p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;""Dun dun dun dunn" a voice called, "Little pig, little pig, let me in!"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"It was only a few days after the horrific scene in the woods where two of the group, Abraham and Glenn, were horrifically beaten to death. At least they would never come back as walkers. We were in shambles. Three key member of the group were simply gone, it was like they simply had never existed and I felt the loss of their presence in my soul./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Maggie, Sasha and Rosita were visibly destroyed at the deaths of Glenn and Abe. I did not have their luxury of comfort or expression, considering that Daryl and I had decided to keep whatever we were doing a secret. I had to stoically soldier on and hide my pain – it would do no one any good knowing about our situation at the current time./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Which was what I was doing now, as Negan and his crew drove their trucks right into the centre of what once was a sanctuary of peace, and ordered his men to take our belongings, whatever he deemed as "half". Rick just stood there with Carl, speechless. We all hadn't expected their visit so soon but Rick looked shell-shocked./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="text-decoration: underline;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"[Insert some dialogue here from the script Rick talking to Negan etc, Talk about how bad Daryl looks all beaten up./span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;""Well, hel-lo! Who the hell are you, you sweet young thing!" Negan turned away from Rick towards Rose, "Man! Where emare/em you finding all of these quality chicks? I most definitely don't remember seeing you at our party the other night. And trust me, I would remember" He paused, inspecting Rose. "Hell, we don't have the same variety back home that you do here, you lucky devil, Rick. Which one is yours? Wait. Let me guess. Thaaaaat one!" he exclaimed, spinning on his heel and pointing at Michonne, "she sure looks like she would absolutely cut me into teeny tiny pieces if I laid a hand on you! Holy hell, that's devotion!"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;""What say you sweet cheeks, fancy coming back with ol' Negan? I promise I'll make you my second favourite wife" he purred, turning back to me, his voice dripping with confidence. My mouth dropped open slightly in shock, my eyebrows raising of their own volition. Was this guy for real? He bashed in two of my friends' heads, had taken Daryl captive, done god knows what to him and he now expects me to fuck him?/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"I could feel my throat closing up, my cheeks prickling with a cool sensation and my face turning red. My stomach was swirling. Dear god, not now!/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;""Well? Whaddaya say?" he raised an eyebrow and held out his hand. I could see Daryl out of the corner of my eye, looking anywhere but at me. Everyone was staring. In response, I neatly bent forward and vomited right all over his shoes, my hands resting on the ground./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"I looked up and met his eyes with my own, wide eyes. Instead of anger I saw curiosity. That scared me./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;""Are you unwell?" he mused, motioning for one of his 'associates' to come and wipe away my vomit, before reconsidering./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;""I don't know what came over me, I felt fine earlier. Sorry about your shoes." I wasn't sorry./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;""Not a problem. I'll have Daryl here clean it, he loves cleaning. Daryl, come here." He walked over slowly, seemingly holding his breath and avoiding all eye contact as if he looked at me he would contract some sort of hideous disease. I reckoned it was his way of avoiding confrontation and escalating the situation. "Clean my shoes, your friend as just given you a particularly disgusting task to undertake. Blame her, not me! It's not my fault you're such a good janitor!"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"So there Negan stood, in a pool of vomit, having his shoes cleaned. I could almost feel the anger radiating from Daryl, like steam./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;""So what's wrong with you then? People, especially not pretty girls, like you, don't just vomit for no reaso - Oh. Ohh! Oh I see, it makes total sense now. This is a most happy occasion! Congratulations, you're positively glowing – no wonder… no wonder I was hitting on you earlier. Who, may I ask is the father?" Everyone seemed completely stunned. And that would make sense as neither Daryl or I had told anyone that we were 'seeing' one another, hell I'd only just found out that I was pregnant, too. "Let's break open some of the champagne you're donating to us. Oh, sorry, you're not allowed to drink. Bad for the baby and all that. More for me and Lucille!"