Well guys, it's your lucky day. The weather was so bad here today the roads were impassable, and I got out of work with a snow day! So I hope you enjoy the update!

<><><><><>

I turned away from Jo, stalking back over to where Simon was doing what he did best. My men were all waiting for orders, and it was going to take a while to clean all of this up. That bastard had made a mess of the market. I didn't need to oversee Simon and my men but I didn't need to personally pick out all of her weapons for her either like some love sick puppy.  

I also didn't need to kiss her. I already had a hard enough time keeping my mind off the woman. She was sexy as hell, but there were other women who were prettier, thinner, and more interested. I shouldn't have kissed her, it was stupid and impulsive but I had been keyed up from the fight and wasn't thinking. Well I had been thinking, it just wasn't with my head. I had been thinking she was goddamn magnificent. She was smart and fast. Even under-armed she would be my first choice to have at my back in a fight any day. She doubted herself, but she was more powerful than she knew. I wanted her for what she could do for the community, but she was no soldier. She had shown that when she refused to stay back with the others. She was a warrior and I wanted her for myself. 

"Boss?" Simon's voice cut into my thoughts and I glared at him. He and Dwight were looking at me expectantly and I realized then they must have said something to me. Shit. She was as distracting now that the fight was over as she had been during it. 

"What?" I growled. There was shit to get done down here, but what I really needed was some time upstairs. Might help get my mind off my smoking hot and extremely deadly friend. 

"Do you want us to do an inventory of the booths? Or do you trust the workers to do one?" Simon asked. 

I glared at Simon for asking such a stupid question. "What the shit do you think?" I snapped. Simon of all people knew better. 

Simon nodded and turned back to the line up of soldiers and ordered them to start the inventory. I reached out and snagged Simon's arm. "Whatever Regina pulls for Jo is her's free and clear," I told him. 

Simon's eyes flickered with surprise for a second but he quickly got his expression back under control. He nodded briskly. 

"Make sure Regina knows it to. I don't want any bullshit like what happened yesterday," I glared at him, so he would know I held him personally responsible for that mistake. "My Hot and Deadly Friend over there is as goddamn useless as all these shits were..." I snapped swinging Lucille around to encompass all of my soldiers. "...when she isn't armed. So make sure she has as many knives on that smoking hot bod as Regina can handle," I leaned in close to Simon, my smile firmly in place. "You got that?" I demanded through my teeth. 

Simon jerked his chin up and down a few times and I could practically smell the fear rolling off of him. It made my smile stretch wider. "Good," I growled and I turned back to the body laying in the middle of the floor. Jo's knives were still in it, but I had completely destroyed the skull with Lucille. There was no chance of him coming back. I picked up the gun that had fallen from his hand and looked it over. Simon was right behind me. I handed it back to him. 

"Not one of ours," I said. "So where did this piece of shit get a gun?"

Simon cocked his head to the side. "We can check the log, but he's one of the few workers who volunteers to go out on runs. My guess is he picked it up out there." 

"And no one saw this?" I asked tightly. I worked to keep my anger hidden behind a smile but I wasn't sure how successful I was. There were too many things going wrong since we had come back from our little family roadtrip to Georgia. I had to get control. 

Simon shrugged. "We don't search everyone when they come back in, as long as the inventory in the armory matches up at check in, people are free to go." 

I pressed my lips into a tight line. We already kept a pretty tight leash on the workers. We had to be careful how far we pushed them. They were here under our protection, they weren't our prisoners but they weren't allowed weapons. That was rule number one. 

I glanced over at where Regina was tightening some straps on a shoulder holster for Jo. Even from here I could tell Jo was uncomfortable with the other woman touching her. Her body was tight and tense in a way she hadn't been earlier and didn't seem to be around me. It was going to my head and I needed to think about something else. Jo had made it pretty obvious she wasn't willing to kneel which meant she was a worker. Which meant I had just strapped an arsenal onto someone that, according to my rules, shouldn't have weapons. 

