CHAPTER 9

That morning after Negan had talked to me, getting me out of my distraught phase, i got out of the tub and he got me clean clothes to put on. he was being extremely nice to me...it was nice but thats not what i wanted out of this. i wasnt looking for his attention and thats what i feel like he thinks.

I put on the clothes he gave me and looked in the mirror for what seemed like forever... i looked into what used to be stunning bright green eyes, but they were now tired and weak.

i scanned my face before i noticed Negan watching me from afar, almost like he was trying to figure me out or read my mind.

"you okay princess?" he asked once he had noticed that i had spotted him. I swallowed hard and nodded my head, he smiled at me with soft eyes.

"do you wanna go see your little girl?" he asked, clearly trying to make things better between the two of us.

we walked down a long hallway before entering a room, where for the first time i met a woman by the name of Sherry.. she had been taking care of tess.

"this adorable little one must belong to you.." sherry said handing me tess.

"what makes you think that?" i said with a small smile as tess grabbed at my hair.

"well i mean she looks just like you" the woman said. I let out a small chuckle as i looked down at my baby girl "if you think she looks like me, you should see her daddy..." i said with a laugh.

thats when i looked up at negan who had a slight scowl on his face.

"sherry lock the door on the way out? fuckin cant stand when people barge in..." he said sitting down on a chair in the corner of the room.

sherry knew that was her signal to leave, so she did as negan said and left.

tess was just at the age where she was beginning to talk.

"hey there baby..." i whispered to her, turning her around to face me.

"daddy..." he mumbled raising her hands to me. merle and tess had a very close relationship, wherever he was she was right behind.

i just pretended like i didnt hear her because i could feel negans stare on me.

tess got ancy and started to climb down, she landed on her feet and began to waddle over to negan.

"are you mad at me?" i whispered almost childlike.

"of course not... if i had a kid id do anything to keep them safe..." he said looking down at tess who was looking up at him.

he leaned down and picked her up, sitting her in his lap, bouncing his knee.

"she does look like you...whats her name?" he asked.

"its tess..." i said with a smile.

"howd you come up with that?" he asked looking up at me.

"well...long story short i got kidnapped when i was 8 months pregnant and i was there for a while, ended up having to have her while i was kidnapped... yep no lie." i said with a small laugh. "how in the holy hell did you manage to get out of that princess?" he grinned.

"its hard to remember... It was Rick, him and the group came and saved me... we went to the beach after that, only god knows why!" i laughed. Negan raised his eyebrows "you gotta be jokin!" he said. "nope! we lived on the beach for a while in tents, until i wanted to go back home to safe zone, which at the time was completely fucked...Im the leader of safe zone, or was...i have no fucking clue whos running that shit show now, but i can tell you there not doing as good of a job as i did." i said with a laugh, Negan was actually interested in what i was saying.

he was a reasonable man, he didnt hate us at safe zone, he didnt want us dead...

"so what happened after you got back?" he asked raising an eye brow...

"shit... okay so there was this girl, its so hard to remember her name now its been almost 4 years... it was Talia! ...you may not believe any of this but you can ask any of the people at safe zone i used to be really fucking badass..." i said with a grin.

"about that girl... shit went down in the tailgate of a truck on the way home and she started saying a bunch of stuff and threatening me and i was not about to have that kind of shit in my group so i got them to pullover and i hit her in the face and then i shot her...right there.." i said pointing between my eyes.

"really now?" he said with a smirk.

i nodded "im not proud of that but it happened... i did what i had to do, and when it comes down to me and my group that shit dont fucking fly..." i said just before realizing that, that is who i really was and negan had changed me to someone that was weak...

"woah now...i didnt know you had that in you princess..." he said with a scoff.

i nodded coming into more of a serious tone "yea...ive only had to do it twice...the first time i had been drinking and a girl at safezone started talking about my drinking problem...it got really bad and we ended up fighting, i broke the whiskey bottle and stabbed her..." i said almost proud.

neither of us spoke for a good bit, finally negan spoke up.

"im sorry about that night...when i smacked you..." he said not looking me in the eyes.

"dont be...its not that big of a deal, ive had worse..." i mumbled uncomfortably.

"by who?" he asked as he furrowed his brow.

i didnt say anything...it was something that i had pushed so far back into my mind that i almost forget that its there. "merle...he broke my arm...a year after she was born...we gotten into a fight and i ended up smacking him in the face and he grabbed my wrist and twisted so hard that it snapped..."

"yet you married him..." negan growled.

"it was years ago..." i was cut off by tess yawning.

"do we have to leave her in here..." i said quietly.

he shook his head and picked her up "no, i can put the crib in the guest room, if thats what you want..."

i smiled a soft smile and he returned it, walking over to me, lifting my chin with his hand. "i want my princess to be happy..." he said with a wink as he leaned down, planting a soft kiss on my lips before walking past me to leave to room...