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Negan rounded a corner, silent in the still, hot darkness of the quiet summer night. He stealthily approached the southwest watchtower: he liked to keep his people on their toes as he checked up on them.
Whoever was stationed here wasn’t fazed at all. There was no guilty start, no hurried cover-up of some minor infraction which had been distracting them from their duty during the night watch. They turned briefly to acknowledge his presence while Negan was still twelve feet away, then turned back to continue scanning the open space outside Sanctuary’s perimeter, waiting for Negan to join them. Negan closed the distance and mounted the tower.
“Quiet tonight.”
The voice of the man on watch was Simon’s. Negan was unsurprised. Simon was one of his very best.
Negan eased himself next to the man, leaning comfortably on the wooden parapet and also looking out over the dim starlit surroundings. Simon continued to give his report, his voice very low but not a whisper.
“That newcomer, Callum, thought he saw something moving about an hour ago to the west, but it was nothing.”
“Nothing?” Negan questioned.
“Young white-tail. It ran, never had a clear shot.”
Negan grunted. This summer more and more wildlife had started encroaching close to Sanctuary, on nights when there weren’t walkers around to scare them off. It certainly made them easier to hunt. Venison would have been nice, but Simon had made the right choice: not to risk the safety of the colony by chasing after it.
Newcomer, Negan mused. Negan had taken over Sanctuary only a few months before Callum had turned up. He briefly wondered what Simon thought about himself.
Simon was the most effective lieutenant Negan had. Negan was smart enough not to think of him as his most trusted. Trust was too precious, there was no-one here whom Negan really trusted, though Simon had done plenty to earn it and very little to make Negan uneasy. Simon seemed to understand what Negan was building here, and had never shied away from violence.
“Might be worth organizing a hunting trip at dawn,” Negan’s tone was also quiet, though conversational. “Things been going well: I deserve a little R&R.”
Feeling restless? Is that why you’re not tucked up in bed with your bitches? Simon thought, but didn’t say. He had gotten where he was by knowing when to keep his thoughts to himself around Negan. Not to keep his mouth shut, though. One on one, Negan liked people to talk.
“Meat would be nice,” Simon opined, “but rifles are loud and walkers aren’t that far away. It’s high risk. Bambi could take a lot of tracking down – likely be a long way from here by dawn.”
Negan knew there was a reason he liked Simon. The guy knew a little bit about a surprising number of things and he was able to engage his brain without wasting time or getting lost in indecision. Simon wasn’t a yes-man either. Negan liked the frightened obedience of people in general but he preferred his lieutenants to have the willing compliance of like-minded men.
“You used to hunt, before?”
“Hell, yeah,” Simon replied.
“Food or trophies?” Negan believed you could tell a lot about a man from how he used to spend his free time.
Simon chuckled quietly, his eyes still scanning the land beyond the perimeter for any movement. “Virgins, when I could find ‘em.”
It was so unexpected Negan laughed quietly too.
“I was on the football team in high school and college,” Negan reminisced after a moment. “I had girls chasing after me rather than the other way around. Not virgins, though,” he added thoughtfully. “Plenty of cheerleaders, but I don’t think I ever fucked a virgin.” Young Negan had never seen the point of chasing tail when it came so freely to him. When he became a man he'd only ever pursued one woman and he hadn’t ever been concerned about how many lovers she’d had before him.
“Now I know what to get you for your birthday.” Simon’s words broke Negan out of his brief reverie and they both chuckled.
Fall was dovetailing into winter when Negan, approaching the harem one afternoon, was astonished to see Simon loitering near the entrance.
“What the fucking hell you doing here?” Negan growled.
Simon span around, someone still hidden behind him. He looked – excited? Nervous? Not nervous enough, Negan thought, sourly.
“Negan! Uh – Ta-da!” Simon said, pulling the person – a girl, someone new, Negan realized – from behind him. She was short, with lank, dark bangs curtaining a dirt-streaked face, but the most notable thing was her hands, bound in front of her, not wrist to wrist but in a passable rope version of handcuffs. It looked as though she had been tied up for a long time, judging by the well-established sores just visible under her sleeves.
“I know she don’t look like much right now,” Simon continued, uncharacteristically nervous, “but she’s the only reason I’m here, I swear. I thought your women could clean her up, maybe find her a dress or something before... Anyway, here she is. Happy Birthday.”
