Happy Birthday Danai Jekesai Gurira

16. Meet Me at The Alter in Your White Dress

"Sorry we're going to be stuck in here for our honeymoon, although Shane did say he was working on something special for us." Rick said to Michonne who was lying on their bed flipping through an old magazine.

"Well if there's one thing I know about Shane is that he's determined, whatever he's got planned I'm sure he'll come through, but really I don't care as long as you and I get to be alone together, and the penthouse has a hot tub."

"Don't pack any clothes they'd just slow me down." Rick said and leaned over and kissed her on the lips as he groped her breasts through the t-shirt of his that she was wearing.

"Can I come in?" Carl called from the other side of their door.

Rick pulled his mouth away from Michonne's. "No, go away!"

Michonne laughed and pulled on her robe. "Don't pay any attention to your dad, come on in Carl."

A second later Carl opened the door and stepped in pushing in the cart he usually used to get their government rations with. Judith came in behind her brother with a hand full of flowers. She marched up to their bed and unceremoniously threw the flowers between them.

"Real classy, sis." Carl said. "You were supposed to hand the flowers to them, not hurl them like a weapon. I hope you do a better job as a flower girl."

"What is this?" Rick asked.

"My wedding gift to you."

"You made us breakfast?" Rick asked as he surveyed the breakfast food on the cart.

Carl set a tray over their laps. "This is just the first part of my gift to you, you don't get the second part until after you finish eating."

"This is so sweet Carl, it looks wonderful." Michonne said staring down at the scrambled eggs, toast , and bacon.

Carl poured coffee in their mugs from the glass coffee carafe.

Rick took a sip. "Damn good coffee. Thanks Carl." He took a bite of his eggs next and they were just as good.

"Can I have you toast daddy?" Jude asked. Rick picked Jude up and sat her on the bed and handed her a piece of toast.

"It taste wonderful. Thanks Carl." Rick said.

"You like your flowers Mimi?" Jude wanted to know.

"I love them, but we'll have to think of something else for you to call me." Michonne said to Judith. "After tomorrow I won't be a Mimi anymore."

"Why won't you be Mimi anymore?" Carl asked.

"Well, my last name will be changing." Michonne explained.

Carl still looked confused for a minute before the light bulb of comprehension lit his face. "Oh, Michonne Mitchell, I get it now, Mimi." Carl shook his head. "I can't believe it took me that long to realize that."

Rick set the cup of coffee he just finished on the night stand, and hit Carl lightly on his forehead with the palm of his hand."You could of had a V8."

Carl rolled his eyes.

"Keep you hands to you self daddy or you go in time out!" Jude demanded.

Rick smirked. "You're right. I'm sorry. "

"Now that we've averted that conflict, don't leave us in suspense Carl, what's the second part of our wedding gift." Michonne asked.

"You have to get out of bed and get ready for that."

"This must be some hell of a gift." Rick said.

"You'll see. Carl said. We'll be waiting in the living room."

After showering and getting dressed Rick and Michonne joined Carl in the living room. He was waiting there with Duane and Tamekia.

"Hi." Michonne said. "What are you two doing here?"

"We're here to guide you to your wedding present." Tamekia said.

"Guide?" Rick asked.

"Yeah, it's a surprise you can't see so we gotta blindfold you and take you there." Duane explained.

"All right, but I want you to know I'm taking an awful lot on faith."

Carl tied a blindfold around Rick's eyes.

"Can you see?" Carl asked.

"No, but I still know you're waving your hand in front of my face." Rick said.

"Can you see Michonne?" Tamekia asked.

"Nope, its all pitch black."

"Good, now follow my voice." Carl said.

Rick stepped forward gingerly.

"Don't worry Mr. Grimes I won't let you fall." Duane said to his right.

"Good to know." Rick replied.

Duane continued to guide Rick towards Carl's wedding gift. He couldn't imagine what his son's gift could be, but whatever it was Carl sure knew how to make a presentation.

"Not much longer now." Carl told them.

"I smell flowers." Michonne said.

