Author's Notes: A long wait indeed, but here is the next update! Thank you to all the warm reviewers! You guys really know how to keep a writer inspired!

Chapter 8: Unlocked

Unknown Location

"You can't do this!" Ed hollered at the top of his lungs, he was uncuffed and on his knees, but he didn't dare try to run again. "I have right-"

His words were cut off by Shane's fist colliding with his face for the third time. He grunted in pain, and then the air left his body as Shane delivered a brutal kick to the man's stomach. Ed let out a silent scream of pain and then crumbled to the ground in a pathetic heap.

"Nah, I don't think ya got a lot of right from now on, Eddy." Shane said cracking his gloved knuckles. "Actually you do got one right, and that's the right to remain silent!"

Shane then kicked Ed's face with his boot while the man was on the ground and he watched in satisfaction as the man's face met with the ground of the back-ally they were hidden in.

"I'm not admitting to shit!" Ed screamed belligerently. "That bitch won't say a damn word against me!"

Finally Shane lost his temper and grabbed Ed by the back of the head and smashed his face roughly against the ground twice, thus knocking Ed unconscious.

Letting go of the abusive man, Shane took a deep breath, trying to calm his own nerves and rage. He abusive people, he had dealt with enough of those types in his own past, and he refused to have it in his present or future.

He bent back down to Ed's level and turned the man over on his stomach, he then re-handcuffed him and stood up and backed away from him.

"This is gonna suck." Shane muttered to himself quietly.

Shane tightened his right hand into a strong fist, then quickly slammed it into his own face, he then repeated this action a couple more times till he heard the painful sound of his nose fracturing and felt his own blood starting to pour down his face. He then brutally punched himself in the ribs and chest and slammed his own body against the ground.

Shane then staggered out of the ally to where he parked his car, he flung open the door and practically collapsed into the driver's side seat, he then took out his police radio and began to speak into it.

"This is Detective Walsh, homicide devious," He huskily spoke into the radio, "I've got a suspect who tried escaping, he's been subdued, but he's gonna need an ambulance. "He then coughed for a moment, tasting his own blood in his mouth. "Might wanna hurry up with that, think I need one too."

Shane then let the radio fall, not ever bothering to listen to the response. He let his body go limp in his own car and stared up at the ceiling blankly till he passed out.

Captain Horvath's House.

"You sure you're okay to walk home?" Andrea asked, watching as Daryl staggered away from The Captain's house.

Daryl just waved a hand at her direction and continued to walk past the quiet party guests. Many of them had left after the incident with the abusive man, and even more left not wanting to be a witness to the younger Dixon's temper.

"Son of bitch…" Andrea grumbled under her breath as she chased after Daryl . When she finally cached up with the man, she wrapped both of her arms around one of his and rested her head on his shoulder.

"The hell you doing, woman?" He snapped at her, trying to wiggle his arm out of her grasp.

Andrea just flicked him in the nose, making him stop like one would a puppy, and just continued to drag him along. "You're drunk and pissed off, I'm not leaving you alone tonight whether you like it or not."

Daryl was about to give her a snide reply, but quickly shut his damn mouth when he saw the look Andrea was giving him.

The pair walked for a bit in silence for a moment until Daryl grumbled something under his breath. Something that if Andrea could have guess, was probably a thank you.

"No problem, Dixon." Andrea gently said back to him.

"I didn't say shit." Daryl said not looking at her.

Andrea just smiled knowingly and continued to walk.

Carl watched from afar with a confused eyebrow raised, wondering the hell he just witnessed. The only thing he could think of was that adults were pretty freaking weird.

"Adults are weird, aren't they?" Michonne asked from behind him.

The Grimes boy spun around fast and looked at the woman his dad had claimed was just a co-worker, even though he had his own doubts about that tile.

"Yeah, you guys are." Carl said digging his hand into his pockets. "So, you're Michonne, right?"

