Supervision
Title: Supervision
Characters/Pairing: Gabriel,Maya, Nadia, Meredith
Rating: R
Word count: 2,164
Disclaimer: Do not own.
Summery: Snippets of them with Nadia
Note: KW Verse. Parenting fluff along with barely controlled rage. The usual :P
"Hey!" Her voice bursts out with shocked outrage and he swivels around immediately and closes the door behind him with a wince. She was breastfeeding.
"Sorry, sorry. I just wanted to see her, and tell you something." He doesn't laugh but can't help grinning, slightly embarrassed and giddy.
"Knock next time!"
"I'm sorry. I came to tell you that I got some rice seeds for your allotment." He cocks his ear to the door and hears her moving on the bed, the gurgling noise of his daughter. "Maya?"
"Come in." Her voice is soft and he enters to see her on her feet, baby against her shoulder as she gently rubs Nadia's back. He smiles at their baby and goes forward to kiss her small head.
"Hey Nad-Nad. She looks sleepy."
"Sleeping is all she seems to do." Maya whispers with affection and turns around to him. The smile drops and he straightens. "How did you get the seeds?"
He shrugs, breaking eye contact. Maya had been wanting rice and other food that wasn't readily available here, not without trade. In a few years time there won't be anymore food they can pillage from freezers in shops and homes, they'll have to farm animals and grow crops, become almost entirely self sufficient. "I can make it grow for you, anything actually." He looks back to her, smile curling his mouth, wanting to tell her about this ability but knowing she'll just go off on him. Or even worse, ignore him.
"I thought you were going to cultivate a big field?"
He nods, sitting down on her bed as she paces slowly up and down, humming a lullaby under her breath. "I am but I want to do the allotment thing to, see which one works out best. I think individually allotments would work for a few people, some plants. But for things like wheat we should all work together."
Maya nods and then shakes her head slowly and looks out of the window towards the dusty hills. "I never thought my life would depend on my gardening skills."
"You gardened? I never had one before, in Queens." He says wistfully.
"Si, of course." She looks at him like he was foolish and gently lays Nadia down into her cot. He stands and comes to her where they both look down at their daughter as she falls asleep. Not looking up at him Maya tells him to get out now, his time was up. Grudgingly he accepts this and leaves with a crestfallen face. But he'll be back, whether she likes it or not.
*
"Gracias, gracias. I'm sorry about this, I must be driving you crazy."
Meredith waves her hand dismissively at Maya's apologetic tone as she bends over the Latina's baby, who's wiggling naked and powdered on a mat as she changes her. "It's no trouble, not with this littlecarino!" She coos and Maya still looks troubled.
"I thought all this would come easy, I mean it's just changing her but I keep doing it wrong." She feels disappointed and wishes she didn't. Her baby was the one perfect thing she has, the one thing that makes her feel less fractured.
"Don't be too hard on yourself. You're a new mother, I had to do the same thing myself. I never had anyone teach me about mothering, I grew up in foster care homes..." She says lightly but keeps her gaze fixed on Nadia. Maya gasps.
"We did to!"
Meredith fastens the stick tape to the diaper and straightens up. "We?"
"Oh, I'm a twin." Maya smiles at her but then it breaks and drips off her face, her eyes welling up. Swallowing repeatedly for sometime, controlling her grief, Maya looks back at her and smiles jokingly. "So, if you hear me saying we I promise I'm not schizophrenic."
Meredith smiles and picks Nadia up, handing her over to Maya who's sad face brightens as she holds her daughter. "I understand, I had to take care of my brother, it was just us..." Maya nods, serious and takes her hand and her eyes shine with understanding. She knows the loneliness of being separated.
"Come, lets go for a walk and you can tell me about the places you went to in Mexico." Handing Meredith the pram they make their way down the stairs and out into the parking lot. But Meredith catches Maya hesitating at the bottom of the stair, making sure that his door wasn't open.
"You coming or not? Just forget him honey...I'll tell you about my baby girl." She injects with a wavering smile and Maya nods, turning her face away from his home and follows the woman she's come to think of as a godmother.
