So it's been a minute, I think my muse deserted me for a little while! Sorry 'bout that!

Back into it.

Chapter 74 – A nonspecific gathering

Tahlia was on her knees in Michonne's yard casually picking the weeds out of the flowerbed while Michonne sat on the porch feeding Judith, when their conversation with interrupted by a dramatic declaration of,

"You're back!"

Eric marched up to Tahlia with open arms. "I thought I heard an obnoxiously loud motorbike disturbing the peace!"

Grinning widely, Tahlia stood up and walked into his enthusiastic embrace. "Your man is responsible for my man having that obnoxiously loud bike. But yeah, we got back not long ago. Michy's just been filling me in on everything we missed."

"Oh, so you've been talking about nothing, then?" asked Eric cheekily.

"Pretty much." agreed Michonne with a laugh, wiping Judith's face. "Ok bub, you're all done."

"God." said Eric, holding Tahlia by the shoulders. "You're… glowing."

"Well," Tahlia flicked her brows and affected a satisfied little smirk. "A couple of days alone with Daryl tends to have that effect."

With wide eyes, Eric looked devilishly delighted by that, while Michonne called out drily,

"Keep it clean, there's a child present!"

Eric gave Tahlia a covert wink. "We'll save those details for Martini Monday. So! Tell me about the cabin!"

Tahlia smiled blankly at him. "What cabin?"

"The one that he… wait, did you not…? I thought that he was taking you…?" spluttered Eric, then he propped his hands on his hips and stuck his nose in the air. "Well! I'm sorry but there's only so long that I can be expected to keep a secret like that, so if he still hasn't told you about it then he's only got himself to blame for taking so damn-"

"I'm kidding!" laughed Tahlia, "I'm kidding! Yes, he took me there, told me all about what he and Aaron had been doing, it was amazing, and I'm very proud of you for keeping it secret for so long."

"Two days." interjected Michonne as she helped Judith down the steps and towards Tahlia. "He only had to hold it in for two days before Daryl took you there."

"It felt like an age!" wailed Eric, then he shook his head. "You know, I would never have picked Daryl as a 'surprise a girl with a house' kind of guy."

"He sure is full of surprises." agreed Tahlia as she knelt down and held her arms out to Judith. "Come here, poppet!"

Then Eric let out an almighty gasp. "What is THAT?!"

"What is what?" asked Tahlia, bewildered by his sudden yell.

"On your fucking hand! Stand up right now and show me!" Dragging Tahlia back to her feet, Eric grabbed her left hand and held it in front of his face. "Is this a..?!"

"Oh my God." Michonne's mouth dropped open as she ran over to inspect the ring as well. "Don't tell me he…?"

"Oh," shrugged Tahlia as she attempted to hide her smile. "Yeah. Like I said, full of surprises."

"He PROPOSED?!" shrieked Eric, then shot Michonne an accusatory glare. "Did you know about this?!"

"No! I'm just finding out about this right now, too!"

Eric threw his hands in the air. "He fucking proposed and you didn't say anything?!"

"You literally just arrived thirty seconds ago!" reasoned Tahlia innocently.

"Why didn't you say anything to me?!" chided Michonne, shoving at Tahlia. "You've been standing in my garden for twenty minutes with that thing on your finger and you didn't think to…" Then her voice hitched and her eyes welled with tears and she caught Tahlia in a fierce embrace. "This is incredible news! I'm so happy for you two!"

Hugging back, Tahlia then pushed at her weakly before swiping a hand across her own eyes. "Don't! You'll make me cry. And I've pretty much only just managed to stop crying at Daryl."

"Wait!" exclaimed Michonne. "Does this mean he finally told you he loves you?!"

"The exact words and all." confirmed Tahlia, then burst into laughter as Michonne raised her hands in the air.

"Praise the Lord for that!" Smiling joyously, Michonne caught hold of Tahlia's hand again. "It's beautiful, by the way. I've never seen anything like this. Where did he get it?"

Tahlia couldn't contain her swell of pride. "He made it."

"HE MADE IT?!" echoed Eric, nearly on the verge of cardiac arrest.

"Yeah." beamed Tahlia. "He's been working on it for the past few weeks."

"Oh. My. God. That guy is just…" Eric fluttered a hand around in front of his face, then suddenly thought of something. "Did Aaron know about this too? If he knew and didn't tell me, then we're through, I swear to God."

"Same with Rick." vowed Michonne, then she scooped Judith into her arms and carried on in a singsong voice. "Sorry sweetie, but if daddy kept a secret like this from us then we'll have to kick his tushie to the curb."

"Tushie!" cooed Judith in delight.

