All Nightmare Long

Chapter 469

Author's Note: This chapter did not want to be written. Jewel wanted to argue with me. She wanted to go out on the supply run, I didn't want her too. I rote half of it both ways, walked away and came back this morning and Jewel won. Dang it, these imaginary people are driving me crazy. Please review and give Jewel validation she did the right thing.

Jewel's POV:

Jewel looked at Daryl as he came back from the truck. "We told her she didn't need to go, if you want to give it a try, be my guest. You may have better luck than we did," Daryl offered.

Jewel sighed as she walked over to the infirmary. "Denise, we need to talk."

"I'm not going to change my mind," Denise said as turned and looked at her.

Jewel shook her head. "I'm not asking you too," she assured her. "I'm wondering why you want to go out there now. You know that Mar and I are nurses right? One of us could go with them, or you could give them the list."

"I want to do this, I need to do this," Denise insisted.

"Do you feel like you want to prove yourself? Is that what this is?" Jewel questioned. "If that is it, you don't have anything to prove. You stepped up after Ronnie's death. You saved my sons life, without hesitation."

"I can do this," Denise told her. "This isn't to prove anything to anyone. I can help and I want to help," Denise assured her.

Jewel sighed. "You need to listen to everything we tell you out there," she told her.

"We?" Denise asked.

"Yes, we. Daryl, Rosita, Beth and I, we. Two in the front, two in the back, you in the middle. I may not be able to keep you from going, but I am damn well going to do my best to get you home safe," Jewel said as she went out the door. "Grab your bag, I want to be back before it gets dark," she called after she walked out of the building.

Denise grabbed her bag and ran after her. "You don't have to go, Beth doesn't have to go. I am confident in Daryl and Rosita to keep me safe. You have the kids to watch over," she told her as she caught up with her.

"Rick can handle them, Carol is here, Maggie. Denise, the only way you are going out of those gates are with the four of us, and if you don't think I have the ability to stop you, you'd be dead wrong," Jewel told her as she turned around and faced her.

"Oh I don't doubt that, not at all," Denise said as she looked at her. "Fine, the more the merrier," she said as she went to the truck.

Rick smirked as he stood on the porch holding Judith. "I gave Daryl your bag, be safe."

"Always," Jewel said as she gave gave him a kiss. "You big good for daddy and Carl, OK?"

"I'll make sure they stay out of trouble," Lexi said as she joined them on the porch.

"Hope is still asleep, I can go get her," Mika offered.

"No, just give her a kiss for me," Jewel said as she hugged the two girls. "Carl, if you think you aren't saying goodbye, you're sadly mistaken."

Carl shook his head as he came out on the porch. "Be careful," he told her as he hugged her.

"I will," Jewel said as she walked out of the porch and squeezed Rick's hand one more time.

"Done with the romance novel?" Daryl teased.

"Did you say goodbye to Mar?" Jewel countered as she jumped in the back of the truck with Beth. "That's what I thought," she said as Daryl got in to the driver's seat.

"You didn't have to come," Beth told her.

"I know I didn't have too, but I am," Jewel said as the truck jerked. "Daryl!" she exclaimed as she hit on the back of the window.

"It...um..." Denise said from beside Daryl.

"What?" Daryl asked.

"Forget it," Denise said.

"No, what?" Daryl insisted.

"Maybe you're disengaging it to soon. I've been driving stick since I was 15, usually beat up trucks, like this. I mean before I left home, my brother taught me, so I just know," Denise said.

"Daryl," Rosita warned.

"Yep," Daryl said as he got out of the truck and saw the tree. "Stay here," he told Denise.

"Daryl, I'm driving, you can sit in the back," Jewel told him as she handed him his rifle.

Daryl arched an eyebrow. "You know how to drive stick? How do you know how to drive stick? I taught you how to drive, and it wasn't stick."

"Summer was sick, my car was broke down, Jane had an old stick shift, I drove myself to the hospital with her. Jane gave me lessons after. I'm not perfect, but I won't try to kill you," Jewel teased.

Daryl gave her a look as Rosita killed the walker. "This happened fast, tree rotted out, it wasn't people," she said as cleared out his bag. "Come on, it's clear."

