Better Days

Chapter 346

Author's Note: I'm back! Well for a little while, until the hospital. But don't worry, I'll never abandon this story. And, I'll be taking a notebook with me to write, so I'll have things to type on the weekends if I get a chance. This chapter was giving me issues on how to write it while I was away, thinking about it. So I'm hoping it works out. This turned into a Rick, Jewel, and Morgan chapter. Every time I thought I was done, Morgan wanted to know more. Please review. Please?

Rick, Lexi, Mika and Jewel's POV:

Mika and Lexi saw Rick out side the apartment that Jenny and Morgan stayed the previous night and walked over with Jenny. "Rick, Jenny wanted to see Morgan," Lexi told him.

Rick bent down. "I don't think we've been formally introduced, Jenny. I'm Rick, I'm an old friend of Morgan's."

"He told Chris about you," Jenny said as she looked at him, still hiding a little behind Lexi.

Rick opened the door to the apartment. "Morgan, Jenny's out here to see you," he called out. "I know last night was scary, you seeing what you saw when you came in, and I'm sorry you had to see that. I'm also sorry about your brother," he told her.

Jewel came outside. "Morgan will be out in a minute. Jenny right? I'm Jewel, it's very nice to meet you," she said as she bent down and held out her hand.

"She's Hope and Judy's mommy," Mika told her.

"In all honesty, she's all of our mom's," Lexi said with a smile.

Jenny looked at her and went to shake her hand. "Your name starts with a J too."

"It does," Jewel said with a smile. "I bet you are a very smart girl. We have school here, you'd be in Mika's and Mitch's class."

"When we can get Mitch to go," Mika said with a grin.

"Jenny will be the smartest kid there," Morgan said as he walked out and held out his arms.

"Morgan!" Jenny said as she jumped in his arms.

"Miss me already?" Morgan asked as he kissed the top of her head.

"She's not comfortable with us just yet, wanted to make sure you were alright," Lexi told him.

"I'm alright, and I'm sure that Lexi and Mika are taking real good care of you. I'm not going to be that far away," Morgan told her.

"Are you going to leave me?" Jenny asked.

Jewel glanced at Rick then went over to Jenny. "Jenny, I want you to listen to me, and hear what I have to say alright?"

Jenny looked at Morgan then at Jewel and nodded. "Alright," she said.

"I don't think Morgan would ever leave you on purpose, he made a promise to your brother. Morgan is a man of his word and has a good heart. But if he ever thought about leaving, I'd have to hurt him, and believe me I would. He may not be able to be with you all the time, because we all have jobs to do, and that includes Morgan now too. But, to leave you for any amount of time, that's not going to happen. I know you're sad about your brother, and you only know Morgan, but I give you my word that you don't have to be afraid of any of us," Jewel told her.

"Dixon's don't break promises," Lexi assured her.

"She's right, I'd never leave you on purpose, just like Chris didn't mean to leave you," Morgan told her. "Now if Mika and Lexi don't mind watching you a little bit longer, Rick and Jewel's going to show me around Alexandria."

"We don't mind," both Lexi and Mika said at the same time.

"We'll find Morgan whenever you want us too," Lexi added.

"Hope will be needing a bottle soon, and Mika and Mitch have been trying to get Judith to crawl, so I bet you could help with that," Rick suggested.

Jenny looked at Morgan with wide eyes. "Can I Morgan?"

Morgan smiled and kissed the top of her head. "Of course, you listen to what they say alright?"

"Alright," Jenny said as she let go of Morgan. "Let's go play with babies!" she exclaimed as she started to run.

Lexi and Mika laugh as they start after her.

Rick grins. "Our daughters' always make people want to help them," he said as he kissed Jewel.

Jewel looked at Morgan. "It'll hit her soon, about her brother. When it does, it'll be good for her to be around them. It's good to keep her busy, so it won't hit her that hard. She couldn't be in better hands, and both of them know what to look for," she told him as she squeezed his shoulder. "It'll be alright," she assured him.

"How did you know what I was thinking?" Morgan questioned her.

"She's good like that," Rick told him. "Jewel has this way when it comes to the kids in the group," he said as he started walking with them.

"Summer seems that way too, from what I saw last night," Morgan told them. "She very much seems like she's becoming her mother's daughter."

