Notes:
Quarantine has be brushing the dust of this thing. I like the twisted nature of this chapter and where all of this is going. I have a few more chapters ready to be edited (which I do myself soooo) so keep an eye out if you're still with me.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter 53 The Returned.
The pills make her nightmares worse. They render her unmoving in the horror makes her dreams lack a linear sense of plot. Pandora prefers a sense of liner time to her terror these days.
Curled in her sea of silk black sheets, she dreams about watching Hilltop burn and being glad. That she remembers, the feeling of ease lifting from her chest as the flames lick the buildings. Home cannot be ashes, so this must not be home.
When Pandora wakes, it is everything but gentle, like always she wakes in a panic. This time, though, she is alone. That tugs at her eyes causing a few stray tears to leak down her cheeks, angrily she wipes them away. When was the last time she woke up alone in her terror? Two nights ago? No Negan had been there than Daryl after him. She had not been alone for a long time.
When she finally opens her eyes, her side aches. Right she had been shot just the other day, two days ago, maybe it is hard to remember now. Licking her lips, her mouth tasted like ashes. She cannot remember the last time she had something to eat.
Gripping her side, Pandora heads to the small kitchen. It looks the same as she left it. Yet when she opens the fridge, most of the fresh food has been removed. In the cupboard she finds fruit cups, oatmeal and chips. She doesn't want to eat any of this, well she doesn't want to cook it.
Before all it took was a knock on the door to have someone bring her something to eat. Now Pandora felt hesitation at the idea of knocking on the door. Arat had extra guards outside her room, Dwight had returned her under the cover of the chaos. Something was different, shifting just out of her reach now. Negan was gone, and the foundation he left them on was shaky. He would be back soon though, she knew it. He was too damn large to leave the world now, too much of a thundering presence.
It's not morning, nowhere near it actually. Late afternoon, early evening. All this time with no real clocks has not made her any better at knowing the time of day. Still, she makes the oatmeal for herself, eating it in the small kitchen.
She cleans the kitchen when she is done, washing and drying everything. It isn't until she is putting things away that she finally sees the little things out of place. There are apples in a bowl on the counter, and two full bottles of whiskey in the cabinet beside the stove. When she gets dressed, there are things out of place as well. A few white t-shirts in her drawers, some socks she is sure are not her own. She takes a white shirt though, layering it over a tank top and cotton leggings.
Folding herself into the chair by the window, she wonders if Negan had been staying here while she was gone. That is an odd thought, but the clues sort of add up. Bits of his clothes, belongings scattering the surfaces around her room. The motion from the parking lot below her draws her attention after a while. There is a hive of activity, like always. No matter how many men they seem to lose, she never sees a difference. Their numbers seem endless.
Sometime under the cover of night there is a knock on her door. Pandora has been in the chair all day, getting up only once to pour herself a whiskey. For a long moment she debates whether she wants to answer it. Might be better to pretend she is sleeping, or not here.
Whoever has knocked on the door doesn't wait for her to answer, just knocks again and opens it.
"We are the only ones who know you're here Pandora."
Pandora is struggling to get herself out of the chair and when she finally does her room is full of people. Dwight, Arat and two men she doesn't know are standing there in her kitchen.
"Pandora, hey." Arat is closing the distance between them, a hand tentatively laying on her shoulder. "My guys are looking out for you until the big guy comes back all right?"
Those parts she cannot see are moving again all around her, "That will be soon." Pandora speaks the words out loud but cannot really be sure who they are for herself or everyone else.
Arat and Dwight look at each other like they want to speak, but they don't. Instead, they avoid her gaze all together.
"You think he's dead." Whispering Pandora clings to her side, the pain a stab of clarity.
"We don't know anything, he was with the convoy then he wasn't" Dwight is answering her then maybe he knows the most.
"Pandora whatever happens I will protect you ok?"
"Thank you." Pandora can feel a tightness in her chest. She had never felt more like a Princess than now the last member of a crumbling monarchy.
