Chapter Six: Goodbye House (pt2)

The inside of the RV was utterly chaotic, a mix of all our things were thrown everywhere without care. Usually, a mess like this would drive Mami nuts, but my mother pulled out of our driveway - following the caravan of RVs out of our neighborhood - without even looking at it.

"Pili, Xander, go get Camila and the babies from the bathroom." Mami commanded softly as she turned the corner.

When we passed the closed-off bunk beds I heard one of the puppies let out a small yip, but to my relief, a pan falling noisily onto the floor covered the sound up... although Isabella did eye the door with a furrowed brow. I shook my head at her before pressing a finger to my lips hastily. Her gaze was piercing but she nodded before staying quiet.

Alexander only sighed at our nonverbal conversation before dragging me to the back, he had to push the closed pack'n'play that'd been shoved against the door out of the way before he told Camila to "Open up."

Camila looked so freaking relieved when she unlocked the door, throwing her arms around my middle before running through the mess to get to the living area of the mobile home. Isabella sighed loudly when the sound of a box reached all of our ears and Camila began calling out for help before mumbling that she 'got it.' On the other hand, Olivia and Eva had both fallen asleep on the padded floor of the shower.

"You take Evita." Alexander whispered as he maneuvered Olivia into his arms before cautiously making his way out.

I carefully supported Eva's head like my mother had taught me, making sure I had a firm but gentle grip on my youngest sister before getting up from my crouch and slowly moving towards the front. Eva only grizzled, her eyes still thankfully shut, as I re-buckled her into her car seat. Isabella was sitting in the passenger's seat with a now-content Camila, and the seats of the dinette set were full of our stuff so Alexander shrugged, pointing to the floor in front of the kitchen cabinets and oven before plopping down in front of my sleeping sisters. I didn't see any other solution so I sat by him and leaned against the cabinet at my back.

"We're gonna have a lot of cleaning to do." I murmured, a bit annoyed by the prospect, as I looked around the once-pristine RV.

Alexander snorted, "What gave you that idea?"

Rolling my eyes, I nudged his arm, "Shut up."

"You shut up." he countered as he shut his eyes.

"How about everyone is quiet now." my mother pipes up loudly, making Isabella giggle.

I'm not sure how long we'd been driving. I'd conked out maybe half an hour into the journey, only to wake up when Dottie started barking. The golden had not only scared the crap out of my baby sisters, but almost caused Mami to swerve off the road.

She was not happy with me.

To be fair... I shouldn't have forgotten about Dottie and her puppies. Now the thin dog and puppies were the center of attention as Camila and Isabella showered them with attention. Alexander was pretty enamored with the only male puppy, cuddling him on his lap and playing with his floppy ears. And based off the coos and lisped "Ritto" that meant peritto, even Olivia was pretty thrilled with the new furry additions.

"I cannot believe that you did that Pillar." Mami berated me without looking away from the road, I winced and sank into the co-pilot's seat wishing I could just melt away and avoid- "Do you not understand how dangerous that could have been. You didn't tell anyone where you went. What would have happened if one of the muertos was inside the house, huh? You could have died Pillar, that's what."

"I'm sorry..." I whispered, trying to swallow around the lump in my throat, "I just, I didn't think you'd let me bring them with us."

"And that's more important than your life!" she briefly looked my way with a glare.

"No." I mumbled, "I'm really sorry, Mami. I- I should'a come to you."

Mami huffed, "You're damn right!" she breathed in and out deeply, "I cannot lose you Pili. Do you understand that? Tu eres mi hija. You guys are the reasons why I get up in the morning. Going by yourself was incredibly selfish and stupid. I don't know if I can even trust you anymore."

That hurt. This time I couldn't prevent tears from slipping down my face, "I'm really sorry, Mom. I won't ever do it again."

"Actions are better than words." my mother said seriously, "You know that, right?"

"Yes." I nodded tearfully. Dottie panted before nosing her head onto my lap, making a small smile tug onto my lips as I began petting the crown of her head.

"Good. I want you to show that to me." her voice got softer, "Your sisters look up to you Pili. You don't want Izzie or Cami doing something foolish like that, right?"

I shook my head rapidly, "No."

Mami grabbed my hand and pressed a kiss to my palm, "Okay, I forgive you. But Pili, you even try to do something like that again... no te voy a dar la chancla pero la corea, vale?"

"Si." I whispered and rubbed the tears away before gnawing on my bottom lip, "Mami?"

"Yes?"

"Are you- Are we gonna get rid of the dogs?" my fingers threaded into Dottie's fur and she leaned into my touch.

