This Night

Chapter 228

Author's Note: Jewel so loves to make Gabriel feel guilty, so this is another great opportunity. I'll get to Abe and the group next chapter (I think) or maybe the chapter after that, then get to Grady. You all know how I like to fill in gaps. I had to change some scenes around to make it fit. Please review.

Daryl and Mitch's POV:

Mitch walked out to the grave yard where Daryl was standing. "It's alright to be sad, about Merle. That's what you told me when I lost my brothers'," he reminded him.

Daryl looked at him. "That was a long time ago, and we lose people. I just don't like losing anyone. I wasn't here for Jewel when she needed me."

"But we were, and you were trying to find Beth. You did what you had to do to try and find one of us. We don't leave anyone behind," Mitch told him confidently.

Daryl looked at him. "Growin' up on me, huh?" he asked.

"Can't stay a kid to long in this world. You didn't leave me behind when you could have, when most people would have. No one gets left behind," Mitch told him.

Daryl nodded. "Glenn said you handled yourself just like a Dixon out there on the road with Abraham," he told him proudly.

"I am a Dixon," Mitch answered with a shrug.

"Yeah, you are," Daryl said as he hugged Mitch. "I need you to help Jewel with the babies. You and Mika. While we're out there, I'm trusting you to help Carl with protecting them. You up to it?"

"I'm up to it," Mitch said as he turned around to walk back to the church. "I mean I am a Dixon right dad?" he asked cautiously.

Daryl looked at Mitch. "Did you just call me what I think you called me?"

"That's OK right? I mean, I…" Mitch started to stumble.

Daryl bent down and hugged him. "It's more then alright, son," he said. "Now, besides trying to get me to cry, what did you come out here for?"

"They're going to start on setting up defenses, they sent me out here to get you," Mitch said. "Do you think…I mean if Mar would mind if I called her mom. I mean I know she misses her son."

Daryl looked at him. "She does miss Peter, but you are as much as her son as he was. Don't you ever doubt her love for you, don't you ever doubt my love for you. You got it?"

Mitch nodded. "I got it," he said.

Jewel, Rick and Michonne's POV:

Gabriel looked at the destruction happening of his church. "You are destroying a house of God," he told Jewel as she walked out a bag of supplies.

"You destroyed it a long time ago," Jewel told him as she looked at him. "If it was just me, and I wasn't trying to teach those children that some humanity still exists in this world, you'd be going to Atlanta with them. You would either fight or you'd die."

"You say you are trying to teach the children some humanity, yet you hold a knife to my head, and make threats. I'm not sure that humanity is the word that I would use," Gabriel told her.

Jewel smirked. "Well, I sure the hell don't think I give a damn about what you think. I don't make threats, Gabriel. So let me say this in a way that you'll understand. Clear and precise. If it's a choice between you and my children, any of the children because all of them are part of me now, you'll be walker bait," she said as she looked at him.

"Hey Jewel, you gonna bring us those nails or have continue to have more of a friendly conversation with Gabriel?" Michonne asked.

"Yeah, we're done here," Jewel stated as she walked away.

Rick kissed her as she came over. "I don't know if he'd be safer in Atlanta or here with you."

"I seriously don't think I've had anyone get under my skin like he does since Shane. That's saying a lot, considering we've dealt with a lunatic with a tank and cannibals. Plus all the other crap we've put up with. Yeah, can you take him?" Jewel asked.

Michonne covered her mouth from laughing. "You're just protecting the cubs momma bear."

Jewel looked over to Carl and Noah at the other window. "Speaking of cubs, how is that one doing?"

Michonne gave them a questioning look.

"He wants to go to Atlanta, but we can't have that," Rick said as Jewel handed him nails.

"Rick is thinking about staying back too," Jewel told her friend.

"You stay, I'll go," Michonne told Rick.

"I owe it to Carol," Rick told them.

"We all owe Carol," Michonne told him.

"I owe her more," Rick answered.

"Rick, if she blamed you for the prison, she wouldn't have saw the fire and came toward the prison. She wouldn't have took care of Summer, helped Ty with Judith, Molly and Lizzie. She wouldn't have came to Terminus and helped get us out. You need to stop blaming yourself, I know that's easier said then done. I have to work on the whole guilt thing too, I know," Jewel said as she kissed Rick again. "This beard is getting out of hand," she said with a grin.

Michonne smiled. "So, I'll stay. Help Jewel with the kids. Ronnie going or staying?" she asked.

"She wants to go, to be there if Carol and Beth are hurt badly," Jewel said.

"I'd rather her stay here," Rick told her.

"There's nothing more she can do for me here, Rick. I'm going to keep drinking the tea, taking the medicine they found, and rest as much as possible. You need her there, just in case. I'll be alright, I will," Jewel assured him.

"We'll be OK," Michonne told Rick. "I'll stay, help Carl and Lexi hold down the fort. Make sure Jewel rests. Love on those babies," she told him.

"You go get Carol and Beth and you'll come back," Jewel told him as she kissed him. "You'll come back," she told him again.

"I'll come back," Rick assured her.

Daryl, Summer, Lexi and Ty's POV:

Daryl saw Summer hand over supplies to the group outside. "Hey Summer, come over here for a minute," he told her.

"What's up?" Summer asked as she walked over.

"You alright?" Daryl asked her.

Summer looked at him. "Got to be, right?"

"Smart ass," Daryl told her. "You don't have to go with us. I think your momma would feel better if you stayed here, helped her with the little ones."

