Summer had passed quickly, the heat making the days flow by until we were greeted by the coolness of autumn. There had been a few scares over the pass few months, a horde of the monsters coming close to breaking down our front gates just a few weeks ago. That had resulted in extra security. A few of the guards had rigged a hose onto the front wall. It was genius manufacturing, since the infected are burned by water. Now, there is a continuous mist coming from the hoses, making it so that the mutants cannot come any closer than a yard to the wall. It makes it easier for them to be picked off.

Besides having to deal with the monsters, Finn and I have been trying to get ready for our wedding. It has been a real hassle since neither of us wanted something too big. But this is the first wedding our community has had since the outbreak, so it is now a huge celebration. Anne, Alena, and Erika had taken the whole ordeal into their hands. But that doesn't mean that we aren't dragged into the whole mess to make final decisions.

The wedding is being held next week, and I honestly cannot wait to just get it over with. I love Finn and I am happy that we are getting married, but this whole wedding planning business is exhausting, especially since our nights are still being frequently interrupted by Cora.

But today, the thought of the wedding is being forced out of my mind. Because today is Remy's birthday.

Apparently, Alena has been keeping a calendar, making it easy to know the dates. When I had returned our filled in registration papers, she had reminded me that Remy's birthday is fast approaching.

Now, here we are, the first day of September, celebrating Remy turning four-years-old.

The little boy has been excited all week, mostly because me and Finn have been hyping him up about the celebration. This morning, he had woken up just as the sun was rising, running into our room and pulling himself up onto the bed while we were still asleep. He had pounced on Finn, his foot accidentally catching me in the stomach in his excited flailing.

Suffice to say, I am really looking forward to bedtime.

The kids are all running around, different games set up for them on the beach while Finn and a few of the others start gathering the wood for a bonfire. Viola is perched on my hip, as per usual, while Cora is strapped to my chest with one of those baby wraps.

"Looks like Remy is having fun," Anne says from beside me. My niece wiggles in her mother's arms as Anne finishes changing her from a swimsuit into a dry t-shirt and shorts. "Actually, it looks like everyone is having a blast."

"Well, he deserves to have fun." Viola grumbles as I move her into a more comfortable position, clinging onto me as if afraid I may put her down. "And it seems like everyone here loves to celebrate."

"Takes our mind off of everything else that is going on outside the walls," she says, finally letting Olivia go once she has tied her hair back. "We deserve to celebrate after all the things that we have survived."

"Too true."

Viola wiggles in my arms, making me look away from my sister. Following the little girl's gaze, my eyes land on an approaching Finn. Viola waves her arms at him, clearly wanting him to hold her, and I let out a breath of relief once Finn picks her up.

She is getting heavier, weighing much more than she used to. In fact, her birthday is at the end of the month. She will be a whole year old in just a few weeks, something that I still find shocking.

"Papa," she cries, a wide smile on her face as Finn presses a kiss against her cheek. Ever since Finn and I discussed him spending more time with the kids, Viola and Remy have grown really close with him. It always makes me smile when I see the love in their eyes for their Papa, knowing that talking to him about the issue was the right thing to do. Now, everything is split between us, making the parenting much more equal.

"How's the bonfire coming along?" I ask, leaning into Finn's side when he wraps his arm around me. It is always a comfort to be pressed against him, a little reassurance that he is okay.

"Derek is trying to light it now, and then we'll start dinner," he says, hand slipping down to give my ass a small squeeze before returning to my hip.

"Watch it, mister," I chide, giving his ass a pinch, "there are little ones around."

He looks down at me, eyes wide in mock innocence. But the look slips away when I raise an eyebrow. Instead of letting him give a ridiculous excuse that will have me rolling my eyes in exasperation, I lean up to give him a kiss, cutting off whatever he might have said next.

His chest rumbles as he laughs against me, but doesn't pull away, instead deepening the kiss. It is only when Viola starts to call out an irritated, "Papa, Dada," that he manages to pull away.

"What is it, love?" I ask, leaning over to press a kiss against her cheek. She just gives me a wide smile before burying her face into Finn's neck.

The gesture has me laughing, leaning up to give Finn one last kiss before pulling away from him. Cora has just started to wiggle against me, chewing on her hand. She isn't a fussy baby, especially when she is being held, but she gives her own cues for being hungry. Chewing on her hand is one of them.

"I'm going to go get her a bottle," I say, resting a hand on Cora's back. "You'll be okay watching her for a bit?"

Finn gives me a fond roll of his eyes, nodding his head. "We'll be fine."

Viola just gurgles against Finn's chest, happy to be held by her papa.

