A/N What a finale! Our sheriff looked so good last night and the memory will help to get me thru the next six months, but it's gonna be a looong six months! Good thing we can still hang out with him here in the meantime...
Please let me know what you think! Enjoy :)
Chapter Thirty-three
The soothing sound of running water caresses her ears. Her eyes flutter open and closed just enough to take in the slim band of soft gray light seeping around the edge of the window curtains. Erin sinks deeper into the super-soft but firmly fluffy pillow beneath her head and brings her knees up, gliding her thigh over the incredibly comfortable mattress against her hip.
A soft groan drifts out of the slightly opened bathroom door and she opens her eyes once again. Turning her head on the pillow, she sees the warm light of the lantern spilling out from the steamy doorway as the rush of the water muffles another painful moan, triggering the memory of last night's pity party.
He must be in bad shape if he isn't singing Johnny Cash's 'Cool Water' like he'd always done down at the quarry lake at bath time. He's got to really be feeling the effects of his little swig-fest. Poor baby.
With the first rays of the sun reaching up and grabbing onto the horizon with just the tips of its fluorescent fingers, the few inches of pre-dawn light creeping around the curtains is not enough to illuminate the bedroom to any degree. Forcing her body to climb out of the bed, she pushes the bathroom door further ajar to steal some of Rick's light.
Returning to her duffel for a clean outfit, she notices a bottle of aspirin on the dresser next to an unopened can of iced tea. She slips into an olive green sleeveless top and a pair of black panties and grabs the little white bottle with the childproof cap.
The bathroom is hot and heavy with regret as she crosses the threshold taking two tablets from the pill bottle. Drawing the shower curtain back a few inches, she peers into the stall and can't help but admire the vision before her, as well as pity it. Rick's strong back glistens with water that rolls over his broad shoulders, off his nicely sculpted buttocks and down his muscular legs. With his arms braced against the wall below the showerhead, his dark hair is flattened to his scalp and hanging over his eyes as the water splashes against his head, hung in pain and repentance.
Smiling sympathetically at his back, she reaches in to get his attention with a light touch on his hip. "Do you need some aspirin, honey?"
"Couldn't get the fucking thing open," he mumbles beneath the rush of water as he turns his chin slightly in her direction. "I gave up."
"Aww, baby." She pouts in commiserating humor. "Here you go." She reaches her arm further into the stall to meet his hand as he turns toward her.
"Oh, thank God," he murmurs, taking the pills.
Shaking the water from her arm, she watches him pop the tablets into his mouth and swallow them down with a mouthful of water from the shower head.
"Thanks," he says. "I'll be out in a minute."
"Take your time." She gives his body one last appreciative glance before closing the curtain again.
"Hey, Red,"he calls out as she steps over the threshold into the bedroom. "Were we in here last night?"
She turns back at his question. "Yeah. Don't you remember?" she asks in a tone of light teasing, not surprised at all that he doesn't recall their evening. "You ravished me against the wall in there."
"I did? Well I sorta remember something, but I thought maybe it was one of our dreams."
"No. Not this time. And I have to say, you were pretty incredible."
"Really?" he blurts, sticking his head out from the side of the curtain with a curious expression that holds a thread of pride.
She smiles at his adorable face. "Mmmhmm…, did things to me that I'd never experienced before," she teases in a sensual tone. "It was amazing."
He squints at her with a tilt of his head, regarding her thoughtfully for a moment before straightening again. "Bullshit. I would remember that. I probably couldn't even get it up, much less in."
She crosses the tiles of the small bathroom in two strides and leans up to press a light kiss to his lips. "You did," she says softly. "And it was good."
"Good?" he echoes, sounding unsure but hopeful.
"Not your best performance, but yes, it was very good." She gazes up at him warmly, her heart wide open and his for the taking. "With you, honey," she says tenderly with a finger on the cleft splitting his chin beneath thickening stubble. "It's always good."
He gives her a boyish smile full of smug satisfaction and then slips back behind the curtain with a cheerful hum - which quickly transforms into a deep, painful residual groan.
Grinning at his unfortunate, but well-earned hangover, she walks out to retrieve her toothbrush, grateful that he doesn't remember the end of their tryst when she'd held him tightly as he'd cried in her arms.
When Rick steps out of the shower five minutes later, he dries himself off halfheartedly and ties the towel around his waist with sluggish hands. The annoyingly aggressive jackhammer slamming against his brain didn't get completely scared away by the aspirin, but it did scurry to the back of his skull to beat in a dull rhythmic thump, which is at least somewhat tolerable.
