WA - Washington DC - 'The Sanctuary' - Negan's Room

[DarkSideCookie]

Washington DC - 'The Sanctuary' - Negan's Room

Negan's private room inside of The Saviors' camp named 'The Sanctuary', located in Washington DC.

[Kristi Lynne]

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DAY 302

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*** Nora enters from The Sanctuary - Cells ***

After delivering Javier's clothes to the laundry on the main floor, she ran into Danny who advised her to go to Negan's room. Nora paused outside the door before knocking. She had likely said too much to their new guest already and she would need to watch herself if they had more contact in the future. But there were always other things to discuss with their leader if she wanted to avoid that topic.

She rapped her knuckles a couple times on the door. "It's Nora," she announced. "Danny said you wanted to see me."

[DarkSideCookie]

Negan sat with his boots crossed onto the table and Lucille almost fondly covered between his fingers, waiting for Nora to pay him a visit. Oh, she will be thrilled about the job he got for her. But why should he spare her from such tasks any longer? Every one of them had to do things they didn't appreciate at times, even himself.

And then finally he heard a knock on his door. "It's Nora,""Danny said you wanted to see me."

"Come in.", Negan invited, or more precisely, commanded her in.

Neganbanner

[Kristi Lynne]

"Come in."

Once her entry was approved, she opened the door and walked in. Not surprisingly, Negan's room was the most spacious and well-decorated in the place. He was already lounging on the black leather sofa, looking pleased with himself. "The new guy's checked into his suite," she told him. "Number seven, if you're lookin' to pay a visit. Where'd you pick up the strays?" 

[DarkSideCookie]

Once the door opened and Nora had stepped inside, Negan looked up with glee, making no move to rise from his sitting position though.

"The new guy's checked into his suite,""Number seven, if you're lookin' to pay a visit." No, not him. She will. "Where'd you pick up the strays?"

Negan watched her in silence for a moment, before he suddenly gestured to one of the chairs opposite the more comfortable seat he was sitting in himself. "Sit down." And yet again his words sounded more like a command than an invitation.

Once Nora did as she was told, he finally answered her question. "The warehouse I've sent the two brothers and fingersmith-Howie a while ago." Before she could have interjected with anything, Negan added: "Well, now that is not-so-fingered-Howie." The following chuckle eventually ended in a quiet gurgling noise.

Neganbanner

[Kristi Lynne]

"The warehouse I've sent the two brothers and fingersmith-Howie a while ago ... Well, now that is not-so-fingered-Howie."


"I'm sure he deserved it," she remarked, taking a seat but not getting too comfortable. She tried not to think too carefully on whatever gruesome punishment Negan had decided to give Howie, only that in his eyes it must have fit the crime. "What do you know about our new guests?" Nora asked. As she sat across from him in times like this, it was almost easy to pretend they were having a normal conversation, drinking beers around the campfire like they had done in the past. But those times didn't last long.

[DarkSideCookie]

"I'm sure he deserved it," Negan's face still showed a chuckle, a toneless by now, as his eyes were following every one of her moves towards the seating. Was she really sure? Well, made no difference anyway.

"What do you know about our new guests?", she suddenly asked, getting another of his intent looks at that before he took down his feet between them and instead leaned a little forward. For a moment his lips moved in a pretended thoughtful way.

"There is the kid. Sick but brave. And then there is Papi. An army man, a medical practitioner, and a father... a fucking A for all of that, I should say so. Sounds pretty much like Mr. Right, doesn't it?" The toneless chuckle came back to his face, as he leaned just a little closer, his tongue playfully sliding over his teeth. "I bet it's been a while this lady's pussy got a run."

Neganbanner

[Kristi Lynne]

Nora took in his description of the man, focusing on the military and the medical aspects. Maybe this guy would turn out to be an asset to the team.

"I bet it's been a while since this lady's pussy got a run."


