Just Keep Walking

Eighty eight

"What the fuck! Did you just fucking shoot me!? What the shit kid!" Negan shouted angrily, a long hash down his arm. The bullet only skimmed him, only cut open the flesh on his arm. Arat grabbed Mary, holding her by the top of her arm, Carl desperately wanting to get her.
"Yes! Because I'm not scared! And you deserve to die. You killed my Glenn!" She screamed angrily. "He was my best friend! I hate you!"
"Have you seen this kid! What the shit! How dare you!"
"Because daddy says you can kill the bad people. That's you!"
"You know," Negan said softly, his voice so quiet and angry it seemed worse than shouting, walking up to Mary's face, "if you wasn't a baby, and if you wasn't so fucking badass, I would kill you. Or your brother, but I like him too. Almost as much as you. And I'm not done with your dad yet."
"Daddy."
"What?" He sniggered.
"It's daddy, not dad." Mary hissed. Carl was watching on in fear, wanting to grab her, to hold her. He couldn't.
"Fucking hell." Negan laughed. Then his face fell. "Choose one of them, Mary."
"What?" She whispered.
"Choose one of them to die."
"You."
"That's funny. You're a funny kid. Choose one." Negan said monotonously.
"You." Mary spat.
Negan raised his eyebrows at her, then rested Lucille on her head. "Choose one."
"You already said you're not gonna kill me. Or anyone I love." Mary retorted, her face stony and brave although her heart was racing.
"I'll not kill someone you love. I'll kill some one you really, really like. Maybe Rosita? Tara? The clever one? Your Uncle Daryl? The Widow? You like her. Do you know what a widow is? It's the pregnant lady. Because her husband died."
"I love them all actually," Mary spat, "I love my Maggie joint third most in the whole world. l love everyone in the world except your group and you!"
"I don't think that's true."
"Well, you smell!" Mary said suddenly.
"Is do you." Negan laughed back.
"Because you lockwd me away! And little girls are allowed to smell."
"Okay. I'm sick of this. Choose one, Mary."
"No."
"Choose one."
"No!"
"Choose one!"
"NO!"
Then Negan span around and shot Olivia, then turned back to Mary. "You'll regret that choice."
"I'm five! Leave me alone!" Mary cried softly, shaken that Olivia had just been shot so effortlessly, so quickly. She was just gone.
"You did this!" Negan shouted in her face, "You killed her! Just like your daddy killed Glenn. Why couldn't you just leave it all alone?! You ruined it all!"
"I hate you!" Mary screamed, beginning to whimper as a Saviour held a knife to her throat, the blade cutting into her jawbone. "I hate you." She whispered, sobbing.
"Please, she's only five." Carl begged, but Negan carried on shouting at her.
"You've got to be fucking shitting me!" Negan growled, in Mary's face.
"Leave her." Rosita hissed, her fingers curling around her gun.
"How dare you!"
"Leave her!" Rosita screamed, anger flooding through her veins, shooting into the air, then pointing her gun into Negan's face.
"You, let go of her now! And stop talking to her like that! She's a baby!" Rosita ordered, but Arat pounced on her, holding her to the floor.
"What the hell! What the shit! What the fuck is happening! The fuck you think you're doing, ordering me around like that!"
"She's a baby!" Rosita hissed, struggling under Arat's hold.
Negan turned away shakily, and took a long breath in, then his eye caught the shell from Rosita's bullet, then he slowly picked it up.
"What is this? What is this? This little bad boy was made from scratch? Look at those crimps. This was homemade! You may be stupid, darlin',  but you showed some real ingenuity here. Arat, move that knife up out on that girl's face. Start talking, or we start cutting. Who made it?"
"It was me. I made it." Rosita said quickly.
"You see, now I just think you're lying. And you lying to me now!? Such a shame. Arat's gonna have to cut up that pretty face. One more try!"
"It was me." Rosita hissed, not even flinching as Arat cut into her cheek.
"Oh! You are such a badass! Fine. Have it your way. Get a gun to Mary."
A Saviour held a gun to Mary's head then, and Negan whistled for Arat to go over to Mary.
"Cut her." Negan whispered, looking away.
"No, it was me! No!" Rosita begged, whist Mary screamed as Arat hesitantly held her knife to the child's face. Negan gave her a look, and she pressed it against Mary's face, the knife running down her cheek.
"Don't! Don't touch her!" Carl screamed, as Rosita cried, the boy running forwards and trying to grab Arat, but he was knocked to the floor by a Saviour, and Jo grabbed the boy, sat on the floor, holding him to her chest as Izzy whimpered.
"It's okay. She'll be okay." Jo soothed, not even convincing herself.
"Leave her!" Rosita sobbed, as the cut was lengthened.
"Hey! Hey! We had an agreement! Get the hell off her!" Rick screamed, running over, Aaron by his side, beaten. Aaron was left by Eric, and Tara grabbed Rick's arm, restraining his from killing Arat and Negan there and then.
"Rick! Look everybody, it's Rick! Ah, your people are making me lose my voice doin all this yellin'! Rick. How about a thank you? I mean, look, I know we started this relationship with me beating the holy shit out of your friends, and because of that we're never gonna sit around and braid each others hair, or share our deepest darkest secrets, but how about a little credit? I just bent over backwards to show you how reasonable I am!"
Mary was loosened from the Saviour's hold, and Negan signalled his head into the general Alexandrian's area. The child ran to Aaron's arms, the only available person, and the beaten man held her to his chest.
