This Night

Chapter 189

Author's Note: So we're going to check in with Summer and Joey after they separate from Carol, Tyresse and Judith. This house they find is gonna be important cause when I rescue these guys (Shut up Rick I know it's not quick enough for you!) they'll need a place to rest and give Rick, Jewel and baby Hope some alone time. Before they find the church and Gabriel. Yeah, Jewel's already got words forming in her head for him. Review please.

Summer and Joey's POV:

Joey glanced over at Summer as they walked. He glanced up to the sky then at her. "We should find a place to hold up for the night," he told her.

"We need to keep moving, we told Tyreese and Carol we'd meet them around Terminus," Summer answered.

"We told them a day and half, two at the most. They have Judy, they are going to be looking for a place to hold up for the night. You need to let me check that bandage, and rest for the night," Joey stated firmly.

"No we need to keep moving," Summer insisted.

"Damn it, Summer," Joey said as he grabbed her arm. "We both are tired, it's going to be dark soon, and you know that it's not safe to be out here with the walkers'. I know you're struggling with what happened," he told her.

"You don't know anything about what I'm feeling," Summer told him as she pulled away.

Joey grabbed her elbow again. "You're asking yourself if there was any way you could have stopped Lizzie, if somehow you could have saved her. It's written all over your face, the way you're being quiet, the way you are pushing yourself. You aren't a killer, Princess," he assured her as he kissed her gently. "What happened with Lizzie, you did it to save Judy, to save yourself. She had already killed Molly, and she wouldn't have stopped until we were all dead, including herself. You aren't like the Governor, you don't enjoy it, you feel guilty. That's the way it's supposed to be. But getting yourself killed Summer, it isn't going to find your mom, or the baby, or Rick, or Carl, or your uncles or anyone else."

Summer looked up at him, on the brink of tears. "Mom's out there, alone, frightened, maybe even dead. All I can see is Lori….giving birth to Judith. I was there for her, and I'm not even there for my own mother. Mom who sacrificed everything, to make me a better life, and I'm not there when she needs her the most. I was…the worst to her when she found out she was pregnant, what if I never get to tell her I love her again? Or if the baby dies…." she continued rambling before she was kissed deeply by Joey.

"That's one way to shut you up. We'll talk about this after we get inside somewhere a little bit more protected to have a heart to heart," Joey told her.

"You just don't want to deal with an emotional girl," Summer teased.

Joey grinned. "Nah, I can handle my girl getting emotional, but I'd rather not attract walkers' with all that crying."

Summer rolled her eyes at him. "You're impossible."

"Yep," Joey answered with a smirk. He nodded to a long drive way and a house with a gate. "What do you think?"

"Off the beaten path and it has a gate, but walkers' may be inside," Summer pointed out.

"Or we could get lucky and it's perfectly empty inside," Joey pointed out.

Summer let out a laugh. "When have we ever got lucky?" she asked.

"I got lucky the day you didn't let Carl shoot me," Joey pointed out as he opened the gate. "Ladies first."

Summer shook her head as she went through the gates. "We should save our bullets, use knives, the baseball bat, your hatchet. I want to save my arrows, not a lot left," she said.

"Maybe we'll find bullets, some arrows," Joey responded.

"Did you get whacked over the head by the optimistic fairy?" Summer asked.

Joey shrugged. "I figure only one of us gets to be pessimistic at a time. You need me to think on the positive side right now, so I am. When I get all down in the dumps, and being all doom and gloom, you get to be Miss. Positively. That's how it works," he told her. "Now you want to knock on the front door to see if anyone's home?"

Summer used her baseball bat to pound on the door. "Hey you deadbeats, hope you don't mind, you got company for dinner," she said as she put her ear to the door. "Hey no playing rude, come on," she said again as she knocked on the door again.

"Nothing?" Joey asked.

Summer shook her head. "I don't hear anything," she answered. "I knocked, you get to go in."

Joey tried the door and it opened easily. "Anybody home?" he called out. "This isn't eerie at all," he said at the quietness.

"Let's clear, bottom to top then we can search the kitchen and rooms for supplies, food and water," Summer instructed.

"You know you're kind of sexy when you're being bossy," Joey told her.

"Yeah, sweat, blood, and walker guts just make me that much more attractive," Summer said with a roll of her eyes. "You are such a dork."

"But a handsome dork, right?" he teased as they cleared the bottom floor.

Summer laughed. "Guess you're handsome, much better without that stubble growing on your face," she said as she winked at him. "I'm my mother's child."

Later that night:

Joey looked at Summer who was looking at books with the help of a candle. "You know there's four perfectly good bedrooms upstairs, and you decide we have to sleep in the library?"

"Close to exits," Summer responded as she looked at the books.

Joey shook his head standing up. "Come here, you need to talk about what happened out there."

Summer turned and looked at him. "I'd rather not, it's over," she said.

Joey pulled her down on his lap. "It's over for now. You are a good person, Princess. All this shit that we're living through, that we're fighting for, it's bound to get to anyone, I'm surprised you haven't broke down before. What you said about if your mom didn't make it…or the baby, well she knows that you accepted this baby long time ago. I believe your mom is gonna make it in this world, and that baby it's got Dixon and Grimes blood in it, that's going to be one of a hell raiser. It's going to take more then a few walkers to take that kid down."

Summer had to laugh as she put her head on his shoulder. "It…wasn't supposed to be this way."

"Oh you mean the dead are supposed to stay dead?" Joey asked. "Now that would be a normal concept."

Summer laughed as she hit his arm. "Can you be serious for one minute?"

"If it gets you to laugh, Princess, no, sorry it's part of my charm," he told her.

Summer shook her head. "I mean, we had the prison, it was safe, we were safe. Mom didn't have to worry about having the baby alone, all of us that remembered what happened with Lori, we were going to make sure we were all there. We found the prison, right before Judy was born, and it was like a Godsend, you know? I mean we all were worried, silently, how a baby would be safe out on the road. It would be like ringing a damn dinner bell," she said silently.

"Who knows, maybe Terminus is exactly what it says, a Sanctuary," Joey replied, though his voice betrayed that he didn't believe it.

Summer laughed. "You really have to work on your convincing voice."

Joey laughed. "Sorry, after Woodbury, I guess I'm skeptical of anything being safe. If it's safe, then someone out there wants it, they want what you have," he simply said. "We're going to find them. We'll meet up with Carol, Ty and Judy tomorrow, and we'll be careful. This house was pretty stocked, though someone really liked sardines," he said as he looked at the cans. "If it isn't Sanctuary, then we'll find some it. For the baby ringing the dinner bell, well , it's not the most ideal thing in the world, but that just means we're all living."

"Mom said that…that she wanted to live, do more then just survive. That's what Judith and this baby is showing us, that it's more then going through day to day," Summer said.

"It is," Joey answered.

"Is it better not knowing or knowing?" Summer asked.

"What do you mean?" Joey questioned back.

"You know your mom, dad and sister are dead, but there's still hope that your brother and his girlfriend and the baby, may be still alive. Right?" Summer asked him. "So is it better not knowing or knowing?"

"Every walker I take down, I look at it's face, see if there's something familiar, or look for the big class ring he wore, everywhere. So damn proud of being captain of the football team, never took the thing off. It's getting harder, the way they are decaying, to be able to see who they are anymore," Joey said as he rubbed her back. "Not knowing, is the worst. Maybe that's why I'm so determined that we are going to find them, because I want to know…I want you to know. We should sleep, I know you'll be wanting to go bright and early tomorrow," Joey said as he kissed her.

Author's Note: We're getting closer! Review please