Hershel made his way up the attic staircase and faced Rick.

"Mr. Grimes? RJ said you wanted to see me? Is this where you want me to sleep when I'm here?" Hershel asked, taking note of the sleeping bag on the floor.

"Yeah, I did want to speak with you." Rick said quietly. "I need to know how long you've really been here with us? Did you really just come last night? Or were you here even longer than we knew? Have you been hiding out up here?"

Rick knew on some level that what he was asking was ridiculous. Maggie would have known if her son had been gone for more than one night. And yet, he did have to ask.

Hershel caught his meaning immediately and his mouth almost dropped open!

"You think that sleeping bag and all that crap down there are mine?!" Hershel shrieked.

Judith now hurried up the staircase, followed by RJ!

"Daddy, Hershel showed up last night! And he slept on the floor in my room! He's never been up here!"

"I've never been up here, Mr. Grimes!" Hershel told Rick in a firm, tone of voice.

Rick stared at Hershel briefly, before looking down at all of the junk that the 'attic squatter' had brought with him. No, his gut told him that Hershel was not the person secretly living with them. But Rick did think that this squatter and Hershel, showed up around the same time.

"How'd you get here last night?" Rick asked Hershel.

"What do you mean?" Hershel asked.

"I mean, Hershel, how did you get to Alexandria from the Hilltop? Your mother said you didn't take one of the vehicles from there." Rick told him.

When Hershel did not answer right away, even Judith and RJ looked suspicious! Judith could drive a little and RJ not at all, though he planned to ask his father if he could start driving as well.

"Hershel?" Judith asked, taking up the questioning. "Did you walk here all the way from the Hilltop?"

"No." Hershel said.

"Someone brought you here, didn't they? That's the only thing that makes sense." Rick said quietly.

"Was it someone from Oceanside?" Judith asked.

Hershel took a deep breath.

"It was Negan. I was walking along, he pulled up beside me and gave me a ride here." he admitted.

Judith's eyes left Hershel's and met her father's. Rick was oddly calm looking.

"He dropped you off and Darryl didn't see you?" Rick asked, sensing there was more to this story. That and he felt a sort of relief hearing Negan's name. He KNEW he had been right about him! Rick had not been able to shake the feeling, ever since he heard about Negan's 'marriage', and his son's illness, that he would be seeing that bastard again, sooner rather than later.

Judith noticed that Hershel had not answered her father's question yet. Her eyes began to wander around the attic and stopped at the sleeping bag and other supplies that were on the floor. Hershel's getting a ride from someone last night, did not explain who was living in their attic.

"Hershel? How come Darryl didn't see you coming?" Rick asked again, not liking Hershel's slowness to answer.

"Because Negan let me out back down the road, before the gate. I got out and found a breach in the barrier. Darryl never saw me." Hershel said.

"So then Negan turned around and headed where? How come he's not at the Commonwealth helping his son?" Rick wondered out loud to himself.

"Maybe his car broke down?" Judith offered, but when she looked at Hershel, his facial expression was just…off.

"I saw Negan later." Hershel admitted. Rick eyed Judith before responding.

"You saw him after you slipped into Alexandria?" Rick asked. But he knew he didn't have to ask. Goddamnit, he knew what was coming…

"I saw him climbing up the side of your house as I approached it. I don't think he knew I saw him. I waited underneath one of the cars like Judith told me to, until I saw your porch light go out." Hershel said and Rick gave Judith an accusatory look!

"Judith, you could have asked your mother and I…"

"I did!" Judith protested. "And I assumed you'd say yes! When you said no, I had to get RJ to slip Hershel a message…"

But RJ was no longer by Judith's side! Sensing he was about to be ratted on for his part in all of this, young Mr. Grimes had slipped back down the attic steps!

"RJ!" Rick yelled. "Get up here!"

It took longer than it should have for him to return. And when RJ returned to the attic he was not alone. Carol was with him.

"Rick? RJ said you found someone living up here? I'll get Aaron and we'll question some of the kids…" Carol began.

But Rick interrupted her.

"It's Negan. Hershel saw him climbing the trellis to get in here. Judith, RJ, you're both grounded! Hershel leaves, and your mother and I will decide appropriate punishments for you both!"

RJ didn't like hearing that at all!

"That's not fair!" RJ yelled. "It was Judith's idea to let Hershel stay here! I had nothing to do with any of this!"

"You should have told me about Hershel! And don't yell at me!" Rick snapped at him before looking at Judith.

