Another glass crashed to the floor. "Damnit!" Rick cursed from the kitchen.
Michonne chuckled quietly from her spot in front of the fireplace. "Everything alright in there?" she called from the living room. The fire blazed brightly, the only source of light in the room.
"Doing just fine," Rick said, sounding more frazzled than upset. "I'll be out in a second."
Michonne leaned back into the couch, resting her legs on a cushy ottoman. She wore her favorite outfit - leggings and an oversized t-shirt. She stretched and yawned, doubting she could stay awake for much longer. She'd spent the day on a run with Spencer and Abe, and all she wanted to do was fall asleep in front of the fireplace.
Michonne had come home to find the kids gone and Rick slaving away in the kitchen. He'd sent Carl to spend the night at Daryl's and Judith was with Maggie and Glenn. Rick had gone to the trouble of planning a quiet dinner at home for just the two of them and all she could think about was crawling into bed.
Rick strolled into the living room carrying a tray with sliced apples, a bottle of champagne and two champagne flutes.
"Wow," Michonne said, pleasantly surprised. He had her full attention now. "Where on earth did you manage to find champagne?"
"I didn't," Rick said, joining her on the couch and placing the tray on the coffee table. "It's a gift from Daryl."
"Why?" Michonne asked, kind of shocked.
"Because he's happy for us. Why else?" Rick popped the cork and filled each flute with champagne. He handed her a glass and raised his own.
Michonne raised her glass in return, noticing a slightest tremor in his hand.
Rick cleared his throat. "To us."
"To us." Michonne clinked her glass against his before taking a sip.
"Will you marry me?" Rick blurted out.
Michonne choked, champagne dribbling down her lips.
"You okay?" Rick asked with concern and amusement.
Michonne hiccupped and then downed the rest of her champagne. Her head felt a little fuzzy; whether from the shock of Rick's proposal or the bubbly beverage, she couldn't tell.
"What…what's happening here?" Not the most graceful response, but Michonne was still reeling from the shock of his proposal.
"Well," Rick said, placing his glass on the coffee table. He rose from the couch to face her. Rick bent down on one knee, taking a hold of her hands. "I asked you to marry me and now I'm waiting for you to say yes."
Joy bubbled up from her belly and her body began to shake with laughter. She tried to speak but could hardly catch her breath.
"Ok…is that a yes?"
"Yes," Michonne managed to squeak out. "Yes!" She threw her arms around him, bringing them down onto the rug in front of the fireplace. She straddled him with intention.
"Wait, wait," Rick said. He slid his hand into his pocket and pulled out a diamond ring – the same ring he'd proposed with the first time. Maneuvering their bodies, he took her hand and slipped the diamond onto her finger.
Michonne planted kisses all over his face, finally finding his lips. She breathed him in as she used her lips and tongue to show him just how happy he'd made her.
Rick gripped her waist with his hands and met her deep kiss fully, only pulling away to catch his breath.
"I've always loved you," he said, his probing blue eyes serious and vulnerable.
"Me too. I love you." Michonne captured his soft lips, her desire building. Heat coursed through her body as her hands deftly moved to his belt buckle. There was something extremely sexy about the man of your dreams proposing to you.
Rick moaned, his hands moving down her back to cup her behind. Michonne responded in kind, moaning into his mouth. There was no one else on the planet who could make her this hot.
"Do you have a condom?" Michonne asked as she parted the zipper of his jeans.
"Yeah," Rick breathed. He reached into his jeans pocket and pulled out the slim silver package, removing his jeans in the process.
She and Rick undressed in record time. Michonne explored his body with purpose, using her hands to memorize every hard plane and smooth line. Their bodies intertwined, the feel of Rick's lips caressing that sweet spot underneath her jaw, Michonne climbed to a new height of pleasure, taking Rick along with her.
Later, Michonne and Rick parted their sweaty bodies, spreading out on the soft rug, the fire reduced to low flames and blackened logs. Michonne lay face down, sleep slowly creeping up on her.
"Shit," Rick cursed beside her.
