"I'm coming with you," Aven said, pulling on her jeans and boots as Negan got dressed to meet with his advisors.
"No, you need to fucking rest," he ordered. He slipped on his leather jacket and picked up Lucille before heading out the bedroom door.
"I'm well enough to sit still and do my job," she retorted, leaning back on her hands where she sat on the foot of the bed.
"You're off-duty. That's fucking final."
"Don't treat me like a fucking five-year-old. I'm coming and that's final," she replied with a stoney, serious expression, her gaze hard on him. "I'm not staying cooped up in here right now and I'm sure you'll agree that the safest place is with you." He narrowed his eyes at her, unable to tell if she really thought it was safer to be with him or if she said it purely because she knew he wouldn't deny it.
"Fine," he grunted. "But if you look like you're about to fuckin' pass out I'm bringing you back up. We'll eat dinner up here afterwards. I don't want you out of my sight." He waved her towards him and hiked Lucille up on his shoulder before turning tensely to leave. He scolded himself internally for giving in so easily but he couldn't deny he wanted her input on the situation. He froze with his gloved hand on the doorknob before turning over his shoulder to her with a deep sigh.
"What do you think?" he asked simply.
"What do you mean?"
"Are any of my top people responsible for all of this?" Dwight, Aven's subconscious spat. But in that moment, Aven could truly say she hadn't seen anything from Dwight that day that made her suspicious. It didn't quell her suspicions about him overall, but if he had anything to do with the attack then he was doing an unusually good job of keeping a straight face.
"I don't know," Aven sighed. "I really don't know." She made her way across the room to him and pulled him away from the door so they could talk face to face. "It has to be someone in the know. My first guess would obviously be Eugene. Logically he's the most likely person at the Sanctuary to be on their side or to even have contact with them, although I don't know how he'd have done that without being caught."
"But I don't think-"
"But I don't think it's him," she cut him off. "At least not based on how he was acting. I don't necessarily trust him and I think you should probably grill him yourself, but it just doesn't feel like he did anything, you know?"
"Doesn't feel like it?" he repeated. "I need facts, not fuckin' feelings."
"Well I don't have any facts and my intuition has served me well. Take it or leave it."
"Why aren't you blaming Dwight?" He was more than well aware of her distaste and suspicion of Dwight. Negan expected her to point to him right away.
"Because he responded the way he should have today," she shrugged, staring off over his shoulder in thought.
"What do you mean?"
"I have to hand it to him, he stepped up," she said. "I guess I got a glimpse of whatever you see in him. Regina was getting a little out of control and suggested sacrificing workers to the horde as a distraction-"
"Of course she did," Negan sighed, running his hand over his face. "Exactly why she's not my fuckin' right hand."
"Well actually it seemed like Simon was leaning towards agreeing with her." Negan's face fell and he stared hard at her as though he had misheard, his thoughts clearly racing.
"That's not fucking right," he growled. "He is backsliding. He doesn't fucking get-"
"People are resources, I know," Aven cut in. "Point is Dwight wasn't having it and I didn't really expect him to show any backbone. But I still don't trust him. Just because he cares about innocent lives doesn't mean he's not a rat."
"Even rats are good for something," Negan mumbled.
--------------------------
Aven listened intently and took her usual extensive notes from her chair by the window as Negan and his advisors discussed the damage taken by the Sanctuary and its outposts. She still felt sick and fatigued but her spirits were the highest they'd been in the past few days now that she was back at work. She knew Negan thought keeping her from the conflict with the other communities would either keep her out of the line of fire or at least give her a chance to relax. But she wasn't going to relax until she was dead, and she wasn't content unless she was busy, or at least busied enough for part of the day.
At first, Aven found it odd that everyone gathered around the table in the conference room kept referring to the conflict as a "war." It made sense; it matched Negan's dramatics, and after a while she figured it was just the word they had caught on to using. It kept nagging at her, though. Wars were long and drawn out, a series of bloody battles with heaps of casualties. The Saviors still greatly outmatched the other communities and, Aven figured, were prepared to eliminate Alexandria as a problem. Negan had been keeping the plans from her with the excuse that she needed to rest and recover, but she assumed he was going to do the best thing for his people which would be to disconnect from Alexandria altogether, but unfortunately the only viable way of doing that seemed to be complete destruction. They would never just walk away after the blows dealt to them by the Saviors. She'd warned Negan about stoking the fire but since he insisted on being an aggressor, the only thing left to do was be aggressive. Fire with fire was the only way to go in this case, as much as she hated to admit it.
"What else needs to be done here?" Negan asked as he mentally traced back over everything they'd talked about.
"This is probably everything for now," Simon replied. "Let's talk about who we're transferring to the outpost."
"Right after this, Dwight take Laura and the rest of the crew to the outpost," Negan began. "Set up base there quickly and then move out, grid the area and set up patrols. Thank fuck that we have a competent team up there already; I'd rather keep the rest of the Saviors here in case there's another attack. But I do want to move some of the workers. There's a whole open floor of rooms at the outpost and we need fewer mouths to feed here for now, fewer people to protect."
"I'll be ready to move out at 7 AM tomorrow," Simon said. He would have returned to the outpost anyway since it was the one he oversaw, but there were a few extra things and people he'd be taking with him.
"Make it 8," Negan replied, eyeing Aven nervously. It was only for a split second but she noticed and cocked her head at him. "10," he corrected.
"You sure we have that time to spare, boss?" Simon asked skeptically.
"It's not spare time," Negan replied tensely. "It's more time to prep and be sure we do this the right way. Eugene," Negan shifted in his seat, placing Lucille on the table in front of him and relaxing his body language. "We're already setting up a new station for you there. You'll go with the workers tomorrow and I'm sending Gabriel with you. Poor fuck needs something to do and I ain't fuckin' feeding him for free."
