Chapter Text
"Think about it this way," Shane says, patting his friend on the shoulder, "it's just a new start. It doesn't have to be a bad thing. It's just- maybe this is just a blessing in disguise, huh?"
Rick rolled his eyes, huffing. "I used to be a cop, Shane. A real cop. Instead, I just got-" Rick looks at his reflection in the mirror of his car's sun visor before shutting it aggressively and look at his friend in the driver's seat. "-demoted to school-cop. How embarrassing is that?"
Shane deadpans, looking at him with disappointed eyes. "Rick. You got shot. In the chest. And you were in a coma for over a month. It's- you can't just go back into the field. It's only been a few months." Shane sighs and gazes out the window at a few teachers walking into the business. "I don't want you getting hurt. You're lucky you were even allowed here, to go back like this."
Throwing his head back against the headrest, he looked up at the roof of the car. "I don't know, man."
"It's only for the school year," Shane reminds him, rolling up the windows and starting the engine. "They're down an officer, and you can't go runnin' yet." He looks over at his best friend and reaches into the back, pulling out the man's lunch and water bottle. "You'll be fine. And, after your day is done, I'll bring you back down to the station, and you can complain about asshole teenagers. Eh?"
Rick matches his friend's slight smile with his own. "Fine," he says, snatching the brown paper bag from his hand. "But you're gonna' hear all my shit today."
"Fine by me," Shane laughs, unlocking the car door. Rick climbs out of the passenger seat slams the door, but he only gets a few steps away before Shane lowers the window and hollers out. "Hey- remember that girl from high school? Lori?"
"Lori?" He asks, turning around and leaning against the door. "You mean my ex-girlfriend?"
Shane laughs. "Maybe. Hey, I just heard that she works here, man. Tell her I said hello, eh?"
Huffing, Rick pushes off of the car door and taps the side, watching Shane speed away from the parking lot and out into the main road. "Prick," he sighs, turning onto the sidewalk. The second he does, though, he almost runs straight into a blur of black clothing, and he instinctively steps back.
"Woah, hey man," the person chuckles, throwing his hands up. "Easy on the scare, huh? Ya' almost jumped outta' yer' pants," the man spoke through his light laughter. Rick took a deep breath, trying to collect himself, which he thinks is when the man noticed that he was a police officer. His demeanor changed from light-hearted to more frightened. "Oh, shit, uh- did- did Merle do something again?"
Though he recognized the name from his years at the station, Rick brushed it off. "Huh?"
"Were you looking for me, Officer?" he asks, pulling at the hem of his shirt. He reached his hand out for a handshake. "Daryl Dixon."
Hesitant, Rick returned the handshake. "Rick Grimes," he says. "I'm- I'm not hear on anyone's behalf- and I'm certainly not looking for you- but I'm actually here for work."
Daryl furrowed his brows. "Work? I ain't seen you around here before."
"I'm a new officer. 'Supposedly the other resource officer retired. I- I got injured a while back so they stuck me here while I heal," he explained. Daryl nodded as he listened, and Rick looked at him. "So? You work here or something?"
"Don't look like it, huh?" Rick laughed and shook his head. The man wasn't dressed in nice slacks or a nice shirt, but rather, baggier black jeans and an old vest. "Tech teacher."
Confused, Rick opened his mouth again. This guy doesn't exactly look like the most tech-savvy person out there. "Computers?"
"Nah. Woodworking, automotives- that type of thing. Don't know a goddamn thing about that other shit," he laughed. Rick smiled and let the silence settle. "Here, uhhh," Daryl drew, shoving his hand into his pocket and fishing out a key. "How 'bout you come in wit' me? We can go through the backdoor- it's closer- and I'll bring ya' to the principal's office. When yer done, you can come back to meet the good teachers 'fore school."
Rick nodded and began to follow Daryl to the door. "The good teachers?" he questioned. "I wasn't aware of a heirarchy."
Daryl chuckled as he shoved the key into the lock. "Believe me, if you thought high school drama was bad, just wait until ya' meet the teachers," he explained, letting Rick inside before him. He took the key out and shut the door. "I just run wit' this group; they're pretty solid. Never wanted to, but they wouldn't leave me alone 'til I warmed up to them. 'Specially Glenn."
"So I'm stuck with y'all?"
"Huh," Daryl laughs, nodding. "You bet."
It took about thirty minutes to get everything settle with the principal, Mr. Jones, but after being told about twenty times that Rick could just call him Morgan, he pretty much got the hang of things. Morgan was pretty happy that he already got settled with another teacher and called Daryl's room so that he could come show Rick around the building. He did that, showing him the different wings of the school that were mostly sectored for their various subjects.
