Thanks, everyone for all your kind reviews! This is coming to an end soon. I re-watched the necklace scene today. Man alive, how Rick kept looking at her! He was totally giving her the flirty eye.


Rick wasn't ready for the sight that greeted him the next day.

First he heard the giggling and he recognized the voices right away. When he opened the door he suddenly wished he'd had a camera but committed the sight to memory instead. Andrea sat up against her pillows again, and she had Carl in an embrace on her good side. She had Harry Potter on her lap and was reading it to his son. They were both so engrossed in it that they didn't even hear him come in.

Rick put his hands on his hips and watched them. He felt it in his heart and his eyes nearly moistened. He was surprised by how right they looked there together. He felt the urge to join them but he didn't wanna ruin the picture. Carl and Andrea were good friends, and this moment belonged to them regardless of what he and Andrea had (undefined as it remained).

Suddenly, Carl looked up and noticed him. "Hi, dad!"

"Hey, bud."

"Morning," Andrea told him and his smile widened.

"Morning." He walked over and occupied the chair again.

"Dad, this book is awesome!" Carl told him.

Rick ruffled his son's hair. "Thought you didn't like reading."

Carl rolled his eyes. "I'm not reading, dad, Andrea is."

Rick and Andrea chuckled as Carl began to tell his father all about Hogwarts and the Sorting Hat and magic. Suddenly he got so excited that his body felt a huge wave of energy and he bounced in place, but the motion made Andrea flinch painfully.

"Carl, be careful!" Rick scolded him, sounding a little meaner and louder than he'd intended. He felt like shit right away. Lori was in charge of the discipline because he always felt so guilty when he had to scold his son. He hadn't meant to sound so scary.

Carl flinched at his father's thunderous voice and turned around with a concerned look. He hadn't known what he was being scolded for but Andrea's expression said it all and his body shied away from hers in fear. "I'm sorry, Andrea."

She forced herself to chuckle for his sake. "It's okay, sweetie."

"I didn't mean to hurt you," Carl cried.

Andrea smiled despite the horrible pain. "You didn't hurt me; I'm fine."

Carl turned to Rick with a pleading look. "I'm sorry, dad."

Rick smiled at him. "You didn't do anything wrong, bud." But as he looked at Andrea he could tell she was in real pain. But she didn't want to make a fuss out of it, so he comforted his son instead. "I'm sorry, I overreacted. Just... you need to be careful with her, okay?"

"Okay," Carl said and turned to her with an expression on his face that begged for forgiveness, "I'll be careful, Andrea."

She smiled at him warmly. "Thanks, sweetie."

But Carl continued to look at her with concern. "Are you tired?"

"Little bit."

"Can we read some more tomorrow?"

Andrea smiled. "Of course."

Carl turned to his father. "Dad?"

"Why don't you go play with Beth for a while?"

"Kay," Carl said, carefully hopping off the bed and turning to Andrea. He gave her a kiss on the cheek and hugged his father before he ran off.

Rick looked at her. "I'm sorry about that."

Andrea dismissed him with a wave of her hand. "Oh, I'm fine."

"You need your meds?" He reached for the bottle of Percocet to inspect it. It had belonged to a Lindsay Carr.

"Nah, that stuff makes me drowsy and nauseous," Andrea said, making a face at the bottle.

So he put it away. "Thank you for reading to him."

Andrea smiled. "Just so you know, he asked me to be his girlfriend and I said yes."

Rick laughed. "Dammit, sneaky bastard."

"Yeah, he kinda beat you to it, there," she teased him, reveling in the way his cheeks turned red. "You're too slow, buddy."

"Oh well," Rick chuckled and suddenly felt kinda shy and the red in his cheeks deepened. "We'll just have to share, then. If that's okay with you?"

She chuckled, seeking his hand. This time her cheeks turned red. "Yeah, that's fine."

He knew what he was asking her and she knew, too. He was asking her to take him and Carl in, to be theirs. He knew it was too soon, but fucking hell. Too soon, too late... if they'd learned something from this world is that you can't take things for granted. Any second could veer your life in a different direction, or end it altogether. He was sick of wasting time and not living. It felt right and that's all he cared about.

He went on about his day, coming back at noon but she was sleeping. Daryl returned in the morning to announce the group that attacked them had all perished, and he also came back with a new problem. People.

