Author's Note: I'm not sure how many parts the Epilogue will have – I have two parts (including this one) completed, and one I'm still working on. We'll see how much interest there is, and go from there.

Epilogue

Part One

"Aunt Beth! Uncle Daryl!"

Beth's head whipped to the other side of the shore, from where she had been tending to the daffodils that she had planted over Jade's grave years back. They blossomed every year, and she no longer felt a dark void in her heart when she looked at the little cross Daryl had made for their beloved pet.

There was undeniably something missing from their lives, but as time went on Beth began to feel less grief, choosing to be thankful for the time they had with the perfect little pet. Chose to be thankful that she had been able to get the poor thing in the house on the cul-de-sac. Thankful that Jade had been able to spend her last few years safe, warm and with a full belly.

Her heart was instantly in her throat as she stood, racing to the ocean. "Junior?"

Daryl came out of the lighthouse immediately at the sound of voices, eyes going wide as he took in what was unfolding in front of him. "Junior? What the hell you doing out here, boy?"

But he didn't wait for an answer, because he was untying the dory and pushing it into the water before Junior had a chance to respond.

…

When they reached the shore, Daryl was still fuming. "The hell you mean, they don't know?"

Junior looked about as pale as he could get, his eyes a little widened at the rough man's outburst. He was sitting in the back of the dory, but jumped out as soon as Daryl did to give a hand in pushing the dory back on shore. He'd been here quite a few times, and he knew the drill.

Beth hugged Junior when he was close enough, pulling him in and holding him tight.

"Don't get comfortable. Yer goin' back." Daryl growled, storming passed them and into the lighthouse, the door shutting behind him with a bang. Beth knew that he had been working on restringing his crossbow before Junior had shown up unannounced at the lighthouse, something he couldn't particularly drop without starting all over again.

But Beth knew that's not why he was mad; not at all.

Junior looked crestfallen, his face slouching as he turned back to his aunt. "I didn't mean to upset anyone, really Aunt Beth."

Beth smiled, patting Junior's shoulder as she sat in the sand and invited him to sit beside her. The young teen looked troubled, and Beth remembered being there herself not long ago. She figured in the old world that she would be around twenty eight now, but age really was just a number that didn't matter anymore.

"So, what's going on?" Beth asked gently; she had a different approach than Daryl did. And she was sure it would be a different approach than her sister would use, when she found him. "You must know you have people worried about you."

Junior sighed heavily, slamming his fist in the sand. He may look exactly like a replica of his father, but his temper was all Greene.

"I'm so tired of people looking at me like I'm some sort of miracle." His voice was angry, wound up. But just as quick as the anger came, it deflated. "I want to know what happened to my father."

Beth froze, looking at her nephew's face. This conversation wasn't one that he should have with his aunt, and it certainly wasn't her place to tell him about Glenn. This was a conversation that she was genuinely surprised to find that Maggie hadn't already delivered.

"Aunt Beth." He whispered, noticing her hesitance immediately. "I've already asked Mom. She won't tell me! I need to know."

She sighed, patting her nephew's knee as she stood, wiping the sand from her shorts. "C'mon Junior – I'll make us some tea. Don't worry about your Uncle."

…

Junior didn't hesitate to help his aunt get things sorted out on the table, pulling everything down with familiarity.

Daryl had ventured to the tower when they started to fiddle around with the stove, and Junior had given Beth a sad glance. He loved his uncle, and it was easy to see that the young version of Glenn looked up to Daryl.

"He's just worried for everyone." Beth tried to console, trying to give him a warm smile as she thought about the hysterics her sister would be in by now. "And it was wrong to run away like that."

"I know." He whispered, slouching over the cup of steaming mint water that Beth had placed out in front of him. She had a big batch of seafood chowder on the stove, the pot filled to the brim, and she dished him out a portion of that too. "Thanks."

Beth took her own mug of water, sitting in the seat across from Junior even though it wasn't the one she usually sat in. She didn't have a second to think of what to say before he was shifting uncomfortably in his seat.

