Redemption - The Walking Dead

Common ground

Carol had fist fulls of Negan's shirt in her hands as their kiss broke off. His own hand still had a gentle grip on the back of her neck. Her heart was racing and she was breathless.
Negan bit down on his bottom lip, the corners of his mouth twitched up at the same time as his eyebrows. Carol chuckled as she looked at him through her lashes.

When fireworks stopped Carol suddenly remembered they weren't alone. She let go of Negan and took a step back. She studied the ground for a moment, looking for some composure before she dared to look back up and look around. Only one person it seemed had been watching them.
Maggie didn't break her gaze when Carol saw her. With a single nod of her head, she let Carol know all she needed to know.

•••

"Hey, man. Thanks for, you know." Negan shrugged and took a seat beside Daryl at the small fire he had made for himself outside of the main camp area.

"Saving your ass?" Daryl shuffled down the log away from him a little.

"Yeah. Saving my ass. It was cool as shit, you're a good rider."

"Uh, thanks."

Negan ran his hands over his beard and sighed. He rubbed his face. "I am exhausted."

"Me too." Daryl sighed and took a drink from his flask. He looked over it before holding it out to Negan.

"What's this?" Negan furrowed his brow, a smile of amusement on his lips. He took the flask. "Trying to poison me?" He took a sniff, then a drink.

"Whisky." Daryl answered gruffly.

Negan's eyes rolled to the back of his head and he hummed in pure delight at the sweet burn in his throat. "Mm. Scotch?"

Daryl shrugged. "I dunno, bottle doesn't have a label. It's nice though, right?"

"Yeah. It is. Thank you. I've been missing this shit more and more. Man, what a day it's been. Fireworks were cool though, don't see them anymore huh?"

"Didn't think you saw much of them." Daryl was looking down, he was playing with a piece of bark that he'd broken off of the log they were sitting on.

"Ah, you caught that huh? It was one of those 'heat of the moment' moments. I honestly could not help myself." Negan smiled to himself. He leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees, his chin on his hand. "You get that right?"

Daryl looked up at Negan and took another swig. "Yeah I get it."

•••

"Why's crazy Carol still running shit anyway? I heard that she lost it years ago."

Carol didn't know who she had overheard, but she wished she hadn't. Whoever it was hadn't noticed it was her that was walking by with arms full of firewood.
It was no surprise to her that people thought she was crazy. Maybe she was. She definitely lost track of things for a while. But it still kinda hurt none the less.
She was glad that the kids that grew up in Alexandria had no idea how easy they had it. They'd never had to be on the run or fight everyday just for survival like she had. And she prayed they never ever would. Carol was sure the things she had seen would be enough to drive anyone mad.
She grinned to herself. 'Crazy Carol'. She actually found it quite funny.

•••

"Shit."

Daryl shrugged and took a long draw of his cigarette. "Yeah. Don't matter now."

Negan took a swig of the whisky and stared into the fire.

"It was never the right time." Daryl continued. "Always somethin' going on. We were too busy just trying to survive. And then she was gone, I was too late. I never really got to tell her."