Rick analyzed Abraham. The man was at least six inches taller than him, broad and muscular. Carl would describe him as the Hulk. When he spoke, his voice was deep and commanding. Rick didn't trust him as far as he could throw him, which, considering the man's size, would probably be less than an inch, if he even managed to pick him up. Every time he got angry the girl next to him would squeeze his hand and he'd calm down. Rick understood, having relied on Andrea so many times to keep him together.

The other man with them didn't look like a threat. Daryl explained to Rick that this man, Eugene, was a scientist, knew how the virus started, and Abraham was escorting him to DC so he could get together with his colleagues to find a cure.

He didn't look physically threatening, but Rick certainly didn't trust him, either, because the man refused to answer his one and only question, "how did it start?"

He claimed it was top secret and even Daryl looked like he wasn't buying that bullshit. Rick didn't buy it, either. But Abraham clearly did.

He kept a close eye on them all day, knowing Daryl wouldn't have brought them if they were a threat. But they'd been fooled before and he couldn't let that happen again. Rick trusted his people and his people only. Everyone else he considered an enemy and at this point in the game he was more than willing to kill the living as well as the dead.

But he allowed them to stay, if only because Abraham had been a soldier of war. Both Rick and Abraham had fought and lost for this country, and he knew Abraham took that honor seriously. They were brothers. Not the same way he and Daryl were brothers. They were brothers in arms.

"I heard voices," Andrea told him that night.

"Yeah," he said, grabbing that familiar chair and pulling it close. "We got company."

Her face worried. "They're back?"

"No," he told her quickly. "Different people. Three of them. Two guys and a girl."

Andrea nodded, trying to picture the trio but she couldn't. Three people? Just three people? They'd never run into a group that small. "Who are they?"

"Abraham has been leading them all the way from Texas."

Her eyes opened to the size of saucers. "Texas?"

"Yeah, can you believe it?" he said, looking at her fingers as he played with them. "They've made it this far."

Andrea digested the words. "Who else?"

"Rosita," Rick said. "Cute little Spanish girl. Couldn't weigh more than 90 pounds. Even Carol could take her. And Eugene, some kind of scientist trying to get to DC. He claims he knows how the virus started, but I don't know."

She mulled the information over and looked at him, worried again. Andrea had two roles in Rick's life. In the hierarchy of the group, she was his brains, his voice of reason. Daryl was his right hand man. The three of them had kept this group alive for so long that it was easy for her to slip into her leadership role when needed. And then there was also the intimate role. That role also kept Rick together, but in a different way.

Logical Andrea took over. She always did under the weight of a new threat. "Rick, are you trusting them?"

"No," he said and sighed. "Not yet, but they gave us all their weapons. Said they just needed a place to stay the night."

She shook her head. "That doesn't mean anything, could be a trick. That's happened before, you know that."

"I know. The guy, Abraham, he has a bit of a temper, but..." he sighed again, rubbing his tired eyes. "I don't know, Andrea. They seem okay. Daryl and T-Dog are keeping an eye on them tonight; we'll talk more in the morning. I'm too tired right now. I'm just..."

Her eyebrows worried as she looked at him there so tired and defeated. She recognized that need in him again and gripped at his hand, pulling it close to kiss it like he'd kissed hers so many times. She saw how tired he was and she just wanted to be better so she could hold him and take care of him. But she was still in pain, and offered the little she could. "Will you stay?"

Rick eyed the recliner. "Of course."

"No," Andrea said, patting a spot next to her. "Here?"

He looked at the spot and suddenly felt a rush of fear. Were they really ready for that? Sex was one thing, but this felt way more intimate; felt like a huge commitment. Not that they'd never slept next to each other before, being in the trenches together for a year. Plenty of times they had to lay on the ground next to each other as they guarded the group that stayed behind in their comfortable beds. Hell, he'd even shared a bed with Daryl at one point. You do what you gotta do to survive. Modesty all but ended with the old world.

But this was different, so he hesitated. Would he be able to keep his hands to himself if he slept with her? What if he hurt her in the middle of the night? He tended to move a lot. And what if Rick Jr. woke up before him? How would he handle that awkwardness?

