Survival of the richest
The city's ours until the fall
They're Monaco and Hamptons bound
But we don't feel like outsiders at all

━━━━━▼━━━━━

━━━━━▲━━━━━

It was late when Blake managed to get to the basement, one of which was the cell where Daryl would be located. Instead she unlocked the door, putting on the lantern and placing it beside his slouched body.

The music has been off for a mere minute and he had already fallen asleep. She'd just put in dead batteries, it wasn't that difficult to fake a situation like this. And just cleaning his cuts up, placing some bacterial cream was the LEAST she could do. If nothing else.

But then his alert status made him flinch and squirm. 

"Quit it." She growled, and he surcame to the submission with ease, he just didn't know the familiar voice. Or did he? His tired body was completely distracting to him demeanor that his droopy eyes just looked to her hat.

"Drink." She offered, and he guzzled down the water bottle in mere few seconds. Not caring that his cut lip hurt, but needing to rehydrate his body. 

"You're gonna get a lot more people killed..." She warned, his voice dripping with fear but he looked to her...And she only hid away further.

"You. Your people...This isn't something you can fight." His breath stopped and he looked to her with conviction. 

"I ain't 'im. I ain't Negan." He noticed her perked lips and irritated fumble of her hands.

Her head began to shake and she breathed unsteadily. He noticed it was every time she touched him to further her cleaning. She didn't have to do this, and he still didn't understand why. So he allowed it to happen, rendering himself pampered for the first time in a long time.

"That's mine." He growled, taking over ship to the vest. She let out a small chuckle. 

"Won it in poker, not yours nomore...Had to fix the stitching anyway, kinda old." She licked her lips and continues to fix him up. Until she manages to get to the lip.

"Can't do anything about the lip..." She whispers, digging into her pocket for a moment does she find the crackers. And the man takes them without any sudden thought as he was far too hungry to deny it.

"Can't leave anything...Finish the water." He did not have to be told twice as he downed it and finished the packet of crackers, handing it back to her and nodded a thanks. But even then did he feel the hatred pinning against her as she went to leave. Moments after she closed the door, he waited for the music to return. But it never did, and he closed his eyes soundly asleep for the first time in days.

*

Blake was hunched over, her elbows connected to her knees as she dreaded going to Alexandria. Her stomach battled itself, churning each and every way as it seemed to only get worse as noon approached. The thought of skipping sounded pleasant, but then the whole ordeal of allowing Negan to waltz the place in torment to Rick and his people frightened her. 

Evidently, it was Addie who made her get up.

The small picture in her locket that is so soon from fading away, she breathed out a sigh of relief as she went down to the market. There was an idea in the back of her head that Addie might want something, and she frowned as she didn't know what exactly she'd be looking for.
"Hell, you are one damn game of wheres Waldo darling. You're giving him a run for his money...Hell are you doing here?" He questions, and she averted his gaze up and around. Gulping she smiled up to him. 

"It's really dumb." She whispers, knowing most of everyone is eyeing her by now.

"Well, it better be quick and dumb because we got our trucks all set to see Rick the prick." Again she looked around, hoping that there'd be something that'd catch her eye. 

"I...Maybe find something she'd like?... I haven't really had to think as a parent for—" She stopped herself from speaking as she shook her head. Laughing at herself. 

"...I told you it was dumb." She whispered, continuing the way back towards the front lot as she knew that's where they'd start the drive towards Alexandra. But a hand connected to her arm stopped her.

"Find something." He said, speaking very clearly and firmly that she knew she had a time limit. She nodded and continued to look around, he followed her closely but not hovering. More so to be the shoulder if she were to flip. But then Blake saw it, it was an almost identical match to the one Addie had at home.

It was a small wolf stuffed animal, it seen some days but otherwise it was straight from the store. The women behind the counter smiled and held up the toy, while the man on the clipboard just dully asked for 'name, number' and Negan chuckled.

"Why do you still buy with points darling?" He questioned, and that had Blake sigh. "Blake. Three." She spoke, disregarding his comment before relieving them both from the marketplace.

"You said she was 14?" 

"She had this exact one...God, she would cry her head off if she didn't have it with her sleeping at night." Negan's heart clenched as he saw Blake holding firmly onto the stuffed wolf as though it were a prize.

He didn't want to admit to his swelling heart as he saw how proudly she spoke of her daughter, how much love and intuition that came with the said position. But he could clearly see the mother in her now, as it made sense as to why she took a stance to making sure the children had something to do here and to learn.

Instead, she placed the purchase into her sling bag and continued this walk with him as they patrolled side by side to the trucks. "Wanna hop in front?" 

"Hell yeah, stretch my legs out." She cheered, saluting off to Arat as she was merging with the rest of the men coming along.

He held the door on open for her and she took his offering hand, by now it finally became apparent to her that he was going to drive. "Hold this for me?" Was all he asked, and she did it without any hesitation or regulation. Blake knew, somewhere in her mind that Lucile was someone special to him.

Why else would you name an inanimate object?

