April 14, 2011

~*~ SW ~*~

Shane turns his eight newbies over to Glynnis. Only one child, a young teenager, in today's group, although two of the other families with him have adult children in their midst. They holed up in an industrial area with strong fencing after not making it to Atlanta before the firebombing, much like Shane's quarry group.

He's not entirely sure they would have found them since the group was settled north of I-20 and outside the area they were searching. But the group was gleaning supplies off abandoned trucks at the truck stops along the interstate near Villa Rica, which brought him into contact with their leader, Lois.

She didn't immediately jump on the idea of coming to Homestead when they met Tuesday. Shane's group trailed back up to I-20 after finding nothing but loose critters and occasional clusters of walkers to put down, everyone ready to get home. They found three RVs pulling supply trailers waiting for them at the Pilot truck stop.

"Tåta!" He pulls Anaya into a hug, grinning. She isn't the only child weaving her way into the group, as much as they have tried to avoid many parents being part of the search. He can see Carl greeting Rick, and Karen's adopted boys are swarming her happily.

"Where's your mama?" he asks.

She arches a brow. "Nåna is not home yet. Grandpa says another hour."

Shane checks the time, realizing Scout's supply run is running overtime. Usually that's good news, with something extra found that needed more load time.

"And what have you been up to this afternoon?" She's grubby, just enough dirt to show she's definitely been outdoors a while.

"Picking broccoli with Jazz." She points toward one of the small trucks used just for on-property work, where a crew of teenagers is unloading more broccoli than Shane really wants to think about eating. He doesn't recognize one of the girls, but remembers the visiting Virginians before he asks Anaya.

"Think you can go help him a bit longer while I go shower?" He's dying for at least ten minutes in hot water. The weeks on the road always end up making him feel grubby, despite the fact they do have solar showers and baby wipes. It's just not the same.

"Yeah. And I'm supposed to tell you that Judy's at Grandma Carol's if you were back before supper."

"Good to know." She scrambles back to join her uncle, chattering happily to Jazz.

He's tempted to stop by the main house to see Judith first. Even though he's away no more than four days at a time, it seems like she advances so much when he misses those days. It's hard to believe she's already over two months old. Instead, he shoulders his and Rick's laundry duffels to drop off on the way.

Lori's in the middle of folding a load of laundry when he pushes the door open. She smiles at him in welcome and puts aside the pile of T-shirts to give him a hug.

"I bring you more work and get a hug out of it?" he teases, dropping the duffels in the pile her crews will likely tackle tomorrow.

"You're home safe. That's what the hug's for."

He understands the sentiment. He feels similar about the weeks Scout is out for days, not just that his wife's home safely, but toward Christopher for being at her back during that time. Weeks his teams are out, Lori's got two children with fathers in the unknown.

"How was Judy this week?" He gets some updates over the radio, but only really big ones. Extended radio chatter while they hunt a man known for wiping out other survivors just isn't a good idea.

"Cranky for a couple of days. Then she slept a full six hours last night. She's also managing to get her hands in her mouth on purpose now." Lori grins. "Luckily, so far it's Daryl that she's sliming with baby drool hands afterward."

He laughs. "I doubt he minds. Anaya says she's up with Carol?"

"Yeah. Carol's finally hit the stage of desperately needing a nap in the afternoons, so she snagged Judith on her way to go nap since it was her naptime too. Did Anaya tell you Scout's team got delayed on coming back?"

"She did. Glenn's teams back already?" Depending on what Patricia's doing today, with Carol temporarily off-duty, Lori's usually the relay point as Carol's primary assistant.

It's hard to tell teams on-property because the vehicles used for supply and hunting runs aren't always the same. The search teams have set vehicles, which are inspected with a fine-tooth comb by the mechanics on their off weeks. But for Daryl and Glenn's teams, or whichever search team is at home and helping with supply runs, the vehicles vary based on just what they think they're hauling that day.

"They brought in a few new animals this trip, so they're unloading in Hershel's quarantine area. Beat you back by about half an hour, actually."

"Do I even want to ask?"

