More Than This

by Graveyard Whispers

Naomi Payton was Daryl Dixon's childhood best friend. In truth, they were each others only friend. But sometimes growing up means growing apart and when Naomi's ambitions and Daryl's loyalty to his brother drive a wedge between them, will the world falling apart be enough to bring them together again? Hell, will they even find each other again?

54. Angel

A/N: I'm back! (for real this time 😬)

---

Naomi

"Negan threatened to kill me," Mia said. So calm. So matter-of-fact. But the temperature in the room dropped. My heart twisted in my stomach. I knew I'd struggle to lie to her about it; the truth must've been all over my face. "Carl told me."

Carl looked sheepishly at us from where they both stood in the doorway of Rick's kitchen. Rick and I exchanged the frantic glances of two adults who knew they were about to engage in telepathy to deal with their kids as a united front. I hadn't planned for this. I should have. But the thought of telling Mia that she was being targeted by a murderous lunatic sent me into a tailspin. It was too heavy a burden for a kid her age to carry.

"I didn't know she didn't know," Carl said quickly, eyes flitting nervously between us as he answered the question we hadn't yet asked. He and Mia had planned this moment. They'd come in here together as the united front that Rick and I now had to improvise being. "I'm sorry."

I glanced at Rick. He gave me a micro-nod; he'd deal with Carl. Mia was the more pressing issue.

"You're safe," I said to her. "I won't let him get to you."

"I know," she said, with a slight eye roll like she was bored of hearing it. "But that's why Daryl stayed behind, right? Instead of coming here with us? He's looking for Negan."

"Yes," I said. "And he'll find him."

"He's already found the people we think are responsible for sending those threats," Rick was quick to add.

"And it wasn't Negan?" Mia asked.

"No," Rick said. "It wasn't."

Mia looked between the two of us like she was waiting for us to go on. When we didn't, she said, "So… we can go back now, right?"

"Do you want to go back?" I couldn't hide my surprise. She'd made her disdain for the place crystal clear.

"Well… that was the deal, wasn't it?" she said. "We visit here sometimes, but we help to build Sanctuary into something good."

"Yes. That was the deal."

"So we can go back now?"

"It's not that simple," I said, although I knew that wouldn't be enough to make her drop it.

"Why?"

"Someone's been leaving food out for Negan," I said. "None of the people that have been caught have owned up to it. So, until we know who it was, we can't risk going back. Not until we've found Negan."

I waited for Rick to add something about how we couldn't be sure that it was Negan, but he refrained, and I was grateful. Mia and Carl glanced at one another, communicating something not meant for Rick and me. Always a worrying sign with teenagers.

"Did Negan… talk to you himself?" Mia asked. "Or was it one of these other guys?"

"You don't need to worry about it," I said, although, of course, I couldn't blame her. In her shoes, I'd have obsessed over it too. Hell, I was obsessing over it, but I wanted to shut it down for her as quickly as possible. "It's being dealt with."

Mia shot another look at Carl, but this time he was staring pointedly at his feet. She looked back at me and said, "I don't think it was Negan."

"It was."

"How do you know?"

I was getting so sick of this question and couldn't believe I was hearing it from my own damn sister. People were so quick to believe that just because we hadn't seen anything bad for a while, that meant the bad things were gone. Finding those responsible for some of the weird goings-on at Sanctuary had only made it worse, made the real Negan seem like a boogeyman I'd conjured up out of guilt or fear. Now, someone had shone a torch under the bed and found out that the boogeyman was just some punks playing a practical joke. It felt like I was the only one still awake, begging someone to check the closet.

"He sent me something," I said. Mia opened her mouth to say something, I held up a hand. "It doesn't matter what, but it was definitely from him."

Rick struggled not to contradict me. I wished I had a better way of explaining how I knew it was from Negan that went beyond a gut feeling. But Rick hadn't known the very specific ways Negan would mess with me while I was his prisoner. Negan had been all bravado with Rick, shows of strength and dick-swinging contests, but he'd had quieter ways of getting in my head. Rick wouldn't get it. He couldn't.

"Can I see it?"

"Mia… No."

"Please."

"Try to forget it," I said.

"What about Daryl?"

"He'll stay in Sanctuary." Even as I said it, I could feel my heart sinking like it had turned to lead in my chest. "We're not going back until we know it's safe for you."

Mia looked at me like she could see right through me, and she knew just talking about being apart from Daryl had caused a physical pang in my chest. Or maybe it was a heart attack, brought on by the shock of Mia finding all of this out.

I smiled back at her, but it felt forced. When she was little, she'd fall for it. I could tell her anything with a smile, and she'd buy that I wasn't worried about paying rent on time or that I wasn't eating because I didn't feel hungry and not because we only had enough food for one of us to have dinner that night. Now she was getting older, it was wearing off.

"It's just the food, right?" she said. "Once you know who's leaving food out, we can go back?"

"Maybe," I said.

And at the same time, Rick said, "Yes."

The unease settled so deep into me that I could feel it squeezing at my throat. I wouldn't be happy there until I knew Negan was gone. Rick, who didn't believe in the boogeyman at all anymore, was fine with just his minions being caught. Mia cleared her throat. "If it's about the food…"

"Mia…" Carl straightened up and stopped staring at his shoes. There was something frantic in the way he looked at her that immediately sent my heartrate through the roof.

