The Wolf You Feed

Chapter 69

Rowan could tell Dr. Carson thought of her more as his assistant than as a fellow Doctor, regardless of the title that had been bestowed upon her by the almighty Negan. But she didn't mind. The Doctor still seemed grateful for her help and was content to let her handle the majority of the patients that came into the medical bay looking for assistance. The doctor had even started showing some mild interest in the teas and herbal salves she mixed up.

Treating minor ailments was easy for her now. Everything and anything that even resembled a dried herb had been brought into the medical bay for Rowan to use at her discretion. Shelves had been hung on the walls and were filling up quickly. There was still a giant pile of boxes Rowan needed to unpack and organize. Most of it looked like the jars Carl and Enid had brought back to Alexandria from the apothecary shop. Rowan had also found her mother's spell book and all the tiny glass jars of tinctures that she had rescued from the tiger women in one of the boxes. Tears had run down Rowan's face as she clutched the book against her chest. She was still full of mixed emotions. She felt sad that so many helpful supplies had been taken from her home. From Alexandria. But at the same time Rowan was relieved that she had what she needed to help the residents of the sanctuary, most of whom seemed nice enough.

"I'm going down for lunch," Dr. Carson said, calling out to Rowan from the doorway. "You want me to bring you back something?" Rowan nodded and thanked the man.

David was Rowan's guard today. He gave Dr. Carson a nod as the man headed out the door. Rowan always had a guard. She wasn't sure if they were around to keep her safe, to prevent her escape, or both. The only game she had to play was the long game. Rowan hoped if she didn't show any inclination to escape that eventually she would be trusted to walk freely around the Sanctuary. She wasn't sure how hard it would be to escape this place. But she knew it would be easier if she didn't have someone shadowing her every movement. Taking a moment to focus on her breathing, she reminded herself to be patient. Penelope waited twenty years for her husband Odeysseus to return from the Trojan war. Surely Rowan could wait another week. She was only going to get one shot at escaping. If she was caught, these people would never take their eyes off her again.

"What's that one for?," David asked her as she placed a large jar of dried hibiscus on a shelf.

Rowan wasn't sure if the man was bored, just making conversation, or if he was curious. But he had been showing more and more of what seemed to be genuine interest in natural healing. Rowan had been answering his questions and telling him what she knew, which she was starting to realize was a lot more than she thought she knew. Her mother had been a healer since before she was born. The woman had known absolutely everything about medicinal herbs. Compared to her, Rowan never felt like she never had much knowledge. But she was slowly coming to realize that she had absorbed more from the woman than she had realized before.

"It's hibiscus. It can help with high blood pressure if you drink it regularly. It's also good for…" Rowan's train of thought was derailed when the door of the medical bay was flung open.

David jumped out of the way, immediately taking up a defensive stance in front of Rowan. The door slapped against the wall. Two large men came barging in with Negan between them. They were supporting the man's weight. Several more men burst in behind them. All of them were screaming at each other and at her in total panic.

"Where the fuck is Carson," one man screamed at Rowan as they manuvered Negan onto a cot. There were so many new faces in the Sanctuary that Rowan had a hard time remembering them. She knew the man screaming was one of Negan's captains. He was the bald smart ass one that thought he was funny. But his name escaped her.

"He went to lunch," Rowan screamed back. She hadn't even realized that she had rushed to the bed and barged in front of the man until she was hollering back directly into his face. "What happened?," she demanded.

The leather jacket Negan lived in was ripped slightly in the shoulder. His shirt was also ripped. There was blood on his clothes. But not much. Not enough to signal a life threatening injury. Rowan's first assumption was Negan had sustained a minor injury and everyone was throwing a giant fit because they were afraid he was going to punish whoever let it happen. That was until the man closest to her spoke up again.

"He's been fucking BIT," the man screamed.

Rowan felt her insides clench. The men surrounding Rowan were bigger and a lot meaner than her. They had the authority. She had none. But just the same she suddenly found herself barking out orders. And in an even stranger turn of events, these men were following her orders. David went running from the room to fetch her father from whatever hole they had the man stashed in. Another man helped Negan sit up so Rowan could get his jacket off. Rowan grabbed a pair of scissors and cut the neck of his shirt, then ripped it the rest of the way open.

