What Lies Ahead | Rick Grimes

Chapter 2: Becoming Friends

It had been five days since Hayley had opened the bakery and business was good. She had managed to hire people to help around the shop. Mary was an older lady in her 50's who had years of baking experience so she helped out in the kitchens and there was Chloe who was fresh out of collage and needed the work. She helped Hayley behind the counter and looked after the place while Hayley ran errands or went to pick up Will.

Over the past couple days Rick and Shane had been almost every morning for breakfast. Except today it was just Shane and Hayley felt slightly disappointed that Rick hadn't been there. She had gotten to know the two officers since she saw them everyday, she found them easy to talk to and would find herself getting lost in conversation with them. She even sat down with them while they ate yesterday. So far she'd found out that Shane was a ladies man who flirted with anyone including her, although she just laughed it off, he wasn't really her type. Rick however never flirted with her he was always a gentlemen, she'd found out that he had a son named Carl who was a couple years younger than her own. She assumed that he was divorced due to the lack of a ring on his finger though he never talked about it and she wasn't going to bring it up, she knew from personal experience how painful that could be.

It was almost three o'clock and Hayley was preparing to go pick up Will from school when the bell chimed above the door. Hayley turned and smiled at the person walking towards the counter. "Hey Rick what can I get you today?"

Rick smiled at her as he walked up to the counter, Hayley noticed that he wasn't in his Sheriffs uniform so he must have the day off, "One chocolate chip muffin and one chocolate brownie please Hayley"

Hayley nodded and immediately got to work on getting his order ready placing the two items into a small cardboard box. As she was heading back towards him Rick's phone went off. The look on Rick's face told Hayley that he was extremely annoyed by whoever it was as he signalled that he was going to take the call outside.

Hayley watched Rick through the window as he paced stopping briefly to run a hand through his hair in frustration. When Rick came in the happiness was completely gone from his features.

"Everything okay there officer" Hayley asked softly

"It's supposed to be the start of my weekend off with my son but I've been called into work. Lori's gonna kill me" he muttered that last part to himself.

Hayley bit her lip debating with herself before finally making up her mind "how long will you be at work for?"

"A couple of hours, why?" Rick asked looking at her with furrowed brows

"Well I'm going to pick up Will so if you want I could bring your son back here with me and watch him for a couple of hours?" Hayley offered

"I couldn't ask you to do that"

"You're not asking I'm offering. They could sit and do homework even help me bake if they want, honestly Rick it's no problem at all"

Rick seemed to think about it for a moment before agreeing "okay I'll find a way to repay you I promise"

"No need for that, now schools getting out soon so we should probably go meet the boys and explain everything" She didn't need him to pay her back for this, he was already doing that by being kind to her and coming into her shop everyday.

The two adults decided to take their two separate cars that way Rick could go straight down to the station after seeing Carl. Normally Rick wouldn't trust someone he'd only met with his son so soon after meeting them but he trusted Hayley she was kind, he'd gotten to know her rather well over the past couple days and he could tell she was an excellent mother.