Better Days

Chapter 325

Author's Note: OK season seven preview had me in tears and all Jewel started cussing Negan out. Yeah, I'm gonna LOVE that part. We all know Jewel is gonna be one pissed off mama bear. I've got a whole night that the writers didn't show. So here we go. Any way, please review.

Mar's POV:

Jessie sat down on the couch and looked at Mar. "Why do you all even care? Jewel got hurt because she tried to help me."

Mar shrugged. "That's just the type of people we are. We see something wrong, we try to help."

"Even now? Even when that can get you killed?" Jessie asked.

"Especially now," Mar told her. "So, let me guess how this all started. Pete seemed like a good guy, you probably met him right after high school, maybe even high school sweethearts," she told her as she put her hands on her knees and looked at her. "He seemed like a good guy, he had a good future planned right? Your parents absolutely positively adored him, thought he'd take care of you after he became a nice fancy doctor and all you had to do was take care of the house. Did they convince you to drop out of school, so you could help support him while he was going to medical school? And this was even before you were married?"

Jessie looked at her. "How…." she started to ask before Mar held up her hand.

"I'll take that as a yes. My parents tried, but I wanted to finish school, have something to fall back on in case John and I didn't work out. John was my Pete. We met in college, we had seen each other growing up, we both went to the most expensive schools. My parents were from old money, wanted someone who could take care of me. They loved him from the first time I brought him home," Mar said. "John was a good man to start with, the perfect man. But then more he got into medical school, he started changing," she told the other abused woman. She watched her as she spoke. "He started coming home and beating you, then you'd be hiding behind sun glasses or wearing long sleeve sweaters in the middle of July. He'd start sending you flowers at work or at school, and everyone thought oh how sweet of him and how they wished they had a man just like him. You thought, you can have this one. You tried to break it off, you tried to tell people what he was like, but no one would believe you because he couldn't be that type of man. They had never seen anything like that out of him. You started feeling like it was your fault, so you stopped telling people. You kept telling yourself just one more time then you'd leave. But one more time turned into two, then three, then the next thing you know it you're at some party, in my case Christmas Eve at my parents big typical Boston party, and he gets down on one knee and pops a big old ring on your left finger. You're standing there in front of all these people, wanting to scream NO, but can't for some reason. You say yes, and everyone congratulates the two of you all night. He's good for a while, but it never lasts. Then you get pregnant, and you convince yourself he'd stop for his child. Maybe Pete actually did stop, but John didn't. That's where I think our story ends, because I showed up at my parents' house with my three year old Peter, beat to a pulp and having a broken arm. They couldn't deny it anymore. Dad was a judge and he went hard on him. But my son still had to see him, but I made it difficult for him, I moved to Georgia. I had put my son on a plane to see him two weeks before this all happened. I don't know if he's dead or alive, but all I wish for is he found people like I did. I worked with Jewel before the end, I knew Daryl, Summer and Merle. I don't think my parents would know what to think of Daryl, but I know I'd chose ten of him over one John or Pete. I also know that you see Rick as someone who could save you from Pete, but you didn't expect his wife to be a champion too. Jewel may not have had a husband who beat her, but her father was a messed up piece of work who damaged each of his children in a way that they couldn't trust people easily. She's helping your boys more then she's helping you. Now, it's your turn," Mar told her as she looked at her.

"What do you mean?" Jessie asked.

"You don't let him back here, you don't let Rick take the fall for what happened out there. This is your time to show how strong you are, to show that you are in control," Mar told her. "Even if you won't, Pete will be taken care of."

"Rick would kill him, wouldn't he?" Jessie questioned.

Mar looked at her deadly serious before answering, "Rick isn't the Grimes that'll take the bastard out," she told her as she let it set in.

Jewel, Carl and Summer's POV:

Summer and Carl both looked up from entertaining Judith as Jewel walked down the steps with Hope in her carrier. "Mom," Carl greeted as he jumped up and hugged her. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, Carl," Jewel reassured him.

"We were over with dad…we wanted to stay until he woke up but Michonne told us to go home. Carol said you were going to spend the night there with Hope," Summer stated rather than questioning her.

Jewel nodded. "Yes. I know both of you are worried about him, but everything is going to be fine."

"Do you think Deanna will have the guts to try to kick dad out? To kick us out?" Summer asked her. "Because if he goes, we all go."

Jewel sighed as she looked at her two oldest children. She sat down on the couch putting Hope's carrier down. "We may have to do things that we thought we'd never do, things that we wished we didn't have to do," she told him.

"You showed them out there, what can happen. Maybe that'll change there minds?" Carl asked.

