Ordinary Boy
Tears.
It had been 2 months since the Bruins were knocked out of the playoffs and a new season was about to begin. Avery and Tuukka had split their between her home in Ontario and his in Finland for the summer. When they returned home they traded their Seaport penthouse for a South End brownstone, the same one Tuukka had picked out when he told Avery he was ready to buy something of their own. She hadn't been convinced she wanted to stay in the city because she wanted to have plenty of space. But this place was more than she could have ever imagined.
Of course, the house was more than anything she could afford to contribute to so she was hesitant to make the commitment. Avery never wanted to be one of those girlfriends or wives that dependent on him for everything. "We're equal partners." She'd always reminded him, even know though they both knew that wasn't completely true.
"I just- it's beautiful, but I just think it might be too much." She sighed, looking around the big beautiful kitchen.
"You know that we can afford this and so much more, right?" Tuukka asked with a laugh, leaning on the kitchen island beside her. She rolled her eyes.
"You can afford this and so much more." Avery reminded him, turning and walking across the kitchen to look out one of the windows.
"Stop. What's mine is yours, you know that." He gave her the same look he gave her every time they had a discussion like this. The last time had been when he replaced her Jeep with a beautiful new Audi when she'd told him there was nothing wrong with her car. "I can't possibly spend all this money on myself," He'd told her when she'd said that she didn't want him spending his hard earned money on her.
Avery challenged him with her eyes, she didn't want to back down from this one.
"Come on Ava, let me do this for us. What's the point of making all this money if I can't buy you the world?" He asked, moving to stand behind her.
"But, I just hate that don't have anything to give you in return." She admitted. His hands were immediately on her sides, turning her to face him.
"You give me everything I could ever need, Ava. And coming home to you barefoot," he dropped his ear to her shoulder, "and pregnant in this very kitchen will make this house worth it a million times over." She avoided eye contact, hoping it would stop her from smiling. Instead she buried her head in his chest, wrapping her arms tightly around his body. He pressed a kiss to her forehead and rested his chin on her head.
Just then they heard footsteps in the hallway. It was the realtor returning to see if they'd make a decision. "So, did you love it?"
---
"How do you feel about a spring wedding? May?" She mused flipping through a wedding magazine on their final calm morning before the season started.
"That could be tough... depending on how we do postseason."
"Ugh right.. that darn game of hockey." She replied never looking up from her magazine, and a piece of toast landed right on the page she was reading. "I was KIDDING" She chuckled tossing the toast back at him.
"Oh I know, I just wanted to see if it was possible to pull your attention from wedding planning...to me, you know, the guy you're marrying?" He laughed.
Avery put down her magazine and stood from her chair. Sitting in Tuukka's lap she wrapped her arms around his shoulders, "I just want it to be perfect. And once the season starts I feel like I won't have YOUR attention to plan this."
"I'm happy as long as you're happy, kultaseni" He planted a kiss on her nose.
"And I'm happy as long as I have you." She smiled back at him.
They sat like that for awhile, Avery's head resting back on his shoulder enjoying being close to him. They'd been struggling since the move, and were fighting more often than not. At first she was pushing it off as pre-season stress, they were so close last year and now Boston was expecting them to come through for them this season. They wanted The Cup.
He was spending most of his time with his teammates, working out or going out for team gatherings. Normally, she went with him but lately he'd been telling her his plans and not including her in them. After a few extra late nights Avery started to panic that it was her. That maybe he was regretting asking her to marry him, and buying her her dream home. Maybe it was all too much. She'd heard some rumors of one of his ex's hanging around the team but she trusted that he would tell her if that was the case.
Moments like this one made her want to push all of that out of her head. Moments like these brought her back to the beginning of her relationship when they were crossing borders to see each other, even if only for a night. They would have done anything back then to be together.
Tuukka shifted under her and checked his watch, "I hate to do this babe but I have to meet Brad and Pat for a workout in like an hour."
"I thought I had one more day where you were aaallll mine." She whined, wrapping herself tightly around him.
