AN: So it's Thursday as I'm writing this. I really should be doing my homework right now…But I swear if I even look at it I will go insane. I noticed an issue with a previously posted chapter. In chapter 15 I said that Kim had dark auburn hair. She has blonde. I'm sorry, that's what happens when I don't focus on one thing at a time…So sorry. I'll update the other chapter and that'll be fixed.

"I'm Marie," she introduced herself to Kim. Daryl had motioned for everyone to join him in meeting the blonde.

"Oh, you're Daryl's wife." She said, like someone had told her that before. Marie's face actually turned slightly pink. She sent a look to him, at which point he found the trees rather interesting.

"Yeah, I guess I am," she said with the smallest of smiles. She was actually kind of touched that he would refer to her as his wife.

"And these are your children?" Marie nodded. She took in the faces of the three young ones. Parker first, then Airy, Gavin, and finally Sophia. She couldn't help but think how they didn't look like their parents much-other than Parker that was.

"Are you nice?" Gavin asked.

"I am very nice. What's your name?"

"Gavin."

"It's nice to meet you, Gavin. I'm Kim. I'm happy that you will be staying with us."

He gave her a hesitant look and moved closer to his mother.

"Well hello!" A group of four guys began walking out of the large house. There was two with blonde hair, one with black, and one with light brown. The one with black hair was the one that had said it. "I'm Andrew," he smiled happily. He was in his early to mid twenties and probably the perfect example of tall, dark, and handsome.

The group from the prison introduced themselves. The older looking one with blonde hair introduced himself to be Henry, the younger looking one was Travis, and the brown haired one was Jacob. "Why don't we show y'all the inside?" Henry suggested with a kind smile.

"That would be nice," Maggie smiled at them. Everyone seemed happy and calm…It was nice.

Henry led them into the fortress of a house. It had high ceilings, and the walls were glass. Marie didn't like the sight of that, not one bit. "Don't worry, those windows are made to withstand a rocket launcher, or up to 7 tons of weight on the other side," Henry assured her, noticing her discomfort. "Plus, most of our time is spent on the lower floors."

"On the lower floors?" Sophia asked, sounding much like a child.

"Yes. It's safer below ground. If there were to be a hurricane or something-We are close to the ocean, we'd still be safe."

"It makes sense," Daryl said.

"Don't worry, Soph, it won't be so bad."

"Remember the CDC?" she asked coolly.

"I do but-"

"This isn't the CDC," Carl reminded her. "I don't think that they'll trap us down here…The doors work here…And I don't think it'll blow up, will it?"

"Um…No," Kim said, her brow knitted. "What happened at the CDC."

"We went there-Seeking refuge, y'know?" Glenn started. "It was great, they had hot showers and non-bland food…Well that lasted a whole twelve hours and then the place was going to self-destruct. We barely got out."

Kim auditable gasped. "Oh my God…That's terrible," she said.

"How did you find out about this?" Andrew asked.

"The doctor that was there. He was the only one left," Marie explained. "He wasn't even going to tell us…"

"Okay guys, let's get off this topic," Maggie suggested. "We're supposed to be celebrating."

"She's right," Henry agreed. "So which one of you two lovely couples would like first pick on bedrooms?"

"Daryl and Marie should get it," Glenn said. "Without them, we wouldn't be here."

"I agree."

"You guys don't-" Marie started to protest.

"They're right," Beth agreed. "You saved mine and Maggie's lives. Plus, you got us here. Take it," she smiled sweetly.

"Okay, thank you," Marie said.

"Right this way," Henry led them to the empty eleven bedrooms. "One room has a bunch of different bunk beds that you kids may like." Henry opened that room first, it was painted white with about five sets of bunk beds all around the room. They weren't like the bunks at the prison, they had comfortable looking mattresses and the comforters weren't thread bare.

"What do you think, Gavin? Sophia? Carl? Wanna sleep in here?" Marie offered.

"What if I get scared?" Gavin asked.

"Yer always welcome in our room," Daryl assured him.

"Okay, I guess so."

They moved on to looking at the different other bedrooms. Most of them were a simple dresser with a queen sized bed, but when they walked into this one, Marie fell in love. The walls were a deep blue and reminded her of the ocean, the bed seemed larger than the rest and it had a blue and green patterned bedspread. The dresser was oak, and she noticed another door within the room. "May I?" she asked, gesturing to the door. Henry nodded and she walked across the room and opened it. Inside, there was a decent sized bathroom, it had his and hers sinks, a shower with the wavy glass that you couldn't see through around it, and a rather large bathtub.

It wasn't just Marie who was in awe, Daryl liked it a lot too. It would be so nice to be able to have this much privacy…And especially their own bathroom. "This the one ya want?" He asked her. She nodded, unable to form words.

"All right," Henry agreed. But then Marie thought of something.

"Wait, where do you five sleep?" she asked.

"There's a separate hallway, we have our own custom rooms," Jacob answered.

"Custom bedrooms?" Beth asked.

