Chapter 53:
Moral ambiguity
Max didn't exactly know what to do with himself after being 'escorted' from the hospital wing – especially since that's what his nose really needed at that moment. His nose wasn't gushing with blood like the fountain it was before, but he did keep pressing his nostrils closed with his fingers, only to flinch at the pain.
Max had an embarrassingly low tolerance for pain, but that was okay with him, because he took pride in the fact that it never got his spirits down. He may not be as ridiculously persevere as Judith, but he was definitely as strong as she was. In different ways, he liked to think.
Max mulled around the courtyard in different directions before settling on a place to head to. He walked back the way he came and skidded against the cement floor of the warehouse. He glanced uncomfortably at the corridor incase a Judithian member (as he called them) was guarding the entrance. He was a little surprised to see they weren't, as well as grateful – he didn't think his nose could take it.
When he realised he was just standing there staring at an empty corridor he shook his body in a weird, octopus-like way and headed for the metal staircase against the wall. He skipped up them two-at-a-time and skidded again along the platform, his shoes not having as much grip as they really should. He had to smack his hands against the framing of the open doorway to stop from invading Glenn and Maggie's room.
"Hey," he breathed with a goofy smile, knowing there would be that childish glint in his eyes. Glenn and Maggie were both leaning against the desk against the opposite wall, and both looked up when they noticed him. He hugged himself and looked into their stressed, tired faces. Apparently he had interrupted a serious moment of some kind, but Maggie didn't seem to care.
She kicked herself off the desk and strode over to him, concern and care on her face in that motherly kinda way. "What happened to your face?"
Before he could answer, Maggie had her fingers pinched over his mouth, raising his chin to peer rather intrusively at his bleeding nose. Max looked over her should at Glenn who seemed more distracted than Maggie, and more tortured seeming.
A common expression among people these days.
Max batted Maggie's hands away and waved his own dismissively in her face causing her to raise a stern brow. "It's nothing—it's nothing," he said quickly, already bored of this conversation. He took one obnoxiously large leap towards Glenn so he stood in the middle of the room between them. "As a rule, I choose to only tell interesting stories, which this is not," Max said with an expansive gesture to his nose. "What I'm more interested in is what on earth happened with the dude."
"His name is Rick," Glenn said cautiously. "And this is somewhat of a private matter, Max."
He raised a high brow. "Which is exactly why you should tell me. Otherwise this," he pointed to his nose again, turning to look at Maggie, "Was all for nothing."
"Wait, you went to see Tara?"
"Yes," Max said simply.
Glenn made a disgruntled noise which was muffled through his hands. "Why did you do that?" He asked, but Max suspected that it may have been rhetorical. "They're already on edge as it is. We've already done enough to them... Just leave them be, Max."
He pouted.
"And don't even think about going near Judith."
"But..."
"No," Glenn said sternly, his tired eyes growing wide for one threatening moment.
Max shoved his hands into his pockets. "Jeez, you try and put the moves on one girl, and all the sudden...!"
Maggie sighed noticeably, then walked over to a chest near their bed, pulling out medical supplies for Max's nose. He didn't even have time to bat her away before she started shoving balls of cotton up his nose.
Max sighed tiredly. "At least give me some details about your discussion with the morally ambiguous seeming men."
Glenn frowned for a moment and Max shrugged humbly. "I've been reading about Hitchcock again – and the thesaurus," he said and smiled cutely making Glenn smile, if only for a second.
"Rick's people are allowed to stay here as long as they want as long as they obey our rules. And Rick and Daryl agreed to let me and Maggie deal with the person responsible for almost killing Tara, and trying to kill Judith."
Max flinched noticeably which made Glenn's head jerk. "How do you know they were trying to kill Judith?"
Glenn looked at him with mild surprise. "You seen any other members making a scene in the courtyard lately?"
Maggie began adding some sort of liquid from a bottle onto his nose making him wince away in pain. "Don't be such a baby," she muttered, tugging him closer to her by his messy hair. "And Glenn's right; if anyone was a target, it would be Judith."