"You mean you'd feel better," Summer told him. "What happened a couple nights ago, the night Uncle Merle died, the night they took Bob, the night you and Carol followed the car, it was just like the CDC."

Daryl looked at her. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"We got to the CDC, everyone was drinking, we were safe, we were laughing. Dad first made a move on mom. Then we woke up and we learned that we were going to die. That was like a few nights ago, we all laughed, we all hoped, then in a blink of an eye, we lost two of our own. We could have lost mom, and til Bob told us that they had seen you and Carol drive away, we thought we lost you. Now you come back and said that Carol and Beth are being held by some bad people. I was with Dad when we left Carol. We turned her out. I wouldn't have blamed her if she had just left me to die, but she didn't. I told Beth back at the farm, when she tried to kill herself, that we'd make it. So, I owe them both, in different ways. Mom'll be fine, Carl will be here. I have to do this, Uncle Daryl. I'm going to do this," Summer informed him as she walked up the church steps.

"When did you become so stubborn?" Daryl asked as he joined her.

"The day I was born, I was born a Dixon wasn't I?" Summer asked as she passed Sasha cutting up pews.

Lexi looked up from helping Ty then over at her sister. "I tried to offer my help, but she said she wanted to do it alone."

"She's going through a bad spot right now, letting the grief get to her," Ty told his youngest sister.

"Like you did with Karen?" Lexi asked.

"I admit that I handled that badly and I wish I could take it back. We all handle grief differently," Ty told her.

"If that's what happens when you fall in love and lose them, I'm not doing it. It's not worth it," Lexi simply said.

"What's not worth it?" Daryl asked as he came up to help Ty.

"Falling in love, just to lose someone, just to have to go through the grief, it's not worth it," Lexi told them.

"Yeah, yeah it is," Summer told her. "We should be able to have good days, we should be able to feel good and laugh. That's how we get through the bad…..we have to keep hold of the good, make memories and we shouldn't feel guilty about it," she told her as they held out there arms.

Ty nodded. "She's right. Sasha will get through this, we just need to be there for her," he said. "It's good you weren't here for any of this," he told Daryl.

Lexi shook her head. "They didn't get half of what they deserved," she said.

"Lexi," Ty warned.

"You weren't herded like cattle into a train car to be someone's dinner, Ty. You didn't hear how they spoke about us. You didn't have them herd you like a piece of meat, didn't feel the fear. You didn't wake up after being gassed to find five of you gone, just imagining you'd be next. I've tried to be good, I've tried to stay positive when we were all separated. I've hit my limit, Ty. Look how Sasha is suffering, Ty. Maybe it wouldn't have been as bad if he had just got bit, bites happen. But to have someone eat his leg then send him back here as a warning. And did you see that big A painted on the church? That was a message to us. So sue me for thinking they didn't suffer enough," Lexi said as she took some lumber.

Daryl glanced at Tyreese. "She'll calm down, but as a big brother, you just need to let them figure it out for themselves," he told him.

"Lexi was always the one that held things in, she wasn't one to explode or talk back," Ty informed them.

Summer gave a small snort. "She's a teenage girl Tyreese. That's hard enough but with all the shit we're living through, it's worse."

Lexi and Jewel's POV:

Carl looked up as Lexi brought out more supplies to them. "Hey, you OK?" he asked.

"Fine," Lexi answered as she turned to leave.

Carl went to go after her but Jewel stopped him. "Help with this, I'll go," she told him. "Lexi, hold up," she told the teenage girl. "Hey, what's going on?"

"Nothing, everything," Lexi answered as she sat down on the steps.

"Yeah, I know the feeling," Jewel answered.

"Tyreese buried them," Lexi told her.

Jewel nodded. "Rick helped him. I know that Rick's reasons and Tyreese's reasons are different for doing it."

"Tyreese doesn't think what happened in there was the right thing," Lexi told her.

Jewel put an arm around her. "What do you think?"

"He wasn't there….he wasn't in that train car," Lexi told her. "He has no idea the fear that we felt, what I felt. I don't even know if I can explain it."

Jewel kissed the top of her head. "I know, I know."

"Why did you stop Rick?" Lexi asked.

Jewel gave a small smile. "I stopped Rick because I didn't want him to lose himself. Gareth was dead, continuing using his machete on him, well it wouldn't have been to make Gareth feel any more pain. At that point, all it was doing was releasing all the anger Rick felt. Sometimes it's hard to make the right decisions, but I still believe even now, that we all have that little voice that tells us right and wrong. I just have to be Rick's voice sometimes, like he's mine. We have to fight to keep a little bit of ourselves, and that's what Tyreese is doing. Right now, Sasha is going through a very bad time, losing Bob."

"You lost Merle," Lexi interjected.

Jewel nodded. "I did, but I still have Rick, Carl, Daryl, Summer, Carl, Mika, Hope, Judith, you," she said as she playfully hit her shoulder with hers. "Everyone really. Sasha does too, but just doesn't see it right now," she said as she looked around. "You know, we're the lucky ones."

Lexi looked at her. "Lucky?"

"Yeah, lucky. The world might be hell, and we've lost people, but we've found each other. We've made a family out of the most unlikely circumstances, out of the most unlikely people. I'm glad that you are part of that family," Jewel said as she kissed the top of her head.

Daryl came down the steps. "Scoot over before I fall on both of you," he told them as he carried an arm full of metal stakes.

Gabriel came over and looked at the church. "Are you going to take the cross too?"

"If we need it," Daryl answered.

Jewel narrowed her eyes at Gabriel. "Don't make me tell them to take you with them," she warned.