Chapter Eight: Falling

Sorry for the delay, all I can say is I needed a way to be Kelly to the Sanctuary and it took a few ideas before I decided on this one.

The day following the meeting wasn't quite as depressing, Glenn and Rosita had returned and said that Maggie and the baby were okay, her placenta had separated from her uterus. But they were both okay. Maggie was going to have to stay at the Hilltop until delivery in case this happened again. Rosita was going to stay in Alexandria, but Glenn was going back to be with his wife, he had just come home to tell us and get some things from their house. Rick had followed him to his house and had come out with a rifle and a bag of food.

I would need to go check the armory ledger soon, just make sure everything added up and I would have to edit the pantry ledger as well. Make sure no one took more than they were rationed as well as adding the new stuff that had come out of Glenn's house. Unless I decided to grab Merle and drop them off at one of the caches. It was easier to subtract supplies than add to them and keep the ration count correct.

I gave Glenn a hug and handed him a baby blanket I had tucked away from Shayla that I hadn't parted with. "I wanted to give this to you when Maggie went into labor, but it looks like I won't be there for it. Give her this for me and tell her I love her."

"She loves you too, how are you holding up?" He says as he gently tucks the blanket into his pack.

"I'm okay, tired. Haven't been sleeping well."

"We'll get him back. I'm sure in a few days once everyone processes what happened Rick will-."

"Rick isn't going to do anything. He stood in front of the whole town yesterday and said that we had no chance of fighting Negan. You saw him Glenn, I've never seen him look this defeated. I thought he was bad at the prison after Lori but this, this is a whole new level. It's just nothing. Like he's a husk of what he was."

"He's been beaten down before, he'll bounce back." Glenn gives me a hug. "I gotta get back before it gets too dark. I'll give Maggie your love, come see us sometime."

"I'll walk you out, I need to check on the pantry anyways, everyone should have come through to get their rations for the day."

I gave Glenn another hug at the gate as he climbed back into the car he had taken from the Hilltop before I go back to the pantry. As annoying as always being in this converted garage was it kept me off guard duty, that, and the fact I was a crappy shot. But with us being down people beggars couldn't be choosers when it came to security. I pull the clipboard off the nail and start walking up and down the tiny lanes, looking at what was left on the shelves and what had been take out. If Spencer kept taking the max amount each day I was going to be pissed. He had taken his max rations since the collection had been brought in, most people took their minimum or just a bit more, but not the max every day.

The ration numbers would need to be adjusted anyways. Five people were gone. That would open the rations out a little, but I could just not change anything, give us some padding. I sigh and put the board back before I sit down and rub a hand over my eyes at the headache that was starting to build behind my eyes. We needed to go on a run. We needed to go on several runs. If Negan was talking half of everything it wouldn't matter how many people the food was split between, we would be on less than half rations as soon as they left.

I pushed up from my chair and walked back to the gate where Merle was standing, he was more tense than I had seen him in a while. I climbed up the latter and stood next to him with my arms crossed. "You on duty tomorrow?"

"No, it's B team. Why?"

"We need to go out. That jackass comes rolling in here and takes half that food we're going to have some starving and scared people here. I'm gonna ask Rosita if she'll go out. When is Tara and Heath due back?"

"Day after tomorrow."

"I hope they find food. I need to talk to Eugene about medical, he was kinda helping Denise with that before everything. He's the only one besides Rosita that might understand what all we need. And if they take half of that too…"

"I can see the smoke coming out of your ears, one thing at a time. You'll burn yourself out thinking about all of that."

"Someone has to be thinking about it. I haven't seen Rick since this morning and I haven't seen anyone besides Glenn go through that gate."

"Think folks are still recovering from that bombshell that got dropped on them last night."

"He said he'd be here in a week; we're running out of time." I rub at my eyes again, feeling them burn the more I thought about everything that had to get done.

"Go lay down, you were in there for hours and you look ready to drop. I'll find you first thing in the morning. We'll go out. Genius mapped out some farm stores for Rick and Daryl a few weeks ago and I knew they didn't get to all of them."

"Okay. Thanks Merle." I say as I lean on my toes and press a kiss to his cheek. We weren't talking about Daryl. Neither of us taking him being gone very well, but he seemed to be doing better than I was.

