Santos kneels in front of me and cups my face. "You are safe," he says, serious for once. "You are not doing this alone." He kisses my forehead.
Tomas brushes my hair back and kisses my temple. "You know how to do this," he says softly. "Your body knows."
Matteo says nothing at first. He puts his palm over the center of my chest, waits until I meet his eyes, then kisses me slow and certain. "I'm here," he says. "Every second of it."
I believe him.
Another contraction comes. I curse in three languages, none of them elegantly.
Carmen checks me again, calm as weather.
"Ten centimeters," she says. "Jennifer, this is happening now."
The room changes.
Everyone straightens. Breath gathers. My own body takes over with a force that is ancient and startling. There is no room left for fear, only effort. Push. Breathe. Again. Hands on me. Voices around me. Sweat at my neck. Matteo counting. Santos telling me I am magnificent. Tomas holding my shoulders when I shake. Carmen directing the whole world with two quiet sentences at a time.
Then pressure. Fire. One last impossible push.
And then…
A cry. Sharp, furious, alive.
"It's a girl," Carmen says.
The words break something open inside me.
She is lifted to my chest, warm and slippery and perfect with outrage. Small fists, wet dark hair, a mouth already prepared to argue policy. I stare at her as if I have never seen anything before.
She has green eyes.
They blink up at me, unfocused and dark and still somehow unmistakably hers. The sight of them goes through me so hard I start crying before I know I am doing it.
"Hi," I whisper. My voice shakes. "I've been talking to you for thirty-six weeks."
She quiets against me. Just looks.
Taking inventory already.
Santos is openly crying in the chair by the bed, face in his hands, making no effort to hide it.
Tomas stands beside me and touches one careful finger to her tiny fist. She grabs him immediately. Whatever moves across his face then is so tender it nearly finishes me off.
Matteo is very still at the foot of the bed. Pale eyes fixed on her. Fixed on me. Fixed on all of it.
She lets out a short, indignant sound.
Something in him gives way all at once. He sits down abruptly, as if his knees made the decision for him.
I hold her toward him.
He looks at his hands first, then takes her with care. She settles in his arms as though she has been expected there all along. They look at one another. Neither blinks.
"Ciao," Santos says thickly.
I laugh through tears. Tomas makes a strangled sound that may also be laughter. Even Matteo's mouth curves.
Carmen stands in the doorway with her clipboard, looking like a woman who has successfully managed chaos once again.