Chapter 6

Rick and Carol travel companionably together. They've travelled for a few hours on their way to the town where Michonne had discovered the soaps and where they'd discovered the un-looted pharmacy. Carol had sat with her back to the door simply looking at Rick as they drove, enjoying that she could look at him to her heart's content now. Rick for the most part smiled at her every few minutes while keeping his eyes on the road. "I got some condoms." He finally breaks their comfortable silence saying something he'd wanted to say since he'd gotten in the truck with her this morning. He looks over at her only to find for the first time since they'd started travelling she isn't looking back. She has looked off into the distance and she's not smiling anymore.

Taking a deep breath she looks back at him, still not smiling but with a calm at peace look in her eyes. Rick frowns at her. Before he can say anything however she speaks. "We don't need them, Ed made me have my tubes tied after Sophia was born, said he wasn't going to be lumbered with more than one child." She speaks slowly and calmly as she says this to Rick. She knows he's will be furious, she's furious now too. Furious at herself for allowing her second chance at happiness to be taken away by Ed, he's been dead for three years and even now he's still finding ways to control her. Shaking her head Carol leans over all of a sudden laying her head down on Rick's thigh. She rubs her cheek on his flexing muscle placing her hand on his knee. Rick takes a hand off the wheel stroking it through her hair, down her neck, over her shoulder and down her waist before he rests it on the curve of her hip. He can't stop, they're following Merle and Michonne. Carol lies quietly with her eyes closed, smiling again and enjoying his touch.

Rick doesn't know what to say and then he realises he doesn't need to say anything. There is nothing they can do about it. He strokes his hand over her hip before taking her hand and holding it. They drive like that for a little while longer before Carol pulls her legs up and rolls to her back still holding Rick's hand. Then looking up at him and waiting until he looks down at her she takes his hand and drags it down to her pussy, pushing under her clothes so Rick feels her pubic hair on his palm. He groans when she pushes his fingers inside her and he feels how wet she is. He can't stop himself from leaning over and delving further into her causing her to mewl and spread her legs as much as she can in the confines of the truck cab. Rick can't watch her respond to him, he has to keep his eyes on the road. But God she is wet, wet for him he thinks. He never thought she'd like and want him, but she does. He plays his fingers over her clit, slides them in small circles driving her crazy and she moans for him again. He's loving the sounds she makes. "Play with your nipples for me, I want you to do that while I make you come." He can see out of the corner of his eye that she is complying with his request, pulling her loose shirts up and pushing her bra down making her breasts poke up impudently. Her nipples are already hard. She raises a hand to his mouth pushing in her fingers and he knows instinctively he has to wet them for her. Then she brings her saliva-covered fingers back and places them on her right nipple.

Rick risks a glance down to see his spit on her nipple as she strokes it. His cock is pushing against his jeans insistently. He looks back up the road again. He can't keep looking at Carol, as much as he wants to. He leans over a little more and hears Carol inhale deeply. "What?" He asks without looking down, continuing to move his fingers over her clit.

"Nothing, just like your smell." He smiles at her admission. He loves her smell. He circles his fingers a little faster around her clit, still barely touching it, ghosting over it each time, then when he feels her hips move up a little he firmly slides his fingers over it, again and again. Getting a little firmer each time he does. He hears Carol moan again and can see both her hands touching her nipples now, pinching and pulling at them. And then he feels her clit jerk under his fingers as it starts pulsing uncontrollably. And a deep groan is pulled from Carol as her back arches off the seat exposing her neck. Rick wants to suck on her neck and leave a mark there, like Michonne does to Merle. Week after week no sooner has one mark faded than she puts another one on him. Merle wears them with pride. Rick would wear anything Carol put on him with pride too. He stops moving his fingers when he feels Carol take hold of his wrist, stilling him. He slowly drags himself away from her warmth, sliding his fingers up her stomach, tweaking a nipple on the way past and stroking them over her face. But before she can take his fingers in her mouth he lifts them to his own, sliding them in and licking her off him. Slowly and thoroughly. He hears Carol's in drawn breath as he does so but merely flicks a quick gaze down at her. She adjusts her clothing and sits up reaching for his jeans but he drops his hand forestalling her.

"No, I don't want to come until I can come inside you, tonight." He looks over at her, his eyes are heavy-lidded with arousal and hers flare in return. But she nods. And leans back against the door again continuing to look at him. She is smiling again.