"I have to," she said to him. It sounded like an apology. Then she looked back at me and said the phrase that raises the hackles of anyone caring for a kid. "But first, you need to promise you won't get mad."

There was no way I was dumb enough to fall for that.

"Mad about what?"

Mia said nothing, also not dumb enough to answer without an immunity agreement, and we stared at each other. Stalemate.

Carl sighed and looked at his dad. "We need to tell you something."

"You can tell us anything," Rick said. Everyone in that room knew it was a trap, but now they'd made us suspicious there was no way the kids were getting out without confessing to something. You can't walk back a 'we need to tell you something' or a 'promise you won't get mad'.

"It was us. We left food out for Negan," Carl said it fast like he was ripping off a bandaid. It didn't dull the shock of it.

"What?" The word tore out of Rick and me in unison. No telepathy needed.

"You promised you wouldn't get mad," Mia said, her eyes immediately filling with tears.

"I didn't promise shit," I said. I couldn't remember a time that I'd been so angry with her. I don't think either of us could.

"I'm sorry," she said as quickly as she could, as if the faster she apologized the more likely we were to drop it.

"Why?" I asked.

At the same time, Rick asked, "Did you see him?"

The kids looked at each other again.

"We heard him. His whistle… and he was talking to Lucille," Carl said.

"I've got Lucille," I said. Or, at least, I had Lucille back at Sanctuary, where I checked twice a day that the damn bat was hidden where it should be. Daryl was the only other person in there who knew where it was.

"Yeah, it wasn't really the bat-Lucille, it was… his wife, I guess?" Mia said. "Like…. A ghost."

I felt that ghost in the room with us. It lived in the walls and ceilings of Sanctuary. The grief that had originally left Negan with enough loose screws that he'd become completely unhinged stained everything.

"He just…. Didn't seem okay, Dad," Carl said, his voice and eyes full of so much pity it split me in two. Part of me wanted to hug them for the compassion they'd show to a man that many of the rest of us would still shoot on sight. The other wanted to lock them both away for the rest of their lives for being such little idiots.

"So, I just…" Mia said. "I just… Dont think he'd actually hurt me. I think we can go home."

"When...when was this?"

"When we came to visit you," Carl said. "And we stayed for a while to help get things set up. Mia and I went out in the woods when we saw him by the creek."

"And you," I looked at Mia who looked at the floor. "You've been leaving food out ever since?"

"Yes," it was so quiet it was almost a whisper. I'd always been so careful with Mia, never for a second wanting her to feel scared or unsafe with an angry adult. Never wanting her to feel like there was anything she couldn't come to me about. Never wanting her to feel like she couldn't make a mistake in her own home. But this? I was struggling to keep a lid on my anger.

"You know there's a food shortage at Sanctuary, right? You know how hard it is to grow things, and that we're having to rely on the goodwill of other communities to get by?" I said. Mia nodded, she looked like she was shrinking right in front of me. "And you've been taking some of that food and leaving it out?"

I let the sentence end there and didn't mention who it was she'd been leaving it out for. Partly because I couldn't bring myself to say it, and partly because I knew that not mentioning Negan would keep Rick and me on the same side. We could argue about whether or not Negan was out there later, the fact that Sanctuary didn't have food to waste was undeniable.

My hands started to shake. I could feel my anger giving way to overwhelming fear. Fear of every time Mia had snuck out of Sanctuary, putting herself in danger while my back was turned. Fear that my anger about it would leave her scared of me like I'd been of our Momma. I was numb to other people's anger, but anger never sat right in me. It always felt like a boulder lodged in a volcano. And I'd always been able to keep control of it. Until I couldn't, until I exploded. I'd never blown up at her before.

Rick put a hand on my back.

"I need you to do something for me," he said.

"What?" I couldn't think of anything more important than what we were dealing with right now, but there was such an urgency in his voice.

"I need you to radio Sanctuary and update them," he said. "Right away, before they waste any more time looking for culprits who aren't there."

I knew he was only saying it because he could see that I was about to crack, but he made it sound believable enough.

"You sure?" I said. Rick held out the walkie that had been clipped to his belt.

"This all sounds like it was my son's dumb idea," he said. "So, I will deal with the kids for now."

"Alright," I said, I could already feel cooling relief in the pit of my stomach. I glanced at Mia. "This ain't over."

Mia dropped her gaze to the floor. I left through the back door. I couldn't walk past Mia and Carl and out into the hallway because I knew if I got too close I'd have to fight the urge to grab them both by the scruff of the neck and stuff them in Morgan's jail cell, where they couldn't do any more dumb shit. With nowhere specific in mind, I found myself walking closer to Aaron's house, the first place to take me in and make me feel at home.

I switched the walkie on, comforted by the crackle of the static. The tightness in my chest was already easing up. "Sanctuary, this is Alexandria. Come in."

I waited, annoyed that I could already feel myself smiling. No matter who picked up this call, I was thirty seconds to a minute from hearing Daryl's voice, and that made every ounce of rage I'd been feeling start to ebb from my system.

Static continued to crackle without an answer. In my rush to speak to Daryl, I mustn't have done it right. I felt dumb and swore to take this mistake to my grave. He'd never let me live it down.

"Sanctuary, this is Alexandria. Come in."

