meanstreak
rick grimes 𝘹 fem!𝘰𝘤
© WANDARYEN ──── 2024

It's been five days since we made the deal with the scavengers. There was momentary peace in Alexandria — no word from Negan and the saviors after their last visit searching for Daryl.

Rick and I have been on the road for two whole days searching for guns — food, ammunition, clothes, anything for our community. We trekked from house to house. Searching between neighborhoods that have been untouched.

We've managed to fill several containers with cans of food and things for Judith. Such as blankets, toys, and books to help her grow.

Two days on the road and my stomach was beginning to show more visibly under my shirts. I kept a small notepad with me constantly to track my days and weeks throughout my pregnancy. We had no doctor at Alexandria — Tara was only taught a few things before Denise died. I've learned several things from my father and tried my best to remember everything I was taught when Lori was pregnant.

I was nearing the end of my third month. Almost 18 weeks into the pregnancy and I wasn't slowing down.

If anything, it made my relationship with Rick more intense. Besides my obvious emotional hormones that put me in a spiral every time he's in a dangerous situation.

But when there's even an inkling that I could lose him — a glimmer of fear in my system that he could disappear right in front of me, I constantly pull him closer. It strengthened our relationship, our marriage, made everything more worth it in the end when we spend time pouring our hearts out to each other.

I knew deep down he was terrified of the saviors but he refused to show it. Between every day that passes, his lingering gaze on my stomach lasts longer and longer — anticipating the arrival of our child. The one thing that could bring him eternal happiness.

Carl, Judith, and I were always going to be enough. But he wasn't going to stop fighting against the saviors until we could all live happily in Alexandria as a family.

We walked towards a large fence side by side — a high school laying waste in front of us on the other side of the fence. A smile stretched across my lips when I turned to him, raising my eyebrows. "Think this is the winner?"

"Well, let's have a look, shall we?" He grinned while pulling out his ax and banging it against the metal pole.

A second later a walker appeared on the other side. The sun casting a shadow of its body frame from behind the tarp that was placed on the fence to keep stragglers out.

It appeared in a military uniform – the familiar green colors staring right back at us with a rifle strapped to its back. My eyebrows raised once again, my smile growing bigger with the realization we might've just hit the jackpot.

Whether it was twenty, or forty — maybe even just two, it was more guns than we had before.

"It's guns like that, that's why we're out here." Rick spoke while I pulled out my knife and plunged it in the walker's skull through the fence.

When we got on the other side, I picked up the large gun with both of my hands while Rick kneeled down and started inspecting the empty bullet casings. I tilted my head curiously and watched as he brought one to his nose.

"Yeah. These are serious rounds." He held the same bullet up in my direction for me to see. "Might be serious guns here, too." I nodded in agreement and stepped back once he returned to his feet. Without another word, he took the gun from my grasp and pulled it over his shoulder — earning a smile from me in return.

We walked around the perimeter of the school. A school bus silently waiting for our approach. "Let's get a better look," Rick gestured towards the bus that would give us the advantage to climb on top of the roof. "Think you can manage that?"

I nodded. "Yup." I braced my hands on the hood of the bus, Rick bending his knees behind me and allowing me to use his hands as leverage to climb on top. I was careful enough not to let my stomach hit the giant vehicle — but the climbing immediately took me out of breath.

"You got it," he encouraged while climbing up after me.

"Oh, I still got it," I grinned playfully before repeating the same action with Rick to get on top of the roof.

We stood shoulder to shoulder with my breathing slightly heavier. He reached for my shoulder and massaged it tenderly, "watch your step." He gestured towards the puddles of water across the roof.

My eyes immediately tracked every step I took, instant memories of a run I did long ago with the others. We carefully moved closer towards the edge of the roof — our sights landing on the crowd of walkers lazily walking around below us.

Before everything ended, before nature started taking back what was rightfully hers — the high school held a fair. Leftover food carts, games, and rides untouched at the back of the school. More military guard uniforms mozied around with guns on their backs.

