Chapter Text
Negan doesn't know what to do. It's not like him to be in this much shock, but he's not sure he can blame himself.
Rick talked to him on the radio all those years ago to tell him personally that Carl had passed. He got bit- which was truly surprising- and Negan was sad. He liked Carl, really. He had expectations for the kid. That- if Rick passed away in this war they were having- Carl would soon be the one to take over and lead with an ease that most couldn't achieve. Hell, Negan even saw the grave for himself, where Rick and Michonne had carved his name into a rock. He could have sworn there was a body buried underneath it.
He's so confused as to how the kid is standing in front of him now, a probable twenty-something year-old Carl who has supposedly died years ago.
"You have nothing to say?" Carl interrupts his thoughts, an accusing glare casting down onto him. "Seriously?" When Negan still doesn't move to talk, he scoffs. Carl moves quickly, scooping up the contents of the supplies he dropped and placing them on the end of the bed, avoiding Annie. Suddenly, when he looks up, his demeanor changes completely. A smile appears on his face as he looks up. "Hi," he says. "Feeling any better?"
Negan looks over and finds that his wife is awake now, which he hadn't realized through the emotional turmoil he was facing. Negan shakes his head and turns his attention to Annie, who smiles at him as she sits up. Her gaze turns to Carl. "Better," she admits. "The nap really helped."
Carl hummed. He reached forward and started to organize his things. "I'm glad; I wasn't necessarily supposed to stop by, but the other guy told me that your husband would be coming by, so I thought it was a good excuse to get back in here and make sure you're alright."
"Thank you, then, Carl," she says with a smile. She gestures to the boy and looks over to Negan. "He thinks names are good, so Negan, this is Carl-" she introduces. Then, she turns to the nurse and points to her husband. "-and Carl, this is Negan."
Negan doesn't know what to do until Carl nods and mutters a 'nice to meet you.' He does the same, pretending as though he had never seen the man before. He knows Annie picks up on his lies, but she brushes it off when Carl asks to check her temperature once again. He goes through the general steps of a checkup, simply ensuring that her health is as basically perfect as he can.
"I don't have anything to check on your baby," he starts, which makes Negan wonder about how much they've talked about already, "but I can get you some extra water and crackers."
Annie laughs, but nods. "That would be appreciated."
The man starts to gather his stuff and nods, approaching the door. "Then I'll be right back," he says, and leaves the room. Negan doesn't move even after the door shuts, but Annie does. She shifts and turns to her husband.
"Ok," she begins, setting a hand on her shoulder. She moves the other to Negan's face, gently tilting his head towards her and making them have eye contact. "What was that about?" she asks. "I don't know if you've seen him around here before, but he's really been nothing but nice since I got here, so there's no need to be hostile."
Negan shakes his head. "I don't hate him, and I'm surely not trying to be mean." He sighs, grabbing Annie's hands from his upper body and bringing them down so that he hand hold them in his own. Annie's thumbs rub back and forth across his knuckles in comfort. "He was a part of Alexandria. Daryl, Maggie, Carol- he was Rick's son. Judith's- Judith's older brother. So- so I kind of terrorized him. Nearly chopped off the arm he's missing now." Annie's face contorts into pity. Negan laughs nervously, nearly pulling his hands away, but her hold is grounding. "He's supposed to be dead- got bit years back- but here he is now."
It takes a few seconds, but Annie eventually nods and huffs. "Well," she mumbles. "He hasn't had the time with you that the others have, so he'll be like Maggie was at the beginning. Which is perfectly find, but there's your warning." She brings their hands together into a pile. "He's also not aware of the fact that half of his family is here, and half of them are still at the Commonwealth being hunted."
She sighs. "He doesn't know that you're on his side."
