My Angel is the Centerfold

Epilogue

Some time later…

The sound of his bedroom door swinging open pulled Daryl from his sleep. He groaned, shifting his body so that his son's head was no longer grinding directly into his spine. He and Carol were consistent in their efforts to encourage the boy to sleep in his own bed. But sometime during the night, he must have woken up and climbed into bed with them. Daryl wouldn't mind as much if the kid didn't sleep with his arms and legs jutting straight out from his body. Or turn sideways in the bed with his hard ass head jabbing one of them and his feet in the face of the other.

There was a soft rusting on the other side of the bed. And then Daryl heard River talking to his wife. "Carol, wake up! Ya gotta see this!"

"Get outta here," Daryl groused. "We're sleepin' fer fuckssake." Not only was River not supposed to be in his house without knocking. She sure as shit wasn't supposed to be barging into his bedroom while both he and Carol were sleeping.

"Shuddup," River suggested, quickly returning to her previous activity, coaxing his wife out of bed. Carol slid away from their son and swung her legs over the edge of the bed. River gave her about one more solid second before she grasped Carol by the hand and started dragging her out of the room.

Carol glanced around, trying to decipher what the emergency was as River tugged her towards the couch. It wasn't unusual for River to barge into their house for no real reason. But entering their bedroom and waking them up from a dead sleep was another matter. Carol glanced around, noticing that nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary. Her confusion only grew when River turned the tv on and joined her on the couch. She scanned through the channels until she found one that was playing a local news break.

"Look!," River exclaimed, pointing at the television. Carol rubbed the sleep from her eyes and tried to make sense out of what she was seeing. On the screen, a mob of reporters outside a residential home, watching the police walk a tall man in handcuffs towards a waiting squad car. "That's the guy I fucked! The married one!," River announced. "He's gettin' arrested!"

Carol's mouth dropped open as she listened to the reporter's voice coming in through her television speakers. Not only was Harley's former softball coach and gym teacher getting arrested, he was involved in a huge scandal. He got caught sleeping with his students. More than one of them. If that wasn't bad enough, he'd also been exchanging pictures with them via text. This meant that he was in possession of child pornography. The youngest girl was only fourteen and a freshman in high school. From what the reporter was saying, it sounded like he and a few other members of the school faculty were hosting sex parties and providing the girls with drugs and alcohol. It was hard to know how much of the story was true. But if even a fraction of it could be proven, Negan was going away for a long time.

"He's done fer," River said. As Carol continued to watch, River rose from the couch and picked up the phone. The cell service was spotty at best out in the middle of the woods, so there was an old school landline phone on the kitchen counter. She dialed Harley's cell phone number, waiting impatiently for her daughter to answer her call.

"Are ya watching the news?," River asked, not bothering with a greeting once the call connected.

"I'm drivin' there mom," Harley huffed, speaking in her usual gruff tone that always came with a hint of irritation. "I can't watch tv in the car."

Carol's body shook with silent laughter. There were many things she enjoyed about her new family. Too many to count really. But the intersections between River and her older daughter were always particularly amusing. They were polar opposites in personality, but they still loved each other like crazy.

"Yer old softball coach just got arrested," River announced. "Fer sleepin' with a bunch of young girls!"

"Well that's disgustin'," Harley agreed. She sounded slightly more interested in the conversation than she was a moment before. "Ya know what would be real funny?" Harley paused, laughing a little to herself before she answered her own question. "If he didn't do a thing and then got put in the slammer anyway. I hope they bash his fuckin' head in once he gets ta prison!"

Spencer's laughter was audible from Harley's side of the call. Harley didn't just hold grudges, she nurtured them like exotic houseplants. The only person that ever managed to come back from her bad side and live was her father. And even that was questionable at times.

From there, the conversation turned towards Harley's updated arrival time and what she wanted for breakfast when she arrived. When the call ended, River got up and headed into the kitchen to start prepping their morning meal and their bakery business task list for the day. She and Carol still had their bakery storefront in town. But over the last two years, they started taking more specialty orders. From there, they expanded into event catering.

After he gave up selling drugs. the only source of steady income he had after his military career, Merle floated in limbo for some time. He claimed he was letting his hand heal. But really, without having his role as a bike gang member and small-time dealer to define him, he didn't seem sure about who he was or wanted to be. He spent a lot of time hunting and driving River and everyone else crazy. Until one day when he and Daryl drove down to the local junkyard to look for a car that they could start fixing up for Wren and Sophia to drive.

Around a corner, near the back of the lot, Merle spotted an old Indian Chief motorcycle. It was covered in rust and missing most of the parts. But a beam of sunlight hit a tiny patch of what silver paint was left and reflected directly into his eyes, almost like the bike was calling to him. He and Daryl spent months restoring it and hunting down parts. The first time Merle drove it into the city, a man approached him and offered to buy his bike. Merle told him to fuck off, of course. But the man handed him a business card anyway, in case he changed his mind. A few days later, Merle sold his ninety dollar junkyard bike to the guy for almost twenty five thousand dollars. The day after that, he and Daryl went back to the junkyard for another project and a business was born.

No one was living high on the hog at the Dixon household. Almost all the money Carol inherited went into building the two houses on their property. But between selling the restored bikes and the bakery business, it was enough for them to live comfortably without River having to work at the club. Given the way every one of them had grown up, having exactly what they needed and a little extra on the side was more than enough to make them happy.

By the time there was finally more movement from her bedroom, Carol was in the kitchen helping River make blueberry pancakes. Her son came running in first, slamming into her legs and latching on. River coaxed him away by getting the stepstool out for him. He loved nothing more than to stand at the counter while they worked and do his own version of helping. This usually involved making a big mess with the flour and eating whatever bits of chocolate or fruit that he could get his grubby little hands on.