"Whether you meant to or not, you brought a predator into our home. Hershel, I'm driving you back to the Hilltop. You knew that bastard was living here and you said nothing! Did you give him the left overs from our dinner I see on the floor here?!" Rick asked, practically seething.

"No, Mr. Grimes! I wouldn't do that! I figured he left…I mean I never saw him inside the house…" Hershel stammered. Negan wasn't here now! He'd clearly gone someplace!

"But RJ heard him! That's why we came up here! RJ heard moving around and I thought we had rats! But I found out we had something worse!" Rick yelled.

Carol could see that Rick was losing it, if he hadn't already.

"Okay, we'll begin a search of the grounds. He has to be here someplace. If his stuff is still here then he couldn't have went far." Carol said, quietly cursing Negan for not just heading to the Commonwealth to be with Joshua and Annie! What in the living hell was he doing here, hiding out in Rick and Michonne's house?

Carol's calm, made Rick suddenly become calm. He was still quite angry at how any of the kids here, could've thought it was alright not to say anything about people sneaking into their home? Hershel being here was one thing, but Negan?

"Kids, I need to talk to Carol. Alone." Rick said and Hershel, Judith and RJ, gladly left the attic, knowing that this wasn't the end of things. RJ was the last one down the attic stairs and he slammed the door behind him!

"Look," RJ said, "I like you, Hershel. And I get it that your mom sucks. But you're going to have to go home. Sorry."

"Uh, who are you to tell MY guest that he has to go home?" Judith argued.

"You see the trouble he caused here? You let Negan break into our house? How come you didn't say something?" RJ asked Hershel.

Judith could not argue her brother's point and she faced Hershel.

"Why, Hershel?" Judith asked.

"He's saved you once, Judith. You told me so yourself. That man that kidnapped me a couple of months ago…he did that to get to Negan. He didn't have to come find me. Negan walked into the guy's trap."

"He killed your father." Judith said. "I know you never knew him but I had to have. I don't remember him, but my parents loved him. I get where you're coming from sometimes, but I would have said something if I knew someone was living in your attic at the Hilltop. You should have said something."

"Now Dad's going to say something to your mother." RJ reminded Hershel.

"I know. I'm going to head to the Commonwealth and see if they'll take me in." Hershel revealed. He didn't know what it was, except that he couldn't take his mother going on and on about Negan, once she found out about all of this. There had been a brief moment between them, when he thought his mother would try to see him when she looked at him. She would see him and not Negan, or his father… or his father being killed by Negan.

But the peace did not last long. One day, a wanderer came to the Hilltop gates, and someone commented how much he looked like Negan. Hershel had not thought so, personally.

Maggie apparently did. She kicked the wanderer in the face, and told him to go elsewhere or to hell! There were some that thought that Maggie was a bit hard on the guy, but they understood, since again, the guy supposedly looked like Negan.

But there were others did not really understand, since the man had said he was a doctor. They could use a doctor at the Hilltop.

But no, because he looked like Negan, he had to go. Hershel realized in that moment, that he had to leave. Maybe if his mother didn't see him all the time, she wouldn't think she had to look out for him every day, and protect him from 'Negan Lookalikes'.

Last night, when Hershel saw Negan climbing the trellis, there was a moment when he hoped that he was not seeing Negan. He hoped that that the guy he was looking at was 'Lookalike Negan'. Hershel had hoped he was the man that his mother had unfairly refused to give refuge to at the Hilltop.

Judith could not say that she understood exactly what Hershel was going through. Yes, she had thought Rick had died but her mother found him and brought him back. Maggie couldn't do the same for Hershel. She couldn't go find Glenn and bring him back. He was really dead.

The sound of two doors slamming outside got their attention, and RJ rushed over to a hallway window and looked out! His mother and Darryl were back, thank God! Maybe now they wouldn't be grounded!

Carol held up the bottle of Rohypnol that Rick had handed to her, and she looked over the non prescription label, before handing it back to Rick.

"I don't know what to think," Carol began, "because Negan has never been known for raping anyone."

"The hell he hasn't." Rick said calmly. "That forced wife shit he had going on at the Sanctuary, was nothing but pure rape. And God knows what he did to Sasha before he killed her."

Carol didn't respond to that last part about Sasha. She and Eugene had talked later on after their war with Negan ended. He had admitted to giving Sasha something to take, so that she would be dead when Negan opened up that coffin. She had refused to be used as any kind of pawn against Alexandria. But Carol knew that Rick was not of the mind to hear anything like that now.

"Okay, but this drug also knocks out people for other reasons. Maybe that's what Negan was using it for. Or maybe he was planning on trading it for something else." Carol speculated.