That was weird. Simon had no idea when Negan’s birthday was. Curiosity overtook Negan’s ire. It really wasn’t like Simon to be hanging around the harem.
“What the fuck you talking about?”
“Your virgin! Some guy called Sellick just brought her in,” Simon grinned though he still looked a little unsure of Negan's reaction. “Remember? We talked about it a few months ago...?”
Negan had forgotten about their brief chat until now. Simon clearly hadn’t.
“I put out feelers straight away,” Simon went on. “It took longer than I thought it would, and the guy says she’s a mute – but that’s a bonus, right? No smalltalk shit. She can still nod and shake for yes and no. She isn’t deaf, Sellick says she understands every word.”
Negan watched the girl flinch at Simon’s words, though the other man didn’t seem to notice. Instead Simon stepped in a little closer to Negan, dropping his voice even though the girl was surely close enough to hear.
“With virgins you have to, y’know, take charge – be a little forceful at first. It’s normal for them to act reluctant but they aren’t, not really. Bring ‘em off a few times,” Simon waggled his fingers obscenely, “they start begging for your dick. I guarantee it.” A knowing leer crossed his face.
This had gone on long enough. Simon could be a callous son of a bitch, when the mood took him. The new girl didn’t look like she would be begging for anything in the near future except to be untied – and Negan needed time to think. He nodded towards the girl.
“Put her in my private apartment, not in here. Where’s this Sellick now?”
“Waiting outside the main gate.”
The bound figure had been watching them both during their conversation but her eyes dropped as soon as Negan turned her way.
He looked her over more thoroughly. She didn’t look willing, not tied up like that, and Negan still wasn’t sure how he felt about breaking in a virgin. He didn’t see the attraction of being some girl’s first just for the sake of it.
Negan spoke directly to the girl for the first time, and found himself speaking softly.
“You hungry? Thirsty?” She hesitated, then nodded. “Yeah,” Negan turned to Simon, returning to his regular voice.
“Put her in my place and get her some water,” Negan ordered, “and, uh, what we got a lot of that’s fresh?”
“Apples. Harvest was a good one.”
“Yeah, give her some apples. And cut that fuckin’ rope, man. She don’t need to be tied up. Where’s she gonna go?” Negan said these last words looking straight at her and saw, because he was looking for it, the slump in her shoulders as he said them. He was right, she wasn’t going anywhere. "When you've done that, meet me at the gate. I wanna know more about this Sellick."
When he reached the gate Negan found Sellick was a short guy in his thirties, Negan guessed, similarly dirty from the road but clothed better for the approaching winter than the girl. He had prison tattoos on his neck and something about his manner rubbed Negan up the wrong way even before he opened his mouth.
“You’re Sellick.”
“Yessir. You like her?” Sellick began, sounding too oily, too eager. Negan ignored the guy’s question.
“What’s her name?”
“You do like her!” Sellick replied, grinning widely. “That’s great, man. Romantic, even. You’ll be, uh, keeping her, then?”
Negan wasn’t often surprised, but he was now. Had this guy been expecting him to screw the virgin then give her back to him afterwards? Was he her pimp? Negan’s dislike deepened.
“Fuck yeah, we’re gonna fucking keep her. What’s her name?” Negan asked again.
Sellick was still grinning. “Great! I mean, I like the kid, too, but I brung her a long way and I don’t want her back. She ain’t worth anything to anyone else. She can’t fight worth a damn and she ain’t no oil painting, but she’s a genuine one hundred percent virgin. Checked her myself,” Sellick’s smirk faltered at the stony look he was getting from Negan. “That, uh, that was what you were looking for, right? Female virgin?” Simon joined him as Negan stared at Sellick.
“Bring him inside,” Negan said to Simon, turning back into the compound. Sellick called out.
“You, uh, you guarantee safe passage?” Sellick glanced around at the gate’s guards. When Negan turned back he gestured towards them. “I been some places that weren’t so friendly,” he explained apologetically.
“Safe passage? Sure,” Negan replied loud and clear with a slow smile. “C’mon,” he beckoned, and Sellick let Simon lead him in. The main gate closed behind him.
“I know we never met,” Negan started when they caught him up, “but Simon here must have told you I fucking hate repeating myself.”
“Uh...”
“Asked you her name twice.”
