This Night

Chapter 186

Author's Note: So my original plan was to show Daryl and Axel losing Beth and joining the hunters, but Jes had other plans. I am with you all that they need to be reunited, but all the pieces need to be in place. Well according to Jes, and right now she's in charge. We're getting closer. Review please.

Jes's POV:

Jes told Jewel to lock the door from the inside when she left. She would knock three times when she got back. Jewel hadn't wanted her to go out there alone, but Jes couldn't scope the place out if she stayed behind the door. That's why she had came in here, that's why she had 'joined' the group. She had to know the place, had to know the weak spots, had to know the best way to get Jewel, Mika and baby Hope out. Every place had it's weaknesses, be it the structure, or the people. She couldn't learn all that by staying behind a door. She knew, for now, no one would bother Jewel and the girls, and she had to take this time to check things out.

"You shouldn't be out here alone, it's not safe," she heard a male's voice say from behind her.

"It's a lot safer then where I was last night, Grayson," Jes said as she turned around.

"Thought you would want to stay with Jewel, the girls. You were awful concerned with how they were. Yet here you are, in the dark of night, and they are as alone as they were before you got here," Grayson told her.

Jes gave a small shrug. "I was concerned, because I didn't know where they were, if they were safe. Now, I know that they are all safe, and now I'm a bit curious about this place."

"It's the end of the line," Grayson answered.

"In more ways then one," Jes thought to herself. She watched the older man. He didn't trust her, but from what she had seen, he didn't trust anyone. "So, those signs? The broadcasts? That all for a show?"

"If it was, then you'd be dead, Jewel, Mika, that baby. Jewel would make a good meal, she still having all that fatty tissue from having that kid. What the hell was she thinking, allowing herself to get pregnant in a time like this. It's a death sentence," Grayson told her.

Jes knew what he was doing, he was trying to freak her out. Well, Jes knew how to play the game, and he walked right into it. "From what I've seen your opinion doesn't mean a whole hell of a lot around here," she told him. She watched his body language, how he tightened his grip on his rifle, how he shifted his body a little bit more straight then he did before. "Got you," she thought to herself.

"You don't know shit," Grayson told her as he glared at her.

"I know that you were smart to push your hand and have them tell me what this place is. All it takes is letting one wrong person in, I get that," Jes told him. "In my first group, the Governor's right hand man, the man that the leader trusted, he lied to him about killing someone. That someone took the Governor's eye out. Governor went bat shit crazy, and when he led an attack to find those people, people got scared of the Governor, and he shot them all. All it takes is one bad apple, one person who doesn't see the big picture to ruin the whole shebang for everyone else. You probably don't give a damn about my opinion, but you did the right thing," she said with a shrug.

"Daddy? Is everything alright?" a woman asked as she approached.

"Clarisse, what are you doing out here? Gareth know you're out here?" Grayson asked.

"Clarisse, you've got to be kidding me," Jes thought to herself. She used to hate the movie Hannibal, but she had to admit that the woman was aptly named Clarisse. She couldn't help but notice the contempt in his voice when he asked about Gareth. "I'm Jes, a friend of Jewel's, your dad and I was just getting to know each other."

Clarisse turned and smiled at her. "Is the baby alright? I'm hoping to get to see her again, real soon. Have you held her? Isn't she the most precious thing in the world?"

"Clarisse, I asked you what you were doing out here?" Grayson asked again.

Jes could tell why this woman freaked Jewel out. Hell she freaked her out and it hadn't even been a moment.

"Gareth is going over things with Alex and Martin, he sent me out to get you," Clarisse answered.

"Go on back to our place, I'll see what he needs," Grayson instructed.

"She could show me around the place, make sure I know where things are. I mean, if that's alright with you," Jes offered.

"Can I please?" Clarisse asked.

Grayson looked between the two women and nodded. "Alright," he said as he walked away.

"Have you seen the sacrifice room?" Clarisse asked.

Jes looked at the younger woman. The words sent chills down her back. "No, haven't seen much of anything."

Clarisse grinned. "It's my favorite room. It keeps the people that help us live alive. That there sacrifice isn't for vain. I hope that we don't have to add your name or Jewel's, or Mika's…." she said as she walked into the room.

