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The World We Live In

The Man I Knew

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Here it is! Chapter 24, and the return of this story! This chapter and the next will both take place during the events of "First Time Again." Also, you've been warned that there is some serious mature content involved. I figured, since it's been so long since the last update (since May, or something), that you all deserved a little something-something. PLEASE READ & REVIEW! xoxo - Holly

"I never thought that you and I would ever meet again
I mourn the loss of you sometimes and pray for peace within
The word "distraught" cannot describe how my heart has been
But where do we begin now that you're back from the dead?
Where do we begin now that you're back from the dead?
Where do we begin now that you're back from the dead?"
— Skylar Grey



The only light on in the house at the moment came from the chandelier over the dining room table and the similar light hanging over the kitchen island. The latter is where Daryl sat, shoving spoonfuls of oatmeal into his mouth from the side nearest the stove. The clink of the silver-plated metal utensil clinked around the porcelain bowl, offering the only sounds at the moment, until footsteps began to echo off the back hall, coming down the stairs. Moments later, Georgie emerged out into the kitchen with her arms folded across her chest and looked to her left; casting looks first at Daryl and then at the man named Morgan who sat across the island from the archer, nursing his own bowl of oatmeal.

Morgan flashed a small smile at her that was a mix of mere acknowledgement, kindness and respect; although, if she wasn’t mistaken, Georgie was certain he was sizing her up a bit as well. However, she supposed it was no different than she had been doing to him ever since they’d left the Monroe’s courtyard and returned to the main house.

Turning his attention away, Morgan set his own spoon down and looked over toward the dining room where Rick was standing, touching his bloodied fingers down upon and picking up a map. It wasn’t just any map either. It was a map their group had all but forgotten about when they’d left it behind at Gabriel’s church back in Georgia well over a month before. It was the map Abraham had given Rick with an apology for being an asshole and to come to DC because the world needed Rick Grimes.

Morgan shifted around on his stool. “You were right,” he spoke. “It wasn’t over.”

Georgie had no idea what conversation must’ve passed between the two men in the past, but it had to have been a significant one by the way she watched how Rick turned and looked back at Morgan. She knew the name of Morgan, but only in passing. Rick had mentioned a man named Morgan to her only once, and that he had been there in the beginning to explain to him what had happened to the world. It was unlikely that this Morgan was a different Morgan.

Briefly, Rick cast his eyes upon Georgie and then back down at the map, folding it over and setting it back down on the dining table. “We should talk more tomorrow.” Chewing on the inside of his bottom lip for half a moment, he turned and walked more into the kitchen. “Listen, I don’t take chances anymore.”

Georgie’s eyes flitted back and forth between both men, and Daryl seemed immobile as he kept an eye on both men’s body language.

Morgan nodded. “And you shouldn’t,” he agreed.

Rick stared back for a moment, considering the next course of action. He had a lot of things to think about now and there were going to be a lot of changes taking place within Alexandria now and, at the moment, he wasn’t one hundred percent sure about Morgan. It had been many months since he’d seen him, almost a year, and a person can change drastically in that time. Rick knew that better than anyone. He just didn’t know what kind of changes Morgan had gone through and how he came to leave Georgia and find Daryl and Aaron. He’d gotten the cliff notes version from the archer, but Rick’s nerves were already a bit shot and not ready to accept his old friend with open arms.
“Where do you want me to stay for the night?” Morgan inquired. “Is there a place you’d think would be best?”

“So, you understand I can’t have you under the same roof as my children right now?” It was posed as a question, but it was more of statement.

“I do.” Morgan nodded again. “You gotta keep them safe and think of them first. I understand. I’d do the same. Hell, I did do the same. I tied you to a bed if my memory serves correct.”

Rick smirked, although only slightly, before he glanced at Daryl, and then back at Morgan. “There’s an apartment in the sublevel of one of the townhouses where we can put you up for now. There isn’t much. There’s a mattress on the floor and it’s comfortable enough. There’s a bathroom and running water if you want to clean up.”

“I don’t require much. I’ve made it this far with nothing but the clothes on my back and my wits.”

Daryl snorted out of amusement. “And that ninja stick of yours.”

“That helped, yes,” Morgan agreed, casting a small smile over his shoulder at the man who seemed incapable of keeping his hair out of his eyes.

“I’ll take you there once you’ve finished eating,” Rick continued.

“I can do it,” Daryl offered.

Rick glanced at him, but shook his head. “Nah, that’s okay.” He attempted a smirk at his best friend. “You should stay here and take a hot shower. You’ve been gone a few days, and you smell like the dead.”

“You been talking to Carol, haven’t you?” Daryl quipped, standing up and setting his bowl in the sink before licking his fingers clean.

“They’ve been talking about things, alright,” Georgie finally spoke up. “Not necessarily about your hygiene.”

Daryl narrowed his eyes at her and shrugged it off. “Alriight, fine. I’ll get my ass in the shower if it makes y’all happy.”

“It would make our nostrils happy,” Georgie teased.

“So, then you probably would hate it if I hugged you and wiped my stink all over you,” he said, advancing on her.

“Please don’t,” she replied, throwing her hands up in mock defeat.

“Too fucking late.” Daryl walked up to her and wrapped his arms around her. Placing his cheek against hers he squeeze her tight as she wiggled around, pretending to be nauseated. He then turned his face and pressed his lips to her cheek, giving her a kiss before whispering, “I’m glad you’re okay.”

When he pulled back, Georgie looked the archer in the eye and could tell his own joking mood had vanished to give way to authentic concern. The injuries she’d received from her now-deceased ex-husband Jake were still as prominent as ever; the bruising and minor cuts would take at least a week to fade away. She knew Rick must’ve given him a brief rundown of what had happened in the last few days while she was upstairs putting Judith and the boys to bed.