Sure that I'd done it right this time, my stomach flipped over, my heart fluttering like a teenager waiting for her crush to pick up the phone.

There was a gap in the static. I kept waiting for someone to talk, but no answer came. I fiddled with the volume and tried again."Sorry, Sanctuary, I missed that. Can you repeat?"

Another pause, but still, no answer. The hairs on the back of my neck started to rise. A twist in my gut. I checked the settings. Double checked.

"Daryl, you there?"

Nothing.

My heart rate rose to my throat, and I stumbled back through Rick's door. The atmosphere was soured. He was clearly in the middle of a serious telling-off. What had felt so important moments before shrank to nothing right in front of me.

"I can't get an answer," I said. I think I spoke right over him, but I can't be sure. Blood was rushing in my ears, filling the silence where Daryl's voice should have been. "Am I doing something wrong?"

Rick frowned and took the walkie from me, turning it over in his hands and checking everything that I had already double and triple-checked. Hope that this was my mistake vanished right in front of me. He passed the walkie back. "Looks fine to me. Try again."

"Daryl?" It was hard to get his name around the lump in my throat.

This time, there was a break in the static. Silence. Undecipherable, distant thumps, and then someone cried out in pain.

Daryl.

I dropped the radio and was out of the house before it hit the ground.

Daryl

Fuck.

Fuck. Fuck. Shit. Fuck.

Ties cut into my wrists. One of my eyes was swollen shut. The other tracked Ronnie as he paced the room. He still looked like shit from when I'd interrogated him, and now, so did I, which I guess made us even.

To my right, Glenn groaned where he was slumped over in a chair of his own. Behind me and out of my line of sight, Bryce, Aaron, and Jerry were tied up, too, with various degrees of injury. I hadn't heard any of them for a while, but I'd been the focus of most of the beatings, so I had faith that they were doing alright.

The space that Naomi's voice had left grew bigger the longer she went without answering. Ronnie kept glancing at it, confused. He held the walkie to my face again. "Speak."

No point.

Ronnie had tried to get me to respond to every little thing Naomi had said. If I hadn't been caught in the middle of an attempted ex-Savior uprising when her voice first came over the radio, my heart would've melted at how excited she sounded to talk to me. As it was, helplessly listening to that excitement fade to confusion, then worry, then fear was hell.

I wished anyone else had called. If it had been Rick or Michonne, I might have been able to say something to convince them to stay away and leave me to my fate as things played out here. I could have convinced someone else to keep this from Naomi until it was over.

But it had been her.

And she'd heard me.

So, Ronnie could try all he liked to get me to talk into that walkie-talkie, but I already knew she wasn't on the other end of it anymore. Sure enough, when a voice did come through again, it was Rick. "Who am I speaking to?"

Ronnie looked at me, still not understanding what he'd unleashed upon himself. "Guess your woman doesn't give a shit about you."

Wrong.

"Sanctuary?" Rick tried again. "Do you copy?"

"We are Negan," Ronnie said. If I could've rolled my eyes, I would have. But it hurt too much, so I didn't. "We're taking back Sanctuary."

"Our people," Rick said. "Are they safe? Have you hurt anyone?"

"They're alive," Ronnie said. "And if you want to keep it that way, you'll give us what we want."

A slight pause before Rick asked, "Is Negan there, or are you speaking on his behalf?"

"We are Negan," Ronnie said again. I tried to laugh, but the first burst of air caused a twist of pain in my rib cage. He glared at me.

"You ain't sick of saying that shit, man?" I asked. I'd been getting tired in the last few hours, but hearing Naomi's voice had set a new fire in my veins. Ronnie punched me around the mouth, and blood pooled on my tongue.

"Right. This again," Rick sighed. "But is Negan himself there?"

"He'll only talk to Naomi," Ronnie said, which was news to me because I hadn't seen his face once during the whole sorry affair. "Is she there?"

"She's…" Rick hesitated. Ignoring the protest in my ribs, I sat up straighter to hear him confirm what I already knew. "...already on her way."

Ronnie looked at me, surprised. He wouldn't have been if he'd known who he was up against. Naomi might prefer months of deliberation over a pro-con list, but when the shit hits the fan, she gets reactive. Nuclear. Since we were little, the only thing faster than her feet was her mind.

The closest thing I've ever known to a guardian angel.

I smiled at him through freshly bloodied teeth.

Y'all are fucked.

Before she'd called us, they'd spent hours trying to get me to call Alexandria and lure her here. Keeping her away had been my top priority and they didn't understand that no matter how much they beat me, I would not break. Ain't no way I was going to be bait in a trap for my girl.

But now that she was on her way? A calm washed over me. Failure was no longer an option.

"We have Daryl here," Ronnie said, his voice faltering a little. They'd planned this whole thing around scaring and intimating Naomi, but she'd already shown him how few fucks she gave about what he had to say by not sticking around to hear it. "We have the rest of your leaders- Glenn, Bryce, Aaron, and Jerry - captive but alive. Your allies and any former Saviors loyal to you are being held safely. If you want them to stay that way, you'll agree to our demands."

"Mmhm," Rick said, distracted by the counter-attack he was probably already planning. I could picture it. Rick - somewhere in Alexandria, motioning to Michonne or Morgan or whoever was around him - talking in hurried whispers every time his finger wasn't holding down the button to speak to Ronnie. "And what demands are those?"

