Well kiddos, I think this is it. The last chapter. I know, it's sudden, but it just...it felt like an ending, you know? Anyways, I wasn't going to do this, but due to popular demand, I'm going to give you one more story. So, more in this series in the form of my fourth (and final, I swear) story Rose of Jericho! Special thanks to all readers and reviewers! You guys are the reasons this series has lasted so long, so just know without you it wouldn't have gotten this far! I love your wall!

Rose of Jericho!

Keep an eye out for it!

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Chapter Sixty-Two: Sardines

**The Lieutenant**

"She used to say that if it wasn't for that piece of old gutter that blew over from Hank Blanchard's place, she would have been sliced in half by that piece of sheet metal, so…I guess it just comes down to right place and right time," looking up from Rick, he spied Daryl and Carol still in the doorway of the infirmary, heads bent together, forehead's pressing as they spoke quietly.

Daryl's hand rested on Carol's rounding stomach, his body language clearly stating how badly he wanted to stay with her, but his shoulders (half turned away) spoke of his determination to go.

They had stood there for ten minutes, it seemed and Lafayette was finished his story and they still stood together, quietly murmuring to each other.

As the two finally broke apart, the Lieutenant gave Rick a gentle pat and stood up, following Daryl outside, passing Carol who stood watching the man go.

"Cabri," he called, catching up with the man.

Daryl paused under the magnolia tree. "What?"

"You don't…you don't have to go, you know." He suggested.

"Naw, I—"

"There's about eight people, eight competent people going, you can rest your ass for now, yeah? Stay here with your girl."

Daryl shifted on his feet.

"No, Daryl, she wants you to stay, you want to stay, you don't have to go. You have options, cabri."

Scoffing, Daryl adjusted his crossbow on his back. "You just want me to stay because you can't bear to be apart from me."

"I'll admit, if Gracie would give the okay, I'd build a bunk over our bed just for you to sleep on at night."

Daryl snorted. "Yeah, I'm sure Carol would like that."

"Oh yeah, she's invited too, I guess," the Lieutenant teased, earning a rare, broad smile from Daryl. "But I'm serious when I say you have a choice, cabri. You don't have to go. There's work we can do here. They need us here too."

The young Dixon glanced back to where Carol still stood in the open infirmary door.

"She wants you here, be here for her."

Daryl was quiet.

"Baby will be kicking soon," the Lieutenant went on. "You don't want to miss that, yeah?"

"How do you know that?" Daryl growled.

"Read a book, cabri."

"When the hell have you had time to find and read a book on pregnant women?"

"Oh, last winter."

"Bullshit," Daryl snarled, waving Merle on as his older brother stood by the trucks ready to go, deciding to remain behind.

Smiling broadly, the Lieutenant clapped Daryl on the shoulder as the man passed him on his way back into the infirmary.

"Nope, one hundred percent true." He assured him.

Watching Daryl return to Carol and the beaming grin the woman flashed her man, brought a small smile of satisfaction to the Lieutenant's face.

"He doesn't like me much, does he?" A small voice warbled from nearby.

Just under the magnolia tree, sitting with a book in her hands, was the older girl from Ruth's children. Her head was bowed to the book, but her hazel eyes were on Daryl and Carol.

"Now why do you think that?" He asked, kneeling down by the girl, eyes flickering to the trucks as they started up.

Elise shrugged. "I just don't think he likes me."

"Mais, there's one thing you have to know about Daryl, he's very protective of Carol."

"He thinks I'm dangerous?" Elise asked.

The Lieutenant chuckled. "No, girl, not in the criminal charges sense. I think…from what I gathered around the convent, you look like Carol's little girl, the one she lost. I think Daryl's just worried she may be trying to get Sophia back somehow, you know?"

Elise shrugged. "I don't mind, if that's the case. I just…I didn't ask to be adopted, you know? I liked my mom, I don't need another."

Nodding, the Lieutenant flopped down on his ass beside her under the tree.

He watched the young woman as she read from the book she held, trying to catch glimpses of a petit boo long defan, by trying to find traces of Carol in her face. There were times he sincerely wished he had known Sophia, wished he had been there, like somehow he could have been the one to save the child. But then again, when he thought of it, of all the children lost along the way from where they were to where they were now, he wished he had somehow been there to save them.

But thinking of the little ones at Ruth's, the ones skinny and pale, he wondered if it was a blessing to be there. If maybe the ones left behind were the lucky ones.

