A short epilogue of sorts that I was so excited to write. I know this story didn't have many of the other characters in it that are usually in other Bethyl stories but this one was really all about Daryl and Daryl/Beth. I also know this story ends with a lot open and I will probably write a follow-up one-shot further down the road. I can't thank you enough for reading and supporting me as I wrote this one.


Chapter Twenty-Five. Blueberry Crumb.

Few birds are happier in the company of man than the house sparrow, and for much of the year, it is rare to find them far from human habitations.

Daryl wasn't sure how long they had been sitting in the truck outside of the convenience store but he knew it had already been a few minutes. He wasn't too sure why he couldn't seem to get himself to go inside after driving all of this way but a part of him was nervous for some reason no matter how many times he told himself that there was no reason to be.

From beside him, Beth sat quietly, giving him the time she knew he needed.

They had left early that morning, stopping and getting doughnuts and coffee from T-Dog before beginning their long drive. He knew they didn't have to get it done all in one day but a part of him just wanted to get there and the sooner the better. It had taken him nearly his entire life to get here and he had waited long enough to make this trip.

Clay County, Kentucky was poor in a way that most people weren't used to in this country. Most of the people living here still didn't have running water or electricity and the county was always on lists of the most obese and poorest of any county of any state. But people stayed because they may have been poor but they were proud and this was their home. Daryl didn't doubt that most of them were still here.

"I need to go to the bathroom," Beth said, finally breaking the silence. "I'm going to go inside but you take your time."

Daryl nodded and didn't say anything and she leaned over and kissed him on the cheek before pushing open her door and sliding out of the truck. He watched her through the windshield as she climbed the store's step and she smiled as she pet the dog sitting on the porch, the dog's tongue hanging out and his tail wagging happily from the attention.

Once she disappeared inside, Daryl exhaled a deep breath. He could do this. He was a Harper and a Sparrow and a Dixon and all of that blood mixed together made him damn near invincible. He wasn't afraid of anything. Not anymore.

With one more deep breath, he got out of the truck and headed towards the store. The dog was now wagging his tail at the sight of Daryl and Daryl gave him a quick rub behind his floppy ear before heading inside. The store was small with a few shelves of food and a row of coolers against the wall that sold everything from milk and juice to beer. Daryl knew this was really the only place that sold groceries around here for miles. Behind the counter, there was a large man with a round face to match his round stomach, and he was chewing on tobacco, a tin can next to his hand that he could spit it into.

"Afternoon," he tipped his head towards him.

Daryl nodded his head towards him in return and then his eyes scanned the space for Beth.

"Your girl's in the bathroom," the man read his mind.

The front door opened again and two girls in their young teens entered, giggling to one another about something. Without looking at either of them, they headed towards one of the deep freezes where there were ice cream bars and sandwiches kept.

Daryl headed towards the counter. "Was hopin' you could help me."

"Yeah," the man smiled, showing off his imperfect tobacco-stained teeth. "Figured you and that girl of yours was lost. Don't get tourists up here too much unless they're lost."

"Nah, I know where I am," Daryl shook his head. "I just don't know where to go from here."

The man tilted his head slightly to the side and looked at Daryl curiously.

"'m lookin' for my family. My grandma was from Clay County and I don't know any of 'em…" Daryl trailed off and he turned his head, seeing that Beth had come out of the bathroom and was heading back his way.

The sun coming in through the windows caught the small diamond engagement ring on her finger and cast a rainbow onto the floor. She smiled at him as she walked closer and Daryl reminded himself that he could do this.

He looked back to the man. "I'm Olive Sparrow's grandson," he then said.

The man took a second and then a smile stretched broadly across his face.

"Aunt Liv?" A voice from behind him asked and Daryl turned his head to see the two girls, now looking at him in return. The one who had spoken was the older of the two – probably around thirteen – skinny, all knees and elbows, with familiar strawberry blonde hair.

Daryl just blinked at her.

"I'm Annie Berry." She took a step forward then and his breath caught in his throat at learning her name. "I'm named after my grandma. Grandma Anne. My grandma and Aunt Liv were sisters. And this is my cousin, Hattie Sparrow. Her grandpa was Grandpa Travis and he was Grandma and Aunt Liv's brother but he died a long time ago in one of the cave-ins. A lot of 'em were coal miners but you prob'ly already know that. But they have another brother who's still livin'. Uncle Jeremiah. He's the youngest and I knew he was jus' a baby when Aunt Liv left home so he prob'ly don' know that much 'bout her."

Daryl just kept staring at her, his head feeling like it was spinning a little bit. All of these names and connections and he had two cousins. Just like that.