*/*/*/*/*/*

Alexandria was still pretty quiet as the sun went down, I was sitting on the porch of my house in my comfy pants and another one of Daryl's shirts watching our laundry blow in the light breeze. I had spent the rest of my day cleaning the house, doing laundry, picking up the mess I had made in the garage. I felt ready to drop, but I had found one of Daryl's cigarette cartons in the garage when I was cleaning, I hated the stupid things but Daryl typically smelled like them, so I lit it and just held it. I had smoked a bit back in the day but I had preferred my alcohol to smoking.

"Hey." Rick says as he walks up the sidewalk, Judith in his arms.

"Hey pretty girl." I say, pressing the cigarette out and holding my hands out for my niece when he got close enough to hand her to me. "What are you doing up this late little miss?" I kiss the side of her face.

"She was a little fussy, figured a walk would help calm her down. What are you doing up?"

"Waiting for those to dry so I can take them in." pointing to the clothes on the line. "Spent my time cleaning this place up. We both know I suck at keeping house."

"You're not that bad, at least you will never reach the level I did in college."

"You and Shane were gross. I'm surprised you didn't have vermin."

"Even they were afraid to go in our apartment." He says with a smile as he finally sits down beside me. "Michonne said you and Rosita are going out on a run tomorrow."

"Yeah, I was looking at the food stock, not counting what's in the caches outside, which I don't want to touch unless we absolutely have too, if he takes half we're going to be hurting. We'll have to double what we have to even it out. We send enough runners out every day we can maybe get a head."

"We send that many people out we're going to run short on gas."

"Merle and I are going out on foot. Later we can organize the groups where they all drive out in one car and go on foot in a few different directions. Help with the gas."

"Where are you going on foot?"

"Merle said Eugene put something together with some farming stores in the area that he doesn't think have been stripped of everything useful. There is one not too far from here, Merle says we'll be back before dark if we leave first thing in the morning."

"Sorghum?"

"Sorghum. I was never a fan, but food is food. And if those places were left alone as Eugene thinks they were we might find some other things there."

"Who is Rosita taking with her?"

"Spencer, I don't know where they are going but they are taking a car, saw their names on the sheet when I locked everything up."

"Olivia up to par on the ledgers?"

"Yep, we run that place together. The only thing she doesn't know is my plant station. Need to talk to Eugene and fix out med count. Some of what I got can double as cold medicine."

"I'm going to talk to Aaron, see if he wants to go out in a few days."

"He's never told you no yet."

"How are you doing?" He says with a small sigh, turning his body a little to look at me.

"I'm alright. Can't sleep much so I'm a little tired, but could be worse."

"Daryl will be okay. He's strong. We prove to Negan that we can play by his rules we'll get him back."

"Yeah, for how long? Until he loses his temper and takes him again? Takes someone else? Why do you think playing by his rules is the best course of action now?"

"Kelly. I went over this; we can't fight him. We don't have the numbers, guns, we can't risk it."

"The governor outnumbered us too. I remember you being pretty gung-ho to fight him."

"And where did that get us in the end? Nowhere. We lost everything because of that. Just like you said we would this time. I can't Kelly, I can't lose anyone else, I can't put her or Carl in danger."

"And you think letting him behind our walls is somehow going to keep them safe?"

"Safer than open war. We fight him at the gate and we lose all of us will die. We play his game we live. The Hilltop is doing fine."

"I love how you can sing that tune now after your brilliant plan backfired on you." I press a kiss to Judith's cheek, hand her back to Rick before I stand up and go back inside my house. Telling Rick goodnight before slamming the door behind me.

*/*/*/*/*/*

Another nightmare had me up before the sun. I tossed the blankets back and running to the toilet to empty my stomach. These nightmares were on level with the ones I had right after I had gotten out of Phillip's grasp. Intense and hard to break out of. I get into the shower, washing the sweat and tears from my skin. I toss my soiled clothes into the hamper and wrap my wet hair up in a towel before I pull on one of Daryl's shirts and a pair of my jeans. I put my socks on and grab a hair tie as I drop the damp towel on the bed. I braid it as I walk down the stairs and open the cabinet that held some oatmeal and made a small bowl for breakfast.

