In Your Eyes

"Okay, ladies - let's return to your mats on the floor, taking a seated position and ensuring that your sit bones are squarely positioned on your mat, and extend your right leg gently."

Piper walked behind the rows of women, watching and aiding where she needed to. Stepping in, she very softly repositioned one of her student's back so that her posture was straighter. "There you go. Perfect."

She continued walking quietly behind, waiting for them to get into position. When she saw that they had reached their desired position, she proceeded.

"Now, follow my voice as we go along, and move as quickly or as slowly as you feel comfortable. Lift your right arm up and stretch to your left…really feel the muscles around your womb move with you, cradling your baby….Okay, then right arm down to the floor and your left arm reaches up as you bend to the right…."

Ali followed her friend's voice, finding it difficult to adjust with the growing belly she now had. It was her second trimester, and she had been attending the prenatal classes since Piper began offering them. When she saw Piper come around towards the front of the room, their eyes met and Ali smiled as she stretched.

"Perfect" Piper whispered, giving her a thumbs-up.

Ali proudly nodded in thanks.

"Let's do this again" Piper continued, walking on past the other students. "Reach up with the right arm…bend….inhale - never forget to inhale….Yes, then down and raise the left arm….Really feel the stretch here. Your hips, along with your stomach muscles, are loving this, and your baby will love you for it!"

Many of the women smiled when they heard this, including Ali. She moved her arm up and over her head as she bent into the stretch, really trying to focus on the wonderful sensation of her back and hips truly releasing the tension in them.

"Now that you have the move, let's try to do this a little quicker, making it fluid and coordinate it to your natural breathing rhythm." Piper watched the women begin to float their arms back and forth, stretching, smiling, closing their eyes or keeping them open with a smile. It made her feel connected with each and every one of them.

"This is a rhythmic movement, and babies love rhythm" she added, her voice staying gentle and soothing as she instructed them. "Nice, repetitive movement is key here. Beautiful, ladies."

In her bare feet on the wood floor, Piper softly padded over to one of her students, a woman far along in her third trimester, and helped her to find a rhythm that was easier for her with her large belly. She gave encouraging words as she repositioned her leg to allow more room, and the student thanked her. Really though, the smile and breath of relief she gave was all the thanks Piper needed.

"Now let's hold the stretch as you come back to your right arm extended, breathing all the while." She nodded to herself as she watched them all fall in. "Perfect. Place your right arm behind you and come up onto your right knee and extend your left leg. Can you feel the stretch in the left side of your body?"

Many were smiling still, others nodded, and Ali was doing both. Piper gave her a knowing grin when their eyes connected again. Even now, moving through the poses and stretches to calming music filtering through the class, Ali was clearly enjoying herself…maybe even laughing to herself through some of the more interesting poses Piper was having the class do. She had that flare in her dark eyes that told Piper she was fully present.

It was a gentle class for all trimesters, and with Ali in her second trimester, she still moved as though she was in her first, thanks to her natural flexibility and athletic nature. For Piper, it had been a fascinating road to watch her old college roommate blossom into a new mother pregnant with her first child. She had, in all honesty, been Piper's inspiration to branch out from Vinyasa yoga practices and specialize in something Pittsburgh desperately needed more of, and that was prenatal yoga.

The response was immediate. Her first class in her new building was packed and had stayed packed since the day she opened. Not just her prenatal classes either…Vinyasa had been an amazing surprise as well. In her first yoga class in the large practicing room, Nathalie Lemieux, Mario's wife, was sitting in the front row.

It's come full circle, she thought with a smile.

"Let's transition to a child's pose now, bending your legs and sitting mindfully back onto the floor, hands extended in front of you as comfortably as you'd like." Piper walked back to the front of the room, pleased with the graceful movements of those in the class. "Now just drink in the fullness of your breath, as it is nourishment for you and your baby. In through your nose slowly, drawing the breath down….then out again slowly….Let's stay here for a while and relax our heart rates."

As many of the women were resting with their foreheads facing the floor, Piper saw Ali lift her head. Piper walked over incase she needed something, but she was met with a simple, happy smile.

"I love this" Ali whispered. "I feel so good." She lifted one of her hands, her fist clenched, knuckles out.

Piper laughed softly, and then bumped her knuckles against Ali's.

