//------------------------------// // Chapter 71 // Story: Pandemic: Picking up the Pieces // by Halira //------------------------------// Devon was feeling upbeat as she worked on packing the bedroom. She finally had gotten to get a change of clothes and wash her hair properly with shampoo and conditioner. For the first time in days she felt completely clean and it improved her general mood dramatically. Jessie followed close by her as she worked, watching her activity with keen interest. Devon had earlier had to stop what she was doing to do a thorough trash pick up around the room because Jessie had decided to make herself helpful by bringing to her every little bit of scrap of anything the filly could grab in her mouth. Jessie had initially been very upset when she no longer had scraps of paper and discarded tissues to bring to Devon to pack up, but seemed to have gotten over this now. Now Devon sat going through what was essentially a junk drawer at the top of her dresser trying to separate out what was unneeded from what ended up going to Riverview. The issue was she kept coming across photos that had been put into the drawer. Paul had this old Polaroid camera and a large amount of film for it that he had gotten from a local garage sale. As a result there were lots of Polaroid photos of her and Robby that she kept coming across and looking over. She looked over the photos of old birthday parties for Robby. Here was one from his first birthday. Robby was coated in chocolate cake that he had decided to mush up and smear on everything rather than eat. He looked completely proud of himself and happy despite having chocolate smeared all over his highchair, face, hands, and hair. He had the biggest grin on his face as he faced the camera with chocolaty hands spread wide as if showing his handiwork to all. Another photo showed his first day of kindergarten. He was wearing a shirt showing one of those weird sci-fi pirate ships from the recent live action remake of Treasure Planet which had been really popular the summer before he started school. He was squinting at the camera and she remembered that he had been due for an optometrist appointment before ETS broke out because they were worried he might have some vision problems. Vision problems seemed unlikely to be a problem anymore, or at least Devon hoped. With her son now having much larger eyes she wasn't sure what could be done about glasses. Speaking of glasses she was going to have to figure out where to get new contacts for herself. She'd been running without her perscription contacts since shortly after Jessie's birth and she really needed those before the new school year started in the fall, preferably before then. This was going to be an interesting school year as she was going to have to figure out how to redesign some of her staple lesson plans to accommodate students with no hands. Sure there wasn't much writing to do in art class, but there were common tasks like folding paper and cutting things with scissors that she wasn't sure how or if a foal was capable of accomplishing. She had a feeling there would be a lot of drawing going on. Perhaps she could try shaping clay? Maybe that could be done with hooves? She shook her head. She'd just have to figure these things out on her feet, or maybe try some things out with Robby and see what he was capable of doing. What he was capable of doing in any set of tasks was still a pretty big mystery. She had gotten comfortable with the idea of him holding objects in his hooves and had gotten some idea how he could do other tasks by watching other ponies doing them. There was a lot that still seemed impossible for him though. She didn't want to treat him like he was crippled but the tendency to think that way was there. The abilities he had gained might balance them out, but they weren't easily noticable to her. His hearing was much better than human hearing, but human hearing was good enough on it's own. He would eventually be able to fly, but that wasn't something he was able to do now and didn't translate into any job skill for most jobs. His biggest new ability was the dreamwalking, and that still unnerved her more than anything else. Before Paul had laid down on the couch to try to get some sleep he had let her know that Robby had been talking to her mother in his dreams on the car ride here. The fact that this wasn't simply a dream but him really talking to his grandmother was a problem that neither she her or Paul knew how to deal with. Her mother was so changed in personality that until she had a better idea what she was dealing with when dealing with her mother she really didn't want Robby spending a lot of time with her. There was just no telling what kinds of ideas her mother would put into his head. It hurt that she didn't trust her mother, but the fact was she didn't at the moment. "Momma?" She turned to the doorway and saw Robby looking distressed. "Honey, what's wrong?" She asked as she walked over to him. Robby started crying. "Miss Phobia made me stay in my dreams today. She wouldn't let me dreamwalk." Devon put a hand to her mouth and considered this. She wouldn't consider this a bad thing, but it clearly had him upset. "Did she say why you weren't allowed to dreamwalk?" Robby wiped his eyes. "She said something important was happening that all the other night ponies were going to watch, but that I was too little and she didn't want me watching." The trial. There was supposed to be some sort of trial or something today. Phobia had been very vague about it. Something about a night pony being punished. Whatever it was, it