"Yup, guess I am." The woman put her hands behind her back and started to draw circles with her feet in the payment.

"So, you're a special cop, right?" Carl asked after an awkward moment of silence.

Michonne nodded her head. "Yeah, I catch bad cop."

"Is my dad a bad cop?" Carl asked a little too fast.

Michonne laughed a little and shook her head. "Your dads a really good, good cop!" She said smiling at the teen.

"How about uncle Shane?" He asked deadpan.

The tone of how the kid asked made Michonne laugh strongly. "Crazy cop, not bad cop. That's not a crime last time I checked."

'Note to self: Never tell Michonne about the war with Glenn or the post office.' He thought to himself .

"So what are you to my dad anyway?" Carl asked suddenly.

Michonne was taken back, she hadn't expected The young Grimes boy to be so intuitive, but having him now question her relationship with his Rick, the way his piercing blue eyes seemed to mentally interrogate her with their unblinking intensity.

"I, um, we, we're just-" Michonne's stuttering was interrupted by the loud blaring of her cell phone ringing.

"Oh, thank god." She muttered to herself, thanking the little device for a distraction.

She brought her phone to her ear and tried her best to not sound over relived. "Hello, you've got Michonne."

Carl watched from a bit aways as the woman's face went through a string of different emotions before finally stopping at agitated. Then then snapped the phone shut and gave him a sympathetic look.

"I don't look the way you're looking at me." He said to her. It reminded him of the way him mom use to look at him when his dad wouldn't come home after work.

"It's your uncle..." Michonne bit her lip, trying to think of the right thing to say. She was never great with children. "He's in the hospital."

Carl started to shake the second he heard Shane was in the hospital, his body was trembling…he didn't know if it was because of fear over his uncle's safety, or anger over who did this to him.

He stepped closer to Michonne, anger displayed over his face. "Take me to him." Carl said rage in his voice.

"Your uncle?" Michonne asked, hoping that was what the Grimes' boy was talking about.

"The man who did this to him!" Carl shouted loudly.

The guests from the captain's party who were still leaving, all jumped at the sound of the teenager's voice, but didn't stop to intervene.

Michonne walked forward a put a hand on the boy's shoulder, trying to comfort him. "I can't do that Carl. You know that. I'll take you to your uncle, but you need to calm down."

Michonne lead Carl towards her car so they could go to the hospital that Detective Walsh was being held, the younger of the two not saying a word then entire time.

The ride to the hospital had been uneventful, but if someone ever asked if anything had raised a red flag in Michonne mind that night, it would have been the cold murderous look in Carl's eyes…

Atlanta Medical Center

"You're a jackass."

Shane laughed hard briefly before holding his ribs in pain. "Damn it hurts to laugh."

"I can't believe I'm even here." Lilly said shaking her head. "Why am I even here?!" She asked herself.

Shane slide a hand around her waist and gave her a cheeky grin. "Cause ya got yourself hooked on the ol' Shane here, right?"

Lilly snorted in disgust and rolled her eyes, yet she didn't push Shane away, he noticed instantly, but he wasn't going to push his luck too far.

"Christ, Shane, all you hand to do was bring the guy to the drunk tank. The hell did he escape?" Rick asked in disbelief.

Shane grunted in pain, sitting up more from his bed. "The bastard was bitching and moaning that he was gonna throw up, that he was feeling sick, so I'm thinking it ain't no big shit to stop my car and let the stupid prick throw up outside of it, but the second I opened the door he attacked me."

"Then what happened?" Lilly said gently resting her hand on Shane's.

Shane looked down at Lilly's hand, and smirked up at her, and she just rolled her eyes again and looked at him to continue.

Sighing, Shane continued his story "Then try to restrain him, but damn Rick, those drunk guys fight to the bitter end, it took a lot to keep the bastard down, and then ya know, I called for back a medic, passed out in my car, then woke up with this fine piece of ass next to me."

"Oh, god you're gross!" Lilly said pushing herself away from Shane.

