CARL GRIMES AND JANE Peletier stood stark still, the angry sun beaming down on their necks. Their eyes darted from person to person, watching the boxes be passed from hand to truck.
Negan had moved on from the iron-burning incident almost as soon as it happened, ushering them off into his truck to 'take them home and treat them real nice'.
Both of them had glued a nasty look to their faces, scowling at anyone who looked at them too long. By the end of their visit, they had perfected the method.
It wasn't long till they were seated nicely in his truck, and on their way home.
No one said anything the whole way but Negan - ranting to himself about useless shit that didn't matter. Carl and Jane hoped to god that Michonne and Rick weren't back from their trip yet. They'd be in big trouble if not.
The gates opened up to Alexandria, and Negan drove swiftly in, parking the van in a random driveway like he really lived there.
Everyone gathered around the vehicle, shocked to see him arrive this early in the week. And with Rick, Michonne, Maggie, Daryl and Carol gone no one had much of a chance against him.
Rosita was the first to push through the crowd, spotting Jane and Carl getting out of the truck and filing into the Grimes's abode. She gave Jane nothing but a proud smile.
Neither knew each other enough to worry about each other, but Rosita still found a proud feeling rooted deep down in her heart. She knew what Jane was doing at the sanctuary, and she knew - from the blood on the girl's face - that she had gotten close to getting what she wanted.
Negan ushered them inside, dying to meet Judith. Carl was hesitant, but Jane knew he wouldn't hurt her. Besides, there was nothing they could do but watch Negan smile at her. Negan continued to mope around, looking in all the rooms, including Carl's.
Olivia had come and gone, continuing to watch through the window because of her immense fear of him.
Negan's breakthrough idea was to make spaghetti for the kids, forcing Carl to put on a little apron (that Jane would've thought was cute if the situation wasn't what it was).
"Ah. Damn, that smells good. Mmm! Want a taste?"
He said, holding out the spoon for Carl whilst Jane sat at the table, an impatient and grabby Judith on her lap. She bounced the girl up and down on her leg lightly, trying to calm her somewhat. It seemed even Judith was scared of Negan.
Carl jerked away from the spoon, staring daggers at the man. He just laughed, tasting the sauce once again making satisfied sounds.
He sat down at the table, as Carl served everyone up. He went to place the spaghetti on Jane's plate, giving her more than he had given himself. He had noticed she hadn't been eating a lot recently - and he wasn't hesitant to admit that it worried him.
"Do you cook for Carl, Jane?" He asked, baring his teeth at the two of them like a dog ready to snap.
She said nothing, giving him a look of confusion and anger. She was fed up with him and his one liners, because they weren't funny. She could atleast get behind them if he had a little bit of humour, but half the shit that was spilling out of his mouth was junk.
"I see. You're the," he paused, shovelling spaghetti into his mouth. "You're the man of the relationship. Gotta say, if I ever had kids, I'd want em' to be just like you two. You don't take shit from anybody - I mean, look at you! Still givin' me the stink eye after watching me burn a guy's face off."
After their meal, Jane sat and played with Judith for awhile, keeping her entertained and away from Negan whilst Carl talked to him upstairs. Soon the two of them came down, and Negan announced he'd be out on the porch for awhile. She felt her heart slow just then, and she could finally breathe right again. Standing up with Judith in her arms, she leaned in closer to Carl, kissing him lightly on the shoulder.
"Are you okay? Did he hurt you?" She said, analysing his expression as he looked down at her.
"I'm fine. Are you okay? What happened?"
"Getting in was easy. I slipped past the walkers - Had to take down a guy to get in, and then, I was fine. I saw Daryl, and then they caught me off guard."
"I saw him too. He looked terrible." Jane nodded as he spoke, placing Judith down in her high chair.
His hand immediately sprung to her face, placing a thumb on her forehead - where her stitches had opened up. Her whole face was stained with walker blood, but he didn't care.
She flinched away, but soon came around to his cold touch - hesitating for a moment before pulling him into her.
She kissed him on the forehead as he leaned into her, nestling his chin in the crook of her neck.
"What did he say to you?"
Carl just shook his head at her, not wanting to speak about it anymore. She politely obeyed his request, and shut up - and they stood, just holding each other for a second.
The sound of cars and trucks approaching broke them apart, and Jane swallowed hard. She looked him in the eye, worry controlling her features. Rick, Aaron and Michonne were back.
Carl put Judith to bed, and when he came back downstairs - Jane was gone. He ascended out the front door, emerging onto the porch that looked out over Alexandria. Sure enough, she was there, waiting and watching as trucks pulled up the drive.
Carl kept his eyes on Negan and Spencer, playing a game of pool in the middle of the road. Jane had never trusted Spencer, but Carl was on okay terms with him. He was wary that later that might change.
