While the rice was cooking and Sam bathed, Rebecca helped her mother partially unpack into a few spare laundry baskets. At least then, Laura could find her clothes and necessities without digging through bag after bag. Rebecca set them on chairs from the dining table, up against the wall, since the table was going to be covered in the rest of their gear for at least another day or two. That let them clear the couch off, and Laura plopped down on it with a sigh while Rebecca stirred the rice.

"Some mother I am. It's my job to nag you about keeping your place tidier, and here I am making it a mess."

Rebecca replaced the pot cover, cutting off the roiling column of steam rising from it. "Wait until you see what laundry day does to it. The good news is that you don't have to separate 'delicate wash line dry' stuff anymore."

"Who would have thought that would be an 'upside' of the end of the world. Seriously though, you seem to be doing alright. I barely even notice the concrete floor."

"Thanks, Mom. I think?" Rebecca spent the next several minutes explaining how they'd painted the bare drywall and tiled the bathroom themselves, guided by Leonard and a home repair textbook. Flooring for the front rooms was a tentative goal for the coming year.

They waited until after dinner to introduce the quadrupedal members of the family to each other. Rebecca and Sam sat on the couch with Rufus — a rare treat for him, as he was usually only allowed on the beanbag. His tail thumped enthusiastically while they both wrapped a hand around his collar and showered him with distracting attention. Meanwhile, Laura carried Sue out from the bedroom and set him on the kitchen counter, within line of sight but a good dozen feet away.

Sue initially just gave Rufus a long suspicious glare, then started exploring the countertop. Of course, Rufus' ears immediately went up when he noticed the movement — at least as up as they would go with their adorable floppy tips. Rebecca was pinning her hopes on his historic lack of a displayed prey drive, but worried about his ever-present excitable curiosity. It's not like there was adoption paperwork to check for a 'good with cats' remark.

Please let this end without anyone bleeding. That's all I ask.

She should have set her sights a little higher. Sue eventually settled at the end of the breakfast bar, and Rebecca stood up, still hanging onto Rufus, keeping his eager pace under control. There was some hissing when he sniffed at the edge of the counter, and Sue retreated deeper into the kitchen.

Rebecca and Sam both laughed and comforted Rufus when he gave them an excited, disappointed, confused 'Moms, what is that thing?' look and whined. Eventually he lost interest and decided the new person was was sufficiently fun, nosing at Laura's hands and wagging his tail hopefully.

They let that be the hopeful start of a status quo while doing the dishes and folding the couch flat for Laura. But, while Rebecca was in the hallway with a set of sheets in her arms, she heard scuffling paws and a startled cry from Sam, and got to the living room just in time to watch Sue try to leap back to the countertop by way of one of the bar stools.

He kicked off it at the perfect angle to tip it crashing to the floor, which scared the daylights out of both him and Rufus, the latter of whom bounded away and almost knocked Rebecca down. Sue scrabbled frantically as he fled in senseless terror, leaping over the sink. On the other side, he knocked a drying bowl to the floor with a crash. That sent him rebounding off the steel pantry cabinet with a hollow boom, looping around the dining table, and careening under the couch once he spotted the perceived safety of the darkness beneath it.

When Rebecca bent over to peer into the shadows, she saw fully dilated eyes glowing back at her and a swishing tail double its usual size. It already strongly resembled a dusting wand on a normal day, and she wondered if there was going to be a clean spot under the couch afterwards.

She groaned and looked up at Sam. "Will I get in more trouble for cleaning up glass on the floor, or helping put sheets on the bed?"

Sam lowered her hands from her ears, waving Rebecca towards the bed. "I'll deal with the kitchen. At least you'll be next to something you can flop down on if you get woozy."

As Rebecca tucked the last corner of a fitted sheet onto the couch, and caught the other end of the flat sheet that her mother tossed her, she pondered how the apartment suddenly had gotten much smaller. Probably worse for Sam.

Still, at least it was home.

**

Rufus curled contentedly at the end of the bed on Sam's side, before they even slipped under the covers. It had only taken a few weeks for him to figure out that's where they usually nudged him toward, and his odds of not getting booted to the dog bed down below were better if he started there in the first place.

The 'comfies' Rebecca and Sam had changed into for the evening already doubled as cold-weather pajamas, but they spent some time unpacking clothes that had been washed before they left Walt's. As Rebecca closed the top drawer of her dresser, Sam let out a yawn that ended with a positively adorable squeak and plopped down on the bed. Rebecca soon joined her, leaning back against the padded headboard (one of her favorite decor choices) and wordlessly lifted an inviting arm.

Sam scooted over and nestled against her shoulder, hooking her feet under Rebecca's raised knees. "Mmmm. Now this has been a long time coming."

"Amen."

"Hey, a plus side, now I can just listen to your heartbeat instead of having to check your pulse and stuff."

Rebecca chuckled quietly, already cognizant Sam's ear was on her chest even before the indirect reminder. "Well, nurse? How do I sound? Am I sufficiently relaxed?"

"I suppose, but I'm still watching you."

"Heh." She closed her eyes and rested the back of her head against the headboard, her cheek against Sam's hair. "You finally smell right again."

