So, I'm going to be taking a few days break to read through and edit what I've written so far and fix the speech patterns and stuff. So I probably won't be posting for a week. We've got one or two more non-canon chapters before I head into season 4, so bear with me while I take this short siesta.

Ani woke up four days later feeling nervous as all hell. She was happy that she had refused the old bats' insistence on not sleeping next to Daryl the night before the wedding unlike Maggie. Maggie was currently in cell block D getting ready for the ceremony later today while Ani was still snuggled comfortably in Daryl's arms as she watched him sleep. She knew he'd been having problems sleeping since she'd gotten hurt, nightmares plaguing him once again. The only difference were that these nightmares involved her getting hurt, turning, or getting killed. Ani didn't know if she was happy they weren't about his childhood or if she was upset that he was having them altogether. She decided it was both as he rolled them over, forcing Ani to lie on her back while he put his head on her chest. Smiling, she tried to calm her fraying nerves and remember that this day didn't really change anything.

They were saying vows to each other, but they'd already implied them. For better or worse? They'd both seen the best and worst sides of the other's personality and still stuck around. Sickness and health? Been there and done that a few times over now. Riches weren't a thing anymore, and to be poor simply meant they had to struggle a little more than they already were. They'd already sworn to stay by each other's sides until they died and then some, so the death do us part thing was covered too. They'd decided to just go with traditional vows to save time and so Maggie could have her vows how she wanted, which made thinking logically easier for Ani. Ani and Daryl were literally just going through the motions for the others, so Ani was trying hard to control her mounting anxiety through rationalizing reality. It partially worked, allowing her to breath a sigh of relief.

Carol walked up to her cell and knocked on the bars lightly before entering, "You should wake him up. Not going to have enough time to get ready if you don't."

"And what exactly am I supposed ta be gettin' ready? I already told y'all, I ain' wearin' a dress or a skirt and I ain' takin' me vest off. Me hair is fine how it is and ya jus' gonna have ta deal. Already doin' 'nough by goin' through with the ceremony anyway," Ani complained. "We were happy with jus' the vests, though I ain' eva takin' me rings off. Neva eva. Jus' thinkin', this ceremony, sayin' these vows. We've already been through 'em. Changes nothin'. Don' even know why I'm doin' it. D wants ta, so does everyone else. I jus', I...Ya know me ma. I ain' neva thought I'd even get a guy ta wanna stay with me, let alone marry me."

"That's love for you. It makes people want to do things they never thought they would," Carol told her nonchalantly. "Now come on, ma's orders. Wake him up and get downstairs. At the very least, let me fix your braids for you."

"Let me guess, ya called dibs this time?" Ani asked, quickly learning that Beth, Maggie, and Carol each tended to fight over who got to fix her braids when they needed to be, each adding little things when they did, such as little stones or pieces of colored cloth.

"I didn't. Beth is helping Maggie, who actually wanted to wear a dress and look pretty," Carol said.

"Don' need all that fancy dress ta be pretty."

"I know. You're a spittin' image of the word pretty," Carol told her with a smile. "Wake him up and come downstairs."

"Bring Sophia with ya. Maybe she'd like ta practice too."

When Carol left the cell, Ani sighed and ran her fingers through Daryl's hair. He breathed deeply before snuggling further into her chest, making her smile softly. She moved her fingers to the shell of his ear, barely touching the skin there and making him jerk his head. Stifling a laugh, she repeated the gesture on his cheek, nose, and brow, finally getting him to stir enough to crack an eye open.

"Apparently, me presence is needed downstairs and ya need ta wake up," she told him.

Daryl groaned and put his face into Ania's chest, relishing the feel of holding her captive like this. He brought his arms under her, trapping her even further, and rolled them over, making her laugh at his antics and use her arms to push herself up so that her chest wouldn't suffocate the man. Unfortunately, he had different ideas, as one of his arms came up to her shoulders and pulled her back down on top of him, turning his head to the side to put his nose under her breast. He could breath that way and still have her on top of him completely like this. Ani laughed at him again, moving her legs to straddle him and arching her back up and away from him while her hands wrapped themselves into his hair. He groaned again, moving a hand down to her ass and squeezing it.

"D, babe, we gotta get up. I gotta get up," she said. "Ma wants me downstairs."

"Five more minutes," came his grumbled reply.

"Can I eva say no ta that request?" she laughed.

"No."

