Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This

Chapter 21

Author's Note: More reviews, amazing and thank you! I'm hoping that I get through season 3 this weekend for my viewing pleasure. I'm already getting ideas!

So when I went to bed last night, I had a nice half chapter wrote, a nice scene between Herschel and Jewel, bonding over there abusive fathers. But somewhere between then and when I got up, bad boy Shane invaded my thoughts and decided that he started to be an ass and causing trouble, first step with Jewel.

Summer's POV:

Beth knocked softly on the slightly open door of the bedroom. "Summer right?" the other blond teen questioned.

Summer looked up from the book she was reading. "Yes," she answered.

"I'm Beth," she answered as she handed her a glass of juice. "I brought a few outfits for you to look over. When you feel better you can look through my closet, I don't need all the clothes I got, not bein' on the farm," Beth said.

Summer smiled. "Thanks…I appreciate it."

"How you feelin?" Beth asked as she sat down on the end of the bed.

"A little tired, but I'll be alright. Any word on Carl?" Summer asked.

"He's restin, your mom is pretty amazing' daddy is impressed," Beth told her. "Did you lose your dad in all of this?"

Summer drank the juice and shook her head. "Never was around," she simply answered. "It's always been my mom and Uncle Daryl, sometimes my Uncle Merle."

Beth smiled. "Did you have a boyfriend before all this?" she asked.

Summer giggled a little. "You haven't met my Uncle Daryl yet have you? Plus Uncle Merle, and our friend Jane not to mention my mom. Any guy, if I had been interested, would have been chased away by any of them. You?"

"I was datin' this guy named Jimmy before all of this. He lives here, cause of his family getting' sick," Beth told her.

"Sick? You mean with whatever this is?" Summer asked.

Beth nodded. "Yeah, they'll find a cure, everyone will be fine," she said softly.

Summer looked at the other teen. "You haven't been off the farm since this started have you? I mean…you haven't really seen a lot of what happens, have you?"

"My mom and brother, they got sick, daddy says when there's a cure to be found, they'll be fine," Beth told the other teen.

Summer looked at the other teen. She was getting one of those bad feelings. "Beth, there is no cure….we were at the CDC. There was one wackadoodle scientist that tried to blow us up with him."

"Just got to have a little faith," Beth said as she patted the other teens knee. "Carl shouldn't be alive, but he is, so faith."

Summer looked at Beth wondering when her world was going to crash down around her.

Jewel's POV:

Jewel glanced at Shane as he came down the stairs with a new shaved head. "Found a razor, I see," she told him. "Sit down, I'll look at the ankle. Herschel requested all of us come to the memorial service they're holding for Otis. Rick said we'd all be there," she told him as he sat down.

"Of course he did, without askin' the rest of us. He's good at that," Shane responded as he leaned against the back of the couch.

Jewel looked at him. "Shane what's your problem? Otis did give his life to save Carl's. That's what you said isn't it?"

Shane looked at her. "Yeah, that's what I said, you doubting me?"

Jewel finished up his ankle. "No Shane, I'm not doubting you," she answered. There was a dark side to this man that she didn't want to have any reason to mess with. She had seen it the day he beat up Ed, not that the man didn't deserve it. Now with his head shaved, it seemed to make his complete demeanor change. Something happened at that school, something he wasn't saying and what he was saying wasn't the complete truth. "All I'm sayin' is Shane, you're here, Otis isn't, and for that reason alone you should want to pay your respects. Nothin' more," she told the man as she stood up.

"It was just a long night," Shane told her.

"For everyon' involved Shane. But, Carl has a chance, a real chance that he didn't have because of you and Otis," Jewel told him as she zipped up the first aid kit.

Shane stood up tentatively putting a little bit of weight on his ankle. "We should be half way on our way to Fort Benning," he told her.

Jewel looked at him. "There's a boy missin' and Carl's hurt," she told him. "We're not goin' anywhere for a while."

"Carl wouldn't have been hurt if we left that boy out there, he's nothing' to any of us," Shane hissed as he got closer to her. "Rick is spreadin' this group to thin, he can't take care of his family."

Jewel stepped back. "You'd honestly let a child go missin' in the woods just so you could show whose in charge?"

Shane grabbed her elbow. "I'm the better man, Lori sees that," he told her.

Jewel pushed him slightly to lose his balance. "Don't ever touch me again. Don't go near my daughter or me," she hissed as she walked passed him and onto the front porch. "Daryl, can you get Summer for me? I'll get a chair for her," she said as Mitch ran up to her.

"Are we searchin' for Luke after?" the little boy asked.

Jewel glanced back at Shane as he came out on the porch. "Yeah, we're going out to search for Luke. I bet Maggie will let you feed the chickens while we're out," she said as she walked the little boy off the porch. "Rick got a minute?"

"Yeah, what's up?" he asked as he walked over.

"First you got to promise me not to ask what's goin' on," Jewel told him.

"I'm not gonna like this am I?" Rick asked as he rubbed his hand over her arm.

"Just promise," Jewel told him.

"Alright," Rick reluctantly agreed.

"Keep Shane away from me and Summer, or I will kill him," Jewel told him. "That's all I'm going to say about it."

Rick looked at her. "Did he do something?"

Jewel looked at him. "We've got a memorial service to go too," she said as she walked away from him.

Rick looked over at Shane as he came out of the house and took a breath as Daryl helped Summer to the chair that Herschel got for her. "How are you feelin' Summer?" Rick asked.

"She got a little dizzy as I helped her up, but she insisted on bein' here," Daryl told her.

"I'll help her back up to the room when this is over," Shane offered.

Jewel glared at him, a look that Daryl knew well enough to know as the Dixon death stare. It was one of the few things that the three siblings shared, besides the scars from years of abuse from there father, and that Summer was getting good at. One look that could stop a bear in it's trap and one spoke volumes to Daryl to tell him enough that she wanted Shane no where near Summer. And that was enough for him. "I'll take her up before I go searchin'," he said.

Herschel nodded as he held onto the Bible. "Blessed be God, father of our lord Jesus Christ. Praise be to him for the gift of our brother Otis, for his span of years, for his abundance of character; Otis, who gave his life to save a child's, now more than ever, our most precious asset. We thank you, God, for the peace he enjoys in your embrace.
He died as he lived, in Grace," he said.

"Shane, will you speak for Otis?" Patricia asked of him.

" I'm not good at it," Shane admitted as he looked down at the ground. "I'm sorry," he told the group.

"You were the last one with him," Patricia implored him. You shared his final moments.
Please, I need to hear. I need to know his death had meaning," she begged of him.

Jewel rubbed her arm as she watched Shane.

"Okay," he reluctantly agreed.

"This should be good," Jewel mumbled as Daryl looked at her.

"We were about done, almost out of ammo. We were down to pistols by then. I was limping, it was bad, ankle all swollen up. We've got to save the boy, that's what he said," Shane told them. "He gave me his backpack, shoved me ahead, he told me to run and I'll cover you. When I looked back he wasn't there. If it wasn't for Otis, I'd never made it out alive. That goes for Carl too, he saved both of us," he said as he looked at the stones before he walked off.

Jewel took a breath. "I'm going to get Summer's bow and arrows, want to save my ammo," she said as she walked near Shane. "Guess he threw Rick's gun back at you as he was supposed to be coverin' you huh?" she hissed loud enough for him to hear it before she passed him. She wanted him to know that she saw right through his bullshit story. Deep down she knew he had killed Otis.