Sam's head shifted and she rubbed her face into the soft fabric of Rebecca's shirt. She burrowed enthusiastically enough Rebecca could feel the cloth rub back and forth against her, and when Sam hummed happily another time, the warmth of her exhalation.

"You too," Sam said after reclining against Rebecca again. "Even your clothes smell like home. Our soap and drawers, not the travel stuff or Walt's." Several seconds of content silence passed before her next words. "Did you do that on purpose, instead of wearing things that came back with us?"

Rebecca puffed away a stray red hair that was tickling her nose. "Busted."

"Heh." Sam chortled and snuggled against her again. "That's an interesting choice of words. I'm quite comfortable right now, so yes, I'd say you are quite nicely so."

Since Sam wouldn't see an eyeroll, Rebecca remembered to shake head gently so Sam got a tactile response. "And you say I'm terrible."

They both chuckled, and then fell quiet for a few minutes. Rebecca was enjoying just soaking up the calm before they settled under the covers until she felt and heard Sam take a deep breath and let out a long sigh. She kissed the top of Sam's head in concern. "You okay?"

Sam let out a smaller, shorter sigh. "Yeah. I'm... relaxing, and happy to be home. But..."

She paused enough that Rebecca offered up an ending for her sentence. "But it's bittersweet?"

Sam grunted softly in agreement. "What isn't, these days."

Rebecca nodded sympathetically, the side of her jaw shifting Sam's hair. "I know that was rhetorical, but seeing Allie, being reminded of her little one on the way, that was really nice for me. But I guess even then, there's worrying they'll both be okay down the road."

"Yeah. Seeing Rufus again is nice and untainted."

At hearing his name, Rufus lifted his head, but settled again when nothing interesting happened, seemingly content to realize he wasn't being banished.

Sam nuzzled Rebecca again. "And you, my guilt and worries aside... you're a good thing."

**

After breakfast, they took Laura on a tour of other apartments on the fourth floor. When Sam mentioned she felt like a pair of high power real estate agents walking a client around, Rebecca suspected she was just fantasizing about seeing her in cute office attire. Unfortunately for her, one of the few things Rebecca was glad about in the apocalypse was never having to deal with businesswear.

Maybe for Halloween.

Eventually, Laura concluded the different locations were all pretty much the same to her. She suggested taking a one-bedroom two units over from them, and the one in between could be mutually claimed as a privacy buffer and shared storage space. Sam didn't want Rebecca going up and down the stairs just yet, so she offered to take Laura down through the community warehouse spaces and start a little 'shopping' while Rebecca slowly unpacked their gear.

That was serendipitous, or perhaps planned — Rebecca squinted suspiciously at the thought — because Ronnie called on their radio frequency around 10:30 to 'see if they were awake and she could stop by'.

Rebecca was happy to have the company and expert help as she sorted and inventoried all of their equipment and consumables. She was just mulling how unnerving a visual estimate of their ammunition usage was when Ronnie knocked at the door.

Rebecca couldn't help hugging her again for a good several seconds by way of inviting her in. While Rufus was taking his turn saying hello, she offered to get Ronnie something to drink.

Rhonda set her rifle in its customary place under the breakfast bar. "Eh, I'll take some of whatever you have a pot of from breakfast."

Rebecca poured her a cup of the Assam they'd used as 'smart juice' that morning. It didn't have the same caffeine levels of coffee, but she figured Ronnie would still appreciate a little boost. She also thought that one of Laura's mugs they'd unpacked and rinsed out, emblazoned with 'Man Tears' in stark swooping letters, might go over well.

Ronnie looked at it with a dry chuckle before settling on a bar stool and taking a sip. "How're all of you doing this morning?"

"Pretty good, I think. We found Mom a spot two doors over, Sam's poking through storage with her while I deal with..." She gestured at the mounds of unloaded equipment, storage totes, and military-style gear bags. "...all this."

"How's your head?"

Rebecca narrowed her eyes at her. "Nice use of a double meaning there." Ronnie just grinned lopsidedly and toasted her with the mug. "Sight's fine, not dizzy, BP's okay. Haven't figured out where a few things we unloaded are just yet, but if I'm forgetting where I put things down, Sam hasn't told me yet."

"And?"

"Hell, mama bear. Where do I start?"

Ronnie shrugged. "Pick a the start or the end and work your way through."

Classically simple but effective advice. I wish you'd been with us, that's where my head's at. "Will you give me a hand with after-action inventory? Or are you only up for supervising?"

"The fuck do you think I am, an officer? Just because I've been having to act like one doesn't mean I won't take aspersions on my productivity sitting down."

Rebecca grinned at the familiar curmudgeonliness as they migrated to the tarp-covered dining table. She started to pick up a notepad and pen, but Ronnie pulled a tablet out of her thigh pocket, opened a spreadsheet app, and waved it at her. Rebecca paused and studied Ronnie's expression. "You knew I'd be doing this, didn't you?"

"I taught you, kid. If you were recovering alright, I'd expect you to."

Rebecca sighed. Yes, being outmaneuvered by her mentor was comfortingly familiar, but she was still a little disgruntled about it.