Author's (overly emotional) Note: Hello. I hope everyone is doing well after the season 7 premier. I just wanted to say thank you all so much for your kind words. I was really touched by them. I don't know what I did to get so many new followers and reviews but I am truly thankful. I have dyslexia so writing has always been a challenge for me, and I struggled for the longest time to find the courage to even post my work online, but I just want to write, so thank you for sticking with me even though at times my grammar/punctuation leaves a lot to desired. I'm slowly improving, but until I get a beta what you read is what you get. Anyway I just wanted to give a HUGE THANK YOU to all of you for being the bright spot in such a dark time in my life.

19. Week damn one Michonne

"This feels all too familiar." Rick said.

"Yeah, all police cars smell the same." Shane replied.

"No, I mean the two of us in a patrol car together." Rick explained.

"Those were the days. Back in good ol' car number 134, I wonder how she's doing."

"You know she's been asking about you. I can give her your number if you want me to." Rick quipped.

"You're so funny man. You oughta think about giving up this job and becoming a comedian."

"I should have my car back by tomorrow. Then you won't have to worry about driving me around anymore."

Rick and Shane were two of the twelve officers that had been recruited to work for the Shetland police department. Rick's own patrol car had been damaged by a pothole, so Shane was giving him lifts home until his patrol car was repaired.

A car was exactly what he and Michonne had been waiting for. Between him and Shane they had two cars, and access to more. He'd only been on the job for five days and every time he went out on patrol he took pictures of the streets. Shane did the same thing. They shared their compiled data with their friends during their emergency preparedness meetings. From the pictures he and Shane took of the streets they were able to start piecing together a map. Plan B was finally coming into fruition.

Shane pulled his car into Rick's driveway.

"You coming in?" Rick asked.

"You got beer?"

"Yeah."

"Then I'm coming in."

"Take your shoes off. Michonne will skin you alive if you don't," Rick warned Shane. He kicked off his shoes and placed them on the "shoe rug." He noticed that Michonne's and Carl's shoes were on the rug as well and they shouldn't have been. Michonne should have been at work and Carl should have been at school.

"Something wrong?" Shane wanted to know.

"Yeah. Michonne and Carl are home and they shouldn't be."

"Ya don't think anything is wrong do ya?" Shane questioned.

"No, Michonne would have called me if anything was wrong." He said. "I don't see Jude's shoes so she must be at school."

"Maybe Carl got sick." Shane suggested.

"Go ahead and help you're self to a beer. I'm going to go see what's going on." Rick said.

Michonne was coming out of their bedroom as he got to the top step.

"Is everything OK?" Rick asked.

"Yes. Carl was sent home from school early."

"Why, is he sick?"

"No. He's been suspended for fighting."

"WHAT?"

"Keep your voice down." Michonne demanded.

"It's only the first damn week of school!"

"I know Rick. I'm not happy about it either, but he was standing up for a girl."

Rick ran his fingers through his hair. "How long has he been suspended for?"

"Two weeks, and Carl has to take an anger management class." Michonne said. "He's lucky no one pressed charges against him."

"What punishment is that other boy receiving?"

"He's being charged with sexual harassment, and he's facing an expulsion. Carl will probably have to make a statement at his hearing."

"Did you ground him?" Rick wanted to know.

"No, but I took his phone and sent him to his room until you came home. I thought this was something we should do together."

Rick nodded and then knocked on Carl's door.

"Come in."

Carl was lying on his bed staring at the ceiling. Rick could see that his lip had been split and his face was bruised.

"So you want to tell me all about it?"

Carl sighed and sat up on his bed."I already told mom and the principal."

Rick folded his arms across his chest. "Well you didn't tell me."

Carl sighed again, this time dramatically, and told him what happened.

"You can't go around hurting people whenever they make you angry."

"Yeah, that's why they're sending me to anger management." Carl drawled.

"You're in enough trouble Carl." Rick warned. "Don't add to it by having a smart mouth."

"Carl don't hold things in till they boil over. Tell us about them, and we'll try and help you the best we can." Michonne added.

