Epliogue

Iva sat in a chair near Beth, Nevaeh, and Maggie. The weather was beautiful and the girls were shelling peas they intended on canning and drying later that day. They were watching Iva's daughter and Lilly's son teach the smaller children how to pet the puppies the right way. The two children had been born only two days apart and had been joined at the hip ever since. Beth was keeping a close eye on her younger son, who was a known tail puller. Her older boy was down by one of the coops, helping Toby feed the geese and clip their wings.

Beth had what her father jokingly called Irish twins. The two boys were exactly ten months apart in age. She had been lucky so many girls had young infants around that time. Her milk dried out as her second pregnancy advanced and Iva and Maggie had pitched in and helped nurse her baby for her. Both her deliveries had been long and hard on her body, and she was grateful she had not gotten pregnant again after the last one. Some light crying and fussing started coming from the small bassinet that was behind the girls under a shade cover. Maggie got up to fetch her son, who was about six months old now. Daryl's dumb dog had been poking its head into the basket, licking the boy. She loved that the dog was so gentle and loving with the kids, but it would be nice if the dog could wait to give kisses until after naptime.

Carl and Meeka walked over from the other cell block, holding Judith's hands and swinging her back and forth in the air. She let go and came running over. Of course she didn't want to play with the little kids, she wanted to help shell peas. Iva was never one to turn down help, so she hauled herself up and out of her chair, wishing for about the one thousandth time today that this freaking baby would hurry up and come out. She could barely walk for goodness sake.

"I could have gotten her a bowl," Meeka called to the woman.

"Maybe walk to kitchen make baby come out," Iva called back, making everyone laugh. Meeka followed her down to the kitchen area anyway, to get a bowl for herself so she could help. They had picked three bushels of shelling peas earlier and it was going to take the next few days to get them all cleaned and preserved. There was already a huge pot of split pea and ham soup simmering near a low fire, and it smelled amazing. The end of summer was always the best time for food, it was always the time when they had the most and the biggest variety. Lilly was in the kitchen with her sister, peeling and chopping carrots to throw into the soup pot. When she saw Daryl and Glen helping Hershel outside to his chair she stopped and headed over to give him a kiss.

The day they had all come to live at the prison, Lilly had lost her daughter and the man she loved. Then she had found out the truth about the man and all the terrible things he had done. When she had figured out that she was pregnant with his baby, she had tried to kill herself. Hershel had been there for her, convincing her that life was still worth living. He was the kindest, most gentle man she had ever met and she had fallen in love with him despite the age difference. Her son believed Hershel was his father and no one had told him yet that it wasn't true. Lilly supposed she would have to tell the boy eventually, just so he would know he was not blood related to Maggie and Beth's children. Everyone was like family now, but when the kids got older they would want to start dating and it would be best if they knew who was a cousin and who wasn't.

Toby was walking back up from the coop now, with Maggie's daughter up on his shoulders and Beth's son holding tight to his hand. Iva knew she wasn't really his mom, but she felt a mother's pride when she looked at him all the same. He had grown into such a tall handsome man, the way she had always known he would. For now he was the tallest man of the whole group, although Iva had a feeling Lilly's son might take over that honor when he got older. He hopped and skipped a little, bouncing around the little girl that was up on his shoulders, making her grip hold of his hair and squeal in delight. When they got closer, he swung her off and set her down with the other children. Beth's son spotted his favorite person in the world besides his mommy and ran over to grip Daryl's legs making it so the man couldn't walk.

"Daddy, Daddy, Toby let me clip the goose wings while he held them down," the boy announced proudly.

"Any of them hiss at ya?," Daryl asked, swinging the boy up into his arms.

"All of them!," the boy declared with delight. Daryl laughed and set the boy down, giving him a playful swat on the behind and sending him back to his momma. Glen's daughter had run up for a hug as well and then taken off to climb up in her poppa Hershel's lap.

"You be gentle with him," Glen warned the girl. Hershel had fallen ill about a year back, they didn't have the medical equiptment to figure out exactly what happened, but Dr. S had said that he thought the man had a small stroke. His mind was still sharp, but he didn't get around so good anymore. Hershel held the small girl in his arms. It was hard to tell if the girl was going to turn out to be beautiful or odd looking, but she was doubtlessly the only red haired asian he had ever seen. Maggie's new baby had an interesting look as well, with Maggie's facial features and Glen's ink black hair.

