A/N: I'm so sorry this took me so long to update! I really hope you guys enjoy this chapter (I apologize for any mistakes on this fic or any others. I'm exhausted and tonight is the only night I'll get to update). Enjoy!

-Bae xox

Chapter 15:

"...Alright, get ready…"

Rick could tell Michonne was frowning when she said, "Get ready for what? Where are we? Why can I smell… water? Is that water? Move your hands"

"I will", He insisted lightly as he placed her in a spot for perfect viewing. There was a breeze that made the hairs on his arms stand to attention, but he shrugged it off. Michonne was still in her red and white checkered pajamas but had her little denim jacket on, so he knew she wouldn't feel the chill, "Okay, now you can look…"

He stepped around her just in time to catch her reaction; she was still frowning as she peered at the lake, "...Wow. It's… it's a lake, Rick"

He pointed to one side of the large body of water, "And look over there."

She did as she was told, "...A Lake House?"

"...And?…"

"...Trees?"

His shoulders slouched out of defeat, "And a rope swing, Michonne"

"How did you find this? Where are we?", She started to look at the deserted area around them, "Are we near town?"

"It's my dad's, and yes we are near town. I forgot he had this until I was thinking of ways to piss him off the other night.", He admitted flatly as he shoved his hands in his pockets and kicked a pebble with his boot.

Her locks flew through the air when she wiped her head around to look at him. She wasn't impressed, "We're not trashing your dad's place, Rick."

"I just wanted to check it out", He lied, "He probably brings that woman up here."

She looked up at him with confusion, "Do you even have a key to get in?"

"No.", He shrugged, "We can go swimming? Look, he has a rope swing¬"

She swiftly shut the idea down, "I don't want dirty lake water in my hair, Rick. And I also don't think we should be using your dad's lake house without permission"

"I'll thank him for it later", Rick took her hand, "Come on, let's go check it out"

Michonne didn't move, so he had to tug her once or twice to get her to move her feet.

"I know you think this is a bad idea¬"

"It is a bad idea", She ejected dryly, "If your dad finds out then he will¬"

"He will what?", Rick looked at her with a fierce expression to show just how eager he was to come face to face with his father, "Come looking for me? I want him too"

Michonne sighed deeply, "Not everything is a fight, Rick."

"When it comes to him it is", He looked back down at the dirt as he fished around in his pocket for his cell phone, "So if he doesn't like what I did here then he knows where to find me. I'll be waiting for him."

She sighed again, "You should have just brought the guys here"

"Why?", He looked at her again once he turned the flashlight function on his phone on, "You don't like it?"

"No Rick, I don't like trespassing.", She held his hand a little tighter when she almost lost her balance, "This better be the last illegal thing you do"

"This technically isn't even illegal", He pointed out, "He's never said that I wasn't allowed here"

"But you're not getting along right now so it's different. You punched him?"

"Because he hit my mom"

"By accident"

Rick stopped walking and looked at her in disbelief, "Are you defending him?"

She scoffed at his accusation, "I'm presenting facts, Rick. You said he's never said that you're not allowed in his lake house and I said 'you're not getting along right now so it's different'. You did punch him after he hit your mom by accident. Those are all facts."

Rick stared at her for a moment, then continued walking again, "Ezekiel probably could have probably taken him anyway. I'm not a fan of that guy but he's in much better shape than my dad ever was"

Michonne didn't say anything for a short while, then asked, "...Have you talked to your mom yet?"

Rick rolled his eyes, "About her possible shotgun wedding? No. I haven't."

"It's not a shotgun wedding, Rick. She's not pregnant. I think…", Michonne sounded doubtful.

Rick almost gagged at the thought, "I don't care either way."

She huffed at him, "Well you should. She'd be really hurt if you didn't care… And I know she was excited to tell you…"

"But yet, she somehow managed to call you first and not the one and only child that she voluntarily carried for nine months", He almost smirked at his own joke, "You know, the same child that will be the only person lawfully affected by her marriage?"

"You're acting as if you were happy about them being together in the first place!", Michonne scoffed, "You couldn't have made it more obvious that you didn't like the fact that she'd moved on!"

"I wanted her to move on and I wanted her to find someone else¬ someone better than my dad. It's just the way she did it that I didn't like", He confessed sourly, "She changed so much and then all of a sudden there was this guy there… It was weird."

"...Maybe she felt like she finally had time to focus on herself for a little while. Everyone deserves that chance, you know", He felt her gaze on the side of his head when she spoke, "You shouldn't make her feel guilty for wanting to be happy"

Rick slowly inhaled as looked at the approaching Lake House, "I wasn't trying to make her feel guilty for wanting to be happy. I just wish she didn't have to change to be happy"

They both stopped on the front porch when a security light came on. Rick wondered if his father had left a spare key hidden around while Michonne kept looking around curiously, "I think I remember you telling me about a Lake House when we were kids..."

"...We came up here a few times", He started looking under plant pots that lined each side of the porch steps, "…But not often. My mom didn't like taking the time off"

"Oh…", She saw what he was doing and began helping him look for a key, "And you've never brought one of your many female friends up here?"

