living_history (living_history) wrote in the_colony, @ 2011-02-01 23:06:00 |
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Entry tags: | ^ week 33, bridget mackenzie, ~ series: traders |
Week 33 - Thursday
Characters:Bridget and Evie
Location: Library
Summary: Evie comes by and the two women talk about babies, men, and the future in general.
Rating: PG
Bridget settled herself down on the couch in the library with a small sigh, and began to arrange the pillows she kept there to try and make herself a little more comfortable. The room had become her default location in recent weeks if she wasn’t in her bedroom or at the kitchen, as it was close to one of the bathrooms and had plenty of material to try to keep her occupied.
A plate of muffins and a glass of water sat within arm’s reach on the coffee table. She’d just had a light lunch, but it wouldn’t be long before her stomach was growling again from the constant demands for energy her body demanded these days.
It wasn’t long before she heard steps arriving at the door. “Afternoon,” said Evie with a smile. She had come into the house specifically for Bridget, but she’d taken her time looking through rooms on the way. It was funny, seeing how these people had tried so hard not to change.
“Mind some company?” she asked, gesturing at a chair.
Bridget looked up at the sound of footsteps and smiled when she saw the other pregnant woman on the property. She’d been hoping that her path would cross with Evie’s at some point while the traders were here, but was feeling a little run down that day and had decided to stay indoors and hadn't expected to run into her. The book she’d been reading was put face down on her stomach and she gestured toward the chair Evie had pointed at, indicating it was all right. “Please do. Excuse me if I don’t stand to greet you properly.”
Evie smirked. “Since I’ll be in your place in a few months, I’ll excuse you this time,” she said, sitting down. After a moment, she added, “Alice told me I was likely to find you here. I wanted to see how you were getting along.”
“As well as anyone can when you’re thirty four weeks along with twins I suppose,” Bridget smirked a little and rubbed her stomach with one of her hands. “Bigger than a barn, internal organs squished, bladder used as a soccer ball, heartburn, all the old cliches. They’re all true. How are you getting along? You look like you’re all belly, I’m a little jealous.”
With a shrug, Evie said, “Well, my ankles are making a run at looking like grapefruits, but I am pretty lucky so far. Bet it gets worse later, though.”
“I can’t imagine doing this on the road.” Bridget made a face at the thought. “I don’t know how you’ve managed but it’ll definitely get harder the further along you go.” She shrugged. “I’m carrying two though, so that just amplifies everything that much more. They’re my first so I don’t really know what it’s like carrying only one.”
“My first, too, and glad as hell it’s only the one. Probably,” she added with a smile. “It hasn’t been too bad on the road; you’d be surprised. Good bunch of people helping me out.”
“I’ve had tons of help here too, drives me crazy at times but I couldn’t cope without it.” Bridget eyed the other woman’s belly and thought back to when she was about that far along, then shook her head. “I think you’re only carrying one unless they’re tiny. By the time I was six months I looked like I was full term. Louisa May salvaged an ultrasound machine though, you might talk to her about a checkup if you felt like it.” She smiled at the treasured memory, glancing down at her belly. “It was amazing, seeing them like that. I’m glad I was still able to do it even in times like these.”
“Ultrasound?” Evie gave a laugh. “You really are setting this place up to be a museum, aren’t you?”
Bridget looked up and eyed the other woman, uncertain as to exactly what she meant. “A museum? Because we were able to salvage some medical equipment?”
“It might be medical equipment now, but not for long. Things wear out and break down.” Evie sat back, settling into the chair. “I suppose some people like to ease into it, but I prefer living like my children will have to live.”
“If that’s the case then you’d better start learning how to use horses and wagons, because internal combustion engines wear out and break down too.” Bridget shrugged. “If I have the opportunity to use modern technology while it’s still available then I’m going to do it.”
Evie returned the shrug. “We have a good mechanic. Metals we can deal with, build from. Plastics are another story. But that’s us.”
Bridget didn’t think the other woman would find it as easy as she made it sound but decided not to press the issue. It wasn’t worth getting into an argument over. “If you say so. I’m more concerned about knowledge than technology anyway. If we can save the knowledge the tech can be rebuilt eventually, when there’s enough population to support it.”