Walking into the house is a bit of a relief. It is one of the only places that is quiet. The only noises are coming from the kitchen, and when I walk in there, I see that Anne and Erika are in there, icing the cake for Remy.

"Wow, that looks amazing," I say, gesturing at the cake.

Both of them startle, clearly not hearing me come in. Anna is the first one to snap out of it. "Thanks, it is almost done."

"How did you guys find all the ingredients to make a cake? I didn't think we had half the stuff we would need."

Erika shrugs her shoulder, already walking over to the fridge and pulling out a prepared bottle. "It isn't going to be as sweet as the birthday cakes we are used to, but we mixed in a lot of strawberries. But, the rest of the stuff we were able to find."

"Well, I bet Remy will love it," I say, going to stand by the stove while the bottle warms up. "He is having the time of his life out there."

"I bet he is," Anne says, giving me a wide smile. "All of the kids were so excited."

Erika nods her head, moving over to start chopping some fruit before placing them into a huge bowl. "It got me thinking that maybe we should start having monthly celebrations for everyone who has a birthday that month. It will be something to look forward to and then everyone can pitch in for the party."

Shrugging my shoulders, I grab the bottle, testing the milk. "Sounds like a good idea to me. I was just thinking about how Viola is turning one at the end of the month. It would be nice to do something with everyone."

The both of them smile, Erika coming over to give me a quick hug while Anne just pinches my cheek, trying to be as annoying as possible. "Oh, look how cute you are, being a responsible adult and everything."

"Anne, I have been a responsible adult every since I left for college five years ago."

She just pokes her bottom lip out, trying to rile me up. "Yes, but you have always been the baby in the family. Hard to believe that my baby brother is a father and soon to be married man."

Rolling my eyes, I turn off the stove, dodging Anna's fingers as she tries to pinch my side. "Love you, Ally!"

Grumbling about annoying older sisters, I get comfortable on the couch. Cora just stares up at me with her wide blue eyes, one of the many things she got from her birth mother. She is just as silent as Mary, not making a peep as I take off the sling and hold her against my chest before giving her the bottle.

Her little legs kick as she eats, hand coming up to rest against her cheek as her eyes start to flutter. Peering up at the clock, I see that it is almost seven o'clock. It is getting close to her bedtime, but with the celebration, she will probably be up for a few more hours before going down for the night.

By the time she is finished, Anne and Erika have carried all the food- minus the cake- outside. Cora lays against my chest, head resting on my shoulder as I try to burp her. She is close to going to sleep, but I try to keep her awake, not wanting her to fall asleep too soon and have trouble sleeping during the night.

She lets out little whines whenever I jostle her awake, but I bend down to give her kisses on her hair. I know she will be mad at me now, but we will all be thankful when she sleeps during the night.

Noise greets us as we walk outside. Everyone is sitting down at either the picnic tables or in chairs around the fire, plates of food in their laps.

"Hey, saved you some food," Finn says, meeting me at the bottom of the porch steps. Remy is glued to his leg, while Viola is held happily in his arms.

"Thanks," I whisper, leaning over to give him a soft kiss.

He smiles against my lips, pulling away and gesturing over at two empty chairs.

The rest of the night passes in a bit of a blur. Dinner is the only somewhat difficult part, trying to eat while also getting enough food into Remy and Viola, but we manage. After that is cake, which is the most exciting part for Remy. He does get nervous, though, when everyone starts to sing him happy birthday, hiding his face in my chest as I hold him. But, with a little coaxing, he peeks his head out enough to blow out his candles.

"Hard to believe he's four," Finn says to me later that night when we are all clean and tucked into bed.

"Hard to believe he's ours," I answer.

Finn just presses a kiss against my forehead. "Thank god we found him, and that you are so stubborn. Without you, we wouldn't have any of them."

Warmth floods my face, and I turn, giving Finn's chest a soft bite. "Oh stop."

He chuckles before giving me a tight squeeze, not relenting until I look up at him with curious eyes. "I'm serious, Alden. Without you, we wouldn't be a family."

His words have my heart skipping a beat, the sound echoing in my ears. Swallowing against the lump in my throat, I give a shaky nod before laying my head back down on his chest. "Don't give me all the credit, you were our protector."

He doesn't say anything to that, and for that, I am grateful, too tired to debate the issue. Because it is true and I would not relent until Finn realized that. We both are responsible for how far we have come.

*****

Wiping off my sweaty palms, I look over myself one last time in the mirror. There was no way we could get anything too fancy to wear for the wedding. But, one of the other colonies has started to take old clothes and create them into brand new pieces of clothing. Last month when they were here for the weekend market, we had managed to each snag a pair of black pants, as well as plaid shirts.

