Things would only get worse.
While Negan and Darryl fought in the street, Maggie confessed to Michonne that she 'might' know Beta…
"What do you mean, you 'might have been married to him'?" Michonne asked calmly. "How would you even know for sure? I've never seen him without his mask. You haven't been here so you haven't seen him."
"Aaron said something about seeing under his mask when he stabbed him in the head. Something about a wine colored birthmark under his eye. When I knew him, he had one. He was always kind of embarrassed by it but his fans embraced it."
Michonne just stared at Maggie.
"What?" Maggie asked.
"Herschel let you marry some country singer? How old were you?"
"Eighteen. It was a mistake and I was rebellious. My life was the farm and looking out for Beth and it pissed me off. The boys around there were lame. His car…"
"By the way, I don't mean to interrupt, but what is Beta's real name? Other than his stage name?"
"Brian. Brian Heriot."
"Oh." Michonne said, thinking something was odd about the name, in a familiar way, but couldn't think of what it was at the moment.
"Yes. His father was a country singer named Opie Heriot, back in the day, like the 60's. He sang folk music. Brian got into country." Maggie confided.
"How did you meet him?" Michonne asked.
"He rode a motorcycle past the farm daily. I finally hung upside down from a tree, naked, to get his attention." Maggie admitted. Michonne grinned!
"Wow. I never would have thought of doing anything like that." she admitted, thinking of Rick. "But you don't know this is him. You could be wrong."
"I know. I have to be sure though."
"But why? Even if it is him, he's crazy now. This new world made people crazy. He's killed and hurt too many people. He can't be saved."
Maggie looked Michonne in the eye.
"Negan was saved. He was given a cell and food all of these years."
Suddenly, Michonne didn't like where this conversation was going!
"What are you talking about? How are you comparing Beta to Negan?" Michonne asked.
"I think what Brian needs is rest and kindness, like Negan was shown here in Alexandria. Then he can become a member of this community."
Michonne forced herself to stand up from the table.
"No."
"I think we should take it before the council, Michonne."
"Maggie, have you lost your mind? You really want to stand before the council and tell people that you were married to that animal? He killed Carol's son and a lot of other people we cared about here! You remember Enid, don't you? Oh my God!"
Maggie gritted her teeth.
"And Negan killed Glenn and Abraham. He's responsible for Sasha's death! I think if Negan was given a chance, then Brian can get one too."
Michonne shook her head.
"No." she said. But Maggie stood up and faced her.
"We'll see."
"No we won't see! He broke into this stronghold and murdered people! And he's probably the one that killed Jesus, I know it! Do you care about that at all?"
"I will worry about what people think about my marriage to Beta. You worry about what people are going to say when they realize you gave Negan a child." Maggie replied, before turning to walk out of the kitchen. Michonne's eyes fell on a rolling pin and she restrained herself from throwing it at Maggie's back! She gently sat back down and put her head in her hands. Trouble came in threes around here. What else was going to go wrong?
Judith hurried into the house!
"Mama! Uncle Darryl and Negan are fighting out in the street!" she yelled. Michonne hopped up and out of the kitchen! She then peered out of a window.
Carol had left the infirmary and was pulling Darryl back towards it! Negan shook off the men that had restrained him and was heading back towards his house. Probably to sulk.
Michonne looked down at Judith.
"I need to talk to Negan. I'll be back."
"Are you going to see if he's alright?" Judith asked.
"Errr…yes. Among other things." Michonne said, smiling down at her daughter. She then grabbed an old branch that she had planned on using for a cane, opened the door and left the house. There was no avoiding what was happening and she would have to hear Negan's version of this supposed encounter they had. Especially now that he was telling people about it.
Virgil was looking at Darryl's eye but he kept waving him off. He hadn't liked the fact that Connie just suddenly met and married this man(whatever marriage meant these days anyway). She barely knew him!
Carol took over.
"Thanks, Virgil, but I'll look after him."
"You should be resting." Virgil told her.
"I'm fine. Besides all of this lying around is getting on my nerves. I'm fine, really."
"I need to see how Gabriel is." Virgil admitted. "Okay. Let me know if you need anything."
Carol smiled at him and then watched him go out of the door. Once he was gone, Carol impulsively kissed Darryl! He pulled away in surprise!
"Uh, okay…what's that all about?" Darryl asked, stunned and a bit unnerved.
"Why didn't you tell me we were married? Is it a secret or something?" Carol asked with confusion. Somehow she believed Negan. There had always been something about Darryl that she could not explain. She had felt close to him almost from the moment she met him.
Darryl stared at her.
"Who told you we were married?"
"So it is a secret?"
Darryl did not know how to answer that. He reached for her hand and squeezed it.
"I'm fine now. I want you to get back into bed and rest, okay?"
Carol eyed him.
"I'm fine, Darryl. I'm not sick I just don't remember anything past Herschel's farm. Is that when we got married? Did Herschel marry us? And when did we lose Henry? How old was he?"
Darryl could tell that she was getting upset. He needed to calm her down.
"You've been through a hard time. We both have. I just didn't want to tell you all of that right away. With your not remembering. Who told you all of this stuff? I mean I wanted to wait." Darryl lied.
"Negan. I can tell he's not popular around here." Carol said.
"He killed Glenn." Darryl said without batting an eyelash.
"Whhh,,,what? He killed Glenn? And he lives here with Maggie being here too? What happened? Where are Rick and Lorie? Rick and Shane would have made sure that Negan paid for that!" Carol breathed, shocked.
"Rick, Lorie and Shane are dead." Darryl told her solemnly.
"What about the baby? Lorie was pregnant!"
"We both watch over Judith. Lorie died in childbirth."
"And Rick and Shane? What happened to our son, Darryl?"
