This Night

Chapter 251

Author's Note: I'm a little slow in updates because it's busy season at work and the last thing I want to do after nine hours staring at a computer is come home and stare at a computer. I try not to go past a week, I'm doing my best! Please review.

Group POV:

Jewel grabbed the radio as she heard Rick's voice. "Jewel?" he asked as he hated doing this.

"Rick? What's going on?" Jewel asked.

"It's gone, nothing's here," Rick told her as he looked at Summer.

"You coming back?" Jewel answered.

"We're going to do a real quick look around the place. Hold tight," Rick told his wife. "I love you."

"I love you too. We're not going anywhere," Jewel told him. She held the walkie talkie against her head as she took a breath and struggled not to cry before she looked at the group.

"What did you all expect? Did you really think that it would be standing after all the shit you've been through?" David asked.

Mitch looked up at him. "For your sake, I'd shut up now."

Mar stood up and squeezed Jewel's shoulder. "We'll be alright, we always are."

"Yeah, it'll be alright," Jewel said as she stood up and took Hope from Lexi. "I need to change her, going to take her to the car. Come on baby girl."

Everyone watched her go to the car and close the door.

"Shouldn't she be giving us some kind of a pep talk? Isn't she the second in command or something?" David asked.

"Dude, really shut up," Mitch told him again.

"She's human, she needs a moment to herself," Glenn told him.

"I know she just had a kid and all, but we're all in the same situation," David said.

Lexi looked at Sasha then at David. "We all deal with it in our own way."

"Just like we do with dealing with losing Washington," Rosita said.

Carol and Ronnie came back and looked around. "We heard on the radio, where's Jewel?" Carol asked.

"She took Hope to the car," Carl told them.

"She alright?" Daryl asked as him and Axel came back with a couple rabbits.

"She's taking it hard," Mar answered.

Daryl nodded. "Mitch, you show Axel how to skin these," he said as he turned to go to the car.

"Daryl, wait," Carl said as he stood up.

"Yeah?" Daryl asked.

"Let me go, let me talk with mom," Carl told him.

"You sure?" Daryl asked. "You know how she gets."

Carl nodded. "I know. I just feel like maybe this is something I should handle as her…son, stepson or no. If Summer was here she would do it."

Daryl nodded. "You're turning into a good man, Carl. Makes me proud that you're my nephew," he said. "You call me if you need me alright? We'll keep an eye on Lil ass kicker."

Carl nodded as he went to the car.

Carl and Jewel's POV:

Carl took a breath as he saw Jewel with her head on the steering wheel. He opened the passenger side door and got in. "You all clean now baby sister?" he asked Hope as he took her little hand. "Mom's got a lot on her mind, feeling a lot of emotions. You and Judith have no idea what kind of world we're living in, but we're going to protect you and we're going to find a place. It's out there, somewhere, we'll find it."

Jewel turned her head, it still resting on the steering wheel. "You know I can hear you right Carl?" she asked.

"I know, that's the point," Carl answered with a smirk.

"Daryl send you?" Jewel asked as she sat up.

"No, I volunteered," Carl said.

Jewel nodded. "You want to talk about something?"

"I thought maybe you did," Carl responded. "Or we could just listen to Hope's breathing, or that cute little snore of hers when she gets in a deep sleep right after she nurses."

"I heard what you said at the church, about not being able to stay in one place to long. And it broke my heart, Carl. I want to do everything in my power to keep you all safe, so does your dad. You and Summer, we know that we can't shield you from the hell that's out there, and every time something like this happens, it just kills me because I keep wondering if we are ever going to find a place. Now the stakes are higher, with Judith and Hope," Jewel said as she wiped her eyes. "I'm not supposed to be losing hope in front of you, I'm supposed to be giving you the pep talks," she said as she squeezed his shoulder.

"You don't have to be strong all the time, mom. You're human. You and dad, both of you, not just dad, are leaders. Both of you let failures hit you so hard that it just makes you more determined the next time, but it also takes something out of you. We're all in this together, we'll all get through this, we'll all protect Hope and Judy. You know that Lexi, Summer and I will always put Mitch and Mika in between us, and they can hold them. You and dad taught us that the only way we were going to survive was do it together," Carl told her.

Jewel reached over Hope and embraced Carl. She took off his hat so she could kiss his head. "Every time I look at you, I still see that little boy from the quarry. You've grown up so much, and you've are becoming a strong, good man. I'm just sorry Lori isn't here to see it. She would be so proud of you, how strong you've became. Probably wouldn't like it to much if you called me mom."

