Better Days

Chapter 348

Author's Note: We're moving along, maybe not as fast as some of you would like, but we're getting there. I've got to get them dealing with the herd before the wolves' come! I got to decide where my people are first. Well they have to decide. I only know for sure where Summer's going to be, and someone has to die who is with her. Please review.

Rick, Jewel, Morgan, and Quinn's Pov:

Jewel walked with Morgan and Rick to where Gabriel, Tobin and Gus were digging graves. Jewel noticed two graves were being dug, one for Pete and one for Reg. She glanced at Gabriel, who she still wanted to punch for leaving the gate open, but she refrained herself.

"What are you doing?" Rick asked.

"We're…I wanted to help," Gabriel told him.

"Like you did when you left the gate open last night to let the walkers' get in?" Jewel questioned as she crossed her arms.

"That was a mistake, and I apologize for it," Gabriel told her.

Jewel let out a snort before Rick looked at the three men digging graves. "We only need one," he told them.

"We have two men here," Tobin told him.

"We're not going to bury killers inside these walls," Rick told them.

"Rick," Jewel said caution ally.

Gus looked at Rick. "Look, Reg was like a father to me, the closest thing I've had to one for a long time. He was a man that I respected and that I would do anything for, including laying down my life for him if I could have. I hate the fact that Pete killed him, but he needs to be buried too," he told Rick.

"Not inside these walls, he doesn't," Rick repeated. "He's a murderer, and a murderer isn't getting buried inside these walls."

Jewel looked at him. "Rick, his sons' need a place to come and visit him, and they can't do that outside the walls," she told him.

"I understand how you feel, I do, but it's not your decision," Tobin told him.

"Rick's right," Deanna's voice said as she and Quinn came to join them. She looked at Pete's wrapped body. "Take it away, go west. Down Branton Road a few miles, just past the bridge. We don't go out that way. Let the trees have him," she said as she went to walk away.

Quinn looked after her mother. "You heard her."

Gus looked at her. "Jessie needs to be told that Pete isn't getting buried here."

"Do you think she'll care?" Rick asked as he and Morgan went to pick up the body.

"She may not, but for her sons' sake, she'll need to know, in case someday they'll want to pay there respects. I hated my son of a bitch father," Jewel told him.

Gabriel looked at her. "Your father was your father, and you owe him your life, and your respect. I'd also like the courtesy of you not cussing around me."

Jewel glared at him. "I'd like you to learn to close a gate, but as of last night, you had a problem with that simple task. The only thing that my son of a bitch father is owed was me spitting on his grave and telling him that I became something, no thanks to him. I'm just saying, Rick, that Ron and Sam may want a place to do the same, someday."

"When they do, they can ask someone to take them out," Rick told her as he picked up the body with Morgan. "Deanna made her decision."

Jewel nodded and looked at Quinn as she saw movement out of the side of her eye. She could have sworn it was Ron, but it was a quick movement. "Do you mind telling Jessie?" she asked Quinn.

"I've got it," Quinn answered.

Jewel nodded as she followed Morgan and Rick to a car. "I got the trunk," she said as she went to the driver's side of the car and popped the trunk.

Rick and Morgan put the body in the trunk and Rick looked at Morgan. "I shot him because he killed Reg. That was it, we didn't have a choice."

"You do have a cell," Morgan told him.

"Not for killers'," Rick told him.

"I'm a killer, Rick, I am, and you are too, and so is Jewel," Morgan reminded him.

"Morgan, get in the car, I want to speak to Rick for a moment before we go," Jewel told the man.

Morgan looked at her, about to say something before changing his mind and getting in the car.

Jewel walked a little way from the car as Rick followed her. "He has a point, you know. We are killers."

Rick looked at her. "It isn't the same," he reminded her. "We kill to protect our family, to protect each other."

Jewel touched his face. "Last night we were going to kill Reg and anyone else who got in our way to take over Alexandria. That would have been murder for something that we wanted. We could spin it anyway we wanted it, but the fact is that we would have been murderers," she told him. "I agree, he shouldn't be buried beside the man that he killed, but outside the fence? If he didn't have any children that would be different, but he does. And, Ron is a pissed off teenager who is blaming this on us. And pissed off teenagers do stupid things. I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just saying that before we make rash decisions, we need to think clearly," she told him as she kissed him. "I'm on your side, you know that."

Rick kissed her back. "Deanna made her decision."

"She did, out of grief, out of anger. We'll bury him outside the walls, for now. Then when things calm down, I think we should revisit the issue. Talk with Deanna, talk with Jessie and Ron. What if it was us and Jessie didn't want us buried inside the walls because you killed Pete? How do you think Carl or Summer would feel?" Jewel questioned her husband.

Rick smirked. "You're going to keep me honest aren't you?"

"I think we agreed a long time that's what we do for each other," Jewel told him. "I love you Mr. Grimes. Let's go get this done."