"You'll hand over Naomi. Right away."

"Right. Well, like I said, she's on her way."

"No backup," Ronnie said quickly. "Or we'll kill them."

"Mmhm," Rick said again in a noncommittal kind of way. The kind of way that told everyone, Ronnie included, that he wasn't taking him or his demands all that seriously.

Ronnie could claim Negan's name all he wanted, but they weren't the same. Negan knew how to threaten, how to put on a show. He understood leverage and how to use it. Ronnie might have done some ruthless shit under Negan's orders, and he might be willing to kill everyone in the room if his boss told him to. But he wasn't a leader, wasn't cut out for more than grunt work. The more he ran his mouth, the more obvious it was.

If Negan was behind this, God knows why he'd put this guy in charge.

"Sanctuary belongs to us now," Ronnie said.

He said it confidently enough, but Rick still replied like he was negotiating with a toddler,

"Alright. Well. We can discuss things at Sanctuary, sure. Best to do that face to face."

"No. I said no backup," Ronnie snapped. "Y'all ain't coming here."

Fucking idiot. How'd he think this was going to go?

"I'll need to come and check on my people. You understand that, right?" Rick said. "All we've got is your word that they're alive."

Ronnie's face reddened, and he held the radio to me again. "Fucking speak."

Bits of spit flew at me. I glared at him through my one good eye and said nothing.

"FUCK!" he yelled before gesturing to one of his skeevy friends, Brett, to hit me again. Guess his own hands were getting tired.

The next few blows landed worse than the ones I'd already taken. Maybe because there had been a break, there had been time for my body to ease out of the numbness it had slipped into. Took me a second to get it back.

Between each one, Ronnie held the walkie to my mouth and tried to get me to say something to assure Rick we were all alive. Just like when he tried to get me to contact Naomi, I said nothing, but by the time it was done, I could barely keep my head up.

"Alright," Ronnie paced the floor. His frantic eyes scanned the room. He knew Rick had been waiting too long for proof of life. I knew it, too. Cars would be loading up to file out of Alexandria. "One more time."

My vision was blurred, head aching like my skull was about to split in half. I tried to raise my head higher. I couldn't fight him, but I could face him down.

"Stop!" someone yelled from behind me. It took me a moment to realize it was Bryce. The room slowly spun on its axis. "You're going to kill him."

Ronnie held up a hand to stop Brett.

"What the fuck do we care if he dies?" Brett said, but he held off another blow.

"She'll care," Bryce said. He didn't need to specify who he was talking about. Her impending arrival was making them jittery. "Whatever conversation Negan wants to have…. you lose all your leverage if Daryl dies now."

"Alright. You then," Ronnie pointed at Bryce.

Ah, shit.

I couldn't let Bryce get beaten like me. For one, I'm pretty sure he wasn't as used to it as I was. He might not know how to zone out, so you can barely feel fists slamming into you anymore. It was a skill set I'd gained as a kid, I'm not sure how easy it is for adults to pick up. Second, while I appreciated him speaking up for me, Naomi would be lost if Bryce died, too. Or Aaron. Glenn. Jerry. Any of them dying on our watch would tear her apart.

More than that, I owed Bryce for the years he'd stepped up and looked after my girls when I was too chicken shit to be a good man.

"Wait!" I said. There was so much blood in my mouth that I felt it dribble down my chin when I finally spoke. Ronnie looked over at me, a relieved smile twisting his face. So smug for someone so dumb. Beating someone else to get me to talk…. Negan would've caught onto that tactic hours ago.

"We're here, Rick," I said into the radio. "We're all here. All alive."

No answer, although I'm sure Rick heard. Ronnie had taken too long, and Alexandria was on their way.

"You should let me go." I looked up at Ronnie. My lip was busted, and my mouth was still filling with blood, so it didn't sound right, but he got the jist.

"Shut up," he said.

"Before she gets here," I said. "You should let me go. It'll help you stay alive."

Ronnie laughed in my face. "You still haven't got it yet, have you? You're not the big dog anymore, and your bitch is being put down. You've lost."

He was the one who didn't get it. Naomi had lost one home to take over in the dead of night, and now it was in danger of happening again; she'd be a pressure cooker of fear and rage. Terminus would be playing on her mind over and over. If they reunited us all when she arrived, she'd probably walk away.

But walking in on this - her friends beaten and bound?

He was a dead man.

"Your funeral," I shrugged. Or, I did the best shrug you can do when you've been bound to a chair by murderous assholes.

Time moved at the slowest pace since this whole thing started. It was the longest I'd gone without taking a beating since their uprising early hours of the morning. My blood dripped onto the floor like the tick of a clock. I thawed back into my body, an awareness of pain growing everywhere.

It was lucky, really, that the journey from Alexandria to here would take a while. It gave me a good amount of time to work up some kind of plan.

Ronnie stopped pacing and waited, head in his hands and a gun dangling by the trigger guard from one of his fingers. I kept my eyes on the ground and tried to loosen the ropes they'd tired me with. I worked my fingers along each snake of rope that lashed me to the chair I was on, twisting it around me until I found the knot.

One of them almost noticed what I was trying to do, but Glenn distracted him before he could bust me for it. I'd just got the knot loose when there was a commotion in the hallway. One of Ronnie's guys appeared in the doorway, "She's here."