As quickly as she had climbed up, the girl was down again and running to join the other kids. They were all lined up at the fence that separated the gardens from the animal pastures, yelling and hollering in excitement. Hershel could not see what they were looking at, but he guessed it meant that Merle, Mitch, Rick and Michonne were back from hunting. Iva thought about telling the kids to hush up, they were scaring the goats, but then plopped down in her chair instead, deciding the walk wasn't worth it. Toby ran over to the fence behind the kids and called down to Merle.

"Iva had her baby while you were gone," he yelled. The look of concern on the man's face was completely worth the hell he was going to catch for this, and Toby set off laughing.

"He is a liar!," Katie yelled down to her daddy, "Mommy is still big and fat." This made Toby laugh even more and he darted over to tease Iva a little. Toby saw she was laughing as well. She was the size of a small planet right now, so she figured the comment from her daughter was fair enough.

"That was so mean Toby," Nevaeh scolded him. Despite her semi stern tone, he could see that she had been laughing too. She was such a beautiful woman, Toby thought every day how lucky he was to have her. He knelt down and kissed her cheek then gave her a more lingering kiss while he rubbed her growing belly. This would be the first baby for the two of them and he was glad they had waited so long to have sex. After what happened to her, it had taken her a long time to be ready, but she was worth every minute of that wait. After stealing a few more kisses, he crawled over to Iva to get a rub on her big bundle.

"You sure theres only one in there," he asked the woman as she swatted him away playfully, "Maybe you should go for a horse ride and see if you can shake it loose." Iva thought maybe that wasn't the worst idea she had heard. Right about now she was willing to try anything to get this baby out of her.

"Don't you dare," Hershel told her, "that baby will come when its good and ready." Iva rolled her eyes and leaned back in her chair. It was all well and good for him to say that, he wasn't the one who couldn't see his feet. He saw her defeated expession and added gently, "You know god made the last few weeks of a woman's pregnancy more uncomfortable on purpose to help her overcome the fear of giving birth." Nevaeh smiled, she doubted that was in any bible anywhere but Hershel always knew just the right thing to say.

The hunting party was coming through the gate now. They had gotten a large doe and a big pig, which they were carrying between them on long poles. Rick was yelling at the kids and dogs and hens to get back before they got a big animal dropped on them. Maggie called the kids over to them, while Tara, Carol, Tyreese and Sasha come up from where they had been digging out for another greenhouse to help with the heavy animals. With all the help they had the animals hung and dressed in no time and most of them set off to go back to other tasks or wash up. Most of the deer would be canned or dried into jerky, but the pig had been hunted for the Sagra del Maiale (festival of the pig).

This was the fifth year now that they had celebrated this new holiday, starting with the pig that Iva and Merle had brought in the day he had killed the governor. Everyone got in small groups and took a part of the pig to make a special dish. Iva was making apple pork sausages, but she meant to keep and eye on Glen and Maggie so she could learn how he made the tiny dumplings he called Mandu dumplings. He had already showed her how to make the spicy fermented vegetables called kimchi, but she wanted to see how he made the dough for the steamed dumplings. He didn't cook often, but when he did Iva always thought everything he made was interesting and delicious. When she asked, he had told her that his grandmother came from Korea and had been the one that taught him how to cook. She didn't know what Korea was, but she assumed it was a special cooking school.

Michonne also almost never cooked, but she knew one dish her mother had taught her how to make. Her mother had come here from South Africa to be a fashion model in the seventies so she didn't eat or cook much. For Michonne's birthday she had always made what she called Bunny Chow, which was strange since it did not have any rabbit in it, but was a spicy curry served inside a loaf of bread. She also knew how to make Soetkoekies, which were sweet cookies made with pork fat. Since most of the black people in the group had never even met anyone who had been to Africa, the recipes were very interesting to them and they had taken to forming their own little cooking group for this celebration with Michonne as the leader. Tyreese and Sasha sometimes watched them, but they liked to make their own contribution, a smoked pulled pork butt and collard greens slow cooked with the knuckles of the pig. Their mother had been famous for it.

They planned to have the celebration in two days, which would give everyone plenty of time to prepare. Merle got done washing up his hands and headed back out into the yard to check on Iva. If he saw Toby out there, he was considering giving the taller man a few swift rabbit punches for the joke he had played on him earlier. He saw his small daughter walking down towards the horses, hand in hand with Lilly's son. He sometimes watched them and wondered what Phillip Blake would have to say about their children being best of friends and likely more when they got old enough. He thought it might please the man. After all, he had not been all bad, and for as many people as he had killed, there were also a lot living here that would have died long ago if it hadn't been for him, including Merle. He sometimes wondered what he had done to deserve living here, happy with his family, while the other man was dead in the ground. One thing he knew for certain, the best parts of both of them were down by the fence, feeding carrot tops to the horses.