Arat and the two men leave speaking in hushed tones as the door closes on them. Dwight doesn't move, instead he stands in her kitchen leaning against the countertop, trying and failing to look casual. The night he brought her back plays in the back of her head. They both know that he is a rat working behind the curtain to bring down Negan.
"Why did you come back?" He finally spits out. He looks over her shoulder out the window.
For someone who also came back Pandora is not sure what he doesn't understand. Rick and his people had tried to kill her, more than once. There were so many reasons to come back. To be good, to make sure she says out of the box, to be on the side that will win. She doesn't think any of that will matter, and she doesn't want to talk about this anymore.
"I'm Negan, you know that."Pandora almost whispers it but finds a bit of herself as she speaks. "I won't tell anyone."
She tries to put him at ease, Pandora can keep a secret she would keep his to. Pandora almost doesn't even remember waking up in the woods, she can make herself forget. They could go on like they had been before, acting like they did not know each other. Pandora could do this for him to make sure she can stay safe. If Negan never finds out what is wrong with that?
"Fuck!" Dwight is pacing now, hands shoved in his pockets. "Simon is already making the moves to take over. Arat and I will protect you."
"From Simon." Pandora can see the shifting parts now. Simon is always chopping at the bit to spill blood, he is trying to take control.
"Ya from Simon he is worse than Negan!" Dwight takes a few steps backward back towards the door. "I was trying to pay for what I did, helping you get back home. Negan is the monster here."
"Thank you for helping me." Pandora can feel the shortness of breath that comes from panic.
Taking a half step forward towards her Dwight drops his voice "If you want to get out, I can help you."
"No!" Pandora shouts at him, her hand immediately covering her mouth. Though there is no one here to hear her outburst and care. She cannot leave here, this is where she is the safest. "Just leave." She can finally whisper.
"All you have to do is ask." he doesn't look at her making the promise to the floor.
"I said leave!" Now she is shouting, her face hot and red. Finally, Dwight ducks his head down lower and slips out the door.
The moment he leaves, Pandora is hunched over herself next to her chair, in an attempt to hold the scream she can feel bubbling in her chest. She is angry, anger that can usually be solved by breaking something, oh how she wants to smash something. The first days here that was all she did destroy and destroy every single that had been given to her. Now thought, now she knew better. Instead, she racks her too long fingernails against the skin inside her arms. The stinging pain helps her calm down, gives her mind somewhere else to go.
Two days at Hilltop and she is coming apart at the seams, falling back into old ways of coping. The sheets are calling to her again, and Pandora slips in them fully clothed. She doesn't want to eat, not anymore, besides she was sure she ate that day.
She wants to sleep instead, this time she only takes one blue pill.
Even with the one blue pill, her sleep is not deep and is plagued by images of Simon wheeling Lucille at her. Chasing her down the darkened halls of the Sanctuary. As she runs the halls change and suddenly she is running through the endless hallway of the big house in Hilltop.
At the end of the hallway she can only see one door, Pandora runs for it, one hand clutching her side that runs with bright red blood. She is always running in her dreams these days. It opens before she can reach it, a shadow cast from standing there.
"Hey there little Princess." The voice is unmistakably Simons he is somehow in front of her. The sight of him sends her tumbling backwards ready to turn around and go the other way. But the hall is not a hall anymore and the wall at the end is closing on her shoving her forward into his waiting arms.
In her panic she is jolted awake picturing Simon already here in her room. Her hands reach for her lamp in the darkness, stiff, heavy, and fumbling. Pandora doesn't find the switch to turn on the lamp, instead she knocks it over, glass shattering.
She cannot say anything, too panicked, it's too dark, her tongue too heavy in her mouth. Still she looks to the door, sure she will find Simon there. Instead, the figure lit up from behind cuts a more impressive figure and she knows him right away.
"Don't move Pandora." Negan uses her name, part of her hates that, part of her is just so damn relieved she doesn't care. He snaps on her small overhead kitchen light, dingy yellow glow painting the room.
Negan looks tired, his jacket is gone. Leaving only a blood and dirt stained white t-shirt. He is dirty too, face covered in dried blood, a few scratches she can make out along the brow line. Pandora thinks of her own bullet hole and what a pair they make together.
