Chapter 1

Almost her whole family, those she loved, those she respected, those she would die for, were on their knees, surrounded, in the dark forest. Negan, the leader of the Saviors, the man who's soldiers they had been killing off, was pacing in front of them with a baseball bat named Lucille, taunting them.

"Which one of you pricks is the leader?" Negan drawled. Michonne's heart sank as one of the Saviors said "This one... This is the guy" and pointed Rick out.

Out of the corner of her eye Michonne glanced at Rick, the man she loved. He was hunched over, shaking, his blue eyes wide and looking terrified. Sweat dripped from his hair as if he had a high fever, and his skin was sheet white. She had never seen him so scared, so horrified. She had never seen him so broken. He knew she and their son Carl were in danger, and she knew that would make him unpredictable, he wouldn't be thinking clearly.

Please calm down Rick... please...it'll be ok.

She tried to telepathically warn him not to react, to stay on his knees and look at the ground. Negan kept talking, but Michonne was still trying to telepathically communicate with Rick and wasn't listening. And then Negan started to try to intimidate Carl.

"You got one of our guns. You got a lot of our guns." Negan kneeled in front of Carl and stared him down looking for weakness, crying, shaking, anything. When he got none of that Negan actually seemed impressed. "Shit kid, lighten up. At least cry a little."

He wanted Carl to cry or look scared. When Negan kneeled down and got in Carl's face, Michonne bunched her hands into fists. She knew if he touched her son she wouldn't be able to hold it together. She would leap past her kneeling family members and tear Negan's throat out if Rick didn't get there first. She prayed Negan didn't touch Carl, for everyone's sake, because she knew that many more people would die, including her, if he did. Her heart nearly burst from her chest when Carl continued to stare at Negan. Thankfully, Negan began talking and pacing again. Secretly she was proud of her son, but she was afraid that his stubbornness would put him in danger. She saw that Rick had stopped breathing when Negan kneeled in front of Carl.

Just relax baby, he didn't hurt our boy. Don't say anything, he doesn't know he's your son. Just relax baby. Calm down.

But she wasn't taking her own advice. She couldn't let Negan think he was going to intimidate her. That he had broken her. As he walked past her she stared him dead in the eye, even turning her head to keep eye contact with him. Her gesture seemed to throw him off a little. He definitely seemed surprised that one of the women were staring him down. Rosita, Sasha, and Maggie were all crying and looking down at the ground or at Negan's barbed wire laced baseball bat as he walked by. The men were looking down too, thankfully even Rick, the strongest man she knew. The only other person staring down Negan was Abraham.

And then, Negan seemed to piece together that Carl was Rick's son.

"This is your kid right? This is definitely your kid!" Negan exclamed excitedly, pointing his bat directly at Carl. Rick finally snapped, yelling "You stop this!". Negan made his way back to Rick "Hey! Do not make me kill the little future serial killer, do not make it easy on me! I gotta pick somebody".

And then Negan began pacing again, trying to decide who he was going to kill while whistling the creepy Savior's calling card. Suddenly he stopped and Michonne was floored by what Negan said next. "I simply cannot decide. I got an idea. Eenie. Meenie. Miney..." As he sang the children's song he began pointing his bat at each of her family members. At "Mo" he pointed Lucille directly in Michonne's face and she gave him her best death stare. She couldn't believe after all that her family had gone through, one of them would die because of a game of eenie, meenie, miney, mo. He continued with the children's song until he got to "you. are. it".

Michonne's head snapped to attention to see who he was finally pointing at. It was Abraham. Michonne glanced over at Abraham who was kneeling directly next to her, and he was still standing tall, staring directly at Negan.

Now, Negan addressed the rest of the family "Anybody moves, anybody says anything, cut the boy's other eye out and feed it to his father, and then we'll start. You can breathe, you can blink, you can cry. Hell, you're all gonna be doing that".

As Negan raised his baseball bat Abraham turned his head to stare directly into Sasha's eyes. He looked like he was about to say something, but then the bat smashed into the top of his head. Sasha let out a blood curdling scream that echoed through the forest. Negan stopped after he hit Abraham to admire his handiwork, and to his delight Abraham started to get back to his knees.

"Taking it like a champ!" Negan chucked. Then, he continued to slam the bat into Abraham's head again and again and again. Michonne was horrified. Out of all the horrific things that she had gone through, watching Abraham's head being bashed in was the absolute worse. It was even worse than Hershel being decapitated next to her. With every swing Negan made, blood, brain matter, and skull fragments showered her clothing and hair. A large chunk of skull even landed in her mouth which was hanging open in horror, causing her to gag. Michonne felt the hot tears welling up in her eyes and even she couldn't hold them back anymore. Negan kept swinging until Abraham no longer had a head.

