Chapter 20: A Funeral and a Celebration

Once the initial shock had worn off and Liv had been able to push aside her loss at Pop's death, arrangements were made. Chores had been finished as a team effort and in record time. Liv had set out Pop's favorite jeans and old white snap up shirt and Dale and Caleb dressed him in them. A tree had been downed and Daryl with Declan's help had built a cypress coffin for Pop. Olivia carefully lined the base of the wood box with his favorite quilt, one his wife had made several decades ago. The quilt and an old box of pictures had been the only two personal things he'd grabbed before abandoning his home for hers in the chaos of the outbreak. Liv had never met her though she'd wished many times she could have met the woman who'd so completely captured her father's heart that even years after her death he still mourned her. She knew her father had loved her dearly so dearly that her death had very nearly destroyed him. She'd died only a few years after they'd married, complications in childbirth had cost Pop not only his wife but what would have been Liv's baby half-brother. He'd never remarried and to Liv's knowledge never even pursued a relationship of any kind with another woman. Liv returned to the upstairs to his room glancing at his motionless form still lying on his bed, now dressed in the last clothes she'd ever see him in. At that thought she felt frozen in the doorway, she stood there her eyes glued to him for a moment. For so long he'd been her confidant. Her sole adult companion over the long months before Hershel & Rick's group had come along. He'd served as her sounding board, helped reassure her of her actions and thoughts in his unassuming, humorous without even meaning to be way. Be it with his words or just with a smile or a look he supported her, believed in her. She knew it was in no small part due to his support that she'd survived and kept her group not only alive but thriving since the walkers first appeared. She was too stubborn, too used to having to be the strong one, the sensible one, to admit she needed that reassurance. She walked slowly to his bedside, eyes not leaving his peaceful face, to grasp his cold hand carefully. She whispered to him softly. "What am I going to do without you? Who'll help me keep it all straight now? Keep it from going to pieces. Keep me from falling to pieces?"

As if in answer a quiet knock sounded behind her and she released his hand turning slowly to see Daryl step inside. "Hey."

"Hey" she parroted quietly.

"You alright?" he asked studying her.

"Can I answer that in about a year?" she asked with a wry smile.

He nodded once returning the smile briefly. "T-Dog, Caleb and Shane are finishing up now."

"Annabeth and Dale are-"

"Dale's down there with them, armed, to keep a lookout and Annabeth's got a rifle on the roof with her for eyes up top just like you asked. If we get company we should see it coming, at least enough to hold 'em off til we get back inside the walls."

She nodded. "Thanks."

"You ready?"

"Almost." She turned back towards her father. There on his bed side table was what she was looking for. She reached out picking up the frame. "I lost track of the number of times I've come across him sitting here with this in his hands." She held it up for him to see more clearly. It was a faded picture of his wife, April, advanced in her fateful pregnancy.

"Who is it?"

"His wife."

"Your mom?"

She smiled. "No. He was never married to my mother."

He glanced at her but didn't comment. Another knock made them both turn. Doyle and Declan set the coffin down just outside the door.

Declan never great with words simply nodded to her.

She sighed stealing one last glance at her father "We're ready."

He was laid there on the quilt carefully, his head resting on his feather pillow, his worn hat resting in his hands. Liv removed the photo from the frame placing it face down on his chest beneath his hands and hat. T-dog, Caleb and Shane had dug him a grave near the stand of trees not far beyond the gates near Angela's resting place and the makeshift wood cross bearing Glenn's name. Filling the space around the wood with concrete left from the basement construction they'd covered him over with soil. An impromptu funeral was held outside on the grounds, as had been done for Glenn though Liv had been unable to leave her bed at that time. Hershel chose a few calming passages from his bible to read aloud for them, though Liv's mind was so far removed from the proceedings that she couldn't have repeated any part of them afterwards.

A few people shared stories they had of him though most of the residents had only known him since arriving at Raven Glenn or had mostly heard secondhand stories of the man before coming here.

Liv included hadn't really known him as long as she wished she had. Her father was a man she hadn't known all her life but had met only ten years ago and who had quickly become a very dear and important part of her life, even moving all the way from Mississippi a year after they officially met for the first time to be closer to his daughter and granddaughter and so he could get to know them better. He'd held her hand at Ben's funeral, she'd been heartbroken then. In the last month of her pregnancy, she should have been finalizing their simple wedding plans but instead on what should have been the week before her wedding day she had stood at a gravesite not unlike she had today. Pop hadn't left her side through out the next month. Had been at the hospital for Sky's birth. Had then helped her through her sister and brother-in-laws funeral almost immediately after. He'd been her rock, the person she trusted as her children's guardian when she couldn't physically be there herself. And now he was gone.

