Love's Conquer

Pretty Much Dead Already Part Two

I couldn't help but wonder what my role was within this group. Am I the heroine? Am I the body armer? Or am I just the outsider? I don't know. I care for them all like family but how long have I even been amongst them? Around a month I would guess. It's crazy how how quickly attachments can form in such a short space of time but it does just feel like we've all known each other for years. These thoughts were swirling around in my mind as I made my way towards the Greene' house.

"Bella!" Rick raised his voice as he grabbed my arm, forcing me to a halt in-front of him. "I've been calling out to you an you jus' kept walkin'."

My harsh frown soon lightened, as I shook away the lingering questions in my head. "I'm sorry, I was miles away."

Rick softly nodded, releasing his hand from around my forearm. "Why'd you lie back there?" He questioned, narrowing his eyes at me. "Was it to protect what happened yesterday?"

I couldn't help but let out a scoff as I ran my tongue along my bottom lip, shaking my head in annoyance. "You seriously think I just lied to protect yesterday? Nothin' even happened."

"You think yesterday was nothin'?" Rick singled out my words, which caught me off guard completely. I held my gaze with him, until I couldn't and I began walking off again.

Rick ran in-front of me and grabbed my wrist to pull me down along the side of the house. "Rick, let it go." I ordered.

"I can't!" He whisper shouted, releasing me once we were out of sight and began pacing back and forth. "I can't stop thinkin' about you. Do you realise how wrong that is? How bad that makes me?"

And there it was, the guilt. It was eating away at him just as it had been eating away at me too. "Rick—"

"No! No, Bella. Don't you see? I forgave Lori for Shane, but here I am bein' unfaithful to my wife. An it's worse than what they did cause' she thought I was dead. An here I am with the chance to make my family work but I can't because I'm in love with someone else." I could see Rick' eyes begin to swell up as he spoke and I couldn't help but feel for him.

I swallowed my feelings and took a step towards him, placing my hands on his shoulders. "Rick, you've become one of the most important people in my life an regardless of what this is, lovin' someone other than who you're supposed to does not make you a bad person." I lightly rubbed his shoulders with my thumbs as I spoke, looking up at him as he looked down at me. "I told you yesterday, I will always be by your side an I meant that. But you also have to be by Lori' side. We can't be selfish here. We jus' can't. An quite frankly, I don't wanna lose you as my best friend."

Rick let a tear drop as we held our gaze before he pulled me into an embrace. "Thank you." He whispered, as if my words were exactly what he needed to hear.

"Now, c'mon. We have a man with gorgeous white hair to talk to." I smirked slightly, forcing a chuckle from his mouth as we walked back up to the front of the house. "For the record, I didn't lie to protect yesterday."

Rick furrowed his eyebrows together before asking. "Then why?"

"To protect you, why else?" I stopped in my tracks to look back up at him. "Rick, the most important thing I learnt in the Army is that trust is vital between a team and their leader. Once that trust forms some cracks, it eventually breaks. These people, they need you, more than some of them have yet to realise. I wasn't about to let you take on somethin' you didn't need to."

"Well, thank you." Rick praised, walking up the steps to the porch. "But Belle', something you have yet to realise is that these people need you too. They didn't care that you kept it from them cause' they know they're safe with you. They trust you even when they have no clue what's goin' on. You give them hope."