"I know, I'm sorry." He sighed, pressing a kiss into her forehead.
"When do you have to leave?" She asked, turning to face him, her lips curling into a sly smile.
"Why... what's on your mind?" He knew exactly what was on her mind, it was about all that was on her mind lately aside from wedding planning.
"Have time for a quick workout before your workout?" She smirked at him, shifting herself in his lap so she was facing him, straddling his waist.
He didn't respond but pulled her face to his.
- -
Thirty minutes later he was rushing about their room, Avery laid under the sheets watching him.
"If you keep looking at me like that I'm going to even later." He told her, zipping his gym bag shut.
"Oh come on... what's five... to tenish more minutes?" She laughed, pulling the blankets down and perching herself up on her elbows.
"No." He told her firmly. "You can't use your naked body everytime I try to leave."
"But why not?" She whined and he laughed. He kissed her on the forehead and wrapped her back up in the blankets.
"Let's meet for dinner after practice." He told her instead of asking her, and her eyes lit up.
After he left she got up and made her way to the bathroom. Rummaging around in her drawer she found what she was looking for. She was knew the last 3 were probably correct but she wanted to be sure before she told him over dinner tonight.
3 minutes later she was sure. She was pregnant.
--
Avery sat on the couch flipping through magazines when there was a noise at the door. She sighed and set down her reading material, heading toward the door.
Be calm, Avery. Maybe there's a good reason he blew you off and never texted. Be calm.
She opened it to reveal Tuukka at the door fumbling with the doorknob, he looked up at her innocently and laughed, "I forgot my keys."
Not calm.
"Unreal." She turned on her heel and headed back for the living room, she was fuming. He'd been the one to suggest dinner and she should have known it was too good to be true. After an hour of sitting at the restaurant alone she had ordered her food to go and cried by herself in the car the whole way home.
"Ava- wait. I'm sorry. I know I'm late." He followed after her into their home. "Kultaseni" He reached for her.
"You reek of liquor and you're 3 hours late, THREE...not even a text? C'mon." She crossed her arms over her chest, she had told herself that she was not staying quiet, if he wanted to keep acting the way he was it was time to call him out.
"I know I know. The guys wanted to grab a drink after practice and then we lost track of time.... please come here." He reached out for her again and she pulled away.
"You're honestly unbelievable. I sat alone at the restaurant for an hour hoping you were running late" She tossed her magazine on the coffee table and headed for the stairs, "Do you know how stupid I looked?"
"SHIT. Shit shit shit. I forgot." He followed after her.
"I don't want to keep doing this with you, Tuuk. This is like the third time you've done this recently."
She had been so excited to tell him over dinner about her being pregnant. It wasn't traditional, but they knew they wanted kids, it was just happening a little sooner than planned. In this moment she wanted to scream it at him, make him feel even worse for forgetting about her. But she didn't, she wanted it to be a happy moment between them.
"Ava please, can you not walk away from me?" He sighed. "AVERY GODDAMMIT" He yelled, smacking his hand on the door frame, and she jumped, stopping dead in her tracks, a hand instinctively shot to her stomach.
He was instantly at her side, she dropped her hand. "Jesus Av, I'm sorry. Please can we just talk? I'm so sorry." He ran his hands through his hair frantically.
"I'm going to bed." She said through her teeth and headed up the stairs, "And you're not coming." She turned to face him giving him a stern look.
"That's just great. I can't sleep in my own bed... where do you expect me to sleep?" He followed her up the stairs to their bedroom door.
"We just bought this big ole house, there's plenty of rooms... figure it out." She snapped, shutting the door in his face.
-----
She knew it was her fault the spot next to her was empty the next morning but that didn't stop her from hating it. Part of her had honestly hoped he would have snuck back into bed in the middle of the night, they both knew she wouldn't have protested, the only nights they ever spent apart were when he was on the road. Looking at the clock on the nightstand she knew he'd be gone by now.
She forced herself into the shower where she found herself sobbing at the current state of her life. She was pregnant and she still hadn't had the chance to be excited about it. A baby would change everything, and there was a chance it could make things worse for them.
