Chapter Twenty-Seven: Transition (pt.5)
The members of the prison group were celebrating. Apparently Daryl had found their missing member alive in the bowels of the prison. The woman, Carol, was extremely dehydrated and weak from the ordeal but was otherwise fine. Esme smiled softly at the uplifting environment that was washing over the group, she would keep her little ones away from the commotion for now and introduce herself to the woman when Carol was feeling better. The evening was falling upon them now and Esme was busy getting her babies ready for bed. Lilac and Andre had already been changed into their pajamas and were relaxing in their new beds while Esme changed a grumpy Thomas.
"Tete!" Thomas whined as Esme pulled the shirt over his head.
Esme smiled tiredly at the one-year-old, "Thomas, relax baby. I'm going to give you your tete in a minute."
She only sighed when he harumphed once more and grouchily turned his face away from her. Bora was much easier to change in comparison, the babe gifted Esme with tiny dopey grins that were interrupted by sporadic yawns. She was an angel. Once both one-year-olds were in their respective pens, Esme quickly changed Primrose and laid her down with her bottle before quickly distributing the other bottles she'd prepared to her children. The moment that she heard all five of them begin suckling contently Esme let out a relieved sigh as she picked Bailey up from where she'd been curled on the rug, untied the leash from the bars and brought the tabby into what would become Esme's new room. The tabby rubbed her head against Esme's chin and purred softly. It had been a long day. She plopped the cat onto her new bed before searching for the dried cat food and pouring half a cup into Bailey's bowl. The tabby let out a curious 'mer~o~w' before jumping off the bed onto the cool concrete and munching on her dinner contently. Esme smiled at her furry companion and poured some water into the blue dish next to the food bowl. Esme Stretched her tired and sore limbs before searching her suitcase for her own pajamas and shedding the clothes she was wearing now.
Bailey jumped back up onto the bed when she was finished eating and began kneading the cushion under her paws. Esme rolled her eyes as the feline laid on her side before rolling over onto her back and before wiggling around the mattress languidly. Her cat was really weird sometimes. She tied the leash to her bedframe after all Esme did not want her cat to go exploring when she fell asleep and plopped down on the mattress beside her. She'd had long days before, but this one felt particularly long with all of the human interaction and general amount of change she was experiencing today. Soft footsteps and the sounds of a fussing infant heading in her direction only informed Esme that her long-ass day was not over just yet. Esme almost regretted offering her services (more like her breasts, in this case, heyyo- No, that was gross... no matter how sleep-deprived Esme was, she was never going to make another weird pubescent joke about her boobs like that again, even in the recesses of her own mind).
Hopefully, Esme's facial expression had smoothed out after that strange thought, and Rick hadn't caught it when he popped his face into her cell. She shot the older man a weary smile when he cleared his throat.
"Are you still willing to help out with her? She's been fussy, think she's hungry." Rick spoke in a soft but stern manner as his eyes bounced from the wigging baby in his arms to Esme's stiff form. Esme's hazel eyes locked onto the baby in the crook of the man's arms and she melted.
"Yeah," she smiled gently, the man still looked tense and unwilling to even let her hold the infant, "You can stay, you know- while I feed her. I'm not really shy about this and I want you to feel comfortable about handing her over to a stranger."
The man still looked hesitant to hand the babe over to her but Rick's accusing stare disappeared as he gently transferred the hungry infant into Esme's arms. The baby fussed for a moment at the exchange but Esme didn't let the familiar whines intimidate her as she gently rocked the infant in her arms, "Shh, shh, shh..." she hushed gently under her breath as she got pulled the strap of her clean tank top down to expose her breast. The infant snuffled into Esme's chest as she directed her nipple into the baby's mouth, it only took the infant a couple of seconds to realize that suckling filled her tummy with milk before she began nursing with gusto. Esme smiled gently at the sweet baby girl as her tiny fist opened and curled repeatedly against her chest and sleepy baby blue eyes blinked drowsily up at her. It was strange how much Esme had missed holding a tiny baby in her arms, it only made her realize once more how big her own little ones had gotten.
"You're good with her." Rick murmured. Esme had almost forgotten that the man was there, she looked up to see him leaning against the bars of the cell as he watched the both of them, Bailey had jumped down from the bed when he walked in and was curiously sniffing his pantlegs.
A small smile bloomed on Esme's face as she looked back down at the infant, "She's beautiful. Does she have a name yet?"
The man was quiet for a moment, "Judith." he shared, "Carl came up with her name about an hour ago."
"Judith," Esme whispered under her breath as she gently rubbed her thumb across the baby's cheek. "That's a beautiful name for a lovely little girl."
"Yeah, it is." Rick grunted as he crossed his arms over his chest, "Listen, the others were telling me that you came across other survivors recently."
"Yes," Esme's eyes shot up to look at him seriously, "It's one of the main reasons I decided to come with your group. These other... survivors were bad news."
"I see..." he drawled, "Said that the leader of this group was called the Governor?"
Esme nodded before deciding to clarify, "I came across three men scavaging a house that was close by to the daycare, I hid in the forest when I saw them... I overheard the men talking about a Governor. They didn't really say that the Governor was their leader, but they were -what's the word- deferring to his orders like he was... so I'm guessing that he is."
Rick nodded, "They told me what you said but I want to hear it from your mouth, why were they bad news?"
