Better Days

Chapter 261

Author's Note: So Phoebe is brave yet scared at the same time. Her standing up to Rick is gonna really scare the crappola out of her but she has to do it. She's been out there, she knows how it is. Review please. If you haven't reviewed in a while or never, peep up. It motivates!

Group POV:

Jewel looked out the door and noticed the cars and RV coming up. "Rick, they have the cars. Daryl and Mar are walking," she reported as she looked at Aaron. "He was telling the truth."

Rick glanced at his watch. "Five minutes to spare," he said as Jewel opened the door.

"Did you find Jes?" Jewel asked her brother and best friend.

"She's in the second car," Mar answered.

"She was with the girl, Phoebe," Daryl answered.

"Is she alright?" Aaron asked.

"Why don't you ask her yourself?" Daryl asked as Jes came in holding her arm.

"Aaron!" Phoebe exclaimed as she broke free of Jes's grip and ran to him and put her arms around him. "They didn't shoot you! I'm glad, God I was so worried. You've got a bump…who hit you?"

"I did," Rick answered as he walked over. "Stand up?"

"Rick you aren't going to hit her," Jewel warned him as the group started bringing in food and drinks from the RV.

"No, I'm not going to hit her, I'm going to tie her up," Rick responded.

"Rick, there's no need. The girl is no threat, well except she really talks to much," Jes told him.

Rick looked at Jes. "You trust her?"

"It's a miracle, but she does," Summer answered.

Jes glared at Summer. "Yes, Rick, I do. I believe that she is honestly trying to help us. She's got no weapons on her, and she probably couldn't fight herself out of a brown paper bag. She'd talk the walkers' to death, that's about all."

Rick looked back at the girl and Aaron then nodded to the stall where they put the food. He bent down and looked at the food.

"Cheese and crackers," Mika said as she looked at them.

"I'll share with you," Lexi said as she took out a package.

Rick stood up with a can and looked at the two newcomers. "This, this is ours now."

Aaron looked at him. "There's more then enough," he told him.

"It's ours whether or not we go to your camp," Rick told them.

"What do you mean? Why wouldn't we go?" Carl asked.

Phoebe took a breath and stood up. "You seriously need to stop and think what's best for your group. For your wife, for your babies, for everyone."

"Pheeb….sit down, I seriously beg you right now," Aaron said.

Rick looked at her and took a step toward her. "Excuse me?"

"Rick," Jewel and Michonne both said.

Phoebe took a step back. "You scare me, seriously not going to lie about that. You got the whole grizzly Adams thing going on, and well, yeah…ok…so this was a real bad idea but I've already started it, so here goes nothing. I saw my sister in law mauled to pieces by roamers," she started.

"We've all seen people mauled by walkers, it's nothing new," Mar said.

"She was holding my baby nephew at the time. The screams of someone being mauled apart by walkers' are bad enough, the screams of a mother watching her baby being mauled apart, worse. I couldn't do anything….except get my older nephew to a car. If I saw you on the side of the road, I would have ran the opposite direction. But, you have Jewel and the babies. If you don't….if you don't come back with us, you're going to be signing there death warrants. You think seeing the ones you loved being torn apart is bad? It's nothing compared to the screams of an innocent baby….and a mother. No matter what you do….how much you keep them protected, it's going to happen Rick. Right here, right now, this is your chance to make sure they survive. Are you seriously going to….are you seriously going to just let them die because you're to scared to take a chance?" Phoebe asked. "I'm going to go sit down now, before I faint. Or before you punch me. Either way, I'd rather be sitting when that happens," she answered nervously.

"She talks. A lot," Jes said again.

Michonne looked at Rick then the group. "If they were lying or if they wanted to hurt us... but they aren't, and they don't. We need this. So we're going, all of us. Somebody say something if they feel differently," she told them.

"I'm not one on taking chances that I don't think I can win, you know that Rick. But this is one that I think is worth taking," Jes said.

"I don't know, man. This barn smells like horse shit," Daryl said.

"This camp of yours, it has hot water?" Summer asked.

"Complete with showers," Phoebe answered.

"We're going," both Summer and Beth told Rick.

"Jewel?" Rick asked as he put his hand on her arm.

Jewel nodded. "Whatever happens, we know we can handle it. I'm in."

Rick nodded as he kissed her and ran his hand over Hope's head. "Yeah. We're going. So where are we going? Where's your camp?" he asked as he turned around and walked out to Phoebe and Aaron.

Aaron looked at Phoebe then at them. "Well, every time I've done this, I've been behind the wheel driving recruits back. I believe you're good people. I've bet my life on it. I'm just not ready to bet my friends' lives just yet," he told them.

