You were a vision
In the morning 
When the light came through

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Addie sat staring at the paper when they returned home, she did not touch the glass of water placed in front of her, nor the small bit of a meal. Instead she just looked at each crease, each crinkle, each ink spot that her mother had written down.

All she had said was that she loves her, but that wasn't enough to level with the damages her people had caused. It dawned on her that her mother pleaded for her life, and with that plea the choice could have been Maggie instead. 

So there was one thing to be thankful of.

"Who is Blake?" Michonne asked, after being silent for more than half the day. Rick looked up to her with a struggling gaze as he blinked away, wiping his eyes with his thumb and pointer finger. Almost wishing to claw his own eyes from her sockets as it would take away the brutal image of Abe and Glenn being killed from his mind.

"Addie's mom...She—She was in Washington when this all...Hit." He whispered, not wanting Addie to hear. But even if one was to scream in her ear she wouldn't deviate her attention to the note.

Her raw red eyes and cheeks just turned swollen hour after hour as she felt sick to her stomach, deathly sick. What she was she meant to think? Her mother didn't do anything to help. She didn't stop the murder.

"She's with him, why is she with him?" Michonne spoke, generally discussed how Addie's mother could have done that to any of them, the connection was there...But this? This was a betrayal if anything.

"She'll help..." Rick argued, but as the words slipped out he didn't believe it, nor did he convey it with much confidence either. "Are you sure?" She breathed, looking to him with such conviction and not at all with dealing with the truth. Instead he sighed off and took a very long walk off around Alexandria, when he returned he saw Addie sitting on the front porch. Still staring to the note she left behind.

Carl was trying to consult her but she wasn't budging, he sent his on inside so he could take his place. Pulling an arm over the young girl's shoulder, trying his best to soothe her.

"I-I-I t-th-thought s-sh-she was d-d-dead." Is the only thing she offered, and in reality. She should've been, had Negan not found her when he did she would surely be long dead.

They found her wondering, with a bullet wound, drenched in blood just aimlessly pursuing forward.

Negan never looked back at that as a mistake, he was having a look back as he was waiting for her to come upstairs for a drink. All the meetings, all the preparations, all the taunting to Daryl were nothing compared to what he hopes for in this little date of theirs.

She will occasionally come for a poker game if she felt sociable, and if Arat was there. Laura too now that he's stroking his beard to think further. Blake was damn good at the game, nobody could read her all things considering.

He heard from Arat that the team had returned, but Blake seemingly needed another shower before hurrying upstairs to Negan's little tower as most of his second in commands call it. Since it's plotted off and away with more than enough rooms for him, an office, a meeting room, his bedroom.

She just assumed his bedroom since he offered her a drink, and she was right.

"Come in!" He sang, knowing full well that Blake wouldn't be late, she was always time. Also. The only time she was at fault was when she was in trouble, and he would know something would be wrong if she to be late.

"Sorry sir, I just wanted to wash up. Lot of dead 'round that way." She spoke, closing the door behind her all while holding a folder in her hands. He didn't want to discuss work, or the sanctuary. He wanted to talk to her yes, but of other things.

Especially if it focused on that girl she begged to be saved.

"Well we can't have that now, can we? Anything else worth mentioning?" She shook her head, instead of standing like she normalizing would, she took the seat across from him as he just so gently glanced the sheet she wrote, taking inventory. Nobody was hurt, bit or scratched.

An estimate on how much ammo used, Blake knew how to handle runs flawlessly. And he nodded in sight of it. "I think you promise me to share a drink darlin'...What might you fancy? Red wine?" 

"That whiskey looks pretty inviting," She smirked. Coming close towards his shifted body as they were now in the corner of the room, slouching down onto the nice leather couch and leaning further into its soft cushion.

He took a seat beside her, offering out the glass of a decently filled cup and she smiled. Being polite did she click to his. "To a new conquest." She chuckled, and his grin only widened as he noted that her walls were already falling down.

"To our new conquest darling." He agreed, taking a hefty sip and glancing to see how she handled her booze. And sure enough, shocked as she didn't even wince.