"My wife and daughter are here, unknowingly living with someone who has that drug on them! Negan's already been in our food without us knowing about it. He's here to use that drug on someone in this house. I know it." Rick told her.

It was at that moment that they heard two car doors slam! Rick and Carol hurried over to the attic window and saw Michonne and Darryl walking towards the house.

Carol tore her eyes off of them and looked at Rick.

"Let's go down and give them the bad news. We'll have to let Maggie know what's happening as well." she said and headed down the steps and out of the attic. Rick however, continued to stare at Michonne and Darryl as they neared the house. He also watched as RJ, Judith and Hershel suddenly appeared outside and headed towards them, probably to announce the bad news before Carol could.

Rick was about to turn away when his eye caught something else: there was some kind of movement near the truck. Something was coming out from underneath it. Or at least that's what it had looked like for a moment. Rick tiredly rubbed his eyes for a moment and stared back down at the truck.

Nothing.

Rick turned away from the window with determination and moved towards the stairs. He kicked at Negan's sleeping bag in passing, before hurrying down the steps. He failed to notice that the movement of the telltale sleeping bag, dislodged something that had been underneath it.

It was a diary.

THE HILLTOP-

Ezekiel and Annie were the last people Maggie expected to see, as she sat at her desk. She had been looking at a map of some towns that Hershel had returned with, after his abduction. It had been configured by The Croat.

Maggie didn't have to wonder why Hershel had such a thing with him. She knew she did not have long before her son would leave on his own. Leave and try his luck in one of these other places on this map. Places that weren't truly free. He had already begun to spread his wings by leaving to stay at Alexandria.

She was thinking along those lines when Lydia walked in with Ezekiel and Annie! Maggie put the map in a desk drawer and smiled at Ezekiel, getting up to walk from around the desk to hug him.

"Ezekiel, it's good to see you!" Maggie breathed, holding him tightly for a moment, before letting him go to look at Annie.

"Annie. I heard about Joshua. How's he holding up?"

Annie did not ask why Maggie, nor any of her people, had dropped by the Commonwealth to get tested to be a kidney match. That would have been a bridge too far and Annie was fine with that.

"He's going to die without a kidney." Annie said in a soft, yet strong voice. "We need your help."

Maggie shook her head slightly.

"I don't know that I'd be a match…"

Ezekiel cut her off.

"This isn't about anyone from the Hilltop coming to the Commonwealth to help. This is about Negan. Michonne told us that he was hiding down in the detainment cells of the Commonwealth. When we went to look, he was gone. I know this is far-fetched but have you seen him?" Ezekiel asked.

"Maggie," Annie stressed, "you are the last person other than Michonne that has seen him in years. If you have any idea where to look for him, please, please tell us!"

Maggie was too shocked for words!

"Annie, I don't understand! What do you mean he was in the detainment cells? He was locked up there and no one knew? Zeke, you live there and you didn't know he was down there?" Maggie asked, horrified. What in the hell?

"Michonne told us that she found him down below having sex with Pamela Milton. Apparently, they struck some sort of deal that will keep the people that are after him, from coming after Annie or Joshua." Ezekiel explained.

"Michonne told you this? And how did she know to go down there and find Negan with Pamela?" Maggie asked, still not quite understanding what it was they were trying to tell her.

Ezekiel looked at Annie for a brief moment before returning his gaze to Maggie.

"Michonne and Darryl came to the Commonwealth to get tested. But that wasn't the only reason. Michonne went down to those cells to kill Pamela for shooting Judith. That was when she found her with Negan." Ezekiel said.

Maggie ran her hands down her face, shaking her head! She then looked to Annie.

"I'm sorry." she said quietly but Annie shook her head as well.

"This isn't about Negan and myself. That's over. I think he thinks that if he tests to help our son, before Pamela can fix his trouble with New Babylon and whoever else he might have pissed off, something bad could happen to Joshua or myself." Annie said.

Ezekiel pulled Annie close to him and spoke.

"We're saying that we'll worry about what's coming, later. Annie needs to tell Negan that."

"Michonne didn't explain that to him?" Maggie asked. She noticed a strange look come across Annie's face.

"What's wrong? Did Michonne make things worse by killing Pamela?" Maggie asked.

"Apparently, she didn't kill Pamela." Annie said shortly. "But her and my husband had a very long talk and apparently she, along with Darryl, were never going to tell anyone that he was in the Commonwealth, until I said I was going to look for him. When Ezekiel and myself went down to the detainment cells, Negan was gone."