Liv sat listening quietly, though silent tears made their way along her cheeks she hadn't truly broken down. Somehow she couldn't. She was grieving and still a bit in shock, yet as she told Daryl and Dale she somehow felt relief. Her greatest fear was failing her family, her children, her group. Not being good enough or smart enough to protect them. She was terrified of seeing them taken by walkers or even worse turned and having to put them down by her own hand. It was a fear that had kept her awake a hundred nights since this began. Instead of feeling the heartbreak of his loss she selfishly felt relieved that wasn't the case with Pop. He'd gone naturally, peacefully. He was spared that, she felt almost comforted that he'd gone that way, no walker involvement at all. Xander squirming in her lap brought her attention back to the world around her to hear Caleb recount the story of when he'd met her father for the first time.

"-then he goes and kicks the two chair legs out from under him. Tells him if he can't show better sense than that he ought to just get his 'hind end the hell on outta here'" he finished with a laugh.

"How is it you only met him five years ago?" Beth asked. "He was Liv's dad wasn't he?"

"It's a long story. Our family tree's a complicated one to keep straight" he replied shaking his head a bit but Liv smiled.

"My sister Leah and Caleb had the same father, my mother's first husband. They divorced. My mother and Pop were never married I was the result of a fling. Pop was of Irish descent first generation American born. He visited Ireland, kind of exploring his roots type of a thing. He met my mom his second week there, they spent a week or so….'getting better acquainted'" she couldn't help but laugh remembering her grandfather wording it that way when she had asked about her father as a kid. "after that he came back to the states. All she really knew was his name and he lived somewhere in America."

"He didn't know about you?" Carol asked.

"No, not a clue he had offspring runnin around out there. Least not until curiosity got the better of me. I managed to track him down when I was a teenager. Wrote him about sixteen letters I never had the nerve to mail. Finally about ten years ago I got my nerve up and drove to Mississippi to see him in person."

"Just told him face to face? Just like that?" Maggie wondered half-amused, half shocked at the audacity.

"Kind of ambushed him really" she admitted sheepishly "in hindsight the letters might have been a better way to go but it all worked out in the end. Once the shock kind of wore off we started exchanging phone calls and letters, emails, he met Annabeth and Leah and her family, Caleb was the only one of us who still lived in Ireland, he went back when he came of age. And he's an arse who never visits-"

"Hey!" said person interrupted indignantly but she just continued with a wider smile.

"so those two didn't actually meet in person until about five years ago."

"When Uncle Cale came for your-" Mary started yet stopped herself realizing that probably wasn't the best thing to say. Liv would have preferred not to bring that all up but seeing her niece's face at her blunder decided to smooth it over with the truth.

"My wedding? Yeah."

"You're married?" Beth asked confused though Liv's attention was on the strange look that passed over Daryl's face.

"Almost was, to Sky's dad. He was a firefighter, got caught in a blaze just before the wedding, about a month before Sky was born. Guess you could say I've always been sort of a lightning rod for catastrophe."

"Sorry, Aunt Liv. I didn't mean to-" Mary started.

"It's alright, no harm done. It's not like it was a secret or something." A tense weighted silence stretched out as they sat around the porch and yard. Knowing Pop and knowing this thick sad atmosphere wasn't what he would have wanted Liv finally had enough. "Well" she drawled shaking her head "that's more than enough depression, I think. Yep, I'm done with all this grief. I'm done mourning all those we've lost. We're not doing it anymore. We're going to celebrate that we got to have such an amazing person, such amazing people in our lives at all. Isabel give me a hand."

Ignoring the confused looks she handed Xander off to Daryl who was next to her and strode off into the house the two of them returning a few moments later with a box and a stack of plastic cups. Pulling a bottle of champagne from the box she poured a cup for everyone, making only small cups for Aubrey and Maggie. Isabel started pouring cups from a jug of hawaiian punch for the younger kids and Hershel who didn't drink. As she started to hand Annabeth one Liv stopped her handing her a cup of champagne instead.

"Whoa she's not of age" Doyle interrupted.

"What are you going to do? Arrest me?" Liv asked him blowing a raspberry at no one in particular. "We're celebrating."

"One glass ain't gonna hurt anything" Daryl said taking his.

"Beth, Mary" Liv said passing them cups as well. Liv noticed Beth glance at her dad who merely gave a nod at the cup causing a happy smile to appear on her face.

Once everyone had a cup Liv raised hers. "To William Finnegan and the amazing people of our pasts and presents. May they always be cherished and never be forgotten." Chugging hers, she couldn't resist laughing at the teens who scrunched up their faces at either the taste or the bubbles tickling their noses and she reached for the bottle again. "Maggie and the teens are in charge of the little ones til supper the adults are getting plastered."

Carol let out a small laugh and took Xander from Daryl "One's enough for me I'll help keep an eye on the things inside."

"Me too" Aubrey said shaking her head with a smile as she followed the little ones into the house.

"I'll leave you to it then" Hershel stopping on the porch to call back "behave yourselves."

"Spoil sports!" Liv said drinking another cup.

"I'll have another if I may" Dale said holding out his cup.

"Thank you! At least somebody's with me!"

"Over here" Daryl said holding out his too.