"Well yeah, my uncle built this house…He had planned on there being more of our family but…" Travis trailed off.

"So now we have room for you all," Andrew injected.

"We really do appreciate all of this," Marie said sincerely. "And we thoroughly plan to pull our weight around here."

Dinner was a rather interesting affair. While the group had been getting settled in their rooms, Henry had dug out two cribs and a whole mess of baby stuff. Marie was over the moon when she saw it. Rather than setting Parker and Airy up somewhere distant from her, the cribs were right inside she and Daryl's room. At dinner, the twins were asleep, so Marie started using the baby monitors for the first time.

Parker wasn't fully better still, but his fever had disappeared while they'd been there-they gave him some child's Tylenol and a warm bath. Even though Marie had the baby monitor, she didn't trust leaving him alone for too long and would check on him every ten minutes. As she sat down from her most frequent check Daryl sent her a half smirk. "What?" she asked.

"Ya need to relax an keep yer ass in that seat," he smirked a little wider. This caused Marie to laugh out loud. The rest of the people hadn't heard their conversation, so naturally they turned and stared.

"You're telling-" She paused to laugh some more. "You're telling me to relax. That's really funny Daryl!" He rolled his eyes, silently loving the sound of her real and natural laughter, but suddenly, it stopped. She clutched her side quickly.

"Ya okay?" he asked tentatively. She nodded, biting her lip. "Yer rib a'right?"

"It's fine," she said. Her voice was tight, she was clearly holding back the pain.

"Ya okay, Momma?" Gavin asked from across the table, his mouth full of macaroni and cheese.

"I'm fine sweetheart. I still just need to take it easy."

"What happened?" Henry asked, summoning words when the others could not.

"I was shot," she admitted.

"'S'part a the reason we had to get outa there," Daryl said. "Things weren't to safe 'round there."

"I'm okay now though," she assured everyone. They were all staring at her with worried faces. "I'm okay, really-" A small whine came through the baby monitor. "I'll be-"

"Sittin' right there," Daryl said for her. "I got this one."

"What if-"

"I got it," he assured her.

"Well, I think it may be time for something more interesting to drink," Travis announce. He stood from the table and walked into the kitchen area. The newcomers noticed the small grin Jacob and Andrew exchanged.

Travis walked back in a minute later with three bottles. "I've got wine and I've got whiskey. Who wants what?"

"Travis," Henry warned.

"C'mon dad," the blonde complained. "We're celebrating." With a deep sigh, Henry agreed.

"Marie, what do you want?" He was starting with the newbies to be polite.

"I can't drink," she said. "But I know Daryl would die for some of that whiskey over there," she smiled softly.

"This whiskey? Hm, I don't know 'bout that," Andrew sent a teasing look to her along with a wink.

Marie simply rolled her eyes. Sure he was cute, for a kid. He may've been around twenty-five, but that was kid status to her now, besides, she had Daryl. She couldn't even really look at anybody else. A moment later the aforementioned redneck made a reappearance. "Which one was it?" Marie asked, referring to the baby. Usually she could tell their cries apart, but over the monitor, it sounded much different.

"Airy. Jus' needed burped." He hadn't noticed the whiskey yet, a glass of the dark amber colored liquid was being passed over to Marie.

"Well ain't you just a good daddy?" she grinned. "Here," she held out the glass to him.

"This what I think it is?" he asked, looking up at the younger man with the liquor in hand.

"Mm hm," Travis said. Daryl grinned in thanks and drank before reclaiming his seat.

"Well, before y'all get too deep into your drinks, I must know how everyone is with weapons," Henry told them. "Guns, who can shoot them?" Everyone but Gavin raised their hands. He was impressed. "Knives, and I don't mean throwing. I mean the close up, hand to hand thing." Everyone. "Bows?" Daryl and Marie. "Which kind."

"Crossbow," they both replied.

"Both of you?" Andrew asked with a half smile. It was kind of nice to see how those two really were. He could quite honestly tell just by looking at them. They were really something. After they nodded, he decided to actually ask what he wanted to ask. "Did you meet before or after the apocalypse." Whether he wanted to admit it or not, Andrew enjoyed learning couple's back stories.

"After," Marie said.

"Wow." That was even more surprising.

The night continued on, pretty uneventfully. Everyone was simply thankful to be out of harm's way for a while.

AN: I don't know how I feel about this chapter…But anyway, I'm kinda runnin' a little low on ideas. I'm just afraid that it's going to get boring for some of you…

If you haven't read it yet, I have another Daryl/OC story posted…I've probably already said this…But I really like working on that one. So if this one slows down a bit more, that'll be why and my shoulder is better, so I'm going back to tennis this week-well I'm going to practice Monday and if it doesn't hurt after, I'll be back for the next two weeks.

On a separate note…I'm supposed to come up with some really good movies to order. Does anybody know any really good ones with Norman Reedus? Other suggestions are welcome too. I know that I can google this, but I'd rather hear that "oh, that's a really good movie" first hand. Thanks Please review!