"What did you find?" Denise asked her.

"Bottle of booze, any takers?" Rosita asked.

"No thanks," Denise told her.

"I think we all should pass," Jewel told her.

"For later, I'm not bringing these to the pantry," Rosita said.

"Last time I drank, was my first and last time," Beth said as she looked at Daryl.

"I'm good, they were kind of my parents thing, which is why they aren't mine," Denise said.

"It was kind of my thing too, for a while," Jewel told her.

"That truck aint gonna make it past that tree. Come on, let's walk," Daryl said as he started to walk.

"Hold up, it looks like a straight shot if we follow the track," Denise said.

Beth and Daryl exchanged glances. "Nah, no tracks, we'll take the road," Daryl answered.

"Daryl," Jewel warned.

"No tracks," Daryl said.

"That's twice as far," Rosita told them.

"Go whichever way you like, I aint taking no tracks," Daryl said as he walked away.

"We should stick together," Denise told her.

"This is why it's good to have more people," Jewel told Denise. "Beth you and Denise go with Daryl, I'll go with Rosita," she instructed as she ran to catch up with Rosita.

Rosita and Jewel's POV:

"You didn't have to come with me, I would have been fine on my own," Rosita said.

"We don't do things alone, not if we can help it," Jewel told her. "You know why he didn't want to take the tracks, didn't you?" she questioned.

"He's still hung up on Terminus?" Rosita asked.

Jewel glanced at her. "It's a little bit more than that. You don't think about it?"

"I think about it, but we can't get stuck in the past. It doesn't do anybody any good. Right now, they are taking extra time when we could make it there quicker and back sooner," Rosita said.

Jewel took a breath and stopped and looked at her. "I know you are angry because of Abraham, and you want to move on. You can do that any way you want, and if that means sleeping with Spenser, that's your business. You also know that I think of you as my sister, so I'm going to tell you that I don't want to hear anything else about being hung up on Terminus or anything else. You were locked in a train car, but Daryl, Rick and Glenn they almost got there heads chopped off and used as dinner. I saw them like that, I heard Gareth taunting them, I heard Clare telling me she was going to raise my child, after they killed me. Believe me, Rosita I'm still hung up on it. I'm glad that you can put it out of your mind, I wish I could. So I totally understand that Daryl doesn't want to use train tracks. I also understand that Beth doesn't want to take tracks, since she was kidnapped. And I hope that you never 'get hung up' on something, it's the worst feeling in the world,"she told her as she started to walk away.

"I'm..." Rosita started to say.

"Don't, don't say you're sorry, Roista. Family disagrees," Jewel said as she sat down at the end of the tracks. "They should be here soon."

"You think I'm wrong about sleeping with Spenser?" Rosita asked.

"It's none of my business," Jewel told her. "Though I think you deserve a lot better than Spenser Monroe," she said.

Rosita nodded and looked up as the others walked up. "What took you so long?"

Jewel smirked. "Nice of you to join us," she told Daryl.

Denise looked at Rosita. "I didn't mean to pick them over you back there, it's just..." she started to say.

"She was with me, she was fine," Jewel said.

Rosita nodded. "You're holding it wrong, like this," she told Denise as she showed her how to hold the weapon.

"Thanks, who taught you? You know how to fight? Sorry I didn't mean to bring it up," Denise said.

"A lot of people taught me a lot of things. Years from now, they'll just be a name in a long list of names," Roista said as she walked ahead of her.

"Daryl, Jewel, Summer and a lot of people taught me," Beth said. "I was worse than you, I wasn't even a doctor or anything. That's why I wanted to come with you, I wanted to help you the way I was helped."

Denise nodded. "Thanks, I appreciate it," Denise answered.

Jewel looked around the town. "This looks like the only place that wasn't disturbed. We can still look around the rest of the places, make sure that nothing else is hidden anywhere."

"Yeah, doesn't hurt to look," Daryl said as he knocked on the door and waited. "Me and Rosita are going to do this, you stand by the door, Jewel and Beth will look around the rest of the place. You stay back, got it?"

"Yeah," Denise answered.

TBC