She reacted with a short laugh coupled with a roll of her eyes. But he was still staring her down, invading her personal space. Well, two could play that game. "Aw, Negan, your concern...it just..." she purred, leaning closer to him so that her face was inches away from his, close enough to smell the leather of his jacket. "...Well, it makes me feel warm all over." She glanced at his lips longingly for a few tense seconds and then looked intently into those green eyes before her lips curled into a smirk. "But maybe it's not my pussy you should be worried about. All those wives, it must be hard for you to keep them all satisfied."

Nora lingered a bit, aware that she was pushing her luck, before settling back into her chair. "Besides, he's not my type," she concluded. "I don't want to be some kid's stepmom."

[DarkSideCookie]

Negan was pleased about her reaction, even though he knew she rather would want to give him a slap. Or maybe because of that fact it was pleasing him even more. But then, wouldn't have been the first time.

"Aw, Negan, your concern...it just..." Negan watched her with intense, while she was coming closer, still the toneless chuckle on his face. "...Well, it makes me feel warm all over." Her sudden glance at his lips didn't slip his attention and for a moment he even could have sworn she was going to kiss them. No, not going to, but wanting to. Well, he wouldn't have been hostile to it, as he always thought Nora was super hot, especially with that cop outfit she had been wearing when they first met.

"But maybe it's not my pussy you should be worried about. All those wives, it must be hard for you to keep them all satisfied." At that Negan gave her a surprised and at the same time appreciating look. "Not exactly.", he suddenly answered in an almost whispered tone, before she was settling back. "Actually, hard is what keeps them satisfied." Now the chuckle obtained a tone, while he was going to settle back as well, his eyes still staring her down.

"Besides, he's not my type,""I don't want to be some kid's stepmom." Another chuckle at that, before his features became serious all of a sudden. All joking aside now. His hands covering around Lucille, he leaned completely back into his comfy leather sofa. "Instead of the kid, you will mother the dad. Someone's got to make sure that guy isn't getting too thin."

Neganbanner

[Kristi Lynne]

"Instead of the kid, you will mother the dad. Someone's got to make sure that guy isn't getting too thin."


And just like that, the momentary thrill of having the advantage, of throwing him off his own game for a second was gone. "Cell detail?" she repeated with an indignant huff. "That's a waste of my time. Fat Joe can play a record and hand out sandwiches," she explained, accented with a dismissive wave of her hand. "We should be out looking for Ingrid --"

[DarkSideCookie]

"Cell detail?""That's a waste of my time. Fat Joe can play a record and hand out sandwiches," Negan's features hardened more with every further word she uttered. She mistakenly might have gotten the feeling she was spared from getting told what to do because of the way things had started between them. But a mistake that was. Times had changed and rules had become an imperative. "We should be out looking for Ingrid --"

"You WILL do it!", Negan suddenly got loud, hitting Lucille on the table between them. Then he leaned a little forward again. "And you better do it well." He had enough of her disobedience for the moment. Also, in his eyes it was more than inappropriate trying to tell him how he should handle the problem with Ingrid, and so was he ignoring that remark completely. "Now, get the hell out!"

Neganbanner

[Kristi Lynne]

"You WILL do it! And you better do it well. ... Now, get the hell out!"


Nora couldn't help but flinch at his words, punctuated by the bat hitting the table. That was her own fault for not quitting while she was ahead. "Yes, sir," she answered robotically before going to the door and walking through it, slamming it shut behind her. She exhaled and leaned back against it. The weight of the chain on her chest reminded her of a stop she needed to make before starting her new assignment.

*** Nora leaves for The Sanctuary - Public Floor ***

[DarkSideCookie]

With the door slamming shut behind, Negan moved again. And with the same hard expression on his face, that had put Nora back in her place, he leaned back, Lucille still in his hands.

Negan, of course, had not forgotten about Ingrid, was still sending men out to search for her off and on. His teeth grinding, he remembered the day when this piece of shit and his group of rats had tried to shoot him down. Once they had accepted their defeat, they retreated, or rather what had remained of them. If Negan had known they took Ingrid with them, he wouldn't have waited to chase them right away. Now it was much more of a laborious process to make them pay, but damn, they will.