Once the sun was more visible in the sky I pulled on my boots, grabbed my knife, and walked to Merle's house. He shared with a few of the single men right in the middle of town, the house was a mess and if you wanted a cigarette or a card game it was where you would go. It was like a frat house without the hard liquor and drugs. I knocked on the door a few times before Merle opens the door with a yawn. "Damn, when I said early, I didn't mean right as the sun was up."

"Here." I say shoving the second bowl of oatmeal into his hands. "Eat this and get dressed and we'll go."

"Why do we have to walk again?" He says shoving a spoon in his mouth. For a man that said he hated oatmeal I had no issues getting him to eat it.

"Because we have to save gas for the million runs we have to go on now for Big Brother. Plus, we can get a vehicle on the road, bring it back and scrap it for parts. Now go get dressed, I'll meet you by the gate."

Michonne is pulling the gate open as I get to the garage that held all the supplies, I just give her a small nod as she turns and looks at me, a gun that was not on the ledger in her hands. What Rick didn't know wouldn't hurt him. She must have hidden it a long time ago. I open the garage and pluck the clipboard off the wall and write my name down next to the jerky before putting it back on the wall and tuck the jerky in my pack before going to the guns and signing out a pistol and some ammo. I grab another off the wall and sign Merle's name next to it. I grab my plant book off my desk before going back outside. Merle trades me the dirty bowl for the gun and Laci pulls the gate open for us, shutting it after we walk through.

"So, direct route or scenic route?" Merle asks, pulling the map from his pocket.

"Scenic, see if we can find more herbs. Plus, you might find some poor animal to shoot in the face if we go through the woods."

"I don't see you complaining when you eat what I shoot in the face."

"As long as I don't pull the short straw when you get an opossum. I wouldn't mind a racoon though."

"Not this time of day, might see a deer though."

We don't say much as we walk, Merle knifes a few walkers but there really haven't been that many that needed our attention. It had been a while since a herd crossed this way. I manage to snag some mushrooms and more onions, but the herbs I was looking for were not wanting to be found today. Again, I wished we were back in Georgia, I knew where all the stupid things liked to grow, whereas here I was guessing and using a fairly old book that had been in Deanna's office.

"Hey, slow up." Merle says, pulling the gun up to his face and looking through the scope, he was looking at something that was up and back from our position. "Looks like someone made a camp in the trees." He says pulling the gun down, motioning straight ahead of us.

"And we haven't checked it before?"

"Don't know, that map is back there, I didn't check genius map with the sectored map. Might as well go take a look. If Ross was on the run over this way the dumbass wouldn't have bothered to look."

We tromp through the woods about half a mile and what looked like an old deer stand was sitting high up in the trees. "Someone built that, guess hunters can be found anywhere, even in suburbia." Merle says picking up a rock and tossing it at the wooden structure, wanting the sound to lure out whatever might be up there.

"I still don't get how this place was missed."

"Who says it was? Like I said I didn't compare the maps." Merle walks over and looks at the wooden legs that hold everything up. "Still looks pretty sturdy." He gives it a shake, nothing moves. "Hold my sword." He says, moving to pull the metal off his arm base.

"Um no. Your heavy ass gets up there and you'll break the floor, the legs might be good but the floor might not be, not to mention how tired you'll be climbing all the way up there with one hand. Let me go. I'm faster than you and if a walker pops up, you're the better person to deal with it." I bend down and tie my shoestrings tighter and tuck the ends into my boots so I don't trip on the laces.

"I'll get you to be a good shot yet, just wait." He hands me a pair of gloves from my bag to save my hands from possible splinters from the wood.

"Good luck." I say tugging the gloves on, they are really big on my hands but they are better than nothing. I go to the ladder and slowly pull myself up. The wood creaks loudly as I climb up. "Merle, come hold this thing." I ask as I feel the ladder sway a bit with my steps. He grabs the bottom and watches as I climb the rest of the way up. I pull my knife from my waist as my head pops over the ledge of the house and thankfully there is no one in here, but there is blood, dried and old blood. I see a chair, a rack that was built to hold a few guns, a cooler, and a backpack that looked like it had stuff in it. "Might be something here. There is a backpack and a cooler. I think there is a shelf with some stuff on it."

"Be careful, if the floor is like this ladder keep your feet on the base beams."