I was making a lot of exceptions to the rules when it came to her. And there were no exceptions to my rules. There couldn't be. I scrubbed a hand over my face, this was the third incident in as many days. I needed to get my head on straight and stop letting a nice ass distract me. 

<><><><><>

Jo

"You'll need clothes too," Regina said and she led the way deeper into the market. 

I followed behind her still feeling a little overwhelmed by everything that was happening and had happened. It helped that the market was mostly empty now. Negan's men were starting to work at cleaning it all up, but they were on the opposite side of the large factory floor. Mainly it was just Regina and I and Regina wasn't here to make friends. 

She was a tough woman, clearly a soldier and she was the first female soldier I had met. She was bigger than me, both taller and more muscled. The way she kept looking down her nose at me, also made me feel as though she didn't think too much of me. I was betting she hadn't seen me fight. She was dressed in a lot of leather and had a gun strapped low on her hip. She carried herself like someone who knew how to fight. But I was still confident I could take her if I had to. It made this whole endeavor more comfortable. 

Regina had completely outfitted me. I had knives strapped all over my body, some concealed and some out in the open. The weight was different and I would have to train with the knives so I would be used to the change in my natural balance, but I had real throwing knives now. A set of six strapped around my right thigh. I had three knives under each arm. One strapped to the outside of my left boot and another concealed withing the right. Regina had also given me the utility belt that Negan had picked out and I had a knife strapped horizontally across my low back. There was room for a few more strapped normally at my waist if I decided it was necessary. I can't say I thought carrying more than fifteen knives was ever going to be necessary. At that point the handicap of the weight was going to outweigh the benefits of being armed.  

Across the room I could hear Negan's voice and it was distracting. I hadn't expected him to kiss me. I had enjoyed it, I would be lying if I said I hadn't, but that type of thing had been so far from my mind for so long I hadn't even considered it a possibility. It had been a good kiss, honestly an amazing kiss, but he was Negan. He was the boss here and I still felt like there were a lot of things about this place and him I didn't understand. 

Regina stopped next to a table covered in folded pants. I stood obediently behind her. "What are you, four or six?" she asked her eyes scrutinizing.  

"Um...four probably," I responded. I had lost a lot of weight since the beginning.  

She nodded and started pulling pants out of the stack. I opened my mouth to argue when I saw half of them were leather. She saw my face and scowled at me. "If you are going to fight rotters with knives you are going to be thanking me for the extra protection," she snapped flinging the pants at me. 

I just nodded, catching them in my arms. I didn't bother explaining to her that I had learned to fight biters with knives wearing nothing but short-shorts and a sports bra. It made me careful, made me what I was today. 

"So," she said after a few more minutes of her digging through the clothes. "Are you one of his?" 

I frowned, not following the question. "One of his what?" I asked. I could only guess the caustic woman was referring to Negan kissing me. I really wished that hadn't happened in front of all of his soldiers. If I was actually going to do this and teach them, I needed them to respect me. Getting kissed by the boss, even if it was just in the heat of the moment, was not a way to make that happen. 

"Wives," she said, throwing a pile of black and grey shirts at me. 

I went cold. "Wives?" I clarified, scowling. She had to have misspoken. It wasn't as though proper and correct English was a major priority here. "Like plural?" 

She looked up at my face and her eyes quickly flickered over my shoulder where I knew Negan was stilling speaking with Simon and Dwight. For a moment she looked as though she wasn't sure if she should be talking about this at all, but then she nodded slowly. "Yeah, some of the women here, the ones he offers to anyway, agree to be one of his wives." 

I felt bile rise in my throat and I resisted the urge to scrub at my mouth with the back of my hand. "So there's a group of women here that in exchange for sleeping with him, get special treatment?" I clarified. 

Regina shrugged. "What I gather," she replied and she threw a leather jacket at me. "I ain't ever seen them down here among us peasants unless it's a major event." 

I caught the jacket precariously with all the other things in my hands. 

