January 23, 2011

~*~ CP ~*~

Carol hums to herself as she reads over today's self-set lesson in the nursing books. If the medical staff are to be believed, they think she could pass the practical nurse license exam already, but she's aiming for the level of education she might need to get her registered nursing license. So, three mornings a week, she's here, studying and answering questions posed to her by whoever's available to quiz her. She's got the NCLEX books for both levels of nursing, but thankfully there's not a lot of professional practice needed. Homestead is staying healthy and accident free.

She is looking forward to learning how to use the ultrasound machine in two weeks when all three of the pregnant women cross the eight-week mark. Denova's about a month ahead, and Carol's schedule didn't allow her to be present when the woman had her first ultrasound. She's happy enough about that, since it means she'll be learning with family members.

"Carol?"

She looks up to see Michonne looking unsettled. "You okay?"

"Depends on the outcome of my request, I imagine." The younger woman sighs. "I need a pregnancy test."

Normally, Carol would be a little envious and maybe even make a joke about something in the water, but her friend looks uneasy, not happy. She sticks a bookmark to hold her place and tugs her lanyard of keys out of her sweater. Michonne follows her to the pharmacy room, and she unlocks it. "Got a brand preference?" With already having a child, Carol knows some women prefer to use one they're familiar with.

"Doesn't matter."

Carol snags an EPT test and signs it out of the inventory with her initials. That'll send Lori to giggling when she does the computerized update later, although Carol already has three tests on issue in her bathroom at home. She just hasn't needed them yet.

"You want to take it with you or borrow the bathroom here?"

Michonne turns the box over in her hands and sighs. "Best first of the morning, but I really don't want to keep putting it off."

Carol hands her a specimen cup. "Easier and if it's positive, we can go ahead with some of the prenatal tests now."

She takes the cup and heads for the small bathroom on the hospital ward without any further comment.

When she doesn't return immediately, Carol figures she's waiting on the results in private, so she returns to her book and tries to concentrate. Instead, her mind is sorting through possibilities. Michonne's friends with several of the single men through her work on the supply teams, but there's been no sign she's been pairing off with anyone in particular. Or enjoying the casual no-strings nights that are fairly popular among the under-thirty folks here. She squashes her curiosity for now.

She doesn't need to see that Michonne's carrying the sealed specimen cup toward her to know the results. The woman's melancholy expression tells her all she needs to know.

"I really should have swapped out to the implant when it was offered," she mutters, sitting the cup down on the counter where they usually leave lab samples. "Guess I should let you do the bloodwork now. You still practicing?"

Carol nods. She's actually adept enough with drawing blood now that she doesn't really feel she has to wait on Lilly or Edwards to come back from their morning rounds at the nursing home. Michonne settles into the chair while Carol readies her supplies. Her curious glances don't go unnoticed.

"It's not that I'm unhappy, in general, about a baby," the other woman explains. "It's just after Andre's daddy being less stellar at the job than I wanted him to be, I'm wary of the idea of sharing a child with anyone."

"Does the father make you think he's the same way?" Carol watches the blood flow easily into the first vial. She'll draw two, for the different tests she'll run with the handy iStat machine. She'll hate it when the supplies run out for those.

"I don't know. This certainly wasn't something we ever discussed. I think he'll want to be involved, but I can't say for sure."

"Well, you know you won't lack for family involvement either way."

Michonne actually laughs. "I think that's rather proven, considering how your family adores Andre."

She opts for the pregnancy blood test first, figuring Michonne might want a second opinion, so to speak, although Carol's pretty sure that false positives are rare. Then she figures what the hell and boots up a second iStat machine to run the blood panel. She unlocks the records cabinet and pulls Michonne's chart to scan her record.

"At least you've had a pap smear recently, so we can skip all that. You should probably dispose of any leftover pills."

"I've still got two unopened packs. I'll bring those back to the pharmacy. Not sure if I missed a pill and didn't realize, or anything's off with them, or just that fun luck of someone having to be the reason they don't say the pill's 100% effective."

