January 27-28, 2011
~*~ SW ~*~
Shane knocks at the bathroom door. "'Bout done in there, squirt?"
Anaya calls back a mumbled reply, but then opens the door. "Is Scout going to be home soon?"
"Yeah. She's just giving Daryl time to get Abby settled in up at the main house." The friendship that Scout and Lori share now is something he would have thought beyond impossible back at the quarry. Aside from their widely different personalities, they're both damned stubborn once they set their mind to something. Luckily for everyone involved, once the two women buried the hatchet on their antagonism, that same stubbornness makes for an interesting set of friends.
He also suspects that Abby doesn't really need Daryl for her bedtime, not with her Uncle Merle and Auntie Carol at hand, but it gives his wife and Lori time to do whatever it is they do to bond.
Anaya's deft at getting the moisturizer in her hair and the oil, but what he's waiting for is the part she still likes to have help with. All the little bantu knots take time, so she works on the front while he takes over the back, which is harder for her to reach. It's a relaxing routine, and while Scout's better at the braiding due to years of practice with her own hair, he's learning quickly with practice. He's grateful for the extra tips Jacqui gave, after the woman was privately outraged that Anaya didn't seem to know how to take care of her hair properly.
It doesn't take long between them to get the knots done, and she tugs on her satin-lined cap and grins at him. While she has some that were from supply stores, her favorite is one that Carol stitched for her with the soft exterior fabric being covered in tropical fish. Her grin flashes the gaps in her teeth where she lost both lower canine teeth with days of each other earlier in the week and the tiny sharp tips of the replacements coming in.
"Snack before bed?" she asks, looking hopeful. He's just glad she asks now, instead of expecting to be denied. Even Jazz hasn't gotten a lot out of her, but everyone is entirely certain she was neglected in whatever living situation she was in. She's settled back in school now, but spends her Wednesdays off school with her young uncle. Thankfully, Jazz doesn't seem to mind, although his Pied Piper effect on children usually means she's not the only child around.
"Peanut butter, applesauce, or chickpeas?"
"Chickpeas!"
It's a snack he never heard of before Cricket handed a bag off to Anaya one day and got her hooked. He has to admit he's hooked on them as well, finding them much more interesting than popcorn as a snack. He snags the paper bag of the roasted chickpeas off the counter and assesses he'll need to do another batch after tonight since they all three snack on them regularly. He rolls the paper bag's edges down and sits it on the table where they can share, before warming her a small cup of milk from the bottle of sheep's milk in the fridge. There's not yet enough fresh milk production for adults to drink it yet, but the kids like Anaya who are still on nutritional watch get quart jars of it instead of powdered milk.
He joins her with a protein drink after mixing one for Scout when she gets home. She's quiet at first, munching on the little chickpeas and playing with her cup. There's something on her mind, but they've found it's best to let her come around to talking on her own.
"Are you mad that I don't go to the hospital with everyone?" she asks finally. She refused with a level of panic that worried everyone, so Jazz looks after her if both Shane and Scout are at the infirmary at the same time, something they don't do often.
"Not at all. Some people really don't like hospitals, and Lori understands." Hell, he agrees with the girl about hospitals, and the infirmary is only tolerable because of its small scale.
She takes a big drink of the milk and sighs. "My mama died in a hospital."
It's the first mention of any sort of adult supervision in Anaya's past, so he asks carefully, "When everyone else was getting sick?"
She shakes her head and he thinks of how much having her hair covered makes her eyes dominate her features. It makes her look so much younger. "Long time ago. She had something wrong with her that made everyone scared about her blood. She was in the hospital a lot when I was little."
He has a brief hope for hemophilia or a blood cancer, although he suspects, after years on the police force, that it's probably HIV. It makes him glad they do blood work on everyone here. Although a parent with HIV doesn't mean the child has the virus, he would be horrified if she wasn't being treated or monitored if she did have it. "How old were you?"
