A/N

At last the final chapter. Thank you for waiting so patiently, I hope you enjoy it.
Thank you to everyone who has left kudos or commented on this work, it's the only way we writers know how we're doing so it's really appreciated.
Please read and hopefully enjoy and I'd love to know what you thought, even if you hated it.

Chapter 8

Two gunshots rang out and both truck drivers slumped forward, the engine on one stalling as the driver's foot slipped from the pedals. The other continued to creep slowly forward, the dead driver's foot wedged against the accelerator.

People screamed and scattered as a hail of bullets raked through the crowd, unseen fingers on triggers relentless in their assault as the Wolves tried frantically to escape. Many died where they stood, several were injured and tried to crawl away as they were trampled by others in their own desperate attempt to get to safety.

With a frustrated snarl Daniel dived for cover behind a burnt out wreck of a car. His angry eyes searched for any sign of their attackers, narrowing when he saw two men using the covering gunfire to dash across the parking lot towards the bound woman. A well built, bearded man lunged towards the driver's door of the still moving truck as a man with a gun in his hand and a crossbow on his back raced to the woman's side, pulling a lethal looking knife from a sheath at his belt as he ran.

Coop wrenched open the door, grabbing the body of the man slumped over the steering wheel, hurling it from the cab. He yanked the keys from the ignition and gave a sigh of relief as the vehicle ground to a halt. Spinning round he saw Daryl had reached Jasmine's side. Before he could head towards them a man with a gunshot wound in his thigh lurched round the hood of the truck, cursing as he threw himself at the bigger man. It didn't take much for Coop to put him down, he was weak and injured and Coop was pissed off and feeling the need for some vengeance. As he let the man's limp body fall to the ground he saw a brief flash of movement from the corner of his eye.

The man who had given the order for the trucks to move was rising from his hiding place behind the gutted remains of a small car. Even from across the parking lot Coop could see the feral look of hatred in his eyes as he glared at Jasmine. Coop raised his gun as he saw the man lift his arm, the gun he was holding aimed at the woman he considered his kid sister. As his finger tightened on the trigger of his own weapon he saw the muzzle flash and knew he'd been too slow.

Daryl dropped to his knees at Jasmine's side, his knife already sawing at the ropes binding her wrists, knowing the truck was still moving and he had to move fast. He blanked out the noise of the screams and sounds of the covering fire Rick and Michonne were laying down, watching the woman in front of him. Her eyes were screwed shut and she was whimpering in pain as her body was pulled, stretched far more than was natural. He was almost through the thick rope when it suddenly went slack, a quick glance revealing Coop had successfully stopped the vehicle. He saw him fighting off a single attacker but knew the huge man was more than capable of dealing with it.

As he untangled the severed ropes from her wrists Jasmine's eyes flew open, panic and pain turning to relief when she saw him.

"You came!" she cried, flinging her arms around his neck, clinging to him desperately as her body shook. Without thinking he wrapped his arms around her back, pulling her close to his chest, holding her tight as she trembled and sobbed against him.

"I gotcha, gonna be okay now" he murmured as his fingers tangled in her hair and she buried her face into his neck.

"They aint gonna hurt you again" he told her as she began to relax, her sobs subsiding as she loosened her tight grip on him and pulled back slightly so she could look into his face. She bought her hand to his cheek, cupping it softly as she gazed at him, a small smile on her lips.

He saw her mouth open to speak but no words came out, just a small, shocked gasp. Her eyes widened briefly, then clouded over as she slumped forward, collapsing against him, her body suddenly limp in his arms. He felt a warm wetness on his stomach and glanced down in confusion. The front of Jasmine's shirt was soaked in blood and at first he thought it was seeping onto his own clothes, but then he became aware of a spreading numbness throughout his body. He heard distant voices calling his name and felt Jasmine being pulled from his arms. He tried to stop her being taken but other hands were pulling at him, laying him down on the asphalt ground and he felt a firm pressure against his side. He managed to turn his head and saw Coop, kneeling with Jasmine's head cradled in his lap, his body shaking with sobs as Michonne tried desperately to stop the flow of blood from the Doctor's body, as it pooled beneath her from wounds in both her back and chest.

Pain hit him all at once and his vision began to dim.

"Stay with me!" Rick's voice was loud, more an order than a request and he fought to obey but the approaching darkness was too appealing and he let it take him….

3 months later….

