All Nightmare Long

Chapter 390

Author's Note: Meant to write more this weekend, but I have been non stop. Busy, busy beaver. I need to show Rick and Jewel. Please review, it does mean a lot and makes me feel like people are still reading. Thank you.

Jewel, Rick and Maggie's POV:

Rick kissed Jewel as they stepped outside. "You don't have to do the rounds with me today, I know you haven't gotten a lot of sleep the past few days."

Jewel looked at Rick. "Not sleeping is part of the life of a nursing mother, not to mention there's walkers' outside the gate, lots and lots of walkers', that want to break past the gates and eat us. Plus members of our family are still out there and I don't sleep well when I don't know where people I love are."

Rick stopped and kissed her. "One of the reasons I fall in love with you more each day. You think of others more then you think of yourself, and I love that about you," he said as he touched her face. "But, I'm not going to let you run yourself any more ragged than necessary. I need you to rest, I need you to take care of yourself. I can't do this without you, I won't do this without you so I need you to take care of yourself," he said as he kissed her.

"I'm not going anywhere, Rick," Jewel assured him as she kissed him. "I've operated on lots less sleep then this, we both have," she said as she kissed him. "Right now, we have to talk to Morgan, check the gate, and talk to Maggie, she's been spending a lot of time up on the tower looking out. I don't blame her for it, I'd be doing the same if it was you," she said as they started to walk again.

Both Rick and Jewel looked over to the infirmary and saw Morgan talking with Denise. Rick looked at him. "Morgan," Rick greeted.

"Morning," Morgan greeted.

"You checked on Jenny this morning before you left?" Jewel questioned.

"I did, had breakfast with her," Morgan answered.

"Good,"Jewel responded.

"We haven't talked, we should a little late, alright?" Rick questioned Morgan.

"All right," Morgan answered. "Jewel and I had a conversation last night, she mentioned that you'd want to talk to me."

"Jewel was right, but that's nothing new," Rick said. "We'll talk later," he said as they walked.

Jewel smirked as she walked with Rick. "I like when you say that I'm right."

"Well you usually are," Rick said as he kissed her.

Jewel touched the wall and drew her fingers back. "Blood."

Rick looks at it, putting his hand on it and rubbing it between his fingers. "It'll hold," he assured her as well as himself.

Jewel nodded. "We need to look for any more weaknesses in the wall, start reinforcing it. We can't be to careful," she told him as she kissed him.

Rick nodded. "No we can't," he said as he went up to the watch point. "Ladies first," he said as he motioned toward the ladder.

Jewel laughed as she started climbing up. "You just want to admire the view," she teased.

"I'm not going to deny that, Mrs. Grimes," he said softly as he followed her up.

"Maggie, were you up here all night?" Jewel asked as she reached the top.

"Not all night, some,"Maggie answered.

"You don't have to be up here so much,"Rick told her.

"I won't be, this is the direction he'd come in. If he sends up a signal, it'll be from out there. Or it won't be," Maggie responded.

Jewel squeezed her hand. "They'll be back. We're selling them short if we don't believe that," Jewel told her.

Rick nodded. "When we go out there, it's never simple, it's never easy," he reminded her.

"Though it would be nice to just have it easy once,"Jewel teased with a ghost of a smile.

Rick laughed. "That it would be," he said as he agreed with his wife. It's always a fight. But we've come back from harder things, from further away. Glenn, Daryl, Abraham, Sasha, Jes, Axel, Summer, they will too. Maybe we don't wait for them to be back. We should start figuring out how to draw the walkers' away. We have some food and water to last us a while, and the walls are holding," Rick reported.

"We're going to have some of the construction crew reinforce any weak spots, just in case,"Jewel told her.

Rick nodded. "We are. We can take our time, really think this through, do it right. Clear is so they can...they can walk right in," he said.

"It's something all of us can work on, not just us, but the Alexandrians. This is there home too," Jewel said as she saw Rick glance in her direction. "If we do all the work, they'll never learn. Plus we need all hands' on deck to reinforce the walls, to make our family, our children safe," Jewel reminded him.

"I saw Judith in the house the other day, she's starting to look like Lori," Maggie commented.

"Yeah," Rick responded.

"It made me happy,"Maggie said.

Jewel gave a small smile. "It makes us happy too," she responded to both of them. "She's going to be walking real soon, she's pulling up on things. I think Mika is encouraging her too. She'll keep us on our toes when that happens," she informed them.

"She's got plenty of us to keep an eye on her so she doesn't get into trouble, or hurt," Maggie informed them.

Jewel and Rick both turned when they heard something coming toward them up the gate. "Ron, there's not enough room up here for all of us," Rick told him. "What do you need?"

"I was just wondering when we could start on the shooting lessons," Ron said s he stopped on the ladder.

Jewel looked down at him. "Did you ask your mother?"

"I told you I did, why are you asking me again?" Ron asked.

Jewel looked at Maggie and Rick then started to go down the steps. "Move Ron, because I won't hesitate to kick you off the steps. From this distance, you won't hurt yourself to bad, just a few scrapes and bruises," she warned as Ron started backing down the steps. She got to the last step and looked at him. "Did you get permission from your mother to have us teach you to shoot?"

