Too Good to be Bad | Negan |

16 - I can't do this

The rest of the week passes as we get used to life at the Sanctuary. And life here is actually rather pleasant. I'd almost forgotten how nice it is to have a full meal every day. For breakfast, lunch and dinner. It's also been a long time since we've been able to sleep without having to worry about a herd of walkers sneaking up on us. Or even worse, the living that don't mean well.

After a couple of days of undisturbed sleep and plenty of food we're all in good spirits and we start to get to know some of the other inhabitants of the Sanctuary as well. Most of the Saviors and officers are assholes, always happy to show off their power. But among the other workers, there's plenty of nice people. Max, Jody and some of their friends start to join us at our table when we're having lunch or dinner and Carmen hits it off with Jody's daughter Samantha. Miguel makes some friends in school as well and even Priya seems in a better mood, happy to help Max out every day. Katarina and Nik never complained when we were on the road, but I know our lifestyle was taking a toll on them and I'm glad they're able to take it a little easier now that we're here. Only Alex doesn't really seem to warm up to the Sanctuary. But maybe that's because he turns out to be the worst maintenance worker to ever walk the halls of this factory.

'I just don't understand why I can't figure it out', he complains while he aggressively pierces a piece of broccoli with his fork. 'I used to teach maths. How hard can it be to fix a damn toilet?'

'Have you tried applying Pythagorean theorem to solve your problem?' Max jokes.

Alex smiles briefly at him. He seems to really take a liking to the charismatic school leader.

'Your kids could do with some math knowledge, couldn't they?' Alex asks him. 'Maybe if you plead my case, I could work with you.'

'I'd love to have you, but I'm afraid we're really focussing on more practical trades', Max responds. 'Math is cool and all, but I hear the unemployment rate in that sector is off the roof these days.'

'Math can be practical', Alex says. 'Say you have three packs of bullets, containing twelve bullets each. How many walkers can you kill before you get into trouble?'

'Well I know one thing', says Jody. 'If I waste my time calculating that in a shoot-off with walkers, I'm going to be in a lot more trouble.'

Everybody laughs. I'm starting to feel like I could actually feel at home here. Without Negan around all the time, it's easy to forget that I'm supposed to be his wife soon. Unfortunately, I'm rudely reminded of that fact today when a guy I don't know approaches our table and turns to me.

'You have an appointment with the doc in half an hour.'

'What for?' I ask surprised. I went to see the doctor a couple of days ago with Priya. After he examined her, he checked out my wounds and everything was healing nicely.

The guy just shrugs and walks away. I'm a little annoyed at having my free time stolen from me, but I make my way to the doctor after dinner anyway. Maybe it's some sort of mistake and I can get back to my friends soon.

---

'Good evening', I greet the doctor from the doorway. He looks up from the counter he's standing over and beckons me to come in.

'Good to see you, Lara. How are you?'

'I'm fine', I say, stepping into the doctor's office. 'Just a bit surprised you wanted to see me, my wounds are almost healed completely.' Even the nasty bruise on my face has nearly disappeared over the last week. I'm very glad not to be reminded of that night every time I look in the mirror anymore.

'Yes, that's not why I wanted to see you. It was actually Negan who asked me to take a look at you.'

I notice now that the doctor doesn't meet my eye and I start to get a bit suspicious.