Maggie and Glenn had left earlier in the day. I was sitting on my swinging chair on the porch, Hershel on my lap as I was feeding him some paste that Glenn had given me. They were trying to wean him "off the boob" as they put it. I gave Hershel another small spoonful. His lips slapped together as he ate it. I brought the next spoonful up to my nose as I sniffed it. "Strawberry?" I asked the kid.

"Str- heh!" He smiled.

"You're a walker magnet." I shook my head, offering him the next spoonful which he practically guzzled. "And a food magnet. A kid after my own heart, I respect that." I told him, giving him another spoonful of the paste.

"Bleh- bleh!" He giggled.

I furrowed my eyebrows. "Bleh- bleh?" I looked around to see if he was trying to point out walkers or something. "There's no walkers. You just dumb or something?"

He put his hands on his cheeks which made his baby fat more prominent. I laughed at him. "Geh yay!" Hershel laughed.

"Geh yay? If that's your way of saying you're gay, just know that I support you. When you're old enough to remember people, I'll show you Chris Evans. I have all his movies on DVD's. I was gonna watch them with this woman named Sasha, but..." I trailed off, giving him another spoonful of the paste. "You know, she was real excited to meet you and your sister? She couldn't wait to be an aunt." I spoke softly as I gave him the last spoonful which he barely ate, I knew he was full. "You wanna see some photos? I got a scrap book inside." I offered him.

"Hoe!" He yelled.

"What you just call me?" I furrowed my eyebrows. "You know, I'ma let that slide, but next time you say it I'm gonna force you to eat beetroot. That shit sucks-"

"Shit!" Hershel grinned.

"Oh, crap." I let out as I carried him inside. I locked the door as I went to sit down on the sofa.

"Shit! Shit!" Hershel sang like a song.

"Well, your parents are going to kill me." I told him, grabbing the scrap book and sitting down on my sofa. I let out a sigh as I turned on the lamp next to me since it was getting dark out. I opened the first page and I was faced with a photo of me, Sophia, Carl, Rick, mum, dad, Michonne, Hershel, Beth, Maggie and Glenn back in the prison. I smiled. The polaroid was surrounded by light blue glitter as Sophia claimed it needed to be jazzed up. "That's your grandpa." I said, pointing to the polaroid. "He's who you're named after. He was a doctor. Saved all our asses more times than I can count." I laughed.

"Pa." Hershel muttered.

I hummed. "That's your aunt Beth. She's who your sister was named after. She had such a kind heart. In fact, the only lie she ever told was the last time I saw her." I told him, turning the pages until I found the photo of me and Beth on the catwalk the last time I saw her, it was surrounded by light pink glitter. "I won't go anywhere, Ellie." I whispered, remembering her words. "Then I never saw her again. Well... I never saw her alive again." I took a deep breath to make sure I didn't cry. "There were other people, but I don't have photos of them. T-dog, Lori, Jacob, Jacqui, Jim, Dale... Your mum will have stories about people named Patricia, Otis and Jimmy. I didn't know them well, and Otis died before I even got to the farm. He died saving getting equipment to save your uncle Carl."

"Boo bap." Hershel murmured. 

I let out a breath. "I think that's enough for tonight, little man." I said, closing the scrap book and putting it on the coffee table. I turned off the lamp before carrying him upstairs. I set him down in the Moses basket in my bedroom. As I watched him fall asleep in it, all I could think about what that night when I found him and his twin. "Goodnight, kiddo." I whispered, pushing the thoughts to the back of my brain as I started to get ready for bed.

Me and Hershel were sitting in flowers. We were surrounded by tulips mostly in this part of the field. "Grr- ah!" He squealed.

"You are so bad at speaking it's actually ridiculous." I laughed. "You been on this planet over a year and the only real words you can say is hoe and shit. I don't even think you're using hoe in context, you're just trying to make more weird noises." I commented which made him laugh so much he fell on his back. "You are so easily entertained." I told him, starting to tickle his sides which made him uncontrollably squeal and squirm. "Ticklish too, huh? This is information I'll use against you for like ever." I grinned, pulling him to sit up.

