They don't take the bag off of my head until we're inside a building. The Sanctuary, I suppose. I immediately look around to find Ella but I only see some Saviours and that awful man, Simon.
'Welcome to your new home, doll', he tells me with a grin that makes my stomach turn.
'Where is she?' I ask him frantically.
'Who?' he asks, playing stupid.
'Where's Ella?' I ask him through gritted teeth. I was hoping to see her once we got here. I need to know that she's okay.
'Oh, the little girl with the big mouth? She's fine. You'll see her... whenever Negan wants you to see her. Come on, he wants to see you first.'
Simon turns around and starts to walk and a Saviour nudges me to start walking as well, but I put my feet firmly on the ground.
'I don't want to see him. I'm not going anywhere without Ella.'
'Oh, come on, doc', the Saviour says while he roughly grabs my arm. When I look at him, I recognize him as the guy that came to my house that first time and took my meds. David.
'You know how this works by now.'
Simon walks back and grabs my other arm. I try to put my weight back, struggle against them, but it's no use. They easily drag me through the long, dark hallway we're in.
'Easy now', Simon says, like I'm a horse or something. 'You're only making this harder for yourself.'
'Let me go', I snarl. Of course, they don't. They drag me through the hallway into a large open area. I startle when we enter because I'm suddenly faced with a lot of people. They're everywhere, working at stations or standing behind stalls. I realize now that the building is some sort of old factory. And these must be the regular inhabitants of the Sanctuary.
'Help me!' I call out to them. But they just watch me with curious faces. Nobody makes a move to do anything.
'Go on with your work', Simon says, almost lazily. 'Nothing to see here.'
The people get back to whatever they're doing, only steeling careful glances at us now. Simon and David continue to drag me along. For my own dignity, I decide to stop struggling. It's no use anyway.
'Very good', Simon says appreciatively. 'I wasn't looking forward to dragging you up those stairs.'
I glare at him but make no protest as they lead me up a set of steel stairs. For a second we're on a platform, overlooking the workers of the Sanctuary. Then they tell me to keep walking into another dark hallway.
My heart is pounding and I can feel drops of sweat from the anxiety running down the side of my face. I don't want to see him. I don't want to be here. Only this morning I was lying safely in bed with Ella. I thought we had problems then, but I would give anything to go back.
But there's nothing to do. There's only one person the room at the end of this hallway can belong to. We're here.
Simon knocks at the door, but enters without waiting for an answer. Of course, he must know that we're coming. David stays outside, but Simon drags me along and soon we're inside a spacious room, luxuriously decorated. And right in the middle of it is the man who's been occupying my nightmares.
'Your delivery has arrived, sir', Simon greets him. 'One neatly-packaged doctor, as requested.'
'Thank you, Simon', Negan says, fixing his eyes on me as he gets to from the couch he was sitting in. 'Any trouble?'
'She wasn't too keen to come, and Prick made some protests, but in the end he let us take her pretty easily. Ain't that right?' he adds, turning to me.
I just look away. I know that nobody could have done anything to stop them, but it still hurts that most people just stood by while they took us away.
'Good', Negan says in a low voice. 'Now, I'm gonna need a moment alone with our new friend.'
Simon nods at him and leaves the room. I look back to see him go and contemplate running after him just to get out of this room. But the door closes definitively after him, so I turn to Negan who observes me coolly. He seems quite relaxed, one hand in his pocket, the other carrying a drink.
'What have you done to Ella?' I ask him, trying, and failing, not to let him hear the panic in my voice.
'Done to her?' he asks, frowning a little, like he's offended by the question. 'I've done nothing to her. She, on the other hand, bit one of my Saviours, from what I've heard.'
She bit someone? Well, that does sound like Ella. You can't expect her to come quietly when you drag her out of her house against her will.
'You have to let me see her', I tell him in a shaky voice.
