Rick stumbled as he ran, heart pounding and stomach dropping as he navigated the back streets. His mouth fell open as air became harder to suck in and the ache in his legs was an indication of his desperation. He grimaced as thunderous pain coursed through him and pressed harder to his side, feeling the telltale wetness seep between his fingers.

"Shit" he grumbled.

"Where the fuck did he go!?" He heard multiple footsteps gaining up behind him and Rick's panic intensified but running was becoming laborious and his breathing was starting to stutter.

"I shot him, he's probably bleeding out somewhere here" he heard another voice.

His head dropped and his hair fell into his eyes but his feet kept pushing against the pavement. He couldn't collapse here, he'd be caught and then it really would be over. Coming up along the back row of some houses and buildings he saw a dark space between two of them and figuring he had enough headway on the people gunning for his demise, Rick slipped into the dark space and stumbled further until he knocked up against something solid. He groaned and slipped to the ground, hand slipping slightly from his side that was still wet with blood.

"Fuck! Where is he!?" He heard the men and their loud footfalls.

"The fucker is strong I'll give him that, he's probably held up somewhere. I got him good ain't no way he ain't keeling over" the voices passed by his little hideaway in a rush and Rick let relief fill him before pain was invading all his senses.

His breathing turned shallow and heavy. He needed to get help or there would be no point in his escape. His hand pushed against the hard object and he struggled to his feet. He raised his head, sweat falling into his eyes that he had to blink away. It seemed to be a fence, it was high but not too high that he couldn't pull himself over if he tried and so with the last remaining strength he could muster, Rick jumped with a gasp and gripped onto the top of the panels.

"Argh!" He growled as he removed his hand from his wound and clung on with it, pulling himself up.

His head spun from the pain but he was determined, a trait that's got him into more trouble than it was worth but one that has also kept him alive numerous times. He breached the top but his shaky arms gave out at the last minute and he fell against the fence and found himself tumbling over. He flailed. His back hit something plush and then hard, it dug into his back and his hand flew to his side as a wrangled yelp escaped.

He was exhausted and badly wounded, he couldn't move any more. His vision was hazy and heat pricked uncomfortably like fire beneath his skin. Rick knew; he was dying, finally, regrettably, bitterly. He felt a lot of things now that it's come to this but he also knew it was inevitable, the choices he'd made the life he'd lived didn't warrant him a happy ending and he'd long come to terms with that.

"Fuck you Shane" he murmured.

"Fuck you Lori" he tried to say above a whisper.

"I'm sorry…Carl" he saw his son behind his closed eyes as he walked away from that godforsaken place, his shouts for him as his anger propelled him forward, the betrayal coursing through him.

He was a man with nothing to give but himself and yet it hadn't been enough. He would've done anything for them, had done anything for them that's why he was here dying miserably, alone. All because he couldn't truly keep away, couldn't let his pride fall and his disastardly need to prove himself be. He needed a new start; he just chose the wrong way and for the wrong man.

Rick coughed and tried to roll onto his side but gave up quickly when the pain was too much.

"Is someone there?" A voice floated through his dizzy haze but he dismissed it, he was hallucinating.

"Hello?" Came the voice again and Rick could only keep his eyes trained to the sky where the moon mocked him with its bright glow.

Rick didn't know why but he opened his mouth, maybe it was that underlying need to live or the opposing thought of dying like this without seeing his son's face at least one more time. A strained noise escaped him.

His vision was darkening at the edge and his breathing was getting harder and harder. He closed his eyes and when he opened them up again the moon was gone and its place was the most beautiful pair of eyes he's ever seen. They were big, warm and brown and portrayed such concern for a stranger like him that the corner of his mouth quivered upward just a bit.

"Oh my god, you're bleeding!" Her eyes widened and he vaguely felt gentle and hesitant hands touch him. Her voice was soft, low and musical. Rick wouldn't fashion himself a poet by any means but he could write a page or two about how magnificent brown was under the moonlight. It glistened like gems and something more exquisite. Twinkled like the stars out of reach above and pulled him in like a lifeline.

He took a shaky breath and coughed. A calm hand came to rest on his hacking chest and the beautiful pair of eyes came more into view and met his half lidded ones and he was hooked. Even more so he was gifted with a sight of delicate features accompanying them.

"You can't be here!" she seemed to whisper urgently and her eyes left him to look elsewhere and Rick felt a bit saddened at that, he wanted those eyes only for him to look into and get lost in. But he was feeling himself drift and those eyes were falling out of focus and Rick let himself settle and the thought of such a beauty hovering over him like an angel was enough to soothe him. If he was going to die, at least he wasn't alone.