"Can't say I was ever asked, so I don't know. I'm not really his type," her voice was snotty and I couldn't decide if it was a case of sour grapes, or if she just thought that little of the women who agreed. I was inclined to think the latter, but maybe that was just me. 

I frowned, shaking my head, unable to rectify what I had seen of Negan with this information. He had always seemed so protective of the people in his care, incensed over The Governor's treatment of me. But this...this made him no better than Phillip. 

"What's his type?" I asked, more to keep the conversation rolling than because I actually wanted to know. I needed information and until I could speak with Merle Regina was my best source. 

She shrugged again. "Skinny, beautiful," she met my gaze her eyes hard and challenging. "Weak," she growled. 

I glared back at her, refusing to let this woman intimidate me. "Well I guess that rules me out." I told her matter-a-fact and it did. This place might be different than Woodbury, but there was no place for the weak in this world. 

Regina scoffed. "He kissed you," she said as though that were all the damning evidence she needed. 

I scowled. "It's not like I asked for that." 

"Which makes it even more weird," Regina told me. "No females here get touched without their express permission. Negan's rules." And she shoved a backpack at me. She was glaring at me as though I had done something to offend her. I knew right off the bat if I started training her I was going to have to prove myself some way. I wasn't sure what Negan had been thinking, but whatever it was he had entirely undermined any chance of my earning his men's respect despite what I had done. 

I shoved my new stuff into the bag and slung the backpack over my shoulder. "Hey," I called after her. 

Regina stopped and turned to look at me, her eyes hard and unfriendly. "Thank you for your help," I told her sincerely. 

She looked me up and down as though she couldn't quite figure me out. "Whatever," she mumbled. 

I scoffed. "Can you give me directions to the gym?" I asked fighting to keep myself from reacting to her attitude.  

"The gym?" she asked in surprise. 

"Yeah, I have all this new gear, I need to train with it," I explained in a tone that suggested she was stupid. Okay maybe I wasn't as successful at not reacting to her as I had hoped. I was more than happy to be nice but I wasn't going to let someone think they could run over the top of me. I wasn't weak and I wouldn't let anyone think that about me ever again. 

There was a snarl to her left and a newly turned biter staggered out from behind a pile of boxes nearly on top of her. 

"Regina!" I called in warning. She froze for half a second before her hand dropped to her gun. She wasn't going to be fast enough. 

I didn't hesitate. I drew one of my brand new throwing knives and snapped it off. This time the blade flew true and landed in the biter's skull. It dropped like a puppet with it's strings cut, collapsing half on top of Regina. 

I jogged over to her and kicked the biter back off of her. Simon and Negan appeared over my shoulder a moment later. 

"Now that's what I'm talking about," Negan said with a wink. 

I didn't respond to his flirting, instead I planted my boot on the biter's chest and bent down to rip my knife out of it's skull. I wiped the blade clean on the biter's clothes and then offered Regina a hand up. 

"Thanks," she said briskly, though she looked a little sheepish. Maybe I wouldn't have to make quite the example I had thought when it came time for training.  

I just nodded.  

"Figure out who this poor bastard was," Negan was saying to Simon. I turned away towards Regina. She stood looked a little shaken, but she was slowly recovering her bravado. 

"The gym?" I asked her again. 

Regina jerked her chin towards the hallway I had come through. "Two lefts, third right and the door is on the left." 

I nodded a thanks to her and slipped out of the room before I had to offer any explanation. I headed back to my room to drop off my bag of supplies. No matter what Negan said I wasn't going to take these things from him without paying him back somehow. Especially not after hearing about his wives. If he thought I would be like those other women he had another thing coming. 

We had chemistry, there was no denying that. Nor was there any use denying the fact that he was attractive, not just physically, but he put something off that made me want to get closer. He was smart and strong and protective of his people. All things that were attractive traits. But he also insisted they kneel before him, and that implied a serious egomaniac. He was powerful enough to hold this place together, and he didn't get that way by being nice. It was fear that held this place together, not friendship. I had already made enough mistakes, the greatest of which had been Phillip. I wasn't willing to risk that again with another man. And I certainly wasn't willing to look past his wives, plural.