I pull myself into the house and freeze at the groan of the wood under my feet. I walk along the walls, the extra support that would be there helping me stay calm. I reach the cooler first and it is empty, but we could always use more of them. I walk back to the door and drop it down to Merle before going back to the backpack. It's heavy, I pull it up and set it on the shelf that just held empty beer cans and open cans of spoiled food. I unzip it and find some clothes, some ammo, and a few cans of beans and a few bottles of water and a can of beer. Not too bad. "Hey Merle," I say as I turn to climb down the ladder, "I found some beer." Not thinking to hug the wall on my way back, two steps and the floorboards crack and suddenly I'm dangling in the air as the wood crashes to the ground below me, the backpack slipping to the ground as well as I struggle to get a grip on something so I don't end up on the ground too.

"Kelly!" Merle yells, "Hold on damn it, I'm coming."

"No, Merle no, the ladder won't hold you." I yell back at him as I struggle to pull myself back up. "Just get under me, can you reach my legs?"

"No, you're too high up. I gotta pull you up." He says as I feel the wood cut into my hand through the gloves as I slip again, my own backpack that was still on my back pulling me down.

"Merle! Please!" I say as I slip down some more. He pops up over the ledge, just edging his upper body in, not wanting to add more weight to the already crumbling structure.

"I'm right here, just hold on." He reaches out, not close enough to grab me. He slides in a bit more, leaning towards me. I try to shuffle over to him so I can reach him, but I'm barely keeping myself up. My bleeding hands making my grip slippery. "I'm right here, just get my hand!" He shuffles in more, straining to reach me, but the wood cracks more and my grip slips from the wood. I scream as the air rushes past me, but I hear nothing after my head smacks the ground. My vision swims as my ears feel with water, I'm under water before everything goes dark.

Rick

While I had hated telling the town what had happened with Negan, I was glad I did as the Saviors entered our town like locusts to a field, several days earlier than he had said. The few people that were out this early were all looking a mixed of scared and upset, but all of them seemed to just be gathering in groups as far away from them as possible.

After seeing Daryl, I was glad that Kelly and Merle were out, I don't think my sister would have been able to see the state he was in without breaking down or simply shutting down. She wouldn't tell me directly right now, but I knew the reason she wasn't sleeping had to be her nightmares.

I also hated carrying around this stupid bat. Not only was it temping to throw the damn thing as my anger seethed under the surface, but it was hard not to take a swing as Carl was being threatened by the man again. "Listen, I like you, so I don't want to go hard proving a point here. You don't want that. I said half your shit, and half is what I say it is. I'm serious. Do you want me to prove how serious? Again?"

I could see how hard it was for Carl to lower the gun, his shoulders tense and hunching in as Negan took his gun from my hands. "You know, Rick, this whole thing reminds me that you have a lot of guns." He says standing close to me again. This man had a serious personal space issue. He had gotten close enough for me to catch a whiff of his breath from time to time with how close to me he liked to stand. "There's all the guns you took from my outpost when you wasted all my people with a shit-ton of your own guns, and I'm bettin' there's even more, which adds up to an absolute ass-load of guns, and as this little emotional outburst just made crystal clear I can't allow that. They're all mine now. So, tell me, Rick - where are my guns?"

"In a building by the main gate." I grit out, he just grins and motions us to the door.

I look around at the yards and see furniture being hauled out of houses, mattresses, boxes, my people standing outside their violated homes, some clinging to their wives and kids, others with crossed arms and glaring eyes. It's not a long walk from the medical house to the storage house, but it seemed to take forever under the looks from my people, the snickering remarks from Negan, the weight of the damn bat. I motion Carl ahead to get Oliva and have her open the garage door since we were going to be losing most of the stuff in there might as well make it easy for them, maybe get them out of here faster.

It already seemed like they had been here forever. Combing through all the houses, Negan making me take him on a tour of the whole place, pointing out various things, made me do the full circle of the place. Showing everyone just how under his control I was, how under his control we all were. Then there had been the gravesite, faking Maggie's death had been a stroke of genius from Gabriel yesterday morning. We needed to justify her being gone, Negan knew who she was from that night and he would probably ask what happened since he had singled her out.