"Want to move in together when we get back?" She asks the question evenly and without inflection. Rick looks over at her for a few seconds before looking back at the road.

"I thought you'd never ask." He doesn't say anything more, he doesn't need to. It is enough for now. 'You won't mind sharing with Judith as well?" He needs to check this though. Carol merely shakes her head. Rick nods in the affirmative again and they lapse back into their comfortable silence.

They pull up beside Merle and Michonne's truck an hour or so later. The all work together companionably filling the fuel drums. Rick and Carol take a look in the office of the gas station for anything useful. They load up some more mechanical items and take all the maps. Then they all drive across the street to the store and pharmacy that they'd checked last time too. This time they're looking at the back storerooms. No walkers, but evidence of death. They manage to fill the trucks again with what was left over in both storerooms. They push on toward the quarry, Merle saying they can get there before dark. And they do. It's a quiet out-of-the-way place. Completely surrounded by thick woods and a high wall made of sandstone which surprises Rick. He looks at it all carefully. Looks at the buildings while they all load up the vehicles. They're supposed to be taking a longer route back, exploring and taking a break at the same time. But suddenly Rick wants to stay here. This place looks like it could be a good back-up plan. He shakes his head as he realises it was why Merle had brought him here.

Looking over at him he shakes his head. Michonne catches his eye and raises an eyebrow in query but Rick just shakes his head again. "Could have just told me about this place you know Merle." He looks over at him as Merle stops and looks at him. He doesn't pretend not to understand.

"Wanted you to see it, see the potential." He goes back to loading salt without saying more.

"We'll need to scout the wall, see how far it goes, how secure it is." Merle merely nods.

"Figured we could split off in separate directions tomorrow, hike it. That'd be a more thorough check."

"Sounds good to me, you and Mich load this, Carol and I will check the buildings." Rick motions Carol with him and taking their weapons they start to do a full check of the buildings. They have potential. Great potential. And the land, some of it can be cleared for crops, the river running through guarantees water all the time. And from what he can see it's not overly prone to flooding. Or when it does it doesn't flood anywhere near the buildings on the property. What they clear for crops they can use to build cabins or add extensions to the buildings already here, or add rooms inside them. And they can scavenge from the town a few hours away. Rick starts to feel hope again. More than he has felt for some time. The prison is safe and secure now, but it is not a home.

He jerks and settles immediately as Carol winds her arms around him from behind. She rests her chin on his shoulder and leans against him. They stay like that for several minutes. "Come on, let's find a place to sleep." Carol lets go and grabs his hand as they walk toward the closest building. An office by the look of it.

"Daryl will like this." She speaks as they wander in and Rick knows she's right. Daryl will immediately claim it as his. And that's fine with him. But he wonders if Beth will like it. It's not large, but it is high up, airy with the windows though he imagines it'll be cold in winter. But they'll figure it out.

He can't help himself from asking "Should we christen it before he claims it?" He grins at Carol as she raises an eyebrow at him. Then she nods.

"We'll stay here then." She goes out leaving the door open and Rick follows. He'll follow her anywhere he thinks. She walks down the steps, lithe in her movements. Rick feels his cock harden in his jeans. Fuck, tonight can't come quick enough for him. He stands surveying the quarry. Where they'd mined seemed to be the only salt in the area, he was surprised the soil was in such good shape. Maybe the river had something to do with it? He shook his head heading down the steps as Carol called him. Merle and Michonne have moved the vehicles so they're not visible to anyone on the off-chance they wander in though finding this place would be hard at the best of times. In fact he realises that Merle and Michonne are going to have to lead Daryl back here to see it as well as Glenn and Maggie, he winces at that but then decides that they'll all have to live with it. He trusts Merle and Michonne not to do anything. He stops, frowning at that thought. He did trust Merle, not as much as Daryl or Glenn, but he did trust him. Enough to fight back to back with him he thought. Enough to live comfortably with him in this group. Besides, he appreciated his sense of humour even if most other's didn't.

The four of them scavenge the rest of the buildings. There is a lot of good stuff, a lot of crap as well. But they'll make do. With what they'll cart from the prison it'll make a very good home. If they vote to move that is. They find the employee's locker room and look through the lockers. Clothes they can all use. A surprising amount of condoms that Rick and Merle simply throw in a bag, they frown at each other both thinking the other should keep some. Merle breaks the silence "Mich, she had complications after her youngest was born," Rick's heart broke as he realised that Michonne and Merle wouldn't be having children as well as the fact that Michonne had had children that obviously hadn't survived. He nods.