"Hmm?" Michonne responded sleepily, her eyes drooping closed.
"The condom broke," Rick said in almost a whisper.
The shot of adrenaline to her veins made her eyes shoot open. "What?"
Rick looked at her apologetically. "Damn thing busted."
Michonne took a deep breath and began calculating the number of days since her last period. Seventeen days. Almost the exact same timing as the last time she'd gotten pregnant with Andre.
"Whatever happens, we'll deal with it together this time," Rick said, massaging her bare shoulder. "That's what marriage is all about, right? Having babies, making a family."
It was becoming obvious which outcome Rick was hoping for. All Michonne could feel at this point was fear - fear of the unknown, fear of loving another child, fear of losing another child.
"Don't get your hopes up. I'm over thirty-five, so my chances probably aren't as good as they were last time," Michonne said, hoping it was true.
"Not to boast, but I've got a pretty good track record." Rick pulled Michonne to him, wrapping his arms around her to spoon her from behind. "Plus, it's you and me, Michonne. Our chances are pretty much 100%."
Michonne sighed. "Either way, we'll have a better idea in the next couple of weeks."
"I've always liked the name Taylor," he said, snuggling against the side of her neck.
"Way too soon," Michonne said. But it does work well for a boy or a girl, she thought randomly.
"Turn right here," Sasha said from the backseat of the car.
"Got it," Rick said. He made a hard right at the next intersection.
"Easy," Michonne said, gripping the side of the passenger seat. Rick noted that her skin lacked its usual luster and she looked a little nauseous.
She's definitely pregnant, he thought. The idea filled him pride, though he kept it to himself. Michonne was over a week late for her period, so the odds of her being pregnant were even better now. Yet, Michonne had insisted on finding a pregnancy test to be certain; the reason for this little road trip.
"Gas station comin' up," Daryl said.
Michonne had invited Sasha on the run and Daryl had decided to tag along as well. It seemed Daryl and Sasha were together quite a bit lately. Neither one knew the true purpose of this trip, but Rick was glad for the company.
Things had been tense between him and Michonne recently. She had been aloof at best and contentious at worst. He hoped settling the mystery of her pregnancy would get them back on track. He wanted to start planning the wedding as soon as possible. He could hardly wait to call this woman his wife.
Rick pulled up to a gas pump at the station. Abandoned cars and broken glass littered the lot. Rick doubted there was any gas left, but he wasn't one to pass up an opportunity to collect fuel.
The group exited the car, checking out the surroundings.
"I'll check for fuel," Daryl said, heading for the gas pumps.
"Sasha, keep a lookout while Michonne and I search the convenience store for supplies," Rick said, grabbing Michonne's hand.
"Sure thing," Sasha said.
"This isn't a grocery store," Michonne said. "I can search a place this size on my own."
"You never know what could be lurking in a place like this," Rick said. "Plus, it will give us a chance to talk."
Michonne sighed and released Rick's hand. "I can only focus on finding a pregnancy test right now. And maybe a Big Kat and cheese puffs." She pushed past him, reaching the entrance of the convenience store.
I wonder what else she'll have cravings for, Rick wondered, more certain than ever that she was carrying their son or daughter.
Michonne unsheathed her katana, knocking on the glass door with the handle of her sword. Rick removed his Colt from its holster, coming to stand next to Michonne. The two of them watched and listened for any signs of movement. There were none, the store remained completely quiet.
Rick pulled on the handle of the door, a bell chiming as he opened it slowly. Even with the lights out, the small store was well lit by the daylight streaming through the windows. Michonne headed straight for the shelves, though most of them were bare.
"Not much here," Rick said.
"Thanks for pointing out the obvious," Michonne replied.
Rick watched her, somewhat turned on by how curt she was with him. Even her mood swings are sexy. Rick moved to the cashier area, hoping to find a gun or other weapon stashed behind the counter.
Rick searched while Michonne scavenged through the sparse contents of the shelves. All he managed to find was a half-full bottle of whiskey and a pack of cigarettes.
