Here's the second part, enjoy!
In the brief moments that Glenn had been focused on Negan, his wife's condition seemed to have deteriorated even more. He thought it was now impossible for her to get any worse and still be conscious. And Negan expected her to get up and walk to the RV, nearly thirty feet away, unaided? She couldn't even sit up without Michonne's help.
She could die tonight, the thought ran through him like ice water in his veins. The shock of this thought delayed his reaction to Negan's absurd demand, which likely would've been similar to Rick's growl, "No."
Negan turned slowly towards Rick, then asked, "Excuse me?"
Aaron picked up from there, "She needs a doctor. We aren't sure what's wrong with her, but she won't be able to reach the RV without help."
Negan's eyes narrowed and his grip on his bat tightened. Distracted as he was by Maggie's ever-fading appearance, even Glenn could recognize that Aaron was pushing him too far. And if Aaron's calm, practical negotiating style couldn't convince Negan, then nothing could.
"Hm," he pretended to think. "You're sayin' she can't walk by herself? Well, I hate to say it, but I agree with ya there. You've really got that whole "damsel-in-distress" thing down, Juliet, if you don't mind me saying," he knelt down to Maggie's level, grabbing her chin with a hand. This time, Glenn expected Rosita's warning, he shifted forward despite her hand reaching for his wrist, then yelled, "Don't touch her!"
Negan ignored him, saying, "Now, I've got an idea!" Negan turned back to the group and let Maggie go, "I've got a whole army of men back there who'd just kill to help out a sweet little lady like her out. Yeah, how's that sound to you, Romeo?"
When Negan looked at him, all he thought was that he wished it was possible to kill someone just through eye contact.
"No!" He and Maggie shouted at the same time. Whether Maggie was reacting to Negan's threat against her or the way was looking at Negan, Glenn wasn't sure. And he wouldn't figure it out anytime soon, because before he could react to his wife's first audible words since the bat had swung, Maggie started to stand.
He wanted to admire her strength, both mental and physical. He wanted to cheer for how she never backed down from a challenge. But all Glenn could think about was how she shouldn't have to be doing this. How a human being shouldn't subject others to this kind of torture, just for their own amusement.
Glenn had known how strong Maggie was for ages, for fuck's sake he'd met her when she rode in on a horse and took a bat to a walker's head. Rick wasn't lying earlier, or even stretching the truth to get them out of a sticky situation. Maggie was the strongest fighter in their group. Negan couldn't see it, but everyone who really knew her could. Of course she could do this, even if only by the skin of her teeth and sheer determination, but –
Why the fuck was he making her?
He couldn't keep looking at his struggling wife without doing something. But he knew that doing something would get them all killed. So he looked away, hating himself for it while knowing it was the only way of possibly getting Maggie out of this alive.
Rick and Michonne won't let her fall. They're still right next to her and they won't let her fall, he repeated that small assurance in his head again and again, knowing that it was true.
Glenn hadn't seen Negan surprised once during this unsavory introduction, and he doubted he ever would again. But if he wasn't so worried that Maggie would pass out or furious at the man for making her, Glenn would have paused to treasure the moment of complete shock on Negan's face at the sight of Maggie slowly and shakily getting up.
Negan recovered in the blink of an eye, and then he looked as happy as he'd been when he was bashing Abraham's skull in. "See!" He shouted to both his prisoners and his followers, "Now that's what I'm talkin' about! Complete obedience! Ha, all I had to do was threaten her with your help, Max" he pointed at a random man in the shadows, "and she was like putty in my hands. Eh, and she's still just as stable as putty over there. Alright, we've had our fun. Romeo, get in there buddy, your girl's earned it." He gestured to Glenn, indifferently waving him over to Maggie.
Not taking the time to question Negan's abrupt mood change, Glenn sprung up from his knees and ran over to Maggie faster than he was sure he'd been in his life.
He couldn't help but savor the feeling of his wife finally in his arms after everything they'd been through that night, holding her close for a long moment. Maggie instantly returned his hug, but while his grip slackened just a little bit after the moment ended, hers only grew stronger.
It was a chilling realization that shouldn't have shocked him as much as it did: she couldn't let go of him without falling.
When he did realize exactly how weak his wife's act of defiance had left her, Glenn tightened his hold again, whispering in her ear, "It's okay. I've got you," so that she knew she didn't have to waste any more energy holding on to him. She'd gotten them this far, he'd take over for now.
Negan, who had gone over to stand in the space he'd cleared next to Rosita, spoke up and demanded, "Alright. Now to the RV. Don't try anything stupid, remember, we've still got your weapons and the keys."
As if Glenn would try anything in that moment besides getting his wife safely into that RV. He still looked back at the group, though, doubting Negan's sudden generosity. What if they got into the RV and then Negan did something terrible to his family still in the woods? Who was to say he would let them all go?
He caught Daryl's eye – the man had been bleeding out for hours and he needed a doctor just as much as Maggie – but Daryl just gave him the slightest nod, and then looked pointedly at Maggie, his message clear.
