The Replacement

Part Twelve

Warning: swearing

*****

Knowing for a fact that it wasn't Lydia either that had freed Negan from the cell, you got Daryl to speak to and try to convince her to get out of the cell after she had locked herself in it.

"Come on. You didn't do this" Daryl opens the cell door.

"Yeah. I did" Lydia remarks in response.

"Y/N and I both kept watch last night. You never left the house" Daryl informs her.

Lydia lets out a sigh, "what does it matter..." she then sits up in the bed to look at him. "This is where they want me."

Daryl shakes his head, "doesn't matter what they want."

Lydia nods her head deep in thought, "you know for a long time I blamed myself for what happened last year. Kept thinking; what if I just stayed in that cell in Hilltop, if I never let myself be taken alive by you people in the first place, never went off with Henry, never said what I said to my mother..."

"You're not to blame for her" Daryl tries to reason with her.

"My mother was right..." Lydia looks off into the distance as she continues speaking, "she said; you people put on these polite faces, but it's just a mask. Cause when things get bad, when you get scared; you pick a target, aim and shoot. Me... Negan, anything but you."

"Negan's different" Daryl shakes his head, "you didn't know him"

"The Negan I know stood up for me when he didn't have to" Lydia responds in defense of him. "I tried fitting in..." Lydia then continues, "because I wanted to be like you."

Daryl drops his head at Lydia's words, "you don't belong in a cage."

"I'm better here..." Lydia tells him, "feel safe."

You watched as Daryl stared at her with no response and just closes the cell door. "What the hell, Daryl!"

"She doesn't want to get out" Daryl shrugs his shoulders, "there ain't much more I can do about it."

"She's right you know..." you glare at him when he passes you at the basement door, "you all pick the ones that you feel don't belong here and target them, unleashing your anger and fears out on them."

"Like I told her; Negan's different" Daryl responds to your remark. "You weren't here when The Saviors were terrorizing us all, you don't know the REAL him."

"I might not have known THAT Negan, no..." you nod your head at him, "but I can say that I know the Negan he is now. He's CHANGED, that I can tell you."

Daryl lets out a sigh, "believe what you want." Turning to walk away, he then tells you, "maybe you can talk some sense into her..."

*****

It took some convincing but eventually you got Lydia to come out of the cell; not that it made things less easy for you and her. Lydia still felt unwanted in the community and you were still SILENTLY being accused of being the one that helped Negan escape.

To top things off; people in Alexandria mysteriously began getting sick; a handful of people were exhibiting what seemed to be a stomach virus. 

Not long you found yourself being ill as well; you were exhibiting all the symptom as the rest of them, but you felt like it was even worse. Luckily you didn't have a fever like most of them, but you found that you couldn't even handle smells nor the taste of certain things at the moment without having to throw up, it had gotten to a point where you couldn't even stomach drinking the water.