I think I liked you better when you didn't have a knife in your hand, Peaches

Deflecting

"What the fuck, Negan?" exclaimed Blake in an incredulous voice, turning to face him. "They didn't do anything wrong!"

But the bearded man turned to look at her instantly, his brow furrowed darkly.

"Don't give me that shit, Peaches, you heard that damn gal," he said in a prickly voice, pointing to her slender flank. "She fuckin' knows who did that to you, an' even now she still ain't lettin' up. An' you expect me to just sit here and listen to their bullshit after that, huh?"

Blake faltered for a second.

Did Blake want to know who had been responsible for trying to hurt Negan, hurting her in the process? She knew who it could have been, but every single one of those people back there, at one time or another, she had considered her friends.

So maybe to save the hurt of finding out the truth, it was better not knowing.

"They were just trying to make things better...give us a future, Negan," Blake uttered in a fretful voice. "They know there's a storm coming, and so do you. You know as well as I do Rick is strong, and as much as you beat him and the people there, down, give him time and he'll make it back stronger."

Negan gazed at her.

"Then we cut off his damn air-supply, make sure that fuckin' Prick ain't got nothing to help his damn cause any longer," he tried, but Blake just shook her head.

"Like you said, you do that, and someone bigger and badder will just rise from the ranks. There's plenty of people out there willing to hurt you," she said with a worried look. "They all want what you have. And the fighting; the bullets? They're never going to stop coming."

Negan offered her a frown but he seemed to soften slightly as Blake stared up into his dark eyes.

"They were just trying to help us," she continued in a sad-sounding voice. "All of us. But you can't accept that there would be someone out there willing to change things for the better. You always have to try and knock people down. People who only try and do what's right and what's good-"

"Hell, you fuckin' know that's a lie, Peaches," said Negan sounding more than a little hurt by her remarks. "I let you walk into this damn place, build that garden of yours...did I fuckin' stop you at any fuckin' point? No. In fact I fucking went out of my way to make sure you had everythin' you fuckin' needed-"

"That was different-" Blake began with a tired sigh, but Negan cut across her.

"Was it, Darlin'? 'Cause if you think I jus' did all that to get in your damn pants then I don' think you even know me at all," he said in a heated tone, a little louder than it looked like he had been intending, causing Blake to take a step backwards and give a shake of her head.

"This isn't about us, Negan," said said quietly, turning away from him.

But only a second later did she feel a hand on her upper arm and Negan quickly tug her back around to face him.

"The hell it ain't, Doll-face," he replied, staring down at her, his eyebrows in his hairline, and a frown between those brows. "'Cause as much as you try to convince me you wanna be back here, it's starting' to sound like the only reason you actually came back was to be their damn escort."

He jabbed a finger in the direction of the door that Carl and Tara had been dragged through mere moments before.

But Blake scowled at this, a bitter taste forming in her mouth.

Hadn't they already been through this, and not even thirty minutes ago either?

"Is that really what you think?" she said gazing up at him in disbelief. "Is that really who you think I value in this world? Them over you?"

She shrugged his hand from her arm, stepping back and clutching her own arms over herself.

"I love you, Negan. You and Mia. And yeah, y'know what, maybe I did think that if Tara and Carl came here alone that you'd do something stupid, because it wouldn't be the first time would it?"

The two adults were glaring at each other now, Negan almost urging Blake to finish that sentence with his gaze alone.

"Glenn, Abraham, the two men you killed back in that lineup, that was the reason all this started, why people are out for blood, for war..." she finished.

But Negan shot her a look.

"Don't give me that crap," he scoffed. "You know as well as I do that none of that shit would've happened if Rick and the rest of his band of merry fuckin' assholes hadn't broken in to my outpost and murdered my fuckin' men while they slept. 'Cause if we're talkin' about who's responsible for all this fuckin' shit-"

"But we're not Negan, that's the point," said Blake in a raised voice. "This isn't about blame. Or who threw the first punches. This is about ending all that. Making peace with each other. And all you're doing is acting defensive-"

"Am I shit!" he muttered coldly.

But at once Blake let out a hollow laugh before he could continue.

"There you go again. All you're doing is deflecting and acting like you're so hard done by, when really you're just pushing people away," she said breathing hard now, her fists clenched at her sides.

And for a moment Negan stared at her silently, his own broad chest rising and falling rapidly.

"Am I pushing you away?" he suddenly uttered in a voice, far quieter than before, but his tone was cold and hard now.

And Blake, her lips parting, just stared back at him, slowly unclenching both fists, her green eyes searching his long face.

"No...." she breathed. "But you wont listen."

She wavered for a moment fretfully.

"Look, I don't regret coming back," she continued. "Far from it. But I thought our relationship was based on more than you just getting your way and me having to sit there and not argue with you. I thought you respected me. AND my opinions-"

Negan parted his own lips, the frown between his eyebrows softening a little.

"Peaches-" he tried.

But Blake had already turned away from him.

"Keeping them locked up," she said finally, moving over towards Negan's bathroom door and placing her hand on the doorframe. She paused, but kept her eyes fixed onto the floor ahead of her, not turning around to face him again. "It's all gonna end badly."

And with that, she let out a long, carrying sigh.

"I'm gonna take a shower," she murmured, before disappearing around the door and into the bathroom.

Hoping that when she emerged again, Negan would have at least considered her words.

But ten minutes later, with a white fluffy towel clutched around her middle, Blake stepped back into the bedroom once more....

...only to find it empty.