Lori just laughs as she returns to her folding. "Fairly mundane farm animals, since watch didn't gossip about it, I suppose. Not like when he found the bees last week."

That was a retrieval trip Shane's not sure he wants to repeat. Seventy-three hives that survived a lack of human intervention for the better part of a year. There was little chance they wouldn't move the bees, not once Lenore heard about them, but it was almost easier when they relocated the rabbit farm.

"At least Merle didn't have to build anything for those." The hives are strategically placed in a couple areas near the crop fields, with several folks from the farming crew learning to be novice beekeepers as they go.

"True. You met any of the visitors yet?"

He shakes his head. "Think I saw the girl over with Jazz earlier, but didn't spy anyone else new other than the eight we brought back."

"They're probably all still with various crews for the day. Merle's been pushing his crews hard with the good weather, and I think most of them were out with him today." She hesitates a moment. "Anaya had a little meltdown earlier this week."

That alarms him a little, but if it was serious, that would have gotten mentioned over the radio reports, surely. "What about?"

"Honey's friend, Jesus? Apparently, he grew up in foster care too. Led to her talking to him about being in a group home when everyone got sick. I'll let Scout go into the details, but most of the blanks got filled in."

Damn. They knew she was in foster care, but nine's so damned little for group homes, which tend toward teenagers that there aren't as many individual foster homes available for. No wonder she's standoffish with most adults, and he's still not sure how he managed to be one of the exceptions to the rule for the little girl.

"Guess we're in for a talk tonight," he manages. "Got anything you need me to deliver up on my way home?"

She points toward a laundry bag he recognizes as their general home bag, so he shoulders it and bids her farewell. Scout will be home soon enough to settle all the questions and worry dancing in the back of his mind about Anaya.

~*~ MD ~*~

"Hey, pretty lady."

Normally, Carol waking to those words from Merle, she would know they're directed at her. But considering his voice is drifting to her from the direction of the office, where the crib is, she guesses Judith's the one getting the sweet talk right now.

It carries on for a while, chatter from Merle and babble from the baby, letting her know that he's changing a diaper. He steps into the doorway with Judith cupped in the crook of his arm, smiling when he sees her laying there with her eyes open.

"I see you both were getting your beauty sleep." He crosses the room to claim a kiss, but it's a mere brush to what he might do without the baby present.

"While I'm glad I haven't had any of the nausea the others had as long as I avoided that mint toothpaste, the afternoon bouts of narcolepsy are a little annoying."

It makes him laugh, and he slides a hand down to cup it protectively over her belly, which shows no signs of changes yet. "Hopefully, that won't last long and you'll be back to running circles around everyone else."

"At least I have a sweet nap buddy." She sits up, even though it dislodges his protective hand, plucking Judith out of his arms and making a happy face at the baby. Judy smiles brightly, waving her arms wildly.

Merle turns his attention to the ten-week-old baby instead, tickling her little bare feet. "She's getting chubby finally."

"Lori actually had to put her in something bigger than a newborn outfit today." The little green romper leaves a lot of skin exposed, but the weather's been so warm that none of the babies are wearing much more than rompers and onesies.

"Gonna be a big girl, huh?" Merle asks. "Grow big and tall?"

Carol is actually curious on that. She doesn't think Judith will manage the height of any of the Dixon girls, but Lori's tall for a woman. If any of the new group of babies are able to get as tall as Scout, Cricket, or Honey, she's probably the best bet. Merle's been fairly certain the above-average height of his biological children is from their mother's side of the family.

Judith's done with playing though, since she grimaces a little. She passes her back to Merle. "She's probably getting hungry. Can you take her to Lori?"

"Can do one better than that. Saw Shane heading up toward the deck when I came down the hall. Bet he's come looking for her."

She gets a farewell kiss as Merle heads off down the hall with the baby, and she can hear Shane's voice in the distance. It's good to hear, to know his team made it back safely again, but it reminds her that he was bringing back survivors.

With a brief brush of her own hand to her belly, she swings her feet to the floor to get back to her day.

