Sweat dripped from Ellie's body, soaking her sheets and causing her to stick to them. She sat straight up in her bed and screamed, chills ran through her as she hurriedly stood from the bed. The imagines in her mind were graphic and made her chest feel empty. Flashing in her mind were the gruesome images she had seen of the dead eating people, but each of those people had Leo's face. And then Leo came for her…to eat her now.

Hurrying to the restroom joined to her room, Ellie turned on the faucet and washed her face with cold water. She grabbed her leather jacket and slipped on her boots before heading up to the roof. When she stepped outside, she noticed that she was not alone up here. The tall figure also wore a leather jacket and his dark hair shined in the dim moonlight.

"Hey," she knew who it was, of course. She walked up beside Negan without hesitation and bumped his arm with hers.

"What're you doing up?"

"Guess I should be asking you the same question, huh?" she gave him a forced smile.

"You alright?" he looked at her face and noticed the red hue to it.

"I'm fine. Just some trouble sleeping," she looked to her feet nervously.

"Me too," he agreed. There was a bottle in his other hand, he lifted it to his lips and took a long pull from it.

Secretly, Ellie loved seeing this secret side of Negan. His guard was down and he was much like the old Negan, the one she knew from the world before the dead walked.

Negan had to admit, he had always thought Ellie was attractive in more ways than just physically. Beyond one occurrence, he had not tried to act upon anything.

"Nightmares?" he questioned, his arm going around her. He knew now wasn't a time to make a move, but he couldn't help the need for contact with her. She wasn't like one of his wives, she was someone he could trust and someone he knew would support him no matter what.

"Yeah. You?" he just nodded, feeling her arm go around his back, pulling him closer. She reached over towards the bottle, he wordlessly handed it to her and she took a long pull from it, whiskey burning her throat.

"Slow down there," he chuckled. She continued drinking before handing it back. Her face scrunched in disgust. "It's chilly out here, we can go keep warm in my room, if you want.

"Are you trying to seduce me?" she asked, laughing quietly.

"Oh trust me, darlin', if I was tryin', you'd know," he winked, leading the way to his room. She took the bottle of whisky and took another long pull from it.

"I haven't drank straight whiskey in so long," she commented. Negan waited for her to continue, he had a feeling there was a story that we along with that. She didn't continue though. Negan had always been kind of curious about her past. She was this badass from Southern Georgia, who always seemed slightly out of place in their suburban community. She liked hunting and being outdoors, which was very different than even his own wife, before all of this.

They arrived at his bedroom and both took a seat on the big leather couch. Ellie went to one corner, bottle in hand, and threw her legs over Negan, making herself comfortable. She even grabbed the blanket from the back of the couch and cuddled up with it.

"Comfy?" he asked a moment later. She took another pull from the bottle before nodding. She passed the whiskey back to him and he drank as well.

"You know what I hate most about all of this?" she vaguely motioned to the space around her.

"What's that?" Negan asked.

"The uncertainty. This world brings so much uncertainty and I just don't know if I can handle it…"

"What do you mean by that?" he asked.

"I have older brothers, I don't even know if they're still alive—or where they would be if they were."

"I didn't know you had brothers," Negan rubbed his graying beard for a moment. Why hadn't she mentioned them?

"Yup, haven't seen them in years. I talked to them when the outbreak started, though. They were alive then…" she trailed off. Losing Leo made her think much more about the family that she was missing. She wanted to know what happened to them, they may not have always been the best, but they were blood, after all. "My dad died at the start of it all," she added as an afterthought.

"'M sorry, Darlin'."

"Don't be," she laughed darkly. "I hoped the dead bastards ripped him to shreds. If one good thing came out of all of this, it was him being gone," she passed the bottle back.

Negan couldn't bite his tongue. He had to ask. "What did he do to you?" he could tell that Ellie's father must have done something horrible to make her hate him so much.

"It's not important now."

"It is, clearly it still bothers you."

"He was always an asshole, but my brothers used to tell me that things got worse after my mom died," she was starting to feel sleep taking over her. "He'd drink and get really, really mean…I think this is better saved for another night. I'm not drunk enough for this," she frowned. Negan just nodded in understanding. Clearly, whatever happened in her past had a big effect on her.

XxX

Negan and Ellie stayed up for a while longer, talking, eventually falling asleep on the couch. Ellie with her feet stretched across Negan and him in an upright sitting position.

The next morning, Simon knocked on the door, waking the duo from their dreamless slumbers. Ellie rose first, wordlessly pulling on her boots from the floor.

"Come in," Negan called, he knew it was Simon at the door, due to the way he knocked, and the knowledge that nobody other than the mustached man would knock on his door so early.

