Everyone is dealing with the responsibilities of having a family in the walker apocalypse, pretty much scared spitless most of the time, (which is actually pretty much like all of the rest of us every day...) but getting by with a lot of help from their partners and friends.

Family Man

"Is it ready?"

"Yes, Daryl—now go get changed."

"Yer sure? I mean, everythin' like I said?"

"Go! Or you'll be late. Your friend Michonne is bringing her."

"So she doesn't suspect nothin'?"

"No—now git!" Abraham ordered, pushing the tracker out the back door of the lodge in to the afternoon chill. The first week of December in north Georgia was frigid this year; snow was threatening and some had questioned the wisdom of setting out on a mission under less than optimum conditions, but Daryl knew they'd already lost too much time, the girls' trail going colder than the winter winds with every day that passed.

Daryl went to the communal warehouse tent where everything from clothing to pots and pans were gathered and sorted after being scavenged on runs. He found Carl and Rick there, getting resupplied to prepare for their journey the next day.

Rick had been provisionally admitted to the fort on the condition that someone else from their original group was with him at all times. That duty had fallen to Carl and Michonne. Neither Carol nor Daryl was in a particularly forgiving frame of mind about his actions regarding her. Daryl knew he'd have to face it soon enough during the forced togetherness of their travels, but for now his focus was on Carol and their kids.

"Hey Daryl." Carl called out, grinning shyly, stopping in the middle of trying on an insulated black leather motorcycle jacket.

"You about ready, little man?" Daryl asked, realizing that the kid was almost as tall as he was now.

"You sure about this?" Carl asked, frowning slightly and stealing a glance at his father who was suddenly fascinated with a pile of of gloves on the other side of the room.

"Which part? You or her?" Daryl said, with an answering grin.

"Me—I mean, I always thought my dad would…"his voice trailed off and Daryl came and put his hand on Carl's shoulder.

"I picked the best man I know." Daryl said meaningfully and Carl smiled up at him and then ducked his head, nodding it up and down slowly.

"Thanks, Daryl." Carl said proudly.

"Now come help me pick out somethin' to wear. Other than Glenn and Maggie's, I ain't never been part of a weddin' party." Daryl said, slapping Carl on the back. Rick's head shot up and then he huffed and shook his head in derision.

"I wish you could apologize for other people." Michonne said as she looked down at the two small boys in their cradle and then raised her eyes to their mother standing next to her. Carol smiled slightly, reaching down to pull the blue and green blankets a little higher over them and then looked over at the swordswoman.

"Doesn't do much good." Carol agreed quietly. Especially when they're not sorry for what they'd done. She thought to herself. She wasn't sure if there was any way to mend the breach between Rick and her, but for Carl and Judith's sake, for Lori, she'd have to try.

"They're beautiful—so is Rose." Michonne said wistfully, an emotional tone Carol hadn't often heard from her. "You had a daughter? Before the Turn?" She continued, knowing Carol's story from her talks while on the road with both Andrea and Daryl.

"Sophia." Carol nodded. "In a way I suppose she brought Daryl and me together."

"When he searched for her."

"That's right."

"But she died."

"Yes. She died."

"How can you have more? Risk that again?" Michonne's expression was equal parts sadness and anger, not understanding why someone would leave themselves open to that agony again. Judith wasn't even hers and every day she felt her loss, saw the way it had almost destroyed her father's sanity.

"Because I have love…and hope…" Carol said simply. "Don't get me wrong, it wasn't easy getting here. When I found out I was pregnant I was so confused…we were just starting out here, I never thought I'd see Daryl again, how could I care for a baby in this wilderness …what would I do if I lost it? Would it kill me too?"

"So you and he were…" Michonne asked, cocking her head to the side in curiosity.

"I was jealous of you—going out looking together." Carol admitted, "Wondered if you were…" and then she blushed—it was really none of her business if anything had happened between the two warriors back then.

