KEZZ 1: As always thank you.
Azuraskye21: I know, right? Totally not what the original plan is, but then I sat and thought about how I would feel being an almost 14 year old with seemingly nothing to lose. Don't worry, she has plot armor...
Sorry it's taken me so long to post lately. I kinda got REALLY into Encanto, and then spent today watching the new Marvel movies (well, not NEW, but I mean...) on Disney+ and yeah...It took me a while to finish this chapter up. Hope y'all enjoy and had a great holiday!
Daryl fought the entire way to the doctor's office. Even as they stripped him naked and dragged him down a corridor when the doctor was done patching him up, he fought in an attempt to find Ania. Dwight remembered how it was the same in the forest, too, though with a lot less fight. Daryl had continuously brought her up, told him that he needed to get back home to her, that he was helping them for her. And now he was still fighting with everything he had to get back to the woman. Even as he was shoved into one of the small rooms they used as a cell, Daryl was yelling and shouting about how he was going to kill Tom and Ellie, how he was going to get his wife back, how she better be fine when he did.
The cell was freezing as Daryl sat on the cold concrete, hoping and praying that Ania wasn't suffering the same as he was. His only comfort was the fact that Negan seemed to want to help her, not hurt her, his only hope that the man would protect her too. He was sitting there, exhausted, on the verge of sleep, when he could hear whistling coming from down the hall. It stopped outside his door while Daryl sat and listened to the locking mechanisms on the door be undone, Dwight opening the door wide. As he shielded his eyes from the light, Daryl noticed the man was wearing both his vest and his bracelet, his wedding ring no where to be seen.
"Where's Ania? Is she okay? The baby?" he asked, only for Dwight to scoff and offer him some bread with something on it.
Taking it as he was starving and needed his strength, he took a bite, immediately recognizing the taste of dog food. Dwight watched as he continued to eat before walking out and closing the door, leaving Daryl alone in the darkness. If they thought they'd break him by feeding him shit on bread, they had another thing coming. He'd been forced to eat even worse things as a kid just to stay alive before he'd been able to hunt proficiently. He could tolerate eating dog food for a few meals if he had to. Dwight just watched him for a moment before closing the door and walking away. Daryl finished the slice of bread, staying in his spot on the floor as he thought about what he could do.
He'd been completely stripped of his clothing after his shirt and vest had been forcefully removed from him at the doctor's office. There were no cracks at the door and Daryl was exhausted by the events of the night before as well as the gunshot to his shoulder. Daryl couldn't help it as he passed out in the cell from the exhaustion, waking to the sound of loud music blaring as he laid on the cold concrete. He didn't even know how much time had passed or how long he'd been asleep. Pounding on the door and an order to stand on the back wall had Daryl moving before the door was open and Dwight once again brought him dog food on moldy bread. The music randomly played, preventing Daryl from getting much sleep at all, though he didn't get food every time it played, only when someone banged on the door. Every time the door opened, he asked about Ania and the baby only to get nothing in return.
Daryl couldn't even tell how much time had passed as he sat on the floor, freezing cold and hoping Ania wasn't being treated the same. He really had tried to think of a plan on getting out of here, but he just couldn't concentrate with how cold he was and how worried he was about Ania. They'd threatened to take the baby away, would they actually do that? Would they wait and ask Ania about whether or not she even wanted the baby? And he'd been called a rapist, that the baby was the product of rape. Sure, he and Ania had a few bedroom kinks on the rougher side, but he'd never once taken the girl without her permission. Even when she'd told him he could take what he needed from her, he knew she didn't mean he could just take that. He knew she'd meant to keep her in the room until they had managed to talk it out and get to the bottom of everything.
Not even Merle, when he was high and drunk off his ass had taken a woman by force. Daryl couldn't deny that Merle had a serious case of the grab hands and a mouth that ran for days, but no Dixon that he knew of had ever forced a woman. Not his daddy, not his granddaddy, not his uncle, not one of them had ever done that. Women could be used and abused, but you didn't take them, that was something his dad had told him straight to his face. He couldn't help the scoff that escaped him when he thought about that. Even assholes have lines they won't cross, he couldn't help thinking, remembering just how fucked his dad had been in the head and how he and Merle had both treated women. Daryl didn't do relationships either, just momentary escapades before he'd met Ania.
He was sat in the corner near the door when the damn song started playing again. Listening to the mechanisms once again, Dwight opened the door and all but threw a piece of bread and whatever was on top of it down on the floor next to him, no plate or anything, just the bread. As soon as Daryl picked it up, the man threw a set of clothes down on his head and closed the door. He couldn't help but put the less than mediocre food down and look at he clothes that were offered to him, figuring out the right way to put them on before donning them. While the clothes weren't the warmest, they were certainly better than sitting in the buff on the cold concrete tiles. The music stopped and started several times before the door opened again, Daryl immediately asking about Ania again. Dwight just stood in the room in front of him before grabbing the back of his shirt and hauling him up.
Daryl didn't put up much of a fight as he was led through the halls of the Sanctuary, as he'd heard the people calling it. He was too busy trying to memorize the layout so that he could get Ania and get out of here. They passed two corridors before turning to the left, voices floating down the hall towards him. As he approached a red chair sat outside a red door, Dwight pushed him harshly before he could see who was inside, though he could have sworn he heard Ania's voice. He only momentarily tried to look inside the open door before Dwight had pushed him past and turned him down a corridor to the right. Dwight opened a door and pushed Daryl into a room where the doctor who'd bandaged his wound when he first got there was sitting with Sherry, Dwight's wife, as Dwight called to him.
"We were just finishing up here," Carson informed them as Sherry got down from the examination chair.
"Chop-chop," Dwight told the doctor.
"Hi, D," Sherry told Dwight, making Daryl's scowl deepen as he heard another woman's voice call another man his name from Ania; he could understand now the possessiveness she had over him being the only one to call her Ania.
