COMMONWEALTH-
Michonne awoke to see Rick sitting in a chair next to her bed. He was reading a magazine when he noticed she had awakened. Rick put the magazine down and stood up to hover over her.
"You're awake. Finally." he said quietly.
"I'm sorry," Michonne whispered, "I know you didn't want me to go through with this…"
"Hush! It's done and Dr. Tomi says that Joshua seems to be doing fine. I know he'll be okay with your kidney." Rick smiled down at her.
Michonne smiled back, just as Dr. Tomi and a nurse entered the room. Dr. Tomi could not help but smile. He was tentatively pleased at how well Joshua seemed to be doing. And seeing Michonne awake and alert after making such a sacrifice, without hesitation, made him feel guilty. Whatever Pamela and Negan had in store for Mr. and Mrs. Grimes, he wanted no part of it. But how did he get out of messing up their lives, without ruining his own?
"Mr. Grimes, I'd like to examine your wife to make sure that she will recover smoothly. If you would step out into the hallway…"
"I'm staying." Rick said firmly. But Michonne smiled weakly at him.
"Go. Make sure that Judith and RJ are alright." she suggested.
Rick took a deep breath before answering that.
"I didn't bring them, honey. They're back at Alexandria."
Michonne looked puzzled!
"Rick, I'm going to be here for awhile. I can't be separated from the kids for a long time. Not again."
"I'll bring them when you're stronger, okay? I'm going to be out in the hallway." Rick told her and reluctantly left. He didn't like the look Michonne had just given him. His answer about Judith and RJ's absence had not been satisfactory. Rick could see that.
But Rick was not about to tell Michonne, just as she was waking up from surgery, that he was never bringing Judith and RJ here as long as Andre was on the grounds. Michonne would not like hearing what needed to be said, but her first born son was dangerous. And Rick refused to allow their children to be around Andre.
Rick found himself removing his scrub cap and wandering back towards the waiting area. Darryl and Maggie were sitting in an area talking. Rick didn't see anyone else, and it hit him that Annie was probably with Joshua.
Darryl and Maggie stood up and walked over to Rick.
"How is she?" Darryl asked.
"She just woke up." Rick informed them. "And she's wondering why Judith and RJ aren't here as well. I could not tell her about Andre, the murders or this stupid wedding I keep hearing about."
"I don't suppose Andre paid his real mother a visit while you were in with her?" Maggie asked sarcastically. She was so sorry for Michonne. This whole thing was a nightmare. Throw in Negan and it made this whole horrible situation never ending.
"I haven't seen him and if I had, I for damned sure wouldn't have let him in there with Michonne." Rick said in a matter-of-fact tone.
"I went to the government offices but Stephanie had left with Eugene. She is involved in this somehow. And I can tell that Eugene doesn't know what's going on. And that is bothering him." Maggie said.
Darryl nodded towards the elevator and the three of them watched as Michael Mercer, head of the Commonwealth Army and Eugene's brother-in-law, step off of the elevator and head towards them.
"Who's this?" Rick asked.
"He's Stephanie's brother, Mercer. There's no way Negan would have gotten in here with Mercer's knowing about it." Darryl said, just as the man himself, dressed in Commonwealth, orange and black, military gear, stood before the three of them.
Mercer nodded to Darryl and Maggie in recognition before addressing Rick.
"Mr. Smith is requesting that you leave the Commonwealth. He in no way wants his wedding to Governor Milton disrupted by you." Mercer said pointedly.
Oddly, Rick found himself momentarily confused as to who Mercer was referring to! But once he glanced at Darryl and Maggie's faces, that were lit up with disgust, Rick realized 'Mr. Smith' was Negan.
"I'll leave when my wife is well." Rick replied.
Mercer didn't like any of this shit! And the 'shit' had gotten worse than he could have ever imagined! It had begun with his just letting Negan in to see Milton. She had claimed she wanted to thank the man, that had looked out for Andre when he had run off years ago.