We get to the building just as Carl raises the garage door and Oliva was standing there with the ledger for the armory. "I figured you were coming." She says with a stronger voice than I was expecting from her.

"Show him where the guns are, Olivia." I say, just wanting this over and done with.

"The armory's inside." She says, as she turns and walks down the hallway.

"You run the show in here?" Negan asks, stepping inside after her.

"Me and another girl. We just keep track of it all, the rations, the guns."

"Good. Smart. Don't let me stop you. Take her out, boys. Show 'em the goods."

I stand off to the side and try to keep my look neutral as Daryl and some of Negan's people walk through the doorway after Oliva towards the armory. But Negan stops me before I can follow. "Wait, wait, wait. While they're at it, I just want to point out to you that I'm not taking a scrap of your food. Slim pickin's in here." He gestures towards the shelves like I didn't know how empty they actually were. Kelly and Oliva kept this place tight with the rations, I knew how bad our food situation was. "And I can't be the only one to notice that you got a fat lady in charge of keeping track of rations, can I? Maybe that's why you need the second person. Where is this second shop keeper?"

"She went on a run this morning."

"What the hell is this?" He asks pointing at the desk that housed all of Kelly's plants. It was a cluttered mess of notes, hanging green and brown plants, empty jars, and containers full of crushed plants.

"For herbs, wild plants. Some of them can be used for food, medicine."

"Jesus, looks like some hippie drug shit to me. You know getting high just gives you the munchies, right?" He laughs as he turns back and steps back into my space. "Either way, you starve to death, I don't get shit, so for now, you get to keep all the food. How 'bout that?"

I have no answer for him, I don't know what he wants me to say. But I don't get the chance as I hear my name being shouted from the gate. "Rick! Rick where are you?" I look at Negan who glances at me then towards the door. I watch him with a side look as I walk over to the door and see Aaron running towards me. "Rick! Merle is coming up the road, Kelly looks hurt, he's carrying her." He says, gesturing towards the gate.

I feel something hot and hard fall in my stomach as I run past Aaron, shoving the stupid bat into his hands and I take off, not caring for the first time all day about the man in the leather jacket as I push past who I can to get to the gate. I feel a few hands grab my shoulders as I get to the gate and I see other saviors with their guns pointed at Merle who is yelling something I can't really hear, but I can see Kelly in his arms, still and not moving, blood running down her face. "Please, let me go get her." I say, trying to get to them.

"Holy crap, there is not a dull moment around here is there Rick?" I loud voice whistles over my shoulder, suddenly I'm let go and others step away from Merle who keeps walking fast towards me as I run to them.

"What happened? Was she bit?"

"No, no bite. Fucking fell from a deer stand. She's not moving. Can't get her wake up." Merle grunts as I pull the packs from his arms as carefully as I could without jostling my sister too much.

"Aaron, find Eugene." I say as I toss the bags just inside the gate.

Merle gently sets her down on the table in the medical building before dropping into the chair beside he, obviously exhausted from carrying her all the way back. I brush her hair from her face and cringe dried blood under her nose. I open the cabinets that had already been raided and pull a rag out and some rubbing alcohol and filling a tub of water before going back to my sister. "What happened?" I ask as I look her over, her breathing looks okay, but a little hitched, but what really catches my eye is her left arm.

"We found an old deer stand, she went up, got a few things down then the floor gave out. I couldn't get to her, she hit the ground hard, was awake when I got to her but didn't stay that way. I couldn't get her to wake up so I just scooped her up and brought her here." Merle says, rubbing his forehead and taking deep breaths. I look up as the door opens again and in walks Aaron, Eugene, and the last person I wanted here, Negan. "Aaron, help me get a better look at her arm." He steps forward, no longer holding the bat I shoved in his hands earlier, I glance at Negan and I saw him holding the bat, a funny look on his face.

"Help me sit her up." Aaron says as he presses a hand behind her back and lifts her from the bed and I pull her jacket off, she was wearing one of Daryl's sleeveless shirts which made the injury very clear. Her shoulder was dislocated, arm had to be broken with the odd angle it was sitting at. There was also a lot of dried blood on the back of her head. I quickly pull a sheet up over her to cover her, we just needed to see her arm and shoulder.

"Did she land on this?" I ask looking at Merle, gesturing to her mangled arm.

