A/N: We have reached the end. We've finally made it. The final chapter in finding love in the new world. I can't begin to thank everyone for all of the wonderful comments. Your kind words were such a huge motivation for me to finish this story. This is the first multi-chapter fic I've finished. It's been a wonderful experience, and I can't wait to write the next one. I have another idea taking seed in my head and hope to begin it in the next couple of weeks. Thank you all so much, again. I hope you enjoy!

Also, a spoiler warning: This chapter features a character that's in the comics, but hasn't made it onto the show yet.

I.

Rick leaned back on the couch and stretched his feet out onto the coffee table. He took a large sip from his beer and looked around the living room. The day had been long and it felt good to relax in his home. If he closed his eyes he could pretend it was three years ago, and he'd just gotten home from working a night shift with Shane. He could imagine Lori and Carl were asleep, and he would soon climb into bed himself.

But that wasn't reality.

Reality was he'd spent all day burning walker bodies, reinforcing the gate, and getting other safety measures together to ensure the protection of the community. Carl was upstairs sleeping, but there was no Lori. He had his baby girl was up there safe and sound though.

And his Michonne.

He was rougher around the edges and sadder than he'd been three years ago, but he loved all of the people under that roof as fiercely as he had in the past.

He took his feet down before placing the half-full bottle of beer on the table. Two-year old beer didn't taste as good as it did a few weeks ago. His body ached as he stood to his feet. It was the result of a hard day's work and just old age. Almost tripping on one of Judith's toys on his way to the window made him smile. He loved the fact his daughter actually had toys to play with. In this world he had learned to be grateful for the little things.

The streets of Alexandria were quiet at this time of night as usual. It was both appreciated and hated by him. He didn't know if the call of the wild would ever leave, but he knew he could tame it.

"You see something out there?" Rick watched the reflection of Carl walk down the stairs through the living room window. He almost looked like a ghost. Those were the types of thoughts he wished he could exile from his brain, but thinking the worst was almost a full time job for him at this point.

"Just taking in the quiet," he said to his son. "I'm still not completely used to it." Rick walked back to the couch and beckoned for Carl to join him.

"I know," said the teen as he sat down. "Almost feels like we're back in King's County sometimes."

"I was thinking about those days earlier," Rick said. He took in his son's new haircut, given to him by Michonne, and the redness of his cheeks from being in the sun most of the day. It had been almost a month since he took a bullet, and Carl was finally starting to look more like himself.

"You miss it?" asked Carl. He played with a thread that was unraveling on his pajama bottoms while he waited for Rick to answer.

"I miss the world being simple." Rick leaned back again placing his hands behind his head.

"Do you miss mom?"

Rick looked over to his son. The boy was watching him closely. He started to wonder if this was what he wanted to talk about a couple of weeks ago before they were visited by the Wolves. "I do. Your mother was a good woman. We had a lot of good years together. It pains me that she will never see you and Judith grow up."

"So you wish she was still here?" Carl probed further.

"Of course I do."

"Then what about Michonne?"

Rick moved to the edge of the couch and turned his body towards his son. He rested his elbows on his knees and clasped his hands. "What's going on, Carl? Why all of the questions about your mom and Michonne?"

Carl angled his body to mimic his father's position on the couch. "It's pretty obvious how much you care about Michonne. I know you and Mom weren't getting along before she died. Do you think you would still be with Michonne if she lived?"

Rick blew out a breath at the heaviness of the question. Since he admitted to himself his feelings for Michonne he had thought a lot about Lori and where they were right before she died. As much he wanted Lori to still be alive; he wanted Michonne by his side as well. "I can't really answer that, Carl. There's no way of knowing what would have happened if she lived. You're right about us not being in a good place, but that could have changed. Or we could have learned to live just as friends while we took care of you and Judith."

Carl stood up and walked to the window standing in the same position he found his father in earlier. He looked up to the night sky, but didn't see any stars; just clouds. He couldn't wait until Judith was older so he could show her the big dipper and little dipper and other constellations like Lori used to do with him. "I get it, I guess," he finally said. "It's just that I want Mom to still be here, but I wouldn't want anything about my relationship with Michonne to change. I don't want to choose between the two of them."

Rick a smiled little sadly at both of them having the same thoughts about Lori and Michonne being in their lives. He was reminded daily how much like him Carl was becoming. It scared the hell out of him. "What Michonne has done for us...well we wouldn't be here if she hadn't showed up at the prison. Loving her comes so naturally to the both of us. Judith too. I can't imagine missing out on that. We can't look to the past for what ifs. It does us no good. We have to focus on the present to ensure our future."

Carl took his focus from the sky and faced his father again. "Are you going to start taking your own advice now?"