I exhaled heavily with relief. "This is probably the best view I've seen in weeks."

"We hit the jackpot," Rick nodded.

I carefully turned back around, ready to climb down and get my feet on solid ground. "Deja vu anyone?"

"What?"

"Oh, right." I laughed softly, slowly stretching my arms out to keep my balance after stepping across a mysterious puddle. "Our first fight as a non-married couple — I checked the grocery store with Daryl, Michonne and the others. The entire roof caved in with a crashed helicopter — walkers started falling out of the sky."

He appeared next to me instantly and reached for my arm, guiding me across the water with his head tilting backwards. "Oohh." He nodded knowingly. "Ah yes, you mean after lying to my face saying you didn't love me?"

I shook my head with a cheeky grin. "I thought we moved past that." Once we got on the other side of the puddle, I turned to him with my head tilting. "Hey, I almost died and that's what you recall from this memory?"

He bit down on his lower lip but the corner of his mouth twitched upwards. "You physically ripped my heart out of my chest — " He motioned his hand dramatically over his heart before propping his hands on his waist. "And stomped on it with those little stompy boots you wear occasionally."

I slowly shook my head, grabbing a fistful of his shirt and pulling him closer to me. "And I'm spending every moment making it up to you." I smiled wide and leaned up on my toes to capture his lips, but the roof began cracking and suddenly we were freefalling into the building.

A petrified scream escaped my lips but calmness immediately filled me when my back collided with soft bedding material — followed by the insulation from the roof.

I couldn't even stop myself from bursting out laughing. Rick was frantically moving beside me to check my body for any wounds but all I could do was continue to laugh. My stomach shook and my heart wavered with joy.

"Sienna." His hands reached for my face, thumbs brushing away the tears rolling down my cheeks as I continued to laugh. '"Are you alright?"

I nodded slowly, gently pushing his hands away before sitting up on my elbows. "I can't believe that just happened!" With my continuous laughter, Rick finally started joining in as well – falling back on the broken ceiling with his arm thrown over his face.

I used the heel of my hand to brush the remaining tears from my face before allowing my gaze to wander around the room. My eyes grew wide, "Rick. Sweetheart — " I quickly tapped his leg then pointed towards the large food supplies in various stacks scattered across the room. "Look."

He sat up straight with his lips parting in shock. "Oh, my God."

We climbed off the broken roof and scavaged around the entire room. It was a cafeteria — filled with hundreds of packers of MRE's. Clothes, bedding, hygiene supplies, and anything else useful to bring back home. The hope I lost at the Kingdom was slowly returning after this one event.

Rick lit probably a hundred little candles around the entire room before building me a comfortable sitting spot with multiple pillows and blankets.

I bit my lower lip happily as I watched him open several MRE packets, designing a four course meal for the both of us. But with my sensitive stomach, I forced him to find a corner in the room to cook — in which he happily complied.

"Right here?" He asked with a wide smile.

I waved my hand with a shake of my head, the distance between us growing further and further while I laughed. "Little further — if I smell it, I'll get sick!"

He bowed his head and shook it with laughter. "Alright, alright. How about here?" I nodded and held my thumb up in his direction. "Good because if I go back any further I'll end up outside."

I watched as he started unpacking the food, putting each package in specific piles before starting to cook everything necessary. "If there's any cheese crackers — they're mine," I insisted playfully before spinning around to continue my exploration.

"Whatever you want, baby."

My smile stretched further as I started ripping open a box. Large packs of batteries were stacked neatly inside, followed by a large cassette boombox. "Shut up," I gasped happily and quickly plucked the object out of the box. "What is it?" Rick asked from across the room.

"There's music!" My eyes widened with excitement, placing the music player on the ground before I started digging through other boxes to find CDs and cassettes. His soft laughter echoed behind me.

I carefully kneeled down on the ground and started switching the batteries. Taking out the old ones and replacing them with new ones before sticking a CD inside. "They must've brought this for entertainment — I mean, how else are you going to house hundreds of people and not provide anything to keep them calm?"