Jes looked around the room and it took all she had not to turn and shoot the woman. "Yeah I hope so too," she thought to herself.

"You don't know how many people are willing to be sacrificed, then join us. It would be a lot easier if they were all like you," Clarisse said. "In a way, I hope that the baby's father doesn't show up. Dad said a man, a good, honest man, would do anything to protect his family. A baby is a good reason to fight for there family. I mean how could a man not protect such an innocent little life? He'd be a danger, to us. He'd try and take the baby from us," she said calmly.

Jes took a breath as she walked around the candles. "Is your father a good man?" she asked. "Hell if I don't get out of this room, I may kill the psycho," she thought to herself.

"It's a calming place isn't it? To think that they were willing to sacrifice themselves so we can live. You're first kill on the rack, it'll be so exhilarating. I've only done it once, Dad says it's not something I should partake it. So I come in here, I write there names, I pick a memento so we'll associate it with them. The children, I always feel bad when it's children, they don't get to choose. If there parents, heartless parents if you ask me, fight, then it ties them to death. The baby and Mika, they got lucky. Jewel has to be part of us now, we helped her, we were there when no one else was," Clarisse rambled on, ignoring Jes's question. "I'd like some time to myself…in here. Can we continue this tomorrow?" she asked as she bent down and touched an item.

Jes nodded. "I should be getting back to check on Jewel, before she gets to worried about me. She's a worrier…" she said as she turned and walked out the door. It took all she had not to run out of the room. She was trying to remain calm but her mind was racing. To say she was freaked out would be an understatement. She took a breath as she made it to the room. She knocked on the door. "Jewel it's me," she said.

Jewel got up out of the bed. "Jes, you had me worried," she said as she opened the door to her.

Jes went past her without a word and made her way to the bathroom and immediately threw up in the sink.

"Jes? What's the matter? What happened?" Jewel asked as she went into the bathroom. She closed the door quietly. "Jes?"

Jes looked up at herself in the mirror. "I got to close….I should have left after I saved you from Woodbury. I should have cut my damn losses, and taken care of me, myself and I. But no, you damn people made me care about you, made me feel something I left behind a long time ago."

Jewel rubbed her back. "Jes what happened?"

"Clarisse…she showed me this room, a sacrifice room….it had all these names, all these trinkets, of everyone…" Jes said as she sunk down on the ground. "I can't do my mission, I can't get you, Mika, the baby…because damn it, I let myself care. Merle told me that this wasn't a mission, that this was about lives. I told him he was right, it was about your life, Mika's, the baby. But in my head…it was still just a mission, to do what needed to be done. Letting damn personal feelings get involved, caring, that's what get's people killed," Jes said as she hung her head down on her knees.

Jewel stood up. "Not this time," she said as she pulled the woman up. "Come on."

"What are you doing?" Jes asked as she let herself be led to the bed where Mika and Hope were laying. "Mika, sweetheart, I need you to wake up for a few minutes. Jes needs us," she said.

Mika rubbed her eyes. "Is everything alright?" she asked.

Jewel nodded. "Jes just needs a little help. Jes this is how we survive, caring about people. It just means that you know what it's important. This is how we survive," she said as she held the baby out.

"No, I don't do babies," Jes said as she shook her head.

Mika grinned as she put Jesses arms out. "You've got to have Hope," she said.

Jewel grinned as she put the baby in Jesses arm. "There. It's alright to feel, Jes. That's what makes us stronger then the Governor, then this group. It's what's going to get us ALL out of here. Fear, caring, love, it's stronger then any messed up thing in this world. People like you and me who thought we didn't need anyone, didn't deserve anyone, this world made us see how wrong we were," she said as she touched Hope's face.

Mika smiled. "We do it together."

Jes shook her head and looked down at the baby. "Well thank god she looks like you, I'm not sure I could take another one looking like Merle," she teased. "Rick's not that bad," she added.

"Except for the beard," Jewel responded with a grin.

Author's Note: Walah, Jes had a bit of a breakthrough! I mean, wouldn't you lose it with wackadoodle Claire? By the way it scares me how easy this crazy woman talks to me….should I be worried? Someone tell me no! Anyone? LOL. Please review!