I was inspired by the weather outside and decided to write what's probably the fluffiest gleggie fic about snow ever. Like seriously. Going for the Guinness book of world record's for gleggie snow-day fluff. Enjoy!
Growing up in Georgia, Maggie had never experienced winters like she saw in the movies. They were lucky to get an inch of snow every winter, and although that would be enough to shut down school for half a week, it wasn't quite what she pictured when watching Miracle on 34th Street. But the colder climate of Alexandria was much closer to the winters she'd prayed for as a little girl. The first winter they'd spent here she constantly had pressed her nose up against the window, staring as the snow piled up inch after inch. She'd even managed to pester Enid into building an igloo with her. During her first few months as a genuine snow-lover, the only thing that darkened her happiness was the fact that Beth – her favorite Christmas-movie watching partner and the only person she'd ever known who obsessed over tiny white flakes more than she did – wasn't there to enjoy it all with her.
Now, during her second legitimate winter, watching her two year old daughter gape at the snow over the past few weeks almost made her forget about her grief for her sister. Because she had to imagine that Beth would appreciate the way her namesake greedily stuffed her gloved hands into the fluffy whiteness, giggling and shrieking at the way it parted around her. Like always, Maggie just tried to appreciate all of the gifts life has given her extra hard, knowing that that's what Beth and everyone else would've wanted. And if her way of doing that involved helping her daughter make snow angels, well that was good too.
At the moment, though, her baby was getting a little too excited about their activities. Ellie's hat was nearly off her head, her mittens were long soaked through, and they'd been outside for so long that her nose was starting to resemble Rudolf's.
Although Maggie was just as reluctant as Ellie to turn away from the perfect snowy day, she was still a mom who worried about things like colds and frostbite, especially in the aftermath of the apocalypse.
Knowing that she'd just be met with a temper tantrum if she pulled her daughter away outright, she set about getting her daughter accustomed to the idea of going inside, "Okay, Ellie, now show me what you made." She helped Ellie get up out of her snow angel without wrecking it completely and listened patiently while her daughter explained all the intricacies of her artwork in an incomprehensible stream of excitement.
"Oh, and this is where her crown would go, right? – What about her dress, what color is her dress? Oh, white, of course, silly me. – Yes, honey, that's a really pretty one, I think that's your best one today."
"Dat good, Mama?" Ellie asked, double checking that her mother approved.
"Yes, sweetie, it's a really good one!"
"Danks!"
"Aw, you're welcome. So let's go inside now, because our snow angels have to sleep for a little bit before we can show them to your daddy, how's that sound?"
"Daddy!"
Perfect. She'd set the stage and then only needed to bring up the show-stopper: Glenn. Once reminded that her loving father was inside waiting for her, Ellie was all for ditching the outside world and seeing Glenn. Sure enough, she was now running around in circles around her and her mom's snow angels and jumping up and down in her excitement to see him. Or maybe she just really had to go potty. God, parenthood was a mystery sometimes. "You wanna go in now, baby?"
"Yeah, mama, sees Dada and I wanted uh show'd him my snow agels ad the-the-the" she made a circular motion with her hands and gestured frantically at the circle in the snow she'd just drawn with her running and jumping, "it'd a castle, mommy!" Oh. So her daughter knew the word "castle" but not "circle." Lovely. She would need to strategize with Glenn about sorting out their priorities during story time.
With her daughter's babbling, she also was enlightened to the fact that her earlier antics hadn't been a desperate need for the bathroom or excitement for seeing her daddy (after literally an hour's separation from him). Instead it was further work on her snow angels. Well, real artists never sleep, right?
"Yup, we're gonna show him all of our work, aren't we? Yes, we are. First, we gotta go in and get warm, right?"
"I's not cold mama!" Her daughter's pink cheeks and snotty nose told a different story.
"Oh, is that right? Hm, well, I am! Maybe I can warm up on my nice, warm Ellie!" Maggie swooped down and snatched her kid up, pressing their equally-frozen noses together, making Ellie shriek hysterically. Not bothering to put her down for the journey back inside, Maggie picked up the pace, bouncing up and down while they walked both to make Ellie laugh harder and to get some feeling back in her frozen legs.
Reaching the door, Maggie stomped the snow off her boots and tried her best to shake it off of the rest of her as well. Ellie had so much on her that she was pretty much a lost cause. "Glenn!" She called out as she stepped inside and began taking off her clothes one-handed, balancing her toddler on her hip. "Your wife and daughter would like some hot chocolate before showing you their masterpieces!"
"Whip cream!" Ellie shouted, an automatic response to hearing chocolate-anything. Screw Aaron. There was a special place in hell for pseudo-uncles who volunteered to babysit only to introduce kids to off-limits sweets.
