Re: Post party
Iris smiled as she turned her head, opening her eyes just enough to peer over her shoulder at him. "I never really expect you to, anyway." She whispered it like it was a secret. "I think you like misbehaving in general." The smile on her lips was familiar enough that it betrayed that she didn't especially mind the misbehaving with him either.
Eyes shut again, this time against the hurt instead of the sun, and she moved her hand to her own belly, pressing down, hoping that the push and pressure would be enough to spur some ease. Her body was taught beneath her hand, hard, and the tension made her keep her last breath held in. "Yeah..." She grit out the word between clenched teeth, and though she hadn't yet consciously accepted it, her mind knew what her body was saying. It was time.
But she couldn't say it. She couldn't voice it even when the pain eased and left her pulling in a deeper breath. She was worried - and scared - as much as if this was her first child. In a way...
She would never want to say that TJ wasn't her daughter. She'd finally gotten to the point where it didn't scare her just to think it, and she knew that sometime soon she - they - would likely tell the rest of her family the truth. But the start to TJ's life was so much different than this child. Iris had been different at that point, the entire situation skewed from where she was now. She'd never had contractions, never had to deal with her body slipping naturally into labor. She'd been scheduled to fit into other people's schedules. She wasn't even sure that Manning knew that part of things - she hadn't told him. Only that she was nervous about this time around.