Damn it.

I thought I'd have longer.

She'd made the journey in record time. Thinking about the speeds she must've hit to get to us in that kinda time made me queasy. My chest clenched, my heart beating at the pace of her footsteps racing down the hall.

The Saviors bristled, but nobody stopped her from coming in. I hadn't expected it to be a problem; she was exactly where Negan wanted her. I was more worried about getting her out again. Ronnie blocked my view of the doorway. I heard her feet stop and knew she was taking it all in. Glenn, Jerry, Bryce, Aaron, and then…

"Where is he?" She was out of breath, a tremor in her voice.

Ronnie stepped aside.

I was a mess. Bloodied and swollen. Weak in a way that I never wanted her to see me. My instinct was to turn away from her, sheild her from it. But where was there to turn when you're tied to a chair?

They were expecting her to cry, scream, plead with them, maybe. But she'd grown completely still. Eyes fixed on me like nothing else mattered. And when our eyes met, I watched something in her snap.

Did they know, then, that they were fucked?

Did they know that when she was still, was when she was at her most dangerous?

Naomi took a few steps towards me. Her eyes hadn't left my face. Those beautiful eyes, so sad and worried. I just wanted to hold her. Ronnie blocked her again.

"Let me see him," she said. Real quiet, but it was crystal clear it wasn't a question. Ronnie was still too dumb and too cocky to pick up on the danger he was in. He took a step towards her.

"You best get away from my girl," I warned him. "You lay a finger on her, and it'll be the last thing you do."

Ronnie looked back at me, "Oh now you wanna start talking? Where was all this when it actually could've saved you a few beatings, huh? Idiot."

"Watch your mouth," Naomi snapped, neatly sidestepping him while he was distracted. Her eyes were back on me. Mine on her. For now, that was enough.

"When are you two going to get it in your dumb hick skulls that this is over?" he said, waving his gun around like a damn fool. If it had gone off, there's no telling who it would've hit. "Negan's got bigger plans for you than patching up your mute boyfriend."

"Is Negan here?" she asked. "Or did you numbskulls orchestrate this yourselves?"

Ronnie picked up the walkie we'd found hidden inside Naomi's missing bag and spoke into it. "She's here, boss."

Then he held it out to her, grinning. Naomi took it from his outstretched hand like it was a grenade. She didn't say anything, didn't confirm her presence. Just waited to see if she'd been right all this time.

"How does my crown feel sweetheart?" Negan's voice cut through the silence. Naomi winced. He sounded different, his voice hoarser than before, but unmistakably the same asshole. "Of course, it's not you that's wearing it. Not officially, anyway. How's Daryl holding up? Is he still alive?"

"You and I both know we'd be having a very different conversation if he wasn't," she said. Teeth gritted. Eyes fixed on me like I might drop dead if she looked away from me. I held her gaze.

You got this, baby.

"You tried to slit my throat - you failed - but you tried. You ready to have that conversation?"

"Are you looking for an apology?" she said Her knuckles turned white with how hard she was gripping the walkie. "It was kill or be killed that day. We both know that."

"Only you didn't kill me. Did you, sweetheart?" he said. "And I didn't kill you, either. So now we gotta deal with that."

"You threatened my sister," Naomi said. "Are you ready to have that conversation? She's a kid, Negan. I thought you didn't cross that line?"

"I had to get your attention somehow.".

"She is a child."

Even Negan was silenced. Naomi let that silence hang for a moment.

"Not only that," she continued, "but she's a kid who's been leaving food out for you… took pity on you. Helped you even though she knew how much trouble she'd be when I found out."

That was Mia?

I searched Naomi's face, and she nodded in response to my unasked question.

"You needed to be reminded," he said, "of what you've got to lose."

"You think I don't know?" she said, seething.

"No. You don't," Negan's anger finally matched hers.

"Right now, I could lose everything." She looked right at me when she said it. Didn't even try to hide it. "I know that. But if you think that makes me weak, if you think you're somehow stronger because you've got nothing to lose, you're wrong. I-"

"No. No, you don't get it. You still have your family. You don't know-" Negan stopped abruptly. The pause was so long Naomi checked the walkie to make sure it was still working. "What the hell is this? I said no backup, Ronnie. Did you not secure that?"

Outside the walls, there was the faint sound of approaching engines. Ronnie's face paled. Naomi relaxed, just a fraction. This whole time, she'd been stalling, giving Rick time to mobilize the backup we all knew was coming.

"I got this," Naomi said quickly, calmly. She said it to both Ronnie and Negan, holding her hand out for the second walkie.

"You really think I'm gonna let you talk to your little friends?"

"They'll storm the place if you don't," she warned him. "You got the numbers for this kinda fight?"

"Ronnie," Negan's annoyed voice somehow managed to boom from the tiny walkie-talkie. "What's going on in there?"

"Let me talk to Rick," Naomi said, answering on Ronnie's behalf. "If they don't hear from us, they'll be storming the halls before you've all had a chance to pull your fingers out your asses and reload your guns. You ain't got the numbers for a fight."

"Alright, Ronnie," Negan said. "Let her do it."

Ronnie passed her the walkie to talk to Rick and pressed his gun to the back of my head. "If anyone else sets foot in this building, I'll pull the trigger."

The barrel of the gun was cool against my skull, My eyes stayed fixed on Naomi, keeping her calm.

