Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This

Chapter 129

Author's Note: There's a pole on my profile page, so you can get a chance to pick the sex and name of the baby. There's also an option to let me pick. Go ahead and vote! Now review please.

Tyreese, Axel, Jes, Merle, and Summer's POV:

Tyreese started to walk down the grave yard to bury Ridge and Karen, but stopped when he saw Merle at the gate with others. He went on instinct and turned to the gate and put his hand on Merle's shoulder and turned him around. "Did you do this? Did you burn Karen and Ridge?"

Merle glanced at Tyreese's hand then at the other man. "You're lucky I know you're grievin' man. You're also lucky that I've learned some self restraint, other wise you'd be on the ground. Now you need to take your hand off me man."

"Tyreese, come on, we talked about this!" Summer yelled at the man.

"I want an answer, did you burn them?" Tyreese yelled at the other man.

Merle pushed him back. "What kind of sick fucker do you think I am? Burnin' people who are sick?" he asked.

"You were at Woodbury, you put people in the ring to fight against Walkers'. If you're sick enough to do that, then maybe you're sick enough to do this!" Tyreese yelled at the other man.

"I agree that the whole gladiator thing with the walkers' was a whacked out idea, but it wasn't ours," Jes told him. "Merle might have done bad things, but not even him is capable of doing that."

Merle looked at Jes. "Did you just give me a compliment?"

"Don't get used to it," Jes told him.

Axel looked at Tyreese. "I've known a lot of bad men, being in here. Hell a couple of the men that survived with me, they were the worse of the worse, had murder in there eyes and there hearts."

"Your point?" Tyreese questioned.

"My point is that Merle may be a lot of things, didn't know him before this. Might have been friendly with him, worked on his bike, maybe bought drugs from him if he was selling the right kind," Axel told the other man.

Merle looked at him. "Are you tryin' to make a point or are you just makin' me look worse?"

"What I'm trying to say is that Merle may be a lot of things, but a cold blooded murder isn't one of them. He's got family here, just like you do. You don't think that he would do something like that knowing that his sister, his brother, his nieces, his brother in law, his nephew could be sick. He's a big brother just like you," Axel said.

"You were doin' alright til you mentioned Dad," Summer mumbled. "Uncle Merle wouldn't do this, and I can prove it."

"How?" Tyreese asked.

"Dixon's don't lie to other Dixon's when asked point blank. Uncle Merle, did you do this?" Summer asked.

"No, had nothing' to do with this. It takes a sicker person then me to do something like that," Merle told her.

"That's good enough for me, and it's going to have to be good enough for you. Dad is going to find this person," Summer told the other man.

"I'll help you with the graves," Axel said as he went with the other man.

Hershel and Ronnie's POV:

Hershel took a breath as he saw Ronnie coming out of the infirmary with supplies. "Ronnie, I need to talk to you."

Ronnie looked at him. "Other people sick?" she asked.

"Just the ones you know about. Something else happened, something that you need to know about," Hershel told the woman.

Ronnie looked at Hershel. "Can this wait? I need to get this down to Dr. S and Mar," she told the older man.

"No, it can't. It's about Ridge," Hershel informed her.

"Ridge? Dr. S would have told me if he had gotten worse," Ronnie informed the man.

Hershel nodded. "He probably doesn't know about this yet. Tyreese went to check on Karen earlier today, he found Ridge and Karen in the court yard. Someone had killed them, burnt them," Hershel told her.

Ronnie's face went white as she dropped the supplies. "No….no….that's wrong…." she exclaimed.

Hershel took her by the shoulders'. "Veronica listen to me, I don't know who did this but Rick is going to find out. We don't approve of this. I can't say how sorry I am, I can't make the pain go away. I know how it is to lose a spouse to something you don't understand. When all this happened, my wife turned. I just thought she and my son were sick, kept them in a barn. It devastated me when I understand the truth. This pain is fresh, I know. And, to lose someone you have spent your whole life with to murder…I can't imagine. It's bad enough that we are learning to accept if we die we come back as one of those things. But to have a murderer in our ranks, that is not right. I can't say sorry, sorry doesn't even cover it. "

Ronnie bent down to pick up the supplies. "Ridge would say I have a job to do, that he's already dead, I can't help him. But there's living that I can help," she said as she wiped her eyes. "Cold isn't it? That I know I don't have time to mourn him, that I know he'd want me to go help those I can. I am going to have to tell our 'kids'. That's what we called them, our kids. We knew they weren't but in this world it really didn't matter. They didn't have anyone else, we became family," she explained.

