Author's Note: Yes! One Hundred, my happy number. Does we all want to know what the sequel is about? If you haven't figured out you can wait, I think you can wait.
I guess this would have to be the reaction chapter: Nikki's reaction to winning the game, and Herb's reaction to Nikki and Mike. It was kind of hard to write, so hopefully it doesn't suck too bad.
Nikki's POV:
I can't believe it's finally over, I can't believe we actually won. Do you know that feeling when you've worked for something for so long, and then it final happens and you're in the lime light, and your life is never going to be the same? That's how I feel right now. There's this excitement and dread constantly in my stomach, and I don't know how I'm supposed to feel.
The minute that buzzer sounded and I knew that we had won, I wanted to rush out onto the ice and just kiss Mike like there was no tomorrow, but I didn't, right now I wish I had. It would have been easier for my dad to have known then, instead of him receiving the surprise with the rest of posterity at the medal ceremony. Boy was he ever mad.
I didn't expect my social life to be headed anywhere too soon after that—I even got the "It's not so much what you did, but the fact that you lied to me and your mother" speech—but when I heard about the charity ball for the Special Olympics I just knew we had to do it. The team was just a promotional stunt to get people to buy really expensive tickets, and we get free food.
I'm really excited about seeing all the guys again, especially Rizzo, but I think the first thing we aught to do is try to explain things a little better to my dad.
I know I didn't do much other than grab Jimmy's ass now and then, but if they ever make a movie out of this, I sure as hell better be in it
The boys were gathered together for the first time in a few months since lake Placid, at La Fontaine Bleue dining hall in Colorado Springs, for a promotion for the Special Olympics. As they came together in the front lobby by the elaborate fountain, anyone could tell they were all glad to see each other again.
"Jimmy Craig," the voice of Jack O'Callahan rang through the clamor. Jimmy turned away from Lindy to greet his old friend. "What's up you sieve?" Jimmy's brow knitted in amusement.
"Why do you always say that?" He asked with a smile.
"I always say that," Jack inquired. Jimmy nodded, OC shrugged. "I never noticed. Hey have you seen Lola yet?"
"She and Nikki just headed over to the ladies' room," Jimmy answered.
"What is it with girls going to the bathroom in pairs?" Jack pondered aloud.
"Maybe the need help going or something?" Jimmy suggested, only to be smacked on the arm with his girlfriends purse. "I mean, I don't mean you," he defended quickly. "You're not a girl you're a woman—lady." Lindy shook her head.
"Silky, hey," Rizzo started, flagging his teammate down amidst the crowd. "Have you seen Nikki?"
"What am I your personal conduit to Mini-Herbie?" He asked in annoyance. "Do you ever flag Mini-Herbie down and say 'Hey Mini-Herbie, have you seen Silky?'"
"Okay sure," Mike said spacing out looking through the crowd.
"Good-Bye," Silky called after him, waving his arms out in annoyance.
Nikki came out of the powder room, and spotted the one person she needed to see.
"Rizzo," she came up behind him and touched his shoulder.
"Nikki, hey sweetie how have you been?" He asked leaning over and kissing her cheek gently. She looked beautiful to him in a long black satin dress with a V-neck and a slit far up one side, her hair was curled and piled on top of her head.
"I've been good," she assured him, hugging him around his neck.
"Contacts," he noted the lack of her oversized John Denver spectacles. (1)
"Pink tie," she returned, flipping his tie up into his face. "Does wonders for your complexion. I'd love to go on complimenting you, but I think we need to explain some things to my dad."
"I know," he answered.
"Yea," she went on with a smile. "I don't think he understands the..."
"Nature," Mike suggested. She nodded.
"Of our relationship," she finished. "Yea, good, we're on the same wave length. Let's do this, before I lose my appetite."
"Yea, the French have the best food," he agreed, lacing his fingers with hers. "Did you try those...uhh—"
"Hors d'oeuvres," she answered.
"That's the word," he agreed, as the entered the dimly lit dining room to the sound of the band playing on the stage. The band wasn't French though and it didn't quite fit the atmosphere.
Rizzo had his arm wrapped around her waist in the dark, and she was leaning into him for the comfort of his heart beating in her ear.
If I had a weakness
You sure found it tonight
some hidden desperation
You saw floating in my eyes
Moments just like these baby
Wrong can feel so right
And I don't wanna go home tonight
"Hey daddy," Nikki began quietly, pulling smoothly away from Mike as she flagged her father down.
"Coach," Rizzo greeted him with a smiling. Herb narrowed his eyes.
"I'm not your coach anymore Rizzo," he shot harshly. Rizzo's eyes widened, as he drew back slightly.
"Oh, um, sorry," the young man defended.
"Dad, can we please talk. The three of us, somewhere quietly," Nikki went on. "Please."
"What do we need to talk about," Herb questioned, continuing to stare down Rizzo, quite effectively.
