Michonne awoke in the bed she and Rick shared and immediately tried to sit up. But Rick, who was sitting in a chair by the bed watching her, jumped up and attempted to get her to lay down again!
"Easy there. You're alright. Let me get you some water." Rick said softly and started to turn away from her.
But Michonne reached out and grabbed one of his hands! She squeezed it hard!
"No! I don't need water! I need to find Negan and make him explain why he said what he said!" Michonne said urgently.
Rick gently rubbed her hand that was squeezing his, with his other hand, and stared at her.
"Darryl, Aaron and I, stopped Negan from climbing out of our attic window to make his getaway. He's locked up in the cell I left him in, years ago. And this time he's going to rot there for what he did to you." Rick told Michonne firmly.
Hearing Rick's words, Michonne began to pull herself out of the shock she felt over what Negan had told her.
"So Negan told you?" Michonne asked him.
"He didn't have to, honey. We came in, saw you on the ground and heard him scurrying around upstairs. Did he give you something to drink? How did he get you to take the Rohypnol?" Rick asked her gently.
Michonne gaped at him!
"Rick, he didn't drug me! He told you he drugged me?"
"Michonne, you were passed out on the floor! What else were we supposed to think?"
Michonne blinked before shaking her head!
"Negan didn't drug me. You can damned well bet I wouldn't have let that happen!"
"Alright," Rick said softly, "then tell me what happened? How did you end up on the floor and him trying to escape?"
Michonne didn't know if she could even form the words. But looking into Rick's eyes gave her the strength to say what needed to be said.
"There are a lot of things we have never talked about. One of them being what our lives were like before the world ended. Before the undead took over…." Michonne trailed off. She realized in that moment, that maybe Andrea might have said something to Rick or others in the group they once had, about the two walkers she had had on leashes, once upon a time.
Rick realized that whatever Michonne was trying to tell him, was so bad, that she was having trouble telling him what it was. He could not imagine how whatever this was, was connected to Negan.
But Michonne pushed through the past and began to talk again.
"I had a son named Andre. He was three and…and when he was born, I hadn't realized that I could be that happy." Michonne said with a sigh, remembering things she had thought she had made peace with, long ago.
Rick folded his arms. He didn't like the fact that a painful event in Michonne's life, was suddenly resurfacing just as Negan had 'resurfaced', himself.
"And Andre's father? You loved him?" Rick asked. He realized that he selfishly wanted to hear Michonne say she had not loved him.
"I loved him. But in the end, things were falling apart. Mike wanted to get married and I was unsure, for reasons that are not important anymore. Then the world changed and there was no time to think about anything but survival." Michonne almost whispered.
"What does Negan have to do with this? What did he tell you before we came in here?" Rick asked softly.
Michonne looked Rick in the eye.
"I killed Mike and a friend of his, because they let Andre die. Negan told me that it was not Andre I saw being eaten by walkers…it was another baby…Negan said that Andre is alive and that he knows him…I couldn't follow what he was saying. Nothing made any sense except for one thing: he said that Pamela Milton and General Beale were married. They were married and had been taking care of Andre all of these years." Michonne told him, her voice now louder than a whisper.
Rick almost felt the breath suck out of his body!
"He's LYING, Michonne! This is his way of getting back at us for keeping him locked up!"
"How would he know about General Beale, Rick? How?"
"I never saw Negan at any CRM post…"
"I don't think he's saying he was there. I think Negan was saying that Pamela told him all of this." Michonne tried to explain.
"So Andre is living at the Commonwealth?" Rick asked, not liking that he would even ask such a question! Michonne's son was not alive and Negan was full of shit! And as soon as he was through talking to his wife, he was going over to the cell they had put Negan back in to, and kicking the shit out of him!
"Negan claims he knows Andre. I think that's the last thing he said before I passed out." Michonne said, now looking away from Rick and getting up off of the bed. She walked over to the window. Michonne could see the building that housed the telltale cells that Negan used to live in. He had lived over there for about as long as Rick had been gone from their lives.
