Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This

Chapter 26

Author's Note: AWW over 74 reviews! You guys make me blush! I swear I thought my Lost Storie was long with 68 chapters, but this one is gonna beat it! Just hang with me!

RIP Merle. Definitely earned some redemption points with Jewel! And now onto season 4!

Review please

Jewel's POV:

Jewel smiled as she walked over to Mitch where he was hanging out with Carol and Sophia.

"How's Summer? We heard about last night," the older woman asked.

"She's restin today, told her I was goin' to tie her to the bed if she tries to get up. I'm gonna go take her to sit with Carl for a bit today," Jewel answered. "Beth is helping her 'shop' out of her closet. Maggie said she was going to go to the attic to see if she could find some winter clothes for Carl, Sophia and Mitch."

"That'll be good," Carol said.

"Can we go see her?" Sophia asked.

"I'll see how her and Carl are feelin', then I'll come tell you, how's that?" Jewel asked.

Sophia smiled. "If you need anything, or Summer gets bored, I'll stay with her," she offered.

"Thank you Sophia," Jewel responded as Sophia ran off. "She's a good kid, Carol."

"Yes she is, we both got lucky in the kid department, didn't we?" Carol asked.

"Yeah we did. Hey Mitch come over here for a second?" Jewel asked as she sat down at the picnic table. "You know Daryl and I went out lookin' for Luke yesterday right?"

Mitch nodded. "You didn't find him…that's bad right?"

"No baby we didn't find him, but we did find a little cabin with a pantry in it. Someone stayed there, someone very short, no bigger then your brother. So we're hopin' that narrows the trail some," she assured him. "We found this, it's a Cherokee Rose," she told the boy as she handed him the flower.

"What's that?" the boy asked curiously.

Jewel smiled. "The story is that when American soldiers were moving Indians off their land on the trail of tears the Cherokee mothers were grieving and crying so much 'cause they were losing their little ones along the way from exposure and disease and starvation.
A lot of them just disappeared. So the elders, they said a prayer; asked for a sign to uplift the mothers' spirits, give them strength and hope. The next day this rose started to grow right where the mothers' tears fell. I'm not fool enough to think there's any flowers blooming for my brother, but I think this one bloomed for your brother. Maybe you can ask Carol or Dale for some water for it and put it in the RV," she suggested as the child ran off.

"How did you know that story?" Carol asked.

"When my mom died, I was 5. It hit me the hardest, Merle was already on his way out of the house, Daryl was used to caring for both of us," Jewel explained. "I cried for days, on the way to school, at school, on the way home from school, in the woods. A few weeks later, Merle took us on a camping trip, and we found a bush of them. Daryl told me the story," she said as she stood up. "Just thought it may help him. He keeping' his spirits up?"

"As much as he can," Carol told her. "I can't imagine how you are fairing, I mean Summer falling yesterday, it would have freaked me out if it was Sophia."

"Trust me, it did," she answered. "I'm gonna spend most of the day with Summer, I'll take double laundry duty tomorrow."

"You don't have to, we all understand. I was thinking' about cookin' a nice dinner for Herschel and his family as a thank you for all he's done," Carol told her.

"That's a nice thought," Jewel responded.

"I was thinking' that you or Lori could ask Herschel," she told the younger woman.

"Me? I'm not sure what help I'd be," Jewel answered.

"Well Lori is Carl's mother, and you are Summer's. Plus not to mention you and Rick," Carol told her.

"Rick and I are just friends…may be developin' into more but right now just friends," Jewel said.

"Still makes you unofficial first lady of the group," Carol told her.

Jewel let out a laugh. "Far from it, but I'll talk to him," she said.

Carol gave a small smirk. "So, you aren't needin' your vibrator much anymore huh?"

Jewel laughed. "Oh my God that seems like so long ago at the quarry. But yeah, it got some use last night," she told the other woman.

Summer's POV:

Summer looked up as Carl came in. "Hey."

"Now this isn't fair, you get shot and I trip and you get to get out of bed before I do," Summer said as she patted the bed. "At least sit down, don't make me feel twice as bad as I already do."

"I only got shot once, you keep trippin' over your two left feet," Carl teased as he sat down.

"I know right? I swear I got the short genes and I also got all the clumsy genes from the Dixons," Summer said. "You're lookin' better then the last time I saw you. Glad you're OK."

"Thanks. Mom said you gave me blood, that's pretty cool," Carl said.

"Well I couldn't let you die could I? I mean you are a pretty cool kid, and you don't get on my nerves nearly as much as you could, so you're worth keeping' around," Summer teased.

"My dad likes your mom," Carl told her.

"You just figured that out? I saw it the 2nd day your dad was back," Summer told him.

Carl laughed. "Well you're a girl, don't you always look for those type of things?" he asked.

"I haven't consulted the last issue of 17 magazine to tell me what I'm supposed to be lookin' for at the end of the world, I'll be sure to get right on that," Summer answered.

"Well, does your mom like him?" Carl asked. "I mean, he's a good guy and him and mom just didn't work out."

Summer laughed. "Carl, my mom hasn't really cared for someone in a long time because she's scared. If she's givin' your dad a chance, then I hope it works out. But what about you? I mean there isn't exactly a divorce attorney around for your parents to go to get a divorce. I don't want mom to get hurt if there's a chance between Lori and your dad," she told the younger boy.

