Negan couldn't stop gazing into Sally's eyes. They were still illuminating from the afterglow. She hadn't come down from their high just yet and he wasn't ashamed to admit, it was all her who took them all the way there.

Flashes of her figure floating over him kept flickering behind his eyelids. Her skin felt like she caught his fever, his scrub almost skinned her alive, but he had no regrets. His shaken heart was trying to find its place inside his chest. Her affection was a crime of passion. The thrill was addictive.

"Holy hell, Sally," the remains of the thunder were rumbling inside him. "I wish you would cry my name like that all the time."

"Say mine gasping for air like that and you've got yourself a deal." Her throat was tight, he devoured her every last breath.

"Sally, is everything all right?" Xavier disturbed their blackout knocking on the door. "The meeting is in ten minutes. Can I come in?"

"No, I'm fine," Sally got up in hurry, putting her clothes on quickly. "I'm on my way."

"Invite him in, why don't you?" Negan teased watching her from the bed.

"I don't kiss and tell."

"Kiss, huh?" He reminded how much more than a kiss was there to tell.

Sally smirked.

"What's this meeting?" Negan asked.

"Don't worry about it. I got it." She run her hands through her hair. She couldn't find it in her to disclose the meeting was about him and it wasn't the first one. He didn't need to worry about that. This was her mess and she believed she had it under control.

"Hurry back," he said. "We need to do that again."

"And again." She pecked his lips. "Rest."

Xavier was waiting for Sally on the porch and as she opened the door, she revealed naked Negan only somewhat covered with a blanket. He smiled wildly at Xavier and gave him a slight wave as if Xavier was his wingman.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..." Xavier blurted out as Sally slammed the door shut.

"It's okay. We were... done." It was better not to smear that picture all over Xavier's hopes and dreams. They got moving to the main treehouse. "Is everybody here this time?"

"Yes, we've got them all," Xavier nodded walking one step behind Sally. We're waiting just for you."

"What is this all about anyway? He can't even stand on his own two feet."

"You brought him here, Sally, his people are probably looking for him. We've got families here, kids... they're worried about their safety."

"Madness," she muttered to herself, but Xavier picked up on it and laughed to himself at what Sally classified as irrational behavior.

Once they exchanged the tottering rope bridge under their feet for the balanced wooden floor of the main treehouse, they walked in silence, until Sally opened the door to the boardroom.

"Welcome, Sally," Xavier's dad greeted her. Without saying anything back politely, she took a seat next to Dottie who immediately patted Sally's hand. This congregation was not going to go easy on her and Negan for that matter.

"Well, everybody, you know why we're here," Xavier's dad spoke up as soon as his son took place next to him at the head of the table. "Some of you were out in the field last time we held a meeting so it's your turn to voice your concerns now."

Those words put the room into commotion. And Sally was just sitting in the middle of the accusations against the man she made love to just moments ago. The worst part was the hurtful words were coming from the people she cared about, people she lived with, her community.

"What is there even to talk about? We don't want people like him here."

"Well, he's well enough to walk around. We're wasting resources on him."

"Nico said he had bashed some guys' heads with a baseball bat."

The room kept whirring with all the wrongdoings these people felt on their shoulders.

"That's about enough," Sally stood up abruptly. Dottie immediately caught her by her wrist to hold her back. Sally yanked the hand out.

The room went silent. Everyone dreaded Sally's next move.

"You took me in. How is he any different from me?" She asked.

"You were a valuable asset for our community," Xavier's dad explained.

"Really? Why? Because I wasn't afraid to put my life on the line?"

"We're a community, we have to come to an agreement as a whole... The majority rules." The leader gave up all responsibility.

"Don't tell me you have no say in this," Sally did not let him clean his hands. "You built this place, you have all the power to make people stay or leave."

"It all has been said. We called this meeting as a courtesy to you because you asked for it." The man remained calm, there was nothing left to negotiate.

"Oh my god," Sally breathed, "you already made a decision." She could only hope they didn't give him the air.

"We wanted to make it easier on you, Sally."

"What are you going to do to him?" She was already halfway to the door. "I need to..."

"He's not here anymore, Sally." Xavier's dad finally raised his voice slightly making her stop.

"What? No! Where did you... Where did you take him? WHERE IS HE?" She marched back. All eyes were eluding hers. They were guilty as hell but they were doing the right thing according to their law. Her only hope was they didn't convict him of a heinous crime.

"The Corpse Lake," they finally give up his location, making Sally's worst nightmare come alive. Her feet rushed her out. The Corpse Lake was exactly as dreadful as it sounded like.

"Sally, stop, you won't make it in time, you're hurt." Xavier called after her, Nico and Dottie were on their feet.

She wavered for a while, just long enough to look at them and say the words they put in her mouth. "Maybe this is not a place for me anymore."

☁︎

Negan laid daydreaming in the bed, feeling Sally all over him. His eyes were closed so the moment could persevere. He was worn out and slowly drifting off to sleep when the door opened again.

"Back so soon? Couldn't stand it without me?" He teased not bothering to check who entered. He was sure it was Sally with her unsatisfiable thirst.

"Shut it and put these on." A man's voice ordered and a bunch of clothes landed on Negan's chest. He sat up sensing danger. There had never been anybody else in this room except for Sally and her happy three friends. Now there were two strange men with a gun pointed at him. Sally was nowhere in sight and Lucille only god knows where.