“No one knows her name. She – she answers to ‘girl.’”
“You ask her?”
“She can’t talk.”
“Can’t write either?”
“Uh...”
But this bastard had checked she was a virgin, oh yes, made her strip and spread her legs to his prying eyes and probing fingers, Negan thought darkly.
“Where’d you find her?”
“Near Lexington, as was. She was alone and sick.” Another oily grin spread over Sellick’s features. “We all know what woulda happened to her if I hadn’t taken her on, nursed her back to health, brought her here for you.”
“You’re no fuckin’ nurse,” Negan growled.
“I was an orderly in a mental asylum, back in the day.” Sellick sounded defensive. “Kid just needed some antibiotic shots.”
And Sellick had known where to lay his hands on those, Negan thought. Finding useful drugs wasn’t so easy any more.
“How’d you get her here?”
“We walked. Driving, uh, attracts too much unwanted attention, and gas is hard to come by.”
Five hundred miles, Negan thought. He dragged this girl on a five hundred mile forced march to get her here. It must have taken weeks.
“You walked a sick girl all the way from Kentucky?”
“She wasn’t sick after the first day or so. Like I said, I gave her the right shots. Anyway – fresh air and exercise, that’s the best kinda nursing there is!”
Sellick couldn’t possibly believe that was true,Negan thought.
“Was she tied up the whole time?”
“Didn’t want to risk her running.” Sellick’s concerned expression looked fake. “She coulda got hurt.”
“Why?”
Sellick seemed to understand Negan’s meaning. “I’m a businessman. Never been much of a joiner, if you catch my drift, but it ain’t so hard surviving out there on your own so long as you know a few things, and I make it my business to know things. There’s groups of folks and bigger colonies all over, if you know where to look, there’s always someone wants something they ain’t got. I’m the guy who can find it for 'em, no muss no fuss. Demand and supply, man. I heard you was looking for a virgin and I found a virgin. Never worked this far east before so I thought I could find out how things were over this way at the same time. Two birds with one stone, you might say.”
Negan abruptly stopped walking. That kind of intelligence was worth something to him. Simon would know that, too. He didn’t want to let Sellick know, though. Fortunately Sellick himself had already supplied the perfect distraction.
“You think I’m fucking buying her off you?”
“No no no! Not buying, not at all,” Sellick backtracked. “But I think the leader of this fine, thriving colony would want to show your people how puttin’ in extra effort to get you something you want brings... Compensation.”
Fuck, Negan thought. Simon was watching him closely now, and would think the same about being rewarded for effort.
Simon was angling to become Negan’s second in command now that Sanctuary was getting bigger. That must be why he went looking for a virgin, and Negan wanted to know all about how he’d put those feelers out. He hadn’t thought that any kind of long-distance communication was possible any more. Negan needed someone like Simon, but Simon had been happy to surprise Negan and Negan wanted to squash any impulse the man might have ever to do that again.
“What “compensation” do you want?” Negan asked.
“Oh, I wouldn’t presume to ask for anything aside from your goodwill! Although... I was thinking, a colony this size, so close to so many formerly famous hospitals, you must have all their pharma by now, or know where to get it. Colonies always collect pharmaceuticals and like I said, finding things people want, moving them around, that’s kinda what I do.”
Negan remained silent and Sellick scrutinised his face. Whatever he saw there made him add, “I’m not after any drugs you’d ever use. Someone out west wants some very particular meds, and one of the hospitals around here used to specialize in the right kind of illnesses. Those folks are looking for something you’ll never use here. If you could see your way to helping me get ahold of it, maybe some supplies for my journey west as well, I’d call that a very fair reward for finding you a virgin.”
Negan was itching to kill Sellick, the man’s very existence was an affront to Negan's world view and it bothered him that he couldn’t do that yet. He’d guaranteed safe passage, though, so instead Negan would have to make a show of finding these damn meds for him.
But Sellick had to die.
The man was making a success of surviving out there – even thriving, maybe. The people of Sanctuary didn't have to like Negan or even like his way of doing things but they needed to know that Negan’s way was the only way. They mustn’t start imagining they could be like Sellick, playing one colony off against another, trading luxuries for food and shelter like a parasite rather than having to work for it – unless they were doing it as a way to gather intelligence for Negan himself. He didn't think Simon was in cahoots with Sellick, but he needed to make sure. Killing Sellick would be the best way to do that, in Negan's opinion.