She had told her son that his father had hurt Mr. Monroe and now they had both died. She refused to beat around the bush with him. Even though he was only just nine years old, he had seen enough since the outbreak began, and knew was aware of the man his father had become. There was no point in sugar coating any of it. From there on out, though, she would strive to give him back the childhood he deserved. Georgie was just thankful her son seemed adjusted enough to accept the news of his father’s demise. If she wasn’t mistaken, she would’ve assumed he looked relieved. It also helped that Tristan had Carl to share a bedroom with for now until the living arrangements got settled. Tristan would have someone there with him throughout the night he felt comfortable with if he got scared, and she sensed that Carl enjoyed having the company, after being used to sleeping in close proximity to so many people for so long.

Placing her hands on Daryl’s shoulders, Georgie merely nodded back at him and smiled appreciatively at his concern for her well-being and returned the favor by leaning forward, pulling his head down and placing a kiss to his forehead. “I’m glad you’re okay, too, Pigpen.”

“Alright, alright,” he remarked, throwing his hands up in mock defeat. “I’m going.”

Rick had watched the interaction between his friend and his lover, smiling slightly. When his blue eyes returned to Morgan, the other man nodded and stood up. Rick watched Morgan take his bowl to the sink and set it inside next to Daryl’s bowl while Daryl gave a nod of goodnight to them all and then ascended the stairs.

“You can put your things back in your bag,” Rick advised, gesturing to the belongings he had removed from Morgan’s satchel, to inspect them in case Morgan did pose an immediate threat. He sure as hell hadn’t expected to find that map among the items. “Sorry about having to go through your stuff.”

Morgan approached him and nodded. “It’s okay. I understand,” he spoked, stepping past Rick and over to the table. As he picked up the map in his own hands, thumbing it for half a second, he looked back up at Rick, as well as Georgie. “You don’t take chances anymore.”



No more than thirty minutes later, Georgie was standing at the kitchen sink, towel drying Morgan and Daryl’s bowls that she had just finished washing when the front door clicked open and Rick walked inside. She turned and looked over her right shoulder, watching as he shrugged off his jacket and then drape it over his arm before closing the door behind him and making his way over to her.

“You took him to that empty apartment you were taken to, didn’t you?”

Rick nodded. “We passed Michonne on the way there. She gave me the keys.” Tilting his head slightly, he tried reading Georgie’s face as she moved to put the bowls away in their proper cupboard. “Do you think I made the right decision locking him up there for the night?”

Georgie turned around, placing her lower back up against the edge of the countertop as she then gripped the edge with her hands. After a moment, she nodded. “I do,” she assured. “We don’t know where he’s been or the kind of person he is now. All you know of him is what you used to know. He could be as harmless as a Tibetan monk or he could be dangerous. We’re in no position to be taking those risks right now. Things need to settle down here. The people here—the Alexandrians, if you will—have just been put through the ringer. We already agreed that they’re not ready for the world out there and tonight was their wake-up call, but we can’t force any more down their throats just yet. Given ‘em a day or two to come to terms and then ease into it. We gotta do this the right way.”

Rick narrowed his gaze, but there was lightness to his eyes as he nodded his head in agreement. She’d more or less taken the words out of his mouth and he enjoyed the fact that they were of like minds.

Stepping closer to her, Rick reached out and wrapped his fingers around her wrist, where he noticed some slight bruising from when Jake had gotten rough with her. His touch, however, was nothing but gentle. “How are you doing?” His jaw clenched slightly; his mind reeling back to his fight with Jake and the rage he felt over what her ex had done to her, mixed with the anger over what Jake had done to a good man like Reg; whether or not it had been an accident. Everything else Jake had done before then hadn’t been an accident. “You doing okay?”

Georgie looked down at her wrist and his hand and nodded. “Are you?”

When their eyes met, Rick sighed. “I didn’t lose any more people I cared about tonight and I might’ve made some headway with the people here, so I’d say I’m doing just fine.”

“Are you really?”

Rick removed his hand from her wrist and flexed his fingers, staring down at the blood and overall grime plastered on his skin. His right hand, in particular, he had shoved up into the underside of a walker’s head before blowing its brains out. He felt a little bad even touching her in such a state, hating to get her dirty.

“To be honest, I’m feeling a bit anxious,” he admitted. “The gate being left open like it was. It’s not just that walkers got in so easily because of it, but how easily anyone could get in. When I saw the gate open and the signs that something got in, I went running around this place. There was more than just the one I brought to the meeting. I got scared. And with everything else that’s happened, I guess I’m just a little on edge.”

Georgie looked away from his face and back to his hands, which she noticed were shaking slightly. Reaching out, she took his hands in hers and held them tight; not minding the dried blood and dirt sticking to his skin. Rick’s own gaze fell upon their linked hands, and then traveled the length of her arms, and up to her face.

It felt like his heartbeat had been racing all night, but now, with her touch, calmness washed over him.

Closing his eyes for a moment, Rick released a small breath. “I should take a shower, too.”

Georgie smiled. “Yeah, you’re pretty disgusting,” she teased. “I can’t believe I’m saying it, but I think you smell worse than Daryl.”

Rick opened his eyes back up and snickered. “I feel dirtier, too.”

Slipping her hands away from his, she lifted her arms up and placed her hands on either side of Rick’s face instead. “Go wash up,” she advised. “I’m gonna straighten up down here for a bit; wait for Michonne to get back from walking the fence, and then I’ll lock up for the night.”

Rick nodded. “Don’t wait up too long,” he suggested, walking slowly off toward the back hall. “We both had a long day.”