My past self is cringing at the sight of me in a red and black plaid shirt, but it is something different and not as worn as our other clothes, which is what we wanted. My eyes meet my own in the mirror, wider than usual from the nerves. And my hair is much fancier than I have worn it in the past year.

Anna had insisted on getting me ready this morning, knowing that I am not good with hair styling. Somehow, she had managed to tame the strands, trimming all of it before brushing back the waves in front, leaving my face exposed.

"You ready?" Anna says from behind me, voice sounding way too loud in the otherwise quiet room.

"Ready as I'll ever be," I say, giving my self one last glance over before turning around.

My sister steps forward, fixing a few strands of hair before resting her hand on my cheek. "I'm so proud of you Ally," she says, her blue eyes wet with tears. "And I know Mom and Dad would be proud as well."

Her words have me choking up, and I have to fight to keep my own tears from spilling over. There has been a silent agreement between us not to talk about our parents, the subject too painful to bring up. So this is the first time in a while that either of their names has been mentioned.

Nodding my head, I pull her into a tight hug, taking comfort in her familiar arms. "Thanks, Anna," I whisper, taking a few more seconds to relax in the hug before pulling away.

"Now," she says, wiping at her eyes, "time to get you married. I need to save the rest of my tears for later."

A strained laugh slips out of me, and shaking my head, I follow my sister out if the room and down the back porch steps. The wedding is really small, with an older gentleman who runs the community center being our ordained minister.

Erika and Anna had done a great job getting everything set up. They had managed to even refurbish an old trellis that used to be in the community garden, giving it a fresh coat of white paint before covering it in flowers. Miscellaneous chairs were set up on either side of a walkway created from flat stones that gather near the cliffs.

We had wanted this wedding to be small, so we only invited a few people. Derek is seated in the front, the twins in his lap while Olivia is in the chair to his right. Alena and Damien are seated on the right, and behind them are Erika and her husband. Delaney is even sitting in the back row, looking a bit out of place. To be honest, I didn't think he would show, but I thought we should invite him anyways.

"It looks amazing, Anna," I whisper, giving her hand a tight squeeze. "Thank you."

"You being happy is all the thanks I need." She returns the squeeze before nodding her head to the left, and music starts up only a second later. Turning, I see a guy sitting on a stool, guitar in hand as he strums a familiar tune. "Showtime."

Anna lets go of my hand long enough to grab Viola, who has just started walking, and helping her to walk down the center path. The little girl throws all of two petals before trying to stuff the rest in her mouth. This gets a rise of laughter from everyone. The attention has her smiling, and she goes easily enough into Alena's waiting arms, while Derek holds a sleeping Cora.

Then, it is my turn to walk, the weight of everyone's eyes on me as I walk across the stones. By the time I make it to the front of the trellis, my heart is pounding. Finn joins me a minute later, a soft smile on his face.

The ceremony goes off as well as we could have expected. Remy joins us after we say our vows, tripping and almost dropping the rings before he rights himself. The embarrassment had him crying, and the rest of the ceremony is done with Remy in Finn's arms, face buried in his neck.

But it is all worth it in the end when the minister pronounces us married, and we share a brief kiss, not able to do anything more with Remy in between us and the wide smiles on our faces.

Cheers start up, and I have never been happier. I have always thought that weddings were cheesy, just something that people did because they thought it was expected of them. But, standing here with Finn's arm wrapped around me, wide smiles on our faces, I know that it is something more.

We survived hell out there, and we never had to take this next step, but it makes something settle inside me. That little voice that has been whispering admonishments, making my insecurities come out at the worst of times. For the first time, it is silent, and I know this is right.

Viola claps along with everyone else, giggling when I scoop her up. All the noise has Cora waking up, and once she is handed over as well, Derek surprises us all by pulling out a film camera, something I haven't seen since I was a kid.

"How in the hell did you get ahold of that?" Finn asks.

Derek just shrugs his shoulders. "One of my buddies was a freelance photographer. Learned everything she knows on this camera. She is going to develop these for you, in exchange for her son being in your class next year."

"Sounds good to me," Finn says.

"Good, now all of you smile." Derek holds the camera up, clicking it a few times before setting it back down. "Perfect. They should be done in about a week."

"Thanks, Derek. We appreciate it." He gives me a quick side hug before I step back against Finn.

"Well, you guys deserve something nice," Anna says, coming over to give us a quick hug.

"We do, don't we," I whisper, tilting my head back, smiling when Finn leans down to give me another kiss.

Happiness.

Something that seemed impossible when we were living day to day almost a year ago. It is still painful to remember the past and all those who were killed or turned. But here we are.

Happy.

The End