"That's right. With the way things are we shouldn't be keeping things from each other. You can talk to me."

"Oh, really?" Carl questioned. "So when were you going to tell me that you learned how to kill biters?"

Rick opened his mouth and then shut it again. He was at a loss for words. Michonne had warned him to tell Carl the truth because she thought Carl had some how figured it out, and she was right. He had.

"We didn't tell you Carl because we weren't allowed, not because we didn't want to." Michonne explained.

"How did you even find out about killing biters?"

"It doesn't matter," Carl said and looked out the window.

"It was Shane wasn't it?"

"I told you it doesn't matter." Carl replied a little sharper this time.

So it was Shane. Carl would never sell Shane out, but Rick knew all the same that's who had told him. "You better believe it matters." Rick said. He yanked Carl's bedroom door open.

"Rick!" Michonne called after him.

"Not now." He said. He couldn't believe Shane. How dare he go behind his back like that. He thundered down the steps and stood in front of Shane, who was sitting on the couch drinking a beer and watching TV.

"So what's the deal, everything good?" Shane asked.

"You tell me, Carl got in a fight at school and got suspended for hurting another boy."

"Hot damn, guess my boxing lesson stuck." Shane said and stood up and began boxing the air.

"Scues me?" Rick said. and tilted his head to the side. "You taught my son to box?"

"Hell yeah I did. Some prick was picking on him so I taught Carl how to defend himself."

"You doing things with Carl behind my back is your thing, isn't it?"

Shane shifted his weight from one leg to another. "What are ya talkin about?"

"What do you think I'm talking about?" Rick snarled. It was getting harder and harder to not go completely off on his best friend.

"Oh, I get it." Shane said. "This is all cuz I taught Carl how to kill biters." Shane said

"YOU DID WHAT?" Rick shouted. He'd been pissed off when he thought that all Shane did was tell Carl about killing biters, but to find out that Shane had shown Carl how to kill biters made him absolutely livid. Carl could have been killed. No wonder he'd been having so many nightmares lately. He could feel anger boiling up inside of his guts.

"He needed to know. Ya want to keep Carl alive then ya gotta teach him how to stay alive."

"What I choose to teach Carl isn't up to you Shane." Rick said coldly.

"All I know is you would've been picking Carl's teeth up off the floor if I hadn't of shown him how to fight, maybe you're just mad at me because Carl didn't come to you."

"You had no right Shane, no right at all! You are not his father. You will never be his father. He's my son not yours! I want you to stay the hell away from Carl from now on."

Shane took a step back and gave Rick a look between shock, anger, and betrayal. "You can not be serious man."

"Oh I am. I"m as serious as a sucking chest wound, you brought this on yourself." He spat. "You know you're just like my dad, you think might makes right. You want to walk around here like some over compensating macho piece of shit fine, but leave Carl the hell out of it."

"Fuck you Rick. You think ya always know what's best for everyone don't ya? Just like ya thought ya knew what was best for Lori, and look how much good ya did her,"

It was like someone had detonated a series of bombs inside of Rick's. His skin burned hot and his muscles tensed. Without even thinking of the consequences he punched Shane. He punched him so hard it sent Shane careening backwards. Shane fought back as soon as he gained his footing. He unleashed a series of punches on Rick knocking him into the counter behind him. A plate fell of the edge and shattered on to the floor. The two began grappling with each other.

"WHAT IN THE FUCK ARE YOU TWO DOING?" Michonne shouted as she ran down the steps. She quickly crossed into the kitchen where she took the sprayer from the sink, and trained it on Rick and Shane and soaked them both.

Rick stopped fighting and so did Shane. Dripping wet they both stared at Michonne as if she was the one who had completely lost her mind.

"Shane get out!" Michonne demanded.

Without another word Shane slammed out of their house.

"What the hell Rick? Getting into a fist fight with your best friend, have you lost your mind?"

Rick wiped the blood from his mouth. "He's not my best friend, that son of a bitch isn't even my friend anymore."

"You don't mean that."

"The hell I don't. He's not allowed around Carl ever again, I mean it, and I don't want you talking to him. You hear me?"