"There isn't a chance," Carl told her.

"Any word on Luke?" Summer asked.

"No, they're out lookin' now. I'm sure they'll find him," Carl said.

"Yeah, I'm sure they will too," Summer told him.

Jewel's POV:

Jewel looked up as Shane and Rick came back from searching. "Any luck?" she asked.

"No of course not," Shane answered as he stormed off.

Jewel looked at Rick. "What happened?"

Rick sighed as he kissed her, not caring who was around. "Same old same. He wants to call off the search," he told her.

Jewel rolled her eyes. "Of course he does," she answered.

Lori walked up. "Private conversation?" she asked.

"No, Shane wants to call off the search," Jewel responded.

"What do you think?" Lori asked.

"What if it was Carl? Would you want us to keep looking?" Rick asked.

"If it was Carl, yes I'd want to know one way or another," Lori answered.

"Luke doesn't have anyone else but this group. His little brother needs to know one way or another, and I for one will go out there everyday by myself if I have too," Jewel told them.

Rick smiled. "We're not abandoning the search," he said. "Shane says my good intentions are making us weaker, that I can't make the hard decisions for the good of the group," Rick told them.

"Shane's a power hungry ass," Jewel responded.

"That's a bit harsh, don't you think?" Lori asked.

"Yeah just about as harsh as you wanting to leave Merle on a rooftop without letting' anyone go back to look for him," Jewel told her. "The fact is this is a seven year old little boy who lost his oldest brother, jerk or not, in an attack at our camp. Him and Mitch became responsibility of all of us that day. The world aint like it was, there's no child services that we can leave them at. He's lost, and his five year old brother is scared. I don't see how that leaves any decision but we keep hunting," Jewel told them.

"I agree with you," Rick said.

"Shane's not a parent, the three of us are, so maybe we can see it different then he does," Jewel said. She looked at Lori seeing a look creep momentarily on her face.

"Daryl isn't a parent either," Lori pointed out.

"No but he raised me, and he practically helped raise Summer. If it gets to much of a problem, we take a vote in the camp. See who wants to abandon the search, who doesn't," Jewel suggested.

"Now, that seems a little unfair don't it? I mean you got Carol, Lori and you as the mother hens. Daryl cause he's your brother, Dale cause he's just a bleeding heart, and Glenn is gonna vote whichever way he thinks the wind is gonna blow, T cares to much to give up hope. We already know Rick's vote. Andrea may be the only one that sees the sense in leavin' this kid," Shane said as he walked up.

"Well maybe that tells you then that searchin' is the right thing to do Shane!" Jewel said.

"Walker!" Andrea announced from the top of the RV.

"Just one?" Jewel asked.

"I can take it out from here!" she announced as Jewel, Shane, Glenn, Rick and T Dog started running.

"Shane, hold up. Hershel wants to deal with walkers," Rick told Shane.

"What for, man? We got it covered," Shane insisted.

"Andrea, don't," Dale told her from up top of the RV.

"Back off, Dale," Andrea said as she aimed the rifle.

"Is that Daryl?" Jewel asked.

"That's the third time you've pointed that thing at my head," Daryl told Rick.
You gonna pull the trigger or what?" he asked as a shot came from nowhere and made Daryl fall down.

"Daryl!" Jewel yelled as she ran over to him. "No no no!"

"Rick! What on earth's going on out here?" Herschel asked as he ran up.

" I was kidding," Daryl mumbled as they helped him up.

"You got him?" Jewel asked Shane and Jewel.

"We got him, what are you going to do?" Rick asked as she went to the RV.

"Oh my God. Oh my God, is he dead?" Andrea asked.

"You just grazed him," Jewel said as she took the gun out of the hands. "Until you can recognize a walker and a human you don't get to use this anymore. This is not a toy," Jewel said as she handed the rifle to Dale.

"I know that," Andrea said.

"Guys isn't this Lukes?" T Dog asked as he held up a toy sword.

Jewel took a step closer. "I am tired of my family getting' hurt by members of our group. You pick up that gun again, it better be to shoot me or it better be a walker," she huffed as she climbed down the RV. "Stupid asses," she mumbled as she went into the house.

Inside the house:

Summer sat on the edge of the bed watching Herschel work on Daryl. "It's mom's turn now," she said.

"Excuse me?" Jewel asked from the door.

"Jane said things happen in three's. Uncle Daryl got shot, by Andrea, I fell, now it's your turn," the teen explained.

Jewel arched an eyebrow. "Let's count your Uncle Merle cutting' his own hand off in that three thing. It would make me feel a lot better."

"You cut the grid almost in half, finding' that sword," Rick told him.

"Yeah your welcome," he gruffed.

"How's he doing?" Jewel asked.

"I had no idea how fast we'd be going through antibiotics so quickly," he responded. "Any idea what happened to my horse?"

"The one that almost killed me? If it's smart it left the country," Daryl hissed.

"We call that one Nellie as in Nervous Nellie. If you had bothered to ask, I could have told you she would have thrown you. It's a wonder you people survived as long as you have," Herschel told the group.

Summer giggled from the end of the bed.

Daryl arched an eyebrow and poked her leg with his foot. "Got something' to say girl?"

"Only you Uncle Daryl would pick a scaredy cat horse," she told her uncle.

"She's got a point, Daryl," Jewel said as Herschel and Rick left the room. Rick squeezed her hand before going out.