"In this world that's what matters," Hershel told her. "You'll mourn him, you'll also honor him in everything you do. Our losses are adding up, but we need to keep fighting for our family. You are part of that family, and we won't let this stand."

Ronnie nodded. "I know….Ridge liked it here. He…I mean he might not have said it, he wasn't a big talker. I think he said I love you to me about twenty times while we were married, but I knew he did. Just like I knew he liked it here, knew that you all could be trusted, were good people."

Hershel looked at her and squeezed her hand. "We are good people. I don't want to think about my daughters' living with a murderer. We face enough just to survive, we shouldn't have to be worried about the people we live with."

Ronnie nodded as she wiped her eyes. "I've got to get these to Dr. S. I'll be at the meeting later," she said as she walked away.

Rick and Jewel's POV:

Rick took a breath as he went to the door. It killed him that he couldn't touch his wife, that he couldn't reassure her in person but through a door. He didn't realize how much he relied on her until he couldn't see her face, hold her and kiss her. He knocked on the door. "Jewel? Michonne? It's me, don't open the door."

Jewel looked up from the book and went to the door. She missed him, she needed to see his face, to reassure him that everything was alright, to be reassured by him it would be alright. She took a breath knowing she couldn't for the sake of the baby. "Rick? Is it spreading? Whose got it?"

Rick shook his head and gave a small smile. He should have known those would be the first words out of her mouth. "It's starting….Sasha, Glenn, Mitch…some of the people who lived in D Block."

"Mitch? Is Mar with him? Does Daryl know?" Jewel asked as she put her hand on the door.

"Mar's in there, and Daryl knows. It's killing Maggie not to be able to be with Glenn," Rick said. "I know the feeling."

"Summer? Carl? Lexi? Mika? Lizzie? The other kids?" Jewel asked.

"Lizzie was coughing, Carol took her to A Block," Rick answered. "How are you and Michonne doing? Need anything?"

"Michonne's been keeping' me calm. Summer and Carl was right, she's one of us," Jewel told him. "She's sleeping right now. I just went and checked on Judith. Beth is doing fine with her. Rick, what aren't you telling me? I can hear it in your voice."

Rick shook his head. "I should have known you'd figure it out. Summer told me that I shouldn't try to hide anything from you," he told her.

"You should know better then to even try," Jewel told her husband. "What else is going on?"

"Tyreese went to check on Karen, he found her and Ridge out in the courtyard. Someone had killed them and burnt them," Rick admitted to her.

Jewel took a breath as her hand went to her stomach. "Hell's bells," she exclaimed. "Who would do that? Why would someone do that?"

"Jewel, you need to calm down, for you and the baby. I don't know who did it Tyreese and I got into it…I couldn't stop hitting him once I started to. He had every right to demand we find out who did this, he was upset, he was taking out his anger on Daryl and I. I kept hitting him…Daryl and Carol were yelling at me to stop. If Summer hadn't fired a gun into the air, I don't know if I would have stopped," Rick confessed.

"Are you alright? Is Tyreese?" Jewel asked concerned.

"I sprained my hand. I haven't seen Tyreese since. I lost it," Rick told him.

Jewel took a breath. "Hey, none of that. You reacted to a bad situation, a horrible situation in an already bad situation. I'm not saying that I agree with it, or that I wouldn't have done the same thing. You can't change it, but you move forward. That doesn't make you a bad person. It doesn't make Tyreese a bad person. It makes both of you human, both feeling passionate about what happened. He was taking out his anger on you and Daryl, and you were taking out your frustration and anger that someone did this on him. Now, stop feeling bad about something that you can't change and move forward," she told him.

Rick laughed. "Remind me to kiss you when all this is over."

"I certainly hope that I don't have to remind you Mr. Grimes," she teased him. "I love you."

"I love you too," Rick told her. "We'll keep you posted."

"You better," Jewel told him. "You better get back."

"Be safe," Rick told her.

"You too," Jewel responded.