"The last one!" Michonne said excitedly. She held up a small box with a pink plus sign and pink lettering. "Thank goodness it's not expired. Two more months and it would have been too late."
"I spotted a bathroom on the way in," Rick said excitedly. "Why not take it now?"
Michonne nodded, but remained where she was. "Didn't you want to talk?"
"That can wait –"
"No. Now."
Rick crinkled his brow. She was obviously looking for any excuse to stall, seeing as she had spent the last week avoiding this exact conversation. "Fine. This baby –"
"We don't even know if I'm pregnant yet."
"This baby," Rick continued, "is a gift to us, to our family. I understand the fear of losing a child, I face that it everyday. The actual pain of such a loss, I can't imagine what that must have been like for you. But I'm with you now, to protect our child together. We can do this, Michonne. I know we can."
"As safe as we are behind those walls, the world we live in hasn't changed. It's as dangerous as it ever was."
"How can you know that for sure? There could be other communities like ours out there, people building a future. This baby would mean that we believe in a better world, that we believe humanity has a shot at rebuilding all that it's lost."
Michonne came to him, her eyes glassy with tears. She quickly closed the distance between them, taking his face in her hands. She kissed him, distracting him from his original line of thought.
"I love you," Michonne said. "So much that I'm willing to believe in the future you see, with our baby."
"I'll really have to make it happen then," he said, pulling her in for another kiss. "Now…"
Rick gently gripped her shoulders. He led her to the bathroom and opened the door, guiding her into the dim room. "Now, go pee on that stick already. And then we'll wait for the results together." He kissed her lightly on the lips and closed the door behind him.
Rick left Michonne to it, going to check on Daryl and Sasha instead. The bell chimed as he exited through the front entrance. He scanned the gas station for Daryl and Sasha but found no sign of them.
"Daryl?" Rick rested his hand on the hilt of his holstered gun. "Sasha?" He remained still, listening. There was nothing.
Suddenly, a hard object pressed into his lower back. "In case you're wondering - yes, I will kill you if you make a sudden move." The voice was male and the tone was certain. "Hands up, buddy."
"You really don't want to do this," Rick said, raising his hands in the air.
"None of us know what we truly want. That's what makes life interesting." He slipped Rick's gun out of its holster. "Your gun should do for now."
"Where are my people?"
"They're safe. Just taking care of a few walkers I set as a distraction. Should be back soon, if they're any good at fighting. The woman looks like she can handle herself, but I've got my doubts about that biker."
"They better come back or I'll kill you where you stand."
"That's a little tough to do without your gu–"
Rick heard a thud and what sounded like the clank of a pipe hitting the ground. He turned to find a man with long stringy hair and a bandana hiding the lower half of his face crumpled on the ground. Michonne stood over the unconscious man.
"You okay," Michonne asked Rick, lowering her katana. Apparently, she'd used the butt of her sword to knock him out. She returned the weapon to its case.
"Yeah, I'm good," Rick said. He squatted next to the unconscious man. "Especially considering all he had was a pipe."
Rick retrieved his gun. He yanked down the bandana, revealing a trimmed beard. "This guy is definitely not some random straggler on the road."
"You think he's from another camp, like Alexandria? There have to be others we don't know about," Michonne said.
"Only way to know for sure is to ask him when he wakes up."
"Morgan's jail should come in handy until then."
His pulse now returning to its normal state, Rick remembered the reason they were out there in the first place.
"Did you get a chance to take the test?" he asked.
Michonne nodded. Before she could answer, though, they were interrupted by a shout in the distance.
"Rick!" a woman's voice called.
Daryl and Sasha came jogging from around the side of the convenience store. Rick and Michonne walked over to meet them.
"You two alright?" Rick asked as Daryl and Sasha joined them.
"Yeah," Daryl said.
"There was a small herd of walkers heading our way. We took care of them," Sasha said.
"You can thank him for that," Rick said, tilting his head in the direction of the unconscious trickster.
"Who?" Daryl asked, looking confused.
Rick turned back to find the spot empty. "You've gotta be kidding me," he said.