~*~ AF ~*~

Abraham steps out of the shower in the group washroom to realize he's not alone. He reaches for the towel, but he's in no real hurry considering Michonne's seen him naked enough by now. Besides, she's the one in the men's washroom.

The baby's thrown a wrench in the casual sex agreement they had going before he went to Virginia. Sleeping together without any ties worked better before there was a permanent one. He misses it more than he thought he would.

"Everything okay?" he asks, because her not waiting until he's dried off and dressed seems to indicate something urgent.

"The baby's fine. Saw Danny leave after his shower and figured there wasn't much point in lurking outside."

He chucks his damp towel over the drying rack and reaches for clean boxer shorts. "Needed some eye candy while we talk?" He might be confused on sleeping with her right now, but his mouth tends to engage along a certain path regardless.

"Something like that." She smiles a little. "Wanted to tell you before I told Ryan that I'm asking to drop off the supply team. Figure the point where I gotta move to maternity pants is far enough."

That makes him really look at her, without avoiding the mid-point of her frame like he's been doing lately. She's not dressed in her usual jeans, top, and form-fitting leather vest. Instead, she's wearing loose cotton pants and a shirt that really leaves no doubt that she's pregnant.

He can't say that the decision doesn't make him relieved as hell, because the worry of her encountering any of the monsters possible out there does feature in his darker thoughts. He steps into his pants as he studies the changes in her figure closely. "You decided on how you're going to spend the rest of your time?"

"Figured I was going to split it between taking some watch shifts and working down on the farm. Always wanted to have a garden, but didn't have time in the city. Might as well see if it's all it's cracked up to be while I can."

It's hard to picture Michonne on the farm, but he reminds himself that she became a warrior after civilization fell. He knows her, yet he doesn't.

"When's the ultrasound again?" he asks. His hands shake a little on the question, and he knows she notices. He has the video from the first one, but he's never been able to actually watch it.

"In two weeks. Got it set up for a Friday afternoon to make sure you can be there if you want."

All their conversations have been permissive of him not being involved, but the fact that she keeps bringing him in the loop makes him think her preference is for him to get his ass out of limbo. Her hand rubs across the swell of her belly in that absent way women have when a baby's moving around, and it makes his breath catch.

He can't stop the question either. "Is the baby moving already?" He can't remember, exactly, when that's supposed to start. He missed most of Ellen's pregnancy with Becca due to being overseas, but he recalls A.J. getting active around the time of the big ultrasound.

"Yeah. Easier to tell than with Andre, since I know what to look for. Been noticing for the last day or so."

He's not entirely aware of his own movement until he realizes he's close enough to touch. It's a dumbass reaction, because while he may not remember a lot about pregnancy development, he does remember it takes longer for him to feel. But she doesn't move away from his touch, guiding his hand to where hers just was instead.

"Couple more weeks, and you'll feel it too," she says softly. Her gaze is intent on his as she moves his hand slowly across her belly, not just in the one spot. It feels like she's making him map out the child they now share.

There's a question there, in her calm expression and in putting his hand on her.

"I want to experience that, very much." He barely recognizes his own voice as past grief wars with the need to have something more in this world than what he has now.

She smiles, and he's not ready to be part of more than being a father, but something deep inside him tells him if that switch does eventually flip for him again, it's going to feature with ebony skin and the same smile that lured him into her bedroom the first time.

This is something more than surviving, bringing new life into the world.

He wants to live again.

~*~ Jesus ~*~

Jesus feels sleepy between his full belly from the delicious supper and having been woken in the night. Even though Jazz did warn him of the potential for nightmares among the boys, it was still unsettling to witness.

Patrick woken them all just after three a.m., and it might have been less worrisome if the teenager were noisy in his distress. Always a light sleeper, Jesus woke to the whimpering sounds, but Jazz responded faster. He crossed the little aisle to Patrick's bunk, voice pitched too low to really make out as he soothed the older boy.

What he could see was Jazz, who Honey warned him was very nearly touch-phobic to anyone much older than Logan, carefully smoothing Patrick's hair as he spoke.

