Swish

Overtime - 5

~Eli~

Watching your everything collapse in front of you could send anyone into a fit of panic, but seeing it happen to Virginia-the one person that I thought of as the strongest woman on the face of the planet-I was completely helpless to whatever it was that was hurting her. 

I had no experience in anything medical, and couldn't diagnose what was wrong with her based off a simple fainting spell, but watching her fall backwards and her knees collapse beside me, I knew that there would be no expense wasted, no route untraveled in order to find out what was wrong with her. 

Turned out, all it took was a simple pregnancy test to figure that out. 

Two months pregnant, and we'd had no idea.  Well, I'd had somewhat of an idea, but nothing that I had voiced aloud to V, but knowing that she could've been taking the right vitamins and staying away from Ibuprofen this entire time was still a gut punch.  Thankfully, V didn't smoke and hardly drank even a sip of wine, so there hadn't been any chance of harming our baby that way. 

I held her hand throughout the entire ultrasound, her laughter dissolving into awestruck wonder as the baby blob on the screen appeared, the technician quickly finding the heartbeat and telling us the heart rate was around 150 beats per minute. 

"Isn't that really fast for a heartbeat, though?"

The technician soothed my worries almost immediately. 

"It's completely normal.  I'd be worried if the heartbeat wasn't faster than an average adult."

After that, I'd done everything I could to read up on babies, especially at away games when I couldn't hold my girl in my arms with me. 

The time came for the ring burning a hole in my pocket to finally make an appearance, however, when our home game coincided with our anniversary.  

The energy of the game buzzed all around me, filling me up with a buzz that crawled along my entire body.  It was one of the best games I'd played in my entire life, and knowing that my pregnant girlfriend was in the press box watching me made it all the more exhilarating. 

We won the game by a landslide, and usually V didn't like storming the court afterwards but today I'd asked her to make an exception. 

There were players embracing their kids and their wives on the court, but I ran to my bag on the sidelines the moment the buzzer sounded and produced the box from inside of it and waited until I spotted Elodie, Matthew, V's grandparents and, finally, the woman herself.

She had taken one of my jersey's and tied it at the front, pairing it with black jeans that I knew she had used an elastic on the button in order to fasten it because of her growing stomach. 

I could hardly hear myself think with the entirety of the two teams basically yelling over one another but it was like we carved out our own piece of privacy when they all came into view, creating a semi-circle of happiness and love. 

Elodie stood between Matthew and V, a curious expression on her face, like she knew just what I had hidden behind my back but V didn't have a clue as she came running up to me despite just how sweaty and disgusting I must've smelled. 

"You did so amazing, babe."

I smiled into her hair, the scent of vanilla and berries washing away the odor of sweat, rubber and floor polish that accompanied the courts. 

My heart was thundering in my chest.  I had no idea what I wanted to say, but I knew that if I didn't let it come out now, I would never have a time as perfect as this. 

"Virginia Bruins," I started, just as the sound engineer that I had paid two hundred bucks to play our song over the loud speaker turned the volume up, the opening chords to 'Iris' lulling the nearby players and family members into a hush. 

"Eli?  What's going on?"

The adorable confused look on her face morphed into that of sheer awe and adoration as I knelt down on one knee, hands rushing up to cover her mouth as the tell tale signs of tears began brimming in her big brown eyes that I hoped she would be able to pass on to our daughter or son. 

I had never been more nervous in my entire life, but somehow I spoke without stuttering. 

"The first time I heard you sing this song, I had no idea who you were, but I knew it in my bones that I was going to find out.  I don't know if it was our parents trying to push us together, or fate, or whatever you want to call it, but the second I could finally call you mine, I knew that that was it, that you were mine and I was yours. 

"People can say what they want about us, they can criticize and they can gossip and do whatever the hell they want, but I am going to make damn sure the entire world knows just how I feel about you and our family.  Virginia Bruins, I'm already the luckiest man in the world, but would you help me tell our parents that they were right, and marry me?"

There was no second of hesitation, no moment of wondering of 'will she say yes or no', because she knelt down with me and got on my eye level.  She didn't even look at the ring, just took my face in her hands and at the swell of the bridge of the song. 

"Yes."

Her voice came out in a broken whisper, but before I could take her hand and place the ring on her finger, her lips were crashing down on mine and the lyrics of the song built into a crescendo that rocked me to my very core, the reality of my future spanning out in a yawning expanse until all I could see was the happiness and light that she had given me, the black hole she had pulled me out of with her love and the music that spilled from her pores. 

My hands found her ring finger as we pulled apart and as I set the fixture on her hand, the lyrics of our song faded in as the rest of the world faded out, and I memorized everything of this moment--the red rims of her eyes, the small swell of her stomach as she pressed herself close to me, the hum of her voice as she harmonized to the music of the story of our lives, and I couldn't help but think that after all this time, it was our parent's plan all along.