Carol gives her a reassuring smile, wishing the blood test was faster than a ten-minute wait. "I guess it's a good thing you started on the cabin, although you know Merle's going to try to convince you to move up to the house again."

"I love your husband like family, but I might smother him in his sleep if we were under the same roof on the long term."

That sets Carol to giggling, which somehow is infectious, because Michonne laughs too. She catches the movement out of the corner of her eye. Although uneasy about the unplanned pregnancy, her friend has one hand cupped to her flat abdomen.

"Here I told Merle we probably didn't need an independent day care building yet," Carol ventures. "But just between you and me, this is the fourth pregnancy confirmed since the first of the year."

The former lawyer rolls her eyes. "Guess we all got a little too festive at the holidays. Maggie's well-known. I'm guessing one of those is not you, because there's no way Merle could keep that a secret. Just forewarning you."

She shakes her head, a little sadly. "Not yet. Trying's entertaining at least."

"I imagine it is. One of these days I'm going to figure out what going for this state deliberately is like."

Carol pats her arm and then goes back to the pharmacy room. She snags one of the Expecting books and a couple of bottles of prenatal vitamins. Thankfully, Michonne's probably one of the healthiest residents they have, once she recovered from the minor malnutrition of being on her own. When she hands the items over, Michonne traces her fingers on the cover of the book. "You don't have to know the father yet, do you?" she asks.

"Not really. We wouldn't want a father kept out of a child's life, but if you need time to talk to him and sort things out, that's fine. Hershel's counseled us to keep a record, even if couples decide the baby's all they have in common, for genetic reasons."

Michonne grimaces. "Guess you certainly don't want that sort of secret going around. Last thing we need is inbreeding. I can say as far as I know, there's no siblings or potential siblings here."

"That's Hershel's thought on the subject too." Along with a lot of discussion that if a parent or parents don't want to be involved in raising a child, arrangements will be made. No one's going to be shamed if they aren't ready or willing to be a parent. That never ends well for the child. The unhappy Grimes marriage is a prime example of why a pregnancy shouldn't lead automatically to marriage. Lori and Rick are happy and flourishing as co-parents of Carl in a way neither managed as a married couple.

She checks the timer and confirms with the iStat results that yes, Michonne is most definitely pregnant. She prints the results off both iStats and tapes the printouts into Michonne's record. She'll do the urine tests later. "For now, I just need to know the date of your last cycle so we can give you a due date for your chart. I'll mark the father as 'to be updated later', although eventually we'll want his medical history. Your prior pregnancy was uneventful and Andre was full-term, so there's nothing to indicate any issues from that or your test results so far."

"December twelfth."

Carol makes that note and grabs the little pregnancy wheel from the desk drawer and lines the dial up. "September 17th. Do you think Andre will be excited?"

"That boy will be over the moon happy. I'm just glad he already understands that babies take a while after watching the other women here. He's a smart boy for not being four yet."

"If you need anything, even if just to talk, you know I'm always available."

Michonne surprises her by pulling her in for a hug. "I may take you up on that." Then she gathers her items and marches out of the infirmary with a little more pep than she came in with. Carol suspects once the initial shock wears off, Michonne's going to be one very happy mama-to-be.

~*~ Jesus ~*~

"Pull to a halt here and I'll walk up the rest of the way," Jesus tells Honey. She puts on the brakes and pulls the big semi-truck to a halt. Behind her, the caravan of trucks and RVs stops one by one and she radios out what they're up to. Logan looks at him expectantly from where he's perched in the sleeper area on the bunk with Stella.

He slides to the ground, knowing that this far out, the guards on top of the wall can't identify much. The telephone pole palisade keeps them safe from everything but determined human predators, but it also means no visual at all on the community other than the top of Barrington House as he strides up.

"Starting to think you weren't making it back," Kal calls down. "Who're your friends? You know Gregory's not going to want more folks in the middle of winter, especially not after all that snow."