* * *

James stood with his hand covering his mouth, staring at the monitor but not recognizing anything being displayed. "Am I supposed to see something?" His brow bent worriedly.

Ali reached over and grasped his hand. "Relax, babe."

"I just turned it on, Mr. Neal" the technician said with a grin. "It's just a fuzzy screen."

"Oh." He laughed and ran a hand through his hair. "Sorry, I have no idea how this is done."

Ali made eye contact with the technician and they both smiled. She watched as the middle-aged woman slipped on blue latex gloves and then squirted a clear gel onto her belly, causing her to flinch slightly at the coolness of it.

James was frowning again. Since he was standing next to Ali, who lay in relaxed position on the table beside him, he was within whispering distance. He bent so that his mouth was next to her ear. "What's that stuff remind you of?" he said with a smirk. He laughed when Ali weakly slapped him quiet.

The technician rolled her chair back over and turned on a transducer, large and narrow but with a rounded end. She lifted the transducer and smiled at the couple. "Ready to meet your baby?"

Ali looked at James and reached for his hand. "Ready."

They both watched the screen facing them as the woman gently glided the transducer over Ali's raised belly. The machine made gentle noises, and the technician continued gliding the wand over the gel. Soon enough, a shape appeared on the screen, and Ali gasped.

"Oh my god."

James' mouth dropped. "Holy shit, that's our kid." He gazed down at Ali, his smile huge.

Ali looked back to the screen, her eyes starting to cloud up with water. The technician continued rolling the transducer over her belly, but all Ali could focus on was the tiny head, the tiny arms, and the tiny little body that was moving on the screen.

"Would you like to know the sex?" the woman asked them.

"Do we, babe?" Ali asked, her head turning to look at him. They had talked about this and they agreed weeks before that they wanted to know as soon as they could know. The time had come, but she wanted to make sure James still wanted to.

James gave her a firm nod. "Let's do it."

The technician readjusted the wand and rolled it over Ali's belly in a different position. Pulling the monitor forward more, she gazed up at the screen just as James and Ali leaned forward. James' heart was racing, his hand clasping Ali's tight as they waited.

"Ah! There it is..." The woman pointed and turned to the couple. "Congratulations. You're having a boy."

Ali snapped her head quickly towards James. "Babe!"

"It's a boy…." James blinked, hardly able to form much of a sentence. His eyes moved to Ali's, seeing how excited she was as she looked up at him. "We're having a boy."

"Yes!" The tears that had been clouding her vision were now large enough to fall down her face.

James laughed. "We're having a fucking boy!"

The technician winced a little at the statement despite being moved by how excited and happy the couple appeared. She watched the husband hug his wife, the both of them laughing in disbelief and shock and love for their baby. While she'd done hundreds of sonograms and had been in this position for numerous announcements of a baby's sex, she realized this may have been one of the most excited couples she'd ever seen.

"He's going to play hockey" Ali said to James, tears rolling down her face. She clasped both of his hands excitedly. "Our little boy's gonna be a hockey player."

Our little boy. It hardly seemed real to James. His eyes moved to the black and white monitor again, seeing the image in a whole new light. That's my son on the screen.

Ali wiped her eyes and tried to get herself together in front of the technician. "Sorry…it's our first…"

"No reason to apologize" she said. "I can confirm your due date as well."

"Ohmigod, when is it?" Ali asked, blinking away another tear. James was still staring at the monitor silently.

"Looks like you're due date issss….." She picked up her clipboard and the papers from Ali's previous visits. After a few notes written down, turned to the couple in her chair. "July 1st."

"July 1st." James looked at Ali and laughed. "7-1….that's Geno's number."

Ali broke into a smile and wiped her damp face. "He'll never give it up, not even to your son."

"We'll see about that" James replied. He caressed the top of her head. "I love you, Allison."

There was so much love in his blue eyes then that Ali couldn't help the tears that fell gently down her cheeks when he said it. She never felt more connected to James than she did then. "I love you too, babe."

They held hands and looked over at the monitor, and their son moved ever so slightly.

* * * * * * * *

Notes

A short one - but it sets up everything to come. :)

Thank you once again for all of your support! To those of you who commented: thank you for the smiles and laughs. You make writing fun.

And lastly: thank you all for giving me a place to allow these characters to grow and for integrating our favorite hockey boys into their tales!

Hugs to you all!