Chapter Text
“It should be right up here, Dad. We’re so close.” Carl leaned forward in his seat, looking both directions from the car.
“How do you know it’s still here? Isn’t the whole thing that it moves?” Rick asked as he kept his eyes on the road, but looked around when he could, realizing after the second block that he didn’t know what he was looking for.
“Yeah, but I checked the app. It’s supposed to be around here.”
“We’ll keep looking a little longer, but with this many people around, it’s like finding a needle in a damn haystack.” Rick exhaled, forcing down his frustration. When he’d first suggested the trip to Atlanta for the baseball game, he’d thought there might be some excitement. Instead, Carl had only perked up when Rick had agreed to take him to see the drink cart he’d read about online. Now, thirty minutes into what should’ve been a fifteen-minute drive, they still hadn’t spotted the thing.
“Please, you promised.”
“I promised we’d try.”
“Turn there.” Carl pointed at a side street, and Rick let out a heavy exhale, following his direction. They were met almost immediately by a loud horn, and Rick realized he’d turned onto a one-way street.
“Alright!” Rick said out loud before the horn sounded again, and he turned in his seat to throw his arms up, “I’m turning around!” He turned the car awkwardly to move out of the way and then got back on the main street.
“Sorry.” Carl opened his app again, wanting to verify that he had the right place. “Oh, there’s a note here that it was moved last night. “It’s at Westside Park, only 10 minutes away.”
“Carl…”
“Please. Dad, please.” Carl pleaded, knowing his father was frustrated, but he’d wanted to see the cart for so long.
“Fine, but if the cart’s not there, we’re going home. Understood?” Rick made the first turn down the street Carl was pointing at, and then looked over at him, “Understood?”
“Yeah, yeah, fine. But it’ll be there.”
“Remind me again what’s so cool about this drink cart.” Rick honked as two women started to walk into the street, shaking his head about how busy things were.
“It’s not just a cart. They just call it a cart because it moves, but it’s a really sophisticated machine. It’s programmed to make 24 different drinks. So, you use the app to make your drink, then you pay and get a token. You put the token in to get your drink.”
“Why does a machine need to make 24 different drinks?”
"It didn’t NEED to make 24 different drinks, but how cool was it that it did? Some people timed it to do a different drink every hour; it was a challenge online." Carl smiled to himself, and Rick chuckled at the excitement over something he didn’t understand.
“Why doesn’t someone just go to the store, buy 24 drinks, and then go home and do it?”
“That’s not the point.” Carl shook his head, annoyed at the suggestion, before he motioned toward their next turn, “For my birthday, do you think we could –“
“Come into Atlanta, and spend 24 hours drinking from a machine?” Rick asked, and Carl immediately leaned back in his seat, pouting.
“You don’t get it,” Carl mumbled, and Rick felt bad; he didn’t get it, but this was the most excitement his son had shown in almost a year, and he felt bad that he’d been the one to ruin it.
“So, um, why do we need a token if we pay in the app?”
“Because the tokens are cool,” Carl answered, looking at Rick, confused at why he would even have the question.
“Got it.” Rick nodded, “Well, I guess if we – “ Rick gripped the wheel, almost swerving as Carl yelled and pointed directly in front of them.
“Dad! It’s there! You see it! It’s over there.”
“I see it. I see it.” Rick looked around for the closest parking spot. “Is that a line? People really wait in line for this?”
“Each drink takes between 45 and 60 seconds to make, which is actually pretty fast when you think about it,” Carl answered, his eyes still glued to the cart in front.
“Have you already picked out the drinks that you’re getting?” Rick asked as he put the car in park.
“I think I know which one I want. I’m not completely sure, but I need to be sure before we get in line. If you get to the front of the line and you haven’t already paid for your token, it slows everyone down, and you don’t want to do that.”
“God forbid,” Rick says, and when Carl looks at him, he realizes that the sarcasm was more obvious than he’d intended. “How much is each of these tokens?”
