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Chapter 8: That Has Made All The Difference

Rick felt his heart beat wildly in his chest he stepped out of his truck, his boots clicking against the asphalt beneath his feet. He removed his sheriff's hat from his head and ran a hand through his recently trimmed curls. Just ahead of him, pass the dozens of cars that filled the parking lot, his former classmates made their way into the high school, laughing and talking as they caught up with each other. The entrance was decorated with balloons and a banner that hung over the doorway welcoming back the former students.

He stood back against his truck for a few minutes, his eyes scanning the group of people. He was hoping that he would get a glimpse of her, the love that he had let down ten years ago. She was nowhere to be seen outside and he wasn't even sure if she would even be there at all tonight. He wouldn't blame her if she didn't show up. From what he heard from Abe, she was a powerhouse of a lawyer up north, having been named one of the 30 under 30 for young lawyers and policymakers. She graduated at the top of her class for undergrad and went on to one of the best law schools in the country.

Michonne's list of achievements made him smile. He had always known she would do well in life, not just because of her work ethic and mind but also for her heart. When she loved something- or someone- she loved it hard, often putting that special something before herself. He had witnessed it first hand years ago and though he didn't take the same road that she did, he turned out okay. He had to take his own road to figure out what he wanted in life and in the end, he figured it out. There was only one thing missing.

Michonne.

Still, he was determined to keep hope alive. So with his hat in his hands, he made his way inside.

##

"Rick! Oh my goodness, how are you?" Sasha smiled brightly at Rick as she pulled him in for a hug, her long earrings dangling against his shoulder. "The sheriff's office must have been keeping you busy because I've barely seen you in the past month or so. This small town has that much crime?"

"No, you just have too many kids. Seems like they've been holding you hostage," he joked as he pulled away. He chuckled as she playfully hit him on the arm.

"Whatever, Rick. Between all three of them, they have me running from point a to point b every day." She pulled out her phone to show him a recent picture of her children. "My oldest actually just told me he wants to be a cop when he grows up so I was thinking about bringing him by the station so he could see you in action."

"Bring him by," he nodded. "He can sit in the squad car. Kids seem to enjoy that the most."

"I definitely will." She paused for a second, her eyes seeming to gleam with pride as she looked him over. "I am very proud of you, Rick, at how far you've come. Who would have guessed that the so called bad boy mechanic would become a cop?"

Rick smile bashfully, reaching back to rub the back of his neck. "Yeah, well, I had some help in that department. If it wasn't for Michonne, I wouldn't have made it this far."

He did a quick scan of the crowd again. He had only been inside for about twenty minutes now, but had yet to see her. He felt his stomach drop in disappointment. "Is she- do you know if she's coming tonight?"

Sasha shrugged, her own eyes retreating to the people around them. "She said she would be here, but I haven't heard from her today. Maybe she's just running late."

"Yeah, maybe so," he said softly, hoping she was right.

He excused himself, making his way over to the drink table for a glass of champagne to calm his nerves. It wasn't until he had poured himself a drink did he notice the beauty across the room.

He nearly dropped his glass at the sight of her, her familiar face drawing up memories of their nearly two years together. She was talking to Ms. Peletier and her megawatt smile practically lit up the room. She wore a yellow sleeveless dress, the fabric showcasing off her slim body that had matured over the years. Her hair was pulled away from her face, her features still as beautiful as ever.

She was perfect.

Rick set his full champagne flute down, his eyes still on her. He was determined to keep his sight on her and to never let her go. He had did that once; he didn't want to do it again.

As if she felt his eyes on her, her gaze moved from off of Ms. Peletier and met his, her smile faltering a bit at the sight of him. He stopped breathing for a minute, thinking that maybe she didn't want to see him, that maybe she didn't share the same sentiment that he did.

Those thoughts, however, were quickly tossed out of the window, when a genuine smile appeared on her face. She looked thoroughly happy to see him, her gaze never leaving his as she excused herself from Ms. Peletier and made her way over to him.

