I felt this monologue in my head a little while ago... It began as the third part of the 'Waiting it out' series... which itself began with a Moonlightaholics challenge a while back, for making a crossover story. I'd advise anyone reading to perhaps look at the first two parts of the story. Just to get a grip of my Moonlight / Walking Dead Crossover world...
The first part is 'Waiting It Out'. The second, 'Waiting It Out. Facing The Future'. But I'm also hoping that the story could stand alone and explain itself to you... and the lovely mods have let me pop it in a little late, for which I'm very grateful.
I hope you like it lovelies! I can feel another brewing already. 
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
Waiting It Out. Baby Steps.
These days it’s like I take pictures in my head. Believe me, there are plenty of them.
Age one. Sharp blue eyes, a shock of blonde hair. Just like her mom. Age two. Already with these eyebrows that can tell you exactly when she’s gonna blow. Terrible twos? Man. Maybe there’s a reason vampires don’t have kids. Guess we found that out a little late in these, well…enclosed spaces. A whole generation at once has been a big learning curve for all of us. I guess some of us have handled it better than others, but there have been no casualties. Everyone is precious, alive or undead.
So now little Rose’s group are around three years old. Eleven of them. All full of the noise and vitality of toddlerhood. The weight of Beth’s head on my shoulder as Rose flies past us is the most comforting feeling I’ve known in a long time. We could almost be a family. Heh. Unless you found ‘dad’s’ dislike of daylight a bit unusual. Or his need to disappear every now and then to feed out of the family’s way. Oh. Or his weekly trips out to the city to watch for walkers. (Humans are hard to find these days.) Other than that things could be just great.
And I’ve got to say the whole vampire system is still working. I don’t mean to sound so surprised, and I know that I shouldn’t be. No one could ever fault Josef’s and the Council’s organizational skills. We’ve got this whole regular routine set up. We all take shifts going into the city with the Cleaners, doing our bit. Come back, have a drink, then get to spend time hanging out. Heh. The way I’m describing it, it sounds like some kind of frat house. Trust me, it’s nothing like college.
The first few months were kind of hairy. The settling in, the setting up. Followed by the finding people issue. Man. Then there was the fighting with people issue. Every now and then a group would find our compound out here in the middle of nowhere. Want to get in. Then realise what they were getting into and flip out on us. Some might say it was an overreaction on everybody’s part. But letting people get away and ‘blab’? Unreasonable people? We found out that we just couldn’t let that happen. It wasn’t something that everyone was comfortable with. But in time? Well, we learned that if we wanted to protect our little ‘society’ we had to think seriously about how we were going to do that.
So now we all take watches. Humans during the day, vampires at night. I guess Beth and I are lucky about how well we know the guys in charge. We get to overlap in the evenings. That’s when Rose gets to play outside in the compound. Already she knows where she can run, how far she can go, and that she has to be quiet while she’s out here. Lord knows we can’t have her drawing attention. Walkers putting pressure on the fencing is not what we need. And so she runs. Passing us like a kite in the wind, her face lighting up in the evening sun. And I feel her mom— (That still sounds so strange, even after three years…) —feel her mom relax against me as we watch her. Watch the fence, but watch her, as she takes in every part of her very small world.
Who knows how big it’ll get one day? And no matter what happens before she gets to leave the compound? I think it helps Beth to know that I’ll be here to look out for her little girl. To watch over Rose the way I did Beth when she was young. Without the crazy vampire wife in the mix. Heh. Walkers we can handle, but Coraline? Sometimes I think about where the crazy vampire wife might be right now. Did she survive all this? Maybe we’ll never know. But for now, all I need is right here. Sitting on this log, and flying across the dry California grass. One day things might be different. But for now, things are feeling pretty fine.
Creepy, either way. But somehow, knowing Josef, I think it might be the latter. Because heaven knows, those people are a precious resource, not to be eliminated unless absolutely necessary, right? 
(But I totally know that Beth's relieved to think that her guardian angel is Rose's as well... just in case this goes on for a long, long time.) 
