Savior

Reunited

About two weeks had passed since Shane and Rick responded to that mans suicide attempt. Negan. His name came across Ricks mind here and there, curious on how's he doing. With no way to contact him, Rick decided he just needs to let it go. He wasn't even sure why he kept thinking about him, or why he touched such a sensitive spot in Rick. Usually he wasn't phased by his job, it's what he was taught. But, this time it was completely different.

It's Friday afternoon, Rick is just getting home from work. He pulls into the driveway and heads inside. Greeting him at the front door was Judith, crawling around with her monkey stuffed animal. "Hi Judith!" Rick smiled down at her, reaching his arms towards her, then picked her up. Rick walked into the living room where he was met with Carl sitting on the couch, reading his comics. "Hey, how was school?" he asked, "good" Carl sighed.

Rick sat down next to Carl with Judith sitting on his lap. He leaned his head back, resting it on the back of the couch and closed his eyes. Again, Negan popped into his head. He just wanted to make sure he's ok, but he couldn't, and that was tearing him apart.

"What's for dinner?" Carl asked suddenly, snapping Rick out of his thoughts. "What?" he asked confused, adjusting to reality. "I said what's for dinner" Carl repeated with a concerned look on his face. Rick saw it, but paid no attention to it. "Um, I think there's some leftovers. That ok?" "it's fine" Carl replied, continuing to read his comic.

Rick went back to closing his eyes. He was exhausted for what seemed like no reason, or at least he couldn't figure out why. As he started to fade asleep, Carl spoke. "Hey, Shane stopped by a little while ago and gave me this." Carl reached for a small piece of paper on the table. "He said to give it to you" he handed the piece of paper to Rick, who took it in his hand, furrowing his eyebrows.

"What is it?" "I don't know, Shane told me not to look at it." Rick unfolded the piece of paper, revealing a phone number and a name, Negan. Ricks heart instantly dropped, then started racing. He stared at it closer, making sure he was seeing this right. Where did Shane even get this? Why did he give it to me? Does he know that I was worried about Negan? Whatever, it didn't matter now. What mattered is that Rick finally has a way to contact Negan.

He folded up the piece of paper and held it in his hand for a moment. "Are you ok?" Carl asked, he knew something was off just by the look on his dads face. He was pale too. "Yeah" he whispered, "it's a phone number of someone I saved a few weeks ago. Well, I don't think I necessarily saved him, but I helped him." Rick mentioned and Carl smiled softly. He was glad his dad was able to help people, since he wanted to do the same.

"So what's his name?" Rick chuckled quietly, "Negan." Even saying his name made him feel weird, in a good way. Similar to feeling butterflies in your stomach, but he didn't even know why he felt like this. "What did you save him from?" Carl asked curiously, intrigued to know the story. When Rick heard Carl's question, he wasn't sure if he should even tell him the true story. He's still young, he might not even understand it. "Well...he uh, he had some cuts, deep cuts. Bleeding a lot. I bandaged him up with what I had, then the ambulance took him." Rick explained with a very shaky voice, he was definitely nervous about telling Carl this.

"Wouldn't the ambulance do that? Unless they weren't there yet?" he asked. Rick knew he couldn't get anything past Carl, he's smart, of course he's gonna notice that the story doesn't sound right. Rick took a deep breath, "normally they would yes, but this time was different. Negan didn't get those cuts on accident. He..." Rick paused with a lump in his throat. Carl furrowed his eyebrows, confused. Rick gave himself a moment then continued, "he gave those cuts to himself. On purpose". He looked over to Carl, to see how he would react. His expression didn't change much, he was thinking about it.