Chapter Text
The remaining Madrigals took a well-deserved vacation and therapy from all the hard work they put up with for so many years. And…they owed it to the new ones coming along from Pepa and Julieta. Anything from the four former madrigal children like baby clothes and toys from when they were young were stored in a closet in the nursery.
As for pictures, those were put away far within the walls of the house. No adult in the house could look at them knowing those photos were all forced smiles to convey a family that wasn’t even there. Any older clothes that belonged to them were tossed into the walls as well, they couldn’t throw them away, so they just hid them.
With babies along the way, the six madrigals felt as if they were getting a second chance at things. Alma was going to show her new grandchildren unconditional love and support no matter what. Julieta and Agustin were excited to finally be in their children's lives like parents are supposed to be. Pepa and Felix were going to actually care for their children as loving parents should do.
And Isabela was going to be a big hermana mayor to all of them, she owed it to Luisa and most definitely Mirabel. The arranged marriage was off and well…and seeing as the Guzman’s left encanto. There was no one really left to be upset about it. Slowly, she started coming out of her shell more and Alma reassured her that whatever she wanted to do, she had her full support, same for her parents. And no more pink.
Pepa was forever going to be allowed to feel whatever she wanted whether it was a positive or negative emotion. No more “clear skies” bull crap. Felix had her attention the full nine months of her pregnancy and he read up on every childcare book he could get his hands on.
As for watering the fields or plants, the townspeople were told to use the river water that was all around the Encant. To not have parasites, Just boil it and then water them. Plants prefer warm water anyway.
Julieta stopped cooking unless it was for her family or someone had a severe illness. If you had a mere cut you weren’t going to get helped. She barely even wanted to cook anymore, so Felix decided to help out in the kitchen. He’s an excellent chef when he wants to be.
But only knew things and behavior have been going on for about 8 months. There’s still a lot of improvement needed from all of them.
How is the town reacting to it? Some respected the madrigal’s decision and went with it, some others decided to be entitled and felt the need to explain what the Madrigal jobs are. This caused a warning to anyone who felt entitled-
“You have a problem with it, leave. Maybe the jungle will give you what you want and more”
As for the candle? Pedro? Meh, he’s doing…fine? He’s still half the candle he used to be but still going strong. Alma keeps him on her nightstand instead of the window, his weak flame frightens her into thinking he’ll blow out at any moment from wind.
At the moment, Alma sat in her room thinking about the past eight months. Thinking about all the things she should’ve done for the others and what she’s going to do now. And when the baby or babies are born, she'll make sure to mentor Pepa through all of it if she needs to.
The only thing that upset her is that she’ll be too old to play with them now…and Pepa has a high risk of not seeing her kid(s) after pregnancy. Being pregnant at 50 is a high risk that even Julieta’s healing food can’t help.
Alma held the remaining candle in her hands and inhaled deeply. She knows she shouldn’t be asking for anything at this point but she needs Pedro to at least consider it.
“Pedro…if you can hear me and forgive me, please, let my daughter live to care for her new children. Please give her that second chance, I promise on my life that I’ll be the best mother and grandmother I could ever be”
And with that, Alma went to bed with a heavy but determined heart. A heart that wants to prove she can love unconditionally before she passes.
While in a deep sleep, she dreamed about her life as a young adult all the way up to her 50’s. How she started from a happy young woman with her husband to an angry widow that never grieved properly. She dreamed of the day she got married to him and the day she announced her pregnancy to him.
She dreamed of the very day her husband died…but something changed. While holding her newborn babies everything went white around her. Like a wide white room, it felt calming yet unnerving at the same time.
“Hello Alma”
Alma jumped and looked back at who spoke. There he was, her husband, still handsome and young like the very day they met and the day he left this earth. Both stared at each other for a few moments. Alma looked at everything in his expression. He wasn’t mad but he wasn’t happy either, disappointed more like.
“P- Pedro?” Alma felt tears run down her cheeks as she reached for him. But she couldn’t move out of the spot she was in. She looked down at her feet and back up at him with a confused look.
“Alma, I’ll forever love you. But you're going to have to give me time to forgive you” he said calmly and continued, “but, I will grant your wish on the condition of the candle being no more. Are you prepared for that, Alma?”
Alma furrowed her brows, not in anger, but sadness. After another second or so, she nodded. She wasn’t upset that the candle was leaving, she was upset that her husband didn't forgive her. Not that she blames him, she’s well aware of the trauma and pain she caused.
“I’m so sorry” she said quietly with tears running down her cheeks.
“I’m not the one you should be apologizing to Alma” he walked up to her, putting his hands on her shoulders, and kissed her forehead.
On the outside of her dream. The little flame of the small candle sparked its final spark and released its last magic into the house.
-
Alma shot up in a cold sweat and looked around, searching for Pedro as if he was going to be there. She looked over at her nightstand to see if the candle was going to be there and it was gone like it was never there in the first place. Alma couldn’t put it in words but…she felt as if a weight had been lifted off her shoulders a bit.