"My bag!" Michonne said in a panic.
"Son of a…" Rick said, scanning the area to no avail. He was gone.
"If he was just here, he can't have gone that far," Daryl chimed in. "We'll find him. What does the prick look like?"
"My height, long hair, trench coat," Rick said.
"Trench coat?" Sasha asked. "Definitely a prick."
Rick caught Daryl smiling Sasha's comment.
"We'll have better luck finding him if we split up," Michonne said.
"Right," Rick said. "Daryl and Sasha head East and Michonne and I'll head West. Meet back here in twenty."
Daryl and Sasha nodded and then they were off.
"We have to get my bag back," Michonne said.
"Don't worry, we'll sniff this guy out," Rick said. "With four against one, there's no way he slips by us."
"I hope you're right, seeing as the pregnancy test was in my bag."
"I really hate this guy." Rick gave Michonne's hand a light squeeze. "I promise we'll find him."
There was no way he was waiting another day, let alone another week or month even, to find out if his future wife was carrying their child.
He was definitely going to break this guy's kneecaps for making him wait even another minute.
As Michonne walked along with Rick, she started to wonder why she'd agreed to track this guy down in the first place. There was nothing of real importance in the bag – except for the pregnancy test. And she was in no real hurry to find out the results.
The thought of growing another precious life inside of her body made her stomach lurch.
It's just nerves, she told herself. Deep down, she knew it was more. She just refused to believe she was pregnant until she saw the results for herself. And a part of her wanted to delay that moment for as long as she could.
Rick placed a hand on her shoulder. "Wait," he whispered.
He silently pointed in the direction of a pond. He moved toward the still water and Michonne followed, slipping her katana from its case.
Michonne picked up the sound of whistling as they drew closer. At the edge of the pond stood the bandit who'd robbed her, her bag resting at his feet.
Unaware of their presence, he drew back his arm and then thrust it forward, a rock shooting from his hand. The stone skipped perfectly on the surface of the pond.
"Seriously?" Michonne whispered. "What is wrong with this guy?"
Michonne and Rick continued their approach, careful to not make a sound.
"Took you longer than I expected," the guy said without turning to face them. He skipped another stone across the pond.
Rick trained his gun on his back. "You have something that belongs to us."
Without turning around, the guy said, "It's only decent to ask someone's name before pointing a gun at them."
"Who are you?" Michonne asked, both annoyed and intrigued by this mystery man.
He turned to face her and Rick. "My friends call me Jesus," he said, a twinkle in his big blue eyes.
Rick scoffed. "Jesus? Yeah right."
"Where are you from?" Michonne asked.
"Nowhere in particular," Jesus said with a smirk. "You?"
"The same," Rick said, his gun still aimed at the man.
Jesus laughed. "Fair enough. Though the fact that she's pregnant makes me think otherwise."
Michonne's heart skipped a beat. Rick lowered his gun.
"What?" Michonne asked in almost a whisper.
"Congratulations," Jesus said.
Michonne dropped her katana, sobbing unexpectedly. The emotions she had expected to feel – fear, anger, anxiety – were outshined by the joy that hit her like a freight train. She was going to have a baby with the man that she loved and who loved her more than anything.
Rick took her into his arms. "It's going to be okay, I'm not going anywhere. We'll get through this together."
Michonne wanted to tell him that her tears were happy, that she was anything but upset. But she just couldn't stop crying. Finally, she managed to squeeze out a few words. "I'm so happy."
"Me too," Rick said, tilting her chin up to kiss her.
She'd just about forgotten about the stranger standing there, watching them. "Look, I know we got off to a rocky start…" Jesus said, interrupting their happy moment.
"That's an understatement," Rick said. He wiped the tears from Michonne's cheeks, his own eyes brimming with unshed tears.
"You two seem like good people. If you're looking for a doctor, I can take you to one," Jesus said.
Michonne and Rick shared a hopeful look. And just like that, she let go of all the pain and heartache she'd been holding onto since Andre's death, letting love take its place.