But Mercer knew that was complete bullshit! He himself could barely stand the sight of Negan, back when he was here when Milton was governor. Negan had a slick lip that he would've gladly, permanently closed shut!
And then there was the 'Andre Factor'. The boy had shown up in the Beale household, seemingly out of nowhere when the undead apocalypse began. But back then, children having no parents suddenly, wasn't such a shock or surprise. It still wasn't.
But if Mercer was honest with himself, he would admit that he had admired Major General Beale. After Stephanie and him lost their parents to this new world, the Major General and his wife, Pamela, were one of the few familiar ties to the past. Mercer had had begun Army training with Beale, until he was sent with Pamela and Sebastian to establish other strongholds in Pennsylvania and Ohio.
Sebastian would have stayed with his father, since Beale wanted to shape him up, but Pamela coddled him. And she knew that Sebastian did not have what it took to be any sort of military man.
The Major General knew that as well. That is why he spent all of his time and attention on Andre…and Mercer's sister, Stephanie…
Mercer came back to the here and now.
"Mr. Grimes, Mr. Smith wants you gone. I have been instructed to tell you that you can come back and visit your wife tomorrow, but you are to leave while the wedding and the reception are taking place." Mercer told Rick firmly.
"Reception?! Mercer, he's married already!" Maggie huffed. "You know this! Will Annie be asked to leave as well?"
Mercer gave Maggie a hard look.
"It is my understanding that Annie Smith has forsaken her marriage vows for Ezekiel." Mercer said.
"Just like Negan did when he fucked Pamela in those jail cells," Darryl reminded Mercer, "the ones you let him in to."
"Darryl, my hands are tied. Once Governor Milton and Negan are married, Stephanie will have to turn the reins back over to her."
"Why?" Rick asked. "I mean the people here seem to be doing fine under Stephanie. Do they really want Milton back as Governor?"
"Do they even know it's about to happen?" Darryl asked as well.
"Mercer," Maggie said calmly, "you know full well that Pamela Milton will not be 'governing' alone, if we let this marriage happen. Now we can't leave Michonne here when there is a killer loose. And I think you know who I'm talking about."
"How long have you known Andre Beale?" Rick asked.
Mercer looked at all three of them before answering.
"I will look into Marshall Perlie Armstrong's unfortunate death. Nothing will happen to your wife, Mr. Grimes, as long as she is within the Commonwealth. Neither Mr. Smith, nor Mr. Beale, would allow that to happen. Now if you will excuse me, I have to give the former Mrs. Smith, the same warning I have given you."
Rick, Darryl and Maggie looked at one another with surprise, before Rick addressed the 'elephant in the room'.
"Negan is having Annie put out of the Commonwealth during his wedding?" Rick asked, not knowing why he should be surprise that such an additional, horrible thing was being done here.
"Mr. Smith…Negan…wants his other wife to stay elsewhere during the wedding. She can return tomorrow to be with their son." Mercer revealed.
"Where the hell do you expect her to go?" Darryl asked quietly. "And without her child? She's not going to go."
Suddenly, at least five Commonwealth Army men, and one woman, stepped off of an elevator and arrived to stand behind Mercer!
"She is going to go, Darryl. As is Mr. Grimes and anyone else that Negan Smith has not invited." Mercer said.
"This is bullshit!" Darryl snapped. Maggie folded her arms!
"I want to talk to Negan! I can get him to change his mind." Maggie told Mercer.
"Fine. You have one hour." Mercer said. "And Negan is no longer in this hospital. He left to go talk to Father Gabriel about officiating the ceremony."
Maggie moved around the army troops and headed towards the elevator. Rick and Darryl moved away from them as well, and walked over towards a window.
"We're not leaving." Darryl told Rick.
But Rick didn't say anything.
"Rick? We're not going to let him throw us out of here! And you're quiet all of a sudden."
Rick glanced back at Mercer and his people, before lowering his voice.