Even though he knew it wasn't true, all of these years, he had gone through life thinking he had no family anymore. Grandma Liv had talked about the family in Kentucky all of the time. He knew she and her sister, Anne – her favorite sister – wrote to one another frequently and he knew he had uncles and aunts and cousins. But with his last name and his ol' man telling him that he had no one, and Merle later telling him often that no one would ever care about him except for his older brother, Daryl had forced himself to forget about all of them.

"'m Daryl," he finally spoke, finding his voice again.

"Oh my god!" Annie exclaimed, startling him. "Daryl Dixon!" She then leaped forward and threw her arms around him in a hug. And Daryl stood there, having no idea what to do. From the corner of his eye, he could see Beth smiling. "You came home!" Annie then beamed, pulling back, looking up at him.

Daryl looked down at her. The Sparrows must have had some strong genes because Annie looked just like that picture he had of Grandma Liv when she was a young girl. The hair and freckles and the eyes. Even if Annie hadn't said anything, Daryl figured he would have guessed that they were related somehow.

"This is Beth, my fiancée," Daryl said, waving a hand towards Beth, and she stepped forward with her beaming smile.

"Hi," Beth greeted. "It's so nice to meet you."

"You two need to come home with me and meet Grandma Anne. She'll wanna meet you," Annie said. "Right, Hattie?" She looked back to her cousin before back to Daryl and Beth. "Hattie don' talk much," she then informed them in a low voice but she didn't say why.

"Your grandma's still alive?" Daryl couldn't help but sound a little surprised.

"Yep. Older than Methuselah but still sharp as a whip. She'll wanna meet you," Annie said again and he heard Beth laugh softly at the girl's description of her grandma. "She has pictures that Aunt Liv sent her of you. You know Aunt Liv and my grandma were super close. She has a wall of pictures hangin' of all the family. You're hangin' there."

Daryl felt his head starting to spin again. They knew about him. They all knew about him. This whole time, for his entire life, he had a family up here. And now, he was finally here.

And as if Beth could sense it, she slipped her hand into his and gave it a gentle squeeze.

It was beautiful up here. The Appalachian Mountains surrounded them with thick trees and small pockets of homes but for the most part, it was all so undeveloped, Daryl thought that maybe they had gone into a different world or a completely different time in history.

Annie and Hattie rode in the pickup truck with them, both girls eating the ice cream sandwiches that Beth had treated them to, and Daryl followed Annie's directions. When he stopped them in front of a ramshackle brown house with a sloping front porch and blueberry bushes in the front yard, he knew exactly where they were. His Grandma had described it enough times. The Sparrow original home.

There was a dog tied to a tree in the front yard and he barked as they all got out of the truck. A baby in a diaper was sitting in the yard – more dust and dirt than grass – playing with a small collection of plastic blocks, smacking them together and laughing with delight. There was a woman, heavily pregnant, hanging wet clothes on a laundry line to dry. And on the front porch, an old small woman with tanned wrinkled skin and white hair, was sitting in a chair, singing a song as she cleaned a basket of green beans in her lap.

Daryl felt his heart stop as he heard her words filtering towards them.

"He sent his servant to the town,

To the place where she was dwelling.

Saying, You must come to my master dear,

If your name be Barbara Allen."

Beth's hand found his again and this time, he was the one to squeeze it.

"Grandma! Grandma!" Annie went running towards the front porch with Hattie on her heels but the woman at the line stopped them.

"Anne Berry," the woman scolded. "You better not be eatin' ice cream and spoilin' your appetite for supper or I'll whip your butt."

As Annie whined and defended herself to the woman that must have been her mom, the old woman on the porch stopped singing and her eyes settled on Daryl, He squeezed Beth's hand, suddenly feeling a clenching in his stomach as if he was scared though he knew he wasn't. He had no reason to be. This was his family and Beth was with him. His new family was about to meet his old one and with Beth's hand in his, he could do this. Without Beth, he never would have been able to do this; never would have even thought of doing this.

The woman slowly got to her feet then, her eyes never leaving his face, and she didn't say anything or beckon him to come to her but Daryl found his feet taking him there anyway. Beth's hand never left his as he went to the porch, stopping himself on the ground in front of the bottom step and the old woman – Aunt Anne – stood there, staring at him with tears falling down her cheeks.

She reached out and patted his cheek gently. "Welcome home, Daryl. 'bout time you got your ass up here."

And Daryl exhaled a breath that sounded a little like laughter. He looked to Beth and she was smiling at him, tears brimming in her own eyes. His eyes returned to Aunt Anne.

"Yeah, took me a while," he said. "But I'm here."


The End.

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