"Not for lack of trying." Michonne snorted. "That man is sex on a stick, he just doesn't know it."

"Oh god, tell me about it!" Carol laughed, "All he has to do is walk into a room and I get damp." In a bizarre way it was wonderful to have another woman to talk to about Daryl. Sara was sweet, but despite her knowledge of all things to do with the outcomes of sex, the young woman was very inexperienced in dealing with relationships. Rosita was a wonderful friend, but gay and just didn't appreciate Daryl's appeal quite the same way.

"I asked him, you know—to have a go—turned me down flat." Michonne said with wry nod. "Figured he was either into Rick or had somethin' going on with you."

"Into Rick?" Carol raised both eyebrows.

"Can't deny those two had a bond—lots a non-verbal shorthand, trust. The way Daryl was with Judith and Carl—thought maybe it was a "my two dads" sorta thing at first." Michonne said with a shrug, remembering the short conversation she'd overheard on the road to Woodbury going to rescue Maggie and Glenn, Rick telling Daryl, "I know what you did for me—for my baby—when I was workin' things out…" and Daryl's terse response, "It's what we do."

Carol considered that. The two men had been like brothers—Daryl had given Rick stability, he leaned on the tracker like he had once done with Shane. It had been the presence of Judith, Carl and their entire group that had pulled Rick out of his fugue after Lori's death, but he had relied most heavily on Daryl's back up, even accepting Merle so he could have Daryl back in the fold. It was obvious that without Daryl, Judith and Carl that Rick's mental state had deteriorated once again.

"But then I would see the way Daryl looked at you." Michonne said with a barely there smile. "Like you was a life preserver and he was a drownin' man."

"Funny since he was always the one saving me." Carol said, remembering Daryl's stints going all knight in shining armoring for her.

"No. Uh uh." Michonne shook her head at the other woman. "You saved him. I never thought I'd see him like this— Daryl Dixon? Happy family man?" she chuckled, "Boggles the mind."

"We have been happy here…" Carol said wistfully, "…it's been like a dream. Sometimes I worry that I'll wake up shivering in the back seat of that shitty station wagon again, hearing Rick's voice in my head telling me that he thinks I'll kill his children…"

"Yeah, well he's a dick." Michonne said laconically and Carol looked over at her wide eyed. "And he gives everyone with a dick a second chance—from what Daryl told me he knew that dude Shane killed an innocent man to save Carl, and Rick let in Merle after he tried to kill me, just so he could keep Daryl there, and Hershel watched Carl kill that kid outside the prison—hell, Rick was even talking truce with The Governor to spare the group after the fucking bastard killed Andrea and Merle!" the last she said more heatedly, the final battle with Blake and its losses had been hard on them all.

"So why did you go after him?" Carol asked curiously.

"Because Rick's part of the family and every family has its crazy ass uncles and loser cousins, right?" Michonne said flippantly, but Carol could see the underlying pain in her eyes. Michonne cared for Rick, probably more than she wanted to admit. "I swallowed what he did to you to keep the peace when everything was falling apart, but I regretted it. I can't apologize for him, but I can for myself…" she held her hand out to Carol then, looking her straight in the eye, "I'm sorry for not helping Daryl look for you."

Carol looked down at the strong scarred hand with its half glove and sword callouses and then back up at Michonne's warily expectant face. For so long she'd wanted one of them to say just this, to tell her Rick had been wrong and to say that they were sorry.

"Thank you." Carol said and took hold of the proffered hand. "Taking someone's life-no matter the reason- shouldn't be something you can ever forget. I've been trying to make up for it …every day since I did…what I did…."

"I killed a man right in front of Rick, Daryl and Oscar—stabbed him through the heart to shut him up so he wouldn't bring the walkers outside his cabin down on us." Michonne told her in a monotone. "Far as any of us knew he was an innocent man—hermit type—just gone a little squirrelly and wouldn't shut up—was endangering the group. So I killed him. Don't see a lot of difference between what you did and that."

