"Put the gun down, Elle." Charlotte raised out a hand cautiously as she approached me; she had a nervous look on her face. Derek looked just as uneasy as I ignored Charlotte's request and continued to press the barrel of my Ruger into his forehead.

I didn't know what to think. The last time I saw Charlotte—and the only time I had ever seen her—was when I met her in the treehouse. I had gone out scavenging weeks ago and met her when I had tried to raid her stuff. She had tricked me into giving her gun back and after a short chat she sent me home with some peas. And I remembered when we had talked, she had said she wasn't with anyone.

I narrowed my eyes at her and watched as she studied me.

"Elle… what happened to you?" She regarded the scars on my arms in shock.

"You said you were alone." I ignored her question and challenged her lie. I wasn't about to start explaining what happened with Caleb to a group of people who could potentially be worse than he was—even if that wasn't possible.

"I can explain. Please, we just want to talk." Charlotte sounded desperate. I looked between her and the man in the army coat.

"Who is he?" I demanded, gesturing to him.

Charlotte took a deep breath as if she was doing her best to stay calm.

"His name is Derek. He's my brother."

Her brother?

I stared at him and realized they looked similar; they both had the same shade of dark brown hair, they were both very tall and had the same oval shape face.

Derek gave his sister a worried look and then cleared his throat.

"We're not going to hurt you," he said in a reassuring voice.

"Shut up," Charlotte snapped, turning her attention on her brother. "I told you that you needed to let me do the talking. Now look what's happened." She gestured at the gun still aimed at his head. Derek rolled his eyes and opened his mouth to say something, but I spoke and cut him off.

"You need to leave," I addressed both of them. I didn't care why they were here—I couldn't trust either of them, especially after Charlotte had lied to me about surviving on her own.

"We need your help, Elle," Charlotte pleaded.

"I can't trust you," I responded icily, and glanced at Derek who was frowning at me. I needed to make sure they didn't get the upper hand and try to take the gun away.

Charlotte sighed and looked again at her brother. Her eyes went to the black strap hanging around his arm connecting to the long weapon.

"Give her the assault rifle," Charlotte ordered.

"What? You can't be serious!" Derek's head snapped to the side to look at his sister. The sudden movement caught me off guard and it took all my self control to not pull the trigger from the sudden jerking motion.

"We need to establish some trust here, Derek. Give it to her." By the look on her face, I could tell Charlotte was far from joking. She raised her eyebrows, giving her brother an expectant look, and at first he didn't react. Then, after a few drawn out moments, Derek grunted in irritation, and he pulled the strap away from his arm and held it out towards me.

Keeping the Ruger pointed at him, I reached out and took the sling into my hand and pulled the rifle from him. Ryan was still standing on the other side of the gate, and I took a few steps back and handed him the gun, careful not to let my guard down with Charlotte and Derek. Once the assault rifle was in Ryan's arms, I watched as Charlotte pulled out a gun—the same one I had seen in the treehouse. She held it down and out towards me. I took it from her in one quick motion.

"That's all our weapons. Can I come inside and talk? Derek will stay outside with the others. No funny business, I swear it."

I glanced between them. Derek seemed irritated, but he nodded in agreement with Charlotte. I considered my options. If I let them in and they tried anything, we would be in big trouble. They could ambush the school, and I still didn't know how many people were in this group. I had already made the mistake of letting in Caleb, and yet, there was something about the way Charlotte was looking at me. It seemed critical that we talk.

"Fine. But if you try anything, I'll kill you." The threat was extreme, but I meant it. I would not hesitate this time if I became even a little suspicious of her.

"Wouldn't expect anything less," Charlotte responded, nodding at me and smiling a little in what I assumed was an attempt to be amiable.

I gripped the gate with my free hand and pulled it part ways open so that Charlotte could enter, all while still aiming the gun at Derek to make sure he would stay back. Charlotte raised her hands up and held them out as she walked forward, moving by me to be on our side of the wall. Once she was inside, I closed the gate and watched as Derek disappeared from view, and then pointed the gun at Charlotte.

Using my freehand, I patted her down at her hips and legs to make sure there weren't any hidden weapons. Once I was satisfied she was completely unarmed, I took a step back.

"We can talk inside," I said, gesturing towards the building. With that, Charlotte turned and started making her way towards the school. I nodded to Ryan who was holding the assault rifle in his arms. At least if they tried something, we would have a fighting chance with the weapon.

When we entered through the front doors, the others had gathered to see what was happening. All eyes were on Charlotte and me as we headed towards the principal's office—the room that had clearly become the place for any and all meetings. I closed the door once we were inside and then rounded the desk. Charlotte sat in the chair on the opposite side, and I continued to point the gun at her. She didn't seem to mind that I was aiming it at her and instead gawked at me.