"Ewie!" He tried standing.

"Nu uh, we ain't starting this shit. It's Ellie. Two L's. M'kay? E-L-L-I-E." I spelt out for him as if he'd understand. Before he could fall over, I grabbed him and gently helped him sit down. "You know. You ain't so bad for a baby. I never really liked y'all... But, you're the least sucky baby I've ever met." He turned his head to the side and smiled at me. "Dogs do that when they're confused too." I poked his belly which made him explode with laughter. I couldn't help but laugh myself at the boy's antics. I picked him up and placed him on my hip as we walked through the flowers. "I need to stretch my legs. Some of us can actually walk."

"Vak!" He clapped his hands together.

"Vak?" I muttered. "You know, you're lucky you can't understand people taking the mick outta you." I told him just as I saw a walker leave the tree line and start walking towards me and the baby through the flowers. "I could nail him from here." I said grabbing my gun before looking at the baby. "It'll hurt your ears won't it?" I asked him, but he just stared at me. I sighed, putting my gun away and pulling out my boomerang. I slowly got closer to the walkers before throwing my weapon. The boomerang sliced the head in half from twenty feet away before circling back to me, the smooth wood landing in my hand.

"Yay! Yay!" Hershel repeated.

"I'll deal with the body later. You don't need to see it up close." I told him, turning around and starting to walk back to the house. "You hungry, kid? You got banana paste, raspberry paste, pear paste, chocolate paste... Man, you have a boring diet. You fancy the chocolate one? I can't remember the last time I had chocolate. Enjoy the baby food while you still can, kiddo."

"Kid- eh!" He pushed his face into my neck.

"Not even close." I laughed.

"Bap!" He yelled hitting my chest.

My voice was soft as I read a book out loud for Hershel "One by one she tried to move each toe on her left foot, and then each toe on her right. One by one they all point blank refused to do anything. Feeling increasingly panicked she tried to circle her ankles, before attempting to stretch her legs, then to bend her knees and finally she concentrated as hard as she could on lifting her arms. All were impossible- ya know, Hershel? I thought this was a children's book." I shut the book and looked to cover. Awful Auntie by David Walliams. "Is she dead or something? Let's just watch a film, instead." I laughed, putting the book down and setting Hershel on the floor while I put in Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper. "You're going to be educated today, kiddo." I laughed picking him back up as we relaxed on the sofa and watched the film.

"Babbie." He murmured.

I laughed. "Close enough."

I ate dinner and some popcorn; I laughed at him for wanting some popcorn but I didn't know what he could and couldn't eat so I refused and he stuck to his paste. I gave him a bath and put him to sleep in his Moses basket next to my bed. My walkie suddenly went off. "Ellie, you there, baby?" My dad's voice asked.

I picked up my walkie as I was flicking through the pages in my scrap book. "Right here, dad." I replied.

"I heard you're babysitting Hershel." Dad told me.

I laughed. "Yea, he's still alive so I'm doing something right."

"What you two get up to today?" He asked.

I hummed. "Played in the flowers, I showed him the scrap book again. I started reading a book to him but it got a bit dark so I just chucked on a Barbie movie."

"Ain't he a boy?" Dad questioned.

"Boys can like Barbie too. I have very good memories of you sitting through hours worth of Barbie with me." I pointed out.

Dad laughed. "That's a good point."

"And you cried at the end of Barbie and the Twelve Dancing Princesses." I reminded him.

"Their papa woke up!" Dad defended.

I laughed at him, trying to stay quiet so I wouldn't wake the baby. "You know I got that film on DVD. We can watch it when you come over next."

I could practically hear dad's grin. "You still got that popcorn?"

"No, I used the last of it today. However, if you bring me more corn..." I trailed off.

"It's a deal." Dad agreed.

"Goodnight, dad. I'll speak to you tomorrow." I told him.

"Night, baby."