"Is Uncle Daryl really mad at me?" He asked, his voice low and upset. The boy, who was no more than thirteen, looked at her with wide eyes. Each and every time Beth visited with him, it was like stepping back to the farm when Glenn had looked young and baby faced.

And of course Daryl had a loud bark, but when it came to Junior, she knew he'd never bite.

"He's mad at what you did, not you." Beth answered, trying to play all sides. She could understand everyone's point of view right now – especially Junior's.

"I had to!" Junior's young voice rose in octaves, the frustration that came with the age she knew, showing clear on his face. "I asked a million times, Aunt Beth! No one will tell me what happened, they just keep saying that there was an accident. Why can't they tell me?"

Beth sucked in a breath. This wasn't her place.

She remembered being this age – back before the world had ended, of course, but it had still been a rough time in life. It was a time when things were black or white, it was a time when kids became young adults, and often became over confident in their abilities too quickly.

Walking clean from Hilltop to the lighthouse by himself? Probably meant that Junior was experiencing the same thing. And that made her think about Carl, and how he had been so hell bent to be beyond his age. How he'd drove both Lori and Rick insane at the farm.

"Your uncle and I weren't around when it happened, Junior. I don't know the details, and I've never asked." Beth tried to smooth over, feeling extremely guilty as his shoulders slumped and defeat crossed his features.

The truth was, she knew what had happened to Glenn. But it wasn't exactly a lie when she had said that she didn't ask – because she hadn't. Maggie had been at the lighthouse one summer, and Junior had been around four when her older sister had finally opened up about what had really happened the night Negan cornered them.

The full, horrible, story.

How could she possibly sit here and tell this sweet kid that his Dad had his head smashed in with a baseball bat?

"I'm sorry for scaring everyone." Junior sighed, no further ahead in his investigation, and now he had a whole community searching for him.

…

"Hey." Beth whispered as she hit the top of the tower stairs.

Tempers had simmered over dinner, and apologies had been made. Beth had sat back at the table, suddenly not hungry anymore as Junior all but begged Daryl for his forgiveness. And Daryl had only kept his stone face for a moment before it cracked.

"Y'know you're always welcome here, kid." He had revealed, his voice raspy and strained. "But it ain't safe on your own."

"I know, I'm sorry." Junior had quipped back, nodding his head as if to agree with his uncle. His eyes were wide and his expression was sincere. "It won't happen again I promise."

Daryl had nodded, and then all was forgotten. For that night, anyways. Beth was positive that the boy had tons of explaining left to do.

"Hey." Daryl called back, looking over his shoulder at his wife who was making her way to him. He didn't hesitate to push over on the bench to accommodate her. "S'late."

Beth shrugged, comfortably situating herself against his side as he threw an arm around her. "Can't sleep."

They were quiet as they took comfort in each other's arms, both glancing out to the other side of the shore where a few extremely thin walkers wandered aimlessly. The walkers didn't lay down and die, but without a steady source of food they were looking as if they would disintegrate any day now, and were less of a threat than they had been before. Now they just sort of ambled after you, with no real drive.

Times were different, perhaps easier, than they had been in the beginning, but life was still survival of the fittest.

"Mm," Daryl agreed, pulling her closer to him as she rested her head on his shoulder. "Kid's got us all riled up."

Beth shrugged, craning her neck for a second to glance at his face. "He wants to know what happened to Glenn."

Daryl stilled his movements of pulling her closer and getting comfortable on the stool. She felt the inhale of breath he took, and she stilled too. They didn't talk about their time on the run much, and they certainly didn't bring up the deaths of their apocalypse family, either. It was like an unspoken truth between them, they focused on each other and what they had, not what they had lost.

"Phew." Daryl passed a breath through his lips, regaining his posture as he moved back on the bench, tucking her into his side. He squirmed for another moment before he added "Ain't our place."

Beth nodded her head, agreeing fully. "I know. I think maybe I should talk to Maggie, when she gets here."

