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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Trevor pulled himself out of his spot this time. He took a few steps over and leaned over, running a finger softly along Selena's cheek with an almost sad smile.

"Tell anyone what?" He said in a mock, fake innocence.

Nick relaxed a bit at that, letting out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. This might have been the dumbest idea either of them ever had, but like hell did Nick want this out when he had no idea how anyone would react.

And he wasn't taking his kid out there.

"Thanks, doc." He forced a slight smile. "So, can I take her back to bed now?"

"Go." He said softly, for Selena's sake, with a nod. "Don't forget what I said either. You do your damndest to stay alive for this girl."

"Are you kidding? I'm not gonna leave her if I can do anything at all to avoid it." And that was a strange feeling... you know, wanting to stay alive for someone else and not just because he wasn't going to die after all the bull crap they've been through.

Cradling her a little closer, he said his good nights and started back towards their room. Some sleep sounded good after all that... though there was still the matter of what to tell Rochelle.

He didn't want to worry her, but... this felt like the kinda thing she should know. Shit. Maybe she'd be asleep when he sneaked back in or something and he could deal with it in the morning.

And speak of the devil, Rochelle was awake. Well, barely. Give her a few and she'd probably be out cold. But when your little girl is getting testing for one of the most important things to have in this life - it keeps you up.

As Nick and Selena came back, she lifted her head up and a slow, tired grin spread across her lips. She chuckled and pulled herself up against her pillow, watching Nick cradle their daughter in his arms.

"I dunno if I'm ever gonna get used to you like this."

"Don't know if I'm ever gonna get used to this." Closing the door with his foot, he moved to put Selena back down for the night, lips curling up slightly.

"Figured you'd be back asleep, sweetheart."

"Me neither, if it helps."

Rochelle lazily pulled herself up until her back was leaning against the wall.

"I thought I'd be too. I was worried. Actually - could you bring her over here?" She held her arms out. "So what's the verdict?"

Right. It wasn't like Nick was an honest guy or anything. Half of what he said could be bullshit on any given day. Con-man and all, you know? But that question? Yeah, he couldn't even bring himself to lie. He couldn't look at Rochelle and say 'she's alright' or 'hey, our baby's not gonna potentially infect anybody'.

It'd mean no sleepless nights for Rochelle, maybe, but she wouldn't be prepared either.

Bringing Selena over, he carefully passed her over to Rochelle. "Carrier," he finally murmured after a moment.

"Gets it from her dad, I think. It's a possibility anyway. Doc said he'd keep it quiet, but..." What the hell were they going to do?

Rochelle took their daughter gingerly and leaned back on the bed. She settled Selena over her chest with a soft, albeit tired, smile. Her fingers stroked lightly over her little head, trying to be as careful as she could not to wake her up.

Then--

Wait.

Rochelle's eyes shot over to Nick.

"What?"

He expected that, but lying wasn't gonna do them a bit of good. "You heard me, Ro. It's what the blood test said. But I mean, we haven't infected anywhere here yet..."

And he had to hope it'd be the same for the kid. "It's gonna be alright."

Not that he was usually Mr. Optimist or anything, but it had to be alright because they'd make it alright... or as alright as they could.

"Okay, yeah, I did, but--"

Rochelle pulled herself up off the bed slightly - almost too fast for the child on her breast, but she caught herself before she could wake Selena up. Ro start at Nick, bleary but near-unbelievably.

"H--... How do you know?"

Like Nick would know. It was a dumb question to ask. Rochelle's frown deepened.

"... Shit."

He shrugged. He didn't know anything at this point really, no more than Rochelle. "I know, but there ain't a lot we can do about it now, Ro. We keep her close, I guess."

"And that's it?"

"What else do you want me to say, Rochelle?"

"That our 24-hours-old baby isn't going to kill someone and we're not going to kicked out of what's probably the only safe place we've ever found?"

"We're not gonna get kicked out, Rochelle! We're not taking her out of this place." His jaw tightened slightly.

"And look, if she gets it from me... Well, I haven't killed anyone yet, have I?"

"Jesus, Nick - keep your voice down!" Like Rochelle could talk with the harsh whispering she's doing with the baby literally inches away from her but whatever.

Then she's quiet for a minute.

Did he ever kill anyone?

"Shit. What about that helicopter pilot?"

He let a huff at that, but he did make an effort to quiet down a little bit. No one needed to hear this.

"He was already infected, Rochelle, come on." He didn't sound all that convinced, however.

Rochelle paused.

"... Yeah. I don't know either."

Not that he had said that out loud, but yeah - Rochelle didn't think he sounded convinced, either. She sighed as her expression softened. She shifted back slightly and, with her one free hand, patted at the bed for Nick to join her.

"C'mon."

He let out a sigh before he stepped forward to join her, settling next to her on the bed. He reached for her then, to take her free hand in his and give it a squeeze.

"We're not leavin' here," he muttered again. Not with the kid.

She gave Nick enough room to get then shifted (as much as she could with a small person on her chest) back to him. Sighing too, she squeezed his hand back and leaned her head against him.

"I hope not."

Selena moved slightly in her sleep. Rochelle looks down and, slowly, smiled a little.

"I REALLY hope not."

"There's no hoping. We're not leaving," he murmured, sliding an arm around her when she moved closer, letting out a sigh.

"We'll figure this out, Ro. This is the only safe place we've found."

"Yeah... yeah."

She hopes.

Rochelle made some of kind of hesitantly approving noise as she shifted Selena in between them slightly.

"No kidding. It's better than the military place, and that's saying something."

"Definitely." He let out a sigh and tilted his head back. "Think there's anything like that out there again? I mean, I know we were looking for another settlement, but the last one we were out kind of went south real fucking fast, you know?"

Who knew what else was out there? Nick wasn't big on trying to find out when they had safety here, when Selena was too young to understand what kind of danger they were all in.

Rochelle gave a small, thoughtful sound.

"... I think so. It's not like we're the last people on earth. We found that out when we got here."

She paused for a minute. Suddenly, she shifted over and (gently) slipped Selena on Nick's chest. She rolled on her side and propped her elbow and head up, smiling slightly (and slyly).

"I mean, I wanna believe there's other people with places like this out here, anyway."

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