"Hey, I was talking about Rick!" Shane replied with a laugh. "Ain't that right you fine piece of ass!" He said gesturing towards Rick.

Rick meanwhile had his head in his hands. "God, I hate you."

The door was then busted open by Carl running through it like a mad man and throwing himself at Shane.

Shane was about to laugh at the action, but stopped once he realized Carl was trembling. He put his arms around the teenager, and laid his head on top of his, trying to calm him down. It only took half a second after that for Rick to walk over to the pair and hug his son from behind, comforting him as well.

"Don't ever be here again, damn it. Damn ever be here again!" Carl cried repeatedly into Shane's chest. He remembered when his dad and uncle had been in that shoot out in Atlanta all those months ago, hearing all the news reports on how they could of died horribly. He always did his best to pretend it didn't bother him, but he still had nightmares about that day…

Michonne quietly walked into the room, and smiled warmly when she saw the sight in front of her.

"Hey, I'm gonna call my dad, watch these jackasses for over." Lilly said stepping out of the room.

She watched the reunion between the three and a half men for a bit, until finally, deciding they were better off without her present. Michonne silently stepped back and slipped out the door, and just as she was about to take off down the hallway she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"You know, you don't have to leave." Rick said from behind her.

Michonne looked back at him and offered him a small smile. "There's no place in your life for me, Rick." She says honestly.

Rick was taken back by her bluntness, he was actually shocked, it was almost like getting punched by her words. "What?" Was the only thing he was able to say to her.

"Rick, you're a single father, new detective, and your ex-wife came all the way to Atlanta to tell you she's pregnant. I don't want cause you anymore stress than you've already got."

"Michonne, you…" Rick was cut off by Michonne again.

"What did she say when you got her alone?" Michonne asked looking away.

Sighing, Rick scratched the back of his head. He wasn't getting out of this one without talking. "She said she'd be back after the holidays to talk more. We agreed to try and handled this civilly."

Michonne nodded at that, still looking off into the distance. "I'll see you around, Rick." She said before walking away.

He thought about reaching out to her, thought about turning her around and kissing her, saying wanted her and no other woman, but he didn't. She was right. Rick couldn't think of any time he could dedicate to her with this new life style he had now.

He watched Michonne's retreating form, and as she disappeared behind the elevator doors, he felt his head hang low. "I'm sorry." He whispered quietly to himself.

"So, you'll be out tomorrow?" Carl asked. He had finally calmed down and was now acting normal again.

"Yeah, little buddy. I'll be causing terror in the hearts of Pizza boys again soon." Shane said darkly.

It might have been his imagination…or the pain killers, but Shane could have sworn he heard Glenn's screams of agony already.

"Hey, Carl, could you give me and your uncle a second." Rick asked, entering the room again.

Carl yawned deeply, finally feeling the effects the day had on him. "Sure, dad, I'm tired anyway. I'll meet you in the car."

He then hugged him uncle and left the room to go out to the car in the hospital parking lot. He did also make a mental note to find some damn Chocolate pudding on the way out too.

Shane waited for Carl to be a good ways away before he started to speak, when he was sure Rick and him were alone though, he dropped the façade and put on a very serious face. "Suppose you want the no bull shit version of what went down tonight."

"That'd be nice." Rick said crossing his arms. He knew Shane was full of it, hell he even bet Shane knew that he knew he was full of it.

Growing up Rick had gotten into enough fist fights to know that Shane wouldn't go down easy in a fight, and that you'd practically have to kill him to stop him. There was no way an out of shape piece of trash like Ed Peletier got the drop on him like that.

"Man, that guy needed to be brought down a beg." Shane started, hatred already seeping into his voice. "He bragged, brother, he bragged about what he'd done to his wife and Sophia. He was going on and on about how she wouldn't even dare press charges against him, how he was gonna teach her and Sophia a lesson when he got out." Shane's teeth were gritted tight with every word he spoke, it was clear there was nothing but hatred for Ed.

