Better Days

Chapter 282

Author's Note: I've always said that season five was going to be the one that changes the most, mainly because of a certain random hair cut woman but when they introduced Denise at season six, I knew I was introducing her earlier. I mean seriously, a psychiatrist just hanging in the background. Yeah these writers weren't thinking CLEARLY. Please review.

Ronnie's POV:

Ronnie had found out where Denise Cloyd lived and walked up to her house. She looked around and knocked as she waited for her to answer the door.

The blond chubby woman answered the door and looked at her. "Can I help you?"

"Dr. Cloyd?" Ronnie asked.

"Yes," the woman answered hesitantly. "Most people call me Denise. Dr. Anderson is over at the clinic. Who are you?"

"Dr. Veronica Washburne, you can call me Ronnie. May I come in? I'm here to see you. I've already met Pete, I'm not impressed," she told the other woman.

Denise looked at her and opened the door so she could walk in. ""What do you want to talk to me about?"

"I need you at the clinic," Ronnie told her.

"I'm not a surgeon, wanted to be one but my anxiety prevented me from becoming one. Plus Pete has made it clear he doesn't want me there," Denise answered. "Can I get you some coffee?"

Ronnie shook her head. "No, thank you. I've drank more coffee in the past 24 hours then humanly possible," she said as she sat down. "Pete doesn't want me at the clinic either, but I am there. I don't need you as a surgeon, I need you as a psychiatrist."

"No body needs to be head shrunk in here. We're mostly sane," Denise answered.

Ronnie looked at her. "Not anymore. The people I came in with, me included, are fighting demons. I have a mother of a newborn who gave birth in a very bad place, had someone try to steal her baby, and lost a brother who may be suffering post partum, but definitely suffering from PTSD. I have a woman who has always shut out people her whole life, and fighting to admit that she cares for us. Then there's Sasha, she's lost her boyfriend and her brother in less than a week, she's shutting her little sister out and going down a path that's going to get herself killed. Rick, my God, he's been leading this group from the beginning, every death, every little thing that goes wrong, he blames himself. He is such a good man that he blames himself for everything. He's scared that this place is going to turn out like everything else. He's worried that one of his children is going to die because of a decision he makes," Ronnie told her.

"What about you?" Denise asked.

"What about me? I told you that I was fighting my own demons," Ronnie reminded her.

"But you didn't tell me what those demons are. You can't look out for everyone else if you aren't looking out for yourself," Denise told her.

"I lost my daughter at the very beginning, all the college students my husband and I saved, died. My husband died of a flu and some crazy man blew up the prison we were living in. We lost a lot of good people," Ronnie answered. "The only thing that is keeping me alive, keeping me going right now, is making sure my family doesn't fall apart. Have I thought about suicide? Yes," she answered honestly. "But I was the only doctor they had, and we were out on the road with a new mother and a newborn. Now, we're here. I'm not delusional enough to think that we may stay, we want to, for the children's sake. But we don't know how not to be on guard. I've met Pete, and I wouldn't let him touch one hair on my family's head. He's a drunk, he abuses his wife and children, and he's dangerous. Deanna wants me to play nice with him, I can't do that. Not when he smells like booze twenty four hours a day. What I can do, is get you in there with me, we work together, and we both stick up for the other one against Pete."

"I don't know if I can, I'm not good at confrontation," Denise admitted.

"I have no problem at confrontation," Ronnie told her. "You want to stay here and do whatever you do every day? You know who wins? Pete. He gets to make another woman scared of him. I've dealt with men like that, men who live on making women think they aren't good enough to do anything. When I was in Officer's school, I was one of three women in a class of ninety. There were a few guys who thought we'd belong there, that we could make the cut. But most of them? Most of them were men like Pete. Men that would get in your face, say remarks to destroy our self esteem, make us think we should be home having babies. There was this Captain, named Keele, he expected us to do as many push ups as men, climb rope like men, run like men, then when we didn't he'd say 'well of course you aren't good enough, you have boobs.' I was determined that I was not being sent home, that on graduation day, I'd be the one with the highest scores, determined that Captain Keele would be handing me top marks. I worked three times as hard as anyone else, because I wasn't any one else. The final PT test, I was two points away from having top score. The guy in front of me, his name was Ridge," she said as she gave a small smile. "He looked at me and said 'I admire you Ronnie, I'll lose to you happily. I did 145 pushups, he did 143, I climbed rope, he came in one second behind me, he slowed down and kept my pace the whole run. I won by a point, and that night he said 'so did I finally earn that date?' We were married a year later. Keele was pissed that I made it, and that is what it magnificent. Five years later, I was pregnant and I outranked him. Now that was the cherry on top," she told her.

"I don't want to cause trouble. I'm keeping my head down, out of trouble. That's what I suggest you do," Denise warned her.

"You're being a coward. Now tomorrow morning, I expect you at the clinic, ready to work. If you don't show up, then I know you are truly a coward and the only person you care about is you. I don't think you are like that, because if you were, you wouldn't have became a psychiatrist. The truth is Denise, if something happened to Pete and me, you'd be it. You would be responsible for everyone here, and if that happened, right now, at this moment, you'd freak out. So, I either see you tomorrow, or you just give Pete the power," Ronnie said as she stood up and walked out.

Glenn, Tara, Noah, and Summer's POV:

Tara held onto Summer as they walked back. "You need to stop?" she asked.

"I'm good, I can see the gates. Now if that one would shut up, I'd have less of a headache," Summer said as she glanced back at Aiden. "You're giving me a headache."

"Well if you had listened to me, then you wouldn't have been hurt," Aiden responded.