She forced him to turn back over as he buried his face into her chest again, wrapping her legs around him as well as her arms. Roughly five minutes later, he finally released her and let her get up, sitting up and grumbling about how he wouldn't be letting people steal his wife first thing in the morning after today. Ani simply laughed and gave him a searing kiss before pulling away and grabbing her boots. She didn't even bother putting them on as she walked out. Ani heard him cuss as she left and chuckled to herself. There was nothing that frustrated Daryl more than when she did that right after he woke up, and that just meant payback of the good kind later.

Walking down into the commons, she watched as Merle passed by her and headed up into the cell she shared with Daryl. She could hear the man teasing Daryl, who had cussed even louder before throwing a boot at the man. He left the cell laughing and came down to where Ani had sat down in front of Carol. Smiling brightly, he sat down next to her and clapped her knee.

"So, big day," he said. "You as excited as my sleepy little brother for it?"

"If by excited ya mean can' wait for it ta be ova, then yeah, we're in the same boat. Why ya makin' us do this, Merle? Does it even matta?"

"'Course it does!" the man said with a winning smile. "Gotta make an honest woman outta ya, and an honest man outta my brother."

"Were already honest," she mumbled.

"Come on, girly, world might have gone to shit, but traditions gotta stay," Merle reasoned.

"Do not! We didn' do Yul, or any Solstice, or Mabon! Ya know, Christmas, Easter, Halloween, Thanksgivin'. We don' do any a that any more! Why's a weddin' ceremony still needed?" she complained.

"It gives people hope," Carol told her, secretly taking the item from Merle, smiling as she continued to twist the girl's hair.

Merle had gone looking for it specifically when he, Sasha, and Glenn went on a run together while Ani was laid up. Daryl had done some hunting, but had mostly stuck around the prison to keep an eye on her and make sure she was resting her leg, leaving Merle and Sasha to fill in their shoes on runs. That wasn't necessarily a bad thing as they had a deer to cook up for today, but it had given Merle the perfect excuse to do something for his siblings. Although it wasn't an exact replica of the one their mother had, the tube bead was similar enough that Daryl would recognize it. This was Merle's way of honoring their mother in this union, as he fully believed Ani would have been loved by the woman. He had more memories, though he had spent a lot of his youth acting out and getting into trouble because of his home life. She would have definitely loved the spitfire that wasn't afraid to take even him down to protect his brother, ever the soft one.

It was mostly metal, with an intricate design of the crescent moon and stars inside while a clear blue gem, close to the color of Daryl's eyes, hung beneath it. Carol gathered one of the braid on the side of her head that would hang down and attached the bead. When Ani tried looking at it, Merle stopped her and told her to wait for the finished product. Everyone had been on the lookout for more Cooper hawk feathers, using leather straps to tie the five total into the back of her head, two up on the top by the back while three hung down her back with the rest of her hair. The one Daryl gave her sat above the other one at the top of her head, both cocked to the same side. Aside from the thick braid on the top of her head, the four braids on the sides of her head and a few other, smaller braids, the rest of her hair hung thick and free down her back, having grown another couple inches in the last few months. It hadn't taken Carol long to fix her hair at all, only about an hour, as Ani had been keeping her hair free of most knots.

"Now you really are a wild child," Carol told her, holding up a mirror.

Ani took in the bead hanging just behind her ear and held it closer to the mirror to look at it, "That's new."

"Technically speakin', that's the borrowed, blue, old, and new bit," Merle told her.

"Eh?"

"Borrowed, 'cause the original was s'pposed to go to Daryl. Blue, 'cause the gem. Old, 'cause it's similar to the one our momma had. And new, 'cause it is actually new. Closest thing I could get to gettin' you to follow tradition, 'specially all that crazy hair."

"I love me hair! Lay off!"

"Could always dread it," Michonne suggested. "You'd look good with dreads."

"Nah, can' change dreads too much. Can simply take out the decorations and change up the braids when I'm sick a this," Ani motioned to her head. "I do love the thought a dreads, but not for me. Need change regularly when it comes ta me hair."

"And yet you don't cut it?" Michonne commented.

"What does cuttin' me hair have ta do with change?! Good gods, y'all are more obsessed with the hair on me head than ya are anythin' else! What the hell, peeps?!"

"Well, you do have the most hair any of us have ever seen," Carol reasoned. "Super long and super thick. How do you manage?"

"Jus' born like this. Luck a the Irish, I guess. Know damn well me daddy's family had nothin' ta do with it, seein' as they're all stock-straight, thin hair. So I'm jus' guessin' it's from me momma's side. And I jus' neva cut it."

"Never?" Michonne asked.

