June 26, 2017
- Jazz -
The first time Jasper Dixon woke to hear the steady sounds of medical equipment next to an enemy's bed, there had been a reasonable expectation that the person was innocent to an extent. Caesar Martinez might have been among the Governor's top echelon, but everyone who encountered the man at Woodbury attested that he was trapped by circumstance more than being a reflection of the evil bastard he served. It was also fairly easy for many to see that punishment had already been rendered since the man lost both legs below the knee in the invasion of Homestead.
Today, he's waking to a different scenario, and it takes a few deep breaths to center himself. Paul is gone, part of the fighters who went with Honey and Eugene to liberate Sanctuary. As much as Jazz wanted to spend the night curled up with MJ and pretend he could absorb the toddler's hyperactive serenity, sleep hadn't come. Eventually, he'd left MJ with Olivia and drifted back to the infirmary not long after midnight and dozed in a chair meant for a family member.
Most of the battle injuries yesterday had been minor enough to discharge the Kingdommers home. Of the injured Saviors, all of them that needed treatment are still hospitalized, most handcuffed to their bed. It's an eerie reflection of old movies that had prison infirmaries, he thinks.
"You want some breakfast?"
Abraham's voice rouses Jazz to full wakefulness from where he's listening to the sounds of the ventilator next to him. As much as he expected Abraham to resent yesterday, the grizzled redhead seems to have rolled with the punches. His right arm is in a cast Jazz applied himself, but it doesn't seem to be affecting Abraham's ability to work his way through a mountain of scrambled eggs accompanied by sausage patties and thick slices of fresh bread smeared with marmalade that probably came from one of the Georgia communities.
Jazz also knows that the arm in a cast doesn't prevent Abraham from standing guard, as he's obviously taken over that post from the night guard.
"Have the prisoners been fed yet?" Jazz asks as he stands and works the kinks out of his back. The chair's not horrible to sleep in, not for a veterinarian used to sleeping on the ground if need be, but it certainly isn't the comfortable bed he has in the house Ezekiel's loaned his and Olivia's families.
"They brought some stuff by, but the nurse suggested verifying with you that everyone was ready for solids."
Only half of the wounded Saviors are awake or willing to admit they're awake, so Jazz checks the meal containers as he runs through the injuries in his head. Only three concern him, so he grabs a stack and starts plopping them on the overbed tables and sliding them in reach. Of the three who probably shouldn't be eating this heavily, two are asleep or sedated, and the third accepts a cup of broth from the nurse with a resentful air. None speak, which Jazz is grateful for.
When he's back to his most troublesome patient's bedside checking the readings, Abraham speaks again.
"You know she's going to resent that you saved his life."
Jazz closes his eyes and centers his breathing, glad his back is to Abraham. He knows that Honey will hate that he didn't finish the execution she began, or at least just let Negan bleed to death in the field. All he can hope for is that she can understand that they each have different limits in where they draw the line.
"I know," he answers at last, making notes in the handwritten chart for the current readings.
"Can't say I understand it. The other prisoners, maybe, since guilt or innocence is a lot less obvious with them, but this man? He's not any different than the Governor, and Scout put him down like the rabid dog he was."
Dropping the chart back into place, Jazz turns to meet Abraham's gaze evenly. "And how much of Scout's humanity will exist if she keeps being an executioner? Do you want to see that happen to Honey, too?"
To his surprise, Abraham flinches just a little and shakes his head. Jazz knows that Abraham has a soft spot for Honey in a quasi-paternal way that probably means that Honey reminds Abraham of his lost daughter.
"No matter how he died out there yesterday, it would just add to the damage she's already got to work through. Either she'd executed him after weeks of planning it, or she failed and his blood was on my hands, and that would have been even worse."
"Could have lied to her. She never would have known he didn't just bleed out."
"The day I manage to lie to one of my sisters, I'll truly know the world's gone to hell."
It surprises Abraham into laughing, the loud bark of rough amusement making several prisoners startle.
"Guess you're right about that, Jasper. Don't even think you could bamboozle little Ava, much less the grown ones."
There was a time that Jazz's inability to formulate lies bothered him, but the older he got, the less it seemed like an accomplishment he needed to manage. He knows Paul certainly prefers that he not even attempt it, no matter how much his husband admires Honey's ability to spin realities out of thin air when needed. The whole subterfuge with Negan succeeded because he didn't want to see anything beyond 'big and quiet' where Jazz was concerned.
"Don't think he's gonna appreciate you, either, though."