"Ed made sure Carol couldn't have more after Sophia." He says no more but Merle's lip curls.

"Glad the fucker is dead." He says no more but Rick agrees with him. "Guess it'll be up to baby brother to see that the Dixon line continues on. And your son." He smiles at Rick before moving away. Rick realises he's figured out that Jude isn't his. He doesn't know how but he knows that Merle has figured it out.

Merle is searching another locker and lets out a hoot. "Fuckin' awesome." He says no more merely shoving the object he'd grabbed into his pocket. Rick shakes his head and they continue on with their looting. They eat as dusk falls and then go their separate ways. Rick and Carol walk up the steps to the office. He thinks about what they'd talked about on the drive between the town and here. Moving in together. He realises he'd forgotten to tell Carol he'd spoken to Carl this morning before they'd left. He walks in ahead of Carol to find she'd already been back and laid their bedding out, together. And she'd swept the room. He turns looking at her. Tall, skinny now but stronger than she's ever been he thinks. "I told Carl about us this morning before we left. Figured he should know I was planning on askin' you to move in with me, that we'd…be together when we got back." He pauses uncertain of her reaction, thinking she may have expected they tell Carl together.

"That's fine, I'm glad. How did he take it?" She questions as she takes off her boots and socks, sticking them in each boot as they've all learned from Daryl to do so bugs and shit don't get down in them overnight.

Rick steps up to her, stopping her from stripping anymore clothing off, he wants to do the rest himself. "He asked me what took us so long. Then he said that he never wanted to walk in on us having sex, he was scarred enough." Rick shakes his head as he slips Carol's top shirt off leaving her in a singlet and bra on her top half. She smells faintly of the soap she'd been using on her skin and perspiration as well as her own unique smell. It was something he wanted to smell forever. Until the day he died. He slides his hands around her waist bringing her up to his erection, pushing her pussy against him. She winds her arms around his neck as she does what they've both seen Michonne do dozens of times now, she steps onto Rick's boots making her more level with him. And then slides her hands up into his hair, winding through it, massaging his scalp before she then brings pressure to bear and pulls his head to her so they can kiss. It's not like last night, this time they don't hesitate, they push their tongues into each other's mouths immediately, mapping them again. Then Carol slides her mouth away kissing across Rick's cheek before she nips at his ear lobe causing him to shiver. Then she moves back across his cheek and down to his chin where she nips at it, taking the point into her mouth brushing her tongue though the cleft she can feel through his beard and then she kisses down to his neck.

Rick tilts his head back wondering if she's going to mark him, but the merely kisses and licks at his neck, down the side and then to the front, to his Adam's apple. There she stops. "Do you know how many times I've just wanted to walk up to you and kiss you right here?" She asks the question as she lays her lips directly on it, kissing it, laving it with her tongue.

"About as often as I've wanted to bite the back of your neck when I've seen it bent away from me, even when you're looking after my daughter, it doesn't stop me from wanting to take you like a rutting dog in heat." Rick's words cause a dam to break loose in him. He spins her around and yanks her remaining top off throwing it away as his hands unhook her bra and slide id down her arms. He grabs her hands before they can move anywhere and places them behind her, on his cock, thrusting at her palms as he does so. "Only me, you only touch me again until I say you can touch yourself. You don't come until I say you can come, your body is mine tonight beautiful, you got that?" He asks her this as he plays with her nipples, pinching and pulling them gently. His animal is about to be let loose, he wants Carol to know what she is in for. He knows he won't be able to stop himself tonight, they're away from everyone, no one will hear them make the sounds he wants to draw from her.

"Yes, yes I understand, you own me, I won't come until you tell me I can." Carol leans her head back against Rick's shoulder but before he can do anything else she continues. "I have no limits where you're concerned Rick, none." His hands falter on her breasts before he simply clasps them, using them to hug her to him. He drops his own head to her other shoulder pressing a kiss into it. Then he breathes, slow and steady trying to centre himself for her. He wants to tell her this before they go any further. He stops touching her and steps back moving so he is standing in front of her.

