The Marks of Running Ink pt.81
The Walking Dead [Soulmate AU]
Pairing: Negan x Tory Miller (ofc)
Summary: History had never been wrong about the lengths human beings would go for survival, for pride, for love… Tory Miller never thought she would see it unfold with her own eyes, not after the end of an era, but she could understand. Now, their war was being fought in all fronts. Negan’s was for pride, Rick’s was for survival, both of them were unstoppable forces. And her war? Tory’s war was for love.
Warnings: SLOW BURN, angst, swearing, death, violence, fluff, hurt/comfort, child endangerment, general trauma, drama, mentions of infidelity and polygamy, general lack or morals, mentions of nudity, graphic sexual scenes (nsfw), mentions of blood, apocalyptic world. As always, I don’t want to give the story away in the tags, read at your own risk.
Author’s note: I know I’ve been absent for a while, because life got super hard and shit just keeps happening. Anyway, I’m not abandoning this story, ever. We’re super close to the end, I can almost see it. If you’re still around, thank you, if you are new, thank you. Let’s get this chapter!
••• ••• ••• ••• ••• ••• •••
The Sanctuary, VA
A week and two days
Negan had been enraged to discover Gabriel was back without Dr. Carson.
One of his men apologized for the incident, he’d shot the fucking doctor when the man had jumped him, trying to escape again.
His first instinct had been to hide the information from his soulmate, she’d find out eventually, as Gabriel was back in the infirmary to get whatever attention he needed, but Negan had already planned the ‘punishment’ for the creepy, nosy priest.
The leader of the Saviors had the suspicion that maybe…just maybe, Eugene had something to do with the escape, but he also had a need from Eugene. His talent and brains were behind the whole bullet making business that Negan had in mind.
He’d pondered what to do, over and over again.
So here he was, in the dark, thinking how to proceed. He needed Eugene’s talent and Tory was in charge of his infirmary for the time being, as much as she called herself a lousy nurse, the decision as practically made for him, but it didn’t meant Negan liked it much.
“I’m disappointed Eugene, this crap was supposed to be behind us, two flushes and out the pipe.” He growled. “My doctor and that creepy ass priest jumped ship without anybody knowing about it,” Negan recalled, trying to ease his tone. “Now we have no doctor and we gained ourselves another sick soul to cure, Carson was never one of us, he was a weasel, like his weasel brother,” with a light sigh, Negan smirked. “I’m gonna get the truth out of Gaby’s ass if need be…one way or another, yes I will,” He noticed the little gulp Eugene took before speaking, though he didn’t flinch, doctor smarty pants did have a back bone, then?
“And Alexandria? What went down there?” Eugene asked with a slight waver in his voice. Negan closed his eyes for a few seconds, suppressing a groan, almost biting his tongue for it.
“Do you care?” he asked coldly, channeling his murderous persona made it all easier. Eugene looked into his eyes in silence, holding Negan’s gaze as he leaned into the table, his fingers entwined so he didn’t grab Lucille. “Do., You., Care., Eugene?” with a sneer, Negan bit out his words. “After they tried to blow you out of the face of this earth?”
Without moving, Eugene backed down. “Your message is stamped in received, and very much appreciated,”
Smiling, Negan breathed in.
“Oh well, good! You see, I got some news for you, Eugene. You, are gonna be in charge of your very own outpost,” the mulleted coward said nothing. “You see, I need my bullet maker, making bullets. Cutting a path through the dead took a toll on our reserves, so you get the honor of providing me with the bang-bang to settle this whole thing with Rick, for good,”
Eugene nodded. “All about people being resources and whatnot?”
An involuntary chuckle left Negan.
“Bullets are a last resort, Lucille here gets first dibs,” feeling calmer, Negan leaned back on his chair. “If Rick and his merry band of pricks decide to pull some shit, we gotta pull somethin’ right back that we rather not… That’ll be on them. Not you, not me,”
It took a great effort on Negan’s part, ignoring the voice in the back of his head that reminded him of what Tory had told him, that their goals were blurred after so much blood and dead and shit. The leader of the Saviors went on, telling Eugene where he was going to set him up, with whom; Negan had no need for Frankie or Tanya anymore.