It's sad that she has to think on it a little bit. "Five. But before kindergarten. They took me away from her there. Didn't let me stay with her." She leaves the mostly empty cup and bag to come climb into his lap. "Just one day the social worker told me she died. Like she was telling me the weather." She sniffles, but doesn't actually cry.
He hugs her close, kissing her forehead. "I'm sorry they did it that way, sweetheart." He's aware of occurrences like that in the foster care system. Overworked, underpaid workers with too many cases that just don't have time to form any kindly bonds with their charges. But a social worker being involved means Anaya probably didn't have any other family members or not anyone appropriate. It means that Al's theory about her being a foster kid is correct.
"Are Lori and the baby going to be okay?"
"The doctors think so. The baby's just anxious to meet everyone. Remember how we explained Lori's getting extra medicines to help the baby's lungs when she is born?" He feels her nod against his chest. "Those are all finished. But now the baby's decided to wait a little longer to be born, so we're just going to have to be patient."
Anaya's quiet for a minute and he kisses her forehead. "If I change my mind, would she be okay for me to come? Is she real sick?"
"She's mostly tired and a little cranky about being in bed just to be safe," he explains. "And she would be more than happy for you to come see her."
"Maybe tomorrow." She wriggles to get down and nudges the leftover chickpeas to him as she finishes her milk and goes to wash the cup. He doesn't have to remind her to go brush her teeth, and it pains him just how independent she is on things you normally have to repeatedly remind children to do. If it weren't for occasional bouts of anger with slightly older children, he would say she's being too good. She probably is, to an extent, trying to make sure they don't change their mind.
He finishes off the snack in the time she flicks the bathroom light off and he hears the door rattle as Scout arrives. His wife gets just enough time to get her coat off before she's got an armful of blue-pajamaed child, and Scout lifts her easily to twirl her around a little while she hugs her.
"I made it in time for a bedtime story, didn't I?"
The answering grins from Anaya and Shane give her all the answer she needs.
~*~ DD ~*~
Lori's restless tonight, which she tells him is from sleeping all day. She keeps apologizing for keeping him awake, even after he reminds her that he's off-duty until the baby comes. All of their schedules are modified now, with Quinton leading his team and subs in on Scout and Shane's while Morales and Rick lead in their stead. His entire duty assignment according to Carol is Lori. Scout's taking over Lori's spot in the laundry and Shane's been working a meal shift while the girl that normally works that shift is subbing for him.
The next time she adjusts position, he says to hell with the chair by the bed and scoots her over just enough to fit into the bed with her. Hopefully, spooning his own warmth behind her, in their familiar sleeping position, will help.
"Any contractions?" he asks.
She takes a minute to answer. "I'm not sure. It's not like before and my belly's not all tight. Just uncomfortable in this damn bed. I wish they would let me go home."
Daryl wishes it too, because she's right about the hospital bed being a bitch to sleep in. He rubs around the perimeter of her distended belly, knowing the muscles there ache from the weight even if she's not been pulling down a multi-hour shift in the laundry lately.
"If she's still staying put by morning, maybe I'll see if they'll let us go to the main house, at least. Then you'll have four medical people right under your thumb but more than just this little room to be stuck in."
That gets a happy sigh out of her and she reaches back to tangle her fingers in his hair. "I'm sorry this is so complicated."
"Ain't complicated, darlin'. Just different ways a baby wants to get here." He misses the really active stage Asskicker used to be in, although it wasn't all that comfortable for Lori. Since the labor, her position's been turned where there are large movements, but not the taps and kicks she managed when she was still facing out into the world. He smooths his hand down to cup underneath her belly and what he feels is definitely a contraction.
As soon as it passes and she relaxes against him, he checks his watch. "Lasted about forty seconds. Gonna keep time before we call Cricket back down."
"Alright." She doesn't move her hand from the nape of his neck, which has got to be cramping her shoulder, but he understands the need for comfort.
