A/N: This is the last chapter, I struggled with how to end this and I hope I did it justice. I enjoyed writing this because it was so different . Thank you to everyone who read and left me love. I love you all xxxxxxx Krissy
They went to five concerts that summer and Carol and Sophia lived with Andrea for a year while the divorce was going through. In that time, she and Daryl stopped hiding behind closed doors and in hotel rooms. Once he had passed the Sophia test that was all she needed. They didn't live together but they didn't keep secret what they had.
Sophia adjusted well to another man in the picture and she and Carolina kept him busy playing video games when he had time.
At first it looked like she would be divorced in five or six months but Ed found out about Daryl. He never made a move to get visitation with Sophia and signed that away from the jump, but he wouldn't sign the divorce papers.
Ed dragged his feet because by the time they met with the lawyers again he had found out Carol wanted to get married again.
Daryl had proposed to her and Sophia at Christmas time, seven months after they had first met. It was snowing out, that night, which was a rare thing in Georgia. They had been sitting around an outside fire with all their friends in Rick and Lori's back yard. Andrea knew what he was going to do, because he had asked her before he even bought the ring if it was bad timing.
Andrea gave him the thumbs up because the timing really didn't matter when you loved each other the way they did.
They were all drinking hot chocolate and eating s'mores and it was one of the best nights they could remember, even before he did what he did. Lori and Rick watched as he stood up and had his hand in his pocket, Lori's eyes went wide and she hit Rick in the side when she figured out what was going on.
Daryl got down on one knee before Carol and Sophia and asked them to marry him. Carol started crying and Sophia looked like a kid on Christmas morning. He pledged to love them both for the rest of his life if they would do him the great honor to marry him.
They both said yes and he slipped an alexandrite ring on her finger. That was her birthstone and she had admired it the week before when they had been in the store buying a necklace for Sophia for Christmas.
He went back and bought the ring the next day.
Ed dragged it out for spite because he couldn't do anything else. She wasn't fighting him for the house or any money and she had a right to, because they had been married for over ten years. That was commonly referred to in legal terms as Half Time, meaning she could go for half of everything. He was pissed she was re-marrying, and doubly pissed when he found out who it was and how old he was.
Finally, the next fall her divorce went through.
They had found a house the summer before and were fixing it up slowly and both Carol and Sophia were back at school.
There would be no more children, they both felt that Sophia had been through enough and needed all their attention and she was at the age where they could spend a lot of time together. They didn't have to worry about diapers and formula and babysitters and that was a wonderful thing.
They were openly together, in front of all of their friends and out in public. They were no longer a dirty little secret.