Chapter Twenty-Five: Transition (pt 3)
The kids seemed fascinated by the cells in the block. Lilac and Andre immediately began to explore their new room with gusto, oohing and ahhing at the familiar colorful rug covering the room. Esme was just thankful to unhook Bora from the carrier, her little Korean princess was already thirteen-months-old and was starting to get a little too heavy to carry nonstop (it was either that or Esme was wildly out of shape... for now she chose to believe that it was the later). She placed the little ones in their own pack n' plays and began shedding off the layers she'd dressed them in.
Thomas, in particular, seemed thrilled when she took his jacket off and immediately began begging to be let out to play with the toddlers. Primrose, on the other hand, was crabby and burrowed herself into her blankets. All in all, the kids seemed to be settling in well. Bora was already giggling adorably to herself as she rubbed her face with her panda stuffy.
Just like home.
Well almost... she decided not to release Bailey out of her harness until she could trust the tabby not to leave the cell blocks and go exploring the rest of the prison, she didn't want to take any chances and lose her furry companion to a rotter. Instead, she tied the leash to the bars of the baby's cell and loosened it so that she could explore the entire cell and possibly Esme's new cell as well.
Esme's watch let her know that it was already five in the evening and her little ones would soon start to whine for food. However, that meant that she would need to go interact with the others... Daryl had gone into the bowels of the prison with Oscar and Axel to start dragging bodies out to cremate them, and Maggie had returned to the guard tower. Hershal was resting his leg in the cafeteria with his youngest daughter Beth, and if she wasn't mistaken Carl was there with his infant sister as well.
Now that she thought about it... that wasn't too bad. An old man and two teenagers weren't that intimidating.
"Alright, mama's going to go make dinner. Lilac and Andre you are going to stay right here, okay? If you need me just shout, alright?" Esme instructed seriously.
"Otay mama." Lilac chirruped. Andre had dumped the bin of dinosaurs onto the floor and was now gleefully handing them out to his younger counterparts. With her children blissfully entertained, Esme hesitatingly left the block and entered the cafeteria.
The infant in Beth's arms was fussing once more as Esme approached the trio. Hershal and Beth smiled at her welcomingly while Carl simply ignored her and stared down at his little sister. She smiled at them uneasily in return, every fiber of her being wanted to run back into the cellblock and hide with her children. It was weird. She craved companionship for so long, and now that there were people around that she could actually talk to, Esme found herself wishing for the solitude of her flat.
"How are the lil' ones settling in?" Hershal asked kindly.
"Good." Esme offered, "They are already playing with toys."
Hershal chuckled, "Children are so resilient."
The pink-faced infant in Beth's arms let out a distressed wail. It sounded very similar to Primrose's 'I'm hungry' cry. Beth began bouncing the little one in her arms in an attempt to stop her cries once more.
"I-I think she might be hungry," Beth mumbled apologetically, "I fed her an hour ago an' she refused to finish the bottle."
(Privately, Esme couldn't help but worry about the little baby girl and the teenager who seemed to be her caretaker, Beth was too young to be taking care of an infant by herself for hours nonstop... it eerily reminded Esme of herself all those months ago when the apocalypse had first broken out. Wholly unprepared.)
Esme smiled at the blonde teen in reassurance, "Some babies don't like the taste of formula. That reminds me, as you may know, I'm breastfeeding my little ones and I'd be willing to do the same for this little angel. That is if it's okay with her daddy."
"I think that's a swell idea." Hershal agreed.
"What's the difference between breastmilk and formula?" Carl asked suddenly, surprising Esme since he didn't really seem too thrilled with her presence nor seemed to have any real intention to interact with the new stranger in their midst. Not that she blamed the boy, he'd just lost his mother.
The small preteen was observing her curiously as he brought the can of formula to Beth and began carefully measuring the amount of powder to dump in a new bottle. "Well," Esme began after receiving an encouraging look from Hershal, "it's healthier for the baby to drink breastmilk, it's more nutritious and it helps build up their immune systems. Makes for much less smelly diaper changes too." she teased lightly with a smile, "There's many more reasons for it too, I guess the biggest one right now is that, eventually formula is going to run out and well my breastmilk won't."
Carl nodded confidently as he mulled over the information she'd provided before stating decisively, "Than I want the baby to drink breastmilk. Not formula."
Esme shot a concerned look at Hershal, "I'd be happy to do that Carl, I just want to make sure that your daddy is okay with it first-"
"There's no need." Carl repeated, as his brown eyes narrowed, "She's my baby sister. And if breastmilk is better for her than that's what she's going to have."
Carl was a good big brother. She hadn't encountered any teens before the turn that were that involved with their baby siblings, or weren't embarrassed of just the word 'breastmilk.' The little baby snuffling in Beth's arms was very lucky to have a doting brother like Carl. She nodded in cautious agreement, before murmuring, "Alright. If that's what you want."
"Good." Carl grunted in a manner that was similar to that of Daryl's. Maybe being an adorable prickly hedgehog was a contagious characteristic with this group?