Ron looked up at Rick. "Mom said I could learn," he told Rick.

"I'm not the one asking," Rick responded with a smirk.

"Ron, look at me," Jewel told him. She waited and noticed he wasn't going to look at her. "You don't answer me, then no one is going to teach you how to shoot a gun."

Ron looked at her. "I didn't ask her if I could be taught, she said that I needed too."

"You didn't ask her," Jewel said not sounding surprised. "All right, you want to learn to shoot?" she asked.

"Yeah," Ron responded.

"Then we're going to go talk to your mother, and we are going to ask her. Second of all, it's not yeah, it's yes," Jewel corrected him. She started to walk and noticed that Ron wasn't behind her. "Ron, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. But either way winds up the same, with us at your mother's house, asking her if you can learn how to shoot. Or is there some reason that you wouldn't want Jessie to find out that you are learning how to shoot?"she asked with her arms crossed.

"I'm not your son," Ron said.

"Well thank small miracles for that," Jewel said. "Though I don't believe in beating kids, what your dad did that was excessive, and out of line, but I do believe in spanking a kid when he or she needs it. I also believe that every kid deserves a chance to live, and that they need protecting in this world. At least I did before I met you," she said. "See, I see a kid ready to make stupid decisions because he's a little brat trying to be a man. And, that could be a major problem for my family," she informed him. "It could be, but it won't be, because I won't let it be," she told him. She climbed up the the steps of Jessie's house and knocked. "Come on up Ron, this is your mother and you need to ask her for permission," she told the teen as Rick cam up behind him.

"Is there a problem Ron?" Rick asked.

"No," Ron answered as he climbed up to the steps.

Jessie opened the door. "Jewel? Ron? Is something wrong?"

Jewel looked at Ron then at Jessie. "Ron asked Rick to learn to shoot. And, I asked Ron if he had asked you, because as a parent, if one of my children wanted to learn to shoot, I'd want to know about it. Ron, for some reason, was afraid to ask you, so I demanded that he come here and tell you," she said.

"Ron? Is this the truth?" Jessie questioned.

Ron glared at Jewel, who just returned the glare, making him take a step back. "I didn't want to bother you. You've been busy with Sam," he responded.

"We don't mind teaching him, but I just wanted to make sure that you were alright with it," Jewel said.

Jessie looked at Ron. "If you seriously don't mind," she told Jewel.

"We don't," Rick answered.

"Then it's alright," Jessie said. "Thanks Jewel," she said.

"Anytime, us mother's have to stick together, especially in times like this," Jewel said as she stepped off the stairs. She looked at Ron. "Are you coming? We can do this now," she said.

Ron looked at her and Rick as he came down the steps.

"Dad? Mom? What's going on?" Carl asked.

"Just going to teach Ron how to shoot, you want to come along?"Rick questioned.

Jewel glanced at Rick, not thinking it was a good idea but decided not to say anything.

"Yeah," Carl said.

They passed Gabriel hanging up signs for a prayer meeting, Rick took it off and crumbled it to the ground.

"Dad," Carl said.

Jewel bent down and picked it up and handed it to Gabriel. "People need something to believe in," she told him as she went to catch up with Rick.

"Hand guns will be a little better for your first go," Rick told Ron as he picked up a gun. Magazine release, slide release, thumb safety," he said as he showed Ron.

"That stuff's easy, right dad?" Carl asked.

"Yeah, empty magazine, chamber. See it?" Rick asked.

"Yeah," Ron answered.

"It needs to become second nature to you, it'll be a matter of life or death,"Jewel told him.

"She's right," Rick said. Someone's in front of you, they have a gun," he started to say.

"You're gonna be scared, you will be," Carl said.

Jewel glanced at Carl. "Even the most experienced people get scared, Ron, no matter how many times they do it," she said.

"Your body's gonna tense, you won't have time to think. Your just gonna tense, you won't have time to think. Your just gonna want to pull the trigger when you get it in front of you. But you'll miss and you'll be dead. Have to get it up to your eye," Rick instructed.

"You have to make sure your hand is steady," Jewel instructed.

"You have to be strong enough to wait for your moment," Carl told him.

Ron had his hand on the gun. "Can I uh?" he asked.

"Hey your finger don't touch the trigger until you're ready to shoot," Rick told him.

Ron closes his eyes to aim.

"You have to make sure to keep your eyes open, other wise your going to miss," Jewel told him.

"Keep that one with you, get a feel of what it's like to carry one around with you," Rick instructed.

"Can I fire it? Like at down the walkers?" Ron asked.

Jewel looked at him. "I don't think that's a good idea."

"She's right. The things how they are, the walls are strong, but we're lucky the walkers' are spread out. We don't want to pull them all to one spot," Rick said.

"What about target practice in the center of town? Cause then the sound will spread out in and each direction," Ron said.

"And you could accidently kill an innocent bystander, not to mention that the waiste of bullets,"Jewel said. "I think that's enough for right now," she told him as she watched him leave.