AN: Here we go, another little chapter here. There's one, maybe two, more chapter(s) to go here and this story is a wrap. I'm going to probably be focusing as much attention as I can (work picking up) on this to get it signed, sealed, and done. Then I'll move onto one of the others that's close to being wrapped.

I will give you a warning ahead of time so you can start preparing yourself (and just to torture you a little because I'm evil), that you should enjoy the fluffy warmth of this chapter because we do have some things ahead.

I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think!

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Hershel agreed to do a quick ceremony for Carol and Daryl that was hardly worthy of being called a "ceremony" at all. In his house, in front of the big fireplace that was yet to begin burning the first low wood fires of the coming cold weather, he married them, guiding them in repeating the words that people had probably been repeating for centuries…words that didn't mean anything on their own, but Daryl hoped that the feelings behind them were what made them true.

Daryl had walked away from it, when the vows were done, with the one line ringing in his ears, especially in light of his passing conversations with Merle.

Until death do you part.

He wasn't opposed to that idea at all. He had no other plans and wouldn't have really thought that a world like this would have found him ever marrying anyone, so he knew that the reason that the line ran circles around his mind had nothing to do with his commitment to the relationship that he'd just accepted as the last, and really the first if anyone was bothering to count, relationship that he'd ever had.

What bothered him, maybe, was the gnawing feeling in his gut that death was too close these days. It was so close behind them all that it practically breathed on their necks and made them shiver once or twice a day.

And if they were really hitting the road? If they were taking off like the old man would want them to, Rick and crew in tow or not, then they might be even closer to it than they thought. Yet, if they stayed…it really wasn't kept at any great distance. If they stayed then all they accomplished was knowing where it would happen instead of wondering and waiting like they would while they tried to outrun what no one had ever succeeded in outrunning.

When night had fallen, Carol had taken Hershel up on the offer of using the hot shower in the upstairs bathroom to "freshen up" in contrast to the cold rag and bucket well-water baths that they were accustomed to taking. Daryl, figuring that they weren't going to have commodities for long and he might as well not bother getting used to them, had stuck with the tried and true method and washed himself off with a bucket of water just behind the barn where no one might notice him.

When he was headed back toward the house, though, back toward the bed that they'd been sharing during his healing promised, granted to them both as a "wedding present" for the night, Daryl realized he wasn't entirely alone outside.

The campers were off in their tents and in the RV, those who were sleeping in the house were already closed inside its doors, but sitting on the porch steps, thin enough to almost be mistaken for one of the posts, was one of the newest Dixons.

"It's gettin' late," Daryl said. "Thought you'd be gone ta bed already."

"Mama's still upstairs," Sophia said. "I wanted her to tell me goodnight."

Daryl hummed to himself. It sounded like a reasonable request. Carol and Sophia had practically been joined at the hip since the girl's return, so just agreeing to sleep in the RV, curled up with Alice where Dale had given her refuge so she could "move out" of the old man's space, was a pretty big move for the girl. It wasn't too much, Daryl figured, to hope for a soapy smelling hug and a goodnight kiss from her mother.

Daryl swung around and sat on the porch step next to Sophia digging through the bundle of dirty clothes he carried with him, to find himself a cigarette and a lighter. He lit the cigarette and puffed on it in silence a moment while Sophia guarded the same silence.

Daryl was the first to break it. He usually liked quiet, but sometimes it just got to be too much, especially when you felt like there was something that the person with you was dancing around saying and simply hadn't found the courage to voice.

"You…uh…gonna be alright with Al tonight?" He asked.

Sophia hummed at him.

"Where is she?" He asked.

"Inside," Sophia said. "She was talking to Hershel."

Daryl hummed back at that. The two of them talked regularly about the health of the various members of the group that had suffered from one problem or another during their time there. Tonight probably wasn't any different. Alice would likely linger inside until Carol came down, and then she would come out looking for Sophia.

"Lemme ask ya somethin'," Daryl said. "If we gotta hit the road, you gonna be alright with that?"

Sophia moved and ran her finger around inside the top of the shoes she was wearing. It was something to do with her hands while she worked out what the answer to his question was going to be.

"We're all going together?" Sophia asked, not sounding entirely sure.

"All of us that matter," Daryl said.

He wouldn't doubt if the girl had some connection to the farm at the moment. It was a symbol of her safety and a symbol of her return to whatever "normal" there was these days.

"Listen, Soph," Daryl said. "I come after you in them woods, didn't I? Me an' Merle…ya Ma? We come after ya, didn't we?"

She nodded.

"If we leave here, we're leavin' together. All of us…whole…Dixon clan. Don't matter if nobody else goes with us or not. We're all goin' together. And…Soph…we ain't never gonna leave each other behind, not like you got left by Rick an' if somethin' does happen? We gotta…somebody gets lost? We gonna find 'em too, OK? Hunt 'em down if we gotta. We gonna stick together," Daryl said. "I come after ya once…I'd come after you again."