"Rick. I got this."

Hell yeah, you do.

"Naomi?" Rick sounded worried. "Everything okay in there?"

"Yup. Just hang back, don't come any closer."

"Naomi, we-"

"We're fine," she said. "Stay where you are. Looks like it'll be a cold night, and I don't know how long you'll be here. Might wanna build yourselves a fire or something."

It was, without question, an odd thing to say, given the situation. Negan's Dummies raised their eyebrows at it, but it wasn't enough to raise more than that. Negan himself might have read something into it, but he wasn't here and couldn't hear her.

"Send them away," Ronnie ordered. Or…he tried to.

"Keeping him at the gates is the best I can do," Naomi said. She looked at Ronnie but held the button on the walkie down so that Negan could hear this part of the conversation. "You had to have known they'd come. You got Glenn here, so you best believe Maggie and the Hilltop are already on their way. Do you think the King's going to let Jerry die? You know this ain't gonna work. And you knew it from the start."

"Catch up, Naomi. It's already worked."

"Nah. We ain't done. You ain't here," she said. "You've left some shitstain lemmings to do all the hard work because when it all goes ass-up, which it will, it won't be you in the firing line."

"Isn't that what Rick the Prick is doing to you?" Negan countered. "Leaving you and Daryl to run the most dangerous place in his little Empire. And if there's some kind of uprising - like there was last night… oh well… it ain't his family in the firing line, right?"

I hated it when Negan talked shit, but I hated it more when the shit made sense. How many times had I told Rick that he had no right to ask me and my girl to be here?

Even Naomi faltered just a little. A flicker of fear as her eyes cast over me again. I knew she was thinking of Mia and how much worse this could've been if they hadn't been in Alexandria when this kicked off. A beat, and then she rallied.

"What will it take?" she asked Negan. "For you to fuck off?"

"I'm not going anywhere," Negan said. "Sanctuary's not yours anymore. Didn't Ronnie give you the memo?"

"I don't see you here," she said, making a big deal of looking around even though he couldn't have seen her do it. Negan's cronies glanced at one another, and I realized it was for their benefit, not Negan's. My girl had a plan, as always. "And we both know you don't want to be here."

"Is that so?"

"You could save us all a lot of time and turn yourself in."

"Not this again."

"So you heard me, huh?" she said, a flash of triumph in her eyes. He'd been out there in the storm, after all. "It was you out there."

Negan's cold laugh filled the room. Without being here, he still managed to have more of a presence than any of his henchmen. "That was real dumb coming by your lonesome. I almost had you."

I shuddered, thinking about how close he'd been to her and how things could've played out if I hadn't found her.

"Come on, Negan," she said. "You and I both know that you'd be here if you wanted to be. So, what is this? Are you feeling lonely? Because we've got a place for ya if you turn yourself in and-"

"Don't insult me with this shit. Again."

"You bored, then? Because Alexandria's got some good reading material, even from our jail cell you could learn -"

"Stop," he said. "Ronnie - make her see sense."

If Ronnie had been a smart man, capable of learning anything, he'd have realized the way to get Naomi to do something was to use me. I even braced myself for it, but the pressure of the barrel of Ronnie's gun at the base of my skull disappeared as he walked closer to Naomi. The tension in me did not ease up.

"Y'know, Daryl put up with a hell of a lot not to give you up," Ronnie brushed his hand down her cheek, gently caressing her jaw with his thumb, forcing her to look at him. She started him down, but behind her back, her hands started to shake.

"Get your hands off her," I warned him. The rope burned against my skin as I twisted my wrist against it. The ties around me were loose, but I hadn't had time to free my wrists.

"You must be a dynamite lay to be worth all of that." I would've rolled my eyes at the predictability of it. Like he'd taken the line right from Negan's mouth. But what he said next changed everything. Ronnie turned his head to look at me, "You wanna watch when I find out for myself?"

I broke out of the binds they had me in. Broke my hand too, but that was fine because my other one was free and clear for throwing punches. I was on Ronnie before any of them had time to react.

"Don't. Fucking. Touch. Her." I punctuated each word with a punch to his fucking stupid face. Just to drive my point home.

Naomi was yelling at me to stop, but I feel like it goes without saying I didn't care if I killed him. I knew she was trying to negotiate or some shit, but after what he'd just threatened… he could rot. She'd been through enough. History would not repeat itself. Not here, not tonight, not ever again, not so long as I was breathing would anyone lay a hand on her without her consent.

Three of them pulled me off him. Kept me on my knees at gunpoint while Ronnie picked himself up. He was mad as hell. But before he could tell them to go ahead and shoot, Naomi put herself between us.

"Stop! Stop!" It was the second time Naomi's voice had shaken during this whole ordeal. "Negan can have what he wants."

"Naomi…" I said. Or, at least, I tried to say it. With the blood in my mouth and my lip busted and swollen, it came out slurred. She looked back at me and gave me a look as if to say, It's gonna be okay.

I wasn't so sure.

"Negan?" she said into the walkie.

"Yes, baby girl?"

I was ready to throw another punch. Naomi looked like she was too, but she gritted her teeth and said, "I'll give you what you want."

"Caved so quickly, huh? Rick will be disappointed that I'm back to -"

"No, not Sanctuary. I'll give you what you want. What you really want."