"You think there's something here that isn't," she said, noting her father's disposition. "Can we please do this somewhere not in the public eye."
The three went back into the bride's room and sat down on the couch. Neither Nikki nor Mike was exactly sure how to handle this, but they both knew it had to be done if any of the three of them were going to be happy.
I've held it all together
As long as I can
There's pieces of me falling
Right into your hands
And don't the lies come easy baby
When the truth just ain't worth the fight
No I, I don't wanna go home tonight
"Dad," Nikki began. "Mike and I have been..."
"Involved," Rizzo put in.
"For a while," she went on.
"Since when?" her father pressed. Rizzo took the initiative on this one.
"It probably began that day when you yelled at me sat me down on the bench for the whole practice for the first time, we started talking..."
"It sort of progressed from there I think," Nikki finished.
"But never into anything inappropriate," Rizzo went on. "For our..."
"Level of commitment to one another," Nikki filled in tactfully, as Rizzo took his hand in hers, squeezing it gently, comfortingly. She smiled at him and they both knew, however it happened they were going to get through this together, just like all the other shit that got in their way.
For him there were no more questions of ability. There was no more wondering if he had what it took to be happy, to make someone happy with him. He knew they were in love. For Nikki there was no more self-doubt, Mike made her know she was a treasure worth the wait, worth the fight, she was worth whatever. Love was forever.
So lay me down easy
And hold on tight
And tell me I'm the only one you see tonight
Lonely woman, lonely man
There's just some things only lonely understands
"Like the night you found Rizzo, Lola, Jack, and I in my room at the hotel." Nikki offered, still having Mike's hand in hers. "Nothing went on there, except Rizzo went to walk me to my room after we had gone out.
"Then I hit my shoulder, and he just went to set it back in place so I wouldn't have to spend the night in a hospital. He was just trying to help me. That's all, I did something stupid, and he just wanted to help."
"Apparently Jack and Lola didn't trust us," Rizzo continued. "Lola came in, and she had her shirt off so I could see her shoulder and Jack ran in, and he slipped...and well...you know."
"All fall down," Nikki concluded in a sing song voice. "The point is, we did what we did—or rather didn't do—we have no reason to regret any of it, except not coming clean—"
"And I want to apologize for that," Mike cut her off. "It was entirely my fault." Nikki shook her head in protest.
"No it was me," she insisted. "I was being selfish I guess, I just didn't want you telling me who I could, or could not be in a relationship with. I didn't want you to take it out on him. Do you understand?"
"There is nothing to understand," Herb shot. "This is unacceptable!"
"Unacceptable?" She fumed. "Unacceptable. What's unacceptable about it."
"First of all," Herb began. "You are barely twenty, he's twenty-six."
"Going to be twenty-six," Mike corrected.
"It doesn't matter," Nikki protested.
"To hell with 'doesn't matter'," Herb shot back, losing his temper. "You're going to college, and you're going to spend time in the Peace Corps. And you're going to change the world. You're not going to throw the rest of your life away, trying to have a relationship with a hockey player."
I might be just a sinner
Who wants to be a saint
One justifies the reason
Oh, one understands the pain
And I don't know what's wrong baby
And I sure don't know what's right
But I don't wanna go home tonight
"I am going to spend the rest of my life with him," Nikki returned with the hint of revelation in her eyes. "I..."
"Don't you use that word," her father protested immediately.
"I love him," she concluded. "I'm going to marry him."
"You are?" Rizzo stated in blatant shock. Herb gave him a look. "I mean that's good, but we haven't talked about..."
"Maybe we'll start a school for underprivileged children in Nicaragua together, then I want a house in Danvers with a white picket fence and blue shutters...and a big kitchen," she went on fervently making her point. "Cause we're going to have at least a dozen kids."
"Wow," Mike started. "Maybe we can discuss life plans a little later, okay please." Nikki looked over to him with disappointment in her eyes, her happy little dream dampened.
"I mean I want kids," he corrected himself. "Just not right this second."
"You're both crazy," Herb told them firmly.
"Maybe we are crazy," Rizzo told him. "But even crazy people can be happy if they're in love." And even a moron could recognize the adoration in his eyes, when he smiled at the young lady on the sofa beside him.
So lay me down easy
And hold on tight
And tell me I'm the only one you see tonight
Lonely woman, lonely man
There's just some things only lonely understands (2)
A/N: Relax more to come, and hopefully it will be better written! Where Rizzo will pop a very important question.
1 Random Fact: The contact lens was made possible in 1948 by Kevin Tuohy, who invented the soft plastic used to make the lenses, however the original idea was developed in 1888 by Adolph Fick.
2 Tonight, Sara Evans; Yes I understand it isn't period, but whenever I hear it I just think of this and I get this fuzzy feeling inside. Oh it feels so nice and warm.