Nobody of Birth

Part 13

A few weeks had passed, and the twins hadn't gotten mad at his last transmission describing his situation. And his leg was healing nicely, which meant that soon he would have to make a decision.

"Matt?" Aria's voice jarred Matt back from his deep and meaningful conversation in his head. About what, and with who, he wasn't entirely sure.

"Yeah?" Matt's voice wavered a bit, he was sure he had just been found out because of his transmission a few weeks before. That was the transmission telling the twins about his situation.

"Can you hold Annesley? I need to help Jess with something."

"Sure." Aria passed him the little warm bundle named Annesley. He looked at her intently. She was born on the run, she'll never know Ethis. Or the corruption behind the camp. He thought. How lucky she and Eric are. I wish I could live in that bliss, too. Annesley started to wake up, and Matt froze. He had no experience with babies. The youngest kids at the Training Center were at least 10 years old. Annesley's eyes opened, and Matt noticed how much she looked like her mother. The big brown eyes, and the soft features of her face made Annesley look like a doll, or a mini-Aria. Her small body began wriggling in Matt's arms, he chuckled. At the sound Annesley started cooing, and Matt's face turned from the serious face he had on before, to one that was smiling, and carefree.

Someone, both inside the camp and outside it, noticed how genuine it was.

Elise smiled, and brought her mending over to Matt and Annesley, while the figure outside the camp frowned.

"Ethis, we have a problem." Keith also noticed Matt's carefree smile. And his own smile crept along his face at the sight of his daughter enjoying herself with Matt. Even if Matt was a boy, he was one Keith was starting to approve of. Aria came back to Matt for a moment and handed him Annesley's bottle,

"I'm too busy right now to nurse, could you feed her?" Matt nodded, how hard could it be? He tried many things to get Annesley to eat, none worked. Eventually Elise took Annesley from Matt, and got her to nurse from the bottle. Elise giggled as Matt watched in wonder when she got Annesley to eat.

"How'd you do it? Teach me your ways."

"It's really quite simple, you just have to know how to hold the baby. Some like to sit, some like to lie down, and others still like to just not eat in the company of strangers." Matt's eyes widened, he never thought a girl who was born in Ethis and raised in the wilderness could know so much about, well, everything Matt didn't know about. Annesley finished in a few minutes, and Elise wrapped her back up. Matt moved from his chair, down onto the blanket Elise had spread out beforehand. A breeze started blowing, it was cold, but not freezing. Annesley started to fuss, and Elise started to sing.

Matt took off his jacket and wrapped it around the two of them, and his arm curled around Elise's shoulder. Elise's voice carried across the wind to Eric and the rest of the camp. Eric ran over to snuggle in by his sister on Matt's lap, while Elise cradled Annesley in her arms. The rest of the adults slowly brought cloth and blankets around everyone, and Keith brought wood. He scraped out a section of the earth and they soon had a fire going. Annesley and Eric's eyes slowly started to droop, even though it was still early in the morning. Matt found himself lulled into a trance by Elise's singing as well. He jarred back awake though, when he noticed Keith smiling at him embracing his daughter. Matt returned the smile.

It's official. Fuck Ethis. I'm not turning them in. This is a good life they've made for themselves. I'm not going to be the one to take that away. Even after just knowing Elise for only a few weeks, I can't imagine a world without her. Matt's thoughts slowly drifted to how to break the news to the twins that he wasn't on board with the mission anymore. But he'd need to do it away from the camp, so if the twins reacted badly, he wouldn't put the families in danger. So he wouldn't put Elise in danger. He'd worry about that later.