Too Far Gone // D. Dixon

chapter fifty-four

Fuck. They'd been found.

As Daryl moved to stop Negan from punching Rick, Negan was quick to retort, "You try and stop me, you won't ever see her or your son again."

With that, Daryl drops his fists reluctantly, moving back to be next to Maren. Maren hadn't missed the sudden shock and horror on Rick's face as he realized what Negan had said. The secret wasn't much of a secret anymore. She sent him a worried look, clearly having no idea of what to do. They couldn't just let all of this happen.

"This shit isn't funny anymore..." Negan spat, punching Rick to the floor, "Don't make me do this now, Rick. I got plans for you. Cut you up in little bitty pieces, feed you to the dead, and make you watch-"

"Dad, stop this!" Maren was crying now, seeing her father beating Rick to a pulp. The sight reminded her eerily of the way Dean had been beaten by him and Daryl all those weeks ago. Negan simply ignored her.

Negan laughed in between his punches and his grunting, "Then, when you're some sort of screwed-up, creepy stump with a head...that's when I'm gonna kill you. In front of everybody."

"You ever shut the hell up?" Rick spat back, after spitting out some blood. Maren watched in horror, trying to think of something to do. She had to do something.

"Nope!" Negan slammed Lucille down at the table, narrowly missing Rick, "You know your kid volunteered to die? What kind of boy you raise, Rick? I'm gonna fix him, cause I like him. In a few years, he'll be one of my top guys-"

With that, Rick gained the upper hand. He had knocked Negan back, causing him to stumble into a table rather roughly. However, Negan had managed to slam Rick into the floor again. Maren couldn't watch this.

"When I'm done with you, nobody will ever try to do what you did, not ever again!" Negan spat angrily, "Not your friends, not your son or daughter-"

Rick stood up again, more livid this time, knocking Negan to the ground. He'd gone too far, as usual. Rick was lit up with a fearsome rage. He'd gotten a few hits in before Negan had gotten back in control.

Not being able to stand by and watch this any longer, Maren had quickly grabbed Negan's back in a desperate attempt to pull him off of Rick.

"Maren, no!" Daryl yelled, watching in horror as Negan had accidentally and roughly pushed her back, sending her crashing to the hardwood floor, just before hitting the table with a loud thud.

Maren's vision quickly faded to black.

                                                                                     - TOO FAR GONE -

When Maren finally awoke, she found herself back at the Sanctuary.

Her head was aching loudly as she opened her eyes. Her heart sank at the familiar sight of the infirmary, just as Doctor Carson had entered her sights. Then she realized that she was in the infirmary, and then her heart had nearly stopped.

She remembered that she had been in Alexandria and she had fallen, she remembered that much, her head was aching something horrific. That had told her enough. A terrifying thought crossed her mind, was the baby okay? Has something happened?

"Is the baby...?" Maren's voice was panicked as she sat up, a little too quickly.

"Hey, take it easy..." Daryl rushed to put her back down, worried she'd get worse if she moved too fast, "You're in the infirmary." She'd taken one hell of a tumble, that she knew.

"Your baby is doing great, Maren. You're head, however, is a different story. You have a concussion. You had a nasty fall, hit your head pretty bad. I'm gonna give you some light meds to take down the swelling and help with the pain. How're you feeling right now?" Doctor Carson spoke softly, scared to make her headache any worse than he knew it probably was.

Maren ignored the last half of what he said, wanting to get to the point, "Where the fuck is my dad?"

"Right here," Negan said, from the other side of her bed, "I have some serious apologizing to do."
Maren was silent for a moment, as her eyes met his. She could see that he looked guilty, and very concerned. But he knew she was pissed. He had pushed her back so roughly, gotten her hurt and put her baby at risk. It was something he felt terrible about, he'd feel guilty about that for a very long time. It was safe to say that she probably hated him now.

Maren was seething, looking at him with a raging anger, "I don't want to see you right now."

"I get that...but it's something else." Negan said, more sensitive than usual. Something was up.

"What else could possibly be more important?" Maren retorted at her father in leather, her voice tainted with frustration and laced with rage.

"It's Rick," Negan spoke quickly, as he looked at his daughter, "He told me that Carl's dead...He wrote letters. He wrote one to me...asking me to stop, he asked Rick to stop...he asked us for peace." Maren felt her heart break at the revelation. Carl was dead. The boy she had once known and sworn to take care of, to protect, was dead. She let the tears fall, seeing no point in keeping them in.

Maren took a deep breath, looking him dead in the eye, "So are you going to stop?"

"It's too late for that...even if we wanted a deal now, it doesn't matter-" Negan paused for a moment, but Maren cut him off.

"It does matter and it's not too fucking late, you can still stop. You can end this, Dad."

Negan looked at Maren's tear-stained face before speaking again, "I thought it was me...that it was the grenades, maybe the fire...but Carl went out to help someone and he got bit."

"Shit..." Maren spoke softly, her voice slightly breaking at the end. She had known the kid, known what a good heart he had and how he always fought to save people, to think about the good in people. He had always fought to be good. His death is a loss to this new world.

"I know, and I am sorry. I know you were with him when you were there..." Negan tried to comfort her but it wasn't helping much, "You know, I wanted him to be part of things here, I had plans...that kid was the future."

"What the hell are you doing, Dad?" Maren asked him, her voice pleading and desperate, "Why are you still fighting? Why are you making this so goddamn hard?"

Negan swallowed hard at that, speaking more firmly this time, "Finishing what I fucking started."