For The Ones I Love | Negan #Wattys2017

Part 35

"Elizabeth," Negan smiled, "You know Fat Joey, don't you?"

I swallowed harshly as I stood in front of the larger man, Negan's stare burning a hole into the side of my head as an evil smile appeared on his face. I knew this was his form of light punishment for when I lashes out at him for trying to make me work with Dwight again.

"Did you need a little refresher, darling?" Negan asked, pulling me from my thoughts.

"I- um, no-"

"Because I think you do!" He exclaimed, throwing his arm around my shoulders, "You see, Fat Joey is the guy you and Daryl attacked when your shit plan to escape your new home failed."

"I know." I said quietly, not wanting to make eye contact with the man that was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"But don't worry," Negan smirked, "He's not allowed to touch you, sweetheart."

I nodded my head, sighing in relief, knowing that he couldn't try to get back at me for what Daryl and I did to him.

"Isn't that right, Fat Joey?"

"Yes Negan, that's correct." Joey responded quickly, obviously intimidated by Negan's presence.

"You're not going to try to get even with her for nearly taking your fat ass out?" Negan taunted, doing what he enjoyed the most.

"No, sir."

"And you're not going to rub up on her pussy, are you?" Negan asked lowly, his hand drifting from my shoulders to around my waist, squeezing tightly.

"Um, no- no, I'm not gonna touch her." Joey replied nervously, afraid of Negan's next move.

"Of course you won't!" He chuckled, "It's not like she'd let you anyway."

Joey just nodded his head in response, unsure of what to say next before Negan cut in again.

"Well shit, don't mind me!" He said, releasing his grip on me before walking away from the both of us, "Go on, go find something to do!"

I nodded my head, taking a deep breath before uncomfortably walking to where Joey stood, "Hey.." I said quietly, "I'm sorry about everything he said-"

"Don't worry about it," Joey said, cutting me off as we walked down the empty hall, "He says things like that all the time; he's actually a pretty cool guy."

I scoffed, "I bet."

"Well, he is if you're on his good side." He laughed.

"Ah, makes sense now." I said sarcastically.

"What? Is he still giving you a hard time?"

"Kinda," I shrugged, "For good reason though, I guess."

"We all have a price to pay, Elizabeth." He sighed.

"Liz; you can call me Liz."

***

"So, this is where we take all of the supplies we get; we usually take inventory as it's brought in off the trucks and then just do a once over daily to make sure nothing's missing." Joey explained as we stood in a large room, stocked with supplies.

"Seems like a lot for one person to do." I sighed, scanning the place.

"Yeah, usually there's a few people doing it but one of them.. um can't do it anymore." He murmured.

I paused for a second, "Did Negan.."

Joey nodded, "We caught this guy, Hanson, taking cans of food for himself," He explained, "He already got the iron a few months ago so, you know."

I furrowed my eyebrows, "The iron?"

"You've seen Dwight's face, haven't you?"

I nodded slowly.

"He got the iron; Negan burned his face with an iron for trying to leave." He said lowly, like he almost didn't want to say it.

I ran my teeth against my bottom lip, imagining the pain Dwight had to go through just for wanting to leave this hell hole. It almost made me feel bad for him..

"Anyway," Joey said, snapping me out of my thoughts, "The jobs yours if you want it."

I nodded, "Yeah, I'll try it out."

***

Joey ran me though the basics of what taking inventory actually entailed, and it really didn't seem that hard; I helped Olivia out every once in awhile back in Alexandria, so it wasn't too new to me.

I really didn't mind Joey either, he's a lot easier to deal with than Dwight, and he's someone I can actually have a decent conversation with here.. even though Daryl and I did almost kill him.
He's just a nice guy; someone I wouldn't expect to find in a place like this.

"Hey, um.." I began quietly, looking over at Joey, "I'm sorry."

"For what?" He asked confused, turning around a can to see its label.

"What Daryl and I did.. we just- we wanted to get out of here so bad and-"

"It's ok," he cut me off, chuckling a bit, "I don't blame you, I would have done the same thing if given the chance."

I sighed, pausing what I was doing again, "Do you ever think about leaving?"

He furrowed his eyebrows at me, "You mean, have I ever thought about getting half of my face burned off? Yeah, I think we all have, but not all of us are stupid enough to go through with it."

I scoffed, "I just don't get how he can get away with everything he does.. it's not fair."

"Life's not fair anymore, Liz," Joey said as he placed the inventory notebook back into the cabinet, "We're all just trying to get by here."

_____
A little bit longer of a chapter, building a bit of a relationship between Liz and Fat Joey.

I also really want to start incorporating the immense vulgarity that we saw from Negan in the last few episodes; specifically the episode that focused on Negan and Carl. So you saw a bit of that in this chapter, let me know how you feel about it; if you like it or if you think it's a bit much.

Always curious to know your opinions!