"Something is getting ready to happen. I don't quite know what it is, but Negan needs for Annie and I to be gone for it to take place. He knows I couldn't care less about his marrying anyone! I don't like the feel of any of this and I'm not leaving Michonne. And I have no doubt that Annie will feel the same way. I say we go and find her and let her and Ezekiel know what's about to happen." Rick told Darryl.
Darryl nodded and they both turned and walked up to Mercer and his army.
"I need to tell my wife I'm leaving." Rick said. "I don't suppose Darryl can stay?"
Mercer took a deep breath.
"Darryl has been invited to the wedding." he replied. Darryl looked at Rick with surprise but Rick kept his facial expression nonchalant. He nodded his understanding and Mercer and his people moved aside, so that Rick and Darryl could go and tell Michonne about the change of plans.
As Rick and Darryl walked away, Darryl glanced back at Mercer and saw that his back was to them as he was talking to his army.
"You go and talk to Michonne. I'll tell Annie what's going to happen so that she can be prepared before Mercer gives her the news." Darryl said.
"You'll have to be quick. I'm sure throwing Annie out of here will be Mercer's next task." Rick predicted. He thought of Maggie and hated the idea of her begging Negan for any favors. He did not expect Negan to give in on this and Rick was prepared for that. Rick just had to figure out a way around him. And he would.
Rick watched Darryl head towards Joshua Smith's room. It was then that he decided that now would be the perfect time to 'introduce' himself to the future Mrs. Negan Smith. His only play here was to stop this wedding. Stopping the wedding, would halt Negan's growing power within this community.
Father Gabriel heard Negan's telltale whistling and looked up from his task. He had been inside the church, cleaning one of the windows, when Negan entered, unwelcome. Gabriel tried to tell himself that Negan was one of God's children, even though there had been many a time that he had sincerely doubted that!
Gabriel was treated to a view of Negan walking towards him, while holding his telltale bat, Lucille, over the back of one shoulder! Where the hell had that thing come from? Gabriel had heard from Rosita, that Negan had referenced it in his 'diary'. He had supposedly buried it someplace near Alexandria.
Then again, from some of the stuff that Gabriel had heard Negan wrote in that piece of trash, he doubted anything that had been written was true. And the true fate of 'Lucille' was one of them.
"Negan," Gabriel said patiently, "I would have thought you'd be over at the hospital with your son."
He did not phrase that as a question. Whatever Negan's feelings were for Joshua, were also as muddied as the words he put down in that diary.
"Good afternoon, Padre." Negan said, looking around the church. "This place of worship suits you."
Gabriel did not reply. He already knew what Negan was going to ask him. And the answer was going to be 'no'.
"Listen, Gabriel, I would really appreciate it if you would marry Pamela and I, ASAP."
Gabriel chose his words carefully.
"You have a wife, Negan."
"I know. And you aren't the type to just marry a man to a woman, that already has a wife. Pamela isn't the sort that would want to be married to a bigamist either. That's why I would appreciate it, if you could come up with some religious 'mumbo jumbo' that would set aside my marriage to Annie. Or something."
"Religious, mumbo-jumbo? What does that mean, Negan?" Gabriel asked with disgust.
"I mean," Negan said in a tight voice, "you tell Pamela whatever you have to, to let her know that our marriage will be the only valid one."
"Why don't you just not marry her?" Gabriel offered. "You barely know her and maybe…maybe there is still a chance for yourself with Annie? Joshua needs to know his father."
"I know Ezekiel and you are good buddies. Do you think he'd be happy if Annie and I got back together?"
"No." Gabriel said. "But he would stand aside if it meant you were going to make a life with Annie and Joshua."
"Uh huh. Anyway, I would really appreciate it if you would come over to the hospital and marry Pamela and myself. Andre will be a witness." Negan said.
"And if I don't?" Gabriel challenged calmly.
Negan shrugged!
"Well then you can pack your bags and go back to Alexandria. I mean Pamela and I aren't about to put up with a lazy priest hanging around here! Your job is to marry people and speak at funerals and shit!"