Negan slowed and looked at Sellick. The man would do something wrong, Negan thought, given time. Negan just had to wait, he would only need the slightest pretext.
“You can stay in here tonight,” Negan indicated a building. “Simon, set this guy up with a room, some food and someone to show him around." Simon would know Negan really meant a guard to stop Sellick nosing around or speaking with too many people. "Then dig out the drug inventory. If we haven’t already got your drug then I’ll put together a raid team myself for tomorrow. Which hospital? What meds you after?”
“Active ingredient is called alemtuzumab. There's a few different brand names. Why don’t I tell you the hospital name tomorrow, if we do need that raiding party?” Sellick countered.
Negan nodded. This guy was cautious, just not cautious enough. “Okay. I’ll send for you tomorrow.”
Negan nodded to the guard outside and entered his private apartment. There was an empty pitcher on the table with a half-full cup beside it and three brown apple cores on a plate next to them – but no girl. Damn, he had been sure she wouldn’t bolt.
Negan shook his head, then stood Lucille in the usual spot by the door and sat heavily on the couch. He needed to think about where the new girl might try to hide, the people who might risk taking in a stranger, or who would be prepared to hide her for their own purposes.
Before he could collect his thoughts, something beneath the table caught his eye: a booted foot, part of a leg. He recognized the ragged clothes he’d seen earlier on the girl.
Negan silently cursed and drew his hunting knife. There were a dozen weapons in here that she could have used to arm herself.
The girl moved, but she wasn't getting ready to attack. She slowly edged back and disappeared from sight. Negan couldn’t even hear her breathing. His grip on his knife handle tightened as the watchful moment extended.
After an age he noticed the door to the back room wobble, as though someone small enough to try squeezing through the gap had nevertheless gently bumped into it when crawling away out of view behind the table. Getting away, not preparing an ambush.
Negan laughed out loud at the absurdity of the situation, his voice startling in the silence, and stood. The girl was frozen, half through the doorway on her hands and knees, looking back over her shoulder. Nice position: nice ass, Negan grinned to himself.
“I can see you. Come on out here,” he called with a wry smile, and heard a deep intake of breath, then movement. A moment later the girl was standing in the doorway to the back room, eyes fixed on the floor.
“At first I thought you fuckin’ ran. Then I saw you down there,” Negan waved vaguely towards the table, amusement still filling his voice, “and I thought you were planning to fuckin’ kill me. But you were just, what, hiding? Hoping I’d fuckin’ forget you were here?” Negan grinned.
The girl’s eyes had flickered to the hand that had made the gesture then up to his face, wide and scared. Negan realized he was still holding his hunting knife.
“Shit!” Slowly, deliberately, Negan tucked it away again and showed her his empty hands.
“There. No need to be fuckin’ scared. Ain’t gonna fuck you up with a knife, I promise, unless you go for me first.”
The girl didn’t look convinced.
“Ya got me, I guess I am fuckin’ scary,” Negan chortled. He looked at her curiously for a moment. “Can you talk? I mean, you got a tongue, right?”
The girl opened her mouth, stuck out her tongue, looking so ridiculous that Negan laughed out loud. She quickly put her hand over her mouth, looking at Negan as though she had done something wrong. Negan grinned.
“It’s okay. Come over here.”
The girl’s sudden intake of breath and wide eyes told Negan all he needed to know. She was frozen in place, too frightened to move yet clearly also scared of disobeying him. Fear, not usually a sign of a willing fuck, Negan thought, sourly.
Negan took a step towards her but he stopped dead when she let out a sob and dropped to her knees, hands raised as though he had pulled a gun. The bruised and broken skin around her wrists was starkly revealed and it was only now that Negan saw her wrists were still wrapped in rope, even though they were no longer bound together.
It was all so confusing – so distracting – that it took Negan a moment to realize he had just heard her voice. She had sounded horribly like a child, not a young woman. Mute, my ass, Negan thought.
“How old are you?” Negan asked, eyes narrowed.
He had thought her frightened of him before, but now the girl stared at him in absolute terror, her eyes filling with tears and darting everywhere before returning to his face. Negan could understand her being afraid when he was moving closer to her but why was she even more scared by his question? Unless... unless he was wrong about her being able to talk, even if she had enough of a voice to whimper with fright.
