Epilogue

Rebuilding the prison was a surprisingly easy task.

With more fighters than the first time around and more than enough spare material in the town nearby it had only taken two months to rebuild their home and to clear out most of the walkers plaguing it. The walkers that hadn't been killed were moved from the inside of the prison to the space between the fences to be used as a defense against invaders if anyone tried to get into their home. They also managed to set up a system for watches and replant most of their crops and keep their existence from the Woodbury community.

Things wear going fine, better than they had been in a long time and it made Rick's heart ache that his lover was unable to see it.

Daryl had slipped into a deep sleep and had yet to awaken since collapsing after his battle with the governor. Everyone took turns doting on the unconscious archer, knowing that if he woke and found them all fussing over him there would be hell to pay.

No one was a worse patient that an anxious Daryl Dixon.

All the while, Merle watched them, watched how they treated his brother, and was content.

His brother had people who cared about him, people who wouldn't abandon him or hurt him and it was all he'd ever hoped for. Carol walked passed, shooting him a sassy smile and a slight smirk crossed his lips.

He'd even found a little love of his own, something he'd never known could happen to someone like him. Someone broken and hardened by the world around them. He couldn't have been more wrong.

"Judy misses you. She hasn't stopped rambling about that hunting trip y'all are supposed to go on, and how as soon as you wake up you'd better make her some squirrel stew because dad doesn't make it right."

Lori frowned as she peaked into the cell that Dixon was in to find her son at the man's bedside rambling on with a sad smile on his lips. Ever since this whole time-travel thing he'd behaved like he didn't' know her and while logically she knew that it was because she was dead in his future, it didn't stop it from hurting.

She had managed to rebuild he relationship with Shane and had even gained a tentative friendship with Rick, but her children, both of them kept her at a distance, only interacting with her if they had to. With Judith, she understood that Daryl had been her parent her entire life, even more so than Rick, but she didn't understand why Carl was treating her the way he was. She had raised him his whole life, even while Rick was too busy on the police force to have much to do with him.

So why?

Why didn't he love her anymore?

Why did he listen to Dixon faster than he'd ever listened to her?

She bit her lip, eyes burning with tears she didn't dare shed.

"I know you're there." Carl stated calmly, his eyes never leaving Dixon's prone form. Hesitantly, she moved into the room and took a seat beside him, feeling a small tinge of sympathy for the man lying unconscious in the bed.

She'd never seen him look so small.

"You have questions." Her son stated and she nodded.

"Why him?" She replied and the teen sighed, looking much older than his fifteen years.

"You died," He began, eyes distant. "You died and then you came back as one of them and Dad broke. He couldn't- wouldn't shoot you…so I did. Daryl was there. He was there to care for Judy when Dad refused to even look at her and he was there to save me. No one but Daryl knows that I almost killed myself the night you died."

Lori gasped.

"I couldn't handle it all. One parent was dead, the other lost to the terrors of his own mind and I thought anything, anything was better than that. When everyone went to sleep, I took my gun and I went up to the roof, which, in hindsight, was a stupid thing to do. I forgot that it was Daryl's territory since he refused to sleep in a cell, and then when I put the gun in my mouth, he stopped me. He gave me a tongue-lashing from hell then punched me for being a 'fuckin' dumbass'. He reminded me that there was still a reason to live and made me promise not to do it again. He told me if I tried he'd beat the hell out of me then put a bolt between my eyes himself because there wasn't no way in hell that he was gonna let me die in peace."

A small smile crossed the woman's lips, and she felt a wave of gratitude wash over her for the hunter. He'd saved her baby boy and her daughter and had asked for nothing in return.

"He promised not to tell anyone but I thought he was lying…he didn't tell. No one knows, not even dad. That was the day he earned my trust. He became my confident, my guide while dad was too broken to do anything but drown in his own memories. Then as a prank I taught Judith to call him mama because he always reminded me of how you treated me when I was little and the name just stuck. When he saved dad, it only cemented his role as our mother."

Her son stood and kissed her cheek. "I love you, no matter how it may seem, I do. But you have to face the fact that you haven't been my mother for a long long time." He turned to leave. "Just get to know him, mom. Daryl isn't who you think he is."

She watched him leave them looked down at the prone man who had saved what seemed like her entire family.

"Thank you." She whispered softly, leaning over to kiss his cheek. He stirred, storm blue eyes fluttering open and she jerked back in surprise. Daryl smiled at her, his gaze soft.

"I should get Rick." She said but he shook his head.

"Ya heard the kid," He rasped. "We need to talk."

She bit her lip hesitantly but sat back down all the same.

Rick smiled as he leaned in the doorway of his cell watching his ex-wife and his husband talk, Lori giggling at something Daryl had told her.

Of all the scenes he had expected when he had returned from his watch this hadn't even crossed his mind but it was heartwarming none the less. Still, as much as he was dreaded to interrupt their bonding, he needed to talk to Daryl alone, if only to affirm to himself that the other was alright, so he shuffled a bit to draw their attention.

Daryl, of course, was the first to look up and when he did, he smiled, causing something to settle in Rick's chest.

His family was safe, his lover was awake and fully healed, and they'd been given a second chance.

The world was nowhere near perfect, not with the apocalypse going on outside the walls of their home but for just that one second, everything was right in his world, and it was a feeling he would cherish until the end of time.

FIN~

A/N: And it's finally finished. I had planned this to be short, only three of four chapters but somehow it got away from me and this happened. Anyways, that's it for this story, I won't be writing a sequel because frankly I have no clue where it would go. However, I do have a few more ideas for this verse that might be oneshots if I decide to write them. R&R