Chapter Text
The day had kicked off just like it always did, the routine becoming something the family could find structure in: Rick woke up to his alarm at the crack of dawn– or what King County liked to call six in the morning, and as he tried to head for the shower, Michonne’s arm wrapped around his waist and pulled him back under the covers. Maybe he could use another five minutes in bed.
After finally being released from his wife’s grasp, Rick headed for the bathroom to get ready for work while Michonne went down the hall to wake Carl up for school and start on breakfast; god knows Rick Grimes was no chef. While Michonne was busy downstairs, Rick would shower, put on his uniform, and quietly make his way into Judith’s room to get her up and ready for school; it was their system, and it worked just right for their family.
But, if you had told Rick and Michonne that morning when they hugged their little girl goodbye as she walked onto the school bus, it could have been the last time they would ever hear her voice or hold her in their arms again, they would have called you insane.
Although, bad things happen to good people every day.
After kissing Michonne and Carl goodbye, Rick was quick to hop into his patrol car and head down to the station. He knew he’d have a long day ahead of him; after recently busting a drug ring case he had been assigned to, Rick had piles of paperwork awaiting him at his desk, ready to just swallow him whole. He had warned Michonne and his kids that he would likely be home late tonight again, and that those late nights would hopefully start to dwindle now that the case had been closed.
When he finally got to work, the hours blurred together. The paperwork was long and extensive, and to make sure it was done right, Rick needed a lot of patience he was rapidly running out of. Between looking back at records and reports, his desk had turned into a sea of paper, making Rick feel like he was drowning underneath a tidal wave. It wasn’t until his phone started ringing in his back pocket that he snapped out of his focus and realized just how long he had been at this, and how much he really needed to clean his office.
He fished his phone out, groaning, and answered when he saw Michonne’s contact pop up on the screen. “Michonne, can I call you back? I’m buried under–”
“Rick, she’s gone.”
Michonne’s panicked, wavering voice caught Rick off guard. What was she talking about? Fear surged through his body like lightning, and his heart started to race so fast he could hear it in his eardrums. “What? What are you talking about? Who? Who’s gone?”
“The school just called, they… they can’t find her! She– She was on the playground and now they just… they can’t–”
The horror in her tone sent a shiver down his spine. In the years he’d known her, Rick had never once heard Michonne sound so upset, so genuinely terrified. Her words came out so fast and so frantic that he could barely process anything she was trying to say.
“Michonne, honey, slow down, I-I can’t understand you. What are you saying?” He asked, attempting to ignore the anxiety rising in his throat, making his stomach churn. This wasn’t normal; something was not right.
There was a pause on the other line, the only sound being Michonne’s shaky breathing, followed closely by a sob. Rick’s heart dropped into his stomach, but before he could ask any more questions, he heard his wife’s broken voice say the worst three words the man could have ever heard.
“Judith is missing.”
Rick’s whole world seemed to stop spinning at that moment. His little girl, his daughter, his life, was missing?
Nausea washed over him instantly, and it was a miracle that Rick could sift through the brain fog and sudden ringing in his ears fast enough to form a coherent response to what he had just heard. “Where are you?” God, he felt like he was suffocating; how did he deserve to breathe when his baby was gone?
“I-I’m heading down to the school now. Carol… Carol is picking up Carl when she picks up Henry and Sophia, but the school needs us down there. Now.” Rick went to nod, barely able to recognize that Michonne couldn’t see him, taking a minute before he was able to speak again– his mouth felt like a desert, when did that happen? When did he seemingly forget how to talk?
“I… I’m on my way…”
Rick felt like his mind was on autopilot as he hung up the call. His hands were trembling as he shoved his phone back into his pocket, staring out into space before slamming his fists down on the mess of papers, sending a few stragglers flying off the desk. Cursing under his breath, he reached for his jacket and threw it on, practically running out of his office and down the hall to his captain’s.
Knocking on the door, a voice called for him to enter, and soon, Rick zoned back in to find himself standing in front of his captain, Deanna Monroe, who seemed to be awaiting what he had come into her office to discuss.
He struggled to swallow against the lump in his throat, causing tears to start blurring his vision. Rick quickly reached up to wipe his eyes before clearing his throat, knowing he needed to get out of this building and be with his family. “Captain, my wife just called me: our daughter, Judith, is, uh… she’s missing. The school needs us down there, I need to– I need to be there,”
The more Rick talked, the more strained his voice became until it eventually cracked at the end. He watched as his captain’s face transformed into a horrified expression as she quickly sat up in her chair, eyes wide with sympathy.