After her shower, she slipped back into comfy clothes and made her way downstairs. When she reached the kitchen her phone started buzzing.
Katrina Marchand
"Hello?" She pressed the phone between her shoulder and ear and rummaged through the fridge, she wasn't sure if it was the pregnancy or her stress but everything repulsed her.
"So Tuukka told Brad, who may have mentioned to me that you are in desperate need of a girl's day."
"Ha" Avery couldn't help but laugh out loud. A girl's day. What she needed was for her fiancé to stop being so absent.
"Ok fine... so Brad said Tuukka fucked up baaaaad, and you could probably use a friend and some time to relax... okay well Brad didn't say the relax thing, I did, but you get it." Kat rambled on.
"I don't know Kat. I have so much going on." She lied, she honestly wanted to sit on the couch and sulk all day.
"Right and I totally get that. And we can talk about it all while we have a girl's day."
"I think I'd just rather be alone." And then there was a knock at her front door.
"Well that's too bad because I am here," Katrina said matter of factly, and Avery laughed pulling open her front door and hanging up the phone.
"You Marchand's don't take no for an answer, huh?" Avery chuckled, taking the coffee Katrina was holding out for her.
"Guess not." She shrugged letting herself in, "Jesus Avery, this place is HUGE." She looked around in awe. "Like, I have children and my house is not this big."
"The plan was to fill it with kids... but I don't know if he's going to live long enough for that to happen," Avery replied, heading back to the kitchen and sitting down at the island.
"Oh stop. You guys will figure it out, you always do." Katrina hushed her.
"I just don't know what to do, Kat." Avery ran her hands through her hair in frustration, "He's just been a completely different person since we moved. Like is this too much for him? The ring, and the house? We tend to do things at warp speed but like, he should have spoken up if he didn't want this." If he doesn't want the marriage then he definitely won't want the kid She rested her elbows on the counter and put her head in her hands, trying to fight back another round of tears.
"Okay take a breath. He wants this. He's just an idiot." Kat reached out and put a hand on Avery's shoulder.
"But how do you know?" She pressed.
"There's is no doubt in my mind that man loves you with every part of him. But nothing's perfect all the time. Like... have you met my husband? Complete and total moron but we are so in love, even when I want to murder him." Kat chuckled.
"Brad Marchand? A moron? Noooo" Avery laughed standing up from the table, "Okay fine. Where are we going?"
"YES!" Kat shot her arms up in victory and smiled brightly, "we have appointments at DryBar in an hour."
"Oh, so you just knew I'd come with you?" Avery crossed her arms across her chest.
"Well, I was just going to kidnap you if you said no.... Go get dressed. While I get lost giving myself a tour of this magnificent house." Kat stood from the island and wandered off toward the basement while Avery went upstairs to pick out something to wear.
She was applying her last bit of makeup when her phone buzzed on the bathroom counter.
[i/] I love you.
Avery smiled slightly to herself, before the events of the day before flooding her mind again, and she frowned. How were they going to do this? She couldn't keep putting it off. Tonight was the night.
"I mean... this house is unreal." Kat's bubbly self appeared behind Avery and she shoved her phone in her pocket. "Uh oh.. what did he do?"
"Nothing... are we ready?" She smiled heading for the stairs.
--
They sat down to a late lunch after a day of pampering. Avery ordered herself a water but Kat insisted on a bottle of prosecco which Avery tried to protest.
"What is up with you?! I don't think you touched your mimosa earlier either..come on this is supposed to be a fun day!" Kat pointed her glass at Avery's, "Drink!"
She started to attempt an excuse but she already saw the gears in Kat's head turning, she interrupted before Avery could come up with anything.
"Avery .... why are you not drinking?" Kat asked, and Avery laughed nervously. "NO WAY... ARE YOU?!"
"Would you keep it down?!?" Avery hissed at her in a low voice, looking around at the other diners.
"WELL are you?!" She raised her eyebrows expectantly.
