Forbidden Love- Rick Grimes Love story

76

Rick POV

I kill the next walker ahead of me as Michonne kills some too. I look back to see the small herd forming behind us. "Let's go." I yell to the two as we take off running.

"Thought maybe there'd be some houses down this way. Maybe even a store. There's got to be some food around here somewhere." Michonne hoped as we continued our walk ahead. "Hey, look." Carl said pointing to a busted up car ahead. At least it was something, they wouldn't be sleeping on the ground again tonight.

Michonne and I sat at the fire as Carl slept in the car. I look over to her, "That was one small rabbit." Michonne sighed, "It was something. Got to hand it to the thing. It traveled well." The both of us laughed. I sighed, "Have you noticed that's all we talk about anymore? Food. I forgot what this feels like." Michonne looks down, "Me, too. I hope we're able to forget again soon." I nod kicking the fire out, "We're close. Just got to make it through another day. If folks there are  taking people in, they have to be strong. They have to have a system." I know if Madison went there, they would take her in. Not only because she's strong, but because of the baby. I know she went there, she has to be there. Michonne shrugs, "I wonder if the whole thing's legit." We hear a snap and I stand up cautiously looking around, when I didn't see anything, I sat back down, "We let people in. We did." Michonne looks up to me, "So did the Governor." Just the sound of his title made me feel like I wanted to rip his head off for what he did to Madison, to Hershel, to our home. But he's dead. I nod, "Yeah, it's always the same, isn't it? Don't get to know until we know. Maybe this place isn't even there anymore." I try to hope for the sake that Madison is there, for the sake that our children will be able to grow up and live their lives. But that isn't realistic.

I feel a cold gun placed to my temple, "Oh, dearie me. You screwed up, asshole." Michonne reaches for her sword as another man kicks it away, "You hear me? You screwed up." I slowly raised my hands as I kept my gaze ahead. The man leans down to me, "Today is a day of reckoning, sir. Restitution." I look over slightly to see a man tap on the window of the car Carl was lying in. "A balancing of the whole  damn universe. Shit, and I was thinking of turning in for the night on  New Year's Eve." The man laughs. The man looks around to the rest of the men, "Now who's gonna count down the ball dropper with me, huh?" The man presses the gun further into my temple and I try to control my anger, to try and control the situation. "Ten Mississippi. Nine Mississippi. Eight Mississippi-" The man starts to count, but is cut off by a familiar voice. "Joe! Hold up." I look up in shock to see Daryl, almost expecting Madison to be with him, but she wasn't. He held the same shocked expression I did. Joe waved his arm sighing, "You're stopping me on eight, Daryl." Daryl holds eye contact with me, "Just hold up." "This is the guy that killed Lou, so we got nothing to talk about." One of the other men said aggressively pointing his gun towards us. Joe behind me shrugged, "The thing about nowadays is we got nothing but time. Say your piece, Daryl." Daryl looked down at me before looking back to Joe, "These people, you're gonna let 'em go. These are good people." Joe shook his head, "Now, I think Lou would disagree with you on that. I'll, of course, have  to speak for him and all 'cause your friend here strangled him in a  bathroom." I closed my eyes tightly taking a small soft deep breath. Daryl put his crossbow on the ground, "You want blood, I get it. Take it from me, man." I wanted to stand up and tell Daryl no, but I couldn't, it would make it all bad. We would all die. Daryl shouldn't die for something I did. Joe looked at him blankly, "This man killed our friend. You say he's good people. See, now that right there is a lie. It's a lie!" Daryl sighed dropping his hands to his side. I watched as one of the men come up behind Daryl and knock him to the ground. "No!" I yell out but all that could be heard was the men hitting Daryl. "Teach him, fellas. Teach him all the way." Joe yells to the men beating Daryl. I can see out of the corner of my eye a man pull Carl out of the car as Carl was screaming no, "Come here, boy." My blood began to boil as I tried to get up, "You leave him be!" Joe pulls me back down by the top of my jacket. Michonne goes to move towards Carl to help him, but another man stops her, "Shh. You'll get yours. You just wait your turn." "Listen, it was me. It was just me." I growled back to Joe. He leans down towards me, "See, now that's right. That's not some damn lie." He pats a hand on my back, "Look, we can settle this. We're reasonable men. First, we're gonna beat  Daryl to death. Then we'll have the girl. Then the boy. Then I'm gonna  shoot you and then we'll be square." He starts to laugh. I look to see Daryl getting beat on the ground near the car, I look to Michonne to see the fear in her eyes, then I look to see Carl, my boy wrestling against a larger man. Hearing Carl cry and watching him fight against the man, made my decision that I was going to kill these men. They deserved it. "Let him go." I warned him. Nothing, I could hear the larger man laugh as my son struggled beneath him. "Let him go." I told him harshly. I slammed my head hard into Joe's chin causing him to fling back and fire his gun in shock. The loud gunshot too close caused my ears to ring. I took a second to try and come to from the ringing before I swung around and punched Joe in the face hard. He quickly regained and elbowed me in the face. I wasn't completely healed from the Governor, and that punch had taken everything to me so I fell to the ground. Joe comes towards me before landing a hard kick to my abdomen, "I got him. Oh, it's gonna be so much worse now." I try to regain myself as I look up I think back to everything that has happen, everything I have been through that has stood against me, with Shane, the Governor. I look to see Daryl struggling as he was being beat, then I look to see Michonne try to kick the guy's gun away, only for it to fire and her to be slapped hard, then to my son crying as he struggled to get away. "Come on get up! Come on, let's see what you've got!" Joe taunted at me. Joe grabs me holding me up, "What are you going to do now, sport?" I look over to see the man flip Carl over pushing his head into the dirt as he began to unbuckle his belt and I snapped. I turned back to Joe and I bit into his neck hard as he screamed against me. I kept applying more and more pressure until I could hear him gurgling on his blood before releasing and spitting his skin and blood out of my mouth. In that moment everything had gone quiet and looked to me and it was like it was slow motion. Michonne reacted quickly to the guy's shock grabbing his gun and shooting him in the head. In the same moment Daryl punched on of the guys as Michonne shot another. The big guy quickly grabs up Carl, "I'll kill him. I'll-- I'll kill him!" Michonne turned the gun to him, "Let the boy go!" Daryl stomped in the head of another before I pulled the knife from Joe's dead hand. "He's mine." I said to Michonne not letting my gaze off the man. The man dropped Carl and his knife and put his hands up as I walked towards him. "Stay back, stay back." The man warned as I stabbed into him. Michonne grabbed Carl pulling him close as I pulled the knife in and out of the man, over and over.