*
He sits crossed legged beside Nadia's cot, watching his daughter sleeping through the bars. He will do this for hours, not making a noise unless she wakes to see him. He likes to get up before Maya does, likes to be there when Nadia awakens and reaches up for him and he gets to hold her, sing to her as she's still half asleep and yawning. All the things Maya can do with out any restrictions. She doesn't trust him and he knows he's fighting a loosing battle on most things. But this, this he would never give up on.
Maya lies on her belly, hair obscuring her face and watches him silently. When she had awoken her heart had raced and stomach squeezed with fright. She had thought that when he creeps into her bedroom while she's asleep it's to spy on her, then make her wake to see him looming over her. Partly it was, he was starving for her attention. But it wasn't all about her. He had just sat there, head against the cot and watched their baby, smiling now and then as Nadia moved in her sleep. As her daughter turned to face him, blinking her eyes open they had shared a moment of just starring at the other until he had slotted his fingers through the bars and she had curled her fist over his finger. Now she's half awake and rolling over and over and Maya can't help smiling as she does this, both of them watching her with amazement when she does something new, changes.
Standing up in her cot, slightly unsteady, Gabriel gets to his feet and picks up his child with a ahh sound, lifting her above his head and she smiles beautifully, hands pressing against his face which he kisses. "Dada." The word is clear and Gabriel gasps, Maya too shocked to say anything. He laughs and then stops himself, looking around to see if she was awake. Maya closes her eyes, regulates her breathing and tries to pretend it didn't happen.
"My little girl." His voice is bursting with happiness and pride. Nadia calls him Dada again and Maya tries not to let the bitterness and disappointment overwhelm her pleasure that her daughter had spoke her first word.
*
Her pram had a squeaky wheel so they discarded it in the middle of a large shop and placed her in a new one. The practise of paying for things was now obsolete, the threat of prison and fines not feared when there was no police officers to arrest you or prisons to lock you up in. But it still gave Maya a thrill in her tummy when she picks off something from a rail because it takes her fancy, looking at the price tag with anticipation. "$600..."
She carefully folds the silk dress in some crepe paper she finds under a cash register, looking up now and then to see Gabriel trailing through the men's section. New clothes were needed, things for Nadia's room, movies, music and books. Nadia paws at the dangling toys from her new mobile, making it tinkle and spin as Maya goes to Gabriel and tilts her head at the item he's looking at.
"¿Quién es el hombre viejo para cárdigan?"
"Huh?" Gabriel looks up at her, startled and puts the button up cardigan back hastily.
"Are you getting something for one of the old men?" She holds his eye, just curious and he hesitates. They sometimes did get things for those unable to walk here.
"...Yeah, yeah..." He picks it back up with a smile, takes the pram from her and begins walking back to the entrance, keeping his flushed face from her sight.
"Where are you going? We've still things to get. Unless you've finally got the message to leave me alone..." she adds under her breath as she joins him. She wouldn't leave him unsupervised with Nadia, her trust hasn't reached that far. He pushes a hand through his hair and turns back, smiling with a jerk and wheels Nadia towards the baby clothes section.
"What did you get?"
"A dress."
"Gonna actually wear it?"
"Not for you to see, no." She had worn maxi dresses while pregnant but now she wears nothing but jeans and vests, shorts when she's gardening. Anything he gives her she doesn't touch and regards with scorn. Getting things for their daughter is the only thing she relents on, both on the same wavelength. "Something with honey bees on them..." Maya suggests, flicking over covers as he goes on ahead.
"Do you still crave honey?"
"...si, but I think most of it will be bad now."
"I'll get you some more." He says assured and she cocks her head, face unreadable and then her eyes flash sadistically.
"You might get stung to death Gabriel. I can only hope..." Her voice is dripping with mock caution and concern.
He turns to her with a sick smile but is really deeply annoyed. "I'll wear a suit or TK them away. Sorry to disappoint you....I was only going to do it for you, you could act civil for just a few seconds Maya."
Maya shrugs and avoids his angry gaze, bending down with a grin to Nadia. "Don't want daddy to die a painful and long-lasting death do we? No." Resting Nadia in her arms her mocking tone drops as he holds out a soft toy, an angel. Maya's nostrils flare, lips thinning. "Very funny."
"Not nice is it?"
Maya breathes in deep, damning the swell of rage, and speaks through her teeth. "Lets not do this."