"I know you don't agree with what I did, man." Shane said guilt now replacing his hatred. Brown eyes met blue and both me shared a deep look. "I just need you to understand why I did it. Men like that, cold, abusive monsters. They don't belong here."

Rick knew why Shane felt so strongly about this, and he wasn't going to press him anymore. He wanted the truth and he got it. "It's alright, brother." He said patting him on the back. "Can't say I wouldn't have done the same thing."

"Nah, man," Shane said with a pained laugh. "You would have killed him."

Rick choked out a laugh through the tense moment. "Shit happens right."

"Yeah," Shane says laying his head down on the pillow. "Shit happens."

"Take it easy, brother." Rick says as he goes to walk out the room. "I got your back no matter what happens after this." He says from the doorway before exiting.

Lilly then re-enters the room, and rests her hand on Shane's hand.

"Listen, you're a jackass, but I guess I can stay a little longer. Dad says he's got a little respect for you now." Lilly says sitting down in a chair next to the bed.

"Hey, that's all I've ever asked for, little lady." Shane says closing his eyes.

Three weeks later.

Inching closer to Beth's face, Carl felt her heart beating faster and faster, he didn't know who invited mistletoe, but he owed the man millions.

"Merry Christmas, cowboy…" Beth whispered as her lips were only centimeters away from his.

Carl sprang up from his bed covered in sweat, panting harshly, the bangs from his wild hair stuck to his forehead damply. The only that could be heard in the dark bedroom was the teen's breathing.

He sighed deeply to himself and then fell back onto his bed, staring at the ceiling blankly.

"Even in my dreams I'm an idiot... who knows he's about to wake up to reality." He whispered into the darkness.

"You, gonna be okay on your own?" Rick asked throwing on his jacket, getting ready to leave for work.

Carl yawned, stretching out his limps. "Dad, Beth's been gone for awhile now, I think I've been able to look after myself just fine."

Rick knew that Carl was right, neither of the two had heard from the country girl in a long time, and he knew his son had given up ever seeing her again.

"Hey, come on, Carl" Rick said ruffling his already messed up hair. "It's the last day of school and your off till next year! Smile!"

Carl gave his dead a deadpan look, and walked passed his dad. "I'll see you later, dad." He then closed the door behind himself.

"God, I hate teenagers." Rick grumbled to himself.

Atlanta Middle School

"God, I hate being a teenager." Carl muttered to himself as he banged his head on his locker.

"Huh, I didn't know it was noon already." Eliza said as she watched Carl bang his head on the locker.

Clementine giggled and jumped on Eliza's back, using her for a piggy back ride. "Yay! It's lunch time! Carl you're the second best human clock I've ever had."

For a split second, Carl stopped banging his head against the locker, and gave Clementine a confused stare, "What the hell was the first?"

Eliza raised her hand regretfully. "This lazy bum never wakes up on time." She then throws Clementine off of her and she lands on Carl with a thud.

"I hate you all."

"Hey, Carl!" Duck says getting in his face. "That looked like it hurt!"

Carl groans, pushing Clementine off of him. "It did, Duck. It did.

The teens then started bickering lightly back and forth which each other, which really wasn't a strange thing, but Eliza stopped arguing with the group when she caught sight of someone watching them from a little bit away.

"Sophia." Eliza said in disbelief as she saw their friend.

The group instantly silenced and all of them stared at her in shock. They hadn't seen Sophia since Thanksgiving, and all of them were surprised to see her again.

Sophia bashfully tucked a stray hair behind her ear, he hair was longer than it had been, last time it was ear level, but now it was down to her shoulders, in fact she even looked a little taller, yet was still the shortest of their group.

"H everyone." She says timidly, playing with her hands.

Eliza broke the distance between her and Sophia and crushed her into a tight hug, holding onto strongly.

Clementine and Duck followed soon after and tackled Sophia and Eliza into a group hug, showing the girl as much affection as they could.

