Here we take a bit of a time leap. That being said, the events that will be referred to in this chapter will be explained when the next update comes out. (And yes, that will include the awaited M scene between Negan and Georgia.) Patience. We have a lot of time before the show starts up again. ;)
As always, please forgive any errors. I still don't have a beta. But otherwise, enjoy!
"I can do it but no one has to die!"
"You are wrong. Punishment – can't do anything without that. Punishment is how we built everything we fucking have."
"You think I'm gonna sit here and let you—"
"Careful!" Negan sucked in a sharp breath, reining in his patience. Fuck, he'd had a long day. Why couldn't Sasha just come quiet? "You are not letting me do anything."
And still that defiance never left her face. She'd make a good addition to Sanctuary. For a sliver of a moment, Negan thought that it was Georgia in front of him, with her tawny eyes and bold expression coloring her freckled face. But said woman was standing behind him, hands on her maple bat, watching the scene with intense curiosity, he was sure.
Meanwhile, Sasha was practically baring her teeth. "No one has to die."
"Okay, how about this? One. Just one." His gaze turned steely. If she continued to refuse then things weren't going to end well for her. She was an asset, but not so important that he was going to waste even more resources on her than he already had. "I mean, I was gonna pull three out of the pool but… just one. And just for you."
"Negan."
He whipped around. Georgia had stepped further into the cell, gripping her bat so tightly that her knuckles had turned white. There was a pleading look on her face. She was shaking her head. "Negan," she said again. "You shouldn't—"
"Doll, I'm in the middle of something here."
"I know but it's—"
"Whatever it is, tell me later."
"I'm telling you now! We can't trust her. If we bring her over to Alexandria, one way or another she will get us screwed o—"
"HEY!" In the blink of an eye, Negan was on his feet and had Lucille pointed at Georgia's face, right on the tip of her nose. He felt Sasha's eyes on him, on them. In a voice low enough so only Georgia could hear, he hissed, "Watch the way you speak to me, doll."
Her nostrils flared with determination but Negan didn't miss the fear that crossed her face. He knew he looked pretty damn terrifying then but he was pissed. Slowly, he lowered Lucille, snapped his fingers, and pointed at Georgia. "Paxton, take her back to her room."
He heard no more protests from her. Good. He was probably going to have his ear talked off later, during a more private discussion, but damn if he wasn't going to put her in her place. Negan scowled; for the first time since he'd known Georgia, he actually wasn't looking forward to being alone with her in her room.
"What the fuck was that?"
His voice reverberated across the tiny room. When he slammed the door shut behind him, it sounded like a thunderclap. The workers living up and down the hall would start gossiping. Negan couldn't bring himself to care.
She was sitting on her bed with her knees drawn up. A book rested on her lap. She had flinched when he'd slammed the door. Negan thought that such a reaction would bring him pleasure – it was about time she knew when to hold her tongue – but all it brought him was the sense that something was about to go very wrong.
"What do you mean 'what the fuck was that'?" she said, coming off of the bed and squaring her shoulders as she boldly held his gaze. "I was trying to tell you that you were making a mistake, but it's too late now, isn't it? You've probably already made that deal with her, put her in the fucking coffin already, right?"
"Listen here, doll. You don't get to fucking talk like that to me, alright? Not to me. I'm still the boss here. I run this place. I call the shots."
"Yeah and I'm telling you to call it off, Negan. You know Rick more than I do. You know his people. They're loyal and Sasha – have you seen her? She wouldn't agree to this, not if she didn't have something else in mind."
He scoffed. "D'you think I haven't already considered every single fucking possibility? I know she's planning something. I know that the Prick is probably out looking for more guns right fucking now, but we don't adapt. We take 'em fucking head on, like always, and we win."
For a moment, it looked as though he had finally convinced her. Hesitation appeared on her face. She struggled for something to say. "How many men will you bring?"
"Twenty, including you and me."
"We need to bring more."
It was like something snapped inside him, some invisible cord that had been keeping his anger at bay. "Georgia," he said, raising his voice. "Just because we fucked once doesn't mean you get to start acting like my mother! I mean Jesus Christ!"
Hours later, he would come to wish that he had never opened his mouth.
Her face crumpled. A glassy sheen came over her eyes but no tears fell. All too quickly, the feistiness returned to her, and she was bearing down hard. "That's all it was then? Just some one-time fuck? I guess I shouldn't have expected anything more from a guy who's scared to carry some fucking baggage."
"Doll, I'm not scared of anything."
"Then why'd you name that thing?" She pointed at Lucille. "That, that… piece of shit. Lucille. Darling Lucille."
His mouth curled into a terrible snarl. "Watch your fucking mouth, doll."
"No," she hissed. "Here I am trying to slap some sense into your fucking ass and you tell me to fuck off. I am trying to protect you, Negan! And fine, you can put whatever fucking label you want on me. Mother, employee, but I am not your whore. I'm not your fucking wife either, you told me that yourself. Or have you forgotten already?"
"Stop putting words into my mouth. We were stranded, we were alone, and fine, I was fucking scared – but you were too! I would've said anything to calm you down."
"None of it was true then." A cold laugh escaped her lips; Negan never would have thought that he'd hear something so heartless come from her. "Like I said, you're just some guy who's scared of too much baggage."
His temper was coming up in flames. By that point, they were yelling at each other's faces. His brain was hardly doing any processing, any filtering. She was clearly doing her best to hurt him, so why couldn't he do the same? "What the fuck do you want from me?"
