YOU (RICK GRIMES)

PART NINE

"Hailey," Rick called as she hummed in response.

A question has been nagging at him lately ever since she told him about Glenn.

"If Glenn was still alive..... What would you do?"

"If your worried about him taking me back don't be.... He was just a distraction from you Rick,"

"And if he has feelings for you still?"

"Rick, we dont even know if he is alive...... Why do you care so much?"

"Hails, I'm learning you were with another guy besides me,"

"So that makes me bound to you or something? Rick we maybe best friends but we each live different lives, you had a whole marriage and I had an Asian boy for a bit, I didn't feel the need to tell you since you were all happy with Lori,"

"I wasn't really, she had her moments but..... Overall I was more happy when I saw you,"

It was silent for the rest of the ride to Atlanta. They eventually get to the outskirts of Atlanta. One side of the highway is empty while the other side of the highway is packed with several cars that have been wrecked or abandoned. Rick and Hailey continues to ride down the empty side of the highway to enter Atlanta.

They ride into the city and along the streets. they see that the streets are abandoned and there is trash everywhere. Rick leads the horse down the street where there are helicopters, cars, and even a tank wrecked along the road. Rick rides past a bus and some of the walkers see him. They get up and start to walk toward him. Rick doesn't panic but the horse does. 

"Steady. It's just a few. Nothing we can't outrun," he tells the horse as Hailey rolled her eyes. 

"Maybe you and the horse should be best friends instead," She mumbles as Rick rolled his own eyes. 

"Dont tell me your jealous of a horse Hails,"

"I'm not, I'm just saying you sound like yall should be best friends instead," she said causing Rick to roll his eyes as he rides past them and goes to ride down the street.

He looks up on the tank and sees a dead body that is being pecked at by crows. He rides past the tank and looks up in the air. He sees a helicopter fly past him.

"Hails its a Helicopter!"

"I SEE IT MOVE RICK HURRY! WE CAN GET SOME HELP!" Hailey yelled as Rick starts to ride in the direction of the helicopter, but when he turns at the corner, there is a lot of walkers.

All of them shuffle after Rick and Hailey as she screamed and he rides back down the street he came from. He then comes across another huge group of walkers. Rick and Hailey struggles to get away but they are trapped. Hailey screams as they fall off the horse and starts to crawl away from it together. 

"Hails stay by me," Rick whispers causing her to nod her head.

Some of the walkers eat the horse and Rick realizes that he has dropped his gun bag and Hailey dropped her bag with the axe and food Morgan gave them in it. They crawl underneath the tank while walkers still try to catch them. They crawl under the tank and Rick shoot some of them with his Colt Python. Causing Hailey to cover her ears as her breaths became shorter.

"Hailey I have two bullets left, I know what we have to do," Rick  says turning to face her as she uncovered her ears. 

Tears were streaming down her face as she silently nodded understanding the situation. In that moment, Rick's forehead was pressed against hers as the gun was on her temple, tears streamed down his own face. 

"I love you Hailey Elizabeth Baxter,"

"I love you too Rick Grimes," she says lightly kissing him on the lips. "Its okay I rather have you do it then someone else I will see you in the afterlife,"

"Lori, Carl, I'm sorry, Hailey I'm sorry," Rick says a sobbing mess as the gun was shaking in his hand. 

Before he could pull the trigger however, he sees the hatch above him. He shakes Hailey causing her to look up as they both crawl up to it and shuts it. Immediately Rick went to hug her as she hugged him back.

"I'm sorry..... Oh God I'm so sorry Hailey I almost..... I could've-"

"Shhh...... Its okay Rick the point is were both still alive and well, I'm not mad at you, You thought we were going to die," She says rubbing circles on his back to confront him. 

"Hailey I dont know what I'd do if I lost you of all people, you matter to me the most," 

This caused her to hug him a bit tighter before they let go of each other. His head was on her forehead as he closed his eyes tight as Hailey placed both hands on his cheeks. 

However when he opened his eyes, he sees a dead soldier in the tank. He takes Hailey's hands off his cheeks and gets to the soldier's gun, but he's a walker. Rick uses the second to the last bullet in his Python to shoot him through the head. The sound of the bullet in the enclosed space hurts Rick and Hailey's ears and it takes them a minute to get his hearing back. 

"I will be right back," He tells Hailey as He starts to crawl up to the top hatch and looks outside.

 He sees that the bag of gun and Hailey's bag with the axe is lying in the street way out of his reach. The rest of the walkers start to converge on the tank to get at them. Rick shuts the hatch before they can get him. 

"What happened?" She couldn't help but ask. 

"I was trying to see where our bags were, and they are pretty far out wont be able to get them,"

"So I lost my axe great, I only got to use it once,"

"Hey, look at me, we will retrieve those bags okay?" He asks grabbing her face with his hands as he searches her eyes. 

She nodded as a light blush coated her cheeks. 

Rick sits down in the tank as Hailey does the same and sits next to him.  Just then, the radio in the tank starts to make static sounds. A voice on the other end starts talking.

"Hailey?" The voice asks causing Hailey's eyes to widen. "Hailey Baxter?" It asked again causing Hailey to grab the radio.  

"Glenn? Glenn is that you?" She asks tears streaming down her face. 

"Yeah, your alive  I'm so glad to hear your voice...... I'm going to get you out of the tank,"

"Rick is here too, hes my best friend,"

"Right okay, I'm getting you both out of there, and Hailey.... I've missed you so much,"

"Now's not the time Glenn, I'll give you a big hug when we get out alive okay?"

"Right," he said smiling happy that his girlfriend..... or ex girlfriend will be back with him once more.

A/N: Should I make Glenn try to get back with Hailey? Rick is going to be furious!