AN: So, I have to start off with I am proud, yet saddened that this story has come to a close…I've been working on it for four long months and I made it to chapter 57...I plan to make this chapter really go and worth the wait. Before I actually get started, a guest reviewer posed: "NO" at the end of chapter 55...what do you mean by that? Please elaborate. Dawn1999, I'm really glad you love the story, and I will consider writing another story about the kids growing up but I don't know how well that'll work out. And, if I do that, it won't be for quite a while, maybe after I finish Forever and Ever (of all my stories that'll end first)…we'll just have to see. I do like writing with these characters but at the moment I just don't know. As far as the story goes…the fifteen years later is from Daniel's birth…just an fyi…anyway…here y'all go :D.

*Fifteen years later*

"Mom," Daniel stood before his mother. He was now fifteen and looked so much like Daryl, except for Lily's freckles that still spotted most of his cheeks. "I wanna go wit ya."

"Daniel…" Lily sighed. She'd aged pretty well, she was now forty-three and didn't look a day over thirty. She had very few wrinkles and still looked young for her age. "I don't know if that's such a good idea."

"Why?"

"It might not be safe…you've never dealt with walkers."

"Simple, hit 'em in the head. Yew really wanna leave me here with them while yew dad an' Emily go?"

He did make a good point.

"Ask your dad. If he says yes, then you can go," she sighed.

"Thanks mom," he kissed her cheek and jogged over to his dad, who was down the beach. Maggie, now thirty-seven came and stood by the fellow mother.

"They grow up so fast," the brunette said, looking at her son, Aden, who was thirteen.

"Tell me about it," Lily replied. They both watched Aden and Judith playing in the sand. It was crazy how much that girl looked like Lori. She was built the same, like a twig, long dark brown hair, and high cheek bones. Although, she had eyes that were like dark chocolate. Which, most everyone knew were like Shane's. Lily, along with everyone else couldn't imagine the pain that Rick felt, seeing the young woman everyday.

In some ways, for Rick, Judith was a reminder of who his wife and his best friend once were. The best parts of each of them. She was beautiful, kind, and so loving.

"Hey mom?" Lily turned to face Emily. Her eyes were the same emerald green, she had tanned skin, from her many years of living on a beach, and her raven hair almost reached her waist.

"Yeah?"

"Do you have any extra boots?"

"Yeah, in my closet," Emily nodded and turned on her heel. Carl, hot on her heels. They had been in a serious relationship for the past seven years. It was sweet to see two young people end up so happy. Well, Carl wasn't so young anymore he was twenty-nine now. "Carl, wait up," the freckled face man nodded. "When we're out there, you know what it's like…Emily hasn't been out there, I know she's capable, but please keep an eye on her…"

"You don't even have to ask…do you want me to keep an eye on Daniel too?"

"He's going?"

"That's what it sounded like…when he was talking to Daryl anyway."

Lily sighed. "Okay, yes then. Thanks, Carl."

"You're welcome," he jogged to catch up with the girl he loved.

"I'll be back," she turned to Maggie who just nodded. Lily stalked down the beach to her husband who was smiling with their son. "So…what's the verdict?" she tried to sound casual, she really did, but her son going out there scared the hell out of her. It was bad enough that Emily was going, but that her baby, her youngest son might be going broke her heart.

"I gotta go git ready," Daniel ran to the house happily.

"What the hell?" Lily asked once he was gone. She punched Daryl in the arm.

"Ow! Th'fuck that fer?" he asked.

"You weren't suppose to say yes!"

"Why ya tell 'im ta ask me then?"

"'Cause I didn't wanna be the bad guy…" Lily pouted.

"He'll be fine," Daryl wrapped an arm around Lily and pulled her to him.

"I hope so," she leaned her head against his shoulder.

"We'll keep 'im safe, Princess," he kissed her temple and she smiled softly. The fact that he started calling her 'Princess' as an insult was funny. Who would've thought that that would've become Daryl's term of endearment for her?

"I love you, Daryl…"

"An' I love you."

"Glad y'all love each other," Mason said, wrapping his arms around both of them at once, Daryl quickly pulled away, giving him the dirtiest of looks. "C'mon, we're practically family," Mason had pretty much developed a southern accent from his years around all of them.

Lily was laughing so hard she actually snorted. "You okay, baby sister?"

"Just…fine…" she said between laughs. She wasn't sure what was wrong with her, typically she wouldn't find it so funny.

"We need to get a move on, so when you're done laughing, get your ass on the boat," the blonde man used his crutches and hopped to the boat.

"C'mon," Lily slipped her hand in Daryl's and they began to walk, both of them had their bows on their backs. They boarded the boat to see that it was only them, Mason, Beth, and Olivia.

Beth's hair was trimmed short, but she just seemed to have a sense of maturity that she didn't have fifteen years ago. Her and Mason never had any children of their own, but she was practically Olivia's mom. Speaking of the now twenty year-old. She had a more rebellious teenage life, but was more calm now. Mason had taught her to shoot a gun and she had insisted on going with them all.

Merle and Rose were the next to get on the boat. Merle was more gray now than anything else. His hair and all of his facial hair. Rose, like Lily had stayed youthful, with very few gray highlights in her red hair. Merle and Rose had been together since they arrived at the island, though they'd never actually had a 'wedding' or any children, and weren't publicly affectionate, it was obvious they loved each other.

"Ya think it's gonna be worse?" Merle asked.

"I'm hoping all of the walkers rotted. It would make sense, right?"

"Would think so," Daryl replied.

