Author's Note: Just wanna say again, thanks for all the lovely reviews. They keep me going! xoxo

P.S. In my head, Jake looks like actor Patrick Wilson (The Conjuring, Insidious 1 & 2).

"You're keeping in step

In the line

Got your chin held high and you feel just fine

Cause you do

What you're told

But inside your heart it is black and it's hollow and it's cold"

― Nine Inch Nails

Georgie stood in the living room of the corner home, touching her fingers upon the back of the blue sofa and her mind thought back to the blue sofa in the law office with Carol. Except this sofa had decorative pillows and was in an actual house. There was even a coffee table with grey, plastic army men scattered on it. To her right was an art easel with paints, but the canvas remained blank. Above the fireplace was a flat screen TV and to the left of the fireplace was a sort of small buffet table or hutch that was topped with two speakers and a record player which were covered in stacks of CDs, DVDs and more toys.

Slowly, she migrated into the kitchen and spotted drawings on the fridge. There were dirty dishes in the sink and some clean ones stacked on the side. To the right of the kitchen was the breakfast nook with a table that sat four. From what she could see, it looked homey and very lived in, but it was sterile and foreign to her.

The front door shut behind her and she turned around to face Jake who was approaching her with a shy smile as he clasped his hands behind his back. With each step closer he took toward her, she took half a step back. When he realized what she was doing, he stopped and held his hands up in a sort of surrender.

"Sorry, I know this is probably a lot to take in."

"Trust me, you have no idea." Turning, Georgie looked past him to the front porch. Outside the front picture window she could see the back of her son's head as he sat on one of the porch chairs, waiting to come in after his parents talked. "I thought you were dead."

"I thought the same about you."

She glared at him. "You left us for dead, Avery and me. You walked out. You ran away." She pointed at the window, at their son. "And here you are with our son, who I spent the last year and a half looking for." Georgie could tell Jake was staring at her but she could look at him at the moment. She was so focused on Tristan. "I finally gave up that ghost only just a week ago. I told myself you were probably right, that Tristan died back at that camping trip."

"Well, I was wrong about that. He survived because of the kindness of other people. That's what you hoped, and that's what happened."

"Shut up," Georgie spat. Turning to face him once more, she took a step forward. "You walked out," she repeated, emphasizing each word. "I don't even care anymore that you left me behind but you left our daughter behind, too. You were supposed to stay. Through sickness, through health, through good times and bad. Till death."

"I know. I screwed up royally. I was angry and scared and I made a mistake."

"A mistake," she scoffed. "That's making a molehill out of a mountain. I saw your truck on the road. The keys were still in the ignition. There was blood. I didn't know if you had been killed or if you'd gotten away from whatever happened. But you know what I felt?" Georgie shook her head. "I felt nothing. I didn't dare feel anything for you, because I had to think about taking care of our daughter, because I was the only who gave a shit about her."

"That's not true," Jake insisted.

Georgie got right in his face and shouted, "Bull-fucking-shit! A man stays with his family and protects them. A man keeps the ones he loves safe." She jabbed him in the chest with her index finger. "You are no man. If you were, you wouldn't have left. You would've been there to help me save our daughter." Tears were stinging her eyes and slowly rolling down her face as she growled at him through clenched teeth. "You would've been there to help keep her from being killed."

"Wait," Jake muttered, dumbfounded. He reached his hands out to hold onto Georgie's arms. She tried shaking him off but his grip was stronger. "What are you say—I thought that with you here and how well you looked…the amount of people you're with, when I realized it was you…I thought…" Jake pulled his head back and shook it. "Avery's dead?"

Georgie laughed at him through her tears as she watched his own appear. "You actually thought she was alive just because I am?" Boldly, she spit in his face and shoved him off her. "She died two weeks after you left."

Bringing a hand to his face, Jake wiped the spit away and just stared back at her in stunned silence. "How?" he asked.

"You don't get to ask how." She gestured to him and at the inside of this house. "Have you been here the entire time, living the good life while I struggled every day out there?"

"No, just under five months," he replied, gesturing for her to have a seat on the sofa. When she didn't budge, preferring to stand, Jake sat down instead with his hands folded between his knees. "I was brought here by Aaron with three other men I had been traveling with for a while. They weren't good men, but I was safer with them than alone. They, uh, started to cause some problems, so Deanna sent them away but allowed me to stay."