"Y'think she'll come here to look?" He asked, the other hand that wasn't around her going to his lip. After all these years, Daryl still had the same nervous quarks.

Beth shrugged. "I don't know."

Daryl sighed, before standing and offering his hand to her. "C'mon. Let's get some sleep before everythin' blows up 'round here."

…

"Beth!" The frantic yell came from the shore the very next morning, and she had motioned at Junior and Daryl to stay put at the table before she stood and went outside.

Even from a distance, she could tell Maggie was a wreck.

"He's here Maggie! Hold on!" Beth yelled back across the water, Maggie instantly crumbling to her knees at the news that her son was safe on the island with her sister and brother in law. She had others piling out of the Range Rover that she had brought here, and Beth felt her chest tighten.

She quickly popped her head in the lighthouse, and was met with Junior's terrified irises. Daryl only glanced at her before he was nodding his head, shoving the rest of his potatoes in his mouth before standing.

It only took him a minute to get the dory untied and in the water, the current quickly carrying him over to the other side where Beth watched Maggie jump in without hesitation. She could tell from where she was standing that her sister was on a warpath, and Junior would be in for it.

…

Both Maggie and Junior's faces were red by the time they descended the tower stairs, breaking the awkward silence that Beth and Daryl had endured since she had shown up. Random people who had been helping her search for Junior littered the opposite side of the lighthouse, putting Daryl on edge.

He'd gritted his teeth when walkers were drawn to the ruckus they were making, watching on with thinning patience as the young men swung at the impending walkers, carrying on with one another, their laughs echoing off the surrounding water.

Like I was all a big joke to them.

They had tried to ignore the high pitched yells coming from the very top of their home, Beth puttering around the stove and Daryl pacing between windows, where he glared out to the other side and the men that now lazed in the water.

"Well." Maggie declared, her voice holding much less conviction than it had when she had pointed to Junior upon her arrival, telling him to get upstairs before she sent him to be walker bait. "Junior has something to say to you guys."

Beth watched on with a raised eyebrow as her nephew came in front of them, his head bowed and shoulders hunched in defeat. "I'm sorry Uncle Daryl and Aunt Beth."

She noticed immediately that Daryl wasn't going to reply, and she quickly jumped into action as she threw an arm around the kid that was practically standing at her height, side eyeing the guilty look that Maggie was giving them. "I think you've already apologized more than enough, Junior. Why don't you and Uncle Daryl take the dory across and tell those boys to quiet down."

Junior, who had a newfound sense of pride at the task his aunt handed off to him, nodded at Daryl who opened the door for him, leaving the woman behind in the kitchen.

As soon as Daryl shut the door behind him, not without a glance at Beth as if to say he hoped she knew what she was doing, Maggie collapsed in one of the kitchen table chairs, head in her hands. And of course Beth knew that her older sister wasn't made of stone, wasn't subjected to always having herself together.

But when she started to really sob, Beth couldn't say she didn't feel awkward.

"How am I supposed to tell him his father got his head smashed in with a baseball bat, by some crazy lunatic that his mother killed?" She asked, her voice as broken as Beth had ever heard it. Maggie shook her head, rubbing her face. "Haven't I paid my dues yet? Why do I keep getting punished?"

Beth sighed, her own face puckered in distress as she sat down beside her sister, running a soothing hand over her back. Words coming from her mouth before she really had time to process them. "Had you not been there, would you have wanted to know what happened to Daddy?"

No matter how much time went on, Hershel Greene was a sore spot to not only the sisters, but everyone that had been around in the prison era.

Her sister was silent for a moment, and just when Beth was about to apologize for overstepping her line, Maggie was nodding. Looking at her with teary eyes, but with a new level of understanding behind her vibrant green irises.

"Yeah, I would want to know."

And Beth returned the hug Maggie threw herself into, clutching just as tightly to her sister.

TBC

Thoughts? Originally I wrote the scene where Jade passes away, but I didn't have the heart to post.