Author's notes: Hi! I'll be extremely busy tomorrow and the entire weekend, so I'm uploading the new chapter today, instead of Thursday. There will be no chapter tomorrow, this one is for this week, just a day earlier. :D Hope, you don't mind. See you next Thursday! ^-^

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Quinn, Negan, Daryl, Gabriel, and Elijah

As soon as we finished loading up food to the carriages I wanted to tell Daryl to let's check out the infirmary too, but he was so deep in thoughts, I didn't want to bother him. So I told Gabriel.

"We should check out the infirmary too, maybe we can find something useful," I suggested.

"You two go, I have to sit down a bit," said Gabriel painfully and did as he said.

"Are you alright?" I asked as I crouched beside him.

"Yeah, yeah sure. Nothing serious, I'm just old," he said smiling.

"Oh, come on. You're not old. Is the wound deep?" I asked glancing at his leg, it was already bandaged.

"No, I'm fine, really. Thank you," he said smiling. "Go check the infirmary and bring everything useful," he said. I nodded. I glanced at Daryl he was listening to us, our eyes met for a second, then I turned away and headed inside. Negan was watching the entire scene without saying anything, then patted Gabriel's shoulders, and followed me inside. I was walking for a while, Negan following me, but all the corridors seemed to be the same. Suddenly, I stopped, and Negan almost bumped into me.

"Okay, now, where the hell was the infirmary?" I asked looking around completely lost. Negan burst into laughing. "What?" I asked. "You could memorize all the corridors here after you saw them only once?"

"Come on, this way," he said still chuckling adorably. I smiled at his reaction.

"Don't laugh at me…" I said slightly offended but still smiling.

"You're so cute," he said smiling, leading the way. "You march in so confidently and have no idea where you're going," he said still chuckling softly.

"Come on, Negan, stop laughing at me. I'm terrible at directions," I said.

"I see. Wouldn't give you a license," he said still chuckling softly.

"We had GPS back then," I said.

"You need GPS for a corridor?" he asked still smiling.

"You need a license inside a building?" I returned the question. He started chuckling again. Suddenly he turned around and hugged me tightly.

"You just made my day with that one," he said smiling, and then pecked my cheek.

"You laugh at me for no reason," I said slightly offended.

"You gave a reason," he reminded me and kissed my forehead too. "Now, let's get those packs of gauze and whatever crap we find," he said. He led the way, I followed him, then finally he turned around a corner and I recognized that corridor. I saw inside my memories how Negan fell to the ground when he got punched in the stomach and then how he leaned against that wall. I glanced at the wall, then at him. It seemed like it happened ages ago, not a couple of hours ago. He seemed to be completely fine, but I can't imagine he wasn't in any pain. We stepped into the infirmary and we grabbed a crate each and started loading them. As I was emptying a small cabinet I found tweezers. His wounds couldn't wait till we get back to Alexandria.

"Negan," I called him.

"Yeah?" he turned to face me as he lifted a loaded crate on top of a bed.

"We have to clean your wounds," I said as I held up the tweezers to show him. He let out a sigh.

"We don't have time for this now," he said.

"It can't wait, because it will get infected," I insisted as I stepped closer to him. I grabbed his shirt, pulled him closer to the bed, then pushed his chest so he sat down. He let me do all this without a word. I pulled away the curtain on the window so I could see his wounds better due to the sunlight. He let out another sigh, then let me do what I had to.

"This is going to hurt, but we have to get rid of the shrapnel," I stated as I put my hand on his other cheek to prevent him from moving.

"Do it," he said as he closed his eyes tightly, in pain when I grabbed the first piece of metal and pulled it out. It was a tiny bit and wasn't deep. Fortunately, they were big enough to grab with the tweezers. I moved on and got out another one, and another one. Negan's face winced every time I pulled one out.

"How many more?" he asked.

"Two more, hold on," I said as I got another one out. And then I got the last one. "Done," I said. I grabbed a disinfectant spray. "Don't open your eyes, I'm gonna spray your face all over with disinfectant," I told him.

"Okay," he said and kept his eyes closed. I covered his mouth and nose for a moment with my hand, so he wouldn't inhale it, and sprayed the wounds. He winced a little from pain, but then got over it by the time I finished.

"Gosh, that burns," he said as he opened his eyes and shook his head slightly.

"Should we cover them with something?" I asked as I was looking around, searching for plasters.

"No. Let it be. Heals faster. They're not deep," he said, then gathered himself to stand up.

"Okay," I said, then I put my hand on his chest to prevent him from standing up. "But if we're at it, I want to see your arm and thigh too."

"Yeah? And I wanna see you naked," he said out of the blue. I got so surprised I dropped the pack of gauze. I didn't expect that at all. Fortunately, the gauze was in the package so it didn't get dirty.

"Excuse me?" I asked as I quickly grabbed the gauze from the ground with red face. I wasn't sure I heard him right.

"You heard me," he said with that impish smile all over his face. I smiled at him while looking scoldingly.

"You're such an idiot. Let me see the wounds," I said while my face was burning red. He got his jacket off while keeping eye contact with me. He was wearing a grey T-shirt under it. I was a little bit disappointed that he doesn't have to take off his shirt, but I didn't give any signs of my thoughts, definitely wouldn't say it out loud. I shook these thoughts and stepped closer to see his arm. And I saw something shining.

"Shit, there's a metal piece in there too," I said and grabbed the tweezers.