"OK, stop!" Carl commanded.

Rick stopped and felt Duane fumbling around with his blindfold and then it fell away. He blinked a few times and opened his eyes to see that he was standing in the middle of a greenhouse that had been transformed by dripping fairy lights, flowers, and lace. Everywhere Rick looked there were flowers. Flowers of every variety, size, and color. There were candles that had not yet been lit placed all around the greenhouse. The dining chairs from La Pêche had been set up for guest and each one had been adorned with a white lace bow. In the center of the green house was an alter made out of an antique mirror, and above it someone had strung up a crystal chandelier. The morning sunlight streamed through the glass of the green house and refracted off the chandelier making pools of warm dancing rainbows everywhere.

"Oh my goodness it's beautiful." Michonne cried out beside him.

"Welcome to your real wedding!" Carl cried out.

"What?" Rick asked.

"Surprise your son is hi-jacking your wedding." Shane shouted.

"The wedding isn't until tomorrow." Rick said.

"What, what are you talking , What's going on?" Michonne asked.

"I'm giving you the kind of wedding you really want." Carl explained. "One with out The Master Sargent or army being involved."

Michonne hugged Carl. "Thank you so much. I didn't think I'd even get one wedding, but now I'm getting two!"

"You both deserve two weddings, Amy said, Carl you're really smart."

"Actually I wanted to move the wedding out of the ballroom completely, but Annalise said that now might not be the best time to piss the army off, so we're having your real wedding a day early."

Annalise gave a wry laugh. "That among other things. We had a lot of people volunteer and they helped us to get everything set up faster, so we invited them to the wedding."

"So who did you find to marry us if The Master Sargent isn't going to? Rick wanted to know.

"Father Gabriel." Carl said.

"Who?" Michonne asked.

"He's a priest."

"When did you meet a priest?" Rick wanted to know.

"When he came to take a selfie with me." Tyreese filled in.

"What about the guest?"

"It's just us, Deann, and everyone who helped out." Carl explained.

"You ask more questions then I do, and I'm a reporter. Carley said. "Go get ready to get married, man!"

"Can I at least have a kiss before I go?" Rick asked.

"OK, but I'm not sure how Michonne would feel about it."Carley said.

Rick smirked and then pulled Michonne into his arms and kissed her deeply. She sighed happily and melted like ice cream as he worked her mouth open and kissed her harder until he felt someone pulling him away. It was Shane the bastard.

"Come on Officer Frisky save some of that lovin' for the Honeymoon. Shane said

"Dick head." Rick spat.

"I took your tux and everything else you'll need up to Shane's." Carl explained.

"Thank you for this Carl. I'm really touched. It's the best wedding present you could have given me."

Carl smiled up at him. It was Lori's smile. He couldn't help but think of her now. Removing his wedding ring for the first time since Lori's death had not been a decision that he had made without considerable forethought. He had only removed it once he knew that his feelings for Michonne were not going to go anywhere. Soon he would be a married man again and at this point he just wanted the wedding to be over so that he could be married to Michonne and they could finalize the adoption process, but at the same time he want to enjoy every single minute of his weddings.

"You're awful quiet." Shane said.

They had reached Shane's apartel and Rick realized that he had gotten there on autopilot. "I'm just thinking."

"About what? "Shane wanted to know.

"Michonne." His heart beat a little faster just saying her name. "The woman so nice I'm marrying her twice."

"Oh man, she's got you so far gone." Shane said.

"She does and I hope one day you'll be half as lucky to have someone that makes you feel that way."

"I do too. Ya'll really got something special."

Rick smiled. He did. He had Michonne and he had a family, not through blood, but through fate, circumstances, and choices. Fate brought them together, circumstances kept them together, but all of them made the choice to stay together.

As he got dressed for his wedding he went over his vows in his head. He and Michonne had agreed to say their own vows, and earlier Rick had written his vows down, but ripped them up and threw them away. He did not want a planned speech he wanted to be spontaneous and just say what he was feeling at the moment.