"Yes, I'm pregnant." Her own eyes widened with Kat's as she said it, it was the first time she'd said the words out loud. "I haven't told him yet, it's still early, I'm probably only a few weeks. I made an appointment for next week."
"Oh my god! This is amazing!" Kat squealed but saw the concerned look on Avery's face, "Right?"
"I mean normally, yes. Except I don't particularly like him right now. How am I supposed to be excited about bringing a kid into this?" Avery chewed nervously on her bottom lip.
"It's going to work itself out. He's going to come home tonight and apologize and you're going to tell him and he's going to be over the moon." Katrina told her, giving Avery's hand a reassuring squeeze. Avery smiled and nodded, Kat was right, they were going to be fine.
--
Avery was sitting in bed later that night when she heard the door shut and Tuukka make his way up the stairs. She fidgeted with her hands excitedly as she heard him get closer.
"Hi" she smiled slightly at him, "How was your day?" She was trying to gauge his mood.
"Fine. I'm just changing and meeting up with Bergy and Brad." He told her heading toward his closet.
"Oh." She was disappointed, "I was actually hoping we could talk."
He sighed and turned around to face her, "What is it?"
"There was just something I wanted to discuss with you, it's important." She pulled the covers off about to walk over to him.
"If it's about the wedding, do whatever you want. It doesn't matter to me." He pulled his sweats off and stepped into jeans.
"Of course it doesn't." She huffed, "Did you still want to get married?" He stopped what he was doing and instantly looked up at her.
"You can't be serious."
Instead of responding, she turned off the bedside lamp, pulling the covers up around her, she was exhausted from all the fighting "Don't forget your keys this time." She snapped before rolling over.
"Avery please, I didn't mean it like that." He told her, climbing onto the bed to try to get her to look at him, she didn't budge. "I love you," he whispered before turning off the light, shutting the door and leaving.
More tears.
Normally, he wouldn't leave her in a moment like that. He would have abandoned his plans and crawled into bed next to her. He would have held her close until she was ready to talk to him. They never walked away from a fight, except for now.
--
Avery woke up in the middle of the night with stabbing pain in her stomach. The spot next to her was still empty.
3:01
She flicked on the lights and pulled the covers down. She was bleeding, not a lot but enough to be concerned. Avery grabbed her phone and frantically got up, making her way to the hallway. Something wasn't right.
Of course, the house was more than anything she could afford to contribute to so she was hesitant to make the commitment. Avery never wanted to be one of those girlfriends or wives that dependent on him for everything. "We're equal partners." She'd always reminded him, even know though they both knew that wasn't completely true.
"I just- it's beautiful, but I just think it might be too much." She sighed, looking around the big beautiful kitchen.
"You know that we can afford this and so much more, right?" Tuukka asked with a laugh, leaning on the kitchen island beside her. She rolled her eyes.
"You can afford this and so much more." Avery reminded him, turning and walking across the kitchen to look out one of the windows.
"Stop. What's mine is yours, you know that." He gave her the same look he gave her every time they had a discussion like this. The last time had been when he replaced her Jeep with a beautiful new Audi when she'd told him there was nothing wrong with her car. "I can't possibly spend all this money on myself," He'd told her when she'd said that she didn't want him spending his hard earned money on her.
Avery challenged him with her eyes, she didn't want to back down from this one.
"Come on Ava, let me do this for us. What's the point of making all this money if I can't buy you the world?" He asked, moving to stand behind her.
"But, I just hate that don't have anything to give you in return." She admitted. His hands were immediately on her sides, turning her to face him.
"You give me everything I could ever need, Ava. And coming home to you barefoot," he dropped his ear to her shoulder, "and pregnant in this very kitchen will make this house worth it a million times over." She avoided eye contact, hoping it would stop her from smiling. Instead she buried her head in his chest, wrapping her arms tightly around his body. He pressed a kiss to her forehead and rested his chin on her head.
Just then they heard footsteps in the hallway. It was the realtor returning to see if they'd make a decision. "So, did you love it?"
---
"How do you feel about a spring wedding? May?" She mused flipping through a wedding magazine on their final calm morning before the season started.
