It had been a whole week without Leo. Ellie found herself alone in the woods, trying to think of anything else. And it worked, being in the woods once more brought her back to the first time she had ever hunted.

"What're we lookin' for?" her bright blue eyes met the matching set belonging to her older brother. She was only five, but desperately wanted out of the house, so her brother had a plan, he could teach her a skill, something to keep her fed.

"Look," he pointed to the ground for his younger sister to see the track. She knelt, looking studiously at the four-pointed step. Two parts were longer than the other two small indentations. "You tell me," he stated, smiling at her slightly.

"It's not a rabbit, or a squirrel," she said confidently, still thinking. "Is it a deer?" He nodded and she jumped up and down, beaming.

"Hush," her holder brother scolded. She covered her hand with her mouth and stopped immediately.

"Sorry," she mumbled.

He made a noise of acknowledgement before continuing on. "Lead the way," he told her. The five year old looked up at her brother nervously, chewing on her lip.

In her too big boots, she stepped carefully through the foliage, remembering to keep her steps quiet. She held on to the small—but still too big for her—crossbow her brother had managed to steal from the store right down the road. She wasn't sure how he'd done it, but she was grateful because now she had a way to escape their father.

The sound of snapping branches brought Ellie to a halt, she looked up to see a squirrel running up the side of the tree. Her brother watched with pride as she brought up the bow and shot at it. The very little kickback nearly sent her to the ground, the scope, however, did hit her eye. She put the bow down immediately and rubbed her eye.

"Ow," she complained. Her older brother knelt before her, examining her eye and frowned.

"Gonna bruise. Ya gave yourself a blackeye."

"It's okay," she said, softly. "Not my first. Won' be my last," she shrugged and picked the bow back up.

Ellie remembered seeing her brother's jaw tense at her statement. She hadn't meant to upset him, she never meant to upset anyone, back then. Least of all her father.

The sound a static from a walkie talkie brought her back from her deep thoughts. They were trying to get her attention from the sanctuary. "Everyone be advised. Large horde heading east towards base. Anyone out on their own, find cover, or make it back, right away."

"Dammit," she cursed under her breath. She was close to finding this deer, but it wasn't worth the risk. If the horde was coming, they would eat the deer before she could get it back to camp. She hurried back to The Sanctuary with a brisk jog. The man at the gate, Peter, let her in. She murmured a thank you as she hurried inside.

She went first to her room, to drop off her crossbow and all of her other belongings in her room. She knew this evening was the weekly late night-poker game that Negan held in one of the rooms upstairs, hidden from everyone else. She knew that she was invited—as per usual, she just didn't know if she wanted to attend. In the last two weeks, she had gotten better about eating and taking care of herself. By no means, was she happy or in an okay place, but she was a bit better and a bit more like her normal self, but still not quite there.

When she exited her room, she found a looming presence outside of her door. "Negan?" she questioned. His look of confidence had washed from his face, he looked even slightly nervous.

"Good, you're back."

"Yeah, I heard the announcement."

"Good, good."

She looked up at him, slightly perplexed. "What did you come here for?" she questioned, unable to hold back her curiosity any longer.

"Haven't seen you in a couple days. Just checking in."

"I'm fine…" she trailed off. In all honesty, she had tried to avoid Negan, to an extent. She cared about him like he was family, but she missed Leo so much that it was hard to look at Negan and not think of what she was missing.

"C'mon, Ellie. I know you're a fucking badass but you're not fine. And you sure as shit don't have to be right now. Okay?" her eyes met his chocolatey gaze and she couldn't help herself. She wrapped her arms around his middle and pulled him into a tight hug y he found himself hugging her back.

"That sounds a lot like what someone wise once said to you…" she trailed off, looking up at him. He gave her his infamous shit eating grin, and gave her a solid squeeze. Though, she did note a hint of something else in his eye.

