Better Days

Chapter 318

Author's Note: Jewel's not sure about the whole gaining another kid thing, and Rick thinks she should go to someone who is currently kidless. But Jewel made me do that scene, she was bound and determined she was going to get in a word with Enid about her excursions outside the gate especially when her children are getting involved. The thing with the last name is something we actually do when one of us gives each other a dumb question. I'm sorry what's my last name? Yeah I learned it from my ex husband to be in this family you have to be able to hold your own. Review please.

Summer and Glenn's POV:

Summer went over to where Glenn was. "Is she any better?" she asked.

"She's stable," Glenn answered. "How's your arm? I heard what Pete did."

Summer shrugged. "It's fine, I'll live. I don't know how people can just turn there back on people like that, people who abuse there wife and kids. Maybe if someone had intervened when it was happening to mom, Uncle Daryl and Uncle Merle, then maybe things would have turned out differently."

Glenn nodded. "Well we aren't going to over look it, not now that involved you. I'm going to go talk to Nicholas," he said as he glanced over to the van.

"Not alone you aren't. Maybe if I was out there, maybe I could have done something to save Noah," Summer told him.

"Or maybe you could have died too," Glenn told her. "And it hurt to watch Noah being eaten alive…but it would have killed me if something happened to you. I'm grateful that you weren't there, that I didn't have to worry about you," he held up his hand to stop an argument. "You aren't a kid, I know that. I also know that you can hold your own, and we work together well. But the fact remains, that you are like my little sister, and I can't lose anymore sisters. With everyone else we've lost, that we've left behind on our way here, I breathed a sigh of relief every single time it wasn't you or Maggie. I know it's selfish of me," he told her.

"But, you feel like you are owed one little thing in this world to hold on too. I get it," Summer finished for him. "That's why, you aren't going alone to talk to Nicholas. We have each others' back, that's what we do," she said as she glanced back at him. "Are you coming or what?"

"Can you ever be a little less stubborn?" Glenn asked her.

Summer let out a small laugh. "Did you forget my last name is Dixon?" she asked as they walked up to the van where Nicholas was cleaning it out. "I wonder if it's cleaning his conscious out?" she asked Glenn quietly.

Glenn shook his head. "He probably doesn't feel guilty at all," he said as he walked up to him. "Nicholas, don't talk, just listen. "Those four people you lost on that run, that's on you. Summer getting hurt on that practice run because you and Aiden wanted to play some weird ass games with walkers', that's on you. And Noah, that's on you, too. Those five lives, you have to carry that. People like you are supposed to be dead, but these walls went up just in time, so you're not. You don't go outside those walls anymore, not by yourself, not with anyone else. And that's how you're gonna survive," Glenn told him.

Nicholas took a step forward. "Who the hell do you think you are?"

"Hey take a damn step back," Summer told Nicholas. "Even with a bum arm, I can kick your ass up and down these streets," she warned him as she placed herself between them. "Step back," she said as she pushed him back with her hand.

Glenn nodded to her to move slightly. "I'm someone who knows who you are. I know what you did, and it's not going to happen again."

"I've been protecting this place, helping provide for it. You just got here," Nicholas informed them.

"Protecting this place? You did a bang up job by having a dummy up in that tower, now didn't you?" Summer hissed. "We might have just got here, sunshine, but we know what it takes to survive. We also know how to bring most of us back. We never run like a yellow belly scaredy cat," Summer informed him.

Glenn nodded. "Don't forget what I said," he warned Nicholas.

"Are you threatening me?" Nicholas asked.

"He's not but I'll make you a promise," Summer told him. "You want to survive? You want to keep living? Then you do what Glenn says, because he will keep you alive. He's a good guy, he still likes to think people are worth saving. Me on the other hand? I'm tired of losing people because of blockheads like you. I wouldn't have brought you back, I would have put an arrow in a spot that wouldn't kill you right away, so you would bleed and attract walkers. I wouldn't feel guilty because people like you don't deserve to be alive now a days. You only sacrifice others so you can leave. Aiden was your friend, and you left him, after him begging you not too. If it was Glenn, I would have died with him before I left him and he would do the same for me," she told him.

"Is there a threat in there somewhere or are you just running your big mouth?" Nicholas questioned.

"Dixon's don't make threats, they make promises. Don't go outside those gates again, because I'll be there next time, and you endanger anyone, or look at anyone wrong, it'll be the last thing you ever do," Summer said as she turned to leave.

"We're trying to save your life," Glenn told him before they walked off.