###

Every step she took towards him, Rick felt his palms get sweatier. It wasn't just the beautiful bright yellow she wore, god he loved her in that color, that drew every eye to her as she made her way over. The damn woman exuded an inner glow that drew all five senses of everyone around to her sleek frame. Rick remembered the first day he ever laid eyes on her down to the very last detail. From the sparkle from her decorated "Black Girls Rock" bag, to the musical lilt of her confident voice. Hell, even the Robert Frost poem that was like some preordained proclamation of how his life was going to be irreparably changed was burned into his memory. The day that he knew everything had changed and that the road he was on had divided forever because of this sunburst of a woman. As the rays of her inner light drew nearer, his mouth dried up and he had to swallow a couple of times and lick his own bottom lip to recover some moisture.

She was about ten steps away from him when he felt someone brush past him.

"Babe," Rick heard her exclaim as he saw the back of the tall, brown haired, shoulder brusher scoop up his shining star into a tight hug.

"What are you doing here," Michonne asked staring up in wonderment at the man, Rick momentarily forgotten, as her smile widened and her eyes glistened with Rick could see were happy tears.

"Well, you didn't sound like my girl when we spoke last night," the stranger answered and Rick's heart took a dive into his well worn boots, "So I thought I'd come and make sure you had a dance partner."

"Oh Aaron, I can't believe you babe," Michonne said and Rick had just about all the babes, and my girls he could stomach. He turned on his heel to locate the nearest exit sign when Michonne finally noticed him again.

"Rick," she called and he sighed as he brought his fingers to pinch the bridge of his nose. Here we go, Rick thought as he cursed under his breath. He gathered his beaten pride and made a promise to make sure each and every speeding ticket he ever let slide for Abe would make an unlikely reappearance in that man's mailbox come Monday morning. Rick mentally berated himself for letting his old friend convince him to come to the stupid reunion on the slim hope that she would be there. On the glimmer that he'd be able to see her and what… rekindle an old flame like those soppy Lifetime movies his geriatric mother cried her eyes out to whenever he visited her in the assisted care facility where she lived.

Hard living, alcohol and god knows what other substances his mother had punished her body with had left Jessie an empty shell. A shell that Rick tried his best to keep intact with his steadfast care while he still trained to maintain the path he was determined to keep on to prove his own self worth. He even begrudgingly gave his mother some of the credit, because if not for her constant struggles with the law he would never have found his true purpose. His drive to help women and families like his,ones that had to live with the curse of substance abuse, came from looking into the blue eyes he inherited from her and seeing nothing but emptiness and loss. He made sure purveyors of the evil that plagued the innocent and guilty alike never saw the light of day after meeting him with his badge and all the power that it endowed him. His own unique experience that his upbringing had afforded him gave him better insight and made him one of the most admired and decorated Sheriff's Deputies in the county. He told her as much on one of his regular visits with her and Jessie, in a rare moment of clarity told her son how proud she was of him.

He was happy in that moment but he remembered thinking of the one woman who he had really wanted to hear those words come out of her beautiful mouth. The same woman who had tried to show him that he could be more than the car grease covered trouble maker from the wrong side of the tracks. The same woman he avoided seeing every time she came to visit, instead using Daryl and Sasha as his go-betweens because he couldn't bear seeing the disappointment in those beautiful coffee eyes with their flecks of gold at the iris. He couldn't explain away all the postponements due to all his trials and tribulations with his mother and his father's unexpected and disastrous return. He didn't want to tell her her how much he wished he had just gone straight to join her instead of staying and finally having it out with his father.

Every day had pushed him further away from his... their, dream of him finally escaping the quicksand pull of his family burdens. In the end, even after his big brother finally came back to help him put things to right and sending his father permanently away from their lives, Rick felt it was too late. Too late to be with Michonne after hearing about her many accolades while away at school. Too late to make amends on a life deferred. And now again he was too late as he saw Michonne wrapped in another man's arms even as she looked at him and called his name.

He sighed and took the few steps to close the small distance between him, Michonne and Mr. Babe who still had his arm loosely around her tiny waist. An arm Rick wanted to break, but a man of the law just couldn't do things like that, so he gritted his teeth and tried to muster a smile.

"Hey… uh, hello Michonne," he started, "Fancy seeing you here." Did I just say that in my out loud voice, fuck, Rick felt the blood rush to his cheeks and the top of his ears burned.

