COMMONWEALTH-
New Babylon Marshal, Perlie Armstrong, slowly opened his eyes and tried to make sense of the dream he had just had. In it, two helicopters peppered the town he lived in with his three daughters, Marjorie, Bess and Dessie, with machine gun fire. He himself had been returning from a failed capture, the subject supposedly had been a man named Heath, someone who had wandered into the community about a year ago. He had amnesia and didn't remember where he had come from.
But apparently, he had learned how to steal. And kill. This Heath, who Perlie had seen around New Babylon, had robbed the town hospital of drugs and killed a nurse that had tried to stop him.
Heath's trail had went cold. Perlie had gotten good intel that this fugitive was down South and possibly staying in a dilapidated prison. But when Perlie got there, he found nothing but walkers. If this Heath had actually been living there, he would not have survived a night.
Perlie now understood that he had not been dreaming. And he slowly realized this, as he became more and more awake. Once he was fully aware of his surroundings, the stark reality of what had happened to him, New Babylon and his daughters, almost pounded into his head.
Perlie had just driven past the New Babylon town sign when it started. The murderous attack. When the sky began to rain bullets and Perlie turned his car around and sped off!
But one of the unforgiving helicopters, caught sight of him and fired on his car. Perlie ended up going down a wooded incline and crashing into a tree! He got out, wounded, and carefully made his way back to New Babylon, to help his daughters, Marjorie, Bess and Dessie.
Or he tried to.
He had been hurt worse than he thought and he passed out. And before Perlie passed out, he apparently slid down a hill.
When he awoke, Perlie spotted a crow staring at him. It hopped over to peck on him and he knew he had to get up and out of there! Perlie gingerly stood and made his way out of the woods and into the middle of the road. A car had been approaching! A car that began to fade from his view as he passed out again…
But now here he was. Not dead. And he was in what looked to be a hospital room. A good sized room, truth be told.
The door to the room he was in opened, and he saw Maggie Rhee enter and hurriedly set down a cup of coffee on a nearby table! She then eased over to him.
"Perlie! Thank God you're awake!"
"Maggie!" he croaked. His throat hurt.
"Don't try and talk! I'm going to get Dr. Okumura." Maggie said.
But Perlie grabbed Maggie's hand!
"My girls…I have to go back for them…" he rasped.
Maggie slowly disentangled her hand from his. She was not about to tell him that his daughters were probably dead. Though there was always a chance that Perlie wasn't the only survivor of the New Babylon massacre.
"Just rest, Perlie." Maggie said softly.
"Where are we?" he whispered.
"We're in a community called The Commonwealth. And they have great medical care." Maggie told him. "Now I'm going to get the doctor, okay?"
Perlie nodded slowly and Maggie hurried from the room! She got on the elevator and hit the floor below. She knew Dr. Okumura was probably with Pamela and Joshua after their transplant surgery…
When the doors opened, Maggie was treated to the 'wonderful' sight of Negan going off on Dr. Okumura, Annie and Ezekiel! Her heart actually dropped! Joshua had died. That had to be it, otherwise Negan would not be in such a lather.
"Mr. Smith," Tomi said calmly, "time is of the essence here. I can't just roll you into surgery and give one of your kidney's to your son. I don't know that you would be a match! But we do know that Michonne Grimes is."
"I'm his father! Of course I'm a fucking match!" Negan snapped.
"Negan," Annie hissed, "you are making things worse here! Dr. Okumura said he can keep Joshua comfortable until we get Michonne here!"
Negan turned to face both Annie and Ezekiel!
"The two of you were off fucking around while MY son was dying! And if Joshua doesn't survive this, I will make damned sure that neither one of you survives! Are we clear, King Ass Face and Wife?"
Ezekiel backhanded Negan for the second time in twelve hours, and Dr. Okumura, along with a small security team, had to break the two men up when Negan leaped at Ezekiel!
Maggie turned and got back into the elevator again! She then went back up to Perlie's floor, went inside his room and saw he was asleep. Maggie reached for the walkie talkie she had left in there, along with her jacket, and returned to the hallway. She then began to try and reach Rick at Alexandria.
ALEXANDRIA-
Rick was stirring batter for pancakes, when the walkie talkie, that was sitting on the kitchen counter, began to crackle in earnest.
Then Maggie's voice came through, clear as a bell.
RJ and Hershel were playing a video game and Judith and Gracie were upstairs someplace. Rick set down the batter and picked up the walkie talkie.