"He'd never believe me," Negan deadpans, hanging his head. "I tormented that kid, killed his friends in front of him, tortured Daryl, nearly killed him twice, used his baby sister to fuck with 'im, took his home and his shit and-"
"Alright!" Carl says as he opens the door, walking in without shutting it behind him. "I've got what I promised." Carl brings it over to Annie's bedside, where he notices their current state. "Is something wrong? Did something happen while I was gone?"
Annie shakes her head and turns around, taking the things with a quiet 'thank you' and taking a sip of water. She nudges her husband with her foot; Negan clears his throat and looks up at Carl. "Look-"
"We're not getting into this right now," he cuts off, waving his hand around. "This is about Annie."
"Alexandria belongs to the Commonwealth," Negan fires back. "So does Hilltop, and probably Oceanside. I'm with most of them here, and the rest of them are back there with bounties on their heads and soldiers with orders to kill on sight." He doesn't take the time to delve in the emotion on Carl's face before plowing into the next topic. "You may not like me, but Annie and I are really trying to get all of us out here alive, and you might want to join us if you wanna' see Judith and Daryl and Carol and Maggie again."
Carl blinks, shuts the door, and sits down.
Carl's not sure how, but Negan manages to convince him to join, even after explaining that his father is dead and Michonne is gone. It must be because of the promise to find his sister, but it all feels like a real blur to Negan. He's not sure how he got this one in the bag. Nonetheless, Carl leaves the room sooner than anticipated, because a soldier comes to collect Negan, and he only has time to gently press his lips to Annie's forehead before being yanked away.
He's not sure if he'll pull through with it. Carl doesn't leave this place- he can't. He's stuck here until the Commonwealth decides that he's more of a person than a medical machine. At this point, Carl's not sure if they ever will.
It's night, though, when he hears people still gathered outside. It's not right; they should all be sleeping by now, wherever the soldiers choose to shove them from dusk to dawn. There's nobody around, so, despite everything he's been guided to do while here, he steps out of the infirmary.
It's strange, how he's never noticed that he's in Alexandria.
Carl wants to dwell on the thought, but he can't, because he hears direct orders to "shoot them all" from afar, and he's immediately taken aback, because they might torture here, but it's not too often that they murder. Carl looks down, finding nothing more than a glass shard to protect himself with, but it has to work.
He will make it work.
He walks further, positioning himself behind the windmill and peeking around. He sees Negan on the ground, face more bruised and mouth bloodier than the last time Carl saw him. Annie is next to him, and many other Alexandrians- half that he knows, half he doesn't- standing around them with their hands out. Theirs a line of soldiers with weapons raised, and the Warden by their side giving orders. Ezekiel and Negan are trying to say something, but he doesn't get the chance to learn what it is, because a gunshot goes off from the soldier nearly all the way on the end of the line, and the Warden moves to hold a kid hostage.
Guns are raised, people are begging, but there's nothing no one else can do. No one besides Carl, at least. So, he moves to the other side of the structure and sneaks up behind the Warden. He leans his head back just in time for Carl to slice the shard of glass across his throat. The man tumbles to the ground, the kid stays standing, and everyone looks at him.
Negan meets his eyes and nods curtly. Carl's eye dances around more until he finds a familiar face, where he looks at Ezekiel and waves weakly. "Hey," he says.
The Warden is in his last moments, gurgling through his blood-dripping throat. He looks down at the glass in his hand- noticing that it cut his own palm, too,- and distantly wonders how he's going to strike the man's brain with it. He doesn't have to worry about it, though, because someone comes from behind, stabbing the man in the head, and the worry is over.
The kid that the Warden took hostage rushes to the woman in the beanie that just arrived. Carl notices, though, that she is not the one who just ended the life on the ground below. So, Carl turns his head to find who did.
It's Daryl who he makes eye contact with.
"'The fuck?" the older man says, arms dropping by his side. "What the shit?"
Carl huffs. "Nice to see you, too, Daryl," he says. "Missed me?"
Daryl merely exhales, still surprised, so Carl takes the initiative to begin a hug.
It's nice. It doesn't last, but it's nice.
