October 14, 2010

Shane and his team of teenage boys start a project to lay in another level of fencing to enclose more of the peninsula. It's not direly needed yet, but by spring? They're going to want farmland, and he's been led to understand there's plenty of prep work that can be done during the winter. Last week was a lot of ground clearing and chainsaw work, which meant they had a team of guards.

The second week, Otis acts as advisor and guard, his ribs still not quite up to putting in fence posts. The amiable man is happy to chatter with the four boys about ranching and farming, which none of them have any real experience with. It passed the time while setting the twelve foot steel pipe into gravel and concrete. The height will only be eight feet, but walkers can't climb, thank God, and they can put barb wire up to make it even higher.

Week three is welding the steel cross bars into place, a learning process all by itself. They switch out Otis as guard for Merle. Although uninjured, the eldest Dixon is a firm proponent of learning by doing, so after he gives the non-Dixon crew members a few lessons with the portable welding machines, he simply supervises as they work. Jesse and Micah are already experienced with metalwork, so at least they aren't all new to the job.

It's rough work, and Shane could probably borrow some of the others, especially the girls, but part of the reason for the project was something for the boys in particular to work closely together. Speed is less important than teamwork and skill building. Quinn's been working with the girls on self-defence skills, anyway.

When they return home after the third day welding, everyone is sweaty and pleasantly tired. Carl, Micah, and Jesse scatter to their respective cabins, and Shane's just told Jimmy to take the first shower when he spots the visitor sitting in the porch swing he hung when Maggie asked for one. The blond teen stops, hesitating at seeing Hershel, greeting the vet quickly and politely.

"Go on, Jimmy. Just don't use all the hot water." Shane nudges the boy as he speaks, sending him on his way inside. Figuring Hershel's sought him out to talk about Maggie, Shane snags one of the chairs populating the other side of the porch and brings it closer. Taking a seat, he waits patiently for the man to speak after a quiet, "Evening, Hershel."

This is something he figured would happen eventually. Maggie moved in with him a week after the conversation with Jimmy. That was two weeks ago, and Hershel's been keeping to his self-imposed isolation for the most part, so he and Shane haven't discussed his relationship with Maggie. The man interacts with his daughters quietly at meals, does whatever work he's assigned, and spends the rest of his free time with his Bible in his lap on the porch of his cabin.

Patricia assures Shane that Hershel's finally allowing himself to grieve for his wife and son. It's something everyone understands, so the man is typically left in peace. Maggie and Beth certainly seem alright with the process, occasionally going to sit on their father's cabin steps and chat quietly.

"Jimmy is thriving under your guardianship," Hershel says at last. It seems an odd start to any conversation between them, until the vet continues. "It's good to see him outside of the veil of dating my daughter."

Shane catches the association now. What little Hershel knows of him before he was with Maggie isn't from much personal interaction, aside from the uncomfortable conversation when Hershel was drunk in his room at the farm. Convincing a man to stop trying to drink himself to death isn't exactly a stellar way to start off, especially when that man is assessing his suitability toward his daughter later.

"He's a good kid. Needed someone with the time to focus on him, and I had it to spare." Jimmy is thriving under the assurance that he's not a temporary part of Shane's life, progressing from immature and anxious to please to earnestly hardworking. His friendship with Jesse helps, Shane thinks, even if Jimmy's closer in age to Micah than Jesse. Neither boy seems to have had much in the way of a best friend before they met.

Hershel's smile is a pale imitation of anything happy, but it's there. "There would be fewer boys going astray like I fear Jimmy was heading in the old world if more people thought that way."

That makes Shane shift and sigh. "Can't say I would have been able to before. Didn't have that kind of time, and to be honest, I definitely didn't have the right mindset to look after a teenager full time."

"What changed that?" There's curiosity in Hershel's expression, and while Shane thought he would dread a meet the parents moment for any woman, he finds he doesn't find it as bad as he imagined, at least not yet.

"Time, that one's easy enough. Not a cop anymore." Smiling, Shane shrugs. "Don't know if anyone ever filled you in, but Rick was shot just prior to the outbreak. Ended up thinking I had a dead partner. His family needed me. I had to grow up."

"Some of us do come to maturity later than others." Hershel chuckles at Shane's questioning look. "Anyone here can do the math and realize I wasn't exactly a young man when either of my daughters were born, son. I was about your age when I met Maggie's mama, my late wife Josephine. She saw something worthwhile. Eventually, I believed it, too."

Shane thinks about Maggie's firm belief that his age and previous bachelor lifestyle meant absolutely nothing to the relationship they could have now. "I think I can understand that particular concept."

"I thought as much. She's very much like her mama, my Maggie, just like Beth takes after her own mother. It's a blessing and a curse to have daughters. You want them to be strong and independent, but that means they don't need their father the same as when they were young."

"But they do still need you." Shane remembers the sisters' fear that something would happen. Maggie had chosen safety for her sister and Jimmy over her loyalty to her father, but it hadn't stopped her from wishing things were different.

"They do, but now, I'm a part of a much larger picture for them. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy for that, because when my world spiraled down to that farm and what dwelled in the barn, they needed more than just me. I didn't see how Beth would ever be able to grow into the woman I wished her to be. I thought she would miss out on so much life, once I accepted there was no cure coming. Maggie at least got to go to college and explore who she wanted to be."

"And now, you know Beth still has the chance."

"I see it every day when she comes to sit with me, son. If you asked me six months ago, I would have predicted Maggie success in a world like this, but Bethie? I would have despaired for her. But I forgot one key thing about my baby girl in that."

