Chapter 12

Notes: Okay, I will confess, I have not read the comics, so all this is going to be me flying by the seat of my pants, I have read bios of most of the characters, Negan and the others, so I will try to make them as in character as I can. And yes I know Negan's penchant for cursing, but I just can't bring myself to write that many curse words.

"Oh, shit!" Michonne cursed as they rolled up to Alexandria to find it in smoldering ruin, the front gate had been rammed in, and walkers were already starting to filter inside the walls.

"Charlotte … grab the RV and pull it in front of the gate, we have to stop more from getting in." Glenn said Charlotte nodded and hopped out.

"Pirate!" Charlotte about-faced at Michonne calling her nickname just in time to catch an AR 15, and a couple of magazines Michonne tossed to her as she slid into the driver's seat of the Tucson.

"Let's go kick some ass." Michonne said to no one in particular as she sped off.

Charlotte slung the rifle strap over her shoulder and took off towards where the RV was parked as fast as her legs would carry her; she threw open the door and dug into the console for the keys.

"Yes!" she said as she felt her fingers close around the cold metal, she jammed the key into the ignition and shifted into drive and moved the motorhome in front of the ruined gate, effectively blocking it.

She suddenly felt cold steel press against the back of her head.

"Move, and you die, girlie girl." A man's voice said.

Slowly, and as quietly as she could, Charlotte unclipped her desert eagle's holster and slid the pistol out, praying the darkness of the RV hid her actions.

"Stand up and turn around, nice and slow." Charlotte did as she was told, and the man cursed and recoiled at the sight of her ruined face, Charlotte gave him a cutesy grin as she shot him straight between the eyes without a moment's hesitation.

"Didn't your momma ever teach you that it's not polite to stare?" She said to the man's corpse as she stepped over him.

Outside it was chaos, there were walkers, fires burning, gunfire exchange, and shouting everywhere, and she could head exchanges of gunfire all over the Alexandria.

Charlotte kept flush against the buildings, picking off walkers, and intruders as she saw them, making her way towards the center of town, towards Deanna's house. She rounded the corner and almost ran smack into Rick and Carl.

"What the hell happened here?!" Charlotte asked, slightly breathless from excursion and adrenaline.

"That group … the same one as before … they waited until you four left and then they attacked!" Rick said, his voice hoarse and breathless.

"They have Deanna, Denise, and Olivia held up in the armory, we have to help them, dad." Carl said.

And now that reinforcements have arrived, we can." Rick said as he put a hand on Charlotte's shoulder.

"Hell, yeah! Let's do it!" Charlotte said as she high fived Carl.

Daryl, Michonne, Glenn and a few others from their group, and the town walked down Alexandria's main street, using walkers they had put down as cover, picking off members of the marauding group as they advanced toward the armory.

Daryl growled in pain as he felt a bullet from one of the enemies guns graze his left shoulder.

"Hey … you good?" Michonne asked him.

"I'll live … just keep moving … we're almost there." Daryl ground out through gritted teeth.

Daryl and his group met up with Rick, Carl, Charlotte and a few others they had also picked up along the way.

"How do you want to play this, law man?" Charlotte asked as they took cover under the porch.

Rick ran a hand over his face, he hated to admit it, but he didn't know … being a former police officer, he knew how dangerous a storming a home could be, especially when he didn't have visuals on where everyone was. Then … he got an idea.

"Carl, do you still have any flash bangs left?" he asked.

"Yeah, a couple." Carl replied.

"Good, here's what we're going to do …" Rick said as he pulled everyone into a huddle.

"I hope ya'll realize that nothing of this is personal, it's just … you have something we want, so we're gonna take it." Negan said as he strolled to and fro in front of a tied up Deanna, Olivia and Denise.

"Maybe it's not personal to you." Denise said.

Negan was in her face in a second, their noses were almost touching.

"Do you wanna know something, missy? You know the only … the only reason why you three are still alive, is because you're a doctor, and we need hostages, if it wasn't for those two things, you'd have been dead the moment we stormed in here. So if I was you, I'd shut my pretty little mouth." He said as he cupped her chin roughly in his huge hand.

