Playing For Brains

Chapter Forty Four

She was slowly losing control and she knew it, but she wasn't able to find a way to solve her predicament.

...

As she sat there floating in and out of her mind, she saw the door open out the corner of her eye. Her attention was brought back into the room and she rolled her eyes. She should have known from how angry he was earlier, that he wasn't about to let this go

Negan stepped into the room, his shoulders relaxing a little when he saw Arlie sat up in bed rather than smothering herself in the covers. As he stepped further into the room, Arlie noticed a tall middle aged man, his now grey hair beginning to thin on top. He was wearing a white lab coat, indicating that he was the sanctuary's doctor.

"Here you go Doc. As you can see she's pale, cold to the touch and lethargic. She hasn't got out of bed and refuses to eat anything" the doctor nodded a little as Negan went to the window and pulled the curtains open letting the light flood into the small bedroom. Arlie squinted her eyes to adjust to the new level of light in the room, it illuminated her pale features.

"I think she might be sick, some sort of bug. She refused to come and see you" Negan continued, allowing the doctor to place his medical bag on the end of the bed and taking in the woman in front of him, her dirty clothes still covered in blood from Daryl's injury all those days ago. Her refusal to move meant that she hadn't yet showered or changed into a new, nicer outfit from her new closet.

Arlie scowled in disgust as the doctor made his way over to her, perching on the edge of the bed next to her. He reached for her arm to take her pulse but she pulled it away so that he couldn't touch her.

The doctor turned to look at Negan "she's one of your wives?" he questioned.

Negan eyed the doctor, a sympathetic smile crossing his face, knowing what the doctor was implying.

"She's not been very well so she hadn't had a chance to shower and pick out an outfit. I was hoping that you could help me with that" Negan wasn't happy that the doctor was questioning his choices.

"Come on Arlie. The sooner you get checked over by the doc here, the sooner this is over with" Negan met Arlie gaze, pleading with her.

She glared at him for a few seconds before sitting forward and shuffling towards the edge of the bed. The light in the room echoed across the doctor's face showing his weathered features from years of late nights at work.

The doctor pulled out a thermometer and indicated for Arlie to open her mouth so that he could put it under her tongue. She sat there with it under her tongue before it beeped, indicating for the doctor to remove it. He frowned when he looked at the result, clearly unhappy with how low her body temperature was.

"I've never seen anyone with such a low temperature, something definitely isn't right" he began to rummage within his bag again, pulling out a stethoscope.

"Can you lift your shirt up?" the doctor asked looking at Negan for approval, the younger man simply nodded.

Arlie stood up from the bed, wobbling a little as she made her way into the corner of the room away from the pair in front of her. She wrapped her arms around herself, trying to slink into the shadow and make herself invisible. She knew what that stethoscope was going to tell them.

"Come on sweetheart" Negan began to guide her back to the bed as panic set in.

Arlie undid a few buttons of her shirt rather than lifting it up, revealing her bra. The doctor brought the stethoscope up to her chest and moved it around a little looking for a heartbeat.

"Strange. It doesn't seem to be working on you" the doctor brought it back to his own chest hearing his own heartbeat in his ears.

"I've never had it do that before" he brought it back to Arlie's chest and still heard nothing. He put the equipment back into his bag, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion.