Night had long since come and gone, and if Rae had to guess the hour she'd say it must have been midday by now, maybe even later but then she'd never been a great timekeeper and the window was nothing more than a slit on the far wall. If she tried to look through it, which she had, she could see the leaves of a bush and beyond that a road with the occasional set of legs walking past on patrol.
Last time she'd been in Alexandria they'd said she wasn't their prisoner and this time she more definitely was. Her empty stomach grumbled, betraying her indignation at the situation and a sign of exactly how powerless she was right now. Trapped and held at the mercy of people she barely knew. She couldn't even get herself a cup of water let alone anything else.
With an agitated sigh she rolled over on the threadbare mattress Rick had given her to sleep on and ignored the hunger pangs, instead focusing her mind's eye on Tim's face. He'd looked so righteous right before he'd hit her and in hindsight she should have never stopped the car to check if he was okay, but most of all she should never have left Negan behind. She'd chosen to save Tim's life and he'd rewarded her help with yet another betrayal.
Foolish didn't even begin to describe the way she felt as she stared at the breeze block walls. She'd spent the entire night with her stomach in regretful knots, playing out every instance of the last few weeks and wondering what she might have done differently. She couldn't deny that she was glad to have met Negan but nor could she deny that he hadn't caused the trouble she found herself in right now yet she still cared about him. At least enough to want no part in what was to come next.
The point where Tim had struck the side of her head was tender and for the hundredth time Rae pressed her finger against it, hissing at the inevitable pain and imagining the mottled bruise. She didn't have a mirror to see the extent of the damage but the way Rick had looked at her when Tim brought her to Alexandria was enough to know it looked bad.
Rae bided her time imagining how Negan would have dealt with Tim and she knew him well enough to know exactly what he would have done. In fact, she'd heard him do it before. The thump of his baseball bat cracking across a skull and the cries of a dying man were not the kind of thing she could forget even if she had been glad of Jacob's grizzly fate. She imagined Negan doing the same to Tim and it didn't disturb her which in itself was disturbing.
Footfalls began to echo down the empty stairwell for the first time since she'd been brought here and despite her surprise Rae didn't move. She remained stretched out across her mattress, her eyes staring straight ahead with a vacant expression.
"Here," Daryl's gruff southern twang mumbled and after a moment's pause she rolled her head to see him standing on the other side of the bars, an apple in one hand and a bottle of water in the other.
"I don't want it," she snapped.
"Ya gotta eat."
Now Rae's hunger pangs didn't seem as fierce. All she could think about was being trapped in this cell. "I don't have to do anything!"
Daryl sighed heavily, his gaze holding contest with hers until she couldn't fight the urge to blink and gave in pitifully. Suddenly she wanted to cry but she didn't, she gathered her knees against her chest, wrapping her arms around them and holding as tightly as she could. She expected Daryl to walk away but he couldn't seem to take his eyes off the bruise on her face, making her feel even more pathetic.
He shifted back on his heels, sucking his bottom lip and finally making a decision to join her. The door clunked open, the sound reverberating off the bare walls and she found herself holding her breath although she wasn't sure what she was trying to anticipate.
Daryl walked slowly towards her, taking only three steps to cross the cell and when he stood before her he held the apple to her face, the faint smell enough to make her mouth water at the prospect of that first crisp bite. The shiny red skin reminded her of the day she'd spent picking apples with Negan and thoughts of eating it quickly soured.
She turned her face away from it, swallowing down the hunger and Daryl didn't press her any further. He placed it on the floor with the bottle of water before digging into his pocket for something more enticing, a cigarette.
Without a single word he offered her one and without complaint she took it, her resolve less enthusiastic when it came to the chance of a smoke. Daryl didn't even try to hide his soft wonky smile, his battle part won and she could have kicked herself for it.
He lit her cigarette before his own and took a seat besides her, grunting as he fell onto the mattress with a creak of springs, leaving the door of the cell wide open before them. Rae wasn't stupid enough to try and run from Daryl even if the allure of freedom was tangibly close.
"What are you gonna do with me?" she asked.
Daryl's gaze flicked to hers but he didn't say anything. He didn't need to, she'd had all night to think about what was going to happen next.
"You're gonna use me to bait Negan?"
Again Daryl didn't need to answer, the way his face fell answered her question entirely.
An overwhelming bubble of frustration pinged across her body like the slap of an elastic band and she stood from the mattress quickly, part of her feeling like she might be sick and the other part just wanting to run from the cell knowing it would lead to a fight with Daryl. She might not win but at least it would feel good to hit something.
She did neither impulse. Instead, she threw her cigarette to the ground, the tiny embers struggling against the concrete. There was nothing but agitation in her voice when she whipped around to face Daryl, "this plan, whatever it is, it won't work! You heard what Mark said, I'm nothing to Negan, I'm not even a wife and he has five of those!"
"I'm sorry," he muttered and she believed him. Rae didn't dislike Daryl, it wasn't Daryl who had shoved her into the trunk of a car and it wasn't Daryl who had thrown her into this cell but it was Daryl who was here right now.
"So let me go," she said, desperate but hopeful.
Daryl scoffed, his eyes meeting hers, "Negan wouldn't let ya go if ya were his prisoner."
"You're not Negan."
"That's right!" Daryl yelled, standing up, his face close enough to hers for her to smell the staleness of his breath. "I ain't Negan. I ain't gonna bash yer head in or let your people starve to death so they can collect shit for me."
