Author's Note: I know, it's late. This chapter is…Well, you'll see. Thanks for the reviews and the little messages. I'm still all about this story, and I was determined to post this chapter before the Rick and Michonne promo spoilers and video came out today, and I beat it by a few hours. I cannot wait to see the promo and especially this series, but I until then, I will keep writing fan fiction and keeping Richonne's love alive.
Again, thank you all. This chapter is a little longer and I hope you think the two-month wait was worth it.
Countless questions swirled in Rick's head. How did Hatton figure this out? Did they somehow tip him off? The man never checked Michonne's bag, so he couldn't have gotten a clue from the phone or anything else in there. Rick recalled the last few hours. He and Michonne had handled things perfectly in the clearing, traveling back, and when they got here. Did Hatton put his ear to the door and listen in like some curious preteen and then report to Pride?
Rick knew the Hatton wanted power. His need to be close to Pride bordered on the obnoxious, but now this obsession had Michonne in danger. Whatever it took, he would keep Michonne safe. Nothing else mattered.
The outgunned sneak attack wasn't unfamiliar. He and Michonne had faced similar danger with Joe and the Claimers, but Andre and his connection to Pride and their two waiting children at home made this situation different. Sadly, denial remained the only option he had with their weapons on the other side of the small room, and Andre offering to help was a coin toss at best. The young man knew what they wanted to do to Pride, but he loved Michonne, too, as confusing as those feelings were for him.
Steeling himself, Rick drew a breath and faced his years-long captor. "Look, I don't know what Hatton told you," he said, "but we found Shelly on the other side of the river late this morning." A spark of awareness glinted in Andre's eyes. Rick didn't have to worry about him blowing up their charade with his knowledge of the truth. "She's been my companion for the afternoon."
Pride erupted in dubious laughter. "Is that really how you want to play this, Rick?"
"Dad, lower your gun," Andre implored, interrupting the blood-lusting thoughts Rick had of how he wanted things to go. How he wanted Pride to go. "Busting in here pointing a weapon, can we say overkill?"
"Mmm? Not yet, Danny, but perhaps soon. That all depends on your friend." Pride motioned to the door. "Wait out in the hall for me."
"Uh-uh, I'm not leaving."
Pride's face scrunched in introspection, and then he nodded. "If you insist," he said with a tap to Andre's cheek. "You're becoming a man, son. Maybe you need to see how to deal with these unfortunate situations when they arise. Especially when there is something wonderful waiting in the wings." Pride dipped his left shoulder, peeking behind Rick and at Michonne with a lecherous grin. "You're saying this delicious morsel isn't your wife?"
"You heard what he said," Michonne answered, the pitch in her voice filled with the perfect amount of annoyed displeasure as she slipped seamlessly back into role. "Your man back there is the one who wanted me here. I had been out on my own for a long time, surviving, and my survival skills impressed him. The Commander just wanted me in his bed."
"It's been a long time since I had a woman," Rick added, buoying her words. "Her body and the way she looks. Shelly's gorgeous, reminds me of my wife, and I wanted to tame the feistiness in her. That's why she's in here. It's been eight years. I didn't think I'd have to ask permission for some company."
"You're right, you don't." Pride pursed his lips. "Lieutenant, come closer and keep your weapon on her."
Rick seethed as Hatton approached with his semi-automatic rifle pointed directly at Michonne. "Aye, aye, General," he said, the gun aimed at her temple.
"You say she's not your wife?" Pride extended his gun to Rick. "Shoot her in the head."
Michonne gasped.
"What the fuck, Dad!" Andre shouted.
"You chose to stay, Danny. Commander Grimes will follow the orders I give him, and then he will leave with you and me. If she's just mindless pussy, he'll be able to do this without a problem. If he can't, Hatton will, but only after I take a turn with the stand-in wife while Rick watches, and then he'll leave with us. Go on, Commander. Prove me wrong."
Fiery rage burned through Rick's body as he eyeballed the demented Pride. There was absolutely no humanity in that man. How could Andre be shocked? This was why Pride needed to die. Rick grabbed the gun, resigned to what he needed to do and what he hoped would be a direct response. If there was a heaven, maybe he could look down from there and finally see RJ. The love in his heart and picture in his head would have to be enough for this side, because he would die before he let anything happen to Michonne. Before he watched that maniac put a finger on her.