"I want you to be real," she said. "Like when we were running from that fucking herd, when it was just us – I want you to be real with me. You're in your own fucking world where no one should challenge you, where you're not scared of anything, when in fact you're scared fucking shitless!"
"Doll, it's not my job to hand over my baggage." Somehow, somehow, he managed to tone his voice down to an angry murmur. "I didn't fucking ask for your help. I don't need it."
"You do. And I want to give it." Her hands, calloused from years of fighting Roamers, were suddenly gripping his arm. For a minute Negan allowed himself to enjoy her warmth, her touch; the familiarity of her – but then those warm hands travelled down until they were gripping Lucille's handle.
Negan tugged the bat away, none too gently. "Georgia, don't."
"Just let it go for a minute and we can talk…"
"Doll, I said no."
"Lucille is dead, Negan. Your wife is dead. This bat isn't her. You need to let go—"
"What, so I can be with you?" he snapped, shoving her away but getting in her face all the same. "That's what you want, isn't it? You don't just want the fucks, you want me. All that baggage and shit. Well, let me fucking tell you, doll. I. Don't. Want. You. I don't want you, I sure as fuck don't love you, so what more do you want me to say? Is this not real enough for you?"
Even as he screamed his throat hoarse, Negan felt an ache in his heart that he thought he would never feel again, not after Lucille. A flash of hurt crossed Georgia's tawny brown eyes, and then she spat at his face, "Fuck you, Negan."
He quickly wiped the spittle off. Red seeped into his vision, and then nothing. The next thing he knew, his palm was stinging slightly, hanging limp by his side. Georgia stood there, holding a hand to her face. Her cheek was beginning to turn an angry red.
The reality of what he'd done hit him like a freight train. He tried to come forward but his apology was stuck in his throat.
"I get it now," she said, voice heavy with betrayal. "You're the only one who can touch me, right?"
She didn't say more. She didn't have to.
The door creaked open behind him. He heard Derek say something in greeting and then mention that Georgia was needed elsewhere, that Eugene had requested her presence very specifically. And he heard Georgia murmur an "excuse me", felt her slip past him and out the door.
He felt her slipping right through his fingertips.
Plan A had gone to shit as soon as the tiger pounced on Diego. That first moment was the only moment of clarity Negan had been given, and all he thought was: where the fuck had they gotten a tiger?
Everything was pure, unadulterated chaos after that. Gunshots rang in the air, one pulled trigger after another. The Alexandrians were hustling to get to their guns; Ezekiel's cavalry continued forward atop their horses; and it was to Negan's disappointment that his people were being gunned down left and right. There was no chance of winning at that time. He knew they'd have to fight another day.
He grabbed the nearest Savior and began sprinting to the trucks. Any other Savior who saw them would just have to be smart enough to follow. They couldn't wait.
Negan got to the trucks before Rick's people did. Quickly, he shoved Jerry into the driver's seat and climbed into the passenger side. "GO!"
Soon, they had left the Alexandrians in the dust. Negan threw his middle finger up into the air, just in case Rick the Prick was watching them go. It was the only revenge he was likely to get at the moment.
The car ride back to Sanctuary was filled with tense silence. His people were undoubtedly expecting him to start firing off sparks of rage, maybe even throw a fit, but it wasn't the time. After pounding his fist three time onto the dashboard, hard, Negan grew quiet. Jerry knew him enough to deduce that he was deep in thought.
Negan was the last one out of the trucks when they got back to Sanctuary. The men who had accompanied him to Alexandria, along with the others who hadn't, were waiting for him in the courtyard. They looked just as pissed as he was. Good.
His eyes scanned the crowd, feeding off the grit of the men and women who worked for him; who were loyal to him… And, with a sinking feeling in his gut, he realized that one strawberry blonde head was missing from their ranks.
"Where's Georgia?" he said.
Heads turned, foreheads creased, and eyes scanned the warm bodies standing beside them, looking to see whether the tawny-eyed woman was there. A low murmur of unease rose from the crowd when they found, the same moment Negan did, that she was nowhere within the walls of Sanctuary.
"WHERE'S GEORGIA?" he repeated, silencing the crowd.
"She ain't here," said Dwight; the reluctance to state that bittersweet truth was clear in his voice. "You know what that means, Negan."
Of course he fucking did. Any Savior who hadn't escaped Alexandria was dead; there was no doubt in Negan's mind about that. Rick the Prick was looking to subtract Negan's men from the war equation as much as possible. He wasn't going to take any hostages. He didn't know any better.
It was like a brick wall had been dropped right on top of him. The air left his lungs in one big rush. He felt numb… but he couldn't let his men see how one loss could affect him so. He needed to keep his balls, now more than ever. With no small amount of effort, Negan raised his chin and squared his shoulders, adopting his usual stance and donning the grin, a mask, that the people of Sanctuary knew all too well.
"Everyone in the compound is gathered here," Dwight said. "All the arrangements have already been made beforehand. We were ready for this."
An icy claw gripped Negan's heart. "Georgia's work, I'm guessing?"
"She said to be prepared for anything. You say the word and we're ready to go."
"That's good." Rick, Alexandria, the Hilltop, the Kingdom – they had all made a big fucking mistake. Negan faced Dwight, pinning him with a stare that would have made lesser men quiver in fear. He gripped Lucille even tighter in his hand, the one true thing he had left. "Dwighty boy," he said. "We're going to war."