rackofbadcds | Alternate title: Three Men and a Baby

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rochelle

Alternate title: Three Men and a Baby

Holy hell of a morning.

After Coach had gotten shot, the motherfucking mountain man, the one the other called Marshall, didn't waste time. The other woman quickly introduced herself as Jean, a nurse and Marshall's wife, and had barely started trying to stop Coach's bleeding when Marshall brought up the bunker. It was less of a reccomendation and more like a demand. With Coach bleeding as bad as he was coupled with Rochelle's condition, which he would bring up later, the faster they got out the better.

And it was just in time, because as soon as the four of them got out of the hospital and made their quick introductions. Well, introductions coupled with arguing, especially when it was brought up who had shot Coach. Jean was about to shut them up with the roar of a horde did it for her. It didn't take more than a second for them to decide what to do. They abandoned the van (temporarily, they hoped), carried Coach and Rochelle into Marshall and Jean's pickup truck, piled in, and drove the fuck out.

Coach managed to stay conscious, even with all the blood he was losing. Rochelle, though, was out hot (pun intended) in her feverish condition. Jean did her best with the both of them. She said there was a doctor at the bunker, a co-worker she escaped with before she found Marshall again, who could give them a lot better help. Otherwise, between driving and trying to stablize the others, Jean and Marshall didn't have much focus to explain themselves and the bunker. As soon as they were out of the woods, that story was being saved.

The horde finally caught up when they got to the bunker. The slow opening door didn't help. But ~~a crescendo later and~~ the door opened enough for them to crawl under, and all that's left was to shoot the zombies trying to do the same until the door slid closed, just as slowly.

It finally did, and Coach leaned against the wall. He panted, hard.

"God DAMN..."

Jean moved over to him and offered an arm. Marshall was already carrying the unconscious Rochelle in both arms of his own arms, seeing as he wasn't sure how good of an idea it was to haul a pregnant woman over his shoulders.

"Gotta agree with that shit." He grunted. "Doc better still be here."

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Jesus, he's nowhere near ready to hold the little thing that's shoved in his arms. He's got a feeling she's gonna keep squealing and squirming even as his arms curl carefully around her to hold her close -- got a feeling she's gonna hate him holding her.

To his surprise though, she quiets down and calms. He lets out a surprise huff.

It's a little indescribable still. She's gorgeous and yeah, his. His daughter... and while he hated that thought moments ago, he's a little too surprised to even think of anything besides how cute the kid is.

Jean draws him out of it though and he walks closer to Rochelle to put her in her arms, careful as he can. "Jesus, look at her, Ro."

Rochelle thought she was ready to hold her daughter. Then she wasn't. Wait. No. Okay. Now she is--shit, changed her mind, no thank you. But then Nick is coming to her with that little bundle of a baby in his arms to put it in her own. For a few seconds she's not sure what to do, and Rochelle is awkward as she takes her. She's held babies before, but now that she's holding her own it's like there's never been a little human being against her breast before. But now that there is, she stares.

At first, Rochelle is dead quiet. She finds herself amazed at that tiny face, those tiny features. Jesus, she really did look like Nick. And she was theirs. She was hers.

Their daughter still whimpers, and this time lets out another soft cry. Suddenly, Rochelle snaps into mommy mode.

"Shhh, shh shh shh shh..." Rochelle can't help the gigantic smile that breaks across her face. She laughs quiet, and frees a hand to wipe a tear that was threatening to come out. "Hey, you. We've been waiting for you."

Nick leaned a little closer to Rochelle's side as he watched her with the kid. Jesus, Nick still found it hard to believe they had a healthy baby with all the crap they'd been through since this.

A healthy, non-infected baby.

He let out a sigh of relief as he reached out a hand to carefully touch the baby, his finger brushing against her cheek. "Put us through a lotta hell too."

Rochelle laughed.

"Yeah. Yeah, you did." And Rochelle didn't believe it either. After all the shit they went through, their baby was still here and screaming like any normal baby should be. "You take after your daddy in the trouble-making department."

She paused for a moment. Then she looked at Nick.

"I still like 'Selena'."

"Hey, since when do I cause trouble?" The protest was half-hearted at best though no heat behind it. It was hard to care when they had the kid right there, normal and healthy.

Shit, that had to mean they did something right, huh?

"I like it," he answered and gave her a look, a grin tugging at his lips. Whatever arguments they'd had awhile ago were kind of forgotten... Funny, considering they were arguing about the kid holding their attention right now. "I think it's a great name, sweetheart."

"You cause plenty of trouble," Said affectionately with no heat behind her own words, either. Eyes still locked on their daughter, Rochelle leans on Nick's shoulder. If Ro could make a list of things Nick did, the baby would be right on top. Like it mattered, though. As far as she was concerned, she didn't mind this kind of trouble at all.

Not anymore, anyway.

"How about that, huh?" Rochelle brushed at their baby's temple affectionately with her index finger and leaned forward to kiss her forehead. "Selena? It's got a good ring to it. What do you think?"

Travis grinned and Jean laughed. The doctor patted her shoulder, and motioned for the door.

"We'll leave you two alone. Everyone outside's going to want to know what happened. Especially your friends."

Rochelle looked up. Then she looked at Nick. With a tired grin, she shook her head.

"Jesus, we got an audience already."

Nick eased an arm around her carefully when she leaned in and reached out to touch the baby-- Selena again, fingers brushing lightly down the side of her face. He smiled despite himself.

Whatever worries he had were kind of forgotten now, brushed aside.

He let out a laugh of his own and nodded. "Just wait, sweetheart... Once Overalls is up? We're not gonna get a break."

