Beauty and the Beast. (Negan.)

09.

Everything seemed to calm down once Rick arrived on scene with a beaten and bloodied Aaron. 

Blake wanted nothing more than to go get her kids, go home and try and pretend that this didn't happen but she couldn't move. 

"Let her go," Negan instructed and instantly, the man's hands left her arm. 

She glared at him as he approached, moving her head when he reached out to touch her. 

"Don't." 

"Oh come on, Beautiful." he murmured, stumbling back when she shoved him. 

"Don't," she repeated, "Don't touch me. Don't come near me. Don't even look at me. You know, I thought that maybe all of them were wrong. That maybe you weren't a bad guy as they were all  making you out to be. Turns out, I was the one who was wrong." She shoved him again, "Leave me and my kids alone." 

He watched as she walked towards Rick's house, glancing down at where Olivia's body lay. 

Beside him, Arat started raising her gun. 

"Don't you dare." Negan growled, "Not her." 

No one stopped him as he followed her into the house and he found her sitting on the carpet; the three kids in front of her playing with some toy cars. 

"I told you to leave me alone." Blake said, not looking at him. 

"No," he murmured, "You need to understand." 

"Understand what?" 

"The rules. Nowadays, in this world, things don't work if the rules are not followed," he explained, "You weren't there the night I told your group." 

"You mean the night you killed two of my friends?" she muttered, still not looking at him. 

He let out a sigh and sat down on the arm of the sofa, watching as Emily stumbled her way over to him but he made no move to pick her up. He didn't want to piss Blake off any more than he already had. 

"Your people killed my men. A whole damn lot of them. You can't expect me to let that fly." 

"What?" 

His eyebrows furrowed. She didn't know about the outpost?

"What are you talking about?" Blake asked again, a look of realisation on her face, "The meeting at the church." 

"Meeting?" 

"Yeah. When Rick and the others came back from the Hilltop. There was a meeting in the church. I didn't go because Emily was sick but the next day, half of them were gone." 

The Hilltop. They knew about the Hilltop? 

"You didn't think to ask about it?" Negan asked. 

She shook her head, finally looking up at him, "I meant to but never did." 

He got up and slowly moved so he was sitting down on the carpet with her, "I...where I live, my people, they expect the rules to be followed. Your group are now part of that and they need to understand that if they break the rules, there has to be consequences." 

"You told him to put his gun to my head." she stated, pushing a car across the rug to Judith. 

"I know," he murmured, "And I'm sorry. I didn't want to b-"

"Then why did you?" 

"Those people out there. They see me as their leader. I didn't want to but if they see me changing or even bending the rules for someone, anyone...some of 'em, they're just waiting for their moment."