Blake covered her face with her hands, waiting to feel sharp and broken teeth sink into her skin, hearing the rasps and snarls drawing nearer and nearer.

But as she winced, giving a whimper of fear…. the sound of two silenced gunshots came from close range just over her shoulder.

Blake pulled her hand away from her face, her breath ragged in her throat, watching the two zombified figures dropping to the ground in an untidy heap.

The blonde woman turned her head sharply, staring up and over her shoulder hurriedly…..

...to see Eugene stood there, pistol held tightly between his shaking fingers.

"I thought you could use a hand," he said in a slow and sluggish voice, seeming more than a little heroic now, as he reached out a hand towards Blake for her to take.

She continued to breathe hard for a second or two, staring up at him in shock. Before slowly taking his hand and allowing him to pull her to her feet.

"T-Thanks," Blake managed to mumble out, brushing herself down embarrassedly, before her eyes met with Eugene's.

Of course, the dark-haired man looked as stoic as ever, barely showing any signs of panic or emotion at the chaos of the situation. But as calm and collected as Blake had ever seen anyone, he quickly bumbled past her, shoving the door the two walkers had emerged through, closed once more.

He offered the nearest now limp walker a kick with his toe. "I'm afraid it is far beyond my mean to clear either of those sorry monsters up-" he began, but closing the gap between them, but Blake barely listening, moved over to him hurriedly, her gaze becoming desperate and her heart resuming its fast-paced thudding.

"Eugene, h-have you seen Simon?!" she asked with a fool's hope in her voice.

But the dark haired man merely stared at her for a long moment, his lips pressed tightly together. "In the confusion, I really cannot be sure, I mean, he's was bound to be-"

"He's got Tara," Blake snapped over him, clutching a hold of his black sleeve suddenly. "Eugene, he's got her and he's taken her...I don't know where…"

For a second Blake saw the flicker something in Eugene's eyes, but his face revealed nothing in the gloom of the long empty hallway.

Blake immediately frowned not quite sure Eugene understood the severity of the situation.

"Why would Tara be here?" he finally asked with a low mumble.

"Because…" began Blake sounding, at once, a little severe at the man's nonchalant attitude, but she faltered, blinking a little as she let go of Eugene's arm, taking a step away from him, giving a hard gulp. "...because she came to see me. T-This is all my fault….a-and now.."

But Blake trailed off, dragging her tearful eyes away from Eugene's face.

God she had been so stupid. She should have gotten Tara out of the here the minute she had showed up.

And by the look on his Eugene certainly didn't seem to care. For why should he? Tara hadn't come here see him. In fact, no chance to save Eugene had been attempted, at least since Blake's had been here. So why should this man, abandoned by those he had once called his friends, care about them any more?

But to her surprise, Eugene suddenly spoke, his voice low and hurried.

"I haven't seen Simon," said the mullet-wearing man with a nod. "But if it's any help I know where he might have taken her."

Blake glanced up at him in shock before nodding herself hurriedly.

"Where?"

Eugene led the way, pacing with purpose down the lengthy Sanctuary hallway, as Blake followed him, still just in her tshirt, hair messy from sleep.

It was quiet here, on the far east side of this place, far away from the sounds of screams and gunfire.

Blake's heart was pounding a drumbeat inside her ribs, as she worried at her lips with her teeth, carrying after the dark-haired man.

She was just about to ask where exactly he was taking her when the sound of several raised voices suddenly floated down the corridor towards them.

Bake's ears pricked up and her cheeks seemed to go a deathly pale colour as she heard now just who it was.

Fuck.

Negan.

It was Negan, talking to someone in an oh-so threatening tone of voice.

"You fuckin' think you can come here, put a bullet in my girl, an' I'm just gonna sit back and take it in the ass?"

Fuck. Had Simon managed to find Negan that quickly? No, no, no.

"I said don't move," came a second voice, Blake just about recognised as Simon's, confirming her fears as true almost instantly.

Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit.

This wasn't supposed to happen. Tara should have been far away from here, safe back at Alexandria.

And so shoving past Eugene, the caramel-blonde woman quickly made her way towards the source of the voices….

