Chapter Twenty: Promises Kept (pt 2)
Primrose's distressed cry broke the awkward silence. Lilac and Andre ran into the kitchen and hid behind the bar before peaking out to stare at the newcomers.
Esme smiled in a reassuring manner as she picked up her youngest, rocking in her in the same soothing manner she always did, "Lilac, Andre these are mama's friends. You don't need to hide. They are gonna sit on the couch and talk with mama for a little bit."
"Play?" Lilac asked hesitatingly as she started to come out.
"You can still play with Andre, but finish lunch first." Esme replied before pointing to the abandoned plates on the floor. Andre was the first to sit back down, Lilac stared at the strangers with wide eyes for a few more moments before following the other toddler to her own bowl of mac n' cheese.
Primrose had stopped crying as Esme invited the other three survivors to sit on the couch and sitting down with them as well when Daryl elected to stand awkwardly in the corner. Her guests had been surveying her apartment with wide eyes.
"You really have five kids." Glenn broke the silence.
She snorted as Bailey jumped onto the back of the couch, startling Glenn, before walking delicately towards Esme's shoulder of the couch and laying down, "Who would lie about that?"
Maggie smiled somewhat awkwardly, "It's just a bit... unbelievable. You were able to keep five babies alive all year..."
Esme nodded in understanding. It did sound a bit ridiculous, but that was her reality, and God she was happy that she'd been succeeding. "I've been lucky." she offered, "When the outbreak hit, I was already here."
"You worked here?" Glenn asked.
"Yup, I've been living in this apartment for six years now."
"These kids ain't yours, are they?" Daryl asked bluntly as he stared at her with his piercing blue eyes, as if he could read the answer from her face alone.
"Not biologically." Esme admitted, "I've only had Andre for over a month now. But the others, their parents died early on so I've been caring for them since then."
Maggie's face slackened in disbelief, "I-Wow."
She shrugged her shoulders, "What were you saying about the safe place? Prison? Your group is willing to let us in? All seven of us?"
"Seven?" the archer asked.
"Well, I'm not leaving my cat behind," Esme stated bluntly, Daryl had an incredulous look on his face that she ignored expertly, Primrose was giggling cutely as she ran her chubby fingers over the tabby's orange fur. Bora had stood up now and was peering over the brim of the couch to stare curiously as she shoveled celery into her mouth. Esme shot her daughter a small smile, making Bora smile clumsily in return as her chubby cheeks stretched.
"Wait a minute." Glenn interrupted before gesturing to the gaggle of babies behind them, "If you didn't give birth to them, how can you- how can you- you know..." he motioned to her chest awkwardly.
"Breastfeed?" she finished bluntly while raising her eyebrow in an unimpressed manner. Glenn blushed, hell even the archer's cheeks reddened before looking away when Esme looked at him.
"Yeah, that..." Glenn mumbled. Maggie leaned in curiously to hear her answer as well.
Esme shrugged nonchalantly, "I was a certified wetnurse."
"Wetnurse?" Maggie asked, "I didn't know people still did that?"
"It's not too common," Esme admitted, "I started doing it when the mama of one of my charges died unexpectedly. Owen's daddy didn't want to start him on formula so I offered to go to my doctor and have them kickstart my lactation so that I could help them."
"That was kind of you." Maggie whispered making Esme blush and look away. Daisy had said the same thing, after of course looking at her like she was insane for even contemplating becoming a human cow (Mitch's words not Daisy's... that man had been equally weirded out about breastfeeding at first, much like these two new men were).
"It was the right thing to do. Besides, I don't think we would have survived this long if I hadn't become a wetnurse. Primrose here, was only eight days old when everything started." Esme pressed a small kiss on her youngest's dirty blonde hair. "Thomas and Bora were also under six months old and dependent on formula and breast milk... I definitely would have run out of formula cans by now..." she mumbled to herself as she looked at her curious little ones from where they were eating in the playpen. Bora had sat down and was stuffing somewhat stale cheerios into her mouth while Thomas offered her a goldfish cracker sweetly.
She was a million times grateful for her decision to become a wetnurse. It had saved the lives of her children.
"How is the baby?" Esme asked as she turned to look at them.
"She's fine." Daryl grunted, "Lil' Ass Kicker guzzled down that milk you gave us when got back."
"That's good!" Esme smiled widely at the man, ignoring the man's strange reaction (honestly it wasn't like she had said something odd), she allowed relief to blossom in her chest. She'd been worried for the faceless babe. The poor little one must have been starving for hours before they got back. After all the nearest prison was a county or two away.