probably wasn't something Robby should have been watching. She gave the Dreamwarden a silent thanks in her head for taking the time to think about Robby. "Well, I'm sure it would just be adult things that you would find very boring. You wouldn't have wanted to be there anyway," Devon assured him. "But she locked me in my dream so I couldn't go anywhere, and only let me out right before I woke up. It was like being grounded, only worse. It wasn't fair," Robby pouted. "You've gone most of your life without dreamwalking. I'm sure that a few hours asleep not being able to isn't the worst thing in the world," Devon assured him. "You just don't understand. If you were a night pony you'd understand," Robby cried as he retreated from the room. There it was, one of the most dreaded comments that she could get from Robby. She knew that he didn't mean it the way she was taking it, but it hurt all the same. She'd been doing really well, building up her confidence about dealing with foals despite worry hanging like a shadow around the edges of her thoughts. Now it came crashing back down on her again with the bitter reminder that there were things that she just didn't and couldn't understand. The normal list of self-reprimandations started playing through her head. She should have been more careful during her pregnancy so Jessie would have been born on time. She didn't know what she did wrong, but she must have done something. They should have kept Robby with them at the hospital rather than have someone else watch him. They should have argued to be infected too when it became clear this was transforming humans, just so they could follow along with their children. She should be pushing Robby to rehumanize rather than letting a child make that kind of choice. She sat down on the bed and grabbed a pillow. She then put it up to her face and screamed into it for a good few seconds to vent her frustrations. A strange sound made her pull the pillow from her face. Down near her legs Jessie had buried her muzzle into the side of the bed and was letting off a muffled high pitch squeal in imitation of Devon. Devon bit down on her lip as she looked at her daughter and couldn't help the urge to start laughing. The little filly looked up at her and gave off a now happy squeal that she had seemingly pleased her mother. Devon smiled as she reached down and picked her daughter off the floor and sat her on the bed. She then brushed some stray mane that was starting to fall into Jessie's eyes. "Momma's going to have to give you a haircut, baby girl," she said as she continued to push stray hairs from Jessie's eyes. The little filly's eyes drifted to Devon's hand, watching it closely. Devon's breath caught as Jessie then brought a forehoof up and examined it turn. It seemed that she couldn't catch a break from her foals noting that she wasn't like them. This time there was no jealous for attention pegasus foal to distract Jessie. She brought her hand down to be next to Jessie's hoof so the filly could see them side by side. The earlier Jessie started figuring this out the less chance there would be some sort of backlash later. Teaching a child that was not even a full two months old these things seemed ludicrous, but Jessie had shown she had far greater understanding of things than her age would normally allow. Ponies might develop language comprehension skills earlier than humans, but they also were supposed to develop speaking skills later than a human would. Jessie had already said her first word despite that and was just now trying to emulate actions. It was clear evidence rather than simple parental pride that said Jessie was gifted with exceptional intelligence. "Momma's different than you, baby girl. I'm not going to try to stop you from figuring that out," she said in a low voice. The filly held her hoof over Devon's fingers examining the differences carefully. She did a few hesitant touches of her hoof to Devon's fingers and Devon spread them wide. The filly frowned at her hoof and tried to puzzle out how to copy the action, but clearly was at a loss on how to do so. Before Jessie could get upset about her failure to spread her non-existent fingers, Devon brought her fingers back together and raised her palm of her hand for Jessie to look at. The filly blinked and raised her hoof up and touched it to Devon's palm like a pony giving greetings. "That's how you're suppose to say hello," Devon instructed. She wasn't sure if Jessie was capable of understanding the concept of a greeting, but maybe she should encourage Robby and Paul to start greeting her that way so the concept would take hold. She had a feeling Jessie would get the idea down quickly as long as everyone was consistent with it. Jessie patted her hoof against the hand a few times and looked at her expectantly. "Very good, you're such a smart filly, baby girl. Momma loves you so much," Devon said with a smile. "Momna?" Jessie said inquisitively as she tapped her hoof on the hand a few more times. Devon's breath caught again as Jessie uttered her second slightly garbled word, though a far more clear one than her first had been. Devon grinned widely. "That's right! I'm Momma." She brought her other hand around so Jessie could see it then laid the hand on her chest. "Momma." Then she took the hand and touched Jessie's side with it. "Jessie." Jessie blinked and seemed to be trying to figure this out. Devon pulled Jessie into her lap to try again. She gently took Jessie's hoof and touched it to her chest. "Momma." She then moved the hoof back to Jessie. "Jessie." Then released the hoof. Jessie then tried