ELISE [Rick Grimes AU Series]

| CHAPTER FOUR |

CHAPTER FOUR - JEALOUSY

Rick awoke to the sun burning through the blinds; he groaned and brought his hand to his aching head. After walking Elise back home, he had intended to go home himself but found himself back at the bar drinking away his embarrassment.

He didn't recall arriving home or how he managed to make it to bed. It wasn't until he opened his eyes with a wince that he realised he had a heavy weight across his chest. His eyes widened briefly as he wondered if he did make it back to the bar, but as he turned his head to the side, he caught sight of his wife.

Rick sighed and turned to look away from her. He felt guilty when, for a brief moment, he had hoped it was Elise laid up against him.

"Morning," Lori said with a huge grin across her face as she shifted to lay on her back. "How are you feeling?" she asked.

Rick shuffled away and sat up on the edge of the bed, wincing as pain shot through his head. He rubbed his hand across his face, "fine, I'm going to shower," he mumbled.

When he stood up, he noticed he wasn't wearing any clothes, nor his usual nighttime attire, or even just his boxers. "Wha-Lori, what happened last night?" he asked as he scrambled to pick up his underwear from the floor. He didn't know what to think when he found Lori's underwear tangled around his clothes. He raised his head slowly to look across the bed; he noticed that beneath the sheets, she wore nothing.

"Don't look at me like that," she giggled. "If you had your way last night, we'd have still been going at it now, but you were drunk."

Lori pulled the sheets up across her chest higher as she watched relief wash over her husband. She suddenly felt embarrassed and hurt.

"So, we didn't?" Rick asked evasively.

"No, Rick. Don't worry, you didn't have sex with your wife," she snapped before throwing the covers over the bed and storming out of the room into the ensuite and slamming the door shut.

Rick sat back down on the bed, emitting a heavy sigh as he cupped his face in his hands. He hadn't meant to upset Lori, but since he found out about the affair, they hadn't been intimate at all.

Despite the strange thoughts and feelings he had racing around his head, he hadn't wanted his first intimate moment with Lori after the affair to be while he was drunk, especially not after the night when he had wanted to kiss his son's teacher.

He felt guilty for how he acted with Elise the previous night, and while technically he had done nothing wrong besides complimenting her, his guilt only became worse when he checked his phone to see her name on the screen.

I hope you're feeling better than I am this morning, Sheriff.

_____

The first week of summer break passed by quickly for Elise. She had tried to take the first week for herself but found herself at the school three days out of the seven. She didn't mind so much until she was informed there would be a staff performance meeting before the new school year started.

It worried her slightly, but the rumours of new staff worried her more. While she knew she was a good teacher, it did make her worry that the incidents she had during their classes would have put her in a bad light.