Better Days

Chapter 334

Author's Note: A meeting, a meeting, let's have a meeting! Hehe, Deanna isn't going to like this meeting. Without any further adieu, here it is. This chapter is the longest I've written. There wasn't a good spot to stop. Reviews make me loved.

Alexandria:

Jewel zipped up her jacket and stood next to Summer and looked toward the house, before looking at Michonne. They had just left him, he should be here by now.

"Mom, where's dad?" Summer questioned.

"Well, that's a good question. We just left him, he'll be here, he knows how important this is," Jewel assured her daughter.

"Maybe I should go look for him?" Summer asked as Deanna approached.

"Give him a few minutes longer," Jewel told her oldest daughter.

"Jewel where's Rick?" Deanna questioned, her face set in a hard scowl.

"Michonne and I just left him at the house, he said he'd be right here," Jewel told them as they heard footsteps approaching. It wasn't Rick, as she had hoped, but it was Quinn and other town people.

"Quinn come over here, stand by us," Deanna told her daughter.

Quinn looked at the people she was with. Jill, Francine, Phoebe, Noel and Emily. "I'm standing with Rick and his people. We are standing with them."

Eric looked at Emily. "I'm with them, I just can't stand," Eric told Deanna.

"Quinn what are you doing?" Spenser asked.

"What mom taught us to do. Stand up for what we believe in, even if it's against people we care about," Quinn told him. "It doesn't mean I don't love you mom, it means I don't agree with you," she told her.

"We don't agree with you," Francine added.

Jewel couldn't hide the smirk she got. She looked straight at Deanna. "Where's Pete?"

"Pete has no reason to be here, Jewel. This is about Rick," Deanna told her.

"If you're putting Rick in front of the firing squad, then Pete should be right here with him. Pete was out there fighting just along with Rick, so tell me Deanna, why isn't Pete here?" Jewel challenged her.

"Well Rick isn't here now is he?" Deanna asked. "We're going to start."

"Without Rick?" Jewel asked.

"That's not fair," Summer told her.

"Can we wait? There's more people coming. Rick and Glenn," Maggie told her.

"We're starting," Deanna said again leaving no room to argue "It's already dark. We're going to talk about what happened. Not the fight, not what precipitated it. We're dealing with that. We're going to talk about one of our constables, Rick Grimes. We're going to talk about how he had a pistol he stole from the armory, about how he pointed it at people. And we're going to talk about what he said. I was hoping he'd be here."

"You mean you're going to over look your part in this and let Pete get away with what he done. Rick is coming, he gave me his word. And Rick doesn't break his word, especially with me," she told her. "And for transparency reasons, I kept the gun Deanna. When we first came in here. He didn't steal it. I wanted to trust you, wanted to trust this, but considering the last people we trusted wanted to turn us into hamburger patties, I couldn't bend down and take my gun on my leg off. I looked at Summer, Carl, Mika, Lexi, Mitch, Judy and Hope, and I couldn't let them be unprotected again. Rick was the only one who I told about the gun. We kept it up in our room until the other day, when Pete grabbed Summer, when you did nothing. I took it from under the bed, and I was going to carry it. But, Rick didn't want me to get caught with it so he took it. So, blame me for that, not Rick," she told the truth.

Deanna looked at her. "Jewel you don't have to cover for him."

"That's what happened. If he stole it from the armory, I would have kicked him up and down this street for doing something so dumb," Jewel assured her.

Deanna sighed. "Alright, we'll discuss this later."

"Rick will be here, and I'm sure we'll work this all out," Carol told them.

Michonne spoke first. "After being out there and then not being how you were out there... it can drive you crazy. Rick just wants his family to live. He wants all of you to live. Who he is, who you're gonna be... if you're lucky," she told them as she looked at Deanna.

"Rick Grimes saved my life over and over. There's terrifying people out there, and he rescued me from them. People like me, people like us need people like him. I know what happened last night was scary, and I'm sure he's sorry for that. But maybe we should listen to what he was saying," Carol told them.