Five minutes later, there's another contraction, same as the first. They give it until a third one, and then he reluctantly leaves her to go buzz the main house and let Caleb know as the doctor on duty.
After the exam and monitoring, Cricket smiles. "She's being stealthy again. You're almost completely effaced and dilated to six now, so at this point, we're going to just treat it like any other labor until we know otherwise. You want me to call Shane now or give it a little bit?"
Daryl sees Lori glance at the clock, where it shows about twenty minutes until midnight. "Go ahead. But can I shower?"
"Should be fine, as long as someone's with you." Daryl nods to show he will. He helps Lori out of the bed, leading her to the bed. She's moving excitedly toward the shower, and he imagines the limited bathing she's been allowed has been grating on her. They have to pause for a contraction before she can finish undressing, and he calls that out to Carol, who perches on the bed nearest the bathroom with Lori's chart while Cricket summons the co-parents.
"Oh my God that feels like heaven," Lori groans. He grins from where he's staying just outside the shower, watching as she braces her hands to get the angle of the warm water right on her back. She stays under the water long enough for two more contractions to pass before reluctantly stepping out into the towel he has waiting. He barely gets it around her before she's cupped his face in her wet hands and kisses him, sweet and slow. He lets her lead, enjoying the affection at a time he didn't figure it would be part of her focus.
But another contraction draws it to the end, and he can see through the cracked door that Carol's grinning like an idiot when he gives her the update. Woman's a damn voyeur, but he can't help but grin back.
Once she's in a fresh nightshirt and the weird non-slip socks they insist on in here, they emerge from the bathroom to see the sleep-ruffled Walshes have arrived. No kids yet, since they decided it ought to be easy enough to summon them when labor's further along, but Lori figures that Isabelle and Beth seemed to have weathered being present at a birth, so she's willing to have the other kids in the infirmary at least. Daryl was a little surprised when Carl agreed, figuring he'd balk like Patricia's foster sons did. Abby wanting to be here wasn't surprising at all, but he suspects Anaya will wait.
Lori pauses to drink from her water bottle before switching off buddies and shuffling off with Scout down the hall.
Daryl has to grin at the slightly wild-eyed look Shane's wearing. It's a lot different between 'baby one day' and 'baby right now', he remembers, so he claps the older man on the shoulder. "Just waiting for us while she does the hard part. You ready?"
"Are you?" Shane hedges and Daryl laughs.
~*~ SW ~*~
Sunlight is spilling through the windows to light the hospital ward by the time Lori's decided there's no more walking or rocking on her hands and knees or anything else that's going to work to offset the pain but squatting on the birthing stool. The part that surprised him the most earlier was Lori working through actual exercise lunges when she hit about 8 centimeters, with Scout guiding her. Even the medical staff were curious on that one, but his wife just shrugged and said she's seen women do it overseas. The doctors figured it probably worked the pelvis into the right position, so no one contradicted the activity. She's been in the shower three more times since that initial shower she took when they first arrived, swearing by the warm water on her back for pain relief.
Everything's been monitored, but not as high tech as Shane thought it would be. About every forty minutes, Cricket coaxes Lori to the machine and hooks up the monitors for ten minutes or so. Her water broke at some point between the 4 a.m. cervical check and the 5 a.m. one, but when exactly, they don't know. Cricket explained - for his sake more than the others - that it's not always some dramatic gush like on television, and since Lori showered in the middle of that time period, it might have just occurred and been missed entirely in the warm water.
He's left feeling a little surplus as Lori's hit a stage where she's only wanting Daryl close to her, although he can understand her point. The perch Daryl has behind the birthing stool makes for incredibly close contact. Shane's pretty damn sure the man's singing softly with every contraction or at least something rhythmic and soothing he can't quite make out.
Scout and Carol are at the desk, listening in on the radio consult Cricket's doing with the obstetrician up north. They installed the radio system in the infirmary after Honey's introduction to Dr. Carson. The man was as relieved to have a way to consult other practitioners as their own staff were.
