“Can you grab my pillow?” Nathalie asked Nicky from the living room. They were packing the final things to bring back to Sweden for the summer.
The Capitals had been eliminated in the second round by the Tampa Bay Lightning, and Nicky hadn't been too happy about it for some days. He was finally starting to get over it, though.
“Yeah, sure,” He brought her pillow with him from the bedroom and handed it to her. “Why do you need that, anyway, there's lots of pillows back home.”
“This is my favourite,” Nathalie squeezed it tight. “And I don't like the ones you get on the plane!” Nicky rolled his eyes and laughed.
“All right...” He said. “I still can't believe Jake managed to convince Autumn to come with us!”
“I know!” Nathalie exclaimed. “She was so hesitant, you know?”
“Oh yeah?” Nicky raised his eyebrows.
“Yeah, she wasn't sure she was ready. Guess she changed her mind.”
“I'd say...” Nicky felt his phone buzz in his pocket and took it up only to see a text from Jacob. “Well look at that, he must know we were talking about them.” He grinned.
“What does it say?”
“You coming? We should get going.” Nicky read, and right after, they heard a car horn honk outside. Nathalie laughed.
“We'd better hurry.” She picked up her bags from the floor and followed Nicky out through the door.
It took them twenty minutes to get to the airport, and the guys were chatting along loudly in the front of the car while Jacob drove. Nathalie had given up trying to follow their conversation a while ago, and was now looking over at Autumn, who had her gaze resting on the road passing by. Nathalie stroke her hand lightly.
“You ok?” She said with a weak smile, Autumn looking at her.
“Yeah, it's just weird,” She sighed. “I've never been outside of north America before, and I'm worried about some things.”
“Like what?” Nathalie frowned.
“You know, having to go to the bathroom a hundred times and all of that. And I'm probably going to be whiny and annoying and just-”
“Heey, don't worry, you'll be fine!” Nathalie grinned. “You can sit by the aisle, the chair are enormous and you'll have lots of entertainment.” Autumn shrugged.
“If you say so...”
“Are you looking forward to it, at all?” Nathalie tried keeping a good tone, despite Autumn's obvious bad mood. “I mean, you'll get to meet all of our families!”
“Yeeah, not so sure how that'll go...” Autumn sighed. “How will they react to me being pregnant, and what if they hate me?”
“No one could possibly hate you!” Nathalie's eyes widened. “How can you say that?”
“Why would anyone hate you?” Jacob said from the driver's seat.
“Swedes...” Autumn muttered and crossed her arms over her chest. Nathalie pushed her lightly.
“They'll love you, I swear. At least my parents will!”
“You guys are sweet.” Autumn said with a week smile.
“We're here, guys.” Jacob said as he parked the car. “Let's go check in.”
“Yeah,” Nathalie got out of the car and grabbed her bags, following the guys into the airport. “Do you need help?” She asked Autumn when she struggled with her luggage.
“No, I'll be fine...”
“Seriously, let me help you.” Nathalie took one of Autumn's bags and Autumn smiled, miming a thank you.
They walked over to the guys, who had grabbed a luggage cart, and put their bags on top of it.
“When do we leave?” Autumn asked and leaned against the cart.
“An hour and a half,” Nicky said, looking at his boarding pass. “We should check in our bags and go through security now.”
After checking in and making sure they had everything they would need on the plane, the four lined up to go through security.
“They're staring at me...” Autumn muttered as she nudged Nathalie.
“What are you talking about?” Nathalie stopped digging around her handbag and looked up.
“The security people...” Autumn said and crossed her arms over her chest. “They're looking at me. It's because I'm so young and pregnant, isn't it?” Nathalie blinked.
“Autumn, they're not staring at you... And they don't care about your pregnancy. All they care about is airport security.”
“I swear to god that guy was judging me. I could tell.” Autumn said after getting all her things on the belt, so they could be x-rayed.
“You're being paranoid, he was not.” Nathalie walked ahead of the rest of them and waited with all her things for them to get through.
“Maybe they thought I look fat and gross.” Autumn continued when they were all sitting down to eat something before the flight.
“What are you on about?” Jacob asked, eyebrows raised.