His exhaustion made the decision for him. He'd had such a stressful week, with her getting shot, the assailants, reinforcing this random house they'd found, dealing with the end of his marriage, dealing with those strangers. He needed her and suddenly knew that's why she'd asked him to stay. She knew he needed the comfort and rest that her presence always gave him. Lying a few feet away from his new roommate T-Dog would deny him those comforts. That man's snoring sounded like a bear roaring.

"Yeah," he said with a smile. "Let me get out of these clothes first, I'll be right back."

She was lying on her good side when he returned. He crawled in carefully and yikes, the nerves that took over. In 12 years he'd only laid next to one woman and towards the end they slept so far away from each other he practically needed a megaphone to say goodnight. So he was a little rusty. Not to mention that just a few days prior Andrea had been just a friend. Their relationship didn't start in the usual way. Boy meets girl, boy likes girl, boy asks girl out, etc. Their relationship was so weird and backwards, full of twists and turns and with no clear path. In the old world this would've been like a 5th date kinda thing. In this new world it was undefined, just like everything else.

Andrea reached for his hand and pulled it to wrap his arm around her waist. It was a little weird at first, he thought, probably because he was so nervous. She didn't seem nervous, though. She snuggled her back against his chest and he sought to look at her face but it was hidden away from him and he sensed her trepidation right away. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

He nudged her knowingly, his nerves forgotten. They did this best. It was probably the reason why they'd ended in each other's radar. Somehow they always knew when they needed each other. "Come on."

She made a face and looked towards the dresser. Really didn't wanna get all emotional but that thing had been sitting there for hours and its presence was bothering her. "Daryl brought me my gun today," she told him, pointing at the dresser. "It's over there."

Rick understood and worried. As a cop, he couldn't remember the many times he'd had to see a counselor after a shooting. Even in this new world, it's not something you just get over. He pressed a kiss to her shoulder and held her tighter. "Are you having nightmares?"

"No," she said. "It just made me remember, that's all."

"I'm sorry."

Andrea nodded, remembering it. It'd been so painful, so terrifying to be lying there on the ground bleeding away to death. So petrifying when the seconds continued to pass and there was nothing she or he could do. So devastating towards the end when she knew she was going to die, just like that, so... easily. Just a bullet, and then bang! Life is over. "It was scary."

"It was scary," he agreed.

"I thought that was gonna be it, and I just kept thinking..." she said, and turned to face him, upsetting her injury. But she was starting to get used to the pain. "I didn't wanna die, Rick. I thought I'd want to, but... I didn't. I couldn't go."

He smiled at her and pressed his forehead to hers. "I'm glad you didn't."

The gesture brought their mouths way too close, yet still nothing happened. She frowned at his chest for a second before she looked at him again. "Rick?"

"Yeah?"

Andrea hesitated but then encouraged herself. "How come you haven't kissed me yet?"

Rick chuckled and his cheeks blushed. "You asked me not to."

She frowned. "When?"

"When you woke up that first night," he told her. "Apparently High Andrea has this romantic notion of the perfect first kiss and wants me to wait. I couldn't deny her that."

She chuckled and felt relief. So that was why. She tried to imagine the moment but simply couldn't. It didn't sound like something she would say. "High Andrea must read a lot of Harlequin."

"I think so," he said, pressing his lips to her forehead. Truthfully, he'd been frustrated by her request, but now it made sense. He didn't want their first kiss linked to the memories of her being shot. He wanted their first kiss to happen under better, happier, circumstances. "It's okay. I kinda like that. I'll kiss you when it's perfect. Promise."

Andrea smiled, but knew she'd probably end up kissing him instead, at the most random moment, under the weirdest circumstances. Impulsiveness was her thing. "Okay."

"Go to sleep. What did Hershel say?"

"He doesn't think it'll get infected."

"Good, cause I need there when I interrogate them tomorrow," Rick said, patting her hip. "We gotta make sure these people are good and maybe you'll see something I didn't."

She bit the side of her lip for a second. "You think I can?"

"I know you can."

Andrea sighed. She'd been able to get up and walk for a bit today with Carol's help. Would she be able to do more? She was desperate to get out of bed, but was she ready to go out there? What if a fight broke out? Could she fight back? Maybe, maybe not. But Rick believed in her and that's all the encouragement she needed.

So she gave him a hesitant smile and nodded. "Okay."

"Alright," he said. "Sleep tight, I'll be right here."

She fell asleep feeling safe.

TBC