"Please wait, I'll help you" was the last thing he heard from those plush lips.

-()-

The hit was hard and disappointing but his body didn't feel the least bit surprised, like it was par for course. He looked up into a face that was blank of any features yet his ears rang with words being spat at him with ire.

"You good for nothing!"

"Your mother's a disappointment but you? No child of mine should be this dimwitted!"

The image of the man swirled and faded and soon he was standing in darkness. It swayed and lifted as if a haze was clearing and soon all he saw was red. It was everywhere and his chest felt heavy and his heart hammered mercilessly. He looked down and saw more red and in his hands was a weighted knife that he dropped and watched clatter to the door with an echo. He lifted his eyes and felt a scream cake at his throat as a faceless man and woman lay motionless at his feet, surrounded by that sickening red.

Rick jolted awake with a gasp. A dull ache shot along his side and he pressed his hand to it feeling the smooth and soft fabric of a bandage wrap. He looked down and saw that his wound was dressed and that he was shirtless laying on top of sheets he knew weren't his. His memories from last night were hazy but he remembered running, hiding and being shot. As Rick concentrated he remembered someone being there and beautiful brown eyes and a soft voice.

He took in his surroundings, sitting up gingerly. He was in a comfortable four poster bed complete with a silk canopy tied to the side and letting the view of the room be on display. It was modest and clean, the bed seemed the most personable with its mass of pillows and slippery, red sheets that matched the canopy. The scent that wafted up from his movement as he slowly swung his feet over the edge, was something sweet and refreshing.

He was wobbly on his feet but he needed to move. He wasn't sure where he was and he gave hefty thanks to whoever saved him from a miserable end but he couldn't stay. The room was spacious, there was a sitting area with a nice looking pair of couches around a glass coffee table and a quality carpet beneath that took up a generous circumference. On the far opposite wall were double doors that were probably the closet.

Rick slinked towards the door. His hand had closed around the knob when it began to turn on its own and panic settled in Rick. He shuffled to the corner as the door slid open and hid him behind it in shadow and he watched as first a small girl walked into view with a tray. It held a bowl of water and some bandages as well as a bowl of something steaming. She gasped.

"What is it, Judith?" Another person came into view, closing the door softly behind them, exposing Rick if they would face his way.

"He's gone!" Said the young girl.

"What do you mean gone!?" The other, she was many heads taller; older, and Rick stared at the slender frame of her shoulders and down her curvy form that was covered and a robe-like dress that brushed the floor and was yellow with white flowers. It contrasted the deep tone of her skin magnificently. Rick swallowed and stayed put, inching closer towards the door but as his luck would have it just as his hand closed around the knob, turning it slowly, his bare feet pressed on a part of the floor that wheezed under his weight and immediately two pairs of eyes spun on him.

His breath caught as familiar eyes settled on him in alarm and then recognition and then worry. "What are you doing?" She whispered hastily and then came over where Rick felt stuck in place. She looked up at him, head stomping near his chin and once again he felt disoriented and it was probably because of the instant ache that was still crawling up his side.

She reached out and took his hand and dragged him from the door and he didn't make a move to protest, still honed in on those pretty, twinkling irises. The woman maneuvered him to sit at the edge of the bed and now Rick was looking up at her who turned to the young girl.

"Ms. Michonne…." Her small voice drew his attention and Rick was taken aback by how young she actually was, she was just like how Carl was at six. She reached just near the top of the woman's thigh and her brunette hair was braided back from her forehead in two thick plaits. Her face was a wash of worry and she looked up at the woman. "Madam Gertie isn't going to like this" she said softly. Her eyes met Rick's but looked away and back at the woman called Michonne.

"What she doesn't know won't hurt" Michonne reached for the cloth hanging over the side of the bowl with water and turned to him who was having a hard time understanding everything.

"But what if.." the young girl started and gripped the tray tighter. "You…she.."

"Judith" the woman turned to the girl and reached out to caress her cheek softly and then ran a hand over her hair with a reassuring smile that even calmed Rick a tad as he noticed it.

"Nothing will happen, this will be our little secret" she held up a finger to her lips and Rick watched intently as the digit cushioned snuggly against them. Michonne's eyes slid to his and she winked. Heat permeated up his neck and cheeks as Judith nodded in solidarity.

"Who are you?" Rick found his voice, unable to keep in everything that was bouncing about in his mind. His deep country drawl came floating out.

Michonne seemed taken aback before she tilted her head and a small smile played at those distracting lips that seemed glossed to the heavens and drew Rick's attention every few blinks.

"Michonne." She said, "Alexandria's highest coveted flower"

No Beta, we die like kings over here. These two, they are something else.