"Hey," Dwight said back, looking at her reminiscence of what they once were as she looked over at Daryl, who was actively trying not to look at anyone in the room.
Sherry noticed him anyway, trying to catch his eye as she inquired, "Daryl, right?"
"Don't," Dwight immediately cut in, "talk to him."
He pushed Daryl to the examination chair, the man taking a seat and slightly thankful it wasn't cold as all hell, before walking around the doctor and noticing a pregnancy test lying on his table. He looked over at Sherry somewhere between horrified and disgusted, only for her to say, "It's negative."
"Ah, well," he responded. "Maybe next time."
"Sorry," Dr. Carson told them. "Still getting used to being my own assistant."
Daryl watched Sherry throughout the entire interaction, wondering just what happened between her and Dwight in the six weeks since the forest. He knew that the scars on Dwight's face were new. He knew that Dwight had made that choice he couldn't go back from. He'd killed Denise right in front of them, shot Ania. Whatever had made them come back to this place, whatever price they had paid, it had changed them completely. Daryl sat and side-eyed everyone in the room as Dwight started helping the doctor and Sherry walked up to him.
"Whatever they say," Sherry told him, "just do it."
"I said don't talk to him," Dwight quickly turned around and told her once again.
"Okay, let's take a look," the doctor said, ending Sherry and Dwight's staring contest as she slowly left the room as the doctor pulled the back of his shirt down and removed the bandage. "It'll get better- if you let it. Negan will take care of you like he is the girl you came in with. Trust me."
After changing the bandages, the doctor said he was all done with Daryl and let Dwight pull him from the room. They were heading back down the hall towards the red door when Negan came around the corner. Dwight pulled Daryl down with him, forcing him to kneel when Negan came into view, the man chuckling about the fact that they were kneeling in front of him.
Negan couldn't help himself from chuckling either, seeing the man who'd apparently once told Dwight he would never kneel in fact kneeling in front of him, "Dwighty boy! I need to talk to my associate for a minute," he told the people in the hall behind Daryl and Dwight. "So go about your business." He watched as they all got up from the kneeling position before pointing his bat at Fat Joey and telling him, "Except for you. You stand right there," he said pointing to the wall next to the room with the red door that was currently all the way open.
Dwight pulled Daryl over to the red chair that had been sitting in front of the red door room, telling him to sit before walking away. A cry from inside the room had him ready to move as he looked through the door, the only thing keeping him in his seat being the gun aimed at his head. He could hear someone he couldn't see inside the room, another woman, warning Ania to stay where she was at the end of the bed when she went to get up. Her sweet voice saying his name brought a wave of hope and encouragement to him.
He could see the IV in her arm, but she wasn't as pale as she had been the last time he saw her. The bed behind her looked rumpled, as if she had been sleeping in it and he could see a tray just off to the side of her that had the remnants of what looked to have been decent food at least on the plate on top of it. There was a bookshelf with several books and a refrigerator in the room as well, a few other more homely items completing it. Her clothes were still on her, her wedding rings still firmly on her left hand, her bracelet sitting above it as her hand held onto her stomach in a silent promise the baby was fine.
I'll get you out, he mouthed to her, the fat man with the gun pointed at him too busy watching Negan's exchange in the hallway to be paying attention to them.
Love you, she mouthed back, Daryl's heart clenching at the fact that he could see her, but he was being kept from her as the tears ran down her face. Trust you.
A shadow falling on him had Daryl looking to his right to see Dwight, looking down and looking back at Ania as he was dragged away, the door to her room closing. He was dragged outside where he was forced to stand barefoot near the gate the walkers were chained to. Watching as two men tried to fight off the walkers already on the wall as they tried to add a new one, Daryl couldn't help but move around trying to figure out how to get to one of the men as a walker got a hold of him. Dwight raised his bow and shot the thing in the head so that the man could go and help the other finish with their walker, pulling the bucket off its head and running like hell in an attempt to get away from the walkers' reach.
"You know, I think I'm getting the hang of this thing," Dwight told Daryl as he looked at him, looking back to the men who were now out of harm's way and back to Daryl who refused to look anywhere but down. Grabbing the back of Daryl's neck and forcing him to catch himself on the fence or be rammed headfirst into it, Dwight told him, "That's you, asshole. Unless you're smart. Your choice. You could be like them. Or me. Or them." He forced Daryl to watch what was happening for a few more minutes before pulling and pushing him along back to his cell, shoving him inside it before offering some advice. "Make it easy on yourself."
"I already told you," Daryl said. "I only kneel to one person. I ain't ever gonna kneel to Negan."
"Yeah, I said that too," Dwight told him, making Daryl look up at him in contempt.
"Yeah, I know."
Dwight looked up and sighed before looking back down at Daryl, "See, that's the thing, man. You don't. But you're gonna."
He left and slammed the door on Daryl's door, the music turning on a moment later. Daryl tried to cover his ears as he groaned, the song engraving itself on his head as it played over and over again. Seeing Ania and knowing she was safe, that the baby was safe, that was the spark that brought the fire to life. Not wanting to wait any longer, he checked everything he could in the room. There were no loose stones in the walls and the door had been sealed pretty tightly. Literally the only thing of use was the half inch or so gap at the bottom of the door that he could barely see out of when he tried. Even without a pair of shoes to protect his feet, Daryl couldn't get the picture of Ania sitting in that room out of his mind as he tried to kick down the door, wanting to get back to his wife.
The music began playing again some time later, Daryl having given up the fight with the door and going back to sitting on the floor. He was doing his best not to break down because he couldn't. He didn't have the time nor the luxury of looking or being weak right now when Ania needed him. Whatever the point of that exercise earlier had been, he knew it was taking its own toll on Ania, and with the baby and everything that happened, he was worried about what the stress of it all was doing to her. She could handle a lot, but then, she generally could only handle it when he was there. To know that he there, that he was alive, but not have him with her would only serve to break her.