He froze, then turned his head to look at her, "Is that somethan' that you can imagine me doing?"

She shrugged as she kept on the search, "I don't know. You had very few morals for a long time"

His mouth fell agape. He was offended, "...Well jeez, don't hold back. Tell me how you really feel?"

She stood up straight and looked at him, "I just did. You used to have very few morals. And by very few, I mean none."

His head jerked back in shock, "I was a stupid kid. I didn't handle rejection well so I chose to bide my time some other way"

"Who rejected you?", Michonne appeared genuinely curious, and Rick was dumbfounded by her question.

"You did, Michonne", He abandoned the search for a moment, "You went and got a boyfriend without even giving me a thought"

She narrowed her eyes at him, "That's not rejection"

He blinked at her, "Oh well, I apologize then. What would you call that?"

She slapped her hands on her hips as she frowned at him, "Not rejection! I was, like, sixteen? And you had never said anything about having feelings for me back then so how could I have rejected something that I didn't knowingly attract?"

Rick knew she made a valid point but he wasn't ready to admit that, "Either way… I didn't know how to handle that so I thought I'd let the girls that did like me have their way with me. Do I regret that? Yes, because I was playing around with a lot of girls emotions back then and it wasn't fair. But I did it and I can't change that."

Michonne didn't seem moved by his admission, "Good for you."

He threw his hands up in the air to show his confusion, "Good for me?"

"Yes, good for you. I'm glad you can acknowledge the flaws in your old logic and I hope that you can continue to make better decisions in the future", Her message was meaningful, but her tone was snarky, "Now are you done?"

Rick looked her from head to toe at a snail's pace as he said, "I don't think this new attitude suit you"

"Do you want to know what else doesn't suit me? Trespassing", She bit out the offending word, "Now hurry up and find the key because I need the bathroom"

"Fine", He held his hands up in surrender as he started looking around again. Even though she was clearly annoyed with him and reluctant to spend time on his father's land, Rick was genuinely enjoying every minute spent with her. He liked the bickering. He liked that she trusted him enough to follow him to the lightless lake. Whether she was ready to accept it or not, they were bonding, and it made him feel comfortable enough to ask, "...So do you still talk to Mike?"

He heard her groan, "...If I see him then I will."

It was Rick's turn to frown, "You know he's a father, right?"

"Yeah and it could have easily been you in that situation, Rick", She shot back effortlessly, "So let's not judge."

He almost gasped, "That is not true, I have always practiced safe sex and only time that I didn't...was with you"

She squinted at him as she recalled easily, "Didn't you have a little incident with¬"

"The condom ripped. That was different.", He quickly cleared up, "Otherwise, I come prepared"

Michonne rolled her eyes as she started searching again, "Please, no puns."

Rick nearly giggled like a naughty child when he realized just what it was that he'd said. He composed himself and joined her. The conversation had died down for a while when he asked out of the blue, "...Do you think we'll have kids one day?"

He heard Michonne choke on something, so he looked up and saw that she was looking in his direction with the most incredulous look, "Excuse me?"

"Did you… choke on a fly or somethan'?"

"What did you just ask me?"

He shifted his stance just a little, "...I asked if you think we'll have kids one day?"

"You and me?"

"No, you and that imaginary fly you just choked on"

She sent him a mean look, "You're not funny, Rick."

"Can't I ask you somethan' like that? It's just a question", He tried to shrug. He wanted to give her that the question had no weight to it, but it did. It really did.

"A question that suggests that we're going to get back together at some point in the future"

Rick lowered his gaze for a brief moment. He had to be serious, "Well, I think we will… After I clean up my act and show you that I'm not an idiot anymore. I'd buy us a house and you can do your nurse stuff and I'd do my police stuff… and we'd be happy."

Michonne let her gaze hover on his face for sometime before she blew out a breath, "...I see."

"...Does that sound like somethan' you'd want?", Rick was almost afraid to ask that follow-up question.

"Well…", She looked away from him as she replied, "...You said so yourself; you'd have to clean up your act and show me that you're not an idiot anymore"

"Yeah…", Relief washed over him. She hadn't shot him down, and even if she did then she had done it in the nicest possible way, "...I'm working on it."

"Maybe you should start working on finding this key¬ Oh!", Michonne crouched down and reached into a tall plant pot, then pulled out a little silver key, "Is this it?"

Rick felt relieved all over again, "That's the one."

Any recollection he had of his time at the lake house was fuzzy, but Rick was still certain that his father had redecorated in recent years. The decor was modern, and even styled like his current home; white hardwood flooring and muted furniture throughout, but the one thing that stood out to him the most was there were no pictures of his family, recent or old, but there were pictures of his father and Mrs. Neidermyer. Recent and old. His father had a fuller hair of hair in some pictures. He had spent enough time in front of his high school principal to remember a time when her hair was shorter and blonder. Images showed them together on beaches, in restaurants and even by that very Lake.

"The bathroom's really nice", Michonne declared as she came back to the living area, "That toilet was fancy. It had so many buttons."

"Come take a look at this", Rick said without looking back. His eyes were glued to the pictures on the mantle.

"What is it? Baby pictures?"

