This Night
Chapter 209
Author's Note: I'll be back to a semi regular scripted story in a few chapters (which means finding Gabriel, yuck) but hey uniqueness is what makes fan fiction. There wasn't a lot of reviews last chapter, please review. Please. Thank you for the new readers and all the old ones that are still reading this. Good thing to know I won't be catching up with the show anytime soon. Season 6 is scaring me, I know that Jewel and Rick may have some tension. Oh well, that'll be fun! Not. Please review.
Bob, Merle, Sasha and Mar's POV:
Mar loaded the medicine into the bag Bob was holding. She glanced at Merle looking out the window. "Can't believe that we are getting lucky finding this stuff."
"Told you that luck had to be on our side at some point," Bob teased her.
"Could use a little less jawing and a whole lot more filling up the bags," Merle groused at them.
Mar looked at Merle as she put in the last of the medicine. "You know you can admit that you're worried, Merle, worried about Jewel, worried about Joey," she told him.
"You know Joey is going to want bring his brother back with us," Sasha said as she came out of the back room. "Found diapers, bottles, formula."
"Come back where? We aint got no where to go back too. We aint got walls, and no prospect of walls anytime in the near future. We can't overlook the damn fact that the psycho just did try to kill his brother," Merle pointed out.
Mar turned and looked at him. "Merle Dixon, do you forget how you reunited with Jewel after a year? You shot at her! You took her, Glenn and Maggie hostage. You took them to Woodbury where you beat poor Glenn almost to death. Not to mention that the Governor almost beat Jewel to death and if it wasn't for Jes, we would have never knew what happened to her. He almost raped Maggie. Then after all that, Daryl left with you after Woodbury, and both of them risked there lives to save your sorry ass. You know why? Because you were there brother, just like David is Joey's. That is still a better reunion then yours, because you introduced the Governor to us," she told him.
Sasha tried to bite her lip to keep from laughing. "If we're going to make it out of here before dark, we need to get going."
Bob put the backpack on his back. "We should be able to get back on the gas we found in the garage, but after that we'll be pushing it."
Merle looked out the door and shook his head. "Oh hell no," he mumbled as he opened the door. "Load up the car," he ordered. "Joey, what the hell is this?" he asked as he nodded to the new man.
Joey took a breath. "Merle, you were introduced earlier, this is my brother David. He's coming with us."
Merle looked between the two of them and started to say something before Mar put her hand on his arm. "Don't Merle, just don't. I'm Mar, this is Sasha and Bob."
"Nice to have you, it's rare to meet good people now a days," Bob said as he put a package of diapers in the trunk.
David looked at the diapers. "There's a baby with you all?" he asked as he looked around.
"Two actually, back waiting for us," Joey said. "Find any clothes or anything?" he asked the group.
David wasn't ready to let it go and grabbed Joey and pushed him against the car. "Tell me that you weren't stupid enough to get someone pregnant, that you didn't sign someone's death warrant?"
Merle grabbed David off of him. "You alright Joey?"
"I'm good," Joey answered.
"What the hell is your problem?" Merle asked. "The only reason I'm even entertaining the idea of allowing you in that car is because you're Joey's brother. Otherwise, I would have put a bullet in your brain by now. Since Joey's seeing my niece and he's still alive, the babies aren't his. My sister is the mother to the newborn, and she gave birth in a hell hole of a place," Merle told him as he still held onto his arm.
"She has an infection, that's why we're here. Hope is only a few days old," Mar said. "We lost Lori when she had Judith. You aren't telling us anything we don't know."
"We do what we got to do," Bob told him.
David leaned against the car. "Babies make noise…they cry and draw attention….how the hell do you all expect to survive?"
"Rick's going to love him," Sasha mumbled to Bob.
Merle glared at Joey then at David. "Give me one good reason that I should even consider not leaving him behind?"
Joey took a breath. "Back off Merle, let me handle this," he told him as he grabbed David and punched him causing the other man to fall to the ground bending down. "I'm going to say this once, and I need you to listen carefully. I'm fighting for you right now because we are brothers, and you can't make it alone anymore, not in this world. BUT, these people are my family and I'm not going to let you say or do anything that harms any of them. That includes Judith and Hope. They are the ones who we are protecting and I swear to God, that if you make one remark, one move to hurt them and I will end you. Don't make me chose them or you, David, because you'll lose," he said.
David looked up at him. "You've changed."
"Had too, now you going to stop being an ass and get in the car?" Joey asked.
Bob and Sasha turned at sounds behind the buildings. "Guys we've attracted some bad company," he said.