"Well, look at you." He shakes his head the tiniest of smiles tugging the edge of his lips.
Her head is still partly wrapped up in her nightmares, but she blinks and tries to smile. "Hi." She is sitting up now, the blankets pooling around her waist. The light is still a strain on her eyes, but it doesn't matter because Negan is standing in her kitchen. The pressure in her chest is gone, the nightmares she had just seen don't matter anymore. He would never allow Simon to hurt her.
"We have a lot to talk about Princess, but I need to get cleaned up first."
Even though he says that, he cleans up after her first. Getting a small dustpan and broom from under her sink, she didn't even know that was there. He cleans the glass in silence, not remarking on the mess at all. Then he disappears into the bathroom.
Pandora doesn't sit in the bed and wait, she goes into the fridge to see if there is anything she can get him to eat. Again there isn't much canned beans and a tomato soup. She makes them both together, scooping out two servings into bowls.
Pandora has finished with the soup and is loading the dirty dishes into the sink when he comes out of the bathroom. He had found new clothes in her bathroom. Negan is wearing a new pair of sweatpants and a white t-shirt. He had brushed his hair, combing it back from his face; he doesn't shave though, leaving the beard just making it look a lot more kept.
Negan just places the bowl in his hands, and heads for the high-backed chairs at the window. The view of the night sky is great from here, past the parking lot miles and miles of clear skies.
When Negan lowers himself down into the other chair, she makes a note to watch his movements. He moves slower, more stiff, part of her wants to ask where he has been this whole time. Negan is faster though always one step ahead of her and her damaged brain.
"Can you believe my surprise when I showed up tonight to find out you were back." Negan watches her with the spoon in his hand, he eats a few more bites. Pandora does the same: she wasn't really hungry but knows that she should eat something. "Who brought you back?"
"No one did, I found my way back." There is a swell of pride in her chest then. She had done this impossible thing, made her back to him despite everything. "That night when your men came I didn't know you weren't there. I snuck out and found Arat she brought me back made sure I was safe."
"All on your own, huh? That's my girl." Negan's laugh is low and dark. He has his now empty bowl in his hand and reaches out for her own. Pandora scoops the rest of the soup into her mouth before handing it to him.
There is a tightness in her chest, and unthinking she rubs the marks on her wrists from the other day, pain shooting up her arm in sweet relief.
"They are always trying to kill me. I got shot." The last line is blurted out as she lifts her white shirt to show him the bandage on her side.
Negan is back at her side in no time, crouching down in front of her he touches just the edges of the bandage, Pandora doesn't flinch. "They aren't they. I will have to do something about that." he uncurls her fingers from her shirt, letting it drop back down to cover her. "Go to bed Princess, let's take a look at that why don't we."
Pandora has no problem letting Negan check her wound. He isn't that unknown doctor. Here she lays back on the bed flat, her shirt pulled up again to expose the covered wound. When Negan comes back, he has his hands full. In one hand is the bottle of whiskey she saw on the counter, and two small glass cups. On the other hand is some cream clothes and fresh bandages.
At first he works in silence, peeling the old tape from her wound and exposing the wound to the air. She gasps only a little when the air touches it; the pain is a sharp sting. Then his fingers spread a cool cream, and the feeling in the area is gone. "Patched you up good if I do say so myself. I know you didn't run that night. Told them to find you knew you would be looking for us. My girl knows where she is safe."
"I'm safe here." Pandora whispers more for herself than anything else. She doesn't watch him work. Instead she turns to the other side drifting.
Negan puts everything away and comes to the other side of the bed, pouring them both glasses of whiskey. It burns her chest but makes everything else feel less hard. Damn did she miss this.
"I let a wolf in my henhouse," Negan finally says when he has finished the first glass and poured himself another one. "Dwight has been sneaking around my fucking back feeding information to Rick the Prick and his merry bunch."
This draws her spine up and makes her look at him, a hand resting on his forearm. The rage is right there, simmering just below the surface, she can see it. This makes her panic just a little. She knows Dwight is a traitor. She said she would keep his secret, but that was before Negan came back before he knew everything.