"What happened to you?" she asked again, referring to my scars. "Did Negan do that to you?"

"No," I responded fast in defense of him, and then gave her an accusatory look. I didn't remember mentioning his name to Charlotte when I had met her. Sure I had told her about the Saviors, but I didn't think she'd even remember them. Charlotte didn't appear to believe me that he didn't do it, but I didn't need to convince her, and decided to cut to the chase.

"What do you want, Charlotte?" I asked in a cold voice.

She nodded and finally stopped ogling the marks on my skin.

"Right to it then…" She took a deep breath and then met my gaze.

"I told you I was on my own because at the time I was. Derek and I were together when the outbreak happened, but we had some… disagreements on how things should be ran. I left the group because I didn't like how he was doing things. I was living on my own when you found my treehouse. I didn't lie, but shortly after you and I met I went back to Derek and Greenbrier. That's where we live; it's a mall. Derek and I let our people vote on who should lead, and they chose him. I've been with them since, and I wasn't even going to tell them about the school, but then yesterday…" Charlotte trailed off and swallowed hard.

"We met Negan. He came to Greenbrier and demanded that we work for him. He took a ton of our shit and said if we refused to work for him, he'd start killing us until we got the memo."

Well, that sure sounded like Negan.

I wasn't shocked that Negan would say or do those things, but it was interesting to hear what he had been up to in the last weeks since leaving Doveport alone. Apparently he had found a new settlement to dig his claws into.

"Do the Saviors still come here?" Charlotte asked suddenly, snapping me out of my thoughts. I shifted uncomfortably, not even knowing where to begin with that. I stopped aiming the gun at Charlotte, not feeling like she was a threat anymore. She wasn't armed, and I kept the gun in my hand and at the ready if I needed it. Charlotte's group wasn't like Caleb's—they were like us, trying to figure out a way to make things work while being under Negan's thumb.

"We haven't seen Negan in a few weeks," I admitted. "We don't think he's coming back."

"How the hell did you manage to pull that off?" Charlotte inquired.

I gave a short laugh and looked over at the window briefly. The answer to that was a bit complicated—I had been through a lot with Negan, and had gotten quite close with him in the last months. But Negan was like fire, and I had burned myself. I had hurt him, and he had hurt me. Whatever had been happening was done and over, and I hated to even think that I might not see him again.

"I don't know," I muttered, giving her a slight shrug. "He just stopped coming here." It wasn't exactly a lie. I knew why, but I also thought he would return. Every day I expected to see his smug face, but he never showed.

"He said we need to get him shit every week. The mall has a few things, but we can't afford to be giving him all we have. Derek wants to fight back, but I'm worried he's going to get us all killed." Charlotte let out a deep sigh. "I know you don't trust me. I understand why you don't, but I'm here to ask that Doveport help Greenbrier gather supplies."

I really should have seen it coming. They were in the same predicament that we had been in for weeks of trying to keep Negan and his men happy. Charlotte seemed more of a peacekeeper, where her brother came off a bit cocky. I understood their frustrations, but it wasn't fair that just when we thought we were free of Negan's clutches, we were once again being asked to deliver supplies to him.

Except this time we would be the middleman.

"We've been doing well on our own," I explained, not wanting to agree to help people we didn't even know. Sure generosity was important, but not at the cost of our lives.

"Please," Charlotte said. "We're not asking for much. And it's not just a one-way street. We'll bring you guys stuff, too. We will agree to any rules you wanna set. No weapons inside the school. Anything. We need friends more than ever right now."

Friends.

It was the use of that word that caught my attention. I was very hesitant to help Charlotte and her community, but perhaps that was because after what happened with Caleb, I wasn't as trusting as I used to be. Charlotte hadn't given me a reason not to trust her yet, and was trying very hard to work with us.

I glanced down at the gun that was still in my hand that I had stopped aiming at her and realized I was acting paranoid. These people were just scared of Negan, something Doveport didn't have to be anymore. We could help them, and maybe I'd be able to see Negan and apologize about bringing up his wife.

"No weapons, vehicles stay outside the gate, and I want to talk to your brother before we officially agree to anything." If he was the leader of Greenbrier, then I needed to discuss this with him. "And if we ask you to leave, you will leave."

Charlotte nodded, agreeing to everything I said. I stood up from behind the desk and headed over to the door. I opened it to find Eric, Amy, and Vivienne were gathered in the hallway, waiting.