"Yeah I hear you, but you don't own me Rick. You can't tell me who I can and can not talk to, you're not thinking rationally."

"That's just great." Rick said.

"You're also being unfair to Carl."

"He taught our son how to kill biters even after I expressly told him not to. He's the reason Carl's been having nightmares every single night."

"Oh my god, when?"

"I don't know, but how in the fucking hell could he do something stupid?"

"Rick, you need to calm down."

"I meant what I said about Carl. I don't want him around Shane. He's completely irresponsible."

"OK Rick, OK." Michonne said in a pacifying way. "Come on into the bathroom and I'll get you cleaned up."

Rick followed Michonne into the bathroom and sat on the toilet seat. His body was still shaking with unspent anger. Shane always thought he was better than everyone else, especially him.

"This will sting." Michonne said before she applied a cotton ball soaked in alcohol to the cut above his eye.

Rick winced.

"Second Grimes man I've had to clean up today." Michonne said. "Is this going to become a family tradition?" She asked. "There's this little girl Mya, she's been mean mugging Judith maybe I'll have her go rough Mya up."

"Very funny." Rick said morosely. "I don't know what I'm going to say to Carl."

"Well you're not going to yell at him for one, and you're going to apologize."

"I know. How'd I mess up so badly?"

"It's that infamous Grimes anger."

"I'm still not speaking to Shane, but I shouldn't have swung on him."

"Especially not after lecturing your son on contorlling his temper."

No one could hurt you worse than someone who knew you. Shane had hit a nerve. Actually he'd hit several. It bothered him that his son felt more comfortable going to his best friends with his problems instead of him. He had thought that they had worked through the majority of their issues. He thought that he and Carl were back to the place where they respected and trusted one another, but he was wrong.

What Shane had said about Lori had particularly hurt. It hurt to know all the awful things he thought about himself his best friend thought as well. Shane had been right by his side when Lori died. Never once had he indicated that he blamed Rick for her death. He'd helped Rick get over one of the darkest times in his life only for their friendship to come to this. Did Shane really believe that he wasn't capable of looking after his own son? Did he really think that he wouldn't teach Carl how to survive whatever the new world was going to throw at him? He may have been hesitant at first, but Michonne was right. They were working without a safety net and the time for action was now. Shane knew Carl it was true, but he didn't know what Carl needed.

"We'll fix this." Michonne said as she rubbed his back.

"What's to fix?"

"You can't just throw away a lifetime of friendship over one fight."

Rick opened his mouth to protest, but Michonne covered his mouth with her hand.

"No Rick, I don't want to hear it. I'm angry at Shane too. Carl could have been hurt or worse. Be angry at Shane because he hurt you and betrayed your trust, but after that fades go talk to him. He's your best friend for a reason."

Rick kissed his wife. "You clearly are the more level headed among us." He said.

"We both can't run hot all of the time."

"You run pretty hot to me." Rick said. He pulled her in for a kiss.

"Flattery will get you nowhere."

"Are you sure?"

"Well, not until we straighten out things with Carl."

Rick stuck his bottom lip out like a shelf.

Michonne laughed. "You're so cute when you don't get your way."

Rick got up off the toilet seat, and looked at himself in the mirror. The cut above his eye was still bright red. His lip had a cut as well. He felt ashamed that he had to talk to his son about fighting when the signs of him fighting himself were still on his face. He opened the medicine cabinet and put a band-aid over the cut on his forehead.

"That's not conspicuous at alllll." Michonne giggled.

Rick scowled at her and ripped the band-aid off and flicked it in the trash. "So how do we want to handle this? How much trouble is he in?"

"He needs something to do for the two weeks he's been suspended other than just sitting around the house."

Rick thought for a moment. "He can go to preschool with you."

"That's actually a good idea. Amy is a big help, but I could always use an extra set of hands. Carl can help out during recess and lunch especially."

"No going to his friends houses either. I'll let them come here for a few hours so he's not completely cut off from his social life, but I want him to stay around the house."

Michonne nodded.

