ELEANOR . NEGAN

057.

doing my note here but only a partial bit of it. i hate the cave episode, so fucking much, so so sorry for the shitty chapter <3 enjoy!!

The past day has been hectic enough, but Eleanor felt like she needed this distraction. The way the breeze of air flew through her tied locks of hair, while he hand clutched on tighter the to back seat of Daryl's motorbike whenever they got a bit too fast.

The death of Siddiq hit her, but it was only the starting point. She just wasn't aware of that so far.

Despite the pain that emitted throughout Alexandria, no tears dropped. Not yet at least. But now her, Daryl, Carol and Aaron were meeting up with a group from Hilltop: Magna, Connie, Jerry and Kelly. Eleanor wished she was filled with excitement to see people she hasn't seen in what felt like forever, but she was too empty to do so.

It wasn't until she saw a familiar face amongst the four people crowd — now five. "Daryl?" She whispered in disbelief, the man just smiled and nudged her off the bike.

Like before, because how could she not, Eleanor sprinted towards the group and engulfed the girl into her arms. And that was when the waterworks happened. "Maya," Eleanor sobbed. "My sweet girl."

The young girl, or rather young woman, accepted Eleanor's embrace with teary eyes but couldn't help and send a look towards Aaron and Daryl, a questioning one at that. They both just frowned: she knew what that meant.

"Ellie," Maya whispered, pulling her head backwards to look at her. "You look like shit."

She found it weird when Elle didn't scold her for swearing. "Feel like shit." She admitted. "I got so much to tell you, Skittles."

Maya frowned and looked over at Aaron. "Do we have the time to catch up?"

The group looked at each other with silent words with conversing stares, until Daryl stepped forward and nodded a yes. Eleanor needed this, desperately fucking needed this. So with the confirmation, Elle and Maya soon sat themselves down criss-crossed by a little narrow between trees.

The rest of the group was further up the road, not moving ahead but talking and having their own little catch up. "What happened to Hilltop?" Elle asked urgently. "I just- just recently was allowed to be involved again, so I need a giant fucking catch up-"

"Shut up." Maya ordered. Elle gasped and slowly blinked. "What the hell happened to your face? Did you get attacked by a bear or something?"

Elle let out a dry chuckle but shook her head no. "Margo attacked me. I uh..." Fuck. "So much has happened. I don't even know where to start."

"Start with the gash, Ellie."

Elle frowned but started anyway. "Daryl scolded me for not sleeping, so I told him I would if he took me off fucking house arrest." She sighed. "I slept a bit and got more included with the community. Aaron had me teaching self defence and in the class; Gage and Margo was pickin' on Lydia 'cause of her mum."

"So you beat them up?"

Elle smirked and patted her on the shoulder. "You know me so well — anyways. Later on, they were beating Lydia up and I obviously didn't let that happen. So I headed her buddy, and chucked Gage out the way. But Margo had the upper hand and fucking sliced me up."

"I had to kill her... before she killed me. But then Negan came and saw the whole thing, and Gage tried to blame it on him." This was harsh. "He's gone, Maya."

She raised her brows. "Negan's dead?"

"No, no, he left. Straight up gone and left."

Maya sucked in a breath and shuddered. That was weird. Really weird. With all the conversations Maya had with Negan, the only thing keeping him going was Eleanor. No way in Hell would he leave over an accusation, unless he knew he was done for.