Newly Revised
"Boy, do I have a feeling we're getting close," the man with the bat told them as he walked closer and paced in front of them. "It's gonna be pee-pee pants city here real soon. Which one of you pricks is the leader?" he asked, coming to stand next to Ani's stretcher.
"It's this one," the other Savior told him. "He's the guy."
"Hi," the man said after walking up to him, careful to step around Ani's feet rather than over them. "You're Rick, right? I'm Negan. And I do not appreciate you killin' my men. Also, when I sent my people to kill your people for killing my people, you killed more of my people. Not cool. Not cool," he said, returning over to next to Ani and kneeling down. "And you kept a daughter from her parents, who were looking everywhere, tryin' to get her back from the piece of shit who stole her from them. And Dwighty-boy tells me she's knocked up. You have no idea how not cool that shit is. But, I think you're gonna be up to speed in a few minutes. You are so gonna regret crossing me in a few minutes." He stood back up and started pacing in front of Rick like a predator toying with its prey, "You see, Rick, whatever you do, no matter what, you don't mess with the new world order. And the new world order is this, and it's really very simple. So, even if you're stupid, which you very well may be, you can understand it. Here goes. Pay attention," he said as he pointed his bat at Rick's face. "Give me your shit, or I will kill you," he said with a smile, leaning down as if to make a point.
"Today was career day. We invested a lot so you would know who I am and what I can do. You work for me now," he said as he walked back over next to Ani, pointing his bat at Rick. "You have shit, you give it to me. That's your job. Now, I know that is a mighty big, nasty pill to swallow, but swallow it you most certainly will. You ruled the roost. You built something," he told Rick as he stood and walked over to him, kneeling down in front of Rick. "You thought you were safe. I get it. But, the word is out. You are not safe. Not even close," he said as he stood again. "In fact, you are pegged, more pegged if you don't give me what I want and what I want," he paused, "is half your shit. And if that's too much, you can make, find, or steal more, and it'll even out sooner or later. This is your way of life now. The more you fight back, the harder it will be. So, if someone knocks on your door, you let us in," he said, stopping in front of Daryl and chuckling. "We own that door. You try to stop us and we will knock it down. You understand?" Leaning towards Rick and cupping his hand over his ear, he said in mock shock, "What, no answer? You don't really think that you were gonna get through this without being punished, did you? I don't want to kill you people, I wanna make that clear from the get-go. I want you to work for me. You can't do that if you're dead, now, can you?"
He moved to stand in front of Daryl again, smiling down on the man's pale face, the blood flowing from his shoulder barely ebbed to a trickle, "But you've killed my people, a whole damn lot of them. More than I'm comfortable with. And for that, for that you're gonna pay," Negan noticed that Daryl's eyes hadn't left Titania's form the entire time he had talked, something he found odd given what he'd been told about the man. "Now, normally, I would beat the holy hell outta one of you. See this," he said holding up his bat. "This is Lucille, and she is awesome. This, all of this, is normally so we can pick out which one of you gets the honor." He started walking in front of everyone, Abraham straightening out as the man stopped in front of him, "Huh. I've gotta shave this shit," Negan said, rubbing his scruff before walking on, stopping in front of Carl and Sophia. "You got one of our guns," he told Carl. "Whoa. Yeah. You got a lot of our guns. Shit, kid, lighten up. At least cry a little. Both of you," he said looking between him and Sophia, both of which just stared right back at him. "Jesus," he said, stopping in front of Maggie. "You look shitty," he drew out. "I should just put you out of your misery right now."
"No!" Glenn shouted, trying to rush Negan. "No!" he shouted again as Dwight tackled him and kicked him a few times before pointing Daryl's bow at him.
"Stop it!" Maggie cried as she watched her husband being beat.
"Nope," Negan said, scratching his lip. "Nope, get him back in line." Glenn protested the entire time he was dragged away from Maggie, begging once he was back on his knees beside Michonne. "Alright, listen. Don't any of ya do that again. I will shut that shit down, no exceptions. First one's free. It's an emotional moment, I get it," he said pointing to Glenn. "Sucks don't it?" he asked Rick. "The moment you realize you don't know shit." Negan smiled at the silence that ensued, Rick looking somewhere between rage filled and terrified as Negan walked back over towards Carl, pointing his bat at him. "This is your kid, right?" he chuckled. "He is definitely your kid."
