AN: Here we go. We're actually in the wrap up chapters for this story, though it feels strange to me to admit it. It's been such a long run!
I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think!
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Michonne stepped out on the front porch to gulp down whatever fresh air she could get in a few moments and to see if any of the people they'd asked to stay within shouting distance were out there. She didn't have to look far, though, because Daryl was sitting out there, chewing at his thumb.
"Who's got the kids?" Michonne asked, snapping Daryl out of the daydream that he was clearly wrapped up in. His head jerked toward her, his brows furrowed like she'd asked him the most difficult question in the world and then he relaxed.
"Sadie's got 'em," he said. "Said she'd keep all the kids 'til we told her to bring them down here…figures they might not want Jude under foot right away. Baby here?"
Michonne shook her head.
"Not yet," she said. "But I did want to ask you to get someone to start some water…we're going to have some laundry to do…and I think it might be a good idea to bring some more water here for sterilizing things. Just a bucket should be good."
Daryl nodded and got to his feet, stretching a little. He started like he was going to leave the porch and then turned back to Michonne and she puckered her lips at him, trying not to smile because she knew what he was coming for.
Carol had been in labor since before the sun had come up and he hadn't seen much of Michonne since then. She was sticking as close as she could, figuring that the best thing she could do in this situation was watch everything that Muh did and have the woman walk her through it, letting her know what was important to pay attention to and what wasn't. Luckily enough the woman didn't mind giving a lesson as they went and Michonne was grateful. She figured that this might not be the last baby to come into their extended and ever-growing family, so it might be a good idea to have a good grasp on how to deliver one properly.
As a result, she'd only stepped away when she was sure that there was a little time before the next stage of progress was going to be made. And she knew that now she didn't have too much time to work with because Carol would start pushing before long.
When Daryl broke from the kiss he growled at her slightly.
"I'll go get'cha water," he said. "Get the kid out…takin' too damn long," he added with a chuckle before he dropped off the porch and started in the direction of headquarters, calling out to Rachel who was coming out of the storage house.
Michonne stretched and breathed again, preparing to duck back into the house and the overcrowded bedroom that was testing the occupant limits of the room.
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"You're doing good," Michonne declared. "You got it, just keep going."
She felt like she was terrible at being a cheerleader for the whole event, but she knew from her own experiences that even though it didn't really do anything for her, it was something that she kind of liked as background noise…something to let her know that whether or not she believed it at the time, she was going to survive the whole thing.
And it was fascinating to her because she'd never been on the receiving end of a delivery. When Muh told her to get ready, she did as she'd been instructed and got the clean piece of sheet that she'd use to wrap the baby up in up and mop him off a little before she passed him to Carol.
Around her she could hear the people who had been lounging about and waiting, and there were a good number of people crowded into the space besides Carol, Tyreese, Muh and herself, since Lisette had brought Calista for a little hands on experience as to why she should never, ever have sex with Jimmy, Haralee was watching Muh under Muh's instruction, and Mark was there should he need to assist the woman in any way, start to move about and make ready for anything they might need to do for the rest of the delivery.
When Muh passed her the baby, Michonne almost felt like it was a surreal moment. She held the tiny thing while Muh expertly tied off the cord and cut it with movements so quick that Michonne wondered how many times she'd really done this, and then she wrapped it quickly and turned to Mark who was standing just over her shoulder and waiting to clean it off.
"Is he OK? I want to see him! Is he OK?" Carol called out.
Michonne smiled when the baby started crying, screaming actually, and she nodded her head because she was almost embarrassed by the scratchy feeling in her throat warning that the whole experience might have been enough to pull tears from her.
"He's just fine…" Michonne declared. "Coming to you…get ready, Ty you got her?"
Michonne brought the baby over and passed him to Carol so that the proud parents could have a moment to examine their brand new baby boy. She slipped back down to speak with Muh about how they would proceed from here and what needed to be done, and then she slipped out the room to inform Daryl that Isaac was here so that he could share that information with everyone else who was pretending to keep busy while actually waiting on the little boy with most of their effort.
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Michonne was tired by the time that they got everything cleaned up and had Carol resting. Lisette and Calista had offered to take the things that needed to be washed down to headquarters and get a start on that so that Michonne could have some time off, and she was glad of that.
Tyreese was going to take Isaac to meet the rest of his family, so Michonne reached and gently took the newborn out of Carol's arms.
"Don't be gone too long," Carol said to both of them and neither one of them specifically.
Michonne smiled and shook her head.
"No worries," she said. "He's coming right back to you."
She arranged the baby in Tyreese's arms and left the room following behind him, biting her lip to keep from laughing at the slow pace that he'd set for himself as he made his way toward the staircase. He stopped before he went down, standing over to the side and staring at the baby.
"As slow as you're going," Michonne said, "and they're never going to see him before he's walking and talking."
Tyreese looked at her and smiled gently. His eyes said he was tired, but they also said he was thrilled.
"I just wanted a minute," he said. "It's the first time I really got to hold him for a minute and think about it…you know?"
He chuckled like he was laughing at a joke that only he could hear.
"It's the first time I get to think this is Isaac, my son, and he's perfect," Tyreese said.