"There's a man outside the gate. Can you guys go get him?" I asked. Amy and Eric both nodded and made their way to the front doors of the school. Vivienne peaked inside the office to look at Charlotte curiously. Charlotte smiled warmly at her. I went back into the office with Charlotte and waited, and a few minutes later, Derek entered. He reached out a large hand towards me.

"We should probably do a proper introduction," he said with a big grin. "And no hard feelings about pointing the gun in my face. I get that a lot."

I chuckled and shook his hand firmly. Derek was a very straightforward person.

"Charlotte mentioned that you've met Negan." I continued to get right to it, same as I had with Charlotte. Derek's face turned sour, and he let go of my hand and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Yeah, we've all met that bastard." Derek huffed and leaned against the wall all while looking around the office. "Negan came to Greenbrier a few days ago," he said.

"I know, Charlotte told me."

"Did Charlotte mention how he threatened us? How he said that if we didn't do what he said that he's gonna start killing people?" Derek's voice had a bit of an edge to it, and he glared at the ground as he spoke.

"Yeah, that's how he is." I thought back to the recent event of him burning one of his men's faces for trying to run. He was capable of all sorts of horrible acts. Charlotte and Derek didn't even know the half of it.

"Has he ever killed any of your people?" Derek inquired. I began to shake my head, but stopped.

Seth.

He took a Savior hostage in the gym and I had tried to talk him out of it. He had almost let the Savior go, and then Negan shot him. It wasn't that I had forgotten about Seth—I didn't think I'd ever be able to forget the sight of his body dropping right in front of me. It had been so long, and so much had happened since then. I couldn't rationalize it, but I didn't blame Negan for it.

"Yeah," I admitted, staring off into space. I didn't want to lie to Derek and Charlotte right off the bat, and decided to be honest. "One of my friends took a Savior hostage. Negan shot him."

Charlotte didn't seem surprised and Derek shook his head in disgust.

"We need to stop him," he said low. I could see the look in his eyes—he was determined.

"It's too dangerous to attack Negan and his men," Charlotte spoke up, "Right now we need to focus on gathering supplies and building some trust with Doveport here."

"We're willing to give some vegetables and can go back to siphoning gas if you're willing to trade some items from the mall," I said. "That's what we were giving Negan when he was still coming here."

"He doesn't come here?" Derek asked in surprise. I shook my head.

"No, not anymore."

Derek got a skeptical look on his face as his eyes scanned over me. Charlotte had been much more trusting with me, but Derek was guarded. I wondered if that's why he was the leader. After all, I was just as cautious and I was the leader of my group.

A few seconds passed, and then he seemed to accept what I said and continued on.

"We'll visit a few times a week so our people can get to know each other," Derek offered.

"Sure, but no weapons inside the school. There's no need for them. The walkers can't get inside the walls."

Derek hesitated to agree, but after a few seconds he reached out his hand again.

"You have a deal, Elle."

I shook his hand and then extended mine towards Charlotte to shake hers too. Derek's eyes trailed over my arms and then focused on my neck.

"Did Negan do that?" he asked, studying the spot where Caleb had tried to slit my throat. I immediately frowned and averted my eyes. I was getting real sick of everyone thinking Negan would hurt me. Sure he could act like a damn bully, but Negan was not Caleb.

"No, it was another guy. Not one of the Saviors," I quickly added. Derek nodded slowly and continued to stare. "It was a group like yours. They asked for our help, and their leader liked blood… and cutting things."

Charlotte and Derek both looked disgusted and I gave a short chuckle.

"You should see the rest of me," I said, staring down at my body. They couldn't see the healed cuts that were covered by my shirt and pants, and I was grateful for that. I had to live with a daily reminder of what happened, but I was finally starting to get used to my scars.

"I'm sorry," Derek said, and I looked back up at him with a thin smile.

"It's okay. He's dead now." I chose not to tell them that it was Negan who killed Caleb and rescued us. They already saw Negan as a monster, and I wasn't ready to defend Negan yet.

"Well, we can bring a few men tomorrow, if that works for you guys," Derek suggested, while making his way over to exit the room.

"Sounds good to me," I opened the office door to let Derek and Charlotte out. We walked into the hallway where the others were still gathered, and I noticed Charlotte's gaze went straight to Amy. She stared at her stomach for a few moments before giving her a kind smile. Amy grinned back as they walked by and headed for the front doors of the school.

I made sure Derek got his assault rifle back, but continued to hold my Ruger in my hands until they got into one of the cars. Then I watched as all five vehicles drove away, and I waited until they were out of sight.

I closed the gate just as Vivienne, Eric and Amy joined me. They all seemed very curious and a little hesitant.

"Elle, who was that?" Eric asked.

I made sure the gate was locked and then turned to them with an uncertain look on my face.

"Friends… I think."