She sighed and got out of bed, readying herself for the day. A quick shower would ease her mind a bit so she did that first. Once she got out and looked in the mirror…something was different. Her hair was darker, the bags under her eyes were gone, and so were the wrinkles.
Alma couldn’t believe it, she was young again, about in her mid 50’s give or take (fifty four). What did Pedro do exactly? She quickly got dressed and ran out of her room. She smelled food so she figured Felix must’ve been cooking.
She ran downstairs and saw her daughters, granddaughter, and son in law sitting at the table talking. She took a second to look at all five of them. Besides Isabela, the daughters and son in laws looked like they were at least in their 20's again. (Pepa and Julieta are 29, Agustin is 27, and Felix is 32)
“Oh Abuela! You’re younger now too!” Isabela smiled
“What do you think happened?” Julieta asked her mother
Alma didn’t quite know how to answer that but she tried, “I wished on something for the benefit of Pepa and…Pedro granted. On the condition of no longer having a candle”
“You spoke to Abuelo?” Isabela’s eyes widened
“...si” Abuela spoke quietly
“What did you wish for” Pepa asked
Alma sighed, “You are…or were fifty years old Pepa, even with Julieta’s food…your pregnancy was still I risk for you. And same to you Julieta, if you chose to have children”
“So, you wished for us to become younger? Pepa raised a brow
“No, I wished that would just…be here for you to raise your children. And I guess the other thing on my mind was being too old to really play with the children or be here long enough for them. He must’ve known that too I suppose” Alma explained
“Oh..well, thank you mama!...I guess we have even more of a second chance” Pepa smiled and got up to hug her mother. Though she had to take her time to get there because of the baby bump.
“No problem mija, I’m just glad you’re gonna be ok at least” Alma hugged her daughter back.
“I’m not sure if this is an off topic but…I think our gifts might be fading” Julieta fiddled with the cuff of her shirt.
“What makes you say that?” Alma raised a brow
“Our doors…they aren’t glowing as much as they were yesterday and, they keep fading in and out”
“Oh…well,” Alma thought to herself for a few moments and then spoke “well, you’ve had them long enough. Forty Five years is a long time to have something as special as a gift”
“But doesn’t the town need my cooking-”
“NO! I’ll speak to an old doctor I used to know, he still studies how to treat fatal injuries or illnesses and teaches his family the same thing. Once I told them that there wasn’t a need for him to do any of it but he gave me a good argument.
When you pass there isn’t a guarantee your healing gift would come back in the next generation or any after that….so I guess he was right to still teach his family that profession.” Alma said softly.
“What will you do?” Pepa asked while combing her braid with her hands.
“I’ll talk to the family and see if they want to open up a clinic for the time being, I’ll even have one built if they need it” Alma looked away in thought, “And when it comes to watering the fields and plants, everyone can take the river water like they are now and life…will carry on” she sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose.
“At least, if the gifts truly fade there won’t be any distractions when it comes to raising the kids,” Agustin shrugged with a nervous smile.
The room fell silent but everybody nodded in agreement. Isabela however was ecstatic, yes, she was grateful for what her abuelo gave her, but she couldn’t be more happy knowing she was one more step to no longer being perfect.
And in her mind, she thinks that if the pedro wants the gifts to go, they gotta go. There isn’t much room to be upset or argue about any of it. On the plus side, it’s just another step closer to becoming an actual normal family.
“Do you think the kids will get gifts? Not that that’s my concern, just asking” Isa asked
“If they do, they do, if they don’t, they don’t” Alma said sternly, “we’ll love them regardless”
-
It’s the last month of Pepa’s pregnancy and her remaining family couldn’t be more happy for her.
The villagers didn’t quite know what to feel, 9 months ago they were told all five madrigal grandchildren left because of what the adults did to them…which most of them don’t really know what they did. Now, one of them is pregnant and about to have another child…which is a tad bit alarming.
What did the FIVE other grandchildren leave for? Were they abused? Mistreated? Something worse? What went on in that magical house?
For investigation purposes, a social worker spoke with the madrigals to have a clear understanding on why five children all collectively decided to leave one house. Alma and the adults told them EVERY single thing that happened and the child or children pepa was having was sort of…their second chance on doing things right this time.
The social worker was skeptical but decided that every month starting from five years old, the child would be visited by a social worker, child psychologist, and child therapist for safety reasons. The madrigals agreed to it, not like they could say no and risk the baby being taken away.
As for socializing, they only come out when they need to at this point. They don’t really owe anything to the town at this point and…they are already ashamed of what they did; they don’t need weird stares adding on to that.
But the real reason was the family photo, the painted one that was right in front of the street they used to walk down to for daily chores. They can’t bear looking at it, that photo showed a family that wasn’t real, a family that came from a story book.
Alma wants the painting redone, no scratch that; removed completely. She was going to let her daughters and son-in-laws stay there with just the former grandchildren being painted over but…her daughters and son-in-laws didn’t deserve to stay on the wall.
They contributed to them leaving and possibly risking their lives to the jungle, no one in the remaining family deserved to be in that painting.The painting didn’t even need to exist anymore.