***

***After a little while Negan leaves to Sanctuary - Public Area***

Neganbanner

[DarkSideCookie]

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Several days later...

DAY 307

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With the time going by the new guests seemed to have settled in, or more precisely had to. Anyways, it was on time to upgrade one of them. While Santana practiced herself in soft-pedaling, Javier had been doing well as a captive. But that was not the position Negan saw this man. And so it had come the day when he got his first chance to prove that he was ready for a promotion. Step by step of course.

---

[Ariel]

*** Negan and Hazel enter from Public Area ***

*** A while later... ***

Damn.

That was...well, Hazel was afraid to evaluate her emotions with the recent events that had unfolded within this very room. Here she was, in bed the very man who brutally slayed her former leader and gave Hazel no choice but to be added to his collection of dolls while she kept her miserable life. She should feel defiled, traumatized even. Turning over under the covers in bed to face the smug grin of this terrible man, Hazel couldn’t bear to think about how much she hated herself for how much she liked it, and no matter how much she wanted him dead she couldnt help but to fall for his disgustingly charismatic ways. Over and over. Talk about déjà vu.

”So,” Hazel pressed forward a satisfying smile as she placed her hand on Negan’s chest, feeling his arm resting around her in his glory, “I guess this is the part where I throw on one of your shirts and make you breakfast in bed like the loving wife I am?” She threw out the playful remark at an attempt to avoid coming to her senses. Just play along like the good girl you are, and this will be over soon...

[DarkSideCookie]

Negan gave her a grin of satisfaction, of satisfaction in the truest sense of the word, when she turned over to him. While his fingers tenderly tapped on her naked skin, he watched her beautiful face just a moment longer. Almost like porcelain. Like all their faces. The porcelain of a doll. One of those you keep in a cabinet instead of play with it. That wasn't his kind of thing though. Indeed, Negan preferred to play with each of them, as the cabinet was only for one. At this thought, his eyes met with the baseball bat he had so accurately placed where he always could see it.

”So,” A touch on his chest drew his attention back to the doll in his hands, and back came the smug grin. “I guess this is the part where I throw on one of your shirts and make you breakfast in bed like the loving wife I am?”

The grin on his face grew just some more before he launched into a humorous answer. "Cut out the part with the shirt and I wouldn't be averse to it. Instead, though...", he suddenly added more seriously, leaning a little forward to her. "how about a little chat?" And before she could give an answer, Negan's lips yet again curled into a grin.

[Ariel]

“how about a little chat?"

The warmth in Hazel’s grin diminished slightly as she looked up at Negan. Noting the seriousness in his words, this made her very nervous especially when he masked it all with a devilling smile. Talk? Hazel had given him what he had asked for, what more did he want? She knew very well when Negan wanted to talk, it was always an instant red flag. She thought that he had given him what he wanted but really, Hazel knew that this was about to turn into something else. Though, she didn’t dare allow him to know how nervous this all made her, for he was an unpredictable man and God knows what he could be capable of. “We could talk, or...,” pulling herself closer to Negan, Hazel cooed playfully as she allowed her fingertips to trickle his bare skin from his chest down to his waist, “We could continue with our fun.” Hazel’s eyes held a seductive smize in Negan’s direction, in an attempt to make round two sound much more appealing than this supposed talk.

[DarkSideCookie]

Negan felt her nervousness; had felt it right in the split of the second in which her sweet little face had shown panic. He wasn't to fool, not by this kind of women. The kind of women that threw themselves at the man who had brutally killed her boyfriend or whatever kind of relationship the two of them had shared, just to survive by all means. No, that kind of women was readable and above all predictable. He might err, but she here simply didn't have the guts to really surprise him.

“We could talk, or...,” Negan couldn't suppress a slight satisfied grin when she suddenly started ensnaring him like a cat on call. Nice try, but still predictable. “We could continue with our fun.”

Before she could go on and, in the end, might really send him into a mode of meeting with this attempt for just being a man after all, Negan took her hands to stop it. Then he leaned yet again close to her, his lips almost touching hers, and with a mix of harshness and at the same time the joy about just that, he said no more than: "We talk."