And Eugene only asked for wine.
Perfect.
••• ••• ••• ••• ••• ••• •••
After a sleepless night of ignoring the sting of hurt in her chest, Tory had decided to go to the infirmary anyway, as Harlan hadn’t given any signs of existence, not that she was expecting him to. He was supposed to be at Hilltop, as Eugene had planned.
Seeing Gabriel in the infirmary was a bit of a shock, and the flood of emotions threatened for a few seconds. Gabriel was from home, he knew Carl…
Damn it all.
Unflinching, the young woman went on her way, and started checking the priest’s health, he seemed better and his fever had broken at some point of his failed escape, he was saying something about some pills and Harlan saying he’d be saved.
“Can you see that?” Tory asked, moving the light as Harlan had taught her. Gabriel shook his head no, making the grey-eyed girl take note and sigh.
“You mentioned you took some antibiotics; do you remember what they were?”
Gabriel shook his head again.
“Harlan didn’t mention the chemicals,” the father hesitated, making Tory stop as she looked in the medicine cabinet.
“Harlan’s back? Is he in the cells?” she asked hopefully.
“No one’s told you?” Gabriel asked, his voice so little that Tory had to turn around to actually listen.
“What happened?”
“When they found us…the doctor tried to escape and-,” Tory put her hand up to stop Gabriel, feeling her eyes fill with tears, of course he couldn’t see her gesture. “he was shot by one of them-”
“I get it, Gabe, don’t… I don’t need to know more,”
“You do need to know, Victoria. We found a place, it was full of meds,” the father argued, catching her attention.
“Where is this place?” Tory asked, as imperiously as she could with her voice being swallowed by tears.
“We were on our way to the Hilltop…”
••• ••• ••• ••• ••• ••• •••
A week and a day
It was late in the afternoon and Tory was feeling tired already.
She’d stayed the night in the infirmary with Gabriel after he’d broken down over Carson’s death, having a breakdown of her own. Her mind had fleeting thoughts about Dr. Rhodes, but she would never hurt Doveport like that, or the poor doctor. And she suspected Charlotte would never forgive her that.
Tory was unable to lie to herself, however. She stayed in the infirmary so she wouldn’t have to stay with Negan and tell him why her eyes were red rimmed and puffy, but she’d sent a message to him with Vera, that she had to monitor Gabriel and might not make it to bed. Her friend hadn’t asked for reasons, preferring the safe space of plausible deniability. Tory could definitely sympathize with that.
Whatever Negan was plotting, it had kept him away from the infirmary for the time being, and as such, it kept him away from Gabriel and Tory.
“Have you told him?” Gabriel asked, his gaze unfocused, probably unseeing, Tory wasn’t sure, but the lack of response from Gabriel’s eyes wasn’t going away.
“Who? About what?”
“Negan, about your child,” God’s man on earth indeed, seeing good in people who were not exactly good.
“No, I haven’t. It’s not…I don’t think it’s a good idea,” Tory sighed and combed her hair with her fingers to tie it in a ponytail.
“He should know. Every man should know about his child,” Gabriel continued softly, closing his eyes. “I would do something good for Negan. Knowing he’ll be a…father,”
Tory giggled at Gabriel’s sour expression.
“You sound as sure of yourself as I’m sure I don’t want him to know,” Tory sighed. “I-
The door was suddenly slammed open and Negan swaggered inside, followed by Lucas and Gary.
“Gabriel, Gabe, Gaby!” Tory flinched a Negan’s booming voice, it made her brain thump uncomfortably. “Are you ready to go into some new…accommodations?”
“What?” the word burst out of her mouth before Tory could stop it. “S-sorry, he can’t leave, Negan,”
Negan’s flat expression made her shudder when he turned to look at her.
“And why is that, wife?” he drawled, stalking up to her.