Daryl strode down the street, crossbow in its familiar place on his back, returning the friendly greeting from a woman and her two children as they him passed on the pavement. He was still finding it hard to accept that he was part of this town, that people finally appreciated him for who he was. It had been difficult for him to open up and let strangers in but he felt he owed it to Jasmine to at least try. Rick, Carol and Aaron had been there for him, guiding him gently as he struggled to fit in and deal with the expected social niceties. Sometimes he still felt the need to be outside the walls alone but now he made sure he cleaned up before coming back through the gate and any game was gutted and prepared out of sight in the kitchen not on the front porch. He controlled his temper most of the time and actually made an effort to speak to people instead of grunting or snarling at them. Slowly their attitudes towards him changed and he began to feel like a valued member of the community.

His mind drifted back to that fateful day 3 months previously and he couldn't help the shudder that ran through him everytime he thought of Jasmine's motionless body slumped in his arms, his last memory before passing out of seeing Michonne trying desperately to keep her alive. He only had vague images of the following two days, two days of pain and confusion and disjointed voices pleading with him to come back to them.

He remembered waking in a strange place, Carol at his bedside, her worried, tearstained face breaking into a relieved grin when she saw he was awake.

"At last" she laughed, choking back a sob as she pulled him into a gentle hug he didn't have the strength to get out of.

"We thought we'd lost you"

She'd gone on to explain that Jasmine had been shot in the back by one of the Wolves, the only one of them who owned a gun. Coop had seen and killed him, just not in time to prevent the shot. The bullet had ploughed straight through the slender woman, striking Daryl and lodging deep in his side. At first the group had thought they had lost both of them and Rick had taken it badly, taking his uncontrollable rage out on the nearest surviving Wolf. In a desperate attempt to save himself the Wolf had told them of another community, one with a doctor about 70 miles from the Wolves base. It was the next place they'd had planned to attack once they had finished with Alexandria, it's distance the only reason they had taken Jasmine in the first place, believing her to be a real doctor and wanting the closest one for their dying leader.

The injured Daryl and Jasmine had been carefully loaded onto the back of a pickup and the Wolf forced to drive the group to this mysterious community.

Carol told him how the people there were good, more than prepared to help the ragtag group of strangers that arrived at their gates in the middle of the night with two dying people in the back of a truck.

"Dr Meadows removed the bullet and patched you up, then all we could do was wait for you to wake up" she told him with a stern look "You took your sweet time and made us wait for two days. Just like you to make us worry" she mock scolded as she squeezed his hand, with a smile.

He'd asked after Jasmine and her smile had faded.

"She's alive but in a bad way" she told him " she lost so much blood her body went into shock and she actually clinically died but Dr Meadows managed to resuscitate her. She's in another room on life support. We've been lucky, the people here raided a hospital a few months back, took all the supplies and some of the more portable machines"

He'd insisted on seeing her and Carol had helped him shuffle like an old man into the next room. Marcie was sitting at her bedside, a book clutched in her hand as she read out loud to her motionless friend.

"I don't know if she can hear me but it might help bring her back, she always loved this book" Marcie had given them a watery smile as she held up the battered copy of Pride and Prejudice she been reading from before leaving the room.

Carol had left him alone for a while and he'd stared down at Jasmine's pale, still face. She'd looked so small and frail, her dark hair fanned across the pillow, an oxygen mask over her face as the machines breathed for her.

Feeling stupid he'd lowered himself to the bed at her side, his fingers brushing over her exposed hand as it lay on the sheets beside her.

"Come on Doc, you aint gonna go and die on me now are you? Not now I need you to help me sort my shit out. You was right it did feel good to talk, but I aint gonna do it with anyone but you so you better get your ass well again damn quick" With a final touch to her hand he'd pulled himself up and limped from the room.

She'd been on the life support machine for 4 weeks with no improvement when the decision was made to switch it off. Daryl and Carol had both fought the decision but had to concede that winter was coming and the community needed to conserve the amount of electricity the solar panels made for more practical things. The day they pulled the switch Daryl left the new community and didn't return for 3 days. He arrived back at the gates in a truck he'd hotwired somewhere on the road filled with medical supplies and food, telling the leaders it was payment for caring for him and trying to save Jasmine. They'd accepted it gratefully and the two communities still traded together.

Daryl dragged his mind back to the present as he arrived at his destination. He climbed the steps to the house and barged inside without knocking, at once regretting it when he found himself facing Marcie and Eugene entwined on the couch. Without coming up for air Marcie waved him on, indicating down the hallway to the closed door of the dining room and he rushed through trying not to see anything else, knowing what he had seen already was going to haunt him for a long time.