"Let's go lay down the law." He knocked on Carl's door again.

Carl opened his door then threw himself face down on his bed and buried his face in his pillow. He knew his sentencing was at hand.

"I don't want you hanging around the house by yourself while your mom and I are at work, so we've decided if you can't go to your school you can go to daycare."

Carl lifted his face from his pillow and scowled deeply.

"We also want you to stay around the house." Michonne added. "You can have your friends over, but you can't go to their house."

"You're mom is also hanging on to your phone. 'You'll get it back when you've finished your anger management course."

"Anything else?"

"Yeah, lose the attitude and I don't want you talking to Shane anymore.

"WHAT?" Carl roared as he sat up quickly on his bed. "That's not fair!"

"Then Shane should have thought of that before he taught you how to kill biters."

"So what if he did, it's better I know than not know. He was just trying to help me."

"I was going to show you, Carl. When the time was right. Shane isn't your father he doesn't get the call the shots."

"Shane is my friend you can't stop me from seeing him."

"You want to bet? Don't push me."

"Everyone just calm down." Michonne said.

"Why should I have to calm down?" Carl wanted to know. "Dad's the one who got in a fight with Shane and now he's taking it out on me!"

"I'm not taking anything out on you."

"Then why can't I talk to Shane?"

"You know Carl your father isn't the bad guy here, you and Shane both went behind our backs. You two had your reasons I'm sure, but now you have to deal with the consequences."

"May I please be alone now?" Carl asked.

"If that's what you want." Rick got up from Carl's desk chair and head towards the door. He glanced back at his son before leaving. Carl had is back turned towards him and was facing the wall. He was really angry, but so was Rick.

"I don't like this." Michonne said once they were out in the hallway. "The three of you not speaking to each other isn't right."

Rick sighed. He didn't want his wife in the middle of his fights, but she was there regardless. "I'm sorry I told you not to speak to Shane, my fight with him has nothing to with you, but I'm still angry at Shane and I'm going to be for awhile."

"What about you and Carl?" She prodded. "The two of you can't go on living under the same roof and not speak to one another."

He shrugged. "I don't have any answers Michonne. At least not ones that you're going to want to hear."

"What are you going to tell Judith She's going to notice that your not speaking to Shane or Carl."

"I don't know." He hadn't thought of that.

"We'll think of something." Michonne said.

Amy dropped Judith off after daycare was over. Thankfully during dinner she was full of stories about her day. Her non-stop chatter was welcoming in a house that had become too filled with tension.

Carl slumped in his chair and picked at his food.

Michonne watched him with a worried expression on her face. The other time she was looking at him with that same worried expression when she thought he wasn't looking at her.

He hated to see her worry. He was going to fix this. No matter what he had to do he was going to make things right for his family.

Rick's patrol car had finally been fixed and for that he was grateful. If Shane had still given him rides, and Rick highly doubted that he would have, it would have been too awkward sitting in a car with him saying nothing. At work the two of them stared at each other for a minute before walking off as if they didn't know each other. It hurt Rick to the core to do it, but he wasn't ready to forgive Shane yet. There were so many times when he wanted to go over and talk to Shane. Not talking to him felt unnatural it was something that he had to force himself to do. Still he couldn't let go of the feeling that Shane thought he was a better father than Rick, and Shane wasn't even a father. He gone behind Rick's back and risked Carl's life because he thought he knew bette. He could have easily come to him and told him what was happening with his son, but he chose to take matter in his own hand, and had Rick never sussed it out Shane would have never told him what he'd done.

On the drive home all of Rick's worries seem to have manifested themselves into something real that sat be side him in the passenger's seat whispering all his insecurities to him. Damn Shane for bringing up old ghost. He punched his steering wheel and then let out a deep slow breath. He did not want to bring any of his negative energy into his home.

"Daddy!" Jude cried when he walked through the door.

"Hey, pumpkin." He bent down and picked her up and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

"Hi dad." Carl said, but his look went right through him. Rick wondered which act Carl was angrier at him for. Not letting him see Shane or not telling him about the biters. Whatever the reason he couldn't dwell on it. He was trying to prepare for the future, but of course Carl couldn't see that. He couldn't see past his own anger. Rick couldn't force his son to speak to him, but he also wouldn't allow Carl to keep ignoring him. He knew that Michonne would be looking for him to put things right.

