Northern Lights

The Playoffs came fast. The craziness around the United Center was enough to keep Ava busy, and her mind off of TJ Oshie. Her first week back was hell. It seemed that all she could think about was TJ and the injuries were piling up. She was stressed and she was upset, so for the most part she just shut herself out from the world. But as time went on, the less Ava thought about him and the easier her days got. She was back to normal in about a month and a half.

"God, I'm probably more nervous than you guys are," Ava said as she sat in her office. Jonathan swung the chair he was sitting in back and forth on the other side of her desk.
"And why do you think that?"

"Because I just stand on the bench and hope you guys don't get hurt. You guys can change the game, I can't," she explained. Jonathan shrugged, never really thinking of it like that.

"That makes sense," he nodded. They were quiet for a moment as Ava sipped on her tea and rubbed her temples. "You know," Jonathan said after their silence. "If we win this series and the Blues win their series, we'll be playing each other."

"Thanks for bringing that up," Ava said.

"I was just thinking out loud," he half apologized. "You should just call him or something. You know he meant nothing by what he did."

"It doesn't matter," Ava shook her head. "He still disrespected me like that all while I thought he was the sweetest guy ever. He treated me like I was just another one of those girls he slept with every night."

"You know that's not true. Osh cares about you a lot more than that. He was just being stupid. And we all just kinda assumed it most of the time to be honest with you. We just knew the kinda guy he was and we figured he would never just lay in bed all day with a girl like he did with you," Jonathan defended his old teammate.

"Why wouldn't he ever just try and tell you all you were wrong though?" She asked.

"Who knows. Maybe to keep his reputation? Come on, I mean he was known as the team whore, he destroyed guys out on the ice- I think the last thing he wanted people to think was that he was a softie. He just liked to show you that side of him. You're lucky, I'm sure you're one of the very few girls he treated so well."

"Maybe you're right Jonny," Ava said, hanging her head low. "Maybe I am just overreacting and he didn't mean what he did. But it still stings to know the one person I trusted with my life would do something like that."

"Just give him a chance Ava, I know you want to," he grinned at her. Ava giggled lightly and tossed her styrofoam cup into the garbage as she stood up.

"Let's just go to practice, okay?"

Jonathan agreed reluctantly and followed her into the locker room. After hearing about the trip back to North Dakota from both Ava and TJ, he just wanted his friends to go back to the way they used to be. Or maybe even step their relationship up a bit.

He probably knew TJ was in love with Ava before TJ knew he was in love with Ava. It was easy to see, honestly. In college TJ Oshie wasn't the type of guy to spend most of his time with one girl, but he sure spent a lot of time with Ava. He was nice when he was with Ava, he was respectable. He didn't treat her like all the other girls at NoDak.

Jonathan knew TJ cared about Ava a lot, and he knew the same went for Ava's feelings about TJ. He wasn't sure if she was in love with him because she was so hard to read, but he knew she cared about him a great deal.

Jonathan was determined to make things right between them, even if that meant being a bit on the sneaky side.

He smirked as he skated past the bench where Ava was watching the team warm-up. She didn't seem to notice as she chatted with Coach Q, unaware of Jonathan's scheming plans.

"Why do you look so creepy?" Patrick asked as he slowly skated up next to his line-mate. Jonathan shook his head and skated forward, Patrick following closely behind.

"I have a plan," Jonathan stated proudly.

"Oh?" Patrick asked, his eyebrow raised. "A plan for what?"

"To get Ava and TJ together," he said.

"Why would you want them together? TJ's a complete dick to her."

"Listen, you didn't see them together in college. TJ's head over heels for Ava, he just doesn't know how to handle it," Jonathan explained.

"You better be right," Patrick said, dusting off a puck before firing it down the ice. "I don't want to see her like this anymore."

Jonathan nodded in agreement and they both fixed their gaze at the tiny red head who was leaning against the glass behind the bench. If it was up Jonathan, Ava and TJ would be together and smiling before the playoffs were over.