"I want you to rest. We can talk about all of this tomorrow." Darryl told her. But Carol gave him a funny look.
"What?" Darryl asked.
"The loss of our son…it drove us apart, didn't it?" Carol asked in a small voice. She reached out to stroke his bare arm.
"We're trying to find our way back to one another." Darryl lied. "Just rest, okay?"
Carol stopped touching his arm and reached for his hand. She pulled it to her lips for a kiss, before letting it go. Darryl gave her a wan smile, before turning and heading out of the infirmary. He was going to kill Negan! Then, once he was done killing him, Darryl planned to kill him again!
Connie was walking towards him and could sense his agitated state. She signed to him and suddenly, Darryl stopped walking and signed back. He signed that something was very wrong. Connie took his arm and they walked over to the bridge to talk about what was bothering him. Darryl talked to Connie instead of going over to Negan's house to beat the shit out of him.
Michonne opened Negan's front door, hopped in and found him on the couch with a messed up eye. She closed the door behind her and looked around.
"Olivia kept a first aid kit in her front closet." she said and hopped over to it. She opened the door and found everything as neat as orderly as the day Olivia was killed by one of Negan's people. She took out the kit and hopped over to the couch to sit next to him.
"You don't have to do that," Negan grumbled, "I have a steak in the fridge. I can put that on this."
"You have a piece of steak here? In the fridge? Where'd you get it from?" Michonne asked.
"It was already there. Whoever was living here must have been hoarding."
Michonne looked at him suspiciously, not believing that. But she let it go.
"You're not using a good steak on a black eye. I will take it home to fix for Judith and RJ, as 'nursing payment'." Michonne said wryly, as she began to get out the supplies. Negan looked at her.
"Why are you here? I know you hate my guts."
"Judith was concerned. And we need to talk."
Negan looked away again. He then began the conversation.
"I know you're thinking that what happened between us was some kind of rape or lowbrow shit. It wasn't. You came to me, I could see you were a bit out of it and…"
"And not that I believe any of this, but why didn't you send me away?" Michonne asked.
"Are you fucking kidding? I'd been locked up for six years! That and you called me 'Rick'. So I just decided to go along with it…"
"I called you what?" Michonne asked, her tone not so affable.
Negan looked her in the eye.
"Rick and I had that beard thing going back then. Sort of. You almost fell down the stairs to yell at me about Rick's being dead, and how I should be dead and that none of it would have happened if I had been killed…anyway, you were kind of slurring your words and looking sexy…and you were in pain. I just pretended to be Rick in the moment and you went for it."
Michonne slammed down the first aid kit and hobbled up off of the couch!
"Go on!" she yelled, glaring down at him.
Negan shrugged.
"I told you to get the key and come on in for a nice horsey ride. You got the key, I got undressed and then you got undressed and then you rode me like a horse rides the wind. Then that fucker Siddiq came in and stopped us. He said that you had mixed the pills with liquor and didn't know what you were doing. I handed Siddiq all of your clothes except the thong underwear. I slept with it on my face that night and kept it hidden during the day."
Michonne slowly sat back down.
"I don't remember any of this! I don't know that I was asleep in my own bed the whole time…"
"You weren't. Believe me." Negan said sarcastically. "Oh and go and talk to Rosita. She said Siddiq told her all about it."
Michonne gritted her teeth at that but chose to ignore it.
"Negan, even if something did happen between us, RJ is Rick's. Rick and I were trying for a baby. I was pregnant before he died."
"And you know that because?"
"Because I just do."
"Which isn't a conclusive answer, Warrior Princess. I'm sorry you don't like any of this but I have rights here!"
"No you don't. I'm leaving now. Stop telling people…"
"Or what?" Negan asked, standing up. Michonne turned to hop away towards her tree branch but Negan beat her to it! He opened the door and threw it down the porch steps, before slamming the door!
But Michonne kept her cool.
"Stop telling people you are my son's father. I don't want him hearing anything like that around here. And you can't prove it so let it go."
Negan eyed her. That was the first time Michonne had ever sounded as if what he was alleging, COULD be true.
"Virgil is a smart man. So is Eugene. And I think that between the two of them, they could rig up a test that would prove RJ is mine. Or that he isn't." Negan said.
"Are you actually suggesting that I put my son through some half assed paternity test?"
"There will be nothing half assed about it. Not with Virgil and Eugene involved." was Negan's reply.
Michonne could see that Negan was not about to back down from this. She nodded.
"Fine. But if the test confirms that Rick is my son's father, which he is, then you leave here. You leave and never come back, are we clear?"
Negan moved closer to her.
"I'm fine with those terms as long as you agree to mine."
"Fine. What are they?" Michonne asked in a bored tone.
"If the tests come up positive that RJ is mine, which they will since he looks like my grandmother, you agree to have Gabriel marry us, you move RJ and Judith in here with me and we fuck every night that the good lord allows. Is that a deal?"
Michonne blinked.
"That deal sounds a bit steep…"
"It isn't if Rick's really RJ's son."
"Fine! We get the test done and you LEAVE FOR GOOD!"
"We get the test done and you become 'Mrs. Negan Smith' and we FUCK EVERY NIGHT!" Negan beamed.
"Your last name is Smith?" Michonne asked, raising a brow.
"What's yours?"
"Grimes." Michonne replied coolly and moved past him to open the door. She hopped down the stairs, retrieved her tree branch and used it to get home. Negan grinned at her back before he spotted Michonne's now charred underwear in a hill of dust in the middle of the road. He waited until Michonne got back to her house, before hurrying out of his and into the middle of the street! He picked them up, dusted them off and headed back to his home. Soon, the owner of this garment would be in his bed permanently. His. Not Darryl's.