“Don’t I know it,” she quipped at his retreating form.



Another thirty minutes later, Rick stood in front of the sink in the master bathroom. He was freshly cleaned again; all the blood, guts and grimes washed away down the drain even though his anxiety remained. Wiping the steam from the mirror, he stared at his reflection long enough to frown at himself and look away. On the floor beside the shower stall were his soiled clothes which he was tempted to build a fire for and burn, but he couldn’t help but figure Carol had some magic up her sleeve and knew how to wash those clothes and make them look virtually knew again. She sure as hell had plenty up her sleeve when it came to fooling the Alexandrians and making them think she was just an average, everyday post-apocalyptic Martha Stewart.

Grabbing a towel off the rack, he wrapped it firmly around his waist before running the fingers of his right hand through his hair to slick it back off his face. He turned away from the sink and grabbed his clothes off the floor, grimacing at the smell coming off them and tossing them straight into the hamper. He’d worry about their cleanliness tomorrow.

When Rick opened the door connecting the bathroom to the bedroom, he wasn’t too surprised to find Georgie sitting on the bed, brushing through her thick, ginger locks and wearing only an over-sized T-shirt which hid the fact that she was wearing underwear underneath.

“Feel human again?” she asked, smiling up at him.

“I do,” he replied, walking over to the dresser and opening the top drawer; pulling out a pair of boxer shorts and a T-shirt for himself to wear.

The fact that he had clean things to readily where now still felt quite odd. It was nice not having to wear the same things for days or weeks on end. Getting used to smelling like fragrant soap instead of decay and other body odors was a literal breath of fresh air.

“Don’t bother putting any of that on just yet,” Georgie remarked, standing up to her feet. Walking over to the bedroom door, she set it on lock and then turned and threw him a look over her shoulder, noticing his confusion right away. She smiled at the look on his face. “Sit down on the bed for me, will ya?”

Curious, Rick obliged her and stalked over toward the bed. He held onto the towel around his waist with one hand as he sat down; very un-gentlemanlike, the way his legs seemed incapable to being kept closed. Watching as an impish grin began to form upon her lips, Rick raised an eyebrow at her.

“I just shot Jake dead no more than two hours ago,” he muttered. “How are you so calm right now?”

Georgie shrugged. “The Jake I knew died a long time ago,” she answered. “The man you killed was just another monster who got what he deserved. I have shed all the tears I will ever shed for him and my love for him belongs to the days before the outbreak. He holds no claim on the person I am now or on my future.” Slinking up to him with slow, calculating steps, Georgie tossed set her brush down on the bedside table and then placed her hands on his shoulders and she stood between his legs; looking down at him as he looked up. “You get the person I am now and you get to be my future.”

A content smiled spread to Rick’s lips and his gaze softened, feeling a little less anxious already because of her. “You’re like a glass of lemonade on a hot day, you know that?”

“Yeah?” she smirked as she slowly began to kneel down in front of him.

His senses were immediately alerted to the change in the air between them, causing a certain part of his anatomy to twitch awake. The beating of his heart began to quicken once more, but for an entirely different reason.

“Yeah,” he confirmed, his gaze darkening while his eyes began to dilate. “And you taste just as sweet.”

Biting her bottom lip, Georgie nodded back at him in a way that made it seem like she wasn’t actually listening to him because she was distracted, and he wouldn’t be entirely wrong in assuming that about her at the moment. She was dragging her eyes down from his face and focusing on the towel around his waist, and her hands has moved from his shoulders; her fingers grazing his bare chest as they worked their way down to the soft, terrycloth material.

Subconsciously, Rick’s hands reached out for her arms as he watched the way she began to undo the towel from his waist with delicate fingers; taking her time as if she knew the anticipation was killing him and she thrived off the new form of anxiousness she was creating in him.

When the towel was pried open and draped down upon the bed on either side of his narrow hips, Georgie glanced up through her eyebrows and he sucked his bottom lip inward with anticipation. All he could do was sit there, stock still, as he watched he leaned closer and wrap her hand around his stiffening manhood.

“Still feeling on edge?” she asked, stroking his length with her hand.

“Not exactly,” he replied with a low, shaky chuckle.

“What can I do to calm you down, then?”

“Oh, I think you have a pretty good idea already.”

Smirking, Georgie licked her lips and then lowered her head down and circling her tongue around his tip. The first initial touch sent a small shiver up his spine and, instinctively, he moved his hands to her head, snaking his fingers through those fiery tresses of hers. While he began to massage her scalp with his own anticipation, she took him into her mouth, sucking hard as she worked her way down his length. Tipping his head back a bit, Rick closed his eyes. Sliding her mouth back up his cock, she made a wet popping sound with her lips when she pulled away from him.

For a moment, he practically whimpered like a wounded puppy, but was quickly contented again when he opened his eyes and looked down to see her still holding him in her hands and dragging her tongue up and down his frenulum. His toes began to curl and gripped her hair tighter with his fingers, and when she began to work on his balls, he about died.

“Fuck,” he muttered; bringing a humming chuckle from her which, in turn, he easily felt the delicious vibrations of. “Oh…Georgie…”

Bringing her tongue back up the underside of his erection, she returned her mouth down around him again, bobbing her head up and down in faster motions. It didn’t take long for him the pleasure she was giving him to culminate in a shattering release, making him feel like he was painlessly burning alive from the inside out.

Rick’s eyes saw stars for a moment while his vision simultaneously blurred as he spilled his warm seed into her mouth.

When he was able to focus on her face again, he grinned happily down at her and placed both of his hands on either side of her face as he watched her swallow and lick her lips clean, which was so incredibly sexy to him. Leaning down, he placed his own lips upon hers, tasting remnants of himself as he slipped his tongue in.