A year later…
"You may now kiss the bride," Father Gabriel said, smiling at the happy couple.
Daryl and Sasha leaned in to kiss. The crowd applauded and cheered for the newlyweds as they sealed their wedding vows with a kiss. Alyssa let out a gurgle in her sleep and Michonne smiled, rocking her gently. Even in her sleep, her little one seemed to be well aware of her surroundings.
Like mother, like daughter, Michonne thought, tucking the blanket tighter around Alyssa.
"I never thought I'd see the day Daryl was a married man," Rick said, smoothing Alyssa's soft curls.
Sasha beamed as she walked down the aisle, dressed in a white cotton dress. Daryl wore his leather vest over a dress shirt paired with jeans. He'd even combed his hair for the occasion. He also wore the biggest smile Michonne had ever seen on him.
"I think their break had something to do with it, especially when Jesus started sniffing around Sasha," Michonne said.
It had been hard for Sasha to break things off with Daryl, but it turned out to be the push he needed to fully commit to their relationship. They had been going strong ever since.
"Sometimes guys just need a little push," Rick said. He held out his hands for Alyssa. "I'll take over for a little while. You could use a break."
Michonne gently placed Alyssa in Rick's arms, sneaking in a deep kiss.
"Watch it, woman," Rick said. "You keep kissing me like that and we may just have to run off and get started on another one of these."
Michonne wasn't completely averse to that idea. "How about we start with dinner first," she said, giving him a peck on the lips before heading for the buffet.
Music blasted from speakers placed throughout the courtyard. There was no need to keep the music low, as walkers hadn't been seen within miles of Alexandria for the past few months. There'd been speculation that the humans were finally starting to eliminate the walkers, but Michonne knew better than to let her guard down just yet.
"Great wedding," Jesus said as he joined Michonne at the buffet.
"Even better than ours," Michonne said, in the middle of fixing a plate for Rick.
She and Rick had gotten married a month after Jesus had invited them to partner with the Hilltop. Their partnership – trading Alexandria weapons for Hilltop crops – had benefitted both communities greatly. Most of the Hilltop was in attendance for the wedding, adding to the jovial mood.
"He's a lucky man," Jesus said wistfully, watching Sasha and Daryl slow dance to "Georgia on My Mind."
"We're all lucky, to have come this far," Michonne said.
Jesus nodded, turning to scoop roasted yams onto his plate. "And our luck might be improving. There's been talk of another community called the Kingdom. But there's also a rumor that the leader owns a pet tiger, so I'm not sure how much stock to put into it."
"I guess anything's possible nowadays," Michonne said, loading green beans onto the plate. "You should take Morgan with you, in case this turns out to be more than a rumor. He's a great judge of character."
"Sounds like a plan," Jesus said.
"Try to enjoy yourself tonight," Michonne said.
Jesus nodded. "It is a celebration, after all."
Michonne joined Rick at their table. Carl held Alyssa, feeding her a bottle, while Rick played with Judith. Michonne's heart swelled at the sight of her family. She had come so far and had so much to be grateful for.
She slid onto the bench beside Rick, pushing the plate of food in front of him. "Thanks, babe," he said, planting a kiss on her cheek.
She watched Rick eat, seeing so much of Alyssa in him; wanting to see those features mixed with hers, maybe in a son this time.
Michonne grabbed his thigh under the table. "Hurry up and finish eating, I plan on taking you up on your offer to, you know..." she said, winking at him.
"Forget about the food," Rick said, dropping his fork and grabbing her hand. "I'm ready for dessert. Carl, keep an eye on your sisters."
"Again? You two are like teenagers," Carl said, shaking his head.
Michonne laughed as Rick dragged her home, hoping they acted like teenagers for years to come.
A/N: So sad to say goodbye to this one! Maybe that's why it took me so long to post the last chapter. Just wanted to thank all of you out there for sticking with this story until the end. I hope you enjoyed Richonne's journey to love and happiness and more babies! :) Thanks again for all the support, I couldn't have kept this one going without you!