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

Bigger and Badder

"...Bring them inside..." Negan growled over the line. "...up to our room."

There was a brief moments pause before Dwight's voice could be heard through a buzz of static. "Sure thing, Boss."

Negan lowered the device from his mouth, his eyes still on Blake.

"C'mon, Peaches," he said, reaching for her hand and entwining his fingers neatly with his own, before pocketing the radio with a hiss and grasping up Lucille with a flourish.

He tugged her now in the direction of the door, heading out into the cool hallway and turning the corner and heading into the space that housed the huge metal staircase that led up to the third floor.

Blake gazed around, memories of this place coming back to her. Memories of arriving here; of David; of Negan giving her a room.... All the way up to the feeling of wandering around here, just a few short weeks ago, being pregnant....feeling that life growing inside her.

And even though Blake felt different now to how she had back then.. She understood that this was no bad thing.

People grew, things changed and time was an ever-moving concept.

There was no point in dwelling on things that were done. She needed to look ahead to the future now. And even if that had been her last stab at her having children of her own, she knew she still needed to make, this place, this life, better for the baby girl she still had. For Mia.

Blake yearned to see the tiny girl that she knew was likely sitting upstairs in the wives quarters right now. But she understood that other things needed to come first, before that. Things with Carl, Tara and Negan needed to be dealt with first and foremost.

This was important. And she needed to be there to make sure Negan kept a level-head and listened to what Carl had to say. Just like she had.

She let out a shaky breath, that didn't go unnoticed by Negan, his dark eyes flickering her way.

"You alright, Darlin'?" he asked, obviously noting that coming back here, to the Sanctuary, had to be a lot for her to process.

But Blake offered him a comforting smile in return, as they headed up the long winding staircase.

"I-I'm fine," she said, giving his hand a small, reassuring squeeze.

And that was the truth. She was fine.

"Look I appreciate you agreeing to talk to them-" she said earnestly, but before she could finish Negan cut across her curtly.

"I'm doin' this for you, Darlin', not them."

Blake looked up at him now, her eyes searching his face.

God. What if all this went horribly wrong?

"I know," she replied quietly, fixing a small worried frown onto her face as they walked the rest of the way up the stairs in silence.

It wasn't a moment or two later, did the pair find themselves outside of Negan's room. Blake's room too. Although the last time she had been here, had been on much less welcome terms. And so she took in a deep breath as Negan pushed the door open.

The air was still and everything was silent in here.

The room, of course looked just as it had the last time Blake had seen it, save for the two empty bottles of whisky that sat now upon the low coffee table on the far side of the room.

It was a hard thing, coming back from a tranquil place of healing, to this....to a place she had felt trapped and claustrophobic.

But things felt different here now, the place felt cleaner and memories of terrible things that had passed, were now fading.