No Sanctuary For Old Men [18+] |Negan| ✔️ Complete

LVI • Provoke Me

Daphne opened her mouth to speak, but instead a sob tore its way out of her throat and she slapped a hand over her mouth. She immediately turned her back on him, feeling so weak, so useless.

"Turn the fuck around." His voice was somehow so stern even as it cracked.

She swallowed hard and followed his instructions, he ever-so-slowly turning back to face him. She stared at the floor, clenching her jaw to keep her shit inside.

"Fuckin' look at me," he demanded.

She reluctantly met his gaze, her big blue eyes full. "I'm so sorry," she whispered, hating the shaky sound of her voice.

"The fuck you apologizing for?" Negan asked, but she didn't answer him. "This isn't your fuckin fault. Don't apologize for these cunts. They're fuckin' responsible for this."

"Stop comforting me." Daphne pouted, his words sending relief through her taut nerves.

"I'm gonna put that smart fuckin' mouth of yours to good use when we get home," he warned, and she shivered at his tone. Even broken and bleeding on the floor, he still had the ability to set her aflame.

No, not broken. Never broken.

The door upstairs opened and Daphne relaxed her stance, leaning against the bars like a cat stretching her paws. She hoped it was a doctor, or maybe the redneck like she'd asked for. Any person she could manipulate would be progress.

She blinked as Morgan came into view.

"Well, shit." she ran a finger up one of the bars, cracking a devious smile. "The aikido master, deep in the belly of the killers."

The dark-skinned warrior shot her a pensive glare, and turned to the man on the floor.

"You gonna have a go at me with that fuckin' stick?" Negan sneered. "At least the bitches had the balls to use their hands."

Daphne rolled her eyes. "Must you provoke everyone?" She shot him a reproachful look and Morgan knelt in front of the Sanctuary's King, eyeing him carefully.

"You're just as bad as she is," he said quietly as he set down his bo. "Always putting on a face." He reached into the pack slung across his hips and produced a bottle of alcohol and a cloth.

"And who the fuck might you be, chocolate sauce?" Negan rasped, stifling a wince as the Alexandrian dabbed at his forehead with the wet flannel.

"Gabriel told me about his conversation with you," Morgan said, speaking louder to address Daphne, ignoring Negan. "Said he thought you two had the potential to redeem yourselves. I had to come see for myself."

"And?" Daphne prompted, injecting as much amusement into her voice as she could.

"I think everyone has the potential to redeem themselves," he replied as he continued to clean Negan's wounds. She was amazed that her rugged lover was allowing this, but then her stomach clenched when she realized it must have been because he literally couldn't stop it. He was bound and beaten and was likely using all of his energy to sound like he was still in control.

She needed to do something.

"But you Saviors," Morgan continued with a shake of his head, "I think you'll always just do what you think you need to do. To survive, or to avenge, whatever it takes for your people, you'll do it."

"How is that any different than Rick and his band of merry Alexandrian assholes?" Daphne demanded.

"It's not any different at all," the dark warrior replied, and Negan watched his face curiously. "I'm Morgan. I had the displeasure of dancing with your lady friend at the Kingdom, shortly before she got me thrown out."

"Oh, don't go blaming that shit on me," Daphne countered. "That was all Jesus' fault. He showed up with the redneck and all hell broke loose."

"See? Vengeance." Morgan shook his head, glancing back at her.

"Morgan." Negan rolled the name around in his mouth as if he were tasting it. "I'm Negan." He paused for effect. "I really fuckin' appreciate you doctoring my wounds, but I don't fuckin' appreciate you agitating my woman. I don't give a rat's fucking ass whether you think we can be redeemed or not, because that shit doesn't fucking matter to us. Either help us get out of here, or get the fuck out so I can have some quality time with my lieutenant before those cunts come back to kick me around some more."

Morgan clenched his jaw, and reached for his bo. Anger flashed in his eyes for the briefest of moments, and he stood up, turning to the cage. "His woman," he commented quietly, and then ascended the steps.

As the door slammed, it was almost like a nail in the coffin. They'd obviously pissed the guy off. And now he was fully aware how close the two were. Daphne let out a deep breath, batting away the butterflies in her stomach that even in this state Negan had defended her.

Her chest constricted and she cemented her resolve to remember who she was. She was a Savior. She was a lieutenant. Negan's lieutenant. Her priority one was making sure that he stayed alive.

"I'm going to get us out of here," Daphne said firmly, and met his gaze with steel eyes. "And I mean this in the best possible way, but I'm going to need you to shut the fuck up so that I can do my job."

"Business as fuckin' usual," he laughed weakly, and she couldn't help but crack a smile.

She cursed the bars holding her captive, craving the feel of his skin beneath her fingers with every fiber of her being.

Negan dozed as Daphne paced, barking his name every ten or fifteen minutes to make sure that he was still alive. She hoped that Daryl was still going to come—she had been rehearsing and planning and she thought she could get him to help them, if he would just get his ass down there.

When the steel door opened for the third time, she positioned herself nonchalantly against the bars, and side-glanced Negan. His eyes fluttered open at the sound, and he stifled a groan of discomfort, composing himself.

Daphne fought a feeling of confused vertigo as the silhouette from the stairs came into focus, a tall man in a very familiar leather jacket with a barbed wire baseball bat slung over his shoulder. What the fuck was going on?

When he stepped into the dim light, she nearly blacked out with rage.

"Look at what we've fuckin' got here," Spencer said.