Pandora can see the room in the basement, a square of nothing but yawning darkness, "I saw him." She pauses to finish her own glass, pouring more for the both of them. "I woke up once in the woods, I saw Dwight. He said he was taking me back to you, but Rick's people were there too." She doesn't say Daryl's name, no cannot bring herself to conjure his image here in his room. Instead, she calls them Rick's people, not her own, not anymore.
"You believed him didn't you?"
"He always said he was your man." She whispers her eyes prickle from the memory or from the whiskey she has long since stopped caring. "The next time I woke up I was at Hilltop."
Negan is pinching the bridge of his nose, eyes screwed shut. "I am barely holding it together here Princess."
There is silence again for a few seconds Pandora has no words for him now. There is nothing to say when a kingdom falls apart under them. So she fills their glasses again and is well on her way to being drunk when she takes that sip. They drink for a few minutes in silence, her head feeling lighter, her side almost forgotten. In the time she takes to finish her third drink Negan is pouring himself a fourth. Slipping under the covers she holds her glass out shaking her hand.
A true smile spreads across his face, one she hasn't seen in a long time.
"Lot's of other pretty girls you could be drinking with tonight." She comments sipping her glass, Pandora has reached the bold stage of her being drunk.
"Naw they don't have half the brains you do Princess." Negan answers with a chuckle. "They want to know when things are getting back to normal and ask too many questions. Besides, no one knows I'm back yet. I have big plans for tomorrow."
"What are you going to do with Dwight?"
"That I'm working on." Negan rubs his chin in thought. "I can't just kill him. That's too easy for such a snake."
Pandora leans back more against the pillows, fulfilling them to make them more comfortable. Negan gets settled in beside her too one arm pillowed behind his head.
"Make an example out of him." She suggests with a shrug of her shoulders. Rolling on her side she faces him now, watching him through the dim light she had turned on in the kitchen. "There was another girl with us when I was taken." Pandora remembers the girl she wasn't someone she knew, some girl from another group. "She tried to run at night, when they caught her they broke her legs. No one tried to run again."
From this bed, in this room, with this man the horror of that time cannot seem to reach her. That happened to someone else, not to her. She speaks of these times with ease but she cannot help but notice the twisted look that passes over Negan's face. The time before Daryl found her is always a sore spot for Negan, he doesn't like to hear about it.
"I'll think about it." Is the only answer she gets before they fall back into silence.
Pandora curls to her side pulling the blankets up under her chin. "And Rick?"
"Now that I have had time to think about." Negan chuckles "I have a whole fake plan I'm going to let Dwight hear. That needle dick asshole will send my plans right to Rick. I'll be waiting though."
"Hmm." Pandora purrs from under the blankets. "I like that."
"I'm going to spend the night Princess that alright?"
Pandora laughs, pulling her knees to her chest. "Of course. When I came back I woke up from a nightmare alone."
Negan opens an arm to her, drunk and unthinking all she wants is to be warm so she goes to him. Oh boy is he warm, an undeniable furness pumping out heat that makes her releases the tension she might have not known she was holding.
"What did you dream about now?"
Pandora laughs so hard she shorts a little, "I don't dream I have nightmares." She finally says through little giggles they dye off when she thinks about her nightmare. "I was being chased through Hilltop but the only way out was right to Simon. He reminds me of the wolves"
Negan shifts beside her, "Pandora." The tone of his voice makes her turn to face him. "I would never let him hurt you."
"I know."
"Go to sleep Princess Pandora I'll watch out for your nightmares."
She sleeps, she still dreams of fire and running but they don't end in her death so maybe they are getting better. Gasping awake from something she cannot remember Pandora groans trying to hide her face. The sun is casting it rays on high, blasting through the windows with no regard for the pounding behind her eyes. One of these days she will wake up puking.
The bed is warm, thanks to Negan she remembers feeling the weight of him next to her.
"Hey there princess." Negan's voice is rough with sleep, they have slept in more than usual. "Hungry."
There is a pang in her stomach but it is also accompanied with a rolling in her stomach. She isn't sure she likes the feeling of that, but still she is hungry. When she doesn't answer right awake her stomach does it for her letting out a growl.