He reunites with Judith and it's probably the happiest he's been in a very long time. It's also the hardest he's cried in a very long time, but he didn't admit that one, and decided to scrub the tears away before pulling away from her hug. He also meets his brother, R.J., who is apparently not only his father's son, but Michonne's. Carl is not necessarily surprised that he exists, but he never expected there to be another kid in their family after Judith.
They make a plan; take the train back to the Commonwealth, where they'll do their best to revolt while collecting Eugene, Max, Yumiko, and trying to find Aaron, Lydia, Elijah, and Jerry on the way.
It's a lot, and Carl doesn't even know who half of these people are.
They clear out some room for people to sleep once it's established that everyone- including the Commonwealth soldiers- is completely on board and willing to overthrow the 'government.' Daryl makes a promise that he'll try to catch Carl up on more tomorrow, but they all want to sleep for now, and everyone separates into a house somewhere within the walls.
A few hours after he's laid in his bed, the one designated to him in the infirmary, he sits up and rubs his eyes, because Carl cannot sleep for shit. It might be nerves, but he feels nauseous, so Carl stands up and heads out of the building for a walk. It's only the second time he's been outside without a bag over his head in a long time, and it's strange.
Carl returns to the center of town, where all that shit had gone down earlier that day. He pulls his hands tighter around his center and approaches the hunched figure sitting by a small fire. "Hey," he starts, looking down, "can I sit here?"
The figure turns and looks up and nods. "Sure," Negan says. "Help yourself."
For a moment, Carl sort-of wants to go back inside and stare at the ceiling once again. But he doesn't; instead, he settles on the opposite side of the log Negan's sitting on and sighs. He leans forward and rubs his hands together a foot from the flame. "You didn't lie," Carl starts. "I really, really expected you to lie."
Negan laughs, one that sounds far more tired than amused. "No, no, I'm..." he trails, rubbing his hand over the scruff on his chin. Negan kicks his feet and leans farther back. "I'm trying to turn a new leaf. I've- I've got a wife, a kid on the way-" Negan shakes his head and hangs his face down. "I get that you don't trust me and all, but- hell, you can ask Maggie- I'm trying to be trustworthy now."
Carl's silent for a moment. He stares off into the fire before nodding slowly and turning his head away. "Yeah, I guess," he sighs. Carl brings his hand up and pinches the bridge of his nose. "Just sucks our family had to die for it."
Negan doesn't answer. Instead, he looks for an out to the conversation. He lifts his hand and gestures to the other. "Your hand. Is that how you survived the bite?"
"Yeah," he answers. Carl holds it up and holds it out for them to both look at. "I left a note that I got bit and left, since I wanted to make sure it would work. Chopped it off once I was gone and just-" he huffs and slaps his sides. "-never returned." He looks back at the fire, a side eye glance at Negan, and back to the flame. "Guess it would've been beneficial if you did it for me all those years ago."
He tries to stifle a laugh, but it forces its way out of his throat, nonetheless. "Don't think that would've helped our case."
A minute passes in which their ears are only accompanied by the sound of crackling wood in front of them. "You know," Carl blinks. "I still don't like you. For- for everything you did."
Negan hums. "Makes sense, kid."
"I think you're trying to be a good person," Carl says suddenly. "And- and I think there's a good chance you could succeed."
"Yeah?"
Carl nods. "Yeah. Maybe-" he swallows, waving his hand aimlessly. "Maybe there's a chance that you could be a good dad."
Negan sighs, standing from his seat and tossing Carl the stick that he was using to poke and maintain the fire. "That'll be the day." He takes a few steps away before turning back to the younger man. "You're a good kid, Carl. I never doubted that."
And, before he has a chance to respond, Negan walks off to go reunite with his wife, leaving Carl alone with his thoughts. He falls asleep by the fire and is woken up by his family the next morning. When they're ready to charge the next morning, it's nothing short of surprising when Carl feels comforted with Negan's presence at his back.