Wake the Dead

-------- (Epilogue. Flash forward 2 years)

"Daryl!" Rick called him over to the small table that was covered with a map. Daryl set his crossbow down against the doorway of the room he was in and went into the room Rick was in. His footsteps made the wooden floors creek as he shuffled over to next to him. "Michonne just got back from her trip, and she has some news," Rick stated, crossing his arms over his chest.

"What?" Daryl asked unsure, while clenching his fists. Michonne and Daryl have been taking turns making several long runs to search for the Governor, who after having an attack on the prison, has been long gone. Michonne had ended up going out more lately, but both of them were the ones who hated the Governor the most. Who had it out to tie him up and beat the life out of him every day until he wished he wasn't alive anymore. But, not even Daryl would give him that luxury.

Michonne stepped into the room, leaning against the wall. "I think I might have spotted one of his trucks, maybe even one of his men, but got drove out by walkers before I could even find out for sure."

"Ya think it's him?" Daryl asked, looking back and forth between Rick and Michonne.

"I think it's a damn good lead. Gona head back out tomorrow, see if I can catch this bastard for good, maybe even bring back-up," Michonne stated, already knowing that Daryl was in. Daryl just nodded and walked over to the table with the map on it, seeing all the marks they had left on it.

"But, you just got back," Carl said, now also coming into the room.

Michonne smiled. "And I'll be back again. I shouldn't be gone for as long." Normally they would need to take trips sometimes even as long as weeks just to follow a lead they had. After the attack on the prison, where they had lost some people, Rick gave them the option to leave, saying he didn't want to be their Governor. And, against Daryl's protests of wanting revenge on the Governor, they left. Rick had an idea where to go. A place that could be much safer.

And that idea was thanks to Fiona.

Rick remembered from a little while ago when Fiona mentioned her Uncle owned a Gas station at a boating marina down in Jacksonville. He also remembered her talking about her Uncle and how he was an intense military man. Rick had taken a gamble, but when they got here, they were all ecstatic. Her uncle had an underground part to his store. It even had a few rooms, and after losing the people they did, they all fit pretty well. They had also made multiple renovations to the place. It was already fenced up, but they made their own walker-traps surrounding their building just in case. They had found some fishing gear and more supplies than they could even count off the boats here and the multiple stores barely even a mile away from this place. Also, near by was a plant nursery that held bags and bags of soil, gardening tools, and pots. It was a gold mine. But, when it came to people, they had set up booby traps along the fence line, that if triggered a radio would go off in the building and they loaded up one of the boats with gas and fuel, so that if someone did come they could take off. People didn't come over here though, both people and walkers seem to be running low on this earth..

Rick had tried to convince both Daryl and Michonne to stop trying to go after the Governor. It had been a long time since they last saw him, they were much farther away now, and he didn't want to lose anymore people, but every time he tried to bring it up they insisted on their ideas of revenge. Especially Daryl, he said he had watched that man do terrible things to his wife and will never rest until he has felt at least some of her pain. Daryl wasn't going to fail her again.

The others went with it, knowing that they would be able to sleep that much easier if he was gone from their list of threats. Everyone else had little bits of revenge they wanted against him, too. He had killed many people.

"Are you sure you want to go? You have responsibilities here," Rick questioned to Daryl in a low voice so only he could hear. Daryl wasn't sure. He didn't want to leave what he had here, but he would. He would go and kill the Governor. For the group. For Merle. For Fi.

"You stay here, I'll bring him back," Michonne said, hearing Rick fail at talking low.

"Ya shouldn't go by yaself," Daryl argued.

She shrugged. "I can take care of myself just fine, and like Rick said; you have responsibilities here," she smiled at him lightly and Daryl bit his lip a little , letting out a slight nod. If someone was telling him to stay, he was sure as hell not going to argue it. "M'go tell the others," and with that he walked out of the room, heading down the stairs. He didn't even have to think about where he was going, his feet just led him to the 3rd room down with with multiple pieces of paper taped onto the door, covered with crayon drawings.

