Giving birth was terrifying, nothing like the warm, cozy scene people who'd never experienced it imagined.
Alvin and Fox waited on the yacht's deck. The kids who'd confidently insisted they wanted to see Pepper give birth disappeared after listening to her scream in agony for half a minute...
Alvin put an arm around Fox, who looked a little tense, and smiled. "Why do you look so nervous?"
Fox kept her eyes on the cabin door. Awkwardly, she said, "How can giving birth be so painful?
I used to think..."
Alvin looked at Fox, who was rarely so girlish, and said with a hint of amusement, "It's bound to hurt. Pepper just chose a natural birth, which means she'll have to suffer a little more.
They say it has some benefits for the baby, though. I don't really know...
Maybe I can work hard enough that, when you have a baby, you can choose a less intense delivery..."
Fox met Alvin's eyes, thought for a moment, then said earnestly, "No. This is fine. I can handle it..."
Alvin burst out laughing, scooped Fox up, and spun her around twice. "I'm not used to seeing you like this. I thought you were the kind of woman who'd lie in the delivery room with a gun pointed at the doctor's head, telling him to be careful..."
He pointed at Shirley, who was gripping Frank by the neck and saying something to him with a fierce expression, and laughed. "Shirley definitely is, at least. That girl's startlingly feisty.
You wouldn't believe it, but I once thought Shirley was the most alluring woman in all of Hell's Kitchen. Now she looks like a madwoman..."
Fox narrowed her eyes at Alvin, rested her right hand on his chest, and smiled. "I thought you were into Dahlia,