"Nope."

She eagerly joined him, and her excitement didn't last long, "...Oh."

"Yeah…", Rick picked up the picture closest to him by its silver frame, "...Looks like my dad's been a son of a bitch for a lot longer than I originally thought"

Michonne made a little-distressed sound, "...Maybe you shouldn't look at these, Rick"

"Why? It doesn't matter. It's all out in the open now", He threw the picture over his shoulder and it landed with a crash nearby, "This place has been their little get away for a while now… and It makes sense. Especially since me and my mom haven't been up here for years. Maybe even a decade…"

Michonne kept looking back and forth, from the images on the mantle then back at Rick, "You can't trash this place, Rick."

Rick's eyebrows sprung up high into his forehead as he asked, "Why not?"

"Because he's not worth the hassle anymore… Just forget about him"

"He doesn't deserve that. He doesn't deserve to move on with his life after everything he's done", Rick fumed, "If he didn't wanna' be with my mom anymore then he should've gone about it the right way. She would've been hurt but what's worse?"

She quickly spoke, "Having an affair is worse and he shouldn't have done that but he did. It's out in the open now and you're mom's moved on… Maybe it's time you did, too"

Rick slowly inhaled as he bowed his head and pinched his nose bridge, "I am."

"Really? Because I'm not sure if you noticed but… you've brought out me here. And you've just broken a really nice picture frame", She pointed out a little dryly, "This isn't moving on."

He frowned as he continued to pinch his nose bridge, "...Maybe it is"

Michonne turned around slightly and surveyed the room, "...A lot of this stuff looks expensive so maybe we should stop breaking things. I don't think I can afford to buy any of this back..."

Rick stood up straight and adjusted his cap on his head. Once again Michonne was right, and a part of him really did want to move on and forget his father, but the other part of him felt obliged to do some damage. He couldn't think of a better way to kiss goodbye to his destructive life away then to hurt the person who'd hurt him the most.

"...We really don't need to be here", Michonne insisted gently, "So let's just go."

He peered down at her, feeling compelled to do as she said regardless of how badly he wanted to act. If he really did want to prove himself to her then he had to start to make better choices, and choosing not to trash his father's Lake House would be the better option.

He finally spoke, "...Yeah. You're right"

She began to smile but then stopped, "I can't believe you thought I'd want to go swimming in a lake"

He frowned at her, "It's actually a pretty nice lake. And you could have taken a shower after."

She shook her head to show her disagreement as she started to walk away, "No."

"Remember when we broke into the pool? You enjoyed that", He continued to frown at the back of her head as he followed her.

"That was a swimming pool. Not a lake."

"The lake is probably better to¬", Rick cut his sentence short when he heard two sharp beeps. He grabbed hold of Michonne by her arm to get her to stop, "Did you hear that?"

"Yeah, what was it?"

Rick stepped around her and into the hallway, and it was there that he heard the beeps again, coming from a white device on the wall. He stepped closer to it and saw a message flashing on the yellow, rectangular screen. He bit his lip, "Shit"

"What is it?", Michonne quickly appeared at his side and frowned, "Vehicle approaching? What does that mean? Is someone coming? Your dad's coming?"

"Probably", Rick stood up a little straighter, "Well, I had to face him sometime."

"What?!", She squawked, "No! Not like this!"

Michonne all but ran to the light switch for the living area and submerged them into darkness, while Rick frowned at her figure, "What difference does this make?"

"We are not getting caught like this¬ You are meant to be at the academy and I'm meant to be in my dorm and-and you broke the stupid picture frame now where the hell do we hide?!", She hissed, just as the security light came on at the front of the house. Michonne gasped in fear.

Rick groaned as he took hold of her hand and led her to a door beneath the staircase. Fortunately for him, the closet under the stairs was still there, but unfortunately for him, it was now used to store coats and fishing gear. The both slipped inside and almost tripped over themselves while trying to hide behind a clothes rail. Rick kept his back against the wall when he found a spot while Michonne stood in front of him. Their faces were only inches away from each other. He could detect a coconut scent from her hair. They were stuck in a compromising position that had the potential to be rather romantic, if she didn't start venting her frustrations at him in a low growl, "This is all your fault!"

"I know", He whispered back, "It's fine, I probably just triggered somethan'... He might just check it out then leave¬"

"And what if he doesn't leave?!"

"Then we gotta' sneak out. Maybe if he goes upstairs or somethan'.", It sounded like a pathetic plan but it was all he could offer her for the time being, "We'll get out, I promise¬"

"You just wait here, I'm gonna' check it out. These alarms don't just go off for nothing"

Rick froze when he heard his father's voice. It had been some time since he had last seen or even heard him, and yet it still evoked something within Rick.

"Wait, honey! They might still be here!", A woman called in a loud whisper, "Let's just call the police!"

Michonne's whimper was barely audible, but Rick was close enough to hear it. He reached out with the intention to soothe her, but as soon as he put his hand on her arm she smacked it away. He bit back a frustrated groan. Their night together had taken a turn for the worst and he couldn't risk making another bad choice. He had to figure out their plan of action, and he had to do it fast.