Better Days
Chapter 372
Authors Note: Rick was demanding to be shown and have a him and Jewel chapter. I tried to ignore him, but we all know Rick, he's not easy to ignore. So I'm going to let hi have his way (I mean we need more Jicks right?) Then we'll go check on Summer (who is gonna get into some trouble-this is the Walking Dead) and the others. Since this is all happening at once, it isn't out of sequence. Review please
Jewel's POV:
Jewel ran through the woods, following the tracks of the wolves. She still couldn't believe that Morgan had let five dangerous men go. She bent down and touched the ground as she looked at the footprints. Two were further ahead then the other three, and the three that were lagging behind had went in a different direction then the front two. She adjusted the rifle on her back and stood up to follow the two men instead of the third. She couldn't be that far behind them. She didn't know where they were going, but they weren't going to make it. She stopped to catch her breath as she saw the RV coming up the road. She knew it was Rick that was driving the RV, she felt it in her gut. "Hell's Bells," she cursed to herself. "He's going to block the herd from Alexandria. Of course it's Rick, he wouldn't let anyone else do it, just like I wouldn't let anyone else do this. Our children have fool for parents'," she grumbled. She knew that he would stop the RV soon, and when he did the two wolves would try to attack. She wish she had binoculars so that she could spot the men she was tracking. They had split off into the woods, so she knew that they spotted the RV coming up the road She turned when she heard the familiar moans and took the hatchet off her belt. "I don't have time to mess with you Sunshine," she said as she lobbed off it's head. "I really wish people would stop trying to kill me and the ones I love, it's getting really repetitive," she said as she took out another walker. "Any other walkers' want to mess with me right now?" she asked as she put her hatchet down the center of her head. "That's what I thought," she said as she wiped the blood off her face. She started to take off running to try to stop the wolves.
Rick's POV:
Rick stopped the RV and picked up the walkie talkie. "Glenn, I'm in place by my best guess. You guys make it back yet?" he asked, receiving nothing but static. "Glenn? Tobin?" he asked, still not receiving anything. "Jes? Axel?"
"We're here," Jes answered. "We're in position, just waiting for Nikki and Emily."
"Summer?" Rick asked.
"I'm here dad," Summer responded. "We're making our way. We've encountered some walkers', slowing our process some," she told her father.
David glanced at her motioning toward the fact that people had been shooting at them and they were both currently bleeding.
Summer mouthed 'not now' to him. "Dad, we'll be in position soon," she said ending contact.
"Daryl?" Rick asked.
"I'm here," Daryl said.
"Won't be long now, they're almost here. I'll get them going your way again," Rick told them.
"How 'bout that Daryl He's gonna be coming our way," Sasha said.
Rick turned his head to the gunfire coming from home. "There's gunfire coming from back home. We gotta sit with it and hope they can handle it. I think they can, they have to. We keep going forward for them, can't turn back cause we're afraid," he said.
"We aint afraid," Abraham told him.
"We're here," Axel told him. "We're not going anywhere."
"This is for them, going back now before it's done, that'd be for us. The herd has to be almost here," he said as gunfire exploded from the back of RV sending him flying.
"Rick?" Daryl asked.
"What the hell just happened?" Jes demanded to know.
"Rick?" Daryl hissed through the walkie talkie.
Jewel and Rick's POV:
Jewel heard the gun fire from the RV and took off the rifle from her back and double checked it was loaded. She took off running as fast as she could.
Rick started to fight with the first attacker as a second one came from behind him and started to choke him. He tried to brace himself with his feet on a seat of the RV. He kicked the first attacker then felt the second one loosen his grip, immediately falling backwards as he saw Jewel raise her knife from the base of his neck. "Hi," he greeted surprised to see her.
"Hi," Jewel greeted. "Rick!" she called as the other wolf started to get up and he turned and shot him.
Rick went over to her and kissed her. "Not that I'm not glad to see you, but what are you doing here? What happened in Alexandria?" he asked as he kissed her again.
"The Wolves," Jewel said as she touched his face.
Rick saw movement in the mirror and reached for the rifle Jewel had. "Get down," he whispered in her ear, as he started to fire through the RV to the outside.
Jewel sat up from the seat and opened the door to the RV and went to check the pockets of the wolves that Rick had shot. "Rick, there's only two out here, there was five that got away," she said.
"Get inside!" Rick yelled as he went to pull her in, but not before a bullet grazed her arm.
"Hells Bells," Jewel hissed as she grabbed her arm as Rick shot the Wolf as he came into view. She looked down at Rick's left hand. "You're bleeding."