Michonne walked out with Jes right behind her. "You're not driving. So if you want to get home, you'll have to tell us how," Michonne told them.

Rick bent down with the map as Aaron looked at him. "Go north on Route 16," Aaron told them.

"And then?" Michonne asked.

"We'll take 23 north. You'll give us directions from there," Rick told him.

Phoebe's eyes got big. "Um, do you want to get us killed? Get yourself killed?" she asked.

"Phoebe," Aaron warned. "That's... I don't know how else to say it... That's a bad idea. We've cleared 16. It'll be faster."

"We'll take 23. We leave at sundown," Rick told them.

"We're doing this at night?" Sasha asked.

"We've always played it safe, never went anywhere at dark cause of the walkers'. They'll be attracted to the headlights, to the noise," Axel told them.

Rick looked back at them. "Look, I know it's dangerous. But it's better than riding up to the gates during the day. If it isn't safe, we need to get gone before they know we're there," he told them.

"If we're doing this at night, maybe we should take his route. I mean if says he's cleared them of walkers', then maybe we should give him a bit of trust on this matter," Joey told him.

"No one is going to hurt you. You're trying to protect your group, but you're putting them in danger," Aaron said.

Rick looked at him. "Tell me where the camp is, we'll leave right now," he said.

"Aaron, come on just tell them. If I die, then Liam is going to be all alone," Phoebe told him.

"No, I'm sorry Phoebe no," Aaron told her.

"It's going to be a long night. Eat. Get some rest if you can," Rick said as he stepped outside the barn.

Jewel, Jes and Michonne looked at each other. "Lexi take Hope for me," Jewel said. She looked at Michonne. "I think this is a two person let's talk to Rick job."

Michonne nodded as she went with her.

Rick, Michonne and Jewel's POV:

Jewel went to where Rick was looking at the car and sat down by the tire as she kissed him.

Rick gave a faint smile. "Michonne, I was thinking you, me, Glenn drive with the guy in this," he told her. "Jewel, the baby, Carl, Mika, Judith, Mitch and Lexi will be safer in the RV, David and a few others can be in the other car."

Jewel looked at him. "I'm going with you," she told him. She raised her hand before he could protest. "If you are bound and determined to do this the hard way, I'm going to be in this car with you. Hope has taken the bottle before, so she'll be alright. I'm tired of you putting yourself in danger, making me wonder if I'm going to have to do this all alone. I wouldn't survive with out you Rick. I wouldn't be able to do this without you. I have done everything you've asked since Hope was born, I've kept myself out of danger, but this time, I'm going with you. Don't try to use Hope as a reason I should be protected. We should all be protected, and going at night on an unknown road, it's not going to matter one bit if we're in other vehicles if something happens to us. So, if you are doing this insanely dangerous plan at night, then I am by your side. No if's and or buts, no trying to talk me out of it, no using my child against me. This is me telling you, you want to protect your family, then this is your wife telling you, we're doing it together," she told him.

Rick looked at her then at Michonne then back at her again. "Alright," he said as he kissed her. "Are you alright?" he asked Michonne.

"When you said that we were going, was that for real? Or are you just trying to get them to tell you where his camp is?" Michonne asked.

"We're going," Rick said as he helped Jewel stand up.

"Whatever it takes to get there. Just as long as we get there," Michonne answered.

Rick looked at her then at Jewel. "Michonne, when you first came up on the walls outside Woodbury…what did you hear?"

"Nothing," Michonne answered.

Jewel looked at Rick. "It was the same way at Terminus…I remember how eerily quiet it was. I remembered how at the prison, there was always some kind of noise beside walkers'. That the prison reminded me of a real community, a real home. I didn't get that feeling at Terminus, or Woodbury for that matter."

"Exactly," Rick answered as he rubbed Jewel's arm. "Sometime tonight, we'll be outside his camp's walls. And without seeing inside, I'm gonna have to decide whether to bring my family in. He asked me before what it would take for me to believe it was real. Truth is... I'm not sure if anything could convince me to go in there. But I'm gonna see. I'm gonna see," Rick told them.

"We can handle anything, Rick, together. All of us," Jewel told him.

"We've proven that time after time," Michonne said.

"And we'll prove it again, if need be," Jewel assured Rick.

Rick kissed her. "Is there anything I can say to keep you from getting in this car with us?"

"That we were going to take the route that Phoebe and Aaron suggested," Jewel told him.

Michonne tried not to smirk.

"Alright, I'm not going to try to convince you otherwise. First sign of trouble, you go back to the RV," Rick instructed her.

"First sign of trouble, I'm going to tell you see you should have listened," Jewel told him as she kissed him. "I'll nurse Hope before we split up."

TBC