...rounding the corner, to see Negan stood there, Lucille gripped tightly in his hand.

His hackles were raised and his jaw was tensed tightly, a tick working its way in his cheek.

It was obvious now that he was seething, if not by his stance alone, but by the very way he glared at the person in front of him now.

Blake felt all the air leave her body.

For there was Tara on her knees, looking more than a little dishevelled, with her back to the open door behind her that led to the outside balcony, with Simon at her side, gripping a hold of her hair, keeping her face upright as he pressed the barrel of his gun to the side of her head.

Blake stopped in her tracks, mouth gape, freezing like a rabbit caught in a pair of headlights.

None of them noticed her, all of them focused on the other now, a ball of mixed emotions swirling in the midst of the three of them.

Blake noticed Negan move to grip Lucille in both hands glancing down at his weapon for a brief moment.

"Well no fuckin' more," he growled furiously, his shoulders hunched ominously. "You sorry shits have messed with my people enough, but when you came here, hurt my family...thought you could kill the only real things I give a flyin' fuck about in this world?"

He lifted a gloved hand dragging it down his chin tiredly, asTara stared up at him, making to protest, but Negan spoke again before she could.

.

"Oh I am gonna fuckin' open you up for that…" he said promptly. "Spill those brains of yours over that railin' behind you, so that those dead pricks can fuckin' feast."

And Blake could tell that this was no idle threat now...no mere show of power or arrogance, as he took a step forward towards the dark haired woman, raising the bat in his hands high above his head.

This was real, this was revenge…

But this wasn't right. None of this was Tara's fault!

"Stop!" Blake suddenly yelled out, finally finding the words and shaking herself from her stupor.

And, at once, all three faces turned to her as she stepped out from the shadows, Eugene close at her heels.

She couldn't let this happen.

She knew what Negan was trying to do, she could see how angry he was about what had happened to her, but this wasn't the way….Tara was not the one responsible.

But seeing her friend on her knees like this, having no opportunity to defend herself, angered Blake now.

Was this what the others had gone through at the line up all those many many months ago? Where Negan had stood before them, unrelenting, angry, ready to prove a point….

"Don't you dare hurt her," Blake said clearly, her eyes suddenly flashing darkly towards Negan and a now-gaping Simon.

And it was then, as though, for a moment, Negan didn't quite recognise her, his black eyes searching her face as his shoulders rose and fell with every hard breath he took.

"What…" he began ,blinking a little, as she walked towards them. "W-What are you talkin' about, Peaches? You know who the fuck this is? What the hell she came here to try an' do?!"

Negan's voice was raised now and he stared at Blake in confusion as she came to stand in between him and Tara, inching close to him, almost nose-to-nose, her face fixed and deadly serious.

"That wasn't her, Tara wasn't the one-" she began, but Negan offered her a furious look in return, cutting over her before she could finish.

"What, she tell you that, huh? 'Cause these sons of bitches are willing to lie through their goddamn teeth to weedle their way outta' shit like this."

He obviously didn't accept what ties Blake had to this woman. Not now.

Blake, at once, opened her mouth to argue, but Negan looked angry, staring down at her, hand free hand moving to her waist, and making to move her aside.

"I ain't fuckin' arguin' with you, Darlin', not now," he said his voice steely and thick with determination. "This one thought it was ok to break in here in the middle of the night, what?….To fuckin' say hello? Well, I aint lettin' bullshit like this fly no more. No more fuckin' second chances."

But as he tried to move Blake away, out of the line of fire, she shoved his hand away from her waist roughly, gripping onto his forearm and holding it tightly, stopping him in his tracks.

"Negan, please, stop. This is Tara," she said gesturing to the woman still kneeling silently over Blake's shoulder. "We were friends before this, she's' not...s-she wouldn't…"

For some reason, the urgency of the moment had caused Blake to lose all coherency. She was trying to tell him he had the wrong person.

That this wasn't the way they needed to do things anymore.

Maybe things this past week or so had changed her? And as angry as she had been with the people back at Alexandria prior to everything that had happened, other far more pressing things had turned her entire life on its head. She had lost things that had killed her inside and had broken her heart to lose.