When the door opened and the guy who'd held the gun to him earlier stood in the doorway rather than Dwight, Daryl couldn't help but be a little extra cautious. He'd been caught off guard by change and took a few extra moments to move to take the proffered food. It was still the same dog food on bread, Daryl's stomach starting to roil at the thought of having to eat it, but he forced himself to take a bite anyway, knowing that the man wouldn't leave until he did. It was with a scoff and a shake of his head that the man did so, closing the door behind him as the music stopped. Daryl stopped chewing as he listened to the man walking away. Going based on sound, the lock had been left undone for some reason, offering Daryl a chance at escape.
The music started up again as Daryl looked through the gap under the door, making sure the cost was clear. Kneeling in front of the thing, he turned the knob as slowly as he could and braced the door with one hand in order to push it open centimeters at a time until it was free of the frame. No one was in the halls when he cracked the door open, prompting him to leave the cell he'd been stuck in for at least a day, maybe two. Being quick and quiet, he crept down the hall back towards the room with the red door. Checking the knob and finding the door unlocked, he slowly began entering it only to find Ania sleeping on the bed, tears still staining her cheeks as she clutched her right wrist, his bracelet now adorning it.
Creeping closer to her, he couldn't help but release the breath he'd been holding at finding her hurt. She was, but emotional pain he could help her with when they got out of her. It didn't seem as if they'd done much of anything to her at all, something he was grateful for. Shutting the door behind him, he slowly made his way to the bed, carefully reaching out and putting his hand over her mouth to stop whatever scream or shout might have made its way out of her upon waking.
As her eyes snapped open and her hands went to grab his arm, he quietly told her, "Gotta go, baby girl. Gotta go. Come on," he said when she just looked at him for a moment.
Ania launched herself into his arms, kissing him for all her worth for a moment before pulling back and tugging the IV out of her arm. He quickly wiped the blood away, finding that it was just a little and nothing to worry about. Daryl kissed her forehead and noticed how she felt only a little hotter than normal before grabbing her hand and leading her to the door. Opening it just as carefully as he had his own, Daryl double checked the hallways, looking back to Ania and telling her to follow him. She did so as he lead her down a hallway, stopping as a man stood at the doorway to the exit and throwing his arm back across her belly. When he heard the door open and close, he was about to head towards it before noises behind him made him duck down a different way, all but dragging Ania with him.
Daryl was completely one-track minded as he pulled her down the hallway to the safety of another corner just in time some men walked down the hall they had just been. He had to keep her safe, her and the baby. If he could get them out, that's what mattered. It didn't matter if he got caught doing it so long as they got free and managed to get home. That was his only thought as he watched and waited for a clear path, one of her hands tightly clasped in his with her other arm holding onto his in a vice grip. Daryl could tell she was worried about the same thing he was; Tom and Ellie lived here and at any moment they could run into the assholes. If that happened, they both were dead. Looking back at her, he caught her determined eyes rather than a scared face and it gave him hope that everything would be okay. With a deep breath, he checked the hall again to see the three men that had almost caught them in the first hallway passing the corridor they'd escaped down, continuing down their original path rather than following Daryl and Ania. As of yet, they were in the clear.
Ania let go of his arm and hand then, causing him to turn around as he heard a thump. She had Sherry's front against the wall, her arm behind her back with her wrist facing up in a slight contortion of the natural bend while Ania held her free arm against the woman's neck. Even though he was surprised by the quickness of the move, even though he was pissed at Sherry and Dwight alike for what happened in the forest, he still gently pulled Ania away. Although she gave him a hard and rather dirty look for doing so, Ania stepped back over to him and released Sherry, standing and glaring at the woman as she began to talk.
"Go back while you can," she told them quietly. "You know I did. Whatever he's done to you there's more. There's always more. You won't get away," she whispered. "And when you're back, it'll be worse."
"Ya lost ya reason ta fight," Ania whispered back to her, Daryl checking the hall. "We haven'."
Pulling her hand, Daryl wordlessly let Ania know it was time to go, the woman following along behind him like the lithe little thing she was. They made it to a door soon enough, Daryl looking out it and noticing the bikes out there. Making a run for it, he pulled her over to them, checking to see if any had keys before a door banged open, a few Saviors exiting it and causing Daryl to grab Ania's arm and pull her back towards the door they'd come from. Unfortunately, more Saviors exited it before the fat guy who'd brought him his last 'meal' came out of the only remaining exit they could have taken holding Rick's python steadily at them. Daryl was doing his best to keep Ania behind him even as he felt her gearing up for a fight, her body going into a relaxed but ready stance behind him, one that meant she was ready to lash out at a moment's notice. He knew the stance well because she'd tried to teach him it, allowing him to feel the muscles in her body as she held it, though that didn't make it as far as either of them would have liked. Negan's whistling sounded around him, making Daryl bristle all the more as he tried to figure out a way to get Ania out of the situation he'd put them in.
"Are we pissin' our pants yet?"
~x~
Dwight was standing close to the exit when Negan walked up. He'd been around to check on the little princess to see how she was doing, only to find Laura sitting outside the door with her head in her hands. Negan couldn't blame her for being a little emotional herself, seeing as how her dad had been torn away from her back at the beginning, but lessons had to be taught. He left her there to go and check on how Simon was doing on the prep work, sending the man on his way after telling him that for all intents and purposes, he was to be the Hilltop's Negan until he said otherwise. For the time being, Ani would be completely safe, which was good. After what he had planned with Daryl a little later, he planned on taking her for a stroll around his kingdom. Negan wanted to give Ani a little taste of what it meant to be him and what she and Daryl had to gain by switching sides.
"He is going ape-shit!" Negan said as he came to stand beside Dwight, his back against the railing Dwight was leaning against.
"Yep," Dwight said before looking down, lost in his own thoughts.
"And you, you are hustlin'. It's workin'. It's workin' slow, but, hey, man, some people are harder to break than others."
