"Oh my god Stevie have you seen this?"
Stevie just arrived at Red Bull hospitality in Miami when she is almost trampled by Melissa.
"Jeez girl I just walked in. What should I have seen?" She asks her friend while she walks into the kitchen.
"You know the tv show Married at first Sight yeah?" Melissa asks.
"I've heard of it. Never watched it though. Why?"
Stevie isn't really into those reality shows, she thinks they are fake and edited to cause drama.
"They revealed who the brides and grooms are this season. And you'll never guess who are in it."
Melissa looks like a teenager, hopping around on her feet, eager to spill the tea to Stevie.
Stevie sighs, she's a bit tired and nauseous. The last couple of days she has developed a couple of pregnancy symptoms, still very mild, but still she is definitely sure she is pregnant now.
Because she is tired and doesn't feel too good, she isn't really able to cope with Melissa's hyperactivity about some dumb reality show.
"If you say I'll never guess you might as well tell me." She crosses her arms waiting for her friend to tell her.
"Mitch and Tiffany! I don't know who they are matched with yet, but wouldn't it be hilarious if they were to meet each other at the altar, getting married?" Melissa can definitely see the humor in it.
Stevie is less impressed. Just hearing those names make her blood boil and her nausea even worse.
"Honestly, I don't really care what they do. They tried to ruin our lives and take our kids. I'm not going to watch them make complete idiots out of themselves. I hope they get matched together and I hope they make each other miserable. We both know the only reason they signed up for it is to get their two minutes of fame."
Stevie doesn't want to hear about those two. She has nothing to do with Mitch anymore. And she definitely doesn't give a shit about Tiffany.
"You watch it if you want, but I'm not going to waste my time with that."
Stevie doesn't want to be grumpy towards Melissa, but she can't really help it.
She's sure once she feels a bit better her mood will lighten up as well.
"Are you ok Steev?" Melissa asks her. She doesn't know her friend like this.
"I'm sorry, I've been feeling a bit nauseous and tired and I guess that's making me cranky." She admits.
"Oh sweetie, there's no denying there's a baby growing in there isn't it?"
Stevie shakes her head.
"Nope, it's good though. I don't mind. It's not like I'm throwing up or anything, I just feel a bit nauseous. But I don't like myself for being grumpy towards you."
Melissa pulls her in for a hug, hoping she can reassure her best friend that it's ok.
She gets it and she knows it's nothing personal.
"You are allowed to be a bit of an hormonal bitch the next 7 months. I can handle it."
This is one of the reasons why Stevie adores this woman so much. She truly has the biggest heart and she always knows how to make her feel better.
"Thanks, but I'll try not to take it out on you. Lets get going on lunch so the team will have something to eat in between practice sessions."
Carl also walks in, ready to take on some fish for his healthy fish and chips. It won't be deep fried like the original one, but he will only have it in oil for a short moment before putting the fish and the chips in the oven. He has tried it and it taste amazing.
"Carl! You're later than usual. Were you trying to catch the fish in that marina next to the track?" Melissa jokes.
They went for a walk around the track yesterday and they saw the fake marina. They agreed that it looked ridiculous and the people who thought it was a good idea, should have gone back to the drawing board.
"I tried. They wouldn't bite." Carl has been working with Melissa for a long time now. He knows exactly not to take the bait and just go along with her. Otherwise he will never hear the end of it.
After putting on his apron he heads into the walk-in fridge to get the fish he needs to filet to make that delicious dish he has in mind.
"What are you going to make Melissa?" Stevie wants to know.
"I've got strawberry mousse and brownies, but they are approved by the trainers." Melissa will make them different than how she usually makes brownies. These will have dates and honey to sweeten them and dark chocolate.
"Sounds good. What are we doing for poultry?"
"I've got sticky honey and lime chicken wings and jambalaya." Stevie hears and she forgets about her nausea, now she just gets hungry hearing all these delicious dishes.
"That sounds so good. We can keep those two dishes for dinner as well. Carl, do you think you'll be able to do the fish and chips for lunch and dinner? Do you need help with the fish?"
"I'm good honey. I'll ask help if I need it. Besides I've got Walter here to get those potatoes peeled and ready to go." He replies already working on his filets.
"Alright, well I guess things are going smoothly as ever. I have a meeting with Christian in between sessions, so Melissa is in charge of plating the food when I'm not here."
Everybody agrees, they all respect Stevie immensely and with her leading the kitchen they have become even better at their work. She always discusses the menus with them, she loves to hear their input and she lets them free to do what they do best. There's a pleasant working environment in the kitchen where they work hard, but have a lot of fun at the same time.
