Work Text:
1.
"I just finished prepping Jordan Staal for his interview," Natalie said, plopping down in her chair in the control room. "What a weird guy."
"He was raised on a sod farm," Kim pointed out.
"He plays hockey," said Chris.
"He's Canadian," Dana said, not looking up from her notes.
"I will grant you all of those," Natalie said, "but he was even weirder than that. He kept trying to talk to me about his wedding."
In the corner, Jeremy spilled some coffee.
"Like, dude, I get it," she continued, "you had a dramatic wedding. It was a year ago. Let it go and talk to me about how you plan on kicking the Rangers' ass tonight."
"In fairness," Dan spoke up, heard clearly through the mic, "he did get traded in the middle of his own wedding."
"To a team captained by his brother," Casey added.
"Sound's clear," Elliot confirmed.
"Five minutes to air," Dana said. "You know, I tried to get him booked on the show last summer?"
"You mean back when the story was actually relevant?" Natalie snorted. "You should have just asked me, apparently I have a knack for it."
"For booking Staals?" Chris asked.
Natalie counted down on her fingers. "Worked on a spot with Michael Jordan? All he wants is to talk to me about his wedding. Lebron? Guess what, his nuptials. Kevin Durant would not shut up about his fresh fiancee. I'm here to talk about sports, guys, do I look like I'm holding a sign saying tell me your feelings about marriage?" She shook her head.
Kim flicked a row of switches on her switchboard. "In case that wasn't rhetorical, you really do not," she said.
"Also don't sound like it," Dan chirped from the studio.
Natalie sighed. "It'll be a good interview. Just don't ask him about seating arrangements. He's bizarrely eager to talk about them. Crap, forgot my print out, be right back," she said, and hurried out of the room.
"Well then," Jeremy said after a moment, pulling out his phone. "Excuse me, I have a call to make."
Everyone groaned.
"Come on, Jer, don't chicken out," Casey said.
"So close," Elliot said, shaking his head.
Jeremy held up a finger as he turned into his phone. "Hey, Jordan. Yeah. Xnay on the oposalpray. Uh, no, that means – no, no praying. Just don't do the thing we talked about on air. Or off. Okay. Yeah, thanks. Gotta go," he said, just as Natalie stepped back into the room.
"Did I miss anything?" she asked.
"Two minutes to air," Dana said, "everybody take your seats. Here we go."
2.
There was a reason the flashmob proposal did not come to fruition, and that reason was that—
"You are chickening out," Casey said, pointing a finger at Jeremy.
"It is not a case of me chickening out, Casey, it is a case of all of you being really bad dancers."
"That's a hard point to argue with, Case," Dan said. "Elliot sprained a toe."
Jeremy nodded vehemently. "That's right, Elliot sprained a toe, this has caused enough damage already, and besides, Isaac refused to participate, and we can't have a flashmob or proposal of any kind without Isaac."
"Young man," Isaac said from the doorway, "I may have wanted to spare myself another stroke, but do not blame me for the fact that you are chickening out."
"Aha!" Casey said with vindication. "See?"
Jeremy stared. "You realize that Isaac agreeing with you does not automatically translate into you being right."
Isaac narrowed his eyes. "Watch it, Jeremy."
Jeremy addressed the room, all still panting from the latest run-through of the routine before Jeremy pulled the plug on the ordeal. "The fact that I don't want to subject my hopefully future-wife to your chicken-like collective spasms does not a chicken of me make."
"Terribly put," Dan commented.
"And also wrong," said Casey.
Jeremy ignored him. "Thank you guys for all your help. I really appreciate it. But Natalie is too important to me to propose in such an amateur way, and unless I want to base our marriage on the poor foundation of a sprained toe, I'm just going to have to come up with something better."
He gave them a last look of steely determination and left the room.
"So, so wrong," Casey sighed.
3.
The crowd cheered as the buzzer called for halftime, the Knicks up by 5. The floors of the Garden thrummed with the feel of thousands of people rising to empty their bladders and refill their beers.
"You know what's strange?" Natalie asked.
"Do tell," Jeremy said.
"This is the first live game I've been to just for fun for – maybe a year? I don't even remember the last time I went to a game off the job."
"I know what you mean."
She smiled. "I keep looking for a narrative angle and then remembering I don't need one."