"I think you're right. Pretty considerate of them."

I nodded in agreement and the first song started to play, which caused my heart to blossom with happiness again.

I stood back up while wiping my palms against my jeans, turning to face Rick but caught him jogging towards me. His arms circled around my waist and I was immediately lifted off the ground, spinning around in a circle without my feet touching the floor.

Our laughter mixed together — creating its own harmony with the soft instrumental music playing in the background.

"How is it?" I asked while leaning my chin in the palm of my hand, happily watching Rick devour his food. "Worth falling through the ceiling?"

"Worth everything," he nodded, shoving a large spoonful into his mouth like a toddler.

I giggled softly, picking up another cheese cracker and popping it into my mouth. I've eaten enough that would last someone the entire week — but with the growing infant in my womb, I knew I was going to be hungry again in the next hour.

"Okay," I tapped my fingers against the folded box we used as a small table. Rick lifted his gaze to meet mine, "yeah?"

"We go out there and get the weapons, then we get Jadis and her people to fight with us." I pursed my lips slowly before exhaling heavily a sudden breath. "We're going to kill Negan and anyone else that's going to keep us from surviving." He nodded silently while he continued to munch on his food. "What does that mean for us — afterwards. Will Alexandria have a chance?"

He lowered the package after tucking his spoon inside. "After that we keep going," he responded softly. "Right?"

I nodded in agreement. "Right, but I was wondering something." I tucked my hands in between my legs and tilted my head curiously. "Daryl said there's workers there at this sanctuary. People forced to comply to Negan — is it possible we save them? Would they come back with us?"

"Is that what you want?" His eyebrows furrowed questionably.

I raised my right shoulder before letting it drop. "If there's still good people — if they're just fighting for a chance to survive, I want to help them." I leaned forward, my stomach lightly pressing against the box. "The girl who saved me after the accident, Madison — she started traveling with the saviors because she had nowhere else to go. I — would like to think she's a good person. I think she would help us in the fight and if everyone is willing, I was wondering if she could come back to Alexandria with us."

I watched him place the package on top of the box before reaching over and tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. His fingers grazed my skin in the process, causing my lips to twitch upwards with a smile.

"You're so good," he whispered softly. "You want to see the best in everybody."

"Because it's who we are," I responded gently, leaning closer to him across the box. "Like the prison — we rescued those people out of Woodbury and gave them a place to call home."

"It might be different this time," he admitted.

I lowered my gaze and nodded knowingly. There was no solid chance we could save absolutely everyone — it was unclear how much Negan got into their heads and wiped away all their hopes. Carl didn't give me every detail of what he witnessed at the sanctuary — most likely sparing me all the horrible details that would leave me traumatized as both a woman and a mother.

But I could imagine that these people, the workers, didn't have the option to leave. I couldn't begin to imagine the fear he put inside them so they never felt the urge to leave.

"Hey," Rick tilted his head and I brought my gaze back towards him. "I'm willing to set aside fifty packages of cheese crackers for you and the baby if that's what it takes."

I immediately shook my head with gentle laughter. "With how much I've been managing to store, it could be twins. Could be triplets — "

"Jesus," he muttered softly, fighting back a smile with his head lowering. My soft giggles turned to full wholehearted laughter. Slightly leaning back to hold my hand over my stomach with fresh tears forming in my eyes.

He raised his head back up and the smile that caused me to stumble repeatedly stretched even wider. "God, I love your laugh."

My cheeks grew numb from how wide I was smiling, unable to shake the blush forming on my face entirely. I pressed my palms across the floor and stood up on the floor, now extending my hand out for him to take.

The instrumental music continued to play at a low volume beside us, which added extra background noise to block out all the walkers still lingering outside the high school.

He took my hand and stood up, wrapping one arm around my waist and guiding us towards a clear space in the center of the room. He shifted from one foot to the other and I followed, my eyes locking with his as we fell into a slow dance.

"I'm sorry I couldn't give you the wedding of your dreams," he whispered down to me.