"Why you? What makes you so special?"

"They needed a doctor and I gave her no reason not to trust me. Also, there was the fact that I had a son here. As soon as I got here I stopped socializing with those other men. I immersed myself in this community and got to know its people."

"You're the surgeon Aaron and Eric have talked so highly about?"

Jake nodded, smiling awkwardly. "Guilty as charged."

"But you're not a surgeon," she remarked. "You're a pediatrician. You listened to children's chests with a stethoscope for a living to see if their chests were congested."

"I did a surgical rotation during my internship. I know enough."

Georgie just rolled her eyes. "I was supposed to come see you for an injury I received two nights ago." She chuckled, but not in humor. Just at the irony of the situation. "If it weren't for our son, I would rather ignore this rather than have you look at it." Lifting her shirt she showed him her abdomen, which was very much still bruised. The purple discoloration hadn't faded completely yet. "But, I want to make sure I'm okay, so I can be around for him."

Jake stood up and reached for her but she backed away on instinct. "Georgianna, please." He looked imploringly at her. "Let me take a look at you before we continue with these fisticuffs." Caving, she lifted her shirt a bit higher and let him touch his hands about the bruising. Gently he pressed into it and she winced slightly. "How bad does it hurt?"

"Just a little when someone presses it."

"Any stomach pains or cramps?"

"No."

"How did this happen?"

"Aaron accidentally kicked a car door into me."

Jake nodded, listening as he narrowed his gaze, tracing his fingers along the outline of the bruising. "I think it's just superficial. The bruising will fade. In a few days, if it doesn't go from purple to a greenish yellow, then I need you to tell me, because then it means there's something more serious at play. But, honestly, I think it's just one, big ol' bruise."

Georgie was about to pull down her shirt, but his hand remained; his fingers grazing over a beauty mark she had just to the left of her belly button, followed by a few pronounced freckles. When he smirked at something, she narrowed her eyes. "What's so funny?"

"Sorry, I was just remembering…" he began. Looking up at her face, he smiled ruefully. "Remember when you were pregnant with Tristan and we were joking about the stretch marks you were getting?"

The memory sounded familiar, so she nodded. It had been so long and so much had happened that the details of her old life seemed like a dream now.

"You remember what I said about them?" he pressed.

Georgie nodded. "You said the freckles and beauty mark made up a constellation and the stretch marks were thunderbolts." It had been a nice memory and she hated that it brought a small smile to her face.

"Yeah," he nodded. "The constellation of Cancer, to be precise."

"You connected the dots with a Sharpie to show me. I remember." She shook her head at how cheesy that moment seemed now. "You said it meant I had a heavenly body."

"You still do."

Holding out a hand, she pushed him back, creating a distance between them she was more comfortable with. "Stop it. You don't get to say things like that to me."

"I know I messed up and it'll take a lifetime to forgive me, but can you consider trying? Can we be nice and civil to each other?" he questioned, and then gestured toward Tristan. "If not for us, then for our son. He went through a lot before he got here. He thought we were all dead, that he was an orphan. And then I arrived here not long after he did and he got part of his family back, even though he thought you were still dead. But you're not, and I'm not, and we need to stick together for him. He's been through enough and we need to give him some stability back."

"Don't guilt me with that."

"I'm not trying to. I just want what's best for Tristan and right now that's you and I presenting a united front. He needs his mommy and daddy."

"So, what, do you want to share custody?"

Jake looked perplexed. "No, we're gonna live here together, in this house, as a family again."

Georgie frowned, gesturing toward the door. "But my people—"

"We're your people!" Jake barked, and then drew his burst of anger back in; holding a hand up in apology. With a steadying breath, he continued, "Tristan and I are your family. We've known each other since we were children. We grew up in the same church together. We may have come from different social classes, but that didn't matter when I fell in love with you all those years ago. I never stopped loving you, Georgianna."

He leaned his head against hers, and when she jerked slightly away, he brought his hands up to hold her head in place. It was as if he was somehow able to transfer every memory he had of her and every feeling they had shared in the past back to her and she began to cry again.