"Yeah, he's close," Dwight assured him.
"Yeah he is, so's she I'd reckon," Negan told him, thinking about how the girl had been sobbing in the room before he'd walked away. "Since you're doin' such a good job, you want a little blast from the past with you-know-who?" he asked Dwight, gauging his reaction as he spoke, chuckling as Dwight just stared at him dumbfounded. "Come on, man, I'm kidding. Lighten up. Pick whoever you want, as long as she says yes." When Dwight continued to just stare at him blankly, Negan remembered what happened the day Ani had gotten shot, "Oh crap. Are you okay down there? Your penis? I mean, that guy, he clamped on it. Or is it," Negan made a falling bomb sound while pointing downwards, cauing Dwight to chuckle, "down for the count?"
"I'm fine," Dwight told him, making Negan look at him critically. "But I'm gonna pass. And I'm cool."
"Huh," Negan said. "Are you cool, though, Dwight? I mean, I just said that it's happy hour at the pussy bar and Dwight eats for free, and you're tellin' me no? Is that cool?"
"I have-haven't finished the job," Dwight stuttered. "I-i-i haven't earned it yet. Right?"
"The hell are you talking about?" Negan asked him. "You earn what you take."
Whatever he was going to say died on the tip of his tongue as one of the walkies called out, "We've got an orange situation."
"Give me that." Grabbing the walkie from Dwight, Negan stared the man down as he answered the call, "Arat, what do you got? Grab-and-go?"
"Yeah, he could've only gone three ways- the moth, the angel, or the hard way," came his reply.
"Good," Negan told her, closing his eyes and sighing for a moment before Dwight took the walkie back.
"It's D. I'll meet you at the gate."
"I mean, I want my shit back," Negan told him, "but that is grunt work. Why don't you have Fat Joey do it? God knows he needs the exercise! You? You don't have to do it, Dwight."
"But I like to do it," Dwight told him, staring him straight in the eye.
Negan chuckled before telling him, "Good boy." With a pat on his back, he sent Dwight on his way, making his way back over to where Laura was still sitting on the floor. "Come on, let's get this done and over with."
"She's gonna come back here when you're done, right?" Laura asked, looking up at him, the crying in the room having died down a little while ago but Laura knowing what the next step for the two newest recruits would be. "She's not going in a cell?"
"Oh, come on now, you know me," Negan told her with a smile. "You know I ain't gonna be puttin' no pregnant woman in a cell. But Daryl has to learn. He has to make his choice. And whether he makes the right one that keeps her comfortable, even more so as he'll be with her, or he makes one that takes its toll on her, that's up to him. I can't force his hand one way or another. And she has to break. I mean, did you see the look in her eye when we were talking? I almost believe Rick when he says she's gonna kill me."
"But you are forcing his hand, just like they forced yours," Laura countered, watching his look turn dark before looking away. "I'm just saying. We really shouldn't be doing this to them with how vulnerable she is. I mean, I get him, but do you have to do it while she watches?"
"Yes, I do. She has to see what can happen so she knows what he's riskin' by not makin' the right choice. Have her ready to beg him to kneel just so she doesn't have to see it again. We break one, we break the other."
"And if she fights? I mean, she said she has problems not breaking bones. Specifically said it like that. What if she tries to fight and we hurt the baby? What if it goes badly and one of them dies? Then what leverage do we have? You said you didn't want to risk the baby, but forcing her to watch him take a beating will put the baby at risk."
"Hey, now, he might not make that choice. Hell, he might just get here to her room and stay, see the light so to speak. We won't know until they make their moves. Which means we gotta vamoose. Let's go," Negan told her, holding his hand out to Laura only for her to look down and sigh. "I get why you want to protect her; it's hard not to want to with how small she is and how scarred she is. Hell, after seeing that, well, still got a hard on, but damn if it ain't just a little bit smaller."
"She told me that it takes a lot to become a survivor after being a victim," Laura said, taking his hand and standing. "Said it was awesome that I managed it. I told her it takes one to know one, thinking she was in the same way I'd been, but she wasn't. But she knew anyway, just...How can someone do that to a kid?"
"I don't know," Negan said as they started down the corridor. "But I can tell you when those assholes come back, I'm making sure everyone learns why they don't lie to me and why kids are untouchable in my house."
"No, we just hurt their parents."
"Why are you like this after all this time?"
"It's obvious who was in the wrong. I don't know, I just think that a softer touch would do a hell of a lot more than a hard one with her."
"Maybe. Let's start with the hardball first, then we'll throw the curve."
"Hey, you're the boss, but I can't help but worry. I mean, she's really smart and all that, but she's also really emotionally vulnerable. Like she's a child who needs their security blanket to deal with things, her blanket in particular being Daryl."
"Things get out of hand, we can always sedate her."
"Are you sure about this?"
Negan stopped and looked at Laura who looked right back at him, both contemplating each other's reactions as they watched each other before he spoke up, "Don't make me think you're goin' soft on me, Laura. Not for these assholes. The girl killed fifteen of our own, that's more than any of the rest of them. She's threatened to kill me and everyone else who even touches Daryl. So, she's gotta learn a lesson, just like the rest of them. The only reason she's not being taught harder is because that baby in her belly is givin' her all kinds of protection right now. Remember your place."
"I know my place, sir. I'm just sympathetic, you know. Kinda reminds me of when we met, what happened after. How dad was beaten and taken away and I was stuck in that damn trailer. Still not sure what I would have done if you hadn't come back."
"My fault they found you in the first place. Had to make it right," Negan said as they waited near one of the doors to the exit, both falling silent as they watched out the window.
Sure enough, about twenty minutes later, Daryl was exiting the building with Ani in tow, neither looking anything other than determined. They watched as Daryl pulled Ani over to the bikes and how he attempted to keep her covered at all times, though with the number of his men out their with them, that was impossible. He couldn't help the smile he got as he exited his own door with a whistle while Laura followed behind him. This was going to be all kinds of fun and horrible rolled into one hell hole of a hand basket, but he'd be damned if it didn't need to be done. Lessons had to be taught, period.
