Chapter Text
The funeral had been well attended, and very, very sad. Norman had had no problem shedding tears – he hated seeing Rick suffer, and that he had shed tears for his lover rather than his lover’s dead wife nobody needed to know.
They were all back at the house now, serving finger sandwiches and booze to family and friends. All the female relatives, it seemed, had brought along some covered dish or casserole, and their freezer and fridge were now full to bursting with them. Norman had quietly wondered how two men and one boy could be expected to eat that much. Strange customs they had, these well-to-do folk.
He was staying away from the people that were milling about the house, and they ignored him for the most part. After all, he was only the weird, homeless lodger Lori had had the mercy to take in and feed. At least that was what Norman had overheard an elderly family friend say to her husband. He didn’t mind in the least. Misconceptions like this, and staying in the shadows, suited him just fine.
Norman kept an eye on Rick, though. He’d already had to rescue him from the cloying attention of several of Lori’s friends that went on just a little too long about how tragic this all was, and how lonely Rick must now be feeling.
He also kept an eye on Carl, who, after being nearly catatonic for the first few days following his mother’s death, was now prone to random crying fits that usually ended with Rick and Norman wrestling him to the floor and holding him down until he was too exhausted to go on screaming. Norman scanned the room for the boy. All was well, he was sitting in a corner with his friend Sophia.
A moment later, cursing himself for his inattentiveness, Norman found himself face to face with Shane. He’d so far avoided his lover’s partner, suspecting that Shane – who had been Lori’s lover, after all – was the most likely direction from which his new life with Rick would come under threat. Norman looked around surreptitiously, but nobody was in earshot. Rick was all the way across the room, sitting with Lori’s elderly parents, looking somber and deeply engaged in conversation. No rescue in sight. But also nobody who might overhear Shane making accusations Norman might have a hard time explaining away.
Attack with politeness, then.
“Can I get you a drink, or a sandwich, maybe?”
Shane, ignoring Norman’s offer, stepped very close. “Don’t think you can pull that Innocent Blue Eyes shit with me, buddy. I know what you did…”
Norman raised an eyebrow. “Shane, I don’t…”
“Oh yes, you do know what I’m talking about. Did you know there’s a witness to the accident, huh? They saw Lori…” Norman noticed Shane’s throat working hard to get the words out without choking “…saw her go off the road. They say a motorcycle cut in front of her. She swerved to avoid it, and…”
Norman met Shane’s gaze steadily. “No biker’s come forward, right? No motorcycle has been found…”
“No, because you hid your brother’s bike somewhere!” Shane’s voice was a notch or two too loud now, and several people were looking over at them. Shane took a deep breath and forced his voice down as he continued.
“I looked you up, man. I know about the Rhee boy, that kid who drowned… What did he do, huh? Did he threaten to tell his parents about you and his brother? You killed him for nothing, didn’t you? Where’s your beau Glenn now, eh?”
“That’s slander, Shane. You should be more careful, I might tell Rick what you said to me tonight…”
Shane scoffed. “No you won’t. You don’t want anything to throw the least bit of a shadow on yourself in his eyes. His golden boy…”
Shane looked away, and Norman could see his eyes fill with tears.
“Did you know that she was pregnant?”
Shane looked back at him, and Norman felt fleetingly sorry for the man.
“Did you, huh?”
Norman looked away. They had been told that Lori had been pregnant when she died, yes. Norman had not told Rick that the baby was most likely Shane’s. Rick was still blissfully oblivious to his wife’s greatest betrayal. No need to cause his lover more anguish, or give Shane more reason to want him, Norman, dead.
Shane now gave a shaky sigh, collected himself with difficulty. “I know I can’t prove any of it. But don’t think I’ll just forget. She left a message on her parents’ answer phone, saying she’d had a call from the hospital telling her that her dad was dying. That was you, wasn’t it? Calling her, frightening her, so she would rush away without telling anyone…”
He had to take another break, look down, his voice was shaking too much. When he looked back at Norman his eyes were full of hatred. “They might not have found any evidence that someone tampered with the brakes yet, but I won’t give up. I have a lot of people who owe me a favor, and I’ll find someone who’ll be able to tell me what you did…”
Norman forced himself to look at Shane with polite puzzlement until the cop, with one last look of disgust and an impatient grunt, walked away.
Rick caught Norman’s gaze and raised an eyebrow. Norman shrugged, then shook his head. All ok. No idea what that was. He knew Rick understood what Norman was trying to convey. He gave a small smile, a nod, then turned his attention back to Lori’s dad.
Norman’s eyes stayed on his lover’s features a moment longer. He and Rick had become increasingly close since Lori’s death. Ever since that awful night at the hospital they’d hardly left each other’s side. Rick spent every night in Norman’s room, returning to the master bedroom only to dress, and for Carl to see him emerge from it in the mornings. They had not discussed this, it had just happened, and it felt right.
Rick had not returned to full-time duty at the station yet, but he would soon. This they had discussed. Norman would stay home for the moment, tend to the house, and to Carl. He had of course lost his job when he hadn’t returned to work as stipulated by Barry. It didn’t worry him in the slightest. Rick had given him a home, and a place in his life. Rick needed him, and in him and Carl Norman had a family that cared for him for the first time in his life.
As Norman tidied the table with the drinks on the far end of the room he thought about just how well everything had worked out in the end. He was safe from Merle and his gang. They would never attack him again, not once it was known that he was under the personal protection of Rick Grimes.
And nobody would ever find Merle’s bike. It was resting safely at the bottom of a quarry, weighed down with stones. Timing had been tight there for a bit. Norman had had to hitch a ride back to Rick’s house in time for the phone call from Grady Memorial Hospital. He’d been hurting terribly once he got back home, and had been awfully sick later that night at the hospital, from the overdose of painkillers he’d taken before calling a taxi to go into Atlanta. His condition had given Rick another fright, but it had just served to drive home to his lover how much Norman needed him, and that he was not allowed to give in to despair.
Norman’s mind returned to Shane, weighing up just how much of a threat the other cop really was. Of course, there was no proof for any of Shane’s suspicions, but it was still disquieting just how accurately he’d put the pieces together. The incidence with Glenn’s brother had been widely reported at the time, and a cloud of suspicion had formed around Norman then that had never entirely lifted. Nothing had been proven, but it would be a risk, if Shane ever brought this up with Rick.
The car was no issue. Norman considered he’d been wrong to think that the jacket and vest were the only things his dad had left him. The fact that he’d been an exceptional car mechanic, and that he’d taught his son all the tricks he’d known, had never seemed a great legacy to Norman – until now. Nobody would be able to prove that those brakes in Lori’s car had been tampered with. Material fatigue, that was the worst they’d be able to assert.
Would Shane risk it anyway? Risk his career, his friendship with Rick? Norman knew that Shane was aware that should he ever breathe a word of his suspicions Norman would tell his lover about his best friend’s affair with his now dead wife. Rick would believe him, and if he had any doubt Norman could insist he have the fetus tested that Lori had been carrying. Norman didn’t think Shane would take that risk.
He looked over at his lover, and a powerful feeling of warm affection washed over him at the sight of the familiar face, that body he was getting to know better every night. If anything appeared to risk their future together Norman was now certain he would not hesitate to rid them of that threat. He’d not shied away from his responsibility so far, and the rewards had been more than worth the pain.
But he didn’t think it’d ever come to that. Shane would keep his peace. For now, they were safe.