Chapter Twenty-Two #3
“Can I get a picture? We can do a before and after.”
Peabody pulled out her ’link; Eve started to step away.
“Stay with me.” Mavis’s hand clamped down on Eve’s. “You look excellanté.”
The photo would show Eve’s eyes as wild as Leonardo’s while Mavis sat in bed, serene.
“My water just broke,” she told her new doctors as they came out of the en suite.
“Let’s have a look.”
When Louise drew back the sheet, Roarke slapped a hand over his eyes.
“Sweet Jesus. For the love of God. How is such a thing possible? Why is it possible?”
“Because women are warriors,” Mira told him. “All of them.”
“Baby’s crowning. This one’s in a hurry.”
“Wants to party. Hears the music. Avenue A is kicking it supreme. Oh boy, here we go again!”
“Pant,” Mira told her. “You’re doing so well.”
She did so well for what seemed to Eve the rest of her natural life. While women’s voices came with encouraging words, while the fire simmered, and Mavis’s hand squeezed like flesh-covered pliers on hers, and Avenue A continued to kick it.
Phoebe moved in, dabbed Mavis’s face with a cloth.
“It’s push time, Mama. Leonardo, get in behind her, support her. Ready on the next contraction?” Louise asked.
Though her eyes looked more fierce than happy now, Mavis let out a giggle. “Oh yeah, fucking yeah. Oops, don’t swear around the baby.”
She pushed, panted, pushed, panted. Eve felt another lifetime pass. Phoebe gave Roarke a tube of water.
“Thanks. I’ll be pretending it’s whiskey.”
“Birthing’s as natural as sunrise.”
“Big push,” Mira said.
And with it, a head popped out of Mavis’s body.
“Ah, look at that face, that sweet, perfect face. All that hair!”
Roarke shook his head at Phoebe. “Natural? I don’t think so.”
“Gather it up, Mavis. Next one’s the money shot.” With her hands cradling the head, Louise looked into Mavis’s eyes. “Big breath in on the next, then big push.”
“I’m ready, I’m ready. Moonpie, Daddy, the hair. It’s your hair. Here goes!”
Eve barely felt the squeeze; her hand had gone numb long before.
She watched as a human being, tiny, already screaming, slid out of Mavis and into Louise’s hands.
“You have another daughter. An absolutely beautiful baby girl. With her mother’s lungs.”
With the towels, Louise wiped away some of the gunk babies apparently slid out with while Mira clamped the cord.
“Leonardo, would you like to cut the cord?”
With his face pressed against Mavis’s shoulder and tears streaming, he shook his head.
“Mama’s here, my baby girl.” Mavis reached for her new daughter. “Peabody? Would you?”
“Sure.” She knuckled tears of her own away.
“Phoebe, could you clean the baby up? We’ll give her right back,” Louise promised. “Phoebe will clean her up, Mira will take a good look at her. I’m going to deliver the placenta.”
“We’re going to plant a tree, bury it and plant a tree in the yard.” Mavis leaned back against Leonardo, lifted a hand to stroke his head. Then looked at Eve with a smile so beautiful it stung the eyes.
“I have more than I ever dreamed of, and I could dream really major dreams. Number Two’s beautiful, isn’t she?”
“That she is.” Now that the trauma had passed, Roarke looked at the wriggling baby over Mira’s shoulder. “A sultry beauty to go with the sunshine of her older sister.”
“Beautiful, healthy, perfect,” Mira said, and brought the swaddled baby back to her mother.
“Can’t call her Number Two forever,” Eve commented. “Kid needs a name, Mavis.”
“She has one.”
“Placenta delivered. Also perfect. Good job all around, Mavis.”
“Peabody, after picture. Then I want somebody to get Bella, so she can meet her sister, and we’ll do a full family photo.”
Leonardo lifted his head. “My girl.” He brushed his finger over the tiny cheek. “My precious girl.”
“Welcome home.” Mavis bent her head, kissed her daughter. “Adora Dee.”
“Oh.” Peabody lowered the ’link and blubbered. “Oh.”
“All our children are going to carry family middle names.”
“It’s a beautiful name.” Phoebe stroked Peabody’s back. “A beautiful family. The brightest of bright blessings on you all. I’ll go get Bella so it’s complete.”
“Could you ask McNab to come up, too?”
“You should probably rest or something,” Eve began.
“Could you wait? Everybody? After the family portrait, I’d really like one with the whole birthing team. McNab could take it, and he needs to meet Adora Dee.”
Phoebe carried the sleepy Bella in with McNab beside her.
He just grinned. “You had some party up here. Look at that. You got sunshine and moonlight.”
“Say welcome home to your sister, Bellamina.”
“Baby.” Bella woke all the way up to stare, to stroke fingers over the baby’s cheek. “Baby. Mine.”
“Ours,” Leonardo said. “Hello, Adora Dee.”
“Dordee.”
“Close enough.” Mavis kissed Bella’s head. “We’ll work on it.”
“I got three really good pictures.” Peabody wiped another tear away as McNab hugged her.
“McNab, would you take one? I want everyone who helped welcome Adora Dee home to her family in this one, too.”
“Got you covered. Move in, everybody. Smile!”
With her oldest friend beaming like the sun as she held both her daughters, Eve thought, how could she not?