Maybe Rick was right. Of course Rick was right! Negan was getting back at them for his incarceration. None of what he had said was true.
Rick walked over to Michonne and reached for her. He turned her away from the window and back towards him.
"I'm going to deal with this, okay? Annie is over there talking to her 'husband' now. I'll let him out so he can get tested and once that's done, Maggie is going to tell the New Babylon marshals where to find him."
"Maggie is here?" Michonne asked.
"Yes. I want you to just rest, okay?" Rick suggested. He cradled her face within his hands, then kissed her forehead softly before letting her go and leaving the room. Michonne stared at the closed door Rick had just left through, for what seemed like an eternity, before she slowly walked back over to the bed and sat down on the edge of it.
There was no way Negan could know about Mike and Terry. There was no way Negan could know about that at all, unless someone had told him. And what if Negan was telling the truth about Andre? What if her son had been alive all of these years?
Michonne felt a chill run through her body and she now laid down on the bed. Negan had said there had been video of her killing Mike and Terry. That meant there was footage of Andre or a baby that she thought was Andre, being eaten. If any of that was true, then her now sixteen year old son, knew she had killed his father. And worse yet, it was on video somewhere.
Annie was the first person Negan saw, after awakening from being knocked out by Rick. He slowly sat up on his cot and stared at the wife he had not lain eyes on in years.
"Hey!" Negan half croaked softly. Annie was sitting in a chair in front of his cell with her arms folded. Needless to say, her expression was not what one would call, welcoming.
"I'm not going to ask you, how you could have been within the Commonwealth, all of this time, and not come to Joshua and myself. You should have gotten tested the moment you arrived there." Annie said in a scolding tone.
"You know why I couldn't." Negan said as his eyes almost bore through hers.
"Maggie is here. She is over at Rick and Michonne's house now. She doesn't think anyone is after you. She said one of the New Babylon Marshals, that the two of you ran in to in New York, stopped by the Hilltop and told her that he told his superiors that you were dead. This man didn't want Maggie worrying about the New Babylon people bothering her or Hershel." Annie said calmly.
"That Marshal's name was Perlie. And no, he was not believed. You know how I know that? Because someone told me." Negan sighed half tiredly, before dragging his eyes off of Annie's and looking around the cell that he had spent over six years in. Somehow, he wasn't surprised he was back here but of course, he had hoped for a better outcome when he broke into Alexandria the other night.
Annie now unfolded her arms and stood up. She walked over to the cell bars.
"This someone is the same person that told you about Joshua, didn't they?" she asked her husband, who stood up and walked to meet her at the cell bars.
"Yes." Negan replied, reaching a hand out from between the bars to entwine it within one of Annie's. But she pulled her hand away.
"So someone from New Babylon knew that I had returned to the area with our son? I don't get why we weren't killed before we got to the Commonwealth?"
"I think he saw that Joshua was sick. That and this kid isn't a snitch." Negan said.
"Kid?" Annie asked. What the hell was going on here? Something about all of this was connected to Michonne, otherwise Rick wouldn't have punched out Negan and thrown him in here!
"Annie, you remember when we got all of those auto parts to sell? At that old Midas store?" Negan asked his wife.
"How could I forget. I was trying to sell them that day in New Babylon." Annie said quietly. Neither of them spoke about the unspeakable thing that had happened to her that day. A day that changed everything between the two of them.
"You remember that kid we found there? The sick one?" Negan asked.
Annie stared at Negan for a moment, before slowly nodding. She hadn't thought about that part of the Midas store visit, in years. She and Negan had had Joshua with them, who had been just a baby back then. They had been surprised to find that the store had not been picked clean, when the sound of something akin to a moan, in the actual service garage part of the building, put them on guard. Negan and Annie, who had been carrying Joshua on a pack on her back, crept into the garage and found a boy. He couldn't have been any older than nine or ten. He was African-American and lying on an old, beat up looking, leather couch.
He also had the chickenpox.