[Ariel]

The moment Hazel felt Negan’s grip on her traveling hands, she knew the gig was up. She would never take him for stupid, of course, thought that using her charming appeal was well worth a try to get out of whatever she was about to walk herself into next. However, as Negan had expressed a multitude of times before, he was a man of his word. If he wanted them to talk, Hazel knew he would make her talk whether she wanted to or not.

”We talk.”

Hazel braced slightly as Negan’s voice hardened, his tone affirming that he could not be swayed so easily from what he was looking for here. Pulling back slowly, Hazel sat up in the bed. Still covered by the comforter on the bed, she leaned her backside against the headboard as she drew her knees into her chest one by one. “Alright then...let’s talk.” Her ego bruised slightly from rejection, good wife has now come and gone, and the nervous girl just trying to survive had surfaced once more as her arms wrapped around her covered shins.

[DarkSideCookie]

Negan didn't back off until she adopted a sitting position, still being Hazel, his newest beautiful wife, but also Hazel, the young woman who had come from a place he wanted to learn more about since she had first mentioned it back at their little chat in the cells.

“Alright then...let’s talk.”

"Great.", Negan uttered with a quiet chuckle for not being able, or rather just not feel like doing so, to not add some humor to this scene. Without paying attention to her changed posture which was telling a lot about her, he grabbed at his clothes laying right next to the bed while he started off the topic of their chat. "That place you came from, I mean before you've found your way over here into these attentive arms" At that Negan turned around to her with a grin before addressing himself back to get dressed up, the last step of it being the picking up of Lucille off her little pedestal. "Tell me more about it.", he finished while adjusting that white bandage around his left lower arm which was always covering it up.

[Ariel]

“That place you came from, I mean before you've found your way over here into these attentive arms" "Tell me more about it."

Hazel still remained in her place on the bed as she watched Negan get dressed, listening to his next request. She was taken by surprise at his lingering interest in the place in which she came from, or escaped from more or less. “Woodbury?” Hazel managed to ask before looking down at her hands wrapped tightly around each knee, taking a moment to think of her next approach very carefully. They had previously talked about her former home when Negan and his crew had first brought her here as prisoner, and his interest in the little town worried her. She thought about all the good people of Woodbury, ones she had grown to know and love like family that didn’t deserve any sort of harm their way. But she knew the Governor had grown to become sick minded, and that if he hadn’t  already had every resident there sitting in the palm of his hands that they were all doomed to his wrath if they chose otherwise. It had become a pit of despair and the Woodbury Hazel had once loved was dead. And with these thoughts in mind, Hazel broke her lingering silence with a surrendering sigh before looking back up to Negan, fully dressed with the barbed wire baseball bat in hand, “What do you wanna know?”

[DarkSideCookie]

“Woodbury?”

Negan didn't react on her question for he was sure it had been a rhetorical one anyway. Woodbury, yes. A place, no, a community he had heard of already before, but never from someone who had been part of it. Why would a woman just like her, choose the hard life outside, buddied up with a bunch of flops and a young buck as their leader, over a protected life under the commando of a man who was known for his ability to get things done?

“What do you wanna know?”

"I heard it's a safe place for all who get the permission to enter.", Negan started, moving Lucille in circles next to him as if he had to entertain himself while they were talking. "That the man in charge knows how to run a community. I wonder..." At that, his attention went from the barbed wire baseball bat in his hands back to Hazel, still sitting on his bed in kind of an anxious posture. "why someone like you...", he grinned slightly as the bat was suddenly pointed into her direction. "would leave such a place."

[Ariel]

"I heard it's a safe place for all who get the permission to enter.", That the man in charge knows how to run a community. I wonder..." . "why someone like you...". "would leave such a place."

”The people of Woodbury know him by “The Governor”,” Hazel proclaimed in a rather confessional tone as her gaze stared beyond Negan and into her own memories as she pictured her former leader in her mind, “I knew him as Philip. He gave us all salvation in a world ridden by despair, gave us roles to play and made us feel human once again. I looked up to him and trusted him with my life, and you could say the community looked to him as their savior...,” Hazel’s look of contempt slowly diminished from her face as she came to the dreaded part of the story. She turned her attention directly to Negan within the few moments of silence before proceeding further.