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"I needed a lie./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;""He died" I mumbled, looking at the floor. Daryl seemed frozen, and was attempting to clean the same part of Negan's shoe over and over. It wasn't working. I mean, as far as I knew, Ethan actually emwas/em dead./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;""Oh. How sad. Baby daddy's dead. What was his name?" Negan palmed Lucille./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;""He was my boyfriend, Ethan, he died." I thought of Ethan and the sadness of receiving his last text message. A real tear rolled down my cheek at the loss of such a big part of my life./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;""How far along are you?" Negan looked interested, cocking his head, "You just don't look very big is all. Make sure you keep that weight off during the pregnancy, you don't want to bloat up like her over there, do you?" He pointed to Olivia, who looked even more upset than she already was./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;""Three months… I think…"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;""He must have died quite recently then hey? Rick, what was this Ethan chap like? Was he particularly good looking? More handsome than I? I know, I know, that is probably a trick question, there aren't many men that are better looking than I am" He spun on his heel and swung his bat around, intimidating the crowd. I prayed a silent prayer that Rick would go along with the ruse./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;""We didn't know him well, he mostly kept himself to himself. The virus and the 'end of the world' really hit him hard, bit of a lone wolf, but he treated Rose alright" he guessed, trying to look convincing. He shot me a confused look when Negan turned away./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;""Ha! Well, he can't be much worse than this ugly mutt down here cleaning her vomit from my… somewhat… new leather shoes!" He smirked, "Daryl, what do you think of Rose's pregnancy, you should congratulate her! This is a happy occasion! Maybe she'll make you an uncle or god-father or something if you're nice to her." He pulled Daryl up by the top of his dirty jumper. "What do you think about the name Negan? Works for both a boy or a girl. Seriously, consider it."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Daryl turned around, and looked at me. He had aged years in only a few days, nasty bruises down the side of his face, and he seemed smaller, more hunched. I looked him right in the eyes and tried to apologise telepathically./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;""Congratulations" he said, "I'm sure the father would have been excited." I tried very hard not to let a threatening tear roll down my cheek as I gulped./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;""I bet you wish you'd hit that, hey, Daryl. Too bad she's too good for you. That ain't neeeeever going to happen." He barked and pushed him away./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;""Speaking of hot girls, whatever happened to that sick girl?" Negan mused, "That seemed like a hell of a stressful night for her. The way she was carrying on, she was married to number two, right? Careful." He glared back at Rick, "Careful how you're lookin' at me, Rick." He waved Lucille in Rick's face./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;""Widows, especially ones that look like that - I love 'em. Right after their husbands go, they are just empty inside." He laughed and gave me a knowing look "But usually not for long. Ha ha. Ahhh. Where is she? I'd love to see her."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"A quiet voice spoke up "Do you care to pay your respects?" said Father Gabriel./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;""Ho-ly crap! You are creepy. As. Shit! Sneaking up on me, wearin' that collar with that freaky-ass smile."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Gabriel, unsure of what to do, kept the uncomfortable smile on his face "My apologies. I'm Father Gabriel"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;""She didn't make it? Damn tragedy. That's what this is." He breathed in deeply, "Well, this must really suck for you guys. Number one? That was on me. No choice there. Lessons had to be learned. But number two? That didn't need to happen. Daryl, there, he forced my hand." I found it offensive that he was making himself feel better by deciding it was Daryl's fault that he bashed Glenn's face in. Knowing that saying as much would not help the situation we found ourselves in, I stayed quiet and prayed that Daryl didn't believe that what Negan was saying./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"I zoned out of the conversation, hoping that Daryl was OK and that he didn't believe that he had anything to do with Glenn's murder, wishing he could hear my thoughts and choking down anger that my secret had been outed. It wasn't his secret to expose – I knew I would be confronted by questions later from the others and I wasn't ready to answer them. Not knowing where we both stood on my pregnancy, hell, let alone our 'relationship' means that there would be no confiding in anyone. At least, not until I had spoken to Daryl./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Pop. Pop pop. Shots rang out and Rick, Negan and most of the others ran off in the general direction of the sounds. Rick's house. I stayed