to copy the action touching her hoof to Devon's chest. "Momna?" Devon nodded with excitement. "Yes, that's right." Jessie brought her hoof back to herself. "Yezzee?" Devon clapped her hands and cheered. "Yes! You're Jessie! That's three words for you now. You're so incredibly smart. I'm so proud of you." The filly laughed and squealed at Devon's enthusiasm and praise. And repeated the word happily while giggling and squirming. "Yezzee, Yezzee!" "What's wrong?" She heard Robby say as he came hurrying into the room with his wings outspread. Jessie pointed a hoof at Robby and excitedly identified him. "Baba!" "Very good, again!" Devon praised her daughter. "That's your brother." She then turned to Robby. "You're little sister is learning new words. She learned to say momma and her name. Can you do me a favor and come over here to hoof touch her. I want her to try getting the idea of greeting embedded." Robby looked at her in confusion. "Um, I don't know what that means--embedded." Devon smiled. "It means I want her to firmly understand that she's supposed to say hello like that. Come greet me first then greet your sister." "Oh, okay," Robby said as he obediently came forward. Devon reached down and extended her palm out for Robby. Robby put her hoof up to it and touched it. She then withdrew her hand and grabbed up Jessie and held her out towards Robby. Robby extended a hoof out to her and Jessie looked at it in confusion. "Touch his hoof, Jessie. Say hello to your baba," Devon instructed. "Baba!" Jessie said in excitement at hearing her word for Robby, she still didn't hoof bump him though. Devon sighed and set Jessie back down on the bed. Well, Jessie couldn't be expected to figure everything out right away. Still, tripling her vocabulary was a huge achievement. She looked at her son. "Is your dad awake yet?" Robby shook his head. "I don't think so. I can hear him snoring right now." Devon couldn't hear anything, but took her son's word for it. "Well, I'm going to see about waking him up and getting us dinner. I want you to go to your room and start getting all your toys you have sorted into two piles. The ones you want to keep and the ones that you want to give away. Can you do that for me?" Robby's ears flattened. "I have to give away my toys?" "Only the ones you don't want." "Why wouldn't I want my toys?" Robby asked in confusion. Devon considered a gentle way of saying it, but decided that there just wasn't a good way of doing so. "Because some of your toys might be harder for you to play with now that you don't have hands. Or you might have just lost interest in some of them. I promise that after we move I'll find you a bunch of new toys you'll like much better, but you have to make room for me to give them to you. Can you try doing that for me?" Robby looked doubtful. "Okay... I'll try, but I'm not sure I want to give up any of my toys." She could already think of a few that would be a struggle for him to use, electronic toys with buttons that were too close together and too small for him to easily manipulate with hooves. Maybe she should sit down with him later and go over each one with him. She'd promised herself that she wasn't going to pressure him to rehumanize, but showing him in a balanced way what he lost by staying a pony to what he gained by staying one seemed like a good idea. It wasn't right that she not give him a well rounded view of both. As Robby left for his room she carefully set Jessie back down on the floor before standing back up. "Come on, baby girl. It's time to wake your daddy up and see about getting everyone some food. Maybe we can see if you can deal with a little solid food now that you're almost two months old," Devon said. Most of that probably didn't register to Jessie, but she had heard come on baby girl enough times to know what that meant. The filly stood up and ready to follow. Devon walked out of the bedroom with Jessie hot on her heels. A quick glance in Robby's bedroom showed that he was doing as instructed. The colt was currently making a pile of action figures in one corner, and it was unclear with the scattered mess in the room if there was a second pile yet. She spied a few things that would probably need to go into that second pile; a football and a whiffle bat. The football in particular she saw no functional way he could throw and trying catching it might seriously hurt him. She walked into the living room and found that Paul was indeed passed out on the couch with the television still on Cartoon Network for the sake of Robby. She came over and gave Paul a light shake. "Wake up. I need you to watch the foals so I can see about making dinner." "Can't we just call in some delivery?" Paul muttered sleepily. "I'm not sure who has delivery services actually working. Most the people that did those kinds of jobs ended up getting ETS. Any job that had a lot of contact with a lot of different people is kind of decimated on workforce right now," Devon said calmly. "Chinese place down the street had a sign up saying they were still doing deliveries," Paul said as he rolled over and faced her. "We can order noodles and rice for Robby and something with chicken in it for us." "Some meat would be nice," Devon admitted. Most of the food they had in the house was canned vegetables, mac n cheese, and cereal. There was some fish, but she was pretty sure it was freezer burned. She didn't want to be cooking meat with the foals around either, since that would probably kill their appetites. Stuff that was already cooked had less of a strong smell though. "Okay, I'll give them a call," Devon conceeded, "but