Glancing at the once larger than life man who seemed to thrive on his sheer physicality, Jazz shrugs. Negan has a lifetime of limitations facing him that make Martinez's double amputation look simple. He finds he doesn't care what Negan thinks of still being alive, of never walking unaided again or all the complications that the damage to his gastrointestinal system caused.
"Death is the easy way out for a man like that. Living the rest of his life dependent on others for basic necessities?" Jazz can see when Abraham makes the connection, because there's a malicious smile spreading across his features. "I honestly can't think of a better punishment."
Jazz really can't as he studies Negan's prone form, currently completely dependent on machines in the medically induced coma he's still under. The murderous, abusive leader of the Saviors will certainly wake in a much different world than he ruled yesterday morning, and Jazz finds that quite appropriate indeed.
- Merle -
Merle kept the news of the former Savior leader surviving to himself overnight, not even telling Carol. Even as Amber filled in as many gaps as she could under Scout's unusually soft interrogation, he considered the impact right now to be too deep. Carol's figuring enough out between the refugees and learning Honey's pregnant. She'd made the paternity connection faster than Merle had, and the revelation still sits in his gut like he's swallowed hot lava.
Paul knows that Negan's alive, Merle figures, but the young man hasn't come near the suite that's being turned into an organization center for evacuating the people of Sanctuary. He's down in the masses, putting that soothing nature of his to good use with anxious and scared civilians who trust him because he's related to Honey. By nightfall, Merle knows they'll have dozens of life stories skillfully teased out of the survivors here.
The only saving grace of Merle's choice is that his people got some sleep, even Scout. Honey and Carol are delving over the messages from the other communities, tallying how many safe places they have. Eugene's still trying to keep everything pieced together so that this large a population isn't lost to something preventable like cholera or food poisoning, while Daryl and Carl lead the teams keeping the makeshift walls patrolled and free of walkers.
Shane and Scout are back to the interrogations of the soldiers, while their people search quarters. They've already found enough that in addition to the antagonists of the battle, seven other Saviors have been transferred into the makeshift prison enclosure. At least one was one of Honey's squadron, which is going to either piss her off or be another blow to her already battered psyche.
"This is just over half of the civilians," Honey says at last, rubbing her temples in that tentative way that signals one of her rougher headaches. Before Merle or Carol can say anything, Amber's bustled up with a mug of tea that wafts enough of a lemony scent his way for Merle to identify the lemon balm.
"Do you want a hot cloth?"
Honey shakes her head, and Amber retreats to the area where she and her mother have been steadily packing. Amber has acted as messenger a few times when Honey wanted a personal message delivered to the Sanctuary civilians or the two surviving lieutenants, and each request seems to add another layer of steel to Amber's spine. There may be a running joke in the Dixon family that if Honey invaded Hell, Eugene would help her take over, but the longer Merle is around Amber, the more he thinks Eugene would have assistance now.
He probably would have felt the same as Amber if someone had saved him and his mother, too.
"You're only considering civilians for the spots?" Carol asks, making notes as she looks up to study Honey.
"If any of the soldiers really want to settle in the other communities, I won't stop them. But they're my responsibility, and I think retraining them will work better as a cohesive unit."
The significance of that hits Merle and Carol at the same time, and he can see the resignation settle in his wife's gaze. Carol was hoping Honey would come home to Homestead, but this tells them both that as they should expect, Honey planned ahead. Originally, he suspects the plan was to stay here, as a sort of combination of spearhead and shield to the Virginia communities. Now? He's not sure.
"Do you have somewhere in mind?"
"Hiawassee. That big lodge out on the peninsula is big enough to act as housing like we have here, although we'd need to build individual cottages in time. With the fairgrounds right there, it won't be too hard to claim the land. Easy to section off without needing a lot of walls or fences immediately and land nearby for getting fall crops planted."
Merle considers the area, which is on the lake that crosses the Georgia and North Carolina border. It's isolated compared to all their other communities, but also strategic. Any rough groups coming along the old freeways would get spotted quickly coming into Georgia. But the mountains are harder to keep under observation or patrol. Basing a group that size would allow them to keep an eye on the mountain territory for anyone or anything coming south or southeast out of Tennessee.
It's not Homestead or even King's Cross, but it's less than a hundred miles from home, and Merle knows where Honey goes, Jazz will follow.
Finally, he nods. "I imagine the other communities might have some input to give, but I can see the advantages. The lodge has held up well over the years. It'll need some revamping, but I'm betting these folks will be happy to be part of building a community where they're full citizens."
"And the soldiers will learn to do their part to build and farm, too. Just like how we rotated people at Homestead in the beginning."