"But you didn't know him—hadn't made friends with him—I liked David, I rooted for Karen and Tyreese's romance, admired how she carried on after losing her son. They were real people, friends, not strangers." Carol said softly, tears running down her face.

"You told Rick they were dying..."

"They were." Carol said, remembering the agony on David's face, his eyes weeping bloody tears as he reached to her sheathed knife.

"Then what you did wasn't any different than what we do to stop one of our own from turning." Michonne told her gently, putting her arm around her and pulling her into an unexpected hug. When she released the smaller woman, Michonne stepped away and held out a loosely wrapped package that she pulled from the nearby chair.

"What's this?" Carol asked, sniffing and wiping the tears from her face.

"Open it." Michonne said, suppressing her grin. Frowning, Carol wiped her tear stained hands on her jeans and took it from her. She untied the messy twine bow and the grocery sack paper fell open revealing a folded blue garment. Carol carefully unfolded it and saw that it was a light blue raw silk dress, small pearl buttons running down the length of it from the V-necked bodice to a flowing skirt.

"It's beautiful..." Carol said, still frowning, looking up at Michonne quizzically.

"You have about 15 minutes to put it on. He's waiting." Michonne let her grin free and it was all teeth and dimples and maybe even a tear could be glimpsed in the corner of her eye.

Carol looked at herself in the old silvered mirror over the dresser in the bedroom and smoothed down the whisper soft material of the blue dress over her still rounded abdomen. She hadn't even tried to lose the little baby weight she'd gained with the twins. Daryl had told her she was too skinny before and that he liked having more of her to play grab ass with-god love him! He was such a tactile person she wasn't surprised that he had found the silk for her and that the blue perfectly matched her eyes. She felt like a queen.

Michonne opened the bedroom door, an anxious look on her face.

"Are we running late?" Carol asked with a smile, "I don't have a watch."

"Sam was just at the door—there's a big herd comin' in from the south, they need everyone at battle stations." she told Carol regretfully, "Sara's here with Rose and said she'll watch the boys, move them into the shelter if need be." They had made a dug out root cellar to help with preservation of foodstuffs and it also served as a last resort fallout shelter for the children if needed.

Carol nodded and sighed, unbuttoning the top few of the tiny pearl fastenings and then just gave up and pulled the gown off over her head. She quickly pulled back on her jeans, sweater, boots and leather coat and after pausing to kiss her children, grabbed her compound bow from the rack by the front door and led Michonne to the battlements where her sword was returned to her in preparation for battle.

"God damn mother fu—" Daryl began his rant but Rick caught his eye and looked pointedly at Carl with a raised eyebrow. Although sure that the kid had heard and probably said much worse while on his solo trek north, Daryl let Rick play doting dad and self-edited. "Mother fudgin' walkers!"

They were up on the ramparts watching as a large herd approached the outer perimeter of the fort. In the low light of dusk it was hard to make them all out, but it looked like about a hundred.

"Shit!" Rick said, pointing to something at the front of the pack—three people, running, stumbling, exhausted. As they watched, the one farthest back closest to the herd turned and started to make a stand so the others could get away, firing his pistol until he ran out of ammo and then pulling a baseball bat from under his backpack and swinging away. "Shit, shit, shit!" Rick exclaimed.

Daryl took aim with his cross bow, taking out the one closest to the man who had stopped, and another arrow hit the next closest. Carl, Daryl and Rick turned and saw Michonne and Carol standing just past the steps, Carol just having loosed her arrow.

"Lower the other ladders!" Carol yelled loudly, throwing the rope emergency ladder in front of her over the side and then leaned over the side to call to the runners. "Head for the drawbridge—up and over—ladders waiting!" If they could get them past the drawbridge and pull it up after them they'd be protected by the moat and spikes, giving them enough time to climb.

