Alternate title: Three Men and a Baby

[axemeaquestion]

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."

Comments

[axemeaquestion]

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."

[candyass]

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."

[axemeaquestion]

"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."

[candyass]

"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?"

[axemeaquestion]

"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?"

[candyass]

"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."

[axemeaquestion]

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

[candyass]

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?"

[axemeaquestion]

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..."

[candyass]

"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?"

[axemeaquestion]

Rochelle snorted and glanced up at him. She draped her arm carefully over his chest, next to Selena, and finally settle.

"Yeah, well. Getting knocked up by my conman boyfriend turned out okay. So it's not so bad."

Her grin came back, teasing this time.

"And hey. Hey. His name was gonna be Patches."

[candyass]

"Oh, it's not so bad?" He looked at her, a teasing smile tugging at his lips.

"Well, sorry. Maybe one day, we'll find you a Patches." You know, if they ever found a place where you could actually keep animals and shit.

[axemeaquestion]

"Yeah, well. I'm guessing you don't think this is so bad either."

The fact that Nick had a woman more-or-less permanently stuck to his arm (for as long as they could stand each other, Rochelle guessed) and a baby sleeping on him, she meant.

[candyass]

He paused at that, a smile curling at his lips. "Nah... I guess not."

He shrugged. "There are a lot worse ways to end up after all."

And for all his complaints, he was actually pretty grateful things hadn't gone entirely to shit. Rochelle was someone he trusted more than anyone -- and the kid? Well, he hadn't ever thought it was possible for him to actually give a damn about someone else to this level.

[axemeaquestion]

[ooc: AYYYYY do you wanna move onto a new part now?]

[candyass]

[ooc: Surely! Where would you like to go next?]

[axemeaquestion]

[ooc: HMMMM I like the idea we had before about one of the people in the bunker getting infected and them having to leave? But I also like the idea of two or three months passing because having a 2-3 month old Selena would be rly cute. Do you think it'd make sense that somebody wouldn't get infected until around then?? idk]

[candyass]

[I think it could! Now that they know she's a carrier, they'd probably try to keep her away from anyone with the potential of being infected, right? Then we could say they slip up somehow and the infection gets out?]

[axemeaquestion]

[OKAY. How should they go about doing it btw? I'm thinking that besides trying to keep her away from certain people I guess they'd try to be, like, extra sanitary? Not like CEDA's whole thing about washing your hands ever worked but Rochelle would be conflicted about it because she wouldn't want to shut Selena out from other people. WHICH WOULD BE INTERESTING.]

[candyass]

[I thought I responded to this, sorry! And umm... yeah, I would think they'd keep her away (as much as they could) from people she could infect... and yeah, just try to keep her extra clean/keep the germs from spreading. They'd also not want to draw suspicion to her, I'd think? So they'd have to be careful to not act TOO weird about it.]

ooc

[axemeaquestion]

IT'S OK, I just got back. Anyway YEAH, that sounds great! Do you wanna start it or should I? Maybe we could start off with like, a typical day for them in the bunker three months later or something. I like to imagine they take turns going outside and doing things while the other one looks after the baby. Would that sound good? EITHER WAY we can do whatever you like too!

ooc

[candyass]

You want to start us off? And I'll do the film noir starter? But yeah, three months later sound good! And probably so. I imagine they'd switch on and off so they could both sort of contribute to the group and everything... while making sure their little assclown doesn't infect anybody, haha

k!

[axemeaquestion]

Three months passed by way too quickly.

Once they got into a schedule, Rochelle and Nick took turns. When the bunker needed it, one of them would go out on scavenging parties while the other stayed home and looked after the baby. And vice versa the next day. Today was Rochelle's day out.

When she got back, she found Coach in the cafeteria looking into the carseat they used for a crib. Rochelle grinned and leaned against the door frame, watching Coach shake a stuffed alligator toy at a smiling Selena as she kicked her legs.

"I'm home."

Coach laughed as he looked up. "Hey hey hey! Your baby girl missed you!"

Rochelle grins as she sheds her jacket and holster. "I hope so! Where's Nick?"

"He'll be right back."

She nodded as she slid herself onto the table next to Coach. She grinned even wider into the carseat as she gave Selena a kiss on the forehead. "Heyyy, mama's home!"

Oh god, part of her couldn't believe she would ever get used to hearing her call herself a mother. She couldn't even believe she was used to being one in the first place. It had only been three months and Selena was so big already...

[candyass]

It really had passed way too damn quick -- and so far, so good. They kept Selena close for the most part. They were clean and careful and no one had a goddamn clue besides them and the doc that she was a carrier. He was almost lulled into a sense of security that it would stay that way, honestly.

When he heard Coach talking and Ro's voice following, Nick stepped into the room.

"Hey, sweetheart," he greeted, a grin tugging at his lips. Who knew he'd ever have another girlfriend... let alone settle into something domesti again. "How'd it go out there?"

[axemeaquestion]

"Hey!"

Rochelle looked up. Being in something even kind of domestic was even weirder coupled with the fact that they were still dealing with a zombie apocalypse. But as strange as that was, Rochelle wasn't exactly complaining. She stood up and walked over to Nick with a grin back.

"Not bad. We found scraps and shit we could use for building supplies, but... not much in the way of food." But that's what you get for living in one place, and only so much gas for one car. Marshall told them that there was a giant stockpile of food when they found the bunker, so it wasn't a huge worry yet, but... they had to figure out a way to start growing their own food soon.

"How'd she do?"