“Depends on the drink, but between $2.50 and $8. Grandma gave me money for both of us to get one.”
"You can have mine. Grab a handful of those quarters for parking," Rick said as they walked. Carl looked up at him, opening his mouth to say something before letting his chin drop, and they continued on. Carl walked past the line as Rick paid for parking, then sat down on a nearby bench, holding his phone and scrolling through the menu. When Rick sat down next to him, he flipped the leftover quarter in his hand and glanced at the growing line again.
“I think I’m going to do Danger Spark, it’s the most popular, so I feel like I should get that one.”
“Should I be concerned about you getting a drink with the word Danger in it?” Rick leaned over Carl’s shoulder to read and saw in the description that it seemed to be their version of a Coke. “Alright, what’s the other one?”
“They have the Bailey Brew. It’s hot coffee, they have other coffees too, but I thought you might like that one.” Carl turned his screen to show the drink to his dad.
"Don't worry about me, just pick another one you like," Rick said, leaning back on the bench. He looked across the sprawling park as he absently flipped the coin in his hand, grateful for the escape from the relentless traffic and noise. Without warning, Carl stood and strode toward the line. Rick fumbled the quarter mid-toss before scrambling to his feet to join him.
“Which one are you getting?” The kid close to Carl’s age asked as soon as they took their positions in line.
“Danger Spark.”
“Oh, it’s SO GOOD. That’s the one I got last time. This time I’m doing Aidenaid, it’s strawberry this month instead of raspberry.” The kid smiled, and Carl nodded, showing how excited he was for him.
“Will you let me know how it is after you get it?”
"Yeah, no problem." The kid turned back to his conversation, probably with his father, Rick figured, while Carl pulled out his phone again, scrolling mindlessly through the app. Rick glanced at his watch. Judith was fine with his mother; he knew that, but he’d promised they wouldn’t be back too late, and they still had an hour’s drive ahead.
The line inched forward, slow but steady. Rick found himself oddly captivated by the rhythm of it, each person stepping up, feeding the machine, then watching, transfixed, as the contraption whirred to life, crafting their drink.
The self-sustaining model was impressive, but more interesting was the unspoken community of the crowd. With each new order, a murmur rippled through the line as people whispered the drink’s name, each whisper carrying a different level of excitement as the announcement made its way through the line. The Bailey Brew, Carl’s earlier recommendation, seemed to be the clear favorite among parents; its orders met with knowing nods.
The line when quiet when a little girl at the front proudly announced she was getting Andre’s Solar Flare, the new orange soda that had just debuted. When she took her first sip, her squeal of delight made them lean forward as they heard her say, “This is the best thing I’ve ever had in my whole life!”. Carl made a mental note that he’d have to try that one next.
“I guess you were right about how popular it is,” Rick said, glancing behind them, seeing that the line continued to form.
“He’s going to place two more soon.”
“How do you know all this?” Rick asked.
“TikTok and Instagram,” Carl answered, lifting to his toes to see the screen of the person getting their drink two people ahead of him, “I was hoping they’d have new pictures of the drinks that got added last week. They normally do a video where we can see it made, but they didn’t do one.” Carl stopped speaking as he watched his line friend put his token in. After a minute, he turned around and sipped it.
“The strawberry is so good!” He said as he took another sip, and even Rick found himself smiling at the excitement that came from a soda.
“Alright, you’re up.” Rick pointed at the screen, and Carl stepped forward, a bit nervous but excited, and lifted his phone to scan the code. After a few seconds, they heard the token land, and Carl reached in, pulling it out and wrapping his hand around it. “So you just put it in now?” Rick asked, and before Carl had a chance to answer him, Rick moved forward suddenly, bumping into Carl. He heard multiple things hit the ground, and when he turned around, he realized the woman behind him had bumped him with her stroller.
“I’m so sorry.” She apologized as she worked on getting her baby settled, her older child fixated on the screen in front of him.