"Just stop this!" Rick shouted.
"Hey!" Negan cut him off. "Do not make me kill the future little serial killer, or his little future serial killer girlfriend. Don't make it easy on me. Everybody's at the table waiting for me to order, and here I am ready to take my order to go! I'd hate to have to kill more people than I have to. Again, you can't work for me if you're dead. Now, I'm takin' Titania back to her parents. She deserves that peace of mind rather than being beat on by a sorry excuse for a man," He began whistling as he paced between the survivors again, moving to stop in front of Daryl again, "So, you're Daryl, huh? The sorry piece of shit who got a fourteen year old girl to run away from home and raped her."
"The fuck you talkin' about?"
"Oh-ho-ho, you're gonna deny it. See, I got it right from her parents' mouths. Carved 'er up and now you've knocked her up. A quick little chat with Tom and Ellie and, well, wouldn't you know it? Our little Sleeping Beauty don't even want the damn thing! Told them right before you drove them from their home. You're forcin' her to carry it. But don't worry, we can correct that."
Daryl saw red at his insinuation and attacked, getting two good punches in before he was laid into by four different Saviors as Negan recovered from being knocked to the ground. Negan looked at Daryl as if he was stupid before spitting a bit of blood on the ground. He had literally just warned them he would shut that shit down with brutal force only for the man to immediately attack him for suggesting the girl get rid of the pregnancy. Hell, the man had forced himself on the girl the first time, sending the girl running back to her parents, scared and scarred all to hell. And then the man had gotten a hold of her all over again when the world ended, having the audacity to call her his wife. Yet, the man's eyes had only left her sleeping form when he started talking about taking her and removing the kid from her womb. Negan might be a thug at the best of times, but he wasn't stupid; something didn't quite add up, but it didn't matter as he swung around.
With a chuckle, he walked in a circle, wiping the blood of his lip before pointing his bat at Daryl, "Oh, my. That! That is a no-no. The whole thing—not one bit of that shit flies here."
"You want me to do it?" Dwight asked as he came up with the bow at the ready. "Right here, right now?"
"You leave Ania and our baby alone!" Daryl yelled, still trying to get free.
The only one keeping Merle from attacking was Abraham as he held the man's arm, both of them looking completely constipated at the lack of options to retaliate. They didn't have the numbers, let alone the firepower, to take on this prick and they had two sick and injured women they wouldn't be able to protect if they tried. Neither man liked the idea of Ani being taken by these assholes let alone either woman being away from the safety of being near them or in one of the settlements with medicine. They had been through so much in the last months and Maggie and Ani had been a part of the reason they had made it out on the better side of the fact. Hell, Merle was in an actual relationship with one hell of a woman that he would have never considered before. It was all thanks to what that little woman had been through and if it hadn't have been for Maggie and Glenn, Abraham wouldn't have found Sasha. And now they could only sit and watch as Maggie's life was threatened and Ani was going to be taken right in front of them with the promise that they could stop the pregnancy. If it weren't for Abraham's grip and his own mind knowing he didn't stand a chance, he would be over there knocking Negan's teeth in as he bent down over his brother's pinned form.
Negan chuckled and grabbed a fistful of Daryl's hair, "No, no, you don't kill that, not until you try a little. Leave 'Ania' alone?" he told Dwight with a chuckle. "Seems like I need some more information," he said quiet enough for Daryl to hear before turning to look at Dwight, letting go of Daryl and motioning for the Saviors to put him back in line. "Anyway, that's not how it works. First one's free, then—what'd I say? I said I would shut that shit down. No exceptions. Now, I don't know what kind of lying assholes you've been dealing with, but I'm a man of my word. First impressions are important. I need you to know me. So, anybody moves, anybody says anything, cut the boy's other eye out and feed it to his little girlfriend there, then cut her eye out and feed it to him! And then we can really start. You can breathe. You can blink. You can cry. Hell, you're all gonna be doin' all of that," he said.
