This story has taken me years to finish. I don't know exactly what happened to it or why it was so hard to finish but here it is, for better or worse. I need it off my mind and off my heart.

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The Atlantic City skyline came into view as the sun came up and Daryl took her hand. He had never been this far north and the traffic blew his mind. The plan was for him to see a lot of new places now. It had only been days, but this was right, they belonged together.

The ocean was beautiful and they walked on the boardwalk as soon as they got there because Jamie wanted french fries with malt vinegar. Daryl thought it was the grossest thing he ever heard of, but he indulged her and she assured him that was the way everyone in the North ate them.

Tara and Eugene backed her up but Merle was steadfast and used ketchup with Daryl. After the fries all of them checked into the Hard Rock Hotel and crashed after the fifteen-hour drive. The next day they liberated her car from the storage unit, and Connie started up right away after Merle and Daryl tinkered with her just a bit.. The plan was for them to get the rest of the money and head west for a while.

Tara was going to keep her ears open in Atlantic City, and Merle was going to keep watch in Georgia. Eugene was heading back to New York, each was a little richer for their trouble. As Daryl and Merle stood in the parking lot of the airport, the shook hands then hugged.

Then Merle watched his little brother driving off in a 1983 Porsche Targa, with the T- tops off and a beautiful woman at his side; plus a trunk full of cash. Merle was no longer worried about him and their friends wouldn't be either. Somewhere their mother was watching and approving, he had finally met the woman that went through him and he was hers with every ounce of his being.

That's what their mother wanted for both of them, if she were there she would know she never had to worry about Daryl again.

They had beat her ex to the money and the car, and Daryl planned to change her name as soon as they could get her a Las Vegas divorce. That was the first place they were headed, then to California and wherever they wanted.

Merle got on the plane with a clear conscious, he was heading back to Andrea and to keep helping Abe at the shop until Daryl and Jamie came back in a few months married and off the grid and radar of her ex.

Sometimes when you least expected it, your life changed for the better, even if you weren't looking for love, sometimes it came looking for you. THE END

Notes: Thank you for reading, please let me know what you think.