Sneaky

Chapter 164

"Everybody ok?"

Everyone in the room turned to the tomb's door where Rick was coming in.

"Yeah we are." Maggie answered, surprised and hopeful to see him. He's been down there for hours, and the fresh shirt and lack of blood on him is a welcome sight, though she's not quite sure how he managed that since this is the first she's seen him back in the cell block.

"What about you?" Hershel asked, fixing concerned wary eyes on him.

"Cleared out the boiler block." Rick answered, grimly. He looks and sounds and feels like a vague puppet of himself. A heavy shadow.

"How many were there?" Daryl asked, watching him the same way Hershel is but with a little less trepidation and wondering more if Rick's back to be back or just back to check in. He didn't actually expect to see him so soon. It feels too soon for him to have his shit back together.

"I don't know. A dozen. Two dozen." Rick answered absently, his shoulders heavy and hunched forward. It's strange seeing him slouch and not standing up tall and proud. He looks...like a wandering soul. Not lost but no idea where he's going.

"I have to get back. Just wanted to check on Carl." Rick patted his son's back and Carl just stared down into his bowl on the table, picking at it with the spoon. He's barely taken a few bites and that's only because Eve was watching him earlier. Each warm pat on his back felt like an epipen of relief, allowing him to breathe again for a few seconds. But he couldn't enjoy it because his dad wasn't staying. Honestly all he wants right now is to whip around and grab onto his dad and beg him not to leave him alone again but he's tired. He's so tired and drained he barely has the energy to close his eyes and savor the brief reassuring contact from the shell of his father.

"Rick, we can handle taking out the bodies. Kay, you don't have to." Glenn tried, not even trying to not sound like he's on the edge of pleading.

"No I do." Rick immediately denied the help without even looking at him. Same way he always does when he makes a mess and feels the need to rectify it with his own hands, in a desperate attempt to feel like he's still in control.

Glenn understands everybody grieves in their own way and he's not trying to get in the way but should they really let him do this all by himself? He's worried about him, and Carl. He's been desperately trying to find anything he can to help them feel even just a little bit better, or at least not alone, but Rick's made it very clear that he wants to isolate himself and Carl's become a tin boy. A robot, just going through the motions and shutting access down to everyone except Eve.

Without making the conscious decision Glenn looked to Eve for guidance, no idea what he had wanted to find but somehow it felt like he'd found what he was looking for, just seeing her eyes on Rick, pensive and watching in her ever calm observant manner.

Rick glanced at Glenn and followed his gaze.

He turned, spotting Eve sat beside Daryl on the stairs to the outside and crossed the room in a few long strides.

She immediately stood up, although a bit slowly as her muscles still ache from sleeping on a dusty stone floor last night, and wrapped her arms around his shoulders.

It felt a little weird, there's only a few people she's readily used to making such physical contact with and Rick isn't one of them but she did it without thinking, just following the instinct that said he needed it.

He's been looking at the floor since the minute he walked in and if it had been anyone except Rick, who seems to do nothing but look directly at the person he's talking to or at least some kind of gesture or posture which sends a clear message that he's listening, she might've brushed it off.