"Maggie? What's wrong?" Rick asked.
"Rick? I need to talk to Michonne." Maggie said. Both Hershel and RJ paused the game and listened in.
"Michonne is on her way to the Commonwealth. I couldn't stop her after what I told her about Andre. What's wrong?" Rick asked again.
"Perlie is awake. I went down to get Tomi and found out that Joshua's kidney transplant failed." Maggie said with regret.
"What?" Rick asked. Somehow, that scenario had never crossed his mind. Everything seemed like it was going to be fine now for Negan's son.
"Yes. And that isn't all. I overheard Tomi telling Negan, Annie and Ezekiel, that Michonne tested positive as a donor for Joshua. They want to do another transplant ASAP and Negan is going to ask Andre to send a helicopter to pick Michonne up." Maggie warned.
Rick wanted to go after Michonne to stop her. He wanted to stop her and tell her not to go through with the operation. Rick's eyes met RJ's and Hershel's and he answered Maggie.
"I'm on my way there. I'll have Darryl and Carol stay with the kids." Rick said.
"I'll tell Annie and Negan that Michonne is on her way." Maggie replied. She could feel Rick's unhappiness over the transplant matter, coming through the airwaves. But Maggie couldn't see Michonne not helping Joshua. That just wasn't her.
"You tell Michonne when she gets there that I'M on my way too." Rick told her before signing off. He set the walkie talkie back on the counter and stared over at RJ and Hershel, who were now looking at him. Michonne had a walkie talkie in the car she had taken, but right now, in this moment, Rick did not trust himself to tell her what would be expected of her. And that was because he didn't want to tell his wife, that he wanted her to turn around and come back to Alexandria.
"Dad?" RJ asked. "What's going on?"
"My mother mentioned Perlie? He's at the Commonwealth too?" Hershel asked.
"RJ, go and get Judith and Gracie. We're all going to have a talk about where I was yesterday and some things that happened." Rick told his son.
RJ got up and hurried up with stairs! Hershel set down one of the controllers and began asking some questions.
"I know who Perlie is, Mr. Grimes. So is he going to take Negan back to New Babylon?" Hershel asked.
Rick clenched his jaw. He wanted all the kids together when he started this conversation. But he found he could not resist telling Hershel some hard truths.
"Everyone at New Babylon is dead. And it was done to protect Negan." Rick said firmly.
"I don't understand," Hershel said, "why would someone kill a whole community to help Negan?"
"Let me ask you something instead: did Michonne say anything about what was going on when we locked Negan up here?" Rick asked him.
Hershel nodded.
"She said that Negan told her that her son was alive. She said that she thought he had died. Negan is saying that he is alive and no one knows whether to believe him or not." Hershel told him.
"Hershel, you know that I had a son that died, right?"
Hershel nodded slowly.
"Yes. His name was Carl." Hershel said quietly. He had seen a picture of him holding Judith when she was a baby. Carl had had one eye.
Rick moved closer to him.
"Carl believed that Negan could change. He didn't want me to kill him when I should have. I let Negan live after our war with him because my son's death was still fresh. I wanted to honor Carl in some way…but it is a hell of a thing to try and to do what someone wanted, that is no longer here. Sometimes you can, and something you can't. I knew in my gut Carl was wrong about Negan but I wanted to make my son happy—even in death." Rick told Hershel.
Hershel said nothing to that so Rick continued on.
"Your mother doesn't just want Negan dead because of what he did to your father. And others. Many others. If Negan is not stopped, he will ruin what we have here. He will ruin what your mother has tried to do with the Hilltop and given time, he will ruin the Commonwealth. This boy who is claiming to be Mchonne's son…"
"Andre." Hershel said.
"Yes. Andre. He's going to learn the hard way, just like Carl did, that Negan is no damned good. And it isn't possible for him to change."
"Because of what he did to my father and Carl's eye?" Hershel asked.
"Carl's eye?" Rick asked, surprised.
"I've seen a picture of Carl. He had an eyepatch. Negan took out his eye and he died, right?"
Rick's mouth dropped open!
"No!" he snapped. "Carl was bit! Who told you he died because of his eye?"
Hershel was not about to rat on RJ! Instead, he just shrugged.
"I just assumed it. I'm sorry, Mr. Grimes."
Rick was thinking that if Glenn were alive, he'd give his son a good talking to! He looked away from Hershel and up the staircase. What was taking RJ so long? Where were Judith and Gracie?