Rowan hoped that the leather jacket had taken the worst of the bite. There was a chance that underneath it there would only be a bruise. But she saw immediately that she wasn't going to be that lucky. The walker's teeth had gone through the fabric and broken the skin, then ripped the skin worse when the monster had been yanked away from the man. Rowan grabbed a plastic squirt bottle full of sterile water and started flushing out the wound. The bite was not in a spot where they would not be able to cut the limb off and save him. They would have to take too much of his torso and that alone would kill anyone. Rowan plucked a tooth from the wound and tossed it into a small metal container on the tray nearby.

Now that the severity of Negan's wound was visible, the men around Rowan really began to panic. One of them ran from the room, screaming that he was going to find Dr. Carson. More men and more were barging in, each of them being noisier and more disruptive than the rest. Rowan ignored them and kept moving, shoving them out of her way if they came too close.

Rowan had never healed a bite mark on anyone that wasn't a member of the Wolves. So all she had to go on was the theory that Denise came up with before she died. That a blood transfusion from an immune person could stop a walker bite from killing someone that wasn't naturally immune. Tony and her father had donated blood for testing a few times. But with the limited research supplies that Alexandria possessed and the lack of ability to test the theory without someone actually getting bitten, Denise was never able to say for sure if it would work.

"You can't heal a bite!," one man screamed. He then pointed at her and added, "This bitch is crazy!" The man took one step in Rowan's direction before he was snatched backwards and yanked nearly off his feet.

"Don't you ever speak to my daughter that way," Grey Wolf spit into the man's face before tossing him to the ground like a rag doll.

The man scooted backwards on his ass. Several men turned, looking at Grey Wolf like they were ready to fight him. But he ignored them and ripped his dirty sweatshirt off over his head, tossing it at the man he had thrown on the floor. Then he turned his body, making sure every man in the room got a good look at the healed bite mark on his body. The bite had healed without serious infection but it had left quite the nasty looking scar. It was still very obvious he had been bitten. And that he was still alive. Even Negan pushed himself up from the cot and stared with his mouth open. He had thought the hippie woman a prize when he brought her here. But he had no idea how much she was really worth. He had no idea that she was about to be his salvation. She was about to save his life.

Rowan scanned the crowd, looking for a familiar face. She was relieved when she spotted Angry Hawk. She made eye contact with him and gestured towards the door.

"Get everyone out of here!," Rowan hollered. She wasn't even sure if she could do this. But she was sure as hell sure she couldn't do it with every jackass in this place getting in her way and distracting her.

Between Dwight and her father, the two men managed to clear out the medical bay. Once the door was shut behind them, Dwight took a chair and jammed it under the doorknob to keep the morons outside from barging back in. Rowan was relieved to see that Carol had come in with her father. And that Dr. Carson was back, standing against the wall by the door. The collar of his shirt was ripped. Soup was spilled down the front of his white doctor jacket. Rowan guessed the man that had run to fetch him had simply grabbed Carson and drug him back to the medical bay without an explanation. But Rowan was relieved to see him there. She was going to need all the help she could get.

"Put one of those things in him so that we can give him blood without sticking him with a needle a million times," Rowan told Dr Carson.

"An IV?," he asked. His eyes were wide and he was showing no inclination to move away from the wall.

"That's what she means," Carol hollered. The woman had already stepped forward and grabbed a syringe. She filled it with clear liquid from a glass vial she had pulled down from a cabinet. Before anyone could object she stuck the needle in Negan's shoulder and jammed the plunger down. The man turned to voice a protest but he was only about to sound out a few jumbled words before he fell back unconscious onto the cot.

"You didn't kill him did you?," Rowan asked, snatching up the glass vial that Carol had used. She didn't know much about medications but Dr Carson had started teaching her. The word printed on the front of the vial was lorazepam. It was not something that Rowan was familiar with. She turned to Carol for an answer.

"Not yet," the woman answered with a shrug before glancing towards Dwight to gauge his reaction to her words. Dwight only raised his eyebrows.

