Too Good to be Bad 2 | Negan |

49 - Solid plan

When the bell rings, I groan and reach for my throbbing head. Who the hell is coming to visit this early? Then my eyes fall on the clock. Oh, it's almost 11. Not that early anymore.

I get up from the bed with a grunt and grab my robe from its hanger. Maybe it wasn't very smart to drink so much yesterday. But it was all I could do to keep it together in Lance's aggrevating presence all night and to seem somewhat genuine in showing Negan my support. That wasn't exactly easy after everything I just found out.

I didn't even notice he got up this morning but he must have left for work hours ago. Don't know how he did it, he had quite a few drinks himself. But he's already proved before that he has better stamina than I do.

I stumble downstairs in my robe to see who it is. Clearly, they're impatient, because they're banging on the door now, making it clear that they think I'm taking too long.

'Calm the fuck down', I mumble as I look through the window besides the door. I swallow a bit when I recognize Kieran's agitated face. Since they announced Negan's new position to everyone yesterday, including the police force that Kieran's a part of and which is a part of the Army, I can guess what this is about.

With a sigh, I open the door. I knew I was going to have to talk to him about this but I was hoping to be feeling a bit better when I would.

'Can you give it a rest?' I ask agitatedly as I pull the door away from his fist. 'My head's pounding.'

Kieran doesn't waste a second to state what he's here for.

'If Negan thinks that I'll be taking any kind of orders from him...', he says as he pushes past me to get into the house. '... then he's got his head so far up his ass he can get a taste of his own shit.'

'Thank you for that image', I grimace, closing the door behind him.

'I'm not doing it, Lara', Kieran says defiantly. 'I have given him a chance, I've been nothing but cordial but this is going too far. First chance he's got and he's reaching for power again. I won't have it.'

'Oh, you won't have it, will you?' I repeat, annoyed. 'What are you going to do about it?'

'We'll petition to Lance. Negan must have lied to him to get into this position. A place like this wouldn't let someone with his past run the army, would it?'

'You wanna talk to Lance? Good fucking luck with that', I mumble, making my way to the living room to plunge down on the couch.

'What the hell's that supposed to mean?' Kieran asks confused, following me into the room.

'It's not Negan you have to worry about', I say, massaging my temples to try and get rid of the headache.

'Who, then?'

I open my eyes to look at my anxious friend. Lance has made it clear that if I work against him, we are all in trouble. But I can't deal with this on my own. I can't tell Negan because he's too close to Lance. He'll either feel competely betrayed and flip out at Lance or he won't believe me and I'm not sure which is worse. But maybe Kieran can help me figure out what to do.

'It's Lance.'

I decide to tell him everything. How Lance has been trying to get rid of me and how he wants to control Negan. The only thing I leave out is that Mercer's the one who gave me a lot of the information, because I promised him. By the time I'm done, Kieran is sitting on the armchair with his face in his hands, slowly shaking his head.

'God, I thought we were done with all the bullshit', he says disbelievingly.

'Yeah', I sigh. 'Me too.'