"Your kid? He hid in one of my trucks and machine gunned a bunch of my men down and I brought him home safe," Negan chuckled, Rick looking at a scared Carl in disbelief, "and I fed him spaghetti! Another one of your people, well, he wanted me to kill you and put him in charge. I took him out. For you! And your little girl, she shot me in the arm just now, trying to kill me, so I gave you one less mouth to feed! And by looking at her, that mouth did some major damage!"
"Don't ever touch my daughter again. Ever." Rick hissed.
"Excuse me?" Negan scoffed, and Rick took a deep breath in, knowing he couldn't help the situation. Knowing he was helpless.
"Your shit's waiting for you at the gate. Just go." Rick breathed.
"Sure thing, Rick, right after I find the guy or gal that made this bullet. Arat?" Negan prompted, and the bloodthirsty woman pointed a gun at Aaron, creating panic. Mary whimpered even more, clinging to Aaron.
Tara stepped forwards quickly, and lied, "It was me! It was me! Leave Mary alone!"
"No. It wasn't," Eugene sobbed, moving his hands away from his tearful face, "it was me. It was only me."
"You?" Negan asked with raised eyebrows, and Mary's nails dug into Aaron's bruised flesh.
"It required one spent casing, one four holes turret reloader powder, one funnel for the powder..."
"Shut up. I believe you." Negan snapped, walking away from Eugene and breathing in deeply, "Lucille give me strength." Negan sighed, then he turned to Rick. "I'm gonna be relieving you of your bullet maker, Rick. That and whatever you left for me at the front gate. And however much your scavenged, it's not good enough because you're still in a serious, serious hole after today. But you know what I'm gonna do?" Negan began, his eyes falling on Mary.
He'd gone too far.
He'd broken a five year old. A motherless five year old, who's best friend he killed. He'd mentally scarred the already traumatised child. He'd let one of his group members cut into her face so that the Alexandrians got the message. He'd kidnapped her. He was a monster, and he knew that he needed to put it right. He needed to give the child her life back.
"What?" Rick croaked emotionally.
"You can keep the brat. Swap for the bullet maker. She's getting in my nerves. Too much whining." Negan lied. It was a lie, because in a way, Negan had grown to love the child. He wanted to raise her, to create a fearless leader, to let her take over the Saviours one day. She could. She had the fire, she had the bloodlust, she had the power to turn off that tiny part of her brain that felt guilt.
She could be a ruthless killer, a ruthless leader one day.
"I can stay here?" Mary croaked, and Negan nodded, barely looking at her.
"Let's move out!" Negan barked, pushing aside any emotions for the child. They dragged Eugene away. And Rosita cried.
"No, no, no! Please just take me! No!" Rosita begged, as everyone but Negan left, the man walking up to Rick.
"Rick, I ain't gonna lie, your kitchen is a goddamn mess. I'll see you next time. Don't kill the kid. Maybe I'll come back for her." Negan whispered, before leaving.
Once he was gone, and the crowd - minus Aaron, Eric, Mary, Rosita, and Carl - had dispersed, Rick fell to the floor next to Mary and sobbed, his head in his hands, broken.
After a few minutes, Rick pulled himself up and wiped away his tears, pretending his small breakdown hadn't happened.
"Okay, baby girl. Are you okay? Let's get you cleaned up, yeah? You got a hug for your daddy?" Rick asked softly, getting more and more worried as his questions went on, more and more worried as Mary didn't respond and reply to him.
"Mary, come on. I gotta get to Aaron home," Eric explained soothingly, "so it's time for you and daddy to go home."
Mary slowly got up, and walked into her house, someone having moved Olivia's body. Rick followed her and Carl silently, shutting the door behind them.
"Mary, baby, what's wrong?" Rick asked softly, kneeling down and putting his hands on Mary's shoulders, but Mary just went as stiff as a board. "Baby girl, what's wrong?"
"Y-you're the bad man." Mary whispered shakily.
"What?" Rick breathed, his heart sinking.
"You're the bad man. You kill loads of people. Negan said he's the good guy. I believe him but he does bad things too. But you killed Glenn! That was you! Your actions, your choices! That's what killed him. I don't get it!"
"Oh Mary. I'm not a bad man. I'm daddy."
"I want Mishy. I want Carl! And I want Mishy and Maggie and Glenn!"
"Mary..."
"I WANT GLENN!" Mary screamed, not even hearing the door open, "I WANT MY MISHY!"
"Hey, hey, it's okay. I'm here." Michonne soothed, rubbing from the door that she'd just come though, picking the crying, confused child up.
"I don't get it," Mary sobbed into her chest, "I don't get who's the bad men and who's the good men."
Michonne breathed in shakily, tired from her day, and not wanting to come home to screaming, however at the same time, it was just what she wanted. She would sooner have an upset Mary home instead of no Mary.
"Listen to me. Listen, baby girl. Your daddy isn't a bad man. He's a good man who's had to do bad things. Bad things that saved us all. But Negan is a bad man. A very bad man."
"I want... I want.... I want...." Mary hiccuped, overwhelmed.
"I know. I know. You need to get properly settled back home, have a snack, have a warm bath, then go to bed."
"I want Glenn." Mary sobbed, clinging onto Michonne.
"I know. Me too. I know."
"Oh Mary. Mary, I'm so sorry. I should have ever let him take you. I should have fought harder. I'm so sorry, baby." Rick cried, as Mary cried into Michonne's chest.
"I'm sorry." Mary wailed, reaching over and going into Rick's arms, where he fell into the living room floor, holding Mary as she sobbed, his own tears dripping onto Mary's hair. And he just held her, never wanting to let go. He couldn't ever let her go. Because she was back. They had things to work out as a family, but all that mattered was that she was back.