…

As she said she would, Beth played the piano one more time. She now keeps herself outside, packing their wagon up for the journey home and trying not to hear the whack of the ax inside the house as Daryl hacks the piano apart. If the piano has to be torn apart though, Beth much rather prefers it to be her family doing the tearing apart rather than strangers.

Eli and Cecily are inside with their dad and Jack is outside with her; along with the two black bear cubs, who are currently rolling around on the ground, wrestling with one another. Beth still can't believe there are two bear cubs with them. She expected them to leave them during the night as the family slept, but when they all woke up this morning, the cubs were still with them; close to Cecily. Daryl had eaten his breakfast and had watched them, silent as he chewed, but his eyes not missing anything.

"They think you're their new mama," he then said, pointing his fork at Cecily.

The girl's eyes widened at that and then looked to the two small cubs, sitting in front of her, looking at her and no one else; as if waiting to hear what she wanted them to do. "They do?" She looked back to Daryl.

Daryl gave a single nod. "You found 'em and you fed 'em honey and a pumpkin. 's good enough for them."

Cecily promptly named the bear cubs after that though Daryl and Beth still have no idea how they can ever keep two bear cubs as pets. They won't. Bears grow past the cute and cuddly stage and have no place to be cooped up in their fence – with their other, more vulnerable animals. As Daryl said, if the cubs – newly named Biscuit and Gravy – want to follow them back to their mountain, they can. He won't stop them. But Biscuit and Gravy will have to make a home for themselves in the woods. They'll be happier in the woods than in their treehouse.

After eating, Cecily told Biscuit and Gravy to stay outside before she followed Daryl and Eli into the house and the cubs had actually listened to her. Beth can't quite believe it, but she supposes with everything she has already seen in this world, why would two bear cubs attaching themselves to her six-year-old daughter be the most unbelievable thing yet?

As she suspected, there is too much. Daryl had told her that they would get anything she wants to take back with them, but Beth is willing to cut down. Jack helps her as they make two piles – a pile of things definitely coming back with them and a pile of things they just don't need and can be left behind.

Jack makes sure his sister's ice cream scoop is in the pile that will come back with them as is the Gameboy. That's for dad and he bets Spencer, Aaron and Matt will all want to see it, too. It definitely seems like something that would bring back memories. Then, sitting on his butt, he begins taking out every picture from the frames and carefully peeling them out of the photo albums.

Beth has set the cube of Ireland dirt as well as the Pyrex mixing bowl in the pile to take back with them and she leaves her spiral notebooks and the hodgepodge of items Cecily and Eli found in the "leave" pile. They just don't need an empty perfume bottle or even more memory games than they already have. Beth knows that as long as Cecily gets her ice cream scoop, she'll be happy. And Eli just wants a picture of his Uncle Shawn, which there are plenty of in the pile. He has also taken down and rolled up Shawn's Nine Inch Nails poster from his bedroom wall though Eli has obviously never heard them.

"Mama?" Jack looks down at a picture of Grandma Annette. "How come you didn't name any of us after your family?" He wonders and lifts his head to look at her.

Beth gives him a smile. "Your dad and I didn't want to do that because you were your own people and we decided we wanted to give you your own names."

"Aiden's named after Spencer's older brother," Jack then points out.

"He is," she nods. She pauses then and Jack, observant like a Dixon, notices it and he waits for her to continue. She looks at him and gives him a small smile. "When we first met Spencer, he had been living behind a fence too long."

"Like Matt."

"Like Matt," Beth confirms. "Well, Spencer, when your dad and I first met him, he didn't know how to do much. He will tell you that he was scared and weak and before that, Before, he lived in the shadow of his older brother, Aiden, and he thought that his brother should have lived instead of him."

Jack frowns at that. "That's sad."

He thinks of Spencer, back home. He's great at fishing – he's the one who taught Aiden – and he's always making everyone smile and laugh; even if they don't want to smile and laugh. Dad has said all of the time that he thinks Spencer is the little brother he never had and Jack can't imagine the family without him.

"It is," Beth agrees. "So when he and Rosita had their baby, they named him after Spencer's older brother as a way of keeping Aiden alive."

Jack is quiet at that, thinking that over, and he begins carefully removing another picture from the photo album open across his lap. "You didn't want to keep any of your family alive?"

Beth is quiet at the question.

She's used to questions. Every day, she is inundated with questions. As the main cook for the family – as well as the one everyone went to for coughs and scrapes – and having been the main teacher for all of the kids' educations, the questions are constant.

But sometimes, one of the kids will ask a question that sounds so innocent, but it steals the breath from Beth's lungs and she struggles with an answer that is as innocent as the anything-but-simple question.

Now, she looks to her son and puts a gentle hand on the back of his head. "There had been so much loss and pain before your dad and I found our home in St. George's and even after that, there was still some loss and pain. We… we never forgot everyone we lost, but we… we couldn't let it take us over because we wouldn't even be able to get out of bed in the morning. We were still alive and we had to move on with our lives."

"So you gave us our own names," Jack finishes.

"Well… your dad and I named you after something. Something very special," Beth then smiles. Jack looks at her, curious and excited. She almost laughs. "The Jack your dad and I knew, he was very brave and very loyal and we loved him very much and he did anything to keep us fed and safe. He was a wonderful hunter and could catch fish within seconds. He attacked without pause – even when we really wished he did pause."

