“Mavis, it’s in the bag.”
“There are so many ways to screw up. I used to be such a screw-up. But I came around, right?”
“Yeah, you did.”
“I wanted to say something to you, before everything changes again. Because I know this is going to change everything. A good change. An abso mag change, but still. Dallas, you’re the best person I know.”
“Are you sure you haven’t had drugs already?”
Mavis gave a watery laugh. “I mean it. Leonardo, he’s the sweetest, but you’re the best. You do what’s right, you do what matters, whatever it takes. You’re the first of my family, and you really started me on the road. I wouldn’t be here, wouldn’t be doing this except for you.”
“I think Leonardo had more to do with it.”
Mavis grinned, rubbed her belly. “Yeah, he had the fun part. I love you. We love you.” She took Eve’s hand, laid it on her belly. “I wanted to tell you.”
“Mavis, if I didn’t love you, I’d be a thousand miles from this room.”
“I know.” Now she hooted out a wicked laugh. “It’s kind of a kick to know. But you do what’s right. You do what matters, so you are so completely stuck. Oh, shit, damn, fuck, here comes another one.”
Two hours later, with a little something to take the leading edge off, Mavis was pronounced “ready to push.”
“All right, team.” Randa lifted the tent between Mavis’s legs. “Positions.”
“Why is this my position?” Eve demanded when she was maneuvered to the bottom of the bed.
“Mavis, I want you to take a long deep breath on the next contraction, hold it for the count of ten, and push. Dallas, give her resistance. Leonardo, on the resistance, pull. Roarke, on breathing.”
“It’s coming!”
“Get your breath, and go. Push! One, two…”
“Mag! You’re amazing,” Leonardo declared when the contraction passed. “You’re a miracle. Breathe slow now, sugarcake. You don’t want to hyperventilate.”
“I love you,” Mavis said with her eyes closed and her face slack. “But if you tell me how to breathe one more time, I’ll yank your tongue out of your mouth and strangle you with it. Here it comes again.”
During the next hour, Leonardo bathed Mavis’s face with cool cloths, gave her ice chips, hunched in shame when she snapped at his over-cheery encouragement.
For herself, Eve did her job and looked anywhere but at what was going on below.
“I think we should switch.” She narrowed her eyes at Roarke as Mavis sucked in for the next round.
“There’s no power in heaven or hell that could make me go down there.”
“That’s the way, Mavis,” Randa encouraged. “See, the head.”
Instinctively Roarke glanced at the mirror angled for Mavis. “Oh, God! My eyes.”
Pulling on the bright red strap Leonardo held, pushing strongly with her foot against Eve, Mavis let out a nearly inhuman growl, then plopped back and panted.
“A couple more,” the midwife told her. “Just a couple more.”
“I don’t know if I can.”
“You can do it, starshine!”
Mavis bared her teeth at Leonardo. “You want to switch places? Shit, shit, shit.” She reared up, grabbed the strap, and dug her free hand, nails first, into Roarke’s.
“Head’s out. What a great face!”