The group hug was soon broke apart by the sound of a loud bell ringing, indicating that the group was late for their next class.

"Holy shit, we're late!" Eliza crudely cursed.

"Crap!" Clementine screamed grabbing both Duck and Eliza. "My parents will kill me if I get one more late slip!" She then took off to class, dragging the two of them behind her.

"Why the hell is she so strong?" Sophia heard Eliza scream faintly as they all disappeared from sight.

Now it was just Sophia and Carl, alone together.

She smiled his way, and Carl tried his best to smile, but he ended up giving her a very guilty look.

He walked closer to Sophia and went to apologize, but the girl cut him off by hugging him tightly.

"You don't need to apologize." She whispered. "I just want some hugs from my friends."

The teen hugged his friend close, promising himself not to let her get hurt again. That was something Carl would never deny her.

Atlanta Police Department

The department was festive, it had looked like Santa Claus had puked all over everything and made it his bitch on the way.

"Amy," Rick muttered under his breath to the young secretary, "Did you have to make everything look like a Christmas special?"

Amy looked at Rick like he had gone crazy. "Of course, Rick, duh." She said rolling her eyes. "I men, Santa liked when you have the Christmas spirit!"

Rick was speechless, not even knowing what to say.

Shane however…

"Oh, ya gotta be kidding m-" His words were cut off by a hard elbow to the ribs by Andrea.

"Don't think cause you're all healed up, Walsh, that I won't kick your ass." Andrea warned, it had taken months to make her sister cheer up after Daryl had told her mermaids weren't real. She wasn't ready for the Santa speech yet.

"So, what's everyone's plan for the holidays?" Andrea asked trying to change the subject.

Rick and Shane looked at each other and shrugged.

"I don't know, eat food, get black out drunk." Shane replied.

Rick nodded in agreement. "Sounds good to me.

"God, you men are dumb." Amy groaned. She then perked up remembering what her and sissy were doing for Christmas. "Well our parents are coming down to Atlanta and we're doing good old fashion Harrison Christmas!"

Andrea beamed at her little sister, she loved seeing her exited for Christmas.

"I mean it's just like old times, even the Dixon brothers will be th-" She was cut off by Andrea clamping a hand on her mouth.

Andrea looked at the cops, laughing nervously, she started to drag Amy away. "And that's the end of that. See ya guys later!"

"Well, that was weird." Rick said breaking the silence.

Shane silently agreed, checking his watch. "Alright, it's quitting time." He observed. "Either we're getting food or we're getting drunk!"

Knowing full well that Shane would attempt to try to violate the restraining order Glenn's Pizza parlor had put on him, Rick decided it was better to just go off and get drunk with his brother.

"Larry's Pub?" He asked, offering the suggestion to Shane. Knowing full well that Shane would jump at the chance to see Lilly.

Smiling like only a mad men could smile, which he was, the southern man howled and took off towards the car.

Rick went to chase after Shane, and just as he was about to take off, he spotted Michonne about to walk into the Captain's office.

She spotted him as well. He thought she was going to just pretend like she didn't see him, but to his surprise she offered him a gentle smile and a small wave.

He felt his chest tighten, and the edges of his lips move up, but he wasn't going to go over there. He just didn't have the courage at the moment. So instead he gave her a smile of his own and nodded her way before taking off after Shane.

Michonne was thankful that Rick didn't attempt to talk with her, while she did miss having him to talk to, he wasn't supposed to be present for what was about to happen.

She walked into the Captain's office without knocking and came face to face with Captain Horvath.

The Captain looked put down a transfer request he was reading, the name Jones, Morgan, could be read on top of the folder.

"What can I do you today, Michonne?" The Captain asked.

Michonne tossed a folder on Dale's desk then walked out of the office.

The Captain opened the folder, and quietly sighed to himself. It was a request to speak to Detective Walsh and Detective Grimes for an Internal Affairs interview. He knew it wouldn't of come from Michonne, it had to of been from someone above her.