“Shit, Rick, go, alright? I’ll get someone to cover the rest of the paperwork for that case, just go,” Deanna was immediate to assure Rick, dismissing the man as she stood and walked towards him, placing a hand on his shoulder.
Rick couldn’t help it as his head dropped, letting a tear finally roll down his cheek at the small touch. “Thank you,” he nodded, sniffling as he rushed out of the room and out to the parking lot.
The entire drive over to the school, Rick was numb. He couldn’t feel anything. He couldn’t hear the radio blasting at full volume over the sudden return of the tinnitus that now plagued him. He couldn’t see anything except for what was directly in front of him, the world elsewhere seeming to go fuzzy. He couldn’t think, feeling as if somebody else was in control of his actions.
The next thing Rick knew, he was bursting into the principal's office at Judith’s school. He scanned the room: he saw Michonne sitting in one of the chairs, eyes stained red and puffy, Judith’s kindergarten teacher and her classroom aid, a detective that he recognized from his own station— Dwight was his name, Rick remembered being on a case or two with him— and he saw Paul Rovia, the principal, sitting behind his desk in front of him.
He couldn’t contain himself anymore. His breathing was ragged as he struggled to stay focused on the scene in front of him, his chest constricting more and more every second.
“Where is she?!”
Rick snapped, adrenaline running rampant through him. He could feel his shoulders shaking– from fear or fury he could not tell– as he tried to keep himself grounded, but as the principal stood up from his chair to greet him, Rick barely allowed him to get a word in. “Mr. Grimes, thank you for coming–”
“Where is she? Where is my daughter?” His eyes narrowed at the man standing in front of him as demands left his lips, volume rising with every word. The officer was in no mood for pity condolences and reassurances; he wanted answers, and he wanted them now.
Paul shut his eyes and took a breath, trying to ease his agitation before attempting to calm Rick enough to get him to sit down for just five minutes. “Mr. Grimes, if you’ll please–” he started to say, gesturing to the empty seat beside Michonne, but Rick wouldn’t let him say another thing. He let out a huff as his head dropped, the deadly mix of dread and outrage finally boiling over. “No! I need you to tell me where she is!”
“Rick.”
Then just like that, in an instant, Rick’s anger seemingly dissipated. The sound of Michonne’s voice, the feeling of her hand resting gently on his arm: it was like a siren song to him. Pulled out of his trance of rage, Rick looked down to meet her tearful gaze, and it left him heartbroken to see his love look so destroyed.
Obeying her pleading stare, Rick lowered himself into the chair beside her, weaving his hand tightly into hers as tears welled up in his eyes. He paused to collect himself; run his thumb over the tops of Michonne’s knuckles, take some deep breaths, and find his way back to a sane mindset, where he could be fully present in a conversation that made him want to be sick.
“What… What happened? Where’s our Judy?”
The room fell silent as the couple waited for an answer, and with every moment they didn’t receive one, an ill feeling slowly crept higher into their chests. Judith’s teacher was the last one to see Judith and the first one to finally speak up with her story.
“Judith was out at recess this afternoon with the rest of us and as I was bringing them back inside to our classroom, I did a headcount as I’m supposed to and she was there; everyone was accounted for. I lead the class back inside and we get ready for our math lesson. A few minutes later I realize that Judith isn’t in the room,”
The two lovers hung onto every word they heard, trying to find any shred of hope in this nightmare. Feeling her fingers shaking, Rick squeezed Michonne’s hand, praying that small touch would give her some comfort– not that he could blame her if it didn’t. The only thing that could make any of this better was seeing their sweet girl, being chased around the house by Carl, giggling like a madman as she ran off with the cowboy hat she had once again stolen from her older brother’s room.
What Rick and Michonne wouldn’t do to see her smile again.
“I asked my students if anyone had seen her and when nobody could give me an answer, I asked the teacher in the next room to take my class so myself and a few other staff members could try and locate her. We looked in every room in the building and did a sweep of the grounds outside but nobody could find her anywhere. Even after dismissal, we searched again to see if we had missed her, but with the building empty we still couldn’t find Judith anywhere, and it would be pretty easy to see a missing student after everyone had gone home. All of her belongings are still in her classroom cubby,”
“We fully believe this to be a kidnapping,” Dwight said, straightening his stance as he spoke, leaning against the corner wall in the office. “We’ve retained the security camera footage from the last time Judith was seen on school grounds and we have video of a woman loading your daughter into her car and driving off. I had Tara run the license plate number down at the station; Mr. and Mrs. Grimes, do either of you have any connection to a Mrs. Lori Walsh?”
If it wasn’t sickening enough already, then this was just the cherry on top.