“Dad…” Carl looked at the line, embarrassed as they held things up, “I dropped my token. I have to find it.”
“Uh, it’s no problem,” Rick answered the woman, who was still apologizing, and lowered next to Carl, handing him his phone, which had fallen, and picking up the coin and his keys, “Go ahead.” Carl rushed to stand up and dropped it in the machine before looking at the window that would allow him to see the drink being made. Rick stood back up and gave the woman a tight smile before facing forward, glad that they had almost finished their excursion. Every person in front of them had dropped their token, and within seconds, the machine started dispensing their drink. This time, after a few seconds, a message appeared on screen: Error.
“What does that mean? They’re out?” Rick asked, confused.
“It doesn’t run out, ever,” Carl said, lifting to his toes to try to look in the machine.
“Oh, I think you all may have dropped this.” Rick felt a tap on his shoulder, and when he turned around, he saw a hand extended with the token sitting in the middle on display. Rick reached for it and smiled again.
“Thank you. Carl, here’s the other token. Do you want to try this one instead?”
“I only did one token.”
“What do you mean you only did one?” Rick asked.
“The other one was for you. I put the token you handed me in the machine.” Carl said, looking at the error message again. Rick looked down at his hand again before cursing under his breath and reaching into his pocket. Seconds later, he pulled out one of the quarters and placed it in his hand next to the token, wincing as he saw how similar they were in size.
“I think we may have an issue.”
“We don’t have to do this today.” Michonne pulled at the zipper on her bag and put it on her shoulder.
“Yes, we do.”
“No, we don’t.” She shook her head and shrugged her shoulders, “We can do it next week, or even wait a couple more.”
“The kid is with the babysitter; we’re doing it today. I’ve waited long enough.”
“They died, Nat,” Michonne said, waiting for him to make eye contact with her.
“You think I don’t know that?”
“No, I think you don’t know that you’re allowed to take as much time as you want to be upset about it. You don’t have to jump right back into work.” She watched him, wanting to pay close attention to his response, hoping that he would hear her and they could scrap their afternoon plans and just go back to binge watching whatever they wanted on in the background of their thoughts. He looked like he considered it, his eyes watering before he shook his head.
“This is all I got, ok? You, the kid, and this, so I need to do this.” Nat said confidently, and Michonne knew that tone well enough to know that he wasn’t going to budge.
“Alright.” She nodded. She didn’t want to agree, but she also didn’t want to police his healing process, and if this is what he needed, she’d do what she could to support her friend. “We’re going to the new ones at the warehouse?” She asked, and Nat was about to answer before he heard a special tone go off on his phone.
“That little shit.” Nat read before he put his hat on and started to walk toward the front door.
“What happened?”
“Error Code 102.” He said, and Michonne looked at him, confused.
“You know I don’t know what that means.”
“Some kid didn’t use a token. Why do they try that? They think my machine is smart enough to make 24 drinks, but not smart enough to recognize when it’s getting the wrong coin?”
“Don’t you have a team that can handle this? I thought we were going to the warehouse.”
“We were going to the warehouse. Elle isn’t back to work yet, and it will take Dylan at least two hours to get there, you know how slow he is. Come on.” Without waiting for her response, he walked out the front door, and Michonne took a deep breath before following him.
“I can’t believe I broke the machine.” Carl sat on the bench, his head in his hands.
“What kind of a machine doesn’t just reject the wrong coin?” Rick asked, obviously annoyed as he checked his watch again, “I really don’t know if we can wait. We’re supposed to be getting back.”
“We can’t just leave!” Carl said, shocked as he looked up at his father.
“Well, we can’t sit here all afternoon. We have to pick Judith up.”
“I should have just asked Grandma to bring me.” Carl crossed his arms and leaned back against the bench.
“Hey! We had a good day. We enjoyed the game, and now we have to go home.”
