Better Days
Chapter 299
Author's Note: Well this is picking up right where we left it. This idea popped in my head at work and it needed to be put down on paper. I so am seeing the gangs line up in West Side Story as I write this. I'm not that old! Review please.
Family POV:
Everyone came down the stairs and hugged Jewel, each one of them saying encouraging things to her. Rick put his arm around her and they turned to leave. Jewel knew that she couldn't get that lucky.
"Jewel, we need to talk," she heard Deanna's voice say as she came off the steps.
Jewel slowly turned around, knowing the rest of the group did the same. "Alright," she answered. "This is the perfect place as any," she told the older woman.
"In my office," Deanna responded.
Jewel shook her head. "You are the leader of Alexandria, most of the town is either behind you or behind us. This is the perfect time for transparency, isn't it?" she asked, as she challenged the older woman.
Deanna looked around. "I just didn't think you would want to do this out here in front of everyone, to save yourself some embarrassment.:
"You're going to video tape this anyway, right Deanna? Transparency?" Maggie questioned.
"Which everyone can watch," Jewel answered. "Save the tape, the batteries, be transparent right here," she told the older woman as she looked down at her. "Plus, it'll take a lot more then you telling me that I shouldn't have offered to have Sasha hit me to embarrass me. That's what you were going to talk to me about wasn't it?"
"Yes," Deanna answered cautiously.
"You'll get used to it, Jewel calls bullshit when she sees it," Abraham told her.
"I don't need two people having a fist fight in the middle of the streets," Deanna told her.
"There wouldn't have been a fight," Rick told her.
"Jewel just told Sasha to hit her, if she had then Jewel would have hit her back," Deanna told them.
"No she wouldn't, Jewel told her she wouldn't," Mar answered.
"And why should we take her word for it?" Aiden asked from the porch.
Jewel looked up at him. "Because a Dixon doesn't break promises. And that is the only reason that you and your buddy aren't laying in traction in medical for bringing back my daughter hurt. Because I promised your mother and sister that I wouldn't hurt you," she told him as she turned her attention to Deanna. "While I appreciate that you want us to fit in, to be part of this place, to make it stronger, to fit in, it's going to take more then two days. It's going to take more then two days for us not to be suspicious, for us to be over sensitive of everything. Our home was destroyed by a one eyed smooth talking devil, who came with a tank. Yeah a big old army tank, green and everything. That's what happens when you don't have a guard up in a guard tower. We had no choice at the time, most of us were quarantined, or down with the flu, and the rest of us were trying to keep the walkers' off the fences. Jes had been part of Woodbury, his first safe place, but she saved my life, Joey ran away from a fight. Good thing he did, the Governor shot and killed all his soldiers on the side of the road because they ran away from a losing fight. It took another eight months for him to talk good people into doing the wrong thing. Tara knew it was wrong, she helped Mitch and Glenn get away. We were all thrown ten thousand different ways to Sunday, not knowing if any of us were alive. If that happened to all of you, how many of you would know how to survive? How to use a gun? How to make a makeshift cover at night so you could hear the walkers or people coming? Would you all know how the rest of you think? Maybe a few of you can shoot, but can you in the pressure of the moment, when walkers' just want to bite down on you, make a head shot? That's the difference of becoming the dead, or staying alive. We were all scattered, but we never gave up hope of finding each other. We fought impossible odds, we followed our instincts, we saw the signs, the signs for sanctuary, and we knew that the others would see them, that we'd find each other. We've picked up a few friends along the way, had a baby, lost people and yes, killed people, got blood on our hands. We never killed anyone that didn't deserve it," she told them.
"Who are you to decide that?" Stacey asked from the porch.
Daryl huffed. "I'd say when they got you on your head and knees, hog tied and ready to take your head off with a big old butcher knife and ready to hang you up to prepare you for dinner, that's enough to decide they need to die."
"Or locked in a train car," Lexi said.
"Or almost raped by someone three times your size," Carl responded. Jewel glanced back at Carl and gave him a nod.
Jewel heard gasps from the Alexandria residents. 'That's what's out there, and they are getting worse."
"Believe it or not, we're the good ones," Michonne answered.
Joey came up behind Summer and whispered in to her ear. "Looks like I missed a hell of a party."
"Deanna didn't like the way mom handled something, wanted to talk to her privately, mom pulled the it's about the transparency card," Summer whispered back.
"We're here and we know how to survive, and we want you all to survive," Rick told them.
"I'm in charge of Alexandria," Deanna reminded him.
Jewel nodded and patted her hand. "Yes you are, Deanna. You've done a wonderful job at it, but you know yourself that you need people in here that survived out here. That's why you brought us in, that's why you want us to fit in. Things have to change, like the guard tower. It can't be manned by a dummy, that's just inviting trouble to anyone who wants in, who wants to take what you have. Some of the people out there, they'll come in with guns drawn, knives at the ready, and they'll be no way to stop them."
"You don't have your guns anymore either," Nicholas pointed out.
"We know how to improvise," Rick answered.
"We've all survived out there, alone or together, and we've made it this far. That should tell you all, that we know how to survive. If I was standing where you're standing, and hearing what your hearing, I'd be really interested in how our skills can be useful," David told them.
"If you were where we were, don't you think you'd be a little cautious of you too?" Spencer asked.
Jewel nodded. "Yes, and we are just a little bit cautious of you too."
"A little bit? How bout a whole big old barn full of cautious?" Abe yelled out.
