Poker Face

Chapter 10 - Starting Over

Negan entered his living room with a plate of food for Aven, who apparently hadn't eaten in days despite the fact that meals were delivered to her cell. She looked up at him and his heart sank when he saw the sadness still hadn't left her eyes. She didn't want to be here but she knew she was stuck, and for some reason Negan wanted her to feel otherwise. She had been so stone-faced when they first met, he wondered why she didn't feel the need to hide her gloom now. Had he broken her already? He didn't even mean to, didn't even want to.

He held her gaze as he walked over and set the plate down on the coffee table before pulling a chair closer to the couch to talk. He rested his elbows on his knees, leaning forwards on them slightly and she turned on her side to face him, awaiting her fate.

"Let's talk, doll," he said softly. She furrowed her brow, unsure what she was supposed to say. "Now that you're finally feeling better, let's start over, start at the beginning. We need to get on the same fucking page because I think we've been reading entirely different books in entirely fucking different languages ever since you got here."

"What do you want to know?" she asked softly.

"Well, let's go over what's happened since we found you." Aven gave a small nod and Negan leaned back, organizing the story in his memory. "So, we found you down in North Carolina, a ways outside Raleigh."

"Where are we now?"

"Virginia. The Sanctuary here is our main base but we have others spread out." He gave her a moment to process the information. "Where were you before we found you? Where did you come from?"

"Well, I'm from Florida originally. After...all this happened, a friend and I went on the road, kind of just kept moving to stay safe. The last group I stayed with was down in Georgia. But that was only a week or so, I guess I've just been moving north since then. Last time I really knew where I was was maybe a few weeks before you found me. I knew I was in North Carolina but I didn't know specifics other than town names I didn't recognize." She paused, still unsure what else to say. Negan nodded, pursing his lips and steepling his fingers against them.

"And how did you get so sick?" Negan asked. Aven told him about traveling too long under the sun without water, how she'd started to hallucinate and feel off balance. Negan listened intently, taking a moment to further recall the day he found her before moving on.

"You were soaking wet when we found you. The fuck was that about?" Aven squinted, initially not remembering that she'd ended up shivering in her cold, wet clothes.

"I went swimming..." she stated unconfidently. Negan let out a soft snort in amusement.

"You went swimming?"

"No, I don't know, I was just...I remember everything was really hot and I just needed water."

Negan continued to question her, setting up the timeline for the two of them to follow to get on the same page. She worked through the memory, explaining how she'd gone from cooling off in the stream, to hiding in the woods, to being captured and subsequently rescued.

"He tackled me and that's where you came in," she nodded with finality, making it clear she didn't want to talk about the assault itself. The look in Negan's eyes reassured that she didn't have to, though his gaze seemed to linger a moment too long before he spoke.

"I'm sorry we didn't get to you sooner, doll." His voice was low, his face solemn. Aven's heart clenched and her mouth twitched as she pushed off another wave of tears that wanted to fall. She was unable to make eye contact and could only shake her head as she focused on keeping her composure. There was a long silence and Negan watched the veil drop back over her face as her expression softened.