we can't make a habit of this. We don't have incomes at the moment, and I don't have any easy access to the money we were loaned unless we drive back to Riverview to get it. All we have is what was in the bank before all this started, and there's only a few hundred dollars to get us through the month." Paul sat up. "Well, we could try shortening it from a month. If we push hard we could probably have everything ready to go in two weeks. Not sure if the house in Riverview will be ready to receive our stuff by then, but we could figure something out." Devon shook her head. "No, if we finish early we should probably help Amanda and Tom out. They could use some extra hands...no pun intended." "We'll watch our spending then," Paul replied. "Robby say anything about visitations in his dreams?" "Phobia apparently locked him in his dream while that trial thing was happening." "Good," Paul said as he sat up. "There's no reason to expose him to that crap yet." Devon sat down beside him. "He was really distressed about it though. I honestly don't know how big a deal it is to have him confined to his dreams now that he's dreamwalking." "He's probably just being a kid and overreacting," Paul assured her. Devon sighed. "Hopefully." She then smiled and pointed to Jessie. "Your daughter learned some new words. She said momma...or momna anyway, and can almost say her name. She can't get her s or j sounds out right, but she's clearly trying to say her name." Paul smiled and turned to bend down to the filly. "Is that so? Who's the smart little filly?" Jessie giggled. "Yezzee!" Paul blinked. "Wow... didn't actually expect her to answer. Do you think she really understood the question?" Devon shrugged. "I'm not sure. What she understands seems to be hit or miss. She's clearly learning really fast though. I have a feeling she'll be a bit of a chatterbox well before she's two. She's picking up on things even faster than what the ponies described as normal. I think her IQ might be well above normal." Paul grinned and ruffled Jessie's mane. "Who's the little genius?" "Yezzee!" Jessie said with delight. Paul laughed. "Not lacking in ego either, are you?" Jessie sat and blinked, the unfamiliar word clearly confusing her. "We need to keep talking to her as much as we can, but watch what we say," Devon said. "No cursing, period. She's a regular sponge and I don't want her picking up any foul language she overhears. Not even in private. You know how good pony ears are. If she's nearby she can hear you." Paul frowned. "We probably need to keep her strictly in the house while we're here too. If we need groceries one of us should stay home with her and Robby." Devon raised an eyebrow. "Why? They're both well behaved. They won't be a problem in public." "I'm not concerned about them misbehaving. I'm concerned about random strangers misbehaving." Devon frowned. "They're foals, do you really think people would treat children badly without in public?" "There's still a lot of hostility around here for ponies, Devon. Until they get back to Riverview I think it's better they keep out of sight." Devon crossed her arms. "I'm not going to be ashamed to show my children in public." Paul shook his head. "It's not that, I'm concerned with exposing them to that kind of hate. Jessie is perfectly innocent right now. To her, humans aren't threatening. Robby, it's the same. Do you want them getting exposed to that kind of thing and start fearing humans as a result? I'd rather shelter them from it if we can." Devon dropped her voice down and brought her mouth close to Paul. "Robby can hear us. You're already exposing him to the idea that humans might he hostile to him." Paul frowned. "I didn't tell you about how he reacted to the movie we were watching the last night. He might already be getting a negative view of humans, with some exceptions." "What were you watching?" Devon asked. "Some anime." Devon gave her husband a punch in the arm. "Why the..." She looked down at Jessie briefly. "...fudge would you let him be watching that at his age? Just because it's a cartoon doesn't mean it's age appropriate!" Paul rubbed his arm. "Robby was getting bored with the other options. You know how he is now. He's looking for something with more action. The violence didn't seem to bother him at all. You know night ponies are naturally more aggressive." "That doesn't mean we have to desensitize him to violence!" She hissed at her husband. "We also don't want him learning violence is okay." "He's a night pony, he seems already pretty desensitized to violence. He's going to be more rough and tumble as time goes on. It's what he is," Paul insisted. Devon growled. "This is your...fudging...sister's influence on your thinking at work. We have a responsibility to teach him not to be violent." "Fudding!" Jessie shouted. Devon squeezed her eyes shut and pinched the bridge of her nose between her fingers. Paul was silent for a moment then could be heard trying to suppress laughter. "It's not funny," Devon said flatly. "It's actually very fudging funny," Paul giggled. "You really fudged that one up." "Fudding!" Jessie repeated. She shook her head and stood up. "We'll continue this conversation later. I'm just going to drive down to the Chinese place and pick up the food myself. No more anime or other violent shows." Paul looked at her sheepishly and nodded. "Okay, maybe we can watch some cooking shows instead..." Devon scowled. "Don't even say it." "They might have some great fudge recipes." "Fudding!" Jessie sounded off again. Devon groaned and went to go get her purse. Paul was as bad as a child sometimes.