"Sorry boss, didn't realize you had company," Simon rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

"He doesn't, I was just going."

"Actually, this is one you might be able to help us with," Simon spoke up before she could slip out of the room.

"What's up?" Ellie asked, pulling her sun-kissed blonde hair into a high, messy bun.

"Someone thought it'd be a good idea to break into the infirmary last night, I know you set up the inventory of all of that shit, maybe you could help us figure out what all's gone, and who could've done it?" Simon suggested. Ellie wasn't sure it was necessarily a task for her, but she could certainly give it a shot.

"Sure," she replied. It wasn't like she could really go out for a hunt after all the walkers were so close yesterday. Any animals had probably all gone away to take shelter. They would make their way back into the area within a couple of days, but she had picked up on the fact that animals tended to clear an area, just like people would.

"Some sorry son of a bitch thinks it's okay to steal shit from me?" Negan looked appalled. "Find out who it was, and I'll take care of them," he had a sinister look on his face, one that Ellie did not love, but she just nodded in agreement. Whether she was one of Negan's most trusted people or not, she knew that he was the boss around here, and that they had a strict set of rules to follow. As she was so close to Negan, she also needed to help enforce the rules and make sure they were followed.

"I'm going to shower and then I'll be right on it," she hurried out of the room, leaving Negan and Simon alone.

"Boss—" Simon started, but Negan abruptly cut him off.

"Before you start, nothing even happened, all right?"

"You never let anyone else sleep in your room."

"Ellie's another story. She's probably even more loyal than you are, Si." Negan was very blunt, and Simon knew where he stood. Though in most things, he was Negan's right-hand man, he still knew that Ellie was the person he was closest to and could trust most. It was all about those bonds from how the world used to be.

XxX

Trying not to harp too much on the night before, Ellie sorted through the medical supplies and discovered what was missing. Insulin. She knew only one of the members of the sanctuary was a diabetic, Tina, which should have made her the first suspect, however Ellie had met Tina. Tina was not the type of person with enough guts to break into the infirmary. Tina had a sister, Sherry, Ellie didn't see Sherry as brave enough to break in either, but Sherry's husband, Dwight was. He definitely seemed like the type willing to go to such great lengths. Dwight had even spent his points on insulin for Tina before.

Though Ellie was proud of herself for likely solving the mystery of the infirmary, she did not like the idea of Dwight or even Tina being punished for something Tina needed to survive. As much as Ellie trusted and cared about Negan, she did not agree with every rule that he had in place. Rather than going straight to Negan, she found herself going down the corridor towards the room Tina shared with Dwight and Sherry. She knocked on the door and Tina answered the door.

Her strawberry blond hair fell over her eyes, Ellie knew that the girl was young, but looking at her made her look even younger than she was. She was practically a child, which only made this harder.

"W-What do you need?" Tina asked, stuttering as she spoke, she had very few interactions with any of the rest of the sanctuary, let alone one of Negan's highest-ranking saviors.

"I need to talk to you," Ellie said. "Can I come in?" she as trying to not feel bad about all of this, but she knew that her responsibility was to Negan and upholding the rules here.

"D-Did something happen?"

"I think that's something you're going to tell me," Ellie's eyes drifted to the table beside the twin bed in the corner. There were three insulin bottles sitting here—the exact amount that was missing from the infirmary.

"I-I-I'm sorry," tears fell down the young girl's face.

"Did you steal them?"

"Yes, it was me, I'm so sorry…I need my medication…I'm a diabetic—"

"You didn't steal it," the older of the two knew that. She didn't want to take a false admission of guilt to Negan. "But it was stolen for you, right?" Tina stayed silent.

"What's going on?" a blonde haired man, Ellie knew to be Dwight walked into the room, taking in the scene. Tina crying, and Ellie standing there with a stony expression.

"There's insulin missing from the infirmary, you took it, right?" Dwight's face paled and Ellie clenched her jaw, she didn't want to be the one to bring this information to Negan. She didn't want to be the one who was likely to cause his eminent punishment. "Look, I'm going to have to tell Negan," she said. She was deciding where exactly to go from here. "But…" she was trying to think of the best phrasing. "I'm not going to tell him until tomorrow around noon. I suggest you come clean yourself, but you have until then to decide."

"Thanks," Dwight mumbled. She knew that it wasn't the best case for Dwight, but she could live with herself a little more with this alternative.

AN: Sorry if this chapter was weird, I'm trying to get it on track-ish with the timeline of the series, so you all can kind of tell where we are in the story. Please leave your reviews at the bottom! Thanks for reading!