I dropped my bag off in my room and hesitated when I spotted a note. It wasn't Kate's handwriting but a messy, masculine scrawl. 

Your sister is driving me nuts come see us. 

There were directions underneath to their apartment on the other side of the factory. I tightened my fist. I needed to go see them, but I also needed to get in that gym. Negan was right, I was useless to him unarmed. While I now had a whole pile of knives, not being familiar with them made me just as vulnerable as I would be if I didn't have them. I promised myself I would go see Merle and Kate after I trained for a little while. 

I found my way back to the gym. I ended up backtracking I was sure, since I only knew how to get there through the market, but it was better than wandering around looking for someone I could ask for directions. I didn't want to risk looking like a lost lamb, not when it felt like I was surrounded by wolves. 

When I pushed the door open I hesitated for a moment. There was half a dozen men working out. I had hoped the place would be empty. They looked up when I entered and I knew I couldn't go back. I wasn't willing to show a moment of fear. I moved over to the side of the gym with mats and started stretching out. Most of the men were using the weight machines and by the time I ran through my second set I had all but forgotten about them. 

The knives weighed me down and having the weight unbalanced with more on my right side than my left, I was going to have to figure out how to adjust my fighting style. I ran through set after set after set. I was still wearing my clothes from earlier, but it made no sense to me to change out of the normal t-shirt and skinny jeans I would be fighting in. I went again and again until I started to feel the sweat on the back of my neck run down my back uncomfortably. I needed to finish up before I lost focus completely. 

I kicked out, my boot catching the body bag perfectly sending it swinging back away from me. I spun, slashing with my knives at imaginary targets. Then I threw myself into a forward roll across the mats and came up in a crouch, flipping off both knives towards the target across the room. They landed with a satisfied thud and I realized then that the only sound in the room was my own unsteady breathing and the pounding of my heart in my ears.

I frowned, that wasn't right. There should be more noise. There were people here. Other people had been in the gym working out.

Slow clapping sounded somewhere behind me and I popped up onto my feet. I turned as I did so I was facing the door. Negan was leaning against the door frame, his arms crossed over his chest and his eyes shinning appreciatively as he slow clapped. He looked like he had been there a while. I ran a self-conscious hand over my sweaty hair. 

"Wow," he said smirking at me. He slinked into the room, and I resisted the urge to take a step back away from him. I didn't want him getting too close, not after what happened earlier. "That was impressive," he said flashing me a pleased smile that suddenly reminded me of a shark. 

I drew in a deep, slow breath, forcing myself to calm. It was odd how off I suddenly felt around Negan. Just this morning I had been more comfortable around him than anyone, but now all I could think of was putting some space between us. I drew in another deep breath, I was not as trapped as the screaming in the back of my mind would have me believe.

Stop, reset.

I couldn't let anyone here see any weakness. Especially not Negan. 

Stop, reset.

"I mean just look," he said motioning around him. "These assholes were all so distracted they forgot to kneel," he growled out the words and as if by magic the men I had forgotten about were in motion, dropping to their knees and bowing their heads.

I looked around at them frowning. I knew there had been other people in the room. They had just been so quiet they had escaped my notice while I trained. I didn't like that, it was dangerous for me to allow myself to become so focused I lost awareness of my surroundings. There were six men in the gym at various weights and machines. Six strange men, all of whom were Negan's soldiers, which meant they were here because they were dangerous in some capacity. Hell three had been within fifteen feet of the mats I was working on. Now they were all kneeling, their heads and shoulders hunched in submission. 

I swallowed and took another step away from everyone, ensuring I had as much open room around me as possible. When I glanced back at Negan he wasn't watching them, he was watching me.

"Get out," he called loudly.

Without hesitation every single one of them walked briskly towards the door, still keeping their heads down. I frowned, uncertain what to do. I didn't kneel, I wouldn't, but I also didn't want to cause trouble. I fell in at the end of the line, following the others out of the gym.

