could have hung out. I didn't like the sound of this party Daryl was dragging me too anyway. Plus have you been out with him and Jesus yet?" He rolled his eyes. "Talk about third wheel city."
Michonne laughed. "They're in love. It's cute."
"It's not cute." He joked. "It's annoying. Daryl was meant to be my single friend."
"Jesus was meant to be mine! Now I barely see him outside or work."
"At least we have each other, right?"
"Right." Michonne couldn't seem to stop smiling at Rick. Perhaps it was the slight fever she was still running, or the painkillers, but besides being unwell she couldn't have asked for a nicer evening then her and Rick together with no distractions.
"You know you don't have to worry." Rick said, changing the direction of the conversation slightly. "About us hanging out, or doin' stuff together."
"Oh?"
"I mean, I won't fall in love with you or anything." He said hesitantly. "Not if you don't want me to."
"You can pick and choose?" She raised her eyebrows at him.
"I'll hide it." He smirked. "I just... I like this..." He gestured with his hands to the two of them. "Whatever it is, it's nice just being with you."
"I like this too." She nodded.
"Good." He picked up the remote control from the bedside table. "You wanna watch some crap TV?"
"I'd love nothing more." She let him flick through the channels until he found something he was happy with. Feeling suddenly sleepy again, she let herself drift off. Only to be woken by Rick's gentle touch on her shoulder.
"It's almost midnight." He whispered. "You can go back to sleep if you want."
"It's ok." She gave it a moment for her eyes to adjust to the new low light in the room. It was very close to midnight, she could see the ball was dropping in Times Square on the TV. She heard the hospital staff and other patients having their own countdown.
"10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1!" There were cheers from the television screen, cheers from the corridor. A chorus of "happy new year" from around them. Michonne stood up from the bed to watch the view outside the window.
Rick opened the window briefly, almost getting knocked back by the freezing cold Manhattan winter air. A cacophony of cheers and fireworks erupted into the room, he had the biggest grin on his face.
"Happy new year!" He walked over to Michonne and wrapped his arms around her. "This is the year we have our baby!"
"This is the year." She rested her head on his chest, her phone buzzed with what she knew were drunken messages from Jesus and Sasha and Maggie, and likely a message from her mom worrying and asking for the hundredth time that day if she should come to the hospital. She didn't need to read them right now. Right now she just wanted Rick's arms around her, his steady breathing and his calm deep voice telling her how excited he was for their baby.