"Stop it." She slapped his chest. "You can't just do this to me. You can't leave me the way you did in an apocalyptic world and then come back into it like nothing happened. We can't just pick up the pieces."

"Yes, we can. We can try. We can take it slow."

Georgie shook her head. "But my people," she insisted. "They've become my family, too. I love them, too."

"Is that guy you were with—is he someone you love?" There was a hint of jealousy in Jake's voice, laced with something else Georgie couldn't pinpoint.

"You don't get to ask me that."

Holding her chin in his hand, Jake made her look him in the eye. "You're my wife, Georgianna, and I love you, even if you've forgotten how to love me. You'll learn again." He was very sure of himself and there was something scary about it in his eyes. "If it takes you months or years to want to share a bed with me again, that's fine, but you will be staying here, under the same roof. Because, if you want to be with our son, it has to be here. That's how this works, my love."

"Is that an ultimatum?" she questioned, successfully pulling away from him; her emotions all over the place. "Either Tristan and you or nothing at all?"

Jake nodded slowly. "That's the deal." Closing the gap between them again, he got in her face, but not in a threatening way. "I love you, but I love our son more, and I will not let you take him away from me and this house. And I am not going anywhere." He smiled sweetly then. "It can be good again, for all three of us. We can be happy again."

"You say all those things and still have hopes we can work it out?" She knitted her eyebrows. "You can't give me an ultimatum and expect this situation to be copasetic."

Lifting his right hand, Jake trailed his fingers along Georgie's jaw and then around the back of her head where he promptly grabbed a fistful of her hair from her ponytail. "You are my wife, I am your husband. We are going to play the happy family again because that's what our son needs and I know you want our son to be happy," he spoke as his blue eyes darkened as if a light had been turned off.

"And if I don't? How will you stop me from leaving with him?"

Jake just smiled. "Tristan!" he called. "C'mere, buddy!"

Georgie turned her head toward the window and saw Tristan perk up as he heard his father shout his name. As soon as he appeared in the doorway, her heart pounded. Jake gestured the boy over to him and then crouched down to his level.

"Son, are you happy that mom's here now?"

"Yeah," Tristan nodded with a big smile that tugged at her heart as he looked up at her and grabbed her hand to hold.

"And you want her to stay with you and me, right?"

"Uh-huh."

"Well, guess what? She is. Mom is gonna live with us and we're gonna be a happy family again because you and I both know how sad we would be if she went away."

Tristan pouted. "You're not gonna go away, are you, mommy?"

Georgie glared at Jake, wondering how he could be so cruel and do this to her. Smiling reassuringly at her son, she held on to both of his hands and turned him to face her. "Of course I want to be here with you. I love you so much." She leaned in and kissed both sides of his face.

"Mommy told me she can't wait to get her things from the other house she was staying in with all those other new people so she can move in here with us."

"Are you moving in today, mommy? And then we can have dinner together tonight like a family again? Are you going to go get Avery from that other house?"

Georgie's heart broke.

If Jake hadn't realized Avery was dead when he saw she was alive, Tristan clearly thought the same thing.

Her chin quivering slightly, fresh tears stung her eyes as she tried to smile through it. "Oh, honey, Avery didn't make it. She got hurt and died. She's up in heaven now, though, with grandma and grandpa, Aunt Crystal and Uncle Josh and all our other friends and family who didn't make it."

Tristan teared up as well, looking more like her when he cried than his father. "Did she feel a lot of pain?"

If Georgie's heart could've broken anymore, it did then. She shook her head to soothe his woes. "No, honey, she didn't feel any pain. It happened too fast." She looked at Jake who was tearing up again. As much as an asshole he was now, she could tell his feelings over losing their daughter were genuine and he felt that pain, as well as the guilt for leaving when he did. "She's not lonely where she is anymore. She's happy and free and doesn't have to worry about anything scary anymore."

As Tristan wiped his eyes, he stepped closer to her and wrapped his arms around her neck. Georgie leaned completely into his hug and held him tight. She looked over her son's shoulders at Jake and continued to glare at him, but something in her eyes was less severe now.

She was giving in.

She couldn't bear to have her son so sad, and she wasn't about to abandon him.