Rick's hands were shaking and his palms were sweating and his heart was beating faster in his chest. In just a few moments time Michonne would share his last name. "Damn it I can't get this stupid thing!" He cried out. He had been struggling to tie his bow tie for the last five minutes, but his nerves wouldn't let his body function normally.

"Calm down I got you, after all ain't that what the best man is for." Shane said stepping into his room to tie Rick's bow tie. "There all purdy."

"Looking good dad." Carl said.

"You look good yourself." Carl was wearing a tuxedo that was put together in parts much like his own tuxedo. Like father like son he thought. "Shane could you give us a few moments." Rick asked.

Shane nodded and left the room.

Rick placed his hands on Carl's shoulders and turned to look into his face. He could see a younger version of himself in Carl's face. "Thank you for giving us our own personal wedding, I will always remember this day." He sighed. "After the wedding I'll be going on my honeymoon of sorts, and I won't see you or Jude for awhile, so I just wanted to say I'm sorry for not always telling you the truth. It's hard being a father. It's hard knowing when to hold on and when to let go. I'm just trying to protect you, but I guess sometimes I try too hard, because one of the worst things that could ever happen to me is losing you." He hugged his son close to him.

"I used to think about you dying all the time." Carl confessed. "I would listen to the police scanner just in case, you know, but Me, Jude, you, and Michonne have already lived through a lot of bad stuff, and that's what I've been focusing on, living.'

Rick put his arm around Carl. "C'mon let's go become a family."

With each second that passed Rick's heart seemed to be beating faster and faster. The wedding he didn't even know he wanted was only minutes away now. This time Rick didn't walk to the garden, the entire wedding party was being transported to the venue on golf carts. Michonne had been driven to the greenhouse already, and was tucked away safe in the gardener's maintenance building, and would remain there until it was her turn to walk down the aisle as the most beautiful bride in the world.

Since the very first time he'd met Michonne his life had been leading up to this. This moment when they would finally become known to the world as Mr. and Mrs. Grimes. The wedding processional began and he let out a slow breath and closed his eyes. Slowly he opened his eyes, and as soon as he looked down the aisle towards the alter he felt a rush of emotions. An instrumental version of Radiohead's Love waits cued Rick to begin his walk down the aisle. He felt everyone's eyes on him but he didn't see them. He didn't feel them. He could only think of how Michonne would look walking down the aisle towards him.

Pachelbel 's Canon in D began to play. The guest rose from their seats for Michonne.

She didn't walk down the aisle she floated. She was poetry in motion. There was a gentle wind blowing that lifted the train of Michonne's wedding dress making her seem like an angel descending upon earth. Michonne looked up through her eyelashes and smiled at him. It was coy yet suggestive. It was her smile just for him. It was hypnotic and ever time she smiled at him like that he couldn't take his eyes off of her. Having Michonne in his life made him happier than he had any right to be.

He looked over to Carl and Jude. They were both smiling. Jude looked like a little princess in her white lace dress. No one had gone into very much detail to explain to her exactly what a wedding was, but some how his daughter seemed to get the gist. She even knew that Michonne was becoming her new mommy. She had gone from calling Michonne Mimi to Mimom. Michonne didn't have to think of something else for Michonne to call her Judith had thought of it herself.

Carl winked at him and Rick grinned.

"Beloved Friends, Family, we have joined here today to share with Rick and Michonne an important moment in their lives. Their time together, they have seen their love and understanding of each other grow and blossom and now they have decided to live out the rest of their lives as one." Began Father Gabriel.

Rick didn't know much about Father Gabriel, but he was thankful to him for marrying them.

"Rick and Michonne have chosen to recite their own vows, Rick."

The beating of his heart was so loud that he could hear it in his own ears. He felt like it was the very first time he'd ever met Michonne because he was so nervous. He looked up into her warm brown eyes and felt comforted. All the love she felt for him was in her eyes. All her loyalty to him and their children was in her eyes. He reached down and took her hands and held them in his a moment before speaking.