Eric hitched a shoulder and simpered at Tahlia. "And we'll leave them and move in with you and the most romantic man on the planet. So, tell us everything! How did he do it? Did he lay flower petals everywhere, get down on one knee?"

"This is Daryl we're talking about." snorted Michonne, then looked at Tahlia. "But… did he?"

"No, nothing like that, but it was so beautiful – we were on the roof of the cabin under the stars and he was so nervous that at first I didn't realise what he was trying to do, and then… yeah. He said some amazing things and I basically just cried the whole time. It was so perfect."

"Oh my God." muttered Eric, shaking his head. "You're so in love. I hate you."

"Shut up." Tahlia swiped at him. "You'd be just as mushy if it were you and Aaron."

"Yes, actually, I would. And Aaron had better lift his game. From now on, I'm accepting nothing less than starlit rooftop declarations of love." stated Eric in a mock-haughty tone. Then his face lit up. "So, when's the wedding?!"

"Oh," Tahlia shrugged, "That was the wedding. We just said a few things to each other and that was enough."

"You eloped?! So rude!"

"We didn't want a ceremony or anything like that, we just wanted a little something between us."

"Um, excuse me, but it's not just about you two, you realize that, right?"

Tahlia laughed. "Oh, see I was under the impression that it was just me and Daryl in our relationship."

"Pfft!" Eric waved a hand at her. "That's ridiculous! As your friends, clearly we are all in your relationship too. Isn't that right, Michonne?"

Michonne gave a breezy nod. "Totally. He's marrying all of us."

"Correct. And now we want a wedding! We need something to celebrate! Anyway, I'm so sick of all those smelly dead things wandering around trying to eat us. It's bad for morale. A wedding will boost everyone's spirits!"

"No." Tahlia shook her head. "No wedding. We've said what we wanted to say privately, and we're moving straight into old married couple territory."

"Selfish." pouted Eric.

"Ok," Michonne attempted a compromise, "How about a reception then?"

"No." said Tahlia again. "We don't want a big fuss over this."

"It won't be a big fuss, I promise. Just a little-"

Tahlia pressed one hand to her forehead. "No, seriously, I love you but please listen. For Daryl to have even considered any of this was huge, so to actually go through with it and do what he did – it took a lot, he put himself so far out of his comfort zone, and that means everything to me. And it was so perfectly him, that I don't want to spoil that by doing something public, because that wouldn't be him at all. So, as your collective wife, I'm asking you to please just leave it, and I promise we'll find something else to celebrate instead."

"Ugh. Fine. But I'm going to be letting our husband know that I'm not happy about it." Then Eric melted into a big smile. "But I really am thrilled for you guys, and I'm so glad that he was secretly planning this for you instead of secretly having an affair with Aaron."

Under the hood of the RV, Daryl couldn't stop his mind from continuously swan-diving back into the past couple of days up at the cabin.

Not that he wanted to stop thinking about. Easily the best couple of days of his life so far, and really, he couldn't imagine anything that would be better. And it wasn't just the marriage part, or the part after where they'd barely had their hands off one another for nearly 24 hours (but God that had been mind-blowing and a whole new level of incredible intensity for them and fuck he really had to stop thinking about that while he was standing outside in the middle of Alexandria with people walking by) but also the way that he had finally said everything he'd always wanted to say, finally unsnarled that burning ball of tangled words and emotions that had been lodged in his chest for so long, doused it, and now he felt decompressed. Like he could breathe. Big, fresh lungfuls of crisp, clean, restorative air.

Yeah. This felt real good.

Refocusing on the task at hand, Daryl checked the dipstick. He was giving the RV a once over so that tomorrow morning, he and Tahlia could head for Charlottesville. They'd decided now was a good a time as any to take the trip (and despite Tahlia's squeal of 'honeymoon!', Daryl had remained steadfastly adamant that was definitely NOT what this was, and if she didn't stop referring to it as that, he'd tickle her to death) and although their intention was to check out her uncle's vineyard – she swore she had no expectations of finding anything there – there were places to be mapped and explored all along the way, and that was to be the main focus of this little trip.

Then Rick's cheery greeting lifted Daryl out of his head. "There you are! Been looking for you."

"Hey man." Daryl squinted over at his friend. "What's up?"

"Everything go alright out there?"

"Yeah."

"Nothing to... report back?" fished Rick, but Daryl had shifted his concentration back to funneling oil into the engine and didn't notice the bait.

"Naw, don't think so. Couple walkers. Nothin' major."

