Sleep doesn’t come easy for Rick tonight. The feeling itself isn’t unusual. Sleep had been something that troubled everyone since everything went to hell. Things had become about survival, but falling asleep leaves you defenceless. Vulnerable.

Everyone else seems perfectly settled in Alexandria, but Rick can’t bring himself to trust the place yet. Terminus, Woodbury, the people Rick had met on runs had made one thing clear — the Walkers made people desperate, brought out the worst parts of human nature. These people had been inside the walls since the start. They didn’t understand how bad it was outside. How easy it was to lose everything.

The group depended on Rick. These people depended on Rick. He’s lost too much already — his best friend, his wife, people he’d begun to consider family. He wouldn’t let it happen again.

Restless, and wide awake despite the late hour, Rick gives up on sleep. He shrugs on a jacket and heads out of the front door with every intention of pacing the streets of the walled community until he was sure everything was in order. Instead, he finds himself stopping at the sight of a figure at the house next to his.

Approaching the porch, he finds you there, sitting on the steps. The group had fanned out a little by now, taking up residence in separate houses. He wonders if you feel the same restlessness that he does, the need to watch to make sure things are safe.

“Rough night?” Rick asks, crossing his arms over the bannister of the porch steps to look at you, head tilted to the side. “Should be sleepin’ if you can. We all need to be as alert as possible.”

For what, he doesn’t say, but it’s clear what he’s thinking. For when things go wrong. It’s not an if for him, like every moment of peace behind these walls is just a countdown to when Rick fails again, and things go sour. Shaking his head, he pushes away from the bannister, nodding in the direction of the street.

“C’mon. I was gonna do a sweep of this place, be better with the both of us keepin’ an eye out.” Maybe having you there would settle him, or the knowledge that the walls were as safe as they have been since your group got there would settle the both of you. Either way, Rick wasn’t sure he wanted to be alone right now.