He turned around and bashed his bat over Glenn's head seemingly without even choosing beforehand who he was going to hit. He repeated twice more before stopping, looking at his handiwork as Glenn's eyeball was popped out of his skull, the man trying to say something. Daryl watched on in horror as he realized that Glenn's death was his doing just as much as Denise's. He was so full of rage at the idea of the bastard aborting their child that he had lashed out. A single moment of anger and a couple punches had resulted in his friend's death, though, and nothing could change the fact that it was by his hand that Glenn was on death's door. Glenn had gone back to Atlanta to rescue Merle, even if it had mostly been to get the guns Rick had dropped. He had kept him safe on so many runs that had turned hairy in the blink of an eye. He'd helped keep Merle in check at the prison and prevented him from doing something stupid when they were dealing with the Governor. He was an expecting father just like Daryl and now Maggie's child would never know his father, and it was all Daryl's fault.
"Buddy, you still there?" Negan asked as he bent down to get a better look at Glenn's face. "I just don't know. It seems like you're trying to speak, but you just took a hell of a hit. I just popped your skull so hard, your eyeball just popped out! And it is gross as shit!"
"Maggie—Maggie I'll find you," Glenn got out, Negan turning around to see the sickly woman sobbing and realizing that the two of them were together.
"Oh hell," he said, turning to her. "I can see this is hard on you guys. I am sorry. I truly am. But I did say it. No exceptions!" he said before he turned around and started bashing over and over again, Maggie sobbing while Merle watched Daryl flinch at every hit of the bat to Glenn's head, even after it was pulverized. "You bunch of pussies. I'm just getting started." Daryl couldn't look away as Maggie screamed and sobbed, Negan laughing as he swung his bat around, leaving a trail of blood across Rick's face and Ani's blankets. "Oh, you guys! Look at this! Look at my dirty girl!" he said as he held up the bat. "Lucille was thirsty! She is a vampire bat! What? Was the joke that bad?"
"I'm gonna kill you," Rick said.
"What?" Negan asked as he bent down in front of Rick. "I didn't quite catch that. You're gonna have to speak up."
Rick looked down and sniffled before looking Negan in the eye, "Not today, not tomorrow, but I'm gonna kill you. Or Ani will. Whichever one of us gets to you first."
"Jesus," Negan said, turning to look at the unconscious amber-head before looking back at Rick. "That little thing there killing me? I've been told all about her, how her mind is broken. How your man used that to his advantage."
"You don't know anything," Rick told him. "But I do. And one of us. Someday, somehow, we're gonna kill you."
"You think one of you are gonna kill me? Huh," he answered with a chuckle."Simon, what'd he have, a knife?"
"Uh, he had a hatchet," Simon, the main guy until Negan had arrived, told him.
"A hatchet?" Negan asked, amused at the choice of words.
"He had an ax," Simon rephrased.
Negan chuckled before telling Rick, "Simon's my right hand man. Having one of those is important. I mean, what do you have left without them? A whole lot of work. You have one? Maybe one of these fine people still breathing? Oh, or did I..." he clicked with his tongue a couple times to indicate what he'd just done to Glenn. "Sure. Yeah. Give me his ax," Negan told Simon, who handed it over. Negan stared at Rick in the eye for a moment before standing and putting the ax through his belt loop and grabbing his shoulder. "I'll be right back. Maybe Rick will be with me. And if not, well, we can just turn these people inside out, now can't we? I mean, the ones that are left," he said, all but throwing Rick into the RV before entering it himself.
It was long after the sun rose before Negan came back in the RV and threw Rick out. "And here we are," he said as he came out. "Tell me, Rick. Do you even know what that little trip was about?" When Rick didn't answer, Negan told him, "Speak when you're spoken to."
"Okay," Rick said quietly. "Okay."
"That trip was about the way you looked at me," Negan told him. "I wanted to change that. I wanted you to understand. But you're still looking at me the same damn way. Like I shit in your scrambled eggs and that's not gonna work! So, do I give you another chance?"
He knelt down as Rick bowed his head, still talking in a quiet voice as he simply said, "Yes."
Negan patted Rick on the back as he stood back up and said, "Okay! Alright. And here it is—the grand-prize game. What you do next will decide whether your crap day becomes everyone's last crap day, aside from Titania, of course. Get some guns to the back of their heads." Negan waited until there was a gun pointed at everyone's heads before saying, "Good. Now, level with their noses so if you have to fire," imitating an explosion sound and mimicking it with his hands, he finished with, "it'll be a real mess. Make sure it doesn't get on Titania. I'd hate to have her puke when she wakes up," he told them as he looked over. "Whoops...already got some on her. My bad. Now, kid, well, one-eye kid; here, now," he said, pointing to the ground beside him. "Now, or it will be the girl beside you." Carl stood and moved to where Negan was standing while the man took off his belt asking, "Are you a Southpaw?"
"Am I a what?" he asked, staring at the man, the anger he felt obvious on his face.
"You a lefty?" Negan rephrased.
"No," Carl said flatly.
"Good," Negan said after raising his eyebrows at Carl's blatant attitude towards him, getting to work rolling the boy's sleeve up and tightening his belt around his arm. "That hurt?"
"No."
"Should," Negan said as he finished up. "It's supposed to. Get down on the ground, kid, next to Daddy. Spread them wings," he finished as he flung Carl's hat behind him. He helped Carl lower himself all the way to the ground before turning to Simon and beseeching, "Simon, you got a pen?"
"Yeah," Simon answered in mock confusion, reaching into his pocket and producing a Sharpie.
"Sorry kid, this gonna be as cold as a warlock's ball sack," he told Carl as he knelt down, biting the cap off and marking a line on Carl's forearm. "Just like he was hanging his ball sack above ya and just dragged his ball sack right across your forearm. Give you a little leverage."
"Please, please don't," Rick begged. "Please don't."
"Me?" Negan chuckled. "I ain't doin' shit. Ahh, Rick, I want you to take your ax and cut your son's left arm off, right on that line," he said with a sigh. "Now I know. I know. You have to process that for a second. That makes sense. Still, though, I'm gonna need you to do it, or all these people are gonna die. Then Carl dies. Then the people back home die. And then you, eventually. Of course, Titania and Daryl, they're not included in the slaughter, seeing as Daryl's not mine to kill and Titania's not yours to keep. But the rest of these fine people? Well, I'll keep you breathin' for a few years just so you can stew on it."
"You don't have to do this," Michonne reasoned as Sophia began silently crying, the tears running down her face as she stared at Carl. "We understand! We understand..."
"You understand," Negan stated. "Yeah. I'm not sure that Rick does. I'm gonna need a clean cut, right there on that line. Now, I know that this is a screwed up thing to ask, but it's gonna have to be like a salami slice—nothing messy, clean, forty-five degrees, something to fold over. We've got a great doctor. Both the kid and Titania will be fine. Probably," Negan said before squatting next to Rick and telling him, "Rick, this needs to happen now. Chop, chop, or I will crush the little fella's head in myself."
"No!" Sophia cried, unable to keep her voice back anymore, Carl looking over to her.
"It-it can be me. It can be me," Rick told Negan, who was giving Sophia a contemplative stare, trying desperately to find a way out of this situation where no one else died but he didn't have to cut his son's arm off. "W-w-y-you can do it to me. I c-I can go w-with you."
"No," Negan told him before standing up. "This is the only way. Rick, pick up the ax. Not making a decision is a big decision. Do you really wanna see all these people die? You will. You will see every ugly thing," he promised before growing impatient. "Oh, my god. Are you gonna make me count? Okay, Rick, you win. I am counting. Three!"
"Please!" Rick cried. "Please! It can be me! Please!" he sobbed.
"Two!" Negan said as he knelt down beside Rick.
"Please! Don't do-" whatever he was going to say next was cut off by Negan's slap to the face as Rick sobbed and begged.
Grabbing Rick's face by the chin, Negan told him, "This is it. One!"
Through his sobs, Rick grabbed Carl's hand and the ax as Carl told him, "Dad. Just do it. Just do it."
Sobbing with a battle yell, he raised the ax above his head, ready to lower it when Negan squatted again and said, "Rick." Looking at the man with the ax raised, sobbing at the thought of hurting his son, Negan demanded, "You answer to me. You provide for me. You belong to me. Right?" When Rick simply kept panting and sobbing, Negan grabbed his chin again and yelled in his face, "Speak when you're spoken to! You answer to me. You provide for me. You belong to me. Right?!"
"Right!" Rick answered, his terror obvious on his face.
