So this chapter...this chapter XDFilled with fluff and some other...things XD Thanks to the reviewers and new followers, as well as favorites!

Happy Halloween!

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Walker duty was something that Lucy had been getting used to. It helped her fend off fuel at the world while taking out those evil things, but at the end of the day, all she wanted to do was go back upstairs to her room and relax for a bit, and that was exactly what she did today. Well, more or less on the demands from people, saying it was her 'birthday' and that she should take it easy for the rest of the remaining hours. She snorted at the idea.

Taking it easy always meant getting killed.

But either way, she finally found her way upstairs, and walked into the small living room, and then over the nursery that had a barely awake Mason within in it. She was quite happy that walker duty didn't last that long. She always felt this weird connection with Mason. Maybe it was just because he was a boy, but she felt the huge need to keep him alive, just as she did with Sam and all her children.

As she walked into nursery, she was met with Hunter running up and jumping onto her shoulders. The dog was huge now, as tall as her when he stood on his hinge legs. She had to keep her strength up if she wanted to stay on match with her giant hound. He was impossible.

"Hey boy," she chuckles. The dog licks her face greedily and she laughs, trying to push him back to the ground. "Okay, okay. No need to practically kill me. Come on, to the ground." The dog obeys her easily and sits down as she treks over to Mason, who was now fully awake at her talking. His light blue eyes were wide open a smile graced his baby face, a little giggle coming out. She smiles even wider and picks him up in her arms.

He laughs merely as she picks him up and spins around in a circle, his eyes closing in happiness. She laughs as well, holding him closer to her chest. She was so thankful he was in this world with her, with them. They were all a family, a big happy family, and she loved it so much. She loved Sam and Daryl, and Lily and Emily, and Mason...Mason was just a whole other story. She loved this little boy so fucking much.

"How's my little boy doing, huh? How're you doing? You want your baba?" The little boy simply laughs again, and she smiles, leaving the room and heading over to the fridge in the small kitchen that they had, grabbing the bottled formula they had put together at the beginning of the week. The baby babbles as she heats it up in the microwave, and when she takes the bottle out, the talking instantly stops as he stares at the bottle. She laughs. "You want it, huh?" she snickers. She gently places the nip of the bottle into the child's mouth and he sucks it greedily.

She watched him as he fed and looked outside at the people int he courtyard. All of them were working and she was talking care of her kid. Granted, he was her responsibility, but she felt bad that she wasn't helping anyone down there. They all had better things to do, to kill walkers that tried to get in or to protect the place from people on the outside. Here she was feeding a bottle to a baby while they were saving lives.

God she felt useless.

"You better get older soon, little boy," she teases as he sucks away. "I feel so useless up here. I love you a lot, but I need to be down there." She hears a door close from behind and turns around, seeing Emily and Lily walking into the apartment. She smiles at them. "Hey guys." Lily looks up and smiles, while Emily runs to get something from her room. Lily hands her something in a box that was sealed tight with packaging tape. Her brow furrows. "What's this?"

"A present," she replies, waiting for Lucy to open it. Her brow furrows even more when she opens the box slowly, with one hand, and turned to find out it was hard. Emily peeks from the room and rolls her eyes, coming over.

"Let me take him," she states. "You're gonna like this." She takes Mason into her arms and continues to feed him, while Lucy goes on with opening the gift slowly. When she finally reaches what's inside, after plenty of unwrapping tape after tape, she sees a put together book, actually having a stringed spine and a book cover and everything. An actual book cover. Emily decides to sit down at this point, looking at the present with interest and anticipation.

Lucy looks at the book and picks it up, her eyes alight, and she looks closer at the cover. The title read Lucy Dixon Vs The World, and the author said By: Her Family.