"Did you like the performance?"
"Hmm, I did. Outdone yourself with this one." She cheered, eyeing him as she took another little gulp down.

"They deserved it, Rick and those fucking pricks might as well have tipped over cows at night." Blake sighed, she didn't really enjoy reminiscing on what she had to endure. To pretend to be dead, to return with the blood of her allies.

With a scar running down her cheek. It was faint now, not as visible as Dwight's. But it was clearly there and rigid. However, Negan thought it suited her. Even if she hid it under a baseball hat.

"So. You wanna tell me why you let that lil girl live?" She was mid-sip again and nodded, placing down the glass as she played with the end zipper of his jacket. Of course it was unzipped, his white t-shirt showing underneath.

Blake mastered the art of manipulation long ago, it's how she knows how to keep her group in check. As her eyes glanced between his own and his lips, the tug of a smile rendered him.

Could she handle her booze alright?

Truth be told, she could not. For that very reason a tear slipped under her cover, making her move her lingering hand away from his to wipe it away. 

"Sorry...Fuck." She swore, wiping it clean down her sleeve as she wouldn't look his direction at all.

"Doll, hun...Is it really that bad?"

"My daughter's people tried to kill me?" She laughed, shaking her head and flinching at his touch as it felt too hot for her to handle.

"Daughter? You have a fuckin' daughter?" Her eyes darted this way and that as she sighed. Her knees pinned to her elbows in hopes of staying protected away from him. 

"Yeah well, I didn't think I would ever see her again so..." She offered, and Negan sighed leaning forward to the table to make sure that she has her whiskey at her disposal. And it was a good call, for she downed the whole thing.

"Ain't you from Georgia?" 

"Hmhmm...That group, those people. All of them are from Georgia." Her conclusion dragged through Negan as it wasn't always the best reminder that the whole world is turning to shit.

"So why weren't you with her?" Her eyes darted towards him for a moment, and he just replaced her glass with his. He didn't want to drink, he wanted to honestly further this conversation with her. 

"Cause mama works to much, always gone...That's what you get for having a child at 18." She growled, finishing off his share as well and not allowing him to refill it as she knew she reached her limit.

Especially since she was with him.

"We'll bring her back when we take half their shit." But Blake disagreed, chewing on her lip as there was more to the story. 

"I worked, with Rick the Prick. Carl is my godson. Sir I..." Her tears are what hurt him, he pulled her closer into an embrace, it was odd at first. Until he shed off his jacket to fully engulf her.

"You know their ins and outs then darling?" Her tears have long to stain his shirt, but she nodded never-the-less. "They ain't gonna hurt her, none of them. Alright?" He promised, and he saw the relief and clarity in her eyes as she looked up towards him. She removed her tears yet again as she tried to breathe normally.
"I thought she was dead..." 

"She ain't. And you can see her whenever you damn please." That was another gesture she endured to accept, and she pulled away to look at him.

He wasn't a bad man, he was just brutally honest with his level of humor that projected far faster than he could filter through it. But as a token of her thanks did she lean up for a small moment to kiss his cheek. "Thank you." She offered, and he sighed.

"Don't have to thank me Blakey. But I wouldn't mind another kiss." She chuckles, her body completely in his direction as she smiled sheepily. It always became a thought to whom she found a sexual interest in.

And it surely wasn't anyone in her rank. And there was only one person higher than she was. "I think you've earned it." She barely whispers out, but the second she pulls away from the kiss, he enacts his own. Not pressing her to continue this, but surely hoping that she hesitates for a moment before doing anything.

Instead, he feels her smiling against the kiss. Only then did his hands find their way to her hips, his kisses urging around her jaw as she continued to giggle at his obsessive tactics.

"You wouldn't mind another kiss would you?" She cooed, enjoying his tactics to each brush up of his beard to his husky growl. "Course...And I wouldn't mind a few other things, but—" And in pure fashion had someone interrupted the peace. 

"Duty calls." She whispered, living for the fact that he has to get up from his seat with her to head off to the door.

