Red River Blue

Chapter 43

Rick lowered his sunglasses when he heard Judith scream. He glanced around quickly for any signs of danger, shaking his head when he saw that the kids were just dumping and splashing water on each other. Since they were not only watching all the kids, but Negan as well, Rick did not think coming down to the lake to swim was the best idea. The area was busy and bordering on crowded. But now that they were here, he found he was enjoying himself. It was a beautiful day. The sun was reflecting off the surface of the water. Unfortunately, Negan was with them. At least leering at all the women in their bathing suits was keeping him mostly quiet. For now.

"Dad!," Judith whined, pointing back towards the area where she was just digging and playing in the sand. "We're tryin' to build a sandcastle and Axel won't stop throwing water on us!"

"Whoop his ass," Harley grumbed from where she lay face down on her lounge chair. "It's the only way he's gonna learn."

Rick laughed before he could stop himself. Harley was reading a paperback book when they arrived. But some time ago she'd tossed it aside and rested her head on her forearm. Rick assumed she'd dozed off. But clearly she was just still keeping one ear out for trouble.

"Ask him to stop," Rick suggested. "...if he can't play nice then he'll have to come sit with me."

Judith glanced back and forth between the two adults for a moment before she turned on her heel and marched herself back down to the water's edge. Rick's eyes widened as he watched the girl pick up a long handled plastic play shovel. She gripped it like a baseball bat as she approached her tormentor, bringing it down over Axel's head. The plastic cracked. Axel dropped to his knees and started screaming like it was the end of his life. And Negan exploded in laughter so loud that several people turned their heads towards the sound.

Rick began to rise from his lounger chair. But Harley was already on her feet, signaling him to stay put.

"It's my fault," she admitted, though her tone indicated she found the situation as funny as Negan did. She was just trying not to laugh because she knew Rick was irritated with her. "I need to cool off anyway. I'll deal with it."

Harley flipped her sunglasses down off her head. Then she unbuttoned the cutoff denim shorts she was wearing over her bikini and pushed them down over her hips. Her suit was black, the kind that tied on with little strings. Rick already noticed that her top didn't leave much to the imagination. But he still wasn't expecting what he saw when Harley shucked her shorts and tossed them on her towel. He wasn't even sure what the purpose of wearing the little bikini bottom was when pretty much her entire ass was exposed. Rick snapped his mouth shut, fighting the urge to adjust his shorts as he watched her walk across the beach. And he was certain he wasn't the only one. Everyone there was getting an eyeful. Including Negan. And as usual, Harley was completely oblivious to her effect on people. He knew she forgot her suit and borrowed the one she was wearing from her mother. Rick guessed that she yanked it on without even bothering to check her reflection.

"Oh Rick!," Negan exclaimed with an unnecessary amount of enthusiasm. "You do NOT deserve that!" He sucked in a hard breath of air through his teeth. "Those cheeks are just begging to be clapped."

Rick turned, fixing his angry gaze on the man to his right. He was willing to put up with some amount of bullshit. But sexual comments about the woman he considered his were pretty fucking far past the line of acceptable. Negan put his hands up like he was surrendering. But he still had a smirk on his face.

With the hope that Negan's running commentary had momentarily ceased, Rick turned his attention back to the situation with Harley's brother. She'd hauled the boy back onto his feet and was giving him her standard lecture. Quit cryin', yer not even bleedin'. Axel blubbered on for another minute about the atrocity that had just been committed against him. But Harley was having none of it. Learn ta leave people alone and that won't happen. At least she called Judith over and made them both apologize to each other. Rick appreciated that. He liked having Harley around more. And so did Judith. But parenting their children as a team was going to take a little adjustment on both their parts. And since she was barely willing to agree to be his girlfriend, he knew that conversation was going to have to wait a while.

"Could you do me a favor?"

Rick shaded his eyes, looking up to see who was asking him for something this time. He smiled and nodded when he saw it was Rosita with one baby balanced on each hip. Eugene was hovering around behind her, like he was nervous about what was happening.

"Could you help Eugene watch the babies for a minute? I just want to take a quick swim."

Rick held his arms open, letting Rosita set the larger of the two babies into his lap. With Aiden gone to Hilltop, Rick was sure she wasn't getting much of a break. Especially since she suddenly had two babies to care for instead of one. Rick would be happy to help her out however she needed. Eugene surged forward, snapping up the other baby before Rosita could hand her son off to anyone else. While she headed down towards the water, Eugene drug a large umbrella over and positioned it so that the baby wasn't getting too much sun. After some more nervous fumbling, he finally settled down on the lounger chair that Harley vacated a few moments before.

