Better Days

Chapter 337

Author's Note: This season is going to have a lot of changes from the show, and season seven, I think will probably have more. Jewel isn't letting Negan win so easily. It's gonna be a battle of the will's between those two and Jewel may have a couple of new scars at the end of it. As for the guest who requested more Joey and Summer, they are still friends, best, but Summer is trying to figure out who she is now that they are somewhere 'safe' and doesn't want to rush into anything. Remember that first high school crush? That's Joey to Summer. Got something big for Summer coming up, no worries. Please review.

Glenn, Ronnie, Maggie, Joey, Tara, Rosita and Eugene's POV:

Ronnie heard what sounded like moans, but not the walker kind, but human kind. She ran toward the sound. "Glenn! What happened?" she asked as she went on the other side of Nicholas and cast a worried look toward Glenn.

"It was an accident, we're fine," Glenn told her.

Ronnie gave him a look to say I'll be the judge of that. "It looks like the two of you were fighting."

"We weren't," Nicholas responded to quickly.

"I was in the Air force, young man. I know the look of two men who have been rolling in the dirt look like after a fight. So please do me the decency not to lie to me, especially since I'm the one whose going to be patching you up," Ronnie warned.

'Ronnie, I don't want anyone to know just yet. There seems to have been trouble enough, we don't need anymore," Glenn told her.

"Pete killed Reg, Rick killed Pete," Ronnie answered as she opened the door to the infirmary. "Rosita, help Glenn get Nicholas sat down on the bed," she told the other woman as Joey moved to help Glenn.

"Glenn are you alright?" Rosita asked.

"I'm Ok," Glenn said as he saw Tara sitting up and gave a small smile.

"You guys look like shit," Tara told them.

Joey grabbed Glenn's arm. "Let's sit you down man. Are you alright?"

Glenn nodded. "I'm alright," he repeated as Maggie came in.

"Tara?" Maggie asked, relieved to see her friend awake.

"I'm ok, check on them," Tara said as she nodded toward the two of them.

Ronnie handed Joey gauze and bandages. "Anyone shot?" she asked, going into doctor mode.

"I'm alright," Glenn assured Maggie. "We were out there, the walkers'..and we're alright," he told Maggie. He looked at Ronnie. "I got hit by a ricochet, but it's alright."

"What were you doing out there? With him?" Joey asked as he nodded toward Nicholas.

Ronnie had to hide the smirk on her face as she glanced at Nicholas. Her family was smart enough to know that there was more then Glenn was saying but she respected Glenn to respect his wishes. "Right now that doesn't matter, Joey. What matters is that I'm going to have to get that bullet out, and patch these two up and be grateful that we aren't burring two more bodies," she told them. "Maggie you'll help me with Glenn and Joey, go help Rosita with Nicholas. Both of them have cuts that are going to need to be looked at and stitched," she instructed.

Joey nodded as he went over to Nicholas. He made sure the man knew that he wasn't buying what Glenn was saying.

"Holy shit," Eugene said as he entered the infirmary and grinned at Tara.

"Thank God, nothing happened to your hair," Tara told Eugene.

"I never thought I'd be so glad to here your retorts as I am right now," Joey told her.

"Okay Eugene's freaking me out, someone want to send Noah in here to protect me?" Tara questioned as Eugene kept smiling at her. Tara looked at the group as they all went silent. "Oh…" she said quietly.

"You would have been proud of Eugene, he really stepped up, got you out of there, distracted the walkers'. Without him, none of us would have made it back," Glenn told her.

"Even Jewel was proud of him," Joey told her.

Tara gave a small laugh. "Thanks Eugene. If you gained Jewel's respect, then you must have been something spectacular."

"It was nothing," Eugene told them. "I had to do what I had to do so we could get back here with no one else getting hurt," he said as he cast a glance toward Nicholas who kept his head down.

"You were doing what a member of this family was meant to do, and that is no small thing, Eugene. So don't ever sell yourself short," Maggie told him.

Jes's POV:

Jes watched in the window of the church and saw Sasha and Maggie praying with Gabriel. She didn't believe in religion, never had any reason to believe in the powers that were above. They never did her any favors, or never watched out for her, but she knew Maggie believed because of Hershel and she respected his memory to wait until her and Sasha had left the church to go inside. She waited until they left and he had his back turned to her before she entered the church and slammed the door loudly.

Gabriel jumped as he turned. "Jes you gave me a fright," he told her as she stood with her back against the door, not saying a word. "You just missed Sasha and Maggie, if you were looking for them. We prayed, I think I've forgiven myself, forgiven all of you for what you had to do," he told her as she still stood silent. "Jes is there something I can help you with? Something you need to get off your chest? Something that you'd like to tell to God, get his forgiveness for? You came here for a reason, and I can't help you if you don't talk to me. I know I have been unfair to you all, and judged you. I prayed with Maggie and Sasha, to give them some peace for those who they lost, and I can do the same for you. All you need to do is talk to me, I'm ready to listen."

Jes felt behind her and locked the church door. "Is that the sound your congregation heard right before they started banging on the door?" she asked as she stepped forward, slowly. "I saw Sasha holding the gun on you, and I saw Maggie bend down, and you realizing that all those deaths were on you, and how you wanted to die. I can make that happen, Gabriel, if you really want to die, if you really feel that bad about what you did, I can make your wish come true," she told him as she stepped toward him causing him to step back.

"Jes, what is this about? It seems that you are upset. Is it something that I've done?" Gabriel questioned.

"Did Spenser ask you to close and lock the gate?" Jes questioned him in an extremely calm voice.

"Yes, and I did," Gabriel told her.

"You remember closing it? You remember securing it?" Jes asked as he looked at her. "Well DO YOU?"

"I…. closed it, that I remember. Why? What happened?" Gabriel questioned.

"A walker got in," Jes told him calmly. "So, what is your excuse this time dear Father," she said as she spat the word. "I've seen cowards that hide behind uniforms, wanting to die themselves, so they put others in danger. But you, you take the cake," she told him as she pushed him against the wall. "You have the audacity to go to Deanna and tell her that we are going to bring danger to this place? That we would put ourselves before the community, and that we can't be trusted, yet you're the one who let a walker get in. You looked her straight in the eyes and told her we were the scum of the earth and you hide behind the word of God? Who the hell do you think you are? You hid in a church for two years, you were to scared of your own shadow to kill a walker. God didn't save you when you were on that rock, crying like a big baby, that was us, Carl to be exact. You know the scum of the earth? The people who should burn in hell? The people who God forsaken? In case you haven't noticed, he turned his back on all of us. If it was just me and I found you on that rock, begging for help, I would have shot you on the spot, right in the stomach for the walkers to feed on. You left the gate open, you let a walker get inside. No one got bit, no one died, because Rick found it. You left the gate open and Rick killed the walker and used that walker to show Deanna and these people that they need us. Funny how that works out, doesn't it? You try to make us look like the devil, and it backfired. The only reason I'm letting you live right now is because Deanna's husband was killed by Pete. And, I think Deanna may feel better if you were there to say words over him. That's the only use you have now a days, to say words over the dead. I'm not even sure you're worth keeping alive for that," Jes told him. "I'm not to sure Jewel is going to be as kind as I was to you."

"You call this kind?" Gabriel asked.

"You're alive aren't you?" Jes asked as she unlocked the church door and left.