As much as she had grown to love her group, it was a bit crowded when they were all together. And it would be nice to have her own home again. However, she would not be sharing a room with Jake anytime soon. There was still the matter of Rick and how she had fallen in love with him.

"Hey, Tris, why don't you go upstairs to your room and grab a puzzle? You, me and mom will sit at the table and put it together as soon as she gets back from getting her stuff. How does that sound?" Jake commented.

Tristan's face brightened again. "Yeah, okay!"

Georgie watched as her son darted out of the kitchen and turned down some hall. Moments later she could hear his feet pounding up a set of stairs. Turning back to look at Jake, she got to her feet once more and held his gaze.

"How dare you use our son as a pawn."

"I am doing no such thing." Jake grinned. "Georgianna, sweetie, go back to the other house and gather up whatever you need. I will see you back here soon, but don't keep us waiting, okay?"

She just looked at him, trying to figure out what happened to him that turned him into this sociopath of a man. This wasn't the man she married a decade ago. This wasn't even the man who walked out on her and Avery. She didn't know this man, but she knew enough that she felt scared of him, despite the brave front she presented and despite how she was able to stand her ground with him.

It was the look in his eyes.

He could smile so charmingly he could melt the panties off any woman within a ten mile radius, but his eyes were dead.

"What have you done that's made you like this?" she asked him.

Instead of answering her question, he tapped the watch on his wrist and muttered, "Tick, tock, honey. Tick, tock."

What was he capable of? What power did he suddenly have over her that she felt like she couldn't go running back to Rick and tell him everything that had just transpired? She knew Rick would help her in an instant and get her son out. She'd seen what he'd done to people who threatened those he cared about. However, Jake hadn't actually done anything to warrant the violent retaliation she knew Rick was capable of.

Well, Jake hadn't done anything yet.

She really just hoped nothing would happen. She hoped there was something that she could say to get him to see sense that this situation would not work.

Turning around, she walked to the front door and pulled it open. Once she stepped out onto the porch and shut the door behind her, she shivered. Closing her eyes, she inhaled a deep breath and then let it out slowly as she looked to her right, all the way down to the house at the very end.

Casually, she walked down the stairs and turned onto the sidewalk, passing the first of group's two houses before standing in front of the second. Looking back at Jake's house, because that's how she only thought of it right now, she saw he had come out onto the porch and was nodding at her with a smile.

He was keeping an eye on her and it was so unsettling.

Come on, Georgie, she thought to herself. Just tell Rick. Just tell him the sort of man Jake is now.

She gave one last look at Jake and her shoulders sagged.

"Dammit," she muttered.

Taking the stairs one at the time, she looked forward and headed toward the open front door when she was stopped by the sight of Daryl still sitting on the porch where she'd last seen him earlier in the morning.

"Hey," he greeted. "I hear your son's alive after all. I'm happy for you."

"Thank you," she smiled weakly.

He narrowed his already small eyes at her and scratched at his dirty face. "Heard your husband's alive, too. That's gotta be awkward."

Letting out a shaky laugh, she nodded. "You have no idea."

Continuing on into the house, more than half the group was already reconvened back inside from their exploration of Alexandria. They greeted her with big smiles and their well wishes about her son being alive. Though, more poignantly, they seemed to avoid making the same stink about her husband.

Ever since the kiss in the barn in front of everyone following the storm, Rick and Georgie's relationship had become more known, and it was, in fact, welcomed. No one thought it odd or strange. They were happy that Rick and Georgie were happy and no one made a production out of it. It was just life, and they had all been trying to go forward with it the best they could. If there was anyone who was still unaware that Rick and Georgie had become an item, she would be genuinely surprised.

She went into the laundry room first and found her clothes from the previous day had been washed and dried and were now folded into a small pile beside several other small piles of other people's clothing. Georgie's first instinct was that Carol was responsible for the kindness. Swooping her clothes up into her arms, she stepped into kitchen where Rosita was flipping through one of the cookbooks on the counter.

"Hey, Rosita," she greeted. "Is Rick around?"

The younger woman nodded. "Yeah, he just got back a few minutes ago. He went upstairs. I think I heard him talking to Carl."

Georgie nodded. "Thanks."

