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

Them and Us

Blake chanced a glance up at Negan as their pair walked down the darkened Sanctuary hallway hand-in-hand.

She could tell that Negan was still seething about what had happened.

Truthfully this whole thing had been a mess. A waste of time.

But that was not the fault of her and Negan now, but the fault of Rick Grimes and his inability to listen to anyone but himself.

What the brown-haired man had said to her, what he had said to them both out there in that lot, in whatever context he had meant it in, had been unforgivable.

And Blake truly realised now how foolish she had been, in thinking Rick and his people could change for the better. That they could all live happy, as one, with a future together.

The truth however was that Negan had been right all along. The Saviours were on their own, and if they needed to survive, they needed to keep assholes like Rick and his people on a leash.

And if they didn't listen, if they tried to fight, tried to shoot, try to put a bullet into Blake or Mia or Negan again, then punishment would come swiftly and painfully.

For Blake could see now, that those people back there in Alexandria, they had never really cared about her.

And Rick had even said it himself, she had never been one of them, she had always been a Saviour.

But Blake knew now that that wasn't just what she was. JUST a Saviour.

But instead she was so much more

She was these days, as much of a leader as Negan. Respected, loved, protected.

And it was Negan and the Saviours who had saved her from a life of misery and pain, showing her love and affection when she had needed it most. Proving to her that she was worth more than just being the fiancee of an abusive man. That she was stronger than that. A fighter. A survivor.

Blake gazed up at Negan now, who had his jaw clenched hard, his dark eyes fixed on a spot ahead of them in the corridor.

She gave his hand a squeeze, opening her mouth to speak, when a voice suddenly rang through the hallway behind them and heavy footsteps could be heard approaching.

"Boss?" came a questioning voice, and both Negan and Blake stopped in their tracks and turned to see Simon marching towards them, Lucille in his hand.

Negan didn't say anything, merely staring hard at his right-hand man, chin lifted intimidatingly.

"Laura's just leaving," he said holding out Lucille towards Negan, and offering him a frustrated and questioning look, brow furrowed. "But Boss, surely we're not gonna just let him go? Grimes? The way he tore in here.... I mean, he needs to be punished. They all do. We need to be seen to be doing something. "

Blake frowned, parting her lips.

"They're going, Simon," she said with a shake of her head. "Can't we just leave it, for tonight anyway?"

But Simon didn't even look at her, not even acknowledging that she had spoken, cutting across her as she finished up her sentence, speaking only to Negan now.

Blake instantly pursed her lips together.

"If we let Grimes go without punishing him in some way, you know how its gonna go down," continued Simon. "The next time they try something against us, we might not be so prepared..."

Suddenly Negan reached out, his fingers wrapping around Lucille's smooth handle, as he took a step into Simon intimidatingly, lip curling with distaste.