River set a bowl of strawberries in front of the boy to hold off some of the mess making carnage. Daryl reached into the bowl, grabbing one and popping it in his mouth on his way past. He snaked his arm around Carol's waist, pressing a soft kiss onto the nape of her neck.

"Where's my kiss?," River teased, laughing when Daryl wrinkled his nose up at her.

"Merle's got it," he joked as he wrapped his arm around her shoulders and kissed her on the soft round of her cheek. "Ya gonna tell me why ya woke me up from a dead sleep?"

"Oh yeah," River exclaimed. As wound as she was to show Carol what was happening on tv, she almost forgot about it a few minutes later. "Harley's old softball coach got arrested. He was sleeping with the students or somethin'."

"Really?," Daryl asked with a disgusted snort. The thought of it made him cringe. He didn't even like teenage girls when he was a teenager himself. What appeal they held for a grown man, he had no idea. When he was done with his momentary disgust, Daryl flashed a wicked grin in River's direction. "Ya got terrible taste in men," he declared.

She raised a brow at him as she reminded him of the obvious. "Ya know I'm married to yer brother…"

"Exactly," Daryl replied, shaking his head when River erupted into laughter.

While Carol and River finished up breakfast, Daryl headed outside to collect the other two little monsters. Once the weather was warm enough, he set up a tent in the backyard for Sophia and Wren. They'd been camping out in it on and off for the last few weeks, sometimes with friends and sometimes just the two of them. Since they moved out to the smaller country school district, Sophia was finally making friends on her own instead of letting Wren do all the legwork for her. Daryl sipped on his coffee as he rousted the two girls and their current visitor from their sleeping bags.

While the girls took off into the house looking for pancakes, Daryl made his way through a well worn trail in the woods to the other house on the property. Merle was already on the porch of his A-frame cabin, drinking his own cup of coffee. Daryl lowered himself down in the chair next to his brother. They chatted a little about the bike they were currently working on and Harley's impending visit. But mostly, they just sat and enjoyed the only peace and quiet they were likely to get that day. The fingers on Merle's hand curled slightly inward as he rested it against his thigh. He regained use over his appendage, though his hand was never going to be as it was before he smashed it small enough to pull it through a handcuff loop.

The brothers were on their second cups of coffee when a silver SUV came rolling up the gravel drive. "There she is," Merle announced, rising from his seat and lifting his bad hand to greet his older daughter and her boyfriend. Spencer's mother was a lawyer and a politician, putting him in an entirely different class of people from Harley's family. He wasn't the type of person that either brother would usually choose to spend their time with. But Spencer proved his loyalty and worth to them when Sophia and Wren were kidnapped. It was his mostly but not all the way truthful statement to the police that got any charges they might have been drumming up against Merle dropped immediately and earned him his place as an honorary member of their tight knit clan.

No matter how many times he saw his niece, Daryl was always surprised by how grown up she looked. Harley's frizzy blonde curls were tamed into a long sleek coif. Around the time that she hit college, the rest of her body finally filled in enough to balance out her large chest. Daryl set his coffee down so that he could wrap his arms around her. She hugged Merle next, which meant she must be in a particularly good mood. The reason for her high spirits was quickly revealed when she held up her hand and displayed the large diamond ring on her finger.

"Guess what!," Harley chirped. She laughed as Daryl and Merle took turns whacking Spencer on the back.

"Y'all are finally gonna tie the knot, huh?," Merle teased.

"Actually, we already did," Harley corrected. When the only response she got to this was confused expressions, she glanced at Spencer, who elaborated for them.

"Last weekend we flew to New York and got married."

Daryl gave a whoop, pulling Harley in for another hug. It was Merle that caught onto the manipulation his daughter was attempting. There was a reason she was announcing her recent nuptials to him now instead of waiting until the whole family was together.

"If you think I'm gonna do yer dirty work and tell yer mother that she wasn't invited to her own daughter's weddin'," Merle warned, "...ya got another think comin'."

Harley laughed as she shrugged her shoulders. "It was worth a try," she admitted. Spencer gave her a pointed glance, reminding Harley that she promised him no one in her family would care if they eloped. "I lied," Harley informed him. "My mom is gonna throw a whole fit. She might cry."

"We could always make our other announcement early to soften the blow," Spencer suggested. Harley jerked her hand back and forth horizontally in front of her neck, gesturing for him to stop talking. But she could tell from the look on Merle's face that it was already too late.

"Was there a reason y'all got married so quick without tellin' anyone?," Merle asked, trying unsuccessfully to hide the smirk on his face. They'd been living together for several years. So the only reason he could think of to suddenly rush a wedding now was if they had a little surprise on the way. He leaned forward, putting himself a little further into Spencer's personal space. "If ya got my daughter pregnant, I'll beat yer fuckin' ass," Merle hissed.

Harley shoved him away. "No one thinks yer funny," she barked, sending Merle into a tirade of obnoxious laughter. His daughter might not think he was funny, but he found himself to be hilarious. His laughter was brought to a pause when he heard his phone ringing inside the house. Merle headed inside to answer it. And from the softer tone of his voice, it was obvious that River was on the other end of the call.

"Yer ma says breakfast is ready," Merle announced as he let the screen door slap shut behind him. He wrapped his arm around Harley's shoulders as he guided her down the porch steps. "At least you'll have the whole walk over ta think over how to break her heart," he teased.

"I hate you," Harley huffed. She jerked her shoulders but it was obvious that she didn't really mind if Merle was touching her. If she didn't want his hand on her, he'd be on the floor unconscious.

"Love ya too, Angel," he teased back, using his old childhood nickname for her. "Love ya too."