"Hmm, wonder who mighta said that," he feigned deep thought for a minute, before chuckling. They both knew she had said the same thing to him after his wife passed away. It was at the very start of all of this and Negan had tried to keep on keeping on as if nothing was wrong, and Ellie reminded him that it was okay to feel upset.

"Thank you," she said softly.

"Anytime—so long as you don't tell anyone else," he added.

"Don't worry, your secret is safe with me."

"You coming to poker tonight?" he asked, trying to make an easy transition.

"Maybe," she replied, pulling away from him, slightly embarrassed.

"I hope so."

"So uh, on the topic of actually important stuff," she smiled softly. "The walkers headed towards us, do you need me to go out and—"

"Already taken care of. Had people on it immediately."

"Oh. Okay," she chewed on her lip. "Well, I'm going on another hunt in the morning." Negan only nodded. It seemed like he had something else to say when Simon found them.

"Hey boss, hey Ellie," he greeted. "Frankie's ready for ya," he told Negan, before continuing down the corridor as Negan replied with a quick nod.

"Well that's my que. Hopefully we'll see ya tonight," he offered her one last smile before leaving.

Sometimes, Ellie pretended she didn't know what was going on with Negan and a couple of the women from the sanctuary. He had taken wives. She knew their relationship was mainly just the exchange of sex for protection, but Negan had labeled them wives so that they could only sleep with him. She found those women to be kind of sad. They were willing to prostitute themselves out to stay safe, she couldn't say that she didn't understand their thought process though, everyone needed to find their own way to stay alive, she supposed.

Cigars and whiskey wafted down the long corridor. Ellie could smell Poker Night before she could see it. In fact, she could hear the boisterous laughter of the highest-ranking men in the Sanctuary from downstairs. She was the only woman to ever be invited—which was because she was actually the one who began poker night in the first place. She used to play with Leo, Lucille, and Negan before all of this and she wanted to carry that normalcy to this world.

Upon entering the room, Ellie gazed upon Simon, Negan, and a couple of the other Generals. She had never truly considered where she stood among these people, she knew that Negan trusted her more than anyone else in this room—including Simon—but he did not often go to her for strategic advice. She had never been a part of the point system—mostly because she and Leo had been in Negan's group since day one, they helped to establish the Sanctuary.

"Shit, Darlin'. You made it!" Negan exclaimed. He stood and threw an arm around her. She could smell the whiskey on his breath and she knew, he was already buzzed. She elbowed his side, grabbed a chair and went over to the alcohol. She saw a couple bottles of whiskey and then she noticed a bottle of Moscato with a singular wine glass. It made her think so much of the original Poker Nights. Negan and Leo would drink Jack and Coke while Ellie and Lucille would drink Moscato.

Eagerly she filled the glass a little more than half and returned to her chair next to Negan. "Ready to get your asses kicked?" she asked the men around the table.

Simon just scoffed. "By you?" he questioned.

"Yeah, by me," she stated, glaring him down. "Got a problem?"

"I'd watch it, Si. This one's damn good a poker," Negan warned.

"We'll see 'bout that,"

Six games later, everyone at the table had lost everything—except for Ellie and Negan. Negan was good at this game as well, but he had still lost the majority of everything he'd brought to bet.

"All in," Ellie said, ready to bet all of the belongings from everyone else against Negan's remaining items.

"Alright, Sweetheart, if this is how we're gonna play," he chuckled. "I'll call. Straight Flush." Negan saw the most devilish smirk flash across her features at his words. He knew he'd lost before she even spoke.

"Royal Flush," she said, dropping her cards on the table. All of the men in the room groaned. She finished off her wine and gathered her belongings. "Maybe I'll let you try to win your stuff back next week, fellas," with that, she left, bound for her room, once more.

AN: The only thing I'm hesitant about is how I'm characterizing Ellie's grief and her relationship with Negan. From my perspective they make sense based upon the situation! Thanks for reading! Leave me some comments J