Better Days

Chapter 338

Author's Note: These writers deliberately sat down last season and said 'what can we do to mess with fan fic writers.' I know let's make a whole half a season over a twenty four hour period. I know they really didn't, but hey it feeds my delusion's. Please review.

Grimes/Dixon family, Morgan POV:

Mar walked out of the infirmary and saw Daryl walking with Rick and a new man. She particularly threw herself off the porch and ran to him. "Daryl!" she cried as she hugged him.

Daryl kissed her head. "I'm alright. I think Aaron and I fared better out there then you all did in here," he told her.

"You found people," Mar simply said as she looked at Morgan.

Rick let out a small chuckle. "That's my sister in law for you, state the obvious in such a simple way."

"Morgan Jones," Morgan said as he extended his hand.

"Mariah, everyone calls me Mar. You're the one who saved Rick at the start?" Mar questioned.

Morgan glanced at Rick then at her. "I am."

"You're going to hear this a lot, and you're probably going to get sick of hearing it, but we're all going to say it. We're going to say it because we need to say it, we need to express how grateful we are for you saving Rick. You making that one decision, it set of events in motion that led him to all of us. You saved a lot of lives the night you made that decision, no words can express it, but maybe this can," Mar said as she opened the door.

Mika sat on the stool and fed Judith applesauce. "It's supposed to go into your tummy, not all over you, silly girl. You're going to need a bath."

"Aunt Jewel will be home soon, she'll probably need a bath too and Judy loves her baths with her momma. Don't you Judy?" Mitch asked.

Lexi sat next to Jenny as Summer fixed her hair. "You should try to eat more, Jenny. I know it's overwhelming but now that you have a chance, you should try to get something in that tummy of yours," Lexi told her.

Jenny looked up and saw Morgan. "Morgan!" she exclaimed as she got off the stool and jumped into his arms.

"Well look at you, you look like a true little girl now!" Morgan told her as he kissed her cheek. "Thank you Summer for watching over her, getting her cleaned."

"We all had a part in it, that's what we do," Summer told him as she saw the look Rick gave her. "Lexi, Mitch and Mika why don't you take Jenny and her sandwich upstairs? Carl just put Hope down, dad. And I can finish feeding Judy," Summer told the kids.

"I want to stay with Morgan," Jenny told them.

"Rick and his family need to talk to me, about things that happened out there. I'll be right down here if you need me," Morgan assured her.

"I'll finish feeding Judith, Summer, why don't you go see Tara?" Mar offered.

Mitch nodded a greeting to Daryl. "We'll go see Hope, Jenny. She's cute as she's sleeping," he offered as Jenny hesitated before going up the stairs.

"Thank you, Summer," Rick told his oldest daughter.

"I know you need to talk. I'm going to go check on Tara, hopefully see mom and send her in," Summer told them as she walked out.

"You've got a good strong family," Morgan told Rick.

Rick nodded. "I do," he told the other man as he took the map Daryl handed him.

Jewel's POV:

Jewel stood in the middle of the street and looked in either direction and took a breath at how calm everything was around her. She knew the walkers' were just outside the gates, but standing there it was eerily quiet, to quit. Deanna's cries of agony were hidden behind doors and everything was left silent.

"Odd how quick things change, isn't it?" a voice asked from behind.

Jewel turned and looked at Noel. "You're lucky I didn't throw a knife out of instinct," she told him.

"I didn't meant to scare you," Noel told her. "With everything that happened tonight, I know I want to grab a drink. I saw you out here and thought you might want to talk, have someone to listen to you that actually knows what's it like to want to grab a bottle," he offered.

Jewel looked at him. "You think what happened tonight is going to make me want to run to a bottle?"

"You have to admit it was a stressful situation. And stressful situations do lead to people going back to drinking," Noel told her.

Jewel shrugged. "I don't really considering what happened tonight stressful, maybe a little on the annoying side, but stressful? No, that didn't even cause me to break a sweat."

Noel looked at her. "I know you all been through a lot, and done a lot, but can you honestly tell me that after that whole ordeal, you aren't even thinking about having a drink? I'm not doubting you, but being a fellow alcoholic, I kind of want to know your trick."

"You're right, we have been through a lot and we've seen a lot, and that's why it's not bothering me," Jewel responded.

"Deanna was going to throw Rick out, and a walker got in, Pete killed Reg, and Rick killed Pete. That's a whole lot of stress for one night," Noel reasoned with her.

Jewel had to laugh. "If that's all the stress I've had to deal with in less than two hours over this two year period time, I might have to agree with you and I may not want a drink. That wasn't even a drop in a bucket for a two hour period."

"You're not even tempted?" Noel questioned her.

