THE COMMONWEALTH HOSPITAL-
Negan decided that it was time Rick heard more about his 'memories' of his time in the Grimes family attic.
Or more specifically, of his time in the Grimes home, one particular night…
Negan looked at Andre.
"Andre, I'm going to need for you to wait out in the hallway there. I'm going to need for you to leave too, Darryl."
Andre glanced over at Rick, before looking at Negan again.
"No way. You're flat on your back and at Rick's mercy here. No." Andre said calmly.
"Rick and I are old friends. Aren't we, Rick?" Negan said in a feigned, cordial tone.
Rick didn't answer that. He turned to Darryl.
"Leave us. Make sure Maggie is alright." Rick said quietly. Darryl nodded before looking at Andre.
"I'm not leaving, so you can stop looking over here." Andre told Darryl.
"Andre, there are some things that Rick and I need to sort out. I'll be alright." Negan said in a soothing tone. Andre hesitated for a moment before turning away from Negan and walking out of the room. Darryl followed, closing the door behind him.
"You know that I'm right about Joshua. He's been through a lot and you have nothing to give him. Annie would want it this way." Rick told him.
"You're out of your fucking mind if you think I'm going to allow this." Negan said coolly. "And if I had to guess, I'd have said that Annie would have wanted King Zeke to raise Joshua, in case anything happened to her. But we'll get to that later. I want to talk about Michonne and you."
Rick had been expecting some kind of bullshit from Negan, with regards to Michonne. But he folded his arms and prepared himself to hear whatever nonsense came out of his mouth. Rick just stared him down so Negan took that as a sign that he could speak first.
"You know," Negan drawled, "I did some wandering around in your home…you know…when I was staying with you."
Rick rolled his eyes!
"You mean when you hid in our attic, ate out of our food and wrote that fake diary. Right?" Rick asked sarcastically.
"There's nothing about how I feel about Michonne that's fake, Rick. And that brings me to the topic that I want to touch on. Now I would let you raise Joshua under ordinary circumstances. But I don't think that Michonne and you will last." Negan said somberly.
Rick tilted his head at him! This sonofabitch actually meant that!
"Do tell, Negan, why won't Michonne and I 'last'? Tell me what you know that I don't know?"
Negan's somber expression changed to a grin!
"I was under your bed one night…listening…"
Meanwhile outside of the room, Darryl had to mediate a growing argument between Michonne and Maggie!
"I can't just make Glenn appear at will! It happens when Negan does something, I guess." Michonne told her.
Maggie looked from Michonne and over at Darryl.
"Do you know how Glenn appears?"
"I've never seen him." Darryl admitted.
"And Rick has never seen him either? Just you and Negan?" Maggie asked, now directing the question back at Michonne. That made no sense! None! She just didn't get how that could be! HOW was her husband's murderer, one of two people that could communicate with him from beyond?
"Michonne, you said Glenn said he opened a door or a gate, that he shouldn't have. So he's accidentally here?" Maggie asked her.
"I think he planned on coming to you somehow, but something got mixed up." Michonne guessed.
"So his plan was for me to see him and not you?" Maggie asked.
"I don't know." Michonne told her. "I think he wanted me to help you. Maggie, he doesn't say much when he's here. And the three times I have seen him, he has done something to Negan. The first time he hit him in the back with 'Lucille'. The second time he threw that toaster in Negan and Annie's bathwater. The third time…well…I don't really know what happened exactly…."
"What do you mean?" Maggie asked. Darryl looked at Michonne as well.
"I mean that I think, but I can't be sure, that the reason Glenn showed up in that church was because Negan…well… he kind of kissed me. He kissed me, I passed out and that brought Glenn here." Michonne admitted. Darryl's expression was inscrutable but Maggie's was one of pure anger! She was about to say something when yelling could be heard from within the room! Yelling and some kind of beeping from the machinery attached to Negan's bed!
Michonne, Maggie and Darryl hurried in to find Rick choking Negan out! Negan was trying to wrench Rick's hands from around his throat and passed out!
"Rick!" Michonne yelled and Maggie checked the pulse in Negan's neck! The bastarrd was still alive but unconscious!