"He's not going to make it!" Rick yelled, ran past Carol and Michonne and before they could stop him, he leapt over the side and down the ladder.

"Dad! NO!" Carl screamed, trying to follow, but Daryl held him back.

"God damn it!" Michonne yelled and started after him, but Carol grabbed her arm.

"Wait—don't!" Carol exclaimed, but Michonne pulled out of her grasp.

"I have to." the swords woman said with a desperate look of love and pain, "Cover us!" and then she was gone as well. Daryl and Carol exchanged a horrified look as Carl still struggled to follow.

"Please—help them, Daryl, Carol please!" Carl begged.

"Concentrate your fire on the walkers around the rescue party and the lone man!" Carol yelled to the other defenders, notching another arrow and letting it fly straight into the head of the walker who had almost reached the struggling man from the group of three. She continued methodically firing into the herd, watching as Michonne reached Rick, who was brandishing his machete wildly, moving past the two runners who had reached the drawbridge.

"Get to the wall!" they heard Rick yell, taking out one of the faster moving walkers who had fallen in behind them.

"They have to hurry," Carol muttered to herself. If enough walkers made it over the drawbridge and pushed against the gates, they could push through them. The essence of their defense wasn't just the wooden fence; it was the combination of it with the dry moat and the spiked posts.

The two runners had reached the ladders and were starting up the wall, but walkers were quickly filling in behind them. Carol looked over at Daryl and Carl with an agonized expression.

"I can't risk the whole fort for three people." She said desperately, reliving her nightmare decision at the prison. Daryl stared at her levelly and then gave her a short nod. Releasing Carl he looked at the boy with a hard almost angry look.

"You're gonna help us keep any more from getting' over the bridge, got that?" Daryl ordered and Carl looked wild-eyed back at him. "Carl! We need you now!" Daryl growled, shoving a sharp shooters rifle at him. Carl slowly nodded and then followed Daryl and Carol to the battlements over the gate.

Rick and Michonne working as a unit were like a beautiful machine, seeming to know what the other would do before they did it. They sliced a path through the walkers surrounding the third man, supported by the arrows, bolts and precisely aimed rifle shots coming from behind them. When they reached their target the man at first couldn't seem to distinguish them from walkers and took aim at them with his bat, but Rick grabbed it mid swing and then took a step back in seeming recognition. Michonne yelled something at the two of them and they turned as one and followed her back towards the wall, slicing and battering their way through.

"Come on, come on..." Carol chanted, looking at the buildup underneath them at the gate and then to the top of the wall where the first of the three runners was being pushed over by the person behind. It was a young girl of about 7 or 8 with long blonde hair in braids wound around her head like Heidi from the Alps. Behind her came a totally exhausted pale woman with medium length brown hair and big green eyes.

"Oh my god, oh god—thank you...thank you!" the woman said all in a rush, hugging the girl to her tightly.

"Mom! What about Daddy?" The little girl wailed, pulling away and looking back over the wall. The brunette took a deep breath, grabbed one of the rifles set back against the inner wall and took three quick steps forward and looked to Carol.

"Tell me what to shoot!" she said loudly and Carol smiled, liking her immediately.

"Help us keep the drawbridge clear." Carol told her and the woman nodded."I'm Carol."

"Lily—and this is my daughter Meghan." the woman said, taking her first shot, hitting a walker dead on through the forehead, "That's my man out there." She said with a nod to the man being escorted in by Rick and Michonne.

Daryl took up a position next to Carol after shouldering his bow, out of bolts, leveling a rifle on the top of the crenellations.

"How we doin' sweetheart?" Daryl drawled, looking briefly at Carol, bumping her lightly with his hip. Carol smiled up at him and loosed another arrow.

"That must be yours." Lily said with a surprising amount of gusto. "They're almost to the bridge!" she yelled with a whoop, and Meghan started jumping up and down in excitement.

