Chapter Text
Y/N had finished the song and started a new one, encouraged by Luke, when Daryl heard a bark and then Dog was jumping to greet him and Deacon, Jane approaching them too. She’d been walking through the fair with Dawn and hanging out with some of the other teens, but Daryl guessed she’d been near and had recognized her mother’s voice, and came to see if it was her. She spotted him and made her way to him.
“Sis!” Deacon babbled happily.
“I know she’s good but I’m always surprised at how good when she sings,” Jane said, looking at the stage.
“Yeah, me too.” Daryl chuckled.
“It was like this? When she worked as a singer?”
Kind of, but with fewer clothes and more pervert drunks…not that Daryl was going to say that. “Yeah…first time I hear her singing I was surprised, she even managed to make my brother shut up while she sang, and get Merle to shut up ain’t no easy thing…” All those years, and there was that pang of sadness when he thought about his brother, even if he’d been an ass.
Jane chuckled before going serious. “I always thought…it’s sad, that she didn’t get to work as a singer at the city…I mean, she was more than good enough yet she didn’t make it, it’s not fair…”
“Yeah…” Daryl agreed, always had.
“Maybe she should have stayed in your town, she could have kept working as a singer in that club she worked.”
“Darlin’, that club was shit and no place for working.” Daryl scoffed without giving much detail, and Jane just hummed.
“Sometimes…sometimes I thought…” Jane chewed on her lip in the same way Y/N did. “Promise me you won’t tell her, okay?” Daryl frowned, wondering what was going on, but nodded. “Sometimes I think that maybe…well, I know she loves me, okay? But…maybe if she hadn’t had me, she could have focused on working as a singer…you know…” Daryl was taken aback. He’d never heard Jane say anything like that, and in all those years, he had never imagined that Jane might think something like that.
“What?” He didn’t even know what to say and Jane just shrugged. “No, no come on, stop that shit. She’d stopped singing years before she had you, so it ain’t that, it ain’t cos of you…if anything, she kept singing ‘cause she sang to you. Told me so herself.” Jane smiled softly, but she still looked sad and Daryl didn’t know what to do, he hated it. “It’s true…stop thinking bullshit…”
“Yeah…okay, but still…she had to raise me alone, she had to work a lot…wasn’t easy, I’m sure now…” She trailed off, shrugging.
Daryl was totally out of his depth and he didn’t know what to do or what to say…wasn’t Jane too young to be thinking about shit like that…he guessed not. “Look…I…” He kicked himself into saying anything. “Yeah, sure it was hard, but your momma told me herself how much happier you made her, only thing that made her life at the city worthy, wouldn’t trade it for nothing, told me herself how much she loved you. Still does. You and your brother? Best thing she got.”
Jane’s eyes were wet and Daryl was totally panicking, but then she was smiling too and nodding. “Yeah…I know all that, just…” She shrugged. “When I was little, before Alexandria, mom looked so tired most evenings, and sometimes she looked so sad too, though not if she realized I was looking… just…wish things would have been less hard for her.”
“You and me both…” Daryl murmured.
“If you had been with us back then, things would have been different for sure.” Jane shrugged.
“Ain’t sure, I was kind of an idiot asshole back then.” Daryl joked, glad it made Jane snort, though he kind of meant it. He knew that back then he wasn’t the man he was now. But Jane was right, if he’d been with her and Y/N back then, he’d have done everything on his hand to make it less hard for her.
If Jane’s idiot of a biological father hadn’t disappeared and had been there to help, things probably would have been less hard too. But Daryl couldn’t help how glad he was at the guy not being in the picture, even if he knew it was selfish on his side, even if he felt guilty he thought like that, he couldn’t help it.
“You make mom happy. Always have. She told me so, when you first came to Alexandria, I remember she used to talk about you, and she was sad when she did it sometimes, but she also smiled. So it was like I already knew you.” Jane chewed on her lip again, and it was Daryl’s time to blush now. “And…I didn’t give it much thought when I was little…but you not only took care of me, you took me as your own, has treated me like that since then, and you didn’t have to, not like you did, not even if you were with my mother…and now I know how grateful I’m that you did, and I never said thank you but it’s just cause it feels like-”
“No, come on, stop it, stop with that…” Daryl stopped Jane before she could say anything else, blushed up to his ears, feeling a lump of emotion on his throat. Jane didn’t have to thank him for anything. She was his kid, what the hell mattered if she wasn’t his blood, he loved her, and he’d done just his job taking care of her, she’d never have to thank him for something like that. Kids shouldn’t be thanking their parents for doing what was their damn job “What’s gotten into you.”
