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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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."

His arms came up when she passed Selena over to him, smiling a little himself. Goddamn fatherhood turned him soft or something... that kid was cute though, especially when she wasn't wailing her head off.

"Yeah... I guess. Maybe one day, things'll calm down enough to find'em or something."

"Even if they don't, somebody's gotta bring people together."

Her smile widened. Okay, Selena was a carrier. Okay, Nick was probably a carrier. Okay, they were going to be constantly worried about what was going to happen. But right now? She was going to try and lighten the mood. At least a little. She reached, despite Selena being on Nick's chest and all now, out to tug her blanket a little more snugly.

"But that's not our job anymore. Y'know, you're kind of cute when you're doing daddy things."

"Cute?" He huffs out a laugh. "I'm not cute, Rochelle."

He was badass and manly, even when holding his daughter. But Selena now? She was adorable... which is something he never really thought about when it came to kids before, but this as different. She was his.

Fuck, what had happened to him?

"Can't believe it... I'm actually a freakin' father. And you're a mother. A really good one, y'know?"

"Oh, excuse me. You're manly as hell."

Still grinning, Rochelle rolled her eyes and rolled back to lean her head on Nick's shoulder.

"You're not a bad dad either, you know. And please, I'm not that great at it yet." She snorts. "But... yeah. Me neither. Guess we're not as screwed as we thought."

And, finally, with a thoughtful pause and a sigh.

"Did you and your ex ever think about kids?"

"Thank you." He returned the grin playfully.

And no, maybe they weren't as screwed as they'd worried... which was good. He hadn't been so sure of that himself. He never thought he'd be any kind of dad, let alne a good one.

"No way... whatever came out of her would have been a spawn of Satan, sweetheart."

"Before you decided she was Satan, I mean."

He snorted at that. "Nah, not really. Never thought I'd want to be a dad, let alone ever thought I'd be a good one."

He paused. "You ever think about if you'd have kids or not?"

Rochelle was quiet for a moment. Then she shrugged, as much as she could, and pulled the sheets over her shoulders.

"I was always kinda... ambivalent about it. But I figured maybe one day. Once I met a decent guy, got married, got the white picket fence and shit..."

"Well, your plans got fucked up, huh?" He grinned a little at that. He wasn't a decent guy, they weren't married, and this place was nice... but it wasn't white picket fence kinda nice.

"Did you want a dog named fluffy too, sweetheart?"

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