April 15th
"How did it go?" Michonne didn't even say hello as she answered her phone halfway through the first buzz.
"Well..." Rick sat smirking in the driver side of the car, his hand on the back of Carl's head. "...I just wondered if you wanted dinner tonight? With me and my son."
"It went through?!" She squealed.
"It went through." She could hear the smile in his voice as he confirmed it.
"I would love to come to dinner with you and your son." She enjoyed saying it as much as he enjoyed hearing it. Carl by now was rolling his eyes in the passenger side of the car, but even he couldn't wipe the smile from his face.
"I'll come get you at 7? I've got a little surprise...for both of you."
"Can we go to Murphy's?" Carl asked as Rick hung up the phone.
"We'll see." He smiled.
"That always means no."
"It means we'll see."
They both laughed, enjoying the new depth of their relationship now that they were officially father and son. Carl was in better spirits than he'd been for a while.
"So dad..." He started. Rick raised his eyebrows, fully aware that he was using his new title for leverage for something. "...you know how it's the end of high school? And I'm probably not gonna see my friends again?"
"Dramatic, but go on..."
"Well Ron is talking about hiring a cabin at the lake for the weekend after prom. So we can all just kinda hang out."
"Hang out?" Rick knew exactly what teenagers did when they 'hung out'. "So who's going?"
"Just, um, Ron and Henry. Um... Sophia and maybe Enid I don't know." He stuttered out.
"Enid?" Rick tried to hide his smile as he raised his eyebrows at his son.
"Maybe...I don't really know. Ron's organising it." Carl looked out the window to hide the deep shade of red his face had gone.
"What did your mom say?" Rick asked carefully.
"Well here's the thing, so she originally said yes but then Shane said no. But then I figure if you say yes then mom might say yes again?"
"That sounds like somethin' I don't really want to get involved with." Rick said with a light chuckle.
"Dad, c'mon. Shane and mom are together half the year at best. He's not my dad, you are. And if you say yes and mom says yes..."
"I'll talk to your mom, ok?" Rick relented.
Carl nodded.
"But Carl, you've got to accept whatever answer we come up with alright?"
"Dad I'm almost 18..."
"I know, I know. And I'll think about it and talk to mom. Ok?"
"Fine." The teenager grunted as he sunk down in his seat.
"Come on. We'll have a good time tonight. You can meet Michonne properly, we'll have some food. See what surprise I've got."
"Is Michonne your girlfriend yet?"
"Not yet."
"Why?"
"It's not always straightforward, especially as you get older."
"What's so hard? You like her, I assume she likes you. She's having your baby." Carl shrugged. "Seems like a no brainer to me."
"What about Enid?" Rick grinned. "She your girlfriend yet?"
"It's not like that."
"I see...not straightforward huh?"
Carl punched Rick's arm playfully.
"Shut up, man." He quickly grabbed his bag as they drew closer to his school. "Here's fine dad." He said quickly.
"Let me pull in closer." Rick indicated to go inside the school gates.
"Dad what the hell. Don't go in there. God!"
"Carl no one's even there it's 11 already!"
"Dad! People will see me!"
"See you what? Get out of my car?"
"Dude I'm a senior, I have my own car. It's not cool for your dad to drive you to school. Like, I'm sure in the 60s or whatever you loved getting out of Grandma's car and your friends all seeing you but oh my god you have no idea how embarrassing you're being right now."
"Ok... alright." Rick stopped outside the school gate. "Have a nice day. Be at mine by 6:30 tonight ok?"
"Yeah! Bye dad."
Rick watched him until he reached the building, remembering the day he and Lori took him to his first day of kindergarten. The way his little chubby hand gripped his as they headed down the hallway. The hesitation before stepping inside. The fifteen hugs and kisses he'd demanded from them before he eventually had the courage to go in. It was a far cry from the tall teenager who was too embarrassed to even be seen getting out of his car.
Rick waited outside Michonne's building, Carl in the back seat, remembering the last time the three of them, well the four of them were in a car together.
"Hi." She beamed as she got in the front seat, unsure for a second how to greet Rick, especially with Carl in the car too.
"Hey." He leaned over to kiss her.
"Gross, dad." Carl whispered from the back seat.
"Hi Carl." Michonne giggled as she looked behind her. He was smiling, his body language a lot more relaxed then last time.