rooted where I was, staring at Daryl, who, without the presence of Negan was staring right back at me and appeared to be standing a little bit taller. His mouth twitched to the right in a slight smile and I knew. Knew he was playing at defeated, broken, without hope. He was still there, just hiding for the time being and bearing it all the best as he could. My mouth twitched up slightly in a small smile back./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;""What are you staring at?" one of the cronies elbowed Daryl, towards the truck. I had a flash of though. Moving quickly, I rushed back towards my house, which now felt completely empty without Maggie or Glenn (I tried to avoid being in there for too long), and rustled around in the kitchen for paper. I scribbled on the tiny scrap, before scrunching it into a ball and making my way back to the main gate./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Negan was now ordering both his and my people to load up all of our guns into his van, /spanspan style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;""Well, ho-ly smokes! Look at this! It was you guys that took out Little Timmy and the Dick Brigade? Wow, Rick. Gettin' in your last licks. Ooh, man, I'm gonna have some fun with this."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"I walked towards the group and in doing so, walked as closely as possible to Daryl when no one was looking, preoccupied with inspecting the guns we were 'donating' to them. I dropped the paper ball on the floor near Daryl's feet, and went to ask Negan if he needed any help loading up the vans./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;""Not from you, darling. I can't have someone in your condition injuring themselves, now, can I?" he smirked, "Look how we're all getting along! I'm starting to like this, Rick, hmmm very much!"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Daryl bend down, pretend to tie his shoelace and slip the paper into his pocket./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"*/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Daryl sat in the darkened room dreading the start of 'easy street'. But at least he had been outside. The act was hard, really hard to continue – to retain just enough of himself visible so that he didn't admit defeat, but to pretend he was weakening so they didn't physically damage him too much. It was getting harder to maintain, especially after the events of the day. He couldn't believe it./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"emspan style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Yours. Be safe. I'm sorry I couldn't tell you myself./span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"**/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"It was only a few days after the horrific scene in the woods where two of the group, Abraham and Glenn, were horrifically beaten to death. At least they would never come back as walkers. We were in shambles. Three key member of the group were simply gone, it was like they simply had never existed and I felt the loss of their presence in my soul./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Maggie, Sasha and Rosita were visibly destroyed at the deaths of Glenn and Abe. I did not have their luxury of comfort or expression, considering that Daryl and I had decided to keep whatever we were doing a secret. I had to stoically soldier on and hide my pain – it would do no one any good knowing about our situation at the current time./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Which was what I was doing now, as Negan and his crew drove their trucks right into the centre of what once was a sanctuary of peace, and ordered his men to take our belongings, whatever he deemed as "half". Rick just stood there with Carl, speechless. We all hadn't expected their visit so soon but Rick looked shell-shocked./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="text-decoration: underline;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"[Insert some dialogue here from the script Rick talking to Negan etc, Talk about how bad Daryl looks all beaten up./span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;""Well, hel-lo! Who the hell are you, you sweet young thing!" Negan turned away from Rick towards Rose, "Man! Where emare/em you finding all of these quality chicks? I most definitely don't remember seeing you at our party the other night. And trust me, I would remember" He paused, inspecting Rose. "Hell, we don't have the same variety back home that you do here, you lucky devil, Rick. Which one is yours? Wait. Let me guess. Thaaaaat one!" he exclaimed, spinning on his heel and pointing at Michonne, "she sure looks like she would absolutely cut me into teeny tiny pieces if I laid a hand on you! Holy hell, that's devotion!"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;""What say you sweet cheeks, fancy coming back with ol' Negan? I promise I'll make you my second favourite wife" he purred, turning back to me, his voice dripping with confidence. My mouth dropped open slightly in shock, my eyebrows raising of their own volition. Was this guy for real? He bashed in two of my friends' heads, had taken Daryl captive, done god knows what to him and he now expects me to fuck him?