Quinn's POV:

Quinn walked into her mother's office and kissed the top of her head. "You didn't sleep much did you?"

"Not really," Deanna answered. "Did you?"

"No, I didn't even try to close my eyes," Quinn answered.

"Rick and Jewel came to me about Pete," Deanna informed her.

"I knew it would only be a matter of time before they figured out what was going on. Gus said Pete grabbed Summer?" Quinn questioned.

"He did, she came to me about it," Deanna responded.

Quinn gave her mother a hard glare. "Mom what did you do about it?"

"I asked if one of her group did it," Deanna answered honestly. "I know, I shouldn't have."

Quinn looked at her dumbfounded. "How could you? That group is protective of each other, would lay down there lives for each other and you…you had the audacity to ask Summer if one of them did that? Did you apologize? Did you listen to her? Did you do anything to take that foot out of your mouth?"

Deanna sighed. "She didn't give me a chance, she walked out. I don't appreciate your attitude young lady," she told her daughter.

"Oh no, you don't get to be upset with me because I'm annoyed at something you did. Of course she walked out, what did you expect her to do after you insulted her family like that? Did you expect her to try to tell you what happened when you already made up your mind? You know what Pete is capable of, and you know he's a ticking time bomb," Quinn told her.

Deanna sighed. "It still doesn't excuse what Rick wants to do to him."

Quinn looked at her. "What did he suggest?"

"That he, we, kill Pete. Jewel agreed. I told them that wasn't an option, that we'd exile them first. That I would exile them first," Deanna told her. She saw the look on her daughter's face. "You don't seriously agree with them?"

"Pete's dangerous," Quinn answered.

"So we exile him. That's a death sentence," Deanna told her.

"Is it?" Quinn asked. "If you had asked me a month ago if it was possible for a group as big as Rick's walk in here, and come in here with as many children as they did, including two babies, I would have called you crazy. I would have said there was no way a woman could give birth in this world and manage to make it over 600 miles with barley any food and walking could make it. But she did, they did. They did it together. They are stronger then most blood relatives. I know for a fact that if I was the one who was impaled, Aiden would have deserted me, just like Nicholas did to him."

"He wouldn't have, he was your brother," Deanna told her.

Quinn sighed. "Would you please take off your rose colored glasses so you can see clearly? Aiden was a self proclaimed coward. I've never heard him be more honest as he was yesterday. He wanted us to know that he was a coward, he needed us to know what Nicholas was capable of. But I truly believe that he wouldn't have had his come to Jesus moment if he wasn't dying," she told her mother.

"Maybe that's so, but what does that have to do with killing Pete? How does one thing connect to the other?" Deanna questioned her daughter.

Quinn sighed. "Maybe it is, maybe it isn't, I don't know. But the truth is, there may be no other option."

"I can't believe you're even thinking that way. I raised you better that," Deanna told her.

"You raised me at a time when there were courts, when there were prisons, where there were places for Jessie to turn to if needed. We aren't living in that time anymore. We have to change to survive with it, otherwise we will die. You know deep down that you brought Rick and his group in because we've been lucky. Now that they are here and you are hearing what we need to do, you just can't let go of the rules of the past. And that is exactly what they are, the rules from the past," Quinn told her. "Have you noticed how vacant there eyes are? It was the same way with Enid, Phoebe and Liam. They had seen so much bad out there, that they were suspicious of everything. They are always on guard because if they aren't they'd die. I was like that when I first came back here, but no where near. I was only out there for a short time, and people had not totally went savage. They've seen things, done things that I'm not sure most people in here could have done, if you could do it, if I could. They had no other choice in the matter. I believe them when they say that any other group would have came in here to shoot to kill. That they wouldn't have left anyone of us alive, including the children and they would have taken what they wanted and left. They wouldn't have wanted this place, that's not what most people want nowadays, that they want to destroy us. I believe Rick and his group when they say that they want to show us how to survive. Maybe it isn't the way you want it to be, but it's the way it has to be done. If the dead came in that gate right now, or worse, other humans, do you think we'd have a chance to survive; other then Rick and his group? I wouldn't blame them if they left us to die, because my God, we've done nothing to adapt, you've done nothing to adapt. Maybe a few of us could, but the majority would be dead," she informed her mother.

"That's enough," Deanna told her.

"No, it's not enough, not by a long shot, not if you still believe we can live like this and survive," Quinn told her. "We can't be who we were before, we have to be what we need to be now to have half a chance to survive," she said as she stood and left the room.