Whoever and whatever Negan was speaking was in a whisper and not that much of a problem for him to have to leave. Instead he returned back to the same plot of space beside Blake. "Something wrong?" He pouted, shaking his head.

He still never understood how she could switch from agent to normality in mere seconds, but her smile was only inflicted on the amount of booze she had downed earlier. "Nothing...Nothing at all." Yet she still pouted her lips. 

"You wouldn't be lying to keep me here...Right?" He shook his head in denial.

"Oh darling, you would have a strong word to say against me if I did. I rather keep you in my good graces. So...Where were we?" Her fluttering eyes just tempted him further.

"Hmm, but I'm not a wife Negan. And I don't plan to be one." She decrees, however he liked playing hard to get. To work for her affection, so he pulled her closer.

"You're saying that now sweetheart, but when's the last time you've let yourself go free for a minute?" She narrowed her eyes and thought for a moment, and she laughed. "A long time, and they were an asshole." Negan couldn't help himself but follow her action in pursuit, but for now he was alright in holding her close as she still managed to find whatever it is funny.

"A bigger asshole than me?" The joke took her by surprise and she shook her head. "You have your moments, but I don't think you're an asshole." She honestly admited, and he was more than taken back by her ability to tell the truth that he smiled. Kissing her temple as her eye lids bounced a few times and then closed again. 

"I should get going...There's—" She yawned, her head finding the crook of his neck a perfect place to sanction off as she started to fall asleep.

Negan didn't mind, she trusted him enough for her to fall asleep on him. And more so in trusting him not to do anything remotely questionable. Pulling her closer to his chest did he rise to his feet, bringing her over to the king sized bed that would've cost a million points if one made it worthy to buy.

He laid her comfortably in bed and under the covers, she tried her best to stay conscious and his deep chuckle was just music to her ears. 

"I gotta finish something up darlin'...Don't you wait on me." With that she hummed softly to herself and moved away from the looming light on his desk, he worked quickly. Not paying much mind as either Simon or Dwight would look it over later.

Instead, he hopped into bed on the other side of her. And although she was asleep, or semi asleep.

***

He had woken up hours later as his paranoia consisted of what might be in his bed beside him. But he thoroughly calmed down the second he realized it was Blake, just shifting around closer towards him. He hasn't had the chance to cuddle up beside someone without the constant force of their job lingering over them. Like his wives, it was quick and nothing more than temptation, a bit of banter and then off to his own room.

Right now, it was Blake being genuine as he knew she wouldn't lie. He did fall asleep drunk and will have a hangover, but as he trailed his finger to linger just for a moment to gather her hair behind her ear to keep it from her face. Earning him another shift in movement closer.

He wondered then, if there were more than issued feelings. Of course there were times where Negan thought of Blake in more than a second in command, he thought of her as a partner early on in her stepping up in the chain. She never stayed low all that long considering she started working in the hospital wing earning a fair amount of points from there, but the second she joined runs. Simon noticed her efficiency, and the second Negan had caught his eye to her...He wanted to know what her occupation was before hand.

There were bets on cops, freelancer or even the occasional assassin as they managed to catch her in the act of taking down walkers without a gun.

It came to no surprise and then all the shock that Blake had sudtely told Dwight her former employment in a police station as a forensic psychologist and a consultant to the Federal Bureau of investigation. It took him a moment to manage that into 'FBI' and just as Blake had predicted, Negan took the calling to her and started to let her really work.

To shine.

And now...They were sharing a bed as her stressed and tired body didn't allow her anymore. His thoughts soon trailed to Addie, although he did not know her name.

He was very excited in meeting her in much better terms, once this all sorts itself out in a few weeks. The girl will no doubt come to live with them sooner or later. And he wouldn't mind, he'd spoil them rotten.

Although the idea lingered for awhile if he should stay in bed beside her, he needed to get some work done. And the radio continued to blink, drawing him to take it with him to the bathroom and relying on the voice to keep quiet and keep away. He'd see them wherever, for the first time in awhile.

Blake is sleeping in.

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Date Posted: 11-28-18

Time: 11:15

Word-Count: 2708