"Agreed, for once. Come on, she'll be getting hungry soon." Keeping a distance they place their bags into a trolley and exit the store, both tying to gain control of their emotions, stemming the hateful words that want to fly. They sing instead, a lullaby and Nadia smiles, innocent and loving them.
*
"Nad, Nad, look at this!" He points to a story book on farm yard animals, bold and colourful, and names the animals. "Ducks go...quack! Quack!" They were both playing games with her, wanting Nadia to learn the noises and hopefully say it back to them. Once Gabriel is done in English Maya does the same in Spanish. At the moment she mostly makes "baby noises."
Maya's turn she points to a cat and grins at Nadia, who grabs at the picture. "Mi-mi msh, mishmish." Maya crows with delight, clapping and Nadia copies with a big smile, bouncing.
"Good girl!"
"Mishmish?" Gabriel stands behind her, eating an apple. Maya doesn't turn to him as she speaks. Tries not to interact with him as much as humanly possible.
"Yeah, it's what you say when you want a cat to come to you. Mish, instead of psst, psst..." He nods and stands closer to her, bending against her shoulder to speak into her ear and brushes his fingers along her soft hair. It was growing longer, to his pleasure.
"Gonna teach me some now? You said you would..."
Maya bristles,"only if that teaching comes from a phrase book, in another room from me, then si you bastardo." She hisses and stands, careful to make sure she backs into him with the chair and her elbow. He just shakes his head and moves away with a weary sigh. Nadia picks up the book, struggling with it and then lays it down, pointing at the different animals and then looks up with an expectant smile, wanting praise.
"Bast - bast." she hitches and stalls and they both stop with shock and then look towards each other, face mirroring the same expression. Horror while trying not to laugh. Gabriel points at Maya.
"No more swearing in Spanish, she could be doing it and I'd never know."
"You say that like it's a bad thing..." she responds breezily, picking Nadia up and walking out. Only once out of sight does she let her face show any mortification. "Naughty Nadia...Naughty mama..."
*
She spots him blowing bubbles in a glass of water with a straw and Nadia is almost hysterical with giggles, stops when he takes a breath and then collapses again when he continues. She leaves them be with a smile.
Characters/Pairing: Gabriel,Maya, Nadia, Meredith
Rating: R
Word count: 2,164
Disclaimer: Do not own.
Summery: Snippets of them with Nadia
Note: KW Verse. Parenting fluff along with barely controlled rage. The usual :P
"Hey!" Her voice bursts out with shocked outrage and he swivels around immediately and closes the door behind him with a wince. She was breastfeeding.
"Sorry, sorry. I just wanted to see her, and tell you something." He doesn't laugh but can't help grinning, slightly embarrassed and giddy.
"Knock next time!"
"I'm sorry. I came to tell you that I got some rice seeds for your allotment." He cocks his ear to the door and hears her moving on the bed, the gurgling noise of his daughter. "Maya?"
"Come in." Her voice is soft and he enters to see her on her feet, baby against her shoulder as she gently rubs Nadia's back. He smiles at their baby and goes forward to kiss her small head.
"Hey Nad-Nad. She looks sleepy."
"Sleeping is all she seems to do." Maya whispers with affection and turns around to him. The smile drops and he straightens. "How did you get the seeds?"
He shrugs, breaking eye contact. Maya had been wanting rice and other food that wasn't readily available here, not without trade. In a few years time there won't be anymore food they can pillage from freezers in shops and homes, they'll have to farm animals and grow crops, become almost entirely self sufficient. "I can make it grow for you, anything actually." He looks back to her, smile curling his mouth, wanting to tell her about this ability but knowing she'll just go off on him. Or even worse, ignore him.
"I thought you were going to cultivate a big field?"
He nods, sitting down on her bed as she paces slowly up and down, humming a lullaby under her breath. "I am but I want to do the allotment thing to, see which one works out best. I think individually allotments would work for a few people, some plants. But for things like wheat we should all work together."
Maya nods and then shakes her head slowly and looks out of the window towards the dusty hills. "I never thought my life would depend on my gardening skills."
"You gardened? I never had one before, in Queens." He says wistfully.
