Irresistible Danger

Good Riddance

Author's Note: I can't believe how close we are to the end! There will be two more chapters after this one and then I can officially mark this fic as complete :D

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You woke up bright and early the next morning, thanks to Negan pressing kisses down the back of your shoulder. You typically weren't an early riser, but damn if he didn't find the best ways to wake you up. When he whispered in your ear that he needed to shower before going to meet his men, but didn't want to do so alone, the subconscious started beating the brain with a foam noodle to help it wake up, and you all but tripped over the sheets in your scramble to follow him into the bathroom.

An hour later and Negan had left for his meeting, leaving you to unpack the few belongings you'd brought up last night. Once that was done, you wandered back down to your room with the empty sack, planning to wash the dirty clothes you had left behind and then pack them to transfer upstairs as well. It felt a bit aggressive to just move every single personal item up all at once, but if you brought a sack of stuff up each day, it somehow felt less intimidating. Yes, you were very aware this made no logical sense, but no, you weren't going to question it.

You later ran into Ben while on the way outside to hang up the clean, wet laundry, and he decided to join you since there were still a couple of hours left until dinner prep. The two of you sat side-by-side at the picnic table while you quickly brought him up to date on the drama of the evening before, to which he responded with the appropriate amount of outrage and threats to string Amber up by her perfectly painted toes. Once that was out of the way, you turned to more mundane topics, such as Ben's confusion over Simon acting cagey that morning.

"He said he had a surprise for me tonight, but he wouldn't give any other clues, other than to keep over emphasizing how sweet it was going to be."

You had a feeling you knew what the surprise was, though you had no idea how the hell Simon had found ingredients and a recipe for homemade fudge brownies. Not wanting to give anything away, you acted perplexed as well, though internally you had second-hand butterflies for Ben and his quirky, yet lovable, mustachioed Savior.

About half an hour later, the two of you were idly chatting while watching others with outside work duties walk back and forth completing various tasks. However, the conversation came to an abrupt halt when the front door of the Sanctuary burst open and none other than Negan stepped out. You both watched as his imposing form strode away from the building, community members dropping to their knees as he passed by. At first you thought something looked off about him, and then quickly realized that he once again didn't have Lucille up over his shoulder. Instead, you saw what looked like some sort of pistol in a holster at his hip.

Before you could spend more than a few seconds wondering about it, you saw more figures exiting the building behind him, and one of them was Amber. You inhaled sharply at the sight of her in jeans and a t-shirt, rather than the usual fancy clothing the wives previously wore. She also had a backpack on her shoulders, and there was a husky man of average height walking beside her, also with a backpack. Two of Negan's Saviors walked behind them, to round out the procession.

Just as you were wondering who the man was, Ben whispered, "That's Mark, her boyfriend from before."

It was then that you focused in on him and were able to just make out the edges of scarred tissue on the side of his face furthest from you, the remnants of a past iron punishment when Negan found out that he and Amber were still hooking up behind his back. You couldn't tear your eyes off the scene, wanting so badly to get up and go over there to see what was going on, but you instead sat silent and waited to see what would happen.