"I keep itching to splice a highlight reel."
Natalie laughed and leaned against his shoulder, entwining her arm with his. "I'm having a really good time. Thanks for inviting me."
Jeremy tightened his grip around the ring box in his left pocket.
Up on the court, the cheerleaders started their routine, music cranking up. All of a sudden the team mascot ran up and joined the dance, circling the head cheerleader before pulling her away from the others, to center court.
"Wow," Natalie said. "He's going to propose, isn't he."
"Looks like," Jeremy said. "It's kinda rom—"
"—proposing in a preseason game, that's one way to do it I guess, right?" She chuckled, one eyebrow slightly raised.
"...Yeah," he said, drawing his left hand out of his pocket and picking up his beer.
4.
He wasn't even five minutes into his Skype conversation with Louise before she signed, "You need to get over your thing."
"What thing?" he asked, affronted. "I have no thing."
She rolled her eyes. "Your grand gesture thing."
"Do you mean in that I am grand and that I occasionally gesture?" he signed with a flourish.
"You're ridiculous. And also, by the way, will never get married at this rate."
"Don’t even joke about that," he said. "Look, I just…"
She raised her eyebrows. "Been chickening out?"
"No!" He narrowed his eyes. "Have you been talking to Casey?
"I've been gathering information generously," she said evasively.
Jeremy let it go. "Well, it's really not that. If there's one thing in this world I'm not afraid of, it's being married to Natalie, or the chance of her turning me down. I just… want something she's worthy of, and nothing I've come up with so far has been good enough, or big enough, or at the right timing."
Louise's features shifted into fond exasperation. "It's Natalie. Come on, you know her better than I do, but even I know she doesn't need all of that; you can just go to her, right now, and give her the ring you undoubtedly bought months ago and she'll love you for it."
For a moment he allowed himself to consider it, and yes, Louise's words sounded reasonable, he could walk up to Natalie, right now even, be engaged in a few hours' end, but – but his love for Natalie was simply too great for a simple ring to suffice.
"She deserves more," he insisted, resolve renewed.
Louise shook her head. "You're hopeless."
Jeremy cracked a smile. "Hope is one thing I'm not short on."
5.
"Got any plans for Christmas break?" Kim asked as Dan and Casey segued into their last bit.
Jeremy shrugged. "Going up to Natalie's folks for Christmas Eve, maybe some Chinese food on Christmas day—"
On the monitors, Dan was saying, "After the holiday we'll be previewing Silva and Weidman for UFC 168, viewing the NHL's Caps vs Rangers in Washington, and reviewing our top ten sports moments of 2013. And in final news for tonight, our research analyst Jeremy Goodwin would like to ask our lovely senior associate producer Natalie Hurley for her hand in marriage, Natalie do you accept?"
"—wait, what?"
Jeremy stared at the monitor. His own face stared back, and then switched over to Natalie, who was grinning happily at the camera, offering two thumbs up. The room erupted into cheers.
Casey's grin, if possible, was even wider than Natalie's. "And with that, we bid you good night, and happy holidays. Next up are Bears vs Eagles, you're watching Sports Night on CSC, so stick around."
Everyone in the studio and the control room were clapping.
"What just happened?" Jeremy asked.
"You're getting married!" Casey crowed through the mic. Everyone with a headset flinched.
"I," said Jeremy, still frozen still. "Oh my god. I hate Casey McCall."
"Don't think about Casey," Natalie said, stepping into Jeremy's space, sliding her arms around his neck. "Think about me. Hey," she said softly.
"Oh my god," Jeremy said, "you said yes."
Natalie grinned, eyes shining with happiness. "Yes."
"I've been meaning to propose to you for forever."
"I know."
"I wanted you to get the kind of proposal you deserved."
She laughed. "I got an on-air proposal, Jeremy, I think I'm set to tell our grandchildren a nice story."
"I—" he searched for what to say. "You know that proposal was from me, right? Not just Casey butting into other people's business because he's a terrible—"
"—terribly awesome—" Casey chimed in.
"—human being?"
Natalie patted him fondly on the cheek and leaned closer. "It was from me, dummy. I was tired of waiting. You wanted to give me a big moment, and I got one."
"I love you," Jeremy said. That felt important to say.
"Good." She grinned. "I love you too. Now will you kiss me already?"
Jeremy did.