Michonne smiled and nodded at him. She reached out a hand and squeezed his arm before arranging the blankets around the sleeping newborn so that it would be easier for everyone to see his face without feeling the need to grab quite so much.
"You're right…this is Isaac, your son, and he is perfect," Michonne said. "Now go show him off."
She pointed her hand down the staircase, but she went before him. Daryl was waiting at the bottom, leaning on the post.
"Everyone's outside," Daryl said. "Didn't wanna bring 'em all in at once. I done told 'em, though, not ta be all snatchin' at him. They all about drove me crazy when Zeb was born."
Michonne smiled and reached a hand out, squeezing his shoulder as she passed him to descend the last few steps.
"You did well," she said. "You get to see him first."
She moved beside Daryl and glanced back up the stairs at Tyreese taking his time as he descended the stairs. She leaned into Daryl and whispered at him.
"Don't get any ideas though…we're not having any more unless you can talk Carol into carrying them for us…and I'd say right now isn't the time to ask," Michonne said.
Daryl chuckled and nodded his head, but he didn't respond verbally. Michonne was sure, though, that would come later.
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"I ain't being mean, 'Chonne," Daryl said, his voice shaking slightly from trying to hold back his laughter and keep his voice low enough to guarantee that no one else might accidentally overhear them.
"Don't you say that," Michonne responded back to him. "Daryl…that's mean! He's not ugly. He's cute."
"I think you ain't seen a kid in a while," Daryl said. "Want me to go get'cha one of ours so you can have a look at it? That kid don't look right."
Michonne made a face at him.
"Daryl, he looks like a newborn," Michonne said. "You just don't remember what Hope and Zeb looked like because you were looking at them through the eyes of a new parent. All babies look like…aliens or something…for at least a couple of days. You'll see, he'll look more like a baby soon."
Daryl chuckled.
"Our young'uns didn't never look like aliens," he declared. "They come out looking just like they were supposed to look."
Michonne laughed because now she could tell, though she hadn't been positive before, that Daryl was teasing and didn't really mean what he was saying.
"And I can guarantee you that to Carol and Tyreese, Isaac looks just like he's supposed to," Michonne said.
She stretched and hugged her pillow to her. She knew that it wasn't going to be long before she drifted off to sleep. Mostly she was trying to do it around the screams of the newest member of their household, though, and she was silently hoping that none of the children were disturbed by the fact that Isaac was disgruntled with his first night outside of the womb.
So far they'd been lucky, though, and either all three of the others were sleeping through his shrill alarm system or they were ignoring it and not drawing attention to the fact that they were awake.
"You sure you wanna live with this the rest of our lives?" Daryl teased as Isaac started up again across the hall, the walls doing really very little to stifle the noise.
Michonne laughed.
"They put up with it when it was Hope and Zeb," Michonne said with a yawn. "And I hardly think that Isaac's going to cry like that for the rest of our lives…I don't know about you, but I'm intending on living a lot longer than that."
"Yeah…" Daryl hummed, coming closer to Michonne in the bed so that he was lying close enough to her he was very nearly on top of her. He rested his chin on her shoulder and she smiled to herself at the gesture. "I reckon we all planning on livin' a whole lot longer'n that."
"Mmmm…" Michonne hummed. "Not all of us."
Daryl was quiet for a moment and the moved away enough to be able to see her in the flickering light.
"You talking about Muh?" He asked.
"Mmmmhmmm," Michonne said, not really wanting to go through the effort of holding her own head up anymore, conversation or not. "She said she'll be here to make sure Isaac is fine and that Carol's fine…but that she has to start making preparations."
"You don't reckon she's going to do somethin' crazy like off herself, do you?" Daryl asked.
Michonne sucked in a breath and shook her head as well as she could without moving it off of the pillow.
"No," she said. "I genuinely believe she's just done…and they say you go when you stop trying to stay. Either that or she's not crazy at all and she really can…I don't know…see the future."
Daryl sighed and sat up.
"Well only future I wanna see right now is THAT KID SHUTTIN' UP!" He called out the last part loud enough that it could likely be heard across the hall and Michonne reached over popping him.
"Mama!" She heard the muffled sound of Hope's bothered cry come from the nursery and she growled to herself, moving to get up.
"You did that!" Michonne declared. "They were just fine until you had to go and be an asshole about things."
Daryl laughed, obviously amused with himself and Michonne shook her head, making sure her facial expression showed that she was not amused in the slightest. Hope crying would probably wake Judith and Zeb both.
"I'll get it," Daryl said. "I was just playin'…go to sleep. I'll handle it."
He got out of bed quicker than Michonne was able to drag herself out and he pushed at her.
"Don't be sour," he said. "Get some sleep…I got it…I'm sorry."
Michonne wanted to be mad, but honestly she was too tired to be mad at the moment and decided she'd save the energy unless he did something like that again to make the night longer.
"You know what I see in the future, Daryl?" She asked, raising an eyebrow at him.
"What?" He asked, pulling on his boxers.
"You not being stupid enough to do things like that and wake up the household," Michonne said. She flopped back in the bed. "Have fun…they're all yours."