"Nope, neva. Well, maybe an inch every couple a years ta keep up with the split ends, but that's it. Haven' even done that in a few years," Ani told her honestly. "Scares me ta think 'bout it, ta be honest."

"You're scared of a haircut?!" Merle asked, laughing at her, causing her to give him a dirty look.

"Last time me hair was cut was when I was thirteen. Me momma was the one who cut me hair, and it always hurt. Always pullin' too hard and rippin' and yankin' me head this way and that. Even if I sat stock still. And 'til I was thirteen, me momma kept me hair at only a couple inches long," Ani told him. "So, yeah, Merle, I don' exactly wanna cut me hair and I'm afraid a cuttin' it now. I've gone nine, almost ten, years without cuttin' me hair more'n a trim every few years. I ain' gonna go and cut it now."

"It is getting a little long," Carol commented. "Can always just keep it trimmed where it's at. Don't need to cut it, just keep it trimmed."

Ani sighed and nodded her head in agreement; that was a reasonable enough request. Daryl came down the steps still rubbing the sleep out of his eyes a short time later, Merle going to dog on him some more about sleeping in. The man didn't get far as Ani used her legs to trip him up, making him fall nearly flat on his face if Michonne hadn't have been standing in front of him. Instead, he landed hard on her front, making the woman catch him by the shoulders or risk falling. He looked back at her with an angry face but Ani just stuck her tongue out at him; this was Daryl's day as much as it was Maggie's and Glenn's and she didn't want him getting stressed over his brother's teasing just because he'd slept in. She didn't really consider it her day because she still didn't see the point in it all. It didn't stop Carol from chuckling as she quickly led Ani out of the cell block and over into D with Maggie.

~x~

The sun was high in the sky as everyone went out into the courtyard to sit on the bleachers. Hershel was standing up in front of them with Daryl and Glenn on either side of him. The girls were supposed to come out when given the okay by Carol, but Ani was antsy as the time ticked on.

"We ain' got that many people," Ani whined.

"Are you gonna keep complainin' all day?" Maggie asked.

"I get why ya wanna do this. Look at ya, ya literally look the part a the blushin' bride. Glenn's what ya think a a groom. Look at me and Daryl. We weren' made for no ceremony. Were happy 'nough 'til Merle got it in Daryl's head it weren' 'nough jus' ta give me the vest and tell me I was a Dixon. Nah, Merle has ta have a ceremony," Ani complained.

"Will you hush, already? We'll have it done and over with in an hour or so and then you can have a drink and forget we ever forced you into this," Maggie said rather tersely.

"Sorry, I don' mean ta be ruinin' it for ya," Ani sighed. "Jus' not really a fan a this type a stuff."

"What would you have done if you met Daryl before and hit it off?" Carol asked as she came in to get the girls.

"Courthouse weddin's good 'nough, no need ta say the vows, jus' sign the papawork, wham, bam, thank ya ma'am and we're done," Ani said with a shrug.

"That's not very romantic," the older woman stated.

"Not a romantic type a person. Me idea a romance is like when Daryl taught me how ta throw huntin' knives, not jus' throwin' knives. Takin' me ta the cabin he did when 'e got 'is time ta steal me away. That's the romantic I want. The lovey dovey bullshite like marriage? Didn' even get it 'fore, ya know? Jus' thought it was a way ta get the government involved in ya relationship and affairs. Now? I dunno. I'm jus' more scared I'm gonna lose 'im and it'll jus' be like, 'Oh, yeah, I'm done with ya, bye!' And that's that."

"Do you really think Daryl's gonna do that to you?" Maggie asked her in irritation. "We've been talkin' about this for days now, Ani. He ain't leaving you, you ain't leavin' him. The two of you are gonna be the last two people on this earth when all is said and done."

"I doubt that. Y'all will be there with us. I'll make sure a it," Ani said with convinction.

"Time to go you two," Carol told them, smiling at the banter between the two and remembering her pre-wedding concerns; only difference was that she actually should have ran from the alter while Ani should be running towards it.

They walked out of the prison, Maggie beaming brightly in her off-white, floral patterned dress, hair done up a little more than normal. Glenn had a nice button down shirt on and slacks. It was quite the comparison to Daryl's dickies with the rag in the back pocket and plaid button up and her skinny jeans and a black muscle shirt, and both had their vests on. Ani couldn't help the smile she gave him thinking about how he was just perfect for her, what with not caring about how he looked for this either. Glenn was smiling like an idiot as he watched Maggie come closer while Daryl was just watching Ani, thinking about how she looked too young to be his, but just feral enough to belong to the woods.