Negan told her to take the jeep that they had come in, and to go back home. Neither Negan nor Annie, wanted Joshua to catch chickenpox and Negan had had them when he was a kid. Annie had as well, though her mother had actually had a 'Chickenpox Party', and invited some of the infected to a sleep over with Annie. Her rationale had been to infect Annie so she could hurry up and get the pox, then never get it again. Or at least that's what Annie had been told. She herself, now that she was a mother, would never have handled something like that, in that way.
Annie took Joshua and left like she was told. Negan was gone for like a week and a few days. He had said the kid's name was…
"His name had been Anton or something, right?" Annie asked.
"Andre. He said he had runaway from where he had been living. I assumed he had been talking about New Babylon." Negan answered.
Annie found herself wondering why she was just remembering such a strange event? Maybe it was because so much had happened, so quickly after the Midas store visit, that she had just put it out of her mind.
But Annie was beginning to remember some things. The main one being, that Negan was gone for a week and when he returned to her and Joshua, he said he had woken up and found that Andre had left. That he had just run off again. So Negan had returned home.
"What else, Negan? You found out something else about that child when you nursed him back to health, didn't you?" Annie asked, knowing that she was wasting precious time asking Negan all of this! Negan needed to be taken back to the Commonwealth to get tested for their son!
"Annie, I'm wanted for killing your attackers. Five men. I didn't kill five of them. I killed three. Andre killed the other two that got the jump on me." Negan said quietly.
Annie's mouth dropped open!
"And yet you took the blame for five? I don't understand…"
"Andre just came out of nowhere with a gun and killed two of them. Only I don't think he 'came out of nowhere'. I never got the how and why of his being in the right place, at the right time, to save my hide but he did. And he could shoot as good as Judith can…but that's another story. What I'm trying to say is, Andre had maps that he gave to me that were of 'hiding places'. Hiding places he had been in when he ran away from his home. Those Marshals were always after me. Always. It was a bitch to keep ahead of them. Those places kept me from being caught. They kept me a step ahead of New Babylon." Negan admitted.
"So when you found Andre gone from the Midas store, had he went back his real home?" Annie asked, trying to piece together out loud, what Negan was telling her.
Negan paused before answering.
"If I had to guess, I'd say yes. I remember that last day, I woke up to find him gone. But what woke me up, was the sound of a helicopter. I got up to go outside to check on it, but there were walkers outside of the front of the store. I packed up some stuff, went out the back and came back home to Joshua and you." Negan said quietly.
Annie now folded her arms again.
"So a helicopter picked up this boy? Was it from some kind of military organization? Ezekiel said that Rick was kept by some people like that? Was it them?" Annie asked.
"Yes," Negan said, " And Andre's adopted father was killed recently. He was a big shot in that CRM organization that kept Rick for six years. His adopted mother was Pamela Milton."
Annie now stared at Negan in shock, waiting for his next words to explain more about all of this, when Rick and Maggie entered the basement and hurried down the steps! They then stood by Annie and glared at Negan!
Maggie turned her stare from Negan and over at Annie.
"Ezekiel is waiting for you in the truck. You two are going to head back to the Commonwealth. Rick and I are going to bring Negan there ourselves." Maggie explained.
Annie took a deep breath and nodded. She looked from Maggie to Rick, who's eyes were solely on Negan. Negan nodded at her and Annie turned to leave. She hurried up the stairs, hoping against hope that whatever Maggie and Rick wanted to say to Negan, would not take too long. Joshua needed his father.
Once the door to the basement closed, Maggie turned back to Negan. Rick walked up to the cell bars.
"I should kill you right now." Rick began. "But your son's life hangs in the balance. Maggie and I are going to take you to the Commonwealth, get you tested, then you'll wait for the results in one of their cells."
"Who was the rape drug for?" Maggie asked in a hard tone. "Was it for Michonne?"
"Did Michonne tell you I drugged her?" Negan countered.
"No." Rick said. "She fainted. But you wouldn't have brought a drug like that here with you, while you squatted in our attic, unless you planned to use it on someone here at Alexandria."
"What did Michonne tell you?" Negan asked.
"That you told her some lie about her child being alive, after all of this time." Maggie said coolly.