Maggie said nothing to this as she digested some things: one being that Ezekiel and Annie seemed close, which may or may not go over well with Negan. Secondly, how had Negan gotten into the Commonwealth, much less the prison detainment cells, without anyone noticing?

And third, Michonne's handling of the whole thing was odd. The Michonne she knew, would have found a way to march Negan out of the cells and up to the hospital to help his son. And yet, Negan was not wrong. He was a wanted man. And between New Babylon, the fallout from The Croat debacle plus whatever new people Negan had pissed off, it might not be safe for Negan to show his face openly.

"I have not seen him, Annie. But I think the two of you need to return to the Commonwealth and stay with Joshua. I'll go to Alexandria and see what I can find out." Maggie said.

Annie eyed her.

"You think Rick knows something?" Annie asked.

"I doubt it. But he would want to help save Joshua. I just saw him earlier and we had a discussion about it." Maggie said. Ezekiel didn't offer much in the way of a comment, because he could just guess how that discussion went! The three of them, Maggie, Rick and himself, were once the leaders of their strongholds. Strongholds that Negan terrorized.

Now, he was the only one without a community that was truly his own. He was without a stronghold that he could shape and mold into his very own.

Ezekiel thought that Michonne's handling of finding Negan, was odd as well. Then again, Michonne could not admit that she was down there not to discover Negan, but to murder former Governor Pamela Milton.

Ezekiel came back to the here and now, when Maggie said something else to Annie.

"If I help you find Negan. He helps Joshua but then he has to die. Before he was wanted by New Babylon and anyone else, he was wanted by Alexandria, The Kingdom and the Hilltop. Negan helps his son and then Rick and I execute him." Maggie told them.

"Rick wouldn't agree to something like that. The man I knew wouldn't…" Annie trailed off. No one was the person they once were, once the world went crazy. Before it was ruled by the undead.

Maggie looked from Annie to Ezekiel.

"I didn't realize Annie had met Rick?" Maggie asked.

But it was Annie that answered.

"I used to be a Sheriff's Deputy, along side Rick Grimes and Shane Walsh. The Rick Grimes I knew, wouldn't let a child live his life without his father, all because of a personal grudge. We have ALL done things we had to do to survive." Annie said firmly.

"But Negan didn't 'have' to kill anyone. He wanted to. And if you want my help with this, then you will agree to my terms." Maggie said just as firmly.

Annie nodded quickly, before leaving the room. Ezekiel looked at Maggie.

"Rick will go along with this? You two are on the same page with this?" Ezekiel asked skeptically. The last time Rick had a chance to kill Negan, he didn't. And that had not been a popular decision.

"He will be. That I'm sure of." Maggie told him. She was now beginning to wonder if the mystery of who picked up Hershel and took him to Alexandria, and Negan's sudden reappearance, were related.

ALEXANDRIA-

It was decided that Hershel, Judith and RJ, were going to go to Aaron's house to do some school work with Gracie, while the adults talked over what was happening.

Although none of the kids liked that idea, they didn't dare get lippy about it. Just the very mention of Negan's name, usually put someone around here in a bad mood. And none of the kids wanted to be around that kind of vibe, so they left the Grimes house to go spend time with Aaron's daughter, Gracie.

Once the kids left, Rick and Carol listened as Michonne and Darryl spelled out what they had discovered at the Commonwealth. They listened and then Rick began to put the pieces together.

"So if we re-trace Negan's steps," Rick began, "he was headed to the Commonwealth to check in on his son, saw Hershel walking, picked him up, dropped him off far enough away from the gate so that Darryl didn't see him. Negan pretended to leave, didn't, got out, hid his car and then probably, came through the same breeched opening that Hershel did. Hershel waited under a car until RJ could tell him it was safe to sneak in and hide in Judith's room. Negan climbed up the side of the house, found the unlocked attic window, climbed in and stayed the night. At some point, he snuck downstairs and ate some of our leftovers."

Michonne, Darryl and Carol said nothing. Rick continued on.

"Last night, RJ hears a noise in the attic but thinks a box has fallen, or that we have rats. He tells me about it today and we both go up to the attic and find a sleeping bag, dirty magazines, our food half eaten and a date rape drug. I doubt that sonofabitch is going to leave either the dirty magazine or that drug, behind. I think Negan planned on using the Rohypnol on someone in this house."

Carol rubbed her chin and looked at Michonne.

"Ezekiel had no idea Negan was at the Commonwealth?" Carol asked her.