“Nothing, just…” Jane shrugged. “Being talking with Henry for a bit, you know Ezekiel then Carol took him as their own too…so, I guess…I don’t know, got me thinking I guess…” She chuckled awkwardly but it got Daryl thinking too. Most of the teens there didn’t have their biological parents anymore, but they had found families anyway. It was good, but still, Daryl hoped no more kids would lose their parents anymore.
“You met that new girl, Lydia?” He asked, and Jane nodded. “How’s she?”
“She’s…she’s not used to all of this, she seems overwhelmed, but she’s good, just…just sad and traumatized,” Jane said and Daryl hummed, nodding. “Dawn and I, we are thinking about coming to see her sometimes, is that okay?”
Henry was a couple of years older than them or so, but still they used to hang out together when they went to the Kingdom since they were kids, and Daryl knew they got along. Maybe they could do some good for Lydia too.
“Yeah, sure.” Daryl nodded. “Now come on, stop with the nonsense, your mom’s singing and we’re missing it.” He wrapped his arm around Jane’s shoulders, holding Deacon with just one arm and trying not to snort when the kid reached to tug at her sister’s hair as he did to him.
*
Daryl hadn’t gone to the cinema much, or anything, and in this world, he had never thought he would. Yet there he was, in a theater, snacks and all, seeing a cartoon movie that he didn’t know how Ezekiel and Carol had managed to get working. Everyone was laughing, seeming to be having the time of their life, and Daryl had to admit he loved to see his people happy like that. Jane and Dawn were sat down near them with Henry and a girl Daryl guessed was Lydia, who seemed out of place as Jane had said, but as the movie went, she began smiling too.
Deacon was loving it, eyes wide as he watched the cartoons, babbling and saying all the little words he knew, wiggling his arms as he jumped excitedly on Daryl’s lap, looking at him from time to time to babble something and point at the movie, and Daryl couldn’t help his silly smile. Y/N was smiling too, watching the movie almost as wide-eyed as Deacon.
“I can’t believe this day is real…” She whispered, leaning her head on his shoulder, and Daryl kissed the side of her head and wrapped his arm around her. He couldn’t either, it was like the Kingdom had managed to pull some magic trick, and he was glad he’d come with his family.
*
By dinner time, quite late in the evening, Y/N’s ring was resized, Earl had been able to do it without a problem, and now it fitted her perfectly. She was looking at it from time to time, smiling in that way, like the first time he gave it to her, and Daryl couldn’t help the butterflies in his belly every time she did it. She smiled too, anytime she glanced at his.
Daryl didn’t know how, but he had ended up with another ring for himself. He would have never gotten one himself, but Earl had asked, and Y/N had looked at him, seeming unsure, and Daryl wasn’t sure of what she wanted but he knew he didn’t want to disappoint her.
He wasn’t even sure himself of why he had gotten her the ring years ago. To show that she was his? She was, in a way, but she wasn’t a thing he could own, neither was that his intention, neither to show her off like cattle. He neither thought she’d need the ring to know what she meant for him, that he was hers forever, as long as she wanted him. And yet, when he had seen the ring, he had wanted to get it for her…wanted her to have a ring that he’d given her…
So maybe Y/N would like him to have one too? Another way to show that they were together. He wasn’t sure. He wasn’t sure either of what it meant, he hadn’t asked her anything when he gave her that ring, he didn’t know if for her it meant that they were married or something like that, and he had always felt too shy to ask. He hadn’t ever given much thought to marriage, and in any case, he and Y/N loved each other and were together, no need to hold any ceremony or anything, or call it something.
Daryl had found himself nodding at Earl, still confused, but Y/N had smiled and that was good, yeah, it was worthy. He was worried the ring would be bothering him all the time, but Earl seemed to read his mind and he knew what he was doing. In just some minutes he had made him a ring that was just a simple, thin thread of metal that he could barely feel, didn’t bother him when he clenched his fist or moved his fingers.
“We’re matching now,” Y/N had said quietly as they walked away from the stall, smiling softly and reaching to hold his hand, lifting it. “Thank you.” She had brought his hand to her lips, kissing his knuckles, and not knowing what to say he’d done the same to her.