"It was just words, just a demonstration. It might have made some people think, but Deanna's the one who really has to be ready to change, and I'm not sure if she is. I don't know what it'll take to make her see it," Jewel told them. "She may not be a big old bully like the Governor, or a sadistic sociopath like Gareth, but she's just as dangerous. If she isn't willing to change, to adapt, then she's putting everyone here in danger. She's putting you in danger. I didn't want what happened out in the street to happen, but I should have known that it was going to lead to that. Maybe I did in a way, maybe we needed it to play out that way," Jewel told them. She looked at Summer and sighed. "You were right Summer, your dad did get to the point where Shane was at the barn. Maybe, just maybe, Shane knew what we had to do to stay alive in this world. I'm not saying it's right, and I'm not condoning it. I'm not going to let your dad stay on that side of the sanity barrier, I'm going to bring him back, we're going to bring him back. I don't want either one of you to think less of your father for what happened today. He did what he did because he reacted to what Pete did to Summer yesterday, and what he did to me today. Do you understand?"

Carl squeezed her hand. "We know mom."

"Does it make me a bad person if I was hoping that something did happen out there? That dad did kill Pete?" Summer asked as she picked up Judith.

Jewel put her hand on her cheek. "No, it doesn't sweetheart. These people were lucky idiots to survive this long. They had it easy. But us, all of us, we've paid our dues, we've done things we can never take back, we've had things done to us that we can never forget," she told them as she put her hand on Carl's shoulder. "It's just a matter of time that this fantasy world comes crashing down around them. It would've happened even if we weren't here, but we are, so some of these people may just survive. The ones who want to, who are willing to fight, they may have a chance," she told them.

"Can we go with you to stay with dad?" Carl asked.

Jewel laughed. "And have me face the wrath of Michonne? I think not. I may be your mother, but I respect all our group, and I'm not going to reverse an order Michonne gave. Summer you can go relieve Rosita for the night in the infirmary, stay by Tara. I don't want her to wake up without one of us there. Carl, help Mar and Carol with Judith, Mika and Mitch. You can also talk with Lexi, she had a bad argument with Sasha yesterday, she probably needs her best friend. And you Judy? You just keep getting cuter and keep these two out of trouble OK?" she asked kissing her forehead.

"Ma…Mama," Judith babbled.

"That's right baby girl. God she looks like Lori," Jewel told her older children.

"Mom would be proud of her," Carl told her.

"She'd be proud of you," Jewel told him as she kissed both of there cheeks.

"Joey took a basinet over for Hope when Carol told us you were going to spend the night over there," Summer told her.

"That'll be helpful," Jewel told them.

"When I relieve Rosita, I'll send her over to look at that cut above your eye," Summer told her.

"Summer, I'm fine, it's nothing," Jewel assured her daughter.

"If it was any of us, you'd be fussing over it. You'd be giving us a lecture on how even the smallest thing now a days can be the one that kills you," Carl told her.

"He's right and you know it," Summer told her.

"Alright, fine," Jewel told them.

Do you need me to walk you over?" Carl asked. "Dad would want me to."

Jewel nodded. "He would," she said as she nodded. "But you come right back here, no trying to stay, got it?"

"I got it, mom," Carl said as he picked Hope's carrier.

Jewel exchanged glances with Summer before following him out of the house. "So, what's up? Don't tell me nothing, you have the same tell as your dad. You wanted to talk to me."

"Are you sure you're alright? I mean, Pete's bigger then you, and you obviously got in some good licks but are you alright? I don't want you to lie, I want the truth," Carl told her.

Jewel stopped and looked at him. "I never got to confront my father or the man who raped me, I wasn't strong like I am now. Yes, I got beat up today, and I know it looks bad, but I'm fine," she told him as she grasped his shoulder. "I'm not just saying that Carl. I'm not just telling you what you need to hear because I know better. You deserve the truth and that's what I'm telling you. Yeah, some of the bruises hurt but that physical pain will go away. But, I did the one thing no one did for me as a kid, and that was to try and stop Pete from hurting Ron and Sam and Jessie. I never understood how anyone could just ignore something like that. Here we are and at a time all of us should be standing up for one another, a whole town is ignoring the obvious. He made it personal when he put his hands on Summer. You know that your dad and I will do anything to make sure that you and your sisters' are safe, no matter what. What I gained today is a lot more then the pain of some punches. Plus, you know me, I can take punches," she told him.

"We need you and dad. Summer, Mika, Judith, Hope and me," Carl told her.

"And I'm right here. Your dad is here. I'm not going down without a fight, but if I go down while I'm protecting any of you, it's worth it," Jewel told him as she kissed his head. "I love you Carl Richard Grimes, and don't you forget it."

"Yes mom. Love you too," Carl told her as he started to walk with her.