Once again, he felt his heartbeat settle down as the waves of his orgasm ebbed away. However, he didn’t want the moment between them to end right then and there and needed to keep the momentum going.

“C’mere,” he mumbled against her lips.

Sliding his hands down and encircling her waist, Rick hoisted her up and pulled her down on top of his as he fell backward against the mattress. It was a graceless move but he wasn’t trying to impress her anyone other than her. Rolling over so that she was on the bottom, Rick ground his hips down against hers while maintaining his hold around her upper body and captured her lips again with his own. He was beginning to feel like he couldn’t get enough of her lips. When his tongue found hers, he made sweeping, swirling motions inside her mouth while dragging on of his hands down the side of her body and resting it between them. With deft fingers, he slipped his hand down the front of her panties and began stroking her clit with the rough pad of his tongue, eliciting a small whimper from her throat that was such a lovely sound to his ears.

As Rick moved to slip two fingers inside her folds, feeling the moistness waiting for him already, he felt himself hardening again. Her increasingly incessant groans he kept muffled with his lips as not to disturb the other occupants of the house, but doing his best not to stop the movements he was making with his fingers, darting them in and out of her.

Her groans and whimpers were starting to turn into pants and little squeaks here and there and just when she was about to reach her orgasm, Rick cruelly removed his fingers, thereby stealing that release from her when she was so close. Opening her eyes and looking up at him with confusion and a flush lips that were puffed up from kissing, Georgie laid there and watched as he looked back at her with apologetic eyes.

“Sorry, hold on,” he muttered.

Leaning up on his knees, he grabbed at her panties and began to slide them down her legs. Once he had them off her completely, he dropped them over the edge of the bed and then moved his hands to her shirt, lifting it up and pulling it up over her head with her assistance. Tossing the shirt away as well, Rick lowered his body back down, but only slightly, to whisper in her ear.

“Turn over,” he urged. “Get on your knees.”

Biting her bottom lip, she began to grin up at him with lust-filled eyes. Complying with his request, Georgie rolled over onto her stomach and then pushed herself up to her hands and knees; immediately greeted by Rick pressing his returned erection along her ass. He rubbed himself against her, grabbing her by the hips and digging his fingers into her soft flesh, but not too roughly that it hurt. Removing one hand from her hip, he took hold of his cock and dragged it along the crack of her ass and then down along her folds while she began to rock back against him, craving him inside her.

“Rick,” she started to whine.

“Shh, I know,” he replied, wanting her just as much. He would always want her just as much.

Pressing his tip against her damp entrance, Rick easily slipped himself right in until he was completely buried within her. Her inner walls instinctively contracted and tightened around him, as if claiming him in the name of vaginas everywhere.

Rick moved his hands along the soft, plumpness of her ass; massaging the thicker flesh and gripping her firmly as he pulled her further down upon him. As he began thrusting in and out of her, at a slower pace at first, he reached one hand around to her stomach and coaxed her up off her hands. Rick leaned back so that he was no longer just kneeling but sitting on his shins. Georgie knelt in front of him and then sat down upon the lap he’d created for her, still thrusting deeply up inside of her while she tried reaching around to hold on to him somehow.

Sensing she need to touch him in any way, shape or form, Rick wrapped an arm around her waist, which quickly grabbed onto as a sort of brace. And it was good timing, too. Because when Rick brought his other hand down to her clit again, Georgie would’ve lost her balance and fallen forward from the sensations he was causing inside of her.

The pair rocked together on the bed, in the darkness of their bedroom, with nothing but the sounds of their quiet grunts, ragged breaths and the slight creaking of the mattress underneath them to fill the air, which was quickly filling with the scent of musky sex. Because she had been so close before, it took no time at all for Georgie’s orgasm to arrive.

When the moment happened, it was so dizzying that, for half a second, Georgie had thought she would lose consciousness. She could feel the fluttering in her abdomen while her inner muscles spasmed around him.

Removing his hand from her mound, Rick brought it up to her head, which he turned so that they could kiss while she rode her orgasm out. His pace, however, didn’t slow because he was still working on his own, second orgasm of the night, which didn’t take much longer to achieve.

When he came, his body shuddered and stiffened against her, filling her once again.

Slowly, they came down from their sexual highs and Georgie fell forward onto the mattress in a satiated heap. Rick followed after, laying on top of her at first, pinning her to the bed with his body weight. As he slipped out of her, he rolled over onto his back and just laid there, looking up at the ceiling while a faint amount of moonlight suddenly appeared from behind a few clouds and entered in through the bedroom windows, bathing them both.

After a moment, Georgie reached her arm across Rick’s chest which was slick from the sweat he’d built up with her and pulled her body up against his. She then rested her head down upon his chest, placing a few kisses along his collarbone and up his neck. He met her halfway, turning his head toward her so that their lips could meet in a long, deep kiss.

“I think that was better than this afternoon on the bathroom floor,” she teased, slowly drawing circles on his chest as she draped a leg between his.

Rick slipped an arm under shoulders and pulled her even closer against him. “Definitely in the top five.”

Georgie chuckled. “This is only our fourth time.”

“Well, then I’m not exactly wrong.”

His reply made her laugh even more, and he swallowed the pleasantly infectious sound with his lips; again not wanting to wake or disturb anyone else in the house, especially their children.

“I look forward to the fifth time, then,” she commented after a few moments of silence had passed between them.

“Me, too.”

“I don’t want you to treat me like a porcelain doll, though.”

Rick leaned his head back slightly to get a better look at her face, which was easier to do in the appearance of the moonlight. “What do you mean?”