"What happened?" Darryl asked Rick. Rick managed to pull himself together, just as Dr. Tomi and two nurses hurried in!
"What happened in here?" Tomi asked. He felt strangely relieved to find Negan unconscious again!
Rick looked at Tomi and lied!
"We were talking and he just passed out." Rick said coolly, before he grabbed Michonne's hand and pulled her out of the room! Maggie and Darryl followed, since neither of them gave a damn how or why Negan was unconscious!
Rick looked at Darryl and Maggie.
"Could you two check on Joshua for us? I need a moment with Michonne here alone." Rick told them. Darryl nodded and pulled Maggie away. Maggie herself wanted to know if Michonne was going to help her see Glenn again. Maybe he could meet Hershel…
But the look on Rick's face was dark. And Maggie knew the reason for it went beyond what he had just done to Negan. She let it go for now, and walked off with Darryl towards Joshua's room.
Rick glanced after them, before turning his full attention on his wife.
"Negan told me that he was under our bed while we were making love, the night before Darryl and you came here. He came down from the attic and somehow, slipped under OUR bed when we weren't looking. I couldn't take the idea of it and I started to put my hands around his throat to choke the life out of him…but he suddenly started choking on his own."
Michonne lifted a brow!
"What do you mean 'choking on his own'?" she asked him. But God help her, she knew.
"I mean before my hands reached his throat, he began clawing at it! Like he was choking or like…like someone was choking him already. I pulled his hands off of his throat and decided to finish the job! That was what you saw when you came in." Rick explained.
"It was Glenn. It had to be. Maggie knows about what is going on, Rick. She wants me to make Glenn appear and I don't think it's a good idea. I need to convince him to not come back here." Michonne said.
Rick just stared at her and she could see he wasn't really hearing her. Michonne knew he could get this way when he was upset about something else.
"What is it? There's nothing we can do about Negan's being under our bed…"
"He was under our bed because he wants you. If he could have stabbed me from underneath it, he would have! Honey…I just need to know if anything ever happened between the two of you while I was gone…"
Michonne slapped Rick so hard, that the barest print of her hand could still be seen on his cheek! Andre, who had been over at a convenience machine when he heard the code to Negan's room, stopped walking and hid behind a pillar!
"How could you ask me that?" Michonne asked in a horrified whisper.
"Do you think I liked having to ask you that?! I just need to know, if there was anyway he could have mistakingly thought that there could be something between the two of you?" Rick asked quietly.
Before Michonne could answer, Dr. Tomi came out of Negan's room. Andre came out from behind the pillar and walked over to him!
"What happened? I left the room for a minute and suddenly Negan's sick again?" Andre asked.
Tomi glanced over at Rick, and Andre turned to look at him!
"Did you 'help' Negan get sick again, Rick? What did you do?" Andre asked in a hostile tone.
Rick began to move towards Andre in a menacing manner! Michonne got in between them!
"Stop it, okay? Andre, Negan has been in a coma. There have been some complications, right?" Michonne asked, looking at Tomi.
"Negan's awake again," Tomi said, "and he wants to see you, Michonne."
Michonne nodded at Tomi, before looking at Andre, who smiled brightly at her! Michonne could not help but smile back before looking at Rick, who scowled!
Michonne began to walk towards Negan's room, when Rick grabbed her hand and pulled her back towards him!
"No. Leave him. Let's go and see Joshua now." Rick said firmly, as he began pulling her off into another direction.
But Michonne reluctantly disentangled her hand from his.
"We both know what happened in there." Michonne said quietly. "I will talk to Negan and meet you at Joshua's room, okay?"
It was clear to Michonne, Andre and Tomi, that it was NOT okay with Rick! Michonne sighed and turned to walk towards Negan's room. Andre began to walk after her, when Rick grabbed his arm and yanked him back!
"Where the hell do you think you're going?" Rick asked coolly.
"To be with my 'new' parents. Two people that you haven't killed yet, though you're trying with Negan, right?" Andre snarked.
Tomi eased off towards Joshua's room to check in on him, leaving Rick and Andre to argue over anything and everything!