"Are you going to tell him?" Melissa asks Stevie.
"Yeah, I feel I should. He's always been good to me and if this pregnancy isn't as straight forward as the other ones he should know." She whispers back. They are in the pantry so nobody will hear them, even though Stevie plans on telling her staff after she told Christian about the baby.
"I'm really happy for you. Any baby is lucky to have you as a mom." Melissa says making Stevie tear up.
"And Daniel as a father. He is so happy about this and he keeps saying it's his third child. How did I get so lucky to have found him? He is such an angel and I truly believe he will not treat this baby any different from Cole and Zara."
"He won't. Those two are his kids just as much as this baby is going to be. Have you heard anything about the adoption yet?" She asks Stevie.
"Not yet, I hope we will hear something soon. I just want him to be able to sign those papers and then we can make sure Cole and Zara will get his last name as well as mine."
She did text Martin to see how things were moving along, but he said he was still waiting for the papers to be signed by the court. So they will have to be patient a bit longer.
"I'm sure it will be soon. At least Mitch isn't in your hair anymore."
Stevie shakes her head, that's truly a blessing. He has made her suffer enough and she is happy to cut him out of her life completely. Sure he will always be the kids biological father, but that's all. From the moment he abandoned her when she was in hospital he was nothing more than the sperm donor. Truthfully, he never was anything more than the sperm donor.
While they are working in the kitchen they watch the first practice session on the big screen. Daniel and Seb are taking it easy, not showing everything they have but gathering plenty of data to have the best qualifying results tomorrow and making sure they know how the tires behave on this track. It's only the second time they are racing here so it's still fairly new. All the data they collect is valuable.
Just before the end of the practice session Albon makes a mistakes and crashes his car in the barriers. They all hold their breaths until they hear he is doing ok. He might not be driving for Red Bull, but Alex is a really nice guy and nobody wants him to get hurt.
He gets out of the car and he is perfectly fine. The car and the barrier aren't, so the session is red flagged and ended which gives the marshals the time to fix everything before the second session.
"Ok I expect everybody to come in a bit earlier than we first thought so make sure we are ready to plate up!" Stevie tells the staff as she takes place behind the counter to check every plate before it goes out. She doesn't have to, she knows her staff will nail every single plate. But she can't skip this, it is her responsibility to make sure everybody who comes in to eat gets perfectly prepared food.
Just as she is getting ready she sees Tina come in with the kids. She has been walking around a bit, she visited the Ferrari garage with them and they went to Red Bull real quick.
"Hey guys. Anybody hungry?" Stevie greets her angels and her amazing nanny.
"I think we are. What's on the menu today?" She asks.
"Carl made an amazing fish and chips dish. I bet Cole and Zara will love that. We also have chicken wings or jambalaya. So what would you like?"
Carl already comes over with two smaller sized plates for Cole and Zara while Tina decides to go for the jambalaya.
They find a table and while the food is still cooling down the kids are playing on the floor with some toy cars and Zara has a couple of her zoo animal toys with her.
One by one the members of the team walk in for their lunch until finally Daniel and Seb walk in as well.
They have changed out of their racing suits and in to their shorts and team shirts. Both wearing the team cap as well.
Stevie is a bit bummed. She loves how Daniel looks when he has his suit tied around his waist with the sleeves and his fireproofs clinging to his body like a second skin. Not that he doesn't look hot as hell right now of course. But those fireproofs are just something different.
"Daddy!" Cole jumps up to greet his father.
"Hey big man, did you have fun so far?" Daniel asks him after giving him a good cuddle.
"Yeah, saw boats but no water." Cole puts his hands in his sides and he looks like he is really judging the ridiculousness of it all.
Daniel laughs and nods.
"Yeah I know. It's a bit weird. Now where is your sister?"
He looks up and he sees Zara pull herself up on the table.
"Hey pretty girl! You are so strong, look at you."
Stevie comes out of the kitchen with Tina's jambalaya and just when she looks over she sees Zara let go of the table.
"Dadda!" The little girl squeals as she starts to take some careful, wobbly steps towards Daniel.
"Oh my god she is walking! She is walking!" Daniel shouts and everybody in hospitality looks up to see Zara take her first steps without holding on to anything.
Tina quickly grabs her phone and makes a video, this is something they will want to have on film.
"Go Zara!" Calum encourages the little girl who has stolen everyone's hearts.