“Today; this afternoon and just now,” she spoke quietly. “I could sense you holding back.”

“Was I?”

“Remember our first time at the Pantry, and then in my bedroom at the other house? Those times neither of us held back.”

“You weren’t injured then like you are now.”

“I was still bruised pretty badly our first time from when Aaron pushed that car door into me.”

“That was a different injury. This,” he brought a hand up to her face, brushing gently over the bruising that had been administered by Jake, “is different. He did a horrible thing to you. The fact that you even want to be like this with me right now is still surprising to me.”

“Because you’re not him,” she insisted, a little grateful that Rick didn’t mention Jake by name. She had come to hate the name and God help the next man they came across who shared the same name. The poor bastard would no doubt be unfairly judged for that one commonality alone. “You’re Rick, and that means a world of difference. You’re the hero, he was the villain.”

“I don’t always feel like a hero,” he muttered, staring up at the spot of the ceiling where two of the walls came together.

“There hero never really does,” she smirked, leaning her face down and pressing her lips to his chest. “Just know that you are one.”

Silence fell between them again, but it was comforting silence.

They were listening only to the sounds of each other briefly and, with her head down upon his chest again, Georgie was listening to the steady beat of his heart.

“You seem calmer now,” she remarked after a few more moments.

“Thanks to you.”

Georgie smiled. “I do try.”

Turning his face away from corner of the ceiling, Rick’s blue eyes fell back upon Georgie and he pressed his lips into her hair. “I love you.”

Those words would never stop sounding amazing to her. “I love you, too,” she replied.



The next morning, Rick was up and dressed for the day in clean clothes, except for his black jeans. He knew they were dirty and needed to be washed, but they were comfortable and felt like an old friend, as silly as that may have sounded. He told himself he would wash them that night and wear something different, like sweatpants or whatever else was available, until the jeans were clean. He figured it wouldn’t take longer than two hours to wash and dry them and he could go without for that short amount of time. He also knew that if he verbalized this to anyone they might look at him like he was crazy.

Then again, it couldn’t be any worse than several of the Alexandrians already viewed him.

Sauntering out the front door and down the steps, he looked upon Daryl who was tinkering with the bike Aaron had given to him.

“So, is he okay with it?” Daryl questioned, referring to Morgan’s temporary confinement. He had gone up to shower and to bed before Rick and left with the other man, so he never got to ask about how it all went.

“It was pretty much his idea,” Rick replied, fastening his gun belt around his waist. “He gets it.”

“It's got a bed and a bath, but it's still a cage, you know?”

Rick nodded his head a bit. “He gets it,” he assured. “He told me what happened out there with the trucks.”

Daryl stood up. “He tell you about those guys he met?” he asked, pointing to his forehead. “The W’s.”

“Like that walker we saw, yeah,” Rick confirmed. “We need more watch points. And I'm gonna tell Deanna we don't need to go looking for people anymore.”

There was an obvious hesitation from Daryl as he nodded and looked away. From up on the porch of the main house, Georgie stepped outside with Judith on her hip, letting the warmth of the morning sun shine down upon them as she looked down upon the two best friends deep in conversation.

“You feel different about it?” Rick asked.

“Yeah, I do,” Daryl replied, nodding more.

“Well, people out there, they got to take care of themselves, just like us.” Rick gestured toward the fences with a slight tilt of his head. Then, back on the subject of Morgan, he added, “I'm gonna get him out. Shouldn't leave him in there any longer than we have to.”

Stepping around Daryl’s bike, Ricked looked up toward the house and let his lips turn upward into a warm smile as he acknowledged two of his favorite girls.

“You boys playing nice, I hope,” Georgie teased.

Lifting his left leg, he rested it upon the second step from the bottom and gripped the railing with his right hand which had fresh bandaging around it that had been put there by Georgie not even twenty minutes before, along with new, little white bandages over the cuts on his face. They had all been soiled from the blood and gore he’d found himself covered in the night before and taking a shower had loosened the previous bandages up and made them fall off while he was cleaning up.

Rick nodded up at her. “I’m headed up to go get Morgan out. Figure I’ll show him around Alexandria,” he informed. “Wanna come with?”

Georgie gestured to Judith on her hip. “I was gonna feed her first. You go on ahead, though,” she insisted. “I’ll catch up, and if I don’t, well…I know where you live.”

Rick looked down at the wooden stairs and snickered. “Yeah, you do.” Looking back up at her with a smile, he winked and then waved at his daughter whole beamed happily back at him.

Taking a few steps back away from the stairs, Rick looked over his shoulder at Daryl before taking off up the road toward the townhouses.



A short while later, Rick was walking side by side with Morgan, having looped the entire perimeter of the community and returning back where they started at the townhouses. During the entire walk, they had talked about superficial subjects mostly; about whom everyone in Rick’s group was, touching mostly upon who Georgie was and Morgan expressing that he was glad Rick had found someone to love again after losing his wife, Lori.

“Who put up the wall?” Morgan inquired.

“They did,” Rick answered. “There was a man, Reg. He drew up plans, made it happen early on. A lot of people in here. They've been inside from the start. They had food, energy, not a whole lot of walkers. They just lived. They haven't had to survive. They figured that out, brought us in. Still might be too late.”

“Too late how?”

Rick stopped walking for a moment. “For them to come around. We'll see,” he muttered. “You'll have to talk to Deanna. She's the woman in charge. She was married to Reg.”

“Was?”

As Rick was about to answer, he spotted Gabriel moving behind some shrubbery where the community’s small cemetery was. “Yeah,” he spoke; stalking off to see what was going on as Morgan quickly followed. Stepping around the evergreen shrubs, with his right hand absentmindedly hovering over his holstered Colt, he found Gabriel assisting Tobin in digging graves. “What are you doing?”