She let out a long sigh, her left hand leaving the steering wheel to rub her temple, "No. No, we're not."

Relief bloomed in my chest. Dottie and her puppies could stay-

"But!" Mami said firmly, "You have to keep Dottie quiet, Pili. If she or the puppies are too loud, we can't keep them. Los muertos are attracted to noise, it's already dangerous with how little Ollie and Evita are. If Dottie and her babies become too dangerous… they have to go."

"Okay!" I promised, desperate to get my mother to agree into letting me keep them, "I'll make sure they're not loud! Thank you, Mami." I pressed a kiss to her cheek, "I just couldn't leave Dottie there. Look how skinny she is? I don't think Mr. Neilson's alive... he would'a never let her get that thin. Even the puppies aren't as chubby as they were before."

My mother hummed softly under her breath, "I did see... well, Dottie can eat our scraps. Pili?"

"Uh-huh?"

"Do me a favor, and don't let the others see Dottie and the puppies. That goes for all of you!" Mami called over her shoulder, "No talking about Dottie and the puppies to the others!"

"Why?" Alexander asked as he walked over to lean on my chair.

"Maybe the other kids'll want to play with the puppies too." Isabella chimed in before shrugging, "It could be fun."

"Because I don't think the other adults are going to be too happy that we have a dog with us now too." she explained, "Remember I said that dogs are noisy, and we already have two babies-"

"You think they'll try and kick us out Tia? " at Alexander's question Isabella and I gasped in unison before shooting our mother identical concerned looks.

Would they really kick us out just because I couldn't leave Dottie behind?

Mami sighed, "I don't know, mijo. We don't know them that well... we don't want to push them. So for now, let's keep the perritos a secret, yes?"

"Okay." we all chorused without a beat.

"Vale." my mother nodded, "Now, maybe you guys can start helping put things away... I can't even see the floor. It looks worse than your rooms!" she teased.

It was interesting finding a place for all our- well, everything. We decided to start putting away the easier things... like all the stuff for the kitchen. Alexander was the tallest, so he didn't have a difficult time putting the pots and pans up into the overhead cabinets while we passed them to him. We put the few cups and plates into the pantry, and chose the closest drawer for all the utensils and the one next to that with all the cutting knives and wooden spoons.

Mami didn't choose to keep many of our appliances, only the blender, dehydrator, and the pressure cooker... those had been a bit more difficult to get up into the cabinets because they were super heavy. We filled the rest of the pantry with the canned food and the two heavy bags of rice, pasta boxes, cereals, flour, sugar, yeast, and the baby formula...

In the end, the space was too small to fit everything... so Alexander just told us to neatly stack them into one of the plastic laundry baskets before we pushed it under the booth of the dinette set so that it wouldn't get in the way.

It was a difficult job - made a bit more difficult by Camila playing with Dottie and her puppies in the middle of the floor- but all in all, the kitchen and living room area was already looking a lot less cluttered or like a tornado had blown through it… But the master bedroom, where we'd dumped all the linen, bag backs and luggage with clothes looked like a complete disaster.

Just looking at it was giving me a headache.

Words 1637

Translations:

Perrito - dog

Muertos - the dead

Tu eres mi hija - You are my daughter

No te voy a dar la chancla pero la corea, vale? - I'm not going to reach for my flipflop but my belt, alright/got it?

Si - Yes

Tia - Aunt

Mijo - son/kid [term of endearment for a male child]

Vale - alright/got it/okay

(Hi! Sorry, this was a bit of a filler chapter, but Pili's actions needed to be reprimanded. Things will be picking up really soon. And- I know, I know... I've been lacking in the whole updating your fics department... I'll try to be more consistent now that my semester finally ended. If anyone else here is reading my other TWD fic I promise I'm updating tomorrow!

I've recently been hearing some weird rumors that is going to be shut down soon, I'm not sure what the situation is... but it's definitely got me antsy. I'm going to try and upload all of my fics onto AO3 just in case... even some of the first fics I ever wrote and have been on hiatus forever [like my Naruto/OHSHC/One Piece/Harry Potter-they are not all one fic, that would be a disaster combination] but serve as proof as my growth as a writer will be transferred over in case the worst really comes into fruition.

Another small piece of news, I'm going to be starting a blog this summer-and I'm almost done creating the website. I will be posting there some of my original work [mainly poetry and short stories] as a sort of public online portfolio. I'll definitely share the link up on here once that's all finalized for any of you who are interested in reading some of the stuff I write not fanfic-related.

Thank you all for your patience regarding the updating and I'll "see" you all soon! Happy Reading!)