Hi all –
I'm posting a little later than usually today. RL and other things were a little distracting this week. Anyway, thank you all for the continued support!
Chapter Twenty- six
Rick and Michonne held on to one another, tightly, desperately, their hearts full with love and sorrow, lost in each other, feeling a deep sense of peace in the quiet, until the sound of heavy footsteps and talking impeded the moment. Michonne slowly open her still tearful eyes, just in time to see her curious neighbor gazing her way, prompting her to reluctantly withdraw from the comfort of Rick's embrace. Too hearing the noisy arrival of the gentleman that lived across the hall, Rick accepted her retreat, then gently brushed the tears away that had soaked her cheeks, before kissing her forehead and briefly turning away, to shut and lock the door.
"You shouldn't be here." She unevenly uttered as he returned to stand before her, his eyes reflecting so many powerful emotions, but also exhaustion. "You should be resting at the hospital."
"I'll be alright." He softly assured as he tenderly caressed her cheek once more.
"What about Lori and Carl? They'll be looking for you if they decide to return to the hospital." Michonne questioned in a near sigh, at the feel of his touch, but then forced herself to step away from him, to distract herself with retrieving a Kleenex from the box that sat atop the decorative table nearby.
Rick watched her as she wiped the remnants of tears from her face, understanding why she was distancing herself from him, but still unable to fight the hurt it caused. "She and Carl have gone back to Palmer." He answered, inciting her to return confused eyes to him. "Michonne, it's over." He then quietly stated, his blue gaze, beautiful and intense, moving her as he carefully stepped closer to her. "Lori signed the divorce papers, and I filed them with my lawyer earlier today."
"You're divorced." She gasped in shock at what she honestly thought she'd never hear him say with all that had gone on the past few weeks.
"It'll be finalized with the courts in two weeks." He clarified.
Michonne suddenly felt flushed and thus faint, which prompted her to make her way to the couch and have a seat.
"You okay?" Rick asked with concern as he joined her, taking a seat at her side, stifling a wince at the movement aggravating the ache in his bruised ribs. She answered with a nod, her eyes, lowered as she successfully willed the dizziness to pass. "What did the doctor say about your recovery?" He then asked, wanting so much to touch her again, to provide her with the comfort she needed, but he was reluctant to act, not wanting to make her uncomfortable.
"He said that I'll have some pain, but my body should be back to normal within the next few weeks." She solemnly conveyed, her eyes still down.
"Then physically, you're okay?" He questioned once more, needing to be certain that she was having no lingering issues.
"I am." She confirmed as she lifted her gaze back to his, filling him with tenderness and calm. "But I should be asking you the same thing." She continued with her own concern. "Considering you have a concussion."
"I'm alright." He repeated what he had before. "It's more important to me that we talk." He seriously added, holding her stare.
"Me too." She concurred, which was followed by an awkward silence, with both nervously looking down, not knowing where to begin to clear the air. When Michonne, conquering her timidity first, raised her eyes back to him and spoke. "I saw her, Lori, at the hospital when I first came to see you." She revealed. "She called you her husband, and talked about…the bond you shared due to your child." She stated, the sting of the woman's words reflecting in her voice, infuriating Rick at what his Ex had said, yet hurting his heart at the distress it undoubtedly caused Michonne.
"I'm sorry you had to hear that." He uttered with genuine impassion as he slipped a hand over hers, covering it where in it lay in her lap, happiness plodding through him, encouraging him, at her choice to accept his comfort. "I know it was painful." He said.
"It was." She sighed and briefly dropped her eyes at the warmth and solace roused by his caring gesture. "But I'm…okay." She said as she continuously recalled the heated exchange she'd had with the woman, then suddenly asked. "Why was she here? If the divorce is being finalized, why would she follow you to Atlanta?"
Rick held her gaze that was filled with anguish and persistent doubt, reigniting his fear of losing her, pushing him to expose what he should've weeks ago. He, for a moment, abandoned her eyes and found her hand, taking it in his, which quickened their breaths, at the ardor it stirred within them.
"There's something you should know." He began after returning his eyes to hers. "Something I should've told you weeks ago." He said. Michonne remained quiet, nervous and with a hint of fret at what he'd been keeping from her, worried it would be another issue that would force them to step away from what they had, again. "The situation with Lori was more complicated than the divorce." He continued.
"How is that?" Michonne asked with strength, giving no indication of the anxiety she was feeling within.
"She began a sexual relationship, with one of my closest friends." He revealed, causing Michonne to release a quiet breath as the tension she was feeling melted away, but was quickly replaced by shock as she fully grasped what he'd said.
