Chapter 100: Answering All The Questions

Warren and Sophia were in the final group for the OD--in fact, they were the very last skaters to skate. However, they showed up early--they liked to do that--and the third-to-last group had only just got underway when they arrived.

They locked up their belongings, and met in the hallway in the bowels of the arena. There were various rooms off of the corridor. Warren looked around and found a room that the volunteers used to rest. It was deserted. He led Sophia into it.

"What are we doing here, Snugglebear?"

"I wanted a quiet moment. Do you know what today is?"

"Sure, it's OD day," Sophia giggled.

"It's also Valentine's Day."

"Damn! You're right, it is. What with the Olympics and all, I had completely forgotten."

"I have something for you," Warren told her.

"Oh, sweetie," Sophia said happily. They sat on a couch in the room.

"First of all, I want you to know this has nothing to do with the baby. I planned this long before we knew about the baby. I've been planning this before Christmas. I almost gave you this at Christmas, but I figured here and now would be a better place, because it's Valentine's Day and skating means so much to us."

Sophia was befuddled. "Warren, what are you talking about?"

"This." He reached into his pocket, and withdrew a jewelry box. He held it out in front of her, and opened it. Inside was a perfect, one-carat, diamond ring.

"Sophia Daniels," Warren said, "will you marry me?"

Sophia couldn't speak. Her eyes grew to the size of saucers, as she stared at the ring. "Oh my God," she whispered. Her hands were shaking as she looked from the ring to Warren's expectant face, and the hint of tears formed in her eyes. Suddenly, she launched herself at Warren and wrapped her arms tightly around his shoulders.

"I have been dreaming of hearing you say those words for five years," she whispered in his ear.

"Can I take that as a 'yes'?" he asked with a smile.

"YES!" She disengaged from him, and faced him, holding out her left hand.

"Move the claddagh ring to the right hand, Pookie," Warren told her. She did so, and held out her hand again. Warren took the ring out of the box and put it on her hand.

"I did good with the size," Warren observed. It fit perfectly.

"You did good, period, my love," she told him. She held her hand up to her face. "My God, it's so beautiful," she sighed.

"No more beautiful than the girl wearing it," Warren told her.

"Flatterer."

"That's my job."

"You just keep doing it." She sighed. "Warren, I love you."

"I love you, too."

"Hey," Sophia said, "I wonder if we can get into the stands! We need to tell our parents, and Liz, and Jack, and all them!"

"Let's see."

They walked out of the room. "Hell, I want to tell the world!" Sophia enthused. Warren giggled, and said, "I know what you mean. I've had that ring for two months and haven't told a soul. It was not easy."

They turned a corner, and Warren said, "Hey, there's some people to tell." They walked down the corridor, hand-in-hand, heading towards the knot of people they saw in front of them--Bradochkina and Zhargov, Nicholas and Coleman, and Damphier and Gaudler.

"Hey, is Varren and Sophia," Olga said. "You guys ready?"

"You betcha," Warren said.

"Handling the nerves OK?" Steve Coleman asked them.

"Yeah, we found a way to deal with them. We just needed a distraction," Warren said.

"What kind of a distraction?" Christian Gaudler asked.

"Oh, instead of brooding about skating, we decided to get engaged instead," Sophia said. She held out her hand.

Renee and Sharon screamed. Olga appraised the ring. "Good taste, Varren," she judged. "Substantial, but not too gaudy." Congratulations were spread all around.

"Na zdarovya," Nikolai Zhargov said. Sophia looked at him in confusion.

"Congratulations, roughly translated," Warren told her. "Spacibo, Nikolai."

"We have to see if we can get to the stands. Our parents don't know," Warren said. He and Sophia were off.

They were back in a minute. "The security guard wouldn't let us get by, and we couldn't tell him why we wanted to get by, because neither of us speaks French," Sophia said depressedly.

"Come on," Renee Damphier told them. "I speak fluent French." She wasn't lying; she explained to the security guard why they wanted to get up in the stands. He smiled, said something in French, and let them by. "He says to come back here so he can let you back in," Renee told them.

"Thanks!"

They went up into the stands. Luckily, they got there in between the third-last group and the second-last group. The Zamboni was on the ice and the next group hadn't even come out for warm-up yet. The people associated with the US skating team--other skaters, family--were all in one section. Warren and Sophia found it. A lot of their friends were in the middle of the section; their parents were in the front.

Sophia and Warren stood in front of the section.

"Hey!" Jim Kelleher asked. "Look, it's Sophia and Warren! What are you guys doing here."

"You'll find out in a minute." Sophia said. "Hey, Liz! Jack! Chris, you guys!" Their friends stopped chatting and looked over at them. "Hey, guys--Mom, Dad, Dan, Mr. and Mrs. Kelleher--we got an announcement to make."

"What?" yelled down Liz. Sophia, with a big smile on her face, held up her left hand. Sophia's mom jumped out of her seat, screaming, as did Liz Cushman. All of their friends and family members crowded around them, offering congratulations, asking about how Warren did it, and admiring the ring. As the skaters in the second-to-last group took the ice for the warm-up, Warren and Sophia slipped back under the stands.

Liz Cushman thought a bit, then walked over to the TV booth. She knew all the TV people, of course, and told one of the assistants that she wanted to talk to Dave Burrows, longtime color commentator and former Olympic champion himself.