“But their savior is keeping secrets from his people, about the kind of man he truly has become. I was too blind for the longest time to see past the sunshine and daisies, but once I found out about the sick man hiding behind the mask I grew scared,” Hazel shook her head with both disgust and regret as she bit the inside of her cheek at an attempt to simmer her rising emotions, “I had no idea who I was even following anymore. I wanted the town to know so badly of what he’s done and what he could be capable of. But after I confronted him about it all - especially about the young woman he kept locked up based off of the word of some hicks who lost their community, he threatened my life and accused me for trying to ruin what he had built.” Hazel trailed off, knowing that the rest of the story was history.

“It’s no longer the safe place it once was. And if the people of Woodbury knew who their leader really was...there’s a storm coming for Woodbury, and as long as Phil- the Governor is in charge, she will burn straight to the ground. I’m just glad I managed to escape when I had the chance.”

[DarkSideCookie]

Negan listened to her words while it looked like all his attention would be given to only the baseball bat in his hands, sometimes moving it in circles like it still was just the instrument of a sport, sometimes almost gently stroking it.

There was nothing in her story springing a surprise on him for the most people were wearing a mask, hiding something sick behind; same as it ever had been. Just as there always had been people blindly following this kind of people. Apocalypse or not, assholes were ruling the world. Negan never made a secret out of this - that was the little difference. The reason why his community was functioning. His rules might be hard but they were clearly readable for everyone. No mask, no surprise.

"... But after I confronted him about it all - especially about the young woman he kept locked up based off of the word of some hicks who lost their community..."

Negan's head turned into Hazel's direction for the first time of her story, frowning. It was not the general fact that the Governor locked someone up that made him halt all of a sudden, but the little information about those hicks who lost their community. It was only an assumption but enough to send his repressed anger right up to the surface.

"... I’m just glad I managed to escape when I had the chance.”

"Tell me about that young woman he kept locked up.", Negan suddenly spoke up in a commanding tone, his eyes aimed down at Lucille who was firmly in his grip. This story had taken a whole different turn, and he had to find out if it was only wishful thinking or an actual hint he never had expected to get from one of his wives.

[Ariel]

“Tell me about that young woman he kept locked up."

Hazel’s grip around her shins tightened as she became slightly startled by the booming command coming from Negan who kept his focus on his bat. His playful manner had fallen and now things had become mildly serious as Hazel could feel the uncomfortable tension building up in the room.

”I...I don’t know much. The hicks told us that the girl was dangerous and that where she came from was a threat to the new world. So the Governor locked her up, had his men interrogate her. One man in particular...the lowest scum of the Earth you could ever imagine...he did terrible things to her, and the Governor did nothing to stop him from laying his hands on the poor girl,” Hazel shifted uncomfortably in her bed as she recollected the information, “I knew that I had to try and get her out of there, and I did. But when we got to the entrance, she freaked and had to go back in. I tried to stop her, to get her to come with us...but she kept saying she needed her bow, that it was the only thing she had left to hold onto. So I let her go.”

Hazel shook her head at how silly the girl had been. Risking her life for a weapon that she could have easily borrowed from someone in the group until she could pick up another one of her own was something Hazel thought of as totally insane. “I hoped that she would catch up with us at some point, but she never did. That girl was tough as nails though, so I’m sure she made it through. Poor thing, kept going on about how she needed to get back to her brother.”

[DarkSideCookie]

Negan's features hardened with every further word from her. He was seething with rage about these people that dared to lay a hand on Ingrid, about a man not stopping what the scum of his townspeople was doing to a defenseless young woman, but above all about himself for not have been there for her when he needed him the most. Well, okay, he still couldn't be one hundred percent sure Hazel really was talking about Ingrid. That was until her next words...

"... But when we got to the entrance, she freaked and had to go back in. I tried to stop her, to get her to come with us...but she kept saying she needed her bow, that it was the only thing she had left to hold onto. So I let her go.”