Gabriel said nothing but just stared at Negan. He stared so hard that even Negan became unnerved!
"Jesus! Stop looking at me like that! I'm just asking you to help me marry the woman I love…"
"Really?" Gabriel asked skeptically. "How long have you known Pamela?"
Negan sat Lucille down in a pew and rubbed his face for a few moments before speaking again.
"I have a daughter."
Gabriel lifted a brow.
"You have a daughter? Who? When?" he asked.
"It's Gracie." Negan answered.
Gabriel eyed him.
"Gracie as in Aaron's daughter?"
"No, Gabriel, Gracie as in MY daughter! She was taken from one of the Savior safe houses and I let it go because I thought I would end up killing you all! I figured I would get her back then. But I lost, goddamnit, and I ended up being imprisoned at Alexandria. But I still figured that was not so bad because at least I was nearby. But I want her with me…here. And I want her raised by a strong woman, that is in charge of a strong community. So yes, I do have ulterior motives. But there are feelings between Pamela and myself, okay?"
"Does Aaron know that you are running around telling people this? You can't have her and you can't bring her here! She doesn't know you! Aaron is the only father she has ever known!"
"That's Rick's fault." Negan said quietly. "But I'm past that."
"Really?" Gabriel asked sarcastically. "Because it doesn't sound like it."
"Will you marry Pamela and I, Gabriel?" Negan asked again.
"Will you drop this foolishness about bringing Gracie here?" Gabriel countered.
Negan was about to say no. And Gabriel could see that. He offered a caveat of sorts.
"Leave Gracie out of whatever you are planning here, Negan, and I will come up with some sort of 'divorce' plan that we can present to Pamela, before I marry the two of you." Gabriel told Megan.
Negan grinned!
"Well alright! That's more like it! Thank you, Gabriel. I know that you have your doubts about Pamela and myself, but believe me, things are going to work out the way they were meant to. You'll see." Negan said, clapping Gabriel on the shoulder. He walked over to the pew, picked up Lucille and strolled out of the church.
Gabriel stared at the now closed door for a long while. There was something about what Negan had just said, especially that part about 'things working out the way they were meant to', that he fully believed, meant something different to Negan.
Gabriel shook his head. That part about Gracie…he wondered if Rick, Darryl or even Maggie knew about this story Negan was spreading around? He decided that he would have to talk to them, about what they could do about the very real fact that Negan might be planning on taking Gracie from Aaron by force—while backed by a new and powerful wife.
Negan meanwhile, walked back to the hospital, his barbed bat over one shoulder. He ignored the looks and stares of the onlookers that would soon be under him. Mercer, by now, had told Rick that he would have to leave. And if things worked out the way he intended for them to, Rick would be barred from coming back into the Commonwealth.
That would leave Michonne here with him.
Then there was Annie. Negan wanted to get to know Joshua better and he didn't want Annie telling his son what a bad man he was, or how he had been a bad father. And yet he also did not want Annie thrown out into the elements.
He planned to make Rick take both Annie and King Ass Face back to Alexandria with him. Negan would tell Rick that if he took them in there, temporarily, he would allow him back in to spend all his time with Michonne as she recovered.
Then Negan would find a way out of that 'promise'.
He had also decided something else: he did not have the heart to pull the DNA scheme on Michonne. Not after she had saved Joshua's life. But he would throw some shit in the game. He would allow Darryl to stay within the Commonwealth.
Darryl…and Maggie. Negan had useful plans for her as well. It was just as he was thinking along those lines, that Maggie suddenly appeared before him!
"Well hello there, Maggie! What to I owe the honor?"
Maggie tossed her head!
"Leave Rick and Michonne alone, Negan!"
Negan tilted his head as if he couldn't understand what Maggie was talking about!
"Oh…you mean my request to have Rick leave here so he can't fuck up my wedding?"
"How would he do that? No one cares who you marry! And why in God's name would you ask Annie to leave as well? Joshua could take a turn for the worse!"