"That's it girl! You got this!" One of the other mechanics cheers.
Zara takes about ten steps before she reaches Daniel and she falls into his arms.
He picks her up and spins around, making the girl giggle in pure joy.
"You're such a clever girl! You can walk. Oh my god I'm so glad I got to witness that." He plants kisses all over her little face which makes her cry out in laughter even more as his stubble tickle her soft cheeks.
Stevie rushes over to the two, tears in her eyes.
"She walked baby! She really walked!" Daniel is ecstatic. That's his daughter and he got to see her take her first steps.
"I know, she did so well." Stevie strokes Zara's soft hair as she is cuddles up in her dads arms.
The entire team is now applauding and cheering, all of them happy to have been able to see their favorite little girl take her first steps.
"You know we will need eyes in the back of our heads now right?" Stevie jokes, trying to prevent the tears from spilling. There's no need to be so emotional, but it might just be hormones making her cry over everything.
"Probably. But she is walking. That's massive. Even before her first birthday." Daniel keeps gushing over his girl. For him she is a genius, faster than any other child out there.
Stevie decides not to burst his bubble by telling him there are definitely plenty of kids who walk even sooner. It doesn't matter, every child does things on their own speed and she is just happy that they were all here to see Zara walk without holding on to anything for the first time.
The atmosphere during lunch is cheerful and happy. The food is amazing as always and Seb and Daniel talk about how their practice sessions went. They agree the cars feel great and they will be able to do well this weekend.
So far Daniel is still ahead of Seb, but the German isn't far behind.
Stevie has a quick lunch before she hangs her apron on the hook.
"I'll be back in a bit." She tells Melissa who takes her place on the counter.
Stevie fills a to go container with the jambalaya for Christian, he didn't have time to come in for lunch yet, so she makes sure he gets to eat anyways.
She gives Daniel a kiss.
"I'm going to talk to Christian."
"I'll come with you. I'm done anyways." He gets up and gives both kids a kiss on their hair. They are both still enjoying their food and barely look up.
"It's so funny that when you come in they are running towards you to say hi, but then when there's food in front of them they barely notice you leaving." He pulls a fake sad face before grinning.
"Get used to it. I'm sure once they reach puberty they won't even look up when you come home anymore. They will probably be pissed off that you dared to come home. Just enjoy everything you get from them now." Stevie jokes.
Daniel places his hands over his heart, pretending to be hurt.
"I hope not. But I guess at some point they won't need us anymore." He says, his smile fading.
"I know the solution though! We will just have to keep making babies so we will always have kids that need us." He suddenly says.
Stevie snorts.
"Are you giving birth to them?" She asks him jokingly.
"Well.... I would probably be useless. There's a reason women are the only ones who can give birth. If it was up to men we would be extinct." He admits.
"Good answer. You're right. Men couldn't do it. As long as you'll be there holding my hand. I'll push this baby out of my vagina. And then you are on nappy duty."
He salutes, the tips of his fingers against the side of his forehead.
"At your service madam. I'll do whatever I can to make your life easier. I don't like the idea of you having to go through so much pain, but it is comforting that you've done it twice before. So you know what to do."
He knows he will be there for her, she can crush his hands, she can yell at him, she can hate him while she is giving birth. He doesn't care, all he knows is that she is going to give them such a precious gift and if that means he will have to take some insults, he will.
"It's going to be fine. It's still so far away. We've got about 34 weeks to prepare."
They arrive at the garage where Christian is still going through some things for the second practice session with Adrian.
"Christian, I brought you lunch. Do you have a moment?" Stevie asks him when they walk in.
"You are an angel. I got caught up in this and I forgot to eat. You know I always have a moment for you. Especially when you bring me some delicious food." Christian puts the container in front of him and Stevie hands him a fork.
She is a bit nervous about telling him the news, even though she doesn't expect him to have a problem with it. There's nothing he can do about it anyways. She's already pregnant and she's not going to do anything to jeopardize that.
"What did you want to talk to me about?" Christian wants to know. He takes a bite from the jambalaya and closes his eyes for a second.
"This is amazing. We really have the best kitchen staff, don't you think? They only got better when you started working here. Don't get me wrong, I loved Delores, but the food was always a bit the same and maybe a bit boring. Now we actually get food that bursts with flavor. So please don't go telling me your leaving."
Stevie bites her lip. She's not really leaving, but she will be gone for a bit at the end of the season.
"Well... the thing is.... I'm not going to be here for the last couple of races probably." She tells him.
