Chapter 71 – Winter

AN: Sorry it too so long to get this up. :( I was super sick after New Year's and I'm just starting to get better...I've figured out where I want this to go! :) I think it's going to be pretty good so get ready and hold on!

Sasha’s POV

The Winter Classic was an amazing experience. Nef and I went up the day before the team and two days before my parents, my sister Lana, and my niece Veronika arrive in Pittsburgh. The entire weekend had been filled with team and family events.
After practice the day before the Classic there had been a family skate and watch Nef chase Veronika around the ice had put a smile on my face. She just seemed to happy and carefree. She was going to be a wonderful mother to our child.

When Nef and I arrived back at my house whern we got back from Pittsburgh she ran upstairs to my room.

”Is something wrong?” my dad asked. Usually Nef would linger around for a little while to chat with him.

”No, her final grades should have been released and she’s anxious to see what they are.”

As soon as I finished speaking we heard a loud and excited “Yes!” from upstairs. Nef came running down the steps straight into my arms.

”I got a 4.0!” I picked her up and spun her around.
”I’m proud of you.”

I was worried that the stress of the last few weeks would affect her grades. I was worried that she would have trouble focusing on school and exams. There were times when I was struggling to focus on hockey. I hadn't scored a goal since November.

When I put her down she jumped on the phone to call her mother. Nef had always done well in school; good grades were expected but Nef had never had to deal with major stresses in addition to her school work. When she came back to me we curled up together on the couch and talked to my dad for a while. He wanted to catch up on all the things that we’d been up to since the last time we chatted, school stuff with Nef, hockey and agent stuff with me.

”How was your holiday?” my dad asked.

”It was good.” Nef and I had managed to steal quite a lot of alone time together while in Pittsburgh. It was nice to have time together away from the stress of home. I actually got to kiss Nef at midnight. As silly as it may seem it was important to us. We were each other’s last kiss of the year and first kiss of the New Year.

Since the Caps Season ticket holders were able to buy tickets to the Winter Classic Nef had given her tickets to Jackie and Jesse. I upgraded them to the suite that Nef would be in so that she could have her friends with her while I was playing. My family was there but I wanted her to have her friends too.

”Do you really want to marry me or are you just offering because I’m pregnant?” she asked me over breakfast in our hotel room the morning after the Winter Classic.

”Nef, I wouldn’t have said it if I didn’t mean it. I want to marry you eventually. I’ve thought about it before. I was thinking about asking you to move in with me after graduation.” She already spends so much time at my place anyway. If I’m home then she is at my house. If I’m on the road then she stays at her apartment. For her Christmas I’d given her a key to my house. Her father hadn’t been pleased with that but Nef had been ecstatic.

”Really?”

”Yes. I love you and I wanted to take our relationship to the next level.”

We are taking our relationship to the next level, albeit out of order but we’re getting there. We agreed that we would tell my parents after my Christmas. Nef’s parents would be coming over to meet my parents after Christmas so we would have a period of time to tell them. Both my parents could speak English conversationally, and Nef’s mom had been studying Russian for the past year. She could get by. Nef and I would act as translators and we were hoping that this went well.




My Christmas Eve and Christmas had been uneventful. We exchanged presents and spent time together as a family. It was a lot better than last year when Nef first met my parents. We ended the night with Nef and I cuddled together on the floor and my parents on the couch watching a movie. This was how things were supposed to be. There was no awkwardness, no tension, just peacefulness. When Nef left to go back to her apartment I could barely stand to let her go. We were playing the panthers the following day. Nef was attending with her father. Her mom had insisted that they try and work things out.

I have a pregame warm up routine that I go through. It’s different for home and away games. When I’m at Verizon Center I skate out immediately doing two sprints from the goal line to the blue line and back. Then I stretch, hamstrings, quads, and my back. After the back injury I had 2 seasons ago I stretch my back and spine as much as possible. After stretching I skate over to Nef’s section. What I do there is different from game to game but I always find away to say hi. Sometimes I shot pucks at the glass, sometimes I wink at her, and sometimes we just make eye contact and smile. In the past few weeks she’s been smiling at me and placing her hands on her stomach. I close my eyes and smile at her, imagining my hands on top of hers.

After the game Nef went home with her father, she didn’t tell me anything about what they were talking about. As far as I knew they hadn’t discussed it at all. I looked at them in the stands and they were cheering when they were supposed to. Could they just be enjoying the game together? I didn’t want Nef to be upset in anyway. It wasn’t good for her and it wasn’t good for the baby. After the game I went home to go to bed. I knew that Nef would be over the next day so that we could tell my parents about the baby. The day after Nef’s parents would come to meet my parents.

When I woke up the next morning I was nervous. It had been restless for most of the night. I just wanted to get this over with, deal with the fall out, and move on. When I went to the kitchen my dad was there eating breakfast but my mother was nowhere to be found. That was odd. My parents always have breakfast together.

”Where’s mom?” I asked sitting at the island counter to have breakfast.

”She left early this morning. She said she had errands to do.”

I assumed she was out grocery shopping for dinner with Nef’s parents. I was wrong. I was very wrong. When my mother came home she was not alone. She had Nadiya with her. She’s just gotten back from picking her up at the airport.

”What’s going on?” I asked my mom.

”Nadiya’s going to be staying with us for a little while. She wanted to see D.C and look at schools so I said that she could stay with us.”

”No. She’s not staying here. She can’t.”

”That’s not very nice Sashaka. She’s your friend and she’s staying. She needs help.”

”No, she’s not. She’s not my friend and she’s not staying here. I don’t care where she goes but she’s not staying here.” I was agitated. We’d worked so hard to put Nadiya behind us. I wasn’t going to let her ruin anything.

”Tanya,” my dad stepped in, ”I don’t think this is such a good idea.”

Before anyone could interject I heard the lock turn on the front door. It was Nef.