"No, I wouldn't have been hurt, I'd be dead. Tara would have died," Summer told him as she swung around. "I think you and your lap dog there are the cowards, I think you two are responsible for the four people's death," she said.

"Glenn, a little help here? You've had more practice dealing with a pissed off Dixon then I have," Tara begged.

"Lap dog?" Nicholas asked as he stepped closer to Summer. "You want to say that again little girl?"

"If you know what's best for you, I'd step away from her now," Glenn told him.

"Oh right, like I'm worried about her. There's nothing she can do to me," Nicholas said.

"Tara, Noah, step back," Glenn told him as he stepped back himself

Summer looked up at Nicholas as he stepped closer and brought her knee up to his man parts and then grabbed his head and brought him to the ground.

"Let him go!" Aiden yelled.

"You want to call me a little girl again? I will cut out your tongue and feed it to you. Then I'll tell my mother and uncle that you threatened me, and you're body will never be found," Summer told him.

"You're just making threats, little girl," Nicholas hissed.

Summer took a punch at his face and hit him hard. "Dixon's don't make threats, they make promises. Either one of you endanger someone else in my family, and you're going to have me to deal with. I've been out there for two years, I'm protective of these people, and I don't give a shit about either one of you," she said as she felt Glenn pull her off him.

"Come on, you're bleeding again. If I was you, I would not get up that ground until we are far away from you," Glenn warned Nicholas.

"I'm going straight to Deanna. She's crazy," Nicholas hissed.

"Um, what exactly are you going to say? That you got taken down by a five foot nothing who weighs less than 100 lbs? I don't think that would make you look to good, now would it?" Tara asked as they walked up to the gate.

"You four need new gigs, you're not ready for runs yet," Aiden told them.

"Yeah, pretty sure you got that backwards," Glenn told him without looking back.

"Hey hey!" Aiden said as he caught up to Glenn and Summer. "Look, we got a way of doing things around here," he told them.

Glenn looked at him as he let Summer go. "You tied up walkers!"

"It killed our friend," Aiden huffed.

"Pretty sure you were responsible for that," Summer hissed as she saw others coming toward them.

"Look, I'm not having this conversation. You obey my orders out there," Aiden told him.

"Then we're just as screwed as your last run crew," Glenn told him.

"Say that again," Aiden told him.

"Aiden back off," Tara told him.

Aiden pushed Glenn backwards.

"Come on man, take a step back," Noah told him.

"Aiden, back off now, otherwise the punch I'm going to give you is going to make the one that I gave your lap dog look like a scratch," Summer warned.

Aiden pushed him again. "Back off, Summer," he warned. "Come on tough guy," he told Glenn.

"No one's impressed, man. Walk away," Glenn warned.

"Aiden! What's going on?" Deanna yelled as she came running with Quinn.

"This guy's got a problem with the way we do things. Why did you let these people in?" Aiden asked.

"Because we actually know what we're doing out there," Glenn said.

"Because we know walker's decay and if you tie them up by there arms, there's a chance that they're arms will come off!" Summer yelled at him.

"You did what?" Quinn asked as he took a punch at Glenn.

"Aiden that's enough!" Deanna warned as Glenn ducked and got the first punch in.

Nicholas started running and was going to take Glenn down as Daryl got him and started punching him.

Rick and Jes ran up to him as Rick put his arms around Daryl's back. "Let's not do this now, alright?" Rick asked Daryl. "Summer's been hurt," he said as he let Daryl go.

Michonne and Jewel both stepped in front of Glenn as Aiden stood up. "You want to wind up on your ass again?" Michonne asked.

Jewel looked at Aiden. "Did I hear you correctly when my daughter said you had a walker tied up? Glenn tell me she wasn't bit or scratched, because if she was, I'm sorry Deanna but you're going to have one less son to worry about," she said not taking her eyes off Aiden.

"She isn't, she landed on an arrow because some dumb ass distracted her by telling her not to kill a walker," Glenn said.

"You did what? Are you stupid?" Jewel asked as she moved closer to Aiden.

"Jewel, come on you have a hurt hand, back off. Daryl's got her and Mar's looking her over. She's alright, come on, back away," Rick told her as he kissed her. "I want to kill him too, alright? But we can't do this, not today," he whispered in her ear.

Jewel nodded as she backed up.

Deanna looked at everyone. "I want everyone to hear me, okay? Rick and his people are part of this community now in all ways as equals. Understood?" she asked as she looked at Nicholas.

"Understood," Nicholas said.

"All of you, turn in your weapons. Then you two come talk to me," Deanna said as she pointed to Nicholas and Aiden. "Daryl, Mar take Summer to the clinic, make sure that wound doesn't get infected."

Mar nodded. "Come on Daryl, Summer's our top priority, come on," she said.

Daryl nodded as he helped Summer.

Deanna looked at Michonne and Rick. "I told you I had a job for you. I'd like you to be our constable. That's what you were. That's what you are. And you, too," she told them. "Will you accept?" she asked the two of them.

Rick looked at Jewel who simply nodded. "Yeah Ok," Rick answered.

Michonne nodded. "I'm in."

Deanna turned to Glenn. "Thank you."

"For what?" Glenn asked.

"For knocking him on his ass," Deanna told him.

"He's been needing it for a while. Mom, I think you should make Glenn the leader of the supply team. Aiden brought back some one injured, at least she came back alive," Quinn stated.

"I think that's a good idea. I'm going to go talk to Aiden now, if you want to come Quinn, you can," Deanna said.

"Wouldn't miss it for the world," Quinn answered as Glenn walked away and Maggie smiled.

TBC