"You don't have any say about anything anymore around here, Andre. You yourself admitted that much. And Major General Kublek has no use for Negan either. I don't know what's going to become of you, but Michonne can't have any part in it. She has a new family now and it doesn't include you." Rick told him.
Andre grinned!
"And you think my mother is just going to accept that? I have every intention of returning to Alexandria with you whether you like it or not! And I'll tell you something else: if I asked her to let me bring Negan with me so that he could 'recover', there wouldn't be a damned thing you could do about that either!" Andre told Rick.
Rick could not help what happened next! He found himself backhanding Andre before he knew what he was doing! Four CRM guards hurried over and two helped Andre up, while the other two grabbed Rick!
That was when Major General Kublek appeared, along with Ezekiel! Elizabeth ordered the men to release Rick, while Andre nodded to the two guards that he was alright. Elizabeth told the men that everything was fine now and they all watched them leave for other parts.
Elizabeth then locked eyes on Rick.
"Mr. Grimes. I do not believe we've been formerly introduced. My name is…"
"I know who you are, 'Major General'. Okafur had mentioned you." Rick replied, referencing the late CRM, Lieutenant Colonel.
Elizabeth nodded.
"Yes. Lieutenant Colonel Okafur and myself, had hoped to slowly change things in the CRM. We had also hoped to slowly bring Major General Beale around to our line of thinking." Eizabeth replied, before she dragged her eyes off of Rick's hostile ones and looked at Andre.
"Andre, let's talk in private." she said. Andre nodded, glared at Rick and then walked off down a hallway with Elizabeth. Once they were gone, Ezekiel confronted Rick!
"Do you really think that was a good idea? Hitting Michonne's son like that?" Ezekiel asked him.
"You would have done the same," Rick said, his tone taking on a hard edge, "that boy is responsible for about fifty percent of all of the trouble around here. His 'buddy' Negan can take the blame for the other half."
Ezekiel folded his arms and glanced over at Negan's closed hospital room door.
"Maggie and Darryl said that Negan woke up and started talking shit?" Ezekiel asked.
"Let's just say that Negan told me he had been in some rooms in my house, that he shouldn't have been in." Rick groused and he now pointedly stared at Negan's closed door. What the hell was Michonne talking to him about in there? Rick decided to stop wondering and just go in and find out!
But Ezekiel blocked his way!
"Before you go in there, I want to talk to you about Joshua. Darryl mentioned that Michonne and you want to take him back to Alexandria with you. I think that's a bad idea. And Annie would have wanted me to raise him." Ezekiel said firmly.
Rick had to be honest. He had not anticipated that Ezekiel would have any problem with Michonne and him raising Joshua. He had assumed they were on the same page here. That being that Joshua would be safer with them at Alexandria, than he would be here with Negan.
"Ezekiel, this is a Civic Republic Military run community. Joshua can't grow up here." Rick said just as firmly.
"He wouldn't be here. He would be at the Kingdom. The Major General is going to pour resources into the stronghold so it can re-open." Ezekiel revealed.
Rick backed away slightly!
"Is this a joke? You're telling me that you've agreed to run a CRM community? Because that's what it would be. It wouldn't really be your Kingdom…"
"I don't mean to cut you off, Rick. But the Major General and myself have talked about what would go in to the Kingdom. Things that could keep it from failing ever again." Ezekiel said.
"And you can keep Negan away from Joshua?" Rick asked skeptically.
"I can keep him safe, if that's what you're implying. And the CRM can as well. Major General Kublek has told me that Negan is as good as dead." Ezekiel said.
Rick nodded slowly.
"Andre told us that Kublek wanted Negan dead. He has some idea of asking Michonne to let him AND Negan, stay at Alexandria for safety. He was cute about it and I slapped him."
"Then I think you understand that it is out of the question for you to take Joshua with you, when he's better." Ezekiel said.
Rick said nothing for a long moment, before answering him.
"Tell Michonne everything you just told me. And if she agrees to it, then I'll back off."
Ezekiel rolled his eyes!
"I can't do that! And she'll never agree to any of it!" he snapped.
Rick grinned at him!
"Than you have OUR answer. I'm sorry, Ezekiel, but Michonne and I believe we can give Joshua the love and caring he needs." Rick said and walked away from him to move closer to Negan's closed door. A part of him wanted to throw open the door and strangle Negan again!
