Better Days

Chapter 343

Author's Note: Ah, vacation is near, I can see it on the horizon. It's September, it means another year older, well in eleven days. It means October is close, even though I'll be watching it the day after on my Kindle. Changes in conversations due to Jewel being there. Please review, it makes me happy.

Rick, Jewel and Daryl's POV:

Jewel walked down the steps with Rick and nodded at her brother. "You know they have a makeshift garage to handle the vehicles here right? Axel works at it," Jewel teased.

"You think you're funny. You're not," Daryl told his sister. "So is he OK with it?" he asked Rick about Morgan.

"It was pretty much his idea. He gets it," Rick told him.

"It's got a bed and bath, but it's still a cage, you know?" Daryl asked as he glanced at Jewel. "Plus he's got the girl with him, who just lost her brother yesterday. You locked a six year old up like an animal."

"Daryl, that's enough. I don't agree that Jenny should have been in there with Morgan, but she wouldn't have stayed with us. Mar and I made she had things to keep her entertained, and comfortable," Jewel told him.

"He told me what happened with the trucks," Rick told his brother in law.

"He tell you about the guys we met? The W's," Daryl said as he pointed to his head.

"Like that walker we saw," Rick said. "The signs we saw at Noah's place, wolves' not far. We need more watch points. And I'm going to tell Deanna we don't need to go looking for people anymore," Rick said as he saw the siblings look at him.

"We didn't discuss that, Rick," Jewel told him. "Daryl?"

"You feel different about it?" Rick questioned his brother in law.

"Yeah, I do," Daryl told him as he looked at Jewel. "Don't think she agrees with you either."

"I can speak for myself, Daryl, but he's right, I don't. We just had a meeting inside, and this never came up," Jewel told him.

"Look, I just thought about it, when I saw Daryl working on his motorcycle. Those people out there, they got to take care of themselves', just like us," Rick told them.

"If they had that attitude a month or so ago, then we'd still be out there, wouldn't we?" Jewel told Rick. "Daryl knows what he's doing, how to judge people, so does Aaron. It's not time to make that drastic of a step, Rick."

"If we weren't out there yesterday, Morgan and the girl would still be out there with the Wolves," Daryl told him.

"We can be cautious, but we can't stop helping people, we can't close those gates to people that need to be inside here. We did it at the prison, and we'll do it here," Jewel told Rick as she kissed him. Jewel turned her head at hearing Carl's voice being raised. "Rick," she said as she nodded to Carl and Ron arguing.

Carl's POV:

Carl watched as Ron walked away from his house and he followed him. "Ron, hold up, I want to talk to you."

Ron turned and looked at him. "I don't want to talk to you."

"What were you thinking last night?" Carl asked.

Ron turned around and looked at him. "You have the audacity to ask me that? I saw you last night with Enid."

"What I'm not allowed to talk to Enid? Does she know that because she's your girlfriend, she can't talk to anyone else?" Carl questioned him.

"She's allowed to talk to other people, just not to you. You claim to be interested in Lexi, but I see you, how you look at Enid. So, I was doing nothing more then talking to Lexi last night," Ron countered.

"You did more than that. You're just like your father," Carl yelled at him. "He grabbed Summer and then slammed mom against a wall as he was hitting her. What do you do when you see me talking to Enid? You go over to talk with Lexi, and you kiss her and you don't budge when she tells you to stop. I was talking to Enid, she's my friend, and neither one of us need your permission to talk. But, what you did, what you would have tried to do, that was beyond wrong. Stay away from Lexi," he warned as he turned around.

"Carl?" Ron called out.

Carl turned around. "What?" he asked as Ron took a swing at him knocking him to the ground. Carl reached up and hit him as Daryl grabbed Ron and Rick grabbed Carl.

"What the hell do you two think you're doing?" Jewel asked.

"He started it," Ron yelled back.

"This about last night?" Daryl asked Carl.

"Yeah," Carl answered.

Jewel took a breath. "Alright, we do not need another Grimes and Anderson fight in the middle of the street, this time a JR version," she said. "Carl, Daryl told me that he had handled it last night, then he told Sasha today so she could talk with Jessie. You know that right?"