Jesus grins. "Well, these friends are bringing plenty to make them welcome, but no worries, some are just visiting."

"Those trucks loaded?"

"Hell, yeah."

"They ain't gonna fit inside the walls, Jesus. There just ain't that kinda room."

He runs a mental map of the community and realizes that Kal's right on that. "I'll have them park outside the walls. Gotta let the RVs in though. Got kids in some of those."

Kal looks undecided, but no one's so hardened to turn away kids yet. "Get the trucks situated first. Noise of the engines might attract monsters."

Jesus activates his throat radio and sends out the request. Abraham acknowledges and then it falls quiet as the man switches to the vehicle radios to organize the parking. It doesn't take long, and he can almost feel the curiosity in the men above him on the wall as the four loaded trucks are parked in a parallel row to the right side of the gate. The three Georgia vehicles pull to the left side of the gate, leaving the eight RVs to progress to the gate.

"They don't need to bring guns inside," Kal calls down, and Jesus glances back to where Honey's little group of seven plus Logan are on foot and approaching. Other than Noah and his father in the first RV, they're the only ones armed.

"I'm vouching for them. They're the ones that need to talk to Gregory about bringing us more of the trailers. I promise you, they ain't going to come inside disarmed, but if you think Gregory will come out here and chat in the cold, feel free to run get him."

Kal looks uneasy but opens the gates. The RVs nudge inside, following Jesus's direction to park in a double row just inside the gate. Hilltop has a few of the FEMA trailers currently open, but the consensus among his new friends was that bringing housing was going to improve the odds that Gregory would accept those who wanted to stay, and he figures they're right. He's surprised they're leaving their own sleeping quarters outside, but he figures they're aiming for a supply run today so he can prove the first four trailers aren't a one-time deal.

Hilltop is a big pentagon-shaped enclosure with Barrington House at the right vertex, the trailers all in the 'base', and the workshops and storage in the apex. What seemed like a lot of room in the frantic early days of getting a wall up proved quickly to not be enough, because they've had to expand the walls for putting in crops. The fields aren't as well protected as the residential area, but those smaller walls keep walkers and most animals out and give any workers time to make it to safety inside the walls if needed.

They've attracted a lot of curious folks, so Jesus motions toward the still open gates. "Four semi-trailers outside. Three of them are food. Last one's other essentials." He's still amazed at the efficiency in which they cleared the dead out of that Costco in Fredericksburg. The four truckloads here are only about half of the supplies from that store, and Honey and Abraham are both carrying duffel bags stuffed full of essential medications from the pharmacy. There are more in the cabs of the trucks, but these bags are meant to make a statement to Gregory.

He can see the greying man approaching, which surprises him, because he honestly thought he might have to escort people inside to the man's fancy office.

"Jesus, who are our visitors?" he asks as soon as he gets into range. He's eyeing Abraham, especially, as if the man might leap upon the residents and start carrying them off. "And why isn't the gate closed yet?"

"I'm guessing because folks want to see what's in the trucks," Jesus says. He motions for the duffel Abraham carries and the burly redhead hands it over. His stance is relaxed to the casual eye, but Jesus figures if he determines anyone here's a danger to his people, they'll find out it's an illusion.

The audience helps in what he's about to do, as families exit the RVs and gather just outside the ring of curious Hilltop residents. Dr. Carson's among them, so he waves a hand. "Come see what we've brought you, Harlan."

He unzips the duffel to show the dozens of pharmacy sized pill bottles and shakes it a little to show they're not empty.

"Oh my God. Those are full?" Harlan takes the bag and rustles through it, muttering out medication names as if Gregory's not waiting impatiently for the answer to his question about the visitors themselves. "There's months' worth of antibiotics and heart medications and antihistamines and anticonvulsants. Did you manage to get into one of the big pharmacies?"

