Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This

Chapter 14

Author's Note: Onto Season 2! Romance and Sophia being saved! YAY. She's not even going missing, one of the boys are.

Jewel's going to be there for Rick after he kills Shane (Unlike Lori) Seriously that woman needs to be backhanded or something!

Seriously, T Dog and Lori in the same episode? And it's definitely more emotional for me because I know Summer's going to take Maggie's place in delivering the baby. Seriously. On a positive note, Merle's redeemed himself a little wanting to find Daryl (and of course in my world Jewel and Summer.)

Review please!

Rick took the walkie talkie away from the group. "I guess I'm losing hope that you can hear me. But there's always that chance, isn't there? That slim chance. It's all about slim chances now. I tried to do everything right, keep people safe. I tried, Morgan. I tried. Our group's smaller now. We lost another, day before last. It was her choice. I won't say I blame her, but she lost faith. The CDC was a dead end. I met a man there, a scientist. He told me something. He told me…" he said as he hesitated. "It doesn't matter. What matters is we're moving on. Atlanta's done. We're gonna try for Fort Benning. We're facing a long hard journey, maybe even harder than I can imagine. But it can't be harder
than our journey's been so far. Can it? 125 miles-That's what lies ahead. And I'm trying hard not to lose faith. I can't. If I do, the others...My family, my son. There's just a few of us now. So we've got to stick together, fight for each other, be willing to lay down
our lives for each other if it comes to that. It's the only chance we've got. Be careful out there, Morgan. I hope you and Duane are okay. Stay off the road. Keep moving. Keep your eyes open. I don't know, just-just be safe. Maybe we'll see you in Fort Benning someday. Rick signing off," he said into the walkie talkie. He turned and gave a small smile as he saw Jewel.

"I wasn't eavesdropping," she insisted.

"It's fine, everyone ready to go?" Rick asked.

"Can you fit one more in your car? Summer's finding the RV a little bit to crowded with people and bags for her liking," Jewel answered. "Lori said to ask you."

Rick shook his head. "Of course she did. She always hated to make decisions. Of course we can fit Summer in with us," he told her as he squeezed her hand. "I should put Lori in the RV with Shane have you ride with me so you aren't on the motorcycle."

Jewel laughed. "Please, she needs to be with Carl, and Carl needs to be with you. Not the first time I've rode on the back of the cycle," she told him. "I'll be fine," she assured him.

Rick looked at her. "Thank you for not losing your temper at the CDC," he told her.

"What good would that have done? Sometimes calm voices prevail, and there wasn't a whole lot of those goin' on," Jewel told him. "You don't have to carry the load alone, Rick. I mean if you don't feel comfortable talking with Shane because of everything, I'm a good listener," she assured him. "Everyone needs someone to talk too," she said as she started to walk away.

Rick pulled her back by not releasing her hand. "Thank you," he said as he kissed her softly.

"There's no reason to thank me Rick," Jewel assured him as she glanced around before she touched his face. "We're family," she told him as she walked away.

Rick took a breath as he walked behind her. "Summer, heard you were with us?"

"Hope that's alright? It's a bit overcrowded in the RV," Summer responded.

"Of course. The boys gonna be OK?" Rick asked.

"Glenn and T Dog are keeping' them entertained," she answered.

"I didn't get to say it since the CDC, what you did with throwing the grenade, it saved us," he told the teenager.

"I didn't do anything anyone else wouldn't have done," Summer said as she got a book out of her book bag.

Rick smiled. "You would think that a lot of people would have done it, but you'd be surprised. We all have the tendency to treat you like one of the other kids, but you're closer to bein' grown then not. Especially out here," he said. "I'll talk to your mom, see if we can't get you a little more experience, see about letting you carry a gun. I'm not promising," he told her.

Summer nodded. "You're not that bad of a guy, for handcuffin' my uncle to a roof," she teased.

"I'm just never living that one down with you guys am I?" he asked.

"Nope," Summer answered with a grin.

"Are we talkin' or movin?" Daryl fussed from the motorcycle.

"That's Daryl's polite way of saying let's get this show on the road," Jewel said as she got on the back of the motorcycle.

"Beep your horn if you need us to stop for any reason," Jewel said from the back of the motorcycle.

Rick nodded as he got in the Cherokee. "Everyone OK back there?" he asked Carl, Sophia, Carol and Summer.

"Snug as a bug in a rug," Carol answered.

"I'm just thankful that the Dixon tall gene obviously decided to skip me by and I've got short legs," Summer said as she curled up one of her legs under her.