Looking at her now, the nerves began hitting. He'd been talking to Merle about how it didn't really matter and had tried to convince the man to just let it go. Merle being Merle had pressured him until he finally agreed before going and cornering Ania about it. After she'd gotten hurt on the run, it had made him more resolute in the fact that he wanted to do this proper, but did it really change anything? In this life, saying the vows weren't nearly as important as living by them, and he had to think they practically already were. And now looking at her, even if she might have been in her regular clothes, she was still gorgeous and totally out of anything he considered his league. And she just beamed at him as if he were the only man she could see, earning a small smile back.

As the women reached their men, Glenn held out his hand to Maggie who took it, but Daryl just grabbed Ania around the waist pulled her to his side, immediately picking up the bead and looking over to Merle. There were giggles in the audience by the women, the two hunters rolling their eyes at each other over the antics. Now that they were finally in front of everyone, they looked at the other couple who was smiling and offered them both small smiles of their own. Everything about the two couples was different, from how they dressed to how they held each other. Where Glenn and Maggie made a point of dressing nicer, Ani and Daryl literally just changed clothes. Where Glenn was facing Maggie with their hands held in front of them, Daryl had his arm wrapped around Ani's back, hand firmly grasping her hip as he held her to his side. Maggie had taken her rings off, Ani hadn't. But, Daryl didn't know that Ani had a ring for him as well; it was a simple band carved out of cedar from a specialty store they'd scavenged at a while back. She'd double checked with Merle to make sure it'd fit and had given it to the man to keep hidden, only getting it back before the man left for the bleachers

"Friends, family, we're standing here today in the presence of the Lord to celebrate the joining of these two couples in Holy matrimony," Hershel said. "Now, normally, I'd say a prayer and read from the scripture, but Ani's not very fond of religion and I imagine she's not too happy being in front of everyone." A chorus of chuckles escaped even Maggie and Glenn as Daryl and Ani glared at the group behind them. "So, I'm just going to say a few words about the two couples joining hands today. As for Glenn and Maggie. There is no man that is good enough for a father's little girl, until one is. He protected and defended me at my worst at the risk of his own life after saving Maggie's life, and still he did not feel as if he deserved anything from either his group nor Maggie. With Ani and Daryl, at first glance, they seem like quite the mismatched pair, but look a little deeper and you see to souls entwined as one. Whether one believes in the good Lord or they believe in a multitude as Ani does, these four souls were entwined with their partners by the good grace of divinity and we gather today to acknowledge their profound bond."

"When I first met Glenn and Daryl, they came to my farm with a group and a shot boy. Now, I didn't think much of either men at the time, and Ani wasn't with them for me to think anything of. And yet, through her, we have all been taught a new way to look at family. Family does not end in blood, but is the bond shared between people of all backgrounds, coming together to create something far greater, far more precious, than mere friendship. Glenn came to get me in my moment of weakness, not out of love for Maggie, my daughter, but out of his own volition. He's consistently put his life in danger to make sure we have what we need. Daryl spent days in the woods looking for Ani and Sophia, getting injured in the process. Ever since, he's hunted and protected me and mine as his own, as he's done for all of us. Ani, she ran off to protect Sophia, barely eating, barely sleeping for days. Showed up in my field exhausted and injured with the little girl in tow, safe and sound. And to this day, she has done nothing but treat me and mine as her family, helping us not only survive, but strive to be better. Since these three fine people have come to be an important part of my life, of my family, and I get to enter one permanently into the Greene family line while another takes the name Dixon."

"Now, let us say the vows. Grooms, please take your wives' hand and repeat after me," Hershel told them, both men doing so, though Ani and Daryl still hadn't quite separated. "I, Glenn Rhee and Daryl Dixon, take you, Maggie Greene and Ani Parker, to be my wife. For better or worse, through sickness and in health, for richer, for poorer, to love and to cherish, from this moment until the moment I breathe my last. Until death do us part, I take you as my wife."

The men repeated the lines, Glenn giving Maggie back her rings in the process, the four having opted out of the whole exchange of rings separate from vows part of the ceremony. The women then repeated the lines back to the men, Ani surprising Daryl with his ring. He commented quietly about how it was just going to get stained, to which she answered hers wouldn't fair much better in the end. With a few more words after the exchange of vows, Hershel gave the traditional go ahead for the first kiss of marriage and Ani wasted no time in giving Daryl a crushing kiss, leaving both smiling like idiots and Merle hooting and hollering like a maniac.