Looking down at the stairs as she ascended them, she made her way to the top step where she and Rick had finally, verbally admitted they loved each other just the day before, which made this harder than ever.

"Rick?" she called out, and waited.

Moments later, she heard heavy footsteps from his boots and a door down the hall opened up, revealing Rick standing there. His face softened immediately when he saw her.

"Hey." Walking up to her, he smiled and placed a hand on her shoulder. "So, how'd it go?"

She didn't know how to begin and he seemed to notice her unease, so he led her to another door. Pulling her inside what was one of the three upstairs bedrooms, he sat her down on the bed.

"Is everything okay?"

No. No, it's not. Tell him, you stupid idiot!

"Yeah, yeah of course," she lied and immediately hated herself for it.

Ugh, you're an asshole, Georgie.

She continued to mentally berate herself but to no avail.

"I get it. Finding out Tristan's alive and Jake, too. That was a curveball, if ever there was."

"I'm not staying here tonight," she spit out.

"No, yeah, that's okay. You should be with your son right now. You should be together."

"Oh, Rick," Georgie pouted. "I don't think I'll be staying here anytime soon. I need to give my son stability again. He needs his mom and dad in the same house with him." She more or less reiterated what Jake had said and she could see the look in Rick's eyes and how his face fell a little as he realized what she was saying. "Jake's my husband, and he's alive, and although he did walk out, it was a very extreme time for us. For everyone. And he made a mistake, a big one, and he wants to make it up. He wants us to work on things. We can't just play house. Our son is old enough and will sense if we're not getting along. Jake and I are gonna work on things."

Rick was shaking his head before he realized he was doing it. "No," he blurted quietly. "You don't have to play house at all. This isn't the same world. These people here, they're not like us. They're weaker. They haven't lived in the real world like we have. But just because it's picturesque within these walls, and looks like it was before, doesn't mean we have to go back to what it was before. Before wasn't always better either."

"No, it wasn't always better. But I need to do this right now, Rick. I need to do this for my son." She tossed her pile of clothes gently between them on the bed before cupping his face with her hands. "I would think you would know what that's like. Our children have to come first, us second."

He blinked a few times, wrapping his mind around this conversation. Something felt off about it. "There's something else that you're not telling me," he insisted. "What about yesterday? What we said—"

"I meant those words and still do, but I gotta do this. It's not like I won't see you around." Tears were stinging her eyes yet again as she smiled through them. "I'm not going anywhere, not really. Just two houses up the road. But until I can figure things out with Jake, I can't be here right now." She moved her right hand from his face, down to his chest. He opened his mouth to say something, but she shushed him. "Trust me, Rick. It's gonna work out. I have hope again."

"I don't like this."

"You don't have to like it. You just have to let me do this."

Jumping up to his feet, Rick walked over to the window and placed his hands on his hips. "I can't just let you go live there 'cause then all I'll see in my head is his arms around your waist and not mine. I'm gonna see him kissing your lips and not me." Leaning forward, he moved his hands out to rest upon the windowsill. "But if this is what you gotta do, for now, then this is what you gotta do."

Standing up, Georgie walked up behind Rick and wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her head down between his shoulder blades. Straightening his posture back up, he closed his eyes and covered her hands with his. They both just stood there quietly for a moment until she pressed her lips to the back of his neck.

"I will not share his bed," Georgie assured. "I cannot bring myself to do that anytime soon. But doesn't mean I can just waltz down here and jump in yours anytime soon, either."

Rick clenched his jaw and was just thankful she was standing behind him and couldn't see the few tears that had escaped his eyes and rolled down his face.

"Well, you're probably gonna want to head back now, aren't ya?" he asked with a nod. "Don't keep them waiting."

"Rick," she whispered. "Please tell me you don't think of me as some villain who's breaking your hero's heart."

"Well, my heart ain't exactly jumping for joy. But that's alright. This is just a temporary setback." Lifting up a hand, he wiped away the streaks left behind by his tears before turning around to face Georgie. "I can wait for you."

It felt like there was a lead weight on her chest. Georgie sighed and knitted her brow as she leaned her face into his chest and inhaled his scent while holding him tighter in her arms. "I do love you."