Both Gabriel and Tobin stood upright as Gabriel looked nervously back at Rick. “We’re, uh…I wanted to help.” He was well aware that Rick knew of the lies he’d told Deanna about Rick’s people. A few people knew now and he was more nervous around them than ever.

“We only need one,” Rick spoke to Tobin, gesturing to the graves.

Tobin seemed dumbfounded as he pointed to the two bodies of Reg and Jake which were covered in tarp. “We have two men here.”

“We're not gonna bury killers inside these walls.”

“I understand how you feel. I do. But it's not your decision.”

“Tobin.”

All four men turned to see Deanna approaching from around the trees, and Georgie was a few paces behind her with her arms folded across her chest, staring darkly down upon the tarp covering Jake’s body.

“Rick's right. Take it away,” Deanna asserted. “Go west, down Branton Road a few miles. Just past the bridge. We don't go out that way. Let the trees have him.”

As she walked away, Georgie looked over her shoulder, letting her gaze follow the older woman for a moment before returning her attention toward Jake’s body. Rick glanced at her and she nodded, indicating she agreed with what Deanna said on what to do. Nodding back at her, Rick walked up to Jake’s body and Morgan followed; both men grabbing the dead man up at opposite ends.

“I’ll get car keys from Deanna,” Georgie announced, slipping around the trees to catch up with the walled community’s grieving leader. “Deanna.”

The older woman slowed and stopped, turning to look at the redhead. “I’m sorry if you think my decision on where to put Jake’s body is harsh. Rick is right. Jake was a killer and I made the mistake of letting him stay here as long as I did. I should’ve banished him with the others he arrived here with months ago.”

“No,” Georgie muttered. “I was just going to ask you for car keys so we can get rid of Jake’s body.”

Deanna stared back at her, as if trying to figure the younger woman out as if she was some fantastic puzzle. “Don’t you mourn him? He was your husband.”

“My husband, the Jake I loved, died just after the outbreak when he abandoned my daughter and me. When I found his truck in the middle of a road, with blood in and around it, and with him nowhere to be seen, that’s when he became dead to me,” Georgie explained. “The man back there, wrapped in tarp, wasn’t the Jake I knew. That man was an evil man who did evil things and got away with it for too long. He got what he deserved.”

With a solemn nod, Deanna looked off forlornly toward her home. “I’m sorry he hurt you the way he did. I should’ve done something.”

“Yes, you should’ve,” Georgie agreed, not bothering to mince words. “But it’s alright. I’ll forgive you. You’re dealing with some terrible losses right now and I’m not gonna hold a grudge at a time like this. It’s in the past. And I’m sorry about Reg,” she added. “He was a really good man. I liked him.”

“Thank you.” Looking back at Georgie, Deanna gestured for her to follow. “Come on. I’ll get you some keys.”

With a faint smirk, Georgie walked after the former politician as she continued onward toward her townhouse.

ooOOooooOOoo

The same jalopy of a car that Rick and Georgie had arrived to Alexandria in with Michonne, Carl and Judith was now the same car they were traveling down Branton Road with Jake’s corpse in the trunk. Like their arrival, Rick drove and Georgie occupied the passenger seat. The noticeable change was that Morgan sat behind her in the backseat watching the trees pass by his window. A small bridge that connected the road together over a small creek loomed ahead as Rick kept his eyes on the road.

Occasionally he averted his eyes to the rearview mirror, casting a glance in Morgan’s direction or just behind the vehicle in general. He drove with one hand most of the way, letting his right rest upon the console between him and Georgie; a hint she caught onto rather easily and laced her fingers with his.

After crossing the bridge and going about a hundred yards further up the road, Georgie nodded toward a section of trees to their right.

“That’s as good a place as any.”

“I gotta say, Georgie,” Morgan voiced from the backseat, “I know I might be overstepping here, but I’m a little surprised you’re going along with burying your husband here.”

“You were married, right, and a father?” She questioned as Rick slowed the car down to a stop along the side of the road. “I noticed the ring on your finger.”

“I was.”

“It’s safe to assume your wife and child died?”

“Early on, yes. The fever took her. And then she…she took my boy.”

“I’m sorry.” Georgie nodded, keeping her eyes forward. “Well, imagine your wife never died and she just abandoned you and your son, and then your son gets bit and dies in your arms and you have no one else.”

Rick winced slightly and leaned in toward her. “That is was to his son.”

“Well, shit. Sorry again,” she muttered apologetically. “Okay, bear with me here. I swear I’m making a point. Imagine you also have another child out there in the world and you don’t know if they’re alive or dead and your wife just decided to give up looking for that other child, telling you to accept that they’re most likely dead. So, you go out into the world, doing whatever you can to look for them. Eventually you find good people who help you forget how sad your life without your children was and give you a new purpose. And then you come to this place that’s safe and protected and you’ve fallen in love with the leader of this group you’d been with.” Georgie glanced at Rick who smiled slightly back at her. “You start to settle in, prepared to make this new life work, and then you hear a child call to you, and it’s the child you thought was dead, and then your wife appears, also alive and well.”

“I’m not hearing the downside just yet,” Morgan remarked.

“Oh, give it a minute,” Rick quipped.