He wonders just how often Jazz's sleep is disturbed by one of the others. Even more so, he wonders if he has nightmares of his own. He didn't go back to sleep, instead opting to go watch a DVD quietly.

Jesus joined him, just as a bit of quiet companionship that got him a hand laid across his shoulder and a solemn, "Thank you, Paul" when the time for Jazz's morning chores rolled around.

"You look very lost in thought," Honey says, nudging him as she sits down with a couple of fruit cups in hand and slides one his way. "Why are you sitting by yourself?"

Fiddling with the seal on the pineapple cup gives him time to formulate his answer, as well as feel a little thrill of happiness that she remembered it's his favorite. Her own fruit cup looks like it might be pears.

"Logan got excited over the ice cream." He indicates where most of the children are gathered in one area with small servings of ice cream. There wasn't really enough for the adults in this batch. Even with Homestead's largesse, some rationing exists.

He's sitting outside in the area he would call a park a year ago. The sports fields are nearby, which is where the kids were playing when he followed Logan out. There's a complex climbing structure near the picnic table area he's sitting at, but whatever game the kids were enthralled in didn't involve it before a couple of ladies appeared outside with calls for ice cream.

Honey gets a little worried or impatient by his non-answer and leans into him. He enjoys the contact, sliding an arm around her and abandoning the fruit cup for a moment.

Answering the question is a mix of emotions he's not sure he wants to express. He's spent most of his time alone since the world ended, by choice and by necessity both. Being here reminds him that there's an alternative to that, but he doesn't want to monopolize Honey's time. He decides to opt for another partial answer.

"Did you know that the boys all still have nightmares?" In fairness, Patrick's old enough to probably be offended by being called a boy, but the seventeen-year-old shows none of the anxiety to grow up faster that Jesus remembers having at that age.

"I know Logan does, because he tells me. The rest do too?" She's worried, her own dessert abandoned now.

"I can't speak for your brother, but he told me the first night I was here that the rest do. Patrick had a bad one last night."

"Damn." She sighs heavily. "Do you know what about?"

He shakes his head. It's a fair question. Any single trauma might not be cause anymore. "Jazz spent at least half an hour talking him down so he could sleep again."

"I'll get nosy about it," she promises. He gets a bit of a cuddle before she returns to her fruit and nudges him to eat his.

"Where's Eugene?" While Honey's boyfriend is less underfoot than he expected a fairly new couple to be around each other, he is usually around after supper. The more he gets to know the older man, the more he likes him. It doesn't hurt that he openly worships Honey.

"He's in some meeting with Earl, Gage, Abraham, Danny, Olivia, and my parents about what supplies will be best to import from here, since we already have them, and which ones will be better to scavenge closer."

He's surprised he didn't get rounded up for that one, but then again, he's not precisely needed if Olivia's there. Unlike Gregory, the new Hilltop quartermaster has a lot more realistic viewpoint of what can be managed, and she's been slowly putting more responsibility on others for him. And with Abraham back today from the search team he was out on, the big redhead's really familiar with the area around Hilltop too.

"Has Earl decided on his apprentices yet that you've heard?" Jesus hasn't had the chance to talk to the blacksmith yet. He's tried to keep his days here focused around Logan, since his time is so limited.

Earl's been nosing around the new construction and farm both, usually with Kenneth alongside. He imagines that the man and his son will have a lot of information for Tammy when they return.

"Gage is going, for certain. He's got the strongest background in electrical of anyone we can spare, and while I don't think he wants to be a long-term blacksmith, he'll learn enough to pass it along to others. Probably Miguel too."

Jesus remembers that the tall, slender redhead is one of the Eldridges, so there's even more factors at play with him being at Hilltop a while. He may not work actively on his family's farm these days, but growing up there makes him an asset for the less experienced farmers of Hilltop. He can't place Miguel though, but since Earl was meeting with a lot of the older teenagers, that's not surprising.

"Just the two?"

"There's two others that may cycle up there once Gage comes home. He won't stay as long as Miguel, I think."

