DANIEL POV:
I flinched and held back a scream as I felt Lucille slam against my shoulder, he wasn't going to kill me for the failed escape attempt, or at least not yet, or else he would have went for my head with the bat that he had named after my mother. I was barely holding onto consciousness at this point anyway, the bullet had pierced through my abdomen and that had stopped my running. After that happened, they caught me and drug me here - to him.
I was enough of an embarrassment as it was, with me being reluctant to kill people who posed a "threat". And now here I was caught trying to escape.
I hit the floor after the hit from Lucille, a groan escaping my throat.
"Where did you think you were going, Son?" He asked, shaking his head and pressing the bat against my shoulder - applying pressure and therefore making the pain in my shoulder worse . "You want to leave? Fine, Dwight, take this poor son of a bitch out of here. Ditch him somewhere out a ways."
And with that, he left the room. Without a glance back my direction, Dwight and another member moved in and yanked me off the ground. I was dragged out to a truck and tossed in the back seat. Dwight got into the drivers seat and the other guy left.
"Dwight," I said, holding my shoulder and feeling the shredded skin underneath my shirt. "If you've ever cared about me, you'll take me to the Hilltop. Please."
And Dwight glancing back at me was the last thing I saw before everything faded to black.
TIME SKIP TO THE HILLTOP
My eyes snapped open as I was laid onto the bed of a truck. I looked around and was met with the faces of Jesus and a couple other Hilltoppers. Their doctor was pressing pads to my shoulder and abdomen, with a concerned look on his face.
Jesus looked down at me, "Daniel, we can't keep you here. We're going to have to take you somewhere safer. Somewhere your dad wouldn't expect you to go. Trust me."
I could barely manage a nod of my head. The doctor looked up at Jesus and nodded, Jesus got out of the back of the truck and into the drivers seat.
The doctor kept working on me as we drove out of the Hilltop, working to bandage up my wounds from the bullet and from Lucille.
Jesus drove his truck through a big gate to a new community. I heard Jesus leave the truck, but he stayed close enough for me to hear part of the conversation he was having with someone.
"Rick, I need a place to hide a friend of mine. He has connections to Negan. Negan will eventually come looking for him and the Hilltop would be too easy to find him. He's been injured."
TIME SKIP
I woke up after God knows how long. I was laid out in a bed, in what appeared to be a house. My left arm was unmoving, no matter how hard I tried, my shoulder wrapped heavily. My abdomen was sore, but the pain from that paled in comparison to my arm.
Jesus walked through the door to the room, a few people following behind him. "Daniel, you're awake. Good, we were worried. It's been a few days."
"Where am I?" I asked, glancing at the people behind Jesus.
"Alexandria. Jesus brought you here." One man behind Jesus said.
"Daniel, this is Rick, Michonne, Rosita, and Father Gabriel. They live here in Alexandria." Jesus said, naming each of the people in the order they stood. "I'm heading back to the Hilltop, they'll take care of you and make sure Negan doesn't find you."
"Thanks," I said. Jesus smiled and walked out of the room, followed by the people Jesus had pointed out as Father Gabriel, Rosita, and Michonne.
Rick sat down in a chair against the wall, looking at me as I sat up further in the bed. "Jesus told me about your connections to Negan. You're his son right?"
I nodded, "Yeah, but as you can see that didn't get me anywhere really." I said, forcing a laugh.
Rick laughed, "I think it'd be better if we kept that between us. I trust Jesus and he trusts you. But that won't matter to some of my people."
"I agree. I don't really want his name following me around everywhere." I said, sitting on the edge of the bed.
"I want you to go on a supply run tomorrow, if you feel like you're able to." Rick said, raising an eyebrow.
I nodded, "I'll go on it, no problem."
Rick nodded and stood up, "I can show you around if you want." He said, I stood up and we walked out of the room. "You've been staying with Father Gabriel. But eventually, we can move you into an empty house. If you stay here that long."
I nodded and we continued down the steps into the kitchen where the three who had left with Jesus were standing. The man who Jesus had identified as Father Gabriel earlier walked over.
"Daniel, I'm sure Ricks told you this is my house. Feel free to stay here as long as you need though." Father Gabriel said, with a sincere smile on his face.
I smiled and nodded, "Thanks. I appreciate it."
NEXT DAY
Rick and I had finished the tour through Alexandria within an hour and by the time we got back to Father Gabriel's house I was exhausted and went to bed after remembering that I had signed myself up for a supply run.
As soon as I got up, I found a change of clothes that Father Gabriel had gathered together for me and changed before heading onto the house that Rick had pointed out as his. Sure enough he was waiting outside of the house.
"Morning," Rick said, offering me a smile.
I smiled, "Morning. You going on the supply run?"
Rick shook his head, "No. Not this time. I'm sending you and Rosita out. I just figured I'd take you to the gates."
We walked up to the gates where a car was sitting with one of the same girls who had been in the house yesterday.
"Bout time you showed up." Rosita remarked, opening the car door and getting inside.
"Negans coming by today, we have enough supplies for him for now. Which is also why I wanted you to go on this trip. Out of sight, out of mind." Rick said. "I'll see you all when you get back."
I got into the passengers seat of the car and Rick walked past us, opening the gate. Rosita drove the car out of the gate and kept going on the road, I glanced back to see Rick closing the gate.
I probably would've preferred going on the supplies trip with Rick or Father Gabriel, at least then it'd be someone who I had spoken with during my short amount of time here. But at least I wasn't going to be within the walls of Alexandria when my father showed up for his supplies.
We had been driving for a while in silence, and I was mainly just continuing to look outside of the car. But finally I decided to break the silence.
"So where exactly are we headed?" I asked, glancing over at her.
"Further away than I normally would be." She replied, "So speaking of that, you wanna explain why I'm having to drive further away than I should be?"
"Not particularly." I answered, shrugging and looking back out the window. Next thing I knew the car came to a complete stop. We were still on the main road and close enough that if my father's group passed by, they'd see us.
I turned around to face her, meeting her eyes for the first time since we'd gotten into the car.
"We aren't moving until you tell me why Rick doesn't want Negan to see you at Alexandria." Rosita said, raising an eyebrow and crossing her arms. She wasnt budging, not until she found out my secret.
"Its just not a good idea for him to see me. We aren't exactly on good terms." I said, trying to stay vague about it.
She let out a harsh laugh, "Who is Negan on good terms with anyway? You must be an idiot if you think I'm accepting that as an answer."
"Fine, let's just say we have family connections."
"Holy shit. You're his son, aren't you?" Rosita asked, smirking slightly and shaking her head. "Why shouldn't I just go ahead and kill you myself? You've probably been sent here by the bastard himself."
"Trust me, he didn't send me here. If you need proof of that you can look at my shoulder." I said, laughing slightly. I kept my eyes focused on her, not feeling like the situation had defused enough.
"Fine, but make one wrong step and I'll kill you myself." She said, turning back to the front of the car and starting to drive again.