The whole world seemed to fall away as Blake stood there, a shocked frown fixed between her brows as she stared in disbelief at the person before her…
...a person she had never thought she would see standing here within the walls of the Sanctuary as long as she lived.
They did not respond at first, merely staring back at Blake, eyes glassy and expression unreadable.
Had this been the person who had cut through the fence? Who had broken in here?
But why? After everything...
"Tara…" Blake breathed out, her voice catching slightly in her throat as she spoke. "W-What the hell are you doing here?"
She repeated her question again, desperate for an answer now, as her eyes began to well with tears.
It was funny, Tara looked completely out of place here, standing in Mia's bedroom in a dark grey hooded sweater, jeans and sneakers, a gun clutched between her hands, looking like it was an alien object to her.
Shit.
She wasn't supposed to be here.
What the hell was going on?
Tara's place was back there at Alexandria, a world away from the factory Blake now called her home.
But before the blonde woman could say another word, Tara had suddenly closed the gap between them, and to Blake's utter surprise….
….pulled her into a tight hug.
God...
After all that had happened to her over these last few weeks, Blake couldn't help close her eyes, clutching Tara back and burying her face in the dark-haired woman's hooded sweater.
A sadness overwhelmed her of a life now long gone.
But Blake needed to snap out of this. This was no game. No happy reunion.
This was real life, and she needed to know exactly what her old friend was doing here.
After a few short seconds Blake pulled away and stared up into Tara's face through the gloom of the small bedroom.
But Tara spoke, obviously knowing that Blake wanted answers.
"I heard what happened…" she quickly uttered in a hushed voice. "I-I wanted to come see if you were ok. I was worried out of my mind that you were hurt, or..."
But she trailed off, shaking her head unable to finish her sentence.
Blake frowned for a moment, her mind whirring, wondering how on earth Tara had found out about the miscarriage. But then it finally dawned on her.
Tara wasn't talking about the miscarriage at all. She was talking about the bullet that had almost killed her instead.
She let out a slow breath of air, realising that neither she nor anyone back at Alexandria had known about Blake's pregnancy….about what she had lost in the interim….
….such a silly shred of an event, that had come and gone in a matter of days, but had shaken those, at the heart of the Sanctuary, to their core.
Turned everything in Blake's world on its head. Hurting her more than any bullet ever could.
"I'm fine," lied Blake giving a gulp, that frown still fixed between her brows. "I….jeez, you shouldn't be here, Tara…"
But her friend looked strained, suddenly reaching out and grasping Blake's slender forearm.
"Blake," said Tara almost desperately, looking as though she was about to say something important. But she wavered for a long moment before dropping her hand from Blake's arm and taking a step back.
"I-I missed you…"
But Blake raised her eyebrows in disbelief at her friends's words.
"You're telling me you came all the way here...y-you broke in, allowed this place, my home, to be overrun with walkers...because…...you missed me?" Blake asked with an incredulous frown.
Jesus, Balke wasn't sure how much more of this bullshit she could take.
At her words Tara almost immediately looked sorry, glancing over her shoulder back towards the closed bedroom door.
"T-They got in?" she said in a shaky sort of voice. "That wasn't what was supposed to happen-"
But Blake cut her off.
"Tara, you need to go," she said desperately. "If anyone finds you're here they'll kill you."
"But, I-"
"No, Tara," snapped Blake, taking her turn to grasp at her friend's wrist tightly. "Don't you realise? If Negan catches you here, you know what he's gonna think, don't you...after you've broken in...come up here to find me…."
Tara stared at Blake, a look of realization dawning upon her.
"I-I had nothing to do with shooting you, know that don't you?" said Tara quickly shaking her head, her eyes glittering with tears that were forming in the wells of her eyes.
Blake tilted her head to the side, clutching her arms around herself.
Of course she knew Tara was not responsible for any of that. But Blake knew how much Negan wanted to protect her and if he found out that Tara had gone out of her way to track down Blake like this, there really was no knowing how he would react.
Behind them suddenly, perhaps at the sound of Tara's raised tones, Mia stirred in her bed, drawing both women's attentions there, all of a sudden.
Blake turned to make sure she was ok, as the toddler wriggled beneath her bed clothes.
She was so small and innocent in all this and Balke did not want any more bloodshed here. Not on her turf where Mia played and lived.
This wasn't how this place was supposed to be any more.
This wasn't a war-zone, and Blake was sick of people getting killed in the crossfire.
"She's grown," came Tara's whispered voice suddenly, breaking Blake from her thoughts and causing her to glance up at the woman beside her.
She brought her thumbnail up to her mouth, nibbling on it, remembering of course that Mia had stayed with Tara in her house at Alexandria.
All that felt like a lifetime ago...finding out that Mia was alive and well and living just under their noses with Blake's old people.
"Yeah," the caramel-blonde said in a calm almost conversational voice, unable to help the smile that twitched on her lips as she stared back down towards the tiny sleeping girl once again. The baby girl she loved with all her heart. "She's turned into a total bossy little princess, Negan's definitely got his hands full with the two of us."