"Yeah, but I wanted to see what he had to say about it," Carl told her as Rick held onto his arm.

"I expect nothing less from a Grimes male," Jewel said as she turned and faced Ron. "And, you, you are so lucky that it was Daryl that was there last night and not me because my foot would have been so far up your ass, that you'd be walking funny today. Get out of my site punk before I forget that you aren't a whiney snot nose teen that wouldn't survive a day without his mother, and mistake you for a grown man whose ass I have no problem beating for putting his hands on a girl without her permission," she told him levelly.

"You're just going to let Carl get away with talking with Enid?" Ron asked.

"Oh kid, you don't have a brain do you?" Daryl asked.

"Enid has free will, she's allowed to talk to whoever she damn well pleases. Daryl take him to Jessie's, get him out of my site. Sasha should be heading there now," Jewel told him.

"Right," Daryl said as he pushed Ron in the right direction.

"Carl, go back to the house, you didn't do anything wrong," Rick told him.

Jewel nodded as she walked over to Carl. "I'm proud of what you were trying to do. But I want you to think of these people as preschoolers and us as seniors. We need to be the ones that show that we are the bigger people. Got it?"

"Got it, mom," Carl answered.

"Let's go talk with Morgan," Jewel said as she took a breath.

Michonne, Mar, Carol and Summer's POV:

Summer arched an eyebrow as Michonne came down the stairs wearing her constable uniform. "After last night do you think that's really necessary?"

"I've still got a job to do," Michonne answered. "How was Jenny this morning Mar?"

"Morgan said she had a rough night. I'm hoping Rick doesn't make them stay in there another night, it'll be good for her to be around kids that know how she's feeling," Mar answered.

"Mika is upstairs with her now, she didn't want her to get overwhelmed with all of us," Summer reported.

"So, are we just assuming responsibility for her now?" Carol asked. "Morgan isn't part of this group."

"There wouldn't be a group if it wasn't for Morgan," Summer pointed out.

"Carol, Morgan saved Rick's life, we owe it to him to at least try and give him a chance," Michonne pointed out.

"Plus you can't seriously think we should turn our back on a little girl who just lost her brother?" Mar questioned.

"I'm just saying that we have enough people to worry about with out worrying about two more," Carol told them.

Summer sighed. "Carol, that isn't your decision to make. Daryl brought Morgan back here because it was the right thing to do. He has nothing to prove to us, he did that the moment he saved dad's life back in Kings County. Without him, you wouldn't be here to care who is or isn't part of our family."

"Summer," Michonne warned.

"I just don't want to have to worry about anyone else being a threat to our family," Carol said.

"We'll be cautious, we always are," Mar assured her. "It's just that we all owe Morgan something, that's why we are willing to give him a chance when we wouldn't other people. It's not a bad thing to want to accept the man who helped Rick."

"You're going to be cautious enough for all of us, so I have no doubts that you'll notice if something is off about him," Michonne told her.

"He had a stick," Carol told them.

Summer sighed as she stood up. "I'm going to need more of a reason to distrust the man then he had a stick, Carol. I'm not going to allow anything to happen to this family, to the babies, you know that. I'm not ready to trust him 100% but I sure am not going to distrust him just because he has a stick. I have gate duty in about a half hour, I'm going to take a shower before then," she said as she went upstairs.

Carol looked at Mar. "You agree with her?"

"I agree we have to be cautious with anyone that comes in here, that has a chance to be family. If I remember correctly, you didn't like me when you all found me. And, we all know it took time for us to warm up to Michonne," Mar teased. "I'm not ready to distrust Morgan because he didn't have a weapon. That's not saying you're wrong, Carol, you're not," she said as she stood up. "I'm going to go take Judith over to visit the Millers'."

"Hope didn't sleep well at all last night, I think she could sense tension. Her and Judith are good at that," Michonne said as Mar nodded and squeezed Carol's shoulder.

"I'm just trying to keep this family safe," Carol told Michonne.

"I know, Carol. We all do our parts, that's how this works, that's how this family works. We won't let anything happen to this family," she told the other woman.