A/N Thanks for reading! Welcome new readers, and thank you to my current readers who continue to take the time to read my new chapters. If you've been reading but haven't reviewed, please do so, I'd love to hear from you! If you're new, follow, favorite, and review!
Bamby0304: Crimson and Negan are still feeling each other out. And with two very dominant personalities, it's going to be a rollercoaster of fun, and sometimes not so fun! I liked Bud a lot in the whole 5 minutes of screen time he had. I felt like he would have been a nice guy if you were on his side, that's why I put him in the role I have. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with him yet since I really like him but I do want to stick fairly close to the TV show's story line.
Enchantmentanjel: They've released some comics about Negan before the ZA and while I haven't read them, I know in them his wife had cancer and he stuck by her side even while the ZA started and wouldn't leave her until she died. So I feel like there is some sweetness under all that psychopath, for the right girl.
Jamiemorgan113: Thanks for reading! That song is actually really great for Crimson and Negan! I'm a rock girl myself, so I don't listen to rap and r&b, but the lyrics were almost perfect
Celia Azul: And they're going to pay for it soon ;)
HavenMary: Welcome and thanks for reading! I'm glad you like the speed of my development. Enjoy this chapter!
MistahJsKitten: Here's your update :D
Msgemgem: Negan and Crimson are both strong and independent, and Crimson is young and has only had one relationship with someone who is almost the complete opposite of Negan, so she's going to question herself and her actions until she and Negan really figure out their places with each other. Negan can't throw her in a cell, I've actually thought about it. She's a doctor so he can't afford to lose her if she doesn't break. Once he puts her in a cell, everyone knows what's going on and if he doesn't break her, she's got to die. Killing doctors isn't a good plan, especially when nurse Nancy isn't the most competent at her job. Plus he has that whole soft spot for pretty women and kids. Don't worry, they'll make up soon ;)
EmilyAnnMcGarrett-Winchester: Oh you can bet there is going to be some blood shed over this! You'll see that coming soon.
Lalilu10: Thanks for all of your reviews, I'm glad you love it! Enjoy this chapter!
Guest, KEZZ 1, TheGreenKnightOfTheForest, CLTex: Thanks for the reviews, enjoy this chapter!
The pain was sharp, blinding, and nothing like Crimson had ever felt before. Someone had rolled her over onto to her back, she felt her shirt being ripped away from the wound. There were so many faces dancing around her in a dark blur that she couldn't tell who was who. People were yelling, but she couldn't process their words. They were muffled, they sounded like they were underwater. Why would they be underwater? Another shot cut through the air, but for some reason the sound echoed in slow motion. People all around her were yelling. She heard a woman scream. All of the noise and motion was making her stomach turn but she didn't want to throw up. Greg had made her such a nice breakfast, it would be a shame to waste it like that. Someone was touching her face, mumbling her name. Why couldn't someone speak clearly?
Suddenly the pain in her shoulder increased ten fold, someone was dragging her across the pavement. She closed her eyes, her head was spinning. She felt the cold metal of one of the vehicles against her back. When she opened them again, she could clearly see Negan's face hovering in front of her.
"Crimson," He almost sounded panicked and his face was tensed. How strange, he was always so collected and relaxed, even when he was angry. "Hey baby doll, I need you to wake the fuck up and to tell me what to do."
"I thought you were just telling me to shut the hell up and do whatever you said?" Why was her speech so slow and slurred? She didn't remember drinking on the way to the meeting. Wasn't it too early for liquor? Had someone drugged her? "Now you want me to tell you? I guess I'm not the only one who can't make up my mind."
"That's was before you got shot. Now you need to tell me what the fuck I gotta do to help you."
"What? I got shot?" She looked down and sure enough, blood was soaking the front of her shirt and there was a nice hole from a gunshot wound in her shoulder. "So I was." Well now, that explains everything. "I think I might be in shock."
"Yeah, I think you're fucking right. Now you've gotta tell me what to do before you pass out."
"You need to keep me awake and keep me warm. Apply pressure to the wound, and get me to my clinic as fast as possible."
"That I can do. Bud, you're driving so get fucking moving!" She looked up, past Negan, and saw Bud running to the van. Jason was standing behind Negan, taking off his hooded sweatshirt.
"Negan, here," Negan caught the sweatshirt as Jason tossed it to him. "Use that to slow the bleeding."
"Wait," Crimson called out. "Is there an exit wound?" Negan gently pulled her forward to check the back of her shoulder.
"I don't see one. What's that mean?" Negan asked as he pressed the bundled up sweatshirt to her wound. She gasped in pain before she could answer.
"It means the bullet is still in me. Hopefully it's lodged inside the wound. If it's not, then it ricocheted off of bone and bounced around inside me."
"What do we do if that's the case?"
"Nothing. We don't have the equipment to find it, and certainly don't have a qualified surgeon that isn't me to remove it and repair the damage. If it's not in my shoulder then I'm going to bleed out from internal damage."
"The fuck you are! That ain't happening, you're not fucking dying on me."
Bud pulled the van up and Jason was opening the passenger door before it even came to a complete stop. Negan slid one arm under her knees and the other under her arms and lifted her like she weighed nothing.