"What's this?" she asks, her voice barely audible. She looked at the cover art and could only wonder who the hell had done it. It was a picture, no doubt her, of a woman with her back faced to the reader, her brown hair cascading down her spine, and a machete with a black handle in her right hand, with a little girl, with dark brown hair as well, to her left, holding her hand, her back facing the reader as well. She didn't know who drew like this.

"Well, people knew that your birthday was coming up, so we all wrote something about you, what you've done for us and how you kept us going. So after everyone wrote something, we all put it in chronological order, and made a story out of it. You wanna know who did the cover art?"

"Who?" she asks, her voice coming out in a laugh.

"Henry!" Lily exclaims. "Henry knows how to draw!" Lucy laughs and looks at the back of the book finding no summary, so then she opens the front flap, and finds all the words written down. She smiles softly as she reads it, nearly beginning to cry.

'Lucy is a multitude of things. A singer, a comedian, a dancer, a mother, but more importantly, she's genuine. Lucy was someone you met once in a lifetime, and you were grateful that you did. Through this book shows all the hard times she has been through, and how she has changed peoples lives for the better, all while living in a walker infested world.'

"You did...all of this?" she asks, her voice getting choked up slightly. Emily shrugs, a small smile on her face.

"Well, one day you said you always wanted a book about you and your life, just like how Harry Potter had. Granted, there won't be seven books about it, but we thought that making one was good enough." Lucy looks back down at the book and opens up the pages, smiling as she saw certain words stick out.

"How did you even make the book?" she asks.

"One of the people found an old printing press a few miles away, luckily, so at that point, we came up with the idea of all writing down something and putting it in the book. Everyone contributed. We wrote a lot of the pages in here. In fact, I think Sam wrote something as well. Her first ever written story, I think." Lucy's eyes widen slightly and she flips to the page where Sam would be, which was surprisingly the very first one after the title page. She always thought that page was unnecessary.

Samantha, Age 5 (I think)

My mommy was always something I loved a lot. She was always there for me when things went bad, and when the monsters started to walk around, it was even more scarier than it usually was. We lived in New York, and there were scary people there all the time, but nothing was like the walkers outside, or whatever daddy calls them. She protects me from them and keeps me safe from getting bit and turning into one of them. It's so scary to think about that! But she knows how to keep me alive, and how to love her family...

"Do you like it?" Lily asks quietly, looking up at Lucy for a response. She laughs.

"Like it? I love it!" she exclaims. "This is the best gift I've ever gotten in my life. I can't thank you guys enough." Emily smiles even wider.

"Good, because that's not all." Mason squirms slightly in her arms and she lays him down next to her on the couch, and he body crawled slightly over to Lucy, who was still in shock over the book.

"What else could there be?" she chuckles, placing the book down on the table. Emily stands from her seat on the couch and goes into the girls bedroom, only to come out with another box, which was filled with what looked to be a big object. Hunter's nose sniffed the box slightly as she went, and Emily had to slap him lightly to get him away from it. She places the box on her mothers lap, and Lucy looks up with a raised eyebrow again. Emily gesturers her hands towards the square.

"Open it, come on!" Lucy brings her hands to the flaps of the box and peeks inside, seeing three things lined out. The first made her mouth automatically produce saliva, as she grabs the package of Reeses out of the box and holds it close to her chest. She groans out loud and smiles up at the ceiling.

"Sweet Jesus, I love all of you," she replies, placing them down. She used to love Reeses when she was younger. It was always her favorite candy. She reaches for the next object and looks at it curiously before laughing, realizing what it was. In her hands was a watch, something she had been needing for a while for when she needed to know when she was off duty or not. "You didn't have to find me this," she laughs. Lily shrugs.

"We wanted to. Get the last one!" Lucy places the object down at grabs at the last one, feeling the fine material of the clothing. She feels her mouth drop as she takes it out and stares at it longingly. In her hands was a feminine leather jacket, something she had wanted for such a long time. To think, they were going to have a Christmas celebration here in a week or two, but this was like Christmas morning right here.