"Dad brought us all together, he made us into a family. He'd go to hell and back if it meant saving one of us, and he has," Summer told them.

"Rick took me into his group, his family, even after I was in a group that tried to kill him and his group. He saw the good in me, he saw that I had ran away, that I did the right thing. That's the kind of man Rick Grimes is, that's the man this place needs," Joey told them as he stood close to Summer.

"Simply put, there is a vast ocean of shit you people don't know shit about. Rick knows every fine grain of said shit... and then some," Abraham told them.

Deanna looked at Abraham then cleared her throat. "Before we hear from anyone else, I- I would like to share something in the spirit of transparency. Father Gabriel came to see me the day before yesterday and he said our new arrivals can't be trusted, that they were dangerous, that they would put themselves before this community. And not one day later, Rick seemed to demonstrate all the things Father Gabriel said. I had hoped Gabriel would be here tonight," she told them.

Jewel had held her mouth shut as long as she could, but she couldn't any longer. "Did he tell you what he did, Deanna? That he locked his congregation out of the church, heard them begging, heard them calling his name in vain? If we all went and watched that tape Deanna, would that be on it? No, because the man's a coward and a liar," she told her.

"Jewel…" Deanna started.

"In all due respect Deanna, shut up," Jewel told her.

"Jewel, maybe you should go home, calm down," Reg told her.

"No, dad, she shouldn't go home and calm down. Mom's trying to throw Rick under the preverbal bus, and not letting us bring up why we are to this point. Mom, you want transparency? Then tell me why you had guards on Rick, armed, after you told me you wouldn't? After I told you if you had it on him, you'd have some of Rick's group on Pete? You lied to me, your own daughter. So, Jewel is going to speak, and no one except her group is going to interrupt her. Right now, mom, I'm on the verge of turning this meeting on throwing you out. Yes my own mother, because you're endangering us. Aiden and Noah are dead because you didn't listen to me when I told you Nicholas and Aiden were cowards. Aiden told me," Quinn told the group as she turned around. "Aiden told me with his own breath that him and Nicholas were the ones who got scared, the ones who caused the death of the others. I've been telling her for months, but she didn't listen. Well, all of you are going to listen now," Quinn informed them. "Go ahead Jewel," she told the other woman.

"Maggie, Beth go find Glenn, see if Rick's back at the house and tell him, that the Dixon temper is going to make an appearance here if he don't get his ass down here," Jewel told them.

"Right," Maggie and Beth both said as they ran off.

Jewel turned and looked at Deanna. "What do you want from us Deanna? You interviewed us, Rick and I told you what we did to survive, to make this family survive. You let us in, you made that decision. You said you needed us, but you've ignored every single thing that we suggested. The only reason we have a guard at that tower is because Jes made it happen, not you. You were happy to just let a dummy sit up there," she told her as she held up her hand. "Don't say a word," she said as she turned to the group. "You want to know what type of man Rick is? He woke up weeks after this all started, from a coma after he had been shot on the line of duty. Any other person, would have already been dead. He woke up alone, didn't know what this was. He was dehydrated, he was confused, and he was alone. He walked out to find corpses, people that had been shot by soldiers, with sheets over them. He went to his ex wife's house, hoping to find Lori and Carl, but it was empty. But he believed that somehow he'd find them. Another man and his son ran into Rick, they took him in, they made sure that he knew about the walkers'. They taught him how to kill them, told him about the supposedly refugee center in Atlanta. He still held onto that hope, he'd find his son. He knew he was out there, he believed that. He got to Atlanta to find it overran with the walkers, found himself in a tank alone, about ready to pull the trigger when he heard a voice over the radio, Glenn's voice. That's how this family got started, a stranger helping a stranger. It wasn't easy to get out of Atlanta, especially with a baldheaded, redneck racist, big mouthed man firing a gun from the rooftop."