"I don't understand? Did this happen recently?" Was all she could think to say.
"I don't know when it started, but it's been going on as late as…last night, and resulted in a man who I thought was my friend, becoming obsessed with her, and Carl, thinking that he could be a better husband, and better father to my son than me." He explained. "It got so bad, that he began to stalk Carl, showing up at his school, his sporting events…"
"Oh my God, Rick." Michonne gasped in deep concern as she gently squeezed his hand that held hers.
"I warned Lori about him, even got a restraining order against him." He continued. "But, a week ago, things escalated." He said, then went on to tell Michonne about the fight at the Sheriff's department, that led to both he and Shane being suspended. "The situation became even more volatile due to Lori's behavior." He added, then went on to detail how he'd suspected Lori and Shane were in a relationship for a while and when she'd refused to sign the divorce papers he'd gone looking for ammunition to ensure he'd get what he wanted from her, to grant him the divorce. Rick communicated to Michonne what he'd found, the illicit texts between Shane and Lori and how he'd used them to get her to sign the papers. He'd also revealed all she'd confessed when visiting him earlier that evening in the hospital.
"So she was sleeping with Shane to try and make you jealous and lying to him about the divorce to keep him antagonizing you?" Michonne questioned in disbelief when Rick finished his account.
"Pretty much." He confirmed, astonishing Michonne. With the two limited encounters she'd had with the woman, she'd deduced that Lori was a piece of work, but what the woman had pulled with Rick and his friend was just awful. "And there's more." Rick stated, suspending Michonne's musings surrounding what she'd learned, startling her with the news of this story not being finished.
"Things came to a head today." He declared, then revealed that Shane was the assailant that came after him on the steps in front of her place of business.
"What?!That man pulled a gun on you! Tried to kill you?" Michonne exclaimed in fear and shock, the implication of the Shane's intent, hitting her in the gut. When the police told her that Rick had been specifically targeted, she didn't know who it could be, but never would she have guessed it was a friend.
"Yeah. He did." Rick stated with a realization that had seemed to strike deeper than it had before when he'd fully recognized that Shane, one of his closest friends, had tried to kill him. The thought caused the slight ache in his head to spike, and the pain in his side to become more pronounced, inciting a wave of nausea. While Michonne battled an array of emotions – horror, disquiet, agony, but most of all anger at the woman who was in large part responsible for all of this, whose actions if ended in Shane's intended result would've led to Rick being dead, and Carl losing a father. Michonne changed the clasp of their hands, intimately intertwining her fingers with his, then drawing them to her lips, gently kissing it's back, breathing him in. She felt shaken, tearful and anguished at the thought of how much worse things could've gotten, but thankful that the man had failed and thus Rick was still here.
"Where is he now?" She then managed to ask. "Did they catch him?"
"Yes." Rick replied in a near sigh at the heat in her caress and after gaining control of the illness he'd felt, which simultaneously lessened the throbbing in his ribs and the ache in his head to a state that was tolerable. "He's in jail. Right now charged with aggravated assault, but I think more charges will be added, due to the escalation of his behavior which led to what he did today."
"Do you think he'll get out on bail?" She questioned with grave concern as she retuned their enlaced hands to her lap, alarmed at what the man might do if he was released and given the opportunity to come after Rick again.
"Maybe." He honestly answered, which further worried Michonne. "But, he violated a restraining order, assaulted me, the person the order was to protect and was carrying a weapon while committing a felony. He may get bond, but I think there is a slim chance that he will." He said, somewhat easing her mind, recalling cases he'd work such as this in his police work and rarely seeing bail granted for someone whose criminal behavior matched what Shane had done. "I'm sorry you saw what happened today, and that I didn't keep you in the loop about what was going on." He softly added.
"Don't apologize. You were only doing what I asked." She reminded him. "I told you, I didn't want to know the details, and only wanted to know when it was over. That was a mistake." She confessed, now seeing how her desire to not to know, had contributed to the disconnect they'd experienced over the past few weeks. "I should've asked you to tell me everything that was going on, because not knowing... I questioned where we stood, whether we still had a chance…"
"I did the same." Rick divulged. "We were barely texting, and when we talked on the phone we hardly said anything…and then there was Mike."
"You mean what happened at Ray's?" She questioned with dismay, still regretting her behavior that day.
"No. I'm passed that." He stated without hesitance. "It's something else. I called you a couple of weeks ago, and Mike picked up your phone. He said, ya'll were back together." He revealed, reliving the anger and worry he felt in that moment.