"It's okay," I smiled brightly. "There's still time. After all this is over — maybe that could be our first big celebration."

He nodded in agreement, lowering his head closer and capturing my lips with his. "I love you." His nose nudged gently against mine and I gave him another soft kiss with my hand holding the back of his neck. "I love you more."

"Not a chance," he laughed softly.

We remained swaying in the same position — allowing the music to carry between us with our heads resting against each other peacefully.

I dropped my other hand from his and loosely wrapped my arms around his neck. "Thank you for giving me the life I deserved," I spoke softly with my eyes closed. His fingers slowly trailed up my spine as we continued to sway side to side. "It's not nearly enough. But one day, soon, I'll give you everything and more."

I shook my head, placing my hand on his cheek. "Just you." I tilted my head backwards to capture his gaze with a lingering smile.

His chest rose and fell heavily, a soft sigh escaping him before he leaned back down for another kiss. His hands shifted and suddenly I was lifted into his arms bridal style — our lips connecting again and I allowed him to carry me to our makeshift bed.

Once my back collided gently with the blankets and pillows, I forgot about everything else and allowed his kisses to wander down my body. Each grasp against my hips and thighs had me gasping for air. Everything else in the world was a distant thought. My entire focus was centered on the man that brought me complete bliss in every way.

"I have an idea." It was the first thing Rick said after we hid behind a large dumpster, carefully taking a look at the walkers wandering around the open field across from us. "We take care of the ones out here, block that gap, too, and we can take the rest slow."

Without turning my head, I furrowed my eyebrows at the man. "So we just — run out there like two crazy people and start chopping off heads? Aren't we overselling ourselves here?"

He rolled his lips inwards slowly. "That's not what I meant at all."  He bobbed his head around and gestured towards a vehicle with his ax. "That car — I can block it up. I can take out that one on the way. You draw the rest."

I immediately gestured toward my stomach in disbelief and tilted my head to the side. "She's not walker proof."

"She?" His eyebrows raised with a mischief glimmer in his eyes. I narrowed my eyes more firmly and he sighed in defeat. "We could shoot them, but that would call the rest from the field." He tilted his head back and gazed up at the dumpster. "Okay, how about you climb on top, take my ax and hack them from up there. Draw them towards you while I get the car."

I rolled my eyes and snatched the red handled machete from his waist — leaving him his ax. "Suddenly I'm Anakin Skywalker doing all these stunts." I carefully climbed on top of the dumpster with Rick's help boosting me up. I banged the machete against the side, drawing in the eight walkers in the field one by one.

He sprinted towards the car and I got down on my hands and knees carefully. The few walkers crowded the dumpster and I pulled the machete back before chopping down on the first head, then quickly yanking it out. Repeating the same action several times until they were all dead.

I managed to climb down the dumpster with only minimum struggle before running towards Rick and getting behind the car to help.

"I can push." He insisted.

"So can I," I scolded. "I'm not entirely useless."

"Didn't say that!" He muttered defensively, earning a grin from me in return. "Focus on steering us in that gap," I nodded towards the fence. He shot me a quick look from over his shoulder before jumping into the car and closing the door.

"Shit," I heard him from the opening of the trunk. "The brakes don't work."

I immediately stopped pushing out of annoyance and allowed my shoulders to slack. "Of course they don't."

Gunfire went off towards my right and I quickly ducked down, holding my arms over my head. "Sienna!" I ignored his yelling, briefly capturing a glimpse of a walker that got tangled in a truck towards the distance. Whatever he was stuck on was causing the weapon to fire off random bullets in my general direction.

I did the first thing I could think of and jumped into the truck of the car, slamming the door closed once the gunfire stopped and the car came to a sudden halt.

"Sienna," his voice carried. "Please tell me you're okay."

"I'm fine." I squinted past the darkness inside the trunk. "Are you okay? You were more freaked out than I was."

"Smartass." I grinned at his comment. "Sienna?"

"Yes, my love."

"You think we over shot it?"