But he knew Michonne could handle herself. And he knew he had some making up to do for even implying that he had not trusted her, while he was gone for six years. He would wait for her to come out, even if it killed him.
"Why is Negan still alive?" Elizabeth asked Andre calmly. They were sitting in another waiting room area that was reserved for cancer patients. Luckily, there was no one there at the moment(Elizabeth hoped that meant that no one was afflicted with that awful disease), so the two of them could speak freely.
"He woke up before I could do anything." Andre replied. And that was technically true.
"That happened because you wasted time." Elizabeth replied. "I know you went to see your mother and Rick, after our previous conversation."
"I went there to ask if I could come live with them at Alexandria, like you asked me to. Michonne is for it. Rick is being a bastard about it." Andre admitted.
"Oh that much was clear from the way he slapped you." Elizabeth noted. Andre's face was still red from the blow.
"I plan to use that slap against him. And now that Negan is awake, I want to take him to Alexandria as well." Andre announced.
Elizabeth's eyes widened with surprise!
"My, what an enterprising young man you have turned out to be. Just how do you suppose you are going to accomplish this? You will be a big enough pill for Rick to swallow, but Negan? Not even Michonne would allow such a thing." Elizabeth warned him.
"She will if I bring Joshua into it. Michonne is going to want some kind of connection to still exist between Joshua and Negan, even if her and Rick are raising him. I plan to sell this as temporary, so that Negan can say his goodbyes to his son." Andre explained.
But actually he had not. Explained.
"I fail to see the point of that, Andre. If you just killed him, you could live at Alexandria alone and keep an eye on Rick and Michonne—alone."
Andre looked Elizabeth in the eye.
"I don't want to kill Negan, okay? He would fit in just fine with your 'new version' of the CRM."
Elizabeth smiled patiently.
"You clearly don't believe that any changes to the Civic Republic Military are needed."
"I didn't say that…" Andre began but Elizabeth cut him off!
"I have plans to re-open one of the closed strongholds that had been aligned with Alexandria. It was called 'The Kingdom'."
Andre's eyes widened!
"The one Ezekiel ran? Oh come on! Negan told me the place was a piece of shit! It closed because it was a piece shit!"
"It will re-open and I plan to put Ezekiel in charge of running it. I will need you to go and check in on his progress in the upcoming months." Elizabeth said calmly, before standing up. Andre slowly stood up as well and forced himself to hide his shock. Elizabeth hadn't been here more than a few hours, and already things were being changed. Drastically.
"Okay. I'll get myself into Alexandria." Andre grumbled.
"And kill Negan." Elizabeth said with an awful sounding finality.
"Yes. I'll kill Negan." Andre said in a monotone.
Negan was sitting up in his bed when Michonne entered. She slowly closed the door behind her and looked over in the corner.
Glenn was sitting in a chair! And it was clear that Negan could see him. What was not clear, was why Glenn was in this room and visible to both Negan and herself, when Michonne had not passed out or anything? What was happening here?
"Glenn," Michonne said, "don't you think your work here is done? Maggie is being let go."
Glenn slowly stood up. He then looked from Michonne over to Negan, and then back at Michonne.
"As long as Negan is still alive, he's always going to be a danger." Glenn said.
"That's not why you said you came to me!" Michonne said, snapping in frustration. "You said you needed my help to save Maggie. Maggie is free. Her and Hershel are going back to the Hilltop. It's over."
Negan's jaw clenched as he watched the two friends argue back and forth. This had happened, this appearance of Glenn, because Rick had choked him out. He had been unconscious and when he awoke, Tomi was standing over him and Glen was back in the corner, watching and peering at him…willing him to die.
"You heard Michonne, Glenn. It's time to go." Negan asked and yawned briefly.
"Nice to see that you have the luxury of yawning. I don't." Glenn told him. "I also can't eat."
"That's because you're dead! You're not supposed to eat!" Negan snapped. He'd killed plenty of people and they had never come back like this! What was this really all about?
Michonne slowly walked over to Glenn.
