Quinn, somewhere in the forest

I still couldn't believe Negan was by my side, holding my hand. We approached the house where Negan left Lydia, but we haven't seen Carol and Henry.

"They must be inside," said Negan. He opened the door and stepped inside just to get punched in the face.

"DARYL!" I yelled at him. Carol and Henry were standing there, taken aback. Negan fell against the wall.

"You fucking piece of shit!" yelled Negan.

"What did you do?" asked Daryl. I grabbed his arm to pull him away from Negan, but he shook me off.

"What did I do? What did YOU do?! You lied to me about Quinn's death! What kind of an asshole you are?!" he said and tried to punch Daryl, but he pushed his crossbow in Negan's face.

"DARYL STOP!" I yelled again, but to no avail.

"You deserved it!" said Daryl. "You got it for Glenn and Abraham and Sasha… Do you want me to continue the list?"

Negan was breathing heavily, he was furious, still, he raised his hands.

"Where is Lydia?" asked Daryl aggressively.

"I have no idea. I left her here, then I killed Alpha," said Negan. "Carol, tell him! You saw Alpha's head!"

"Daryl, I already told you…" started Carol, but Daryl interrupted her.

"I don't believe him!" said Daryl.

"You don't believe me? You are the one who's lying about people's deaths!" said Negan his eyes piercing right through Daryl.

"Daryl, I saw the head," said Carol, pushing every word. "I asked him to do it."

"I saw it too," said Henry, trying to help.

Negan began to explain himself, how he went undercover to get close enough to Alpha, but Daryl didn't want to listen.

"You burned down Hilltop, you didn't let me take children to safety, you blocked the road, it was all YOU!" said Daryl, still holding the crossbow in Negan's face.

"I did it to earn Alpha's trust!" Negan tried again. "Why do you think your girlfriend let me out of the cell in the first place?" he said, referring to Carol.

Henry frowned his eyebrows, Carol's face went so red I have never seen before. I grabbed Daryl's arm again.

"Please, let him go," I asked him one more time. Daryl glanced at Carol, then at me.

He lowered the crossbow and gave it to Carol without looking at her, then he got a rope from his pocket and grabbed Negan's hands.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"I don't trust him, I don't believe a word he says…" Daryl growled.

"But he is telling the truth, I let him out…" said Carol. Daryl glanced at her.

"Maybe, but he burned down Hilltop. Let's go to the spikes, I wanna see Alpha's head with my own eyes," Daryl growled. I couldn't believe it. I've never seen him acting like this before. Daryl tied Negan's hands behind his back.

"Are you alright?" I asked Negan quietly, he nodded.

"I got used to it," he said in his low voice.

"Get away from him, Quinn, I won't ask twice. He is not the man you think he is," said Daryl, I was speechless. Daryl grabbed his crossbow from Carol's hands and pushed Negan through the door, Carol stepped next to me and we followed them outside.

"What the fuck happened?" I asked Carol in a suppressed voice.

"Daryl's still angry with me… He knows I'm telling the truth, but he doesn't trust Negan at all…" she said quietly.

"I can see that," I said grumpily, I started to become really irritated by Daryl. It was late afternoon as we were walking through the woods. Negan tried to convince Daryl once more, but he was coming back at him again with putting children in danger at Hilltop. Negan exhaled sharply.

"I'm sorry. It wasn't me, it was their plan, I only told them to block the road, the rest was all Alpha. And if I stopped her, she would get suspicious of me and would have killed me, and then I couldn't have done what Carol asked me to do," said Negan, while he stopped to look Daryl in the eye.

"Keep walking," that's all Daryl said and pushed him.

"Daryl, stop this for fuck's sake!" I yelled at him. "He is telling the truth!"

"You are blinded, so stay quiet," he growled back at me. Carol and Henry followed us speechless.

It was dark when we finally reached the spikes. But the head was gone.

"It was there, I swear to god, look the bloodstains are still fresh!" said Negan.

"Daryl, he is really telling the truth, he gave me Alpha's head and I put it on that spike myself," said Carol pointing at the spike.

"Even if he killed Alpha then why did it take so long? Huh?" asked Daryl.

"I said I was going undercover, I tried to earn her trust so she would let her guard down," said Negan again. "I didn't want to go on a suicide mission, I had to come up with a plan!"

"No, it took so long, because you liked it," growled Daryl, pointing his crossbow at Negan again.

"Daryl, stop this! Please!" I asked him.

"Stay out of it!" he yelled at me. Carol was still speechless, shaking her head disapprovingly.

That's when we heard some rustling in the bushes, Daryl turned his crossbow in that direction. Whisperers emerged from the woods. They outnumbered us and they had guns. Daryl dropped the crossbow, we slowly raised our hands.

"You killed Alpha," said one of them. "We kneel before the new Alpha."

And so they did. They knelt before Negan.

Daryl dropped his hands irritatedly, Negan chuckled, pleased with himself. We exchanged glances with Carol and Henry.

"Alright then, as you see this man is trying to harm me, so please, tie his hands," said Negan, smiling, while he nodded his head to another whisperer to cut the ropes on his hands. The whisperers jumped to Daryl and tied his hands, while Negan became free of them. My mouth fell open.

They tied our hands too and held Daryl at gunpoint. I gasped. I exchanged glances with Carol again.

