The new world order really was a big nasty pill to swallow. Life in Alexandria was only seemingly moving forward. The truth was that everybody had been running in circles since Negan's intervention. There was no way to wrap their heads around those empty spaces Negan left in his wake. Not that soon, not ever.

The only thing left comprehensible thanks to such a disaster was the fact that Negan will be back and he will take whatever he seems fit, no matter if it's a piece of furniture or human life. Sleepless nights turned to restless nightmares, everybody was forced to close their eyes, get some rest, just to make it through another day outside the walls scavenging for Negan. And that was so much harder while being shorthanded.

Abraham, Glenn, Maggie, Daryl... all gone thanks to one man. And then some...

"I don't get it, Dad. We used to be so close," Carl shook his head, leaning on the cupboard in the kitchen. He was talking to Rick to make at least some sense of things. It was so absurd to get Sally back and lose her again at the exact same moment. That was considering she still was the same person they once knew. They spent so much time together...

"I know, Carl, but this world ... it changes people. They try to adjust and sometimes it goes just wrong." It was Rick who made Daryl stop wandering off and looking for Sally. She was long gone and only her return few days back showed how much. Rick didn't believe she made it out there and maybe he was right, she was somebody else, her evilest self. He couldn't deny it was always in her but that was the part that kept her alive, it surfaced only when she needed to protect those she cared about. It was true Rick was rough with her right before she left them, but he only tried to get her to snap out of it... to snap out of what probably took away her mind for good... to snap out of...

Rick and Carl both got lost in their memories, in what makes somebody change so much and where they all went wrong.

Carl was just about to continue their conversation when the front door opened. Michonne was back from whatever it was she was sneaking off to do those days.

"We'll talk later, okay?" Rick shushed Carl and he had no objections. They did not tell anybody that they knew Sally. There was no spoken agreement, they just didn't... Not until the next day.

___

"Little pig, little pig, let me in."

"You said a week, you're early," said Rick opening the Alexandria gate for Negan very reluctantly. It was so much more pleasant to look at him behind bars than watching him barging into their home.

"I missed ya," he smiled at Rick watching him even after he looked down to gather all his inner strength. Negan didn't know when the staring was becoming uncomfortable. Even a walker had more common sense and appeared just in time to take the spotlight from Rick away.

Negan himself took care of the uninvited visitor and that gave Rick enough time to get it together and look up just to be shattered again.

The Big Bad Wolf brought The Little Red Riding Hood along with him. Except this red head was a wicked witch. Sally was moving forward through the crowd of Saviors, touching them lightly to make them move out of her way. And they obeyed until she stood in the front with them piled up behind her like the army they were. They were all observing their new territory but what Rick felt the most was the fire burning in Sally's eyes. She wasn't like that before, of that he was absolutely sure.

Negan loved hearing himself talk and he wouldn't stop even as they moved further in. But Rick lost control for a moment. Sally was not the only familiar face Negan brought along with him. There in the crowd, not so far away from Sally, stood Daryl.

"Daryl, hey..." Rick moved to him.

"No, no," Negan broke their reunion right away. "He's our family now," he said standing in between the two of them. "He came to help. You don't look at him, you don't talk to him and I don't make you chop anything off of him," Negan summed up the rules pretty quickly.

Rick looked away and found Sally's eyes staring him down. Negan noticed right away.

"Oh yeah," Negan continued, "the same goes for Sally. I know there's a lot to catch up on with her but no ... you don't talk to her unless she speaks to you first. Her wish, not mine," he winked at her.

The look on Rick face was priceless, for Negan at least. He was having fun with Rick who didn't know how to react. Negan knows!

"Yes, I know," Negan confirmed Rick's worries, "I know all about your ties. But she's her better self now!"

Rick couldn't believe Sally told Negan everything. She just met him. He wondered if it was possible that she told him the whole story, including...