“We enjoyed the game? I didn’t enjoy the game. I’ve never seen you watch baseball. You didn’t even ask me if I liked baseball. You only brought me because that therapist said that you and I should spend more time together. I heard her.” Carl looked up and saw the surprise on Rick’s face, and only felt a little guilty as Rick’s lips parted, unsure of what to say.
“That’s not true,” Rick said.
“It is too!” Carl raised his voice, “I heard all of it. You told her you didn’t know what I would want to do. I heard her suggest the baseball game. Well, I don’t even like baseball.” His chest was rising and falling faster, and Rick wasn’t sure what to say. It was true that the therapist he’d been taking Carl to see had suggested that they find an activity so that they could work on their relationship.
“Carl, listen, I –“
“Oh my god.” Carl barely whispered, and Rick looked at him and saw that his eyes were looking just past the machine at the two people approaching it.
“Who is that?” Rick asked.
“He built it. He built the entire thing. Oh my god, I can’t believe this would be the one time I would get to meet him, and I broke his machine.” He slouched as he shook his head, and Rick looked between them, before he realized the man Carl was referencing wasn’t walking alone.
“Who is that with him?” Rick asked, his eyes still on her, getting lost in her face before Carl reminded him he’d asked a question.
“I don’t know, I don’t recognize her from any photos they’ve posted.”
“I’ll handle it.” Rick turned and started to walk toward them, surprising Carl, who stood and walked to catch up.
“Wait – Dad, you shouldn’t –“
“Hi, um, hey there. I’m Rick, Rick Grimes.” Rick held his hand out, and Nat looked up at him, ignoring the attempted handshake.
“You the guy who broke my machine?” Nat asked as he started typing a code into the screen. After a few seconds, a code flashed across and waited for a password. He raised his hand to enter the code, but stopped as Rick started talking.
“This must happen all the time, but we accidentally put a quarter in instead of the token.”
“It doesn’t happen all the time because you can’t scroll two inches on my website without seeing that the token has to be used. The machine has it posted in four different places, and the app has you initial to say you won’t use anything else. Now, because you missed around 18 different warnings, I have all these people waiting,” Nat motioned to the different groups of people awkwardly eavesdropping around them. Carl bit his bottom lip, lowering his chin, embarrassed.
“Listen,” Rick starts, upset at the tone Nat is using.
“No, you listen – “
“Nat.” Michonne cuts in and uses her chin to point to Carl, who is clearly upset, “Hey.” She says, and it takes Carl a few seconds to realize she’s talking to him.
"What's your name?"
"I'm Carl."
“Nice to meet you, Carl. Which one were you going to get?” She smiles as Nat and Rick continue to glare at each other.
“Um, the Danger Spark,” Carl answers, and she has to lean in to make sure she heard him correctly.
“Danger Spark?” she confirmed, and he nodded in response, “A very popular choice. Have you had it before?” She asked as she adjusted the bag on her shoulder, and Carl felt more confident as he answered this time.
“No, it’s my first time.”
“Ohhhh, well, that makes sense. Easy mistake to make, the token is really similar in size to a quarter.” She said as she nodded and waved for Carl to follow her over to the machine.
“Michonne,” Nat said, obviously exasperated, and she smiled at him, almost missing Carl’s soft gasp.
“From Michonne’s Mango Tango!” Carl said, standing almost in front of the machine, and she laughed.
“You sure this is your first time?” She joked and then pointed at the small screen, “Now listen, don’t tell Nat,” she smiled and looked back at him as he closed his eyes and shook his head, “But, I have a code that will allow me to get whatever drink I want.” She reached around, covering Carl’s eyes with her hand before spreading her fingers so that he could see. Rick’s face relaxed for the first time at the sound of his son’s laugh, “Are you peeking?” Michonne lowered and looked at him, causing him to laugh again before she covered his eyes, “Promise you’re not peeking.”