In the end only Daryl, Doyle, and Caleb stayed after they'd polished off the rest of the box's champagne and moved on to the rest of its contents. Rum! Half way through the rum the party moved up to the library for a card game.

"Whoo! Bow down biotch!" Liv said, a lot more than just halfway to being three sheets to the wind, as she fleeced her brother yet again. As they were playing for chores and duties, so far she'd won nearly half a day's freetime. Tomorrow morning off with Caleb getting her morning patrol of the perimeter, and getting an afternoon off from collecting grass for the animals seeing as Daryl owed her a bucket, Doyle and Declan two buckets each and three from Caleb. "Boy you have got to learn how to bluff" she laughed taking another swig from her cup.

"And you have got to learn when to say when to the alcohol, lass" Caleb said grinning at his little sister. "You and Daryl have had as much to drink as the rest of the house put together, especially you."

"I may have had twice as much to drink but I'm half as drunk as mister can't hold his head up over there." She said laughing, the alcohol and mood of the room making her feel lighter than she had in months as she waved a hand in Doyle's general direction.

The other two laughed as they turned to see Doyle, a dopey grin on his face leaning heavily on the table his chin held up by his hand, which was slowly sliding closer to the table by the second.

"Come on ya drunkin' idget," Caleb laughed stumbling to his feet and hooking his arms under Doyle's to hoist him up "best sleep it of a bit supper can't be more than an hour or two off. Aubrey'll murder the lot of us if your still fallin down drunk at the supper table." This last statement making all of them laugh at the truth of it.

"Good Aferwoon, Good Eveing, and Good night" Doyle slurred with a salute before throwing one arm straight out in the air. "We're off to bed!" Daryl had his head buried in his arms on the table laughing at the drunken Irishman. While Liv was in a similar position head face down on one arm slapping the table with her other hand.

"Come on ya oaf!" Caleb laughed tugging the scrawny drunk down the stairs with him.

Liv lifted her head slowly gaining control of her laughter. "Oh man" she sighed catching her breath. "I needed this."

"Think we all did." Daryl replied looking at her, chin resting on his folded arms. They sat there for a few minutes neither saying anything just enjoying a comfortable silence and the warm relaxing effects of the alcohol. Finally Daryl sighed pushing himself upright. "He's right though, better try and sober up a bit before supper."

She nodded, agreeing but hesitant to return to reality.

"Come on, I'll help you upstairs." Again she merely nodded heaving a sigh before allowing him to pull her up. He kept his arm around her waist as she climbed the stairs, leaving it there as they moved up the hallway and into her room. "Try and-" he didn't get to finish whatever he was about to say as Liv chose that moment to trip over the nightclothes she'd hastily tossed on the floor this morning, she tried to grab hold of him but ended up taking him down with her instead, they landed in a heap on the floor. Stunned by the impact they just lay there for a moment his weight on top of her. Slowly she started to chuckle which quickly turned into full blown giggles. Feeling him shift she opened her eyes to see him holding his head just above hers to peer at her curiously.

"You alri-"

Liv emboldened and uninhibited by the champagne and rum caught his shirt in her hand pulling him into a kiss that was instantly heated and yet slow and gentle all at once. He drew back and she watched as he seemed to scan her face, for what she had no idea and before she could even draw a breath to question it he'd wrapped his hand around the nape of her neck pulling her up into another kiss that while still heated was anything but slow. His tongue almost instantly ventured past her lips, meeting hers in a caress that she swore made fireworks explode behind her eyes. He tasted of rum, the sweetness left behind by the champagne and something that was entirely him. She felt his hands almost bruising as they held her to him. Somehow her legs wrapped themselves around his waist, she held him there tightly against her, the sensation pulsing through her sending a shiver from head to toe. They rolled and found themselves with him sitting his back against the side of her bed, her straddling his lap breaking their kiss only long enough for her to pull his t-shirt over his head. Her hands mapped the contours of his back moving over his ribs to unfasten his jeans. He broke their kiss to slip her shirt off followed quickly by her bra. His mouth met hers again briefly before moving over her face, nipping the pulse point gently with his teeth his hands slid up to cup her breasts drawing a small moan from her as she threaded one hand into his hair the other digging into the tight muscles of his shoulder. Pulling his head back to hers, this time it was her turn, her tongue seeking entrance, her exploring. One hand moved away from her breast spreading over her stomach as it moved down starting to unfasten her jeans but the angle they were pressed against each other made it impossible. With a groan of frustration that made her smile he broke their kiss, hands on her hips pushed her to her feet in front of him. He knelt in front of her unfastening her swiftly and smoothing her jeans and panties down her legs. He trailed his lips softly up her body placing teasing nips here and there, just when she thought her legs wouldn't hold her another second, he'd finally made it to her mouth. His hands splaying over her hips around to her curves gripping it tightly for an instant he suddenly lifted her, her legs going automatically around him to keep from falling, she felt them turn before they suddenly landed on the bed in a tangle of limbs causing her to release a small breathy laugh before he recaptured her mouth and all ability to think completely ceased.