Rick turned to Michonne. From the look in her eyes, he could tell she had figured out his plan and was not at all okay with it. Twice she had witnessed what she thought was his death, and to have it happen again, and like this, was the ultimate cruelty. He would try to spare her that, but if it was a chance this kept her alive, got her home and back to their children, he would do it. He would do anything for her except watch her be harmed. This way, Andre would have no reason to stay here. She would need him, and he would need her. Rick hated the idea of leaving Andre a nightmarish memory of the last moments of the nightmare he called his father, but this was the only way.
With a nod to Andre and "I love you" mouthed to Michonne, Rick turned to Pride with the gun raised between the man's eyes. Michonne's shuddering breath and Andre's gasp were the last things Rick heard before saying, "Call Hatton off and let her go."
"Or what?" Pride said in a taunting dare.
"I will blow your brains out."
"Rick, don't do this!" Andre shouted.
Pride held up a hand. "Danny, it's fine," he said, snatching the gun and putting it to his own forehead, pulling the trigger to the click of an empty chamber. "Do you really believe I would hand you a loaded gun with the question of who she is before us? She's my leverage, Rick. I know why you stopped running and followed all of my orders. I know every step you take and every move you make. Everything you do is because of her. Your family. Keeping them safe. I knew the answer to my question before I asked it. The look on your face and hers gave it away. Undying love." Pride bristled. "Such a waste. Even with what I saw, I hoped you would do the right thing."
"I did, you piece of shit! I will kill you with my bare hands before I let you touch my wife."
"Umph. Wrong answer." Pride reached behind his suit jacket and pulled out another handgun from the waistband of his trousers. Most people who called themselves "General" dressed in camouflage, but fifty-year-old Jacob Pride, who had never served a day in the armed forces, always dressed like a cover model for GQ Magazine. "This is fully loaded, and because you lied and tried to kill me, I will be using it to kill your wife." He raised the gun. "Tell her goodbye."
"No." Rick drew Michonne into his arms, taking the available moment to overplay his very real concern and whisper some directions for a last-ditch effort. "Don't do this!" He whispered more details to her between his pleas with Pride. "I will do whatever you ask."
"You do that now. Or you did before she got here. I'm not negotiating with you. You're too important for me to kill, so whatever you try will only make things worse for her. I enjoy improving my worse. Do you want to test that?"
"Dad, you can't!" Andre urged. "You can't kill her."
"She's a danger, Danny. Look at how he's clinging to her. She makes Rick weak and stupid."
"They love each other. She makes him happy."
"I don't care about his happiness. I care that he's obedient. A good fuck with any woman with open legs can give him happiness, but when you get stuck on one it becomes a problem. Once Rick's problem is eliminated, I will have full control of him. He wouldn't want me to do to his daughter what I'm going to do to his wife. I look at that as a win-win."
Michonne held tighter to Rick, her closed fist twisting his shirt, with every vicious word Pride uttered. He knew she was erupting inside and wanted to obliterate the man as much as he did. But like him, she knew this situation was different. Andre, Judith, and their little RJ made it different. Whispering a strategy, they hoped to find a way to get themselves out alive and Andre home with them.
"Danny, I'm trying to build a safe world, a future, for you," Pride continued. "I'm doing what's necessary to make that happen."
"This..." Andre sighed miserably. "This isn't necessary. The guns and the threats. You want to do something for me, don't kill her. Don't touch her."
"Why do you give a damn about this woman?"
"Because…"
The way Andre said that caused Rick to release Michonne. This situation was wearing Andre down. Would he do it?
"Because," Andre repeated, swallowing deeply, taking furtive glances Michonne's way. She squeezed Rick's hand.
"Because what?" Pride leered lecherously at Michonne. "Mmm, she is put together, that's for damn sure, but... Wait – wait a minute." He grinned proudly at Andre. "Do you finally wanna feed the snake?"
Michonne's guttural groan left no doubt that she was feeling the same blind rage and absolute disgust Rick was at that revolting statement.
"For God's sake, no!" Andre expelled a sharp breath, bristling. "No, no." He sighed. "She's my mother," he confessed, his voice thick with emotion. "She's my mother, Dad. Drop your gun. Please, please, don't hurt her."
