This Night

Chapter 175

Author's Note: You've all waited patiently for the big reveal of the baby's name! I could wait til they all reunite, but that just would be mean and Rick assures me it's alright to let everyone know. Plus I don't want things thrown at me! The italics are bits and pieces of memories no direct coloration to each other. So it will come to no surprise to anyone that Season 5 Part 2 is going to be drastically different (as in random hair cut woman will get told off by Jewel) Yeah, I don't like random haircut lady. Please review.

Jewel and Mika's POV:

Jewel ran her hand over the babies soft scalp, letting her fingers softly glide over the few strands of dark hair as she nursed. She glanced at Mika who had curled up and fallen asleep. "This life isn't easy baby girl, I'm not going to try to tell you it is," she softly spoke to the child as she nursed. "But you're going to make it, you and Judy, Carl, Summer, Mika, you're all going to make it. We're going to find daddy and your uncles and your aunts, and brother and sister. We may not look like the normal family baby girl, but I want you to remember this, starting right now. Blood makes you related, loyalty makes you family. Mika here, she isn't blood, but she's family. Your big brother, he's going to hate being outnumbered, but that's alright, he's going to love you," she said as she kissed the babies hand. Jewel closed her eyes as the baby nursed, knowing she would have to start getting familiar with her surroundings soon.

"I had to keep Hope alive, didn't I?" Rick's voice questioned in her head.

"There's no hope, never has been," Jenner responded.

"We'll find him," Rick assured her.

"Do you believe that? Or are you sayin' what the you think the group wants to hear? What I want to hear?" Jewel asked as she stepped closer.

"Hope right?" Rick asked.

"She needs to mourn like she should have done weeks ago. I robbed her of that. I see that now," Hershel told Rick and Jewel.

"You were holding out hope," Jewel told him.

"You thought there was a cure, can't blame yourself for that. We thought there was a cure too," Rick assured him. "But there's still hope," he told the other man.

"Hope? When I first saw you running across my field with your boy in your arms, I had little hope that he would survive," Herschel told him.

"But he did," Rick told him.

"And he wouldn't have if we hadn't found you," Jewel said.

"You wouldn't have needed me if Otis hadn't accidentally shot him. Your man Shane made it back but we lost Otis, but we saved your boy. That was a miracle that proved miracles do exist. Only it was a sham, a bait and switch. I was a fool Rick, and you people saw it. My daughters deserve more then that."

"I didn't want to believe you. You told me there was no cure, that these people were dead not sick. I chose not to believe that. But when Shane shot Lou in the chest and she just kept coming, that's when I knew what an Ass I had been, that Annette had been dead long ago and I was feeding a rotten corpse! That's when I knew there was no hope. And when that little boy came out of the barn, the look on your face, I knew right then you knew it too. Right? There's no hope," Herschel told them.

"There's always got to be hope, Herschel, there has to be," Jewel told him.

Jewel looked down at the girl. "You believe we'll find Rick? Find them?"

Mika nodded. "Got to have hope, " she said with a smile.

"Yeah, we've got to have hope," Jewel told Mika. "Come on, I don't want to be out here after the sun goes down."

Jewel opened up her eyes and looked at the baby girl. "You're Hope aren't you? That's what you always have been, huh? Everyone needs a little hope in there lives, and you are certainly that huh? I'll let daddy give you your middle name but we all needed to be reminded my sweet girl that there is hope in this dark world, and how can we not remember that looking at you? Yeah, you're my Hope, sweet girl."

Mika turned over with a smile on her face. "I like that, hello Hope," she said as she touched the babies cheek.

"I thought you were asleep," Jewel told Mika.

"I thought you and the baby needed bonding time," Mika said with a grin.

Jewel shook her head. "Thank you. You did real good today, I'm proud of you. I need to rest, so if we have to move fast, I can. So I'm going to need you to listen to me, and do everything I ask of you as quickly as possible. Can you do that for me Mika?" she asked as she adjusted the baby.

Mika nodded. "You don't think we're safe here, do you?" she asked.

Jewel gave a small smile as she removed Hope from her breast and went to burp her. "Yes I know," she comforted the baby as she fussed. "They locked the door when they left. I heard it click. They seem nice enough, but so did the Governor. We have to be prepared, expect the worse, and breath a sigh of relief if it doesn't happen. We aren't only thinking about ourselves right now, we've got Hope. She's dependant on us, both of us. We have to be prepared for her sake. Because she's so little, so new, it's going to take us a bit more time then it normally would if we were just by ourselves. So we need to think three steps ahead. I need you to get into your bag, get the gun out, get me a sock, and hand me the bandage tape," she instructed. "I need you to go by the door, listen for anyone to come," she said as she watched Mika do what she said. "Yes baby girl, you just lay here. I'm glad I thought to bring you a couple outfits and diapers."

Mika handed her the things she asked for and went by the door. "What are you doing?" she asked quietly.

"I'm going to put the gun in the sock and then I'm going to tape it on the underside of bed on the metal where I can reach it. We're lucky they haven't checked our bags yet. That one man, the one that gave us a glare when we came in, my little voice told me he's going to be insisting that we need to be checked. I don't want him to be finding this gun," Jewel told her.

"What about the knives?" Mika asked.

"They may check the bags, but Mary isn't going to let him or anyone else check us. She's a mother, she delivered Hope, she's protective of us," Jewel told her. "We keep our eyes open, and don't tell them much about us. We keep our ears open, and we'll be alright. All of us," Jewel said as she finished up. "Alright, come back, I'll let you hold Hope," she said with a smile.

Author's Note: There it is! Hope! Review please