"What's that?" Shane knows Beth was shy and dangerously depressed when Maggie first brought her to Quinn, but since then? The girl's done nothing but thrive. She's not as brash and bold as Maggie, not by any means, but there's just a sort of content happiness in the girl that infects most everyone around her.

"She is her mother's daughter." Hershel smiles, something bright and genuine this time. "Annette was a single mother who took on a still grieving widower and his angry and spiteful daughter, and she just persisted until we saw there was light at the end of our tunnel."

Shane thinks he can relate to that light at the end of the tunnel, so he nods. The situation with Rick and Lori could have gone much, much worse than an anxious conversation with Rick and Quinn acting as a smokescreen until they found their footing again.

"I admit to having concerns, with a certain relationship you seemed to have, but Maggie explained, probably in more detail than I actually needed." Hershel looks away, and when Shane follows his line of sight, he sees that Quinn is at the archery range, watching the girls, Glenn, and Carol practice. Merle's with her, his rifle still slung across his back from guarding the fence construction. "It makes me curious that you inspired that sort of friendship."

"Explaining Quinn is most simply that I didn't deserve her looking after me, but she's got a soft spot for lost boys, I suspect." Shane has wondered, more than once, if Quinn would stay single even with a compatible woman around, because anything long term means leaving Merle to his own devices. There's a loyalty there he can't describe, and sometimes envies, and once Shane was settled, Quinn and the kids left at the bunkhouse now share the duplex cabin that Merle and Micah were living in.

"Not uncommon for women, to see through our faults to something valuable within."

"So it seems." Shane isn't sure how to reply, since the conversation seems to be more about Quinn than Maggie at this point.

"I won't keep you on the hot seat. Once, someone like you wouldn't have been my first choice for my daughter, but I also know men are infinitely capable of changing. Maggie survived an attack no woman should have to, and she came out of that stronger. I'm not so caught up in my own grief not to notice that you've been a part of that."

"As best I could."

"That's all any father could ask of a man who loves his daughter." Shane freezes, and Hershel chuckles, getting to his feet. "You may not have admitted it to yourself, much less to my Maggie, son, but it's written all over you like a neon glow anytime you look at her."

The veterinarian pats him on the shoulder as he passes him to reach the steps. " I'd advise telling her sometime soon. Women like to hear these things." He doesn't wait for Shane to respond, making his way not toward his usual spot on his own porch, but to the archery lesson. Beth's brilliant smile when she sees her father watching just as she hits an almost perfect bullseye makes Shane watch a while longer until Jimmy finally summons him that the shower is free.

Their conversation makes Shane quiet all evening, drawing a few concerned looks that he waves away with a half-hearted smile. It doesn't work on Maggie all that much, because she makes it as far as finishing her turn at dish duty before she captures his hand and leads him home. That word is still taking root in his brain alongside Hershel's acceptance when Maggie lays both hands on his chest, staring at him with concern evident in her green eyes.

"Something's been on your mind since I got back from the supply run. Is anything wrong?"

Shaking his head, Shane reaches up and takes both her hands, giving her a slow smile. "Just thinking something over. Your dad came to talk to me today."

Maggie freezes. "Seriously? I noticed he wasn't on his porch, but figured Beth lured him away somehow."

Considering Hershel did spend a lot more time out and about today, he can understand Maggie's assumption. Even when they left the dining hall, the older man was still there, actually playing a board game with some of the other older residents.

"Yeah. He was on the porch when I got home. Complimented me on Jimmy, then talked a bit about your mama, and Beth's mama, and both of you girls."

"You're smiling, so I guess it wasn't some sort of disapproving father conversation then."

"Not really. He did say that once I wouldn't have been his first choice for you." He clears the indignant look on Maggie's face with a quick, chaste kiss. "He said once I wouldn't have been, Maggie. Now, he gave me some advice."

"And what was that?" she asks, still looking a little wary.

"That there are things a woman likes to hear said out loud, not just assumed to be true." Letting go of her hands, Shane cups Maggie's face. "I do love you, Maggie Greene. I hope you know that."

All the worry fades away from her expression at his words, and she smiles brighter than Beth had earlier. "I do. Was just waiting on you to get around to admitting it."

Kissing her is even better without that one thing held back on his part. So's her smirk when they come up for air, because she says what he already knows. "I love you, too, you know."

Yeah, she does, and damn if it isn't the best feeling he's ever had. It makes him understand why Lori and Rick held on through all the bad times, why Rick was so afraid to confront Shane about his feelings for Lori, and for probably the first time, why Lori herself was so distraught when Rick reappeared after she grieved for him and let Shane comfort her in a way that crossed a line neither of them should have with Rick's 'loss' so fresh and new.

The past is the past, and that detour at least taught him to value what he has right now in front of him. Now there's just the future to face, one that no longer has the obscurity of the unknown for him. He has a family at his back, a son to care for, and most of all, the woman that loves him as fiercely as he loves her right in front of him. That's the best future any man can ask for.

A/N: And that's the end, folks, at least for Shane and Maggie's part of the series.

Although she hasn't read any of the rest of the story, I must thank inkribbon for her impromptu beta read of the chapter to get me to stop editing and post it. :) Ending the stories is always the hardest part for me, connecting them back to the quote that inspires them.

Next time this series comes around in my queue, you'll be seeing At This Moment, where Glenn and Beth find themselves stranded far from home with only each other to rely on to get back to their families.