"Oh...oh God," she chuckles, smiling wide, placing the jacket on her shoulders. It fit perfectly. "When on earth did you get this?" she laughs, a giant smile on her face. Emily feels her smile grow.

"I found it on a raid one day. I thought you would like it." Lucy raises her brow at her in disbelief.

"Are you kidding me? I've been wanting one of these forever!" She leans down and hugs both of them lightly, them returning the hugs gratefully. "You guys are the best thing that's ever happened to me. I love you so much." Emily and Lily pull back and stand up again, while Lucy reaches out to grab Mason from Emily, but she pulls back. Her brow furrows. "Emily, I can take him." She shakes her head.

"Nope. Not yet." Lucy opens her mouth to reply, but it stopped when she hears the door behind her open and close once again, it's old hinges squeaking with protest. She needed to get that door fixed.

She turns around and sees Sam smiling up at her with something in her hands, and she runs to Lucy as the mother reaches down and picks her up into her arms. Samantha giggles as she does. "Happy birthday, mommy!" Lucy laughs again and kisses her daughters forehead.

"Thank you sweetie." Sam reaches into her pocket and pulls out two folded pieces of paper, handing them both to Lucy. She looks at them with curiosity. "And what might these be?" she asks. Sam opens one of them up for her, showing a drawing on the inside. It was the whole family, including little Mason and Hunter.

"We don't have cameras anymore, so I made us a family picture!" Lucy smiles softly at the girl and holds her tighter.

"This is great, Samantha. I love it. And what's the other one?" Samantha shrugs.

"Daddy told me to give it to you." Lucy's brow furrows and she places Sam down on the couch next to Emily, unfolding the piece of paper. After she reaches the crinkly surface of the now destroyed piece of literature, she reads the handwriting that's inside, and nearly had to choke back her surprise.

'Back of lobby. By yourself.'

She chuckles and places the letter down. At that moment, she turns around and looks at the front door.

"God, what is he doing?" she mumbles, walking towards the slightly opened entrance. Emily smiles and holds Mason closer to her chest as all three of the girls watch her go with anticipated looks. Sam even knew what he was doing and the excitement was killing her and her sisters.

"Have fun!" Emily yells at her as she leaves. Lucy rolls her eyes.

"Watch the kids!" she exclaims to her. Emily rolls her eyes. Even in this mystery she was still the protective mother.

"Yes, Lucy," she mutters, closing the door and looking at Mason, who looked up at her with curiosity. She smiles. "This is gonna be good," she snickers, walking into the nursery with the three girls on her heals, Hunter right behind her. She was so excited.

~%~

The smile that was on her face never left her lips as she made her way to the bottom floor of the small hotel building they were staying in. She didn't know what the hell Daryl was doing, or how he was going to one up all the presents she got from the girls, but she was excited all the same. Her hangs rung themselves over and over as she walked, but the nervousness within her started to fade away slowly into a slight buzz.

When she finally reaches the lobby, she finds that no one else was in there as she walked in, but when she trekked further along the worn out ground of the old hotel lobby, she found him near one of the doors that led to the back, and she laughed, her hand going to her mount in slight shock slash slight happiness.

Daryl was cleaner than when he left, his hair looking like it had actually been washed, and he was wearing a black plaid shirt and dark blue jeans with his boots. He still had his crossbow, of course, strapped on his back. He wouldn't go anywhere without it. But in his right hand he held what she thought was impossible to have in this world.

A bouquet of roses.

"Oh my God," she laughs, walking over with a bright smile on her face. He hands her the roses into her own hands and leans down, giving her a slow and gentle kiss, their lips moving in synch, as if they were made for each other. When he pulls back, he smiles at her dazed expression.

"Happy birthday," he murmurs, giving her another kiss on the lips. He feels her smile and chuckle at the phrase. This time she pulls back, looking down at the roses and then back at him.

