Page 164 of Fury In Death

“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.