It was foolish of me to think it would be that easy. Negan had come here for a reason, and it clearly didn't have anything to do with the men filing out of the door in front of me. 

Just as I would have crossed the threshold Negan snapped his arm out in front of me, blocking my way. I jerked back, pulling myself up before I would have crashed into him. He cocked his head to the side as he gazed down at me from inches away. I wanted to back up, to get away from the muddled feelings I had coursing through me. 

Negan turned his head to call over his shoulder. "Who are you?" he called to the retreating men.

"Negan," they all intoned and then they hurried away down the hall. To me it seemed as though they were relieved to have escaped, but maybe I was just projecting.

Negan turned back to me, leaning towards me. "And who are you?" he asked in a low gravely voice, his lips only inches from my skin.

I leaned back away from him, but not out of fear or revulsion. I was feeling a lot of things but in that exact moment neither of those made the list. Which made rectifying what I knew with what I felt around him all the more confusing. 

When I met his gaze he smirked at me, but his dark eyes were incredibly serious.

"I'm Jo," I told him, holding his gaze. I wanted him to see my eyes when I responded so he would understand my answer and my resolve behind it. 

"Yes, you are," he drawled. 

"What are you doing here?" I asked and I nearly bit my tongue when I realized how accusatory it sounded. I didn't want to get run over here and appear weak, but I also didn't want to make waves. My tone had been very close to combative. I was more upset than I realized over finding out about Negan's wives. I ran a hand through my hair and tried to force myself to calm. 

Negan cocked his head to the side and lifted his eyebrows in surprise but his eyes hardened. "I thought we were friends. Are we not friends?" he asked and for some reason his voice had taken on a dangerous edge. "I mean I just got you all this cool shit," he said gesturing up and down my body and it felt like it was his hands and not his eyes running over me. 

I swallowed and forced myself to focus on what we were talking about. I wasn't some teenager with a crush. And he was a lot more dangerous than the average guy. "That's not what I meant," I said and I clenched my jaw against the urge I had to drop my eyes. He suddenly seemed so much larger than he had earlier today. He was doing it on purpose, I realized, trying to make himself seem more intimidating. That pissed me off. 

He nodded once and the tension slowly leached out of his body. "You find everything you needed?" he asked and he traced his fingers along the edge of the shoulder harness. 

I clenched my teeth, fighting against the shiver that ran down my spine. I nodded briskly and stepped back out of his reach. "Thank you," I responded tightly. "I appreciate you having Regina help me, but please, I would like to pay back the points for all of this." 

Negan's smile stilled on his face and his eyes became calculating. "You can't afford it," he drawled. 

"I'm willing to work for it," I said. "I'm not looking for a free ride," I said firmly. 

The smile slowly fell away and he watched me with cool eyes. "Now what would make you say that?" he speculated running a hand over his mouth. "Is this because I kissed you?" I pulled back and he nodded as though that was all the confirmation he needed. "Look Hot Friend, we fought together, things got heated, there's no reason to get your panties in a bunch over this." 

I felt my temper rise and something must have shown in my eyes because his widened for a second and he was the one who took a step back away from me. I felt my confidence surge. I would not be pushed around, not by Regina and certainly not by this asshole. I didn't care if he was the boss. My hands clenched into fists at my sides. 

"That little kiss," I said stepping towards him aggressively. "Completely undermined me in front of the men you expect me to train. Who now think I'm little better than one of your harem." 

Negan tensed at my words and he rocked back on his heels. "Well, seems some little birdy has been cheeping in your ear," he observed in a dangerous voice. 

He took a step closer to me and I lifted my chin defiantly. "I will work with your men," I told Negan firmly. I drew in a breath and just having the knives on me made me feel more confident. I leaned towards him and when my lips were just inches from his I met his gaze letting all my anger and resolve shine out my eyes. "But that will never happen again." 

I pushed past him, stalking out of the door without bothering to wait for his response. "Yes, ma'am," I could hear the smile in his voice but I didn't look back. 

<><><><><>

I hope you enjoyed the update! Yay snow! hahaha