"She like wolves?...Addie?" It was almost ten minutes until Negan spoke up, and the roar of the engine would mask their conversation from the rest of the men. Not that they were talking about anything remotely interested in this at all anyway. "Yeah, she loved animals. My parents had a farm so she had a few ponies." Blake wasn't staring at him, she was smiling off to the dashboard.

He hit a deadpan as that was happiest in speaking about a very real and very alive daughter.

"Nobody is gonna touch her..." But once he spoke about his promise her eyes changed to him. 

"I remember, you earned a few kisses if I remember that part correctly." And that right there, he had managed to make her cheeks grow with a rose tint.

"Do I get another one...? Just for clarity." She chuckled, shifting in her seat so quickly that she turned to face him entirely. Her arm arched to hold onto the back of her neck. 

"You're driving, might get distracted." He too let out a bark of a laugh, rallying in her humor as she hid under her hat as her cheek grew up in flames once again.

"How about after? Think after this I need some time on the roof." She mumbled, her eyes not looking to him but out in front to the car before us. 

"Sounds tempting darling...Should I bring some dinner?" Blake allowed her head to lean back just a bit, this bit of being asked out on a date is so surreal. Hell, it was surreal before the walkers starting roaming around and over-populating humanity.

"Really pitting for these dates huh?... Sounds to me like your bored." 

"You ain't? This is the highlight of today." He cheered, boosting himself up onto that normalize platform that Blake just huffed a chuckled. "You trying to tell me no guy ever tried hitting on you at work?" Her eyes glanced over to his dangerously, smirking a little. 

"Perhaps, but most knew I had a daughter so they steered clear."

That's when Negan's eyes narrowed. "But some got through?" 

 "Yeah. Two. In about seven years that it took me to get to that number." She shook at herself, wondering how on earth she made those relationships work. It was always the guy who initiated it, while she ended it. One was from a town over, the next was a consultant that she's work with on a few cases. They shared a kiss and not much else.

A few kisses.

"Hell, so it ain't just me. You love playing hard to get." He cooed, and she simply shook her head to his statement. "I was working so much, what sort of relationship happens when one of them goes undercover for—" She was about to continue her explanation but laughed as she saw his expression. 

"Doll I think I love ya." She perked her lips and looked the completely opposite direction.

"That gonna be a first time someone told ya they love you?" She rolled her eyes but shrugged. 

"Not the first, but I dunno if I can love anyone." Averting her gaze did she look down to the bat.

"You really thinking like that?" She shrugged, knowing full well that they've passed the town and we mere minutes from the location. She just had to stall this conversation for later. 

"What? Single mom is appealing to you?" 

"I didn't know you had a kid til last week. Not even then. Hell, I've been hittin' on you then, and I'll be hitting on you now." This amount of laughter she abated by came naturally as she spoke with him, but then all felt downward as she looked to the front gates of Alexandria.

"Well...I'll be damned." He whispered, his arm lazily hanging off the steering wheel as the truck was now parked. The women beside him handed him his bat and gave a curt nod. But he caught her chin before she could leave entirely. "Ain't nobody going to touch you or your little girl." He spoke, carefully promising as his eyes pledged deeper into her soul. 

"Yes sir." She so graciously joked, leans forward to shock him with a kiss before meeting everyone out in the open.

"Alright, listen up. We got ourselves a missing link, you do not bother the young girl, you don't look to her, don't speak to her. Stay outta her way and we'll be good." He decreed, and everyone shared the same expression as the law was placed.

Arat gave Blake a smug expression as she couldn't handle the smirk growing on her own face. "Shut it." 

"I can't, and I won't because you didn't ride with me." She whispered, standing barely shoulder distant apart.

"Like I said, he's protecting her." Was her addition, and Arat crunched her brow. Not because she wanted Blake to feel the combated rumors, but because it was a joke.

The clatter the baseball bat made to the metal gate rang through everyone's ears, and even the taunt of: "Little pig little pig, let...Me...It!" Sent a wave of humor throughout the saviors, he was terrifying at times. But was an obvious show host at others.

One layer of the door soon began to slide open, but only partly to show a man who neither Negan nor Blake recognized. "Well?" The leader of the Saviors smiled, rolling his eyes as he was not being allowed in a first glance. "Uh...Who are you?"

The sigh coming from Blake was loud, it made Spenser, the man at the front door just drift his attention elsewhere.

"Oh you better be jokin'! Negan. Lucille. I know I had to make a pretty strong first impression..." He reminded, so subtly reminded him of the murders that he obviously did not know of...Or just refuse to understand what has happened to the line of order.

However, low and behold. Rick came forward, his eyes zeroing in on towards Negan, holding nothing but anger...Until they looked off to Blake, where he finally held a glimpse of hope.

She kept quiet and shifted the assault rifle in her hand just a tad bit as the wolf stuffed animal in her backpack was burning to come out. "Well hello there..." Negan spoke, breaking the eye contact that Rick was trying to demand from his second in command.

He did not like seeing his second cowering down, not with someone from her past. Pricky Rick. "Do not make me have to ask," Negan growled, and it allowed Grimes to jump on his heel and move aside either layer of the wall to allow them all through.

"You said a week. You're early." He mumbled as he did so, trying to glance between his former co-worker and his new leader. 