"That could be tough... depending on how we do postseason."
"Ugh right.. that darn game of hockey." She replied never looking up from her magazine, and a piece of toast landed right on the page she was reading. "I was KIDDING" She chuckled tossing the toast back at him.
"Oh I know, I just wanted to see if it was possible to pull your attention from wedding planning...to me, you know, the guy you're marrying?" He laughed.
Avery put down her magazine and stood from her chair. Sitting in Tuukka's lap she wrapped her arms around his shoulders, "I just want it to be perfect. And once the season starts I feel like I won't have YOUR attention to plan this."
"I'm happy as long as you're happy, kultaseni" He planted a kiss on her nose.
"And I'm happy as long as I have you." She smiled back at him.
They sat like that for awhile, Avery's head resting back on his shoulder enjoying being close to him. They'd been struggling since the move, and were fighting more often than not. At first she was pushing it off as pre-season stress, they were so close last year and now Boston was expecting them to come through for them this season. They wanted The Cup.
He was spending most of his time with his teammates, working out or going out for team gatherings. Normally, she went with him but lately he'd been telling her his plans and not including her in them. After a few extra late nights Avery started to panic that it was her. That maybe he was regretting asking her to marry him, and buying her her dream home. Maybe it was all too much. She'd heard some rumors of one of his ex's hanging around the team but she trusted that he would tell her if that was the case.
Moments like this one made her want to push all of that out of her head. Moments like these brought her back to the beginning of her relationship when they were crossing borders to see each other, even if only for a night. They would have done anything back then to be together.
Tuukka shifted under her and checked his watch, "I hate to do this babe but I have to meet Brad and Pat for a workout in like an hour."
"I thought I had one more day where you were aaallll mine." She whined, wrapping herself tightly around him.
"I know, I'm sorry." He sighed, pressing a kiss into her forehead.
"When do you have to leave?" She asked, turning to face him, her lips curling into a sly smile.
"Why... what's on your mind?" He knew exactly what was on her mind, it was about all that was on her mind lately aside from wedding planning.
"Have time for a quick workout before your workout?" She smirked at him, shifting herself in his lap so she was facing him, straddling his waist.
He didn't respond but pulled her face to his.
- -
Thirty minutes later he was rushing about their room, Avery laid under the sheets watching him.
"If you keep looking at me like that I'm going to even later." He told her, zipping his gym bag shut.
"Oh come on... what's five... to tenish more minutes?" She laughed, pulling the blankets down and perching herself up on her elbows.
"No." He told her firmly. "You can't use your naked body everytime I try to leave."
"But why not?" She whined and he laughed. He kissed her on the forehead and wrapped her back up in the blankets.
"Let's meet for dinner after practice." He told her instead of asking her, and her eyes lit up.
After he left she got up and made her way to the bathroom. Rummaging around in her drawer she found what she was looking for. She was knew the last 3 were probably correct but she wanted to be sure before she told him over dinner tonight.
3 minutes later she was sure. She was pregnant.
--
Avery sat on the couch flipping through magazines when there was a noise at the door. She sighed and set down her reading material, heading toward the door.
Be calm, Avery. Maybe there's a good reason he blew you off and never texted. Be calm.
She opened it to reveal Tuukka at the door fumbling with the doorknob, he looked up at her innocently and laughed, "I forgot my keys."
Not calm.
"Unreal." She turned on her heel and headed back for the living room, she was fuming. He'd been the one to suggest dinner and she should have known it was too good to be true. After an hour of sitting at the restaurant alone she had ordered her food to go and cried by herself in the car the whole way home.
"Ava- wait. I'm sorry. I know I'm late." He followed after her into their home. "Kultaseni" He reached for her.
"You reek of liquor and you're 3 hours late, THREE...not even a text? C'mon." She crossed her arms over her chest, she had told herself that she was not staying quiet, if he wanted to keep acting the way he was it was time to call him out.
"I know I know. The guys wanted to grab a drink after practice and then we lost track of time.... please come here." He reached out for her again and she pulled away.
