Chapter Text
“I can’t do this anymore! You don’t love me, you don’t love Carl, you sure as hell don’t love this marriage.”
“Oh, c’mon. You can’t honestly believe that! Lori just calm down.”
“I’ve tried, Rick. I’ve tried, but a relationship shouldn’t be about being fucking calm.”
“Carl’s right upstairs Lori- he can hear us.”
“He’s asleep- he won’t hear a thing. But I want you to hear this Rick, and I want you to hear it well and good. We’re leaving.”
*
The alarm blared, Rick woke groggy, arm stretching across the bare expanse the bed as he shuddered in the cold air of dawn- despite the weak sunlight that filtered through the curtains, this side of Georgia hadn’t seen fit to warm up just yet.
Rick didn’t take the time to think of the silence when there should be the groans of a young man being pulled from bed by a frustrated but loving mother, the stale smell of dirty uniforms he hadn’t had time to throw in the wash instead of freshly laundered sheets and bacon sizzling crisp. This was what life was now; he had to accept it sooner or later.
Not that he hadn’t fought in the beginning, no he’d fought long and hard. But some battles couldn’t be won, and some wars were meant to end bloody.
Lori had taken her piece of him, and ripped out Carl right along with it.
All he had left were his thoughts, and this damn house, too big for one man. It was meant for a family, and Rick would’ve gladly given it up, let Carl keep his childhood home, but Lori had said, screamed really, that it wasn’t a home anymore and good riddance. She’d find somewhere else to raise her son.
Their son. No matter what she preached, Rick loved Carl and he would never be gone from his life. Not unless something took him out of it.
Lori tried, oh boy did she try, but despite her claims of neglect, Rick tried to be a good father and for the most part he was. She couldn’t keep Carl to herself, the courts ruled that, and Rick did nothing else if not follow the word of the law to the best of his abilities.
His life was cut down to work and hours spent staring at the television, images flickering across the screen unnoticed by his mind. Wallowing he supposed- no one had made note of it but who could?
His parents were long dead, no siblings to speak of and Lori’s family sure as hell weren’t going to be talking to him. Even Shane was out of the question- had been since the patrol when he’d finally chosen to tell Rick that he’d taken in his family. His wife, his son.
He had been sympathetic, sure, but with that edge to his voice that Rick surely knew meant, I want this, this is for me to keep. It was the same tone of voice he’d had when they were kids fighting over a toy, and later on, the girl who Rick had wanted, but Shane had got.
Lori was the one thing he’d ever come out on top with against Shane, even if it shamed a small part of him to think about her like that. A concession, and a lot of good it did him since she’d just gone right to Shane in the end.
He had never had much luck with women, not that he tried all that hard.
Lori had been different though, especially after Carl.
Shane had both of them now, but he would never be Carl’s father, and until that day when Carl told him to get out of his life, Rick would be there.
He’d work the job right alongside the man that was screwing his wife, raising his son. Stay in the house that held nothing but memories and pain, and he’d do it gladly so long as he got to be there for his son.
It was a lonely existence though.