A/N: I won't be updating Wild Heart again for a while. 6B is about to start, and I'm going to be engrossed in that. This story is not being labeled as "Complete" because I may come back to it at some point in the future. But I didn't want to leave you totally hanging after Chapter 17's ending. So while this isn't a full chapter, let's consider it an addendum, if you will.

Obviously, not everyone will agree with the views presented here. This is a story, not a sermon.

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For a moment, Michonne couldn't breathe. She just stared at Rick, and his expression reflected the same shock she was feeling. Finally, she swallowed hard and cleared her throat.

"Well, there's nothing to be done about it now. When we get back to Alexandria, I'll visit Denise and see if she has any boxes of the morning-after pill." Rick gazed at her silently for a long moment, his expression even, before getting up and padding into the adjoining bathroom to clean himself up. Still naked, she followed after him, very conscious of the fact that the wetness she felt between her legs was not just the remnants of her own arousal, but also his seed. "What?" she asked. "What is it?"

"Nothin'," he muttered. He concentrated on washing up, using some of the pitcher of clean water that had been left in the bathroom, as the Hilltop did not have running water.

"Don't do that, Rick," she insisted, laying a hand on her shoulder. "Don't say it's 'nothing.' I know you're worried, but it's okay. I'll take care of it."

"No, that's —" he stopped short and jerked his head downward. "You do what you feel you have to do, okay?"

As he finished washing up and returned to bed, she leaned against the edge of the bathroom countertop, realization dawning on her. "You don't want me to go to Denise, do you?"

He didn't speak at first, and instead simply sat down and leaned back against the headboard. He seemed to be thinking carefully about what he wanted to say. Eventually, he replied quietly, "The last time I told a woman she shouldn't do that, she died in childbirth." He held his open hands in front of himself in a helpless gesture. "I'm not wise enough to make decisions like that, to tell you what you should and shouldn't do."

She joined him on the bed, sitting down next to him and leaning her head into the crook of his shoulder. He put his arm around her. Gently, she said, "From what I understand, Lori was several weeks along. We're only talking about a couple of cells, Rick. If there's even anything there at all."

"I know," he sighed, taking her hand in his and rubbing her circles in her palm with his thumb. "I know."

"Tell me," she prompted quietly. When he shook his head slightly, she insisted, "Tell me."

"You know I'm not a religious man," he murmured. "My grandparents took me to church when I was a kid, but... I don't know if there is no God, or if we're just too small for him to pay attention to. Like us with ants as we walk by. But I have to believe we have souls, Michonne. That somehow, somewhere, Lori is happy and safe, and so is everyone else we lost. Mike and Andre, too." She nodded, blinking back a few tears, but let him go on. "And I don't know how that happens for sure. But it makes sense to me that if we do have souls, that they're a part of us right from the beginning. Otherwise, when does it happen? When do we get them?" He let out a shaky breath. "I might have it all wrong, but... it doesn't feel right to just... get rid of it."

She bit her lip contemplatively. "I don't think either of us is ready for a baby."

"Even if the baby's already there?"

She pulled back slightly and insisted more firmly, "Even if there is something there, still: it's not a baby, Rick. Not yet."

He gazed into her eyes for a moment before replying quietly, "It's the start of one." He sighed. "It's your body, Michonne. I can't tell you what do. But you asked how I feel, so... so there it is."

She nuzzled her head against his chest and draped one of her legs over his, getting as close to him as she could. "Okay," she said softly.

He pulled back slightly to look at her. "Okay, what?"

"Okay, we'll do this your way. I don't really feel the same about it, but I see what you're saying."

Hesitatingly, he asked, "Is this going to change the way you feel about us? You wanted to take it slow, and this is the opposite of slow."

"The only thing it changes is making me want to be with you even more," she assured him. "If we're doing this, we're doing it together. I... I need you."

He bent his neck and leaned down to kiss her forehead. "I do love you, you know that? Baby or no baby. It's okay for us to take it at whatever pace you want. Just don't ever doubt how much I care for you."

She smiled against his chest. "I won't."

Sometime later, his breathing became deep and even. She glanced out the window next to their bed to see the night sky filled with brilliant stars, shining like diamonds on a bed of blue-black velvet. Gently, she pressed her lips to his warm skin. She whispered, "I love you, too" to a sleeping Rick. Or she thought he was sleeping. But he wasn't; he had heard her, and even as he gave no outward sign so as not to scare her away, still his heart felt fuller than it had in a very long time.