"Hey, you guys enjoy your snow day?" Glenn asked as he came from the living room, only to quicken his pace and grab Ellie, letting Maggie finish getting her jacket and boots off.
"Yeah, careful with her, she's gonna be soaked…" Maggie looked up to see Glenn's shirt already looking nearly as damp as his daughter's.
He smirked at her, clearly unappreciative of her belated warning, then smiled and said, "Time for an outfit change?"
"Sounds about right. Lemme just get her boots off." Glenn held his daughter, now out at a safe distance, as Maggie yanked off her snow boots, tickling her socked feet to make Ellie giggle.
As they made their way up the stairs and into Elizabeth's room, Glenn asked, "So, how many snow angels did you two make?"
Maggie replied, "Well, it took us a few tries to get the hang of it, so some of them look more like snow elephants."
"Was dat, mama?" Ellie asked while Glenn plopped her down on her changing table. Glenn and Maggie's eyes met and they shared a smile; their daughter's never-ending curiosity was something they were pretty proud of.
"An elephant is an animal like Aunt Tara's dog, except its head is bigger than your daddy, and it wouldn't even fit in your bedroom." Ellie nodded, seeming satisfied for now, but Maggie knew better. Sometime within the next forty-eight hours elephants would come up again and they'd better have more information about them for her by then. They would have to add that to the list of stuff to get at their next run to the book store. Honestly, at this point it might be more convenient to just bring all of the books back with them; it would save them a lot of time down the road.
Leaving Glenn and Ellie for a second, Maggie got up and popped over to her and Glenn's room next door. Her jeans were a lost cause but her shirt had managed to stay dry underneath her jacket. She lifted it up anyway for a quick moment, still amazed at how her bump had popped overnight a couple of days ago. Her pregnancy had been the same way last time, with Ellie, but she had a feeling this was never going to get old.
She turned around to try to find her only other pair of jeans that still fit, only to see her husband and daughter standing in the doorway, Ellie perched on Glenn's hip again. Her kid was mesmerized by the stuffed animal in her hands, Lucy, while Glenn wore an identical expression to Ellie's, only he was staring at Maggie.
Blushing, Maggie lowered her shirt before El could notice. They hadn't told her about the new baby yet and weren't completely sure how to approach the subject. They didn't even have anyone they could approach for advice: all of their living friends had only ever had one kid, with the exception of Rick with Carl and Judith, but that situation was far from typical. Glenn had been the youngest and Maggie just remembered the temper tantrums she would throw around Beth for the first year after she was born, not how her parents had dealt with them.
Well, they would deal with that when the time came. Ellie was pretty observant, but she still was just a two year old who could probably be convinced that Maggie's sudden belly was from eating too many Christmas cookies (and that could possibly have the added bonus of curving their daughter's sweet tooth).
When she finally gave up on finding that pair of jeans and pulled on some sweatpants instead, Glenn asked, "So, were you serious about that –" he paused for a second, clearly conscientious of the toddler on his hip, "Um, H-O-T C-H-O-C-O-L,"
Maggie cut him off, smiling, "Well, I was, but – well, look," she pointed at Ellie, whose long, hard day was clearly catching up to her. Her thumb was in her mouth, her cheek was resting on Lucy, which was now acting as a pillow against Glenn's shoulder. Seeming to sense that her parents' attention was on her again, her lips smacked against her thumb as she looked up blearily, first at Maggie, and then at Glenn.
Even though she was clearly exhausted, Maggie was ready for Ellie to put up a fight, but when Glenn gently asked her, "Does a nap sound good, sweetie?" Elizabeth just tucked her head back against her dad's chest, her way of saying 'hell yes' to something she knew she didn't want to seem enthusiastic about.
Glenn winked at Maggie and headed back into Ellie's room. He was only in there for a minute, tucking her in, turning off the light, and closing the door all before Maggie finished putting her damp clothing with the laundry.
"Good job tiring her out," he said as he snuck up behind Maggie and snaked his hands around her belly.
Maggie smiled at the feeling of his warm hands against her still chilly skin. "Yeah, I wish it snowed every day. We might get our daughter on a normal sleep schedule."
He shook his head at that, saying, "No, no, then we would be living in Michigan. And believe me, Michigan sucks. I thought I was gonna be set for life when I moved to Atlanta but then the stupid apocalypse had to ruin everything."
"Aw. My poor Midwestern husband. Trapped for life with two snow-loving Southern belles. Whatever will he do?"
"I'll make do. Eventually you'll get sick of it like me. Oh, and hopefully this baby," he tapped her stomach, "will be a Grinch like me."
"Yup, you keep wishing for that, honey," Maggie said, letting Glenn have his dreams while she led him downstairs so he could make her some long-awaited hot chocolate.
Thanks for reading! Leave some love in the comments if you enjoyed! My tumblr is rosy-doze