Flashback

I followed Hershel to a spot in the yard, "Here." I looked at him confused, "What is?" Hershel looks to me, "Those feral pigs in the forest, it doesn't take much to domesticate them. Same with the horses we've seen. We have seeds. We can grow our own food. It's time we started planting." I nod, "Okay." Hershel shakes his head softly, "Can't do it myself." He was asking me to help, but I couldn't do it. I have too many people relying on me to be taking time off. I smiled softly pointing to the outside, "I got to go out there. Go on runs, be at the fences. Especially since Mads is still going on the runs, someone's got to protect her." Hershel crutches to me, "I teach you how to do this. You teach Carl and Joey. We're going to be here a while." I sigh, "They need me." "We've been here two months. You've made it work. The war is over, Rick-" He starts before I cut him off, "No, we don't know that." Hershel looks to me, "I'm talking about you. I'm saying it, and I'm saying this, you pull Carl back from going out there, fine. He shot that boy." I rub my forehead, "Yeah, I know." Hershel looks at me, "He needs his father. He needs his father to show him the way. Joey does too. What way are you going to show them? They can shoot, we know that. What's their life going to be? What's yours?" Hershel pauses for a minute, "All this. I'm just saying everything because I owe you. We all owe you. We can make this better now." I sigh, "Things changing in here doesn't change things out there." Hershel nods, "No, it doesn't. But we're here today, right now. This is a good place to start." I hear Daryl's motorcycle start and I look to it then back to Hershel, "There's a run soon. I've got to go." Hershel shakes his head, "No you don't." I look at him for a moment before heading to the car Madison and I were taking.

As I walk up to the car, Madison turns revealing her small bump. It wasn't very big yet, but enough to say she was pregnant. She smiles at me brightly, "Hey you. You didn't wake me up, where'd you go?" I kissed her softly, "You needed the rest. I was out in the field with Hershel." She nodded before grabbing a tote to put into the car, "What about?" I took the tote from her, which of course got me an eyeroll from her before putting it in the car, "He wants me to step back. To focus more on life in here rather than out there. He wants me to teach Carl and Joey how to start the garden." Madison stayed quiet causing me to look at her, "You agree with him?" Madison tucked a piece of hair behind her ear, "I mean Rick, you know I love you, and we all owe it to you for being here, but maybe you need a break. You've worked so hard for all of us, maybe it's our turn to give it back for you." I smiled slightly as she leaned in and kissed me.

END OF FLASHBACK

I sat there looking at my bloodied knuckles. The previous hours playing in my mind, after I snapped it was all adrenaline that took over. Daryl walked over to me pulling a rag out of his pocket and pouring some water on it. I waved my hand at him, "We should save it to drink." Daryl gave it to me anyways, "You can't see yourself, he can." He sits down next to me as I wipe myself off. He looks to me, "I didn't know what they were." I nod before looking at him, "How'd you wind up with them?" He lifts the familiar 22 necklace from his neck showing me before dropping it and looking down, "I was with Joey and Beth. We all got out together. I was with them for a while." My heart dropped seeing the necklace she hadn't taken off since Shane had died, "Are they dead?" Daryl looks back up to me, "They're just gone." I took a deep breath, "Was Madison with you?" Daryl shook his head, "I thought if she didn't get out with Joey, she was with you." It was silent until he went back to what happened after Joey and Beth, "After that, that's when they found me. I mean, I knew they were bad, but they had a code. It was simple. Stupid, but it was something. It was enough." I nodded, "And you were alone." Daryl sighed, "They said they were looking for some guy. Last night they said they spotted him. I was hanging back. I was gonna leave. But I stayed. That's when I saw it was you three. Right when you saw me." He paused, "I didn't know what they could do." He looked down. He felt guilty for what had happened last night, I knew he did. I look to him, "It's not on you, Daryl." He didn't look at me, "Hey. It's not on you. You being back with us here, now, that's everything. You're my brother." We shared eye contact and the weight of those words led heavy between us. "Hey, what you did last night... anybody would have done that." Daryl told me and I shook my head, "No, not that. Something happened." Daryl shook his head, "That ain't you." I sighed, "Daryl, you saw what I did to Tyreese." The same unknowing feeling came last night, that came that day. I continued, "It ain't all of it, but that's me. That's why I'm here now. That's why Carl is. I want to keep him safe. That's all that matters."