Negan takes the bit of nothing in her kitchen and turns in into breakfast. Soon there are two steaming bowls of oatmeal with sweetened condensed milk on her table. Pandora watches him from the bed but when he pulls out a chair, she gets up to join him.
Her shirt is long enough to cover her tights, with her black tights just peeking under the shirt. As she sits, she can feel his gaze running over her, it makes her cheeks turn red but she ignores him and lowers herself into a chair.
They eat together in silence for a while, Pandora goes slow, each bite threatening to come back. "I feel sick." She mumbles from her seat, chin resting on her clothes fist. Her head was pounding, the marching band in there had no regard for how little she must have slept last night or how much she had to drink.
"Guess I let you drink too much last night huh?" Negan is up already adding his bowl to the sink.
"You think?" Pandora sighs, finishing her own bowl. At the sink she cleans up after them. Negan had disappeared somewhere. A quick glance over her should place him at the window, his arm leaning on the glass just watching.
By the time she is finished the lines she had cut into herself are inflamed red and raw. Pandora isn't quite as quick as she thinks because as she reached for the paper towel to cover some blood Negan is already there with a cloth in his hands.
"Care to explain?" He doesn't seem like he is judging her but sometimes it is hard to tell for sure. Now he leads her back to the bed where he already has the wound cleaning kit on the bed-side table. "You think I didn't see that last night. I thought we were past this shit Pandora."
A lump rises in her throat not her breakfast, but a ball of emotion she does not want to deal with. Instead of an answer she can only cry, a tear dropping onto the arm that Negan is cleaning.
"Hey come on now Princess don't do that shit I ain't mad." Negan takes his hand away from her arm wiping the tea with his thumb. He goes back to wrapping a white bandage around her wrist.
"I came back, and you were gone, and they thought maybe that was it." Pandora whispers the words out now. "There were whispers about Simon they scared me."
Negan only sighs cleaning up the supplies and adding them back to a little red first aid bag. "I will always be here to protect you Princess. Ok?"
Nodding she wipes her eyes, but doesn't move from the bed.
"How about you help me out today, huh? Going to be a busy one."
"I can come with you."
"Why the fuck not?" Negan stands a hand on her shoulder. "There is a meeting happening, one I shouldn't know about. I want you to go before everyone else and save me a seat."
Pandora only nods, lifting her chin to look at him. This is good, make herself useful, make sure she is with him. If she is busy she cannot think about Hilltop about Daryl, about a small part of her that wants to go back.
An hour goes by Pandora is dressed, her hair is done and she is almost ready. At her door she hears a knock, leaving the bathroom she calls for them to come in.
Standing in her kitchen is Hunter and another amber haired man she did not know.
"Hey Princess we are going to come with you to the meeting Big Boss said so. Ready?"
Tilting her head to the side she smiles at the other man, "Pandora." She says holding out her hand for him to shake. For a long second no one moves than he reaches out and grabs her hand.
"Robert. Nice to meet you."
"I didn't get to say thank you for the other night, so thank you both of you."
Hunter shrugs looking down he seems to hide a blush but Pandora can't be sure. "It's nothing glad to have you back is all. Let's go."
As she walks down the halls, there is something in the air now, a tension that crawls at her skin. Under the long sleeves of her sweater Pandora grips her wrists, that sweet stab of pain carrying her forward. Do they really think Simon would hurt her, what is she even thinking she knows he will hurt her. He would like it. He is like the wolves men who like to watch suffering, to make women suffer at their hands. That is something she swears she will ever be again, a victim of men like that.
The room is empty when they get there, so Pandora heads for the head of the table. Robert and Hunter are silent now, all work and no play standing on either side of her. Sinking into the chair she has come to see that Negan spares no expense when it comes to his own comfort. The plush leather chair is comfortable.
Dwight is the first one to enter, they stare at each other for a few long seconds. In the darkness of her room last night they talked about what Negan would do with him, now seeing him here her stomach is sick. A wild part of her brain wants to ask him for help right now, get her out of here before the blood is too much. But she knows better this is the place to be, Negan is trying to make things better and Rick is trying to destroy all they have worked for.