Honey steps forward then, her timing reminding him of the theatrics she displayed on the road. "Might want to keep these close at hand," she says, unzipping her duffel and letting the doctor take a look. That one's got the meds she cleared out of the restricted locked cabinets. "There's more in the trucks."

Harlan looks like someone just told him the walkers are cleared out of the world. Jesus supposes as a doctor, the scraps the supply teams have managed are nothing compared to what he and his brother wants to have for their patients.

The bounty has the intended effect, because the Hilltop supply team has to go investigate and open the backs of those trailers to see the treasure trove inside and call it back to those waiting.

"Gregory, meet Abraham and Hannah. They're going to help us out for a few days before they go home, in exchange for us taking in some survivors who got overrun a few days back."

He can see the decision to ignore Honey completely because of her youth and gender as Gregory offers a hand to Abraham. "How many survivors?" he asks, looking flustered and wincing as the big man's handshake is deliberately too firm.

"Current count is fourteen who don't want to leave Virginia. Six children, eight adults. One of the adults is a school teacher and another an electrician." Out of all the professions, those are the only two that currently fit into Hilltop's needs. Most of the rest had office jobs that just don't translate. "As you can see, they brought their own places to stay."

"All of the RVs will stay?"

Honey shakes her head. "Just six of them. We'll need two for the seventeen folks that will be leaving with us." Two won't actually sleep that number of people, but Abraham says it's about transporting them until they acquire a few more RVs for the trip home. Those were the only two that were diesel on the lot.

As Gregory tries to cope with the idea that the girl's answering and not the man, Jesus speaks up. "Folks came up from Georgia to help some of their people find their family, so they're taking folks back with them that want to go. We can manage fourteen more people, especially with the extra supplies coming in."

He can see Hilltop folks nodding in agreement. Just the three trucks already out there full of food covers the extra these people will eat until they can plant crops again. They'll be extra enthusiastic when they see the toilet paper and hygiene items in the other truck.

"I suppose that is sufficient to keep our stores from running too low," Gregory manages at last.

"We'll be making a few more runs before we leave. Stay about two more days, then we'll be on our way. We don't want to be away from home too long," Abraham says.

"You gonna teach us how?" one of the supply team calls out, carrying a box of canned goods into the compound to show others.

"Of course. And we can haul a lot more if we have more helpers on loading and driving. Anyone here know how to drive those?" Honey asks.

A couple of folks step forward that aren't on supply teams normally. Jesus is surprised at them volunteering, but being up in the cab of a big truck is a relatively safe proposition even these days.

"See? With that, we can manage six trucks." She's smiling, that winsome smile that seems to be contagious to everyone but Gregory.

"We didn't finish with the Costco in Fredericksburg, and there's a Sam's Club in Charlottesville," he says.

"If anyone knows where any distribution centers are for the area, those are pure gold for supplies," Honey adds.

Gregory still looks flummoxed and glances to Abraham. "You can actually do this?"

"We've done it so much our building crews can barely keep ahead of our runs down in Georgia," the man answers. "We'll help you folks out a bit."

"And what's in it for you?"

Honey scoffs. "Being a decent human being is typically the idea. Not a lot of us left to not be teaching and sharing what we can."

Jesus can tell that Gregory doesn't grasp the idea that they don't want payment. The man will just have to suck it up though. Personally, he can't wait to see the supply runners when Danny takes that damned squalling drone up.

"We should really get back on the road if we're going to pull another haul," Abraham says, glancing at his watch. "Can be back to Fredericksburg, load, and return by supper time."

The supply runners look enthusiastic for once, and all go to gear up.

"Jesus, are you sure about these people?" Gregory asks, pulling him aside. "They're just giving us this bounty to keep fourteen people here?"

"Yeah, I've been with them for days now, checking them out. They're safe. Sometimes people are just good people."

He doesn't think the older man believes him, but his people have returned in their gear for the road. "No vehicles. We'll ride along in theirs."

"Why are the little girl and the boy going?" Gregory calls out.