"Gate's holdin'" Daryl said, watching the few walkers who were still making it through the barrage scratch and claw at the wooden barrier. A sharpened piece of rebar slammed out through the peephole in the door, taking out the closest walker and Daryl grinned, knowing Abe was on duty as guardian of his gate.

"Raise the drawbridge!" Carol yelled as the last one through, Rick, cleared the walkway over the moat. She dropped her bow, out of arrows now too and grabbed a rifle. Carl, Lily, Daryl and Carol continued to pick off the walkers that had worked their way in between the moat and the wall as Michonne started up the rope ladder after the man Meghan had called daddy.

Rick watched their back, picking off walkers, but didn't see the fallen one, caught halfway in the deep ditch behind him reaching for his leg. He felt the sharp quick pain of a bullet creasing his bicep, (unbeknownst to him taking out his unseen attacker), and reeled back, holding his bleeding arm and looking up at the wall wildly to see who had shot him.

"Sorry!" Carol called down—she'd really had no choice if she wanted to take out the biter before Rick would end up, best case scenario, like Hershel.

"Daryl will still go after them even if you kill me too!" Rick yelled, beyond angry, almost apoplectic.

"She just saved your life you stupid mother fucker!" Daryl yelled, pointing at the practically beheaded walker behind the former sheriff, its hands almost grasping his leg. Rick looked at the walker, his mouth open and back up at Carol.

"Now get your ass up here before I shoot you myself!" Daryl snarled the command at his former leader.

"Please dad—hurry! The blood will draw them to you!" Carl added his plea when Rick hesitated. Finally he started up the ladder, the others above firing to keep the last of the trapped fragment of the herd off of him.

Carl looked over at Carol and mouthed a silent but heartfelt thank you to her and she nodded.

"Daryl—grab him!" Rick yelled up, seeing the man they'd rescued had almost reached the top, but before Daryl could get to him, he was over the wall and both Meghan and Lily flew to embrace him.

"Daddy!" the little girl cried and he picked her up, hugging her close.

"Me-ha!" the man said, kissing the top of her head.

"You could have died!" Lily said angrily—but then burst into tears and embraced him. "What would we have done then, Caesar? What would we have done without you?"

Michonne reached the top then and leapt down and pulled out her katana threateningly, standing guard over the little family. Daryl looked at the face of the man he'd met and shared a smoke n' some walker killin' with while their two crazy son of a bitch leaders had traded big noises.

"What the hell, Martinez?" Daryl drawled, pointing at the woman and child, "I thought you were dead." and also that he was done with trying to have any sort of family attachments...

"You kill him?" Caesar Martinez, erstwhile first lieutenant to Phillip Blake asked. Both Daryl and Michonne nodded. "Good." he sighed in relief. "Tried to do it but he ditched us, high and dry in the middle of the night, like he knew what we were up to. Shump walked himself into a herd a couple days later. I was lucky enough to meet up with Lily—she saved my life." he said fondly.

"And me!" Meghan piped up, hugging him tightly around the neck.

"And you mi pequeña."

Rick came over the wall and took in the situation with a frowning grimace.

"Do you know who he is?" Rick said angrily. Michonne moved to him, examining his arm wound, but it was shallow and had already almost stopped bleeding. She took the bandana off of her head and wrapped and tied it around his bicep to keep pressure on it.

"Looks to me like someone else who's looking for a second chance." Carol said quietly, her tone warning him to back off.

"For now you need to hand over your weapons and come with us." Daryl told them, laying down the fort code.

Lily stiffened and looked to Carol for reassurance.

"It's all right—you'll be together and safe—we'll fix you up a place to stay and get a hot meal in you." Carol said, smiling calmly.

"She on the level?" Martinez slanted a glance at Daryl, the only one he trusted to tell him the truth.

"She's the boss." Daryl grinned and Lily smiled at that and nodded in agreement.

"Mommy!' Meghan cried in sudden concern, "What about Tuna?" the other adults around her all looked puzzled.