Michonne's smile dazzled even more up close as she let go of her companion, "Yeah, fancy that, huh," she chuckled softly, "I… I was just asking Ms. Peletier about you."

"Oh, I get to call her Carol now," he replied, a small smirk played on his lips, "But that's only on special occasions. Cuz… you know no matter what, 'Don't let the pixie cut fool ya, cuz…"

"Cutting you down to my size is only a razor's edge away," she finished with him, effectively breaking the heavy tension with her soft laughter. The moment of levity was brief when a soft cough interrupted their shared memories of the feisty teacher.

"Oh, I'm being so rude," Michonne turned to her companion and held her hand out to bring Aaron forward, "Rick I'd like you to meet Aaron."

A full smile of recognition came to Aaron's eyes when he brought his hand to shake Rick's excitedly.

"Rick? THE Rick Grimes," Aaron exclaimed excitedly, "Man, I've heard so much about you. It's so good to put a face to the name."

Rick tilted his head and squinted before he could cobble together a gracious reply to the man who he had heard absolutely nothing about. He mentally added Sasha's name to the speeding ticket list right next to her husband's. Damn, couldn't somebody have warned him that he was going to have to swallow his weight in curse words and pride, he asked to the universe as he stuck his hand out to shake Aaron's hand roughly.

"Erm, nice to meet you Aaron," Rick's voice came out more brusquely than he intended, "Well, it was good seeing you too Michonne but I… I was just stopping in. You know," he gestured to his uniform, "Makin' sure thangs don't get too rowdy. Keepin' the peace, etcetera."

He made another move to leave when he felt her small hand on his elbow.

"You… you're leaving so soon… but I was hoping too…" Michonne started, when Aaron pulled his vibrating phone out.

"Oh crap, it's Eric," Aaron gasped, "I forgot to call him to let him know I got here ok. You know how worried he gets."

Michonne laughed and pushed Aaron to answer his call, "Yes, it's almost like he doesn't trust your driving or something Mr. Fast & Furious. Go talk to your husband babe. Give him my love and thank him for loaning you out to me for the night."

Aaron already had the phone to his ear as he walked to a quieter corner, "He heard you and he said 'sharing is caring'," he yelled back at her from over his shoulder.

Michonne shook her head and chuckled and looked back at a totally nonplussed Rick.

"Rick?"

"Did… did you just say his husband, Chonne," Rick asked incredulous that he actually heard right.

"Oh gosh, Aaron's more like both our husband's, as much as he takes care of me," she smiled warmly, "He has done, ever since we met at law school. 'Sharing is caring' was in my best woman's speech at their wedding."

Michonne had barely finished her sentence when Rick grabbed her into the tightest hug and buried his face in her neck.

"I… I thought," Rick mumbled as he felt her arms wrap around his neck that matched his embrace, "I don't even want to tell you what I thought."

Michonne's eyes widened at the realization that she was mere moments of losing Rick again, to a case of mistaken identity no less.

"So… you're staying for a little while longer," she whispered into his ear, not daring to relinquish her hold on him any more than he was ready to step out of the small bubble they had created in the crowded space.

"Nah… I'm going to be staying for a while longer," he answered and nuzzled even more into her neck.

"Good," Michonne said as she took a tiny step back and looked into the deep blue sea of the eyes she had never stopped missing, "Because I think I hear them playing our song."

Rick stared back down into her half lidded cocoa orbs, and instantly recognised the first chords of the song. As the soulful voice crooned the words, "these…. arms… of mine…" Rick wrapped his arms around Michonne tighter and they began to dance where they stood.

###

Rick didn't remember them declaring this song as theirs, but as the lyrics said, his arms had been lonely without her. So he held her just a little tighter, her warm body felt just as he'd remembered and had dreamt about for so many years. He vowed that if he ever got the chance, he would tell her all that he never got to, never had the nerve to all those years ago. He looked down into her eyes and was lost within her wonderous stare, forgetting almost every word he'd ever rehearsed, only being able to utter two of them.

"I'm sorry."

"You don't have to be," she replied, easing his worried mind, "I understand that you had to take care of things with your mother. It took me a while to do that, but I did."

