Who: Rick Grimes rick & Leon Orcot under_arrest What: Playing in the park with the kids When: Recently Where: Tewinkle Park Rating: General Audiences Warnings: Talk of people dying during childbirth, which is something Leon and Rick apparently have in common. Status: Closed/Completed Partner Thread
~*~
Attention to detail was something every parent of a small child learned quickly. Babies were faster than a person could ever imagine; the worst feeling in the world was the thought of something harming one's child because they weren't paying close enough attention. Rick Grimes had lately begun to be even more vigilant with his two kids regardless of the fact his son was old enough to stand pretty well on his own. Carl was a mature boy for fourteen. His mother's death had cost him a lot of his childhood.
Rick wished every day he could give it back to him.
Throwing the ball back and forth in the park in front of the giant playground, Rick almost felt normal. A dad out for playtime in the park with his two kids, what wasn't normal about that? No one had to know his dreams or how his hands shook hard enough to make him think he had a palsy every time he woke up from them. It wasn't anyone's business save his own how his wife had died or how he didn't know if his Judith was his Judith. She had been born from his wife within the sanctity of their marriage which meant she was his daughter. Rick would dare anyone to say otherwise.
He tossed the ball toward Carl without looking to see where his son had gotten off to and heard a sound of displeasure as it hit the ground, bouncing into someone. Rick immediately picked Judith up from the blanket where she'd been sitting to trot over to the fellow. He didn't know him from Adam, but it didn't matter. Rick had done him wrong by not paying attention. What if he'd hit someone's baby? What if someone had thrown the ball at Judith without paying attention? It was a softball, not a baseball, but it could have seriously injured a small child which left Rick mortified.
"Sorry about that. I was throwing to my boy and it seems he's gotten distracted," Rick adjusted Judith on his hip as he saw Carl talking to some kids around his age, likely boys he'd met at the ball field during tryouts, "He's trying out for softball. Didn't know boys could play softball, but it's a thing here apparently. You alright, mister? I really meant no disrespect or harm to you. If you think you need medical attention, I'd be glad to help you get it."
In his dreams, Rick was becoming a man he didn't recognize. He couldn't control his dreams. His reality? Rick could control his reality and he was still a good man from Georgia in reality. He could stay a good man. He could be the man he was proud to be, the man his father had been proud of him for being, the man his wife had been proud of him for being. Rick was more than his dreams. He'd see to it he stayed more than that maniac version of himself if it drove him insane from the effort.
~*~
Leon hadn’t been exactly sure how the whole Chris-being-off-school-for-summer thing was going to work out. Finding a sitter for Chris hadn’t been that hard once he had found the Network, especially not when Sharon had volunteered to watch him. But Sharon’s baby had come and she obviously wasn’t able to take in Chris as often has she had before Viv had shown up. He had found Zelda as a back-up, but really he felt kind of bad about having her watch Chris all days on the days that she could take him while Leon was at work. The long hours and the danger of his job really made taking care of an eight-year-old difficult, to say the least. Leon was making it work though, and he was really getting to enjoy his days off with his brother, teaching the kid how to play basketball and baseball and whatever else. It had never been like pulling teeth, since Chris was a pretty good kid and would do whatever Leon asked him to, but he could tell that Chris was enjoying his time out more now than when he had first moved in with Leon, back when all he really wanted to do was watch TV and play video games.
The had been sitting down for lunch, a couple of sandwiches that Leon had made earlier that morning and some cans of pop, area strewn with a baseball, a catcher's glove, a football and a frisbee when Leon had been hit in the back of the head. He stood up and turned around to yell at whoever it was who couldn’t watch where they were fucking throwing, but seeing a man head over with a baby on his hip deflated him somewhat, and what that hadn’t accomplished, the man’s apologies managed to quell the rest of the annoyance he had felt. Really, yelling at a man who was holding a baby and apologizing something fierce would have really made him seem like an asshole. Especially since it wasn’t like the ball had really hurt, let alone injured him.
“It’s no problem,” Leon said, bending over to pick up the softball. “It’s not like I’ve never been hit with a ball before. No harm, no foul, right?” He wasn’t really sure if he should throw the ball back at the guy, given the baby he was juggling on his hip, so Leon kept hold of it and closed the rest of the distance so he could hand it back. “Softball tryouts, eh? How old’s your kid?” Chris… probably wouldn’t enjoy playing team sports, now that Leon thought about it, but there wasn’t any reason he could at least bring it up with him. Chris had a grand total of one friend his own age, and Leon was hoping to get him to branch out more.