Oh, goddammit... Ellis would be in here soon, getting redneck germs all over his baby.

"How do you know he's not already up?"

... Because they would have heard him on the other side of the wall by now. Nevermind, Rochelle knows he may have slept through this.

"... Actually, I think I just answered my own question."

Travis chuckled and shook his head. He ushered Jean and himself outside, and the door closed behind them. For a second, Ro caught a peak of the others outside. A group of their fellow bunker-mates were clustered on a bench together, looking eager. And when the door was closed behind him, she could barely hear Travis' muffled voice likely announcing that they had a happy, healthy baby girl in their group now.

Much less muffled were the cheers that follow. Rochelle could distinctly make out a whoop from Coach, and she started laughing. With that, she looked back to Nick.

"So. Baby."

When they were finally alone, Nick let out a snort of his own. Big guy out there sounded excited about it... hell, a lot of them did. Nick couldn't lie and say he wasn't thrilled with it either, all things considered. They'd busted their ass trying to keep the kid safe during the goddamn apocalypse. It was nice that it actually paid off.

"Baby," he repeated, smiling a little at the kid Rochelle was still holding. "She's healthy... can't believe it. Healthy and normal."

And hopefully immune.

Selena still cried and whimpered faintly in her mother's arms. Rochelle hushed her softly and cradled her closer. She didn't realize it, but she was better at this mom thing that she knew. It was a second nature she didn't know she had.

"Me neither," She said, shaking her head. Normal and hopefully immune. Ro was crossing her fingers too.

"Damn. She looks so much like you."

"You're good at calming her down, y'know." She looked comfortable too, like it was second nature or something.

"Yeah..." She really did. It was kinda weird seeing actually. "What do you think we do now?"

"You're not bad either," Rochelle chuckles. She looks back down at Selena, who was slowly calming down. "But even if we weren't, I wouldn't blame her. Being born's pretty jarring, huh?"

Almost as if on cue, Selena opened her mouth and gave a tiny little yawn. Rochelle blinked, then a laugh burst out of her.

"You're tired!"

Rochelle giggled and shook her head. But then, Nick's question made her pause. She stared down at Selena. Her perfect little girl. Their perfect little girl. For a moment, Rochelle doesn't answer. She finds herself watching her child. Every little movement she made, every little feature...

Why did she want to give this up, again?

"I... I know there's somebody who can do better than us. But I don't care anymore. It's probably selfish, but she's my baby. She's our baby."

"Can't be a pleasant experience.... sure as hell wasn't for us, huh?" Especially Rochelle. At least he didn't have anything coming out of him.

But the yawn gets a chuckle out of him. Kid was worn out and it was... cute. Nick was pretty damn sure he'd never thought 'cute' so many times in his life.

But she was. Cute, gorgeous, perfect.

She was gonna be a pain in their ass, he was sure of it. The crying they were in for, the fussing, the figuring shit out in the middle of a goddamn apocalypse.

But suddenly, it seemed kinda worth it.

When Rochelle spoke up Nick leaned in and idly pressed a kiss to her temple before he gave a nod. "I know what you mean, sweetheart."

"She's gonna be in a pain in the ass since she's, you know, us. But she's gonna be OUR pain in the the ass." Rochelle laughed and shook her head.

And for a moment, she paused.

"So... you want to give it a try?"

"Figure she will be. Hell, she's been enough of a one since this whole thing started." But somehow, it didn't seem to matter at all, not with this kid.

He nodded at the question. "Yeah... I think so. I don't think I could leave the kid behind now."

"That's because she gets that from us."

A wide smile spread on Rochelle's face.

"Good."

So they were doing this, for real.

They were really going to raise a kid.

He leaned in a little closer and let out a short sigh. "So, how are you feeling anyway?"

Yep.

Rochelle was thinking the exact same thing as she looked back down at Selena, who had finally stopped crying. She grinned again and bounced her gently in her hands, then lightly tapped her tiny little nose with a finger.

She laughed at the question. "Like I pushed a baby out of my pelvis."

Then there was a pause. She glanced to Nick.

"She's gonna be used to this, you know. If things don't get any better this might be normal for her. Zombies, hiding in bunkers..."

"Yeah..." He frowned a little at the comment, looking down at the kid. Selena seemed to have calmed down for now.

"I know." And he really wasn't thrilled with the idea of that kind of life for her. They'd known what it was like to not have to watch your damn back in case there was a smoker or a witch nearby, or a goddamn tank.

"We can't do anything about that one though."

She sighed.

"I know. She's just... gonna see a lot of blood and death. We're gonna have to teach her to take care of herself."

Hopefully not THEIR deaths. Rochelle planned on sticking around. Besides, they'd made it this far.

"But hey, we got a nice little place here," he starts, even if he knows it won't last forever. It can't and Nick's not getting his hopes up that it will.

But it's here now and not going anywhere for the foreseeable future.

"We'll make sure she gets to see plenty of good too." Nick wasn't exactly an optimistic guy, but he didn't want his kid to have a crap life either... not now that the reality had really sunk in.

"And she's got plenty of people to teach her to take care of herself."

Rochelle huffed out a tired laugh.

"Like 'Uncle' Ellis."

"Are you insane? Overalls isn't teaching her any damn thing." He made a face. "He's going to get his hillbilly germs all over the poor kid soon."

"You know, whether you like it or not Ellis is family."

Dammit, Rochelle.

Let him keep being annoyed by the kid and his hillbilly germs. "Yeah, well, if he gets her a trucker hat, all bets are off, you know."

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