Chapter One: The Caregiver

When asked why Esme had decided to move across the Atlantic and settle into LaGrange, Georgia in the United States... she would simply answer that she had needed a change of scenery. Her boss, after the two of them had crashed from a sugar high one Christmas, had once asked why Esme hadn't simply moved somewhere else in Europe, or at least to another Spanish-speaking nation (like in South America, the woman was obsessed with visiting the Carribean one day). Esme had been quiet at first before responding to the hippie-children-loving woman, that she was running away from anything that vaguely resembled her childhood. Her boss and friend, Daisy Hearth, never brought it up again.

Esmerelda Cavallero had arrived to the United States with one luggage carrying all of her worldly possessions and $700 in cash that she'd fought for viciously in her wallet. She had lucked out when she'd been seated next to Daisy and her equally hippie-husband Mitch on her flight from Barcelona, Spain to Atlanta, Georgia.

Despite Esme's initial struggle in translating Daisy's accented English, that she later learned from exposure was a soft country drawl, into her own native language and then respond to Daisy's inane babbling... they had quickly bonded over the flight. Esme had been nineteen then and her unintentional glassy doe eyes and childish face had apparently awoken Daisy's maternal instincts, which were only further fueled by Esme's badly concealed bruises and severe dislike for body contact. Daisy had promptly 'adopted' her, much to her bafflement and Mitch's amusement, halfway through the flight. By the time that they had arrived in Atlanta, the woman had convinced Esme to follow her and Mitch back to their hometown in LaGrange and work at the woman's daycare.

It was only after a year or so had passed that Mitch had confided in her that lazy Christmas morning that Esme looked eerily like Daisy's deceased little sister. Violet had been killed by her abusive boyfriend two years before she had met the hippie couple, and Daisy had never forgiven herself for not saving her baby sister. It was needless to say that Esme had finally understood why Daisy was extremely nosy and clingy with her for a boss. (The fact that Esme had finally let go of the last barriers between her and Daisy, accepting the redhead and her husband completely into her life, was completely unrelated Mitch! Shut Up!).

She lived happily for probably the first time in her life in the small sound-proofed studio apartment above the hippie daycare for five years. Her days were spent working in the infant room, where she would care for and practically raise tiny pink and wrinkly babies into toddlerhood, tending to the various gardens that the daycare had in their fenced backyard (again Daisy and Mitch were hippies, and no she wasn't converting no matter how many interventions the couple threw her, and practically all of the parents that dropped their kids off were hippies to an extent as well and expected for their little bundles to eat fresh veggies and fruits daily), canning fruits and veggies for the winter, cleaning up after the kids and using her free days to laze around with her two-year-old orange tabby-cat Bailey.

She had become a certified and vetted wetnurse two years into working at the daycare after one of her baby's (because in the end, the kids she cared for were her babies in a way) mama's died in a car accident when the little thing was only a month old. Donny had been devastated with the death of his wife and had wanted for tiny little Oliver to continue to be breastfed like his wife had wanted, so Esme had volunteered when it looked like no other breastfeeding mama stepped up. It hadn't been too difficult to induce lactation despite never having been pregnant, it only took two weeks in order for her milk to come in and since then it was an added service she could provide for the babies under her care if the parents wanted it. Needless to say, Esme became almost infamous in their small town for her service and was well known to families with young children.

She hadn't always been very comfortable with breastfeeding or even having it offered as a part of her normal services in the daycare, but she grew to enjoy the closeness that came with the act. It became a way that she bonded with the babies in her unit, even after they left her room or even 'graduated' from the daycare. Esme was still invited to Oliver's birthday every year, and the little boy (now in kindergarten) would often visit her with his dad when the man wasn't too busy. Donny often sent her funny or sweet videos of Oliver and even invite her over for family barbeques.

In a strange way, it had helped Esme heal. She had never felt comfortable in her own skin. Childhood traumas and the heavy hand of her father saw to that. But the ability to feed a tiny little person, who would stare up at her with complete trust and love in their beautiful big eyes... It was magical and probably the most beautiful thing she had the ability to do.

Besides, it was like the children in the daycare were her babies. She'd never had a stable family life and didn't think that she would ever be able to trust a man in order to have a family of her own (like she secretly craved), so that void in her life was fulfilled by working at the daycare. Esme had become the wetnurse, a caregiver, a friend, someone to be completely trusted with children. Someone that belonged. She had grown to love her simple life in LaGrange Georgia.

Naturally, everything fell apart.

Words: 1,000

(Don't judge me).

(I dreamt of this storyline last night and it wouldn't leave me alone).

(Yes, I know I need to update my other fics).