"I don't think they want to adopt you," he said after a moment. "Daryl and Carol, I think…Carol's a great mother, she takes care of any child that crosses her path. She's fierce like a lioness, you'd do well to let her at least look out for you from time to time. She's smart too, gives good advice."

"I like Carol, I just…I just want to take care of the children and be left alone. Not that I'm ungrateful, I just don't want to cause problems," Elise confessed.

"You won't. If anything comes around, it won't be because of you. Daryl will warm to you, he always blows cold and mean like the ocean spitting salt water across your face, but like the ocean he changes moods fast."

"But the ocean takes and never gives back," Elise countered.

The Lieutenant chuckled and fell backwards into the tall grass, gazing up at the leaves of the tree as they rustled and fluttered in the calm breeze.

"Where'd you get that scar?" Elise asked suddenly, causing him to sit up again and touch his throat.

"This one?" He asked.

"Yeah, did I hurt?"

"No, didn't feel a thing."

"It looks like it was bad."

"Let me tell you a story about an old man I knew back in Louisiana—"

"Do you always change the subject when you don't like the topic?" She broke in calmly.

"I'm not sidestepping, just listen," he said. "There was this old man named Nash, Evan Nash, and he always drove around Basile in this old green Ford with this old collie in the passenger seat named Ollie. Now old Nash, he was a retired army sergeant, Vietnam, you know and one time he was driving down this old narrow lane to get to his home at the end of it and he spied, what he claimed was a child scamper out in front of his truck. This was late at night, the moon was dead in the sky, black as pitch tar and this child was illuminated in his headlights like an angel and he swerved. Later, old Nash would say he'd have rather died than take the life of that little child and, so his truck hit this old oak square on, boom! Right into the trunk."

"Did he die?"

"No, but the collie didn't make it, right through the…anyways, old Nash was told to chop down that tree, that it was ruined, the trunk weakened by the accident. He refused steadfastly and so years pass and old Nash drives that lane up and down, back and forth, through good weather and bad, but then one night, we had a windstorm. One of those ones that sort of comes in fierce from the sea, sweeps across the land like a bulldozer, sort of like the one we had just the other day. Anyways, so this wind's blowing and old Nash is driving out, down his lane and this tree, the same damned oak he hit years before, it creaks and moans and crashes down on him, killing him. Now, some would say, it's just coincidence and others would say it was that when he crashed into the tree all those years before it loosened the roots enough that a good gust of wind could blow it down, either way it was destiny."

Elise blinked at him, before smiling shyly. "That doesn't tell me how you got your scar."

The Lieutenant returned the smile. "No, but it's a good life lesson."

"Which is?"

"Don't hesitate to end that which seeks to end you."

"So, what," Elise began, "you take your anger out on whatever gave you that scar?"

"Yes, I have a vendetta with scissors to this day."

"So it was scissors," she said with a grin.

He chuckled. "Yes. A maniac with one eye and a pair of scissor—"

The Lieutenant collided hard with the ground as a pair of little girls tackled him, giggling and laughing.

Swimming under the pile of children, Lafayette laughed and tousled with them.

"Herschel says Boo will be okay!" Annie exclaimed, sitting on one half of his chest as Olivia took the other side. They both looked down at him with large, bright eyes.

"Is that so?"

"Um-hm, did we scare you?"

"I was terrified. Did you thank Carol for saving Boo?" He asked.

Annie blinked, then shrugged.

"I think you'd better go thank Carol, yeah?" He suggested.

Annie nodded. "Okay." She leaned down and kissed his cheek, before leaping up and skipping off.

Olivia smiled, then followed behind.

Sitting up, he smiled after the girls, before turning back to Elise. "Mais, I should go find something to do with myself."

"Like fixing that church of yours?" She teased.

He chuckled. "Oh, yes, should do something about that roof before it rains…"

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As it was, he was going through building materials and supplies with Daryl later, the young Dixon claiming he was going to expand the shed into a proper home for Carol and the baby, and Lafayette going along with it, because that was what he did for the little goat.

Nearby his baby sister sat with her little girl and that beautiful blond boy from Ruth's in the shade of the building, taking a break from gardening to feed her daughter, Carol at her side with Clyde that big assed dog of Daryl's panting heavily in the Georgian heat.

Going through bags of nails, Lafayette bobbed his head idly to a tune that had been rattling around in it for the past week.

"Mother told me, yes, she told me that I'd meet girls like you," he murmured under his breath, sorting roofing nails from finishing nails that had obviously just been snatched up and bagged in a hurry to gather supplies. "She also told me, ''stay away you'll never know what you'll catch.' Just the other day I heard, of a soldier's falling off some Indonesian junk that's going round."