"Glenn, you killed Perlie Armstrong, didn't you?" she asked him quietly.
Glenn didn't even flinch.
"Yes." he answered.
"And you fucking killed Annie!" Negan snapped and began to try and get out of bed, despite his injury! But he fell out of the bed and on to the floor!
"I'm going to go get a nurse to help Negan. And then I want you to leave and never come back here. I know I have some nerve asking that of you, but Maggie knows. She knows I can see you and she knows Negan can see you. You can't let her live like this in limbo…"
"My connection with my wife never died, because she never let me go. And I never let her go, Michonne. I want you to go and get her. Bring her here and then I will touch her. She will then be able to see me…"
"And what, Glenn? No! No, this ends now! And if it doesn't, you will just hurt Maggie and Hershel even more than they have been, all these years without you! I am sorry about what happened to you. I am so damned sorry. But I have to move on. We all have to move on!" Michonne yelled.
Glenn's answer to that was to rush past Michonne and over to the floor Negan was just getting up off of! He kicked his murderer in the face and continued to do so, even as Michonne jumped on Glenn's back to get him to stop!
Rick heard the commotion and rushed in! He saw Michonne on someone's back, who was kicking at Negan! Rick muscled his way in to pull Michonne off of…
"Glenn?" Rick asked in a hollow voice. Glenn slowly stopped kicking at Negan and turned to face Rick. Rick could not believe his eyes! Michonne had been right! And it wasn't that he had ever doubted her, but damn, it was good to see Glenn again!
"I can stay as long as someone else goes! I need to see Maggie!" Glenn gasped. Rick pulled him into a fierce embrace, as Negan crawled away from the two of them and moved near Michonne. She shakily helped Negan up, just as Maggie and Darryl hurried into the room!
Maggie saw Glenn and dropped into a dead faint! Darryl's mouth dropped open and he teared up!
"Man, I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" Darryl cried out. He had always blamed himself for what happened after Abraham had been pummeled to death. How Negan had just picked Glenn to kill because he could. Or because Darryl had tried to attack Negan.
Michonne backed out of the room, as Tomi and other personnel hurried in! Negan could see that Michonne thought this was just as fucked up as he did! Then…suddenly…something came to him…something awful and he too left the room and grabbed Michonne by the shoulders!
"Glenn said he could stay if someone else went! He's here, Michonne and everyone can see him! Who is gone then?"
Michonne tilted her head at Negan and began to look around! Glenn picked someone to go…go where? And how did he decide who this person was?
Negan was still here. The only person Glenn would have enough hatred towards to make go away was…
"Andre!" Michonne gasped, pulling out of Negan's hold! She began looking around the hospital frantically, just as she ran into Major General Kublek!
"What is it?" Elizabeth asked, sensing her terror.
But Michonne refused to believe that Glenn would have picked her son, who had been lost to her, to vanquish or…
Kill.
"Have you see Andre?" Michonne asked with a forced calm she did not feel.
"Yes. We were talking over there and he got up to leave." Elizabeth said.
"To go where?" Michonne asked.
"I don't know. Probably to see Negan…"
"Who you want dead! I just came from Negan's room and my son is not there!" Michonne now snapped. Meanwhile, Negan sensed something. He didn't know what. Maybe it was just a feeling. One that he had not had since Annie. When she did not come back from trading in New Babylon.
Negan looked at the door next to him. It was a stairwell door. He opened it and peered down the stairs in the semidarkness.
Someone was down there. Someone was lying on the bottom floor of the stairwell, with blood slowly pooling out from under them. And that was when Negan knew!
He ran down staircase after staircase, until he reached the bottom and found Andre Anthony, barely alive! Negan slowly knelt beside him as he gasped his final breaths!
"Hold on, son! Hold on! I'm going to get you some help!" Negan barked. But Andre slowly shook his head.
"Too late…was pushed…"
"Who, Andre?! Who pushed you?" Negan rasped.
"Take care of my mother…I know you care about her…Rick is bad news…"
"Did Rick do this?! Did Rick shove you?!"
Andre Anthony saw a way to help Negan and punish Rick Grimes for all that he had cost him in his short life. Andre whispered 'yes', before closing his eyes and dying.