"Yeah. That is what we talked about." Negan told her. He then looked at Rick.
"I'm not saying anything more to either of you. Michonne is the one that needs to know what I didn't get to finish telling her." Negan said firmly.
"You told her enough. Especially that crap about the supposed CRM connection. I saw Beale plenty of times and I never saw him with a kid." Rick told him.
"But Andre saw you." Negan countered, his manner borderline smarmy, "and he said you were close with some woman named Sergeant Major Thorne. Between her and that garbage pail chick, you couldn't be bothered to find your way back home, could you, Rick?"
Rick rushed the cage and grabbed onto the front of Negan's t-shirt! Goddamn him! Rick had known the moment he came back home here, and heard that this sonofabitch had been freed from this cell, that it would lead to no good!
Maggie pried Rick's fingers off of Negan's shirt and told him to go be with Michonne! She also told him to send Darryl and Aaron over, since it was time to take Negan back to the Commonwealth. Rick slowly backed away, shaking his head at Negan, before turning to hurry up the steps and slam out of the basement! Once Rick was gone, Maggie turned back to Negan.
"It's just you and me now. What are you up to?" Maggie asked.
"Oh the time for us to be fake friends is over, Maggie. Long past over. After what you did in New York. So you can get the fuck out of here and send Michonne over here. I have more to tell her." Negan said with a grin.
"That's not happening." Maggie countered.
"Whether or not Michonne comes over here to talk to me, isn't up to you or Rick. It's up to Michonne. And the sooner she comes over here and hears the whole story, the sooner we can get to the Commonwealth."
"You would actually waste time here, lying to Michonne, over going to the Commonwealth to help your son?" Maggie asked in disbelief. Good God! As much as she loathed Negan, there was a part of her that had been fooled into thinking, that he might've actually cared for Annie and Joshua. Was she wrong about that?
Maybe. But Maggie felt she was right, as well. She was looking at a man that was right where he belonged. Behind bars and locked away so he could never hurt anyone ever again.
Michonne found herself staring out of the window down below, again. She saw Rick skulk away from the detainment cells alone. That meant Maggie was still down there with Negan.
The door to the room opened and Carol walked in. She closed the door gently behind her and stood there. Michonne turned away from the window completely and faced her friend.
Carol spoke first.
"Rick told us what Negan told you. Rick thinks this is Negan getting back at him for keeping him locked up. I don't think Darryl believes that but he isn't saying much. I think you wouldn't still be up here, if you didn't believe Negan was telling the truth about your son being alive."
"I believe him. I want to say I don't know why, but I do. It's because of Judith and how Negan protected the kids here at Alexandria, then had a child of his own that he was forced to leave…I just don't think he'd come back here with this story unless…" Michonne trailed off.
"What?" Carol asked.
"Negan said that he made a deal with Pamela Milton. And I think that deal had to do with Andre and myself." Michonne said in a hollow tone.
Carol moved closer to Michonne.
"Rick said that the father of your child had something to do with your son's death?" Carol asked. She could not help thinking of her own harrowing marriage to Ed. Ed and what happened to Sophia. She too had lost a child, though Carol did not know what she would have done if Ed had been responsible in anyway for Sophia's death.
"Things weren't great between Mike and I before this world came to be. I had forgotten that. I had forgotten because I met Rick and Carl and being with them made me forget that I was ever sad, even once." Michonne whispered.
"Rick and Maggie are going to take Negan to the Commonwealth. I'm going to go too. I'm going to get some answers out of Pamela and find out what she's up to." Carol revealed.
Michonne looked over by her dresser. Her katana was sitting there. Rick had gotten her katana back from Negan when he tried to leave here. Carol watched Michonne look at it.
"Darryl got it out of Negan's hands before he could climb out of the attic window." Carol told her.
Michonne tore her eyes off of her sword, then looked directly at Carol.
"I'm going to go and see Negan. Alone." Michonne said and walked over to the dresser to pick up her katana. She held it tightly as she walked past Carol and out of her bedroom.