"Fate," his sister scolded. "That's not appropriate for kids. Is it?"

"Your Mommy's all right, your Daddy's all right. They just seem a little weird," Rhoades joined in as he approached with O'Hara and Fredricks. "Surrender, surrender. But don't give yourself away."

The Lieutenant laughed. "Rhoades, what's up?"

"We're shipping out, going on patrol," Rhoades returned.

"You'll be back around, yeah?" He asked.

O'Hara nodded. "Eventually. Think we'll make our patrols from here, sweep the woods for leftovers from Barrie's coup, then head up to Tennessee and back, start out small. Keep some semblance of law."

"You must stop in when you blow through again," Adele insisted.

O'Hara nodded. "We'll check in."

Holding out a box, Fredricks smiled broadly.

"What's this?" The Lieutenant asked.

"For you, heard you were getting married, thought you'd like an early wedding gift courtesy of the USMC supply stores."

"The ones we raided long ago," Rhoades added with a smile. "One of the last ones we have left in our supplies, actually. Since I hear tell you and Daryl did a number on our supplies shed back in Tennessee."

Taking the box and setting it down, the Lieutenant cracked a flap and smiled, opening it up completely and removing a white peaked cap.

"What is it?" Carol asked.

"Dress uniform," the Lieutenant said.

"Oh!" Rhoades reached into his pocket and pulled something out, dropping them into the Lieutenant's open palm. "Here's your pips, Lieutenant, and your insignia patch. So you can impress the ladies."

Brushing his thumb over the gold thread of the patches' three peaks, Lafayette smiled a little. Strange how he was still clinging to the old ways, even as he did everything a Marine shouldn't do. He really was a shitty Marine, he thought with a grin.

Looking up, he took a small step back in surprise as the three men before him saluted rigidly.

His spine straightened and without really thinking, he returned the salute.

"Lieutenant Vancoughnett," O'Hara said with a firm nod. "It's been an honour."

"Thank you, sir. You bring these boys back in a month for the wedding," he suggested.

O'Hara cracked a small smile. "Perhaps, Lieutenant. Congratulations, you're a lucky man."

"Thank you, sir."

O'Hara paused as the blond boy toddled over to him and wrapped his arms around his leg. The tall soldier looked down at the child for a moment, before carefully patting him on the head with a grim smile, before he wandered away with a nod of farewell to the others.

"Hey, name it after me, Lieutenant," Fredricks said with a grin in lieu of a proper goodbye.

"Already done," he shot back.

Rhoades remained for a moment, eyes twinkling. "See you around, Double Trouble."

"Keep your ass out of it."

"Always."

"Ha!"

"Father says, 'your mother's right. She's really up on things," Rhoades continued singing loudly as he turned and walked off. "Before we married, Mommy served in the WACS in the Philippines.' Now, I had heard the WACS recruited old maids for the war. But mommy isn't one of those I've known her all these years."

"You get all serious when Marine stuff is happening, huh?" Adele teased her brother.

Tsking, he pulled the peaked cap down over her eyes and made sure it wedged down, before going back to his nail sorting.

Beside him Daryl tossed the hammer in his hand, before lifting his boot and knocking dirt off it with the tool. "You're not going with them?" He asked.

"Was that ever an option?" The Lieutenant asked with a smirk. "No, as far as I'm concerned, I'm stationed here permanently. Too much to do, anyways," he pointed out, throwing a screw into the old tin can with the others. "Have to keep Daryl from being grumpy like an angry little goat."

"What'd you call me?" Daryl snapped.

"Je ne parle pas Anglais," Lafayette returned with a cocky grin.

"Don't pull that bullshit Cajun with me, jackass," Daryl snarled. "We all know you can speak fucking English."

"J'ai eu nouvelle de ma belle, elle tait l-bas au Texas," the Lieutenant began to sing idly, ignoring Daryl's rage. "J'au passe par Eunice et moi, je m'ai achet un pain de cinq sous. J'ai arriv Basile et moi, j'ai achet une can de sardines."

"I'm fucking serious, I will punch you in the face," Daryl said, not really angry, but going along with the act.

Dropping the mixed bag of nails and screws, Lafayette scrambled for his nearby pack and withdrew the squeezebox he forgot he had and beamed roguishly at Adele. He began to play it with a wink cast to Carol who was laughing.