"Hi." He called out to his wife.

"Hey, how was work?" Michonne asked as he came out of the kitchen.

"Work." Rick replied.

"I go help mimom." Jude said and Rick put her back down.

Even with the tension between him and Carl, Rick still loved coming home to his family at the end of the day.

"What's for dinner?"

"Turkey burgers. My recipe but Carl grilled them, and to perfection I might add. Its such a nice day out I thought we'd eat dinner on the patio. Go wash up everything is almost done."

Carl was setting the patio table when Rick stepped outside, so Rick helped Michonne bring the food to the table. Once everyone was seated Rick picked up his turkey burger and took a huge bite. He'd only had a bag of chips and a can of pop for lunch and he was starving.

Rick stared at Carl stretched his eyes as wide as they would go, and said in his best Samuel L. Jackson voice "Mmmm, This Is A Tasty Burger!"

Carl stared at him for a moment before bursting out laughing.

Rick smiled back. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you about the biters Carl."

Carl continued to stare at him but said nothing.

"We can't go back on that, but I can teach you other things you're going to need to know. There's no better time than now."

"What are you going to teach me?"

"How to drive."

"Really?" A huge grin broke out on Carl's face.

"Really, but you can only drive in an emergency. I also want you to come to the firing range. I want you to work on your gun skills, You too Michonne."

"OK." Carl agreed.

"This is a huge responsibility. I'm not just teaching you this for fun."

"I know dad."

"Good, we'll start tomorrow."

"So you really think the burgers are good?"

"So good I'm going to have another."

After dinner, and after Jude and Carl went to bed, he and Michonne lie side by side on a blanket in the backyard listening to music and drinking wine.

"What's that smile for." Rick asked as he poured his wife another glass.

"You working things out with Carl." She said. "I was scared that your fight might drag on for months."

"No, I'm done letting things fester."

"Except for this thing between you and Shane."

"Except for that. This isn't something that I'm just going to get over Michonne."

Michonne sighed. "I know, I just hate to see you hurting."

"I'll be all right. I'm a big boy, and Shane isn't my only friend."

"You're right, I'm done sticking my nose in your business."

"No you're not, beside where would I be if you hadn't stuck your nose in my business?" He pulled her into his arms, and she rested her head on his shoulders.

"What you're doing for Carl is a good thing. He needs to know how to take care of himself in case we aren't around."

"In case we die." Rick corrected.

"Yes, in case we die." Michonne said.

"We're not going to though."

Michonne studied Rick's face in the darkness for a moment and then looked up to the night sky. "Look how beautiful the stars are tonight." Michonne spoke softly in his ear. She ran his fingers through his hair.

Rick closed his eyes and concentrated on the movement of her fingers. He loved the feeling of her hands in his hair. It comforted him in a way that nothing else could, and helped to ease his busy brain.

"No matter how dark the world gets at least the stars will always be here to shine some light on us."

Rick opened his eyes and looked at the stars. "Guess that's why people have plotted their lives by them for so long." He picked Michonne's hand up and used it to trace the outline of the big dipper. "Before the end of fall we'll be looking at these same stars from Shawn's father's farm. Now that I have a car and access to more cars we have a way out of here. No since in waiting for the bomb to drop."

"So the stars have aligned at last, Michonne said, but everyone might not be willing to leave this place."

"I know. Even if no one else wants to come along with us we'll leave. Just you, me, Jude, and Carl."

"What about Shawn? We just can't show up to his father's farm without him." Michonne reasoned.

"We'll find another place to go. Our plan B is for when things go bad, but by then it'll be too late. You told me you didn't want to get comfortable here, and we shouldn't. We got comfortable in Calbert and we're blindsided by the move. No more. The stars aren't in charge of our fate anymore than the government is. We're in charge of our destiny. If we want to make it out alive we've got to get out of the city and never look back.