It feels a bit strange to throw out another one shot.
But I do. Since I actually did get some reviews that the previous one was appreciated.
I did start a few chapters, I just want to see if I can actually write a full story about him, before posting the chapters. So I hope I made the people that did review very happy, to know that I am working on a full story on Rick Grimes… I do it for you three, so feel special.
It's on its way.
Meanwhile, I had a lack-of-inspiration moment and I wrote this piece here. I do that sometimes, write ahead of myself so I know where I want to go. And oh well, I thought, post it, see if I can make a few Rick Grimes fans happy. I enjoy the writing, I've had knee surgery so this actually fills up the extra time I have lately. So maybe you'll see more of me… Since I'm bored out of my mind.
See this one shot as eh…. Teaser? Of what is to come? I don't know?
Just let me know what you think!
Rick sighed and stared up at the night sky. The stars were decorating the pitch dark and just then he realized he never enjoyed that sight anymore. He didn't see the beautiful things anymore. Sure he was very aware that he should be thankful for the people he had around him, even if they were dropping like flies.
He had vowed to protect them, all of them, yet he failed miserably at that.
Lori had had a bad effect on him. Hell, losing the woman he had spent the majority of his life with was something he hardly had been able to get over… Had it not been the conversations until late at night with… Danielle.
And he lost her too. Without having ever been able to confess to her what she really meant to him. So much more than he had ever expected someone would be, next to Carl, Judith and Lori.
Don't you just love the stars?
Her voice resounded in his mind; she had called it out to him their first real conversation. It was the start of it all. A start of what he at first thought of as a brilliant friendship. What, how and where it happened were all a bit foggy, but he remembered that all of a sudden she had wrapped herself all around his being.
She gave him comfort and security, whenever he needed. Things he sought in Lori but she couldn't give it to him. He didn't blame her; really. He saw now where it came from. That same understanding made him see things clearly, and the constant guilt that went together with Danielle had disappeared completely those last few weeks.
Those last few moments they had spent together.
"I said; go to sleep" Michonne hissed through the dark, cutting through his clouded mind. He rolled his head to his left and looked at the woman sitting on a tree trunk. He didn't respond, afraid she would hear the thick grief that would most probably come out as well.
Instead he turned his back at her angrily. Not because Michonne irritated him; he was thankful for her presence as it lifted Carl's spirits in ways he had never been able to.
But the stars on the other hand. They were reminding him of times he should push to the back of his mind completely. He didn't want to think about his best friend's death. About the mother of his children or the woman who had pried his heart out of his dead chest and breathed life back into it.
He didn't want to think about the vet and his stupid wise words he spat around; even though no one asked for them. About innocent Bethy and her damn bible. About Daryl and his undying loyalty for him… About Judith…
There had been moments before in these past years since the world went to shit, in which he had felt utterly lonely.
But nothing could compare to the complete emptiness that held him now.
He longed for that annoying damn Irish accent, telling him off, kicking his ass and telling him to stand the fuck up, because it wasn't over yet. He missed being wrapped up in her arms and being able to throw all of this weight off of his shoulders and pile it onto hers for a moment. He missed the whole damn prison.
He missed Judith and her innocence. Her giggles and her cries. Her little arms in the air, begging him to lift her up. The way she would play without noticing the blood spatters on the back of that same damn cell, no matter how hard Carol and Beth tried to cover it up.
But there was still Carl. And Rick had no right to give up now.
He hadn't noticed that he had actually fallen asleep until he awakened with a sharp intake of breath. The first light came through. He was strangely aware of the lack of birds that used to annoy the crap out of him when he tried to sleep in, but they were always making too much damn noise right by their bedroom window.
Only a few seconds past after that realization dawned on him and made room for the wonder what it was that had woken him up in the first place.
And then the moaning. He was up in a heartbeat and stared at a sleeping Carl but no trace of Michonne. He cursed underneath his breath as he, as quietly and discreetly as he could, tried to make his way towards Carl. He kicked the bottom of his son's boot when he finally was within reaching distance and Carl immediately was up.
He pressed his finger against his lips when he noticed Carl tense and practiced routine made that he immediately quieted down and crawled towards his father.
"Where's Michonne?" Carl whispered in Rick's ear. Rick licked his lips while his eyes scanned the surrounding woods in despair, hoping to find her. "I don't know" he admitted to Carl. "But we gotta know how big this herd is" he continued right after and got to his feet, taking the useless gun from his belt and taking it from it's safety. He had two bullets, maybe, if he were lucky.
And he better make them count if he wanted them both to walk out of this safely.
He took a deep breath and tried to decide whether they would move in the opposite direction with the chance that those walkers would pick up on their scent either way, or they'd hide, in hopes the herd would pass and not follow them around any longer.
However, he was about to make that decision when he heard Carl hiss for him.
"Dad! This way!"
He turned towards Carl and relief settled within him to see Michonne's dark face staring back at him as well. And he quickly turned around, assuming Michonne knew what she was doing. In the process picking up Carl's backpack and throwing it at him.
They didn't run for a very long time until Michonne led them towards a van standing at the side of the train tracks they had been following the previous days, she jumped in it without any hesitation and Rick, for a moment, did hesitate but the moans in the background made him realize that he didn't have much choice but to follow her lead.
The sliding door was quickly closed behind him and for the next few minutes all that filled the silence were the ragged breaths coming from the three of them.
He stared at the door as if afraid that the walkers would somehow have learned how to open it, but they were too far away yet to have even reached the van. He looked at Michonne who sat behind him in an much too awkward position and he quickly sat up on the seat to relief her from his dead weight on top of her legs.
"How…?" he asked her confused and Michonne grinned at him, she pointed towards the front seat and his eyes met with the same green eyes he thought he'd never see again.
"Danielle?" his voice cracked as he stared at her, afraid to move, to breath. Afraid that he once again had lost his mind completely. She smiled a small smile his way, as though she felt the same fear. But somehow she kept her head together as she placed her index finger on her lips. The moans were moving in closer and she ducked down her seat to remove herself from sight.
The tug on his sleeve by Michonne made him do the same, but he kept his eyes trained on the – what he had constantly assumed - dead woman in front of him.
How had she been able to make it out? Where did she come from? How did Michonne find her? What the hell happened?!
He reached out towards her underneath the seat, stretching out a little to find her somehow. To touch her and know she wouldn't disappear on him. He had vowed to himself never to hope again for anything, and never to feign himself in safety. But the feeling of his heart beating loudly against his ribcage gave no room for doubt, that this was hope. He needed her to be alive in some way. He couldn't have lost both women he loved in such a short amount of time.
It took her awhile to notice but when she finally turned her head and looked at him, she noted the hand stretched out towards her, trying to reach hers almost desperately and she risked a movement and ignored a small curse from Carl, reaching her own dirty hand out to him.
The feeling of her warm skin against his own, of her pulse drumming against his index finger washed a relief over him he couldn't quit explain. Had he had the time, had he had the room and if it weren't for the walkers he would've probably broken down completely. He had been so afraid, so alone. And there she was, back to support him in everything he did, back to slam some reality into him every once in a while.
A small smile crossed her lips and he couldn't help his own appearing.
She was here.