Poker Face

Chapter 60 - Worker Transfer and Safety Precautions

"I'm coming with you," Aven said, pulling on her jeans and boots as Negan got dressed to meet with his advisors.

"No, you need to fucking rest," he ordered. He slipped on his leather jacket and picked up Lucille before heading out the bedroom door.

"I'm well enough to sit still and do my job," she retorted, leaning back on her hands where she sat on the foot of the bed.

"You're off-duty. That's fucking final."

"Don't treat me like a fucking five-year-old. I'm coming and that's final," she replied with a stoney, serious expression, her gaze hard on him. "I'm not staying cooped up in here right now and I'm sure you'll agree that the safest place is with you." He narrowed his eyes at her, unable to tell if she really thought it was safer to be with him or if she said it purely because she knew he wouldn't deny it.

"Fine," he grunted. "But if you look like you're about to fuckin' pass out I'm bringing you back up. We'll eat dinner up here afterwards. I don't want you out of my sight." He waved her towards him and hiked Lucille up on his shoulder before turning tensely to leave. He scolded himself internally for giving in so easily but he couldn't deny he wanted her input on the situation. He froze with his gloved hand on the doorknob before turning over his shoulder to her with a deep sigh.

"What do you think?" he asked simply.

"What do you mean?"

"Are any of my top people responsible for all of this?" Dwight, Aven's subconscious spat. But in that moment, Aven could truly say she hadn't seen anything from Dwight that day that made her suspicious. It didn't quell her suspicions about him overall, but if he had anything to do with the attack then he was doing an unusually good job of keeping a straight face.

"I don't know," Aven sighed. "I really don't know." She made her way across the room to him and pulled him away from the door so they could talk face to face. "It has to be someone in the know. My first guess would obviously be Eugene. Logically he's the most likely person at the Sanctuary to be on their side or to even have contact with them, although I don't know how he'd have done that without being caught."

"But I don't think-"

"But I don't think it's him," she cut him off. "At least not based on how he was acting. I don't necessarily trust him and I think you should probably grill him yourself, but it just doesn't feel like he did anything, you know?"

"Doesn't feel like it?" he repeated. "I need facts, not fuckin' feelings."

"Well I don't have any facts and my intuition has served me well. Take it or leave it."

"Why aren't you blaming Dwight?" He was more than well aware of her distaste and suspicion of Dwight. Negan expected her to point to him right away.

"Because he responded the way he should have today," she shrugged, staring off over his shoulder in thought.

"What do you mean?"

"I have to hand it to him, he stepped up," she said. "I guess I got a glimpse of whatever you see in him. Regina was getting a little out of control and suggested sacrificing workers to the horde as a distraction-"

"Of course she did," Negan sighed, running his hand over his face. "Exactly why she's not my fuckin' right hand."

"Well actually it seemed like Simon was leaning towards agreeing with her." Negan's face fell and he stared hard at her as though he had misheard, his thoughts clearly racing.

"That's not fucking right," he growled. "He is backsliding. He doesn't fucking get-"

"People are resources, I know," Aven cut in. "Point is Dwight wasn't having it and I didn't really expect him to show any backbone. But I still don't trust him. Just because he cares about innocent lives doesn't mean he's not a rat."