'I don't have to do anything', he says, taking a couple steps in my direction. I immediately back away to keep him at a distance. Fortunately, the room offers more space than my kitchen, where he trapped me before.
'But you'll see her soon', he says with a grin. 'If you do what I want you to do.'
His eyes trail down my body. I can't be much to look at, I'm still wearing the same simple white t- shirt and grey jeans I was wearing yesterday, because I fell asleep in them. They didn't exactly give us time to get dressed. I'm not even wearing any shoes. But still, his eyes glint hungrily as he takes me in and fear clutches at me. What can I do if he makes me sleep with him in order to see Ella again?
'I...' I stumble, 'I told you I don't want to be your wife. You can't make me, that's...'
'That's what?' he asks, raising an eyebrow when I don't finish the sentence.
'It's wrong', I say anxiously, worried he'll take offense. But it's the truth, isn't it? If he wants to force me to do anything against my will, I want him to know exactly what he's doing.
'You know, you make it sound like sleeping with me is the single worst thing that could possibly happen to you in this world.'
'It is', I say, unable to keep myself from telling him the truth. 'I don't want to sleep with you.'
'Oh, I heard you the first time.' He takes a few more steps in my direction, but I hurry away from him to put the couch between us so he can't get to me that easily. At least it makes him stop moving, but he only chuckles at my efforts to stay away from him. Then he puts a hand dramatically over his chest.
'I do have feelings, you know. If I wasn't so damn sure of myself, I might have just gotten insecure with you turning me down every chance you get.'
He laughs at his own joke and shakes his head before he takes a sip of his drink. I watch him nervously, crossing my arms to stop myself from shaking.
'I didn't bring you here to force you to be my wife. I'd never fuck a woman that doesn't want me to fuck her.'
His face turns a little more serious and he points at his door, to make some sort of point.
'Any man in there puts his hands on a woman without her permission? They're gonna have one woman, and one woman only, all over them after that. Lucille is gonna show them what it's like to be touched against their will.'
Lucille? Right, the fucking bat. But if he doesn't want to make me his wife, then why did he take me here?
'Is this about Ella then?' I ask him cautiously. 'I know what she did was unforgivable, but I promise you she's done nothing wrong since then and she won't ever again.'
'We worked all that shit out, didn't we', he says, making a dismissive gesture. 'I saw the look in her eyes when I told her I'd kill you if she tried anything again. I don't expect any trouble from her.'
'What, then?' I ask him agitatedly. I can't handle the tension of not knowing why he brought me here. 'Why am I here?'
'You don't want to take another guess?' he asks, smirking at me. Clearly, he's enjoying my torment.
'Just tell me', I snap at him.
'Well, only since your ask so kindly', he says sarcastically, dragging it out out even longer. But then finally, he ends the torture.
'Christina, I find myself in need of a doctor.'
I blink in surprise. I wasn't expecting that. Surely they must already have a doctor, someone that's been using all my precious medication. But then it hits me. Maybe there's something wrong with him. Something that he doesn't want his own people to know.
'Are you sick?' I ask him, trying to keep my voice neutral. That must not have worked so well.
'Try sounding a little less hopeful', he berates me, though he does it with an amused smile on his face. Well, he can't expect me to be too sorry if there's something wrong with him, can he?
'No, I'm not sick', he says, crushing my hopes that we might be getting rid of him. 'I don't specifically need a doctor, the Sanctuary does. We lost the old doctor.'
'What happened to your old doctor?' I ask him.
Negan sighs like he doesn't exactly want to revisit what happened. Was the doctor someone he cared about? I doubt it. I don't think this guy cares about anybody.
'The doctor fell headfirst into a fire.'
My eyes go wide in the silence that follows. How on earth does that happen?
'When I tossed him into it.'
Ah, so he didn't care about him after all. I turn around to hide my expression. It feels like a claw has wrapped itself around my throat and is making it difficult for me to breathe. He killed his doctor? Aside from the obvious cruelty, that's just stupid. A doctor could save your life and there are only so many left.
