Poker Face

Chapter 74 - The Weights of the Past

Content warning: Discussion of sexual assault and suicide.

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"I told you, Rick. I told you!" Rosita spat, getting in his face where they stood on the porch of the mansion. Eduardo had just been found unconscious in the bathroom after being choked out by Aven and was being taken to the medical trailer by another guard. "She's with him all the way. We had her. She was our chance!"

"Not our only chance," Rick muttered dismissively, stepping back to get Rosita out of his face. "We still have Dwight."

"He could be giving them all our secrets now for all we know," Tara spoke up. "Rosita's right. That bitch tricked us."

"It's my fault," Maggie interjected with a sigh, steering the women away from Rick, who was still grieving and angry. "I took the sob story at face value. I should have kept her locked up."

"Yeah, you should have. She could have killed your guard," Rosita accused.

"But she didn't. That was on purpose."

"How do you know? And anyway, so what? That makes it okay?!"

"It happened, it's done," Maggie said sternly. "She's not our objective, Negan is."

"I'll finish them both off for good when I get my hands on them. She deserves to die, she laughed the night he killed Abraham and Glenn. Or have you forgotten?" At that, Maggie squared up to Rosita, getting back in her face and glaring down at her. She didn't need to speak to Rosita's petty accusation; the woman knew she'd overstepped and the look on her face said so.

"Negan is our target," Maggie said darkly but steadily. "If Aven dies, fine. But if she lives, we'll give her one last chance with the rest of them. I'm not convinced she was in her right mind when she left anyway."

"Of course she wasn't!" Rosita retorted, raising her voice as she stepped back. "She's with him. She's probably just as crazy!"

"She's weak. He's manipulating her."

"No, he's manipulating you."

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"I have a room on our floor for you," Negan told Laura as he pulled the car around the back of the Sanctuary, after imploring the lookouts to keep quiet about his return. "Lay low. We'll talk more tomorrow but for tonight I think we've all fucking been through enough."

"We should all go see Dr. Carson," Aven said, poking at the bruises and cuts on her face. Negan was scratched up from the car crash and subsequent battle with Rick, and Laura's shoulder had been grazed by one of Dwight's bullets and she was barely able to keep her eyes open having not eaten for days.

"Carson's dead," Negan said flatly, earning a shocked and disappointed look from Aven. He scowled back. "Don't give me that look, I didn't fucking kill him."

"Oh...sorry," she replied, her tone mostly unapologetic. "Can you blame me? You killed the first one."

"Because I knew I had a fucking backup. I'm not a God damn idiot. Carson escaped with the creepy priest and fucking got himself killed out there." Negan had ordered the Saviors to bring both Carson and Gabriel back alive; his men conveniently forgot to mention that Carson was alive and well when they found him.

"I have some medical training," Laura spoke up weakly. "I just need something to eat and I can patch us up."

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Negan and Aven lingered at the doorway as Laura settled down in her new room (consequently Tanya's old one) with a walkie and orders not to leave; Negan didn't want Dwight or anyone else seeing her. He wasn't specific but made it clear he was planning some sort of dramatic, typically Negan-esque reveal to Dwight about his betrayal, as well as to Simon. Negan turned to walk back towards his room, but Aven stayed a moment longer, observing that Laura seemed distracted, shaken.