/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"I could feel my throat closing up, my cheeks prickling with a cool sensation and my face turning red. My stomach was swirling. Dear god, not now!/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;""Well? Whaddaya say?" he raised an eyebrow and held out his hand. I could see Daryl out of the corner of my eye, looking anywhere but at me. Everyone was staring. In response, I neatly bent forward and vomited right all over his shoes, my hands resting on the ground./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"I looked up and met his eyes with my own, wide eyes. Instead of anger I saw curiosity. That scared me./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;""Are you unwell?" he mused, motioning for one of his 'associates' to come and wipe away my vomit, before reconsidering./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;""I don't know what came over me, I felt fine earlier. Sorry about your shoes." I wasn't sorry./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;""Not a problem. I'll have Daryl here clean it, he loves cleaning. Daryl, come here." He walked over slowly, seemingly holding his breath and avoiding all eye contact as if he looked at me he would contract some sort of hideous disease. I reckoned it was his way of avoiding confrontation and escalating the situation. "Clean my shoes, your friend as just given you a particularly disgusting task to undertake. Blame her, not me! It's not my fault you're such a good janitor!"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"So there Negan stood, in a pool of vomit, having his shoes cleaned. I could almost feel the anger radiating from Daryl, like steam./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;""So what's wrong with you then? People, especially not pretty girls, like you, don't just vomit for no reaso - Oh. Ohh! Oh I see, it makes total sense now. This is a most happy occasion! Congratulations, you're positively glowing – no wonder… no wonder I was hitting on you earlier. Who, may I ask is the father?" Everyone seemed completely stunned. And that would make sense as neither Daryl or I had told anyone that we were 'seeing' one another, hell I'd only just found out that I was pregnant, too. "Let's break open some of the champagne you're donating to us. Oh, sorry, you're not allowed to drink. Bad for the baby and all that. More for me and Lucille!"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"I needed a lie./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;""He died" I mumbled, looking at the floor. Daryl seemed frozen, and was attempting to clean the same part of Negan's shoe over and over. It wasn't working. I mean, as far as I knew, Ethan actually emwas/em dead./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;""Oh. How sad. Baby daddy's dead. What was his name?" Negan palmed Lucille./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;""He was my boyfriend, Ethan, he died." I thought of Ethan and the sadness of receiving his last text message. A real tear rolled down my cheek at the loss of such a big part of my life./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;""How far along are you?" Negan looked interested, cocking his head, "You just don't look very big is all. Make sure you keep that weight off during the pregnancy, you don't want to bloat up like her over there, do you?" He pointed to Olivia, who looked even more upset than she already was./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;""Three months… I think…"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;""He must have died quite recently then hey? Rick, what was this Ethan chap like? Was he particularly good looking? More handsome than I? I know, I know, that is probably a trick question, there aren't many men that are better looking than I am" He spun on his heel and swung his bat around, intimidating the crowd. I prayed a silent prayer that Rick would go along with the ruse./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;""We didn't know him well, he mostly kept himself to himself. The virus and the 'end of the world' really hit him hard, bit of a lone wolf, but he treated Rose alright" he guessed, trying to look convincing. He shot me a confused look when Negan turned away./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;""Ha! Well, he can't be much worse than this ugly mutt down here cleaning her vomit from my… somewhat… new leather shoes!" He smirked, "Daryl, what do you think of Rose's pregnancy, you should congratulate her! This is a happy occasion! Maybe she'll make you an uncle or god-father or something if you're nice to her." He pulled Daryl up by the top of his dirty jumper. "What do you think about the name Negan? Works for both a boy or a girl. Seriously, consider it."