He drops his fork in the container, almost spilling some of his food.
"What do you mean? Why not? Where are you going?" He asks her, his eyes big with shock.
"I will have to find out for sure when I can't fly anymore, but I assume airlines have rules for how long pregnant women are allowed to fly with them." She looks up to him through her eyelashes, waiting for his reaction.
He needs a bit of processing. She can almost see the little wheels in his head work as he thinks about what she just told him.
"Hang on... you have to find out how long pregnant women can fly?"
Stevie nods.
"So does that mean... Stevie are you pregnant?"
He jumps off his stool when Stevie nods, confirming what he guessed.
"Damn woman you nearly gave me a heart attack. But that's amazing news! Another addition to the Red Bull family. How long have you known this for? When are you due?"
Before she can answer he first pulls her into a tight hug. Congratulating her with this fantastic news.
"We only found out this week. I'm a little over six weeks now, so very early. The baby is due to be born on the 26th of December. Definitely still a long way to go, but I wanted to tell you about it now. I don't think I have to keep this a secret right? I know a lot of people don't tell anybody until they are passed the first trimester, but I know I can't keep this a secret anyways."
Now the news has landed with her she is over the moon delighted. She already loves this tiny little baby inside her belly even though there's nothing to see or feel yet. She knows he or she is there and that's enough to fill her with love.
"I get it. Wow this is truly wonderful. Damn Daniel you're going to have a big family mate. I know you always wanted kids and now you're going to have three. You are a rich man and I don't mean in money. Even though you're rich in that aspect as well.
Family is the most important thing a man can have and you are blessed with an amazing family my friend." Christian slaps Daniel on his shoulder before giving him a hug as well.
"I know. I feel like the luckiest guy alive. But you understand why Stevie won't be traveling with us until the end of the season right?"
Daniel knows his boss will, he has kids of his own. He knows how these things work and he doesn't want to risk Stevie to give birth in an airplane. He isn't even sure if they will be able to go to Perth after the season. They will probably just stay in the UK until the baby is old enough to travel with them.
His parents can come to visit them. They won't mind. As long as they get to meet their grandbaby they will fly across the globe without hesitation. Also when they are in the UK for the birth, Stevie will have the support of her parents as well. She already told him her mom was at both births. Probably because she knew deep down, Mitch would rather not be there in the first place.
Maybe if she gave birth in hospital he would somehow manage to escape the room and miss the entire thing. Thats something Daniel couldn't even imagine. If his girl is giving birth to his child, he will be there for every second of it.
"Daniel?" The voice of his fiancé snaps him out of his thoughts.
"Where did you go? You seemed miles away." She smiles.
"Yeah sorry I didn't mean to. I was just thinking about everything and how I can't make sure I'll be the best support I can be. I really want to be there for you."
Stevie takes his hand in hers, squeezing it slightly.
"You'll do perfect. I'm sure of it. But like I said, we still have a lot of months to go. Don't worry about it now. You've got other things to focus on this weekend."
"Do you have any idea what your last race will be?" Christian asks Stevie.
"Not really. It also depends on how things go. I've had two easy pregnancies, but of course every pregnancy is different so I have no idea how this one will go. I do believe after 36 weeks you're not really allowed to fly anymore and I obviously don't want to have this baby somewhere above an ocean."
Christian shakes his head grinning.
"No we don't want that. I also want you to be able to take some time before the baby comes, to settle, get rested and prepare. So I think you should take it week by week and if at any point you feel like it's enough, just tell me and we will arrange whatever you need."
"Thanks. I really appreciate it. I hope everything will be straight forward and this baby will arrive around Christmas. I don't want to distract Daniel when he is on his way to winning a championship." Stevie knows how important this year will be for Daniel. So far he has been doing incredibly good and he has a big shot at winning his first championship. Something he deserves more than anything.
"Of course if anything happens we will try to work around it as much as possible. It won't be a problem if he has to miss a practice session. We will put in Liam, missing a race isn't something I hope will happen. But of course we all know how important it is that he is with you when he has to be." Christian tells her.
"Thanks boss. We really appreciate your support. We will let you eat now and I'll be out in a bit for the second session." Daniel thanks Christian who goes back to his jambalaya.
Stevie and Daniel walk back to hospitality to take it easy for a bit before Daniel has to go out again.
"That went well." Stevie says relieved.
"Did you expect anything else?" Daniel wonders out loud.
"No, I really didn't. But it's always nice to have that reassurance."
They walk through the paddock, hand in hand, ready to tell the rest of the team their news.