She finished doing whatever she was doing and Max took a step back. "And if anyone was responsible, it sure as hell wasn't you guys," he snapped. Glenn's guilt was more obvious in his eyes than it was in Maggie's (she was always better at hiding things like that). "You guys are bending over backwards for these people because you feel guilty, and why? Because some of us did something evil, and because you happen to run this place – that's just totally illogical."
Maggie sighed, walking back over to Glenn and standing close enough to his that their shoulders squished together. "True or not, we're still the ones who shot at both Rick and his daughter. Who tortured Judith and intended to take her life." The guilt Maggie was feeling was becoming more obvious in her tone.
"Bleh!" Max made another charismatically dismissing gesture with his arm. "You really gotta stop thinking of yourselves as the devil for that. You weren't doing anything they would have done if the rolls were reversed."
Maggie and Glenn stared at the ground, and a triumphant smile spread across Max's face. "And though you're gonna disagree with me in that 'oh so superior' way you guys always do, you're still thinking "oh crap, he's got a point"." Max went quiet for a moment, still smiling triumphantly.
"Now, if you'll excuse me – my nose seems to be taken care of, despite its new tilt to the right, so I'm going to leave now." He fluttered his lashes, trying to be dramatically dignified while making a slow, feminine turn. Max walked to the door, but before leaving he added, "That, and also I like to leave with a good, dramatic line that refutes both your points so I seem smarter than I actually am." Then Max chuckled to himself. "What am I saying? I'm a genius."
"Get out," Maggie said bluntly making Max back out of the room and trot loudly down the steps.
...
Glenn was on the brink of unconsciousness when he rolled onto his side and reached his arm out for Maggie's waist like he always did to get to sleep. But his arm flopped against the spacious mattress beneath him and he craned his neck up.
"Maggie?" He croaked groggily. Squinting in the darkness, he saw Maggie's bare shoulder blades as she stared out at the train tracks. Glenn's body was heavy with sleep, but he forced himself to sit up anyways. "Maggie."
She didn't say anything for a moment, just kept staring out the window with her back to him. "Am I evil?"
"What?" Glenn breathed, as he sat up straighter, now more alert than he was ten seconds ago. He watched as Maggie hugged herself and her head dropped in that way she did when she felt insecure; vulnerable.
"I'm evil, aren't I?"
"Of course not."
Maggie let out a small choke that she tried to cover up, but Glenn had heard it. He swallowed hard. "Do you think I'm evil?"
She sniffled, but didn't saying anything at first making Glenn tense up anxiously. "No."
He relaxed. "Then you must not be, either," he said simply.
Another sniff filled the silence in the room. "But I'm not you."
"Maggie—"
"It's because of me that you tortured Judith. It's because of me that we decided to kill her. The only reason she's still alive is because you wouldn't do it! Because you didn't listen to me. It's was me. It was all me!" She gasped before breaking into quiet sobs that he knew she was desperately trying to conceal.
She didn't even notice he was out of bed until he felt his strong arms wrap around her folded arms, almost locking her there, keeping her safe. Glenn didn't say anything, except for a soothing 'hey' or 'shh'. This only kept Maggie's sobs coming, because she knew she was right. He was just confirming it.
She was evil.
"You didn't know it was Judith. Neither did I. All we saw was a girl who trespassed with weapons raised and a man with her. Max was right, you know. We did what we had to; what anyone else would have done. Not just for our community, but for ourselves."
Maggie's sobs became soft sniffles and Glenn turned her around, looking down into her puffy eyes, only just able to make out her pupils. He held her gently by her wrists before raising a free hand to her cheek and brushing a tear away. He pulled her close and kissed her forehead roughly. "I would do anything to keep you alive, you know that?"
Maggie let out a shaky breath, resting her forehead against Glenn's bare chest. She pressed a cool hand against him and found herself outlining the long pink burns from one rib to the other. She kissed his collar bone sweetly and closed her eyes.
The 'I love you' was implied.
Author's Notes: Thanks for all the birthday wishes, it was really awesome to see. And yes, this is a cliche love scene chapter between Maggie and Glenn, because I like to think there are still some readers of you lot that like them. They're awesome (but not as awesome as reviews... Just sayin').
