AN: Here we are, another chapter.

I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think!

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No matter how one might have ever imagined their wedding day before the turn, it was a very different thing to think about since the Dead had first begun to wander the Earth.

It was even more different, perhaps, since those who had lived among the Dead had been declared as wild and the non-human prisoners of those who had never had to spend their nights wondering if they'd be awakened from their sleep by an animated corpse that was tearing their flesh from their bones.

Daryl and Carol were the guests of honor. They were the couple that had made this happen for everyone else who had gathered there to take their turns exchanging vows in front of the man who decided the fate of them all.

The man who was their Governor—the one true power—ran his eyes up and down Carol's body more than once. He touched her with a familiarity that Daryl didn't care for. He rested his hand on her belly and probed her with his fingertips to feel the movements of their children while they waited for everyone to be gathered together. And Daryl didn't care for it at all because he considered Carol's body to be something that belonged to her and to him—it wasn't for strangers to touch. Not anymore.

But the fact of the matter was they were still prisoners. They might forget it, from time to time and in the brief snatches of peaceful moments here and there, but the guards that stood around them in abundance today were there to remind them. All of the guards were heavily armed and, standing with their hands on their guns, it was clear that they would kill and they would kill for any reason.

So Daryl didn't point out to the man that he'd appreciate him not touching his wife, and Carol smiled through everything and pretended that nothing bothered her. They might not have imagined what their wedding day would look like before, but both of them knew that it wasn't a day when they wanted to die in the street from a gunshot wound.

When they were finally ready to begin, the Governor commanded Daryl to take Carol's hands in his and Daryl did so. For a moment, he stood there and looked at her delicate hands in his. He studied her fingers. He remembered a night—or perhaps it had been a day since the darkness there had been permanent—when he had held her hand through bars and promised her, and himself, that he wouldn't let go of her as long as she needed him. He wouldn't let go as long as he could somehow manage to hold on.

He smiled to himself. Their circumstances had changed a great deal, and he was ever so grateful for the change, but he was still holding her hand. He would keep holding her hand, too, for as long as he could.

"The vow of marriage is a vow of love and service to one another," the Governor said. "You serve one another as you serve your God and your country. As Wilds seeking re-entrance in society, you seek to have the same rights and benefits as all the citizens of our fine country. I'm here to grant you all those rights and benefits as they pertain to marriage. This is an important day. It's a day that you will always remember. It's a day that everyone will remember. Do you have vows which you would like to exchange or would you like me to lead you in traditional vows?"

"Not necessary," Daryl said. He cleared his throat. It was nerve wracking. He was getting married. That was enough to leave him jittery, but on top of that he had to speak to the Governor and he had to do so in front of everyone that was gathered there. Carol smiled at him, though. She turned her hand and squeezed his fingers in hers. She held his hand back as much as he held hers and he couldn't help but smile again. "We—wanna say what we got to say."

The Governor laughed to himself like what Daryl had said was funny and Carol squeezed Daryl's hand again.

"You first," she said softly.

Daryl nodded at her.

"Now that I'm standin' here, I forgot everything I was gonna say," Daryl said. He laughed nervously to himself. "I mean—I didn't forget what I was gonna say, but I forgot how I meant to say it. I had it all figured out so it was real nice. Flowed real well."

"However you say it will be perfect," Carol urged.

Daryl nodded.

"I knew you was gonna say that," he said, laughing to himself again. "Because that's the kinda thing you always say to me. Always make me feel like I do everything right, even when I don't have any idea of what I'm doing or...it doesn't matter. You always make me feel like I'm doing it right. So that's—it's what I'm going to keep on doing. Maybe it's not the best promise that anybody could make you, but I promise that I'm gonna keep on doing what I can to try to—to try to do everything as perfect as you claim I do. And I'm gonna just...you know...gonna just be there. For you. For—for our babies. For Sophia, if she'll have me." Daryl paused and cleared his throat. "That's about it. It was about the gist of it, anyway. I'm going to be there and I'm gonna keep on doing the best I can for all of you."

"Do you have anything to add?" The Governor asked, looking at Carol. She nodded at him and he gestured for her to go ahead and take her turn.

Her cheeks were blushed pink like she might be embarrassed. Maybe speaking in front of everyone was difficult for her, too. Daryl squeezed her hand the same way she'd squeezed his and she smiled at him.

"I think I forgot what I was going to say, too," Carol said softly. Daryl wasn't sure that anyone except him could hear her words at all. "But—I know that I'm always going to believe that what you do is perfect, Daryl, because I know that you do it with the best intentions. That's what's important. It isn't what you do or how it turns out, it's what you intend. And I'm always going to be here for you. I'll be your partner. Your helper. We've gotten this far together and we'll get the rest of the way together, too—with Sophia and the babies. You make me...you really make me sure of that. And I love you for it."

"I love you too," Daryl offered quickly.