"I probably wouldn't have if she was still alive, nothing personal," Carl said as he hugged her.

"I know," Jewel told him. "Why did you? I mean back at the prison?"

Carl gave a small smile and looked at her. "We were going to lose the prison, I knew that, we all knew that. I knew you didn't want to leave dad there at the hands of the governor, but you needed to get on that bus. When we got to the prison, mom was pregnant with Judy, and because of some stupid person, we lost mom. But we still had Judy. If you didn't get on that bus, if you didn't get away from that prison, we could have lost you both. Dad wouldn't have made it, Summer would have been devastated…and I would have lost another mother in less than a year," he told her.

Jewel kissed the top of his head. "We've made it. Not sure where we're making it to, but we will," she assured him.

"We should go out there, everyone's concerned," Carl told her.

Jewel nodded. "Give me a couple more minutes. We can just chill out for a couple minutes."

Groups POV:

Eugene looked at the car where Jewel and Carl were. "I expected more."

Tara looked at him. "You expected more of what Eugene?"

"You know, a pep talk. She's a leader, she should have all these words of wisdom for all of us," Eugene told them. "You know…say something to give us confidence."

Sasha gave out a small scornful laugh. "We all know that this was going to be a bust. After Terminus? After being lied to about Washington?" she questioned as she stared at Eugene. "Now you want a pep talk? Something to keep you motivated? Something for you to hold on to? Bob died believing in this imaginary cure of yours. Do you know how much your lies has taken from each and every one of us, and now you want a pep talk?" she demanded as she walked up to him. "If I punched you right now, do you think Abraham or Rosita would stop me?" she asked.

"Sasha, stop it," Lexi told her as she stood up.

"Why? Why shouldn't I punch him? We all want to do it," Sasha told her.

"It's not going to help anything," Mar answered. "You break his nose and we're going to have to use medical supplies that we don't have a whole lot of to fix it."

"Blood draws walkers' so we can't let him bleed," Lexi told her.

Ronnie nodded. "I'd rather leave it for more serious injuries then a nose bleed," she answered with a shrug.

"Come on, Sash, just take a step back. For me alright?" Lexi asked.

Sasha looked at her younger sister and pulled her arm back from Eugene's face and nodded.

Jewel and Carl ran up. "What the hell is going on?" Jewel demanded.

Daryl glanced over at Eugene. "You had something to say about Jewel, she's here now."

"Cat's got your tongue?" Tara questioned.

"Eugene?" Jewel asked.

Eugene looked at her then down at his feet. "I..just thought, well you being one of the clear leaders of the group, that you know would have words of wisdom for us."

Jewel looked at him and shook her head. "Words of wisdom Eugene? You want me to say something to make you feel better? To make all of this better? You want to hear that there's some yellow brick road we're going to follow and wind up in OZ?" she asked. "I wish I could tell you that Eugene, I wish I could look in these kids eyes and tell them that we're going to find some place. Or that we could end this. That's what you told us, what you made us believe, what you had these children believing. What I can tell you is that we are better as a group, as a family then alone. What I can you tell you Eugene is that if you think you'd be better off out there, there's the road. That goes for any of you that want to leave, right now, go ahead. I just had a moment of dejavu," she said as she shook her head.

"You said almost those same words after the farm fell," Glenn said.

"No one left then," Maggie answered.

"You know we're with you," Carol said.

"Aint abandoning family," Daryl responded.

"Fine, Abraham?" Jewel asked.

"Got nowhere better to be," he answered.

"Rosita?" Jewel questioned.

"Told Glenn, I'm in," Rosita responded.

"Don't even have to ask, been on my own to long to go back. I may be an ass, but I know it's better to be in a group then alone," David answered without even being asked.

"I'm with him, I'm not going anywhere," Tara responded.

"Good, then that's settled. Let's take Judith to the car," she told Mika as she turned around.

Gabriel cleared his throat. "You didn't ask me, or Eugene."

Jewel turned around and looked at him. "I really don't give a rats ass if you stay or not Gabriel. You're just another liability that puts my children, my family in danger. Plus you know what I'm really tired of the way you silently judge us. Just remember, you listened to your whole congregation being slaughtered, so do whatever you need to do," she said as she turned back around and walked with the kids to the car.

TBC