Northern Lights

"Are you gonna stop being such a baby and actually start playing some hockey?" Patrik Berglund asked as he skated around TJ at a morning skate.

"Shut it Bergs," TJ mumbled, skating lamely past his friend.

"Why have you been moping around so much?" TJ's Swedish friend asked him, keeping up with his slow strides.

"I haven't been," he shrugged. Patrik narrowed his eyes at TJ while he did his best to avoid the concerced stare.

"You know, you're a really horrible liar," Bergie pointed out.

"Can you just shut up?!" TJ snapped. Instead of backing off at TJ's reaction, Patrik laughed and shook his head, still keeping up with his friend's pace.

"It's that girl, isn't it?" Patirk asked, a large smile finding it's way to his boyish features.

"If I say yes will you back off?" TJ sighed, finally making his way to the bench and squriting some water into his mouth.

The more TJ thought about Ava, the more depressed he became. It took a lot to get TJ upset, he just wasn't the type of person to sweat the little things. He was a happy-go-lucky guy and for him to be visably upset was something that not only took him by surprise, but his teammates as well. It wasn't only that he missed her, but he was thinking about how he had treated her. And every time he thought of a memory involving him using her, his heart ached.

"Why don't you just call her?" Patrik asked, trying to be helpful.

"It's not that easy," TJ mumbled, pulling his hand out of his glove to rub his tired face.

"Oh?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I kinda treated her like shit, but she's too nice to say anythi- and why the hell am I telling you this?" TJ asked, changing his thought process mid sentance.

"Because I'm your best friend," Patrik stated.

TJ rolled his eyes. "Sure," he replied.

"My ankle hurts," Patrick Kane said about a few thousand miles away.

"I'm wrapping it, calm down baby," Ava mused.

"Wrap it faster," he instructed jokingly. Ava shook her head and laughed, finishing up Patrick's ankle and then patting his leg lightly.

"All done Patty-rick," she smiled.

"Please don't call me that," Patrick said. "I get enough crap for looking like I'm 12, the last thing I need is for the guys to hear you calling me that."

"Calling you what Kaner?" Adam Burish asked, bursting into the medical office.

"Nothing," Patrick said quickly as he carefully hopped back down to the ground.

"Sure," Adam laughed.

Patrick then left and Adam hosited himself onto the middle medical table. Ava finished putting everything she had used for Patrick back in it's rightful place before turning around and facing her friend.

"What can I do for you?" Ava asked him brightly, though she was feeling anything but.

"Nothing," he shrugged. "I just wanted to see how you were. Tazer said you've been stressin'."

Ava smiled warmly and crossed her tiny arms over her chest, leaning back into the counter and taking some of the pressure off of her feet, which had been killing her all week. Stressing was certainly the term to describe Ava's life as of late. She could hardly even find the time to sleep anymore and had been living off of many cups of tea and Monster energy drinks.

"It's nothing," she insisted. "I've just gotten a little caught up in things. Nothing that won't get better eventually."

"You still hung up on that rookie on the Blues? Oshie or whatever," Adam smirked.

"TJ's one of my best friends from college," she explained shortly. "I hadn't seen him in a while before you guys played the Blues last month."

"He wanted you so bad," he said, drawing out the word 'so' as he spoke.

"Oh sush Adam," Ava said, smacking him lightly in the arm. She pushed herself away from the counter and began to walk around the room quickly, grabbing things as she passed certain drawers and closets. "Now, I need to go get Marty before the game. If you'll excuse me," she said, brushing past her blue-eyed friend as she walked out the door and into the locker room.

Even if Adam was slightly annoying and did put a bit of a sang in her schedule, it was beneficial in one way to Ava; it reminded her to call TJ Oshie.