Slamming the door shut again behind him he leant on the frame, scrubbing at his face, trying to rub away the images embedded there.

"Maybe you should start using the back door, less risk of seeing things you don't want too" her voice was amused and he knew she was laughing at him.

"You knew what they was doing and you didn't think to warn me?" he grumbled "Gonna have to bleach my eyeballs now, just to get 'em clean after seeing that"

She laughed again.

"Just be happy for them, though I think they could have waited until after the wedding before they started the wedding night. I always thought it was unlucky for the groom to see the bride in her dress before the ceremony"

He gave an inelegant snort.

"Looked like someone was getting lucky to me and don't recall seeing no wedding dress either"

Finally he glanced up at her for the first time since entering the room and couldn't help the small grin at the sight in front of him, as she sat at a desk, peering into a small mirror applying some kind of girly shit to her eyelashes.

"Looking good girl" he commented, noting her unruly long hair pinned up on top of her head, messy tendrils escaping already and framing her face, the small white flowers Maggie had carefully woven in perched precariously, already in danger of falling out. The strappy dress was pale blue and fitted her slim frame perfectly, the high heeled shoes on her feet setting the outfit off nicely.

He saw her eying him up and down and squirmed awkwardly in his long sleeved shirt and stiff, new, black jeans, tugging uncomfortably at the tightly buttoned collar. Maggie had tried to get him to wear a suit and he'd risked his life refusing a heavily pregnant woman's request, wondering who had thought it was a good idea to make Maggie the wedding planner from Hell..

"Not looking too shabby yourself" she commented, impressed with how well he scrubbed up when he tried to make an effort.

"You ready for this then" Daryl muttered gruffly, trying to distract her from her scrutiny.

With a smile she nodded and he moved closer, scooping her easily into his arms. He swung her round and carefully set her down in the wheelchair next to the bed, making sure she was comfortable before releasing the brake and wheeling her to the door. He heard her giggle as he cautiously peered out, relieved to see the now empty couch.

"Looks like they took it somewhere else" he muttered as he wheeled her from the dining room turned bedroom.

As they made their way down the street, returning the greetings of the other townsfolk making their way to the small church he thought again how lucky they were. A week after the life support machine had been switched off Jasmine was still clinging to life. It was decided to bring her home to Alexandria and for 3 more long weeks she lay in a coma in the medical center. Round the clock care from the women of Alexandria and numerous runs to find the drips and other equipment they needed to keep her alive were finally rewarded when she moved her hand for the first time. Three days later she opened her eyes and after that continued to make a dramatic recovery. The bullet that had entered her back had damaged her spine in some way, no one knew what damage had been done or if it was permanent but it left her unable to walk. Coop and Abe had left immediately, returning several hours later with a wheelchair and she refused to let it slow her down at all.

Two weeks after waking up she was home, insisting she was perfectly capable of caring for herself once her bedroom had been moved downstairs. She continued to act as the communities only doctor, although her confidence had taken a bit of a hit after her experience with the Wolves. Marcie was the only one that knew about the nightmares that sometimes plagued her sleep but they decided it was only to be expected after what she'd been through and kept it to themselves.

Jasmine looked around the packed church. Everyone was there, no one wanted to miss the first wedding Alexandria had seen since the outbreak. She saw Eugene standing at the front of the church, smart in a suit, a look of terror on his face as he waited for his future wife to appear. Abe was tugging at the tie he'd reluctantly agreed to wear in his role as best man, earning a disapproving glare from Maggie as she hissed at him to stop fidgeting.

Rick and Michonne were next to Deanna in the front row, both trying, and failing, not to be caught stealing glances at each other decked out in their wedding finery and Jasmine guessed and hoped it wouldn't be long before they finally admitted how they felt about each other.

Next to her Daryl squirmed on the uncomfortable pew, surreptitiously trying to undo the top two buttons on his tight shirt without an eagle eyed Maggie spotting him. She did, shooting him a hurt look as she rested her hand on her bulging stomach.

"Be glad when she pops that damn kid" he muttered as he reluctantly redid the buttons up. "Won't have no reason to bully us anymore. He decided it was best to ignore the muffled laugh from the next seat.

There was a flurry of movement by the door and Marcie appeared, looking nervous and pretty in a knee length white dress, scavenged from somewhere as she clung to Coops arm. He gave her a reassuring smile and escorted her down the aisle, handing her to Eugene as they stood in front of Father Gabriel.