"You said you wanted to send Carson too?" Gavin asked.
"Yeah, Carson too," Negan mumbled, feeling Aven's suspicious gaze on him. She still had stitches in her neck and was mid-recovery; she probably needed the doctor.
"Doesn't he have a lot of patients here right now?" Aven asked. "How bad are the casualties?"
"Very few aside from the ones who died," Simon said grimly.
"Still, isn't he needed here?"
"He's more useful somewhere he's safe," Negan said, turning to face Aven. "He has a few patients right now and...they're all getting transferred." Aven held his gaze, momentarily forgetting where they were as fear began to set in. She was obviously one of the patients but she sure as hell wasn't about to leave Negan and the Sanctuary.
"What about m-..." She cut herself off, glancing around the room and realizing she couldn't interrupt the meeting. She wanted the doctor to stay but there were more important things to talk about than her personal health. Negan turned back to the group and they continued discussing as Aven diligently took notes.
"Dismissed," Negan said. "Dwight, Laura, I'll meet you out front in twenty before you go. Eugene..." Negan lazily sauntered over to Eugene, Lucille swung over his shoulder and a wolfish grin curling onto his face. "Wait for me outside. I have a little fuckin' test for you." Eugene gawked up at Negan before gulping hard and retreating into the hallway without a word. Negan closed the door behind him and turned to Aven whose eyes were glued to him, a disconcerted look on her face.
"Don't fucking say it," she said quietly.
"Doll," he sighed, stepping closer to her and pausing, his heart protesting his decision because of the scared, disappointed look on her face. "I'm sending you to the outpost."
"No," she insisted, raising her voice as she pushed herself up out of her chair and stood steadily despite a rush of dizziness. "Absolutely not. I'm not leaving you."
"It's only until this place is safe again," he said softly, gently placing his hands on her waist. "Just until I can be sure, only a few days or weeks."
"Weeks?" she spat, her hands coming up to grip the front of his shirt lightly. "Please no, don't do this, Negan. I need you. I don't want leave, please," She spoke quickly, her eyes wide and vaguely tearing. She seemed desperate and it threw him for a loop.
"Whoa, hold the fuck up there, doll," he hummed, holding her more tightly. "You don't need me. You'll be safer there and as much as I fuckin' worry I know you can take care of yourself just fuckin' fine."
"Please Negan, I can't leave you." She buried her face against his chest as her body was suddenly wracked with a bout of sobs. Negan tensed slightly, surprised by the outburst, but quickly relaxed and wrapped his arms around her, holding her close and swaying gently with her as one hand came up to stroke her hair.
"Ssshhh," he whispered. "Come on, babe. This isn't like you."
"I'm not going," she breathed after calming down and pulling herself together. "I'm not."
"You are," he asserted. "I made my decision."
"It's not your decision!"
"Aven, for fuck's sake," he growled, pulling away and running a hand over his face. "You can barely fucking stand half the time and today you ran out into a gunfight and almost passed out. You fucking said you wouldn't put yourself in danger or in a situation where they could use you against me. Sorry, but you fucking failed at that so I'm taking it into my own fucking hands. You are going."
"You just said you know I can take care of myself. And what makes you think you can make me do anything?" she asked pleadingly. The emotion at her forefront was still dread at being separated, but her anger was quickly boiling up inside her.
"What makes me think that?" he scoffed, raising his voice. "Oh, I don't know. Maybe it's because I fucking took you in free-of-charge and gave you a real good fucking life here. I switched everything around for you, I got rid of my fucking wives for you." It was just an argument; he willingly did what he did for her because he wanted to, but he needed leverage to get her to listen.
"Is that what this is about?" she asked quietly, glaring up at him. "You're sending me away so you can go back to fucking your wives?" The words fell out of her mouth before she could stop them. She didn't really think he'd do that to her, but she also never expected him to come out with that argument. Ditching the wives had seemed so easy for him, but was he starting to resent her for it?
"No," he sighed, backing down and reeling himself in. "But you fucking owe me this."
"I don't owe you anything!" she spat. "I thought we were on the same fucking level."
"So did I until you pulled that stupid fucking stunt and ran out there today. Clearly I can't fucking trust you not to get yourself killed."
"Right back at'cha," she spat, turning on her heel and storming out.
"For fuck's sake," he growled before calling after her. "Aven, come on!" He followed her out into the hallway but she was already around the corner. He noticed Eugene standing there awkwardly. He wanted to go calm Aven down and get her to agree with him but he needed to be sure Eugene wasn't their rat.
"Doctor fuckin' Smarty Pants," Negan chimed, slapping Eugene on the shoulder so hard he jumped. "I got a fuckin' proposition for ya. Either you figure out a way to clear that fuckin' herd by tomorrow morning or you're the fuckin' one who helped let 'em in."
"I- I swear I didn't, Negan," he stuttered. "S-swear on my mother's grave."
"Well shit, don't bring your poor mother into this fuckin' mess," Negan drawled with a wide grin. "Just prove to me that you had nothing to fuckin' do with this or I'm sure you can guess what might happen to you." He held up Lucille only an inch in front of Eugene's nose. In his mind, Eugene could practically see the blood of his friends dripping from the bat. He swallowed hard and nodded.
"I will not let you down."
"You better not," Negan said darkly, his grin fading all at once. He swept past Eugene and down the hall, Lucille back up on his shoulder, and went to find Aven. She was going to the outpost whether she agreed or not, but if he really couldn't get her to agree, he wasn't sure what he was going to do. He couldn't force her the way he would if she were anyone else, but what other option was there but force if she didn't listen? She wouldn't be happy with him, but at least she'd be alive.