"It sounds like a lot of trips planned between us." He likes the sound of that, although he'll have to be more regulated in his own explorations to schedule around the visits. "Do you think Carol will be open to Logan traveling?"

He understands Carol's need for caution and keeping children off the road. Every community has their horror stories of lost children. Anaya and Logan's survival is damn near miraculous.

"Maybe, depending on who is traveling with him." She takes his hand and squeezes gently. "I should be able to each time, and I'm training him."

That startles him. He knows most of the older children here carry knives and are comfortable with them, but this sounds like something more. "How so?"

"He's taking the martial arts lessons, but most of the kids do." Jesus has seen those, and they're similar to what he offers when he's in residence at Hilltop, but he doesn't train children like Jamie does here. Perhaps he should consider it, if the parents are willing.

She continues. "I've been working with him on air rifles too. Gonna ask Shane about moving him up to firearms soon."

"Is he old enough?" He was an adult before learning to shoot was something he could do, but he knows of kids who hunted with their families while younger.

"He's actually older than I was when I started hunting with Tihu, so yeah, I think he is. And honestly, I know Shane's already been teaching Anaya."

"Honey? Please don't rush anything with him just for my sake."

She still has his hand and she squeezes it again. "I wouldn't. But he's smart and alert and responsible, all the things Tihu considered when I wanted to learn. I don't think it's a problem."

"Hilltop will eventually be more stable." Sooner than he ever expected, really, but like with all things, progress is easier with allies.

"Exactly." She's quiet for a long moment. "Don't make me have to tell my parents I'm moving to Virginia by taking too long."

He laughs, but he's not entirely sure she's not serious.

~*~ DC ~*~

Denise is glad the weather is warm even after dark, because it's nice out on her porch. This early in the year, they get warmth without mosquitoes or other bugs.

Olivia's relaxed in the wicker patio chair next to her. "I've got more space in my room at Barrington House, but this is such a cozy little place. Makes me realize why Jesus hangs on to staying in his trailer."

"The view is a little better here, I imagine. Some days, I forget the walls are out there." That was hard at Alexandria and near impossible at Hilltop. Only her morning jog reminds her here, when she's with the others on the well-worn path along the thicket interior.

"I can't believe the other group gave it up for a prison."

"I think they still needed to feel independent after everything that happened." Denise isn't sure she would be willing to leave her tiny apartment ever if she survived Terminus's downfall.

"I suppose I can see that. And it's not like they cut off contact." Unlike Denise, Olivia has actually seen the prison, since she rode along with Daryl's group yesterday.

"Jesus is still in contact with Alexandria, isn't he?"

"Yeah. With Aaron and Eric anyway. They meet up periodically while 'recruiting' and exchange information."

"Is everything going okay?" There are a few people Denise hopes are doing okay, at least.

"Better than it was, I think. Deanna will never truly come to terms that no government is ever coming to save her. But hopefully people remember they aren't the only ones established as a community now."

"Maybe in time they'll change like Hilltop did and take more control."

"I doubt it, but we can hope."

They fall quiet for a bit, listening to the frogs calling. Denise is a city girl by nature, but she likes the quiet nights here, where she can sometimes hear the livestock in the distance or even the river burbling by. She imagines it was a really nice place for the younger Dixons and Eldridges to grow up.

"How are your studies going? Better than going behind Pete's back?"

"A lot better. I think I would have had less anxiety in med school if I had people to study with."

Christopher seems to feel responsible for her being here, so he's always willing to help her. Even if most of her study mates are working on nursing, she's found their material actually helps reinforce concepts for her.

She smiles at Olivia. "I even helped deliver a baby." It's a blessing that the women of Homestead don't mind being part of a teaching experience. While she observed a birth in med school, catching a newborn is an entirely different experience.

"I'm glad you came here. The doctors at Hilltop are nice enough men, but you just look so happy here."

Denise supposes Olivia is right. It's been years since she felt this at peace with herself. She wonders if anyone from her previous life would even recognize her now.

Metamorphosis is intriguing in its human version.