He opened up his desk and tossed the folder inside it. The holidays were approaching, he wasn't going to have his boys have to deal with that kind of trouble during the holidays. He could stone wall internal Affairs to the new year…

Grimes Apartment Complex

Carl threw his hood over his head as he walked the grounds of his apartment complex, the weather had changed quickly and winter was upon the cit of Atlanta. He didn't really mind it though.

He had ditched School a little after seeing Sophia, he just didn't want to deal with the guilt. He wasn't able to tell that she was being abused at home, and after that she had disappeared from school for a while, no one had heard from her, not even Eliza. So, he had bailed from school to escape from those feelings. It wasn't like his dad would be home for a while.

The teen climbed the stairs to the Grimes apartment, and when he got to his level, he noticed that Glenn, the pizza boy, was waiting outside his uncle's apartment door with three large pizzas in his hand.

Glenn noticed Carl too, and the color drained from the poor man's face. "Oh, dude, no, no, no!" He panicked and dropped the pizzas on the ground and runaway faster than any living being Carl had ever seen in his life.

"Cool." Carl said to himself, noticing that he now had free pizza, the teen picked up the boxes and went to unlock his door.

When he went to unlock it though, he noticed that the door to the apartment was unlocked already.

'Okay, that's strange…' He thought to himself.

He pushed open the door, and walked into it.

Something seemed off to him as he walked through his apartment, the lights weren't on, which was weird enough for him, since the Grimes always kept one light on, they had energy saving bulbs so it didn't matter. The next thing was that the place looked clean. It never looked clean!

He walked into the living room and saw that his TV was on, and there was a lump of blankets covering something on the couch.

Carl backed away a little bit, but tripped over something that was on the floor.

The teen that fell onto his back, the teen groaned in pain. He felt around for what he had just tripped over and when he had found it he brought the item close to his face to examine it.

"God damn it." He muttered to himself. "Stupid freaking beanie hat."

Carl's world froze.

He slowly picked himself up from the floor, and walked over to the blanket and slowly pulled it away.

There sleeping peacefully on his couch was Bethe Greene.

"Beth?!" He blurted out surprised.

The girl woke up from her deep sleep, and the first thing she saw was Carl's ice blue eyes looking down at her. A sight that made her smile brightly.

"Carl!" She screamed happily.

Beth jumped up from the couch and hugged onto Carl tightly, buried her head into his neck and wrapped her arms warmly around him. The two of them lost balance and he fell again to the floor, but this time Beth was on top of him.

Anything Carl would of wanted to say had been instantly forgotten the second Beth had made physical contact with him.

Her arms tightened around his neck, and her warm body was as close to his as could be, she brought her face away from his neck, and he instantly missed the feeling of her hot breath on his neck, but he couldn't lie that the deep oceans of her eyes were a sight he had missed.

"I missed you so much, cowboy." She whispered to him, staring at him deeply in the eyes.

"I, um, I uh" Carl began to stutter, but after stopping to look at Beth for a moment, the stuttering stopped. "I missed you too."

Carl didn't know why, but for some reasons, he felt the urge to kiss Beth, he had never felt the want to kiss a girl before, even though had ironically been his first kiss thanks to Maggie pulling a prank on them.

Without realizing it, Carl started to lean in closer to Beth's lips, and she in turn started to do the same thing.

"Please, don't let this be a dream…" Carl whispered.

Next time on City Life...

"Your suspects name are Dave and Tony, they operate out of some bar down town." Captain Horvath said to Rick and Shane. "Just remember, boys, they're easy on the trigger, so be careful.

"What about this Negan guy?" Rick asked.

The Captain just shook his head. "As far as our records show, that name is just a myth."

Author's Notes: That's it for now guys and girls, I hope you all enjoyed it. Now please Review and tell me what you think! And Lets hope at least some of our fav characters make it to season 5!