It's a good idea, and in keeping those of the Savior soldiers that can be rehabilitated all together, both they and the civilians can see how the system ought to work. He and Carol are both in agreement, nodding, while Carol takes the endless notes she always does. Honey waits for Carol to finish.
"Now tell me, honestly, why is Hilltop not offering to take in anyone?"
There's no hiding this particular round of bullshit from Honey anymore, and Merle just hopes it's not the last straw that does her in.
- Shane -
Years of the only danger to the peace being walkers almost made Shane forget just how rigidly on edge Scout gets when there's a human risk to her family. Even without Honey's identification of the man who led the attack that killed Danny and crippled Logan, he knows Scout was dead set on ferreting out any of the Saviors who survived the attack on their own people.
He is almost not fast enough to keep Derek's interrogation from ending under the edge of a karambit, once Scout finds Polaroid photos of her battered sister in the man's room. It's not that he doesn't think Derek deserves it, but days as executioner were something Scout left behind years ago. The man has more crimes to answer to, because they already know he was part of Simon's group that murdered half of Natania and Beatrice's people.
"You know, if I'd known she could make a man piss himself, I might have filmed it for our people back home," Beatrice muses, exchanging an approving look with Natania.
"I think the man might confess to Lincoln's assassination at this point if it keeps her far away," Natania adds.
Shane agrees, but his concern isn't with the prisoner now put back with the others, stinking of his own urine and fear. It's with Scout, who is pacing in the distance like a caged animal. Something about it reminds him of her asking him all those years ago to be her leash, to keep her on the right side of the line. He's never really seen that limit tested until today when he had to physically disarm her.
Honey is safe, and he's starting to think that maybe it's time that he takes Scout back home to their kids, who they haven't seen in a month. There's a point where someone's broken pieces can't be put back together again.
"Would she have killed him?" It's Laura who asks, the only of the Savior soldiers that are willing or allowed to come near Natania and Beatrice. "Do your people execute killers?"
"It's not an issue we've had to face in years." Six years. Six peaceful years since Scout put a bullet in the Governor's brain to finish what Beth started. "The only offenders we've had in a long time were either exiled or set to hard labor."
"Not like the slaves here, I'm guessing."
Having seen the jumpsuit duo that is even lower than the civilians he knows were called drudges, Shane nods. Those two are former soldiers, because Negan didn't always kill people who screwed up badly. In a way, they're examples of there being punishments more fitting than immediate death.
"No. I can assure you we've never force-fed anyone dog food and locked them in closets at night."
The really bad part is that Shane can't even promise the pair freedom, because they're as guilty of criminal behavior as the other prisoners. They just managed to piss Negan off enough to take a perverse delight in not killing them right away. What the hell they are going to do with all the prisoners, he doesn't know. Homestead and Terminus still have the death penalty on their books, but many of the other communities have never had to face the things Homestead or Terminus did in forming and defending their communities.
He knows what's finally coming is a standardized set of laws for the Alliance to share, and the long-gone law enforcement side of him appreciates getting some things set across the board. The Alliance primarily began to allow for trade and mutual defense, but time has expanded those simple beginnings into more complex matters. A neutral judgment panel is even better, because Hilltop demonstrated how personal feelings could overturn even the best ruling council's common sense. But as he looks at the nineteen men and women contained in the holding pen, he honestly wishes it could be handled as simply as Grady.
"You don't have prisons, though," Natania says, shaking her head. "Who gets stuck with them, if you don't just put them out of everyone's misery? Can't turn them loose, because we already know what kind of monsters they are."
The sort who killed every male over the age of ten in Natania's old community. Shane often wonders how in the world the older woman survives the very pacifist society down at Jekyll Island. Jack and Johanna will be delighted that a collective legal system is being discussed. Shane's half tempted to suggest they get to house any prisoners, but they would probably just smile and accept.
"I imagine that's what the next weeks are going to be deciding," he replies. "You'll have a seat at that table, you know."
Natania isn't a leader in the traditional sense, not with choosing to have her people blend in with the other communities around Savannah rather than establish her independent one, but no sense can be made of this chaos without representing the people harmed the most by Negan and his Saviors.
Laura sighs. "Gonna grab the next asshole to chat with. Think we can do that without Scout? We're done with Simon's people now, and they were the worst, even more than anyone Negan had."
As true as that statement is, Shane will be glad when they've finished questioning everyone. The civilians already lodged all their complaints, some anonymously, and slowly but surely, they'll hopefully weed out the worst and figure out who is worth saving. Honey and Eugene put their sanity on the line to see that these people had choices. It's his job to make sure everyone who leaves here deserves the opportunity they're being given.