“I’m not!” Carl said, and Rick smiled, knowing that’s what Carl was doing. She punched in a code, and the familiar hum of the machine started as a cup landed in front of them. Carl looked up at her, his smile all the way to his eyes, before he started watching the drink again.
“Which one were you getting?” Michonne asked, and Rick felt thrown off as she addressed him, his mouth opening and closing, unsure what to say as she waited.
“He didn’t want one.” Carl didn’t look away, but the disappointment in his voice was back.
“24 options and there wasn’t a single one that you’d like?” She looked at Rick, confused, and Nat glared at him again.
“It’s not that – I just thought he might like two,” Rick said awkwardly.
“It’s no fun to drink alone,” Michonne said as the window opened and Carl reached for his drink. She put her code in again, and he held his cup, holding off on taking his first drink and waiting for her as they watched the drink start.
“You’re getting a solar flare?” Carl asked.
“I am. I’m not a huge fan of orange soda, but it’s my son’s favorite, and he’ll be happy to hear that’s the one I chose.”
“Is your son, Andre?”
“Yes. He was very excited to have his very own drink added.” The window opened again, Michonne grabbed her cup, then took a few steps to the side, and Carl followed. He was just about to take his first sip when she called out to the people waiting, “It’s back up and running!” The groups immediately rushed back to the machine, just giving Rick and Nat enough time to move out of the way.
“Let’s get out of here,” Nat said and turned to walk back to the car.
“Wait, here’s your token.” Carl stepped forward and held out the unused token, offering it to Nat, and Michonne smiled at him, “I’m sorry about the machine, I should have looked at it before I put it in.” Nat let his eyes linger on the token in front of him and then let out a frustrated groan.
“Keep it.”
“Really?” Carl asked, and Nat nodded, still trying to maintain some level of annoyance at the situation, “Thanks. Um, can I also ask you something?”
“I guess.”
“Have you considered using a peristaltic pump instead of a solenoid one? I know that a solenoid is less expensive, but peristaltic is more hygienic – not that I’m saying these aren’t, but they need to be cleaned much more often.” He sipped his drink again and looked at Nat as Rick’s brow furrowed, and Michonne watched Nat.
“Who the hell are you?”
“Nat.” Michonne rolled her eyes and shook her head.
“You work for that cough syrup cart that Gallagher’s running?” Nat asked, and Michonne couldn’t hold back her laughter when Carl looked at him, shocked.
“I seriously doubt that Gallagher sent a child spy to ask you about your pumps.” Michonne looked over at Carl, “Right?”
“Right.”
“He’s into stuff. Building stuff, taking it apart, and putting it back together.” Rick added, and the three of them looked over, almost having forgotten he was there.
“I know someone like that.” Michonne pushed her elbow into Nat, who gave her a light shove back.
“My new machines will have peristaltic pumps. We’re switching this one over after we launch those. Happy?”
“Oh, that’s awesome.” Carl sipped his drink again as he curled his hand around the token he was already planning to use next time he had the chance.
“It’s a good idea,” Michonne nodded to herself.
“What is?” Nat asked.
“Making the machine reject any coins that aren’t the token, vending machines do it.”
“Bridgers Terminal is not a vending machine!”
“Right, it’s supposed to be better.” Michonne said casually, “It’s just a suggestion based on feedback from a customer.”
“I’ll think about it! Can we go now?”
“Which drink are you going to get with your second token?” Michonne asked, and Nat let his head fall back.
“I, um –“ Carl looked over at Rick before looking back at Michonne, “I don’t think I can wait in the line again.” Michonne did a bad job at hiding the disappointment on her face when she saw that Carl seemed sad about that, and Rick couldn’t help feeling defensive.
“We live in King County, it’s an hour away, and my daughter is with her grandmother,” Rick says, and Michonne nods in understanding.
“Do you all get to Atlanta often?”
“Never. Well, unless we’re going to a baseball game.” Carl rolled his eyes, and Michonne looked at him, confused.