Negan hadn’t asked a yes/no question. Maybe she was truly unable to speak but she was afraid – now he’d heard her make a sound – that he would think she wasn’t a mute. She must have come across other people who thought she was faking it. People, he was dully surprised to realize, who’d had even less patience with her than himself.
“I won’t fucking hurt you,” he repeated, then at a sudden inspiration he added, “I wanna be your friend.” She didn’t move and he could see she was trembling, though whether from fear of him or with the effort of keeping her hands raised, Negan wasn’t sure.
“Hey, at least put your hands down,” he said, “and stand the fuck up,” Negan instructed, taking a step back and holding up his own hands again, placating. She did so, warily, and they stood eyeing one another in silence.
“Lemme get those ropes off of you now,” he said, waving at her wrists. She backed off so fast she hit the wall behind her with a solid thump.
Negan had another idea.
“You can write, yeah?”
She hesitated, then nodded. Negan dug out a pad of paper and a pencil from a shelf behind him and laid them on the table.
“My name’s Negan. Okay? I want to be your friend. Tell me your name and how old you are. Write it down, hold it up.”
She looked at the pad of paper Negan had put on the table, then back up at him. He held his hands up again.
“Okay,” he chuckled, stepping back to sit on the couch again so she could stand by the table and write without having to move any closer to him. “See? Not gonna fuckin’ hurt you. Just wanna talk– uh, communicate. It’s what friends do. Go on, write it down. Name and age.”
The girl edged forward, wary and reluctant to take her eyes off Negan but apparently a little reassured by the presence of the table between them. She wrote something down then held up the pad for him.
Linda, he read, and the number 14.
Well, fuck. Negan thought he might have banged an eventually-willing, horny sixteen-year-old, but this? She was a terrified child, hiding under the fucking table and wishing everything would all just go away. He ran a hand through his hair.
“How'd you end up here, Linda?”
Attack on farm/all dead
So she’d been living on a farm, until it was raided – by walkers or maybe people stealing the produce, it didn’t really make a difference – and she was the only survivor.
“Parents?”
She shook her head.
“Where’s the farm, Linda?”
The girl shrugged.
“Near or far?”
Very far
“Further than Lexington? Where Sellick found you?”
The girl nodded. That reminded him...
“Did Sellick do anything to you, Linda?”
Linda’s eyes dropped and she started blushing deeply as she vigorously shook her head. What? The trader had already admitted checking she was a virgin. What else had he done?
“You sure? Because I can see he tied your hands and he told me himself he looked between your legs. I just wanted to hear from you exactly what he did.”
She blushed harder, still shaking her head.
“Fucking tell me what that motherfucker did to you!” Negan’s voice rose with frustration.
No no no Linda’s hair flew she was shaking her head so hard. Tears streamed down her cheeks and more choked-off sobs escaped her lips.
“Jesus fucking christ!” Negan stood as he shouted which made Linda sink to the floor, curled up defensively with her arms wrapped tightly over her head.
Negan took a deep breath and with an effort he quietened his voice, sat down again. “Linda! Linda, look at me. Ain’t gonna fuckin’ hurt you. I’m not angry with you but I need you to look at me.”
It took a moment then Linda raised her head. She looked in his direction but didn’t meet his eye.
“Okay, good,” Negan nevertheless said. “That’s good. Now. I want to know what that bastard Sellick did to you. I’m your friend, Linda, ain’t gonna fuck you or make you do whatever Sellick did, but I need to know, okay?”
More head shaking, more tears, and him getting angry wasn’t helping at all. Point to the place on the doll where he touched you, Negan thought, except there weren’t dolls any more, or anyone who could explain to him how to deal with this kind of shit even if there had been.
“Okay. Okay, calm down. I’m not angry with you, calm down. You’re safe here.” While he waited for the sobbing to stop Negan decided to change tack.
“What kind of a farm?” Negan asked. “Where you were living, what kind of a farm was it? Write it down,” he added, nodding at the table.
Negan thought for a moment he wasn’t going to get an answer, but then Linda wiped her sleeve across her nose and approached the table again.
Dairy + vegetables, she wrote.
