For my sister | Negan |

63 - Deal

'You're crazy', I exclaim as soon as we enter Negan's room.

'What?' he grins. 'You didn't think I looked cool out there?'

He's sitting on the edge of his bed, wiping a wet towel over his face to get rid of the worst of the blood.

'Why would you do this to yourself?' I ask him exasperatedly. I walk over and grab his chin to turn his face to me so I can examine him. He looks a little surprised at my brazenness. It's usually the other way around.

Purple bruises are forming on his jaw, forehead and cheekbone and blood is dripping from his split lip and bust-up eyebrow. His nose is filled with crusty blood but the bleeding seems to have stopped already. I wonder if he has a concussion. I wouldn't be surprised after the hits he took.

'Let's go to my office', I say definitively, shaking my head in exasperation. 'So I can check you out properly.'

'I'd rather check you out', he jokes.

I don't laugh. I can see what he's doing. Acting all tough like none of what happened bothers him. But I know it does. He just killed a man who worked closely with him for years. He might have even considered him a friend at some point. It has to bother him.

'The sooner I take care of you, the better', I say, ignoring his joke.

'Check me out right here, doc', he says while he starts to take off his jacket. He hisses in pain when he makes a wrong movement, but quickly sucks in his breath when he realizes that I heard. I roll my eyes in response.

'I don't have my stuff here.'

'Tell the guys what you need', he says, nodding towards the guards.

'Why? It would be so much easier to just-'

'Because I say so, Christina.'

My words get drown out by his command. I scowl at him in annoyance, but he gives me a look back that dares me to see what will happen if I protest. So I sigh defeatedly and turn to the guards to tell them what supplies to bring me.

When they leave, I turn back around to look at Negan and find him clutching his ribs with a grimace on his face. I shake my head again.

Idiot.

'He could have killed you', I say softly.

'Nah', Negan says. 'I don't die.'

'Oh, that's right', I say sarcastically. 'You're a motherfucking cat.'

Negan chuckles and holds out his hand to me. I watch it apprehensively. He just choked the life out of someone with those hands.

'Come here. I'm fine. Nothing you can't fix.'

'Are you fine?' I ask cautiously as I slowly walk over. 'That couldn't have been easy.'

'Sure, he got in a few hits', he says, grabbing my hand to pull me towards him when I'm within reach. 'But you didn't really think that he was gonna win, did you? I got him in the end.'

'Never doubted you for a second', I say, earning a satisfied grin from him. 'But that's not what I meant. I meant, it couldn't have been easy mentally, right? You've known him for years.'

The smile wavers and disappeares from his face. His eyebrows pull together, but only for a second.

'I can't afford to think like that', he says determinedly. 'These things are easy, someone wants you dead, you kill them first.'

'I get it. But you don't have to act like it doesn't bother you, you know.'

'What do you want from me, Christina?' he asks, sounding a little frustrated. 'You think I should cry my eyes out, out there? Tell everybody mean old Simon hurt my feelings when he decided to stab me in the back?'