"Right," Negan said with a smile. "There! That is the look I wanted to see!"
Ani could hear the sobbing as the dark numb that had control of her began to subside and the fire in her shoulder had moved to her whole body and she couldn't help but try to move her hand to her belly. She knew she'd been shot in the shoulder, but what if something was wrong with the baby? Why was the air so cold on her flesh? Who was talking? Why were people crying? Was that Rick that was begging? Was someone threatening them? She needed to move, needed to get to safety, to Daryl, but her body just wouldn't cooperate; even her hands felt sluggish trying to move them even though she wasn't restrained. Starting to get frightened by the darkness that enveloped her eyes, Ani did her best to fight to open them. When she did, the bright lights had her blinking and groaning as she turned her head away.
"Ania?" she heard Daryl's voice before feeling his hand on one of hers, his other hand going to her face, both seemingly shaky and cool to the touch; was he shaking or was she? "Baby girl?"
"Is the baby-," she started before clearing her dry throat. "Is the baby okay?"
Daryl chocked a sob back as her eyes opened for the first time in days, Dwight and Negan watching the interaction closely as Daryl said, "They're fine, they're fine."
"Get him away from her," Negan said as he motioned for the Saviors to come up and drag Daryl back.
He was only slightly shocked at the fact that she would ask about the baby she supposedly wanted to get rid of, which was the only reason he'd allowed the interaction to happen in the first place. Tom and Ellie had come in a while ago and told them everything he needed to know to know that Daryl was, in fact, a piece of shit. And then Dwight and Sherry, those two idiots who thought they could run, they had a completely different take on the man. He'd gone back for them and her sister when he'd seen the meds they were carrying in the bag he stole from them. He claimed only to help them because it was what his wife would have done and that she wouldn't want a sick girl left in the woods. The man had repeatedly said that he had someone he had to get back to and they both believed that it wasn't something malicious. He'd spoken of his girl, his wife, the only person he'd ever kneel for when they told him that they weren't going to anymore. Everything that Dwight and Sherry had told him about their encounter with the man, who they hadn't know at the time was the Daryl, not until they got back with the crossbow and Tom and Ellie recognized it. They'd seen him walking around their walled community with it strapped to his back, holding Titania tightly around the neck as he dragged her around. Negan knew well enough not to trust with his ears and rather with his eyes, and his eyes were telling him there was something missing in the story he'd been told.
"Nah! Nah!" Ani said weakly, wanting to reach out to grab Daryl as he was forced to move away, but couldn't even get her hand more than raised a few inches, her eyes straining in the light.
"Hey, hey now, it's okay, you're gonna be just fine," Negan told her as he knelt down and moved the hair out of her face, noticing how she flinched away from his hand; at least the part about her being afraid of being touched was true. "We're getting you back to your parents, where you belong. You don't have to worry about that prick."
"Wh-what? Nah, I can'-I can' go back ta them!" she said with labored breath before the world started turning black again. "I can'...my baby...can'..."
"Ania!" Daryl cried as he fought the holds to get to her side again.
Negan chuckled at Daryl's actions before telling him, "Well, you really are some kind of stupid. Definitely got a lot of fight in you," he said before standing up. "Well, we did it. All of us, together. Even the dead guy on the ground. Hell, he gets the spirit award for sure! Today was a productive damn day!" Negan sighed, "Now I hope for all your sake, that you get it now. That you understand how things work. Things have changed," he said after a pause. "Whatever you had going for you, that is over now," he chuckled before sighing. "Dwight, load up Titania. Daryl too, let 'em have one last little ride together. See what you see," he told him quietly. Walking back over to Rick as Daryl was put back in the truck he'd been taken from, Ani being loaded in on her stretcher afterwards the only reason he didn't fight, Negan bent low and told Rick loud enough for Merle to hear, "He's got guts, not a little bitch like someone I know. I like him. Once I figure out what's actually goin' on with the girl, well, I'll decide whether I'm gonna let Tom and Ellie kill him or if I'm just gonna keep him!" he said in excitement.
