Better Days

Chapter 327

Author's Note: Yay people reviewed! It makes me a happy camper. Yes I'm needy, sue me, but you wouldn't get much. Just kidding, don't sue me, just enjoy the story! Please review.

Jewel, Rick and Michonne's POV:

Jewel kissed Hopes fingers as she nursed her and looked over to where Rick was stirring, and then sat up and started laughing.

Michonne glanced at Jewel. "What's so funny?" Michonne asked.

"You were here the whole time?" Rick asked as he sat up.

"She was, so was Hope and me," Jewel told him as she went over and kissed him softly. "You don't look so hot."

"Neither do you, are you alright?" Rick asked.

"I'm alright," Jewel answered as she sat down. "I told Michonne I gave you the gun," she said as she looked at him in the eyes.

Michonne watched them. "Rick, what's so funny?" she asked again.

"It's- it's like the train car. After the whole thing, I'm still there," Rick told them.

"You aren't the only one," Jewel told him.

"Deanna wanted you in here, calm things down. Rosita patched you up, Jewel of course double checked her work. Carl and Summer came by for a while, I sent them home. Jewel explained why you two didn't tell me that it happened so fast and I had other things that I was doing," Michonne told him.

Rick looked at Jewel and kissed Hope's head then looked at Michonne. "It did and you were," he agreed with his wife.

"Deanna wanted to put guards on you, but wasn't going to put any on Pete, Quinn interfered. Told her that if some of them were guarding you, some of us were guarding him. In the end, she decided not to have anyone guard you," Jewel told him, emphasizing that Quinn helped.

"We put Pete in another house. You could have told me what was happening, both of you," Michonne told them.

"I told you Michonne everything happened so fast that there wasn't time," Jewel repeated again.

"Then there was Noah," Rick added.

Jewel watched as Michonne pulled the chair closer and sat down. "Rick what are you doing?" she asked as she sat down.

"Like Jewel said, things moved fast," Rick told her as he kissed Jewel. "We couldn't tell you about the gun."

"Oh you wanted this place," Rick told her.

"We had to stop being out there," Michonne told them.

"Well, we're here," Rick answered as he rubbed Hope's head.

"You just said you weren't," Michonne told him.

Jewel looks at Michonne. "Michonne, you can't tell me that you don't go back to being locked in that train car. You can't tell me that you flashback to Woodbury or before. We're the poster children for PTSD. Being out there, it's a war and we're the soldiers. You can't live the past two years like we have and not be affected. Deanna may not be the Governor or Gareth, but she's a whole different kind of danger. She's oblivious to what is going on out there, what dangers are lurking just around the corner. She thinks she can lead the way she led before, but she can't."

Rick put a hand on Jewel's shoulder as the door opened and Glenn, Jes, Carol, Abraham and Summer walked in.

"Where did you get the gun?" Glenn questioned him.

"I gave it to him," Jewel told them.

"You took it from the armory right? That was stupid, why did you do it?" Carol questioned as she continued to play the game.

"I kept it when we first walked in here. You call it being stupid Carol, I call it being protective. I gave it to Rick the day we got here. I couldn't, I wouldn't, leave my children unprotected," Jewel insisted.

"I carried it, just in case," Rick added.

"Deanna's planning on having a meeting tonight, for anyone who wants to," Glenn told them.

"To kick Rick out?" Abraham questioned.

"To try," Carol said.

"We don't know that, Maggie and Beth are meeting with her right now, she's gonna find out what it is," Glenn told them.

"Deanna already admitted it to mom, right after the fight, remember? She said that Mom and the babies would be safe even if Dad was kicked out," Summer told Glenn.

Carol spoke up. "At the meeting, you say you were worried about someone being abused and no one was doing anything about it. Don't even bring up that Jewel gave it to you. You say you stole it," she told Rick.

"I'm a big girl, Carol," Jewel told her.

"Carol's right, keep the focus on Rick. We can handle her trying to kick Rick out, but you? We'd never even make it to the meeting, because I'd take Deanna out before we got to it," Jes answered.

"She's right," Rick told her as he kissed her.

"You say you took a gun just to be sure that Jessie was safe from a man who wound up attacking you. You say that you held in your temper when he grabbed Summer yesterday, that you refrained from going over there and killing him right then and there. Then today you saw him attacking Jewel through the window and you did what any loving husband would do, and protect your wife. You say you'll do whatever you want them to. Just tell them a story that they want to hear. It's what I've been doing since I got here," Carol told them.

Michonne looked at her with her arms still crossed. "Why?"

"Because these people are children and children like there stories," Carol told them.

"What happens after all the nice words and they still try to kick him out?" Abraham questioned.

"They're guarding the armory now," Glenn answered.

"We still have knives, that's all we'll need against them," Carol told them.

"I've got my cross bow," Summer told them.

"You try to lift that thing and that arm is going to do permanent damage to that arm," Glenn told her.

"I can use a cross bow, wouldn't be a Dixon if I didn't know how," Jewel responded.

"You think they are just going to let you carry a crossbow to a meeting where they are threatening to throw out your daddy for violence?" Abraham asked.

"I think they know better then to even try to take it from her," Jes told them.

"Well, tonight at the meeting, if it looks like it's going bad, I whistle. Carol grabs Deanna, I take Spencer, you grab Reg," he said gesturing to Michonne. "Jewel grabs Quinn. Glenn, Jes and Abraham cover us, watch the crowd. Summer, Glenn's right about that arm. I need you to stay at the house with Carl and watch the kids," Rick instructed.