Walking into the middle of the circle that had surrounded the two, he asked, "Are we pissing our pants yet?"
"Nah, why, are ya?" Ani asked, making Negan smirk as he watched Daryl's eyes go from person to person, both of them in a slightly defensive stance.
"Funny," he said before asking, "Who are you?" and pointing the bat at Fat Joey.
"Negan," the man replied.
"Who...are...you?" he quipped, pointing the bat to a man directly behind him, who immediately answered with his name. "Who are you?" he asked once again, stomping one foot and raising both arms.
"Negan," came a chorus around them, making Negan smile at Daryl.
"You see that? I am everywhere. And this was your shot to prove to me that that fundamental fact was sinkin' in and you failed," Negan told Daryl, momentarily ignoring Ani. "Which sucks because your life was about to get so much cooler. Am I right?" he asked Fat Joey.
"Damn right," he replied, making Ani scowl at him.
Negan couldn't help the bit of fun he had trying to hit Daryl's bare feet with his bat, the man barely even grunting as he moved his feet out of the way, both he and Ani taking synchronized steps back as her face darkened. Chuckling, Negan backed off again. It was interesting watching the two in action, almost as if they had been doing nothing but learning the way the other moved since they'd met. If only he'd've had the foresight to know that that was exactly what they had been doing and they both could think alike, he might not have made the mistake of bringing them both to the Sanctuary in the first place. It was right at this moment, watching as her face simply darkened rather than broke into worry or tears, that he realized he would not be able to break her using harm to Daryl as a bargaining chip. If he knew the whole story about Chrystal like Simon did, he might've taken Laura up on the option not to have her involved in this lesson. Instead, he just smiled as he turned back around to Daryl.
"Now, I know Dwight gave you some options. I don't think you get it yet, so I'm gonna break it down for you," he told Daryl as Ani took a step up into the man's back. "One, you wind up on the spike and you work for me as a dead man. Two, you get out of your cell, you work for points, but you're gonna wish you were dead. Or three, you work for me, you get yourself a brand new pair of shoes and you live like a king! Get a room with your girl and all the care and food she needs for that baby! Choice seems pretty obvious. You should know, there is no door number four. This is it. This is the only way." When Daryl and Ani continued to just stare at him in contempt, he chuckled and said, "Screw it."
He raised his bat, fully prepared to just go off on Daryl. The only problem was that neither Daryl nor Ani flinched even when it was within an inch of Daryl's face. Daryl didn't move a muscle and Ani twisted her body around his to where she could throw a punch. Said fist was an inch away from Negan's face even as his bat was an inch away from Daryl's. She'd called his bluff with a bluff of her own that would have connected to his throat and sent him flying backwards before he could hit Daryl if he would have followed through.
"Don' fuck with me, Negan. I told ya, ya hurt me man, I will kill ya. I wasn' jokin', I wasn' makin' a threat. That was a promise," she told him in a menacing voice.
"Wow! You don't scare easily, do you? Neither of you?" Negan asked while backing off, a smile playing on his face at the bold ferocity of the tiny little lady that barely came up past his shoulders; she barely came up to Daryl's chin. "I love that! But Lucille? Well, it kinda pisses her off. She finds it to be disrespectful. Lucky for y'all, she's not feeling too thirsty today. But I am," he said quietly, trying to be menacing himself but realizing quite quickly that, at the very least, Ani found him more amusing than anything as she bit her lips to keep from smiling at him, something Laura noticed and had to hide a smile of her own about; she wasn't the least bit scared of Negan at all. "So, I'm gonna get me a drink," he told them almost as if he was telling a joke. "Laura, get our little Ani and bring 'er along. She don't need to be a part of what happens next."
"Come on," Laura said, grabbing Ani's elbow as the men started closing in around her and Daryl.
Ani could tell that Daryl was about to take a beating and couldn't just leave it at that. Easily breaking the hold Laura had on her arm, she whipped around in a roundhouse kick and managed to get one man down before Negan and Laura were both holding onto her arms. It didn't take too much struggle as Daryl began fighting off the nine other men, but there was no way one man could fight that many and come out on top. Not only did they have the muscle, but they had the size as none of Negan's men were starving but they were also either taller or the same height as Daryl himself. Ani fought hard against Negan and Laura, doing her best to break their holds only for Negan to successfully grab her around the middle and put his bat very close to her face, forcing her to watch as Daryl went down.
"Now, I tried to make it to where you didn't see this. But you just had to fight, didn't you. This is what happens when you don't follow the rules. This is what happens when you don't make the right choice. Is this really the life you want for him? For your baby?" he asked her, watching as Daryl was knocked to the ground and everyone continued to pound on him. "Make the right choice. Kneel. Make him kneel. And everything in that room stays yours. And can be his too. Make the right choice," he told her as Daryl was knocked unconscious, "and this will never have to happen again."
"Yeah," Ani said, her voice dripping with venom and barely contained rage. "Until the next time it happens, and the next, and the next. Ya neva could keep a promise, Negan, could ya? That's why ya ran away from 'er in 'er time a need. 'Cause ya couldn' keep ya promises ta her in the before, and ya didn' wanna face the responsibility a it in the afta. Ya a coward, Negan. A coward who ran away like the little bitch 'e is."
Negan and Laura both inhaled sharply, though for different reasons. Laura knew better than to bring up Negan's past. It was a pretty damn quick way to get on the man's shit list, and no one but him really knew the truth about what had happened except for the man himself. Negan's inhale was because of how precisely shit hit the nail on the head, earning her a rougher treatment than necessary and Negan accidentally scraping Lucille across her face, cutting her in several spots during the ensuing struggle. By the time they'd gotten back to the room he'd kept her in and called for Carson, she'd needed several stitches on her face and was told she would most likely have a scar by her lip and her eyebrow.