She shut her eyes for a moment as she tried to visualize that afternoon in her mind once more, she gnawed on her bottom lip nervously for a moment before looking into Rick's piercing blue eyes once more, "Mira, I did not have a good childhood, so I'm a bit cautious when it comes to strangers. I'm pretty good at telling when people are good or not. The three men I saw that day made my hair stand on its end. They were too -como se dice- callous about other survivors. Uno-sorry, one of them, called survivors strays. The man said very casually, like it was normal, that this Governor tipo didn't want to take in anyone that day, before describing it as a 'purging day.' Purging is a violent word to describe getting rid of someone or something." she let go of a panicked breath that was building up in her chest, "And then they all laughed. Because is normal to laugh about killing human being's right?" she asked rhetorically, "Naturalmente, I ran back home and decided that it's too dangerous to leave my kids unattended with those Governor people scoping the area."
The cell was silent for a moment, the only sounds coming from little Judith nursing against her chest and their breaths. Rick sighed wearily, "You did good running from them. Thank you for telling me."
Esme shot him a tired smile, "Thank you for letting us stay here."
Words 1428
(Hey all!)
(Sorry, I've been exhausted. I had to do an at-home sleep study and it did not go well... I swear I haven't had such a bad night's sleep in years!)
(I hope you enjoyed this chapter, sorry for the lack of Daryl, but we had some important interaction with Rick in this chapter. This is the last chapter of Transition, the next chapter will be a whole new day... damn this first day as a group was long as hell. Esme's dialogue is a bit interesting for me to write because I'm basing it off the way my mom used to speak when I was little and were learning English... Spanish sprinkled in and sometimes missing words... LOL)
(OH! Almost forgot to mention this... but... This fic now has more than 200 FOLLOWERS!)
(WOW)
(Thank you guys so much!)
(XxXTavuXxX: Thanks! Same! I can't stand it when people write kids as dummies or the opposite as completely articulate... It's hard to find a nice medium. It's weirdly important to me that I write the kids accurately.)
(Beachgirl25: LOL. That would be interesting to see, I'd place my bet on Micchone for that one... I think she'd handle the heat better than any of them! I love writing Esme interacting with the babies, I've grown attached to my made-up children, I'm glad that you enjoyed that too! I'm excited to add Judith into the mix, I think that Esme's kids are going to be fascinated with the new baby, well other than Thomas who'll be a bit put-off at first. I'm definitely thinking about Michone's origins as a New Oreleenian now... Mama Bear bonding is going to be awesome...)
(Guest1/MYSTC4TH: Thanks and your welcome!)
(DarkFireNyx: You're welcome! If you do decide to move on over to AO3 I'll definitely look for you! I've been thinking about crossposting fics on there too, but we'll see... Thank god you didn't get the Coronavirus! I hope you feel better!)
(Guest2/Kyr: Aww, I love the exciting snoopy dance!)
(celia azul: Hahaha. The human cow bit! Yup, the human body does get used to producing an insane amount of milk especially for moms who had multiples. I did some research on this and I will never underestimate the female body again. There was this one woman who was producing so much milk that even after donating breast milk to others she still needed to pump and dump...)
(TwilightEclps: Aww, thank you!)
(Guest3(I'm guessing this is:)/itsprettyboy: I'm glad you liked it! I almost forgot about Carol too. With Esme there, Daryl didn't strat clearing the bowels of the prison until later in the afternoon so she was actually down there longer than cannon Carol was... Ooops? Carol is a pretty complicated character, losing Sophia really was a turning point for her. I think the only reason she was so good with Judith was because of her friendship with Lori. Because in the end, while Lori's son and husband were alive they had basically hated her for months and afterward she had died during post-partum leaving lil' ass-kicker without a mother... I think it may take Carol some time before she warms up to helping out with the other children because it will always remind her that Sophia is gone, especially LILAC, because she shares a lot of physical attributes with Sophia... BTW, I'm guessing that these three reviews were from itsprettyboy, correct me if I'm wrong!)
(Guest4: I'm glad that you're enjoying this! Thanks for reviewing!)
(Thornewood: LOL! The human cow bit is something that I came up with in real life... except, since I'm not breastfeeding/nor do I actually have kids, it's about tan lines. I'm a light-skinned Latina but I do tan wonderfully during the summer, it gives my skin a nice 'look at how healthy and not at all sickly pale you are 'cause you never go out' look. However, I hate, HATE when my skin is not uniformly one color. It makes me think about how traditional dairy cows are white with black spots... in this case, I'm an olive-skinned cow with tan spots... Which is gross. I don't care what my sister says, I am not tanning shirtless in the privacy of our backyard either just so that my boobs don't look like Snow White while my face looks like Moana, I think I would give my neighbors a freaking heart attack if I did that, they are old, it could happen... I think I spent more than half of the summer complaining that I looked like a cow (OMG don't even get me started on the weird-ass tan lines I got on my feet from wearing flip flops)... Anyway, that little story went on for a bit too long, I'm glad that it made you laugh! Your comment certainly made me smile!)
(SciFichickie: Thank you so much for your wonderful review! I hope that you enjoyed this chapter as well! I think that Esme's brood will help soften Carl up a bit, even if that only means he will be more willing to build things from legos with Andre...)