Rosita climbed onto the hood of the car. "Shit, it's about two dozen."
Mar slammed the trunk down on the car. "We need to go now. We don't have the energy or the bullets to waste. We'll need to hightail it to the house if we want to make it before dark."
"If you're coming, get your ass in the hatchback. Sit on the damn diapers if you have to," Merle told David. "You get to explain why we are bringing a stranger back with us to Officer Friendly."
"Come on," Joey said as he pulled David up. "Bob, we need some of that luck you were talking about," he said as he took a shot at one of the walkers' as they got close before he got in the car and slammed the door. "Go," he told Merle as he started to pull away.
Jewel, Rick, Daryl and Ronnie's POV:
Ronnie touched Jewel's forehead as she nursed Hope. "The tea seemed to help," she told them.
"Does that mean she's out of the woods?" Daryl asked.
"I can't say for sure, Daryl. I think the fact that she's been able to rest for a bit and get some sleep is helping. They should be back soon, and hopefully found some medicine," Ronnie told them.
"Why am I having a strong feeling of dejavu? Didn't we just go through this not to long ago at the prison?" Jewel asked.
Rick gave a small tired smile. "That seems like forever ago now…."
"Hasn't even been a week and a half," Ronnie said as she looked away.
Jewel squeezed her hand. "We haven't had time to process it. I can't even remember if I told you how sorry I am about Ridge…"
Ronnie nodded softly. "Everything happened quickly after that. But this little one is a good distraction," she said as she touched the babies hand.
"Whose watching out for them to return? And walkers? And people from Terminus?" Jewel asked.
Daryl gave a small laugh. "Yeah she's feeling better, she's taking stock on where everyone is."
"That's good, real good," Rick commented as he kissed the top of Jewel's head. "Abraham and Jes are on the first watch. Daryl and Carol are taking the second, Summer and Glenn are taking the third, Maggie and Michonne the fourth, Tara and Axel the fifth, Tyreese and I are taking the sixth. Carl and Lexi got Mitch, Mika and Judith in the family room, with Eugene," he told her.
"Not that Eugene is gonna be much use," Daryl mumbled.
Rick shot Daryl a look. "We're doing two hours a piece, make sure that we all get some rest. When the group gets back, they'll get some rest. They'll be able to tell us if anything is on the road, if any herds are heading our way. We'll have to be ready to move in the morning, just in case. Maggie and Glenn are looking over maps they found now."
"We'll try and take it slow for you," Ronnie told her. "You know that the ideal situation would be to recover for at least two weeks."
"The ideal situation would have been in a nice cozy hospital room with a nice epidural and me cussing Rick out and the dead staying dead. But nothing is ideal now a days," Jewel told her. "How did Maggie and Glenn make out looking for supplies?"
"Summer and Joey cleaned out this house pretty much when they found it. They found some food, Michonne and Summer found some flashlights, batteries, a couple of weapons out in the garage," Daryl told her.
"No other working vehicles, much to Abraham's chagrin," Ronnie added.
"You were with him longer then the rest of us, what do you think? Of this whole Eugene thing?" Jewel asked as she adjusted Hope. "Oh are you full huh?" she asked.
"I got her, come on Hell Raiser," Daryl said as he took her to burp her.
"Abraham and Rosita believe it, I think Maggie and Glenn do too. I haven't really had time to process it, and Abraham really hasn't had time to pitch the idea to the rest of the group," Ronnie told her. "My main concern is you and cutie pie, I'm not going anywhere that you two aren't," she assured her.
"We appreciate that Ronnie," Rick told her.
"You're family," Ronnie told them. "OK, I think I'm going to try and get some rest, I'll be up with more tea, and when they get back, I'll bring up what they have."
Daryl handed the baby to Rick. "I got to get ready for my guard shift," he said as he kissed Jewel's head and left.
Jewel smiled as Rick sat down beside her. "Daryl told you…that I was having trouble getting rest? That every time I closed my eyes…"
Rick nodded as he kissed her. "I'm right here."
"You can't tell me you aren't thinking how close we came, you came to dying today. We're used to fighting for our lives against the dead. I thought that the Governor was insane, but cannibals? Cannibals? Swear to me Rick that we will never be like that, that we will never lose ourselves like that," Jewel begged of him.
Rick touched her face. "We are never going to be like the Governor or the Terminus people. We have each other, this whole group. We'll keep each other in check," he said as he kissed her. "Let's try to get some rest, we don't know what's in store for us."
Author's Note: Review please! Next chapter should be meeting the priest. Blah. Oh well. This promise is going to be important in later chapters. Hehe. Yes I'm evil.