After a brief but touching ceremony the party moved to Deanna's house where food and booze flowed. Jasmine was settled in a large armchair, a sleepy Judith nestled into her side as she watched the newlyweds take to the temporary dance floor for the first dance. Neither could dance and it was a clumsy, awkward affair but somehow right for the two of them and got them a round of applause when it was over, as well as several ribald comments from a now tieless and tipsy Abraham about how he hoped the wedding night would be more successful.

As she watched her friends enjoy themselves around her Jasmine realised how lucky they all were. They had the security of high walls and the safety of numbers. They weren't invincible but they were strong.

"Jasmine!" Glenn's urgent voice bought her from her thoughts.

"It's Maggie, it's started" he stammered "the baby's coming"

At once Jasmine took charge.

" How far apart are the contractions?" she asked the terrified young man

Glenn stared at her wide eyed.

"I don't know, I just found her bent over in the kitchen and she yelled at me, told me to go get you" he panicked.

She caught his hand in hers, squeezing it reassuringly.

"It's okay, no need to worry, everything's going to be fine. Get Carol and take my wheelchair, get Maggie to the medical room and I'll check her out. We've probably got hours yet"

She was wrong.

Less than two hours later Hershel Shawn Rhee was brought kicking and screaming into the world. Maggie had been have contractions for a few hours before Glenn found her and been hiding it, determined she wasn't going to ruin the wedding celebrations. Now she lay back on the bed, exhausted but happy as she watched Glenn gaze at his tiny, newborn son snuggled in his arms, a look of total adoration on his face.

There was a soft tap on the door before it opened and Carol peered cautiously into the room. She'd assisted Jasmine in the delivery, remembering the training Hershel had given her in preparation for Lori's delivery, thankful that this time everything had gone to plan.

"Are you up to visitor's yet?" she asked with a smile. "There's a room full of people here, all anxious to see what all the fuss has been about"

From her chair at the bedside Jasmine helped Maggie arrange herself comfortably on the pillows as Glenn settled on the bed at her side.

"You'd better let them in" Maggie smiled "We'll get no rest 'till they've seen him"

Within seconds the room was full, people clustering around the bed offering congratulations and murmurs of delight at the newborn. Jasmine managed to get herself out of the way, knowing the group Maggie had spent so long with needed this moment of happiness.

She watched as they hugged, laughed and cried together, happy for them but feeling a brief moment of loneliness. She had no idea what had happened to any or her friends and family after the turn and could only assume they were all dead. She felt the prick of tears but brushed them away and plastered on a smile as Michonne turned to her.

"Hey, what're you doing all the way back there?" she asked "get yourself back here, you're part of this family now" Before she could protest Carl was behind her pushing the wheelchair forward and she was engulfed in the celebrations.

She caught Daryl's eye and he gave her a brief nod, a blink and you'll miss it smile crossing his face before he turned back to the ecstatic couple.

"So you got a name yet?" he asked as the baby let out a loud hungry wail, making him cringe.

"Banshee, sounds 'bout right he keeps making a noise like that" he grumbled.

"You are not calling my son Banshee!" Maggie cried, her voice almost lost amongst the laughter.

As they celebrated the new arrival Jasmine had a feeling that life was going to be alright, they were going to be ok, they were safe.

At least that was all she could hope for.

In the forest surrounding Alexandria, keeping out of sight of the men posted in the guard towers, two men studied the walls.

"They're secure but that shouldn't be a problem. We'll just wait for someone to leave on a run and snatch them up. Threatening them'll get us inside pretty quick" the taller of the two turned away.

"Set up a few patrols to keep watch, see what we can find out. If they get a chance to grab someone so much the better" He ordered.

The smaller man nodded.

"Sure thing Boss, I'll get right on it" he gave a final look at the high walls as he followed the broad, leather jacket wearing man back to the car they had arrived in.

"Think they'll give us any trouble?" he asked as he slid into the driver's seat.

The big man laughed as he rested the barbed wire covered baseball on his shoulder.

"If they do we'll soon knock it out of them" He gave a last glance over his shoulder as he climbed into the car.

"That place is as good as ours now"

END?

- A/N

Thanks for reading, hope you liked it. I have no medical experience whatsoever so have no idea if Jasmine could really have survived and recovered from an injury like that so please just give me the benefit of the doubt and call it artist license.
I've left the ending open, let me know if you would like a sequel, but it may be a while coming as I need to spend some time on the joint project with lizziekat15 (check out our Facebook page mistykatproductions for more information, please like our page and feel free to message us, we'd love to hear from you)