~*~
"I thank you for your understanding, sir. It really was my fault. I'm Rick, Rick Grimes, and this is my baby girl Judith. My boy's Carl over there. He's fourteen going on forty-five it feels like most days. I'm hoping being a part of something with boys his own age will help---sorry again for yammering at you like a busybody on Sunday."
Rick shook his head as Judith giggled. He took the ball offered him and then let her have a hold of it. She'd likely slobber all over the thing from where she was teething something fierce, but it wouldn't hurt her. The park was a clean one. Rick wasn't a helicopter parent even though he was getting more paranoid as days went on. A little dirt had never hurt him growing up which meant it surely wouldn't do any damage to his girl. Carl had survived his infancy with little to no damage and Rick and Lori had both been lost with him.
That poor boy was lucky he hadn't wound up with brain damage from all the times they'd let him roll off, fall off, or step off things when he was learning how to get around on his own. Lori had laughed herself sick one day saying it was only Rick's hard head they had to thank for it. Carl must've inherited it, she'd sworn. He had been knocked around a few times in the line of duty without any sign of concussion unlike other members of the force. Rick still found it funny his kids were the hearty kind when his wife -who'd seemed so invincible- had been lost so early.
"I don't get a lot of grown-up conversation if you can imagine that."
~*~
“Leon Orcot,” Leon said, and then gestured to his brother, “and that’s Chris.” At his name, Chris looked up from the sandwich he was eating to give a bit of a shy wave before returning to his sandwich. “He doesn’t talk a lot,” Leon added, just so Rick didn’t think that Chris was being deliberately rude or something. He was getting better at the whole thing, but it still usually still took some coaxing to get him to talk to people, and Leon never pushed it. “Fourteen though, huh? Chris is eight, so probably too young for that. He tends to act like an old man sometimes too.” Learning of his own mother’s death had been hard on Chris, though being with Leon had seemed to help with some of that.
Leon laughed at the grown-up conversation bit. It hadn’t really been a problem too much with Leon. It helped that Chris didn’t have a lot of friends so he was never bringing over noisy kids, and he was usually pretty good at entertaining himself when Leon was with Leon’s friends, usually playing with Backup or something when he was over at Sharon and Veronica’s apartment, and Leon very rarely censored himself in front of the boy unless he was talking about something he thought might upset him. “You’ve just gotta find the right grown-ups to converse with.”
~*~
"Outgoing" wasn't really a word one would use to describe Rick Grimes. He wasn't the kind of man who tended to talk overmuch under any circumstances much less the type where he'd done wrong to someone else. The man did get a bit of a chuckle out of him all the same. Leon seemed a lot like Shane had been. There was a candor to the way he spoke which reminded Rick of his old partner. He wondered if Leon had a tendency to chase women like a fool, too, or if his attitude was where his similarities to Rick's former friend began and ended.
"Don't get out much to socialize myself. I farm so you'll see me on weekends at the Farmer's Market. Otherwise? I'm with Judith and Carl."
Rick shrugged a shoulder. He didn't care his life was slow-paced in nature. There was plenty to keep him busy in his daily grind. He spent some days doing nothing more than making sure his hothouse plants didn't all die from being too hot in the hothouse! It took a special kind of attention to grow the medicinal cannabis he sold as well. Rick wanted to make sure he was producing something medical-grade. He didn't hold with drugs for pleasure's sake, but if he could make a dying person's passing easier? He'd do whatever it took.
His son could take care of Judith in a pinch if Rick wanted to go out when he'd gotten done with his plants. That thought had crossed his mind from time to time. It would potentially serve the dual-purpose of showing Carl he was trusted enough to care for Judith. Rick wanted his boy to know he understood he was becoming a man in his own right and his father respected him as such. His daddy had been a good man about doing right by him; Rick wanted to do right by Carl the same way even though he was on his own whereas his father had been helped in spades.
"Been thinking about it though. Letting Carl watch Judith. Stepping out after I'm done with my plants. Just haven't had anywhere to go. Funny since there's a Helluva lot more to do here than there was back home in Georgia. Pardon my language, young man," Rick apologized to Chris out of force of habit.
~*~
Leon absolutely loved to chase women. He managed to strike out all the time, never getting past a couple of dates with any of the women he went out with. Of course, Leon’s type tended to consisted of incredibly hot glamorous women who were more concerned with living the high life with a man who could afford it, and it didn’t tend to take more than a couple of dates before they realized just how little money a detective actually made.