"You forgot drug addicted," Summer reminded her.

"Drug addicted baldheaded, redneck racist, big mouthed man firing a gun from a rooftop," she corrected herself. "That man's name? Merle Dixon. Yep, my oldest brother. He was mean normally but when he was high as a kite, he was worse. He was threatening people, and Rick handcuffed him on a roof. The first time we met at the camp, he had to tell me what he did, then Daryl the next day, to protect others. Did I like it? No, even though there was no love lost between Merle and I at the time, he was still my brother. He went back, with Glenn, Daryl and T…but Merle had cut his hand off. As time went on, Rick proved what type of leader he was, we wouldn't be here if Shane, his partner on the police force, was left in charge. Daryl and I would have taken Summer and took off on our own. We would have survived, that I know. Daryl and I survived growing up with a man like Pete, but he didn't have a wife to beat on, so he beat on us. But, Rick brought this group together. He made me fall in love with him. A woman who never wanted, never needed a man to love her, a woman who avoided relationships like the plague, he made me fall for him. At the end of the world, the one thing I wasn't looking for I found. Daryl, Carol, Mitch, Summer, Carl, Rick, Glenn and me, we're the only ones from the original group. Mar already told you how we found her. Carl got shot, and we found the farm, Hershel, Maggie and Beth were on the farm, with others who didn't survive. Hershel was a great man, a man who believed like you all do, that it was safe, but it wasn't. Hershel learned to respect Rick, and that was the greatest compliment of all. The humans started becoming a threat. We always said we don't kill the living, we wanted to teach our children humanity. But we had no choice, we did what we did, to survive. Even as the group got bigger, even as we took more people in at the prison, Rick did everything he could to keep us safe. He stepped down as the only leader, because one person doing it all, it never works. It didn't work at Woodbury, it didn't work at Terminus, and obviously it's not working here," she said as she cast a glance back at Deanna. "I was his co leader, but Rick is what started this. He adopted a teenage girl who never knew a father, without hesitation," she said as she rubbed her hand over Summer's back. "From that moment, from that instant, he never treated Summer any different then Carl. We took Judith after she was born, without hesitation, as ours, after Lori died. I would trust anyone in our family to help with Hope or Judy if I had died in childbirth. He put his life on the line more times then possible. He made us a family, he made a rag tag group of people into a strong family. Would you trust the person next to you, to pull you out of a walkers' gasp? Would you trust a person to cut off your limb if you got bit? Anyone in our family wouldn't have to wonder, because we know we would. Would you go into an unknown environment for a lost family member? Beth had been separated from Daryl and Axel, taken to Grady Memorial in Atlanta. The police officer's there basically kept the patients enslaved by making them work for there care. Noah escaped, Daryl found him and came back to tell us, and Rick took a group there to get Beth. You wouldn't do that. You already demonstrated that, didn't you Tobin? You and your group were going to leave Francine out there and who went back to save them? David and Abe. And what group did they come from? Oh that's right, they came from Rick's family, my family," she said as she turned to Deanna. "Who abandoned your son when he needed him the most? Nicholas. Who left Glenn, Noah, Tara, and Quinn to die while he escaped? Nicholas. Who pointed a gun at Eugene and told him to drive back here without them if he wanted to survive? Oh, yeah, that was Nicholas. Again. Eugene, a self exclaimed coward, no offense Eugene," Jewel told him.

"None taken," Eugene answered.

"Eugene, got Tara out of that building, he distracted the walkers' and he wasn't going to leave people behind. He stepped up for his family, for your family Deanna. Quinn is only standing here today because Glenn isn't like your people," Jewel informed her. "And now, I'm going to talk about the topic that brings us here tonight. The topic you just want to skate right on by, but we can't do that, because it's a problem you created. You're telling your people that situation is being handled. How? You throwing Rick out and let Pete walk right on back to Jessie? Let his anger of what happened be taken out on her and the boys? One day you're going to find them dead and what are you going to say? Oh I'll just throw him out. That doesn't work," Jewel told him.