"I'm going to talk to Rick about what he can do to change my mind." Negan said ominously. "But you're welcome to stay. If for no other reason but to give poor Hershel some rest from you."
Maggie slapped Negan so hard, that the top of his hair shook! He slowly pulled Lucille off of his shoulder as his eyes locked with hers…
"Is there a problem?" Mercer asked, appearing out of nowhere. He touched Maggie's arm.
Negan broke off eye contact with Maggie and looked up at Mercer.
"No. Everything's fine. Maggie was just 'congratulating' me on my upcoming marriage. Make sure you have a guard posted outside of my future wife's hospital room door, while the ceremony is going on. Pamela and I both have a lot of haters that would gladly see us unhappy or dead." Negan said to Mercer.
"Or both." Maggie replied sardonically. Negan rested Lucille back on his shoulder and moved past Mercer and Maggie, towards the hospital. He began whistling his telltale tune again.
Darryl waved to Ezekiel, who was sitting in a chair in Joshua's room. The child was awake and Annie was holding his tiny hand and talking to him. Ezekiel caught Darryl's eye, excused himself and stepped out of the room. Annie glanced away from Joshua and saw Ezekiel with Darryl. Negan had not come to see Joshua yet and she needed to prepare her son to meet his father. She just hoped Ezekiel and Darryl weren't talking about something else Negan had done around here!
Meanwhile, Darryl was telling Ezekiel about what Negan wanted from Rick and Annie…
"I would ask you if this was a joke, but this is Negan." Ezekiel said wryly. Darryl had expected a more outraged reaction from him than this.
"I don't know how much we can do to stop this, with the Commonwealth army now following Negan's orders." Darryl told Ezekiel.
But Ezekiel had other plans.
"If this is just overnight, then I'm going to convince Annie that we should take a look around New Babylon. We can see if there are any survivors and bring them back here. It's not ideal and it's risky, but I think Annie could use a break. Joshua is here in a hospital and I can ask Connie and Kelly to stay with him until we get back."
Darryl nodded grimly.
"You tell Mercer that you're headed to Alexandria. They probably won't follow you."
"I'll make sure they don't." Ezekiel answered before turning back towards the room. He now had to give Annie the bad news. And Annie would have to find someway to explain to her son, that she was going to have to leave his side, for a reason that would not scare or worry Joshua.
Meanwhile, Pamela and Andre were alone in her room. She began to question him about meeting Michonne.
"So, my darling boy, I don't want to pry. I mean meeting one's birth mother is a very sensitive and private thing." Pamela purred.
Andre shrugged.
"She gave me a letter." he admitted.
Pamela waited for him to say more. But he didn't.
"Alright. I don't suppose you want to tell me what the letter said? Andre, there is no explaining what she did!"
Andre paused for a long time before answering his mother.
"She explained what my father was like. She explained what happened to him and how things were between the two of them. I don't think Michonne would have just flipped on him like that if stuff hadn't happened."
"What stuff?" Pamela asked, trying to hide her irritation! What the hell was this? Andre sounded as if he was trying to understand where Michonne was coming from! She didn't want that! She needed to see this 'letter'!
"Stuff that's none of your business." Rick said as he entered and closed the hospital room door! Andre began to pull his gun, but Rick pulled one on him first!
"Sit back down unless your 'mother' and you want to die before the wedding." Rick told them.
"How DARE you!" Pamela seethed. She couldn't believe she was looking at the bastard that had killed her Johnathan! Mind you, this Rick Grimes was a handsome bastard, but a bastard nonetheless!
"I'm going to press the call button for the nurse and then it's just you and me." Andre told Rick.
"Why wait for the nurse?" Rick asked sarcastically. Pamela put a hand on Andre's arm.
"Honey, I want you to leave. Go and get Negan. He will deal with this." Pamela told her son.
"I'm not leaving you with this murderous fucker…"
"Oh I'M the 'murderous fucker', huh? You smothered Perlie in his hospital bed and gassed his community! All to help some piece of shit you barely know!" Rick snapped.