"Right." Rick suppressed a smile. Of course Daryl wouldn't consider the momentous milestone of marriage as news to be shared with his friends. Thrumming with contained happiness for his brother, Rick took a deep breath and remembered Michonne's strict instructions: if Daryl doesn't say anything, don't let him know you know, just find a way to get him to Eric's house.

"Hey," ventured Rick, drumming his fingers on his thigh. "So, I thought maybe we could have a catch up."

"Sure thing. Whatchu wanna catch up on?"

"Oh, I mean like, just general stuff over a beer at my place."

"Mm, nah, not right now, man. Wanna finish tuning this thing up. 'Member I told ya 'bout headin' to Charlottesville? Hopin' to head off in the mornin'." Daryl then looked questioningly at Rick. "'Less ya need us 'round here for somethin'?"

Rick waved a hand dismissively. "No, no, you guys are good to go."

"Cool. Gonna just take it slow, scope out the area. Probably gone a few days."

"Ok, that sounds good. So, we should definitely have a beer."

"Alright. Go get 'em, bring 'em back here and I can finish this."

Scratching his head, Rick frowned and decided to change tack. "Well, uh… oh! There was something I wanted you to take a look at. It's broken."

"What is it?"

"Oh…" Rick paused. Shit. "Like a… I don't even know what you call it. It's in our garage."

Daryl just looked at him like he was crazy. "Riiight… I'll swing by later on and check it out."

Rubbing a hand over his face, Rick sighed, resigning himself to the fact that he was failing miserably and was going to have to tap out of this one and send Michonne in. About to walk away, he suddenly had an idea and kicked himself for not thinking of this tactic sooner.

"Hey, what's up with Tahly? I saw her just before and she was really upset."

That grabbed Daryl's attention just as Rick had suspected it would, and his head snapped up. "What?" he asked in alarm.

"Yeah," shrugged Rick. "Crying and everything."

Throwing the funnel to the ground, Daryl wiped his hands on his pants and started towards Rick, concern etched across his face. "Why? What happened?"

Rick shrugged again unhelpfully. "Don't know. She's at Carol's."

"Why didn't ya say somethin' sooner?" admonished Daryl, already taking off down the street, Rick on his heels.

They reached Carol's place, and Daryl burst straight in without knocking, startling Tahlia and Carol who were standing in the kitchen, looking just fine.

"Thank God." muttered Carol, then to Rick, "What took you so long? There's only so much fake pinning of this dress I can do."

"What?" Tahlia looked at her in confusion, then to Daryl who had strode straight up to her.

"What's wrong?"

"What?" she repeated, even more confused.

"Somethin' happen? Someone upset ya?" He crooked a finger gently under her chin. "Tell me."

Tahlia shook her head, bewildered. "No, I'm – "

"Daryl!" tutted Carol disapprovingly as she put a hand on his shoulder, turning him to face her. "Your shirt's filthy!"

He glanced down, then back up at her. "Yeah?"

Picking up a glass of water from the bench, she tossed the contents at the front of his shirt, soaking it.

"The fuck?!" he exclaimed, his hands shooting out to the sides.

"Oh dear, that one's wet now too. Guess you're going to have to change." stated Carol mildly, already unbuttoning it for him.

"Get off!" Daryl smacked her hands away, just as Rick wandered over holding a clean black shirt.

"Lucky I brought this one."

"Why've ya got my…?" Daryl then looked at Tahlia and realized she was wearing a sleeveless, long floaty cream dress he'd never seen before and he raised his brows. "Where'd ya get that dress from?"

"Oh!" Tahlia looked down, then pointed at Carol. "Carol asked me to put it on. Said that she needed to hem it and because we're the same height…" Trailing off, Tahlia frowned. "Wait. What's going – ?"

"Alright!" Rick appeared behind her and grabbed her arm, pulling her with him towards the door. "Let's go."

"Go where? Daryl?" Tahlia called over her shoulder, but Daryl was just as clueless as she was and stared after her in confusion.

"Change."

Carol's instruction snapped him back to the present, and he glared at her but quickly switched shirts.

"Now, wash your hands." she said firmly, motioning to his oil-blackened fingers.

"The hell is goin' on?"

She just held out the soap. "Hands. And then you've got some explaining to do."

"'Bout what?"

But Carol refused to say another word until his hands were as clean as they were going to get, and then she tucked an arm through his and steered him out the door.

"So... you got married and you didn't tell any of us?"

"Oh." Daryl flushed, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand. "Heard 'bout that, huh?"

He suddenly wondered if that was something he should have told his close friends about. It hadn't really occurred to him to tell anyone else because, aside from the fact that he had never been big on sharing personal stuff with friends, he had Tahlia, and she was the one he shared everything with and obviously she now knew about all of it.