"I don't know, I just saw her fall."

"Eugene, what can we do?" I ask him, he wasn't a doctor, but he was smart and had some medical knowhow. More than the rest of us had. Rosita had some military medical training, but she was outside right now too.

"Rick." A voice whistles from the door. Negan is motioning for me to stand by him. I look at Kelly and pull in a breath before leaving her side and going to the doorway. The bat is shoved hard back into my hands.

"I gave Lucille to you to hold and you just passed her off like she was nothing. That wasn't very nice of you Rick."

"Sorry I…it's just…she's my sister." I say, not really wanting him to know who Kelly was, last thing I needed was for him to know another family member to use against me.

"Another Grimes. There seem to be an awful lot of you. But it does make more sense as to why she was so damn fiery out there. I mean, I just bashed a man's head in right next to her and she still managed to knock Daryl down a peg. This is better entertainment than a fucking Friday night movie."

"How tall was the deer stand?" Aaron asks, as he wipes the blood from Kelly's face.

"How the hell should I know? Tall enough to require a damn ladder." Merle grumps pulling the metal guard from his arm, the skin was red and sweating. He had exerted himself trying to get her back him.

"Fucking hell what happened to you?" Negan asks, fixing Merle with a look similar to the one he gave Gabriel when he popped up behind him.

"Hacksaw." He says in a short grunt as he rubs at the skin.

"Shit. That sucks. But it's good to know that if I ever have to cut junior's hand off, he'll be in good company." Negan chuckles looking at me with a smile.

"Please," a whimper comes from outside the door, suddenly Olivia is shoved through the door frame. Looking pale and scared. "I-I don't know for -."

"Arat, we don't do that unless they do somethin' to deserve it." Negan says, looking back at me with a frown.

"Yeah, we went through the inventory. Guns in the armory, guns they had around the walls, they're short. Glock 9 and a .22 Bobcat." At the woman's words I close my eyes.

Was everything just going to go wrong today?

"Is that true?" Negan asks, after a long silence, Olivia shakingly nods as my mind swirls.

"We had some people leave town. Those guns probably went with them." I say, knowing that we had groups outside the walls. Most of the time everyone was good with checking them out, but sometimes people did forget to sign the sheet. Usually resulting in Kelly tearing them a new one and them being given extra duty.

"So, Olivia sucks at her job. Is that what you're sayin'?" Negan says, shoving the ledger in my face, his voice dropping away from the lighter tone he had been using most of the day.

"No. No, I'm not sayin' that." This wasn't Olivia's fault, her and Kelly spent most of their time keeping the numbers right. They had been doubling down on it the past two days.

"There should be a full accounting here, right? Top to bottom. Am I right?"

"No." Olivia says, stuttering a little. "I mean, yes. The inventory is correct."

"Good. But not so good, too. You see, what's in here," he points at the ledger. "isn't in there." He gestures towards the armory. "You're two handguns short. Do you know where they are?"

"No. I -." Oliva just shakes her head, taking a step back from Negan, who just shakes his own head and looks at me. Stepping back towards me in a threatening manner.

"That's disappointing, Rick. I thought that we had an understanding. But this - well, this shows that someone's not on board, and I can't have that." He looks back at Oliva, who keeps her eyes down, or glancing up at Negan.

"I don't enjoy killing women. Men - I can waste them all the live long. But at the end of the day, Olivia, my dear, this was your responsibility."

"Look, we can work this out."

"Oh, yes, we can. And I'm going to - right now." He steps over to Eugene and roughly pulls him away from Kelly, forcing Aaron to step back too. "Olivia, sit." He motions to the end of the bed. She goes over slowly, whimpering as she goes. "This was your job, and you screwed up. Keeping track of guns? That shit is life and death." Negan looks over at me and sucks at his teeth. "Here is how this is going to go Rick; you have an hour to find me these missing guns. And if you don't Oliva here is going to meet Lucille. And in the meantime, she," he says motioning at Kelly, "gets nothing for her little bruises. How does that sound?"

"Aaron, get everyone to the church."