"He said that?" She responded, completely flabbergasted, wondering when he would've had an opportunity to answer her phone and communicate such a lie, when it hit her, inflaming the grief that remained fresh within her as Rick answered the question.
"Yeah." He confirmed. "I knew he was full of it, but the seed was planted, and with the way things had been going with us, I wondered."
"Well just as there were things that you kept from me about the situation with your divorce, there were things I failed to tell you about me and Mike." She cautiously replied, which made Rick anxious and reserved, for a moment, worried that he'd been wrong, that Michonne had rekindled her relationship with Mike, but she quickly eased his mind. Confiding to him what she hadn't in weeks, she'd told him about the project she was doing for the company for which Mike was employed and thus had been working closely with him. Additionally, she'd revealed how he'd recommended her for a position with his firm which she described as an amazing opportunity and detailed his attempts to get her to give him another chance, before turning the conversation back to what had started the discussion surrounding Mike, him answering her phone and claiming that she had indeed reunited with him.
"What Mike told you was a lie." She declared. "He was very helpful, when I needed it, but I never got back with him." She said. "I'd never do that, and I'm sorry his lie caused you doubt. He shouldn't have had my phone and definitely shouldn't have been answering it. But all that was happening that day, presented the opportunity." She said, then divulged what had happened, how she'd fainted at his office and was rushed to the ER, which allowed him access to her phone because he'd gone with her to the hospital.
"Mike was with you when you learned you were pregnant?" Rick queried, his tone strained and etched with hurt.
"He was." She cautiously confirmed as she gently squeezed his hand, reassuring him. "But I immediately sent him away so that I could speak with the doctor alone. I was so... upset." She honestly stated, remembering how thrown she felt in that moment, like it was the absolute worst thing that could've happened.
"About the pregnancy?" Rick questioned, unsettled by the revelation.
"About the pregnancy." Michonne quietly affirmed. "About how my irresponsibility got me into the situation."
"But you weren't alone in that." Rick countered in the same quiet tone.
"I know, but I felt like it was all on me, due to my choices."
"But they were my choices too…"
"I couldn't see it at the time. All I could think was that this wasn't apart of the plan, at least not yet." She contended. "The plan was to focus on my career and now here I was pregnant way before I wanted be."
"Is that why you considered…the alternative?" Rick asked with difficulty, his eyes down.
"It is." She replied, sadness permeating her voice. "But I couldn't settle on that choice, kept delaying what I was going to do. I waited almost two weeks after learning I was pregnant and still, I'd not made a decision until this morning." She said. "I think a part of me already knew what my decision was going to be, but I just wasn't ready to accept it, until I heard the heartbeat." She uttered in pain.
"You know I knew something was up." Rick shakily confessed as he gently tightened his grip on her hand, consoling her angst and captured her gaze once more. "I could feel that you needed me, that's why I was so persistent with my calls and texts. I always wanted to see you, talk to you, but this was different, the desire was much stronger, almost instinctual." He said. "I never would've guessed that you were pregnant, but when you told me, I was excited, happy." He tenderly admitted, replaying the possibilities that sprung in his heart upon learning the news. "I knew it wasn't the best time, with me just coming off a divorce and you being focused on your career, but I knew that it could work." He said. "And I would've been with you all the way." He somberly earnestly expressed.
"I know that now." Michonne closed her eyes in regret.
"We should've waited." He then tiredly uttered aloud, inciting bewilderment from Michonne, thinking of all that had gone on in the seven weeks since the fire, how it all seemed to have gone to hell since it happened. "You wanted to wait six months to give us time to settle our lives, our previous relationships, but I came to you three months too early."
"I didn't turn you away."
"No you didn't, but maybe you should've." He emotionally replied. "We should've waited. I should've waited the six months like you wanted. Maybe we could've avoided all of this."
"Maybe. But we're here now."
"Yeah. We are." He agreed, holding her gaze, as he lifted his bandaged hand to her face, gently caressing it. "So what next?" He then asked with love, knowing what he wanted, seeing the same in her eyes but needing her to say it. Michonne softly smiled, recalling the good and bad of the past few weeks. In spite of it all, happy that it had led her back to Rick. She then brought his bandaged hand that lay on her cheek to her lips and tenderly kissed it, before leaning forward and slowly, passionately caressing his mouth with hers.
"I love you." She breathed, upon hesitantly pulling away. Rick smiled against her mouth, a fiery joy igniting in his soul, racing through him, bringing tears to his eyes as he recommenced their kiss, taking her lips with urgency and amour.