"You don't have to come with us. Morgan and I have it covered," Rick told her.

"Hope and Judith are both taken care of for now. Hope will take a bottle this time of the day. I'm going with you," she simply answered as she kissed him and went over to the car. She looked at Morgan. "Sorry, Morgan, but I'm shotgun."

Morgan nodded. "Of course," he said as he got out and went into the back seat. He looked at her from the backseat as Rick started coming over. "You tried to talk him out of this."

Jewel turned in her seat. "I was pointing out a different way of seeing things," she told him as Rick got into the drivers seat.

"But you think this is wrong, just like I do," Morgan told her.

Jewel glanced at Rick then at Morgan. "You need to stop right now, Morgan."

Rick glanced in the rear view mirror as he started driving, as he watched Morgan.

"Stop? Stop what?" Morgan asked.

Jewel looked at him. "You know exactly what you're doing Morgan. I may have a different way of thinking then Rick, and I have no problem telling him that I disagree with him. He expects it, just like I expect him to tell me when he doesn't agree with me. It's what makes us, well, us. I don't agree with burying Pete outside the walls, but not for the same reasons you do. I think he should be buried away from the man he killed. I'm thinking of it from a mother's point of view. He has a teenage son, a teenage son whose blaming everything on us. A teenage son who isn't thinking clearly, who will do stupid things out of anger. Burying his father outside the gates, that endangers him because he is a teenager who isn't thinking clearly," she told Morgan. "You've embraced this new persona, and now you're trying to get us to do the same. It doesn't work that way," she told him as she turned back around and looked at Rick. "I think I saw Ron watching us while Deanna was in the graveyard. It was just a quick glance," she told him.

"Do you think he overheard us?" Rick questioned.

"I can't be sure," Jewel answered truthfully. "We had to deal with Carl's attitude early on, because we were out there, he had to grow up fast. Ron's not there yet," she answered. "He's a teenager, so he's going to be angry at everything and everyone," she answered as Rick slowed the car down. "We're going to have to carry the body from here."

"Morgan and I got it," Rick told her. "You carry the shovel's," he said as they got out of the car.

"I've got him," Morgan said as he lifted Pete's body over his shoulder.

Jewel nodded as she glanced at Morgan. "What?" she asked as she grabbed the shovel's.

"You've changed," Morgan told her.

Jewel glanced at Rick. "Morgan we had maybe a fifteen minute conversation, so I don't know how you think you know I've changed or not," she said as she walked with them.

"You're eyes are different, you don't stand the same," Morgan informed her.

Rick looked at Jewel then at Morgan. "We've been through a lot, Morgan. We've had to change to survive, do things we've never thought we could do. Feel free to psychoanalyze me all you want, but don't with Jewel. You don't know her well enough to do that," he told him. They walked a little before Rick stopped. "Morgan, maybe we just leave him here."

Morgan laid the body down and took the shovel's from Jewel. "That's not who you are," he told him. "I know."

Jewel glanced at Rick before Rick went up to Morgan. "Hey you don't," he said.

"Do you agree with Rick, Jewel?" Morgan asked.

Jewel appeared not to hear him as something caught her attention.

"Jewel?" Rick asked.

"Do you hear that?" Jewel asked Rick quietly as she stepped away from him.

"Morgan," Rick called to get his attention. "Morgan," he tried again. "Stop," he said as he grabbed the shovel from him. "Do you hear that?" he asked as he nodded toward the moaning. "Jewel hold up," he said as the two of them followed her.

Jewel stopped at the ledge of a quarry and looked down. "Rick, Morgan…." she called out as she blinked at the number of walkers' in the hole. "Hells bells'," she exclaimed. "That could be half the population of Washington DC, if not all of it," she simply stated. The three of them went on alert as they heard a sound from behind them. Rick took off running with Jewel and Morgan behind him. Jewel saw Ron running away from walkers' and saw Rick tackle him then shoot a walker, it falling down in the pit. She raised her gun and shot one, it following into the pit, along with one that Morgan attacked with his stick. Jewel helped Rick stand up then offered Ron her hand. She shook her head as Ron got up without assistance. She walked with the three of them to survey the hoard of walkers'.

Rick looked at Ron. "What are you doing out here Ron?" he questioned.

"I wanted to know where my dad was buried," Ron answered.

Jewel looked at Rick. "I wish we had saw that coming, oh wait we did, well I did," she said. "Sorry, my cockiness is coming out. I'm nervous. I mean, we have a whole city or two of walkers' in a pit," she said as she felt Rick squeeze her hand.

"This is how," Rick said.

"How what?" Morgan asked as he looked through his binoculars.

"How the community's still here. They've had walkers at their walls, but a lot of them, maybe most of them, they wound up here," Rick told him.

"Some of those trucks seem to be not so secure, it's not going to take a lot of pressure to move them. And if that happens," Jewel said as she looked at Rick.

"Alexandria is going to be in trouble," Rick finished her thought for her.

TBC