Ice in my stomach when I thought about all that she might be about to offer. This place? I didn't give a shit. Herself? Whole other problem.

"What I really, really want? What is this? A negotiation or Spice Girls karaoke?" Negan was the only one who laughed. "So, tell me, what do I want? What do I really, really want?"

"Lucille."

Naomi finally played her ace.

"You still got my girl?"

"I've got her."

"My guys couldn't find her."

"I hid her. She's fine. Your guys are dumb."

"You're lying."

"I can prove it. I'll bring her out the front, and you can see for yourself." There was another long pause. The whole room seemed to lean in while she added, "You knew when Rick showed up, so I assume you've got eyes on the place."

Silence hung in the air. Naomi's eyes found mine again.

"Bring her outside," Negan said.

"But, boss, you said not to -"

"Well, now I'm saying something different. Get her out here, and make sure she has my Lady Lucille."

The other men in the room all looked at Ronnie for instruction. He nodded and then gestured to me. "Bring him too. It'll keep the bitch in line."

"Watch your mouth," I spat at him.

Ronnie walked Naomi out of the room at gunpoint. New ties were wrapped around me. The other men dragged the rest of us outside - me, Bryce, Glenn, Jerry, and Aaron.

It had gotten dark, but the place was lit up by the headlights from the cars amassed by the gates and the bonfire Naomi had asked for. There was a flurry of activity as we walked out. Looked like most of Alexandria had turned up, and half of Hilltop had arrived too. Beside me, Glenn strained against the rope binding him as he laid eyes on Maggie.

Naomi had done it. She'd brought them to a place where they were outnumbered again. Where our friends had eyes on us and, more importantly, weapons. I didn't see how this could go Negan's way anymore. Surely his goons had to see that too.

That morning it had felt like we were all about to die in a hostile takeover, but now? We had more than a fighting chance of getting out of a hostage situation.

Naomi and Ronnie walked back out of Sanctuary. She dragged Lucille through the dirt behind her in a way that could only have been designed to aggravate Negan. Her bright, clever eyes took in the scene she was walking into.

She walked right up to the fire and stopped, holding Lucile high above her head for everyone to see, she spoke into the walkie, "I told you. I told you I wasn't lying."

"Bring her to me."

"Come down here and get her," Naomi yelled into the walkie, looking around at the darkness around Sanctuary for the vantage point that Negan might be watching us all from.

"How dumb do you think I am?"

"No comment."

"Gotta say, I'm disappointed in you, Naomi. I thought you were better than this. More than just some little foot soldier mindlessly parroting whatever Rick tells you to," he said. "You gonna try and convince me to turn myself in again?"

At the gates, Rick was looking restless. It was clear he wanted to jump in but, while Naomi had managed to get us in a good position, this was still a hostage negotiation. They couldn't open fire on Negan's men without risking that they'd retaliate by killing one of us.

Let my girl work.

"Cut the shit, Negan," she said. "You owe your guys the truth. These men were willing to follow you to the end, to throw away a secure life here to bring you back, but you don't wanna be here."

"You don't know what you're talking about, bitch," Ronnie snapped, advancing on my girl.

"Oi! Stay away from her!" I tried to get to my feet. Ronnie turned on me and kicked me hard. I felt the blow on my jaw and then a second blow to the back of my head as it hit the ground. For a second everything was darker, blurrier.

The first thing I became aware of was Naomi's voice calling my name. Her wide, terrified eyes. I forced myself to my knees, head spinning. She was seconds away from running to my side but I couldn't let Negan think he was gaining the upper hand, not when she'd already fought so hard to level the playing field.

"I'm good, I'm good," I told her, although the dizziness wasn't easing up. Could taste bile like I was about to vomit. Naomi didn't look like she believed me, she looked like she was ready to throw it all away just to make sure I was okay. She might've done it if Negan hadn't spoken again.

"The shit he'll do for you," Negan tutted. "Never mind my crown. You could take Rick's. Do you ever think about that? One word to your attack dog there and he'd take him down. You could pull a real Lady Macbeth on this whole shit show."

"Yeah, 'cause that worked out real well for her."

"You're telling me that an ambitious little bitch like you doesn't wanna take a shot for Rick's empire?"

"All I want is a safe future for my family," she said and my heart damn near burst knowing she was talking about me. The world was still spinning.

"Daryl ain't looking so good. Think he can survive another round with Ronnie?"

"Enough!" Naomi lowered Lucille, holding it over the fire. So close I was sure that damn bat would start smoldering. "Anything happens to Daryl, and Lucille is firewood."

Negan's scream of rage filled the air and she didn't flinch. "He's fucking dead. I'm not bluffing."

"Neither am I." She lowered the hand that held Lucille over the fire, so close to the flames that she must have been able to feel the heat on her skin. Close enough that the varnish on that damn bat was starting to peel in places, the wood blackening underneath. Flames were inches from licking at the bottom of her wrist. "You let these men risk their lives and for what? Wood and barbed wire?"

Beside me, Ronnie shifted nervously from foot to foot, unsure whether or not to call Naomi's bluff or follow Negan's suggestion to finish me off. Naomi was so still, so sure of herself, that I doubted he could tell how she was feeling.

It was her other hand that gave her away. Nails dug so deep into her palms so hard that a drop of blood wound down her finger and dripped into the earth. If they'd known her like I did, if they'd known where to look, they'd have seen the cracks.

