To Kill Thy King

"This ain't workin' out."

Morgana just raised an eyebrow. "You dumpin' me, Blue Eyes?" she pretended to pout. "You fuckin' breakin' my heart here."

Rick ignored her, looking out instead at the sea of Walkers surrounding them. He had paced the perimeter of Alexandria, dragging Morgana with him, observing Deanna's dream slowly collapse in on itself. There had been almost mutiny at the pantry at having to stretch their supplies, Olivia suggesting adding water to soup and sauces to make more out of their meals, Spencer forcing everyone to agree. As he tried to keep Alexandria calm, Deanna was wandering the walls like a lost soul, still reeling from losing her husband and youngest son, the shock of her idyll imploding only serving to stun her further.

Gritting his teeth, Rick fumbled in his pocket for the handcuff key, putting his plan into action, caught between a rock and a hard place. Compared to the chaos unfolding around him, Morgana was the least of his problems right now. Jessie had just brought him the news that one of her friends had killed herself, Jessie having to put her down, the first in a spate of suicides Rick was grimly anticipating. Everybody within Alexandria was convinced they were going to die, even his own people, and he didn't know how to deal with it. Morale was at an all-time low, and with Denise falling to pieces inside the Infirmary, Rick wasn't convinced those that had survived so far, would make it through the night.

"What you fuckin' doin'?" Morgana demanded, suddenly suspicious, catching a glimpse of the key in Rick's hand. He had hauled her up onto the platform by the gate, and she was certain it wasn't to appreciate the spectacular view of the dead desperate to rip their flesh apart. "You gonna chuck me over the wall or somethin'?"

"Don't tempt me," Rick said coldly, before unlocking the cuffs that bound them together, Morgana massaging her chafed wrist, staring at him in shock. "Maybe I'm insane doin' this," he said, studying Morgana through narrowed eyes, "but like you keep sayin', you saved my ass out there. That must count for somethin', right?"

Morgana forced herself to hold his gaze, hiding her bewilderment at herself for having saved him, despite knowing damn well that it was his people who had slaughtered hers. "Don't start gettin' starry-eyed," she said equally as coldly, forcing herself to forget the memory of Wade and the others for the time being, "I needed a ride out of hell. That's why I didn't put one between your eyes."

"What, you failed your drivin' test?"

"I don't need no fuckin' chauffeur," Morgana flared up, "I just needed a goddamn ride, okay!?"

"You could killed me with my own Colt, Marion," Rick pressed, "taken the RV, but you didn't. Why?"

Morgana looked away, something about her mother's name on his lips striking her through the soul. Her mother would have wept to see what she had become, trying to wash the blood off Morgana's hands with her own tears.

"You said you were runnin' from yourself," Rick said, his voice softening against his will. "What did you mean by that?"

"You really gonna let me loose inside these walls?" Morgana snapped, avoiding answering his question. "Settin' a fuckin' stranger amongst the sheep?"

Rick looked at her for a long moment, knowing Carol would go crazy at what he was doing, but all he could hear was Hershel's voice echoing down the dark days, saying that people could change for the better, that they could come back from what this world had made them become. "I'm givin' you a chance," he said slowly, "it's up to you whether you take it or not."

"You've got kids in here, asshole," Morgana said in disbelief. "I could slit their fuckin' throats in their sleep for all you know."

"I know you won't."

Morgana just stared at him. "This isn't your style," she said, shaking her head, the little of what she'd learned of him sitting at odds with his actions now, "so why is the old dog tryin' to learn new tricks, huh?"

Rick's jaw tightened. "Consider yourself my pet project," he said sarcastically, "but truth is, I'm sick of havin' you handcuffed to me."

"Well, lock me up."

"There's nowhere to goddamn put you," Rick snapped. "And even if I did, I've got this funny feelin' you would bust out as soon as my back was turned." He looked at her again, his eyes narrowing once more. "Why you so keen on gettin' corralled anyways?" he said, brow furrowing. "That ain't your problem to worry about, but mine."

"I'm just makin' sure you consider all the fuckin' angles," Morgana said tiredly, leaning against the wooden post, "even if my rack is as equally hot as my ass."

Rick raised his eyes to the sky. "You got a camp, Marion?" he asked, deliberately changing the subject from her charms. "You look like a lady who has a soft pillow to rest her head on every night."

"Look, why don't we make a deal, Blue Eyes?" Morgana said, straightening up. "You let me walk around, and I don't try any funny stuff, okay? Then once the shit has stopped hittin' the fuckin' fan, I waltz away from here, no questions asked."

"I was gonna ask you three questions actually."

"And what might they be?"

"How many Walkers have you killed, how many people have you killed and why?"

Morgana just looked at Rick, before bursting out laughing. "You seriously expect people to keep a tally like fuckin' trainspotters or somethin'!?" she exclaimed. "That's the biggest croc of shit that I've heard since the world went to the fuckin' dogs."

"What, like this delusion you've got of walkin' around in here without us knowin' where you come from and what you've done?"

"Oh, now I catch the catch," Morgana said, sidling up to Rick, taking satisfaction in the sight of making him tense up. She had met men like Rick before, the steady and reliable suburban Joe, the type who married their childhood sweetheart and raised a couple of anklebiters. They went to church every Sunday and only drank on the weekends, maybe a couple of Buds in front of the football game. In their well-ordered world, women like her were whores, but she'd long since discovered there was darkness beneath the beige; with darkness inevitably becoming drawn to darkness, and now here they were, Morgana's face inches from Rick's, his gaze locked with hers.

"There ain't no catch," Rick said coolly, hiding his unease, "I just happen to value honesty."

"I don't harm you or yours," Morgana reiterated just as coolly, "and you return the fuckin' favour. Then I walk out of here once the coast is clear. So do we have a deal or not?"

Rick's jaw tightened again. "Okay, we have a deal," he said, deciding to just bide his time, "once the walls are clear, you go, no questions asked."

Morgana studied him, knowing he was just humouring her, that he wouldn't let this or her go. He wasn't the kind of man to bring somebody like her into a place like this, then let them walk free, only to bring hell back in their wake. He had 99 problems on his plate, and he just didn't need her to make a hundred. So he was cutting her some slack until the old man upstairs saw fit to cut him some slack in turn.

"Done and fuckin' done," Morgana agreed abruptly, taking what she could get, just as she always did.

I should've learned to let you stay
You didn't want me all the time
But you were worth it anyway…