Dr. Carson stepped forward. He looked at Negan lying on the cot. He glanced around at the people surrounding the man. Then he turned and ran from the room. He didn't take the door the chair was holding shut. He ran the other way. Rowan heard another door clatter shut behind him. She cursed, adding a few more choice words to voice her opinion about the man that had just deserted her and his post.

"Can you do the IV thing," Rowan asked Carol. The woman nodded but didn't move to gather any more supplies just yet.

"I can," Carol admitted, "...but why not just let him turn?"

"Those men outside will tear us to pieces if he dies," Rowan told her, pointing towards the barricaded door. Carol glanced towards the door, considering Rowan's words.

"While they are all distracted we could escape," Carol offered. Now it was Rowan's turn to consider Carol's words. She did want to escape. She wanted out of this place. She wanted her baby out of this place. And while it felt wrong not to heal someone that had asked her for help, Negan was a bad man. He murdered Eric. He deserved to die.

"You will never get out," Dwight told them, finally stepping forward to join the loose circle of people that had formed around Negan's unconscious form. "The first thing they do in any emergency is lock the entire place down." Dwight stared down at Negan for a moment, thinking about how much he would enjoy pulling up a chair and watching the man sizzle up with fever before he died and turned. Then he looked at Rowan. She had been right before. "And you're right," he added, "if he dies they will tear you and this entire place apart."

Carol hesitated for one more moment before she moved. She moved quickly and efficiently, mumbling a steady stream of curse words as she worked. An IV was secured in Negan's elbow. The one closest to the bite. Grey Wolf pulled up a chair next to the cot and allowed his blood to be taken and injected into the man he would rather be strangling with his own bare hands. When Carol had taken what she could from him, Rowan pulled up a chair and stuck her arm out.

"Just do it quick," Rowan hissed, "you know how much I hate needles."

Carol was surprised but did as Rowan asked, withdrawing several vials of blood from the woman. Instead of injecting it directly, she pulled a IV bag from the cabinet. She wasn't sure if any of this was going to work but she figured adding antibiotics to the mix wouldn't hurt. She set the bag to drip into the IV and added Rowan's blood to the bag, squeezing it gently to mix the two liquids together.

Now there was nothing to do but wait. Rowan's father scooted his chair until it was touching hers and wrapped his arm around her shoulders, pulling her close. She leaned into him, impatient for the dizziness from having her blood drawn to pass. Carol re-cleaned and bandaged the wound on Negan's shoulder. She then began pacing around the room, stopping every few minutes to place her palm on Negan's forehead and then flat across the bandage on his wound, checking to see if either felt hot. Both remained cool to the touch. Carol had only seen a few walker bite wounds up close. But they had all started to puss and fester almost immediately. She didn't want to get too hopeful but she thought it was a good sign that this wound wasn't doing that.

The liquid in the IV bag was nearly gone. Negan was going to wake up soon. Rowan had been watching the man and his breathing was not as slow and even as it had been. Rowan got up and removed the needle from his arm, putting gentle pressure against the skin with a square of gauze to keep him from bleeding. Carol moved towards the counter where Dwight was standing. Rowan assumed she was getting Negan something for the pain the man was bound to be feeling when he woke up. But instead she bumped into Dwight and snagged his gun from the holster on his hip. Rowan shook her head. Carol had probably been waiting for the perfect opportunity to steal his gun during the entire time they had been in the room together.

"Carol! Don't!," Rowan hollered. She moved to place herself between Carol and the man she was pointing her gun at.

"He knows how we did this. He knows the two of you are immune," Carol hissed. "He's going to tell the rest of these assholes. They'll use your father as a human blood bank when they find out. They'll drain him dry, Rowan!"

Rowan spun to face Angry Hawk. She had to give it to Carol. The woman was smart as a fox. She always thought of every possible outcome in every situation. Rowan hadn't even considered the negative consequences that might come from people knowing her father was immune to the virus that caused dead bodies to reanimate. No one in Alexandria had ever thought to harm or restrain him in any way because of it. They had only asked him and the other wolves to donate blood to keep on hand just in case. And even then Denise had asked politely. There had been no pressure to comply.

Rowan liked Angry Hawk. He had been kind to her when he didn't have to be. But her people had offered him and his wife help when they needed it. And instead they had left. He was partially responsible for Denise's death. And he had led the Saviors straight to Alexandria where more of Rowan's friends had been killed. Again partially his fault. Rowan wasn't sure if she trusted him with her father's life.