"Yeah?"

"Believe it or not, my mom helped me in seeing that you had your reasons and I needed to be okay with them."

"Your mom did?"

"Oh, she's a huge Rick Grimes fan." Michonne's smile was contagious and her statement about her mom caught his off guard. "She kept me in the know of all of your accomplishments. Even when you helped her with her car a few times. I felt like I was there when you graduated the academy. She called all ecstatic about you having your picture in the paper."

"Yeah, she came by the shop a few times and let it slip that you were doing good in school and had just got accepted to law school. She even showed me the acceptance letter on her phone."

"She did?" Michonne shook her head laughing at her mother. "Her subtle has always lacked the subtle." Rick sighed feeling her laugh again against his chest at her own joke. She relaxed into him, laying her head on his chest. The lyrics of the song fading away and moving into the next one. Neither of them noticed. "I'm proud of you Rick." She took a deep breath before continuing, "Things didn't go the way we planned, but you didn't let that stop you from becoming exactly who you were supposed to be."

"It means a lot to hear you say that... I always worried that I disappointed you," he looked down at her face, as radiant as ever, "You were the one person that I couldn't bear to see any hurt in your eyes. That's why I avoided you all those years."

"Well if you had just come out of hiding, I could have told you that I wasn't mad."

"You can put it all on me. I deserve it." She didn't want him to blame himself for what happened all those years ago. He didn't have any control of it, so she changed the subject.

"This uniform is something else." She ran her hands down the front of his uniform shirt and took a step back to get a better look at him.

"Hey, where are you going?" The coldness he felt when she stepped out of his arms was deflating, he needed her back where she belonged. He looked at her smiling face and pulled her body into his again. She didn't protest, inhaling his cologne when she rested her head on his chest again. They did a slow simple two step to some song that neither of them had heard before, and they weren't listening to now.

"You can see it later, right now I just want to dance with you."

"You think you can make up for lost times with a few dances," she asked lifting her head to look at his crystal blue eyes.

"I...I just thought…"

"It's fine Rick," her head found his chest again, "There's no other place I'd rather be right now."

The music never stopped, and neither did their dance. No matter the song, they always swayed slow, and didn't care if the upbeat tempo didn't match the dance steps. They talked about everything, filling in the parts Michonne's mother had missed. It was his laughter that Michonne had wanted to hear and it was just her that he had longed for. Had it not been for an interruption from Abe and Sasha, they would have stood there in their own little world, oblivious to the fact that everyone had started to file out of the gym.

"You planning on turning the lights out deputy," Abe asked a little too loudly.

"Why are you always messing with our flow Sasha," Michonne asked, opening her eyes to see Sasha grinning at her.

"Consistency... You look good girl." She gave her a tight hug and looked around the gym, her eyes landing on Lori who was glaring daggers at Michonne, ignoring her own drunken overweight husband's attempts at dancing and still obviously pining for something that had no chance of being. Ignoring her cold stare, Sasha smiled and gave Lori a wink, then turned to face Rick and Michonne again. "Can you believe it's been ten years since we graduated? There's no way I'm a day over twenty four and a half."

"You sure don't look it," Michonne said to her.

"It's those Ford genes. We don't age."

"I don't even have Ford genes."

"You've had enough in you," Abe retorted, and then moved out of the way of her swatting hand.

"Abraham Ford!"

"See y'all later." He walked away as fast as he could followed by his embarrassed though amused wife.

"They haven't changed at all." Rick said, having witnessed their banter firsthand for years.

"Wow, we really did close this place down," Michonne looked around the empty gym, only a few stragglers remained.

"If I remember correctly, after prom, your feet were killing you. You doing alright now?"

"Dancing the night away, does that to me." She used her hand to lean against him and took off her heels. "You still the king of foot massages?"

"I think I could arrange one for you." He looked towards the double doors that lead out to the parking lot. "You have plans for the rest of the night?"

"Nothing pressing."

"Do you want to take a ride with me?" He instantly thought of the gated field where they had first became one with another that one summer night and for many more nights after that.

He could tell she was thinking of the same as her smile reached her eyes.

"I'd love to."