“That’s why we go around collectin’ people,” Evie said with a grin. “Handing around what each other knows. It’s how we’ve gotten by so easy.”
Bridget frowned slightly at that. There were so many skills that had no survivors to spread the knowledge to others, and other skills that had no useful purpose in this new world. Computer engineering was one profession that came to mind that would be useless in a world without the electricity or the ability to build new machines.
But that didn’t mean the skills would be useless forever, which is one of the reasons she was trying to preserve as much knowledge in book form as possible. One day the population would be large enough to have a renaissance where the old knowledge was relearned, though it probably wouldn’t be even in the lifetime of her great grandchildren.
She realized she’d been lost in thought for a moment and looked over at Evie. “I’m sure that helps a great deal, a lot of the others have been trying to do that here.”
Evie quirked an eyebrow but said aloud, “Yeah, I noticed you’ve been building the group up again. Snag those people on the trip from Vegas?”
“We found Meghan on the road from Vegas, but the others were either from around here or were coming down from the north.” Bridget told her. “Louisa May’s family was in Medford, she came down from Portland to care for them back when the flu started getting bad and never had a chance to go back...” she shrugged, leaving the obvious unsaid. “Greg, Nate and Abby were coming south and ran into Leo and Walker on the way.”
“Lost a few people, too,” Evie said, studying Bridget but not asking more. People came and went in their own group, so that could have been the case here. But then, the world being the way it was, you never knew when you might hit a sore spot. “You seem to be filled to the gills, though. That addition will be welcome.”
“We are, and I am.” Bridget quipped. “I forgot to mention Meg’s husband, too. He showed up about two months ago, a miracle.” She didn’t bother mentioning he’d come with Quinn, or that Sam had left them and Luc had been shot. It wouldn’t do any good anyway. “I’m really looking forward to the addition, let people have their own rooms again for a change.”
Evie laughed. “I don’t know how the hell you survived the winter. I’d’ve gone batshit if we’d been holed up like all of you. We went to Cabo at the sign of the first snowflake.”
“I think we all have gone a little batshit.” The events with Jed and Alice quickly came to mind, but she shoved it to the side. “And we wanted to be someplace where we could grow our own food, try to start rebuilding our lives instead of merely surviving.” A shrug, and she added: “The weather isn’t that different from a Pennsylvania winter, just a little wetter. Dealing with no electricity is a bitch, but we managed. I was a little envious when Orin mentioned where you’d gone for the winter.”
She eyed the other woman’s belly for a moment and wondered if Orin might be the father of Evie’s child. From his description it didn’t sound like the other brunette was interested in men romantically, but it was hard for her to understand why that would be the case.
Evie didn’t miss the look, and with the mention of Orin, it wasn’t hard to put two and two together. Not that she could answer the question herself. “Right, I thought I saw you and Orin the first day we settled in. I suppose you had a good, long conversation,” she said, a smile tugging at her lips.
“We did.” Bridget blushed slightly at the other woman’s words. “That’s all we did, talk. He seems almost too good to be true.”
“He is a charmer, that’s for sure,” Evie said, enjoying Bridget’s blush. “And a good man. Wouldn’t be with us if that wasn’t true.”
“How did you meet him?” Bridget leaned forward slightly, unashamedly curious. She didn’t know much about Evie’s group aside from what Orin had told her.
“Noah and me came across him pretty early. We’d stayed out of the camps, taking our RV, and just ended up picking people up. Hadn’t really planned on building up a family at that point, but I guess things happen,” she said with a smile.
“I would say so,” Bridget smiled back. “My introduction to this group was accidental as well, but I’m glad it happened.” She wondered if things developed with Orin if he’d be willing to leave his adopted family or if he’d ask her to leave hers. That was a long ways off though, if it would happen at all.
“So, have you given any thought to names yet? I know everyone was asking me when I’d gotten to the six month mark.”