"Will you play frisbee with me?," Axel asked, kicking sand onto Rick's legs as he skidded to a stop in front of his chair. Rick shook his head.

"Sorry bud, I'm babysittin' right now." Axel pushed forward, rubbing his sandy hands over the baby's hair before he started trying to tickle her.

"Can I take this baby swimming?," Axel asked, reaching for her. Rick pulled the baby back and away from the young boy's grabby sandy hands.

"Absolutely not!," Eugene huffed. "That is an activity that could result in possible injury or even drowning."

"But I don't have anything to do!," Axel whined. Rick tried not to laugh. He could be playing with the other kids right now if he wasn't acting like such a little jerk.

"I'll play frisbee," Negan offered, pushing himself out of his chair. Rick glanced at the man with some concern as Axel eagerly grabbed Negan by the hand and started dragging him down towards a more open section of the beach. Rick was technically responsible for the boy at the moment. And he wasn't sure if Merle and River would appreciate their son playing catch with Negan. Rick thought about it another minute before he finally shrugged it off. It wasn't like he was leaving the boy alone with Negan. Rick could see them. And he didn't think Axel was in any danger. They were just tossing a plastic frisbee back and forth. If Merle was that worried about it, he could come get the little hooligan and watch his son himself. Still, Rick made sure to keep a much closer eye on the situation than he would have if Beth or Tyreese were playing with the boy.

Negan and Axel tossed the frisbee back and forth a few times before the man gestured for Axel to approach him. Rick watched as Negan leaned down and spoke quietly to the boy, gesturing towards a group of women that were sunbathing with the backs of their suits untied to avoid tan lines. Negan handed the boy the frisbee and began backing across the warm sand, moving closer to the girls he just pointed at. Axel waited until the man signaled. Then the boy gave the frisbee a hard toss, aiming intentionally for the women that were lying facedown on their towels. Negan darted to the side, pretending he was grabbing for the frisbee. But it was obvious what he was really doing. Especially when he pretended to trip and sent himself flopping down on top of the woman closest to him.

As expected, the woman squealed and rolled over, exposing her breasts. Rick was certain that Negan groped the woman too, when he purposely fell on top of her. Her name wasn't coming to mind, but Rick recognized her as the woman that came to town to sell the litter of puppies that her dogs whelped. She had an ex military look. And she certainly wasn't the type of woman Rick would have picked if he wanted to start trouble with someone. Not that he would ever behave that way to begin with. But Negan always had more balls than brains.

At first, it seemed like the woman was buying that Negan fell on her accidentally. It wasn't until he started to get up, then fake fell on top of her again that she started getting really pissed off. The woman kicked Negan off and stood up, quickly fastening her bathing suit top back in place. Then she snapped her fingers, calling a large german shepherd looking dog to her side. By this time, Negan had the sense to back off. Scrambling to his feet, he offered the woman a very insincere apology.

"Nice puppy," he said, slowly backing away from the large growling animal. Rick saw the woman point at Negan. And then she issued her dog a command in another language. It sounded to Rick like it might be German. But it didn't need to be in English for it to be obvious that she was sicking her dog on the man that just groped her. Negan turned and took off, screaming as the dog nipped and snapped at his heels. Once she was sure he got the point, the woman whistled her dog back. Then she flipped her middle finger at Negan.

"Come near me again and you'll get worse," she threatened.

Negan glanced back as he considered going another round with her. But one more look at the woman's dog kept him moving right along back to his seat. He plopped down, lifting his legs and examining his ankles to see how much damage the woman's dog did to him. Because he was focused on the bloody bite marks, he didn't see Harley stomping back up from the water until she was leaning over him with her finger pointed in his face. Water was dripping from her hair onto his lap.

"What the fuck was that?," she cursed.

"Hey!," Negan squawked. "...that was an accident!"

"Bullshit!," she countered.

Harley straightened up, wiping the water that was dripping down her face. Negan just spent his night in a jail cell. Then his morning on trial for rape. One would think he would have the fucking sense to lay low for at least the rest of the day. Instead he had to go and make a ridiculous scene in front of everyone. And he involved her brother in his antics. Did he not realize that Carol already wanted to take him back to Hilltop because of what happened the night before? And that wasn't even his fault. This was.

"Ya better sit yer ass right here in this chair," Harley warned. "If ya get up again I swear I'm gonna shoot ya right in the fuckin' face."

Negan nodded, managing to hold his laughter in until Harley had stomped her way back down to the water.

"Damn, she's fuckin' scary when she's angry," he observed with another laugh. Negan turned towards Rick, interested to see what his reaction to Harley's temper was. Rick watched the woman until she disappeared back into the water. Then he offered up his opinion on his girlfriend's hellcat temper.

"You ain't seen nothin' yet."