Esme turned back to look at Hershal, "Listen, one of the reasons I came out here was to ask about the food situation. How do you guys go about making dinner and repartiendo, um- distributing the food? I usually start making dinner around this time for the little ones."
Carl was kind enough, after Hershal gave him the 'okay,' to lead her back into the cellblocks on the second floor where they were currently stashing all of the food they'd scavenged. After the preteen unlocked the cell with his set of keys, Esme quickly went through one of the bins that she'd contributed for the battery-operated burner that they had packed in the morning. As soon as she found it she handed it off to Carl before grabbing one of the deeper pots and a pan before she began rummaging through the cans of food. The colorful container of couscous was placed in one of the pots as well as five cans of tuna and the small container she had left of vegetable oil and the half-empty container of bread crumbs.
A quick peek of their new cell let her know that her babies and Bailey were as content as they could be before Esme walked back into the cafeteria and began to set up a cooking station.
"What are you making?" Carl asked curiously by her side as Esme began to open the cans of tuna with a can opener.
Esme smiled at him softly, "Have you ever had tuna balls? They are like meatballs, but with tuna."
The preteen's stomach rumbled, "Sounds good."
"It is." she promised before looking at the chicken coup that had been dragged against the corner of the room, "Do you think you can go see if Peep or Pio laid another egg since this morning?"
A small smirk pulled on the corners of the boy's mouth, "Peep? And Pio?"
"I wish I could take credit for their wonderful names, but Lilac is very proud of her choices." Esme smiled, amusement clouding her features.
Hershal chortled softly, "It reminds me of the first chicken that Beth here named. Do you remember?" the man asked his now pink-faced daughter.
"I-I don' think we need to bring it up now daddy." Beth mumbled demurely.
"Chickie!" Hershal teased making his teenage daughter moan in displeasure as Carl burst out into delighted giggles. He looked more like the child he was supposed to be when he laughed. Esme would work hard to make him do it again and more frequently.
In the five minutes it took for her to finish getting all the ingredients for dinner ready the mysterious leader of her new group had appeared. Rick had sweat coating his forehead and the front of his shirt but looked to be otherwise clean. He had a beard and light brown hair with piercing blue eyes that locked onto her own hazel ones. Thankfully his gaze wasn't on her form for long as he took a couple of conservative steps to where Beth was sitting with his fussy daughter.
The teenager smiled up at the man before offering the baby into his cautious arms. The man rocked the infant in his arms softly, whispering platitudes at the infant as a small awed smile bloomed on his face before he tucked her under his chin and pressed a soft kiss onto the brown fuzz of his daughter's hair. It was evident to Esme that this man was rather broken by the events surrounding his daughter's birth, but it didn't seem like he was resenting the infant either.
It made hope bloom in Esme's chest. She'd been worried when they had told her that their leader- Rick wasn't handling the death of his wife well. Perhaps, it wouldn't be so bad after all.
Rick sat down at the table, cradling his daughter to his chest lovingly before turning to assess her once more. Of course, at that moment Andre ran into the cafeteria and into her legs making all of them turn to look at the toddler instead of Esme, to her eternal relief.
"Hey, buddy, what's wrong? You're supposed to wait inside and call for me if you need help, remember?" Esme asked soothingly as she kneeled down to look at him face to face in concern.
"Sorry, I's forgot." Andre admitted before pointing to the cell blocks, "Prim needs ta be changed." he informed her.
Esme smiled and pressed a quick kiss to his forehead, "Thank you for telling me, Andre." she looked back up to look at the other adults in the cafeteria, "I-I'll be right back."
She offered her hand to Andre as she led him back to the cell blocks to change her youngest's diaper. Esme had never felt so grateful for a dirty diaper in her life. It only took her five minutes to change Primrose's diaper, but it was enough time for Esme to recollect herself and mentally prepare for the conversation that was about to occur. She cautiously reentered the cafeteria and met Rick's eyes evenly. She was afraid of many things, but she was a mother first and foremost, and for her children, there was nothing that Esme was afraid to do for them.
"I'm Esme." she introduced herself, "Thank you for letting us come here. I-I know that it couldn't have been an easy decision for you to make."
The man inclined his head briefly before introducing himself in a blunt manner, "Rick. Hershal here told me that you have five kids."
"I do."
"I don't like being around strangers anymore, much less have my kids around them either." he stated in a semi-harsh manner, it only emphasized to her that this was simply a fact of life for the man. Esme stood her ground and stared at him straight on.
"Neither do I." she rebutted.
"You were alone this entire time?" he questioned sharply as if he couldn't believe that Esme had survived on her own with five little ones all this time. She didn't allow herself to feel offended.
"Yes. I was lucky."
"How many walkers have you killed?"
Walkers. That was what the others had used to describe rotters. "I don't know, over a dozen now." she admitted factually.
"How many people have you killed?" he asked just as bluntly as he had before.
Esme felt her spine straightened and her heart rate increase, "One..." she answered honestly.
His blue eyes were glaring into her soul, "Why?"
A shaky sigh escaped from her lips, "Because she asked me to. Because she was bit."
The man nodded in acceptance. "You knew her." he stated in a 'matter of fact' manner.