But now that he thought about it, it made sense that this would be something their friends would care about. Ah well, Tahlia must have told them, and honestly, it was just easier to leave her to deal with the finer points of interpersonal relationships for both of them.

"Word travels fast." Carol stopped in front of Aaron and Eric's porch just across the street, where Rick was standing with his arm around Tahlia and a stupid grin on his face. Turning to Daryl, she placed her hands lightly on his cheeks. "Never thought I'd see the day." she said softly. "You so deserve all this, you know. You deserve this kind of love. Make sure you let yourself enjoy it every day."

Unable to respond with anything more than a tight nod, Daryl pulled Carol into his arms and squeezed her tightly before she extricated herself with a sniff and gave him a push towards the door.

"In you go."

"What-?"

With a quick knock, Rick then reached out for Daryl as a beaming and smug Eric peeked his head out the door.

"Come in! You're just in time!"

"In time for…?" Tahlia asked just before she was dragged inside, Daryl right behind, and then any further questions they had were drowned out by a loud collective cheer.

Carol shook her head with a grin. "He's not going to be happy about this."

"I know." agreed Rick cheerily. "But it's worth it."

Congregated in Aaron and Eric's living room were the prison crew, the others they'd collected along the way, and a few Alexandrians that they'd become close to, all of whom had a glass raised as they beamed at the new arrivals.

Tahlia turned to Daryl, her eyes wide. "I swear I had no idea about this."

He just looked at her, then back at the group, still speechless. Again, this was probably something he should have expected, but that didn't make him feel any less of a deer in headlights under the happy, expectant eyes of all their friends.

Then Eric slung an arm around both of their shoulders as Michonne barreled towards them and pushed a glass into their hands.

"You guys!" scolded Tahlia. "Did you not hear a word I said about us not wanting to do anything?!"

"Pfft, oh, no!" protested Eric over-dramatically. "This isn't for you two. This is just a… you know… spontaneous nonspecific gathering of your closest friends."

"Really." replied Tahlia drily. "So why did everyone cheer when we walked in?"

"Um…" Michonne blinked innocently. "Well, that's just how we're greeting people today."

Then Rick sauntered into the room and Michonne sent a pointed glance at the group, waving a hand in the air, managing to rouse a straggly cheer. "See?"

Tahlia shook her head. "I'm breaking up with you guys."

"Oh, come on." Eric squeezed her. "We just thought it would be nice to have a little get together, that's all. It has absolutely nothing to do with the news we heard this afternoon." Eric then leaned closer to Daryl, squeezing him too. "Congratulations, by the way!" he whispered overexcitedly.

Daryl just groaned a pressed a hand over his eyes.

Then Rick tapped his glass and addressed the room loudly. "I'd like to propose a toast!"

"Ooh!" Eric released Tahlia and Daryl and went to grab his glass in expectation.

"Rick!" hissed Michonne. "No! We talked about this. No toasts."

"I know, I know! But this is just a general toast for… everyone. Absolutely not directed at anyone in particular." Even as he said this, he was beaming at Tahlia and Daryl, his jubilation near palpable, and Daryl was suddenly struck by the realization that he hadn't seen this buoyant side of Rick for a long time, and damn if it didn't feel good to see that, even after all they'd been through, joy could still be sparked by the simplest of things.

Rick carried on, an infectious grin on his face. "I just wanted to say that I love you guys so much. All of you guys." he added quickly, glancing around the room. "You're my family. And when you found each other, I mean, when we all found each other," he winked conspiratorially at Michonne, who just rolled her eyes and pressed a hand to her head. "I was just so happy for you – all of you-"

"He's very bad at this." Eric whispered from behind his glass and Michonne groaned in agreement.

"And you've come so far – everyone, I mean, and after everything that's happened, to see you - all of us - still together and stronger than ever, it's just the most amazing thing, and I wish you – US, goddamn - all the happiness in the world. Congratulations… everyone!"

"Oh, for God's sake." muttered Michonne as the group raised their glasses and echoed Rick's last words. "Sorry, Tahly. I asked him not to do that, I swear."

Tahlia just laughed in delight and waved a hand at Michonne, then turned to Rick, schooling her face into an expression as solemn as she could manage. "Thank you for that very generic, nonspecific toast, Rick. It means a lot to us – I mean, everyone."

Next to her, Daryl pressed his burning cheeks into his hands for brief moment and huffed out a slow breath. Then, resigning himself to the fact that in their group, everyone's business was everyone's business, and he might as well just get on board with that, he straightened up, caught Tahlia's hand in his and pressed a light kiss to her knuckles, then, with a sheepish grin he lifted their clasped hands in the air like he was declaring a winner (which, he supposed, he was, really, and it felt like it was him) and though his face was still flaming as another cheer sounded, he realized that a lot of that stemmed from a feeling he was still relatively unaccustomed to - blooming pride.