"I'm definitely going ta' get lost in here," he laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his neck.
"No worries, man. You'll know it by the back of your hand pretty quickly," Daryl reassured. "And besides, not much goes on upstairs. This is the only room you really have ta' remember," he smiles, opening the door. By the looks of the inside, he assumed that it was the teacher's lounge. There was a small couch along the wall, a table with eight chairs in the middle of the room, and two small counters next to a fridge in the corner, occupied by a microwave and a cheap coffee maker. He did as Daryl did and ignored the other people sitting around the room. "We eat our lunch in here every Friday. Hey!" he called, getting everyone's attention. "This is Rick Grimes. He's replacin' the ol' resource officer fer a while."
The two people on the couch smiled and waved. "I'm Maggie Rhee," the woman smiled. "I'm a gym coach." She turned and pointed to the young man she was sitting with. "This 's my husband Glenn."
"I'm a janitor," he smiled nervously.
Rick gave them a nod, but he didn't have much time to react before there were a few more people introducing themselves.
"Carol Peletier," a woman with grey hair introduced. "I'm a guidance counselor."
"Michonne Hawthorne," another woman says. "I work with Carol."
The only standing person, a woman at the fridge, turns around with a smile and wave. "I'm sure you remember who I am, Rick," she says. "I teach Home EC. now."
"Nice to see you, Lori," he says with a wave, pretty happy that they ended things on mutual terms and not a bitter grudge against each other. He looks over at Daryl with a smile. "This your crew?"
He nods. "Pretty much. 'Few student teachers come and go but this is pretty much everyone."
The lounge door opens rather aggressively before a new man walks in. He's pretty talk, looks extremely cocky, and Rick doesn't miss the groan everyone pulls as he walks in. "Hey, hey!" the man says, throwing up his hands. "I just came to put my lunch 'way in the fridge," he gestures to the other side of the room.
Maggie glares at him from the couch. "Ya' have your own fridge in your office."
The man grins, walking past her to the appliance. "Yeah, but it's more fun to see all of you. Your misery brightens my day." He bends down to put his lunch of a shelf, and Rick quietly chuckles at the way Maggie flips him off and Glenn awkwardly tries to lower her finger. The man turns around and gazes at the people in the room, stopping on Rick's face. "I'm not quite sure I've met you before!" He walks over and sticks out his hand enthusiastically. "Negan Smith."
"Rick Grimes," he responds, completely the handshake much less enthusiastically.
"You a cop?" he asks. Rick nods and he smiles as he pulls his hand away. "Oo, this is gonna' be fun!" Negan laughs, gesturing to Daryl. "You should jus' arrest Dixon while you're at it. 'M sure his brother already put ya' through hell. It's in their blood," he taunts.
"Oh, eat shit, would ya'?" Daryl groans, walking away from the man.
Negan throws his hands up and walks to the door. "I'll be in my office," he says to Rick, holding up the I.D. hanging from the lanyard around his neck. Rick quickly read where it says 'athletic director' before he dropped it. "You can come see me when you wanna' tell me that I was right." Negan laughed cockily and shut the door as he walked back into the hallway.
"What a fucking ass," Maggie grumbled, moving from sitting up to laying down across the couch. She kicked her legs across Glenn's lap, who just moved his arm to give her room. "I'd kill to have him fired."
"Is he always like that?" Rick asked.
Daryl scoffed. "Out of line? Always," he walked over and plucked an apple off of the table and bit into it. "I couldn't count the number of times he brought up my brother if I tried. What a fuckin' prick." He sighs. "I mean- Merle's not the greatest, but he's tryin'."
Carol looked over sympathetically while Lori walked over to Rick. "Let me get a name on your lunch so that no one steals it."
"Thanks," he said, letting her write on the bag with a pen before placing it into the fridge.
"How is Merle, anyhow?" Glenn asked.
Daryl shrugged, pulling out one of the chairs at the table. "Gets out of holdin' tonight. I can't bring 'im back to my house, though. Bike 's in the shop. I just hope he actually gets there instead of a bar." Glenn nods and stops the conversation there.
Rick looks up and over at him. "I can bring 'im."
"Huh?"
"I still work at the station. My friend, Shane- we were the ones in charge of yer brother's arrest few years back. Few of 'em, so he knows us," he says, rubbing the back of his neck. "I mean- Merle's not the biggest fan of me, but I can assure that he gets home safe."
For a split second, Daryl looked as though he wanted to argue, but Carol nudges his leg with her foot, and he simply nods. "Thanks, man," he smiles. "I'd- I would 'prreciate that," he hums.
Rick smiles and goes to sit down, but the new walkie-talkie on his hip buzzes with a call to the main office, and he heads out of the room with a 'good-bye.'