"Hey!" Andre snapped back. "I didn't smother anyone and as for that other shit, I don't know anything about that either! Now leave this room!"
"Andre," Pamela said a bit more forcefully, "go and get Negan. He will deal with Mr. Grimes. I will be fine. I want to hear what your father's murderer has to say for himself."
Andre took a deep breath, picked up his CRM jacket and walked out of the room, flinging the door open! Rick slammed it closed and put away his gun.
"It's just you and me now, Mrs. General Major," Rick began, "and I'm wondering why the hell I never saw you, in the six years the CRM kept me against my will?"
"Come now, Mr. Grimes, surely you didn't see Johnathan everyday that the law allows. I visited occasionally. As did our two sons, Sebastian and Andre. You probably passed Michonne's son on occasion, without knowing who he was." Pamela purred.
"That makes you happy?" Rick asked. "That something so tragic might have taken place?"
Pamela's face suddenly changed!
"There is nothing about what happened to my husband, or my son, that makes me happy, Mr. Grimes! Now why are you here? What more could you possibly want from me after murdering my husband?" Pamela asked snidely.
Rick reached into the back of his pants and pulled out Negan's diary! He waved at Pamela!
"I thought you should have some reading material before you wedding. This is Negan's diary. He wrote in it during the years we had him imprisoned at Alexandria…years after I was captured by the CRM. The parts about how he feels about my wife, will really interest you. And in case you don't get what I am trying to tell you, there is no way, YOU fit into Negan's life plan. Not as a partner, wife or lover."
Rick walked over to her and gently set it on her tray table. Pamela's face grew tight with anger but she did not touch the book.
"Pamela," Rick said softly, "Negan wants me to leave here during your wedding. And he has no intention of allowing me to come back here to help Michonne recover. If he doesn't let her go, then chances are, her and Andre will grow close, something you don't want. Negan knows you don't want that. I need to NOT be kicked out of here."
Pamela said nothing to that.
"Negan also wants Annie gone during the ceremony. She is no threat to anyone. She just wants to be with Joshua." Rick added.
"Get out." Pamela said curtly and Rick nodded to her, before turning to leave. He sensed he had gotten to her. And if he had indeed made an inroad with her, then he knew once he left the room, that Pamela would read Negan's diary as soon as he closed the door behind him.
Dr. Tomi returned to his office and took some solace in the fact that Joshua Smith appeared as if he would be on the mend. Joshua was already doing better, longer than he had with Pamela's defective organ.
His office was semi lit and he sat down at his desk and began to study some of his notes on the transplant, under lamp light. Tomi hadn't read two words, before the sound of a creepy tune, being whistled, made him jump up and hurry over to the wall light!
Negan was standing against a wall with his arms folded! He was also grinning!
"How's my son?" Negan asked, while still grinning.
Tomi noticed that there was a bat, lying on a table, with barbed wire around it.
"I take it that's yours?" Tomi asked calmly.
"Oh yes! I brought here for a 'check up'. I thought you might want to look it over and let me know if it was ready for use again."
"What do you want, Mr. Smith?" Tomi asked tiredly. He considered himself lucky that he had not had to break up any fights between the Grimes and Smith camps, in the last two hours!
"I want you to tell me what Pamela has on you. I can help you." Negan replied.
"Why would you want to help me?" Tomi asked.
"You saved my kid's life. Hell yeah, I'm going to help you." Negan told him.
Tomi said nothing.
"Doc, if I have to hear this from someone else and it's something fucked up, I won't be able to help you and run this place." Negan said.
"So you admit that's your long range goal? To run the Commonwealth?" Tomi asked.
"My goal is to marry Governor Milton and help her run this place, yes. She will be in charge, of course." Negan said.
Tomi cleared his throat.
"I have a problem. Pamela and Mercer know about it and if it ever got out, chances are, no one would want me as their doctor again."
Negan snorted!
"Oh come on! It can't be that bad!"