"Come again, son?" Rick was taken aback by the thinly veiled contempt in his son's voice.

"I don't think you always take your own advice. Whatever that was between you and Jessie was pretty crazy. I think she brought back to past to you. Our past. It's like you thought...I don't know...that maybe you thought Jessie was Mom for awhile. I mean not really thinking she was Mom, but the memories she brought back caused you to fixate on her or something." He let out a breath relieved to finally say the words he'd been holding back from his father.

Rick reached for his stale beer and took a drink. He was proud at his son for expressing his feelings, and also ashamed that the boy could read his lost of sanity so well. "In a way, yes. She did remind me of the simpler times. Times with your mother. How she always wanted to live in a place like this. I wanted a second chance. I wanted to make amends for Lori's death."

"I used to blame you for her death. I blamed myself too. I wished I had been nicer to her before she died."

"I do too." Rick said. His heart weighed heavier the more this conversation went on. He wanted nothing more to end it now and run upstairs to the sanctuary that was now his and Michonne's bedroom, but he knew Carl needed to keep going. He knew he needed this catharsis.

"I was just so mad at her. It's funny because I can barely remember why now. I think it had something to do with what went down with Shane, and how she treated you after. It all seems so dumb to me now. That I wasted so many months not being the son she needed me to be. And in these last few weeks I've been just as angry at you. Maybe more. Every time I take a breath and my lungs hurt a little. Or every time I moved in the wrong direction and I felt a throb in my chest I became angrier. My mind kept coming back to if you hadn't been so obsessed with Jessie the chain of events that led to me getting shot wouldn't have happened."

Rick hung his head down and wiped at his eyes; feel the stinging sensation of tears starting to develop. "I've thought about that every day since you were shot."

"But I don't want to be angry with you anymore, Dad. I think Mom died without ever really knowing how much I loved her. I don't want that to happen to us."

Rick walked over to his son and pulled him into a hug. He rested his head on top of the boy's. He placed a kiss on his hair like he used to do when he was a toddler. "You don't ever have to worry about that. Your Mom knew you loved her, and I know too. It doesn't matter if you stay mad at me for now until eternity. I love you enough for the both of us."

Carl pulled away from his father and looked him in the eye. Rick couldn't believe the boy was almost the same height as him. "Do you love me, Judith, and Michonne enough to promise to never go off the deep end again?"

Rick ran a hand over his face not sure how to answer his son's question. If he was truthful with himself, he would admit him and sanity had an uneasy relationship since the day he woke up in that hospital three years ago.

"Despite everything you're great," Carl continued, "You saved us from the Wolves. You're getting this place safer. The people who used to shun you here now look to you with so much respect. You're my hero, and will probably always be. But when you go off the deep end, you fall so far. I'm scared one day you won't come back to us."

"I won't lie to you, son. I'm not...I'm nowhere close to man I was before this whole thing started. I can't promise I won't make mistakes anymore. I'm sure I have quite a few left in me. I won't apologize for the things I've done to protect my family. I would kill anyone if it meant protecting you, your sister, and Michonne. But I will promise to know when I'm about to go too far and pull myself back. I know I need to be here for all of you, and our extended family."

Carl stuck out his hand to his father. Rick was jolted by the fact he looked more like a man than his little boy. "And I promise to pull you back if you ever find that you can't stop yourself from going over."

Rick's smile radiated with the enormous love and pride he had for his son as he gripped his had tightly. "Deal."

II.

Michonne was awakened by gentle lips pressing kisses on her neck. She pulled the sheet tighter over her head, and let out a small groan. "It can't be seven already." she said.

"It's actually seven-fifteen," Rick said in almost a sing-song tone. Michonne scoffed at the amusement she heard in his voice from under the sheet. He reached under the covers to run a finger down her hip to her thigh and back up again. "We promised Maggie and Glenn we'd be at their house by eight, and we still have to eat breakfast and get Judy ready." He leaned down to place more kisses on her shoulder.

Michonne moaned softly. Rick's ministrations were giving her even more reason to not want to get out of bed. "Who agreed to such an early start time anyway?"

"That would be you, my love. I think you gave me several platitudes when I complained about the early time. Early bird gets the worm. Something about health and wisdom."

"'It is well to be up before daybreak, for such habits contribute to health, wealth, and wisdom' Aristotle said it many moons ago," Michonne mumbled; still hiding underneath the sheet.

"Yeah, that one. So you can early blame yourself for this."

Michonne rolled over and arched her back into a full body stretch. Her movements were so graceful and sensual Rick had to stop himself from pulling off his pajama bottoms and hopping into bed with her. Turning her head to look up at Rick, she gave him the lip pout that he usually found irresistible. "You're the leader. You should have vetoed me."