I'm the only thing keeping you alive. They don't want you here. Sally's words echoed in his mind, but he got distracted easily.

"Well, gentlemen, what about a little privacy?" Negan brought the situation under the sheets to their attention.

"Don't even try that shit," the man holding the gun barked at him. "We're not turning our backs to you."

Negan shrugged. "It's not that I'm ashamed to show you my dick, I just don't want you to feel bad about yourselves." Negan felt oddly comfortable maintaining uncomfortable eye contact with them. And it worked, he irritated them.

"Move it!"

"Warned ya!" He threw the cover aside and put on the clothes under elusive gazes of the two men who were too scared to find out if Negan was speaking the truth about how gifted he was.

Once he was safe to look at, a pair of shoes landed at his feet.

"We're going for a little walk," was all they said to him as an explanation. He didn't resist and put the boots on.

"Stand up," they ordered.

He tried but in vain. They had to help him up and about.

Once they made it to the porch two more guys joined the team. They were already on the ground and they were to take him down as well. How were they planning to do that was beyond him since he could hardly walk, not to mention climb, but they lifted him up when he was unconscious so they certainly had a way.

Wasting no time, they secured him into some kind of a body harness which he could use as a seat and with a help of a pulley they safely landed him on the ground. He was too taken aback by the inventions of these tree people to even say anything. The man with the gun climbed down a rope and the last guy was clearly staying behind. He pulled the rope and the harness back up after them, sealing the community up in the trees.

The three men put Negan into a backseat of a jeep and after a short drive they made him get out and dragged him even further.

"Are we almost there?" He asked.

They suddenly stopped and let him go.

Negan's legs wavered under him for a second but he quickly regained his composure once he realised he was balancing on the edge of a cliff. Under it, a swamp full of walkers was ready to eat him up. Some of the undead bodies were flickering underwater, some of them were in the water long enough to bloat and float on the surface, their jaws gaping for fresh flesh.

"Any last words before the dive?" The armed man mocked him.

"Haven't had a bath in forever," Negan played along, slowly turning his back to the expanse of foul water. "Are you going to push me or can I at least make this worth the Olympics?"

"Oh I'll push you down alright with a couple of bullets so they like you better." The barrel of a gun was staring at him once again.

"Get away from him or you're going down with him!" Sally's voice disarmed the vengeful men. They knew what she could do to them with her bare hands. Negan was no longer the center of their attention. Behind their backs, he continued the battle with his weak legs that seemed to hold only by mere willpower.

Fury lit up Sally's face, her chest was pulsating with heavy breaths. Xavier, Dottie and Nico were right behind her.

Negan's captors looked confusingly at Xavier. They were used to take orders from him. He was usually the most clearly thinking one in the room.

"It's okay," he nodded, "let him go. Take him off the edge."

The men removed Negan from the rocky height and Sally run right to him. "Let him go! Get away from him!" She pushed them all away, supporting Negan herself, cautiously helping him to sit down on a rock nearby.

"Are you okay?" She fell down on her knees, clasping his face in her hands. "What have they done to you?" Sheer terror engulfed her features.

"I'm all right," he put his hands over hers, "considering they dragged my ass all the way over here for nothing."

"Sally, please, let's go back. We'll talk about this." Xavier disturbed her attempt to breathe Negan's calming presence all in.

"The hell we are!" She jumped back on her feet, shielding Negan behind her. "We're not going back there! You have no idea how to hold your people at bay."

It was not only Xavier who was taken by surprise by her bold statement. Your people. Shiver run down Dottie's spine, Nico froze in place. They messed up bad. They had never seen Sally this mad.

"Where are you going to go?" Xavier rebounded first. "He can't walk properly and it's going to be dark soon."

"We've got a place of our own," she said cooled down by the Xavier's reality check, but Negan couldn't help but smile about the way she talked about The Sanctuary.

"Sally, please. Don't put yourself in the harm's way again." Dottie asked of her.

"I brought him here, I can get him back," Sally wouldn't cave in to their sweet talk.

"No way," Nico stepped forward, making Sally take a step back.

"We can't take him back. People made a decision, he can't stay." The man with the gun pointed out, but he wasn't half as persuasive as he was with Negan.

"If you don't want him here, okay," Sally said, "but I'm going, too."

"Can't let you leave now, Sally," Xavier shrugged.

"Get us a car then and we'll leave first thing tomorrow."

"I'm sorry he can't stay," Xavier said sincerely. Seeing the two of them together put a heaviest weight on his heart and the only way out was breaking it in two. But it was better to heal it afterwards than to live under the constant pressure crushing him. "One night," he agreed, "and we'll get you a car."

Sally nodded and then let them take them both back.

"It's better like this anyway," Negan whispered into her hair as they laid in bed that night, last night in the crown of a tree. "Rick got enough time to mobilize and strike back with force."

"We'll be ready."

☁︎

Author's Note:

Here it is! I always get stuck in a vicious circle of going over the words over and over and I change something here something there every single time and then I have to give it some time to see if it fits and then it all takes forever until I get to the point where I have to say to myself ENOUGH, you have to show it to your readers, let them be the judge! So it's up to you now, let me know how this makes you feel. 💜

This story is currently at 19,9K reads and I'm incredibly proud of your reading habits. 📚  Thank you, hope you're still having fun. 🌸

Are Negan and Sally going to make it through the night and away from the tree houses? Are the people going to let it slide? Find out in the next update.

Much love,

🌩