TWD - Zomboid - Chapter 258: Rebecca and Jade (Patreon)

But Maggie's stomach had shown no signs of change for a long time.

And it wasn't just her.

Rosita was the same.

Was Luke really okay?

Maggie couldn't help wondering, but she couldn't exactly drag Luke to the hospital for an examination. He was the leader, after all. What if the leader really was infertile...

And then there was that damn girl Beth!

She couldn't wait even a little. The moment Maggie wasn't around, she'd gone and made her move.

If word of this ever reached Hershel, Luke wouldn't be the only one in trouble. Maggie would probably get chewed out too for being the older sister.

Maggie rubbed her brow.

What a headache.

Before the apocalypse, she never would have even entertained this kind of situation. Divorce had never been an option for Maggie. As far as she was concerned, the only way a marriage ended was through widowhood.

But Luke really was exceptional.

He was unquestionably a capable leader. Aside from being a womanizer, he was almost impossible to fault.

"Knock, knock, knock!"

Someone knocked on the door.

"I'll get it."

Maggie went to answer.

Rebecca stood outside.

She had a bag slung over one arm, and when she shifted it, the contents clinked together like bottles and glassware.

"Hi, Maggie." Rebecca wasn't wearing her glasses outside the lab, which made her look a little less scholarly.

She greeted her politely. "Is Luke home? I need to talk to him about... some research."

Maggie glanced back at Luke with a meaningful look.

Luke immediately went numb.

Seriously?

She had followed him all the way home?

That was a little much, Rebecca!

Maggie stepped aside with the perfectly pleasant smile of a gracious hostess.

Research, huh?

This was a man who got sleepy just looking at a book, and Rebecca wanted to talk research with him?

"He's here, Dr. Rebecca. Come in!" Maggie's smile was almost frighteningly polite.

Luke: "..."

He was screwed.

This had gone way beyond the blood draw.

Rebecca entered the living room. She had come with nothing but blood samples on her mind, but the moment she saw everyone inside, she froze.

She had heard plenty about Luke.

Apparently, the leader of the Commonwealth had quite a few women around him.

Among their circle, it was practically an open secret. Spending all day buried in a laboratory got boring, so naturally there was plenty of gossip behind people's backs, and Rebecca was hardly innocent when it came to that.

She was naturally curious, and Eugene had told her quite a few things.

But hearing about it was one thing.

Seeing it for herself was something else entirely.

Impressive.

Rebecca stared in amazement.

Maggie was obviously the one with the most authority here. Then there was Rosita, who was looking at her with open suspicion.

And in the corner...

The seemingly innocent younger sister-in-law wasn't quite as harmless as she looked either. She was hugging a big white dog with a sweet expression, but her eyes kept drifting toward Rebecca.

Three.

Three women under one roof.

And that wasn't even counting the aloof female agent.

What was even stranger was that there wasn't the slightest hint of open jealousy or hostility between them.

Maggie looked perfectly composed, the fiery Latina seemed content to watch the show, and the younger girl sat there hugging the dog.

The whole scene felt absurdly unreal.

"Dr. Rebecca, have a seat!" Maggie said warmly as she poured her a glass of water.

"You've been in the Commonwealth for a while now. Are you getting used to living here?"

"Very much!" Rebecca quickly recovered and slipped into polite conversation. "Luke's taken very good care of me. The laboratory and housing he arranged are both excellent. I've been very comfortable here!"

"...Very comfortable, huh?"

Rosita lounged on the sofa and slowly repeated the key phrase.

"Speaking of Luke taking care of people..."

She glanced at Luke, who was pretending not to exist.

"All of us here have been receiving plenty of his care too."

Rebecca paused.

She had meant professional support.

But the way Rosita said it...

Why did it suddenly sound so wrong?

"Exactly."

Maggie lifted her cup and took a small sip.

"Our whole family has benefited from his care. Life has been going very well for us."

Rebecca: "..."

She suddenly felt like the room was getting a little too warm.

Meanwhile, Luke, the man who had apparently been "taking care" of everyone, was curled up at the other end of the sofa, doing his best to ignore everything and go back to sleep.

"Knock, knock, knock!"

Another knock sounded at the door.

Luke raised his head, assuming Deanna had arrived, and immediately tried to make his escape.

Maggie beat him to the door and blocked his path.

"Trying to run now? Isn't it a little late for that? Sit back down."

But it wasn't Deanna outside.

It was Jade.

She stood tall in a baseball cap, looking confident and athletic.

Jade wasn't on duty today.

"Luke?"

Jade looked momentarily surprised when Maggie answered the door instead. Then she noticed the others inside.

"Oh?" Maggie said, her expression amused. "You came to ask Luke out too?"

Apparently, there was another one.

Jade didn't understand the implication. She simply raised the bottle of red wine in her hand.

"I came to... thank Luke. If it weren't for him, Crane could've caused a lot of damage. As someone from the Tower, I thought I should come by and thank him properly."

The longer Jade spoke, the less confident she sounded.

Her gratitude wasn't entirely straightforward, though even she couldn't explain exactly why she'd come.

Maybe it was because Rahim was so rebellious that talking to her own younger brother usually went nowhere.

And it was her day off. She had nowhere else to go, and staying home alone was boring.

Back when they were at the farm camp, everyone saw each other constantly. But after moving into the Commonwealth, everyone became busy with their own responsibilities, and somehow they had ended up seeing less of each other.

Deep down, Jade did have a faint, complicated fondness for the man who had once charged into a sea of walkers to rescue her companions from the Tower.

But that was all it was.

A little fondness.

She had never seriously thought about stealing him away from anyone.

She had just happened to pass by his house.

Yes.

Just happened to pass by.

"I see. Then you definitely should thank him properly. Come in, have a seat." Maggie's smile became even more gracious.

Jade handed her the bottle.

"Oh, you're being generous. This isn't cheap." Maggie accepted the wine, her expression shifting slightly. "Quite a gift."

Fine wine was a luxury even in the Commonwealth.

Most ordinary households would never spend money on something like this.

Jade was now Chief of Staff of the white-armored soldiers and oversaw several squads, but she wasn't exactly wealthy enough to casually buy expensive wine.

Even as a gift.

"Go ahead and sit wherever you like. Look how lively the house is today. It's even busier than the old farm used to be."

Jade walked into the living room and sat beside Rebecca.

Rebecca gave her a polite nod.

Both women immediately sensed something was off.

They were all women. It wasn't hard to read the room.

Maggie, Rosita, and Beth were all smiling.

Even the curve of their lips looked strangely similar.

Anyone walking in without context might have thought they'd stepped into some kind of haunted house.

This was...

Really damn awkward.

Rebecca and Jade exchanged a look.

Had they somehow been misunderstood?

Rebecca was the first one who couldn't take it anymore.

Because she genuinely had no such intentions.

And even if she did, she certainly wouldn't show up at the man's home and openly provoke the women already living there.

Wouldn't that be ridiculously brazen?