Negan attempted to apologize, truly feeling sorry for having roughed her up a bit, but the cold glare he got in return had him sighing. There was nothing he could do if she was unwilling to learn the lesson aside from hope that Daryl learned his. Because the day after tomorrow, well, no one was there to pay her way, and if she couldn't listen, well, they simply couldn't waste so many resources. The two needed to make the right choice sooner rather than later. Turning to Carson, he nodded his head, the man taking a needle from his bag and sticking it into her arm. Negan had to admit she was a fighter as it took at least twenty minutes for the sedative to work, the man helping to catch her as she finally succumbed to the drug and pitched forward. Carefully tucking her into bed, Negan left the room with Laura caring for the girl who would sleep through the night until morning.
In the morning, he made himself comfortable in the early morning hours in the chair in her room just watching her as he thought of what he wanted to say. She was smart enough to sniff out any lie he told her, and even smarter still to be able to uncover what he had been hiding. How she'd uncovered it was surprising. She'd literally taken what little she'd heard from others, what little she knew about him and somehow extrapolated the better part of his life's story. Maybe just telling her the truth would be enough to make her understand what he was trying to build.
~x~
Daryl came to sore as all hell and back in his cell. He was still clothed, though, so at least he had something to be happy about. That happiness was short lived when he remembered that Negan had grabbed a hold of Ania after she'd tried to help him, shoving that bat of his in her face. He couldn't help the anger that raged inside of him, followed by the hopelessness. He'd led Ania into that situation, all but delivered her up to that sick bastard. And now he was right back where he started and Ani was who knows where. Hopefully they would continue to take pity on the pregnant woman and allow him to be the only one to suffer. The last thing he wanted was for more of his decisions to hurt her. Somewhere in the dark corners of his mind, he started thinking that she'd probably be better off without him, but those words she'd told him one too many times herself. Daryl had to shake those thoughts off, reminding himself that they had a baby on the way and the two of them needed him. Checking his bones, he started at the sound of approaching steps to his door.
"Daryl?" Sherry's voice called from the other side. "There's so many things I wish I had never found out. I wish I didn't try..." he could hear her sob before she continued, even as he remained quiet and listened. "Back in the woods, after I lost Tina...when we took your stuff, and we decided to go back. I told you I was sorry. And you said, 'You're gonna be.' You were right. I am."
She walked off then, leaving him with his own thoughts. Back in the woods, he'd been so ready to take them in, take them back to Alexandria, to be helpful. But they'd betrayed everything they stood for to come back to this place. He felt like he was back in his dad's house, being beaten and berated until he acted just like his dad wanted him to. The drugs he'd taken, drinking from an early age, it'd all been to make his dad accept him and stop beating him, to make Merle accept him. Now, now it was back to the same. Be beaten down and dragged through the dirt to come out being the same as the asshole doing it. A part of him felt like the same little boy that had been locked in the coat closet while his dad and his buddies got high and drunk and pounded on the door. He'd cried the first few times they'd done it, but just like he was now, eventually he just stared and waited for it to be over. Closing his eyes, he couldn't help dozing, waking with a start to the sound of that same damn song playing. It barely even bothered him this time as the door opened and Dwight stepped in, trying to hand him some of the same shit they'd been feeding him since he got here.
When he didn't take it, turning his head to ignore the man's presence, Dwight tossed it on the floor and told him, "Eat." After a short pause he said, "You got your friend killed. I got Tina killed. And don't pretend like you don't know the score." Daryl couldn't help but grab the shit sandwich and toss it back up at Dwight, hitting him in the chest and causing him to squat down and practically spit at Daryl, "You should be dead. But Negan's taken a shine to you. You're lucky, don't forget." Taking a picture out of his pocket, he taped it to the wall and left the cell with a, "Bon appetit."
Daryl through the pitcure on the ground before really looking at it, picking it up and flipping it over to realize it was a picture of Glenn after Negan's pulverizing. Everything about that night came flaring back into his brain, images he'd been keeping at bay in exchange for concentrating on Ania and the baby and escaping. But now he was right back on his knees, Ania's unconscious form laying in front of him, as Negan's bat hit the ground over and over again until the only thing recognizable about Glenn was his clothes. Daryl did his best to push the thoughts down all over again, to push down the guilt, but music began blasting out again. It wasn't 'Easy Street' like it had been, but Roy Orbison's 'Crying.' Listening to the lyrics and looking at the picture, he couldn't help it as he started breaking down. Between Denise, Glenn, and Ania being in the situation she was in, all those choices were his to own, his mistakes to carry. He cried until he puked, passing out close to the door shortly thereafter.
Daryl wasn't sure how long he'd been asleep when he was roughly woken up by Dwight grabbing him up and bringing him to Carson. He could tell it was early morning by the rays that were shining through the window, but how long had he been passed out in the cell before he'd woken up, and how long had he been passed out since, there was no telling. He was given a shot of antibiotics and told if he hadn't worked himself up so much and just listened to Negan, he'd be in perfect health by now. Daryl didn't say or do anything as he listened to the doctor, thinking that he was telling the truth in a way. It wasn't until Dwight roughly took him to the room with the red door that he even began to show any kind of concern. Was Ania still in that room? Had she been hurt? Had the baby?
"Step in," Dwight told him, pushing him inside the room.
He tried to take a step towards Ania, who was sleeping on the bed, some scratches and cuts on her own face, but Dwight was quick to pull him away. Negan was sitting in a chair close to the end of the bed, a TV on an entertainment center against the wall off to the side of him. It really was a nice room considering it had been refurbished from a factory room of some sort. But looking at Ania lying on that bed, seeing her face all cut up, one of the few places on her body that she'd managed to keep relatively free of scars, he'd ruined that. Daryl did his best to fight the rage building inside him as he looked at his sleeping wife.
