Unchained Melody (Daniel Ricciardo)

Testing days

"Do you think they will notice?" Ayla asks Daniel as she looks at herself in the mirror.
She's wearing the new team gear, which is still as form fitted as always. Except that she has maternity pants and her polo shirt is a size bigger.

She is now fourteen weeks and her little bump is already visible. Especially with clothes that hug her body like these.
Daniel stands behind her and places his big hand on that beautiful little bump.
He can't get enough of Ayla's changing body. She becomes more beautiful every day.

"Well it's pretty cold out still, so you'll be wearing your jacket when you're outside. That's going to hide it well enough." He says gently rubbing her stomach.
"Yeah that's true. It's not that I am ashamed of course. But I want people to focus on the cars and the testing days. Not on me." She says covering Daniel's hand with hers.

"I know you're not ashamed and I understand that you want to be able to focus on work. There's not much we can do about it though. If people see it even if you're wearing the jacket, so be it." Daniel wouldn't mind sharing it with the world, he's just proud that he's going to be a dad.
But he also knows how nasty people can be, so he understands Ayla and her wish to hide it for a bit longer.

Her being pregnant is something amazing and both of them want to enjoy it. They don't want other people to ruin it.

Two weeks ago they had their twelve week scan and he still feels that same adoration and love for their little bub that he felt when he saw him or her on the screen.
It looked so much more like a baby, the head looked like a head. They could see the little legs kicking, which was very strange for Ayla, because they saw the movement on the screen but she didn't feel any of it.

All the measurements were perfect, her due date was moved forward with three days, so now they hope this baby comes a bit before that so he has the most time as possible with his new born baby. As a third driver he will have to be on stand by in case Max or Checo aren't able to drive.

If Ayla wants to be in Perth for the birth, which is what she has in mind now, Daniel might not be able to stay with her after summer. The races after summer break aren't exactly close to Australia and if the team needs him quickly, he would be too far away.

So they have their fingers crossed that the pregnancy will continue like it is now and that the baby will decide to come a week or so early just to give them as much time together as they can.

Ayla isn't as tired anymore as she was the first three months. It was almost as if a switch got flicked after those twelve weeks and her energy suddenly came back.
It's been quite a smooth ride so far, she just had a bit of pain in her lower abdomen a week ago, but when she called a midwife's office in the UK, they asked her to come in and they checked everything.

There was nothing wrong, it was just her body adjusting to the baby growing. They called it ligament pain and it was harmless.
Daniel got pretty worried when that happened, but after much reassurance of the midwife, he tried to be more relaxed about it.

"How are you feeling?" Ayla asks him, when she noticed his mind wandered off.
"I'm fine why?"
"Because you are here for testing, but you won't be in the car yourself. Does that feel weird at all?" She wants to know. She's not really sure if Daniel isn't hiding his true feelings about being here for her.

"Oh that. Well honestly, it's quite nice to not have to be in the car for hours in a row, trying to feel what the car does and communicate everything with the team. I can just watch and enjoy. I can even walk away if I want to. I like not having that pressure pushing on me." He answers truthfully.
"Really? You wouldn't rather be driving?" Ayla asks.