"We can talk to them," Michonne informed him.

"We will," Rick said with conviction.

"We've talked, Michonne, until we're blue in the faces," Jewel told her.

"But we'll try again," Rick told his wife. "If we can't get through, we take the three of them and say we'll slit their throats," he told the group.

"Like at Terminus?" Glenn asks.

"That place is a bad penny, it keeps showing up," Jes stated.

"No we just tell them, they give us the armory and it's over," Rick answered.

"Did you want this?" Glenn asked.

Jewel looked at him. "Glenn, how could you ask that? Do you think that we wanted it to come down to this? You've known Rick and me from the beginning."

"Jewel, we're keeping you out of this, there is no you involved," Jes told her.

"No we Jes? If you haven't noticed, I've got a baby attached to me. I've got children that I need to protect. Rick gets thrown out, I go with him, and I know a whole lot of others go with us. I'm hoping you all would come with us. There is no Rick without me, we are a team," she told them.

Rick gave a small smile. "From the beginning, even before we got involved. If I remember correctly, Glenn, you were the one who nominated Jewel as my co leader."

"I did, and I don't regret that decision. The two of you got us this far," Glenn answered. "But, Rick did you have this in mind the whole time?"

"No, I hit my limit, I…screwed up. No matter how strong Jewel is, she would have been no match for Pete in the long run. He over powered her, and I lost it," Rick told the group as he threw out his arms. "And here we are. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm just gonna sleep some more," he said as he laid down on the bed.

"Summer can you take Hope? I'm going to stay," Jewel informed them.

"Yeah," Summer answered as she took the baby. Abraham waited until she went out the door to step out behind her and close it.

Rick and Jewel, Jes and Carol's POV:

Jewel went over to the bed. "Scoot," she told him.

Rick smiled as he moved over and put his injured arm around her. "I'm sorry that I wasn't there to stop him sooner," he said as he kissed the top of her head.

"I knew the risks going into it. I wanted him to grab me so I could kick his sorry ass," Jewel answered. "I don't think I'll need to control Quinn. She stood up for us, made her mother listen. I know she knows what's wrong with this town and that she'll do whatever she needs to make sure this town is safe," Jewel told him.

"I trust you Mrs. Grimes, but this is her mother," Rick told her as he kissed into her hair.

"Well Mr. Grimes sometimes families don't agree. She's stood up for us a lot against her mother. She saw what it was like out there, and that was just one day. I can see it in her eyes. You know I'd never do anything to put any of our family in jeopardy, but I'm asking you to see what side she picks tonight. If she picks her mother's side, I'll gladly grab her," Jewel told him as she turned over to face him. "I'm with you."

Rick smiled and kissed her, deepening the kiss rolling her on her back. He stopped when he heard the door open again.

"Yeah that looks like you're sleeping," Jes told them.

"You can wait to get home to do that," Carol told them.

Rick sighed as he sat up, helping Jewel up. "We would have slept after," he told them. "What can we do for you?"

"It's good what happened last night, it gives us more cover," Carol told them.

"I didn't want to tell the others, but that rifle I had with me when I heard Tara had been hurt, I kept it, never turned it in," Jes told them.

Carol nodded. "All of them think you've been found out, that it's over," she told them.

"I basically told them that they can try to kick us out," Jewel told them.

"You're a mother, they are going to think you're going to pick that over Rick. That's how naïve they are, because you're going to chose both," Jes informed them.

Carol dug in her boot and took out a gun and handed it to Rick. "It'll be easier now."

"Why didn't you tell them we had more guns?" Rick asked as he took the gun.

"Michonne stopped you, she knocked you out," Carol said.

"Truth be told, I was about ready to do it," Jewel told them.

Rick kissed her shoulder. "I wouldn't have blamed you for it. I deserved it," he told them.

"It was stupid," Carol said.

"She's with us, Glenn is," Rick told them.

"Abraham is too, Summer is, and if Summer is so are Joey and David," Jes told them.

"Now I have to watch for two London's? Great," Rick said as he shook his head.

"I think Summer realized she isn't ready for a relationship yet, but that doesn't mean Joey is going to stop caring, and David is like an older brother," Jewel assured him. "Why didn't you tell them about the guns Carol?"

"I didn't tell them about the guns just in case," Carol told them.

Jewel looked at Rick and both of them sighed. "I don't want to lie anymore," Rick told them as he squeezed his wife's hand.

"Our people deserve more then that. Our daughter deserves more then that," Jewel added.

"You both said you don't want to take this place. And you don't want to lie? Oh, sunshines, you don't get both," Carol told them.

"Quinn's on our side, talked to her in the guard tower," Jes informed them.

"Told you," Jewel said as she kissed Rick.

"I think she realizes what we are planning, and she knows a lot more people are going to die if Deanna is allowed to keep going like this," Jes told them.

Rick nodded. "We watch her, if she shows signs of going toward Deanna's side, Jewel will handle her."

Jewel nodded. "How's the atmosphere out there? Rick really needs a shower, and I need to look over his wounds. Not a word Jes or I'll tease you about being in love with Merle," she warned and smirked when Jes glared at her.

"People are tense, got some of the Alexandrlites outside," Carol told them.

"You two go on out, we'll follow in a bit," Jewel told them.

Author's Note: They're will be a mostly Jewel and Rick chapter soon. I don't think the next one, but we'll see. Review please.