It's around noon when his rounds make it towards the gym, finally having a different location to monitor the halls than the more boring sections of the school. The gym doors were open, despite foam balls flying across the room directed from one kid to another. He walks behind the lines of the basketball court of which the kids are playing inside of, avoiding most of the stray throws as heads to the back of the gym where he saw someone he had already met.
"Hey, Rick," Maggie says, placing the clipboard she was holding under her arm and holding it in between her arm and chest. "How's your first day goin'?"
Rick shrugged, clapping his hands together. "Alright. A lot- I mean, it's very different than I thought it was going to be, but I'm not upset with it," he explains. "They playing dodgeball?"
Maggie smiles and nods. "Yeah," she laughs. "Even though it's the first day, it's, like- everyone's favorite activity. Most kids like playing. I have a few sitting out over there, but they seem to be having fun." As she finishes her sentence, a ball roll over to where they're standing and she picks it up, looking for the kid who had lost it. A thin boy with floppy hair runs over, a smile on his face as he approaches.
As Maggie tosses it, he opens his arms and catches it. "Thank you!" he calls before turning around and running back into the game.
"That's Carl," she says, pointing to the kids around him. "Those are his friends. They're pretty much everyone's favorite- just a good group of kids, y'know? Puts their effort in, helps other students and teachers- just good kids," she describes.
Rick smiles and nods. "That's good," he says. "I'm glad there's still kids like that."
"Yeah," she agrees. "You'll probably get to know them all. That's Enid," she says, beginning to point to the other teens. "Ron, Sophia, Lydia, and Beth. She's actually my cousin. Surprised they all got the same gym class, but they're in most of the same classes anyway." Maggie gives him a pat on the shoulder. "Well, no offense, but you should get goin'. The bell 's going to ring at any moment now."
"Better get back out to the hall. The next three minutes will be the highlight of my day," he jokes, leaving Maggie with a smile and a nod before walking out into the hallway.
Rick heads back out the door Daryl first brought him in through, since assumes that heading out that way will be quieter than the main entrance. He waves to the other teacher on his way out, spotting the last of the buses heading out of the parking lot as he leaves. It's not difficult to spot Shane's car, as it's the only cop car there, and it's pulled up to the sidewalk lining the school. He shakes his head when he realizes that Shane's outside of the car, leaning against the hood with a smile while he talks to Lori.
He walks up with a wave, straight into the conversation. He doesn't quite catch what Shane was saying, but Lori is giggling and, by the way Shane is biting his lip, Rick knows that he is 100% flirting with her.
"Hey," he says, walking up to the two of them. "How's it goin'?"
Shane smiles and looks over. "Pretty damn good. Just catchin' up with Lori, huh?" She nods and says hi to Rick.
"We better get going, man. I got somethin' to do down at the station and I need your help," he explains vaguely, though Lori already knows what he has to do.
Nodding, Shane turns to Lori. "Well, it was great seeing you again," he smiles. "If you want, you can always give me a call," Shane grins. "I'd love to catch up again sometime."
Rick rolls his eyes and hops into the front seat, closing the door to avoid whatever horrible method of flirting Shane has adopted this time around. He shoves his things in the backseat and, by the time he turns back around to the front of the car, Shane is clambering into the driver's seat.
"Told ya' she'd be here," Shane says, jamming the key into the ignition of the car and starting up the engine. He looks up and begins to pull away, heading to the exit of the parking lot. "She's sweet. I'm lookin' to-"
"God, Shane," he shakes his head. "I don't want to hear about what you wanna' do with my co-worker." Rick sighs as Shane laughs, looking out the side window. "So, about what I have to do- basically, we need to do a friend a favor."
Shane hums. "You got a friend already?"
Rick turns and gently smacks his friend's arm. "You know Merle? Dixon?"
"Know him? Rick, we brought that guy into custody more times than I can remember."
Turning away from the window, Rick reaches over and turns up the air conditioning in the car before leaning back, kicking his feet onto the dashboard. "Well, I met his brother today. Daryl. Good guy, but he can't get to the station to pick Merle up today. 'pparently Merle's doing better, but then this happened-" Rick huffs. "Just- I told 'im that we'd get Merle home safely, so he doesn't do anythin' stupid."
"You promised to safely care for Dixon?" Shane chuckles, turning the wheel to bring them to another street. "That'll be the day."
"You're here to help me," Rick reminds. "I am having you help me. He might hate us both, but he might cooperate more if he knows that I'm friendly with his brother." Shane shrugged and the resorted to silence, so Rick reached over and turned up the radio. The rest of the ride was quite peaceful, consisting of the slightly static repeat of just two songs before they reached the station.