A long silence hung in the air. Michonne held a breath, wondering how Pride would respond to Andre's emotional truth. The man was nothing like Michonne expected. He was tall and strangely handsome, not a dark hair out of place, and fit from how he wore that expensive-looking suit, but nothing about him was becoming. Seemingly normal, like the businessmen she encountered while practicing corporate law in a world long gone, but not normal.
No, he was a foul-mouthed charlatan. She figured some would confuse that as charm, but she didn't. He wasn't what she expected. He was much worse. The man was dangerous in an unassuming way, he had her son in his clutches, and her and Rick guessing if one or neither of them would return home to their children. After a year and a half, Judith and RJ probably thought she was dead like they longed believed their father to be.
Michonne exhaled. And Pride had muscle. Big muscle with a big gun. She glanced at the watchful Hatton. He wasn't wearing the helmet, but he was so football-player thick, she wondered if a blow to the head would even faze him.
* "Nani to ii mashi ta ka?" said Pride, looking from Andre to Michonne and back to Andre.
Frowning, Michonne wondered what Pride was saying about her now. The man was utterly crass and disrespectful. She didn't speak Japanese, and while Rick was in the country for almost two years, neither did he. Maybe Andre could translate the gist for them. Or maybe not. Andre was a sweet boy, but Pride's vulgarity had certainly left its mark on him.
* "Kanojo wa watashi no haha desu," Andre replied, sniffing. "English or Japanese, it's the same. She's my mother. She gave birth to me, but you raised me. How is that? What did you do to get me?"
"I would love the answer to that," said Michonne, ignoring the stone-faced Hatton and his pointing gun.
Pride turned angry eyes to Rick. "I was right when I walked in here. You disappoint me, Commander. You would use my son as a distraction to prevent what you know will happen."
"He's not your son," Rick tossed back. "He's Michonne's and mine." Rick tilted his head, glaring. "You stole him."
"Shut up!"
"Stop!" Andre stepped between the quarreling men and turned to the red-faced Pride. "Leave them alone and answer me. I deserve that."
Pride motioned for Hatton. Rick stepped back and clasped Michonne's hand as Hatton kept the gun on them, acting as an imposing buffer between them and Jacob. "Keep your eye on them."
"Will do, sir," Hatton answered.
"I don't know what this woman has told you, Danny," Pride said, returning the gun to his waistband and draping his arm around Andre's shoulders, "but you know who I am and that I love you."
"You loving me isn't the question. I didn't need to be told I was adopted, but I never imagined something horrifyingly cruel was the reason. What did you do?"
"I kept you safe. Created something good that I want to share with the world. I will never apologize for that. I would do anything for you." He kissed Andre's forehead. "To keep us safe, happy, and thriving."
"You killed a camp of scared people and stole my son!" Michonne thundered, Hatton's big gun and body stopping her charge at Pride. "That's what you did, and it only made you happy. That makes you a monster." Her gaze fell on the nonplussed Hatton. "And you, you're a big bully who makes me sick." Recalling Rick's whispered directives and seeing an opening, she reinforced her words with a forceful knee to Hatton's privates.
The large man and his gun fell to the floor. Michonne raced over and retrieved her sword, and Rick readily grabbed the rifle and pointed it at Pride while Hatton groaned loudly between swears, writhing in pain.
"Your reign of terror ends today, you twisted son of a bitch," Rick spat out in fiery contempt. "Put your hands up."
Hatton's loud groans, swearing, and body writhing in pain put a needed pause on any threat he presented.
With an amused smirk, Pride lifted his hands. "Well, played."
"You give my son and me the answers we need, and then you die," Michonne said, removing the blade from the scabbard. "Talk."
"Am I to believe you are going to slaughter me in front of my son? From our mutual friend Anne, I understand you and Rick have witnessed a similar horror, and while you're crafty, I think you're too kindhearted to do it to someone else. Even me."
"Wanna bet?" they replied in unison.
"The tables have turned," Rick said. "We love Andre and don't want to kill you in front of him, but whether or not it happens that way, well, that's on you."
"Ugh! I swear, I'm going crazy with all this," Andre grumbled. "Stop with the threats, and, Dad, just explain."
Pride eyed Michonne and Rick and then focused on Andre. "Results have happened, Danny. My research has brought miraculous findings," he disclosed.