Rae swallowed the lump that swelled in her throat, "so, what will you do?"
Any fight Daryl might have been feeling quickly diminished, his shoulders slumping, "ain't up to me."
"Of course it is!" Rae said, reaching towards him and grasping hold of his forearm. Daryl's muscle twitched under her fingers as he tried to pull away but she held him tighter. "What happens right now is up to you. You can leave me here to die or you get let me out, all you have to do is leave the cell door open and I'll go."
"Ya won't get away," he insisted, "there's an army outside and they'll either catch ya or shoot ya and then what?"
"And what do think's gonna happen if I stay here? Negan's probably not coming for me. The last time I saw him I tasered him and strung him up in barn for god's sake. If Rick threatens to kill me and Negan doesn't give into his demands is he really gonna just let me go? Rick doesn't seem like the kind of man who won't keep to his word."
Daryl considered it, his face giving nothing away but his voice back to a gentle mumble, "we ain't gonna hurt ya."
"You expect me to believe you? All I want is to go home to my family. I'm not interested in fighting with your people or with Negan."
"Ya ain't always got a choice," he said, prying her hands from his arm and stepping outside the cell. "Yer a part of this even if ya don't wanna be."
The door slammed shut with the same heavy clunk it had opened with and Rae clung to the bars, her eyes pleading with the part of Daryl that didn't like this any more than she did, "please don't do this to me."
"It's already done." Daryl turned the key, the lock bolting Rae into place.
/
Negan hadn't even made it back to the Sanctuary to get the rest of his men when Dwight rolled up in the middle of the road. He had a black eye, a bloodied lip and the information Negan had been dreading. Rick Grimes had Rae.
"You're fucking sure he has her?" Negan hissed after dragging Dwight far enough from the trucks so the men could only see the conversation rather than hear it.
Dwight's good eye cast downwards, the bruised one already swollen shut. "They fucking ambushed me to tell me they did," he said, quickly adding, "if you don't meet them where they say then they're gonna kill her."
"Fuck!" Negan smelled a trap, the whole thing fucking reeked of it. The only problem was it was working. All he could think about was getting to Rae and returning her to where she belonged. If he set off right now then he'd have just enough time to make it to the meeting place which meant heading back to the Sanctuary for reinforcements would be impossible.
"We shouldn't go without our full forces," Simon warned as if reading his mind.
Negan glanced at the trucks filled with men, then he pictured Rae. More specifically he thought about her endless legs, her soft red hair tangled around his fingers and how warm and real she'd been when he'd chased her freckles with kisses.
"This'll be enough," he decided, his voice strained and his heart struggling to the bottom of his feet while his stomach swelled with an unfamiliar feeling.
"Are you crazy?" Simon hissed, turning so his back was to the trucks and nobody could see the horror on his face.
"Are you disobeying me?" Negan growled.
"Just think about it. Are you really gonna rush into this fight for a… a woman? A goddamn piece of pussy?"
Negan clenched his teeth, biting back the urge to take his rage out on Simon who was only saying exactly the kind of thing Negan would have told himself a few weeks ago. But that was then and this was now. He'd made a promise to Grandma but more than anything, maybe even selfishly, he'd promised himself. He wanted Rae, he was going to take care of her and she was going to be his and for that to happen she needed to be alive. He wanted to take her home then he wanted to stay there with her.
"You want those fuckers to think they can just take our people? You want them to think we're too scared to fight? Fuck, they might as well walk right up to the Sanctuary and shit all over us if we let them think that!"
"I wanna live," Simon said, his face holding none of the humor it usually did and again Negan's stomach took an uncomfortable turn.
Negan had lost Lucille so he knew exactly what that kind of pain felt like and no matter how much he'd tried to convince himself that Rae could never replace his wife he knew that losing her would be just as bad. The idea of enduring that kind of pain again and knowing he played a part in it was worse than any death he could imagine. Dying was easy, living with himself would be impossible.
"If you wanna walk away right now…" Negan took a deep breath, "I won't stop you."
Simon looked surprised. Hell, Negan felt surprised. But for all the dick swinging he'd done in the past couple of years it had never really caused him anything but trouble. "If you wanna leave I'll make up some bullshit excuse about you heading back home for reinforcements but, I'd rather have you with me." Negan cast a wary eye to Dwight, "you're one of the only fuckers I can trust and to be honest, I'm getting real tired of all this bullshit."
Simon chuckled softly, "that redheads done a real number on you, huh?"
"You have no fucking idea," Negan lamented, twirling Lucille in his hand and trying to keep his face as straight and hard as it could be. "Are you with me or not?" he said, tired of waiting for an answer.
"Jesus," Simon huffed, his hand scraping over his face. "You know me, boss. I'm with you, but, let's at least try to be careful here."
"You know me," Negan said, forcing a grin across his face and making believe that everything was going to be okay as he walked back towards the trucks.
"That's the problem," Simon called after but this time he was wrong. Negan wasn't going to do a single thing to put his girl in danger. He was turning over a new fucking leaf here. Maybe he'd even play nice with Sheriff Rick. Or maybe, more likely, he'd put that fuckers smug face into the ground and try to play nice with the rest of them.
Thank you for reading! As you can see I'm back from hiatus which I explained on my blog and I'm excited to finally finish this story. This is the penultimate chapter of Honey House so next chapter will be the last followed by an epilogue :)