Negan seemed to be shouting now, projecting his voice so that all of Alexandria could listen in. People began to gather round the pool table, watching them just like Jane and Carl were doing.
Jane could almost make out shouts from behind the wall of parked trucks - but she couldn't decipher what it was they were saying. She thought it was strange Rick wasn't in sight yet.
"I could never do this with Rick. He would just be standing there, scowling, giving me that annoying side-eye he gives me." Negan says, stretching his fingers over the cue, about to take his shot.
"That's actually what I came to see you about. I want to talk to you about Rick." Spencer said, trying to act confident - but Carl could see right through the cracks in his demeanour now. Negan's hands released from the cue and the balls sprang from under it, cascading all over the green of the table.
"All right. Talk to me, Spencer. Talk to me about Rick."
"I get what you're trying to do here, what you're
trying to build. I'm not saying I agree
with your methods, but I get it. You're building a network. You're making people contribute for the greater good.
It makes sense."
Jane and Carl both whipped their heads toward each-other, exchanging confused and slightly angry glances.
"But you should know that Rick Grimes has a history of not working well with others."
"Mm-hmm." Negan kept his eyes on the game, watching as the balls clacked against eachother harshly. "Is that so?"
"Rick wasn't the original leader here. My mom was.
She was doing a really good job of it. Then she died, not long after Rick showed up-same with my brother,
same with my dad." Spencer continued. At this point, anger was boiling up inside both Carl and Jane - and many others forming the crowd below.
"So, everything was peachy here for, what, years? And then Rick shows up and suddenly you're an orphan?That is the saddest story I've ever heard. Good thing for you he's not in charge anymore." Surprisingly, Negan sounded enthusiastically uninterested.
"Doesn't matter. His ego's out of control. He'll find a way to screw things up, to try and do things his way,
to take over. That's what he did with my mom.
That's what he'll do again."
"What a pussy," Jane whispered to Carl, and he almost laughed out loud.
"What exactly are you proposing be done about that? I am my mother's son. I can be the leader she was.
That's what this place needs. That's what you need." He let go of his stick, leaning it against the red of the table.
"So I should put you in charge, that's what you're saying?" Negan scoffed.
"We'd be much better off." And at Spencer's words, negan finally looked up from his playing position.
"Point made."
"My heart's still beating, right?" Spencer said, chuckling to himself. And that's when Negan's face changed - and Jane knew that Spencer was a dead man.
"You know, I'm thinking, Spencer. I'm thinking
how Rick threatened to kill me, how he clearly
hates my guts. But he is out there right now, gathering shit for me to make sure I don't hurt any of the fine people that live here. He is swallowing his hate and getting shit done. That takes guts. And then there's you..." Jane turned to Carl, with no panic or fear present in her eyes.
"He's going to kill him." She said, and that was when she noticed Olivia standing at the other side of the porch. She was crying.
"the guy who waited for Rick to be gone so he could sneak over and talk to me to get me to do his dirty work, so he could take Rick's place. So I got to ask-"
"We have to stop him," Carl said, turning to march towards Negan - but she grabbed his arm harshly, giving him a scolding look. She was incredibly strong, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't break free of her grasp.
"We can't stop him. It's not worth it." She whispered to him, and he finally settled, her hand still holding on tight to his wrist.
"if you wanna take over, why not just kill Rick yourself and just take over?"
"What? No, no. I didn't-- I don't--" Spencer stood there, looking like a complete idiot whilst stumbling over his words. This was one thing that she could applaud Negan over - because she wouldn't hesitate to do the same thing.
"You know what I'm thinking? 'Cause I have a guess.
It's because you got no guts."
And before anyone could even blink, Negan's knife was buried deep in Spencer's gut. She hated siding with Negan, but she did.
Everyone everywhere gasped and screamed, including Olivia who was next to them on the little porch. Jane watched Carls face, studying his expression change once again from anxiety to anger.
Negan had cut so deep that Spencer's intestines were spilling out of his body, tangling between Negans fingers. The sight immediately sent Jane's mind to the spaghetti he had made them moments ago.
"Ohh. How embarrassing. There they are. They were inside you the whole time. You did have guts.
I've never been so wrong in my whole life! Now, someone oughta get up here and clean this mess up." He gestured to the pile of blood and flesh on the floor, waving Lucille around the are like it would magically disappear.
"Anyone want to finish the game? C'mon. Anybody?" He called, but no one answered to him.
"Anybody? C'mon. I was winning!"
The one thing Jane didn't see coming at all, was Rosita Espinosa pulling out a gun and shooting Negan directly into his head. She had whipped it out with such speed, that anyone could've blinked and missed it.
But, to everyone's disappointment and Rosita's terror, the bullet had wedged itself in between the metal and wood that built up Lucille.
Fuck.