I hummed softly. "Want me to say I told you so?"

"Don't you dare."

I giggled softly before kicking the back seat of the car and creating a passageway for me to shimmy through. Rick reached out for me by helping me to my feet before we both climbed out the sunroof of the car.

He grabbed my hand and helped me leap off the hood of the car and over a small metal fence that separated us from the walkers. "Oh, I like this ride," I commented while briefly inspecting the giant swing ride.

"We'll do it here," Rick gestured towards the walkers.

I nodded, pulling out his ax again. "Alright." But we only managed to take out maybe five or ten all together before the metal fence started buckling before us. "It's not going to hold," I pointed out, my eyes slowly widening as I watched it completely fall in front of us. "Well, there it goes."

Rick snatched my freehand and started dragging me away. "You're playing too much." We ran together across the field hand in hand — my lungs unable to catch up with me every time I breathed heavily out of my mouth.

We stopped abruptly reaching the end of the fairgrounds. Rick spun around quickly to check our surroundings. "If we split off into smaller groups it might help our chances. You take the slide, I take the ferris wheel?"

I nervously watched the walkers grow closer with a shrug of my shoulders. "Or we could just go," he continued. "You want to go?"

I shook my head and started backing away towards the slide. "No, we need these weapons and we're not leaving without them."

"We can do this!" He shouted while running towards the ferris wheel.

I got behind the fence that separated the ride from the walkers. It was bigger compared to the one at the swings — only intended to hold the waiting lines for the ride.

Having Rick's machete was a blessing and gave me a better ability to kill any walkers at arm's length. "How you doing?!" I shouted across the way.

"Eight more! How about you?"

"Uhm," I moved my head around while mentally counting the few still leftover in front of me. "Seven!" The weapon in my grasp moved side to side — cutting heads off or in half and watching them drop to the ground with a thud.

Across the field, Rick began climbing up the ferris wheel and my heart stumbled against my chest. "What are you doing!?" I shouted loudly.

"I think I see something — !" The seat gave out from under him and his entire body disappeared from my line of sight. The same image I saw when Jadis pushed him down the mountain of garbage and he ended up fighting for his life against a walker death trap.

"Rick!" I used the sudden adrenaline in my system to take down the rest of the walkers in front of me before climbing over the fence. With the machete still tightly in my grasp, I charged towards the ferris wheel mentally pleading that he was alright; only to find a group of walkers on the ground gnawing on his body.

I stumbled backwards with the weapon slightly slipping from my grasp. Tears welled in my eyes and my bottom lip began to tremble. The familiar burning sensation formed in my throat as I tried to keep myself from crying out loud.

One walker eating at his body stood up and turned to me. Blood dripped down his face with a handful of guts dangling between its fingers. The sight was repulsive and I got the immediate wave of nausea curling up my throat.

Something out of the corner of my eye shifted but I didn't have the strength to look. All sense of survival went out the window just seeing the love of my life get torn apart in front of me. There was no word to describe the heartbreak trembling against my chest.

"Hey! Look at me! Sienna, look at me!"

I finally turned to the sound of the voice calling out for me, warm tears streaming down my face but air suddenly returning in my lungs as Rick ran towards me.

I breathed in deep, as if I was drowning in the ocean and finally reached the surface for air. He used one hand to wield the gun, shooting at walkers while using the ax in his other to slash against their heads.

It brought back the original motivation to finish our mission together. My gaze continuously traveled back to Rick every other second and once all the bodies stopped moving, I rushed into his waiting arms.

"It's alright," he breathed heavily into my hair while rubbing the back of my head. "I'm here, I'm not going anywhere."

My fingers clutched the back of his drenched shirt from sweat. My face buried in his chest with lingering tears trailing down my cheeks. "Don't ever do that again," I responded sternly. "Please."

His hands reached for my face and forced me to look up. "I won't — I promise." I nodded once and forced my head back into his chest. His arms wrapped around me tightly and the baby growing in my belly twirled with delight feeling his presence once again.

dylan
everything about them is so important to me