“I was just going to say that the launch for C2 and C3 is in two weeks. Seeing as you already have a token, if you were going to be in town for a game, maybe you would want to come to the launch. I’m sure Nat would love to have a fellow builder in the building. Right?” Michonne elbowed him again, and he let out a loud groan.
“Can we?” Carl turned to look up at Rick, and Michonne reached into her bag.
“Oh, you don’t have to decide now. Sorry, low-pressure offer.” She pulled out a card and handed it to Rick, “You can email me there if you all think you might be in town, and I can send the details. I haven’t been to a Braves game in years, but I know they play often, so they may have a game at the same time, so it may not fit in the schedule.”
“I don’t even like baseball,” Carl said, and Michonne looked at Rick, who shook his head, frustrated.
“Thank you,” he held the card up and looked at it. “Michonne?”
“Yeah, Michonne.” Carl answered for her.
“If we’re done rewarding the people who broke my machine, I think we have somewhere to be.” Nat raised both his arms, annoyed.
“Nice to meet you both, enjoy your Danger Spark.” Michonne smiled at Carl and started to walk away.
“Thank you!” Rick yelled out, and Michonne gave him a small wave before she and Nat crossed the street to her car.
“Can we go?” Carl asked, and Rick looked at the card again, his eyes lifting to Michonne, who was still smiling when she got in the car, “Dad?”
“What?”
“To the launch. She said it was in two weeks. Can we?”
“I don’t know Carl, we have to check with your grandmother to see if she can watch Jude, it’s a long drive, and –“ He stopped as he saw Carl’s eyes lowered, having already accepted that he would be let down, “I’ll think about it, ok?”
“Ok.” Carl nodded and sipped his drink. “Can you imagine being able to get whatever drink you wanted, whenever you wanted? That was so cool.”
“I thought you liked the tokens?”
“I mean, I do. But she can get whatever she wants, whenever! She was nice.”
“She was nice. Wonder how she ended up with a grouch like him.” Rick put the card in his shirt pocket, and Carl eyed it, “I won’t lose it.” As they walk back to the car, Carl looks at the machine, smiling one more time before he looks forward.
“Thank you for bringing me even though you didn’t want to.”
“Listen, about what you said earlier. I’m not only spending time with you because the therapist suggested it.” Carl didn’t look up, and Rick gripped his shoulder to get him to stop walking, “You get that, right?” Carl shrugged, and Rick didn’t know what to do, so he unlocked the door and watched as Carl climbed in.
Rick took a minute, leaned against his truck, and took a deep breath. It had been a tough year for all of them, but it had hit Carl the hardest, and no matter how many times people in his life defaulted to telling him that he was doing his best, he felt like it was important to own the fact that sometimes his best hadn’t been good enough. After another deep breath, he opened the car door.
“I put the address in. It looks like the traffic is really bad. Sorry.”
“It’s alright. I’ll give your grandma a call to let her know we’re on our way.” Rick started the car and looked behind them before shifting the gear. “She’s got all those leaves in the backyard that we need to take care of, and I know she has been wanting her patio furniture cleaned.” Carl turned and looked at his dad, confused, before he started to smile.
“I’ll do it. I’ll start the leaves tomorrow.”
“I want your room clean every day, not just once, and the dishes put in the sink after dinner.”
“Yes, I promise.” Carl bit his lip, clearly trying not to get too excited.
“Alright, then we’ll see about coming back in a couple of weeks.” Rick looked over and saw that Carl’s smile had returned.
“Thank you! I’m going to get a list of questions so I can ask him.”
“Carl.”
“I wonder if he’ll do any new drinks, or if the new machines are different.”
“Carl.”
“Yeah?”
“I said, we’ll see.” Rick turned out of the park to start the drive home.
“But you’ll email her tomorrow, I mean, at least just to get the information in case we are able to go?”
“Yes, I’ll email her tomorrow.”