He twisted the door handle and pushed open the door, leaning against the door frame, embracing the sight in front of him. There was a pile of used up notepads against the wall in the far corner, filled up with little doodles that none of them had the heart to get rid of and colored pencils, crayons, markers, and pencils all over the floor near by.

And then there was her.

Sitting criss-cross on the ground, back leaning against the wall, notepad and pencil in hand. Her face was tight in concentration as the pencil danced around the paper. Her hair had grown much longer, falling around her frame perfectly, which Daryl loved. Her dangerously low weight had returned back to normal, which was another thing Daryl loved. She was healthy. So healthy that it was almost as if she started to glow. Her scars had faded mostly and the light in her eyes and life in her face had returned. She was beautiful. It had been a long and hard process, but she was happy. Daryl was happy.
She had noticed his presence and looked up, a large smile spreading across her face, the biggest he's ever seen, and her eyes bright. Daryl returned the smile and they just looked at each other with the most adoration in their eyes. Neither having the right words to express what they felt.. How much love.

Multiple small thumps eventually caused them to turn their attention to the hallway where the noise was echoing from.

*Thunk... Thunk... Thunk... Thunk...*

Daryl leaned back, taking a peak out into the hallway and couldn't help the beaming smile that came off of him when he saw Ben. The thumps of the crossbow being dragged down the stairs turned into a long screeching as it went down the hallway and Daryl let out a small chuckle. "What are ya doin, little man?" He asked, crouching down to get on his level. Ben just started giggling and got a big toothy grin, only showing off the very few teeth he had. He got to the doorway so she could now see him too and tried his hardest to lift the crossbow up, but it was almost as big as him and he wasn't the sturdiest on his feet yet. "I...Shoot." He huffed and puffed while he tried to lift up the crossbow. "...Like...Daddy." his face set hard in concentration, just like his mom. You could piratically feel the pride radiating off of Daryl as he helped his son hold up the crossbow, which thankfully wasn't loaded. Ben smiled that adorable little smile and started to make pretend shooting noises, and Daryl was almost afraid his face would get stuck in the pride filled grin. And lately, hers had been stuck in that same thing as well.
When the heavy crossbow became too much for Ben to care to hold onto anymore, he huffed and dropped it, but Daryl had a good enough hold on it to catch it. Ben looked up at Daryl with the same bright blue, twinkling eyes for a moment, and then turned to face towards his mom, running over to her. "I shoot like Daddy!" He cheered, jumping on her while he giggled and then in an instant got off and started to run around. He had so much energy on some days, while on others he was calm and focused on whatever he was doing completely and Daryl knew that his son was going to kick ass. Daryl couldn't be happier with his little boy and he was going to teach him everything he knows and make sure he becomes the man he's supposed to be. Which she hoped was a lot like Daryl.

They both laughed at him as he ran up to Daryl and grabbed his hand, trying to pull him over. Daryl stood up and let Ben lead him over to the opposite side of the room by his mom. Ben had taken a liking to either drawing himself or watching her draw, and he always liked Daryl to be there because apparently he was the best to cuddle with. Who would have guessed?

Daryl sunk down and sat as close as he possibly could to her and patted his lap. "Come here little dude." Ben climbed up into his lap and rested against him, turning his attention to the notepad. "Mama, you draw milkshake?" They both chuckled lightly, she had told Ben about milkshakes like they were the best thing in the world and it became kind of like a bed time story fairytale for him.

Daryl studied her as she started to draw, letting his eyes wander over every detail of her, still not understanding how he could ever get someone like her, but knowing she was his. Forever. Everything was okay and was going to be okay. They would never be defeated, definitely not by this world.

He leaned over close to her ear, noticing her shiver in delight, making him smile. "I love ya, Fi."

She stopped her drawing and looked up at him, with the most intense and passion filled look in her eye. "And I love you.."

"Forever."

THE END. WAKE THE DEAD.