"I know." He smiled, trying to let her know he was fine; that everything was fine.

"And I still love Carl and Judith as my own, too. That hasn't changed either. I will help with them, too, when I can."

"That's alright. Just focus on Tristan right now," Rick insisted. "We'll take it one day at a time."

Georgie nodded. "Yeah. One day at a time."

Staring down at her lips, Rick gripped her waist in his hands and kissed her. After a few seconds of barely moving, the kiss deepened and built up rather feverishly, very quickly. Rick turned her away from the window and backed her toward the wall, pressing her against it. Crouching slightly, he hoisted her up a ways and wrapped her legs around his waist, and then ground into her as her hands went straight to his hair, pulling tightly.

"Oh, Rick," she moaned.

And, as usual, they were interrupted, but not by others; by themselves.

They both suddenly realized this couldn't happen right now.

She had to go.

He had to stay.

Pulling his face back from hers, he let his eyes wander to her lips once again, which were now so very swollen from their kiss and he had half a mind to go in for the kill again, so to speak.

"You better go," he whispered, listening to the blood pumping in his ears as his heartbeat gradually slowed to a normal pace.

"Yeah," she nodded.

Dropping her down so that her feet touched the floor, Rick watched as she recomposed herself and walked over to the bed to pick up her clothes. Turning to face her direction, he placed one and on his hip and the other pressed against his crotch to will his erection away. When she looked over at him, despite what was happening, she let out a laugh.

"I guess you should probably take a few minutes before joining the others, huh?"

He smiled a little in return. "Yeah. I wouldn't want to poke anyone's eye out."

"Oh, really?"

They both laughed, but their smiles faded.

"I love you," he said quietly.

Georgie's heart fluttered at those words. She held her clothes up to her chest and nodded at him. "I know."

That night, Rick was standing at the living room window, staring out it while everyone was once again asleep all around the same room. He couldn't sleep, for a number of reasons. He hadn't seen Georgie since that afternoon when she returned to Jake and Tristan and took a part of his heart temporarily with her. Plus, he was thinking of Alexandria and its people as a whole and the part he had to play in this place or could play. He knew he didn't have it in him to put on the meek, Susie Homemaker persona that Carol was doing on purpose. He admired her cunning, but he, himself, didn't seem to possess that kind of talent. He was too closed off most of the time to be able to give the appearance of a social butterfly of any kind.

Rustling behind him made him turn his head and he saw Michonne sitting up. She walked over to him with her arms folded and stared partially out the window and partially at him.

"Deanna hasn't given me a job yet."

Rick looked at her. "You want one?"

"Yeah. Do you?"

"That's signing the papers. That's saying yes, this is how it is." He looked back out the window and sighed.

"You afraid to do that?"

"Aren't you?"

"No."

"So then why are we both awake?" he questioned. Pushing away from the wall, he told her, "I'm gonna take a walk." Placing a hand on her shoulder, he stepped around the others on the floor.

On one of the hooks near the front door, was his jacket. He threw it on and zipped it up and then stepped outside into the night air. Pausing for a moment, he turned to his right, and could see into the window at the figure of Michonne standing there, still looking out the front window. She turned and watched him as he continued on and went down the stairs, one at a time.

Hearing only crickets and the sound of his own breath, Rick walked up the middle of the road with his hands in his coat pockets, and as he approached the house Georgie was in now, Jake's voice called out to him.

"It's Rick, right?"

Coming to a stop in the road, Rick peered through the darkness to see Jake sitting on the front porch. There was one light on in the front room and Rick wondered if Georgie was in there.

"Yeah."

Smoke billowed from Jake's mouth as he took a drag from his cigarette. "You took care of my wife on the road."

"Yeah," Rick nodded.

"Welcome to Alexandria."

With another nod, Rick didn't say anything else as he continued on walking. Once he was past the intersection, he threw a glance over his shoulder back at the house and saw a light on in one of the upstairs bedrooms from a window on the side of the house. Standing there and looking back at him, was Georgie, who waved to him.

Rick was going to wave back but then he lowered his gaze and saw that Jake was still looking at him.

Facing forward, Rick closed his eyes for a moment, took a deep breath and continued walking.

"Welcome to Alexandria," he echoed.