cora woke up in an unfamiliar room. except it wasn't unfamiliar. the more cora woke up, the more she recognized where she was. it was her room. her room in the house she shared with izzy. with carl. with rick.

she looked around at her surroundings, wondering how she got there. she had fought dan. she beat him, killed him. she limped out of the complex. then rick was there. he caught cora as her legs gave into the exhaustion. he lifted her off the ground as the world was dimming.

cora hand't realized how much she missed this room. but more importantly, how muted she missed the little girl that was passed out on the chair next to the bed. cora grabbed one of the many pillows that were under her head and threw it at her daughter. izzy stirred but didn't quite wake up. cora threw another pillow, this one worked. her daughter's eyes slowly opened as she was waking up. izzy looked at her mom for a few moments until the grogginess from sleep was gone. "mom!" izzy leaped out of the chair into the bed with cora. the young girl wrapped her arms around her moms neck, engulfing cora in a hug that she so very needed.

with izzy's weight atop her body, cora could feel the throbbing of the wound in her leg. she didn't mind the pain. she was home. "hi baby." cora couldn't even begin to describe how she was feeling. but through all the happiness and excitement, she felt sad. cora didn't want to even think about how izzy felt when she was gone. her daughters body was slightly shaking from crying. cora lifted izzy off her body into a sitting position on the side of the bed. "are you okay?"

"am i okay? of course i'm okay! you're back," izzy exclaimed. she wiped the tears off her cheeks with a smile. "are you okay? what happened?"

cora didn't want to go into detail about what happened or what she did to dan so all she said was "a lot happened."

"i have to go find rick. he's been so worried. he won't say it but i know he was scared," izzy told her. she turned and ran out of the room faster than ever. 

izzy was back in record time. cora didn't't realize her daughter could move that fast. a few steps behind her was rick. he looked so relieved but also like he hadn't slept in days. looking at the expression on rick's face, cora couldn't help but cry. she hadn't cried the entire time she was with negan. but something about the look of rick made something in cora break. he was at the side of her bed in a second, kneeling over her. "rick," she whispered through tears.

"i'm here, you're okay," rick said back to her. he hugged cora tighter than ever, as if she would vanish from his arms if it was any looser. 

"i love you," cora said to him. she couldn't deny it any longer. she had felt this way for months now but didn't want to taint the relationship they had built. everything about rick was perfect in cora's eyes. they understood each other on a whole new level. no one had made cora feel the way she did about rick, not even dan.

there was a silence after cora said it. she started to wonder if it had been in her head. before she could say another word rick looked in her eyes and closed the gap between them, kissing cora.

***

a/n

short chapter but...