“Your child arrived before your wife. He was found alone on the road, having witnessed dangerous men slaughter his friends and the other people keeping him safe, so now he has nightmares. But you’re there now and you can make him feel safe again. Your wife seems fine at first but then she blackmails you into staying with her, even though you haven’t forgiven her for abandoning you and your children. And when you try to call her out on it, she threatens to keep your son away from you because you’re new to the this place and she has social standing there and the people would rally behind her and not you.” Georgie looked down at her hand, at her wrist specifically, where her bruising was fading a little more. “So you agree to stay there and not with the person you love now, for the sake of providing your child with some stability again. Then your wife’s façade cracks and reveals she is a dangerous person now. She’s done terrible things—very terrible things—since you last saw her, and she can physically hurt you, and that scares you. So you pretend everything is fine, because you’re worried about how your son will handle things. And she has a jealous streak. Doesn’t like you even just talking to that person you love now without going off on you in a jealous rage.”

“Why wouldn’t I just leave with my son?” Morgan questioned, going along with the scenario.

“You are. You finally decided you’re done with it and then she comes home and attacks you. You try running away, to just get away, but she catches up and she shoves you into the bedroom and tells you it’s time to earn your keep. She punches you in the face, knocks you out cold, and in the time you’re unconscious, she beats and rapes you and then locks you in bedroom.”

“And while you’re unconscious, she gets drunk and comes over to the house of the person you love and offers them a beer, pretending like they can be friends, knowing all the while she has you locked in her bedroom, beaten and bloodied,” Rick added, touching upon a part of what had happened between him and Jake that Georgie hadn’t even known happened.

She looked at Rick and furrowed his brow, as if silently asking if that really happened. Off Rick’s quiet nod, she looked away toward the dashboard. “You wake up and it’s nightfall; hours have passed. You try getting out of the bedroom but the door is locked or barricaded. You’re not sure. You call for help but no one is home to answer your cries. Then you find something in the closet that proves your wife was one of those terrible people that took part in the slaughter of your son’s friends; that she killed men, women and children alike without a care. You get away, though. You break out of the bedroom, and you’re hurting all over, physically and mentally. And then, you reach the person you love. Even though you pass out afterward, you know you’re okay now; you’re safe, you got away.”

“Not long after there’s a confrontation between the three of you; you, your wife and the person you love. Your wife attacks the person you love and they fight; end up going through the picture window and punching the fuck outta each other in the street,” Rick relays, a slightly guilty smirk tugging at his lips. “Then Michonne—I mean, a friend­ punches the person you love unconscious because they’re waving a gun at innocent people in their anger over trying to protect you and just a lot of other things that have been building up.”

Morgan nodded and let out a small grunt. “I think I can understand what happened,” he insisted. “Jake was a bad man who did bad things. I’m sorry for what he did to you, Georgie.” Leaning forward, he gripped onto the back of her seat and gestured to her face. “I assume that was his handiwork.”

“It is.”

Morgan turned his attention to Rick then. “You fought Jake to keep her safe because of what you realized he was doing. Killing him because he killed Deanna’s husband wasn’t your only motive.”

“I was going to kill him regardless,” Rick commented.

Georgie glanced over her shoulder, looking at Morgan. “I made a special bullet out of my wedding ring for him to use on Jake,” she informed. “We couldn’t just let him go back out into the world or lock him within Alexandria. He could’ve gotten out on his own or hurt someone else. In the old world people were sentenced to death for the kinds of things Jake did in the new world.”

“He didn’t deserve the life he had.”

Morgan looked between the pair and leaned back. There was something in his posture that suggested he still wasn’t convinced Jake should’ve been killed. Subdued and punished, maybe; but not killed.

“All life is precious,” he muttered.

Rick looked back at Morgan with his peripheral vision, and then opened the car door. “No it ain’t.”

The three of them climbed out of the car and stepped behind to the trunk, which Rick opened up. Inside wasn’t just Jake’s wrapped up body, but also some shovels as well as a first aid kit Rosita sent them off with just in case of an injury. Georgie reached forward over Jake’s body, holding her breath to avoid the stench that was already beginning to permeate from him, she grabbed the shovels and stepped back. Rick and Morgan then grabbed either end of Jake’s body and lifted him out while Georgie closed the trunk after them.

They stopped for a moment, looking around to make sure the trunk shutting didn’t draw any walkers out from the trees, and then continued down the incline from the road into the woods. Once they set the body down, Morgan took both shovels from Georgie and Rick turned to her, placing a hand on her arm.

“Why don’t you stay up near the car, keep an eye out for anything?”

“I’d rather not.”

“I know you’d rather not.” He stared her in the eye and, after a moment, she relented. With a smirk, Rick leaned in and placed a kiss to the corner of her lips and then pressed his forehead against hers for a moment. “We’ll take care of this and when we get home, we’ll relax with the kids, okay?”

Georgie smiled and nodded. “Okay,” she answered, giving him another kiss before turning and making her way back up the incline; using a few narrow trees to help her along.

Making his way up to Morgan, Rick shrugged and gestured to the overgrowth. “Maybe we just leave him here,” he said, referring to Jake’s body.

Morgan smiled a little. “That’s not who you are.” He shook his head and turned away with both shovels. “I know.”

Rick wasted no time following after. “Hey,” he called out. When Morgan turned back to look at him, Rick steeled up somewhat. “You don’t.”

Tossing the second shovel to the ground and dropping his satchel beside it, Morgan went about beginning to dig Jake’s grave, regardless of Rick’s feelings about it.

As he began to watch the other man start to work, sounds wafted through the trees on the breeze that suddenly alerted Rick’s senses. He turned away from Morgan and peered off through the overgrowth, narrowing his gaze and straining to hear better; to focus on what it was he was hearing.

“Morgan. Morgan.” When the other man refused to cease his movements and catch on to what he was sure he was hearing, Rick walked up to Morgan and grabbed his arm. “Stop. You hear that?”