But they didn't.

So she stood tall against the flames.

She looked like a goddamn angel. The real kind. Not the corny ones from Christmas cards. The biblical ones that people feared because they held almighty wrath. The kind you could imagine, should she be cast from heaven, turning that wrath into hellfire.

"Tell them, Negan. Or I drop her." She pushed the button on the walkie but she hurled her words at the trees, knowing he was out there somewhere, watching. "Let Daryl go. Let them all go. And then we can talk about Lucille."

"Let them go," Negan said. His men hesitated. "Let them go, damn it!"

I felt the ties around me loosen and then fall away. Bryce, Aaron, Glenn, and Jerry all stumbled towards Rick and the shadow of the Alexandrians who'd come to our aid. I got to my feet but stayed where I was.

"Go," she said. I shook my head. "Go!"

I shook my head again. Glenn and the others had reached the safety of Rick's team.

"What's happening here, Naomi?" Negan sounded ticked off.

"Daryl, go." Her eyes, filled with firelight, fixed me with the kind of pleading gaze that could get me to do almost anything. Almost.

I held her gaze and shook my head. "'It's you 'n' me, angel."

It all flickered across her face - denial, anger, the urge to bargain with me or Negan, but finally she accepted it. "I guess Daryl's staying."

"Well, ain't that sweet? Dumb. But, sweet," Negan said. "That's kind of his deal, isn't it? Not a lotta smarts but sweet on you."

For some reason, this was the straw that broke the camel's back. Taunting her was fine but one wrong word against me and she was ready to throw fists. "You know what, Negan? Come down here and say that to my fucking face."

I moved closer to her. Pain radiating all over my body. My steps were slow and strenuous. I reached for her with my non-broken hand. She reached back for me, our fingers intertwined. I could feel my strength slipping away, I was unsteady on my feet, but the need to be closer to her kept me going. "You this, baby, bring us home."

"It's Lucille or Sanctuary, your choice," Naomi told Negan. "Either way, we're both walking away from this."

"You sure about that?" Negan retorted. "Daryl looks like he's having trouble standing, never mind walking."

"Fine," she said, jaw set. "Sanctuary it is. I don't want it, you can have it. Say goodbye to Lucille, though, she's the price of admission."

Cold as ice, she made to throw Lucille into the fire. Negan bellowed, "STOP!"

It was as good as over. Still, Naomi held Lucille in the flames. I could smell melting varnish. "Tell. Them."

"Stand down, Ronnie," Negan said. "It's over."

Ronnie grabbed the walkie from her. "But, boss! You said-"

"It's over."

True to her word, Naomi rescued Lucille from the fire. She looked at Ronnie, almost apologetically, "I tried to tell you he doesn't want to be here. Negan used you. All he wanted was -"

Naomi never got to finish. Chaos broke out.

Shots fired across the air as the last remaining, now disillusioned Saviors started firing at Rick's side. It was either a final hail-mary to take the place by force without Negan, or they didn't have another way of taking out their anger after his betrayal.

Our friends returned fire. I pulled Naomi to the ground, covered her body with mine and she yelled at me the whole time for it. "Get off of me, Daryl!

"Quit yellin' at me, woman!"

"Get off of me, you coulda been shot!"

"I'm tryna stop you from being shot, dummy!"

Even with the sounds of gunshots still ringing in my ears, even with her yelling at me, all I wanted to do was kiss her. I think she knew it, too. After a few seconds of fighting against me, she stopped. Smiled a little.

A hand grabbed the back of my shirt and hauled me up. Ronnie. I tried to clench my fists, forgot that one of my hands was broken, and felt a blinding pain.

When Ronnie turned his knife on me, I wondered if he knew it was the last thing he'd ever do. The blade nicked my skin. Lucille swung out of the darkness and cracked into his skull. We went down at the same time, but I doubt he knew much after that.

They get so focused on what I'd do to protect her that they forget - the shit she'd do for me? Biblical.

I can't even begin to explain what loyalty like that means to a guy like me, who thought he'd never have it.

I watched her, a shadow against the flames, pin Ronnie to the ground. She lifted her hand, wielding the knife he'd just used on me. It glinted in the firelight as she raised it again and again. I knew it wasn't just Ronnie she was seeing. She was seeing every Savior who'd beaten me in Sanctuary, everyone in Terminus who'd tried to kill us, everyone who'd ever hurt me, whether she knew about it or not. A long line of violence that stretched back to my old man.

At that moment, Ronnie was all of them. And she was protecting me in the way she'd always wanted to.

"Naomi!" I called out to her. At the sound of my voice, her head turned. The rage in her eyes vanished. The fear that replaced it wasn't much easier to stomach.

I tried to get to her but my body was finally giving out. Naomi scrambled off Ronnie's corpse and flew towards me. Surrounded me. Her arms, her hair, her smell. Gentle fingers untying what was left of the ties around my wrists. She was always so gentle with me. My whole life, nobody ever touched me as fucking gently as she does.

"I got you," she whispered. Her voice, the sound of the only person I've ever trusted with all of me - mind, body, soul, and heart. "You're with me. I got you."

I finally lost consciousness, my body giving in to the darkness that had been chasing me all day because I knew, right down to my bones, that I was safe with her.