“Farming, eh? That sounds like an alright life. Hard work from all I’ve been told, but growing your own food must be nice.” At least, he assumed that Rick grew his own food. There wouldn’t be much point in being a farmer if you still had to go out and buy groceries. Leon was a bit of a survivalist - not one of those people who was obsessed with it and went out camping twenty times a year, but enough that if he got stranded on a deserted island he was pretty sure he’d be alright for a while. He had often thought about growing his own food, but there was barely any room in his apartment for the cactus that had come through his dreams, let alone plants that he was supposed to eat. Besides, he didn’t exactly have a ton of extra time to cultivate something like that.
Chris offered Rick a bit of a smile to show that he didn’t mind the language (Leon had tried to curb his language when Chris had first shown up, but that was apparently a lost cause. Instead, Chris got a long talking to about the list of words he shouldn’t use in public and was never ever allowed to use in front of his parents, lest he wanted a dead older brother), while Leon kept replaying what Rick had just said trying to figure out exactly where the language he should be pardoned from had taken place, and eventually decided that this guy must think that helluva was a swear word. “You don’t have to worry your language with Chris,” Leon said. “But yeah, I’ve never really heard that Georgia was a hotbed of activity. You move to sunny California recently?”
~*~
"Force of habit," Rick admitted.
Southern courtesy dictated one didn't use swear words in front of religious leaders, elders, children, or women. Didn't matter what kind of man one happened to be, a man could still have manners. Rick had learned some of the best manners he'd ever seen were from hardened criminals. They tended to have learned them from the system. Most of the lifers were people who had no one else to turn to so they kept making the same mistakes with the same people over and over again as if they had no other options.
He had always felt the worst for that sort.
Nodding to Judith, he said, "Almost eight months ago now. Came out after her mother passed having her. I wanted a better life for my two. With their mother gone, all they've got now is me and my job at home wasn't safe for a single parent. I was with the Sheriff's Department as a Deputy Sheriff. Can't be getting shot on the regular with two kids at home who have no one other than you to provide for them."
He shrugged. It wasn't the most orthodox story, but Rick had heard stranger. Some interesting sorts strolled through the Farmer's Market. One woman came by to buy his herbal oils because she said her 'spirit guide' told her it was good for her 'third eye' whatever any of that meant. There were all kinds in the OC. Rick wasn't one to judge one way or another. All he wanted was to be able to raise his kids with some kind of normalcy to their lives and make sure wherever his Lori was? She wasn't looking at him thinking he was screwing her babies up at every turn.
"You a Cali for life or a transplant to the OC? I met all sorts here. Strange place. Can't say I mind it."
~*~
Chris’ head shot up from the sandwich so fast that Leon was almost surprised the kid didn’t get whiplash. “Her mom died having her too?” he blurted out, and from the surprised look on his face it seemed as though he hadn’t really been expecting to say anything. Leon’s first look at Chris had been one of concern, but upon seeing that Chris didn’t look like he was about to burst into tears anytime soon, Leon relaxed a bit.
“Our mom died too,” Leon said after a moment. “When Chris was born. She’d been pushing fifty and wasn’t exactly in the best of health to begin with, but she wanted Chris to be born more than anything.” Leon was never quite sure if she went against the doctor’s recommendations because Leon’s dad had been killed in the line of duty before she had ever found out she was pregnant, or if it was because she wanted another child, or a combination of the two. He had been angry at the time - angry that he wasn’t going to be the only one anymore, angry that she was going against the doctors orders to give birth, and then angry at the world when she had died, but he had managed to move past most of that.
“Born and raised here in the OC,” Leon said. He even dreamed of living in Los Angeles, so apparently California was where he belonged. “I’m a cop too. Homicide.” When Chris had shown up, there had been a lot of him contemplating his job and what it was going to mean to take care of a kid during all that. His aunt and uncle, Chris’ parents, had called him a few times going off about it too, though Leon had never considered quitting. Maybe if Chris didn’t have his parents back in New York he’d think about it, but probably not. He’d wanted to be a cop his entire life, especially with seeing his father going out and doing it for the first seventeen years of his life, and nothing, not even his father’s death, or getting shot (even if it was just in the dreams so far), or the miserable paycheque was going to change that for him.