From the moment Katie had been born, you could almost see the goodness shining out of her. She had her momma's love of animals and even as a toddler, the chickens had followed her around like they could sense something in her that they liked. She was the spitting image of her mother, but he noticed she had picked up a lot of his mannerisms and facial expressions. It was entertaing to watch her, especially when she got mad, she looked like a tiny Iva but with his scowl on her face. Hershel had been right about one thing, he never regretted for one minute that she wasn't a boy. Having a daughter was the best thing that ever happened to him, and he thought so often, especially when Daryl's boys were misbehaving, which was about every five seconds. The last time Daryl had gone out hunting, the boys had run away from Beth and climbed up on top of one of the barns then refused to come down. Rick had tried to climb up and get them and they had ripped shingles off the roof and threw them at the man's head. Finally Michonne had to come out and order them down. In Merle's opinion what they both needed was a good solid ass whooping, although it was unlikely that they would be getting that from either of their parents. He had come close to giving to them himself, especially the time they stole his arm piece and stuffed the inside full of sheep shit. They had run and hidden behind Beth, who had apologized and offered to clean it out for him.

Merle walked over to where the girls were sitting, shelling the peas. Just Iva and Nevaeh were left, Maggie and the others had gone to start cutting the deer up into strips that would be marinated and dried into jerky. The smaller peices they would put through the grinder and squeeze out into jerky sticks with a jerky maker that they had. The best parts they would eat fresh or can up in quarts with some of the vegetables for quick meals this winter. Merle took one of the empty chairs next to Iva and reached over to rub her belly. Her feet were not as swollen as they had been by this time with Katie, but she still looked very uncomfortable.

"Not too much longer," he told her. She gave his hand a squeeze and went back to her peas.

"You know," Nevaeh said to them, "I heard sex can make you go into labor." Iva laughed, if that was true she would have had this baby nine months ago. Suddenly she stopped and put her hand to her belly. Whenever she was standing or walking lately she had been having painful contractions, but they always stopped when she was sitting down. This one felt stronger than the rest had been too. It was only one, but she let herself hope a little that maybe she would be holding her baby by the morning.

An hour later, Beth and Lilly had to help her inside to the infirmary. Then Beth ran to boil up some water for the tea blend that Iva had made for herself when the time came. Beth knew it was red raspberry leaf, nettle and chamomile. They all drank it when they had been in labor. By the time she got back it was too late for tea, Carol and Nevaeh were holding up Iva's legs and Lilly was knelt down in front of her, ready to catch the baby. Merle had been thrown out, since he was yelling and cursing and getting in everyone's way. He was watching from the doorway with Toby, who was looking a little pale, but still excited. The head was out, and Iva leaned in, giving one more hard push. Lilly caught the baby gently and wiped off its face. She handed it to Iva and tied off the cord tightly with a clean piece of string, then held the cord so Nevaeh could cut it carefully with a very sharp knife. The afterbirth came out next.

"What the fuck is that?," Toby asked loudly from the hallway, bringing on general laughter from everyone including the new mommy. He had seen plenty enough animals give birth to know what it was but thought it would be funny to yell about it anyway. Beth turned to him.

"Maybe you should go out and get Katie," she suggested. The exciting part was over anyway. He smiled and took off to find the girl, who was outside sitting with Daryl. When they came in, Beth was holding the small baby, wrapped in a blanket, while the other girls were helping Iva clean up and get some clothes on. Beth knelt down so Katie could get a look at the small baby. Merle crouched down as well and put his arm around his daughter.

"How do you like your new brother?," he asked her. She reached out tentatively and softly stroked his head. Katie wasn't sure how she liked him. He was small and cute but he looked kind of red and angry too. Then he opened his tiny eyes and looked up at her. She smiled at her new brother and then turned back to her daddy and wrapped her arms around him, pressing her cheek to his.

"Oh Daddy," she gushed, "he is perfect."

**For me no story is complete without a happy ending, even if it is The Walking Dead. I hope everyone enjoyed reading the story as much as I enjoyed writing it and big thanks to everyone who gave reviews.**