Better Days

Chapter 283

Author's Note: I am not looking forward to this weeks episode. Actually Jewel isn't. Nope, NOT at all. Glad I'm a 'season' behind! Anyway, I think a mostly the Grimes family unit chapter is needed, don't you? I was going to have a mostly Jewel and Rick chapter, but that'll come after the whole "we'll just take the town." Jewel isn't sure how to feel about that. Review please.

Rick and Summer's POV:

Rick saw Summer trying to get comfortable on the couch with her shoulder injury. He walked over. "Come on, you need a real bed. You alright?" he asked as he helped her up.

"Dad, if everyone else is staying down here, so I am," Summer told him.

"You're going upstairs, where you can properly rest. That is not up for discussion," Rick told his oldest daughter.

Summer sighed and went upstairs. "Dad, I'm not a little kid. I shouldn't be sleeping in a room when everyone else is downstairs. A) It's not fair and B) It's not safe for me. I mean how would you feel if something happened to me because I was all alone up here."

"Beth can stay up here with you, so I have no guilt at all for making sure my daughter is resting comfortably after taking an arrow in her shoulder," Rick said with a smirk as he opened the door to a room. "Got any more teenage logic you want to throw at me?"

"You're not supposed to be this good at figuring out a teenage girl," Summer said as she laid down on the bed.

Rick sat down on the edge of the bed. "How are you feeling? And not any of the Dixon standard line "I'm fine," he told her. "I know that isn't true. You fell on your own arrow, and Daryl said that hurt like hell when he did it. So, don't tell me what you think I want to hear, tell me the truth," he told her.

Summer sighed. "This is nothing, it'll heal, only needed a few stitches. But how I feel about this place? That's a totally different thing," she answered.

"How do you feel about this place?" Rick asked.

"Does it matter? We need to stay here, we have to stay here. For mom, for Judy, for Hope, for Mika, for Mitch. They need a safe place," Summer responded.

"Hey, it does matter. Your opinion is as important as anyone else's. I know that we have a tendency to treat you like a kid, but I also know that you aren't. But you are my daughter, so I worry. But, it matters what you think of this place, how it makes you feel. Don't ever think differently, all right?" Rick questioned as he looked at her.

Summer nodded. "These people are clueless. Aiden had a walker tied up by his arms, some pre game ritual to get his head on straight," she responded as she rolled her eyes. "Because it killed his friend. Him being a coward, and Nicholas also, is what got his people killed. I guarantee that they were the idiots that got scared and ran, left they're friends out there alone to get killed. They don't have any right to be leading shit," she added.

Rick tried not to laugh at her cussing. "Do I need to say Summer Grace?" he teased.

"If you do, I'll just call you Officer Friendly," Summer teased back.

Rick laughed. "I agree with you that these people are clueless. There's a few that may make it out there, but not many."

"So what are we going to do? We need this place," Summer asked.

"I don't know, not yet," Rick answered.

"Are you going to be a constable? Does that mean you get to carry a gun? Does that mean we get our weapons back?" Summer asked.

Rick sighed as he rubbed his hand through his hair. "No, I wish it did. Talking Deanna into that would be a miracle. Her daughter thinks we, as in everyone, needs to have weapons, may be able to team up with her to get Deanna see reason."

"I don't want to go back out with Nicholas and Aiden, But I also don't want Glenn, Tara and Noah to go out there with them. I don't think I could live with myself if something happened to them and I wasn't there," Summer told him.

Rick nodded. "Well, Daryl said that Ronnie told you that you can't be using that shoulder for a couple weeks. And, as your father, I can tell you right now, you aren't going back out there with them, not now. I know you feel like you have to, that you need too, but you don't. It's not on you, Summer, it's not," he told her.

Summer sighed. "It feels like it. It feels like if I don't go out there and make sure the others are all right, and something happens to them, I'll be responsible."

Rick squeezed her knee. "You're a good person, that's why. No matter what you have done, you still have a good heart. That's what makes you a good person."

"You're still a good person too," Summer told him.

Rick sighed. "Sometimes it doesn't feel like it."

Summer sat up. "Everything you've done has always been to protect us. We would have never made it this far with Shane as a leader. Most of us wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you dad. We've all done things we regret, but we're still alive."

Rick hugged her and kissed the top of her head. "You're a pretty good kid. I'm proud to call you my daughter."

Summer smiled. "I'm glad to call you dad," she responded. "So if we are staying here, does that mean we're going to be splitting up?"

"I think it's time, but we're all going to be close," Rick assured her.

"I want the attic," Summer told him.

Rick arched an eyebrow. "The attic? You know, there's no bed or anything up there right?"

Summer grinned. "Good thing I know some strong people. Beth is probably going to be with Maggie and Glenn."

"You're not going to have Joey up there," Rick warned.

Summer laughed. "I know dad," she assured him.

Rick shook his head as he kissed the top of her forehead. "I'll check on you later, rest," he told her as he walked out of the room and closed the door.