"Si, of course." She looks at him like he was foolish and gently lays Nadia down into her cot. He stands and comes to her where they both look down at their daughter as she falls asleep. Not looking up at him Maya tells him to get out now, his time was up. Grudgingly he accepts this and leaves with a crestfallen face. But he'll be back, whether she likes it or not.
*
"Gracias, gracias. I'm sorry about this, I must be driving you crazy."
Meredith waves her hand dismissively at Maya's apologetic tone as she bends over the Latina's baby, who's wiggling naked and powdered on a mat as she changes her. "It's no trouble, not with this littlecarino!" She coos and Maya still looks troubled.
"I thought all this would come easy, I mean it's just changing her but I keep doing it wrong." She feels disappointed and wishes she didn't. Her baby was the one perfect thing she has, the one thing that makes her feel less fractured.
"Don't be too hard on yourself. You're a new mother, I had to do the same thing myself. I never had anyone teach me about mothering, I grew up in foster care homes..." She says lightly but keeps her gaze fixed on Nadia. Maya gasps.
"We did to!"
Meredith fastens the stick tape to the diaper and straightens up. "We?"
"Oh, I'm a twin." Maya smiles at her but then it breaks and drips off her face, her eyes welling up. Swallowing repeatedly for sometime, controlling her grief, Maya looks back at her and smiles jokingly. "So, if you hear me saying we I promise I'm not schizophrenic."
Meredith smiles and picks Nadia up, handing her over to Maya who's sad face brightens as she holds her daughter. "I understand, I had to take care of my brother, it was just us..." Maya nods, serious and takes her hand and her eyes shine with understanding. She knows the loneliness of being separated.
"Come, lets go for a walk and you can tell me about the places you went to in Mexico." Handing Meredith the pram they make their way down the stairs and out into the parking lot. But Meredith catches Maya hesitating at the bottom of the stair, making sure that his door wasn't open.
"You coming or not? Just forget him honey...I'll tell you about my baby girl." She injects with a wavering smile and Maya nods, turning her face away from his home and follows the woman she's come to think of as a godmother.
*
He sits crossed legged beside Nadia's cot, watching his daughter sleeping through the bars. He will do this for hours, not making a noise unless she wakes to see him. He likes to get up before Maya does, likes to be there when Nadia awakens and reaches up for him and he gets to hold her, sing to her as she's still half asleep and yawning. All the things Maya can do with out any restrictions. She doesn't trust him and he knows he's fighting a loosing battle on most things. But this, this he would never give up on.
Maya lies on her belly, hair obscuring her face and watches him silently. When she had awoken her heart had raced and stomach squeezed with fright. She had thought that when he creeps into her bedroom while she's asleep it's to spy on her, then make her wake to see him looming over her. Partly it was, he was starving for her attention. But it wasn't all about her. He had just sat there, head against the cot and watched their baby, smiling now and then as Nadia moved in her sleep. As her daughter turned to face him, blinking her eyes open they had shared a moment of just starring at the other until he had slotted his fingers through the bars and she had curled her fist over his finger. Now she's half awake and rolling over and over and Maya can't help smiling as she does this, both of them watching her with amazement when she does something new, changes.
Standing up in her cot, slightly unsteady, Gabriel gets to his feet and picks up his child with a ahh sound, lifting her above his head and she smiles beautifully, hands pressing against his face which he kisses. "Dada." The word is clear and Gabriel gasps, Maya too shocked to say anything. He laughs and then stops himself, looking around to see if she was awake. Maya closes her eyes, regulates her breathing and tries to pretend it didn't happen.
"My little girl." His voice is bursting with happiness and pride. Nadia calls him Dada again and Maya tries not to let the bitterness and disappointment overwhelm her pleasure that her daughter had spoke her first word.
*
Her pram had a squeaky wheel so they discarded it in the middle of a large shop and placed her in a new one. The practise of paying for things was now obsolete, the threat of prison and fines not feared when there was no police officers to arrest you or prisons to lock you up in. But it still gave Maya a thrill in her tummy when she picks off something from a rail because it takes her fancy, looking at the price tag with anticipation. "$600..."
She carefully folds the silk dress in some crepe paper she finds under a cash register, looking up now and then to see Gabriel trailing through the men's section. New clothes were needed, things for Nadia's room, movies, music and books. Nadia paws at the dangling toys from her new mobile, making it tinkle and spin as Maya goes to Gabriel and tilts her head at the item he's looking at.