Kelly

My eyes felt heavy as I crawled out of the darkness in my mind. My body hurt, everything felt like it was on fire. I kept my eyes closed as a small whine makes its way out of my throat. I suck in a small breath and wiggle my toes first, then my fingers, my arm explodes in pain at the attempt and my eyes slowly open at the pain. It's bright in the room, but I'm not alone. Olivia is sitting on the edge of the bed, looking scared out of her mind.

"Olivia?" I swallow around my tongue that felt too big for my mouth. Her head snaps to me and I see the tears on her face.

"Kelly." She turns a little and presses my shoulder down as I try to move. "Don't. Don't move. You're hurt."

"What's wrong?"

"I don't-."

"Well, good afternoon, Miss Grimes. You just chose the best damn time to wake up!" A loud voice hurts my ears and I cringe at the volume, but then I realize who it belonged to. I look at Oliva for a moment before slowly turning my head to the side where Negan is sitting in a chair, legs crossed, looking through a magazine.

"What? How long?" I ask confused, I shift to try and clear my mind, but movement sending more pain down my left side, I let out another groan of pain.

"You were told not to move, I suggest listening." His voice is a little softer now, but no less menacing.

"Olivia, what's going on?" I ask after keeping my eyes closed for a few minutes. My left arm felt heavy and hot, I think my shoulder was dislocated as well.

"Some guns are missing from the armory."

"What? No, they were all their last night before I locked up. Did Rosita forget to sign the sheet?"

"N-no, her name is there. Rick is looking for them."

"Who went with Rosita?" I ask clenching my teeth, trying to get my brain to work.

"Spencer I think."

"Did he sign out too?"

"Yes, they both did."

"And nobody came by after I left?"

"No, I was there as soon as they showed up. No one came in."

"I didn't look this morning when I left, I should have." I say as I push up on the bed, grunting at the movement. "Jesus, I think I cracked a rib." I pant as I fall back against the bed.

"And you best hope that big brother comes through with that gun or you might have a cracked skull to go with it. Since I now know who number two is." Negan says as he tosses the magazine down and stands up, walking towards the bed. "Arat, take Olivia outside for some air." Negan says with a smile. Oliva is taken out the door by a woman who was dressed in the same black color scheme that the saviors like to wear. "Now that we're alone." He says walking to the sink and pulling a plastic glass from the shelf and filling it with water and brining it over to me. I take it with shaking fingers and take a huge drink from the cup, soon coughing as the swallowing motion caused my ribs to ache. "Slow down, shit, I'm not gonna take it from you."

"Thank you." I say as I take another drink. I'm coming out from my fog of unconsciousness, but it was replaced by the fear that was slowly creeping back into my body at the realization of just who was in the room with me, and what he was threatening to do.

"You need to teach Rick to use his fucking manners like that." He smirks as he sits down on the bed where Oliva had been. "You look like shit, but I guess that's what happens when you try to fly."

I just look up at him, not sure what to say to the large man who was suddenly closer than I wanted anyone to be. He looked different in the daylight. Not a prowling wolf with glowing teeth like he had looked in the clearing, but still intimidating as hell. I can't stop the flinch and the hitch in my lungs as he reaches a hand towards me and brushes my hair back from my face with a smile. "Still pretty though, all beat up. And just to go get little old me more shit. I like that."

"Why are you here? Like in here." I say, trying to clear up what I was asking exactly, not wanting him to think I was questioning him being in Alexandria, I knew what he was doing in Alexandria, I just didn't know why he was in the medical room with me.

"You're a pretty good motivator for your brother to get shit done. Missing guns is a problem."

"Rick will find them. People here know what is going on. They wouldn't cause problems. Someone probably left without checking them out, happens sometimes."

"You really are Prick's sister. He tried the same crap. Let's just hope for your sake that he finds them. I don't have all the time in the world to sit around and wait for your people to come back with my guns."

"If they are here, he will find them." I say looking away from him. His gaze was sharp, almost boring into my skin. It was scrutinizing with its intensity. I close my eyes and lay my head back against the thin pillow, grunting as I do. The back of my head hurt so much.

"Negan. He's coming back." Arat says from the doorway. Negan flashes me a smile and stands up and follows her out the door.

A few minutes later Aaron, Eugene, Merle, and Rick are coming back into the room.

"Kelly, hey." Rick says as he presses a kiss to my forehead. "We're gonna get you checked over okay. Where all does it hurt?"