The door opens and he shuffles over to guide the kids through to the bed designated to allow them to be present but only witness a television level of the birth. Carl's damn near vibrating with excitement, and he's surprised to see Anaya looking staunchly determined next to Abby. The girls are holding hands, the first time he's ever seen them in truly close contact. Perhaps a shared sister is enough to break through the ice for them at last.
"How long?" Carl asks.
"Cricket says could be a couple more hours, but maybe sooner." He doesn't figure the boy wants to know anything about dilation and effacement and active labor, although Cricket's last check led her to declare 'anytime between now and lunch'."
"But everything's okay? She isn't going to need surgery?"
He understands the boy's worry. It's been a specter over the entire pregnancy, but never as much as the last few hours. "They don't think so."
Figuring he's more needed with the kids than anywhere else at the moment, he settles on the bed and lets the girls cuddle into him, reaching around Abby to squeeze Carl's shoulder. He's only a little surprised when the boy takes his hand instead. Carl's not so old yet to need extra comfort.
"Dad's going a bit crazy," Carl confides. "Merle ended up taking him over to work on Maria's cabin to keep him busy."
Shane has to laugh at that. He can imagine, all things considered, Rick is probably going a bit crazy with worry, but at least he's got people to keep him busy.
He stays with the kids another half hour, watching the clock slide past 7:30. Lori's mood shifts a little, and since she's got Scout close, talking low and intently between contractions, he leaves Carl in charge of the girls and ventures back over. They've hooked up the monitors for a little bit, and he's learned the patterns by now. Everything is staying in the range Cricket said it should for the baby's heart rate.
She surprises him with a rather bright smile. It's tired and he hates the pain he can see in the expression, but she grabs for his hand and he takes a seat on the stool Daryl scoots under him.
"With Patricia, Carol cleaned the baby after, but I want you to," Lori says.
He agrees, not entirely sure on what it entails, but certain that Carol won't let him mess it up. Before he can ask, Cricket swoops in with the Doppler and everyone gets to listen in to the now-familiar sound of the baby's heart rate for a minute before Cricket whisks it away with a glance toward Abby as the next contraction hits. He knows she did it just for the girl's reassurance, since they haven't been listening since the first checkup after he arrived.
Once the contraction passes, this one with Lori leaning forward with he and Scout bracing her while Daryl rubs her back, Cricket detaches the monitors and tucks them away.
"Are you feeling a need to push?" she asks. Lori nods a little frantically. "Next contraction, that's exactly what you do then."
The next half hour is intense, and he reminds himself that this stage can take a while. Lori's reverted to holding Daryl's hands now, but she was almost frantic is making sure he and Scout both stayed put. He meets his wife's eyes across Lori's form and she gives him a reassuring smile as she reaches for the damn cloth to help Lori sponge her face, neck, and shoulders, moving under the unbuttoned nightshirt with a comfort he wouldn't have expected the two women to have with each other.
The next contraction gives them what they've all been waiting to hear, Cricket declaring the baby's crowning. His young sister-in-law is grinning so wide he thinks it ought to hurt when Lori shifts, letting go of one of Daryl's hands to grab at him instead. She leans into him as she moves forward in the effort of pushing, burying her head into his shoulder. It hides Scout from him completely, but he can hear Daryl very clearly now. He's humming, whatever soothing tune he was doing before and Lori's breathing to it, her breath hot against his skin.
It's not until Scout's mix of languages sliding between English and Chamorro fluidly that he realizes what the two women were talking about so intently when he was with the children. It isn't Cricket with the baby in her hands. Scout's expression looks like her world rocked its foundations as she cradles the now squalling baby in the blanket she's caught her with and lifts her up to Lori. It takes them both a moment of fumbling before the baby girl is laid belly down on Lori's bare chest and both women are crying.