Evie laughed. “Oh, I’ve gotten that, especially from Nevaeh. She’s pretty happy about the whole thing. But I’ve decided I won’t try naming until I meet them.”
“You haven’t even any possibilities?” Bridget couldn’t believe it. “Surely you’ve thought of it.”
Evie’s smile widened. “The right name will come to me when it’s time. What about you?”
“Alexander Jacob for my son, and Calleigh Hope for my daughter.” Bridget let both hands rest on her stomach, feeling the movements of her children within. “I’ll see their faces with my own eyes soon.”
“Good, strong names,” Evie said. Not that she would have said anything else. She smiled.
“I’m sure it’ll be a wonderful day. I’m looking forward to that in a few months, too.”
“I’m sure it’ll be a painful scary as hell day.” Bridget replied, feeling the desire to be honest about it. “But the wonderful part will be there at the end. How much longer do you have? Three months?”
“Three or four months. Depends on if they come to term. I guess yours’ll probably be a bit early?” Evie couldn’t imagine having twins. There were enough factors to worry about already.
“Statistics say they will be, family history suggests its anyone’s guess.” Bridget took a muffin off the plate and nibbled before continuing. “Multiples kinda ran in the family, and some went over, some came early, so I really don’t know. Sometime in the next six weeks I’d imagine.” She certainly hoped that they decided to come on time or early, going over wasn’t something she wanted to experience.
“At least we were both smart enough to miss being pregnant in the summer,” Evie said with a grin. “Can’t imagine that kind of hell.”
That caused Bridget to shudder. “I don’t want to imagine it, not with these two and not with any I might have after them.” She finished off the muffin and offered the plate to Evie.
That got an eyebrow raise. “You’re going to have more?”
Bridget raised an eyebrow in response. “If the right man comes along, maybe. I’ve accepted my husband isn’t coming back, and I don’t intend to be a nun. Unless something happens I expect I’ll be having more eventually.” She was surprised the other woman didn’t expect to have more children. Neither of them were that old, Evie could end up having another dozen pregnancies over her lifetime if events happened just right.
If the right man comes along, was a pretty big ‘if’, but Evie decided not to point that out. “I’ll definitely be having more. I also have more options to pick from,” she added with a wink.
“We’ll see.” Bridget shrugged with a smile. “There are options here.” It was even true, it was just that none of them particularly interested her right now. Maybe in a year or two if nothing else came up. Tom was old but not so old he couldn’t sire children, and there was always Jed, Derek, or Nate.
And possibly Orin, but she wasn’t going to make him chose between her and his adopted family if things developed to that point.
Evie’s smile widened. “Oh? Any option you’re particularly leaning towards?”
“Not right at the moment,” Bridget wasn’t sure what the other woman was up to but she decided that even if Evie was teasing her she’d keep her mouth shut. “I don’t believe I’ll even want to think about a man touching me for a few months. Tom’s a good man though, and he’s had children in the past. He might want to be a father again in the future, before he’s too old.”
The answer wasn’t exactly the kind Evie was expecting, but maybe Bridget was a little more private about these things. “Tom isn’t a bad option at all. Strong man, good head on his shoulders. He’s also the kind of guy that lookin’ at him you know he’ll live to be 100.”
“I’m not saying I’ve got my eye on him,” Bridget thought she should point out. “But if I were to choose someone in my group he’d probably be my first choice.”
Holding back another quip about Orin, Evie said, “Any reason you gotta pick just one?”
Bridget quirked an eyebrow at her. “Emotionally or biologically speaking?”
Evie’s eyes crinkled at the corners. “Biologically. You didn’t sound too emotionally attached to Tom there.”
“No reason I have to attach myself to one man, I guess.” Bridget allowed. “Biologically speaking there are so few of us left it would probably be better if we didn’t limit ourselves to just one partner, spread the genes around and get a good mix. But I don’t think I’ll do that, I don’t have it in me to be with a man I’m not romantically involved with.”
“Mm,” Evie hummed noncommittally. “If it works for you, it works for you.”
Bridget bit back a comment about Evie’s own sleeping around. “I guess we all have to figure out what works for us and go with that.”