Jewel smiled. "We both got lucky, with Carl and Summer. They both went through growing pains, but we got lucky," she told Morgan as she kissed Rick's cheek. "We're really glad you are here with us, Morgan. Both you and Jenny. I just wish Chris would have lived long enough to make it here, and that you didn't run into the Wolves."

"You still think I should have killed them," Morgan stated rather than question them.

"Yes," both Rick and Jewel answered.

"It can't be changed now," Jewel responded. "It can be rectified when the chance comes," she said.

"You've already decided that they need to die? You haven't even given them a chance," Morgan told them.

Rick looked at Jewel before responding. "We don't have to, Morgan. They already proved themselves dangerous. I saw what they did to a community, Morgan. I saw what they did to there victims, and I am not going to allow that to happen here. I'm not going to allow that to happen to my family."

"Now, let's show you around Alexandria," Jewel told him. "It's your home now too," she simply answered.

Morgan nodded. "Who put up the walls?"

"They did, there was a man named Reg," Rick started to explain.

"Deanna's husband, the man that was killed last night. He was a good man, a man who had a good head on his shoulders', did what he could to help his community survive," Jewel informed him.

Rick nodded. "He drew up plans, made it happen early on. A lot of people in here, well, they've been inside from the start. They had food, energy, not a whole lot of walkers. They just lived, haven't had to survive. They figured that out, brought us in. Still might be too late," he told him.

"To late how?" Morgan asked.

"For them to change," Jewel responded.

Rick nodded. "We'll see," he said. "You'll have to talk to Deanna, she's the woman in charge," he explained. "She was married to Reg."

"I don't know if she'll be up to talking with you today, but later on I'll go see if she is. She just lost one of her sons a couple days ago, now this. She's learning what we've all had to learn a long time ago," Jewel told him.

"What's that?" Morgan questioned.

"That loss is part of this life now. That living behind these walls and not having to deal with death every hour of every day, that's not normal," Jewel answered.

"Maybe it can be. The way we were living, that's not normal," Morgan told them.

Rick looked at him. "It's the way life is now a days. The first time things went bad, they wanted to blame us. If it hadn't been for the fact that Deanna's daughter was out on the supply run with them, and told them what happened, I'm sure that it would have been blamed on Glenn."

Morgan stopped and looked at them. "The man you shot last night? Who was he?"

"He was the man who killed Reg," Rick answered.

"Did he have something to do with you having those bandages on your face, Rick? Those marks on your neck Jewel?" Morgan asked.

Jewel looked at him. "Pete was an abuser, he hit his wife and has almost killed her on more then one occasion. These people turned there backs on that, Deanna turned her back on it. Pete threatened most of the women in our group, including Summer. He learned real fast that we weren't pushovers like the Stepford wives here," she informed him. "He grabbed Summer, and I should have put a knife in his head, took him down right then and there, but I didn't, I took out his hand. I wanted to do the right thing, I even went and talked with his wife about throwing him out. This," she said as she motioned to her neck, "was the result of that. Rick and Pete got into it on the street. Rick held a gun on them," she explained. "It's not that way that I would have handled it, but it went the way it needed to go. Last night, they were having a meeting to decide if they were going to exile him. Pete had broken into my house and stole Michonne's Katina, and came into the meeting screaming that Rick wasn't one of us. Reg tried to stop it, and got his head almost disconnected from his body. There was no saving him," she told him. "Deanna told Rick to do it, which meant to kill him. That's what you walked in on. It's easy for you to stand there and judge us, Morgan, but we've all lived different paths since we've seen each other," she explained. "We didn't judge you when we found you held up with enough weapons to take out a whole country, yelling about us wearing other people's faces. No, we tried to help you, we tried to get you to come back with us," she reminded him. "Obviously, something we said or something we did that day, it helped you, because you left Kings County, you started looking for Rick. Things happened to us that made us the way we are now, and like you said, you and Rick need to get to know each other for the first time again."

"Knowing me now, that also means you get to meet Jewel all over again. She's changed me for the better," Rick said as he kissed her.

"Well, the same goes for you," Jewel told him as she saw Gabriel walking in the grave yard area. "What is he doing?"

TBC