"¿Quién es el hombre viejo para cárdigan?"
"Huh?" Gabriel looks up at her, startled and puts the button up cardigan back hastily.
"Are you getting something for one of the old men?" She holds his eye, just curious and he hesitates. They sometimes did get things for those unable to walk here.
"...Yeah, yeah..." He picks it back up with a smile, takes the pram from her and begins walking back to the entrance, keeping his flushed face from her sight.
"Where are you going? We've still things to get. Unless you've finally got the message to leave me alone..." she adds under her breath as she joins him. She wouldn't leave him unsupervised with Nadia, her trust hasn't reached that far. He pushes a hand through his hair and turns back, smiling with a jerk and wheels Nadia towards the baby clothes section.
"What did you get?"
"A dress."
"Gonna actually wear it?"
"Not for you to see, no." She had worn maxi dresses while pregnant but now she wears nothing but jeans and vests, shorts when she's gardening. Anything he gives her she doesn't touch and regards with scorn. Getting things for their daughter is the only thing she relents on, both on the same wavelength. "Something with honey bees on them..." Maya suggests, flicking over covers as he goes on ahead.
"Do you still crave honey?"
"...si, but I think most of it will be bad now."
"I'll get you some more." He says assured and she cocks her head, face unreadable and then her eyes flash sadistically.
"You might get stung to death Gabriel. I can only hope..." Her voice is dripping with mock caution and concern.
He turns to her with a sick smile but is really deeply annoyed. "I'll wear a suit or TK them away. Sorry to disappoint you....I was only going to do it for you, you could act civil for just a few seconds Maya."
Maya shrugs and avoids his angry gaze, bending down with a grin to Nadia. "Don't want daddy to die a painful and long-lasting death do we? No." Resting Nadia in her arms her mocking tone drops as he holds out a soft toy, an angel. Maya's nostrils flare, lips thinning. "Very funny."
"Not nice is it?"
Maya breathes in deep, damning the swell of rage, and speaks through her teeth. "Lets not do this."
"Agreed, for once. Come on, she'll be getting hungry soon." Keeping a distance they place their bags into a trolley and exit the store, both tying to gain control of their emotions, stemming the hateful words that want to fly. They sing instead, a lullaby and Nadia smiles, innocent and loving them.
*
"Nad, Nad, look at this!" He points to a story book on farm yard animals, bold and colourful, and names the animals. "Ducks go...quack! Quack!" They were both playing games with her, wanting Nadia to learn the noises and hopefully say it back to them. Once Gabriel is done in English Maya does the same in Spanish. At the moment she mostly makes "baby noises."
Maya's turn she points to a cat and grins at Nadia, who grabs at the picture. "Mi-mi msh, mishmish." Maya crows with delight, clapping and Nadia copies with a big smile, bouncing.
"Good girl!"
"Mishmish?" Gabriel stands behind her, eating an apple. Maya doesn't turn to him as she speaks. Tries not to interact with him as much as humanly possible.
"Yeah, it's what you say when you want a cat to come to you. Mish, instead of psst, psst..." He nods and stands closer to her, bending against her shoulder to speak into her ear and brushes his fingers along her soft hair. It was growing longer, to his pleasure.
"Gonna teach me some now? You said you would..."
Maya bristles,"only if that teaching comes from a phrase book, in another room from me, then si you bastardo." She hisses and stands, careful to make sure she backs into him with the chair and her elbow. He just shakes his head and moves away with a weary sigh. Nadia picks up the book, struggling with it and then lays it down, pointing at the different animals and then looks up with an expectant smile, wanting praise.
"Bast - bast." she hitches and stalls and they both stop with shock and then look towards each other, face mirroring the same expression. Horror while trying not to laugh. Gabriel points at Maya.
"No more swearing in Spanish, she could be doing it and I'd never know."
"You say that like it's a bad thing..." she responds breezily, picking Nadia up and walking out. Only once out of sight does she let her face show any mortification. "Naughty Nadia...Naughty mama..."
*
She spots him blowing bubbles in a glass of water with a straw and Nadia is almost hysterical with giggles, stops when he takes a breath and then collapses again when he continues. She leaves them be with a smile.