"Ahh," Negan said as he stood, looking at his men's handiwork. "Jesus. You...look awful. Don't you worry. We'll have Carson fix you all up. I imagine you've already been to see him. You thirsty? Here," he said, handing Daryl a glass of water, which he took but didn't drink from. "Ah, hell, I forgot. Your mouth is all puffed up like a baboon's ass. Need a straw? D, get him a straw. What's wrong with you?" Daryl bristled all over again at his name being used for someone else, sullying her voice calling him that, as Dwight walked past and Negan leaned in, "See that guy? He hustles. I like hustle. But believe it or not, things weren't always cool between us. See, D here—he worked for points," Negan told him as Dwight dropped a straw in the glass of water Daryl was holding. "Him and his super hot wife and her super hot sister. But see sis, she needed meds. And that shit is hard to scavenge, so it costs more. Sis fell behind on points, so I asked her to marry me. Told her I would take care of her in sickness and in health and blah blah blah, much like you did our little Sleeping Beauty over there. Sorry about her face, by the way. She is one hell of a fighter, much stronger than she looks, too. I mean, one kick K.O. to one of my guys, took Lucille gettin' in her face to stop her from strugglin' so much so we could drag her away. Had to sedate her to keep her from gettin' too stressed and harmin' the baby. Anyways, back to Dwight. Sis says she'll think about my proposal and because I am a stand up guy, I tell her sure, fine, okay. Next thing you know, I'm dealing with an orange situation. Dwighty boy here stole all the medication and took off with his super hot wife and my super hot maybe soon-to-be fiancee," Negan told Daryl, tapping his bat hard enough on the floor to make a loud sound that had Ania groan and move on the bed, rolling onto her side from her back. Everyone looked to the sleeping girl as she settled back down, Negan continuing his story, "So I had to send my guys after him. Because I can't let something like that stand. There...are...rules."
"Cost me an arm and a leg goin' after him. And you know what—Dwighty boy? He still got away. But here's the thing, D, he saw the light. He manned up. He came back. He asked for my forgiveness. I like that. Made me...take notice," he said with a flare of his hand. "But Lucille. Well...you know how she is. She is a stickler for the rules. So, Dwight...he begged me not to kill Sherry, which I thought was kinda cute so I was just gonna kill him. But then Sherry says that she will marry me if I let Dwight live. Which if you think about it, that's a pretty screwed up deal 'cause I was gonna marry her sister until she wound up dead, but," Negan sung out, "Sherry is super hot. Anyways, it was a start. But it wasn't enough. So Dwight...he got the iron. And then I married his super hot wife," Negan chuckled and turned toward Dwight. "Ex-wife. And then after all that, he still got on board. And now look at him! Pow! One of my top guys! We're totally cool. The point being, I think you can be that guy," Negan told Daryl. "I think you are ready to be that guy. You look around here, this room I've been keepin' little Ani looked after in. This, well, it could all be yours. The both of yours. You could live together, raise your baby in peace and with everything he'd need. All you gotta do is answer one...simple...question. Who are you?"
He could keep her safe. A guarantee not to have to fight anymore for her, a guarantee of her being provided for. Sure, he might have to follow a douchebag, but he could keep her safe, keep the baby safe. It would just cost him his identity in front of this man, and it wasn't like he hadn't lost his identity to another before. Merle might not have been as bloodthirsty as the man in front of him, but he'd certainly done everything and anything Merle had told him to within reason. Daryl looked at Ania on the bed, her eyes fluttering open to look at him for a moment before closing again, a small sigh escaping her lips as she brought the pillow closer into her in the same gesture she would do to him, bringing the fact that he was already supposed to be beside her crashing into his brain.
As Negan talked and asked him again who he was, her words came thundering in his ears, pleading with him that no matter what they said, what they promised, he wouldn't let them change him. She'd managed to open her eyes and even the way she'd grabbed a hold of her pillow, he could tell she could hear him, or at least that she knew he was in the room. He'd promised her he wouldn't let them change him, and even if it meant keeping her relatively safe, he couldn't break that promise. He already knew that no place was truly safe. In the end, when Negan's patience with his silence was fed up and he'd brought Lucille up close to his face, all Daryl could do was raise his head to look Negan in the eye.
"Daryl," he answered.
"Oh, this is the only-" Dwight began, thoroughly miffed that Daryl would continue to take the hard road, the high road, when the perfect out, the perfect end to everything he and the girl where going through, had just been handed to him on a silver platter.
"Hey, sst, sst," Negan stopped him. "It's cool, D. He made his choice. Ain't my problem if he made a dumbass choice. Take him back to his cell."
Dwight all but dragged Daryl to the room, him fighting to get one last look at Ania as her eyes fought themselves opened once again until they made it back to his tiny, dark cell. He was all but thrown in the room, being forced to step over the mess of his sick from earlier as well as the picture and the discarded meal. Daryl simply sat down, everything that had been playing in his head completely drowned out by determination. That was one of the last things she'd told him, not to let them change him. He'd be damned if he wasn't even going to try to keep that promise just because the easy way out had been offered. He was a Dixon, dammit, and Dixons didn't take the easy way out when their blood was on the line.
"You're gonna wind up in that room, or hangin' on the fence!" Dwight yelled at him.
Sitting in the corner of the room, feeling his lip and nose begin bleeding again, he simply looked at Dwight as the man turned to leave. "I get why did it. Why you took it," he told him. "You were thinkin' 'bout someone else. That's why I can't."
"If you were thinkin' about that girl, you would just bend the knee," Dwight told him.
"Like you did? And where's your girl now?"
Dwight simply looked at him before turning away and locking the door. Daryl breathed deeply, trying to steady his racing heart. She was fighting to wake up, whatever sedative they'd given her was wearing off and she was still being treated well. As well as could be given the fact that she had been roughed up bad enough that she was going to have a few scars on her face, but if that was the worst that she'd suffered because of his desire to escape with her he would take it. He, by and far, would rather take a thousand beatings than let her take even what little she did. Daryl was berating himself for his momentary loss of control, his momentary lack of courage. When the song started playing again, he simply growled and closed his eyes, in an attempt to hold onto the anger he was feeling coursing through his veins.
