Better Days

Chapter 321

Author's Note: Well I could go check on Aaron and Daryl (I know how I'm making it different) but I think you may all throw things at me if I do that. Jewel will get her licks in with Pete, but Rick still needs to go crazy on the streets. It's a major part of season 6 story line. Please review.

Jewel's POV:

"Jewel what are you doing here?" Pete questioned as he came into the house from the garage.

Jewel turned and looked at him. "I'm talking with Jessie. You don't have a problem with that, do you? I mean you did have a problem with Summer talking to Sam. By the way, how's the hand?" she asked with a smirk.

"I don't want you to talk to Jessie, or any of your family talking to any of mine. Do you understand?" Pete asked.

"Pete…" Jessie started to say.

"Stay out of it," Pete warned her.

Jewel took a step between them. "Don't think I can," she simply told him.

Jessie put her hand on Jewel's shoulder and stepped over to him. "You need to listen to me," she told her husband.

"I'm going to have to ask you to leave Jewel," Pete told her, ignoring his wife.

"No," Jessie told him.

Jewel adjusted her stance, putting her hand on her hip near her knife as she watched Pete react to Jessie. For an instant, instead of Pete's face, it was her father's.

"Excuse me?" Pete asked his wife as he looked down at her giving a small laugh.

"You need to leave," Jessie told him.

Pete looked at Jewel then at Jessie. "What are you talking about?"

"Just go," Jessie told him.

Pete looked at Jewel. "What lies have you been telling her Jessie? What have you been saying to each OTHER?" he screamed at Jessie causing her to flinch.

Jewel stepped in front of Jessie. "Pete you are going to leave this house right now, on your own two feet, or they are going to be dragging you out leaving a blood trail for your boys to see. But either way, you are NOT going to be staying in this house for another instant so you can take out your anger on Jessie and the boys. Tell me something, Pete, does it make you feel like a real man by laying a hand on people that can't fight back? Does it make up for other issues you have as a man?" she asked. She wanted this man to make a move against her, she wanted to show him that not all women were weak and afraid of him.

Pete looked at her as he took a step forward, being very close to her. "You come into my house," he started to say.

"You're not the only one that lives here," Jewel pointed out. "Now, Pete you need to leave," she told him as she stood firm. "You aren't going to hurt Jessie anymore. You aren't going to raise your hand against those boys again. And most importantly, no offense Jessie, you certainly aren't going to lay another hand on my child. So, now, you think you can find the door or are you so drunk that you need assistance?"

"I'm not going anywhere. You're leaving. You don't have the common sense to be scared of me," Pete hissed.

Jewel glared at him as she stepped closer to him. "There's nothing to be afraid of, Pete. A real man doesn't hit a woman. You know why you drink Pete? You drink because that is the ONLY time you can have any kind of control. You're weak, you're pathetic, and you're leaving!"

"If your husband can't get you to show a man how to respect you, I can," Pete said. "You have no control here, and your husband think he's the law, he doesn't have any control here."

"Pete, please just go," Jessie told him.

"Shut up," Pete yelled at her. "Who do you think you are Jewel?"

Jewel could see Rick across the street through the window and knew that just as soon as Pete put a hand on her he'd be over there, but she could get in a few good licks in. But she wasn't going to make the first move. "I'm your worst nightmare. Now, I'm telling you for the last time, leave. Or if you don't understand that, get out, move anywhere but here, don't let the door hit you on the way out," she said, not moving a step as he closed the gap toward her.

That was all it took as Pete threw the first punch. Jewel ducked and raised up and hit him so hard that she swore she heard a crack from a bone breaking in his nose. Before she knew it he flung himself at her as he pushed her into a the wall, putting his hands around her neck. He slammed her head against the wall. "YOU COME INTO MY HOUSE?" he questioned.

"Pete stop it!" Jessie begged.

"MY HOUSE," Pete repeated as he threw her head against the wall again.