They had talked with the painter too, and she’d do a sketch tomorrow to start working on their paint once she cleared her other requests. It still felt weird to him, but it made Y/N so happy, he’d push through any awkwardness.
While the woman was talking to Y/N, she’d called Daryl her husband, and Y/N hadn’t even flinched at it, even if it had startled Daryl a bit at hearing it so casually, but then, when they were leaving and the painter had called Y/N his wife, he hadn’t thought about correcting her. She was…she was his something, something deeper than he could ever explain, something deeper than any word. And he kind of liked how wife sounded.
Jane and Dawn joined them for dinner, and they showed them what they had gotten from the fair.
“Do you really need more books?” Daryl asked Jane teasingly when she showed him the couple she had gotten. “Thought we had enough in Alexandria.”
“You never have enough books!” Jane answered as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
“She’s right.” Aaron nodded, taking one to inspect it.
“Actually, I love that one!” Y/N pointed at the book.
“I know you did, mom, I remembered you used to read it to me…I don’t remember it anymore, but I recognized the cover so I traded it for some necklaces I hadn’t worn in years.”
“Thank you, sweetheart.” Y/N smiled. “What else you got, girls.”
“These.” Dawn showed them some little wooden tags with some patterns carved in them, and also a letter. There was a D, J, and L, for Dawn, Jane, and Lisa, Daryl guessed. “A woman from Hilltop makes them, she has really beautiful things, most of them are H for Hilltop, but she made us that.”
“Also got one for you, mom, and for dad, Deacon and Robert.”
“Thanks, sunshine.” Daryl took the one Jane passed him, smiling. It had a cord, and he tied it around his wrist, making sure he wouldn’t lose it.
Another thing he’d have never thought about getting but that made him happier than he could have ever thought. He took the one for Deacon, who was sat down on his lap, and placed it loosely around his neck. He seemd to like it, grabbing the wooden tag and playing with it.
There was a long table set for the kids at the end of the one Daryl was sitting, but Deacon was still too little. Glancing at the kids table, Daryl was once again surprised at how many kids there was there. They had quite a few in Alexandria by now, but seeing most of the kids of the communities sitting together…he never thought he’d see so many kids in this world, much less happy ones.
“How we’ve ended up with so many kids?” He murmured to Y/N.
“Do I have to explain you how? Just think how we ended up with Deacon.” She giggled and Daryl snorted. “But yeah…I know what you mean…all these years ago, when the world went to shit…yeah, I’d have never imagined we would get to have something like that.” She smiled softly and Daryl nodded, leaning to kiss the side of her head.
“Me neither.”
Y/N bit her lip, smiling, and she looked at him. “Wanna hear some gossip?” She whispered and Daryl arched an eyebrow at her, confused. “Rosita’s pregnant, but shh, almost nobody knows yet.”
“Yeah? Father Grabiels’ gonna be an actual father.” Daryl snorted quietly.
“It’s not his, it’s Siddiqs.”
“What?” Daryl said, almost too loud, and Y/N shushed him.
“I know…”
“Who needs tv when you have a damn soap opera going two streets away from your house,” he joked, and Y/N giggled quietly.
When the dinner finished Ezekiel and Carol approached them. “Y/N, all these years and I didn’t know you were a singer!” Ezekiel said, seeming impressed.
“Well…I wouldn’t call myself a singer…” Y/N shrugged, blushing.
“But she is,” Jane said.
“Yeah, worked as a singer when I met her.” Daryl nodded too.
“And then I got a real job…” Y/N chuckled awkwardly. “I hadn’t sang like that in…I don’t know, more than twenty years.
“Then maybe it’s time to change that,” Ezekiel smiled. “I really enjoyed listening to you.”
“Thank you…” Y/N smiled, even though she was blushing even more, and Daryl reached under the table to held her hand. “I really had a great time, I’d almost forgotten how much I liked it.”
“Then more reason to do it again! I’m sure we will be doing more events like that…and the fair doesn’t end until tomorrow’s night, so if you want to sing again tomorrow, I’m sure Luke will be up to do another show.”
“We were leaving in the morning, I think…” Y/N looked at him and Daryl didn’t know what to say, unsure if it was her not wanting to sing, or her asking if they could stay longer. “Well, I think about it…”
“That’s all I can ask for!” Ezekiel squeezed Y/N’s shoulder.