Maybe he didn't care because he knew he could just replace his doctor. With me. But I have no interest in the position whatsoever. What if I'm the one being tossed into a fire next time?
'Why did you kill him?' I ask him softly.
'That's none of your concern', is his dismissive answer. I make an effort to turn around and face him again.
'I mean, if you want me to work here, I'd like to know what to avoid in order to not be burned alive.'
'Oh, I wouldn't burn you alive', he says casually, walking over to his assortment of liquids to fill up his drink. 'I like you. If I had to kill you, I'd just shoot you and be done with it.'
'That's comforting', I say sarcastically under my breath. I didn't mean for him to hear, but his chuckle makes it obvious that he did.
'Look, you don't have to worry about it, because as long as you work for me without problems, you stick to the rules and you do what I say, I'm not going to kill you. You'll have a good life here.'
'Okay', I say, more to calm myself down than anything else. How do I tell him I don't want to be his doctor without pissing him off?'
'I understand that you need a doctor, and if your people need help, I could always come over or... or, you could bring them to me...'
He looks at me impassively as I try to come up with another solution. I have a sinking feeling that it won't make any difference.
'But I can't stay here and be your doctor. We have to go back to Alexandria. Our lives are there, our friends, everything. I'm their only doctor, they need my help.'
'I lost my only doctor and my people need help too', he says, entirely unmoved.
Then you shouldn't have killed him! Idiot.
'Please', I beg him, taking a few cautious steps towards him. 'You can't make us stay here.'
'Honey', he says condescendingly, 'Of course I can. I've got ways to get people to do what I want that I promise you, you don't want to know about.'
He smirks in a way that tells me he's happy to get creative if I refuse. Well, I've seen Daryl when they came to Alexandria. I can imagine some of the things he'd do.
'Lucky for you', he says, swinging his finger up to point at me, 'You don't have to. I figured we could help each other out.'
He turns around to grab something from a box from the floor. I follow him with my eyes and then do a double take. I recognize that box.
Negan gets up again and tosses me a little box. I open my hands up quickly to catch it.
'Your sis still needs those, doesn't she?'
I stare at the box of medicine in my hands. There's really no way out of this, is there? If I refuse he'll find a way to make me do it anyway. If I'm compliant, at least Ella will have her medicine.
But I feel like a traitor. Don't I owe it to my friends to at least put on a fight? Tell him to go to hell, find his own damn doctor? The last thing I want to do is spend my time patching up our enemies.
'What do you say, doc?' he asks me, moving all the way over to me. I look at him when he holds out his hand to me.
'We got a deal?'
I should tell him no. But what difference would it make? It's not like he'd just let us go. We'd only end up worse for it. Maybe even others as well. I have to say yes. Even though I already know that Ella's going to hate me for it.
'I have to see Ella', I tell him, ignoring the hand he's holding out to me. 'I have to talk to her about this. She won't understand.'
'You can see Ella at the end of the day', he says, raising his hand up to brush it through his hair like I didn't just let him hang. 'When you've proven to me that you're willing to work for me. And that your capable. I mean, I'd love for you to take care of me on account of those pretty, brown eyes, but I haven't seen you in action yet.'
'You mean you just want me to start working as your doctor right now?' I ask, confused.
'Of course. The sooner we get you installed, the better. We have a lot of people here that could use your help.'
'I can't just jump right into work', I bristle. All of this has been so confusing. I need some time to adjust to this crazy situation.
'Why not?' he asks, raising an eyebrow.
I would think it makes sense that you can't just drag someone out of their house, away from all their friends and throw them into work. But clearly, he sees things differently and I'm having a hard time coming up with any arguments to persuade him. I can only come up with one thing.
'I... 've got no shoes on', I mumble unconvincingly.
'Doctor', he says, a broad grin spreading over his face. 'I'll get you some shoes.'