🎶We're on easy street
And it feels so sweet
Cause the world is but a treat
When you're on easy street🎶

"You must be kidding me! What is that?" Sally was yanked out of her sleep by loud music blasting from speakers placed all over compound in case of emergency. And this better be it!

At night, Negan gently tug her by her hand, removing her from the ledge and made her sit down in a comfortable distance from every edge of the building. The first who came as a back up for Negan was Dwight, but Negan only talked to him for a minute in a hushed voice. Dwight was back in flash, put a couple of blankets next to them and left right away. After, Sally heard him down in the yard sending everyone back to sleep and to their guarding duties.

Negan took the blankets, spread one on the roof, like if they were having a picnic, and put the other one over Sally's bare shoulders as they got comfortable on the cloth. They were sitting next to each other, looking up and stealing glances at each other here and there.

"Do you even sleep at all? Or is it just a first night effect?" he asked her.

"You can't afford much sleep out there," she shrugged and pointed her head into the wilderness surrounding the compound.

He only nodded and said nothing more, but as he was soon to find out in just couple of nights, Sally not sleeping at night was nothing out of the ordinary for her. There was nothing that could hold her down at night while he was awake. She kept waking him up or sneaking out and they found her roaming aimlessly around the dark corridors.

"Sleep or we'll make better use of this time, I swear. There's no way you won't fall asleep worn out like that," he threatened her with raspy voice. It made her tick, but just as Negan fell asleep, she was tossing and turning again.

But that night, after they came down from the roof, Sally let him sleep, even though she didn't until the dawn. And there wasn't much more light in the room when Negan took his sweet revenge. He was standing by the door, holding it wide open, leaning back, laughing.

"What is that? Make it stop!" Sally whined, burying her head under the pillows.

"Wasn't it you who said it's just awfully quiet over here all the time?" he mocked her imitating her voice. "As you wish, my queen," he held the door for couple more seconds.

"Rise and shine, sweetheart," he made it back to bed, uncovering her from all the pillows and sheets she hoarded over herself to mute the horrible sound.

"Nuh-uh," she shook her head, her ragged hair covering half her sleepy face, "it's my turn to sleep, now." She turned to settle comfortably.

"Night owl, early bird... what was I thinking bringing you both here?" Negan shook his head in disbelief and started to put his clothes on.

___

The next few days Sally was not supposed to hear Easy Street, but she did, it was her morning lullaby. Negan tried, but she just wouldn't sleep in the same time period as he did, so he finally decided she had to go. It was a no brainer where to put her, Sally found her place on her own. Negan found her asleep in the room behind the red door, the same one where they put her first. The one, where he was waiting for her after the shower. That one. She wandered there while on her night trip and he let her have it.

Sally laid there in bed every morning and right before she went unconscious, she heard the song and she knew it was a song that Negan used to torture Daryl to deprive him of serenity. She heard it playing so she smiled and then and only then could she fall asleep peacefully.

___

One of those days, Sally was catching up on her sleep until the afternoon. Her dreams were heavy and they kept crushing her down, pushing her further and deeper into the mattress. She shivered, tried to writhe them away, but they wouldn't leave her just like some kind of sleeping paralysis demon sitting on her chest. Halfway still in the nightmare she realized she struggled to breathe. She panicked and even though paralyzed, she opened her eyes in terror.

She was not mistaken, her dreams projected into her reality, there indeed was something weighing down onto her chest. A big hand was stopping the air from entering her body. A body was crouching over her holding her down, disabling her to move.

"You... Still with those dreams," the man over her murmured in utter disbelief. "Breathe," he continued in hushed voice so near her ear, his hair brushing over her face, "breathe through your nose, come on. I'm not holding it."

A tear fell down her face from her welled eyes, as she struggled to inhale. And then she picked up on his words. He really wasn't chocking her, he was just trying to keep her quiet with a hand on her mouth. She breathed in and when she was aware of her surroundings, he told her: "I'm taking the hand away now. Stay quiet, alright?"

She nodded as well as the restraint of his let her and he pulled the hand away cautiously, putting it on her shoulder to hold her down. She couldn't move neither of her hands, he held one over her head and the other was stuck between her side and his thigh.

"Daryl," she breathed, "you just got yourself in so much trouble." She could hardly hold her smile at bay.

"Trouble, huh? Same trouble as when he finds out we know each other?" After his words her smile wasn't that hard to hide. Her nostrils wide, her breathing went heavier again.

"Why didn't you tell him?" she glared.

"He'd kill us both," Daryl rasped.

"My heart breaks for you, Daryl," she scoffed, looking away from him.

Unaffected by her amusement, he tried to lure her to his side. "We can run. I heard you in the corridors at night."

"I'm not going anywhere. Can't you see?" She stood unmoved. "Negan will take care of you," she said tenderly.

"I ain't taking anything from him," it almost got Daryl back on his feet, but it was not the right time to give up... to give her up.

"You should, you know," she smelled him grimacing, "you really need a shower."

Daryl was not far behind with being a smart-ass. "Said the girl wearing walker blood all over herself every chance she gets. Did you really go insane? Rick told me you were long gone but... all you did back there... with Glenn..." He couldn't help it, grief overwhelmed him and swallowed him whole. His voice broke and he forced his eyes shut in order to stop them from watering.

Negan would have different opinion on what went down that night and whose fault it all was, the rules were clear. But Sally kept any sarcastic remarks to herself this time. Her heart squeezed along with Daryl's eyes. And then she woke from her slumber and half-whispered to him: "It should've been you."

"What?" He searched her face.

"It should've been you, Daryl. I hoped Negan would choose you so you didn't have to live to see this," she elaborated.

"See what?" He was taken aback by her words.

And she spoke her mind. "Did you really wanted to see Rick become a villain? See him hopeless and broken as he is now? Did you and... do you really want to see all those people die and turn? ... But we missed it... We missed it and now I have to take care of that."

She seemed so lost for a second, she remembered him those times... "You still have those nightmares about..." He started.

"DON'T!" She snapped at him in full force. "Shut up about it! Or I'll make you myself so help me." Her head fell back onto the bed. Her mood was swinging with every utterance. The next one sounded void, she was long gone. "I'm not who I used to be. I'm not with your group anymore and I haven't been for a long time."

"My group?" He repeated bewildered. It used to be ours - was echoing in his head but he never got to say it out loud. They were interrupted. The door flew open.

"So I take it you two know each other," said Negan leaning on a doorframe of Sally's room.

🎶It's our moment in the sun
And it's only just begun
It's time to have a little fun
And we're inviting you to come and see why you should be
On easy street🎶

___

Author's Note: Hello everybody, welcome to my after-chapter-casual-self-talk. 😂

So what do you say about this one? We finally got some Daryl over here. ⏳

How do you feel about Sally? Is the hate strong with this one? So harsh to Daryl! (Or is she?)

What else can I say? Oh yeah ... I attached a song Fly With You by Nikki Reed, thought you would maybe like to know which song accompanies me while writing this and it's this one most of the time. Don't know how much it reflects the theme of this story but everytime I play it, it keeps me going. So you just got a soundtrack or you didn't, your choice. 🤔 🙂

That's all from me for now. Thank you for spending your time with this story. I'd love to hear from you. 💕