Jesus sighs as Honey turns slowly. "If you're referring to me as a 'little girl', I'm going along because I'm the mechanic and one of the best shots in my group." She reaches down to smooth Logan's hair, where the boy's tensed over the idea of being separated from her. "And he's going because I'm the one he trusts to keep him safe."

"You're allowing this?" Gregory asks Abraham.

The sergeant guffaws. "Day I try to tell a woman what to do who put bullets in the head of three raiders before I could get my boots on the other night is the day I'm ready to be walker chow myself for a case of the pure stupids."

Honey just arches a brow and walks off, Logan at her side. The dogs, who all stayed outside the gate, join her before she's reached the bus and climbed aboard.

"Jesus? She's not much more than a child, and he is one."

"He's as safe in one of their vehicles as being behind these walls, Gregory. And I've seen her in action. He's not lying about how deadly she is with that rifle. We're wasting daylight." He watches as Noah splits off from his family after a hug to his mother, going to join those going on the run. He knows Michael Fisher will keep the Shirewilt folks settled against anything Gregory tries, if the man remembers they're not originally his people in the first place.

He hears three of the big semi-trucks fire up after being disconnected from their trailers. The fourth, the one Honey drove, doesn't have enough fuel to make a return trip, but there were plenty of trucks to be had in the city. He jogs to catch up and join his people on Honey's bus.

She closes the doors behind him with a smirk. "Another minute and you were going to be walking."

He just laughs, which reassures the Hilltop folks as he relaxes into the seat behind her and she shifts the bus easily to fall into the caravan.

Life's about to make a big change for his people. They just don't know it yet.

~*~ DD ~*~

"Hey. You okay?" Daryl doesn't like the look of pain crossing Lori's face. The Braxton Hicks contractions occur often enough that he wonders if they'll realize she's actually in labor. But she's rubbing at her back and looks near tears.

"I think it's just a muscle cramp, but I can't get to it, and trying to lay down makes it hurt worse."

He settles behind her on the bed and massages the spot she indicates. She sighs in relief, but within ten minutes, it's back, and he doesn't like the idea forming in his mind. "Lori, darlin', we're going to head over to the infirmary."

She looks at him startled, but he sees her make the calculations too. She bites her lip and nods. It's cold outside today, so she bundles up. He's glad today was his off-day, as he sure doesn't want to think of her sitting patiently thinking it's just backache. Carrie's labor started out like that, back killing her for hours, and then bam, Abby arrived only three hours after they realized it wasn't back pain, but contractions.

But Lori has five weeks to go, by their best estimate, and that terrifies him for the baby's sake. He knows the book says babies can be born this early and be okay, but that's in a world with a damned NICU. They've got a lot of equipment here, but there's limits to the miracles their doctors can work.

"Abby? Sweetheart?" She looks up from the puzzle she's playing with in her room. "Get your coat and I'm going to get you to run find Carl for me, alright? He's up at the main house watching a movie. Stay with him til I come get you."

She nods and heads for her outerwear before glancing back a little suspiciously. "Where are you taking Mama?"

He isn't going to lie to the little girl. "We're going up to the infirmary to have your aunt give her a little checkup."

"Is it the baby? Is she coming early?" He sees the worry bloom, and Lori struggles to the girl's side.

"We don't know. She might be," Lori explains. "And if she does, we'll send for you and Carl to come. But until we know, remember how some of my checkups are parts you don't get to watch?" Abby nods, looking a little less upset. "This is like that."

She sighs. "Okay. I should tell Carl, right?"

"Yeah, go ahead and tell Carl, and if Carol's there, tell her too."

Daryl offers to carry Lori, but the motion of going prone, even in his arms, makes everything feel worse, so they make the arduous trip up the hill and haven't even rounded the house good before Carol and Merle are both meeting them. With Merle's help, they get Lori to the infirmary faster, doing a sling carry between them.