"I won't tell," Dwight promised. He held his hands up, signaling surrender. "I swear I won't." He had no way of proving it. But he meant every word of what he said. He didn't want the saviors to have this kind of power or knowledge. Dwight could only imagine how it would be used and abused.

Rowan could see her father moving in on the man from behind. She knew he intended to grab Dwight and strangle him to death. He had also not thought as far ahead as Carol. But once she spoke up, he believed her every prediction would come to pass. Rowan held her hand up, palm facing her father. She signaled for him to wait.

"Will you swear it to me in a blood oath?," Rowan asked.

"A blood oath means nothing to these men. They have no honor," Grey Wolf announced. He took another step forward. Rowan shoved her hand out more forcefully, palm out.

"I'll swear it," Dwight agreed. He turned to Rowan's father and repeated his words. "I'll swear it." Grey Wolf approached him slowly. Rowan backed up a step.

"I will let you live if you swear to help us escape this place and get back to our people," Grey Wolf informed him. Dwight quickly nodded his agreement. He knew he could have rushed the women and gotten his gun back. But he felt an alliance with these people would serve him better than killing them. No blood oath was made. But the two men had time to shake on it before Negan started moaning. Carol reluctantly handed Dwight his gun back.

"He's waking up," Rowan announced as she rushed to the man's side to keep him from rolling off the side of the cot. Dwight moved to the door, pulling the chair that was keeping it closed out of the way. He opened the door and allowed the few higher ups that had stayed outside guarding the medical bay to enter. The men cautiously approached their leader. Word had spread quickly. Everyone knew that Negan had been bitten.

Rowan grabbed a pillow from a nearby cot. She helped Negan to lean forward enough that she could shove it behind his head. The men that had entered the room edged closer, feeling safer now that they had seen how close Rowan was willing to get to the man. For someone that had been bitten several hours before, Negan looked good. He wasn't sweaty with fever. His arm wasn't tracked with blackening veins. Other than the bandage on his shoulder he looked like his normal self. Negan opened his eyes and brought his hand up to scrub at his face.

"You were bitten," Rowan reminded him, "You are in the medical bay."

Sometimes when people awoke from unconsciousness they were confused and the confusion could cause them to become violent. Rowan hurried over to the cooler and fetched the man a bottle of water, shoving another pillow behind him so that he was sitting up enough to drink it.

Negan sipped at the water and moved his body around experimentally. Rowan allowed this until he started grabbing at his bandage. She put her hand over his and gently removed it from that area to keep him from ripping the tape and gauze off. She cringed when he swung his feet over the side of the cot, clearly intending to stand up. Rowan stepped forward to stand at his side. She was grateful when one of the men did the same, standing on the large man's other side. Negan wasn't a portly man. But he was tall and muscular. Rowan didn't think she could hold his weight by herself if his legs went out from under him.

Negan waited until the dizziness of sitting up had passed. Then he pushed himself up onto his feet. He couldn't show weakness. Ever. Simon was edging in close to him like the man thought he might collapse. Negan waved him off and slung his arm around the girl's shoulders. He didn't really need her to steady him. But he put just enough weight on her that she wrapped an arm around his waist and held tight. Her body felt good against him. It felt right. He liked that she was touching him willingly. Even if it was only because she was acting as his doctor. And she was a damn good doctor to boot. Negan could tell that whatever she had done to him had worked.

Negan glanced towards the door. More of his men were slowly filing in. They were clearly waiting to see if he was going to make it. Some looked concerned. Some looked hopeful. Some were clearly hoping he would succumb to his injuries. Greedy vultures. Negan lifted his arm and gave them a wave.

"How do you feel?," Simon finally asked. He had been waiting for the big man to speak up. But in typical Negan fashion, he was waiting and letting the tension and anticipation build. And Simon was tired of waiting. Negan looked over and gave his lieutenant a wicked grin. Then he looked down at the woman he had his arm around.

"I don't know what the fuck you did to me Kitten…," Negan announced, enjoying it when her eyes widened as she waited for him to finish his sentence. "...But I feel FUCKING FANTASTIC!"