"Let's hope," Rose said. They were headed back to America, hoping that things had changed from before and maybe, just maybe they could move back rather than staying on the island, and even if they couldn't they could at least gather more supplies.

Lily looked off into the distance and saw two dark headed people move out of view from everyone else, as the other members of the group were standing up the beach a ways. She walked over to the railing of the boat and got a good look at the making-out couple.

"Daniel Merlson Dixon and Judith Lauren Grimes what the hell do you think you're doing!?" the two teenagers jumped at the sound of Lily's voice. She jogged off the boat and to the couple. "Seriously!? What the hell is wrong with you two," she bopped Daniel upside his head.

"Mom, this could be goodbye…I had to…" surprisingly, that was justification enough. Although, her son wasn't suppose to go in the first place.

"You both know how Rick felt about Judith dating at all, if y'all get caught making out…I don't know what he'll do…"

"We're really sorry," Judith said shyly.

Lily gave a nod of acknowledgement to the girl and pulled her son by his arm. "They're waiting on you."

The mother and son got on the boat right after Emily and Carl. They waved to the people on land as the boat began to pull away.

"BYE JUDY!" Daniel yelled from the edge of the boat.

'Young love,' Rose signed with a grin.

'Tell me about it. He'll be the death of me,' Lily chuckled.

The boat sailed on clear into the night, bound for America. Lily and Daryl found a place to sit privately on the boat. She sat in front of him with his legs on either side of her body, her back pressed against his chest and his arms around her waist.

"Ya nervous?" he asked.

"A little…what if…"

"Not like it coul' be any worse," he made a good point. The world was pretty much hell before then.

"Yeah…I guess you're right."

"We'll jus' have ta see tomorra then, won' we?"

"Mm hm."

The beach of South Carolina could be seen from the front of the boat. Lily was the first one to point it out and everyone else came and joined her at the front.

"Identify yourselves!" A voice boomed as they docked. Everyone shared a look. There was an awkward silence before the mysterious voice spoke again. "Don't make us shoot you. Just tell us your first and last name, and where you came from!"

"I'm Lily Dixon and we came from an island…who are you?" Lily was the first to gain her bearings and speak to the stranger. She watched as a man walked out of a large red brick building.

"US army, Ms. Dixon. Just had to make sure you were friendly."

"What happened here, the last time we were here? It was overflowed with walkers."

The man, who resembled Channing Tatum, walked forward to meet up with Lily.

"Walkers?"

"The fuckin' dead freaks, y'know the ones that eat people's flesh off!" she was annoyed that this dude could just come in here and expect them to trust him.

"Oh, we took care of them…now everyone takes the vaccine."

"Th'fuck? There's a fuckin' vaccine!" Daryl exclaimed, standing by Lily's side.

"Yeah…they developed it about five years ago…The Russian CDC did anyway…now we're tryin' to rebuild society. We don't have internet up and running again, but we were able to fix the cell towers for landlines and such and there's electricity in certain regions of the country. Mostly the east and the Midwest. We haven't made it out to the west quiet yet…but we're getting there."

"I'll be damned," Merle said.

"Do y'all plan on moving back here? If so you'll have to go down to that office and fill out some forms…"

"Excuse us…" Lily said and the group walked back to the boat. "What do y'all think."

"I ain' goin' back to that island if I don' have ta," Merle said. "Livin' that close wit people jus' don' suit me."

"If you wanna stay, I'll stay," Rose said, taking Merle's hand.

"Whut do ya wanna do?" Daryl asked Lily.

"I don't know…no matter what someone has to go back and get our stuff and notify the others…"

"Yew wanna do that, I take it?" Lily nodded. "If y'all wanna stay…we'll git yer stuff an' the others."

They all shared a look with whomever their family was. Daniel just quietly stood by his parents. The group agreed to Lily and Daryl's offer.

"You wanna stay with uncle Mason?" Lily offered the baby blue eyed boy.

"No…I'm going with you," he said.

"Okay, we'll probably leave in a few minutes then.

Lily and Daryl spent yet another night on the boat. Daniel slept downstairs in the cabin. Daryl's arms were around Lily's waist from behind as she steered the boat.

"What if we do if we move back?"

"We find a house an' finish raisin' Daniel."

"What are we gonna do if he moves away?"

"Probably spen' more time in the bedroom than any couple shoul'," he laughed. She elbowed he side.

"Funny. I'm serious…it's kinda scary to think about the world being what it was…we'd have to deal with a bunch of people…I don't like people."

"We can stay on the island," Daryl offered.

"We can't do that to Daniel…make him stuck there with just the two of us."

"Then we can move whenever he moves out."

"Are you really leaving this up to me?" Lily asked.

"Ya."

"Why? Don't you want a say in where home is?"

"Ma home is with yew," he said.

That's what they did. When Daniel turned eighteen, he married Judith, Carl and Emily got married soon after moving back to the states, and they happily raised their own children. Daryl and Lily happily lived the rest of their lives on the island simply because they preferred it just being them and living off the land.

AN: Cliché I know…on Daryl's 'My home is wherever you are' sort of thing…I couldn't resist. I personally like happy endings…so I had to give it a happy ending. I hope y'all liked it, I'd love your reviews still even though the story was finished. And Dawn1999 said that I should do a story about like just the kids, what do y'all think about that? Like I said at the top, I'm not sure that I'll have time, but if enough of you want it, I may just have to make time…thank y'all so much for reading, it's been fun! Please check out some of my other stories. Love you guys!