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Daryl turned around, and looked at me. He had aged years in only a few days, nasty bruises down the side of his face, and he seemed smaller, more hunched. I looked him right in the eyes and tried to apologise telepathically./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;""Congratulations" he said, "I'm sure the father would have been excited." I tried very hard not to let a threatening tear roll down my cheek as I gulped./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;""I bet you wish you'd hit that, hey, Daryl. Too bad she's too good for you. That ain't neeeeever going to happen." He barked and pushed him away./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;""Speaking of hot girls, whatever happened to that sick girl?" Negan mused, "That seemed like a hell of a stressful night for her. The way she was carrying on, she was married to number two, right? Careful." He glared back at Rick, "Careful how you're lookin' at me, Rick." He waved Lucille in Rick's face./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;""Widows, especially ones that look like that - I love 'em. Right after their husbands go, they are just empty inside." He laughed and gave me a knowing look "But usually not for long. Ha ha. Ahhh. Where is she? I'd love to see her."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"A quiet voice spoke up "Do you care to pay your respects?" said Father Gabriel./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;""Ho-ly crap! You are creepy. As. Shit! Sneaking up on me, wearin' that collar with that freaky-ass smile."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Gabriel, unsure of what to do, kept the uncomfortable smile on his face "My apologies. I'm Father Gabriel"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;""She didn't make it? Damn tragedy. That's what this is." He breathed in deeply, "Well, this must really suck for you guys. Number one? That was on me. No choice there. Lessons had to be learned. But number two? That didn't need to happen. Daryl, there, he forced my hand." I found it offensive that he was making himself feel better by deciding it was Daryl's fault that he bashed Glenn's face in. Knowing that saying as much would not help the situation we found ourselves in, I stayed quiet and prayed that Daryl didn't believe that what Negan was saying./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"I zoned out of the conversation, hoping that Daryl was OK and that he didn't believe that he had anything to do with Glenn's murder, wishing he could hear my thoughts and choking down anger that my secret had been outed. It wasn't his secret to expose – I knew I would be confronted by questions later from the others and I wasn't ready to answer them. Not knowing where we both stood on my pregnancy, hell, let alone our 'relationship' means that there would be no confiding in anyone. At least, not until I had spoken to Daryl./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Pop. Pop pop. Shots rang out and Rick, Negan and most of the others ran off in the general direction of the sounds. Rick's house. I stayed rooted where I was, staring at Daryl, who, without the presence of Negan was staring right back at me and appeared to be standing a little bit taller. His mouth twitched to the right in a slight smile and I knew. Knew he was playing at defeated, broken, without hope. He was still there, just hiding for the time being and bearing it all the best as he could. My mouth twitched up slightly in a small smile back./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;""What are you staring at?" one of the cronies elbowed Daryl, towards the truck. I had a flash of though. Moving quickly, I rushed back towards my house, which now felt completely empty without Maggie or Glenn (I tried to avoid being in there for too long), and rustled around in the kitchen for paper. I scribbled on the tiny scrap, before scrunching it into a ball and making my way back to the main gate./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Negan was now ordering both his and my people to load up all of our guns into his van, /spanspan style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;""Well, ho-ly smokes! Look at this! It was you guys that took out Little Timmy and the Dick Brigade? Wow, Rick. Gettin' in your last licks. Ooh, man, I'm gonna have some fun with this."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"I walked towards the group and in doing so, walked as closely as possible to Daryl when no one was looking, preoccupied with inspecting the guns we were 'donating' to them. I dropped the paper ball on the floor near Daryl's feet, and went to ask Negan if he needed any help loading up the vans./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;""Not from you, darling. I can't have someone in your condition injuring themselves, now, can I?" he smirked, "Look how we're all getting along! I'm starting to like this, Rick, hmmm very much!"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Daryl bend down, pretend to tie his shoelace and slip the paper into his pocket./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"*/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Daryl sat in the darkened room dreading the start of 'easy street'. But at least he had been outside. The act was hard, really hard to continue – to retain just enough of himself visible so that he didn't admit defeat, but to pretend he was weakening so they didn't physically damage him too much. It was getting harder to maintain, especially after the events of the day. He couldn't believe it./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"emspan style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Yours. Be safe. I'm sorry I couldn't tell you myself./span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"**/span/p