“His infection hasn’t healed, his eyes are unresponsive to stimulus, I’m worried he’ll go blind,” Tory said everything without stuttering, making herself proud, even under Negan’s narrowing gaze.
“His hands work?” her husband asked.
“Uhm…yeah, he can use them, but-”
“So, he can go help somewhere, we need the beds here free,”
“But…-” Negan lifted his gloved hand, silencing Tory immediately.
“You’ll do as you’re told, Gary, Lucas, help me take my cargo away.”
Asshole.
••• ••• ••• ••• ••• ••• •••
Eugene seemed to like the idea of working with Gabriel as much as Negan anticipated he would. He didn’t care.
What caught his attention was the part where Eugene wasn’t going to be able to keep up with The Sanctuary’s demand of ammunition.
“See, Eugene…that’s simply not gonna work for me,” he growled, uncaring of who witnessed his loss of control.
Eugene swallowed hard.
“I think a more biblical approach for maximum fright might be in order,” the questioning tint of his words disappeared as Negan relaxed his hold on Lucille. “We could rig several medieval-style catapults, start launching arms, torsos, legs and, you know, big piles of guts over their defenses,”
Negan smiled.
“Pure psycho-ops, I mean there are some pretty traumatic theatrics there,”
“Thank you,” Negan said softly, feeling the tingling of a very good idea in the back of his head, not exactly what Eugene suggested, but…enough. “I do believe a rose just sprung from that pile of shit.”
••• ••• ••• ••• ••• ••• •••
A week.
Tory was still seething when Negan came back the night before, but instead of giving him the cold shoulder, she sank on his bed to wait for him.
She failed to wait up, still in her dress, feeling grimy despite the long shower she’d taken in the middle of the day. Her hormones were wreaking havoc within her body, and Tory wondered why, she didn’t remember these many symptoms from her previous pregnancy…then again, she had been pretty numb to everything during that time, and most of the people who’d known her back then were dead or Negan’s enemies.
For a few seconds, Tory wished that even Deanna could guide her, not to think about her dad, who knew her so…much.
Her dad.
Sure, Tory considered Tom her dad, but she did still have a father, a father who’d seen Tory’s mother through her pregnancy. Groggily, the brunette got out of the bed and into her shoes, leaving the room in haste, caring only not to wake Lucas, who was guarding outside her door.
She wasn’t sure, but Tory made her way into Roy Miller’s room so fast it almost gave her whiplash. With a couple of fast, tight knocks, the young woman waited for her father to open the door.
“Do you have any idea what-” Roy growled until he saw her arch a brow. “Did something happen?”
“I need to talk to you, Roy,” Tory demanded coldly, feeling her hopes deflate a bit.
“Oh, now you want to talk, young lady? Trying to get a fix?” Roy asked sarcastically.
Feeling her temper rise, Tory pushed her biological father back into his room and closed the door behind herself, making sure to lock it as she narrowed her eyes at him.
“First of all, fuck you for thinking I can’t manage my addiction,” he was right, but she wasn’t going to tell him. “Second, I want you to tell me something about Mom,”
Hurt flashed in Roy’s eyes at that and Tory might have felt a bit of guilt, but it was quickly stomped on.
“What is it?” he asked gruffly.
“How hard was it for mom, when…when she was pregnant with me?” the sudden shyness of her voice bothered her, but at least she had gotten the question out.
Roy sat heavily on his cot and passed a hand through his short hair in a familiar gesture that Tory ignored consciously.
“Erin…Well, she had a hard time during the first trimester, a bit into the second… why do you want to know now? It was…It was almost twenty-five years ago, Victoria,” Roy blinked blearily at her, as if he couldn’t believe how fast time had gone by.
Tory looked at the tips of her shoes before going to sit beside her father, taking his hand in hers and placing it over the hard but almost unnoticeable bump in her lower abdomen, his dark eyes widened when he caught her meaning, but Tory still said it out loud.
“I’m gonna be a mom.”
••• ••• ••• ••• ••• ••• •••