The room Negan gave him didn't feel all that much different than the cell he had spent so many nights in. Either way, he was a prisoner. Daryl knew he was still on Negan's shit list, despite his show of accepting his offer to join him. Negan still made sure she was never in his sight.

It had been weeks. He mostly just guarded the walkers or broke up fights between Saviors. Negan was probably waiting, testing his patience, his loyalty. Daryl was fine with that. He would jump when Negan said to, do whatever menial task he set for him.

Only a few more hours now. Daryl sat on the edge of his bed, watching the sun go down from the tiny window in his room. He tightened his hand around the ring of keys before slipping them into his pocket.

You looked at yourself in the mirror above the sink, water dripping down your face. You didn't know what you expected, but you still looked the same. The same as you had every night you looked. But Negan kept telling you how beautiful you were. Always beautiful. Before, it was alway crude adjectives, but now that he thought you were the mother of his child, he was tender.

It disgusted you.

It made you feel even worse. You placed a hand on your growing stomach. Reminding yourself that it was a piece of Daryl made you feel at least a bit better. Even if you hadn't seen his face since that night Negan kept bragging about. The night he supposedly broke Daryl. You didn't want to believe that Daryl would give up, give Negan the satisfaction. But then you saw Daryl in his old vest, standing guard in the yard while you were kept in your proverbial ivory tower. You weren't disappointed in him, you could never be. He had to protect himself. There was only so much a man could take. But you had to admit that your spirits dropped, seeing him bend to Negan's will. "At least he's safe," you told yourself.

You got into your bed, tucking yourself deep under the blanket. Negan had told you at dinner that he had something he needed to take care of, so you were alone for the night. Little blessings, you thought. You could maybe get a decent night's sleep for once instead of tensely fading in and out with Negan wrapped around you.

You heard the key twist in the lock. No such luck. You rolled towards the door, ready to fake a smile for Negan, but you shot up in bed when you realized it wasn't Negan at all.

You threw the blankets off of you, jumping out of bed, and wrapped your arms around Daryl's neck. He held you tight for a moment, letting your tears fall onto him.

"What's going on?" You asked, pulling away slightly but still holding on to him.

He reached back into the bag on his shoulders, grabbing out a flannel jacket and a pair of jeans. "Gotta put these on quick," He said, shoving them into your hands. You knew better than to question him. Your heart raced as you pulled the jeans and jacket on over your tank top and pajama shorts.

He knelt on the ground before you, helping you slide boots that were slightly too big for you onto your feet and lacing them up. Your stomach was just big enough that you couldn't bend to tie your shoes. You remember having to help Lori with simple things like that. You understood now how helpless she felt, especially during all of this.

He stood, raising the hood of the jacket around your face. He took your hand, opening the door. "Come on," He said, pulling you along, looking both ways out into the hallway. There was a guard at your door every moment you were inside. Tonight's guard lay in a heap on the floor, blood spreading across his shirt from his throat.

"How did you-,"

"Later," Daryl said. In one hand, he held yours, in the other, he had his knife raised.

A million questions ran through your mind, but you held them like he told you to. You knew he would explain like he said he would. The halls seemed strangely empty. You thought you would run into someone, but you were surprised to see empty corridors at every turn. It occured to you that this was probably why he had given in to Negan. Of course he would never do it just to save himself. He had done it to get you out, the both of you.

He came to a stop at the bottom of a set of stairs. He dug through the bag, pulling out a knife and putting into your free hand. It felt heavy and unfamiliar after all the months unarmed. Before, you had gotten pretty good with your weapon, taking down your share of walkers. You had even taken on a couple people and lived to have nightmares about the life leaving their eyes. It wasn't encouraged for the wives to carry weapons. Why would you, when there was always a guard at your shoulder and you never left the illusion of safety in the Sanctuary.

"Ready?" Daryl asked you. You nodded. He looked into your eyes for a moment before taking your face with his hand, kissing you softly but with a great intensity. "Stay behind me."

He swung open the door out into the lot that held a handful of bikes and trucks that the Saviors used for runs. "What the hell?" One of the men said, his head coming out from under the hood of a pick up. The two other men who stood out on watch came at you and Daryl. They froze at the sight of your face. You had a feeling that they had been told by Negan what would happen if anything harm came to his unborn child or its mother. In the brief moment that they contemplated the risk of attacking versus what would happen if you got away, you lunged, ignoring Daryl's order to stay behind him. You sunk your knife to the hilt into one of the men's side's while Daryl slashed the other's face. The man who had been working on the car, a heavy set man who looked like he hadn't seen a second of combat in a long while, decided it wiser to run the opposite direction.

Daryl wasted no time hopping on a bike, making sure you were holding on to him before he started it up. The men scrambled after you, but Daryl was already peeling out.

The wind whipped around you, your hood flying off and the cold stinging your face but you had never felt better. You squeezed Daryl's waist, tucking your face into his back. You couldn't hear if anyone was following you but Daryl drove like they were.

You had no idea where you were going, but at least for now, you were free. You both were free.