Where Judith and Gracie were, was the Grimes attic! And they had found Negan's diary!
The girls were reading about Negan's thoughts on his 'Savior Years' and about his lost daughter, Emily. It didn't take Judith long to understand that Negan seemed to feel that 'Emily' lived at Alexandria!
Gracie thought that too, but couldn't follow what Negan was saying that well. Or maybe she was just bored.
"Judith, let's go back to that part about the naked bald Whisperer he was in the woods with." Gracie suggested. Judith nodded and flipped many pages until they found the passage Gracie was referring to…
Suddenly, the door to the attack opened quickly and RJ ran up the stairs! Judith was so startled by her brother's sudden appearance, that she almost dropped the diary!
RJ eyed the girls with suspicion!
"Dad wants the both of you downstairs. Maggie contacted him on the walkie talkie. It sounds like Negan's son isn't doing so well and Mom is the only one that can help."
The girls just stared at RJ and he noticed what they were holding.
"What is that?" RJ asked.
"Negan's diary." Judith said. "We were just reading it. You keep your mouth shut about it to Daddy."
"Is there anything about us in it?" RJ asked.
"We've been skipping around," Gracie admitted, "but Negan has a daughter that lived here."
"What?" RJ asked. "When? Before I was born?"
"It looks that way. Her name was Emily. She might have died." Gracie said somberly.
Judith said nothing to that. Personally, she thought that Negan might have went crazy being locked up like that. So crazy that he just THOUGHT he had a daughter. No one named Emily has ever been here, as far as Judith could remember.
"I don't remember anyone by that name living here. But Daddy or Mom might. I think Negan was just crazy back then." Judith said.
"I will ask my father about it too." Gracie said.
"I don't know," RJ said, "maybe we shouldn't say anything at all. And maybe we should hide that. Dad's already in a mood today. If he finds out we've been reading something of Negan's, we could get into more trouble."
Judith nodded. RJ was right. For once. They were still sort of grounded for not telling their parents about Hersel's living with them secretly. But it was also clear that the news about their mother's other son, Andre, had made their father forget about grounding them. For now. This diary could bring all that up again.
"It might be safer at my house." Gracie announced.
"Okay but we leave it up here, under some of this junk for now. Then before you leave, we come up here and you smuggle it out of here." Judith told her friend. Gracie nodded in agreement, as Judith hid Negan's diary in some open, unpacked box, then turned to follow Gracie and RJ down the stairs and out of the attic.
Michonne was deep in thought as she drove to the Commonwealth. When her mind was not on Andre, and whether she'd know him on sight because he looked like Mike, herself, or some other lost relative, she was thinking about New Babylon. Michonne found herself pulling over and looking at a map. She knew that New Babylon used to be a community called 'Maple Dale'. Michonne could see that this 'Maple Dale' was even further away than the Commonwealth.
If she skipped the Commonwealth and went to New Babylon to get a sense of what happened there, and help any survivors, she would then have to wait until tomorrow to see Andre. Her son. The person that Rick, Darryl, Carol and Aaron, seemed to believe ordered a mass killing of everyone at New Babylon.
She decided to go to the Commonwealth. Maybe she could talk to this Perlie guy, that Maggie and Negan knew, and find out if the officials at New Babylon had been allies of the CRM or not?
Michonne folded up the map and set it on the passenger side seat. She was about to start the car again when a noise made her pause. A faint noise that sounded familiar. And not in a good way.
It did not take Michonne long to realize that what she was hearing, was a helicopter. Michonne was about to start the car again, when her walkie talkie crackled and Maggie's voice came through on it! Michonne picked it up and answered.
"Maggie? What's happened?" Michonne asked, bracing herself to hear something terrible.
She was right to do so.
"Joshua is rejecting Pamela's kidney. Annie is distraught and Negan is about to lose it. He wanted to just have Dr. Okumura take his kidney without knowing whether it was truly compatible or not. Chances are it is, but in a case like this, Dr. Okumura has to be sure." Maggie said.
"Plenty of people were tested," Michonne noted, "surely one of them…"
"Michonne, you are coming up a match. Negan asked Andre to have a helicopter sent to Alexandria to pick you up. I told them you were already on your way here. I talked to Rick."
"So Rick knows I am a match for Joshua?"
"Yes." Maggie told her. "I thought you were at home. I take it you're coming here to see Andre?"