"C'tait pour faire le grand voyage c'tait l-bas au Texas. Quand j'ai arriv au Lac Charles, j'ai mang la moitie, j'ai quitt l'autre moitie."

"Stop singing about Texas," Daryl griped. "You're from Louisiana, dick."

"C'tait pour mon djeuner quand j'ai arriv sa maison c'est l o moi j'ai vu que une vieille amiti a va jamais s'oublier."

"That toy sounds like a cat being neutered," Daryl said.

Carol laughed harder. "It's like someone flipped his switch to French."

"Elle tait aprs m'esprer avec les larmes dans mes yeux," the Lieutenant crooned, smiling at the blond boy as he wiggled over on unsteady, chubby legs to eye him seriously, unable to hear the music Lafayette was playing. "Elle m'ai dit Mon cher neg mais toi t'es venu pour me parler."

Once the music stopped and the Lieutenant set aside the squeezebox to playfully wriggle the small boy in a little dance, Daryl said, "are you done being noisy now?"

"Non, jamais," Lafayette replied, hopping the boy up and down.

The child beamed widely at him.

"I feel sorry for Grace," Daryl said with a small grin. "Having to put up with your caterwauling."

"J'ai de l'estime pour Carol, elle obtient pour gérer votre misérable attitude," Lafayette murmured.

"What'd you say about Carol?"

"Je ne parle pas Anglais," Lafayette protested as Daryl stepped towards him. Laughing, the Lieutenant set the boy down at his side and returned to sorting the nails.

Daryl returned to taking measurements of the shed and making notes with a small smirk.

Sighing, the Lieutenant looked out at the convent before them. The soldiers pulling out of the gate, the others moving about with their daily chores and lives. The church took a hit, their numbers were lessened, but by the grace of God they were still there, they were still moving forward. Stubbornly they lived, they survived.

Beside him, going through the various paint cans they had, looking for a good exterior colour for her new home, Carol sighed as well, hand on her fat stomach. Growing by the day. A small life pushing and shifting inside her, formulating a brain and organs and fingers and toes. Lord help them if it was a male Dixon. The kid would come out swinging and spitting hellfire.

And Adele, his sister, with his wee niece on her lap, sat going through a box of clothes, looking for appropriate sizes for the new children, trying to find something to fit the beautiful boy who currently sat on his side opposite Carol. Eyes dazed and looking about at the place.

Lafayette realized then, that he actually had time to take things in himself, to look around and take stock of what they had, what they should be grateful for. If it wasn't for the convent, for the place within the walls, they would all be just sort of floating around outside like dandelion seeds on the wind.

They may have lost some and they would certainly lose more as the years passed, there would be good times and bad, but they made it, they were home.

This was their home.

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Natalia Vronsky - Are you learning some good sex lessons from Olivia, my friend? You sound like you are. Hehe.

Fairies Masquerade - Sometimes it hits harder on the funny bone when it comes from a child.

Claire Randall Fraser - Carol is five months and Grace is three.

Brazen Hussy - Yeah, so you know...yeah. (I can't even remember what point I won, but...just...yeah.)

vickih - Actually, the whole stroke was for the sole purpose of changing Rick's personality a bit, calming his ass down and making him remember to appreciate the smaller things in life.

Yazzy x - I'm hoping to rebuild Rick and Daryl's friendship in the fourth story. Actually, I'm hoping the fourth will be more character centric and I can take the time to create more bonds and friendships and stronger family ties.

itsi3 - Yeah, I'm really regretting killing off Maggie...I loved her, but at the time I drew a name from a hat (as I always do when it comes to deaths in this series) and her name came up.

Surplus Imagination - Soon. I'm hoping in the fourth story, Glenn will find someone and be happy again.

Laura - They really do! ^_^

Merle's Right Hand - I'm not going to lie to you. Ding-dongs are delicious. I'd eat one everyday if I could.

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For those interested, the Cajun song the Lieutenant sings is called My True Love, here are the translated lyrics. I'm sorry if they're poorly translated, I searched high and low for the right English translation for the song, it's a very beautiful tune, but very hard to find proper English translations for it.

I received news of my sweetheart,

Who was far away in Texas.

I went by Eunice

And I bought a five-cent bread.

When I arrived in Basile,

I bought a can of sardines.

This was to make the long voyage

All the way to Texas.

When I arrived in Lake Charles,

I ate half of what I had,

I left the other half of my breakfast.

When I arrived at her house,

That's when I saw

That an old love

Is never forgotten.

She was waiting for me

With tears in her eyes.

She said : my true love,

You've come back to me.