"How is she really?" Ricardo asks from his place in the guest house at Mike's mansion, staring down at his phone with a vague frown. He'd just gotten done video chatting with his wife, immediately turning to Sofia for more, thorough answers to ease the odd disquiet he's been feeling since Alicia had hung up.

Sofia looks up at the sky for a moment, before turning her focus back onto the phone in her hands. "As well as can be expected, considering," she says with a faint smile. "Pregnancy is a lifechanging, sometimes scary prospect even in normal times. Add a pandemic to the mix, and... yes, Alicia is handling it all quite well."

Ricardo closes his eyes and sighs out a slow breath, dwelling on her words for a few moments. "Yeah, I know. She really is." He examines Sofia's expression as best as he can on the somewhat questionable phone connection. "I made a mistake agreeing to these bookings, didn't I?"

Sofia weighs his question for a bit before tilting her head to the left. "I don't think so," she hedges after a few moments. "Alicia hasn't said anything to me about how she feels about it, I think we all understand you're doing the best you can with everything that's going on, like the rest of us. The timing is poor, yes, but you can't help that truly." She smiles down at him. "We understand you just want to provide, for us, and for the wrestling community as a whole. It's admirable in a sense."

It still leaves him feeling guilty and uncertain but her eyes are soft and her voice is comforting and when she smiles at him, he feels a little lighter. "Just... take good care of her, please," he whispers and Sofia nods.

"You know I will, mi hijo."

-x

Days pass slowly when Ricardo isn't in the house. Alicia finds sleep a luxury right now, barely able to close her eyes without either the baby kicking or Braxton Hicks tensing throughout her body. She can tell she's close, the changes in her body evident as it prepares for labor, and she clings to the bathroom mirror counting the days until Ricardo will be out of quarantine and back by her side after his latest wrestling dates. Nine, she thinks, staring down at the calendar in her phone. "Hold on, please," she whispers to her stomach, lightly ghosting fingers along where the worst of the kicks usually come from. "I want your daddy to be here for this."

She looks at herself in the mirror and exhales shakily, hair frizzy and out of control around her, her skin oddly pale in the bright morning light, lips tight with determination. "He will be here for this."

She's still standing there when Sofia knocks softly. "Is everything alright, Alicia? You've been in there awhile."

Alicia jostles herself out of her thoughts and washes her hands before patting them dry on a nearby towel and moving to let Sofia in. "Yeah, everything's fine." Offering her a smile, she carefully makes her way out of the room and heads to the kitchen, already smelling the breakfast Sofia's made. "Ooh, pancakes," she says, her eyes brightening as she sees a mix of her favorite fruit covering them. When Sofia joins her a couple minutes later, she smiles, swallowing down a huge bite. "You're the best, Sofia."

"I figured you could use a little pampering today," Sofia offers, casting a quick glance at Alicia. "In fact, we're not done here."

"Oh?" Alicia asks, but Sofia doesn't clarify until they've both finished eating, standing to put the syrup stained dishes in the sink. When she stands patiently by Alicia's chair, Alicia exhales and moves to join her, still unaccustomed to this new center of gravity whenever she stands. Sofia helps steady her and Alicia smiles her thanks, eager for this just to end already, for her body to feel more like her own once more. "So what's on the agenda now?"

Sofia has some awareness of Alicia's hair care regimen, but it's still startling to Alicia to be sitting in the living room, a basin behind her, Sofia's fingers stroking carefully through her hair. "Oh, that feels nice," she sighs, leaning back to let water sluice through her strands and drip back into the basin. Sofia hums softly and lathers, rinses, and repeats until Alicia is relaxed and prone at her knees, the warm water and soft floral scent of the shampoo easing her into a halfdoze. "Why didn't you ever become a salon worker or something?" Alicia murmurs, eyes fluttering as her fingers twitch against her stomach. "You're... you're incredible."

Sofia laughs softly over her and sighs. "I'm not sure, it was a possibility, I suppose, but women can be so catty about their hair. I prefer doing it for people I know and am comfortable with." She continues to massage Alicia's scalp, chuckling when Alicia lets out a low, deep moan.

"Well, I thank you thoroughly for all of it," Alicia sighs, Sofia working in other products that had been pointed out to her to help control Alicia's hair a bit. When Sofia begins brushing Alicia's hair out with her fingers, careful any time she runs into a tangle, Alicia sighs softly, enjoying any kind of physical touch after being without Ricardo for so many days. When Sofia finishes, she doesn't move, simply sits behind Alicia and runs a towel gently through her hair, carefully drying it.

Putting the towel aside, she doesn't move, and Alicia doesn't either, content to continue resting against Sofia's shoulder, feeling her soft, steady breathing, the subtle, calm cadence of her touch as she lightly strokes Alicia's shoulders. "I'm sorry we couldn't have a proper baby shower for you," Sofia murmurs. "And I'm sorry this year is so horrible of a time. But the three of us, we'll do the best we can for this little one to ease its introduction into this world. And Ricardo and I, we will do our best to make you comfortable and happy in the weeks to come while we wait to meet them."

Alicia stares at Sofia's hands, slow and gentle against her arms, and exhales shakily. "I know. I know you will," she says, her resolve solidifying as she presses a hand against her stomach as the baby kicks, almost as if agreement with her thought processes.