Turning up toward the road, Rick saw that Georgie was safely seated on the hood of the car and then gestured for Morgan to follow him through the woods a bit. Grabbing his satchel back up and his “ninja stick”, as Daryl amusedly referred to it as, Morgan obliged Rick. They traipsed off together, not very far from Jake’s body at all, coming out to a slight clearing that reveal a cliff of sorts.

What was unsettling was that the cliff was high up above a quarry that was swarmed with possibly thousands of restless walkers that were blocked in by two sets of two large semi-trucks at both entrances.

As both men took in the sight before them, the snapping of a branch behind them in the woods and a more distinct snarling entered their ears.

Within the trees, Georgie was running.

She had come down into the slight ravine when she realized Rick and Morgan were missing and tried to find where they’d gotten off to when a few walkers came out from amid the trees. She cursed herself because she had left her weapons in the car and was unarmed, so her only choice was to run and get away.

In the process, while looking back over her shoulder to check on how much distance she’d put between her and them, Georgie made the clichéd move of tripping over a damn branch and falling forward onto the ground. The wind was only momentarily knocked out of her and she clambered back up to her feet, taking off in a sprint toward the cliff she didn’t know was there.

Before she nearly went over the edge, Rick came out of nowhere and tackled her out of the way as two of the walkers plummeted down to the rocky bottom.

Once more, the air was knocked from her lungs, but the fact that it was Rick who had done it to save her made it better. He rolled over onto his back; the both of them looking skyward, just as the other walkers came shambling forward. Rick withdrew his Colt and shot one in the head, sending it tumbling over the edge while Morgan appeared with his stick and knocked the other over.

Climbing back up to his feet, Rick reached his hand out and pulled Georgie up beside him. As he holstered his gun, he gave Morgan a nod of thanks for his assistance and the three of them looked back toward the quarry together.

“You alright?” Rick asked Georgie.

“Yeah,” she muttered a little breathlessly.

“What happened to staying at the car and keeping lookout?”

She looked over at him and could tell he seemed a bit unnerved. “I looked through the trees and didn’t see either of you. I got worried, so I came looking for you, and then those walkers appeared and I didn’t have my knife or gun to take care of them.”

“You should always have at least your knife on you, at all times,” Rick growled at her. “You should know that by now. After everything we’ve been through.”

“And you should’ve told me where you two were going instead of just wandering off like a pair of children,” she responded just as shortly; giving as well as she was received.

Morgan sighed. “What matters is we’re fine.” Taking his binoculars from his satchel he brought them up to his eyes and peered through.

“This is how,” Rick muttered, getting back to the subject at hand.

“How what?” Morgan questioned, feeling a little anxious about the sea of walkers.

“How the community’s still here. They’ve had walkers at their walls, but a lot of them, maybe most of them, wound up here.”

Releasing a sigh from her lips, Georgie turned around and began to walk back toward the woods. Rick noticed her leaving and darted over to her, grabbing her arm and turning her around to face him.

“Hey, don’t just leave like that,” he said sternly.

“I’m going back to the car. That’s where you wanted me, right?” Georgie yanked her arm away from him but he moved around her to block her way so she couldn’t leave.

“Listen, I’m sorry for barking at you like that,” he apologized, his gaze softening. “But you could’ve gotten yourself killed and it got me scared, and when I get scared I get angry. And when I get angry, sometimes I don’t think before I speak, and the things I say sound a lot meaner than I intend.” Rick leaned in closer to her and lowered his voice. “I’m sorry. I just don’t want to see you get hurt anymore, or worse.”

Exhaling a deep breath, Georgie met Rick halfway by pressing her forward to his. “We can’t be the perfect couple all the time,” she quipped. “Arguments and disagreements are bound to happen.”

Rick smirked. “As long as you’re okay with apologizing when you know you’re wrong, I think we’ll be okay.”

Gaping at him, Georgie gave him a playful shove and then gestured toward the cliff. “I will push you over edge and let those thousands of walkers rip you apart.”

“You already push me over the edge,” Rick retorted with narrowed, smiling eyes.

As the trio made their way back into the woods, Rick stopped when he saw where they’d left Jake’s body. He was tempted to keep going and just head back to the car, even though Morgan had been more insistent on digging the damn grave. He sensed Georgie had stopped a few feet behind him and was wondering what his next move would be.

Scratching at the left side of his face with his right hand, Rick gave in to his conscience and stalked forward. Picking up one of the two shovels, he began to unearth the soil and toss it aside. Morgan smirked and set down his satchel; picking the second shovel up and joining Rick.

“Georgie,” Rick called out, when he felt her presence retreating.

“Yeah?” she stopped in her tracks; her soft, ginger locks flopping around her shoulders.

“You should stay,” he insisted, casting a glance at her over.

“I don’t need to stay. For all I care, toss him over the edge into that quarry.”

“We’re not burying the man he became,” Rick remarked. “We’re burying the man he was. You should stay. You need the closure.”

As they locked eyes, Georgie slowly nodded. “Okay.”

Moving over toward a thicker tree trunk, she leaned against it and slid down to a crouching position. Rick looked away from her and over toward Morgan who gave him a small smile and nod as they continued to dig Jake’s grave together.

Notes

Comments

Completely understand. Thank you for sharing your talent with us all. Looking forward to your new story updates on Road Not Taken and the sequel to We Can Change.

Grimesgirl63 Grimesgirl63
1/7/19

Thanks for the update today!

Grimesgirl63 Grimesgirl63
8/26/18

Sorry to hear about your aunt.

Grimesgirl63 Grimesgirl63
3/31/18

Thanks for the update today!

Grimesgirl63 Grimesgirl63
7/29/17

Nicely done!!!

Grimesgirl63 Grimesgirl63
1/30/17