Hearing that name was like a punch in the gut to Rick. As Michonne gasped, Rick pulled away from his wife’s grasp and buried his head in his hands, a string of swears coming out before he could even process what he was saying. Of all the people in the world, of all the sick, cruel people to do something like this, Lori Walsh would have never been on the top of his list; hell, he doesn’t even know if she’d be on the list at all.
“No, no, that’s…” Michonne started to argue, but trailed off, too in shock to finish her thought.
“Goddamnit! Fuck!” Rick’s fists slammed on his knee, a tear finally falling down his cheek. He felt like throwing up. He couldn’t take this anymore. Sighing, he nodded, mentally preparing himself for where this conversation was going to go. “That… That woman is my ex-wife.”
“Is there any reason you could think of that would cause your ex-wife to do this?” Paul asked, leaning forward, starting to fiddle with the sleeves of his jacket, immediately followed up by a question from Dwight. “Does Mrs. Walsh have custody or parental rights over Judith? Any kind of legal claim over her?”
“No. That woman has no kind of claim on our daughter.” Michonne answered instantly, a sharpness in her words that could cut glass. All gazes moved to Rick, who hadn’t looked up from a speck of dust on the rug since Lori’s name had been mentioned. It took some time for him to find the words, but once he did, every detail just poured out of him.
“Lori and I were married right after we graduated college, and not long after we had a son together. I’m a deputy for the King County Sheriff’s Department, and my partner was her current husband: Shane Walsh. When Lori told me she was pregnant, I-I didn’t know she had been having an affair with him for a few months. She wasn’t sure who the father was, and I didn’t find out until I caught them when Judith was about two years old. I filed for divorce, Shane moved stations, and Lori and I shared custody of our son and Judith. It wasn’t until a little less than a year after our divorce was finalized did I realize that I… I didn’t want my kids, our kids ,” Rick reached over and grabbed onto Michonne, almost as if her hold was grounding him, giving him the strength to go on, “living with those two. Ever. I… I couldn’t trust her around either of them. So, we contacted my attorney and fought to revoke custody and terminate her parental rights to both of our children,”
“And what was your ex-wife’s reaction, Mr. Grimes?”
“She put up one hell of a fight, I will say that much– both of them did.” He scoffed, cocking his head. He hated having to be reminded of this time in his life; a time where he was tossed around in a whirl of guilt, heartache, and anger, born from a need to keep his kids safe. “Shane may be Judith’s biological father, but that is my little girl.”
The next few minutes were filled with legal questions that Rick had been anticipating since he’d arrived. He knew how this whole thing worked, he knew he could trust his station to find Judith, but that knowledge didn’t provide him with as much security as he would have liked. He and Michonne answered Dwight's questions about Judith’s appearance and description, recent information on Lori and Shane, all the stereotypical things needed for arrest warrants and news stories.
“Do either of you have the last known residence of Mr. and Mrs. Walsh?”
“Yeah, but if they took Judith they wouldn’t be there. Shane’s a cop, he’s smart; knows all the ways to get around the law, and how to stay out of trouble. But Lori? Lori doesn’t know shit. She’ll do whatever Shane tells her to. Without him, she’d be clueless,”
Even though they knew Rick was likely correct in his assumption, the couple gave Dwight the information regardless, knowing anything at this point could help find Judith.
Not long later, Principal Rovia was spewing apologies and promises to the two parents, and as Dwight walked them out, he could see the evident despair on their faces. He couldn’t blame them, of course, how else were they supposed to react?
Before they could leave, Dwight clamped his hand comfortingly onto Rick’s back, offering a sympathetic smile. “We will find her, I promise,” Dwight whispered, earning an appreciative nod from Rick, and a tearful grin from Michonne.
As Dwight grabbed his walkie from his belt, holding down the button and muttering something neither one of them could hear into the radio, Rick turned to Michonne. He couldn’t recall a time when she looked so hopeless, defeated; it caused his soul to shatter. With no hesitation, Rick took her into his arms, stroking her hair as he felt her bury her head into his jacket.
“They’re… They’re gonna find her, alright?”
He assured her, but in reality, he could barely force himself to believe it. In response, Michonne said nothing at first, only gripping onto her husband with all the strength she could muster as a sob ripped from her throat. She had already lost her Andre, years before her beautiful life with Rick and Carl and Judith, and she couldn’t handle losing another one of her babies. She wouldn’t accept that.
“I want our Judith back…”
The words were barely above a whisper, but Rick’s ears picked up every one, her quivering breath only making him hold her closer. He had nothing he could tell her anymore; Judith was gone, and their world was crashing down around them.