And maybe she didn't have the strength for any of this any more...

But Negan glared at Blake now.

"An' you dont think your fuckin' so called friends would turn their back on you, Peaches?" he asked in an incredulous voice, leaning back on his legs as she spoke, as though marvelling at her stupidity. "Hell, you an' I both know that those assholes back in Alexandria have been anythin' but fuckin' loyal to you! Where the fuck were they when your damn boyfriend was knockin' seven bells outta you every damn night, huh? An' how many times did they come lookin' for you when you were here? Fuckin' zero. You really think they give one fuckin shit about you, Sweetheart? Because newsflash, they never fuckin' have. An' any bullshit this gal has given you, don't fuckin listen to her. Because by the looks of it, this ain't the first time she's been here, sneakin' around, pulling guns on people."

Blake gulped at the truth of Negan's words, a harsh lump appearing in her throat.

But knew that he was making this into something it was not.

"It wasn't like that Blake, you know it," came a sudden voice from just over Blake's shoulder. "I would never….I wouldn't have put you in danger-"

But Negan cut her off with a roar of rage, swinging Lucille through the air hard.

"Put her in fuckin' danger?!" yelled Negan this time moving around the obstacle of Blake in his path, hissing the words out between furiously gritted teeth. "It wasn' just her you put in danger though was it?"

Negan loomed over Tara now, raging, his face red and his mouth pulled down into a frightening grimace.

"OUR DAMN BABY DIED BECAUSE OF YOU!"

He gave a roar of anger, swinging Lucille into the wall beside them, where it let out a loud crack that filled the entire hallway, causing a loud ringing in Blake's ears.

That ringing carried on through the silence of the moments that followed, where Tara stared up suddenly, her lips trembling, her hurried gaze of realization, going first from Negan and then to Blake.

Both women's eyes now, in the darkened hallway, slowly began to fill with tears, blurring Blake's vision for one, until they slipped silently down her cheeks.

Negan's words clung to the air, and even Simon and Eugene bowed their heads, both frowning at the memory of the loss.

It was still as fresh and anything and hurt Blake's more to hear from Negan's mouth now...so stark and painful to listen to.

"You were-" said Tara after what felt like an age, her big, brown, and watery eyes, searching Blake's face urgently, her lips visibly trembling as she spoke. "You were pregnant?"

And Blake could only drop her eyes to the floor and her own bare feet, as she moved her head from side to side, willing the words not to be true.

The only people who had known about her pregnancy had been the Saviours and hearing her old friend say those words….it killed her.

But nevertheless she lifted her face once more, staring straight into Tara's eyes, nodding difficulty.

"Yes…." she admitted, the words tumbnling out of her mouth as she gave an uncontrollable sob. "Yes…"

Blake dragged her eyes away ashamedly not wanting to look at Tara anymore.

For it pained her too much to do so.

But this wasn't about the loss now it was about something else entirely.

And despite all they had talked about, Negan was still like a dog with a bone. Why could he not just let this go?

"...but I didn't lose the baby because of that, Negan…" she said turning towards him suddenly and staring up tearfully into the leader of the Saviours' angry face. "I lost it because of me…"

Blake gave another heart wrenching sob but carried on, her voice raised now, a frown shifting between her eyebrows.

She needed to say this and right at this second she didn't care if Eugene or Simon or even Tara heard it. For it had to be said.

"...because of me, Negan. Because I can't carry a baby to term. It's happened to me twice before, and me getting shot...that had nothing to do with it. Losing our baby…..that was on me, not Tara and not whoever fired that gun. You want to punish someone because our baby is gone? The you should punish me."

Negan looked livid and at this moment in time stared back at Blake with a look she had never received from him before.

Was it disappointment? Or betrayal? Blake wasn't sure if it was either, but right now her thoughts were not on what he was going to say back to her anymore.

Instead, Blake turned back to Tara, tears flowing freely down her face, and, reaching out a hand helped the dark-haired woman to her feet, before Simon, with the gun still pointing at her head, could protest.

But in an instant Negan took a step forward.

