Before they met Rick and his people, Lilith and Negan used to have breakfast together pretty often. Not everyday, but a couple times a week at least. It was corny, but the girl's father was attached to the concept as a way to force his daughter to hang out with him.

Today, Lilith was dragged out of her room to do just that. It had been weeks since the last time they did this, and the girl was confused but more so annoyed. The chaos of the previous day left her far more exhausted than she realized.

Sitting on her dad's leather couch with her legs crossed, she stared at the untouched plate on the coffee table. Negan sat opposite her, scarfing down the food on his own plate. He finished, wiped his mouth, and placed the plate back on the table.

"Remember when I told you Daryl was missing?" He spoke up.

Lilith looked at him, nodding.

"Well, some more shit has come to light. Fat Joey? Dead and gone. Missing bike too. That's not all though, someone else is missing. A wife of mine."

"Who?" The girl's brow furrowed.

"Sherry. So, I've done what any rational man would do and thrown Dwighty boy in Daryl's old cell."

At that, Lilith groaned. "You did what?"

"You gotta admit that it's suspicious, babydoll."

"Dwight is not that stupid! If he knew anything, he sure as hell wouldn't keep it from you."

"You sure about that?"

Sighing, she leaned back. No, she wasn't sure. How could she be? Lilith barely knew anyone is this hellhole well enough to be able to predict their actions.

"Why are you telling me all this anyway?" She asked.

"Cause it's important. It puts us in danger. If Daryl finds his way back to them, we will be vulnerable. So, I want you to—"

"You're gonna give me orders again? Really? I thought you said when you started this place that I wasn't gonna be just another one of your followers?"

"What are you talking about? You're not just another follower. Where is this coming from?"

"I've just noticed some of your behaviors recently. Behaviors that piss me off."

"Like what?"

"Like you barging into my room yesterday asking if I knew anything about Daryl. As if you were accusing me of shit."

"Look, honey, I was just frustr—"

"Which is even more annoying considering I was with you literally the whole day. In Alexandria." 

A beat passed, and Lilith regained her composure as Negan sighed. "I'm sorry," He said simply.

Huffing, the blonde girl resumed picking at her food as she spoke, "No, it's okay. . . I'm sorry. It's trivial bullshit, and me yelling at you like this is probably exactly what Rick wants."

"How do you mean?" Negan inquired.

"Just that, what better way to get what he wants than conflict on the inside?  We worked so hard to make this place what it is, and I don't want it ruined. I guess I'm just stressed, paranoid even."

"I understand that," Her father responded, "But you gotta keep your head up. That's how we get things done here. Confidence and persistence. Kapish?"

Lilith nodded her head glumly, catching a glare from her father. Huffing, she put on a fake smile and took a bite of her breakfast for the first time.

——————

A few hours later, Lilith sat on the concrete steps out front of the Sanctuary. Negan ordered men around indistinctly while she rummaged through several crates and boxes that contained items from a recent delivery from one of the communities, looking for anything she might personally want.

She found some old cassette tapes which she slipped onto her jacket pockets, not even bothering to read the labels. Any music is music in this new reality. Holding up a few shirts to look at them, she decided they all were ugly and threw them to the side.

Just as she began to grow bored, she heard her dad announce the arrival of someone new.

"Man of the hour!" The man exclaimed.

Noticing it was Eugene, a smirk crept onto the girl's face. Standing up and wandering closer to him, she laughed at the giant jar of pickles in his arms. Negan approached him, stopping barely a foot in front of the poor man.

Eugene quivered nervously as Negan stared down at him. "Don't be rude, asshole. Say hello," The Savior told him.

The mullet head's voice shook as he spoke, "Hello."

"You got a name, asshole?"

"Eugene."

"Hm... now us," Negan said. "Who are you?" He asked his men who stood around them.

"I'm Negan," they all answered without a beat.

Lilith rolled her eyes at the theatrics. Her father chuckled cockily. He held his bat up, moving it closer to Eugene.

"I know you remember Lucille. But you might have to look real close," he taunted, "You see that? That is the bullet you made. Now under normal circumstances, I'd be showing you that real close over and over again. But really Eugene, all I wanna know is if you're a smarty pants. Do you know things?" No response. "Answer the question," the man ordered

Stuttering, Eugene said, "I am indeed a smarty pants. I taught myself to cast bullets. I found a machine shop with the necessary. . . um. . . And I read a lot. And. . . although my memory is not considered eidetic, I don't skip and I don't scrim. If knowledge is dropped, I do indeed pick it up."