~x~
"The point being, I think you can be that guy," she heard Negan say to someone. "I think you are ready to be that guy. You look around here, this room I've been keepin' little Ani looked after in. This, well, it could all be yours. The both of yours. You could live together, raise your baby in peace and with everything he'd need. All you gotta do is answer one...simple...question. Who are you?"
Daryl, she thought as she forced her eyes open seeing the sorry state he was in but being unable to keep her eyes open too long. Instead, all she could do was move her pillow, holding it like she usually would Daryl, nuzzling into it as if it was him. The sigh that escaped her she hadn't been able to help as her mind conjured up Daryl's scent, his warmth, his touch. All she could think about was him being beside her in that moment. The dream that engulfed her was so bittersweet, Daryl holding her while looking down on their newborn son. It was made even sweeter when she heard Daryl's voice calling out his name, whispering it in her ear as he kissed her shoulder.
"You there sweetheart?" she heard Negan ask.
"Ya ain' eva gonna have us, ya know that, right? We're loyal ta each otha. Even in death, ya can' sway us."
"That so?"
"We'll follow each otha. I already promised 'im."
"Even with the baby?"
"Once they were old 'nough for me ta follow, I would. Once they were old 'nough ta live without me. I wouldn' have a qualm in the world with goin' out fightin' every walka I could 'til I bit it if I lost 'im."
"Earlier, I got a little rough with you. I apologize. You've got some mouth on you, though."
"Didn' say nothin' that wasn' true," she told him, rolling on her back.
"You sure about that?"
"Yeah, I'm pretty damn sure. Reason ya got so many wives? 'Cause ya couldn' stay true ta the one that died in all this. The one that turned. So now ya jus' give 'em all what they need ta live, ta be comfy, but ya get ta bed whicheva one is ya favorite wheneva ya want, right?"
"Damn, you are smart. It's just you and me here, so I'll tell you my little secret. Once upon a time, I was married. I cheated on her, stayed with a friend of hers late into the night when she needed to get an MRI done. That's when I found out she had cancer and damn if I didn't feel like a dick. See, I'd lost my job because some asshole at a bar couldn't keep his mouth shut and I had one too many. Asshole happened to have kids that went to the school I worked for. Now, she's stuck payin' fines that fell on my head while I'm a jobless mooch sittin' on her couch playin' video games. Made me feel less of a man. So I found a woman who wasn't happy with her man and made her feel like I was man. Needless to say, as soon as I found out about the cancer, I was done with that other woman," Negan told her, looking down and truly ashamed as she watched him, gauging his reason for telling her all this.
"Then when everything went to hell, she had her treatments. They had her on a schedule and it was easy enough to keep to. Had the medicine and everything was going good, until it didn't. Woke up one morning to the medicine gone warm. She begged me to stay. Told me she knew about the affair and everything. I was a coward. I left her to find the medicine only to come home and find she killed herself rather than wait for me. Tied herself to the bed, and I sat there listening to her tryin' to get to me for the longest time. Rather than killin' her myself, I set the house on fire and went back to right the other wrongs I made gettin' the meds she needed all over again in the first place. That's where I met Laura," he told her. "Well, the journey to get the meds. But she had some not so great experiences because I was such a coward I couldn't just stay."
"That is why I'm truly shocked that you would love Daryl so much when he would not chose this lifestyle for you, this safety," Negan told her, watching her reactions as she smiled softly.
"'Cause 'e promised me," she told him.
"What?"
"He promised me when 'e told me where we were goin', when 'e told me we were goin' ta meet 'em. Nothin's gonna make 'im change," Ani told him. "Ya kill me, ya take our baby, he's jus' gonna fight ya worse, same goes for me, though I'll go for the kill in whateva way I can. It's easy ta figya out how ta ruffle ya feathas. Ya wear ya emotions on ya sleeves. I get that ya shite cracked when ya wife died. That don' give ya a right ta treat people like ya slaves. Ta beat people ta death jus' ta make a point. What point are ya makin'? That ya unfit ta lead and as soon as someone betta comes around, someone who can offa them a betta way a life, ya gonna be left high and dry, Negan. The way ya runnin' things. How many runnas ya had? How many have caught a beatin' and died unda ya watch? Ya really think ya gonna be able ta keep in control jus' 'cause ya scare people?"
"I don't scare you."
"No, ya don'."
"But Tom and Ellie do."
"They did. Got somethin' ta fight for now. Got a reason ta fight."
"But could you?"
"Could I what?"
"Fight them?"
"Would ya really make me do that knowin' I'm pregnant and knowin' they wanna kill it?"
"True. I would not want that, but do you think you could fight them?"
"The only reason they're still standin' now is 'cause I didn' know they were there. They came outta no where in a surprise attack and had me unable ta fight back 'fore I could even try ta fight back. I was able ta defend for a while, but once me head was cut all ta hell, there wasn' much I could do ta fight. So I jus' kept meself defended. Did what I could, ya know?"
"You know I used to be a gym teacher. That's what I did before all this. I had a few kids I called in about. Ones that were always bruised up. Ones that were always tryin' to hide a little too much to that they were noticeable. There were always signs to be seen," Negan told her.
"And always stories ta be told."
"Ain't that the truth. I am sorry, for what happened. But so you know, Daryl has made his choice. Soon enough, you're gonna have to make yours. You can either have this room with Daryl, or I can start beatin' him daily while you watch. All you have to do is answer one simple question. Not right now. I've got a few matters to attend to. Just, mull it over," he told her, getting up and leaving the room as Laura came back in with some food. "I'll give you the day. Tomorrow, well, that's another story."