"What the fuck?" He finally spits out taking a few steps like he is going to come to her. Instead he is blocked, Hunter doesn't speak, he only steps in Dwight's path. That is enough to get his point across and Dwight is sitting in a chair to her left now.
Gary is next only managing to look more tired the moment he sees her. They must know this is not going according to plan, they know something is off. Negan has always had a flair for the dramatic that's for sure, they must have an idea that he might be back already. A few others
enter she is not sure what their names are, only having seen them in passing.
"What the fuck do you think you're doing?" Simon is charging in closing the distance between them in long angry strides. His face is red with rage, words partly spit out at her. "I asked you a fucking question."
Before this moment she had never seen rage like this in Simon. A dark cultivated mind yes, but this rage that wants to rip her in half right here this is new. Before she can even get her brain working enough past the fear to answer him Robert and Hunter have placed themselves in front of where she is sitting.
Mouth dry and heart pounding she opened her mouth but nothing comes out. Simon is trying to get around the two men who tell him in low tones they are not going to allow it.
"Who the fuck is in charge here get out of my fucking way!" He reminds her of a feral dog, snapping and foaming at the mouth with rage.
To her right Pandora notices a slight shift in movement, in her panic she had almost forgotten this room was full of people. Arat has her hands curled around the handle of her gun ready to stand at a moment's notice.
"Well, thanks for saving me seat Princess." The room is still tension still there but frozen in the air like ice.
The air rushes out of her mouth from a breath she didn't know she had been holding. Negan steps into the room and her two guards fall back behind her. He walks around the other side of the room avoiding Simon but coming right to her side. Pandora stands moving to the chair to the right of his own. Negan slipped behind her two hands and squeezed her shoulders before she lowered herself into the chair.
Negan doesn't speak and doesn't need to, he sits taking out a rage and oil to clean that bat. Simon still stands mouth agape wrestling to get his anger under control. Pandora just waits, the silence is heavy around them. It is only broken by Simon finally sliding down into a chair.
"I thought they killed you and that you were gone, like," Simon holds his fingers out and snaps them. "Like that. I lacked discipline. And I made it personal. And that's why I moved things from infection to extermination at the Hilltop. Yes, things went bad."
A pause and Pandora is watching Simon, he looks like a man who knows he is looking at death. Still, he tries to talk it way out of him, charm the Grim Reaper away.
"Though I think it's possible, we may have found ourselves in a similar tactical situation, regardless of approach. We don't know that. So I'll own it. I just ask that you give me a pass on this one. I'll make it up to you.I promise you that."
Together her and Negan are two sides of the same coin; he has not raised his eyes to look at Simon once; she has not looked away. Pandora has been in the hands of men like him before, it is best to never look away from something so dangerous.
As the room falls into silence Negan finally looks up a grin tugging at his lips. He is a picture of ease here, leg over the table Lucille over his shoulder. Pandora knows better, knows that now is when he is most dangerous violence makes him calm.
"You know I remember when I took this place," With another chuckle Negan stands the bat in one hand walking the length of the table. "When you helped me take this place. Wasn't sure I wanted to keep you on board. I mean, before me, before there was a system in place, what you did, killing all those men, those boys in that settlement so long ago, a lot of people would think that is some psychotic shit. Like that is the work of a demented, broken, goddamn ghoul." Negan is standing behind Simon now at the other end of the table. Pandora watches transfixed on the moment. She knows what is going to happen and part of her is screaming for it. "Like that's not someone that you want to work with, let alone stand next to. So I figured I'd keep my eye on you. And I did. And everything seemed to work out right up until this point. I'm gonna need you on your knees."
Silence falls and Negan catches her eyes from the other side of the table, Pandora only stares back unmoving. It is so quiet in this moment it seems like the room is collectively holding their breath. Frozen, waiting for the impending violence that is soon to erupt in front of them.
"You gonna make a move or what?" Negan purrs the question of tilting his head to the side just a fraction. Pandora can feel a knot of dread curling in her gut, suddenly she is not sure of the direction this conversation is taking.