"Everywhere, I can't really isolate anything, I'm still a little fuzzy."

"We need to address her arm." Eugene says as he looks at my left arm. Eugene starts moving my fingers, wrist, when he grabs at my elbow I can't stop the small whine.

"How come I couldn't feel you grab my fingers?" I say in a slight panic.

"Could be nerve damage or just shock, you have several injuries, your brain may still need to play catchup." He looks at Rick and continues. "We need to pop her shoulder back into place first, see if that helps anything, check her for signs of concussion and make sure the blood was just from her nose. Then we address her arm."

Aaron and Rick help me sit up; I squeeze my eyes tight as nausea hits me. I lean against Aaron and let out a breath. "Just do it." I say, knowing it hurts like a bitch, but I would feel better once it was done. Rick grabs my shoulder says he'll count to three, but on two he snaps it back into place.

The pain that shoots up my arm was worse than I had ever felt popping my shoulder back into place in the past. Only Rick and Aaron's grasps keep me on the bed as grit my teeth to cut my scream off.

"Lay her back down." An urgent voice says, I can't stop the tears that fall as I'm lowered back to the bed. "That arm has to be more damaged than it looks."

"Aaron, can you get a bowl of water, we need to look at her head while Eugene looks at this." Rick says as he brushed my hair away from my face again.

I blink at the tears in my eyes as the door opens and Negan comes back in, leaning against the wall and staring at us, arms crossed over his chest.

After what feels like forever, Rick found no open injuries on my head, but I definitely had a concussion. Throughout all of it Eugene kept messing with my arm, trying to bend it, running his hands over the tender skin, pressing into the aching flesh, his face getting grimmer and grimmer with each passing moment.

"It is broken, but I think it's more than that. I think she has a type B or C mid humeral fracture. The bruising just below her shoulder and what I feel when I examined it. The bigger parts of the bone are at least completely snapped in half."

"Can't we just set it? Like the other broken bones we had?" Aaron asks, to which Eugene shakes his head.

"This kind of fracture would normally need metal plates and rods to fix properly. We just go jerking things around we could make this worse. Her whole left arm is damaged enough as it is, but we do something wrong and we could leave her permanently compromised."

"And if we do nothing?" I ask looking at him.

"We run the same risk. The bone will heal back incorrectly, and if the break is as severe as I think it is the two ends are not even close to each other to fuse together correctly."

"So, we need an x-ray? To see what it looks like inside?" Rick asks.

"Yes."

"And how do you suggest we do that? We don't exactly have one of those around here." Merle says from his chair.

"If we go this route, we will need to find a hospital or medical office with both the machine and a way to power it. As well as a manual on how to use it."

"Okay, let's stop talking nonsense. We don't have the supplies or the time to go looking for an x-ray machine. Worst case scenario Eugene, what will happen to my arm?" I ask, frustrated with what they seemed to be wanting to do and knowing just how much it was not an option at the moment.

"We can attempt to set it blindly, possible damage to nerves, blood vessels, chronic pain, possible amputation. It is an extensive list."

"If we cut it off? Right now. Would I recover faster?"

Everyone looks at me in surprise and some looking a little sick. "Yes, a few days versus months, possible even years." Eugene says slowly.

"Okay, let's do it. Merle hacked his off on a rooftop by himself with a saw, we can do this. We don't have time to wait for this to heal on its own or for us to try and fix it ourselves. Just cut the damn thing off."

"Okay." A voice from the doorway loudly speaks, causing Kelly to jump a little, they had all forgotten he was sitting there. "While watching you all flounder around out of your depth I am not going to let you mutilate anyone. Part of this agreement we are all in is I get half your shit and I give you protection. I have a machine and a doctor at the Sanctuary. She's coming with me."

Chapter Eight!

All the medical jargon is from a google search and stories from a friend of mine who completely snapped the upper bone in his arm when he was a teenager and how insane his healing process was.

Kelly is off to the Sanctuary, which is where I had always planned for her to be.

I like Negan, even jerky Negan makes me smile and I want there to be more of him.

A big thank you to my new subscribers and everyone who has reached out over messenger and my commenter!

I always enjoy comments, helpful criticism, and tolerance for all the typos in this.

Thank you all for reading!

Maxy