"Glenn?" Maggie lifted her head up and looked at him questioningly.
"Yeah," he whispered, "Yeah, we're going."
He supported Maggie with his arm around her waist and hers around his shoulders, but it still wasn't enough. Maggie cringed at the movement walking created, even though he was going as slowly as possible.
Knowing that Negan would get bored of being nice quickly, Glenn saw he only had one option. He hadn't wanted to earlier because he'd known from previous joking attempts that he wasn't quite strong enough to do it smoothly, and he'd wanted to spare her the pain that he knew it was going to cause. He'd never caused her physical pain like he was about to, and even though it was their only option, he hated what he was about to do.
But if he couldn't be smooth (like Rick, or Daryl, or god, Abraham would be) then he would have to be fast.
Not giving her time to question him, he took her other arm and slung it across his chest. As he tightened his hold on her waist, he bent down and lifted her legs with his free arm. He tried to keep her stomach as still as possible, knowing from her hold on it earlier that that was where it hurt the most. Her cries at the sudden jostling masked his first apology so he said again and again, "Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry," until he realized she'd gone quiet.
Maggie had finally passed out. He'd been the one to cause it.
Glenn shifted her just enough so that her head could rest on his chest but kept walking. He barely registered the laughs and catcalls of Negan and his men, and thankfully they reached the RV without any incidents. Negan had left the door cracked which allowed Glenn to hip-check it open without putting Maggie down. He watched her head carefully as he climbed through the door and up the steps. Appreciating the silence the RV offered, he still wished more than anything that Maggie could say something, anything, to him right then.
He couldn't think of a good place to set her down: he couldn't just put her on the floor but he also couldn't push the seats together while he was still holding her. Knowing that he needed to put her down before his arms made the decision for him, he did the first thing that popped into his head. Leaning against the wall of the RV, Glenn slowly sank down against it, controlling their descent to the floor and ending up with Maggie's head and upper torso cushioned in his lap. Doubting his choice, Glenn thought Maggie needed more of a pillow than just his thighs, so he did the only thing that occurred to him: he shrugged off his shirt, balled it up, gently lifted her head, and tucked it underneath her. There. Much better.
In that instant, with no one there but his unconscious wife, and nothing left that he could do for her, Glenn finally broke down. Everything that had happened that day finally hit him: getting ambushed with Daryl, Michonne, and Rosita, seeing how sick Maggie was, and the sheer brutality of Abraham's murder…
No one was invincible, not even the people who acted like it.
And on top of all of that, he wasn't an idiot. He knew what the doctor would probably say if they ever managed to make it there. He knew the baby might be gone.
He tried to calm down. He distracted himself by wondering who would join him and Maggie in the RV next, and how long Negan would draw out this game.
But then his thoughts were interrupted by Maggie: her head moved in his lap, her fingers twitched around his, and her eyes blinked open. She was awake.
Fuck, she was so tough, for a moment he couldn't help but be shocked by her strength before jumping into action, "Mags, hey, hey, sweetie," he said, looking down at her and uselessly brushing her short hair away from her face. "How are you feeling?"
"Glenn?" she murmured, her eyes hazy.
"Yeah, it's me, honey, we're alone right now, we're in the RV. Are you feeling any better? What hurts? Can I do anything?"
She answered his three questions with one of her own, "Why're we on the floor?"
He took a moment to appreciate how he'd married a woman who would question his thinking in a time like this. Unsure of what to say, he replied, "I - I don't know, you wouldn't have been comfortable in a chair…"
"Bench wouldn't have worked?" Maggie asked, almost conversationally.
She raised her head slightly to look across the RV and – of course. The perfectly cushioned bench that they'd sat on a dozen times, the perfect size for her to lay down comfortably, not five feet away from where they were currently sprawled in a heap on the hard, pillow-less floor.
He felt like an idiot. Why did things always have to go this way? It felt like at every intersection, he took a wrong turn. And he'd felt like that for a while now. Back when he didn't trust Nicholas, the guy tried to kill him. When he did trust Nicholas, the guy still almost got him killed. When he left Maggie in Alexandria, the safe-zone was attacked by the Wolves, then by over a hundred walkers. When he took her with him, she got taken by Negan's people.
And now even when they were together, he was making the wrong calls.
"Yeah. Yeah. Bench would've been better, sorry, I –"
Surprised that she had enough strength left – though why the hell he was questioning her after so long, he wasn't sure – Maggie reached up and brushed a tear away from his cheek. He hadn't realized he was crying.
"It's alright," Maggie said with a soft smile. "Floor's just as good."
Immediately calmed by his wife's reassurance, Glenn sat back against the wall of the RV, entwined his fingers with hers, and waited for whatever came next.
Thanks for reading! A coda will be posted later this week, so look out for that. Please leave a review before you go, I'd really appreciate it. Tumblr is rosy-doze if you ever have a prompt or just want to chat!