They rolled out of the car, Shane explaining that he had one report to file before he could head out and bring Merle back; he also swore to get them the address. Rick took the opportunity to say hello to a few other officers and head over to where Merle was being held, along with talking to the officer that were going to release them. They agreed on letting him go with Rick and Shane, as long as they wrote down the time they left, and he waited for Shane to complete the report.
The jingling of keys caused Rick look up from where he was sitting, finding Shane and another officer, Scotty, walking towards the cell. He watched as they unlocked the door and pulled it open.
"Thanks, Scotty," Shane said, looking inside. "Ey, Dixon!" he called, pointing to the man. "You're up. Let's go."
Grunting, Merle pushed himself off of the seat and walked towards Shane. "Officer Friendly here to let me out?"
"Here to pick you up," Rick interrupted, swinging around the corner. "We're takin' you down to your brother's house." He held up his finger when Merle tried to talk. "I already talked to him; Daryl asked me to bring you home himself."
"Daryl wouldn't ask for shit," Merle growled, walking up next to Rick, "but I take it you insisted on it. Let's get goin' so I can see ma' baby brother, huh?"
Shane rolled his eyes and walked ahead of them, leading them to the car while Rick hung back by Merle's side. He opened the back door, allowing Merle to climb inside while Shane started up the car. He got into the passenger seat and watched as Shane pulled the piece of paper with the written address out of his pocket, placing it on the dashboard.
"How d'ya know Daryl?" Merle questions from the back seat.
"I work wit' him," Rick replies, looking at Merle through the mirror.
Merle scoffed, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. "Ma' brother ain't no pig," he snaps. "What tha' hell are ya' talkin' about?"
"I got a while ago. 'M not healthy enough to go into the field," Rick explains. "I'm workin' at the school for a while- the one your brother teaches at. So- so I talked to him today, and I told him I'd get ya' home safe." He glances away from Merle and looks out the front windshield. "He's worried 'bout you, y'know."
"He worries too much," Merle argues. "I'll be fine."
Shane huffs. "Not if you keep gettin' arrested."
Merle rolls his eyes and grunts. "If you don't shut up, I-"
"O-kay!" Rick says, interrupting his words with a loud exclamation. "Shane's completely wrong, but don't go all aggressive on me. That won't help us." He stops talking there as Merle grumbles under his breath, but as long as he isn't picking any arguments, he doesn't care about it much. He gently elbows Shane when he sees the scowl on his face. Rick listens as Shane turns on his blinker, turning onto the road of small homes, definitely one-bedroom homes that makes him wonder how long Daryl is going to make Merle stay with him.
They pull onto the side of the street, right up next to the grass and the mailbox, where Shane unlocks the doors. "I'll stay here," he offers. "You can bring him over."
Rick smiles at the amount of hatred Shane has for Merle, but he simply turns and pops open the car door, slamming it behind him before walking around the car and opening the backseat. He lets the man get out on his own accord, since he's no longer in police custody, but still walks just steps behind him as they walk up to the front of the house. Rick beckons Merle to wait, simply knocking on the door and waiting for an answer.
The door swings open, revealing Daryl on the other side.
Merle grins, opening his arms. "Little brother," he says with a drawl, practically shoving his way into the house. Daryl doesn't return a smile of the same strength, his harbors some resistance. Nonetheless, he lets his brother inside, and Daryl steps back into frame when Merle disappears into the hallway.
He turns back to get a quick gaze of his brother before turning back around. He sighs as he looks at Rick. "I just gotta' thank you again, man," he says, leaning against the doorframe. "I have no idea what I'd do if he had ta' find his way back. 'Dunno where he'd go."
Rick smiles. "It's no problem, really. I had no issue bringin' him back."
Daryl chuckles. "Well, that's not true. Merle's a pain in everyone's ass," he laughs. Rick nods in agreement, and Daryl smiles. "But, seriously- I appreciate it."
Nodding, Rick takes his hands out of his pockets. "Well, I better be off, but-" he slaps his hands onto his sides. "-I'll see you tomorrow."
"See ya', man," he says. "Thank you 'gain, Rick."
Content, Rick turned around and walked back towards the car, letting himself back into the seat and latching the buckle. He looks over at Shane and smiles. "I hadn't remembered how much you and Merle got along," he chuckled, only for Shane to shake his head. "I forgot to tell you 'bout my day. Turns out this whole high school thing won't be too bad."
"What'd I tell ya', man?" Shane joked, turning on the memorized route to Rick's house. "This is your sign that you should start listenin' to my advice."
Rick shook his head, gawking. "If I did that, I'd either be in jail or dead right now."
Shane rolls his eyes, which only makes Rick laugh harder, and he sinks back into his seat with a content smile.