"...I missed ya." Negan cooed, showing off his ring of humor once again. Yet Rick did not take it likely, especially when a walker started to make it's way to the now opened door, weaving and whisking its path between the cars and behind Blake.

"You best watch this..." The man chuckled, showing his back towards Rick in hopes of seeing the show, she slid the assault rifle off behind her back and revealed her dagger from her belt. Kicking the walker clean in the shin and stabbing it cleanly in the head and looking to the next one that was still a few paces away.

"Oh don't worry about that one doll...Watch this sweetheart...HHAhah! Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy!" He cheered, and Blake just rolled her eyes and elbowed him in the stomach. "What a service sir." She mocks, and the smile he flashed her might have missed her sights. But it surely didn't miss Arats, nor Rick's.

"Alright everybody! Lets get started, big day!" He shouted, surpassing Blake once again and heading further into Alexandrea's holding. For one thing, Blake was surely dumbfounded as to how damn gorgeous this place is.

"Hey...Rick? You see that? What we just did? That IS some service, we almost got turned away at the gate. Who is that guy anyway? Do I get mad? Do I throw a fit? Do I bash some gingers dome in? Nope...Just take care of one of those dead pricks that could have killed one of y'all...Service." Blake just closed her eyes under her hat, something that she has done more than a dozen times in a given day. And that surely deserved one.

"Hold this." He ordered, shoving Lucile into Rick's hands as it held the blood of a walker, and the face the man made while seeing it just fueled Blake to bite the inside of her cheeks further. This was...Cruel, but so was her people getting killed in their sleep. So she pulled up the courage to walk past him as well, without even another thought of glance.

"Oh Hot Diggity dog! This place is magnificent. An embarrassment of riches as they say. Yes sir I do believe you're gonna have plenty to offer up." He gestured with his free arms out into the open, if it was a consultation they'd demand to move in as well considering how damn nice this place was. And Blake couldn't stop staring at the houses.

"What do you think we're gonna find in here?" Arat whispered, and Blake smirked towards her friend. "Everything, fresh sheets?" She looked to her partner and they laughed for a small moment. 

"Fresh sheets and a fan is on our list huh?... You know, if you just let that slip to a certain someone, I bet you'll—" She just cleanly shook her head.

"I'm pushing it as is." She argued, walking forward to continue the conquest as she had called it the first drink they cheer to so many days ago. 

"Daryl...Hey." Blake's eyes peered into Rick in warning but it was too damn late as Negan came storming towards them.

"No! Nope...He's the help. You don't look at him, you don't talk to him. And I don't make you chop anything off of him...Same goes for everyoneee....Right?" Negan shared this statement with both Rick and the women off to the side.

It was the one that Daryl had helped from the verbal torture. And even with the given decades of separation, she felt the pang of jealousy to see him protective of someone else. Especially this women.

The women in question, Rosita, barely broke eye contact with the prisoner, and Daryl did not tread to be punished back at the sanctuary at all. Instead it was all her.

"Oh a lot of suspense there...I don't even think she knew how much...Alright, let's get this show on the road, let's see goodies you have under the covers!" He drew away from the topic quick enough to have his people forget about the difficulty, instead he further his steps towards the first few houses. But of course, Rick had to speak.

"We put aside half of the supplies and—" Arat chuckled beside Blake and couldn't contain it as she shook her head, and the only hint of the reaction was the agent letting her elbow lean against her friend's shoulder. 

"No. Rick. No. You don't decide what we take. I do." As that finishing motion, he lifted his arm up to single to Blake and winked. She stepped up forward for a moment and looked to Arat. 

"You heard the man...Move out!" She ordered, allowing the given group of people to flank forward as she was trailed by her friend.

As she inched closer to Negan, she leaned in. "Sir...May I go and find—" 

"Don't even have to ask sugar." He cooed, patting her shoulder and allowing her range in this mission....Only, Rick had other plans.

"Blake..." He whispered, reaching out to touch her hand. And that by far was the worst mistake he could have possibly made as it enacted something so sinister in the agent that the split second it too Rick to blink. A barrel of a pistol was lodged between his brow. 

"Don't you fucking dare..." She breathed, and as it made a scene. A few stragglers, Dwight and another four had their pistol raised as well.

But once he had heard the message, he nodded. Backing off his hand, and she too lowered her weapon. Yet it took seconds following that to allow her to single off to the men.

She looked him dead in eyes and shook her head. "Go ahead Rick, what were you gonna say to my dear Blakey here?" Negan continued, clapping his hands together. 

"Oh she told me alright, that she knows you...Your boy Carl. And little Addie?..." He teased, and since Daryl was no longer in hearing range it was a release from Blake's shoulders to finally be granted clarity.

It was the sinister smile that braced either of them as she tilted her head. 

"You want to know why I'm with him...? Is that it?" She read him so clearly that he shifted his gaze away and down, moving about the bat. 

"Sir..." She finished, walking off for Arat to follow in pursuit. She didn't care which way she was going, but in some sense she wanted those fresh sheets, the fan and to find Addie.

◇──◇────◇────◇──◇

Date Posted: 01-05-19

Time: 7:14

Word-Count: 3349