That surprised Negan. He was planning for Sanctuary to take over another nearby farm to help with the endless problem of food but Negan had been thinking of their livestock for meat rather than dairy. However dairy would mean a steady supply of fresh food throughout the year rather than glut and famine and the problems of storage that they had to deal with at the moment.
“You help them out?” Negan asked, an idea forming in his mind.
I milked cows + goats/made yogurt + butter + cheese
“Did you like doing that?”
Linda shrugged.
“Do you think you could do the same for my people, maybe even show others how to do it too?”
Linda shrugged again, but nodded.
Need tools + ingredients/not just milk + cream/how many?
“That’s okay. That’s okay. We only got chickens and pigs so far, not cows or goats. But we’re expanding, gonna have livestock soon. We’ll find you other work until then.”
Linda backed away again, shaking her head and looking fearful. Negan thought he knew why.
“Fucking hell, Linda! How many times I gotta say nobody's gonna fuckin' fuck you!” Negan took a deep breath.
“I didn’t ask for you to be brought here, okay? I wasn’t looking for a fuckin’ virgin, it was a – a mistake, a fuckin' misunderstanding. Whatever nasty fucked-up stories that prick Sellick told you about how badly we’d fuck you over when he got you here, they ain’t gonna happen. You understand me? I’m the fuckin’ boss around here and I’m not gonna let anyone hurt you. Ain’t gonna fuck you myself; ain’t gonna whore you out to the other men here. You know forcing someone to fuck is called rape, right? And it's against my rules. I ain’t gonna break my own rules. No-one else is gonna break them either, because I punish everyone who even thinks about breaking my rules. No-one’s gonna touch you here in Sanctuary unless you want them to.”
After a moment Linda nodded, hesitantly.
“Okay. Good. You ready to let me get those ropes off of you now?” Linda didn’t nod, but she didn’t back away either. “I’ll untie them. With my fingers, no knives.” Negan was watching her closely as she thought about it. “C’mon, Linda, ya gotta trust someone some time. You trust your friends, right? And I’m your friend.” Then, quieter, “How about you just give me one hand at a time? So you know I ain’t trying to tie you up again.”
At last Linda nodded, took a deep breath and held one hand held out over the table. She’d decided to trust him.
“Okay.” Negan pulled up a chair and sat as he started working on the knots. They had pulled tight – and they must have gotten wet a few times too – but he started teasing at them. He kept up a low monologue the whole time cursing knots, their inventors and everyone who ever tied a knot, and eventually Linda’s wrists were free. Negan examined them briefly before Linda pulled back: the skin was bruised black in places and untying her had opened up some of the scabbed-over sores but there was nothing deep or infected. She'd live.
“So you’re staying here with us.” When Linda looked at him in alarm he added, “What, you want me to give you back to fuckin’ Sellick now?”
Linda shook her head emphatically.
“And you can’t get back to your farm. Even if you did know the way back, and there weren’t no walkers out there, you said they’re all dead now. Gonna live there alone?”
Now her head shake seemed more thoughtful.
“So you gotta stay here. We can keep you safe from the walkers and you can work in the factory to earn your food. We even got a school.” Negan watched Linda closely for a few moments before he continued. “In a few months, when we do get some livestock, your job will be milking. Once we start getting more milk in a day than we can drink, we’ll get a dairy going and you can start making the other stuff.”
Linda nodded slowly, then started writing again.
Selec + other man?
“The other man?”
Brought me here
“I thought Sellick brought you here on his own,” Negan replied with a frown. Linda shook her head impatiently.
Here she pointed to the word with her pencil, then started pointing vigorously to the floor.
“You mean Simon? The guy who brought you to my rooms?”
Linda nodded.
“Simon won’t touch you. I told you, it’s against my rules. Everyone here obeys my rules or I punish them. Simon won’t touch you.”
Linda’s mouth turned down at the corners and Negan half-expected her to try to argue but instead she circled the word Selec and held it up, pointing her pencil at it.
“I can’t punish Sellick if you don’t tell me what he did to you.”
Linda looked thoughtful but no more writing was forthcoming.
“Could you draw a picture?” Negan suggested.
Instead Linda moved out around the table, so she was in full view. Blushing deeply and facing the window rather than Negan she dropped to her knees once more and took a deep breath. Linda moved her hands as though gripping something in front of her face, then opened her mouth and bobbed her head down to her fingers and up again a few times. The performance was over in seconds, Linda standing up as though to distance herself from her mime. She finally looked over in Negan’s direction, looking like she was doing her best not to start crying again.