"See, if anything, that little exchange there told me she don't want to go back to her parents. Seems to me I ain't been told all the details. But I know one thing, I know the look of true fear. It's the same look you got on your face," he chuckled before tapping Rick's cheek. "See, it wasn't me that girl was afraid of and it sure as shit ain't Daryl. So I'm gonna get to the bottom of this and teach whoever's in the wrong a little lesson," he said with a smile. "See? I can be reasonable. But they're mine now, both of 'em. And if you want to try something, not today, not tomorrow. 'Not today, not tomorrow,'" he imitated Rick's voice. "I will cut off pieces off both of them and put them on your doorstep. Or better yet, I will bring them to you and have you do it for me. Ah, welcome to a brand new beginning you sorry shits! I'll leave you a truck. You can keep it. Use it to cart all the crap you're gonna find me. We'll be back for our first offering in one week. Until then, ta-ta," he finished before the doors were closed.
~x~
Daryl knelt next to Ani as she began to stir again as they traveled, the bumps in the road making the fire ignite all over her body every time they were hit. She didn't know what was happening as she groaned and opened her eyes to a thankfully darker environment. She could make out Daryl's form in what little light there was as she tried to reach for him again, wanting to make sure he was real. Her movements were still so sluggish that if felt like she was in shallow water trying to walk out to swim. All she wanted to do was touch him and tell him she was fine, just in a bit of pain and cold. She wanted to make sure that awful dream of his pale face and being dragged away from her with the promise of being sent back to her parents was just a nightmare. Ani needed to know that Daryl was still there, that he was safe, that they were safe, that their baby was doing alright even though she'd gotten shot. Daryl watched her eyes open and look around in confusion before locking onto him, not knowing if she remembered the clearing or not. He was failing her all over again as she laid there heading towards the clutches of the assholes she said would come back. He hadn't fully believed her until that bastard Negan said her full name, a name they all wanted to forget even existed.
"Baby girl? Baby girl, you with me?" he asked, catching the hand she was barely able to lift.
"D-Daryl?" she said. "Where...Where are we?"
"I don't know," Daryl told her, leaning down and kissing her forehead, feeling how hot she was. "But you're gonna be gettin' some help. You-you've got an infection, you're burnin' up, and they've got a doctor. They...I'm sorry, they're takin' you to them bastards, baby girl. I'm sorry. I'm sorry," he cried as he knelt over her
Ani's breathing came out a bit labored as she stuttered, "T-them? T-they're takin' us ta them?!"
"I'm gonna get you out, baby girl," Daryl promised, not knowing the two in front could hear everything they were saying. "You and Little D. I'm gonna get you out, gonna keep you safe, I promise."
"Ya can', ya can' give inta 'em. They're a cult. Ya can' trust 'em," she told him with labored breaths. "Nothin' they say, nothin' they do. Ya can' give in, D, ya jus' can'."
"I won't. You just get better. When you're better, we'll get out. I promise you, I ain't lettin' you stay a second longer than you gotta, baby girl. I promise, it's gonna be okay."
"Gods, D, I'm scared."
"I know, baby girl, I know. You gotta stay strong," Daryl told her, putting his hand on her stomach. "The two of you, I'm gonna get you out. I love you, Ania. Don't you forget it."
"I l-love ya, too, D," she told him, knowing they were about to be separated again, whether by others or by the darkness that had consumed her, her vision starting to fade again as she tried to fight it. "I love ya, D. Don'...Don' let 'em...Don' let 'em change ya."
"I won't, baby girl," he told her, kissing her forehead, his tears falling freely onto her face as the truck stopped completely, watching as her eyes fluttered closed again. "You sleep now. I'll get you out. No matter what, you ain't goin' to 'em."
"Tom, Ellie," he could hear Negan say, movement outside the doors having Daryl take a defensive position as best he could in front of Ani. "I got somethin' for you. You're gonna love this."
The doors opened and the first face Daryl saw was Tom's face sneering and looking triumphantly inside the truck. The rage in him grew as Tom smiled viciously, though his eyes weren't on Daryl, it was on the sleeping form behind him. If Negan couldn't see what Daryl saw as he and Dwight whispered between each other, it meant he simply didn't want to. Daryl didn't even waste any time, launching himself at Tom even though he knew it would be a losing fight. If he could at least take one of those assholes out with him, she'd stand a fighting chance even if he wasn't there to protect her while she fought. She was smart enough she could probably turn a bunch of the Saviors against Negan; he'd seen her do it with the Woodbury people and the Alexandrians. His wife was capable of anything she put her mind to, so she could raise the baby and get out of here without him if she had to. But he'd be damned if he didn't put up a fight to keep her from this man, the woman behind him sneering just as sinisterly as Ani had once upon a time towards Merle. For the first time since he'd met her, he could see where she got her darker side from, her facial reactions as dark as the expressions on their faces right now.