"You can touch her." Carol's voice startles the hell out of him, but he reaches out and Scout peels away the wet and messy blanket from the birthing catch and he hesitantly slides his hand in the space between where Lori's got the baby cupped to her chest with one hand behind her head and one under her bottom. She's squirming and crying, and Shane realizes as he makes skin contact that he's only the second person to touch the baby's delicate skin. He can feel the vibrations through her tiny back as she protests her entrance in the world, but then she quiets as Lori talks to her. He takes the blanket Scout's offering and with one hand still in place, gently dries her hair and everything he can reach.
He glances at Cricket, not sure why nothing's been done about the cord yet, but she just smiles and sneaks a hand in with the clamp rolling the baby just enough to reach. She's offering him the scissors, but to take them means he has to stop touching the baby and he just can't, so he jerks his head toward Daryl.
As soon as the cord's cut, Scout moves Daryl's hand to get the little cap on the still messy head of black hair and he finally cleans the baby's back, covered until now by his own hand. The next blanket he's handed is heavier than the thin ones for cleaning and he covers the baby with it as she moves her head back and forth a little from where she's lying between her mother's breasts.
Then she's staring at him, far more intently than he ever thought a newborn could do. He can't breathe from the intensity of the feeling. She just keeps looking as if she knows all the secrets of the universe and his most especially. She gives a little wiggle and a tiny fist emerges from under the blanket and she breaks the eye contact as the closer object changes her focus. He watches in wonder as she crams the little fist to her mouth. She sucks intently for a few minutes before she starts moving again. As she's kicking her feet, Lori starts a tired giggle and he realizes what the movement's all about when Lori reaches out to cup the breast closest to the baby, the far side away from Shane. He sees milk beading just as he figures it out, but Judith's smarter than her daddy, because her movements had purpose.
She latches on and it takes a minute, but she figures it out and begins to nurse.
"Hey, Shane?" Lori's voice is a little strained, definitely showing evidence of her crying, but she's smiling as the tears fade and he tears his gaze away from the baby. "I'm thinking this might be the first birthday present from me that you actually like."
He's sure no one blames him one damn bit when he buries his face in the soft skin at the junction of Lori's shoulder and neck and cries.
~*~ DD ~*~
Judith's just under two hours old and in Carl's arms at last. Unless you count the gentle movements of Carol doing the baby's health assessment, he's only the second person to officially hold the newborn. The girls are hovering next to him, Abby carefully touching one foot while Anaya just leans on his shoulder stare at the sleeping baby. Between Shane on one side and Scout on the other of the children, the baby's well attended.
After all the craziness of the week, Lori's already managed a shower and finally in a bed in fresh clothing. She's exhausted, but her eyes are on her son cradling his newest sister. He reaches out to stroke her hair back from her face and she shifts a little to smile at him.
"She's here."
"Yeah, darlin', she's here and you made it happen." He kisses her forehead and she reaches out to take his hand. He scoots his wheeled stool so that she can hold it comfortably while still able to look back to the kids.
"I'm afraid to go to sleep. Afraid it's a dream."
"Ain't a dream, Lori. I promise you. She's here and safe and healthy. You sleep and we'll watch over her for you."
She tugs his hand up to kiss the palm. "I love you."
"Love you too. Sleep for me, please?" He brushes a kiss across her lips and she lets her eyes drift closed.
He looks back over his shoulder to the baby. He supposes it doesn't matter how old you are when you hold your first baby sibling. Carl's expression makes him think the boy would believe she's a gift from the fairies just like Daryl thought Scout was.
~*~ SW ~*~
It takes a while before any more visitors are allowed in, but once Lori's slept a couple of hours, the first Dixon not involved in the birth peeks in just after two in the afternoon. He's not a bit surprised that it's Jazz, or that the boy spends a few minutes hugged tightly to Lori once he's there. He says something very quietly that makes Lori tear up and hug him even longer. He doesn't ask to hold the baby, but instead sits next to his sister as she does and cups one tiny, tiny foot in the palm of his hand. It makes her look like a doll even more than she already does.