"Too bad it didn't work out between you two," Negan acted like he tried to be discreet but he was so loud everybody heard. But thanks to his big mouth Rick knew Sally didn't tell him. She didn't tell him everything that happened. His safe bet was she didn't tell him anything and he was just trying out the possibilities. That sounded more like her. This wasn't about their relationship. There never was one, they were never together. He was with Lori at that time.

Anyway, Negan knew how the damage is done. Rosita as well as others heard his references and started to put the pieces together and so it all made sense why Rick never blamed the crazy girl from the woods, why he never even mentioned her. Negan came so close to Rosita, adding to the mix just by cutting her personal space. She let it all go for the moment but she didn't let it slide, not in the slightest. Rick will hear all about that later.

In no time, Saviors scattered around Alexandria and there was not a stone they would left unturned.

___

Rick accompanied Negan all over Alexandria and even though he couldn't talk to Daryl, at least they were close to each other. Daryl was always near, following Negan as a shadow, never staying too far behind. That was one kind of torment Negan had ready for Rick even though he acted like it was all casual. As casual as Rick carrying Lucille around.

At least Rick had Daryl under supervision. But Sally... Sally was a different story and that made him even more uneasy on the inside.

Negan wanted Daryl under his control but he let Sally wander off and about all on her own. He was not worried about her intentions, not about her running away or changing her mind and turning against him. He trusted her unconditionally. And that had Rick seriously worried. Sally really was gone.

They found her only later on at Alexandria's little cemetery. She was sitting on the ground by the latest graves. She had a heap of flowers by her side and she took them one by one, tore off the stem and put the blossom onto the freshly heaped dirt.

Negan did not say anything to her, he just let her go on with her choice of how to pass the time. She did not pay any attention to him either, not to anybody. She stayed focused on her task like they weren't even there.

"Damn tragedy. That's what this is," Negan had to rub the salt in their wounds. He just went on and on, deeper and deeper. Rick kept breathing heavily, trying to contain his fury, but kept checking on Daryl and Sally. Especially, when Negan was talking about Abraham and Glenn.

"Number one? That was on me. No choice there. Lessons had to be learned," he admitted his crime. "But number two? That didn't need to happen. Daryl, there, he forced my hand."

Rick checked. Daryl was feeling guilty as hell but Sally... nothing, no reaction on her side. Not even when Negan was talking about Maggie.

"I was gonna ask her to come back with me," Negan sighed, disappointed. And Sally did not even flinch. Rick did not recognize this cold-blooded creature.

"Oh, I know what you're thinking," Negan continued talking to Rick. "How could I have a shot, guy that just bashed her husband's head in? You'd be surprised. Boy, people, they..."

Gunshot cut Negan off and made them all look away. Even Sally's head flew up and she was alert, automatically syncing with Negan. His smile was replaced by a cold glare at Rick. That gunshot might be all that was needed to set him off to the killer mood again. He headed off.

Sally launched after him, flowers raining down from her dress, she didn't even stop to brush away the dirt from her jeans. She knew Negan was able to make her put flowers on yet another grave that day. The Saviors along the way pointed them to the epicenter of the shooting.

Negan was pissed but when he saw who fired the gun, he and Sally both visibly relaxed. It was Carl and they took him as no thread. Rick on the other side knew how awry Carl's upbringing went.

"You should go," Carl said still pointing the gun, "before you find out how dangerous we all are." He really meant it, but it didn't wipe the smile of Negan's face and Sally... she couldn't hold it back, she burst out laughing, sinking down to lounge on the bed.

Negan was very patient with Carl and he explained everything to him carefully. "Listen, I like you, so I don't want to go hard proving the point here," he turned to Sally if she was alright with not using Lucille.

She put her hands up like she didn't mind. "Yeah, I dig the hair," she shrugged looking at Carl.

Carl understood shortly there was no other way outthan backing up so he put down the gun and the moment Negan started to talk toRick about guns, Sally quickly lost interest and they watched her wander offagain. And they did not see her until another gunshot was fired.