"Do you think this is going to work?" I ask Alex as I frantically pull off my gear.

"It better, she skates in a few hours and I want to be there." He huffs.

Our early morning game had gone well, after winning that one we played another directly after that. Sasha's brothers we absolutely unstoppable, they seemed more determined than ever to win and and play a clean game.

I of course was praying we'd win our two games, then our next one was the following afternoon, the final. Then we'd be regional champions. 

We had an hour and a half to get to our flight to Boston. Then an hour on the flight and we'd be racing to the arena to see her before her final skate.

It was a plan we'd kept secret from Sasha intentionally incase something had gone amiss. I didn't want to let her down and be the reason she was having a hard time concentrating. 

We rush quickly out of the change-rooms saying goodbye to our team until tomorrow. Then we were getting our overnight bags and piling into Alex's car.

"I hope this works out." He mumbles.

"She'll be happy at least." Nik says. "She seemed pretty worried before she left and she told me she felt absolutely awful no one was coming to watch us skate."

"You didn't tell her we were coming last night, right Carter?" Alex asks and I shake my head.

"No, I swear. She just wanted to talk to me, I think she seemed a little anxious." I admit and I watch the car speed up a bit.

"I hope dad's leaving her alone." Alex groans. "I think it secretly kills him he doesn't have a role in any of this anymore."

"Well that could be true, but she didn't say anything about it." I assure him and he nods parking his car in the airport lot.

The three of us quickly get our carry-ons, plane tickets and driver's licenses. Everything just feels like a blur and a race against the clock. I remember quickly running our things through and x-ray and walking through a body scanner of some type. Nik almost killed a TSA agent when he was sent off to secondary screening, but the test was quick and soon enough we were rushing to the gate. 

"G-nine....G-ten....this is it, G-eleven. Destination, Boston, Massachusetts." Alex declares and I breathe easy seeing we're ten minutes early. "I'm going to run and use the washroom, watch my stuff?" He asks and I nod.

I watch Alex run to a nearby washroom and then it's just me and Nik. The only thing Sasha's brothers and I bonded over, was Sasha. I know there was some part of them that really resented me still for how I'd treated her previously.

"So.....Sasha seemed good last night?" He asks and I nod.

"She seemed like her usual self." I tell him with a shrug. He nods a bit at that, like he's processing that information.

"I really worry about her, especially with all the stuff that's happened recently." He sighs. "Look I know that Sabrina and Jake were two of the people you used to be closest with......but I know, just like Sasha tried to convince me months ago, you're not one of those people." He tells me and I blow out a tense breath.

"My sister is one of the only people I have, we were each others' family when our parents were too neglectful to care. She's one of the best people there is, she really tries to see good in people and she's nicer than she seems on the outside. I love my sister to death, I'll admit I didn't think she'd have a boyfriend anytime soon, but if she's going to be with someone....I'm glad it's you."

I feel blown-away by that statement. Nik Petrov just gave me his....approval. 

"Thanks." I say and reach my hand out for him to shake. "That means a lot coming from you, I know how important you and Alex are to Sasha. Your sister means the world to me and I care about her. I know she's going through a lot of things but I don't mind, she's worth it."

He nods a bit and I see a small smile starting to form. "She loves you." He says shaking his head. "She'll be glad to see you."

I smile a bit at that and gather my bags hearing the gate number getting called for boarding. I was just excited to see her, we'd been apart for two-and-a-half days and I missed seeing her in person.

We quickly board the plane and take our seats, packing in for the short flight. I was nervous at first about this trip, the last thing any of us wanted to do was let our team down. But the timing had worked out surprisingly well, and we'd get there before her final skate.

This was Sasha's big moment, and I would have been crushed to miss it. I would have listened to her talk about it and wished I would have just been there to see it.

The whole plane ride I anxiously fiddled with the hairpiece I had for Sasha. It was the same one I'd kept in the box under my bed for so many years, the same one she'd put in her hair the night we first kissed. I wanted to give it to her today and surprise her.

The hour long plane ride felt like years and the second we hit the runway I was collecting my things quickly. Getting off and out of the plane ended up taking the longest by far. It just took some shoving and lying to get us out of the airport faster.

Quickly we're in a cab speeding off to the competition. Two o'clock. She skates in forty five minutes, I'm convinced Nik will kill the cab driver if he can't get us there fast enough. 

Just when I start to worry, we pull up out front of the arena and pay the driver. The inside of the building is a maze, I'm not used to it like I am to the ones around us. Twenty minutes. We need to find her.

We ask someone for help and after running down a few slightly crowded hallways, we're walking through the doors. I try to find a familiar face and after it seems hopeless I see two twenty-something-year-olds standing near the boards. Kate and Johnathan.

"Kate!" Call rushing over to her and she whips her head around, seeing the three of us rush over.

"Nate?" She says sounding surprised. "And Nik and Alex? You're going to give the girl a heart-attack!"

"We just wanted to watch her skate." Nik defends. "Is she here?"

"She'll be here any second, how did you come in the coaches and athletes entrance?" She asks and we shrug.

"No idea. Does she seem nervous?" Alex asks and Kate sighs.

"Yeah, I think she's feeling the pressure. She puked after breakfast this morning." I cringe when I hear that, I feel sick myself from not being there. "She'll skate alright, but I just want her to relax a bit. She's taking a second in the dressing area alone."

"There she is!" Alex says, rushing over and scooping her into a hug.

"What are you doing here?" She asks excitedly, walking over to Nik now to hug him too.