It was Ingrid.

“I hoped that she would catch up with us at some point, but she never did. That girl was tough as nails though, so I’m sure she made it through. Poor thing, kept going on about how she needed to get back to her brother.”

"How long is that ago?", Negan almost broke into her last words for he didn't need any further evidence to know that he finally had found out what had happened to his sister, his eyes now directly aimed at Hazel. The anger was still part of him, but Negan didn't allow it to take the control over him. He still needed more information and a good plan. He couldn't even be sure if she was still there. For what he heard about that place, he actually wished she wouldn't.

[Ariel]

"How long is that ago?"

"Um, must have been a couple of weeks ago or so...," Hazel confirmed with slight hesitation in her voice at Negan's bizarre reaction. She did not dare to question him out of respect, yet Hazel could not help but to ponder why exactly he wanted to know. Why he was so damn interested in this girl which she spoke of. And then finally, it dawned on her.

"Oh my god...," Hazel drew in a breath of shock as she sat straight up in the bed with every hair on her body standing upright "...So you're the brother. Ingrid's brother." Hazel could not believe it. What were the odds that she would land herself in front of Negan, the brother of the girl which if she had followed Hazel and her group, would have been lead right back to her kin. Instead, Hazel was in Negan's care instead. "Negan, I'm so sorry, If I'd have known..." Hazel shook her head in disbelief, in a complete loss for words, "I never saw her leave. She might still be there." Hazel shot upright from the bed as she hastily began to clothe herself once more, "I know Woodbury. The ins, the outs, how to get there from here...let me help." Hazel reacted quickly, as she figured he would want to find his sister as soon as possible. Why she found the inkling to help Negan reunite with his sister who could be in trouble was beyond her. Perhaps it wasn't even for Negan. Maybe for once, Hazel wanted to do something good, something that benefited others rather than herself.

[DarkSideCookie]

"Um, must have been a couple of weeks ago or so...,"

Negan said nothing in return as he was already busy in mind making plans for a trip to Woodbury. It would mean a risk to leave the Sanctuary so far behind but there were people who were worth the risk. One of them and maybe highest on this list was his sister-in-law Ingrid. Nowadays they were far from the point of helping each other only because of the fact that they both had been connected to Lucille. Ingrid and Negan had become a family on their own long since.

His teeth were grinding tensely when suddenly Hazel was speaking up again. "Oh my god...,"

Negan's head wordlessly turned in her direction.

"...So you're the brother. Ingrid's brother." Brother and sister related by blood or not, he had never felt the need to correct anyone calling them brother and sister. "Negan, I'm so sorry, If I'd have known...""I never saw her leave. She might still be there." And once again Negan broke the eye contact, something that wasn't happening pretty often, for reasons of concentrating on his thoughts though.

"I know Woodbury. The ins, the outs, how to get there from here...let me help." This was drawing Negan's attention back to her, for now ignoring the question about the reasons for her unusual willingness to help the man who killed her friend right in front of her. Maybe she was doing it for Ingrid even.

"You will lead us there.", he determined in his usual commanding tone. "And on our way, you will tell me every little detail about that piece of shit that did harm to her."
Sure, they would need some time to prepare a journey like this but they will do it and they will get Ingrid out of there to bring her back home - safe and sound.

[Ariel]

"You will lead us there.", "And on our way, you will tell me every little detail about that piece of shit that did harm to her."

Back in her dress, Hazel stood eye to eye with Negan who was full of both determination and anger. Determination to find his sister-in-law who had been missing for weeks on end, and anger towards anyone who had even dared to lay a single finger on her. The room fell completely silent as she stood there, nodding her head rapidly at the commands that Negan gave.

"I'll do whatever it takes to help you get her back," Hazel shed assurance to Negan, still unsure if she was doing all of this for Negan and Ingrid or for herself. But now, she had a purpose other than simply Negan's arm candy, "Tell me what you want to know. I'll tell you everything."

****

[DarkSideCookie]

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Day 308

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