In the last week, he, Tyreese, and Carol had built up a pretty decent cooking pit so that they could have meals outside when the weather was nice. During the winter, they could use it as a place for the patrols to warm up while they were on duty. Carol and Angie were already there, having gotten the fire lit and the grilling grates over top of it. Merle was at a different part of the station, not meant for cooking, but rather cutting and preparing the meat once it'd been processed. He was currently slicing strips off the deer Daryl had brought back a few days before, having opted to let it hang so that the meat would taste better. They hadn't been in immediate need of meat with all the squirrels, rabbits, and a small hog that had been trapped by the snares, so the Council as a collective had decided to leave the deer for today.

There was also a 'bar' area, though it was more a place to hold their utensils, tableware, and cookware. Today, there were about ten bottles of assorted liquor, none of which were actually full, but enough that they could be passed around and still have a good time. There were also a few bottles of wine that had been found unopened. While Maggie had been happy to find those bottles, both Daryl and Ani had scrunched up their noses, opting to pick up a bottle of liquor for them to share. Glenn had set up near the pit with his guitar until one of the other members came up and took it from him, pushing him towards where Maggie was standing being congratulated.

Daryl had a hold of Ani as she leaned against him, half sitting on his knee as he sat on top of one of the picnic tables they had found and brought into the prison. People had come up to congratulate them as well, but quickly learned that the couple were not fans of attention or being crowded. Now, just shouts of congrats were thrown their way as they talked to Merle and ate their meal. Maggie and Glenn came around to talk to them after a while, making Merle start in about the wedding night. It got so bad that Daryl's hold on Ani was the only thing keeping her from decking the man. There were no speeches given, only a few cheers given and shots taken as a way to get the couples to kiss their counterpart. While Maggie and Glenn were happy to comply, Ani dragged Daryl away quietly after the third attempt, grabbing the bottle they'd picked up and sneaking to their guard tower.

"Anotha minute and I might a decked Merle for the comments 'e was makin'," Ani told Daryl. "What the hell was 'e thinkin' askin' shite like that?!"

"Now you're gonna get embarrassed? Practically told the man everythin' 'bout us," Daryl replied.

"'Bout us. I don' wanna know 'bout Glenn and Maggie! Don' need ta know 'is size and sure as shite ain' sharin' ya with Maggie 'cause ya brotha has a twisted fuckin' fantasy!"

Daryl just huffed a laugh before pulling her down to sit next to him. Their legs were dangled off the side of the tower as they watched the group of people in the courtyard off in the distance. He opened the bottle and took a swig before handing it over to her. As she took a drink, he grabbed at the bead again.

"Where'd you get this?"

"Merle gave it ta me. Said it was the borrowed, blue, old, and new bit. Ya know, since the real one was s'pposed ta be ya's, got the blue gem, represents ya momma, and is new. Least accordin' ta Merle," Ani told him.

"Yeah, my mom, she was part Cherokee. She had somethin' similar to this, really similar. Merle must've been lookin' for a while to find it."

"Wouldn' know. Jus' had ma put it in without me knowin' 'til she showed me me hair. Gonna leave it and the featha from ya, but the otha feathas gotta go. They don' mean nothin' ta me, so I don' wanna wear 'em."

"Let's see," Daryl told her, turning towards her.

She turned her back to him and sighed as he ran his hands up through the bottom of her hair. He saw where the feathers were tied into the braids and carefully began to remove them. Removing even the tail feather he'd given her, he pulled her back flush against her chest and buried his face in her amber mane. Daryl sighed heavily before looking back out towards the group.

"You think this is gonna last?" Daryl asked her.

"Prolly not, in reality. Not without a fight, least ways," she answered him honestly. "That's why I'm keepin' up with everyone's trainin', though I suppose it's been delayed lately 'cause a me leg. And even more now that we're headin' out tomorrow on a hunt."

"Can't train 'til the stitches come out anyway. Got another week before that happens."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. I know. Still itches like fuckin' crazy."

"It's healin', it's gonna."

"Well no shite, Sherlock."

"Don't get snippy with me, woman."

"So what if I do, man?" she asked, the same teasing condescension in her tone.

They'd been passing the bottle back and forth the entire time they'd been talking, finishing half of it in a brief time span. Daryl chucked the rest of the bottle out onto the field, not caring if it ruined a plant or two. He grabbed her neck and tilted her face towards his and kissed her with all that he had. They were lost in their own little world until they passed out, not caring about or knowing that they were the topic of conversation due to their quick and sneaky exit back in the courtyard.