"We wanted to watch you skate." Nik says. "You've done amazing work Sasha, I'm proud of you."

"Did you fly?" She asks and Alex laughs.

"Well your whiny boyfriend insisted on coming to watch you, so we just took a quick little plane-ride-" The second he says 'boyfriend' her head scans around until her eyes find mine. She gets out of the hug she was trapped in by Alex and runs to me. I gladly wrap my arms around her and I feel her relax against my chest.

"Nathan." She breathes and I smile, giving her a good squeeze.

"Baby." I whisper back. It feels like I haven't seen her in years, it feels so good to have her in my arms. I feel her start to shake and when I pull back, her eyes are turning red with unshed tears. "What's wrong? Why are you crying?" I ask and she sniffles.

"I don't mean to, I'm just.....so happy you're here." She says, squeezing me so tight I almost can't breathe. "I've been going crazy, over-thinking everything. I haven't slept right because I've been so worked up an-and I-I...."

"Shh, it's alright." I tell her quietly, running my thumbs under her eyes to sweep away the tears. "Look at me." I whisper and her eyes meet mine. "Breathe, in through your nose, out through your mouth." She nods and takes some deep breaths.

"Don't second-guess yourself, you know what you can do. This is what you thrive in, just pretend it's just you out there, pretend it's a morning practice with me, Kate and Johnathan. No pressure, just enjoy it. Remember what you told me about skating? You feel alive, forget about everything that's going on around you and just go out there and skate." I tell her and she smiles, reaching for my hand.

"I love you." She says quietly and I smile.

"I love you too, now," I start and fish the hairpiece out of my pocket, gingerly placing it into the braid on the side of her head. "Show them what you're made of."

She quickly runs her hand from the bun where most of her hair is contained, up to the side of her head. She feels the hairpiece and smiles, wrapping her arms around the back of my neck.

"Thank you." She breathes and I smile, watching the ice clear and the last girl stepping away.

"Our final skater today is number fifty-two, Sasha Petrov...." I hear the voice say and I kiss her cheek and send her to the door.

"You've got this." I remind her. "Pretend it's just you and me."

She nods and removes the guards on her skates, skating around the rink. I sigh seeing her wave and get a feel for the ice. 

"How'd she do in the short?" I ask Kate quietly and she sighs.

"She did alright, I think she was really nervous." She admits. "But I think this is just the push she needed."

I look at the costume she's wearing, realizing it's very similar to the one she'd scribbled down after her dream a few weeks ago. Her hair is in a fun style, with all of it pinned into a bun. The hairpiece I just gave to her shines in the light and she takes a deep breath, taking her starting position.

"She's last today because of her last-minute entry." Kate tells me. "The girl in the lead has a one-thirty-nine, she just has to be better than her."

"Well she got a one-forty-one once before, maybe she can do it again?" I suggest and Kate sighs.

"I hope so." She nods and as soon as she says that, the music begins.

I hear the same music I've been hearing for weeks start to blare and I watch Sasha get this confident, dangerous look in her eyes. It's the same one she had when she first learned her triple axel.

She smiles and puts emotion into her jumps, her spins are more technical than they used to be and on top of it all, she almost looks happier. She then moves from spinning one way, directly into the other. You almost couldn't tell which side was her good side. She then lands a triple Lutz shortly after and adds a triple-toe for good measure. 

She was certainly ending the day strong, the judges would normally be brain-dead at this point. Going last was a serious disadvantage but today, it seemed to do the opposite. She had everyone's attention, people cheered when she got a move right. Very few skaters were capable of that.

Her program only seems to get stronger after that as she falls into the layback position, her legs getting brought around her body in various positions. Most were difficult and required serious flexibility, Sasha did them all as if they were easy.

Then towards the end of her routine I know what's coming, her triple axel. Now that she was used to it, the trick was polished and it was something Sasha was amazing at. She leaps into the air and lands it earning a big round of applause.

She finishes with a few final jumps and her routine closes with a spin in the very centre. It was a beautiful routine, I didn't find a single technical mistake with it and she looked so focused. Sasha had knocked it out of the park and the strong round of applause that followed made that evident.

She finishes, holding the pose for a few good seconds and then runs her hands over her face. She smiles and takes a few deep breaths before skating around the rink one final time, where they read out her name and number one more time.

I've never seen Sasha skate like that in a competition before, this was the new Sasha who clearly loved skating more now. She skates over to the boards and then steps off with a big smile on her face. Kate rushes over with her guards and a cloth to wipe off the skates.

"You did amazing Sasha." She says and she smiles, pulling the guards on. "Good job!" I watch as she wraps her arms around Kate and for a second my heart warms.

Before I've even heard the score getting read-out, before I watched her skate back to the ice and get that medal, I knew she'd won it. Of course she did, there wasn't any question after that packed routine. 

My beautiful girlfriend was happier than I'd ever seen her before. There wasn't anything like standing up on that platform and getting a prize like that. It just made me happy, I was so thankful I didn't miss this and I got to watch the moment her life would change. There was no question that this is what Sasha was made to do. 

The only thing better than watching the pictures and the smile on her face, was her skating back over to me. When she stepped off the ice and threw her arms around my shoulders. Before I could say anything she just pressed her lips to mine. 

Three months ago, we came back into each other's lives. I met a broken Sasha and she met a hopeless Nate. Now, everything had come full-circle. This was the girl who made my days better and made every smile I got from her, worth seeing again. 

This was the girl that was worth taking two plane-rides in twenty-four hours for.