“She thinks that the airport staff are either judging her for being pregnant or think she's fat...” Nathalie rolled her eyes and Jacob stared at Autumn.
“Are you serious?” He exclaimed. “Autumn, you are beautiful, why won't you get that?”
“I'm bloated, I have stretch marks and I'm a walking house.” Autumn said in a low voice. Nicky shook his head.
“Autumn, listen to him, seriously,” He caught Nathalie's eye. “You have to see what we see-”
“And what is that, Nick?” Autumn cut him off. “What could that possibly be?”
“A beautiful woman who has been blessed with the wonder of a baby. Do you know how lucky you are?” Autumn opened her mouth to speak but couldn't think of anything to say. “Exactly,” Nicky said. “So embrace it, love yourself and that little person in there. You will be happier than you have ever been before once he or she comes out. Trust me.”
While Nicky had been talking, Nathalie had pushed her plate away and looked at her hands. Autumn finally saw that she looked unhappy.
“Hey, Nat, what's wrong?” She asked, reaching out for one of Nathalie's hands. Nathalie looked up immediately.
“Oh, nothing. I'm not that hungry, that's all. Wow, is that the time? We should get going, our gate closes in fifteen minutes.” She collected all of her things, put them in her bag and hurried off toward the gate. The guys shrugged and they all followed her, Autumn with a concerned look on her face.
“Hey, you've got our tickets!” Nicky laughed and walked up to her when they had reached their gate. He pulled her close and kissed her, whispering “Why'd you run away?” Nathalie swallowed and took out their tickets.
“Here,” She handed him his and walked over to Autumn and Jacob. “Here are yours, we're sitting together, Autumn.” She smiled a weak smile and looked over at the desk. “Let's go, the line is getting shorter.” She kept quiet as they waited for their turn, but all she could think of was how excited Nicky had looked and sounded when he talked to Autumn about her being pregnant. The truth of the matter was; she was terrified that he might push her into the baby world way too soon. She wasn't ready yet.
“Where do we go first?” She heard Jacob say. “Gävle or Skellefteå?”
“Gävle is closer to Stockholm,” Nicky replied. “What do you say, Nat, Gävle first?”
“Hmm...?” Nathalie looked at them both and nodded, confirming Nicky's question. “Yeah, we'll go to my place later.”
Once on the plane, Nathalie sunk into the chair and leaned back, exhaling loudly. “Brace yourself...” She said and turned to Autumn. “It's gonna be a long flight.”
“There's a stop somewhere, right?” Autumn asked, already playing with the TV-monitor in front of her. “Greenland, or something?” Nathalie laughed.
“Iceland, actually, and yes, we stay there for an hour and then it's straight to Stockholm.”
“Cool,” Autumn yawned. “I hope I can get some sleep, my baby keeps me up for too long.”
“You're sure about not wanting to know the sex?” Nathalie started checking which movies would be available.
“Yeah...” Autumn said. “At least for now. Jacob's dying to know, though. He's hoping for a boy, of course.”
“Do you have any possible names, yet?”
“Jacob suggested Jesper, if it's a boy, and I really like the name Emma for a girl.”
“Are you kidding?” Nathalie gasped. “That's my middle name!”
“Oh my god, that's amazing!” Autumn exclaimed.
“What's amazing?” Jacob leaned over from their seats.
“Nat's middle name is Emma, the name I want if it's a girl!”
“Wow, that is kind of amazing. I mean, what are the odds?”
“I know, right!” Autumn turned back to Nathalie and they chatted on about everything and nothing. Nicky rolled his eyes.
“Let them go on,” Jacob laughed. “They'll be dead tired anytime soon, and we'll be able to sleep, too.”
“God, I hope so,” Nicky said with a smile as he leaned back. “I'm so tired.”
Even with the girls chatting, he managed to fall asleep in the big, soft first class chair, and he was out all the way to Iceland. Jacob, on the other hand, was watching Autumn until she fell asleep, which was somewhere over the Atlantic. Nathalie fell asleep an hour before they landed in Reykjavik and Jacob stayed awake. He simply couldn't fall asleep on airplanes when they were over water. He didn't know why.
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