"Get it out quickly and let's go," he said. Suddenly the previous dirty joke vanished like nothing happened. Redness went away from my face and I got serious once again. I gently took his arm to hold it steady. He wasn't as muscular as Daryl, but he had a strong arm too. I liked it. My face went slightly red once again. I examined the wound then I grabbed the metal piece. He groaned barely audible as I pulled it out, then I quickly sprayed it with disinfectant. This wound was bigger and bled a lot when he got it and as I pulled the shrapnel out it started bleeding slightly again. I decided to bandage it. I found a big, white plaster, I put it over his wound and pressed it gently to stop the bleeding. Then I turned to check his thigh. He was watching me the entire time. I got the bandage off, sprayed that wound too, and put fresh gauze over it, then fixed it with a huge, white plaster, doing all this through the hole on his trousers he ripped earlier when we first checked the wound. I wanted him to take his trousers off, but first, we needed to get home.

"You do enjoy this, don't you?" he asked, examining me with his eyes. "Nursing me around," he added smiling.

"I enjoy taking care of you, but I'm not happy about you being wounded," I stated, as I put the spray and gauze back in the crate on the next bed.

"Hottest nurse ever," he said as he gathered himself up and put his jacket back on.

"I highly doubt that," I stated as I turned back around to face him. He stood really close to me.

"Thank you," he said gently, turning serious. Slowly caressed my cheek and leaned in to kiss me, when:

"Did you find anything useful?" asked Daryl marching into the infirmary.

"Yeah, these crates are full of them," I said as Negan stopped midair.

"Don't mess around now, we have to go," stated Daryl as he put one crate on top of the other and brought the two crates outside. Mr. muscle shows off. I glanced back at Negan.

"It's time to go home," I said as he was still really close to me.

"I just wanted to say: thank you," he said gently, his tone changed to this warm, loving manner, I didn't hear it too often, but I loved it. I let out a sigh and ran my fingers through his hair at the front.

"You're welcome," I said and moved my hand to the back of his neck and pecked his healthy cheek. I smiled at him then I turned around and grabbed the crate on the bed and headed outside. Negan slowly let his arm fall back to his side while smiling to himself, then grabbed a crate and followed me.

As soon as we got outside I saw Daryl walking back to the infirmary for more crates, while he pointed to the carriage which had the most empty spaces left. We put the crates on that carriage.

"He does look like that video game character, especially now, carrying those crates and packages," said Negan jokingly.

"I know right?!" I said giggling quietly. "Now that you mention it," I said still giggling as Negan chuckled too.

"The hell are you two so happy about?" asked Daryl as he stepped between the two of us and put two more crates on the carriage.

"We're happy 'cause we made it out alive," I said. I didn't want to offend Daryl and definitely, he wasn't in the mood for jokes. "Are there any more crates in the infirmary?" I asked gently.

"Nah, that was the last one," he stated.

"So we're leaving finally?" asked Negan.

"Yeah. Pee break everyone, then go," said Daryl raising his voice slightly, addressing Gabriel and Elijah too. We all went to different locations to get on with it, then we went back to the carriages, waiting for each other. Daryl and Gabriel got horses in front of our two carriages, while Negan and I helped Elijah up, then we climbed next to him. Gabriel sat on the other carriage. We headed back to Alexandria.

"Are you walking all the way back?" I asked Daryl as he was walking with dog between the two carriages.

"I'm good," he said and slightly smiled at me, then his smile faded away almost immediately. This journey really broke him. I exchanged glances with Negan.

"Give him time," said Negan quietly so Daryl wouldn't hear. I glanced at Daryl's back and nodded.

"He has been through a lot," I said quietly too. We collected some wounds, but at least, we got each other with Negan, while Daryl was alone for several days with Leah's mind games.

As Negan was driving the carriage I put my hand on his hand. Elijah was sitting on his other side, very quiet since Maggie left.

"Are you okay, kid?" asked Negan at a normal volume now. It was like he read my mind once again, I just wanted to ask Elijah the same question. Elijah nodded softly.

"We got what we came for," he stated, his voice hoarse from crying.

"But that didn't bring your sister back, did it?" said Negan gently, glancing at Elijah. The kid started crying and shook his head. "That's it, let it all out. You'll feel better after it," said Negan gently patting Elijah's shoulder. "We got food, you're alive, Maggie's alive, you killed all of them, except that one woman. But your sister's murderer is dead. It's a closed chapter," continued Negan, trying to lighten Elijah's mood. I was taken aback by how much Negan memorized things about everyone and how much empathy he felt. I'm sorry, I was scared shitless, I did not memorize anything about what happened to Maggie and Elijah. I only knew that they were attacked by this soldier group. But Negan just knew everything. Elijah stopped crying, wiped his eyes, and nodded.

"It's hard to believe what Maggie said about you," he said examining Negan with his eyes. He was thinking something similar to what I was thinking about how thoughtful Negan was.

"Every word she said about me is true. I'm sorry. But that doesn't mean you have to hate me too," said Negan.

"Based on what she said, you changed," said Elijah, still examining Negan with his eyes.

"Well, I'm trying," said Negan smiling slightly.

"You still did what you did," stated Daryl grumpily, glancing at Negan above his shoulder, joining in the conversation.

"Yeah, I did," said Negan and leaned back in his seat. Daryl shot a killer glance at him, then turned his eyes back at the road. Gabriel was listening without saying anything. I leaned back too and relaxed as we were going back to Alexandria in the sunset. Finally, there was a quiet and calm moment after all this.
…

Author's notes: Listen to "We remain" by Christina Aguilera.

Mission accomplished.

Thank You for reading! ❤