*
Daryl was walking around the room Ezekiel and Carol had given Y/N and him for the night, Deacon on his arms, as he tried to talk him into sleeping, while Y/N was sat against the headboard of the bed, reading the book Jane had gotten her. Jane and Dawn were sharing a room with other teens, seemed quite happy about sleepovers even if they weren’t that little anymore. Dog was with them, and so Daryl could relax knowing he’ll make sure they were okay.
When finally the kid began to close his eyes, Daryl lowered him carefully in the smaller bed he’d pushed against the one Y/N and him were sleeping in, and then he sat down next to Y/N, lying down to rest his head on her lap. She smiled, reaching to leave the book on the nightstand, and then she began to play with his hair.
“It’s the book interesting?” He asked quietly, closing his eyes as her fingers stroke his hair.
“Very. I’ll read it to you one night.”
“Okay.” He opened his eyes to look at her. “What do you want to do tomorrow? We don’t have to leave in the morning if you want to sing again, or just if you want to stay at the fair longer. The painter told us to go tomorrow morning anyway.”
“Sure you don’t mind staying?”
“Nah…we could leave later, or we can stay for another night, I’m sure Ezekiel and Carol won’t mind, and Jane and Dawn would like it. They can live in Alexandria without us for another day.”
“Okay…this is starting to feel like holidays.” She chuckled softly, smiling.
“You’re gonna sing again tomorrow?”
Y/N bit her lip as she smiled, and she nodded. “I think so…I…I actually enjoyed it more than I thought I would.”
“I could see that. You looked happy, Ezekiel’s right, you should sing more…I liked it, everyone did. Told you how good you are.” She was, and everybody enjoyed watching her sing, he did too, but what Daryl cared most was how happy Y/N looked how she did, how much she seemed to enjoy it.
“Stop it…” Y/N whispered, blushing and placing a finger over his lips, and Daryl nipped playfully at it before taking his hand and kissing her palm.
Daryl shifted from Y/N’s lap to lie down on the bed, head on the pillow now, and he stretched his arm, waiting for Y/N to come curl up with him. She turned off the lantern, leaving the room dimly ilimunated by a small candle, and then she snuggled to him, laying over his chest. Daryl wrapped his arm around her, brushing his fingers softly over her arm.
“I still can’t believe this day,” Y/N whispered, and Daryl nodded his agreement. “I don’t know how Ezekiel and Carol have been able to pull up all this, and everyone had brought so much stuff…did you know we had like so much stuff and talented people?”
“I don’t know where we keep all this stuff when it ain’t here.” Daryl half joked, but he felt just like Y/N.
“And the movie…that has been incredible.” Y/N looked up from his chest to grin at him. “I never thought I’d be going to the cinema again, it’s been so great. I’m still wrapping my head about everything that I’ve seen and done today.” Daryl nodded, kissing her lips softly, he loved to see her so excited and happy. “I know this is not your thing, so thank you, you know, for everything today. I really had a great day today.”
“Ain’t nothing you gotta thank me.” He honestly had enjoyed the fair too. “I liked it.”
Y/N pecked his lips again before smiling softly at him. “I could have never imagined that I’d get to have this…spend a day like this with my family…” She whispered and Daryl nodded, he couldn’t have imagined either. “Never thought I would get another kid, either…And that I’d get to have you… It was a miracle enough that I found you again, but being with you like this? And having a family with you? That’s more than I could have ever dreamed for.”
Daryl didn’t know what to say, feeling a lump of emotion in his throat, and he swallowed hard. That was how he felt too. Never had he thought he’d met Y/N again, after having his heart broken, after trying his best to forget her, and the fact that he’d met her after the world went to shit was just crazy. Even crazier was that she had wanted to be with him like this, that she had a family with him, that he got to have kids in that crazy world, when he had never thought he would have anything like that in the world before.
Y/N loved him, right like he loved her, he knew it even if he still couldn’t believe it sometimes. Never had he thought he’d have something like that, someone who’d love him like that. He didn’t know how it had happened, or how he had gotten that lucky.
All those years ago, he was sure he’d never love someone like he’d loved Y/N, he knew no one would love him the way Y/N had…turned out he hadn’t needed to, because somehow, he had found her again.
Daryl reached down to hold Y/N’s hand, bringing it to his lips to kiss her knuckles before strocking his thumb over her ring. “Always meant to be, yeah?” He rasped.
“Always and forever.” Y/N nodded, smiling softly at him, leaning to kiss his lips.