This is just a little idea that popped into my head in the form of a dream that I felt the need to explore. Hope you enjoy.

It had been just over a year since the passing of Negan's beloved wife Lucille. The cancer had struck out of the blue, and before he knew it, she was gone. He had finally sold the house they had bought together, as much as it pained him to see it go, it also held too many memories that only made his heart ache, so it was time to let go. He had just moved into an apartment on the top floor a small three story complex. It was a very working class kind of place, nice enough that there wasn't anyone too undesirable lurking around, but not too flash that he would be surrounded by complete snobs that he couldn't stand.

He had however developed a quick distaste for his neighbours right next door. Well to be fair, it was just the guy, not the woman. Not that he had ever properly met either of them, only seen them in passing. But since moving in a week ago he had heard the man yelling at her every single night. It seemed as though every chance he got he was tearing into her for what sounded like the most ridiculous reasons. It took everything Negan had not to storm in there and kick the guy's ass for being so disrespectful to a woman. That was one thing he could not take. The woman was often quiet, it never sounded like she fought back, she probably knew it wouldn't do her any good.

Tonight, of course, was no different than any other. It seemed as though as soon as the man walked in the door he started on her. As Negan sat at his kitchen counter eating his dinner he heard the man start his usual yelling.

"Where the fuck is my dinner?"

'Jesus Christ' Negan thought to himself. 'What a fucking cock!'.

He couldn't hear the woman's reply, but clearly the man wasn't all too happy about it. "Well you better hurry the fuck up coz I've had a shit day, and I'm fucking starving!" he bellowed.

Negan was thankful that for the moment the man seemed to be satisfied because the yelling had stopped. At least now he could enjoy his dinner in relative peace. That was until it sounded as though shit had hit the fan again. It's not like he was trying to pry into his neighbours business, but it was so hard not to hear what was going on through those walls.

"About fucking time!" the man yelled. "Oh for fucks sakes woman… can you not do a single fucking thing right!" he yelled. "Now you've got sauce all over my shirt!"

"Oh crap… here we go again" Negan groaned as he took a swig of his cold beer.

"Well thank fuck for that!" the man yelled. "You better fucking sort that shit out, I don't want to see any stains when you're done Bitch!" he growled angrily and soon after he heard the door open and close, followed by light footsteps heading down the stairs. No doubt by the sounds of things she was heading down to the laundry room in the basement.

He didn't know what possessed him to do it, but he found himself bundling his small amount of dirty washing into a hamper and heading down the stairs after her. As he entered the laundry room he could see the woman visibly tense at the presence of someone else, probably thinking it was her douchebag boyfriend coming to have another go at her. When she looked around and caught his eye he could see the tension leave her body as she relaxed a little.

"Hi" he said as he gave her one of his signature charming smiles.

"Hey" she whispered softly as she finished spraying something on a large shirt before tossing it in the machine, throwing some powder in and turning it on.

"I'm Negan" he offered. "From 3C" he added.

"Jessie" she said with a small smile. "3D".

"Nice to meet you" he said as he held out a hand to her, which after a little bit of consideration she took and gave a small shake. "I just moved in last week" he informed her.

"Nice to meet you" she replied as she sat up on the table and watched him loading up one of the machines.

After a while of silence she spoke up once more. "I'm guessing you heard…?" she asked as she gestured to what was going on upstairs.

"Yeah… kinda hard not to" Negan told her.

"Sorry about that" she grimaced.

"Not your fault Darlin'… don't worry about it" he smiled. "You shouldn't let him treat you like that though" he told her.

"I-" she began before she was cut off by the sound of the douchebag yelling from the stairwell, making her jump and tense up immediately.

"Jessie… what the fuck is taking so long!?"

"I'm sorry, I gotta go" she said as she began to hurry from the room. "Nice meeting you" she added before she took off up the stairs.

That man clearly had her so beat down that she was afraid to stand up to him. It was a shame, because he thought she seemed like a nice girl. Some part of him just wanted to help her, he wasn't the kind of man who could just stand by while a woman was treated like shit. Who knows how long that fucker had been treating her that way. He knew his best chance of helping her was to gain her trust and build a friendship, so that was exactly what he planned to do. Even if it meant stealing moments whenever she was doing laundry. Sure it would probably make him come across as a bit of a stalker, but he didn't care.