Jewel raised her knee and kneed him as hard as she could causing him to bend over in pain. She used that moment to grab his hair and slam his face against the corner of a table. "How does it feel now?" she questioned again as he raised up and grabbed her and flipped her over so she was on the ground, laying a punch on her, bringing the blood. She head butted him, and hard, silently cursing Merle for ever teaching her how to do that. She heard the door open and knew her part of this fight was over.

"Get off of her!" Rick yelled as he pulled him off of her. "First you put your hands on my daughter? Now my wife?" he yelled at him as Pete turned his attention to Rick and the two started to exchange blows.

"STOP IT!" Jessie yelled as Jewel got up, using the couch to steady her.

Jewel raised her head just in time to see them both go out the window.

"Are you alright?" Jessie questioned.

"This? This is nothing," Jewel answered as she waved off the help. She heard Reg yell for Deanna as she got up. She deliberately walked through the broken window. She saw Jessie go to make a move to stop them but grabbed her pulling her back. "You had your chance, now it's ours," she told the other blond. She saw the streets getting crowded both with her family and Alexandrians. She stepped off the porch when she saw Pete get the upper hand and strangling Rick. She grabbed hold of his back and tried to pull him off Rick. He took one hand off Rick's throat, punching her hard enough to fall to the ground, but it gave Rick just the distraction he needed to get the upper hand.

"Mom!" Carl and Summer both yelled as they went over to help her as Rosita helped her stand.

Jewel watched as Rick as he held Pete in a choke hold. "Rick that's enough!" she yelled, not wanting Rick to kill him in this public manner.

"He's going all Shane crazy, like at the barn…" Summer told her as she kept hold of her mother.

"Stop it! Just stop," Deanna told Rick causing him to look at her.

"You touch them again, I'll kill you," Rick hissed. "You put one finger on my wife and children, and I'll make your death slow and painful."

"Damn it, Rick, I said stop!" Deanna yelled.

Jewel exchanged glances with Jes and Carol as she watched the drama unfolding.

"Or what?" Rick asked as he got up on his knees and pulled out a gun and started waving it. "You want to kick me out?" he asked as blood ran down his face.

"Yeah, he's ventured into crazy Shane area," Summer repeated as her eyes went big.

"Carl, you and Summer go back into the house. Go check on your sisters'. Take Mitch inside too," Jewel told them as she wiped her face off with blood. She looked at Jes who was standing straight across from her and both were ready to take out the guns they had and join the fight. "Now!" she told them as they went to do what she said.

Deanna held out her hands and stepped back. "Put the gun down, Rick," she told him, as the her voice shook with fear.

Quinn stood with Gus as they watched.

Glenn and Joey blocked Tobin and Nicholas from running to help Pete.

"You still don't get it do you? None of you do!" Rick hissed at them. "We know what needs to be done and we do it. We're the ones who live. You just sit, and plan and hesitate. You just make excuses to let dangerous men like Pete live, while he could be planning to kill his family. You pretend to know what you're doing, but you don't. You wish things weren't the way they are, but they are. Nothing is going to change, so you need to change. Well you want to live? You want this place to stay standing? Your way of doing things are done. Things don't get better because you want them too. Starting right here, right now, we have to control who lives here," he told them.

Jewel saw the smirk on Carol's face, and saw the anger in Deanna's.

"That's never been so clear to me then it is right now," Deanna told Rick.

"You don't mean Rick, there's another person laying on that ground. I have that person's hand marks on my throat, Deanna," Jewel told her as she stepped closer to Rick. "That's enough Rick, you need to put the gun down right now. I think they understand," she told him, calmly. She also knew that he wasn't done.

Rick ignored her, just as Jewel had expected. "Me?" he questioned pointing his hands to himself. "You mean me?" he said laughing. "Your way is gonna destroy this place. It's gonna get people killed, it already has. And, I'm not gonna stand around and just let it happen. If you don't fight, you die. I'm not gonna stand by…." he told them as Michonne came out of no where and hit him in the head with a shovel.

Jewel looked at her and nodded. "We need to continue this conversation, calmly," she told Deanna as she looked right at her.

Author's Note: I changed some words in Rick's speech and next chapter will be Jewel calling Deanna out in front of her 'flock.'