"Honey, I don't think—" Lily began sadly, but Caesar set the girl down and pulled off his back pack.

"You think I'd leave Tunabreath behind?" he said and unzipped the bag. A small black furry head with big yellow eyes peered over the top of the opening and Meghan squealed in delight.

"Tuna!" she cried and scooped up the half grown all black kitten, cradling it in her arms.

"Well, I'll be," Daryl said, smiling. He liked cats—admired their fuck you independent attitude just as much as he liked dogs for their loyalty.

"And I guess we'll scrounge you up a litter box and something a cat can eat..." Carol said dryly.

"Thank you Miss Carol." Meghan said with southern politeness.

"I think it's Mrs. Carol, hon." Lily corrected, looking at Daryl.

"About to be, soon as we know the herd is safely by us." Daryl said with a shy smile and a nod at Carol and she smiled back at him.

"A weddin'?" Martinez said, and Daryl nodded. "Sorry to call you away from the festivities." he apologized. Rick cleared his throat in derision. Martinez looked at the man who had come over the wall to save him. "Should thank you, Grimes—you too Michonne. Suppose though if you'd known it was me you'd have thought twice about the rescue." he grimaced.

"We breathers need to stick together." Michonne said, snorting, wiping off her blade with a rag, adding, "Even the assholes." she encompassed both Martinez and Rick in her gaze. Then she sheathed her katana and handed it back to Carol.

"Carol, a while ago ya told me I was just gonna have to get used to the love; even after I'd pushed you away, after I tried to give up on what we had because I didn't trust it." Daryl said, looking at the woman standing in front of him. He was wearing black jeans, a dark blue shirt and his angel vest, which Carol loved, and his hair was carefully combed to the side, off his brow so she could see his emotion filled eyes. "When I came back and found you gone, I knew what a fool I'd been, how I'd wasted so many chances, so much time…" Daryl paused and looked to the back of the large lodge great room, where Rick hovered half in and half out of the door. Rick had his hair trimmed and had shaved off his beard for the occasion, looking less like a bad imitation of Hershel and more like the man who had rolled into the quarry camp outside of Atlanta so long ago. Michonne stood just inside the room, next to him, looking stoic.

"It took an act of madness to make me see what you'd always known: that we belong together; that in this screwed up world our fates somehow got tangled up." He stopped and looked at the smiling faces of their friends all around them. "We've all lost so much…so many…and it'd be easy to shut down and give up and let the herd over the walls and through the gates…but we made a family…" he looked to Rose and the babies, held by Carl and Sara, his head shaking in wonder, his gaze warm and then he huffed out a little sigh and cleared his throat, "…an thas 'bout the second longest speech I ever made in my life so I'm just gonna shut up after I tell you that to me you are perfect and I'll always love you."

Dressed in her sky blue dress with all of the tiny pearl buttons, holding tightly to Daryl's warm strong hands, Carol slowly looked around the room at the people who'd changed her life. Her friends, her family. Her man.

So boo yah! I resurrected Meghan and Martinez. In my AU it was Caesar, not "Brian" who found them. Lily's sister had been killed trying to get the oxygen at the Nursing home and Lily was on a desperate mission back there to try to save her father when she met up with Caesar. When the old man died, they left heading north, as far away from Woodbury and the prison as Martinez could go. When the truck broke down they saw the fort in the distance and unfortunately got caught up in the herd as they approached it.

Rick still has his heroic urges and Michonne backs him up, giving Carol a bad moment when she thinks she might have to leave them outside the gates. In the end Carol saves his life, (in a call back to the fight for the prison in the S3 opener) by shooting the walker about to take a bite out of his leg.

Easter Eggs: Eye in the Dark got a special cameo in here after seeing NR's People's Sexiest Cat Owners appearance, and there's even a little tweak on AL's "Love Actually" notecard scene with Kiera Knightly in there too, LOL!