Heart and Soul [the walking dead]

Wash Day

Tell It To The Frogs (season 1 episode 3)
*MENTIONS OF ABUSE*

Water.

That's all that covered Nadia's hands as she stood beside her mother, helping her with laundry.

Nadia always helped Carol with morning laundry, she found it calming, slightly annoying but calming, plus Carol and Lori are the only ones who do it.
Sometimes Amy and Jacqui help but they have other chores to do.

She didn't want the whole camp to just rely on two women to clean all of their clothes.

She was mostly annoyed by the duty because of the stereotypes, women had to clean, cook and take care of the children when the men worked.

She always hated that dynamic, but she had been raised in a house where it was expected. She had sworn to herself that she was not going to turn out like her mother, as much as she loved her she would not settle for a life she did not deserve.

She mostly does it because of her mother. She's the sweetest person but she is never appreciated enough, Nadia and Sophia had always tried to make sure she knew that they appreciated all that she did for them but it wasn't always enough. Her father had made her feel so unappreciated that she believed nothing she ever did was good enough for anyone.

He's a bully to the three of them. He treats them terribly and Nadia always assumed a grown man would have grown out of childish and destructive tendencies, when he had grown into a man. But it seems they have gotten worse over time. He was the worst kind of person, not only did he beat his wife but also his children.

She had just guessed that he never grew up. He was a boy certainly not a man.

It was just then, she noticed a large bruise covering her mothers arm. It was a dark purple with faint blush of pink covering the wound, she had also noticed how her face would scrunch up ever so often when she would use her left arm.

Nadia's eyes watered, at the pained look on her mothers face, wondering when it had happened as she hadn't seen a thing.

As her mother turned to face her, she closed her eyes as her tears slowly faded to nothing. It was a skill she had captured at a young age in fear her and her sister would be ripped away from the home and be separated, if anyone outside of the family saw how they were being treated. It was her responsibility to make sure that never happened. It would never happen, not on her watch.

As they were doing their normal laundry routine- Carol would feel the clothes to make sure they were dry before she would remove them from the long wire, T-dog and Glenn set up, then she would pass them to Nadia so she could fold them. That's how it had always been, even before everything happened. While of course before there was a washer and dryer instead of having to use the lake and a clothes line.