“Bastard motherfucking son of a bitch! He fucked your mouth?”
Linda nodded miserably.
“Why didn’t you just bite his cock off?”
Linda mimed grasping something then held her fist next to her throat.
“Fucker held a knife on you while he fucked you in the mouth,” Negan guessed, disgusted. The girl nodded. At least there could be no doubt about whether Sellick had forced himself on her.
“How many times? Just once?” Head shake. “More,” Negan confirmed. Linda nodded. “A lot more?” Linda’s face become a picture of misery as she nodded again. “Can you write how many times?” Linda shook her head, shrugging. So many times she lost count, or never wanted to count in the first place, maybe.
Negan felt triumphant. He would have liked to know how many times Sellick had made her suck him off but it wasn’t important. Knowing that asswipe had raped her mouth was good enough. Now he had Sellick where he wanted him, the stupid motherfucker had given Negan the perfect reason to make an example of him and at the same time teach Simon a lesson: no more surprises.
When Negan looked down Linda was still there, on the other side of the table, watching him with curiosity, but no longer in fear.
“Okay, it doesn’t matter how many times. Sellick did it more than once, and he forced you at knifepoint. That’s good enough. I guess imma hafta kill him.”
Linda looked into Negan’s face, surprised.
“Told you, I have rules around here,” Negan explained, “What he did to you, I’m gonna kill him for that.”
Negan moved to the door and picked up Lucille, twirled the bat once in his hand. Linda stared at Negan, round-eyed, then nodded fiercely, just once. That made Negan smile.
“You wanna watch?”
Linda’s eyes widened before she seemed to realize she was still looking at Negan and dropped her eyes to the floor. She gave a little shake of her head. Negan realized he’d frightened her again. He put Lucile back down.
“That’s okay, you don’t have to. I just thought you might want to see him get what's coming.” Linda glanced his way, then wiped at her eyes, shaking her head once more.
“So... we’re good, yeah?”
Linda studied his face, then nodded.
“You gonna be my friend?"
More nodding.
"How about setting up a dairy? Will you do that for me? Maybe teach other people here to do what you can do? Or am I gonna have to tie you up again?”
Alarm appeared on Linda’s face, then her eyes narrowed.
Joking? She wrote.
“Yeah,” Negan decided. He didn’t need to threaten Linda.
Fucking asshole. At least it meant she still wasn't scared of him right now.
“Hey!”
Against rules to call you asshole?
That made Negan snort with laughter.
“Usually I don’t tolerate disrespect, but I guess you get a pass. Today only.”
Linda nodded solemnly.
Willing compliance of like-minded people, Negan thought. Linda was a kid but she understood what the world had become. And Sellick had been wrong, what she knew gave Linda the potential to be a very valuable asset indeed. Negan was glad, but then he had a soft spot for kids, always had. Milk and yoghurt, butter and cheese, Negan thought, Sellick dead, Simon both promoted and brought to heel. Not a bad day’s work.
“Okay, Linda. Gonna take you to the infirmary about this,” Negan gestured towards his own wrists. “Then I’ll send someone to show you around, find you a foster family.” He picked up the pencil and pad of paper. “Here. You’ll wanna be able to talk.” Now in spite of her injuries Linda gave Negan a brief smile.
“Attagirl,” he said softly.
Negan picked up his barbed-wire-wrapped baseball bat once more. He held out his other hand, inviting Linda to take it. She nodded at the bat and looked up at Negan inquiringly.
“Oh, yeah,” he drawled. “Gonna kill Sellick with Lucille here. Might take his fucking dick off with her before I smash his brains out. Ain’t no guy gonna touch you after I do that. Still don’t wanna watch?”
Linda tilted her head to one side, pursed her lips in a speculative manner then held out her hand and see-sawed it for a second before slipping it into his. Negan threw back his head and roared with laughter.
“You’re a fuckin’ comedian,” Negan chuckled at last. “Funniest fucking thing I heard all year, and you didn’t say a fuckin’ word.” His laughter had dragged another small smile onto Linda’s lips.
Her hand felt small and surprisingly cold in his. He’d have to make sure Linda earned enough to get warmer clothes for winter, too.
First things first.
“C’mon then, kiddo,” Negan grinned.