I think I liked you better when you didn't have a knife in your hand, Peaches

Crashing down

Blake clung to the railing for what felt like hours, as a hazy morning light hung at the bottom of the sky ahead of her, through the darkened trees beyond. Her eyes seemed to be filled with tears that refused to spill over, hoping to god that Tara made in back to Alexandria with no repercussions from either the Saviours or from Rick.

Tensions were already almost a breaking point between the two communities and one little push would be all it would take to bring everything they knew crashing down around them.

Lives would be lost, good people gone, and for what? Pride.....revenge......payback? Weren't the consequences of this sorry life already bad enough?

Blake felt a chilly Fall wind whip around her bare legs realising now that she was stood here, outside in the gravelly lot, in only a t-shirt and pair of panties....the adrenaline keeping her going through the chilliness of the night's air. Until now that was.

She dropped her hands from the fence, wrapping them around herself, but still she kept on staring, barely even flinching when she heard a familiar pair of boots approach her from behind.

Blake knew she had pushed things tonight, but that anger, that fire inside her, had not been diminished in the coldness of the morning air unfortunately, clinging on as her face fell into a dark grimace.

She heard him stop behind her now, his boots stopping on the gravel behind her loudly, but there was no way she was going to let him have the first word.

"How the hell could you?" she said in a icy voice coming to face Negan who was stood there, lips pressed together and frown sitting between his darkened brows. Lucille hung limp from his left hand, and his chin was lowered, staring back up at her with cold, chocolate eyes.

"How the hell could I do what, Darlin'," he growled, sounding angry. "What? Fuckin' protect you? Keep you out of harm's fuckin' way?"

His voice was sarcastic now, and that was not something Blake appreciated hearing here and now, in the light of everything that had happened in the last half hour.

Her green eyes flashed darkly, the tears that still sat there in the wells of her eyes threatening to spill over now.

"Tara had nothing to do with what happened to me Negan, and yet you were going to kill her!?" Blake said in a furious voice.

"But I fuckin' didn't did I, Blake?" he snarled in return . "I let you fuckin' undermine me because of some damn gal that broke her way in here an' tried to fuckin' kill us all. The whole place is crawlin with dead pricks because of her, and you're actin' like the two of you were best damn buddies this entire fuckin' time. Hell our damn baby died because of a piece of shit like her comin' in here and puttin' a bullet in you. An' you can blame it on other things but you know that things started goin' to hell around here from that moment on. Those assholes don' give a shit about you. They never fuckin' have, Sweetheart! An' yet here you are taking their side over mine, riskin' everything I've built here. Everything I've made you a damn part of."

But Blake flared at this.

"Don't you dare lecture me, Negan," Blake said in a warning voice, her chest rising and falling hard, infuriated by the Saviour's words. "You have no right to start acting all high and mighty when you're just pissed because for once you didn't get your own way-"

"Well, before you came along, Sweetheart, my way was the only  fucking way, and back then I didn't have anyone fuckin' arguin' with me about shit," he growled again, interrupting her before she had the chance to finish.

But Blake was breathing hard now, so, so angry at the way he was acting.

"Well if that's the way you want things to be again, Negan, maybe I should go..." Blake cried loudly, tears sliding down her cheeks, as she clenched both fists at her sides, glaring at the dark-haired Saviour, as he glared back.

Her outburst was enough to cause a couple of walkers to appear from the nearby tree-line and launch themselves at the fence, reaching out and making a grab for Blake. But she did not even turn around to acknowledge them, knowing that she was well out of their reach.

The blonde women merely watched now as Negan's tongue reached his back molars darkly and he have a hollow laugh, before narrow narrowing his eyes and pointing to her with the blunt end of Lucille.

"See you've been sayin' that a lot tonight, Darlin'," he hissed. "An' part of me thinks that maybe that's because it's you that wants out."

"What?" uttered Blake giving a frown.

But Negan gave a heavy grimace, staring down at her with contempt in his features.

"Hell, you gave me a damn ultimatum, Peaches," Negan said in a loud voice, snapping at her. "If that ain't you confessin' you have doubt about us-"

"Because you were going to kill her Negan!" Blake yelled across him quickly.

But Negan gave another shallow laugh, dragging hand down his bearded mouth.

"Jesus Christ, Darlin'!" he said darkly. "They put a damn bullet in you and you fuckin' jump to defend them. An' I step on up to try and defend the fuck out outta you, outta my damn family, an' you act like I'm a goddamn monster. I mean shit, Blake, you put your trust in the wrong person once before, the fucking guy that beat the crap outta you every damn night, so don't you think you might be fuckin' capable of doin' it again?! Huh?"

The moment he said the words in was like a knife had pieced Blake's stomach, twisting violently at her insides and causing a hard lump to form inside her throat.

And for a brief moment Negan looked utterly guilty for what he had said, her eyes reaching the ground as he slowly licked at his lips.

He looked up.

"Peaches, I-"

But Blake was too hurt to hear him out now.

And with her bottom lip quivering, and tears slipping wordlessly down her cheeks, she clutched her arms tighter around herself and walked forwards, shoving past him and heading back inside...

...as the dawn sun rose in the sky behind her, illuminating the door as she headed through it, pulling it shut with a loud, echoing clang behind her, leaving Negan standing out in the lots alone...his eyes staring with regret at the two decaying walkers before him, in the space Blake had deserted mere moments before...