Jewel looked at him. "I haven't stopped yet, I'm running on pure adrenaline. I've gone over in my head at least five times where everyone in my family is, where my children are. I've gone over in my head what needs to be done for Deanna and her family. Or if anyone has checked on Jessie. Pete might have been the scum of the earth, but he was still Jessie's husband and Sam and Pete's father. My brother just brought back the man who initially saved Rick's life, and along with him, a child who obviously lost people. That's two more people that I need to start to worry about. Not to mention, tomorrow morning everyone in Alexandria is going to wake up with a new realization that the world they knew, the safety that they felt, was all a lie. Some of them are going to fight that realization, and want to pretend like it's not going to effect them. Deanna isn't going to make them understand, she just lost her son and husband. She just saw how fast things can fall apart, and she's going to have to relinquish some power because now she knows that what we told her wasn't some kind of fantasy or figments of her imagination. Then after that realization hits, after Reg and Pete are buried, then the fact comes that not many of you know how to hold a weapon and I'm not talking about a gun. Bullets run out, so hand to hand combat has to be taught. I can't tell you how thrilled I am with the thought of teaching Mrs. Neduermeyer and the other Stepford Wives that anything can be used as a weapon. Plus, I still have a child whose just learning to get on her hand and knees, and one that is attached to my breast 95% of the time, plus teenagers and tweens. That's just the things I can think of right this very second. When I wake up in the morning, if I even sleep tonight, I get to wake up and look at my husband and help him not having to deal with this whole situation on his own. That's the one good thing about this world, it doesn't give me much time to be think about drinking. But if I do have a millisecond, a second of downtime to myself, and if I want to grab a bottle, then I start reciting names. Rick, Summer, Carl, Judith, Hope, Mika, Mitch, Daryl, Mar, Carol, Jes, Ronnie, Abe, Rosita, Maggie, Beth, Axel, Glenn, Eugene, Tara, Michonne, Sasha, Lexi, David and Joey. That's all I need to keep the urge away," Jewel told him. "Thank you for your help, but I need to get going home. Need to see if I'm adding two more names to my list.," she said as she left Noel to think about what she said.

Rick, Morgan, Jewel, Daryl and Mar's POV:

Rick looked at Daryl. " Where did you and Aaron find him?" he asked.

"It was the other way around, really. He found us, saved us really. We were surrounded by Walkers', the men with the W's set it up, we were trapped in cars, really thought it was the end of us. He came out of no where, like some kind of damn ninja, gave Aaron and me a chance. Had that map Abraham left you, put two and two together," Daryl told Rick

"I didn't miss to much did I?" Jewel asked as she came in.

"Mammmaaa….mammma…" Judith babbled as Mar took her out of her highchair. "Well I see where I rate."

Jewel took off her over shirt that was covered with blood. "Hand over miss. Applesauce face, yes, you and I are going to take a good long momma and big girl bath," she told her as she kissed the top of her head. "How long have you been looking for Rick?" she asked Morgan.

"A while. You all helped clear my head after you left Kings County," Morgan answered.

"How long has Jenny been with you? How did that come about?" Mar asked.

"Met her and her older brother about a month, month and half ago. Chris couldn't have been much older then your Summer. Offered my help to the two of them, we've been traveling with each other since. Chris was gathering wood this morning when he was ambushed by these Wolves," Morgan reported.

"How many?" Jewel asked.

"Two," Morgan answered.

"You kill them?" Rick questioned.

Morgan shook his head. "No, Rick, I didn't kill them."

The four members of the Grimes/Dixon family exchanged glances. "Why the hell not?" Daryl questioned.

"As I said when I saved you Daryl, all life's precious," Morgan explained.

"Am I understanding that you left two dangerous men alive?" Mar asked.

"I left two men alive," Morgan answered.

Jewel glanced at Rick as she kissed Judith's soft hair. "Those two men you left alive, killed a friend of yours. I take it that they were trying to kill you and Jenny?" she asked.

"They mentioned it," Morgan responded.

"Mentioned it?" Rick questioned as he looked at the map.

"I didn't give them much of a chance to explain after that. I knocked them unconscious, I put them in a car," Morgan explained.

"But you left them alive. They probably have friends, and that means that they are going to try to find you, which means they are going to find us," Jewel told him.

"Not necessarily," Morgan told her.

"These men, did they tell you anything about themselves?" Rick asked.

"They had W's on there head's, called themselves the wolves'. Yes they killed Chris, and yes they threatened to kill me and Jenny but it didn't happen. They set a trap for people, but Aaron and Daryl didn't die because I saved them. So, no one else had to die today," Morgan told them.

"How do you explain to that little girl upstairs that you left the men who killed her brother alive?" Mar questioned.

"The same way I'm explaining to you," Morgan told them. "Humanity still exits in this world, it has to. You were right, Rick, it wasn't over," he told him as he turned to look at him.

Jewel exchanged glances with Rick as she kissed Judith's messy hands. "Some people don't deserve a chance of redemption, Morgan. Those men would have killed you, would have killed Jenny, and would have killed Aaron and Daryl, if you hadn't got lucky. You left them alive, that means they'll do it to someone else, kill someone else's' family," she said.

Mar glanced at Daryl then at Rick and Jewel as Rick approached Morgan. "Listen we should talk more tomorrow," he said as he looked at his family. "I don't take chances anymore."

"And you shouldn't," Morgan told him.

"Rick?" Daryl questioned.

"Look, I really appreciate what you did for me back at the beginning, and I still consider you a friend, but…" Rick started to explain.

Morgan put up a hand. "But you don't know me anymore, and I don't know you anymore. You have a family to worry about, a baby. I understand that you need to put me and Jenny somewhere away from your family, until you get a chance to talk to me more."

"Jenny doesn't have to go anywhere, Morgan. She can stay here, we have plenty of room," Mar offered.

"I'd rather keep Jenny with me, if you don't mind. She did just lose her brother today, and she knows me," Morgan told them.

"We'd do the same. We'll make sure you get some blankets and stuff," Jewel told him. "Now, before the youngest Grimes wakes up to be fed, Judy and I are going to take a bubble bath and let the stresses of the day go. Tell daddy, 'no boys allowed until they get all the blood away!'" she said as she kissed Rick's cheek. "I'll see you tomorrow Morgan. Glad you're home safe Daryl," she said as she carried Judith upstairs. "Let's go get clean baby girl," she said as she kissed the top of her head.