"Blake-" he said uttering her name, the one of the only times she had ever heard it come from his lips. It sounded strange and cold to hear now.

But the blonde raised her chin.

"What Negan?" she barked back. "Because as much as I love you, I swear if you lay even a finger on her, I'm gone."

A tears slipped silently down her cheeks as she glared at him.

Negan was silent for a moment, with Blake hoping of course that it was over. That it was just that simple, but she was wrong.

"Well she aint fuckin' leavin' here alive," he suddenly said coldly, his nose wrinkling as his dark eyes flickered, first to Tara, and then back to Blake, who gazed up at him in anger.

"Why, Negan?" Blake said in a sudden exacerbated voice. "Tell me why? She wasn't the one to shoot me, and even if she was, are you really going to sacrifice everything else you have right now ...me...Mia….for, what…..REVENGE?! Because if you do...if you do that, Negan, then were done..."

And now that was the horrible truth of it.

And if he didn't respect her enough now to listen to her, then how could they be together beyond that?

She of course knew how hot-headed he could be, but was he going to sacrifice his own family, for a shot at getting payback?

She needed him. But a relationship was nothing without understanding...without respect...and sometimes bowing down to the other, even when you think you're doing the right thing.

The blonde watched as a gulp slid its way up, and then back down Negan's throat, but to her utter dismay his face remained fixed and stony. He opened his mouth, shifting his jaw from side-to-side as though thinking over her words.

"That a promise?" he finally sniffed, raising his chin and staring down at her.

She had never known him like this to her. And it hurt her to hear these words spill from his lips.

But Blake, with hard frown shook her head.

"It doesn't have to be, Negan!" she said in a raised voice of utter tearful frustration, waving her free hand aloft as the others looked on.

But Negan just seemed angered by her words, scowling back at the blonde woman before him, the woman he had so lovingly told just a short while ago to go back to bed, so concerned for her welfare.

But now it was though everything had changed. Their priorities were different and their differences were stark and felt a whole ocean apart.

"Jesus fuckin' Chrsit, Sweetheart!" he said loudly, causing Blake to flinch back away from him, feeling hurt by his tone. "This ain't your damn garden full of rainbows and fuckin' sunshine for once! This is fuckin' war!"

The blonde woman stared at him aghast, now not seeing the man she fell in love with but instead seeing the frightening dictator she had heard about in gruesome tales banded around Alexandria.

But she let out a breath, licking at her trembling lips for a moment before speaking.

"Well maybe I don't want to live in a world at war the whole fucking time…" Blake mumbled out tearfully. "We lost our baby Negan...a-and killing someone...punishing them for that wont bring them back. You know it won't."

She placed her hand to her face swiping away the falling tears, shaking her head before starting back up towards him.

"Tara is leaving," she said determinedly. "I'm gonna see if the North exit through the lot is clear. But you make another move to stop us, Negan," she said bitterly. "Then know that I'll be going too."

And right now Blake wasn't kidding, her voice clear and loud, and so shoving past Negan she held Tara's hand, pulling them from the small section of hallway.

Her heart hammered away inside her ribs and she could barely control the tears that welled in her eyes.

Eugene remained utterly silent as they moved by him, barely even acknowledging Tara's presence, but instead keeping his eyes lowered.

And from behind Blake she suddenly heard Simon step forward.

"Boss, are you really going to let her-"

But there came another loud crack of Lucille hitting the wall.

"Shut your damn mouth Simon, before I do it for you!" Negan suddenly roared, but only blinking a little at the outburst, Blake quickly pulled Tara away, rounding the corner as tears slipped from her cheeks, dropping onto her bear feet as she walked..

...not quite knowing what she was going to do now….

Sorry for the delay in updating. I'm really not very well and have been back and forth to the doctor's these last few days for tests and I'm having scans next week hopefully, so I'm not sure when I'll next be able to write. I'll keep you all updated. Thanks for sticking with me, guys.

Thanks to stacey40, BlueBloodsSVUOrder, Guest, CLTex, LJH, BeOurGuest, Crazythinking and V for commenting on the last chapter.

Let me know what you thought about this one. It would truly cheer me up. :)

Please review!