"You're honestly unbelievable. I sat alone at the restaurant for an hour hoping you were running late" She tossed her magazine on the coffee table and headed for the stairs, "Do you know how stupid I looked?"
"SHIT. Shit shit shit. I forgot." He followed after her.
"I don't want to keep doing this with you, Tuuk. This is like the third time you've done this recently."
She had been so excited to tell him over dinner about her being pregnant. It wasn't traditional, but they knew they wanted kids, it was just happening a little sooner than planned. In this moment she wanted to scream it at him, make him feel even worse for forgetting about her. But she didn't, she wanted it to be a happy moment between them.
"Ava please, can you not walk away from me?" He sighed. "AVERY GODDAMMIT" He yelled, smacking his hand on the door frame, and she jumped, stopping dead in her tracks, a hand instinctively shot to her stomach.
He was instantly at her side, she dropped her hand. "Jesus Av, I'm sorry. Please can we just talk? I'm so sorry." He ran his hands through his hair frantically.
"I'm going to bed." She said through her teeth and headed up the stairs, "And you're not coming." She turned to face him giving him a stern look.
"That's just great. I can't sleep in my own bed... where do you expect me to sleep?" He followed her up the stairs to their bedroom door.
"We just bought this big ole house, there's plenty of rooms... figure it out." She snapped, shutting the door in his face.
-----
She knew it was her fault the spot next to her was empty the next morning but that didn't stop her from hating it. Part of her had honestly hoped he would have snuck back into bed in the middle of the night, they both knew she wouldn't have protested, the only nights they ever spent apart were when he was on the road. Looking at the clock on the nightstand she knew he'd be gone by now.
She forced herself into the shower where she found herself sobbing at the current state of her life. She was pregnant and she still hadn't had the chance to be excited about it. A baby would change everything, and there was a chance it could make things worse for them.
After her shower, she slipped back into comfy clothes and made her way downstairs. When she reached the kitchen her phone started buzzing.
Katrina Marchand
"Hello?" She pressed the phone between her shoulder and ear and rummaged through the fridge, she wasn't sure if it was the pregnancy or her stress but everything repulsed her.
"So Tuukka told Brad, who may have mentioned to me that you are in desperate need of a girl's day."
"Ha" Avery couldn't help but laugh out loud. A girl's day. What she needed was for her fiancé to stop being so absent.
"Ok fine... so Brad said Tuukka fucked up baaaaad, and you could probably use a friend and some time to relax... okay well Brad didn't say the relax thing, I did, but you get it." Kat rambled on.
"I don't know Kat. I have so much going on." She lied, she honestly wanted to sit on the couch and sulk all day.
"Right and I totally get that. And we can talk about it all while we have a girl's day."
"I think I'd just rather be alone." And then there was a knock at her front door.
"Well that's too bad because I am here," Katrina said matter of factly, and Avery laughed pulling open her front door and hanging up the phone.
"You Marchand's don't take no for an answer, huh?" Avery chuckled, taking the coffee Katrina was holding out for her.
"Guess not." She shrugged letting herself in, "Jesus Avery, this place is HUGE." She looked around in awe. "Like, I have children and my house is not this big."
"The plan was to fill it with kids... but I don't know if he's going to live long enough for that to happen," Avery replied, heading back to the kitchen and sitting down at the island.
"Oh stop. You guys will figure it out, you always do." Katrina hushed her.
"I just don't know what to do, Kat." Avery ran her hands through her hair in frustration, "He's just been a completely different person since we moved. Like is this too much for him? The ring, and the house? We tend to do things at warp speed but like, he should have spoken up if he didn't want this." If he doesn't want the marriage then he definitely won't want the kid She rested her elbows on the counter and put her head in her hands, trying to fight back another round of tears.
"Okay take a breath. He wants this. He's just an idiot." Kat reached out and put a hand on Avery's shoulder.
"But how do you know?" She pressed.
"There's is no doubt in my mind that man loves you with every part of him. But nothing's perfect all the time. Like... have you met my husband? Complete and total moron but we are so in love, even when I want to murder him." Kat chuckled.