Walking into the bedroom, he finds Erin lying across the bed on her belly, her curly hair high on her head and erupting in a messy ponytail as she shines a flashlight on the map spread out before her. Her bare arms are supporting her weight on her elbows and the hem of her shirt stops a few delicious inches above her panties, giving him a small taste of her lower back where it curves to form her posterior cheeks. Her long legs, beautifully bare and bent at the knee, are crossed at the ankles as her feet dance slowly above her perfect ass. She looks like a young college coed, lost in a textbook and sexy as hell.
Jesus, how could he not remember being with that body last night? Though he does recall morsels of memories - scraps of images that flash hazily in his mind; her hand leading his to touch her just where he wants her the most… his feet slipping slightly on the wet surface of the tub as he lifts her up to straddle his hips… her teeth sinking into his shoulder as he crushes her body against the tiled wall – though he does remember bits, most of the night is an eighty-proof blur.
Shit, I could have hurt her. What the hell was I thinking! He berates himself as he sets the lantern on the dresser and lays down on the bed beside her, stretching out on his side after pressing a kiss to the enticing slip of skin at her lower back.
"Hey. Did the aspirin kick in yet?" she asks with a look of sincere concern that warms his chest.
"Yeah, it's kicking."
"Good. Drink some of that iced tea too. The caffeine will help and I don't know if Dale will be making coffee this morning."
"Okay," he replies, but makes no move toward the can on the dresser. "You find anything interesting on that map?"
"Yes actually. Manchester," she says with a finger tapping on a section of the thin paper. "They have a big cancer treatment and research center. I'd gone there a couple of times with a friend from the oncology department. I'll bet we could load up on medical supplies there."
He follows her finger and nods in agreement. Recognizing the area, he scans down the page until he sees "Woodland" in thin block capitals. A moment later, as if reading his mind - which he wouldn't put past her and the connection they share - she says "Hey, there's Woodland."
He kisses her shoulder and flips onto his back. He studies her face as she studies the map and waits for her to grab the caboose on his train of thought. He can see her mind working as she bites her bottom lip.
"Isn't that where your cabin is?"
That's my girl. He smiles up at her. "It is."
"That's not that far from Manchester. Do you think we can make time to go there?"
Oh, without a doubt. "Yes."
She gives him a smile that stills the jackhammer more effectively than the aspirin. But he still feels like a total dick. He reaches up to brush a loose curl behind her ear and sees a small yellow blotch bruising the base of her neck. Oh God. And now he feels even worse. "Listen, Erin, I'm so sorry about last night. If I did anything to hurt you, I'll never forgive my-,"
"Stop. Don't you dare finish that sentence." She lays a warm hand against his jaw and looks at him with such tenderness in her eyes that his chest hurts as he swallows his guilty conscience. "You didn't do anything but make love to me, Rick. And I'll not have you apologize for that. Not ever."
Looking into her eyes he knows she is leaving something out, but he believes her when she says that he didn't actually hurt her. Thank God. Just the same, he swears to himself that the next drink he takes will be the one celebrating the return of civilization as they knew it. Or when hell freezes over. Whichever comes first. Either one is a safe bet to keep him on the wagon for the rest of his days. "Come here." He pulls her down to lie against his chest and squeezes her tightly. "You can't imagine how much I love you."
"Yeah, actually I kinda can. It's just short of how much I love you."
"Impossible," he breathes against her lips as she dips her head to his for a soft sweet kiss. A knock on the door prevents him from deepening it. "Hang on," he calls out to the visitor as Erin presses her lips to his chest and pushes off of him. He rises beside her and drops the towel from his waist, earning a yearning look from Erin as she slips into a pair of yoga pants.
After dressing in jeans and a brown tee shirt, Rick opens the door to see T-Dog yawning, the sky a rusty steel scape behind him as the sun pales the night with shades of burnt orange. "Hey T," he greets the stocky man. "I assume it's been quiet out here?" he asks, successfully fighting the urge to echo the yawn.
"Yeah. Morgan and Michonne are taking watch now while me and Glenn get some sleep," T-Dog informs him. "Figure we'll do some more scavenging in a couple of hours."
"Sounds good. You two head down to Ellaville. Me and Daryl will go to Talbotton and we'll all work our way back in to finish up here in Lincoln before dark."
"Okay. How many days you think we'll be here?"
"Just a couple. Tomorrow I'm gonna take Erin to a medical center in Manchester, stock up the first aid kit. There's another town not too far from here that I want you guys to check out."
"Alright. Which one?"
"Woodbury."
"Will do, boss." T-Dog heads off to a bed and Rick closes the door, returning to his lover with a smile as he thinks about a trip to an old familiar cabin with a pretty willow tree.
Things are definitely starting to look up.