"Jewel, you've made your point," Deanna told her as she tried to take control back of the meeting.

"Deanna, my point's not made. Don't interrupt again," Jewel warned her as she turned back to the crowd. "All of you ignored what was happening, hoped it would get better, but it never gets better. I'm just grateful that we arrived before it was to late. I wanted to go over there the first night and kill him myself. But I didn't, because I chose to believe in Deanna. I chose to believe in all her words of how this place was a community, how everyone got a long with each other. Rick and I wanted to protect them, because that's what happens when you a part of this family. We were here, we didn't trust completely, we'd be fools to fully let down our guards after what we've seen, after what we've done, but we were willing to try. But we soon discovered, that for all the big words, for the big display, it was just another farce. Rick did what he did because he was protecting one of his own. He was protecting his daughter and his wife. You're lucky if Rick believes in you enough to let you in, because he'll go to hell and high water to protect you, to help you survive. Not a whole lot of you should still be breathing right now, but you got lucky. You even got luckier when you opened up those gates and let us in because now you may survive."

Summer looked at her mother. "Mom…turn around."

Jewel did and saw Rick carrying a walker in. "Rick? Are you alright?"

Rick nodded as he threw the walker down in front of him causing some of the Alexandrian's . "I'm fine," Rick assured his wife. "There wasn't a guard on the gate, it was open," he told people.

"I asked Gabriel to close it," Spenser told his mother.

"Go!" Deanna ordered.

Jewel looked back at Jes. "Go find Gabrielle," she told her.

"Right," Jes answered as she went to find the priest.

"I didn't bring it in, it got inside on its own. They always will- the dead and the living, because we're in here. And the ones out there... ...they'll hunt us. They'll find us, they'll try to use us, they're try to kill us," Rick told them as Jewel moved next to him and put her hand on his shoulder for support. Rick gave her a quick kiss before continuing. "You know, I was thinking- I was thinking how many of you do I have to kill to save your lives? But I'm not gonna do that. You're gonna change. I'm not sorry for what I said last night, I'm sorry for not saying it sooner. You're not ready, but you have to be. Right now, you have to be. Luck runs out," Rick told them.

Jewel noticed Pete coming through the gate with Michonne's sword. She quickly put her hand on the knife she was carrying.

"You're not one of us. You're not one of us!" Pete yelled as he was going toward Rick.

"Pete you don't want to do this," Reg said as he went in front of Pete.

"Get the hell away from me, Reg!" Pete yelled pushing him out of the way.

"Pete just stop!" Reg told him.

Rick put his hand on his gun. "Not now," Carol hissed at both him and Jewel.

"Now, Pete, stop. Pete-" Reg told him again.

Pete pushed him. "Get away," he said as he brought up the sword ripping Reg's throat.

"No…no…no…" Deanna begged as she bent down.

"Dad!" Quinn screamed as she ran over.

Pete went to approach Rick and Jewel again but was tackled by Abraham.

Jewel knew there was no chance to save Reg, but she went over and got on her knees ripping off her shirt. "Quinn, hold it," she said, giving the distraught woman something to do.

"It was him! It was him! Not me!" Pete yelled from the ground.

"Shut up!" Jewel and Abraham both yelled at the same time.

"No my love, no…" Deanna begged of Reg.

"Daddy…" Quinn said as she took one of his hands.

Jewel put a hand on Deanna's shoulder as she watched the last breath that Reg took. "Deanna….I'm so sorry," she said softly.

Deanna looked up at Rick sobbing. "Rick…do it," she commanded.

Rick turned around and shot his gun, killing Pete immediately.

"Rick?" Morgan questioned as he stood with Daryl and Aaron, Jenny peeking out from behind Morgan.

End of Season 6! Now on to my magic and avoiding Negan as long as humanly possible!