Rick arched an eyebrow. "So are you," he said as he bent down and looked in the pockets of Wolves inside the RV. He picked up a jar of baby food and looked at it.
Jewel bent down. "Look at me, Mr. Grimes The babies are fine, they didn't get into the house. We lost people, I'm not sure who, but Judy and Hope are being watched over by Carl and Lex. You know that both of them will do everything in there power to keep them safe. Mika, my God, you should have seen her, giving orders to the older kids. She wanted to stay and fight, but I made her go inside."
Rick kissed her. "I need to look at that gunshot wound," he said. "The herd should be here soon, we've got to get them back on track. What are you doing out here Mrs. Grimes? Why didn't you stay in Alexandria?" he asked as bent down to tear the shirt of one of the dead men.
"Morgan," Jewel told him. "He let the five of them go," she explained as she took off her jacket.
"He did what?" Rick questioned as he pushed up her sleeve.
"You heard me correctly, he let them go. He refused to kill them, and then he tried to stop me from coming after them, saying it was over. I punched him," Jewel admitted.
Rick gave a small smile. "Not that I blame you," he said as he kissed her as he bandaged the wound. "But why did you come after them?"
"You already know the answer to that question, Rick, because you would have done the same thing for the same reason I did. We know how each other thinks, that's what makes us a good pair," Jewel told him as she hissed as he wrapped her arm.
"Sorry," Rick answered. "You did it because they don't get to live. But did it have to be you?"
"Who else would it be? Everyone else is out trying to keep Alexandria secure from the herd. The ones left were fighting off the wolves. Carol was needed in Alexandria, I think the whole Betty Crocker thing is over," Jewel said as she kissed him. "I saw the RV and I knew it was you driving it. You wouldn't have let anyone else do it," she said. "Then I saw the two wolves enter, and I thought..."
"Shh, I'm right here, I'm alright," Rick told her as he touched his forehead to hers.
"You're bleeding, I need to take care of it," Jewel said as she looked out the window. "Are you able to contact the others? See how they are doing?" she asked.
"The walkie got destroyed when he fired shots," Rick told her. "I talked to Summer, she said her and David were fine," he said as he held out his hand.
"Daryl? Glenn? Jes? Axel? Sasha? Abraham?" Jewel asked as she held a piece of cloth on his hand.
"The last time I heard from Glenn he was going to set fire to a building to distract the herd," Rick told her. "Jes, Daryl, Sasha, Axel, and Abraham all checked in. We'll be OK," he told her as he touched her face.
"You didn't see Alexandria, you didn't see the bodies on the streets. They had no mercy...at least the Governor, even the Terminus people, tried to put on a front. They came over the walls, stabbing people, gutting them, chaining people, leading them like animals. They didn't have guns, which means that they stole some of our guns. How long are we going to be OK Rick? We, I, let myself get to complacent inside the walls," she said. "We should have insisted on teaching the Alexandrian's how to fight from day one. Maybe Carol and you had the right idea, we should have taken over Alexandria then we would have been better prepared."
Rick touched her face. "Look at me, Mrs. Grimes. You were right about not taking over. It would have made us like the Governor, and we couldn't have lived with ourselves. You couldn't have lived with me," he said as he kissed her. "People die, that's how it is now a days. You know that, and this is not in any way your fault. You did not come into someone else's house and start killing people. The people that did that, they lost there humanity. We haven't," he told her.
Jewel looked at him. "If we had stayed out there much longer, we could have been them," she said.
"We would never be them," Rick told her as he kissed her.
"Rick," Jewel said as she looked out the window. "The herd."
Rick jumped into the drivers' seat and tried to start the vehicle. "Shit," he exclaimed. "It's not starting," he told her as he looked back at her.
"You aren't going to tell me what I think you're going to tell me, are you?" Jewel asked.
"We're going to have to make a run for it," Rick told her.
"That's what I was afraid that you were going to tell me," Jewel said as she sighed. "We should have let them turn, then at least we could have used them. Try one more time?" she asked as she stood up.
Rick tried again. "No luck. You ready?"
Jewel looked at him. "Would it matter if I said no?" she asked as she kissed him. "Let's do this," she said.
"We'll be alright, together right Mrs. Grimes?" Rick asked.
"Yeah, Mr. Grimes," Jewel answered as she went out of the RV with him right behind her.
Author's Note: A little foreshadowing about how Jewel is going to be feeling about attacking the wolves outpost. Review please.