Rick and Jewel's POV:

Rick walked into the master bedroom and heard the shower running and saw Hope in the bassinet. He walked over and saw that she was awake and picked her up. "You getting used to laying by yourself sweetheart?" he asked as he heard the shower turn off. "I've got Hope," Rick called out.

"I was expecting you a bit earlier Mr. Grimes," Jewel said as she came out of the bathroom brushing her hair. "I think she's about ready to grace us with her first smile. Carl was talking to her while he was holding Judy, and those little lips wanted to smile, didn't you?" she asked as she took Hope.

"We need to re bandage that hand, Mrs. Grimes," Rick told her as he went and got the supplies. "I saw Summer trying to get comfortable on the couch made her take a real bed, we got to talking."

"She alright?" Jewel asked.

"She feels like if she doesn't go out, and something happens to the others, she'll feel responsible," Rick told her as he kissed her. "She's not a kid," he told her as he started wrapping her hand. "Have you, I mean, well given her the talk?"

Jewel burst out laughing. "Rick are you asking me if I've educated her about sex? If I've had the birds and bees talk with her?"

"Yes, alright, that's what I'm asking. No matter how I don't want to think about her having sex, the truth is her and Joey are close, and you're right, there could be worse people then Joey," Rick admitted.

"Jane and I sat her down when she was twelve. We figured that we might as well tell her everything, since she was a smart kid and she was asking questions," Jewel admitted. "Did you ever have the talk with Carl?"

Rick looked at her. "Carl? He's not anywhere thinking about that."

"Rick, he's almost fifteen years of age, he's thinking about that, maybe he isn't but his body may be," Jewel told him as he laid the constable uniform on the bed. "You're signing the papers," she said as she laid Hope on the bed.

Rick nodded as he kissed her. "We need this, we need to try to make this work, Mrs. Grimes. She trusts Michonne and I enough to put us in charge, that's our way in," he said as he started to change.

"Are you going to let everyone in on this plan of yours, Mr. Grimes?" Jewel asked as he turned and looked at her with a tilt of his head.

"Who says I have a plan?" Rick asked.

Jewel arched an eyebrow. "Maybe it's not formed, it's an idea brewing. But please don't tell me, your wife, that you don't have something in mind. Because no matter what Rick, we made a promise to each other we'd always be honest with each other, and if being here is going to change that, well then I don't want to be here."

Rick touched her face. "That isn't going to change, Mrs. Grimes. I swear to you that is not going to change. It's not even a plan forming, it's an idea, and no, I'm not going to tell everyone. But believe me that I won't ever keep you in the dark. That isn't us, it wasn't us before, and it's not going to be us now. Just because we're in a house, in a town, that is never going to change. I know that somewhere in that beautiful head of yours, there's some doubt now that we've stopped running that you aren't good enough. I'm not going to let you think that," he told her as he kissed her. "You are part of me, you are the one that makes me whole. So, Mrs. Grimes you are stuck with me," he said with a smirk.

Jewel smiled. "Good, Mr. Grimes, I wouldn't want it any other way. Now change, I want to see you in that uniform. Not as sexy as the sheriff outfit," she told him. "So does this mean, everyone is going to be living in there own houses?"

Rick looked at her as he was buttoning the uniform shirt. "Summer just asked me the same thing. She is definitely a mini you."

"Is that a bad thing?" Jewel asked with a smirk.

Rick laughed. "No, just means the people in here don't know what hit them," he told her as he finished dressing. "Come on, let's go downstairs."

Jewel picked Hope up and walked down the stairs, with Rick behind her. Everyone looked up at him, Mika coming over to take Hope.

Jes looked at Rick and nodded at him. "Beth do you mind going upstairs and spending the night in the room with Summer? She couldn't sleep down on the couches with her injury," Rick asked.

"Of course not," Beth said as she stood up and went upstairs.

Jewel and Rick went outside on the porch, Jewel closing the door behind them. She looked over as Carol and Jes came out the other door.

"You good?" Rick asked Daryl who was smoking on the porch.

"Yeah," Daryl answered as he looked at him. "You a cop again?"

"He was a sheriff before, now he's a constable," Jewel corrected her brother.

Daryl glanced at her. "You're still annoying when you correct me, you know that?"

Jewel smirked. "But you still love me."

Rick gave a small laugh. "Trying it on for size," he answered.

"So we're staying?" Carol asked.

"So we're staying? I think we can start sleeping in our own homes, settle in," Rick told them.

Jes crossed her arms. "We're still going to stay alert," she said rather then asked the question.

"If we get comfortable here, we let our guard down- this place is gonna make us weak," Carol told them.

"Carl said that," Rick told them. "But it's not gonna happen. We won't get weak. That's not in us anymore. We'll make it work. And if they can't make it... then we'll just take this place."

"We're keeping this between the five of us then?" Jes asked.

"The less people that know, the better. Everyone wants this to work, needs it to work, for one reason or another," Rick answered.

Daryl glanced at Jewel, and saw the subtle change in her stance. He knew she wasn't 100% comfortable with this, just like he wasn't.

Author's Note: OK, I was always bothered by the fact Rick left the dang door open. How did NO ONE hear him? I mean really? So Jewel made sure it was closed.