"Brad Marchand? A moron? Noooo" Avery laughed standing up from the table, "Okay fine. Where are we going?"
"YES!" Kat shot her arms up in victory and smiled brightly, "we have appointments at DryBar in an hour."
"Oh, so you just knew I'd come with you?" Avery crossed her arms across her chest.
"Well, I was just going to kidnap you if you said no.... Go get dressed. While I get lost giving myself a tour of this magnificent house." Kat stood from the island and wandered off toward the basement while Avery went upstairs to pick out something to wear.
She was applying her last bit of makeup when her phone buzzed on the bathroom counter.
[i/] I love you.
Avery smiled slightly to herself, before the events of the day before flooding her mind again, and she frowned. How were they going to do this? She couldn't keep putting it off. Tonight was the night.
"I mean... this house is unreal." Kat's bubbly self appeared behind Avery and she shoved her phone in her pocket. "Uh oh.. what did he do?"
"Nothing... are we ready?" She smiled heading for the stairs.
--
They sat down to a late lunch after a day of pampering. Avery ordered herself a water but Kat insisted on a bottle of prosecco which Avery tried to protest.
"What is up with you?! I don't think you touched your mimosa earlier either..come on this is supposed to be a fun day!" Kat pointed her glass at Avery's, "Drink!"
She started to attempt an excuse but she already saw the gears in Kat's head turning, she interrupted before Avery could come up with anything.
"Avery .... why are you not drinking?" Kat asked, and Avery laughed nervously. "NO WAY... ARE YOU?!"
"Would you keep it down?!?" Avery hissed at her in a low voice, looking around at the other diners.
"WELL are you?!" She raised her eyebrows expectantly.
"Yes, I'm pregnant." Her own eyes widened with Kat's as she said it, it was the first time she'd said the words out loud. "I haven't told him yet, it's still early, I'm probably only a few weeks. I made an appointment for next week."
"Oh my god! This is amazing!" Kat squealed but saw the concerned look on Avery's face, "Right?"
"I mean normally, yes. Except I don't particularly like him right now. How am I supposed to be excited about bringing a kid into this?" Avery chewed nervously on her bottom lip.
"It's going to work itself out. He's going to come home tonight and apologize and you're going to tell him and he's going to be over the moon." Katrina told her, giving Avery's hand a reassuring squeeze. Avery smiled and nodded, Kat was right, they were going to be fine.
--
Avery was sitting in bed later that night when she heard the door shut and Tuukka make his way up the stairs. She fidgeted with her hands excitedly as she heard him get closer.
"Hi" she smiled slightly at him, "How was your day?" She was trying to gauge his mood.
"Fine. I'm just changing and meeting up with Bergy and Brad." He told her heading toward his closet.
"Oh." She was disappointed, "I was actually hoping we could talk."
He sighed and turned around to face her, "What is it?"
"There was just something I wanted to discuss with you, it's important." She pulled the covers off about to walk over to him.
"If it's about the wedding, do whatever you want. It doesn't matter to me." He pulled his sweats off and stepped into jeans.
"Of course it doesn't." She huffed, "Did you still want to get married?" He stopped what he was doing and instantly looked up at her.
"You can't be serious."
Instead of responding, she turned off the bedside lamp, pulling the covers up around her, she was exhausted from all the fighting "Don't forget your keys this time." She snapped before rolling over.
"Avery please, I didn't mean it like that." He told her, climbing onto the bed to try to get her to look at him, she didn't budge. "I love you," he whispered before turning off the light, shutting the door and leaving.
More tears.
Normally, he wouldn't leave her in a moment like that. He would have abandoned his plans and crawled into bed next to her. He would have held her close until she was ready to talk to him. They never walked away from a fight, except for now.
--
Avery woke up in the middle of the night with stabbing pain in her stomach. The spot next to her was still empty.
3:01
She flicked on the lights and pulled the covers down. She was bleeding, not a lot but enough to be concerned. Avery grabbed her phone and frantically got up, making her way to the hallway. Something wasn't right.