"Maybe you were found in a cabbage patch and not really a Dixon," Carl teased.

Lori tried not to laugh. "Maybe we found you in a cabbage patch."

"Uncle Merle would say trash pile," Summer countered. "Except that Uncle Daryl says I'm my mom's mini me."

"I don't look like my mom," Sophia said softly.

"Sure you do, I see it," Summer told her. "You're gonna be a knock out like your mom."

"Summer I'm not a knock out," Carol insisted.

"Of course you are, in your own way," Summer told the other woman.

"Are you sure you and your mother are related to Merle Dixon?" Lori asked as she cast a glance back at the teen. She wasn't stupid, she knew something was going on between Rick and the teen's mother.

"You wouldn' have to ask that if you ever witnessed what Uncle Daryl and I called the screamin' matches of the year," Summer answered. "We had ear plugs for those occasions. They never raised hands to each other, but I'm surprised the cops were never called."

"I can imagine your mother havin' a temper, she keeps it in check," Rick told the teen as they slowed down.

"What happened?" Sophia asked.

"Looks like a very bad traffic….well for the lack of a better word, jam?" Jewel asked as she looked out the window.

"Looks like Daryl is going to lead us through," Rick said.

"It's cool that your Uncle has a motorcycle," Carl told Summer.

"It was Uncle Merle's, and it's cool until he picks you up at school on it and crashes into a tree and you have to get stitches," Summer said as she rolled her eyes at the thought.

"You two weren't hurt that bad?" Lori asked.

"Uncle Merle was to fu…I mean messed up to even noticed he had a cut on arm. We weren't that far from the clinic where mom worked, so I went there. Let's just say while I was getting' stitched up, Uncle Merle was getting yelled at every which way," Summer answered. "Never got onto the bike again."

"How old were you?" Sophia asked.

"Nine," she answered. "Uncle Merle did a lot of screwed up things when I was nine…" she said out loud. She turned to the sound of the horn on the RV behind them.

"Somethin' must have happened," Lori said out loud.

Rick stopped the car and got out. "Everyone stay close," he ordered the group as he walked up to Dale. "Problem Dale?" he asked as he walked up to the RV where Dale was looking at the engine.

"Just a small matter of being stuck in the middle of nowhere with no hope of-" Dale said as he looked at the group gathering. "Okay, that was dumb," he admitted as he stopped himself.

"If you can't find a radiator hose here…" Rick told him as he looked out at the endless line of cars.

"There's a bunch of stuff we can find," Daryl said as he opened the trunk of a car.

"I'll start by siphoning gas from cars," T Dog said.

"I'll go get the boys, keep them close," Summer said.

"Stay in mine or Uncle Daryl's line of sight," Jewel ordered.

"Got it!" Summer responded.

"Maybe we can find some water?" Glenn questioned.

"Or food," Shane offered.

Lori looked around uncomfortable as she looked around. "This is a graveyard, I'm not sure how I feel about this," she told the group.

"They aint alive, can't use this stuff, we can," Daryl told her.

Jewel shook her head as she patted his shoulder. "Tact was never one of the Dixon's strong suits," she told the group. "I could use some lessons in it myself," she said as she walked away. "He's right though, Lori. If it was me out here, I'd want someone else to use it," as she walked away. "Summer behave?" she asked Rick as she walked up to him.

"Summer's a good kid," Rick assured her. "If Carl is half as good as she is at that age, I'll be don' something right."

"Between you and Lori, I'm sure he'll be just fine. Of course, this world sets a whole new set of challenges that I don't want to think about," she told him.

Rick glanced over at his estranged wife. "I think Shane told her there was something' goin' on with us," he told her.

Jewel looked at him. "Nothin' is goin' on between us," she told him.

"Yet we kissed earlier," Rick reminded her.

Jewel rolled her eyes. "Do I need to tell Daryl you're not behaving?" she teased as she took a step to another car. "RICK!" she exclaimed as she saw a massive group of walkers heading there way.

Rick grabbed her arm as he hissed at the others. "Under the cars!" he told them.

Jewel went to run to get to Summer and the boys'.

"No," Rick told her as he pushed her under the car. "Look," he said as he pointed to a car diagonally from them. Summer had grabbed Luke and pulled him under the car.

Jewel did a quick glance around taking stock of where everyone was. Carol had grabbed Sophia and Mitch and Lori had gotten under a car with Carl under another one. "Where's Daryl?" she hissed softly.

"Shh….it'll be alright," Rick whispered in her ear as he kept his eyes on the kids.

TBC