Tomi sighed. Maybe he should take a chance on Negan, as foolish as that concept sounded. But he could not just stay under Milton's foot. His being in this position had caused Negan to insert himself in here. Would that be a bad thing if he could reign in Pamela Milton?
"I like having sex with the female undead. The freshly dead ones." Tomi said quietly.
"On the regular? I've done it at least once and I had some guys in my stronghold that were like once a weekers. THAT is what this blackmail is all about? Awww! Who hasn't done that?" Negan scoffed.
Tomi didn't quite know what to say to that! Negan picked up Lucille and pointed the bat at him!
"I'll make sure no one finds out. But I'm going to need a favor."
"What?" Tomi asked, knowing in the back of his mind that whatever he was going to be asked for by this man, would probably make confessing his sin to the community, a better option!
"I need you to get Maggie up here. To your office. You tell her you have evidence that Perlie was murdered. By Andre." Negan said.
"But I don't." Tomi said in confusion.
"No. You don't. When she gets up here, I want you to drug her with whatever you have to and keep her in here. I'll let you know what to with her next…"
"What in the hell, Mr. Smith? I can't do that! Why would you want me to do that? I thought you wanted Rick Grimes and all of his friends, gone?"
"Not her. Just do it. And if you're thinking of not doing it, I can make an announcement to the community that you like to fuck undead children. You wouldn't want that, would you?" Negan asked in a fake sounding, concerned tone.
Tomi said nothing to that. For a brief moment, he had hoped he had somehow made a new ally in his pursuit of getting out from under Pamela's blackmail of him. But he had foolishly confessed, when it was now clear that Pamela had planned to keep the knowledge to herself. Probably because she didn't fully trust her husband-to-be.
Andre suddenly appeared in the doorway! Negan's demeanor changed dramatically!
"What's wrong?" Negan asked him.
"Mom asked me to come and get you! Rick Grimes is in her room threatening her!" Andre huffed. Negan and Andre hurried out of the office and it was all Tomi could do not to slam the door behind them!
Tomi walked over to a small cabinet he kept in his office and opened it. There was a small bottle of chloroform on one of the shelves that he used for medical emergencies out on the field, where in which he might have to put a patient under. Tomi removed the bottle and set it on the counter. Now, it was time to find Maggie.
Michonne had no idea that Darryl was sitting in a chair next to her bed. She had no idea that he was there because she was asleep and dreaming quite heavily.
Or maybe not. Maybe she was not dreaming.
She awoke to find herself dressed and standing over herself. Darryl was sitting in a chair, reading some old magazine on cars. Was she dead?
"No. You are not dead."
Michonne had not said those words! Darryl had not said anything and from what Michonne could see, 'she' was still in her hospital bed, recovering from transplant surgery. She turned around to look behind her and saw the person that had spoken.
It was Glenn.
"Glenn?" Michonne whispered in shock. "How am I seeing you?"
"Dr. Tomi isn't telling anyone that you almost died during the transplant. He brought you back but for a short time, a door was opened. More like a gate. To the other side." Glenn explained patiently. He was calm. He had always been calm. Why wasn't he angry? Why wasn't he angry that he was not here to be with Maggie and Hershel?
"You're here to tell me something, right?" Michonne asked, somehow knowing the answer.
"When someone dies and is brought back, the gateway allows someone to come through, briefly, to guide them in someway. Michonne, Maggie needs your help. She will die if you don't save her! My son will be left without both of us in this world! Help her!" Glenn exclaimed. And he did not sound calm at all now.
Glenn also faded away. He disappeared and the next thing Michonne knew, she was lying in bed, flat on her back and feeling like she had just had surgery. She had felt much stronger when she had been standing there talking to Glenn.
Darryl suddenly set aside his magazine and stood up to hover over her!
"You're awake! I'll get Rick…"
But Michonne reached out and snaked a hand around one of his wrists!
"Don't ask me how or why, but I just saw Glenn! He said Maggie is in trouble and that we need to save her! Go! Go now and make sure Maggie is alright!" Michonne whispered fiercely.