Then he crossed the floor to Rick and wrapped him in a brusque hug.

"Thanks, man."

Rick nodded, embracing his brother tightly. "In case you couldn't tell, that was my best man speech. Lucky for you I decided to leave out all the embarrassing stories."

Although the nonspecific gathering had quickly descended into a happy mess of effusive congratulations and outpouring of love for Daryl and Tahlia, it then morphed into a much-needed (and unrealized how much so until then) get together of light-hearted chat and laughter where all talk of survival, strategy, security, and all the heavy shit was laid aside for one night so spirits could soar and people could feel brand new (or old, whichever way you wanted to look at it) just for a little while.

And when it all wound down, Daryl decided that he really hadn't minded being the semi-centre of attention for part of an evening and felt pretty damned lucky that it only took the end of the world for him to find himself a wife, a family, a home and a shitload of love.

He was still in good spirits the next morning as he packed their few belongings into the RV, although the fresh reminder of all the good now in his life stoked a tiny fire of apprehension in his belly at the weight of everything that was at stake, that could be lost. But that flame also burned for everything he had to fight for.

His main thing he found down by the pond promising Carl she'd bring back any comics that they came across, and, sidling up behind her, Daryl kicked her squarely in the butt.

"Ready to go?"

"Ow!" Tahlia aimed a kick right back at him, but he caught her foot and held it in the air, refusing to let go until she begged for mercy.

"You sure it's safe for you to be out on the road alone with him?" laughed Carl, always amused by Daryl's playful side that was on display around Tahlia.

"Please don't let him take me away!" whispered Tahlia dramatically before breaking into a grin and pulling Carl into a hug. "See you in a few days!"

They made their way to the RV which Daryl had parked right in front of the gates, bidding goodbye to the group of their friends that had gathered there to see them off.

Firing up the engine, Daryl frowned and motioned to the people clustered at the gate. "The hell are these guys doin'? Think we're leavin' forever with all this carry on."

"Guess they just want to say goodbye." shrugged Tahlia from the passenger seat.

Then Rick ran up to Daryl's open window and laid a hand on the frame.

"Hey!"

"What's up?" Daryl said, foot on the brake and elbow on the door armrest.

"You've got the maps right? Make sure you mark down what you come across out there. You know, people, places, what it's like…"

"Yeah, I know, I'll do that." Daryl assured him.

"Because if there's any other groups around, we definitely want to know about it and if there's places we can scavenge from then, you know…"

Daryl gave Rick a strange look. "Yeah, I got it, Rick." Then he frowned and attempted to lean out of the window. "What's that rattlin' sound?"

"Um… I don't hear anything." Rick said hurriedly, putting another hand on the sill to force Daryl back a little. "So… I just also wanted to say, have fun out there…" He cast a quick glance towards the back of the vehicle then carried on, "And… Tahly, hey, I really hope you guys get to your uncle's place…"

Daryl held a hand up to Rick's babbling. "Alright, man. We got it. We'll see ya."

"Wait! Um, also I was just going to say that…" Rick shot another glance to the side, then grinned. "Oh! No, never mind. Safe travels!" Banging a hand on the side of the door, he stepped back and gave an overenthusiastic wave.

"Weirdo." muttered Daryl, moving the RV slowly forward as Abraham opened the gates.

The vehicle lumbered out of the gates, but soon Daryl's brow furrowed. "What's that noise?" He turned to Tahlia. "Hear that?"

Tilting her head to one side, Tahlia listened for a second, then nodded. There was a clanging sound coming from the back of the RV.

"Goddammit." Daryl pulled up the brake. "Lemme just check it out."

Tahlia stuck her head out the window to look behind them as Daryl jumped out of the RV, surprised to see that their friends were all standing in a group in the open gates of Alexandria, laughing and waving at them. Confused, she opened the door and headed to the back of the vehicle, only to find Daryl standing there sucking on his top teeth, arms staunchly folded as he stared at the back face of the RV.

And then Tahlia saw what had him looking so unimpressed and she immediately burst into laughter as Daryl did a half-turn, only barely able to contain his own mirth now, and extended a middle finger at their friends who were all hooting and cackling.

At least they knew the source of the noise now.

There, attached to the towbar were strings of empty tin cans, and above that, spray-painted in huge, looping letters across the back of the RV was a hot pink declaration of,

'Just Married!'