"Where on earth did you find this?" she whispers. He shrugs.

"I've been around. Wanted to make this day special." She had never heard those words come from his mouth in all the time she had known him. Her smile widens once more, her arms going around his waist.

"I didn't even know today was my birthday," she giggles slightly, running her hands up his back lovingly. He shrugs again, this time with another smile on his face. "I love all of this. I love you so much, and this family. This group. God, I love all of it."

He keeps the smile on his face, trying to conceal his worry about what he saw back at the old house. His goal was to make her happy today, to make her not worry about what was going on outside of what might happen. No matter what Sam saw, and what he did, he wouldn't put that worry on her right now. She didn't need it.

"I love ya too, but we aint done yet." Her eyes widen and her brow furrows.

"We're not?!" she whispers shockingly. He shakes his head and grabs the hand that was free from the roses.

"Nope. Come on." She says nothing and lets him pulls her along, leading her to where they kept all the vehicles that they used. She laughs as she sees exactly where they were going. There was a motorcycle. Granted, it wasn't like the old one that Daryl used to ride at the prison, as this one was much more modern than the last one they had seen, but it was one all together. There was a helmet on the seat, awaiting her.

"You fixed up a bike?" she says amazingly, her hands crossing across her chest as she held the roses tighter to her body. "That was what you've been working on for all this time?" He smirks at her and grabs her hand once again, leading her to the back seat as he sat on the first one. Not even thinking, she climbs on, keeping the roses in the side pocket, and wraps her arms around his waist, placing the helmet on her head.

He spares her a quick smile and starts up the bike with a roar, and she wraps her arms around his waist in shock. She glares at him as he laughs at her reaction, but lays her head against his back anyway. She loved him too much to be mad, especially after all this time. He puts his foot on the gas pedal and the motorcycle takes off, heading towards the gates, that open easily for them, as Daryl had already told them what he was planning to do with Lucy that day.

She didn't know where they are going, or what else he had done, but she felt even more excited than she did before, if that was even possible.

Little did the couple know, as the motorcycle drove off into the forest, three sets of eyes watched them go from a distance, and the slowly started to follow the tracks with caution.

~%~

It took them probably an hour for the vehicle to slow down, and Lucy knew that she was far away from the resort, very far, and she was confused as hell as to where the hell they were going, but Daryl seemed to know everything that he was doing, and with that, she let him lead her to whatever he had planned.

But not before he covered her eyes.

And she was serious. As soon as she took of the helmet, he tied a bandana around her head, around her eyes, preventing her from seeing. She frowns at him.

"Daryl, what if walkers come?" she mutters.

"Don't worry, I got ya," he replies quietly, taking her hand.

"What about the bike?" she questions at him once they begin to move.

"We aint that far from it. Don't worry. I'll know if somethin' bad happens." She simply feels him squeeze her hand in a gesture of comfort and she lets out a breath of relief as she feels him lead her through the multitude of trees and bushes in the forest, the tall grass covering them from the many sounds and sights of the ghastly woods. The smell in the air was pleasing, though. It smelt like fresh air and not dead bodies.

A smell she had gotten so used to, sadly.

Either way, she kept her eyes closed to protect them from probably the dirtiness of the bandana, and let Daryl take her wherever he was going to take her. Her hand gripped tightly onto his as they walked. She had a love/hate relationship with surprises. Sometimes she loved them and sometimes she hated them. Hopefully this would be a good surprise.

After walking for probably around five minutes, Daryl stops her in her tracks, placing his hands on her shoulder.

"Stay here for a sec, okay?" She smiles and shrugs.

"Okay," she chuckles. She feels him move away and hears things being moved, a few things being clanked, and then something being shuffled. Her mind was whirling as to what he was doing. After a minute, he comes back and goes behind her, removing the bandana.