"Hey." He smiled. "How's it going?"
"I'm good." She was shocked, having only heard him grunt before. "How was school?"
"It was alright. Too much math."
"Well that's what happens when you do advanced calculus." Rick said proudly.
"Oh! So you're a smart cookie?" Michonne turned to smile at Carl.
"No. He just likes to brag cos he barely graduated high school." Carl teased gently as Rick shrugged.
"I hated school." He nodded. "Never tried hard enough and I always regretted it. I bet you loved school?" He turned to Michonne.
She laughed. "I wouldn't say I loved it. I loved learning, and I knew I wanted to be a lawyer so I had no choice but to work hard. My mom used to brag too." She winked at Carl. "I used to pretend I hated it as well."
"There you go, it's worth the hard work." Rick said to Carl.
"Did you bring me here to lecture me?" Carl moaned.
"Nope."
"Where are we even going?"
"You'll see. It's a new place."
It was a new place indeed. They were in Brooklyn before Michonne caught on that they might not be going to a restaurant. Sure enough Rick pulled up halfway along a residential street of brownstone houses.
"Dad. This doesn't look like there's food here." Carl said worriedly.
"Don't worry. I've ordered us some pizzas they'll be here in a moment." He said as Carl and Michonne both let out a sigh of relief.
"So what is this?" Carl said as they climbed the steps up to the freshly painted front door. "Are you moving house?"
Rick smiled as he opened the door. "I am."
His furniture had been moved in already. The huge couch that used to look small in his penthouse looked bigger in the high ceiling living room. A huge fireplace sat in the middle of the room, it was already adorned with Rick's photo frames. The rest of the room was still packed into boxes.
"When did you move here?" Michonne had only been to his penthouse a few days ago.
"Yesterday." He shrugged. "I gave the factory staff the day off tomorrow on the condition they help me move today."
"Seems a good deal." She said it distractedly as she was eyeing up the rest of the downstairs; the huge open plan kitchen with doors to the decking.
"I wanted somewhere bigger, more of a home and less of a bachelor pad. The penthouse served me well, but I'm about to have a baby. Well, we're about to have a baby. And I want somewhere she can grow up that's more like I had, and Carl had and you had. A home."
"It's lovely."
"Come see." He took her hand and they went upstairs. "I don't know what she's gonna like yet, but I figured this was a safe bet."
He opened the door to the most beautiful, exquisitely decorated nursery. The walls were light grey, with one wall decorated with wallpaper with little pink rabbits on. She recognised the white furniture set from pottery barn. Pink and grey bunting hung below a shelf that he'd already filled with books and a few wooden toys.
"Did you do this?"
"Yeah. It's not perfect, but she'll want to put her own spin on it when she's older anyway."
"It's beautiful Rick." She marvelled. "I can't believe you've done all this."
"Course. I'd do anything for her." He said quietly, looping his arm around her waist and holding her bump. "And you of course."
"What's up here?" Carl called from the hallway where he'd found the stairs to the third floor.
"You'll like it." Rick started to climb the stairs after Carl. "This is your space."
"My space?"
"Yep! So you've got your room through here." Rick pointed to one of the doors. "Then here you've got your bathroom. And your kitchen. I figured you'd wanna pick up your own furniture, so we'll go shopping at the weekend. Then we'll decorate it together ok?"
"What! This is sick dad!"
"I'm assuming it's a good thing." He shrugged to Michonne as Carl explored his room. "I figured you can't just sleep on a sofa bed forever."
"I love it dad." He kissed Rick on the cheek. "Thank you."
"It'll be nice for the summer, and when you come back from college."
"It'll be awesome!"
The doorbell rung and Carl sprinted down the stairs to get the pizza. Rick turned to Michonne, holding her hands in his.
"I just wanted a family home. It's been a while since I've had a family, and I missed it. And I'm not gonna ask you to move in with me." He said. "I know we need to take things steady, and we're not even together. But I wanted you to feel happy with our daughter staying with me if that's what it's gonna be like. And I wanted it to feel like her home."
"I love it, Rick. I love that our little girl can have a house and a garden. And I love thinking that one day we'll maybe all live here together."
"I'd like that." He kissed her. "Shall we go eat?"
"I thought you'd never ask!" She took his hand and they walked down the hallway of his new home, their new home really, and Rick felt like it might all be starting to fall into place.