"I ain't lettin' you hurt 'er again!" he roared as he landed a solid haymaker against the man's jaw.
As much as he wanted to kill Tom, he was only able to get that one punch in before he was being held back completely by two men holding each arm. That didn't stop him from struggling and threatening both Tom and Ellie if anything happened to Ani. He did his best not to mention the baby until Ellie said they'd get rid of his 'little accident,' making him break the hold on him and charge at her. He was stopped before he even got to her, more threats and curses coming out of his mouth as he fought and struggled against those holding him back as Negan watched on.
"Get him out of here!" the man said, Dwight and three other Saviors pulling and shoving Daryl as he fought against them to get back to Ani. "Get Carson to look at him. As for you two, don't be too happy yet. I might've got her, but I never said you could have her. See, she wants that baby, and who am I to deny an expectant mother?"
"She doesn't know what she wants!" Ellie insisted, the look on her face and sound of her voice only barely masking the look in her eyes.
"Oh, I think she does," Negan said in a sing-songy voice. "See, according to my man Dwight, your daughter is as sound of mind as a person with a serious infection and fighting for their theirs and their child's life could be. And I trust my man Dwight. I trust my eyes and ears too, and trust me when I say, you so much as lay a hand on a single hair on her head until I figure out what's goin' on here, well, I'll demote you all the way down to fence duty, if I don't just make you part of the landscape."
"She's our daughter!" Tom shot back.
"Yeah, she sure as shit is! Right down to the auburn hair that neither of you have and the oh so tall stature," Negan chuckled, thinking about what Dwight had said, how the two had literally just encouraged each other and told them they loved each other.
There had been no threats, nothing to indicate that any kind of abuse was going on to make the girl stay with the man, unlike what the two of them had said. As far as Negan could tell, the girl wanted the pregnancy the two in front of him had sworn up and down was from rape and she didn't want. He'd been absolutely willing to help them get their daughter back since it was right along the lines of what the Saviors did anyway, and it wasn't like they wasted resources looking for the girl. They knew where to find her and how to get her, so he had agreed to helping; after all, both Tom and Ellie had become valuable soldiers over the last couple months. Until he'd seen their transaction, until he heard Dwight's recollection of the ride to Sanctuary and how the two had been in the back of the truck, he'd fully believed the lies the two of them had told him when they'd first come to their little slice of paradise. They'd said she was an unstable child that had suffered from multiple mental health illnesses that made her confused and vulnerable to the lies of others. Daryl had once been a friend of the family until he convinced Titania to run away with him to Georgia when she was fourteen. Apparently, the sick fuck had been bedding her since before then, at least according to Tom and Ellie. They'd tried to get her back, but the man had been beating her until the point that she was too scared to leave. Every time they managed to convince her, he would confuse her with confessions and acts of love and kindness and caring to the point she believed he loved her all over again. But what Negan had seen with his own two eyes painted quite the different story from what he was told. Loving parents didn't look at their children like playthings or hide contemptuous eyes behind fake-ass smiles of joy. On top of that, he knew the difference between a man looking at a woman in love and in lust, and Lucille as his witness, Daryl wasn't lusting after the hot little thing still resting in the truck.
Looking back and forth between Tom, Ellie, and Titania, Negan laughed and said, "I mean, I just don't see it! Look at you! Look at her! How can you ugly as fuck trolls really claim to have made that beautiful little leprechaun? Seriously? Well, even if you are her parents, she told me herself she didn't want to come back to you. She might be confused, as you say. She might not be. I'll take it from the source when she wakes up." Turning to Simon. Negan told him, "Get her set up in a room and get Carson to look at her ASAP. I want her on the mend so I can find out just who Lucille gets to hit on next. She is one thirsty girl, and I gotta let her have her fill," he said with a charming smile thrown towards Titania's parents.