"It looks like I'm going there to see him…among other things. I can hear a helicopter so I guess that's my ride." Michonne sighed.
"Rick is on his way here as well." Maggie added.
"I'm not surprised. And he's not coming to talk me out of what I'm going to do, so much as watch much my back while I do it." Michonne said, just as the CRM helicopter landed in the road. Negan got out and began walking towards the car.
"Negan has arrived looking very much like he belongs with the CRM. I was hoping maybe to see Andre." Michonne found herself saying.
"You will see him soon enough. Michonne…he seems kind of…"
"Hostile?" Michonne asked.
"Among other things."
"We'll talk when I get there." Michonne told her and signed off. She got out of the car just as Negan reached it. He stood in front of her and his face wore an expression that Michonne could not quite describe. It was sort of a mixture of despair and…
Maybe it was just despair.
"You know, don't you?!" Negan shouted above the roar of the helicopter.
Michonne nodded.
"I need to get some things out of the car! Then we'll go!" she shouted back. Negan looked in the car and did not see Michonne's sword. So he did nothing to stop her as she opened up the car door, took out a small pack of supplies and then closed the door again. The roar of the helicopter was attracting walkers, so they ran to it quickly, with Negan opening the door for her, before getting in behind her. Seconds later, the pilot lifted into the air and took off.
"Thank you. For doing this." Negan began.
Michonne nodded shortly but said nothing. Negan tilted his head.
"I know Rick must have told you about Andre and what went down here."
Michonne, who had been staring at the back of the pilot's head, looked at Negan.
"I read your diary. I can't believe you pulled my son into your bullshit with New Babylon!"
"My wife being gang raped is bullshit to you?" Negan asked in a daring tone.
"No. Of course not. But you should have left Andre out of it."
"I TRIED! I told him to go back to the car, but he didn't! He had my back and a machete with him! The first guy killed was by me. I killed him alone but Andre watched." Negan admitted.
Michonne did not respond as she tried to visualize her son, at ten, holding a machete.
"Michonne, whether you like it or not, Andre is very much…a 'law and order' type of kid. This Beale and Pamela raised him a certain way. He can take care of himself." Negan told her.
Michonne looked at him.
"Why don't I feel better then?" she asked sarcastically.
"That day at the refugee camp could've went a whole other way." Negan told her. "Pamela could have never shown up and walkers could have burst into that closet and killed Andre. He's alive and he did not have to survive alone."
Michonne decided to change the subject. There was no point in anyone telling her about what Andre was like. She would just have to find out on her own.
"Maggie told me you tried to offer yourself as a match for Joshua?" Michonne asked.
Negan bowed his head but said nothing.
"You know that if you had turned out to not be a match, Joshua would have then had to prepare for a third surgery. This way is best." Michonne told him. Negan lifted his head and nodded. He then reached for her hand, brought it to his lips and kissed it.
Michonne slowly pulled her hand from his and said nothing about the way he had thanked her. But Negan began talking again.
"You know…I found out about Joshua's failed transplant alone. Annie was off fucking Ezekiel. They just disappeared and then returned looking guiltier as shit. And I was feeling…alone. I mean my plans were to return to my family but Annie isn't ready for that right now. I guess. But then Tomi told me that you were the match and that seemed…right. It made sense, Michonne. You can do anything. You have survived everything and you did the impossible. You brought Rick back from the dead. I now know that everything will be fine."
Michonne did not know how to respond to his words. She had did what she had to do. But Negan made it sound as if she were made from some higher power or something.
She looked away from him as the helicopter neared the hospital and began to land on top of the roof. She felt her stomach flutter with panic! She was just moments away from seeing Andre again. She was just moments away from explaining how, and why, they had been separated from one another as mother and son.
Michonne was just moments away from explaining why she killed his real father for no reason, though she thought she had had one, at the time.
Negan's eyes were on her as she was silently contemplating.
"He doesn't know you. Once he knows you. He will love you." Negan said as the helicopter landed and he got out. Michonne climbed out after him. She walked to the roof top door and opened it, while Negan nodded to the pilot. The helicopter lifted up into the air and flew off.
Negan turned to face Michonne, who had slowly stepped inside and began to walk down a set of stairs. He waited until the doors closed and uttered the remaining words he could not say to her, while she was still on the roof.
"I already do." Negan said, before hurrying towards the roof top door and opening it. He was going to have to serve as a buffer between Michonne and Andre, before she saved Joshua.