"Your research?" Michonne broke out in incredulous, mocking laughter. "You experimented on people, used them as guinea pigs, and for what! You can't change what's happened. No matter how much you want to."
"You have no idea what I've done or can do."
"Oh, God!" Hatton cried out, his hands covering the front of his pants. "Aargh!"
Michonne rolled her eyes and scratched her fingers through her hair. "I know you have kept my son and my husband away from me for many years, and we'll forever end that today." She looked at Andre. "He's not going to tell you anything, baby, but I think I can sum it up. He knocked down the fences at the camp, probably with a tank or trucks, brought walkers in, and left them to do what they do. Somehow, in the fray, he found you and took you with him and named you Danny."
"I didn't name him Danny, that's what…"
"What?" Michonne barked.
"He told me Danny was his name."
"I did?" Andre said.
"It was all you would say."
"Was this before or after you unleashed the walkers? He was three. For him to say his name was something other than Andre meant he had to have been traumatized."
"I don't hurt children."
"My children would beg to differ."
"Can I lower my hands?"
"Hell no!" Rick and Michonne answered as Hatton continued to groan on the floor.
"I cannot do my work without people. Early on, my focus was keeping the dead from making new dead through the bites. That was before I knew the infection was in everyone. I used a mist of a formula that was created to slow down or prevent reanimation and sprayed it on the dead. I was going to do the same inside the camp to see how the living would respond after being bitten. Back then, I would be on site to gather data. There weren't many people at this camp, about thirty or so from my count, but I saw Danny. He was kneeling on the ground and scribbling or drawing with a stick. Perfectly happy, but alone. He was the only child I saw, and there was something about him. That day he became mine, and we left before the experiment was completed." Pride turned accusing eyes to Michonne. "Where were you? He was alone."
"He was with his father. A man who struggled with the abrupt change in the world and a casualty of your experiment. I left to go on a run. Something to keep us alive in a way that wouldn't kill others. You can't say the same." Michonne chuckled humorlessly. "Danny? Humph. He was saying "Daddy." He was getting over a cold, still sounded a bit stuffy, and you had taken him away from his father."
"Was he a tall man with short hair like mine?" Andre asked.
Michonne nodded. "Yes, that was Mike. Your father."
"I am his father!" Proud shouted. "I raised him, and I am not sorry for the years I have had and will have with him. He is mine."
Wordlessly, Michonne touched the tip of her sword to Pride's neck, nicking it as she applied growing pressure.
"No." Andre gasped in horror. "Stop!" He sighed. "Please."
"Michonne," Rick softly uttered. "Let me."
Releasing a breath, Michonne lowered her sword and moved back to Rick's side. She had taken out Jadis, and Rick had more than earned the right to kill this bastard. As much as Andre might hate it, not killing Pride wasn't an option.
"We can't keep him alive, Andre," Rick said without ceremony. "He's too dangerous. I've learned a lesson in keeping dangerous people alive, and I won't make that same mistake again. Not even for another son."
"You would've died without him, Rick." Andre offered. "I would have."
"We will all die if he doesn't."
Pride grunted.
"Is this world perfect? No," Rick said with a shake of his head. But it's better than it was when this new world happened, and in many ways so much better than the old one."
Rick's eyes held Michonne's for a brief but telling moment. Her heart swelled from the love she saw staring back at her. How it took the world falling apart to find her soulmate, lose him, and find him again, she would never understand. But finding Rick and all he had given her, their sons and Judith, made this crazy, with all its hardships and pains, worthwhile, because they got through it together – even when they were apart. That was the magic of their love. It truly sustained them.
"Good people will continue making it better, but only in Jacob Pride's warped mind has he done anything to make this world better. I know of what I speak, Andre." The blue in his Rick's eyes darkened with intensity as he glared at Pride. "You know every step I take and move I make. Yeah. I know how you did it. I found and removed the tracker you put in my neck. I placed it in a more preferable location."
"Tracker?" Andre said, blinking. "Dad, what is he talking about?"