Blake's warm smile hovered on her lips for a moment, before she felt Tara look over at her with wide eyes...almost seeming a little confused by Blake's choice of words of adoration towards the leader of the Saviours.
But Blake needed to remember that Tara didn't see him like she did. She didn't know the good and caring sides of him.
The side that Blake had seen when he held her when she had cried after losing their baby….the side that whispered words of love and affection into her ear when she woke from nightmares of David...
Blake needed to realise that the two of them were no longer friends. And things weren't the way they used to be.
Times had changed, and thing had happened and been said, that could not be undone.
The blonde felt her cheeks reddening a little as Tara's gaze remained on her.
"I-I'm so sorry," the dark haired woman suddenly sobbed, causing Blake to quickly look her way, to see that her face was streaked with tears, and her lips trembled as she spoke. "I-I acted like a douchebag...I t-turned my back on you a-and that wasn't ok."
Blake felt tears prick at her own eyes as she pursed her lips together difficulty.
"I was mad...after everything that happened with Denise..." her friend continued, tears sloshing down her cheeks. "I was so mad and angry….and I didn't see that right next door my friend needed me."
She gave an audible sob, scrunching her sleeves in her fists.
"I was so wrapped up in remorse and revenge and shit, that I didn't even see that your fiance was hitting you, like god, how shit of friend was I, Blake?" Tara said in a loud voice, raising her sleeve covered hand and waving it through the air, sobbing hard.
Blake opened her mouth to reply, to try and sate her friend and the way she was feeling right now. To try and tell her that none of that was her fault, but Tara got there before her.
"I saw those bruises on your arms, Blake….but I was so fucking self-obsessed I just took your word for it...that you'd slipped in the shower or bumped yourself against the fence outside. Like what was wrong with me?" she gave a sniff, wiping at her eyes with her sleeve. "And I should have defend you against Rick...and Michonne. I've been a horrible friend, I know that."
Blake fought back tears rubbing her lips together as she shook her head, taking a step towards her dark-haired wholly remorseful friend.
"No, no you haven't," said the blonde, everything else falling away. All that anger, all that loss.
Blake knew that no matter what had happened….with David...with the miscarriage….at the end of the day she's lost a friend at a time where she needed her the most.
Blake longed now to go back to how things were..to be able to pour her heart out to the woman she considered her best friend. To tell her how scared she was….how much she was hurting….to tell her things that she hadn't even had the heart to admit to Negan...
Tara gulped, staring at Blake with sad eyes. "When I heard you'd got shot," she said licking at her lips. "I knew I had to come find you…..I had to tell you that I'm sorry and that you mean so fucking much to me, Blake."
Blake hung her head for a short moment watching at tears fell from her face, landing on her bare feet like raindrops one after the other.
"Tara-" Blake breathed out lifting her hand and cupping her friends cheek, but she floundered, unable to grasp at any coherent words.
She loved Tara, with all her heart, and it hurt now, knowing how far apart they had grown.
The dark-haired woman had risked so much in coming here and knew how brave she was to have done that….here and now…
Tara stared at Blake blinking away stray tears, and was about to open her mouth to speak….
….when suddenly, the door behind Blake burst open, and in came Simon, looking slightly harassed, his mouth fixed into a straight line below his thick moustache.
"B, here you are, Negan wanted me to-"
But he didn't finish, coming to a sudden stop, as his eyes landed on Tara…..
The room fell suddenly silent for a shockingly long moment with no one daring to move.
"Simon-" Blake finally uttered, but it was too late.
Simon had lifted his gun, pointing it directly at Tara's head, at close range, with a gleeful twinkle in his eyes now as he tugged his radio hurriedly from his belt, looking like he had won prize at the fair.
"Don't move," he barked, Blake not knowing exactly which of them he was speaking to now as Tara raised her arms either side of her head, not even bothering to use the gun in her hands now, resigning herself to her fate….but not before throwing one last worried and sorry glance at the blonde woman at her side.
And Blake could only gulp now, as in an instant Simon spoke again, but this time with his thumb on his radio call button.
"Boss, it's me," he hissed out, with a gleeful malice to his raspy voice. "You can tell everyone to stand down…"
Simon's shark-like eyes travelled up and down over Tara slowly.
"...'cause I've found the bitch responsible for all this shit. And just in the nick of time too….'cause it looks like she was about to gun down your girls."
Blake's eyes widened in horror.
Fuck. What the fuck was she going to do now?
Where do Blake's loyalties lie?
And how mad is Negan gonna be?
Thanks to Guest, CLTex, LJH, angelvoice15, BlueBloodsSVUOrder and Guest for reviewing.
I hope you are all still enjoying this fic, I've seen a huge drop in engagement over the last few weeks, not really seeing much in terms of reviews on this site. Maybe it's because I'm posting to tumblr and people are following me there instead. That being said I'm thinking of finishing posting on here, or at least holding off on posting to on this site until I've posted the entire fic to tumblr. What do you guys think? I'm just not getting much feedback on here anymore, and if you're all over reading on tumblr anyway, I thought, why not save myself a job. :)
Anyway, hope you all have a good long weekend! See you on Tuesday maybe...