It wasn't until about three days later, after yet another evenings worth of yelling he heard her head down to laundry room again, and just like last time he gather up his dirty clothes and followed her.

"We meet again" he smiled as he entered the room to see her perched on the table in what seemed to be her usual spot.

"You stalking me now?" she laughed a little.

"Just wanted to make sure you were ok… and get my clothes cleaned. You know, a two birds with one stone kind of situation" he grinned.

"I'm ok" she sighed.

"You sure about that?" he asked, having heard the way he was yelling at her and putting her down all the time.

"Not really" she said as she fiddled nervously with the ties on her hooded sweatshirt.

"Why do you stay?" he asked out of curiosity. Hoping he wasn't pushing too much.

"I don't have anywhere to go" she told him sadly.

"No family?"

"No… only child. Both of my parents are gone. He's driven away the few friends I had. He even got me fired from my job. He's isolated me completely. I have no income and nowhere to go. He barely lets me leave the apartment, and there's hell to pay if I do without permission" she told him, not intending to blurt it all out like that.

"Sounds like a right fucking asshole" Negan told her seriously.

"Yeah" she agreed sadly. She looked so trapped and defeated, like she was just begging for a way out. He had seen and heard enough of these kinds of situations to know the woman usually only had a couple of ways out, either she leaves, or she ends up getting killed by her abuser.

"You know where I am if you ever need anything" Negan smiled politely.

"Thank you" she whispered in reply.

"Jessie!" came the man's booming voice from the landing and he could see her sigh.

"See you" he said with a small smile.

"See you round" she said softly as she left the room.

A couple more weeks went by before he managed to catch up with her again down in the laundry room. "I was beginning to think you had stopped stalking me" she teased.

"Never" Negan laughed. Each time they met she seemed more at ease with him, and he loved to see her smile. It lit up her whole face. She was really quite beautiful. Had the situation been any different he would have actually considered asking her out. But for now he would settle for casual chit chat and a little harmless flirting, because it seemed to make her smile and he felt like she needed more of that in her life.

"How are things?" he asked as he hopped up on the table sitting next to her.

"The usual… but I'm sure you've heard" she told him.

"Yeah… I've heard. You deserve better you know" he said as he looked at her seriously, his hazel eyes piercing right through her.

"You sure about that?" she asked.

"No woman deserves what he puts you through".

"Maybe" she replied with that all too familiar defeated look in her eye.

"I mean it" Negan assured her. "You are worth so much more. Trust me… I lost my wife a year ago, I know exactly what a good woman is worth" he said sadly.

"I'm sorry… about your wife".

"It's ok, at least she isn't suffering anymore".

"How did she die?" Jessie asked.

"Cancer" he replied simply.

"I'm sorry" she whispered. "I better go… before he starts yelling the whole building down again" Jessie sighed. "Thanks for the talk" she smiled softly as she brushed his hand lightly with her fingertips before she tossed her freshly washed clothes into the dryer and headed back up the stairs.

Negan would be lying to himself if he tried to deny that fact that a simple touch from her felt like electricity to his skin. He never meant to develop feelings for this woman, he just wanted to help her. But the more he spent time with her, the more he got to know her, the more he started to feel something for her other than the pity that originally drove him to make contact.

It was another few days before Negan had seen her again and he found himself looking forward to these stolen moments they shared together while she hid away in the laundry room.

"Hey you" he smiled as he entered.

"Hey yourself" she smiled. "What's new?"

"Nothing much, just the usual… work and not a lot of anything else" he said. "You?"

"I've been thinking a bit about what you said" she confessed.

"About leaving?" he asked.

"Yeah. I mean… I know I have nothing else waiting for me, but nothing has to be better than this right?"

"Absolutely" Negan agreed. "But you don't have nothing" Negan told her. "You have me" he smiled. "We're friends right?"

"Yeah" she smiled in return. "We're friends".

"Good. Coz you know… friends look out for each other. So if you need anything, I mean anything. You let me know. I'm happy to help".

"Thank you. I might just take you up on that. I just have to get my timing right" she told him.

"I'll be around when you do" he smiled.

"I'll see you" she smiled as she gathered up her now dry clothes and headed back up the stairs before she copped another round of unwarranted yelling thrown her way.

"See ya" Negan smiled.

Please leave me a review and let me know your thoughts. Thanks for reading!