Even as graceful as he was, and as gentle as he was being, the pain from every jostle was still excruciating. She clenched her jaw to stop herself from crying out and squeezed her eyes shut to keep the tears from spilling over. Negan climbed into the van with her still in his arms, the door slammed shut and Bud punched the gas pedal to the floor. Negan unzipped his jacket then pulled her side against his chest and wrapped it around her. He had one hand still pressing Jason's sweatshirt to the bullet hole and his other held his leather jacket around her body. His soft white t-shirt was warm against her cold, clammy skin.
"Sorry I'm bleeding all over your clothes," she said. "I know how much you love this jacket."
"I don't give two shits about this jacket right now," Negan said. "I need you to hang on until we get you back to the clinic. Besides, I get blood on it all of the damn time and it cleans off just fine. You gotta keep talking to me. What was your favorite thing to do?"
"I used to take a book out to the woods. There was a clearing about a mile away from my house where I could sit up in my boyfriend's tree stand and watch the wildlife while I read."
"Sounds boring as shit. What else?"
She told him about the local dive bar she spent so much time in. She told him about the large animal clinic she had just bought after spending 2 years interning for another doctor. It was only a week away from opening when the world went to shit. She talked about how excited she had been, her dream finally coming to life. Now her life goal was just staying alive, which she wasn't doing a very good job of at the moment. Sometimes she dreamed about how things would be if the dead had stayed dead. She'd be married, spending most of her days in her clinic. Sometimes she dreamed about Negan. Wait, was she still talking out loud? It was hard to tell. She was so tired. Her body had never felt so heavy, like it was sinking into an endless abyss. She couldn't keep her eyes open anymore.
"No, baby doll, you can't close your eyes," she heard Negan say. She felt him shake her, the sharp pain was enough to return her focus. "Bud, radio in, tell them we're a few minutes out and Nancy better have the fucking clinic ready to go when we get there."
She heard Bud do what he was told. It seemed like only seconds later Negan was carrying her into Sanctuary and laying her down on the clinic's exam table. His leather jacket was over her chest, keeping her warm. Negan didn't leave her side and she could also see Bud. Nancy was hovering over her.
"Ms Crimson, I'm gonna knock you out with some chloroform before I get started, but I need to know your blood type first."
"No, no," Crimson spoke slowly so she could speak clearly. "You don't know what you're doing. Give me an IV, a high dose of oxygen, and numb up the area around the entrance wound with bupivacaine."
"Ma'am, you can't be awake when I go digging around that wound."
"You won't be digging around it, I will. And I'm not taking blood from anyone, we don't have any way to test it and filter it in time. I'm not surviving a gun shot just to end up with hepatitis or HIV because you got blood from the wrong person."
"You can't fucking operate on yourself!" Negan said.
"He's right Doc, you gotta trust Nancy and let her take care of it," Bud added.
"Nancy, how many bullets have you removed and stitched up?"
"None ma'am," Nancy answered. "Everyone who's been hit either died or it went all the way through so I just had to stitch it up."
"That entrance wound is in a very lucky place, it missed my heart and my arteries. If that bullet lodged itself like I'm hoping it did, then one wrong move with the forceps and something gets hit, I'll bleed out. I have to do this myself. So get moving Nancy."
It only took Nancy a minute to have the IV in Crimson's arm and an oxygen mask over her face. Nancy lifted the jacket off of her shoulder and Negan pulled the sweatshirt away just long enough for Nancy to administer the injections, then he pressed it back to the wound. At least the bleeding has slowed some, that was usually a good sign. She sat there until she felt awake and alert enough to begin. As she shrugged off Negan's jacket, she noticed Nancy had everything she needed already waiting next to her on a tray. She'd even brought over an LED lamp and had it positioned so that Crimson could see clearly.
Crimson soaked her hands in medical grade hand sanitizer since she didn't trust herself to walk over to the sink. The gloves stuck to her skin as she slipped them on. Once she had the forceps ready to go, she nodded for Negan to take the sweatshirt away and she began.
It didn't take long, the room was so silent the entire time that she could hear a pin drop. The bullet was only lodged a few centimeters into the wound. Crimson clenched her jaw so hard she was afraid she would crack a tooth, but it kept her hand steady and her mind focused. She felt the forceps lock around the bullet on the second try, then she slowly pulled it straight out before dropping both onto the tray. The bullet was intact, no other pieces needed to be extracted. She cleaned the area a second time with iodine before she stitched herself up. The numbing agent had helped, but it wasn't enough to completely rid of her of the deep, throbbing pain.
"Now I need some pain meds to knock me the hell out." Nancy pushed a needle into the IV and Crimson saw the sweet black of nothingness.
For the second time in a row, she woke up to find herself in Negan's bed with no recollection of how she got there.
A/N: Sorry for such short chapter! I'm trying to catch up on work, but I wanted to get something up for you guys and this seemed like a good stopping point. The next stopping point is a ways away and I didn't want to make everyone wait for it. The next chapter is already planned out in my head, just have to get it down on paper (or computer screen, really) and it will be much longer than this. I've also got an idea for a Daryl/OC story I may start once I have my work wrapped up for the year.