My Safe Space

two

her mind raced as she laid on her sofa with roman, clutching her gun. the man left shortly after she abruptly hopped out of his truck and ran into her home. it was almost now almost 6 am, but the fear still hadn't left since he now knew where her home was. the "saviors" now knew where she lived. she hadn't slept that night, instead was lying awake intisipating this group to show back up.

but they didn't.

a day turned into several more and nothing had happened. nothing out of the ordinary.

until she woke up one morning and had opened the front door to let roman out to use the bathroom. there on the porch of her cabin sat a cardboard box. inside there was canned food, fruit, waters, pickles and even some dog food. slipped in between some cans was a note.

be careful out here.

her eyebrows furrowed and she looked up, glancing around for any sign of whoever left her. she picked up the box and carried it inside, setting it on her counter. this had to be negan, right? he's the only person who knew where she lived. but why? why would he drop off food for her? in a world like this.

she smiled top herself as she pulled out the jar of pickles. something she loved so much, but hadn't had since before the world fell to shit. she wasted no time before digging in and eating a few before unboxing the rest of the goodies he left her. she wondered to herself how he'd got these things. how he assumably had so much that he could afford to drop some off for some random girl he'd just ran into. where he would get things like fresh fruit.

she knew he must have a camp or something from the several men he had with him, by the amount of things he'd spared to her. weapons, trucks. she knew it had to be a big place. she just prayed that it was no where near her home.

another few days dragged by and all was quiet. she wasn't on her toes the was she was before, she told herself that if they were going to come for her that they would have done so already, and most definitely wouldn't have given her their supplies.

for the next month it was like clockwork. every week she'd wake up and walk outside and there'd be a box of food for both her and roman left for her though there hadn't been another note since the first. until this morning. she brought the box inside and began to inspect it only to find a note at the bottom.

hope you're doing well, beautiful.

she couldn't fight the smile that spread across her face as she read the note. heat flushed her cheeks as she thought about the man she knew had been doing this for her. but why? she constantly wondered why he would do something like this for her. for some random girl he didn't even know.

-

it had been almost two months since boxes had been left on her doorstep. him sending these boxes had saved her from having to leave her home and scavenge. instead she'd been focusing on keeping up with her garden, planting even more crops. it had been so nice, no fear of leaving the safety of her home. spending more time with roman.

this morning she was up particularly early, she had trouble sleeping like almost every night. but today she made the best of it. as the sun had barely cracked over the horizon, she was in the back yard of her cabin working on her crops.

gardening was therapeutic to her. not just her crops, but her flowers. boy did she love flowers. annabelle was quickly snapped out of her thoughts by roman running off to the front of the house, growling at something. she stood to her feet and quickly drew her gun as she slowly circled from the back of the house around front.

there, stood on her porch with a box in his arms was negan himself.

"roman," she called her dog back to her which quieted him. "you're here."

"you said you wanted to be left alone, so i come before you're up." the man spoke. though it wasn't like other times. he didn't have that strong aura of confidence. his demeanor was off. "wanna put that gun away?"

annabelle hesitantly holstered her weapon. "gonna invite me in so i can put down this heave ass box?"

she walked by him and opened her front door, leading him into her cabin. she watched as the man set down the box and began looking around. "this place is nice, i see why you hide out here."

"why are you here? i mean, why are you bringing me thing? you don't even know me.." her curiosity got the better of her.

"is it a crime to care?" he questioned with a chuckle. But that smirk of his slowly faded. "your bad run in was with my people, right?"

her head dropped, she gazed at the floor unsure of how to answer. she hesitantly walked over and sat on the edge of her sofa. shortly joined by negan who sat across from her. "look.. whatever my people did to you i can promise you it wasn't my order."

"i killed one of your men." she blurted as she looked up at him. but quickly looked away after seeing his expression. "he grabbed me when i was out scavenging, he- he groped me and said he'd kill roman-"

she looked at him again after cutting herself off. she quickly followed up. "i didn't have a choice, but then i heard others and i ran. i didn't want to hurt him but he gave me no choice negan he grabbed me and-" she began to babble in panic of what he may do to her now that he knew.

"i sure as shit don't condone that, my men know my rules. and that, that right there is against them. if you hadn't killed him and i found out? i sure as hell would have. you saved that man from a whole lotta extended pain."

she looked back at him once more, completely shocked by his words. "but i killed one of your men,"

"he attacked you for no reason, laid his hands on you. he got what he deserved." negan was unphased by her confession. instead of anger, he looked sympathetic. "that's why you flipped the fuck out when i called us saviors."

she nodded. "so you're not gonna hurt me?.."

"now why would i hurt that beautiful face of yours?" a sheepish grin formed on his face which took her by surprise. she couldn't help but blush by his comment and quickly looked away from him. "oh come on, let me see that pretty smile."

"stop," she blushed and buried her face in her hands. she heard him chuckle at her only making it worse. "thank you, for the food.."

"as sexy as you look taking care of yourself like a badass the way you have, you shouldn't be out there." negan remarked.

"you can't keep doing this though, i'm sure you need it more.." she trailed off.

"why don't you come back with me, to my community. then i don't need to keep driving all the way out here." a grin formed on his face.

"i can't do that, this is my home, this is my safe space." she sighed. but negan didn't press the issue. it was almost like he understood that.

the man stood to his feet. "if anything happens, if you change your mind or find yourself in any sort of trouble, i left you a vehicle. drive to the old factory outside of town. ask for me and i'll be there in a heart beat, do you understand?"

these words comforted her more that he could understand. she looked up at him and smiled. she remembered what he'd said the day they met two months ago and she replied in a soft spoken tone. "yes sir."