Suddenly, a huge explosion shook the entire building, Negan pointed Lucille at two of his nearest henchmen.

"Go check it out!"

Rick, Carl, and Charlotte hid around the corner, their back flush against the wall, hidden by the darkness, their hearts pounding in their ears as the heavy footsteps of Negan's men grew closer. They held their breath as the men walked right past them, Charlotte and Carl, who had silencers on their pistols made quick work of the two men with shots straight to the back of the head.

"Let's move, before these assholes'r missed." Daryl whispered as he waved them forward.

"I believe the time for talking is behind us." Negan said as he raised his bat.

He froze as he felt the muzzle of a gun press into the back of his skull.

"Do it, and you're dead." A gruff female voice said.

Negan put his hands over his head as his minions were subdued and promptly hog tied by Daryl.

Negan turned around and a huge grin spread across his face.

"Well, well! If it isn't the little one-eyed lady!" He said.

Charlotte's eye narrowed, and Negan's grin widened, he knew he had piqued her interest as to how he knew of her.

"Oh, since you're curious, I suppose I'll tell you, we've been watching you for a while, your comings and goings, and all that." Negan said casually as he drew his own sidearm with surprising quickness and pointed it back at Charlotte.

"I wonder who has a quicker trigger finger, you, or me?" he said as he cocked the hammer back on his revolver.

Negan then looked to Daryl, Carl, Michonne and Rick. "Drop em' or she's dead."

They hesitated, and he shoved the muzzle of his gun into the side of her head.

"Do it, or her pretty little brains are gonna be splattered all over, and I know no one wants to see that, especially you." Negan said as he looked pointedly at Daryl, who, along with the others slowly dropped their weapons to the floor.

"Yes, yes, I have seen how … close the two of you are, I bet it'd really destroy you if I killed her right here, right now, right in front of you, wouldn't it?" Negan said

"Do it, and I'll kill you, you worthless prick." Daryl seethed, shaking with the anger he was barely controlling. Rick shot him a look of warning and slowly motioned for him to keep calm.

"Yes, I think that make you live replaying it in your mind forever, wondering if there was something you could've done differently that would have saved her, that would be truly poetic, wouldn't it?" He said, still grinning.

"NO!" Carl yelled as he leapt forward and pushed Charlotte out of the way just as she and Negan discharged their weapons at the same time, Negan grunted as the bullet from her desert eagle hit him square in the shoulder.

"Something to remember me by, you killed some of my men, now I took something from you, I guess you could say it was an 'eye for an eye'." He said, laughing heartily as he ducked out of the armory.

"Carl?! Oh shit! Are you okay?!" Charlotte said as she helped Carl up.

"My face … hurts …" Carl said as he collapsed into a sitting position.

"Oh … god!" Charlotte said her hand flew to her mouth, where Carl's right eye had once been, was now just a gaping, bloody hole. Looking at it, she could see the top corner of his eye socket exposed.

"We have to get him to the infirmary! I can treat him there!" Denise said as Rick hoisted his son into his arms and the others retrieved their weapons and covered them.

Daryl paused as he passed the two men they had tied up.

"If you want us to beg, you can go fuck yourself." One of them said.

"Don' worry, I don't." Daryl said as he shot both of them dead.

"Set him down here." Denise said as she pointed to the nearest bed.

"Charlotte, I am going to need your help, I need astringent, sutures, and forceps, I think the bullet is lodged in his eye socket somewhere. Rick, Michonne and Daryl, you're going to need to hold him still." Denise said as she got to work.

Sure enough, as soon as she put the forceps into the wound, Carl awoke and started to struggle.

"Hold him still!" Denise bellowed as she wiped her sweaty brow on her sleeve of her shirt and felt around in the wound for the bullet.

"Just a little more, I almost have it!" She said as she felt the forceps close around the hard steel of the bullet.

"There!" she said as it came out.

Charlotte handed Denise the saline solution and she washed out and dressed, and bandaged the wound as Charlotte covered him with a blanket.

"Wait! What happened?! Is he …" Rick trailed off as emotion overwhelmed him and he broke down in tears.

"He just passed out from the pain, when he comes to, if he is in too much pain, I can give him something for it, unfortunately, I don't have any IV pain medication anymore." Denise said as she turned to Daryl.

"Now, let's take a look at the shoulder." She said.

"Ain't nothin' to worry about." Daryl said.

"Bullshit, Daryl, let her look at you!" Charlotte said as she pushed blocked his exit.

Daryl blew out a harsh, annoyed sigh as he turned and sat on the nearest gurney.

"Well, you're lucky, this won't even need stitches." Denise said as she cleaned, dressed and bandaged it.

"See I told ya I could've treated this myself." Daryl grumbled to Charlotte.

"Better safe than sorry." Charlotte shrugged as she grinned at him.

"Hey there, law man, I am surprised to see you up here. I'd have thought you'd be with Carl. " Charlotte said as crested the stairs to the lookout tower.

Rick didn't respond, but they shared a long look of understanding between them, he had come up here for the same reason, because there was a new, frightening group in town, and honestly, they were scared.

"How am I supposed to send people out on runs, out hunting when there is someone like that so close? How am I supposed to do that in good conscious?" Rick said, his voice full of despair.

"We'll go because we have to, we know this world, we know it ain't all unicorns and rainbows anymore." Charlotte replied.

"Now, what do you say I take first watch, and you go down and be with your boy, I have a walkie I'll holler if something's up."

Rick studied her for a moment. "You don't mind?"

Charlotte pointed to the stairs. "Get the hell out of here, that's an order, officer." She said as she smiled at him.

Rick paused for a moment before striding over to her and enveloping her in a fatherly hug; Charlotte was too surprised by this to even hug back.

"You really are one of the good ones." He said.

"Yeah … well … so are you, law man, just don't go forgettin' it." she said awkwardly as he released her and descended down the stairs.

"Hey, there kid, how ya holdin' up?" Charlotte asked the next morning as she walked into the infirmary to find Carl sitting up in bed, eating a cup of chocolate pudding.

"Okay, I guess." Carl said with a shrug.

"Come on, Carl, I've been through this before, remember? You just lost an important part of your body, you aren't okay." She said as she sat on the edge of the bed.

Carl shrugged again. "If I hadn't done what I did, he would've killed you." He said, he worded it as a statement, but eyed her as though he had just asked her a question and expected an answer.

Charlotte blew out a breath. "Yes. He would have probably killed me." She said truthfully.

Carl's expression hardened. "Then I'm glad I did what I did, even though this happened to me, I'm not dead, I'm still here … and so are you." He said as he looked her dead straight in her eye, his gaze not wavering.

Charlotte shook her head as she chuckled in spite of herself. "You're one bad ass kid, you know that?"

Carl straightened in bed as a look of pride crossed his young face. "Damn straight!" he exclaimed.

Charlotte laughed as she stood. "If you need any advice from someone who's been through the same thing, you know where to find me." She said as she walked to the door.

"Hey, Charlotte?" Carl called to her.

"I … I don't want you to blame yourself for what happened, I don't want you to feel bad. We're friends, that's what friends do for each other." He told her.

The damn kid was definitely wise beyond his years.

"Anything for a fellow pirate." She said with a wink as she left him alone to rest up.

"Rick." Daryl greeted the former sheriff gruffly as he looked out into the dark forest from one of the lookout platforms.

Rick's eyes remained on the shadowy woods as he spoke. "Aaron tells me there's another community like this one about twenty miles from here called the Hilltop Colony. He tells me this guy, Negan has them under his thumb. If we can somehow talk to them without him knowing, and get them to band together with us, we might have a chance at fighting him."

"An' if they won't?" Daryl replied.

Rick sighed. "I don't know, but one thing's for damn sure, we ain't rolling over to this asshole." He said.

Notes: I actually don't like this chapter much, I did my best, revised it several times and it got BETTER, but it was just … really hard to write, ugh. :/