"No move to make."
A test, she thinks to herself, watching the exchange between the two men. Negan wants to see how far Simon's betrayal runs, are there others in this room who would help him take the Sanctuary, is there a coup here?
"No, there isn't" The room is so tense that she might choke.
Negan lowers the bat from his shoulder and pats Simon. "All is forgiven. Get your ass up. We're good."
Dread coils in her gut moving through her like a snake. This is a mistake she knows it, knows men like Simon will not lay down belly up. It had taken him all of one day to step up, how long until he tries again.
Simons stands trying to look as casual as he can after a very near brush with death. "I won't let you down, not you."
Negan grins games like these are his favorite. "I appreciate the hell out of that, I really do but the next time you raise your voice to my Princess we will have a fucking problem. Do you understand?" as he speaks he has walked the length of the table again ending up right back where he started his chair next to her own. As he sits he pats her head, much like a pet.
"Sure thing Boss." Simon is taking his seat now head down.
There is a room full of eyes on her, and she refuses to look at them. Rather straightens her spine and waits like the rest of them. There is a pause than Negan taps the bat on the table and suddenly there is a map on the table.
Pandora leans over just a fraction, if it had not been labelled she wouldn't know what they were looking at. In the middle there is a circle with the name Hilltop written under it. Around the circle are hand drawn X's creating a complete circle around the protected community.
Negan leaned down and touched the X with his finger, "This is where we start the first of our new staging posts." He grins all too pleased with himself and this plan. "See, we do not have to take the Hilltop. We just have to make sure that the farmers can't leave." Negan is standing again passing behind her seat. "We stay nimble, we stay light. We plunk their asses every time one of them tries to poke their head out. Sometimes right in front, sometimes a mile away but every goddamn time."
Pandora cannot help but leave over more pulling her chair closer to the table in order to see. She is fully away from how many eyes turn to her the moment she shifts her chair. The only one she thinks about is Dwight, he is right here in the room listening to everything. How many people know what is happening, just her? These plans are fake or partly fake that she knows for sure.
"Tomorrow afternoon," Negan is speaking again standing at the front of the table. "I'm going to take a ten team to this spot. I am stocking it with supplies and the ammo that Dr. Smartypants is making. Everyone here is gonna do the same thing, same time, different spot." He points at all the little X's littering the map. "End of the day tomorrow we will have cache after cache around that Hilltop and always be spitting distance from a reload." A heavy hand is placed on her shoulder. He has made his way back to her now. "There will be teams around that place sniping them on by one day after day until we have full attrition."
No one speaks as they stare at the map, Simon is the first to speak. "It's an ambitious plan with testicular heft. I'll give you that. Very happy to have you back Boss Man."
Negan's hand is still on her shoulder so she looks up at him. "There is a secret way out."
He looks down at her and the blood lust is gone from his face, "What's what Princess?"
Standing Pandora leans closer to the map, her finger circles the X for a moment before pointing at an empty space. "There is a secret way out, right here. There is a tunnel here they could slip into the woods and you wouldn't see them"
Behind her there is a wall of heat and Negan's voice is tickling her ear, "Hm interesting. How do you know what Princess?"
"It's how I got out." Those words are huge, hanging in the room in front of her. That should he harder to say than it is, to explain how she left the people she once called her family.
A hand is back on her shoulder with a tight squeeze and that brings her back to this moment and this room. "Good eye Princess, thank you. Simon you heard the women make sure you get another team to cover that spot."
"Will do. Very happy to have you back boss man."
"Damn good to be back" His voice holds the pur she had become so used to. "Alright everyone clear out. Except for you Dwight got a few things we need to kick around."
For a moment Pandora is not sure where he wants her to go, does everyone include her too. Pandora shifts just a little
crossing and uncrossing her legs.
"That's you to Princess," Negan is pulling her chair out for her. "Just for now, Princess. Hunter takes her wherever she wants to go."
Notes:
And scene. Wonder where Pandora will end up in the new flurry of events? Well keep your eyes peels because it's alot. I sweat to god every time I edit on of these things it turns into a beast. I hope you like it tho!