"Unconventional," the Governor offered. "But these vows are as good as any other if they express what you want them to express. We asked the two of you to provide us with sizes and I have rings to present to you as a special wedding present to commemorate your determination to be married."

He offered his hand out to one of his guards and the man produced the two rings. The Governor handed them over to Daryl and Daryl offered the larger ring to Carol.

"Do you..." the Governor hesitated and looked at Daryl.

"Daryl," Daryl offered quietly.

"Do you, Daryl, take..."

"Carol," Carol supplied.

"Do you, Daryl, take Carol to be your lawfully wedded wife?" The Governor asked.

"There's nothin' I want more," Daryl offered.

"I'm sorry?" The Governor asked.

"I do," Daryl clarified.

"Do you, Carol, take Daryl to be your lawfully wedded husband?" The Governor asked.

"I do," Carol said.

"You can exchange rings," the Governor said.

Daryl moved to put the ring on Carol's finger, but he'd chosen the wrong hand because she quickly pulled it away and offered him the other. He slid the ring into place and she took his hand to do the same.

"By the power invested in me as the One True Power of the Living World, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride."

Daryl leaned forward and kissed Carol. She wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him closer to her, and deepened the kiss. Several people around them applauded and Daryl distinctly heard his brother, from somewhere in the crowd, hoot at them and yell out.

When they pulled apart, Daryl's heart pounded in his chest as the thought came across his brain—Carol was his wife. Nobody could dispute it. Nobody could deny it. It had been witnessed by almost the entire population of Woodbury. They were married and they were, undeniably, one.

As soon as their short ceremony was over, they were asked to step to the side and join the crowd. Daryl took Carol's hand and moved to the area where the guards guided them. They stood where they were asked to stand—where everyone who was just there to watch the ceremony was gathered—and Daryl scanned the group to quickly find Sophia who was standing, in the company of more than a handful of children, with Samirah, Alice, and Willomen. Daryl took Carol's hand in his while they stood and he turned her ring around and around on her finger. It was a symbol that they were married. It was a reminder. He didn't really need the rings though. He felt married to Carol, at that moment, all the way down to his soul.

In fact, being married to her made him feel more at ease than he normally felt in her presence.

The Governor gathered together the other couples who had come to declare their desire to marry one another. With the help of the guards, he arranged all the couples so that they were holding hands. He gave them a short little introductory speech about their responsibilities toward one another and he declared that all husbands should make their own vows—or repeat after him if they so desired—at that time. Daryl listened as he read out, line by line, the traditional wedding vows. In the groups gathered there, people declared their love for one other. He found his brother among the men that recited something to their soon-to-be-wives that only they could make out. He noticed that Michonne, clasping Andrea's hands, spoke as though she were going to be Andrea's husband because nobody had bothered to think that it might work differently for them.

Daryl noted that everyone looked happy to be there. They looked happy just to have the right to say the words that they were saying. And he was sure that most of them never imagined that they'd meet the person they were going to marry when they were simply, and randomly for the most part, assigned to procreate with that person, but he was pleased that it had seemed to work out as well for some of them as it had worked out for he and Carol.

When the Governor had gone through his speech with the husbands, he had them switch off and he repeated the vows. The din of voices rose again and Daryl stopped trying to distinguish any particular sound over another. He watched his brother and he couldn't help but smile to himself. The asshole stood there—looking cleaner than Daryl had ever seen him look in all his life—with a smile on his lips that was as sincere as any that Daryl had ever seen. His wife, rather than lean in and speak to him like anybody else, spoke to him with her hands and, even though Daryl couldn't imagine that his brother was smart enough to learn what any of it meant, Merle watched her like he knew exactly what she was saying. He watched her like he was happy to hear it.

The only part of the ceremony that Daryl could clearly hear was when everyone said "I DO" almost in unison at the Governor's command.

Finally everyone kissed and the ceremony was done. It was closed. Everyone who wanted to be married was as legally married as they were ever going to get. Daryl wrapped Carol's hand in his and held it tight while they waited to hear what their Governor would say to close out the ceremonies. Nobody moved because he hadn't moved, and Daryl assumed that's the way it was any time the man went anywhere.

"Today has been an important day for Woodbury," the Governor offered. "It's been an important day for Wilds, everywhere, who hope for assimilation into society. I wish you all luck as you move forward toward complete assimilation and I look forward to serving you, and your community, as your Governor. We have provided a banquet as a group reception. We ask that you all stay. Eat and drink and congratulate one another. As a reminder—laws are laws and they remain in effect at all times. Please be sure to celebrate respectfully. Woodbury is a violence-free community."

Daryl swallowed. The sight of all the armed guards around didn't exactly feel like it backed up that statement, but he understood exactly what it meant. Woodbury was free of citizen-committed violence.

And everyone seemed fine with that. They didn't want violence, after all. They wanted to celebrate. It was love that had brought them all together that day and nothing more.