Better Days

Chapter 286

Author's Note: We're going off script for this one. Really? Me do a thing like that? Shocking! We've got people to check up on, which is one of my pet peeves about Walking Dead. Well, it was until the season finale, that whole episode is a whole pet peeve on it's own level. You better believe it's going to change in this story. I think following the story line exactly is out the window now. It'll still follow it, but yeah this story is going to be a lot longer! Review please.

Summer, Mar and Beth's POV:

Beth held Judith on her hip as Lexi and her looked at the brown paper bags lined up on the counter with people's names on it. "Mar do you know anything about this?" she asked.

"Carol," Mar responded as she changed Hope.

"Isn't she taking this whole Happy Homemaker thing a little to serious?" Summer asked. "I mean, well, it's packed lunches with names on it. I can understand if she did it for the kids, but for everyone? This is a little overboard."

"Not if you really think about it, she put herself out there as the mother hen of the group, and well mother hen's pack lunches," Beth pointed out. "Does everyone know she packed lunches?"

Mar stood up with Hope. "Everyone was up and about when Rick and Daryl took her out to learn how to shoot," she told them.

Summer looked at her. "Seriously? We've been out there two years and she's supposed to learn how to shoot now?" she asked.

"This is Carol, she knows what's she's doing. But since the lunches are out, and you two are here, you go get to play delivery women," Mar told them.

"So we're being pulled into Carol's game?" Summer asked.

"Did she leave instructions on exactly what we're supposed to do?" Beth questioned.

"Just check on our people, get to know some Alexandrians," Mar said. "And you two are going to take these little people with you."

"I've already met some Alexandrians, I'm not impressed, at all," Summer pointed out nodding to her shoulder.

"I don't think that they are bad, not like Grady. They seem to want to help," Beth asked.

"They're naïve and unprepared, that in it self is enough to make them naïve," Summer answered. "Uncle Daryl and Mitch's are gone," she said as she pointed out.

"They went outside the gates, I sent them with them," Mar told them.

"I'll take Father Gabriel his lunch, I haven't really had a chance to talk to him yet, even though we were on the road for so long," Beth said.

"You aren't missing much," Summer told her.

"Where's Mika and Lexi? We'll take them," Beth told her as Rick, Michonne and Jewel came down the stairs.

"What's all this?" Jewel asked seeing the brown bags.

"Carol packed lunches," Summer said as she held up the three of there's.

Jewel looked at Mar. "Seriously?"

Mar nodded. "Lexi and Mika are outside. Going to have these two take Mika and Lexi and the babies out delivering lunches, to check on our people."

"Be careful," Rick told them. "We need to go put on a pleasant face," he said as himself, Michonne and Jewel left.

Summer, Axel and Mika's Pov:

Mika held Hope as they walked. "So whose first on our list?" she asked as she walked with her.

"Axel," Summer told her.

"You should be resting," Mika told her.

Summer looked down at her, remembering what she did to Lizzie, how she killed her to protect Judith. She wanted to tell the girl the truth, get on her knees and beg for forgiveness, but this wasn't the time or place. They would be sharing a room together, be like sisters, and she would protect her and tell her the truth, one day. But today wasn't the day. "I'm just delivering bagged lunches with my two little sisters, nothing strenuous, and you're holding Hope," she pointed out as she stopped at the garage. "Stay close," she said as she walked in. She noticed that a tall, think Hispanic man turned. "Hi, we're looking for Axel," she said with a tight smile.

"He's in the back. You must be Summer, Mika and Hope. I'm Gus, Quinn's told me about you," he told them. "Axel, your families here," he told them. "How's your arm? Quinn told me about your run with Aiden and Nicholas yesterday. I'm sorry that it played out that way," he told Summer.

"Yeah, so am I," Summer answered.

"At least you aren't dead," a girls' voice said.

"Chloe, it's alright," Gus told the girl.

"Chloe right? I'm Mika, I lost my sister not to long ago. I'm sorry for you loss," Mika told her.

"I'm sorry for yours," Chloe responded. "This must be Hope, her and Judy are the talk of the town," she said.

"She's a big deal wherever she goes," Axel told them as he came in. "What are you three doing here?"

"Lunch," Summer answered as she held up the bag.

"Carol?" Axel asked.

"Who else?" Summer answered. "We got recruited to deliver lunch."

"Along with Beth and Lexi," Mika told them.

"Going to take Abraham and David's to them next," Summer responded.

"You're not going to take Mika and Hope outside the gates and you certainly aren't going alone," Axel told her.

"I wasn't going to take Mika and Hope outside. I can handle it," Summer responded.

"Axel go with them," Gus told him.

"I was going to ask, but I'm glad I didn't have to," Axel answered.

"Before you go, you can introduce them to the rest of us," a woman said as she came over. "I'm Jill, that's Turner and Sturgess. Axel knows a lot of things about cars and bikes, we're lucky to have him."

"We're lucky to have him too," Summer told them. "It was nice to meet you all, I won't keep him long."

"Are you both coming to the party tonight?" Chloe asked.

"Party? What party?" Axel asked as he looked at the girls.

"Obviously they don't know," Gus answered. "Deanna's throwing together a welcome to the neighborhood thing. Quinn tried to talk her out of it, but Deanna is set in her ways."

Much to Axel and Summer's surprise Mika was the first to speak. "Being set in your ways, it's what gets you killed, what gets other people killed," she said as she walked outside with Hope.

"She's seen a lot of death, we all have. She hasn't been shielded from it," Summer said. "Let's go," she told Axel. "It was nice to meet you all."

Gabriel, Beth and Lexi's POV:

Lexi sighed. "Can I just stay outside Beth? I'm not a fan of him," she told the older girl.

"Not a lot of our group is," Beth told her.

"You weren't there, you didn't hear him judge us for what was done at the church, with the Terminus people. Even after they returned Bob with his leg messing, and them threatening us, he still was willing to believe them. I saw the look on his face, the look that he was willing to give us up to slaughter to save his behind. I can't forgive him for that, not yet," Lexi told her.

"Alright, I won't be a minute. Don't move," she told the younger girl going in. "Father Gabriel?" Beth asked as she went into the church.

Gabriel looked up. "Beth, I didn't expect to see anyone from your group to come by."

"Carol made lunch for everyone, including you," Beth said as she took him the brown paper bag. "You are part of the family."

Gabriel took the bag. "Not many people in your group thinks so. They have done terrible things," he told her.

"Those things that they have done, what I've done, has kept us alive. If we had taken care of the Governor, then my daddy wouldn't be dead. We'd still be at the prison, and we wouldn't been moving and separated. And you would probably be dead, because they wouldn't have been there to save you, from on top of a rock, while a walker was trying to grab you," Beth pointed out. "I'm not here to judge you, Gabriel. My daddy was a religious man, he always tried to do the right thing. But he knew he had to change, do things he normally wouldn't do to keep us all alive. I heard what you did, with your congregation. Now, it's time to change, because you can't be naïve anymore. You can't judge us for staying alive. And you can't judge us because you're as guilty as we are, you let people die," she told him. "But you're family," she said as she left.

Author's Note: I know it's short, but I really want to start the new chapter! Review please