Rick looked at her in disbelief. "I haven't gotten you to do one thing you didn't want to since they day we met."

She swatted at him playfully before reluctantly getting out of bed. Rick watched as she walked naked into the adjoining bathroom of the master suite. "You know if we share that shower we could get ready in half the time," he said.

"That is the reason it was so hard for me to get up. You kept me up way past my bedtime last night," she said while walking back into the bedroom with her hair now up and out of her face. Still naked and holding her toothbrush, Rick didn't think he'd seen anything sexier in his life. "Why aren't you ready," she asked him. "You have been up enough to at least take a shower."

Rick leaned against the headboard. "The lady of the house gets the first shower. Thems the rules."

Michonne laughed and rolled her eyes at him. "You know you're not nearly as funny as you think you are."

"But you laughed so I gotta be at least be a little funny."

She rolled her eyes again. "Whatever, Grimes. You know it would have been nice if the house had one of those Mr. and Mrs. bathrooms. Then we both could get ready at the same time." She walked back into the bathroom. Rick heard the water turn on as she started brushing her teeth.

Michonne saying "Mr. and Mrs." struck something in him. His love for her reached deep down into his soul. They lived together and were raising their kids together. She was, for all intents and purposes his wife. He pulled himself from the bed and went over to the dresser where he kept his wedding ring. The thought of there being another Mrs. Grimes would have been foreign to him even a couple of months ago. But the thought of it now made his heart race in beautiful anticipation. Just then Michonne walked back into the room wrapped in a towel. Her skin glistened from the recent shower. Rick hadn't realized he spent so long standing there contemplating marriage. He sat back down at the foot of the bed and watched as she moisturized her skin with the lavender lotion he'd found for her on his last run.

"Have you thought of ever getting married?" He asked.

She stopped rubbing lotion on her thigh and gave him a curious look. "Is this a proposal?"

"No, well, maybe?" He gave a look that was a mix between bashful and scared.

She smiled at how adorable he was being. He looked like a scared little boy. "You're cute." She walked over to give him a kiss on the lips. He instinctively reached out to grab her hips.

"Is that cute in, 'yes Rick I want to marry you.' Or does it mean, 'it's cute that you think I'll actually marry you?'' He tried to joke, but his voice gave away his nervousness.

"You know how much I love you. You never need to doubt that. Marriage has never really been on my radar. Even in the old world. Mike wanted to, but I just didn't find it necessary. I'm not religious. My love for Mike or us being parents to Andre didn't hinge on a certificate filed by the state. It made us no less committed to being a family."

"Are you sure you're a southern girl? That sounds like Yankee talk as my grandfather would say."

"I was a very modern woman. I guess I still am." She straddled his lap and smoothed his curls from his face before kissing him on the mouth again. "Are you going to love me more tomorrow if we get married today?"

"I'm going to love you more each day no matter what." Rick said seriously. He wrapped his arms tighter around her.

"Then there you go. Those titles don't mean anything anymore. Husband. Wife. It doesn't matter. What matters is Rick. Carl. Judith. Michonne. We are a family. Nothing and no one can ever tell us otherwise."

Rick kissed her shoulder, her neck, her cheek before reaching her lips. He inhaled her scent and basked in the intimacy of their skin to skin contact. "I guess it's still hard for me to let go of the old world," he said when he finally pulled his lips away from hers.

"It's time to let go, baby. Who would marry us anyway? Father Gabriel?"

Rick almost shuddered at the thought. "You have a point there." He looked into her eyes as he'd done so many times since they'd met. He would often look away because he was scared of what he saw in hers and what she might see in his. The gratefulness he felt for finally having the courage to look into those eyes uninhibited was immeasurable.

"I still might think about you as my wife sometimes. Old dog. New tricks. You know."

Michonne leaned her forehead against his. She sighed in contentment also feeling grateful for all that she'd gained in the last year. "I guess I'll allow it."

III.

Winter was no longer coming. The season had arrived. Tiny snow flurries blew through the air as Rick held a tightly bundled Judith while Carl and Michonne walked ahead of them. It was a after eight. After their talk he and Michonne had spent some time re-consummating their non-marriage.

He smiled to himself as he listened to his love and his son talk about who would win in a fight between Iron Man and Captain America. Sometimes he felt a little left out when they became deeply entrenched in their comics. Even Judith liked for Carl to read them to her.

"I never knew they were any superheroes besides Batman and Superman," he interrupted them.

"There are so many superheroes, Dad," Carl said.

"Oh, yeah. Sooo many," said Michonne, "There's Thor, Storm, Captain Marvel, Misty Knight, Rick Grimes." She gave him a wink over her shoulder.

Rick smiled and ducked his head down to try to hide the warm, red blush that was seeping onto his face.