Hands still raised, Jacob hunched his shoulders. "A tracker? Psht," he said, his attempt at bafflement insulting. "I don't know…"
"You don't know how deranged you are! This work he's done has led to the creation of faster, stronger, and more dangerous walkers than the ones we started with." Michonne could feel the storm of anger growing in Rick. "For eight years, I have been without my wife, my family, forced to do the most heinous of things to keep them safe. Now, Michonne is here, and we're taking our son and going home."
"She will never make it out of here alive," Pride warned.
"I think that's something you need to be concerned about," Michonne shot back.
"Armed guards outfitted in full body armor will be waiting for you the moment you step outside this building. You will be killed, and your husband will be left to remember the pain, and there will be pain, that he caused himself. Anne has been off the radar for a while, but presenting Rick naked and handcuffed to a bed would make quite the welcome back present for her. That's just for starters. I will subject him to so much emotional and physical pain, he will be wishing for a freeing death that will never come."
"Will you all stop this killing and death talk! All the threats. Just stop it!" Andre erupted, glaring at the adults surrounding him. "For years, I had dreams of a smiling pretty lady and I didn't know what they meant, but now I do, and I'm still confused. She's here. A woman I don't know what to call who happens to be my mother and she's married to a man who has been like another father to me." He turned to Pride. "And then my father, my dad, who's not, but is." He sighed, shaking his head. "I don't want anyone to die, and I don't know where I belong."
"You belong here," answered Pride. "I never want to hurt you, son, and I need you with me. If this woman means something to you, I will let her stay with Rick. In – in hindsight, it's actually for the best."
"Keep your hands up!" Michonne warned.
Pride thrusts his hands up higher. "Son, I'm determined to give you the world I can see so clearly, and we are so much closer than you know. So much closer. I'm not willing to let anything stop that."
Andre stepped closer to Pride. The troubling worry on his face softened with hope. "You're really willing to let her stay?"
"Yes, Danny. If that's what you want."
"His name is Andre," Michonne corrected, "and the only thing he wants is no bloodshed, but no one can give him that."
Andre whimpered. "Come on," he murmured.
"My way will give him that," Pride countered.
"You have no way!" Rick railed. "However close you are right now to this future you've been killing and planning for is as close as you'll be with Andre being a part of it. He is not staying, and we sure as hell aren't."
"You're sealing your love's fate, Rick."
"Maybe…" Andre started and stopped. "Dad, if you want what I want, you should let them leave. Rick never wanted to be here and she came to take him home. Let them go."
"Danny, son, I would do anything for you, and the work I'm doing is for you. Your future. That's why I need Rick with me."
"What?" Andre murmured in disbelief.
"He's a big part of the future I foresee. If she doesn't stay, she will die."
"Okay." Rick grunted. "Andre, 'this,'" Rick tilted his head and fixed his death stare on Jacob, "is over. You're about to pay for all the years I've lost with the people I love, for the blood on my hands from the things your threats to my family led me to do, and for all the other people whose lives you took or destroyed. As for Anne, that miserable bitch is dead."
"What?" Pride chirped.
"Yes," Michonne said, remembering the moment in question. "Her neck had an unfortunate encounter with the sharp end of my sword."
Rick nodded. "Uh-huh. Michonne took good care of her." He raised the rifle. "And, now, I'm gonna take really good care of you. Andre, you need to step out of the room."
Andre shook his head vehemently. "Rick, no." Tears flowed down his cheeks. "Please, don't do this."
Rick swallowed the knot forming in his throat. He took no pleasure in hurting Andre, but there was no way he could fulfill his request. He didn't believe there were any guards outside. The still incapacitated Hatton wasn't even in full gear, and the man was seldom without his helmet. Pride didn't forewarn people. He let chips fall where they may. Rick had to do the same and hoped that Andre would someday understand and forgive him. Pride was showing them no mercy, and Rick didn't have any to give.
The static of radios interrupted Andre's desperate, heartbreaking pleas. "Eagle One to Lion, Eagle One to Lion, flock is in formation. Do you copy?"
"What the hell," Rick muttered. Why was Pride being told all eighty helicopters were ready for immediate takeoff?
Pride took a step forward and then lurched at Andre, locking his arms around his neck and head in a chokehold, pulling him a few inches off the floor.
Rick and Michonne sprang forward. Weapons drawn for attack. "Let him go!" they demanded.