"We want you to come with us." Maggie stated confidently grabbing Esme's attention immediately, "Our leader's w-wife is the one who passed away during childbirth. There had been a breach in the prison at that time and we got separated. I had to perform an emergency c-section to save the baby."
"A breach?" Esme questioned immediately.
"A former prisoner led a group of walkers into an area we'd already cleared." Glenn explained, "We lost some people."
"I'm sorry for your loss." Esme said in a soft voice. The grief in the strangers' eyes and body language was palpable.
"We took care of it." Daryl whispered.
Maggie nodded, "We told Rick, that's our leader, that we found you this morning. He's not handling the death of his wife too well but he didn't object bringing you all back with us. My daddy practically demanded that we bring you."
Esme nodded before biting harshly on her lower lip, "I-Is your leader, Rick, the Governor?"
"Governor?" Glenn asked. "Who's that?"
Gracias a Dios.
"A week or so ago, I was going on a supply run to a house close by to here for some plywood. I spotted some men in the house I was going to." Esme divulged, "They weren't good men. Talking about a Governor not wanting to 'take in any survivors today' and that it was 'purging day.' I ran home as soon as I was out of earshot and haven't gone on a run again."
Worried looks immediately bloomed on their faces. "That doesn't sound good." Glenn mumbled.
"No. It doesn'. We gotta tell Rick 'bout this." Daryl grumbled before he began to chew on the fingernail of his thumb nervously.
"Mama I finish." Lilac proclaimed as she ran to Esme's side and showed her the clean bowl, "Puedo jugar?"
"Yeah, baby." Esme smiled, "You can go play now."
"Finished too!" Andre mumbled as he approached the couch cautiously.
"You can play too." she stated. The two toddlers smiled before running into the bedroom and coming back out with the tub of plastic dinosaurs.
"Play!" Thomas squealed as he pulled himself up and grabbed the back of the couch to look at Esme pleadingly. Esme got up, Primrose on her hip since she had started to doze off, and grabbed a couple of dinosaurs with her free hand before dumping them in the playpen for Thomas and Bora to share. The two one-year-old's squealed as a symphony of roars broke out in the room.
"W-We will come." Esme murmured when she saw the soft smiles being given to her happy children. "If you'll take us. I-I don't want to be alone anymore." she admitted in a whisper.
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(We're heading to the prison guys! I'm so freaking nervous! Next chapter is going to be a bit of filler chapter, I think I'll post it either tonight or tomorrow, since it still needs to be proofread!)
(Thank you for all of the wonderful reviews/favs/follows!)
(Choco-Latte64: Aww, thanks! Daryl is being his usual social butterfly self in this chapter! Thanks for reviewing!)
(shika93: Thanks! I'm glad that you're enjoying the fic!)
(Guest2: LOL. Sorry, but there will be lots of cliffhangers in the future! I'm a bit devious like that! Chapters may be getting a little longer soon because of the introduction to dialogue but they won't be super long like my other fics... otherwise, it would take me a much longer time to update.)
(Guest/Anon: Hehehe... you've stumbled upon a thought that has crossed my mind more than once... Do you by any chance recall what the name was of Bora's mom? Thanks for reviewing!)
(Beachgirl25: I KNOW! Honestly! Sometimes I feel like they were all sharing one overstressed brain cell... I'm not sure how I will be introducing Merle yet, but now the Prison Group will not have an excuse for completely hating on him. They did the man dirty in the series... Michone will also be introduced to the Prison Group differently now... I'm not going to divulge completely from the original plotline yet becuase than I will be hopelessly lost, but Michone will not totally detest Merle... That is all I will say on that matter, thanks for reviewing!)
(celia azul: Yeah, Esme will definitely struggle at first with this... she's been rather coddled in that sense and hasn't really had to rough it so far... Esme does have the solar panel manuals so we will see what happens on that end!)
(JCJ58: Yup! Thanks!)
(itsprettyboy: I'm glad you liked the fic I recommended... and I have to say, that was one of the highest compliments I have ever been given. Thank you sooooo much. It really made my day, especially because it has been a particularly shitty one.)
(louise53: Awww, thank you! I'm glad that you are enjoying this fic so far! ;p)
(MerryLimp: Hahaha, I'm glad that it has you pumped! Esme's presence is a lot like the ripple effect, things will definitely be different!)
(P.S. I figure it's safe to ask you guys, but do you have any good TWD reccomendations? I'm itching for a new read!)