"Oh yeah, Dad's definitely a superhero. What do you think his power should be?"

"Maybe we can turn his hand into a giant gun?" Michonne said as she mimed using her arm as a shotgun.

"Cool," Carl said excitedly. "He'll need a sidekick too."

"That'll be me of course." Michonne said.

"Trust me, baby. You are nobody's sidekick. You'd run the whole damn thing." Rick said returning her wink.

"Oooh, I like that," her face broke out into a wide smile. "What should my superhero name be?"

"Michonne. There's no name more badass than Michonne." Carl said emphatically

"Abraham is pretty badass. It's in the bible, and he saw burning bushes and shit." Abraham said as he and Rosita came up behind them to join to parade to Glenn and Maggie's.

"That was Moses, dear." Rosita said. "Ignore him. He was in his liquor stash again last night."

"If alcohol is good enough for Jesus to turn water into wine then it's good enough for me." The big man bellowed.

The small group finally arrived at their destination. They entered the backyard through the side gate and saw the rest of their family was already present. Carol and Daryl were talking quietly under one of the trees. Glenn, Maggie, and Sasha were sitting on the porch steps. Tara and Eugene were drinking coffee against the back fence. Glenn was the first to notice the new arrivals.

"Great, everyone's here. Let's get started."

Maggie handed everyone weak, water down coffee. Time to talk, visit, and have fun together was rare. Every day was about keeping the community safe. It was nice to just relax for a little while and enjoy the family reunion.

Once they finished their stale mini donuts Maggie came over to Michonne and rubbed a comforting hand down her back. "Are you and Carl ready?"

Michonne raised an eyebrow at Carl silently asking him. He nodded, and took out two smooth rocks from his coat pocket. They walked over to the new rock piles displayed in Glenn and Maggie's back yard. Rick and the rest of the group hung back as they watched Michonne and Carl add their rocks to the piles.

"Now they're complete," Michonne said to Carl.

"Yeah," he said; wiping at the tears that started gathering in his eyes.

"You're going to make me cry now, kid."

"It just feels like this is the final goodbye," Carl said.

"It's not final. Lori and Andre will always be in our hearts. They will forever live on through us." The two of them joined together in a side hug.

The snow fell harder around them. Love and lost radiated through the air. The rest of their family moved in closer each subdued in their own personal thoughts of all they have lost and all they had gained.

IV.

Rick was in a rush to get Judith back home. Her little cheeks were red from the harsh wind. He had to laugh at how she stuck out her tongue to try to catch the snow that was falling. She'd picked up that habit from her brother. Olivia had been trying to catch his attention for the last block finally she ran to cut off his long strides.

"Rick sorry to bother you but..." The woman was still a bit intimated by the man that was pretty much their leader now.

"But what?" Rick asked impatiently. He pulled his daughter's hood tighter around her face.

"Well, supplies are starting to get very low. We have enough food for us to eat comfortably for another two weeks or so. After that I don't know what we're going to do."

Rick scratched behind his ear with his free head and looked to Michonne. "I was worried about this. We won't be able to plant anything until Spring. I think it's time for the plan to widen our search. We'll start out with the areas right around the community and then extend it out further."

"But we've already searched those areas." Olivia said. She was wringing her hands from the cold and her nerves. She thought she felt her stop when Rick gave her a look.

"They haven't searched it our way yet," said Michonne. "We can get a group ready to go out tomorrow."

"That's the other thing I wanted to tell you. Spencer put together some guys to go on a search. He said he doesn't want to wait anymore. They're at the gate now."

Rick handed Judith over to Carl. "Take your sister home. Get her out of the cold. I'll be there after I take care of this."

Him and Michonne walked at a fast pace to the gate. Spencer knew he had to clear all runs with Rick. He knew the man was openly breaking the rules to protest his mother handing over most of the control of Alexandria to Rick.

Rick clenched his teeth together and started into a run when he saw the group packing up a car at the gate. "Spencer," he yelled out. His voice came out louder than he intended, but he was pissed. "What the fuck are you..." He trailed off when he felt Michonne's hand move to his shoulder. He looked down at her and saw her point towards the gate. A stranger was standing there smiling at them. He didn't have a "W" craved onto his forehead, but both he and Michonne went into high alert nonetheless.

The stranger sported long hair hanging from a knit cap that reminded Rick of the one Tyresse used to wear all the time. He wore a full beard and a friendly smile. He held up his hands in a defensive pose when both Rick and Michonne pulled out their weapons.

"Whoa there friends. I come in peace. My name is Jesus, and I have good news for you."

A/N 2: So, I left room for a sequel that will probably be written at some point in the future. I want to see how the new season comes together first. See you all (hopefully) at the next fic!