"Uh-uh, stay back!" Jacob warned. * "Osoreru koto wa arimasen," he whispered. "Karera ga watashi o kizutsukenai kagiri, watashi wa anata o kizutsukemasen."
Andre clawed at the forearm at his neck. His eyes wide with fear and confusion. "I don't understand, Dad," he rasped. "Why are you doing this?"
"Because I have to get out of here and I need you with me for so many reasons, Danny. You and Rick."
"You're hurting me."
"I'm sorry, but either they will kill me and take you away or just take you away, and neither of those options works for me." Pride nudged his head toward the floor. "Lower your weapons and walk out here with me, or I will snap his neck. I would hate it, I do love him, but I swear I will do it."
"You only love your damn self!" Michonne hissed "Let my son go!"
"No. He's mine. If I can't have him, no one can." Using Andre as a shield, Pride slinked over to Hatton, kicking the shoulder of the still agonized man. "Get up, Lieutenant. Radio Eagle One back and say we're on our way with an additional passenger. Move!"
Hatton relayed the message and managed to get on his feet, standing behind Pride.
"It's okay, peanut," Michonne assured Andre, her teary eyes fixed on her frightened son. "You're going to be fine, baby. I promise."
"That's right," Rick said, easing toward Andre and Pride, "that's right." He'd tried but couldn't get a shot that wouldn't endanger Andre. He had to find another way. Rick swore under his breath, his heart ached for Andre. He and Michonne tried to tell him that Pride was a cruel, heartless bastard, but Andre had such faith, and now it was gone. Replaced with a mountain of sadness and bitter disappointment. "You're not going to hurt him, Pride."
"That depends on you, Commander. Without my son, none of this would mean anything. I told you I was close, and that call means I am at the cusp of a major breakthrough. You will not stop me from leaving with Danny, and you and your wife will be joining me as it seems she has gained some extraordinary usefulness to me in the last few minutes."
"Usefulness? What are you talking about? And why did your pilot ready all the helicopters on base?"
"You'll find out when we get to where we're going. If you make the right choice." Andre grunted and grimaced as Jacob tightened his grip. "My arms are covering every point that can kill him with the slightest hint of additional pressure. Don't make me do this. We all need to go. Lower your weapons in the next five seconds, or I will be forced to take the breath from my son's body as you two hopelessly stand by and watch."
Rick and Michonne exchanged glances. The risk was too great to chance. Just as they prepared to drop their weapons, Pride dropped to the floor, bleeding from his head. Very dead.
"Dad? Dad?" A horrified and sobbing Andre crumbled to the floor, burying his face in Pride's shoulder, a hand pounding his chest. "You have to wake up. You need to tell me why. I love you. Why did you do this? Dad! I need to know why."
Michonne scurried over to her crushed son. "I'm here for you, sweetie," she said, softly stroking his head. "I'm here."
Max Hatton held a dripping bloody knife with remnants of Jacob's brain matter on the seven-inch blade. "You can put down the gun, Grimes," he said, his face scrunched in obvious discomfort. "You're not gonna shoot me."
"Think again," Rick replied, eyeballing the man, trying to understand what the hell he had just witnessed.
"What I mean is the gun is jammed. The second one Pride pulled out is, too. Did it myself." Hatton dropped the knife and kicked it ever so gently to the side. "I apologize for my aggressive behavior, but I had to be sure of some things, collect myself as best I could, and then wait for the right moment to make a move. That was it," he said, stepping around Pride's motionless body, Andre, the expanding pool of blood with a sharp grimace. "Ma'am?" He cleared his throat, getting Michonne's attention, and then took a tentative step back.
Keeping a hand on Andre's back, Michonne tore her eyes from her son and fixed Hatton with a perplexed glare. "Considering the complexities of the current situation, I don't know what you have to say that you could possibly think I need to hear right now."
"How about I'm Riley's connection"
"What!" Rick and Michonne exclaimed.
"Yes." He nodded. " Mrs. Grimes, I'm going to get you all home."
Translation of Japanese phrases.
1. "What did you say?"
2. "She is my mother."
3. "Don't be afraid. I won't hurt you unless they make me."
AN: For those who are stunned by the little reveal at the end, I did try to drop some hints. Hatton is not tricking them, he is the connect. As for Andre, that poor guy is going to have a hard time with the new changes in his life.
~Thanks for reading!~
More to come!