This Animal I Have Become (A Negan/Bitten Fanfic)

Part 45: For One More Day

"Bree...Bree it's me...It's me sweetheart, I'm here, it's okay, calm down baby" Negan said with the most tender of expressions. He slowly began to walk towards her, as if he was worried that the wrong move would make her vanish right before his eyes.

What were the odds of this?

Negan knew he had to be dreaming for Bree...His girl, to be standing right in front of him, in the flesh! He supposed that fate worked in mysterious ways but he would have never thought in his whole life time that it would have worked out this much in his favor. This was crazy!

Negan noticed she began to sway and her hand went to her neck. He was able to tear his conscious away from the pure shock of seeing her after all these years to notice she had a wound on her neck.

"Shit! BREE!" Negan called out to her as began to run at her as she fell to the ground.

Luckily he was able to catch her before her head bounced on the pavement. He knelt down and cradled her head in the nook of his elbow, lifting her up to examine her with his other hand firmly holding her cheek. He couldn't help but smile. It was her alright! He held her tightly and placed a sweet kiss upon her forehead, purely from the thrill of seeing her.

Negan noticed blood starting to drip on his forearm and he cursed and set her down for a moment to rip off the sleeve of the shirt she was wearing. He bundled up the cloth and pressed it firmly against the side of her neck, watching the white cloth turn red.

"Alright, you're okay, you're okay" He repeated, as if she could hear him. He was glad that she was unable to hear the worry in his voice. He nervously looked around to make sure nothing or no one was around to sneak up on them. When he saw that they were alone, he moved to a squatting position, juggling Bree in his arms and then hoisted her up in the air, carrying her to a nearby stream.

He didn't know he had nearly enough karma points to cash in to be able to even chance running into Bree like this. God knows how much he missed her! She was the sole reason that he kept going, in hopes to see her again one day. She was his rock through everything and he couldn't wait till she woke up so he could hear what she has been up to all these years.

 He loved her, and he couldn't wait to be able to tell her that again in more than just a muffled whisper.

As he was walking, he remembered what she said before she fainted about him being dead. 

'Hm....Well that explains a lot' He thought to himself.

 He figured that she was banished from Alexandria and forbidden to see him, but the girl that he remembered had a persistent attitude and surly she would have found out a way to bust him out by now, or at the very least grant him a visit or two.

 Unless she thought he was dead...

Negan glared at the thought of them giving her the impression that Rick killed him. Granted, he was a son of a bitch back then, he could admit that now but that was just cruel to do to her and she didn't deserve that. He couldn't imagine what she must have went through at the time.

Truth be told, he thought about her every day. He would try to bargain and make meaningless deals with Rick to try to let him see her but Rick would always evade his requests with questions pertaining to his redemption, or just ignore them completely. He wondered if Rick knew that Bree was under the impression that he was dead or if that was just some half-assed story that her family concocted up to make things easier.

Whatever it was, he didn't care. They had found each other and that was all that mattered. Maybe it was always meant to be this way.

Negan gently set Bree down next to the edge of the stream. He knelt down next to her and removed the piece of cloth that he tore from his shirt and soaked it in the water, ringing it out and dunking it again. He wiped at the gash on her neck and he was impressed. It had already stopped bleeding and it was just starting to show signs of scabbing over.