"I have been waiting for this day longer than you probably think I have. You came into my life like a force of nature and I did everything I could to get you to see me again. I'm still not sure why you did, but I'm the luckiest man in the world because you did. For the rest of my life I get to have you by my side. I get to be in love with my best friend and I get to watch you be in love with our children. You make me complete Michonne, and it's all I've ever asked for. You are everything I have ever asked for. I love you.

Michonne's eyes were glistening with tears. "When I first saw you sleeping on that couch and you look so tired, I must confess I fell in love with you a little bit then. From that moment on we didn't seem to be able to stay out of each others life, and I don't think we're supposed too. I love you Rick, and I love Carl and Judith. There is no one on this earth that I'd rather spend the rest of my life with, than the three of you. You loved me when there were times when I couldn't love myself. So much has happened between us since now and when we first met, and you've stood by side though everything, and I will stand by you through everything. I love you."

"Beloved Friends, Family if you please, your applause for Mr. and Mrs. Grimes."

Rick kissed Michonne softly on her lips and grazed her cheek softly. Married. He was married. Finally Michonne was his wife. "I love you so much." He whispered in her ear.

"I love you too, Rick." She said and rested her head on his shoulder. He could feel her heart beating next to his.

Outside a sudden light summer shower began.

"Rainbow!" Jude called as she looked outside. "Daddy! Mimom a rainbow."

"It's a sign!" Amy cried. "Even the earth ships you two."

As soon as it had come the rain stopped leaving behind the rainbow and the fresh smell of earth and rain.

Rick took Michonne's hand in his and they ran out of the greenhouse, and across the now damp cloth runner amid a shower of rose petals. Michonne looked like a goddess in her sheer flowing wedding gown with the rose petals flying all around her. A few of them stuck in her hair making her look even more beautiful than possible. Shane drove them back to their apartel on the golf cart. Rick held Michonne's hand for the whole trip and stared into her eyes. After everything the two of them had gone through he did not ever want to forget this day. Their wedding day.

Michonne went to open the door of their apartel, but Rick stopped her picked her up and carried her over the threshold.

"Thank you husband." Michonne teased as Rick set her on the floor.

"You are most welcome wife."

Rick didn't know where in the hell he would be in a year, a month, or even a week from now, but wherever it was he knew he could get there with Michonne by his side. She would never give up on him just like he would never give up on her. After changing into some of their nicer clothes Rick and Michonne Grimes joined their wedding guest at La Pêche for a small intimate wedding dinner. Walking through the door they were greeted by cheers, clapping, and a wolf whistle from Shane.

"How do you feel." Shane wanted to know.

"Married." Rick replied.

"Ditto." Michonne said holding up her ring.

"Congratulations dad and mom." Carl shouted out and Michonne burst into tears.

She rushed over to hug Carl on the cheek and left an imprint of her lipstick there, which he grimaced and brushed off.

Rick laughed.

"That wedding was so beautiful. Thank you Carl, thank you Annalise. Thanks to everyone. I needed this wedding as much as the Q.U.A.D needs the wedding we'll be having tomorrow."

"Let's toast." Shane said. "To your marriage today, to your wedding tomorrow, and to rest of your lives."

Rick held up his champagne flute next to Michonne's and looked deep into her eyes. "To the rest of our lives."

"To the rest of our lives." Michonne said back and clinked his champagne flute against hers.

Dinner was delicious. Eggplant eggplant Parmesan and a fresh green salad from the garden.

Annalise had baked them a cupcake for two as a pre-wedding cake cake. Rick took Michonne half and popped it into her mouth and then kissed off the trail of icing he'd left here.

"Mmm." Michonne purred into his mouth.

She returned the favor and popped the second half of the cupcake into his mouth. He felt her tongue slide into his mouth. She still tasted of frosting and he didn't know how, but kissing her as his wife turned him on even more. He pulled away from her lips feeling more than desire for her. He felt like he was a part of her and she was a part of him. He could no longer be who he was without her. He had never before made a choice that felt so completely right and he couldn't wait for tomorrow so that he could marry her all over again.