Poker Face

Chapter 26 - The Morning After

Aven sat on the foot of the bed in the RV, watching through the door as Negan taunted and beat Rick. It was after dawn when they arrived back at the clearing where everyone had been gathered the night before for Negan's performance. Negan kicked Rick out the door of the RV, Dwight and another Savior picking him up and dragging the broken man back to the line of kneeling Alexandrians. Negan shut the door and met Aven in the middle of the RV, holding her at arm's length to admire her face before pulling her against his chest. She wrapped her arms around his waist and smiled against him. They stayed like that for a few minutes, temporarily in an entirely different world, before Aven spoke.

"He still has fight left in him," she murmured.

"Yeah, he's a real shit," Negan sighed. "As fun as last night was, I was hoping I wouldn't have to kill anyone until at least noon today." There was only a hint of humor in his tired voice.

"You don't have to kill anyone else," Aven replied soothingly, hoping to save the widowed mother another trauma that might lose her her child.

"He hasn't learned his fucking lesson," Negan argued.

"Negan, I want you to know first of all, I'm not questioning you," Aven began, pulling away slightly to look up at him. He eyed her skeptically, not liking what she was getting at. "I think the sick woman out there is pregnant."

"And?" he snapped. Aven tensed slightly but kept her arms around him. He noticed and reeled himself back in away from anger.

"And I think the second man you killed last night was her husband." Negan let out a frustrated sigh.

"Aaand?"

"And I don't want that woman to lose her baby," Aven said, unintentionally tightening her hands into fists behind his back, her breath catching in her throat. Negan's demeanor relaxed from frustrated to worried and he furrowed his brow at her, searching her eyes for a clue to her uncharacteristically unintentional show of emotion. "It looks like she might already have lost it but if not, anything could push her over the edge."

"Doll, I have to make Rick-"

"I have an idea," Aven insisted. "And I think it's gonna work much better than killing another person." Negan turned them so he could sit on the kitchen bench and pull her into his lap, listening intently.

"Lemme hear it," he said softly. Aven opened her mouth to speak but first couldn't help smirk at her own brilliance.

"Make Rick cut his kid's hand off with that stupid fucking hatchet." Negan's jaw dropped, one side of his mouth quirked up in a proud smile as he gazed at her.

"That is fucking brutal," he hissed excitedly.

"But," Aven continued, "don't actually make him do it. Get him to the point where he's absolutely going to do it and then stop him and let him know you can pick up again right where you left off next time he crosses you." Negan hissed through his teeth again, biting his lip and shaking his head in awe.

"Shit, babe, are you trying to make me hard?" he growled. Aven laughed dismissively and took his face in her hands to kiss him gently, but Negan wrapped a hand around the back of her neck, pressing his mouth more fervently to hers and teasing her lips open with his tongue. She lost herself as quickly as the night before and moaned into his kiss, looking up at him almost sadly when he pulled away. "I really fucking hate to put a hold on this but we have shit to take care of," he breathed.

"I know," she sighed, squeezing him in her arms once before standing up. He followed, keeping his hands on her waist, and pulled her back against him, pressing a semi-hard erection against her and leaning down to whisper in her ear.