Negan chuckled darkly, "You really are just some asshole!"

Looking at the saviors around him, Eugene watched everyone laugh at him. He continued to shake nervously as he made eye contact with Lilith who, to his surprise, had not been laughing at him like the others. The young girl gave him a look, a strange one that read something along the lines of prove them wrong.

"N- No, I'm not," he stuttered again. "I have PhDs in biochemistry, as well as immunology and microbiology, and I have completed my doctorate which makes me a doctor. Prior to the collapse, I was part of a 10-person team at the Human Genome Project, under Dr. T Brooks Ellis, creating weaponized diseases to fight weaponized diseases. Fire with uh. . . you know, f- fire."

Once he finished, Lilith smirked at Eugene proudly. Her father turned to her with an impressed look, chuckling once again. Then every head in the courtyard turned at the sound of flesh ripping and something wet falling. On the fence, one of the walkers had torn in half.

Lilith grimaced in disgust. Negan groaned in frustration. "Here's the thing, smarty pants. You oughta be able to crack this without breaking a sweat. You see, I have a lot of free labor here at the fence, living dead pricks that help keep the riffraff out. Problem is, they don't keep. They fall apart. Like that poor sack of... pile of shit there. So, Dr. Smarty-pants, how do we keep them on their feet?" The man asked Eugene but was only met with more trembling. He sighed, turning away as he rubbed his chin in exasperation.

"You, um. . ." The cowering man spoke up, "You smelt on the regs, correct? I saw that among the legacy equipment floor you possess an operational smelter."

"And?" Negan pressed.

"You already possess the means to resolve your issue. Step one, melt down the scrap metal. Step two, pour it over the comprised walker as they are in contact with the chain link. The liquid metal will harden, both maintaining bodily integrity for the walker as well as affixing them to the fence. Bonus points for protecting them from head trauma from hostiles and calamities."

A pause. Then slow capping erupted from behind the leather clad man. Lilith stepped forward as she brought her hands together repeatedly, that same proud smirk on her face.

"That," she began, "Is the coolest god damn thing I've ever heard in my life! Not only is that practical, it is just badass!"

"Look at you, Dr smarty pants! You've impressed Lilith and you've impressed me," Negan told him. "Does Rick have you doing this kind of valuable stuff for him?"

Eugene's silence was their answer.

"Well, his loss, our gain," Lilith decided. She turned to her dad, making a joke, "I feel like we need to give him some kind of signing bonus or something."

"Well, I- I was gifted these pickles." Eugene said.

Negan laughed, shaking his head, "No. as a token of my gratitude, I'm gonna send over a few of my wives to your apartment tonight, show you a good time." At his words, Lilith's grin completely disappeared. She stared at her father in disgust in disbelief. "Now, I don't think I have to worry about this, but who knows how truly smart you are? No sex. That is a big no no. However, you can have a little dinner, some drinks, share a few laughs. There is nothing like beautiful women that smell good to make you feel human again."

The young blonde girl rolled her eyes, her good mood completely ruined. After forcing a fearful and drawn out thank you from Eugene, her father sent him away. Lilith took the opportunity to approach him.

"What is your problem? They are not prostitutes," she whispered harshly, standing directly in front of him.

"Did you not hear me say no sex?" Negan tried to reason.

"That's not the point and you know it. You're blatantly objectifying them."

"Sweetheart—" he was cut off my an abrupt slap to the face. Lilith's small hand against his cheek was not powerful enough to leave a mark or cause a lot of pain, but it was enough to get her point across. "What the hell?" He looked at his daughter in bewilderment.

"Just doing what mom would've done."

And before Negan could do something, she was gone, leaving the older man standing there with all eyes on him. He gave his men a serious look before they all averted their attention elsewhere, knowing it was in their best interest to forget what they saw.

Lilith remained steadfast her her belief that conflict between her and her father was nothing but detrimental to them. However, when it came to the women he called his wives, she could rarely contain her disgust. 

As she walked inside and down the halls to her bedroom, Lilith couldn't hold back the small chuckle from escaping her lips. Confidence and Persistence, he said. Safe to say her little outburst on the courtyard fell under that umbrella. After all, her head was definitely raised when she struck her father's cheek.

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