As for the childrens rooms, besides Isabela’s, they will be boarded up and painted over.
One week, two weeks, three weeks, four…why was this baby taking so long? Everybody’s nerves were so high and the baby just chose to take forever. Pepa felt as if the baby knew what they were doing and purposefully took long to annoy her.
To pass the time, Isabela sewed so many baby clothes for the baby, bought toys, books, just about anything she could. She was dead set on being the best Hermana mayor she could be. When she got the time, she was going to play with them, read to them, dance with them, just about anything to make them happy and feel loved.
Julieta and Agustin did the same, even if it wasn’t their baby, they were going to be like a second mother and father to them. And hopefully, Pepa and Felix will be the same for their ki-
“They're coming! They're coming!” Pepa clapped her hands after her water broke.
Game time.
Felix instantly but safely scooped Pepa up and took her to the nursery where a large bathtub with water sat in the middle. He slowly sat her in the tub and not even a second later, Julieta came in the room with healing food and sedatives.
“I- I’m here with the supplies!” Julieta said as she tried to catch her breath.
Julieta walked in and Alma, Isabela, and Agustin followed. The nursery had always been small so it got crowded in there real quick. Alma took notice of it and decided to speak on it.
“Agustin, Isabela, how about you both prepare the gifts you made for Pepa and the baby?” she said nicely
“Oh, right!” Both Isabela and Agustin said in unison. In the blink of an eye both of them ran out of the nursery to fetch the gifts they made for her.
Agustin had made a beautiful crib made of wood. It had symbols of the family’s gifts, some are there, some aren't. He felt like he had to put both of his youngest daughters' symbols on the crib, just so they can be with the baby in spirit. Camilo’s and Dolores’s symbols were carved into it too, as well as Bruno’s.
He made sure to take his time with it and to put his love into it, he wanted the child to have somewhat of a love force field when it came to the crib. Isabela, with the remains of her gift, used her vines to put the crib in Pepa’s peaceful cloudy room.
After that she got all the cushions, pillows, clothes, and toys and put them around the bed. They were all neatly wrapped in colorful rainbow wrapping paper. As a last gift Gus put a yellow bed in the crib as well as a small blanket for the baby.
Now all they had to do was wait
-
37 hours, a full 37 hours of labor and the little babies were finally here in pepa’s arms. She couldn’t stop crying, she was beyond happy her two little miracles survived in good health. One baby, a little nina, had bright red hair and dark tanned skin. It was a little hard to tell but she looked to have pepa’s nose and eye shape.
She was a loud little thing, a strong and healthy voice that’s for sure. But after she was in her mother’s arms she calmed down with small little sounds escaping her every now and then.
The second baby…looked exactly like camilo when he was a baby. The only difference is the hair being much darker red than his. The nose, cheeks, eye shape, everything about him was Camilo. like HE pushed him out, not Pepa. It was almost as if whoever up there in the clouds did this to spite them.
It creeped Pepa and Felix out a bit but they will still love him.They both wondered if he would grow up to look like him though. It was pretty common for younger siblings to come out looking like the older one, they wondered if that would be the case. There was also something else different about this baby and camilo, apart from the obvious. The baby boy looked…angry? From what Pepa could remember, Camilo came out with a small little smile, a mischievous one even.
This baby looked mad but still held a mischievous vibe about him, a future troublemaker no doubt. But at this point, it’s what they deserved. They had a chance to be happy with a sweet mischievous kid to raise but they just had to ignore him and live the life of luxury.
Now, it’s apparent that this kid will be much more difficult to handle, they could just feel it. But they didn’t want to paint the boy out as a trouble maker too fast, it could honestly just be his resting face. And honestly, if you were comfortable in a nice warm place with no worries and all of a sudden you were yanked out of it into a cold atmosphere…wouldn’t you be scowling too?
The second he came out he was so…still and quiet. They thought he may have been a still born until Alma lightly smacked him on the butt. From the loud scream that erupted from his throat it’s clear that he’s perfectly fine.
After pepa was settled in her cloud bed, Julieta let Agustin and Isabela in her room. Isabela ran up the cloud stairs and up to Pepa’s bed. Felix was holding the little nina and Pepa was holding her nino. Alma was brushing the small little curls on the tiny red haired girls’ head and julieta was doing the same to the little nino. And she didn’t fail to notice how he looked very similar to Camilo.
Isabela calmed herself down and opened her mouth, “what are they?”. This girl tried so hard to not cry tears of joy.
“A boy and a girl” Pepa said with a sleepy tone.
Isabela walked over to Felix and looked at the girl and then the little baby boy. She finally let the tears flow and softly hugged Pepa. Everyone else in the room decided to just let it out and cry too. Two little miracles…a second chance neither of them thought they were gonna have.
“What will you both be naming them?” Alma wiped tears away from her cheeks as she held a soft smile.
“Pepita…and Carlos”
-
what Pepita looks like as far as hair and skin tone (her hair is a little darker though)
And Carlos (the one in the red. edit by crunchyfootwear):
you can also imagine that's what they'll look like when they're older. Side note, both of them were born on February 17th, 1951.