Negan finally stopped swinging and gleefully wiped some blood off his face. "Whooo, what a work out. I mean it's not like we have gyms anymore, am I right?". He looked around like he was waiting for a response. Everyone including his own men were silent. Even Sasha's sobs had become muted.

Negan seemed to suddenly lose interest in the situation altogether and stalked over to Rick. "This is what's going to happen, we will be at your compound in three days, and when we show up you're gonna open those gates wide and let me in. I'm gonna take half your shit, and you're gonna smile while I do it. And if you and your people get the retarded idea that you're gonna try to pull something, I will shoot the boy point blank. Got it?". Rick didn't respond. Negan slowly moved over to Carl and Rick quickly mumbled "Got it."

A smile spread across Negan's face. "Good! Now, I'm taking one of you with me to make sure we don't have anyone going around murdering my men in the middle of the night before I pay your compound a visit. You can't be too careful nowadays, I need insurance." Everyone's heads snapped up at this news, even Daryl's who was on the verge on passing out from his gunshot wound.

Negan walked over to Michonne and held out his hand. "You look like quite a tough ass lady. I'd like to get to know you better". Michonne stared at the hand in front of her.

Is he seriously giving me a pick up line? Oh God, Rick please don't flip out, for Carl's sake.

"No!" Rick growled from his spot on the floor. He started to get up, but Michonne shut it down with one word. "Rick!". There was so much meaning in that word.

Rick I will be ok. Thank you for trying to protect me, but I can handle myself, and if you get up right now you will kill Carl and all of our other family members. He won't hurt me because he wants your cooperation. You can live without me for 3 days. You have to think. Calm down.

Rick stared at her, and it seemed their telepathy did it's trick. He almost imperceptably nodded his head and settled back down. This exchange wasn't lost on Negan who grinned. "Rick! Is this your woman too? Damn Rick you lucky boy, you get to keep her warm at night. I didn't even know. I just picked her 'cuz she's fine as hell, and that stare is tickling me in all the right places, but now I see where your boy get's his evil ass stare from".

Negan put his hand out to Michonne again. "Let's go". Ignoring Negan's hand, Michonne stood up on her own and stared into Negan's eyes.

"I'm not a monster you know, I'll give you a minute to say goodbye if you behave yourself". Michonne nodded and walked over to Carl. He stood up as she approached him. She could see tears streaming down his face, but besides that his features were emotionless. She hugged him as hard as she could. She knew he was only holding on by a string and he would probably break down on the way home, but she didn't want him to do it here. He was trying so hard not to do it here. "I will come back" she whispered. "I'll be ok. I promise". He nodded. After a few seconds he replied "I know... Mom". His response almost made her lose it. She pulled back and looked into his eyes and saw he had started to shake a little. She just smiled and moved down the row, giving the rest of the family a hug as they continued to kneel. She saved Rick for last.

As he leaped up and wrapped his arms around her she almost lost it again. She could feel him shaking and his breaths coming out in short bursts. She realized he was sobbing. "Rick" she whispered. "Please be strong for me. I will come back. Remember what I said yesterday morning. I'm not losing you. You're not losing me. I need you to think, don't panic, and don't do anything stupid... I love you". She held on to him until Negan boomed. "Ok break it up, we have a long trip home... And I know you do too" he said directing the last part towards Rick. "Don't worry, I'll take good care of her for you" he said, winking towards Rick.

Michonne slowly backed away from Rick keeping her eyes on him. She tried to memorize every line on his face and the exact color of his beautiful blue eyes, just in case. She then forced herself to turn around and walk towards this madman who had just murdered her friend and threatened her son and the man she loved. She followed him up to an SUV where another Savior wrapped wire around her wrists to bind them. She looked back at her family who were still kneeling on the hard forest floor except for Carl and Rick, and wondered if she would ever see them again. They looked so broken, dejected... hopeless. The Savior who was binding her hands gave his handiwork a final jerk, making her turn back around. Then suddenly he wrapped a blindfold around her face.

She could feel herself being pushed into the back seat of an SUV, with two fairly large men sitting on either side of her. She was squished in the middle and had no choice but to touch them. She heard two other people get into the driver and front passenger seat. She suddenly jumped when she felt someone touch her right hip, but then she realized someone was strapping a seat belt on her. "Don't worry honey, when I get you alone I'm gonna touch way more than that...", the seat belt buckler whispered. The Savior on her left side chuckled at the comment. She heard the ignition turn on and then the car started moving.