I could have a taste of what Negan was like before… This is not him, is it? It's not him… he is playing a role… it's all acting, this is not him…

I tried to convince myself, but to be honest, I didn't know what was happening. Negan wouldn't hurt me... but would he hurt Daryl? Right after he realized he lied to him about my death?

Negan took the shotgun from one of the whisperers.

He is not going to shoot Daryl… right? He wouldn't…

Our eyes met for a moment, I slowly shook my head. Negan smiled.

He kept on talking about holding the shotgun like it was his baby, then ordered us to kneel in front of him.

Daryl was exploding on the inside, I could tell, even if I saw only his back. He was trembling but not because of fear, because of anger.

Negan stepped to Daryl, smiling like crazy.

"Daryl, you were right, when you said that I liked it. The fact is… I like it a lot," he said and held the shotgun to Daryl's face. My heart was beating fast, but it was nothing like before… I was scared… I was scared of him… What if Daryl was right? What if I'm misunderstanding and Negan is not the man I thought he was?

But just as I was about to question everything, Negan slung the shotgun to his side and shot the whisperer who was standing next to him. Daryl kicked over another two, while Negan shot one more. It happened so fast I couldn't even follow what was going on. Negan killed the rest of them, then Daryl held his hands in front of him.

"Untie me, asshole," he growled.

I gasped. I was right. Negan was with us, he saved us again. It was scary how much he fooled me. He was so good at acting. Negan was giggling and untied Daryl's hands, then Carol's, while Daryl untied Henry's. Then Negan stepped to me, he had some kind of an impish sparkle in his eyes. He sliced the rope on my wrist with a knife. I couldn't say a word, I couldn't even breathe for a moment.

"Okay…" sighed Carol. "Negan killed Alpha and he is on our side."

She summarised. Daryl glanced at her then nodded. He was pacing, really pissed off.

"Are you alright?" asked Negan, still holding my hand.

"Yeah…" I panted, but I wasn't. I was scared for a moment, because of him. I hope he won't do that ever again.

The sun's first rays were visible on the horizon.

"Shit… I haven't slept for two days…" I said to change the topic.

"Yeah, me neither," said Carol. "Daryl?"

"Three," he growled. That explains a lot. Now that I looked at Daryl, I noticed he was in really bad shape. Even worse than when he came from the cave. He had several cuts, all fresh.

Henry exhaled sharply, I snapped out of it.

"Let's sit down for a minute, shall we?" asked Henry.

We all agreed and we found a log to sit down. Daryl nodded away with his head, indicating he wants to talk to Negan. They sat down away from us. The sun was rising as we were catching our breaths.

Negan drank from his flask, then handed it to Daryl. He took it without looking at him.

I smiled slightly. Unfortunately, I couldn't hear what they were talking about.

"Daryl's giving him a chance, I'm sure," said Carol, glancing at them.

"I don't know. Maybe he is telling him to go away. But if he does… I'll go with Negan," I told Carol. We looked each other in the eye for a moment, then Carol nodded understandingly.

I glanced at the guys once again.

"What happened to Daryl?" I asked.

"He got into a fight with Alpha. She cut him, several times," Carol said quietly, worrying.

"And he hasn't slept for three days… He is going nuts," I said. I was mad at him, for attacking Negan like that, right after he told me that he won't stop me from being with Negan.

This time, Carol distracted me from my thoughts. She looked at Henry.

"Everything okay?" she asked.

"I'm worried about Lydia," he said, quietly.

"We're going to find her," said Carol and patted her son's back.

"You don't have to look for long," said Lydia behind our backs. We turned around in an instant, Henry sprang to his feet and hugged her.

"Lydia! I was looking for you everywhere!" he said. Lydia smiled.

"I'm here."

Daryl stepped to us and patted the girl's shoulder, smiling at her.

"Let's go back to Alexandria," Daryl growled. We all gathered ourselves and headed back. Daryl and Carol were walking on the front, without saying a word, but glancing at one another from time to time. Behind them, Henry and Lydia, holding hands, deep in conversation. They were so cute. And then I was walking at the end, Negan walking beside me. We weren't holding hands this time.

"Are you alright?" he asked quietly.

"Yeah, but you already asked that."

"True, but there's something you are not telling me, I can see it in your eyes," he said while looking me in the eye. My face went red.

"It's just… I wasn't sure before… if you were acting or not…" I said quietly, staring at the ground in front of me, embarrassed. "I imagined you might have been like this before… you know… I wasn't sure. I was afraid Daryl might be right about you…"

He listened to me closely, but then he smiled.

"Of course, I was acting," he stopped, grabbed my shoulders, and turned me to face him. "Hey, you know me. You and Judith, you know me the best. I did everything to take down Alpha. And I'm loyal to Alexandria. One way or another, it's my home now."

I nodded understandingly.

"You know..." I said. "It's hard to admit it, but… there was a moment when I was scared… You fooled me so easily."

He caressed my cheek.

"I'm so sorry," he was looking me in the eye the whole time. "I was acting for those whisperers. And for Daryl, to get his reaction so the whisperers would believe me."

I nodded. He caressed my cheek once again, smiled at me, then we hurried after the others.

…

Author's notes: Listen to "Complicated" by Avril Lavigne.

Thank You for reading! ❤