The Things He Left Behind

AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: Hello my wonderful readers. So this is it. The last chapter. Thank you so much for coming this far with me. Thank you for all your support and reading this story. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much I enjoyed writing it. Thank you again and I hope to see some of you on any of my other stories!

Chapter 18 - Epilogue

A Year Later

Trixie making Daisy the Maid of Honor at her wedding was a big mistake.

Not in the sense that Daisy was doing a bad job, no she was doing great. The problem was, before this, she hadn't been doing much since she was on Maternity leave and this wedding and the prep leading up to it had become her coming back to the real world project.

It meant she was been taking this way too seriously. And it had been driving Rex crazy, but then again, he didn't think having a new baby would be that hard. How hell had Daisy managed to raise their son in that catatonic state she had been in after he left?

He guessed that his family had been very involved in taking care of RJ when he first came around. Which was a good support for Daisy to have. Except they were determined to not need it this time around, and he had ben woefully unprepared for a squealing squabbling child, even if it was coming from the most beautiful baby on the planet.

He didn't care if every parent thought that of their kid. He was smitten the second they put his daughter into his arms. She was perfect in every way and no one would be able to tell Rex otherwise. He just wished that she cried at regular hours, not random ones in the middle of the night or in the wee hours of the morning.

Their daughter, whom they named Lily, was born on time. She was exactly the right weight, exactly the right size, and according to Daisy she came easily into the world, unlike RJ who had fought his way in. All the Racer's were there in the hospital waiting to hear about the birth, Rex held her hand through it all, and the first to hold their new daughter, outside of her parents, was RJ who took no time at all to fall head over heels in love with his new little sister.

The wedding, however, was set for a couple of months after the delivery date. Though Daisy knew in advance she would be in the bridal party, Trixie purposely waited until after Lily was born to tell Daisy she was Maid of Honour so she wouldn't be stressed during the pregnancy. Something Rex was grateful for. But even if she waited a month after the baby was born to tell her, it meant that Daisy became obsessed with only two things. Her new daughter and Trixie and Speed's upcoming wedding. Leaving barely any time for Rex and RJ, though both were trying to be good sports about it.

Cue to the wedding day.

Rex is to be a groomsman. The best man in fact.

His mom has Lily as both he and Daisy were busy running doing last minute wedding prep and they didn't want to stick RJ with babysitting duty for the whole of the wedding. Especially since he was the ring bearer.

Rex kept trying to pin down Daisy, at the very least to make sure she was okay with being on her feet for so long, she did just have a baby a couple of months a go, and he had been coddling her. He carried her up and down the stairs in his house for the whole of the pregnancy.

After retiring he had a lot of time on his hands, except running a tire company was kind of boring. He was supposed to be working with Pops, a mutually beneficial exclusive contract in which Speed and Pops only used Couriere tires on their cars, and he backed every model that came out of his dad's garage. In return Pops got all the money he needed to keep his business going even during slow times and every now and then Rex got to help out with the building of the cars. It felt great to be covered in grease in his dad's garage tinkering with the innards of a Mach model again.

But, once Daisy was pregnant and showing, he basically stayed home to ensure that she was safe and well taken care of at all times. Pops didn't mind, neither did his company, though there wasn't much that they could if he wanted to stay home with his wife. Even when she didn't want him to.

As luck would have it, he did manage to get to see Daisy before they walked down the aisle. They were to walk down the aisle together before Trixie walked down with her dad.

He finds Daisy with his mom, with RJ at her side and their daughter on her hip. For a second he is just blinded by just how beautiful he finds her to be. And he's amazed, once more, that all of this is his again.

But her eyes turn to him, her smile widens and just like he is unfrozen and moving to her side. He takes Lily from her as soon as he gets close enough. If possible, he would never put his daughter down. Sometimes Daisy had to purposely pull her out of his arms.

With her hands free, Daisy immediately goes for his tie to straighten it again.

"How's Speed doing?" she asks him and he shrugs.

"Nervous, in a good way. You know what he's like, he can't sit still, he's back their jittering away. How's the bride."

"She tried to climb out the window," Daisy says and I find my eyebrows shooting up my forehead. Out of everyone we never thought Trixie would be the one to get pre-wedding jitters. "I talked her down, pretty sure she's good now. I think she's ready."

"Were you nervous?" he finds himself asking. He means when she married him but he doesn't have to explain. She gets it.

"Nope, not even a little bit. You?"

He shakes his head. He knew what he was doing. There hadn't been a single doubt in his mind when it came to marrying Daisy.

Daisy smiles down to RJ. "Do you have the rings still?"

"Yes mom," he says being sure to show her the little pillow with the rings. He's going to be walking down the aisle with ChimChim who is going to be flower monkey.

"Oh good."

"And you're gonna be a good girl for your grandma, aren't you my little flower?" Rex asks his daughter who has her hand gripping his collar. She cooed at him and even though he knows he has to go, his mother still has to remind him to let go so he can walk down the aisle and she can take her seat with Lily.

The music starts and his mom smiles. "We better go in there. See you guys soon."

A pang of nervousness hits Rex, but only because he doesn't like when any part of his family was out of his sight, especially Lily. Though it also worried him when RJ and Daisy weren't in his immediate sight as well.

Trixie and her dad join them, and though Trixie looks a little pale behind her veil he can tell that she's not so much nervous any more. She looks excited to be taking the next steps.

The music changes in tempo in and Trixie's smile fades just a bit.

"Don't worry," Daisy says. "This part is the easiest."

She and Rex then share a soft smile with one another. That's right. Trixie and Speed didn't have any of the speedbumps that they had, they seemed to get it all right all at once, even if they did wait a while to get married.

Daisy sends Chimchim down the aisle first, followed by RJ.

Then the doors open again and Rex and Daisy take the first steps down the aisle. Speed stands at the alter looking a little ashen, but when he spots that bit of white that is Trixie in her sleek wedding gown he seems to calm down.

It's time to make the Racer family just a little bigger.