~*~
Death in childbirth was uncommon in this day and age. Rick was surprised to hear the same thing had happened to Leon and Chris with their mother. It was the worst kind of pain to lose a woman as one gained a child. The joy of birth was overshadowed by the grief of death; Rick had felt guilty for loving Judith the way he had from the moment she'd been born. No father should ever worry over loving his child. His brow furrowed as he realized he might have overstepped himself saying anything to them.
"I'm sorry if I brought up a painful topic for the pair of you. I keep stepping in it, seems like. I don't meet many in this day and age who know what it feels like to lose someone to a birth. My Judith---took me a long time to realize my wife would want me to love her as much as I do. Lori was the best mother anyone could have asked for which makes it hard to live up to her on my own. I do what I can though."
He thought it was admirable Leon worked Homicide when he had a child to care for at home and Lord knew the OC was a lot more dangerous for a cop than Georgia. Rick figured the man must have balls of pure steel to handle it. He'd have been a wreck every day worrying over who'd raise his children without him there. No good would come of him pursuing a career with the force even if he did miss it sometimes. Rick missed the camaraderie more than anything seeing as all his friends had been on the force---until he'd met Daryl Dixon who'd been the first CI he'd ever befriended.
Rick counted himself a lucky man to have met Daryl.
"I appreciate your service, sir, in case no one's told you that recently. It's a hard job you do and we're all the better for it. I think you ought to see if Chris would like to come play some ball with Carl of an evening. We've got a big place. I wouldn't mind the company. The least I can do is offer to make you fellas dinner for your trouble."
~*~
“No, no, it’s fine,” Leon said. “Meeting another kid who lost their mom in the same way is probably good for Chris.” Chris didn’t talk about it much, but Leon knew that Chris still worried sometimes that ‘killing’ his mother made him an evil child. At least now he could talk to Chris about Judith and ask him if he thought she was evil too. Not now, not in front of Rick and Judith themselves because that seemed insensitive even to Leon, but maybe when they got home.
It sounded as though Rick had gone through some of the same conflicting emotions that Leon had when Chris was a baby, too. It wasn’t ever that he was angry at Chris for taking his mother from him, because Leon logically knew that Chris had done no such thing and that everyone had known when she had gone to give birth that there were some pretty serious risks involved. But it had taken Leon two years before he could bring himself to visit Chris in New York. Doing so under the pretense of being Chris’ cousin and not his brother had been hard too. Which had given him the extra difficulty of both wanting to make some connection to this kid, the last thing that his mother had ever given him, and not being able to, and of also not wanting to have much to do with the person who had taken Leon’s last parent from him.
Leon was pulled from his thoughts when Rick thanked him for his service, and he all but preened, standing a little straighter, puffing his chest out a little bit further. “Thanks,” Leon said. “People haven’t mentioned it lately, but it’s nice to hear. Especially from someone who knows what’s up.” Most of Leon’s friends were cops. Or former cops, former partners. Or the girlfriends of cops. And one ex-con, though he wasn’t sure if he should include Revy in among his friends. He was definitely not going to be inviting her to any dinner parties anytime soon. He turned to Chris. “Whatdya say, Champ? Wanna go to Rick’s place sometime? Hang out with Carl and Judith?” There was a moment of uncertainty from Chris, looking at Rick to Judith to Leon’s smiling face, before he gave a hesitant nod.
~*~
"Promise I can grill like a pro. I can do burgers, hot dogs, got a friend who's mighty fond of my grilled corn on the cob. I like to have a few options available. We'll have fresh vegetables aplenty. I'm always growing more than I can sell. You plan to come hungry and leave happy. That's how friends are made."
Rick pulled out his wallet to pull free one of his business cards. It proudly listed his stall number at the Farmer's Market along with his Pre-orders Welcomed! number which doubled as his house phone. He'd never gotten two lines since they still hadn't settled in enough to make friends who'd need a separate line. Rick had a cell which was listed on the card, but that was as much communication as he needed.
"I'm on the network, too. In case you are. Feel free to message me anytime through the week. Weekends I'm usually at the Market until they close trying to make a living."
He gave the card to Leon while Judith waved at it as if saying goodbye. She had a strange sense about her sometimes. Rick thought it was a sign she was attentive. A good watcher had to mean she was going to grow up to be a good student, didn't it?
Rick hoped the pair decided to take him up on his offer. The kids could use someone young and decent to play with while Rick could stand to talk to a fellow who was old enough to understand how he felt sometimes, floundering alone as a single father.