Tears pricked behind Esme's eyes as her mind wandered onto Heather's tear-stained face, "I knew her."
The room fell into silence for a brief moment before it was interrupted by the infant loudly fussing once more as she smacked her lips together and rubbed a tiny fist across her face. Rick started rocking his daughter once more.
"Y-You worked in a daycare?" he questioned as he stared down at the little bundle in his arms lovingly.
"Ye-"
"Yeah!" Carl interrupted as he sat down by his father, the preteen had his father's icy blue eyes, "She said that she breastfeeds her babies, I told her that she should help feed the baby too. Since it's supposed to be healthier." he finished strongly when his father locked eyes with his.
"Did you now?" Rick's eyebrow rose.
Esme smiled sheepishly, "It's up to you. I was a certified wetnurse. My babies wouldn't have lasted this long if I wasn't. I'd be happy to help with your little one."
Piercing blue eyes locked onto her once more searchingly before the man nodded, "I'd... like that."
She smiled hesitatingly at him.
See, not so bad after all.
Words 2419
(OMG!)
(I'm sorry for being AWOL!)
(Extra long chapter as an 'I'm sorry, please forgive me!')
(I've been super busy and haven't had a moment of peace to sit down and write. I started working part-time at a new daycare and I'm still doing applications and going to interviews to supplement the days I have free... I was going to post a message to let you all know but I didn't want to be cruel and trick you guys into thinking it was a chapter when it was only an author's note.)
(I would additionally like to thank all of the new people who have followed/favorited this story in the last two weeks!)
(elljade: Thank you so much! I'm excited to see how I'll bring Michone into the fic!)
(celia azul: Thanks, it's been a difficult two weeks. The first interaction with Rick wasn't too bad... Although, remember Carl hasn't found Sasha and Tyrese's group yet... Yet. Plus I think in canon Rick was also tense because of the whole Governor situation, which he doesn't really know about yet... Yet. She hasn't encountered crazy Rick just yet...)
(stacy40: Haha. I'm glad you love Esme, I love her too!)
(LittleFlower2012: Not much Daryl in this chapter, but we'll see him soon!)
(Guest1/MYSTC4TH: Thank you so much! I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I've opened up your original story on a new tab, I'm going to start reading it as soon as I've finished responding to reviews! Sorry for the wait!)
(DarkFireNyx: Thank you so much! I hope you enjoyed this chapter! OMG! I didn't realize that you write DEAD MAGIC! I keep tabs on pretty much all of the HP crossovers with TWD because I love the concept! I'll have to re-read it, because while I remember the premise of your fic it's been a while since I first read it, I'll leave you a review when I finished it!)
(I.C.2014: Same!)
(Guest2: Aww, thank you! I hope you enjoyed this chapter!)
(itsprettyboy: Thank you! I hope that this chapter makes up for the "radio" silence!)
(Beachgirl25: Aww thanks so much! Esme, Maggie, and Michone are definitely going to be a triple threat, total female fatal. Grandpa Hershal is adorable... I hated what happened to Glenn on the series... The kids are fun to write because I just add aspects of their personalities from real babies I've worked with. You always give me the BEST ideas. Enjoy!)
(Guest3: Thanks!)
(Miss Luny: LOL. Yup!)
(Guest4: Aww. That's one of the best compliments I've ever heard.)
(Thornewood: Real life is difficult, so I hear you!)
(Creative Heart 1997: Called it!)
(MerryLimp: Thanks! I think Carl is going to warm up to Esme's kids first and then warm up to her after she 'proves' herself to him in some form... On my Pinterest board, it is much easier to figure out their ages since I have it all written down... from the beginning of the apocalypse which is June 4th, 2012 in my universe, Rick wakes up a month after that... the babies birthdays and current ages are as follows:
Andre- gave him the birthday January 12th, 2010 since in canon Michone mentioned he was two and he hasn't bee with her for like eight months... so he is 3 years old and 3 months... not that Esme knows his birthday, so shhhh!
Lilac- Birthday: Oct. 20th, 2010, she is 2 years and 6 months old;
Thomas- February 14th, 2012, he is 14 months;
Bora- March 7th, 2012, she is 13 months;
Primrose- May 27th, 2012, she is 11 months old
Judith- April 19th, 2013, she is 2 days old)
(Guest5/lili: I too suffer from your affliction. Except I fear that my affliction is more severe because if I go five hours without reading I break out into hives... I'm glad you're enjoying this fic!)
(Guest6/Apple Bloom: Thanks!)
(Guest7/Anon: LOL! I didn't see the movie, Matilda, until I was like ten so I always think of Ice Age first before it warps into Matilda making items fly around her living room.)
(Terri Hooker: Thanks! I really dislike hearing about the deaths of children especially babies so I was more than happy to save Andre. Time will tell about the Grace and Glenn thing...)
(Guest8/bookworm: Hahaha! Thanks! I hope you enjoyed this chapter!)
(Guest9: LOL. Your review made me get my ass into gear and find time to sit and write.)
(P.S. I cannot promise that the next chapter will be just as long as this one... but we'll see!)