"I love you Carol, do you understand me? I'm in love with you. I want no one else but you." He stops waiting for her to respond.

She steps into Rick's embrace with a smile. "Love you too, forever. However long that is." They stand like that for a long time, darkness settles in full around them.

Rick stirs against her over time, his cock hardening in his jeans. Carol pushes her thigh against it but still they stand. The call of a bird in the darkness rouses them and they pull apart. Rick pushes Carol's trousers and panties down her legs until they pool at her feet and she steps out of them. Then he stands and starts unbuttoning his own shirt. Carol kneels in front of him and letting him balance by holding her shoulder she slides off first one boot taking the sock too and then the second boot.

When Rick is naked she leans in inhaling as she did earlier today. She smiles up at him before she simply takes his cock in her mouth, sliding her tongue over it slowly and lightly like a feather. He cannot help but groan letting his head fall back as he fists his hands in Carol's hair. He sees her smile up at him before the focuses on what she is doing to him. To the pleasure she is giving him.

Rick pulls himself out of her mouth, he wants to come, but he won't do that until he is inside the warmth of the woman kneeling at his feet. He kneels down as well taking her mouth as he pushes her back on their bedding. Thoughts swirl in his head, Carol's smell intoxicates him, he is drunk on her, nothing but her remains in his consciousness. Carol's body, her heart, her soul surround him until he feels bound to this earth by her and her alone. Nothing else matter's except the woman underneath him.

Carol pulls his cock to her, inside her. Rick goes slowly his mind consumed with the heat and wetness of her. He cannot help the groan that she causes when she clenches her muscles on him as he continues to slide into her. When Carol's neck tilts back in an unconscious invitation Rick takes her offer leaning down and opening his mouth on her fluttering pulse he simply sucks, deliberately marking Carol for other's to see. It doesn't matter that the others are Merle and Michonne, it matter's that Carol is marked by him. They have no other way to do it anymore, no ceremonies, no marriage certificates, no wedding rings. Nothing official so a bite mark is as good as any other way of saying Carol is taken.

Then Carol moves her head taking hold of Rick's neck with her teeth and bites down as well sucking and laving his neck with her tongue. Rick moans this time as she begins to clench down on him. He is thrusting in her and she is answering his call. He feels his orgasm begin to draw his balls up as goose bumps cover his flesh and his toes curl in the pleasure of Carol, of what he is doing with her. He feels Carol's tremors begin but it is not until he has thrust her through one orgasm and into another that he allows himself to let go and release in her. He hears Carol moan as he comes and she wraps her arms and legs around him tightly as if she's never going to let him loose.

And Rick doesn't want her to. He stays snuggled to Carol and inside her as he becomes soft. It's only when he feels the cool air ghosting through the windows that he moves. Carol moves with him, they sprawl together and she leans up to grab a blanket to put over them. They snuggle together and Rick talks. He talks of the plans he has for the quarry if the rest of the group agree to move. He talks of the plans for recommencing Carl's schooling, saying that an educated child will be a rarity in the generations to come. And he talks of them. Together. A couple, a unit.

It is only when he's winding down that Carol speaks in turn. She talks of her plans as well. Plans that include Rick, Carl, Jude and the rest of the group. And she talks about Woodbury and how glad she is they'd never moved there.

Silence reigns eventually as they drift together. But it is a silence that is comfortable and aware, their need sated for a time is returning. And as Carol shifts on top of Rick she looks down at the man she thinks of as a hawk at times, a predator all the time. He is hers, they will survive.

A/N – Thank you to all the readers who have followed and reviewed Threaded With Grey. This story is a companion piece to Black Beauty and both will be companion pieces to a third installment that will be the story of Daryl and Beth. I will not however be publishing it until I have finished Walking Dead Hook-Ups. I'm also writing another multi-chapter story called Young Mac based on Norman Reedus' character Mac in the movie Red Canyon. Before you go looking at that if you decide to (and this is not a hint for you to do so), please be warned it is extremely explicit and dark in the extreme. If you've seen Red Canyon you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. I'm also working on some Fast and Furious one-shots as well as a Red Canyon/Walking Dead crossover of Mac and Shane. Yes, I'm going there. Once again thank you to everyone who has read, reviewed and followed Threaded With Grey. I enjoyed giving Rick and Carol a story. And I appreciate everyone who liked my pairing of them.