Sophia stared at him, becoming less visible as what was left of the light of the day was fading out around them. Then she shifted and Daryl felt the press of her body against his as she found her way right beside him on the step. He hesitated a moment, and then he dropped an arm over her shoulder and she leaned into him.

"Dixons?" Sophia asked.

Daryl hummed.

"Am I a Dixon too?" She asked.

Daryl chuckled.

"Hell…way you lived out there like you did? Don't know if any of us coulda done it. Certainly couldn'ta done it no better. I'd say you just about as Dixon as Dixon gets," Daryl commented. He paused a moment, the thought suddenly striking him that maybe Sophia wouldn't like some new identity thrust upon her simply by merit of her mother marrying him. "If you wanna be," he added for good measure.

"That would make you my Daddy now," Sophia commented.

Daryl wasn't sure if it was a question or a statement with as ambiguously as it came out.

"Yeah," he said. "Reckon it would. If you'll have me…ain't much."

Sophia wrapped her skinny arms around him and leaned into him, hugging him tightly enough that he realized his side, though pretty well healed, wasn't entirely toughened to the touch. He didn't say anything, though. He simply rubbed her arm with the hand that he already dropped around her.

"I'm glad to be a Dixon," Sophia said.

Daryl chuckled.

"That's somethin' ya don't hear every day," he commented. "But I'm damn glad ta have ya," he added.

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Carol didn't point out to Daryl the humor that she felt over the fact that they'd fallen so quickly into "married life" that they'd barely gotten their breath back from the best love making they could manage without causing any damage to his healing muscles, and already they were having a serious conversation about the future of their group and their family in the afterglow.

It was almost as if, instead of being married ten or so hours, they'd been married ten or so years already. But then, maybe that's how things were these days. There wasn't time to take it slow like there might have once been.

"It ain't gonna be easy," Daryl said, hugging her so tightly against him that she had missed some of what he'd said, mostly reassurance and worry on his part, because she'd been trying to decide if she should tell him that he was holding her too tightly or simply suffer through it for his benefit. "We don't know what we gonna find, or if we gonna find anything at all. Don't know…what's out there."

Carol squirmed enough that he naturally released some of the pressure of his arm muscles on her body, not fully aware of his own strength, and she enjoyed the full breath she could take before she responded to him.

"We haven't known what to expect from one day to the next since…well at least I haven't…since the news started reporting on the crazy chaos that was happening," Carol said. "It's not going to be any different to not know what to expect now."

"Rick's always said there was strength in numbers," Daryl said, almost sounding like he was musing over it. "Merle says they ain't no such thing. Says there's strength in strength."

Carol hummed at him.

"And what does my husband say?" She asked, wrenching free from him enough to turn to face him. She offered him a smile and he gave her the smile he had that curled his lips in return. Then he leaned and kissed her. "That's a good answer," she teased, when the kiss had broken.

"I don't know," he said. "I see both sides, I guess. "I guess, numbers mean you got more hands. Means if you're in trouble, you got more people watchin' your back."

Carol considered it because she could see that Daryl was concerned about this. He was really concerned. And, if she understood why the way that she thought she did, it was actually quite flattering. Daryl had something to be concerned about now. He had a family, and now it wasn't just the small family of his brother. Now his family had grown considerably, and he wanted them all to be safe. He wanted them to make the best decision, and the best decision would be the one that saved them all the longest.

"You see both sides because you're willing to look at both sides," Carol offered. "And I see both sides too, but I think that Merle's more right than Rick in this one."

Daryl lifted up a little and shifted around, changing his support on his elbow to "listen" to her better. She took that as her sign to continue with her views on the situation.

"There's strength in numbers, you're right, in that more people have your back in a bad situation, but Daryl, it doesn't mean much if the numbers you've got can't be counted on," Carol said.

He chewed at his lip, the physical sign that he was chewing on what she was saying at the moment.

"When I needed them? There weren't a lot of people there for me," Carol said. "All these numbers? All this strength? It wasn't doing me any good…but you were there for me. And you came through for me."

"Merle helped," Daryl said.

Carol smiled at him. He was loyal. That was one thing that she could really, truly say about Daryl. He was loyal. It was evident in everything he did. He didn't pledge his loyalty to you lightly, but once you had it? He was going to stand by you. He wasn't, in this case, going to let Merle or anyone else go without the kudos he thought they deserved. She was sure, if she pressed it, he would defend anyone who had done anything, insisting that they get their credit.

"He did help," she agreed softly. "And other people helped too. There's where the strength comes in, Daryl. It's not in how many people help, it's in how much the people you have help."

His lip curled slightly with a smile, satisfied with the answer.

"Yeah," he commented, quietly agreeing with her.

"And if we're all we've got," Carol offered. "Then we're all we need. We leave with the people who want to leave with us because those are going to be the ones we can count on down the road."

Daryl nodded his head at her.

"We'll find somethin'," he said. "Somewhere…together? We're gonna find somethin'. It just ain't here an' it ain't now."

Carol moved to kiss him again and he held the kiss a moment, moaning into her mouth like he'd never had any pleasure as great as the kiss that they were sharing.

"We'll find something," she assured him. "Together."