"He was in Pamela Milton's cell. And they were busy. Disgustingly so. Plus, this is Negan we're talking about. I could see his not being noticed at the Commonwealth. He lived there for a brief time. Chances are anyone that saw him, probably thought he had returned or something. What I don't get, is his dropping Hershel off and then staying in our attic." Michonne said.

Darryl put in his two cents.

"Why would Negan stay here at all?" Darryl asked. "He could have just dropped Hershel off and kept driving?"

"Maybe he was tired and needed a place to crash. And he probably didn't want to take the chance that the New Babylon marshals, would find out he was in the area." Carol said. "But then how and when did he get to the Commonwealth? If he spent last night here, and Michonne found him when she found him in that cell today, then Negan would have had to have left here when Michonne and Darryl did. That doesn't give him much time to sneak off to his hidden car, break in to the Commonwealth and then slither into Pamela Milton's jail cell."

Rick folded his arms and looked at Michonne. There was much more that he planned to say to her in private. He wasn't overly thrilled with her assassination plans, though her reasoning made sense. And Rick supposed that if Michonne had not went down to those cells, none of them would know just how slick Negan had been recently.

"So Negan's married to Deputy Ann Brown?" Rick asked casually.

Michonne gave him a cute smile!

"Yes. She remembered Shane and yourself. I got the feeling she was rather fond of you." Michonne replied in a knowing tone.

Rick rolled his eyes and Darryl snickered! But Carol saw something else in Rick's expression.

"What?" Carol asked. "Is there something else we need to know about Annie?"

"Nothing that matters anymore." Rick shrugged.

"Any woman stupid enough to marry Negan, is someone we need to know everything about." Michonne said wryly.

"Lori never liked her." Rick answered.

"Why?" Darryl asked, now curious.

"Annie was married at one time. She married someone who had saved her from getting run down by a car, back when they were kids." Rick said.

"So another kid saved Annie's life when she was a kid herself?" Michonne asked.

Rick nodded.

"Yeah, though her husband's first name escapes me now. The point is, that this kid was paralyzed after saving her. His parents died shortly after in a car accident and a local family took him in. They were a big, military family. I believe their last name was Rabinowitz. Anyway, he and Annie grow up, Annie marries the guy, who's last name she refuses to take, who was also wheelchair bound and it wasn't long before she began screwing Shane. There was an inquiry and Annie was suspended. She probably would have eventually been fired, if the world hadn't changed."

Carol and Michonne looked at one another, before Michonne spoke.

"Annie was suspended and not Shane?"

"I'm not saying it was right but yeah, just Annie. Her husband left her and moved out West someplace. The husband had an adopted sister that Lori was friends with. The sister gave Annie living hell for hurting her brother in that way." Rick remembered.

"And was Shane sorry at all?" Carol asked sarcastically.

"Shane was Shane." was all Rick said. "Not that any of that matters anymore. The point is Negan is living up in our attic. He's squatting in this stronghold and we need to find him."

Meanwhile, Negan had crawled out from under the truck Michonne and Darryl had been in, looked around and hurriedly made his way over to the side of Aaron's house! He climbed up the trellis until he stopped at a bedroom window! Hershel and RJ were inside, looking at comic books when they heard tapping! They looked over and RJ's mouth formed an 'O'.

Hershel walked over to the window and opened it! Negan hauled himself inside, closed the window and looked out of it down below, before turning to the boys!

"Hey! How's it going, RJ?" Negan asked with a grin.

"How it's going," Hershel answered, "is that Aaron is downstairs with Gracie and Judith. If he finds you here…"

"He won't! I was just dropping in to say 'hi' before heading off to where I've been staying." Negan answered casually.

Hershel and RJ looked at one another before facing Negan.

"You mean our attic?" RJ asked knowingly.

"Shit! You found my stuff?" Negan asked, thinking about his diary.

"Rick found a drug that you use on women when you want to rape them." Hershel told him. "You'd better get out of here."

"Yeah," RJ seconded, "and you'd better leave by the window."

"Look, boys, I need a place to stay so I can be near my son. He's sick and they're taking care of him over at the Commonwealth. But I can't stay there with him. Hershel, you know the kind of heat I have on me. RJ, I saw your mother at the Commonwealth today. She said it would be okay if I stayed in your attic but I had to keep it from your father." Negan lied.

RJ looked from Negan and over at Hershel. Hershel looked from Negan and over at RJ.

"Michonne said that it was okay for you to stay with them?" Hershel asked in a skeptical tone.

"Hershel, RJ, Michonne told me that right to my face. I'd swear it on my son's life." Negan said somberly.