Chapter 29

Epilogue

They got married on the anniversary of the first time Jarah had invited Daryl into her apartment. It was the day both their lives really started and they wanted it to be the day to legally bind them together forever. They didn't have a big wedding with their friends, both didn't like to have any attention on them. Making a big deal wasn't their thing, so they just grabbed Nat and Merle and went to the courthouse to make it official. Jarah wanted rings and Daryl wanted tattoos, so they got both. The tattoos were more expensive than the rings. Daryl carried Jarah and Jamie's names on his chest, over his heart, Jarah had Daryl's name on the left side of her abdomen, just below the panty line. Her wedding present to Daryl was the first picture of their second child. She was 6 weeks along on their wedding day.

Jarah had wished for a girl, but the universe wanted her to be surrounded by boys. Their second son Dean Morris Dixon was due in early January, but he seemed to make up for the long wait for his older brother and decided to surprise them with his arrival on Christmas morning. Jarah was able to have a relatively quick and natural birth. A far cry from her first experience with Jamie. Dean was a little fussier than Jamie used to be, but together they were able to manage his moods just fine. Daryl was a doting and devoted daddy to both his boys and Jamie never knew that Daryl wasn't his biological father.

Both boys grew up to be incredibly bright and strong characters. They were troublemakers, but they were sweet and had a good heart and both did really well in school. When they got older they regularly spent weekends in the woods with Daryl and their Uncle Merle. They turned out to be great hunters, having learned how to shoot from an early age on. Daryl made sure to teach them right and always made sure that they knew to be level-headed and responsible when handling weapons. Jamie decided to skip college, he wanted to get a job and work with his hands, like his father. He was a free spirit and was constantly on the move and fiddling around with stuff. Although he had done well, he was glad to be done with school. Daryl got him started at the company he worked at as a carpenter. Dean on the other hand loved to learn. He was just as content on the football field as he was being in his room devouring a book. He got a scholarship and got his degree in Health and Physical Education and later worked as a PE teacher at a high school in Atlanta.

Nat and Merle fixed things up for a while, but after about a year together, they called it quits. They got along better as friends. They were just too different to work out long-term. Merle was able to remain sober and met a nice woman with car troubles at work one day. Her name was Kara. She came from a broken home too and had a better understanding of Merle than Nat could have ever hoped for. Their relationship was often rocky, but they always made it work and they were a great uncle and aunt to Dean and Jamie.

Nat also found another guy. She got married to the man named Patrick two years after her break up with Merle. They had a baby girl named Skylar. Patrick was a lawyer and later took a job in New York and moved his family there. This led to Jarah and Nat eventually losing touch with each other. They both had busy lives and the phone conversations and online chats just became less and less. Jarah got very close to Jimmy's wife Patricia instead. Their kids were close in age and were good friends and the two families spent a ton of time together. Jamie and their daughter Sarah even dated briefly in their teens, but it was just puppy love and lots of curiosity and didn't last longer than a month.

Jamie got married to his wife Lucia when he was just 23, but it worked out fine. He knew what he wanted and took it. They had a baby girl 4 years later, making Daryl and Jarah grandparents and Jarah finally got her wish of seeing Daryl with his little princess Gina. He was absolutely in love with his granddaughter and spoiled her rotten. Dean waited a little longer to start a family. He and his girlfriend Ally never got married, but had twin boys Milo and John and three years later a little girl named Jessa.

Daryl and Jarah stayed together for the rest of their lives. They were made for each other and their love was unconditional. They had their ups and downs, but they fought their way through unemployment, having to rebuild their lives after a devastating tornado took their home, jealousy, health scares and other drama. They always stuck together and had each others back.

Jarah died first at age 82 after a major stroke. Daryl followed her only three months later after a massive heart attack, but their family was sure that it was actually broken heart syndrome after the devastating loss of his beloved girl.

"Ma girl." He'd still called her that after 53 years together.

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AN: Thank you for reading everybody. Oh geez, I'm crying like crazy. The idea of Daryl dying one day, even if it is of old age, is just hard to take. He seems immortal.

That concludes the love story of Daryl and Jarah. My heart hurts, but it's time to let them go and have their happily ever after.

Readers who like my writing might be happy to know that I am already working on a new story, which will be set after the midseason-finale of The Walking Dead. It will once again be Daryl/OC, but that's gonna be a new OC, no more Jarah.

I recently got back in touch with an ex-colleague of mine who is actually preparing for an apocalypse. Has been for years, he's got plans for a safe house and everything, so he helped me a lot with research for the new story. Maybe some of you will check it out.

The first chapters of "Another Kind of Tomb" will hopefully be out by the end of the weekend.

Special thanks to my loyal reviewers:

DarylDixon'sLover

sweetkiwi604

DarylDixonsWife

NanamiYatsumaki

xamss

sunseren

jeanf

BeingLolaStar

mamareadstomuch2

scoobydoo0811

WayPastMyBedtime

lovesophiestead

sillygabby

and everybody else who took the time to read and leave the occasional review.

Thank you all for your support and input! See y'all around.