"Keep those eyes closed," he says softly into her ear. She feels shivers travel up her spine and she nods, keeping them shut as he brought her forward just a little bit more. "Open 'em." She smiles even wider and opens her eyes, then brings a hand to her mouth as she feels herself gasp.

There, right in front of them, was a picnic, laid out just for the two of 'em. There as an actual picnic basket in one of the corners of the blanker near the ground, and plates lying, ready to be used and to be filled with delicious food. But that wasn't it. Where they were was absolutely beautiful. It was looking right over a cliff and the now starting to set sun, and below them were billions upon billions of trees, their green leaves shining brightly with drizzled rain from the clouds above.

"Jesus, Daryl," she whispers, turning around to face him. "You did all this for me?" All she was was choked up at the huge sign of affection, but he showed no signs of regret, as he simply smiles small once more and grabs her hand, lending her over to the blanket, sitting her down in a spot across from him.

"I wanted to," he replies, taking out some food. "Remember one day ya told me ya aint ever been on a picnic. Neither had I. Few people back at the zone helped me plan all of this," he says, gesturing to the area around them. "And the kids found all those gifts for ya. That book was all of our idea though." She smiles as she remembers the book.

"That was amazingly sweet," she murmurs to him. "I looked at it and fell in love all over again." He chuckles at the phrase.

"That was the goal." She grins and grabs one of the sandwiches he had made. "The whole entire group loves ya so much, and so do I. I wanted to at least make somethin' special." She looks up at him, her eyes fill of appreciation, and leans over, giving him a peck on the lips, her mouth upturned in a smile. She couldn't stop.

"I love all of you too. I'm so grateful for all of you." She pulls back and takes a bite out of the sandwich before moaning loudly. "Holy shit, this is good. Did you make this?" she exclaims through a mouthful of food. Daryl shakes his head, smirking at her expression.

"Nah, that was all Maggie and Beth. They helped me with the food." Lucy smiles at the mention of their names, but nearly breaks a second later, staring down at the plate she had beneath her.

"Quinn hasn't talked to me in months," she mutters. "It's like I'm invisible to her. It's barely a conversation anymore." She looks up with a pained expression on her face. "Is it just because I have a son now and she doesn't? I didn't meant o amok her feel like shit or-"

"Lucy, Quinn's just broken," Daryl interrupts quietly. "She lost all that she had in this world and her mother. I've seen her sit around by herself, just starin' out. She's confused and shocked. Just be happy that aint ya." She looks down and sighs.

"She could at least talk to me," she states sadly. "I feel like I lost my best friend after all this time, my goal was to find her again." Daryl reaches for Lucy and wraps an arm around her waist, pulling her closer to him. She lays her head in the crook of his neck and he lightly pecks the top of her head.

"Ya got us. That's all that matters right now." She looks up at him and smiles softly, the frown disappearing from her expression.

"Yeah, I do." She leans up and gives him another kiss on the lips, but pulls away when she hears a branch break some yards far from them. Daryl looks to where it came from, his eyes narrowed, but found that there was no one there, not walker or animal, even human. The idea that it might be Carol scared him slightly, but he realized they were much to far away from the house for her to know where they were. "Daryl? What's wrong?" He sighs.

"Nothin'. Just...Carol gave us a message." He didn't mean to tell her. God he didn't. And he wasn't looking for the shocked expression on her face.

"What?! What did it say?" He shakes his head, remembering Sammy's reaction to it.

"Sam found it. It said...somethin' bad. I kind of don't want to say it," he mumbles. She stares at him for a second before nodding, letting him go deep into his thoughts.

"We'll be ready." He looks at her with his own shocked expression before smirking at her attitude. She wasn't scared. She was prepared. She looks up and nods. "She's not taking us again." She looks to the food and grabs her sandwich. "Come on. Let's eat." He ncos and grabs his own food, taking a long bite out of the bread that wasn't that expired. Whatever was coming for them, they would be okay, and that's all that mattered.

~%~

Review please? :) Luv ya!