Lori doesn't even have to be told to strip down to the hospital gown as Merle makes himself scarce, going to fetch Caleb even as Hershel crosses paths with him coming inside.

The exam that follows is probably the longest damned ten minutes of his life. The only good part is getting to see the baby on ultrasound and confirming she's correctly positioned for labor.

Cricket ends up the spokesperson for the three-person medical assessment. Carol isn't even trying to be a nurse at the moment, holding Lori's right hand while Daryl holds her left.

"The biggest issue right now is that we're basing the baby's gestational age on her ultrasound measurements. Normally, delivering at 35 weeks isn't ideal, but we wouldn't stop labor. But since there's the risk that the baby's actually younger than that, we're going to delay labor as long as we can and give corticosteroids shots to help mature her lungs, just in case. She's on the cusp of where that could be an issue if the due date is off by a week. The good news is that your water hasn't broken, so that gives us more options, but you're four centimeters dilated and about 40% effaced.

Lori sits patiently through the IV setup, but he can feel her hand in his trembling. Everything's gone so well that an early birth really wasn't what they expected. He tries to reassure himself that based on the ultrasound, Patricia's baby was early too, although her pregnancy was closer to term. Maybe the damn thing's wrong... maybe they're all wrong and Lori's further along than they guessed. He can hope. It's the first time he wished for Rick Grimes to be the father of the baby since the day he and Scout fought about it.

"This is salbutamol. Normally, it's used to treat bronchial issues, but a lot of medications for the lungs can actually halt preterm labor," Cricket explains as she injects the dose into the IV. "There are a few other things we can try, but we've got more of it and it has fewer side effects. The same properties that allow it to relax the lungs during an asthma attack will relax the womb. There's you a weird body fact for the day."

Lori manages a smile at the small joke. She's still trembling and laying on her back is still painful, so he says screw it and just slides behind her on the bed. Once she can lean back against him, it seems to ease somewhat.

"How long will this work?" Lori asks.

"We won't give the med more than 48 hours. But that gives us time to give you the shots to help the baby's lungs, which is the important issue. The side effects may not be fun. You're probably going to have tremors, heart palpitations, and anxiety."

"So, like I'm already feeling magnified," Lori mutters. Daryl massages her shoulders and she leans into the contact.

"Here comes the fun part." Caleb's wheeling the fetal heart monitor to the bedside. It takes a few minutes to get the bands in place, but the machine is soon monitoring the baby's heartbeat - strong and regular - and it catches the next contraction in a neat spike.

"When we taper off the medication, then we'll monitor for labor. It may happen within hours of that, or it could take days." Cricket looks apologetic.

Merle speaks up, voice gruff. "Took nine days after they stopped her labor with Honey for Lil to go into labor again. Hopefully, it'll go like that."

Lori wriggles to glance at Merle. "Honey was born early?"

"34 weeks. Scout too, but she made it to 36 weeks. Hardest part with Honey was her learning to feed. Had the feeding tube the first four days, then she took to the bottle like it was the best thing in the world."

"She was cold all the time," Daryl reminds him. "Even though it was August." He forgot Honey was a preemie. A lot of his memories around that time are foggy.

"Babies develop their fat layers in the last weeks of pregnancy, which helps regulate body temperature," Cricket explains. "We've got warming lights and skin-to-skin is even better. Might have to treat jaundice, but that's an issue no matter when she delivers."

"In other words, we're probably okay even if she arrives today?" Lori asks. He hates the quiver in her voice.

"We should be. Best thing to do now is relax and rest."

"Do you think we should call Scout and Shane's teams back?" Merle asks.

Hershel, Caleb, and Cricket exchange looks, but then Caleb nods. "If we delay and the medication doesn't work, it might be too late."

"I'll go do that." Merle steps in close and takes Lori's hand and squeezes. "Hang in there. Just see it as getting to hold her early."

Lori smiles in response. "That will be the nice part."

Daryl thinks it is the silver lining of all this worry.