"And his name was Jack?" He is sitting up a little straighter now as Beth describes his namesake and at the memories, Beth smiles wider, and she nods at his question. "Why'd you name me after someone and not Eli or Cecily?"

Beth's smile softens as she looks at him and puts an arm around his shoulders, pulling into her side for a hug.

"Because from the moment you were born, we knew you were going to be strong and brave," she tells him and she knows that that's all Jack ever wants to be.

So often, she thinks of when he was sick and she tried to tell herself that he wasn't going to die. But his fever was so hot and his breath was so labored, she could see his ribs through his skin. She didn't leave his bedside for two days. She didn't eat. She didn't sleep. She couldn't even remember going to the bathroom. The only thing she could do was sit at her son's bed, helping him sip willow bark tea and feel absolutely helpless.

She hadn't even told Daryl, but as she prayed, she had felt a presence right next to her and she knew, without a doubt, that it was her dad.

For a second, as she felt Hershel at her side, Beth was petrified, thinking that her father was there to take Jack. But then, she felt a warmth on her back; as if Hershel had placed his hand there, resting it there and comforting her and with tears on her cheeks, Beth took a shaky breath and held Jack's hand tighter and that night, with snow packed around his body, Jack's fever had finally broken.

Beth and Daryl still don't know how their boy got so sick or what the sickness had been. Beth had poured over their medical books and Mulligan's family's journals, wondering if something like that had ever inflicted anyone before. But she had found nothing. She found things it could be, but not all of the symptoms would line up. She actually thought it was MS – but MS didn't usually inflict someone at Jack's young age.

All they know was that he had gotten so sick, but he had survived because he is a Dixon and a Greene and he is strong. She knows Jack thinks about it, too, in the way that he doesn't want it to be the only thing people remember when they look at him. For only being six, Jack already thinks about that.

But Beth thinks he's amazing and the first Jack would be quite proud of his namesake.

(She has already decided she will tell Jack he's named after a fox when he's a little older than he is now.)

Inside, there is a great crash and a mess of notes smashing together as the piano breaks apart to the ground. Beth winces at the noise and even Biscuit and Gravy stop in their wrestling, their ears perked at the commotion coming from inside the farmhouse.

Jack can feel her slightly tense body next to his. "Don't worry, mama. It's just a piano."

Beth nods though that doesn't exactly make it easier. "You're right."

"And like this, we get to take some of the keys with us so the piano's coming with us in a way."

Beth exhales a breath and looks down to him. "You're right," she says again, able to even smile a little.

Jack beams up at her and then nestles into her side for another hug.

…

Daryl thought it would be harder to leave – at least for Beth – but once the wagon is packed and they make sure they have everything, both in the packs on their backs and in the wagon, the Dixon family – plus two black bear cubs – head off, Beth only looking back at the house once from over her shoulder.

It's a beautiful day – the sun bright and warm, just a couple of clouds in the sky, and Cecily is skipping ahead down the long dirt drive, Biscuit and Gravy, hurrying after her. Watching them as he brings up the rear behind his family, Daryl can't help, but smile a little and shake his head at himself.

"What?" Beth asks, coming to his side, already smiling just because she sees that he is.

Daryl juts his chin out towards Cecily as she skips and laughs ahead of the rest of them, urging Biscuit and Gravy to "Come on, slow pokes!"

"'m jus' imaginin' what it'll be like when you and me aren't around anymore."

"I love that that thought makes you smile," Beth smiles.

Daryl smirks. "Imagine us not around anymore, but they are." He nods to the three kids – Cecily and Eli pulling the wagon as Jack walks at his side. "Stories start spreadin' to all of the other people who are still alive 'bout this fearless girl in the mountains with two massive black bears at her side. Girl's already becomin' a legend and she doesn't even know it."

Beth looks to their daughter and she smiles, too. "Despite how more days than not, we complain to one another that those three are killing us, I'm glad their ours."

"Yeah," Daryl shrugs. "They're alrigh'."

She slips her hand into his and he squeezes it, holding onto it. "Thank you for bringing me back here."

Daryl gives a single nod though they both know that's not something she has to thank him for. In all of their years together now, if Beth has learned one thing, it's that Daryl Dixon will do pretty much anything for her.

"You find what you were lookin' for?" He asks, figuring that she must have considering the stacks of Greene family photographs they are taking back with them.

"I did," Beth confirms. "I was finally able to say goodbye."

Daryl looks at her for a long moment and then bringing her hand to his lips, he kisses it, and Beth smiles, leaning in to rest her temple against his bicep.

Cecily spins around then to look at her family, walking backwards, Biscuit and Gravy almost tripping her, but she stays firm on her feet. "Angola," she then states with a wide grin.

"Brazil," Jack is quick to catch on.

"Colombia," Cecily takes her turn.

"Denmark," Eli jumps in.

"Egypt," Beth laughs.

"France!" Jack takes his turn.

"Your turn, daddy!" Cecily calls to him. "You take G!"

Daryl sighs. "Girl, stop your hollerin'."

"Come on, dad," Eli grins. "There's eleven countries that start with G."

Daryl looks to Beth with a frown. "I hate how smart you've made all these kids be."

Beth just laughs and he sighs again, looking at the three kids in front of them. Finally, he answers though he knew right away what his answer was going to be.

"Georgia."

…

The End. Thank you so much for reading this one and please take a moment to review!