Too Good to be Bad | Negan |

58 - I didn't do anything

When it's announced there's another disciplinary meeting, we all know what it will be about. I feel very nervous as we make our way over there, scared they've caught Sherry and are bringing her to justice. But maybe Negan will just tell us all they found out who did it and give an angry speech about how the next person who tries something like this will get a free flying lesson from the roof of the Sanctuary or something. Please don't let them have found her.

I didn't tell anybody about the note she left me. I was too scared people would think I had something to do with it. Negan and I may have gotten a little closer again, but I don't kid myself into thinking he'd let me off the hook if he thought I planned with Sherry to let both her and Daryl escape. Of course, I asked him to let her go, so he might well already be suspicious of me. And I didn't tell my friends either. Just in case we would get questioned, they'd have nothing to confess to.

I find Alex standing with Kat in the crowd. Max and Priya are lucky. They don't always have to go to these things, because they supervise the kids. I see Derek too, but he's standing with the other Saviors. He gives me a short nod when he spots me.

'Do you think they found her?' I ask Kat and Alex nervously. Dwight is already heating up the iron. He wouldn't do that to her, would he?

'I don't know', Alex says. We don't get a chance to talk more, because Negan comes in and we all get down on our knees until he tells us to get up again. He walks around the empty area in the middle of the crowd dramatically and then he points upward and tells the new guy to pay attention.

From what I heard, everything pretty much went to shit when he returned Carl to Alexandria. Somebody tried to shoot him with a home-made bullet, so he took the guy that made that bullet. Supposedly, he's very smart, but he mostly just looks incredibly scared.

Watching that scared man on the platform, I got distracted from what's happening in front of me, but my attention is quickly drawn back when Negan suddenly hits the doctor with his bat. I flinch with him as he recoils in pain and my jaw drops in shock. What the hell is happening?

'Why?' the doctor asks desperately. 'I didn't do anything.'

Negan holds up a piece of paper and tells him they found a little souvenir in his desk. Of course, the doctor says he doesn't know what that is, but it only earns him another blow from Lucille. This can't be right. I stare in anguish as Negan continues to question the doctor, accusing him of having a thing for Sherry and setting Daryl free to please her. Causing her to flee, because she'd fear she'd be suspected. Dwight got the story out of her before she died, getting taken apart by walkers.

None of it's true. I mean, she may have died, I don't know. I hope not. But everything else isn't. Why would Dwight lie and accuse the doctor? I can just see him, still holding the iron into the fire. Negan is walking over now to take it from him. I have to say something. I can't let him burn the doctor's face off.

He holds the iron close to the struggling doctor's face. 'You know how much I hate this shit', he tells the poor man. 'Just tell me you did it, say you're sorry and we don't have to do this.'

My breathing comes hard as I hear the doctor confess. To everything. What else can he do? He'd say anything to save himself from the iron. But he didn't do it. I'll tell Negan later. Privately. I can't do it here in front of all these people. What if he decides to introduce me to the iron?

My heart calms down a little when Negan smiles and drops the iron to the floor, seemingly satisfied with the confession. There will be time to right this wrong. I'm sure he'll understand if I explain to him that I was scared when I found the note that I didn't tell him right away. I just have to make sure to talk to him before he punishes the doctor.