"Abe," Jewel cautioned. "Look you were afraid that a fist fight was going to happen in the streets, between me and Sasha, that we'd be rolling around like some mud wrestlers before the turn. Both Sasha and I are to classy for that. The reason I told Sasha to hit me was because she's beating herself up over the deaths of her boyfriend and brother within four days apart. Not to mention, Daryl and I lost our older brother in the same time. We've got a whole lot of bodies from here to Atlanta. If it took a few punches at me to let Sasha get the anger out, then be it. I would have stayed and I would have taken it, then when she broke down in tears, I would have wrapped her up in my arms and told her it was alright. Sasha and I had flashbacks while we were in there, it was no one's fault," she assured everyone.
"Your coddling her like she's your kid, she isn't," Pete responded.
Jewel looked at him and took a breath. "That's a difference between how we think and how you think. You're all neighbors, you go home at night, lock your doors and don't think about the other people. We didn't have that luxury, not for a long time. You got to trust the person next to you and they got to trust you, because it may be the only way you live, the only way you survive. That means also knowing what you and your family needs. You need to be a friend, a sister, a surrogate mother, a wife, a mother, or whatever it is. When this all started, all I had was my brothers and Summer. Now, I have a whole lot of annoying brothers, some younger some older, a husband, a teenage son, an adopted daughter in Mika, a God mother of sorts to Lexi, and have two infants. I have a sister in law in Mar, a mother in Carol, two sisters who can stand toe to toe to me and tell me when it's time to step down in Michonne and Jes. A really stubborn doc who is amazing at listening. A young man who I might as well call a son as close as he is to my daughter, and another son, who by the way I am so not old enough to be his mother, in David. Beth is like a daughter to me. Rosita, I've discovered could have been a fashion coordinator in the old world, along with Quinn up there. Maggie and I might as well be sisters. I'm still trying to figure out where Eugene fits, and Gabriel is the black sheep of the family, priest or not. Emily, Aaron, Eric, and Quinn are already making there way into this family we've built. Not because they pushed us into it, but they are trying to understand. Nicholas and Aiden, I wouldn't trust the life of a dog with. They've lost four people and brought my daughter back injured, and they're still in charge of supply runs? Why Deanna? I told you in my interview, the signs of a good leader is to take responsibility. At the prison, we had a council, it consisted of Daryl, Carol, Sasha, Glenn, Jes, Ronnie and Hershel. Not one person had to make all the tough decisions, the tough decisions are the ones that lay on you the hardest."
"I thought you and Rick were the group leaders," Jessie said.
Rick looked at her. "We were, for a long time, since the quarry."
"To be fair, Rick was the leader, no one really liked the second in command, and Glenn volunteered me to be co leader," Jewel said as she shot a teasing look at Glenn.
"I was right wasn't I?" Glenn answered as he nudged her shoulder.
"We got to the prison, we lost people, we lost Carl's mom when she gave birth to Judith. We had new people coming in, Jewel became pregnant with Hope, Carl and Summer needed to see that there was more to this life then just fighting. Normalcy, something all of you were blessed to be able to do. We decided it was time to take a break, let someone else handle the heavy lifting. We don't do things alone anymore, it's all of us as a team," Rick told them.
"No one is asking you to turn over the town to us, that would be presumptuous of us," Carol spoke up from the back as she came forward. "Rick and Jewel really just want to protect you and your children from all the bad that's out there. They know what they are doing, otherwise none of us would be walking through that gate, especially two babies, one of whom is just a few weeks old. I know it's hard to think about change, and that you don't know us, but we all just want to survive. I don't want any of you to have to go through what we did. We don't want you all to have the nightmares we have," Carol said sweetly.
Summer eyed her and rolled her eyes as she turned to look straight ahead.
"Mom, it wouldn't hurt to have someone on the gate. Jes has experience, she can make the schedule," Quinn told her.
"I think you trust your instincts enough sweetheart, to know this is a good decision," Reg told his wife.
"Fine, Jes you're in charge. Use some of our people," Deanna told her.
"Only if they can fire under pressure and hit a target in the head. Human, so it won't come back as a blood sucker, and the blood sucker's so they die," Jes said. "I'm not going to put anyone on shift that can't use a gun, correctly. They need to know how to disarm it and put it back together with there eyes closed. Any one of you got military, combat experience?"
Jes raised an eyebrow as a man and woman raised there hands. "You, what's your name and experience?"
"Over four tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, ma'am. Sgt. Gus Alvarez. I was injured on my last tour, came home to accompany a body of a friend, Quinn's husband. We were at Walter Reed when things went down," he explained.
Abe and Jes glanced at each other. "You?" she asked as she addressed the female.
"Marine, ma'am. Military police, had a couple years at Guantanamo Bay, got pulled out and was training for secret service for the president. Got hit, early on when people were going crazy, my husband was a marine, was responsible for getting people out. That's until people started shooting patients. We met up with Gus, Quinn, and Bri, a few others, but they didn't make it. Lt. Jillian Vance," she told them.
Abe let out a slight whistle. "Why the hell are these two stuck in the motor pool? They could be more useful somewhere else," he said.
"And they will be now, Abraham," Jewel told her. "Your husband, he didn't make it?"
"Brad's on a supply run with three others, right now," Jill responded.
"Alright you two before shift, meet up with me and Abraham and see how good you are, then we'll deal with everyone else later," Jes said. "Thank you Deanna. Sasha is one of our best snipers, she'll be on shift."
"I think we should call it a night. Thank you Deanna, this will make us stronger," Jewel said as she squeezed the shorter woman's hand.
Author's Note: Alright that took over a whole chapter! I so see them about ready to dance and rumble. Sorry! So Abraham and Lexi will be next chapter.