The baby needs to nurse again and that sends Jazz to join the other kids. The day's tired the girls out, because they're actually sleeping together in one of the hospital beds. Shane leans across the back of Scout's chair and wraps his arms around her, kissing her on the temple.
"She's got your hair."
He smothers a laugh in her shoulder. After Lori ran a warm, wet cloth over the baby's hair after her second round of nursing earlier, there was no mistaking the black hair has a distinct wave to it to mimic his own curls.
"How are you feeling?" He knows Lori can hear the question, although her attention is all on the newborn. Daryl's disappeared, off to fetch food for everyone that completely forgot lunch in the birth's aftermath. She glances over, obviously interested in Scout's response. His own emotions are settled now, not as overwhelming as they were when he cried against Lori earlier.
"Amazed. A little in love with kumaile-ko."
Lori looks a little puzzled, understanding part of the word, since Scout's used it before to explain the godparent concept. She's simply added the possessive 'my' to the co-mother term, but it shifts in the possessive from kumaire.
"Well, Daryl and I will appreciate if you don't throw me over and steal Lori away," he teases. It fills in enough of the blanks for Lori to laugh and the baby to protest the movement and sound.
But he understands the feeling. It's not the same feeling he has for Scout, but for the first time, he understands Rick's lingering, unending affection toward the mother of his child.
Judith's finished nursing and dozed back off by the time Daryl returns with food and helpers to carry it.
He isn't exactly surprised that Rick's one of them. He is a little surprised when Rick asks hesitantly to hold Judith and sits quietly for a minute just watching the baby sleep.
Merle peeks over Rick's shoulder a moment before moving further up the bedside to drop a kiss on top of Lori's head. "You did good, mama."
She responds with a bright smile. Shane will probably never understand the quirky friendship those two formed once they decided to be friends, but he's glad of it. Lori has a champion in Merle he doubts she'll ever find similar to in anyone, not even Daryl.
"Stubborn wife of mine and your other half are both telling me I gotta ask you the baby's details," he says, making Lori laugh.
"Judith Michaela Jean Walsh. Six pounds, two ounces, and seventeen and a half inches long."
Merle nods at the information and reaches out to cup the baby's foot where it's escaped the blanket, much like Jazz did. "She might've been a ten pounder if she stayed put a few more weeks." Lori gives a groan that Shane thinks is only partly playacting at the though. "Know the Jean's for your grandmama, Shane, but it's a little sweeter on top of that, you know."
"Why's that?" he asks.
The older man tilts his head toward Scout.
Lori glances over and he can see her thinking, making connections. She grins as she speaks. "Jean Louise. Scout's real name from To Kill a Mockingbird."
Scout only smiles, and he wonders if she made the connection already and just didn't mention it.
Merle tucks the baby's foot back into the blanket with practiced ease. "She don't need a lot of folks jostling her, so I'm gonna wait my turn another day." He rounds the bed and hugs Scout where she sits, but Shane shouldn't be surprised to find himself in a rib-cracking bear hug.
"Ain't a damn thing more humbling in the world than that gift you got today," Merle says quietly.
"I know," he replies, hearing his voice crack.
His father-in-law lets him go with an affectionate smile and leans in to hug Lori. Whatever he says to her doesn't carry, probably deliberately, and then he signals the two teenage boys. Both follow him as he leaves.
It's then that he sees that the baby's awake and her tiny, delicate fingers are grasped firmly around Rick's. From the looks of it, she's got his brother caught in that same soul-changing stare she got him with right after she was born.
Rick doesn't look away, but he speaks. "I'm your Uncle Rick, Judy. Gonna be who you come to when your parents make you all mad, okay? We got us a deal?"
The baby makes a small sound Shane's going to pretend is agreement to that offer, and from Rick's expression, he knows his daughter's probably never going to have a stronger champion on this whole lousy planet outside her parents than Rick Grimes.
A/N: Even in this AU, Judy's always gonna be Rick's in some way. :)