"Shit! What the shit?! Shit! You just--you tried to kill me?! You shot Lucille!" Jane hadn't seen him this angry since she got away from Oceanside. He yelled and stomped like a toddler having a tantrum, storming up to Rosita with a concerning speed.
"She got in the way." Rosita spat, and she couldn't help but admire Rosita then. They were similar, she knew that - but this was next level 'badass behaviour'.
"What is this? What is this? This little bad boy made from scratch? Look at those crimps. This was homemade. You may be stupid, darlin', but you showed some real ingenuity here. Arat, move that knife up out on that girl's face. Lucille's beautiful,
smooth surface is never gonna look the same,
so why should yours?!"
Carl's heart skipped a beat, and it felt as if he couldn't breathe for a split second.
"Unless..Unless you tell me who made this." He towered over her now, their faces getting closer and closer.
"It was me. I made it."
"You see, now I just think you're lying. And you lying to me now?! Such a shame. Arat's gonna have to cut up
that pretty face." On cue, the rough looking girl started to slice into Rosita's face as slowly as possible.
"0One more try."
"It was me."
He laughed heartlessly then, smiling down at Rosita with no real emotion behind his eyes.
"Oh! You are such a badass!
Fine. Have it your way. Arat...Kill somebody."
Without thinking, Jane threw herself in front of Carl, shielding him from any bullets that might come their way.
"No. It was me!" Someone shouted out, and within a second, Olivia was dead. Jane and Carl got down when they heard the shot, and now they watched as one small stream of blood coming from Olivia's forehead stained the white wood below their feet.
Then came muffled shouts and screams from the citizens, but Jane was only paying attention to one sound: the sound of Rick Grimes's voice.
"We had an agreement!"
"Rick!" He screamed hoarsely, "Look, everybody, it's Rick. Ah, your people are making me lose my voice
doin' all this yelling." Negan took a deep breath before continuing.
"Rick, how about a "thank you"? I mean, look, I know
we started this relationship with me beating the holy shit out of your friends, and because of that, we're never gonna sit around and braid each other's hair
or share our deepest, darkest secrets, but how about a little credit? I just bent over backwards to show you
how reasonable I am. Your kids--"
Negan began, and Rick didn't hesitate to flash the kids a look of concern.
"he hid in one of my trucks and machine-gunned
a bunch of my men down, whilst she snuck in -
God knows how. Killed a bunch of my guys too.
Anyways, I brought them home, safe and sound,
and I fed them spaghetti.
Another one of your people--
well, he wanted me to kill you and put him in charge. I took him out for you. And another one, here--she shot Lucille, trying to kill me just now, so I gave you one less mouth to feed. And by looking at her, that mouth did some major damage. Now, personally, I wouldn't have picked her to be the one to go, but Arat...
...I don't know, didn't trust her."
Rick held his axe, clenched tightly between his white knuckles. He looked full of rage.
"Your shit's waiting for you at the gate." He said, almost trembling with anger. "Just go."
"Sure thing, Rick...right after I find the guy or gal
that made this bullet. Arat?"
"It was me!" Jane said, and everyone turned to look at her in disbelief. She just wanted to be punished, so that no one else was. The way Carl looked at her just then, could've broken her heart into a million little pieces a thousand times over. His eyes were showcasing a certain type of sorrow that she'd never seen him wear before. It was a hopeless kind - embodying the sadness you feel when you lose someone close to you.
From the crowd of silence, loud sobs emerged abruptly.
"No, it wasn't." Eugene said, putting his head in his hands. "It was me. It was only me." He sniffled.
"You?" Negan asked in disbelief.
"It required one spent casing, one four-holed turret reloader, powder, one funnel for the powder--"
"Shut up. I believe you."
He took another deep breath.
"Lucille, give me strength. I'm gonna be relieving you
of your bullet maker, Rick, that and whatever you
left for me at the front gate. And however much you scavenged, it's not good enough, because you're still
in a serious, serious hole after today.
Let's move out!"
As they started to back off, rosita began to thrash and scream.
"No! No, no! Please, just take me!"
"Rick, I ain't gonna lie--your kitchen
is a goddamn mess. I'll see you next time." He laughed, ignoring rosita completely. Her face was stained with tears now, and even though neither girls were very close, Jane felt her feet moving towards Rosita.
She wrapped her arms around the girl, and it felt unsurprisingly nice. It felt right. Rosita grabbed onto her tightly, crying silently into Jane's shoulder. Though they weren't close before this and wouldn't be after it - in this moment it felt like they really knew each-other. Rick, Carl and Aaron just stood and watched, as everyone else started to clear out.
The kids went into this wanting to end it, once and for all. Instead - they started something. Something big.
★
GUYS IM TRYNA GET ERAS TOUR TICKETS
Praying if I do get them my surprise song will be cowboy like me bc yea (ik it's already been played but whatever) IM SO EXCITED THO I HOPE I GET