2nd Intermissions

To my dismay, once I arrived at work I had discovered that Dr.Orfner was taking off two weeks, piling all of his patients onto my workload. When Suzy told me this, I'm almost positive my jaw dropped before I picked it back up and clicked angrily to my office.
I was in a silent outrage by noon, because by then I had already seen nine patients. I tried to calm down and deal with the problems person by person, but I just got more irritated with everything. Once my last appointment left, I was out of there quicker than I ever was. I rushed home and changed, not even bothering to shower and Angelina picked me up.

I saw her glance over at me while changing the radio station.
"You alright?" Gina asked.
I fiddled with the white jersey I wore, already feeling better about the day, now engulfed in Antti's sweater and listening to music with my best friend on the way to my favorite team's hockey game.
"Oh, now I am." I told her quickly what Dr. Orfner had done and she nodded sympathetically where she was supposed to and made little noises where appropriate.
She was still consoling me when we had our tickets scanned and we stepped purposely towards our seats.
"Angelina! You are my best friend." I felt the need to state, already back to my smiling self, surrounding in the atmosphere of the United Center.
Our seats were different this time, slightly to the left, but still against the glass. Once the players started to warm up, I realized who would be in front of us.
"Wow." I said out loud.
"Hmm?" Angelina tilted her head towards me, but never broke her gaze from Troy on the ice.
"I'm sitting directly behind where Antti will sit." I laughed.
"He's not starting tonight?" She finally looked over, her face confused.
"No, I guess not. I really don't know what's going on in Coach Q's head, but it better be good."
She agreed and we sat back, watching our respective players. Angelina had donned Troy Brouwer's road jersey, the counterpart to my Antti road jersey. My hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail, allowing the hidden ink to be flaunted tonight. I watched number 31 spin once, twice, and settle in the crease while half of the Blackhawks peppered him with shots.
"Oh, I love the warm ups." Angelina stated dreamily. I laughed at her and continued watching Antti make beautiful saves.
My nerves were in a tight knot, always un-clenching, then tightening back up again.
The U.C. and the sound of the skates on ice was calming, but then the impending game would make me bounce my leg up and down, nervous for the start.

Angelina and I slowly made our way towards the hallway I had shown her before and we stood next to Ralph in silence, waiting for the boys to come out. After losing 4-2, we wanted nothing to do but go home. They wouldn't go out and have dinner tonight, like they usually do on Fridays, but once the guys exited the locker room, Antti took a beeline towards me and pulled me out of the arena. Once we had gotten settled in the front of his car, he pulled me in for a hug.
"It's okay, Antti. It wasn't your loss." I untangled his hair with my fingers, allowing him to keep me in a crushing hug.
"Yes it was. It was a team loss." I heard him say into my chest. Huet had played less-than-consistant and I'm ashamed to say I actually yelled at the back of Coach Q's head after he had let in two goals in as many seconds, "What are you doing, old man?! Put Antti in!" to no avail.
He had yet to start the car as the parking lot emptied, and I had folded my legs under my body and Antti still had his arms around my waist.
"Come back to my place?" He finally taken his body from mine and I nodded, pulling my seat belt on.

Tomas was already asleep by time we had quietly clicked the front door shut. Antti held my hand and led me to his bedroom, our socks making no noise on the hardwood.
I pulled the white jersey over my head and draping it over the chair in the corner of his bedroom. While he was undressing, I did the same, folding my clothes and putting them on the seat of the chair. I turned towards him, clad in only my underwear and I saw his face turn red. I quickly slid under the covers and waited for him to follow me.
I turned towards the wall and felt his arm around my waist, pulling me in tight against him. Leaning my head back into his upper chest, I sighed- I was quickly becoming addicted to being cuddled by Antti.
"Hmm." I heard him say against the top of my head. I let a questioning noise pass my lips and he whispered to me, "Thank you."
"For what?"
The silence that greeted me, followed by the deepened breathing alerted me that he had already fallen asleep. I sighed quietly and relished the feeling of being cuddled by the big Fin and followed his lead by allowing myself to drift off.

When I woke up, Antti wasn't curled up against me and as I sat up and looked around, he wasn't in the room. I heard noise from the other end of the apartment, so I slid out of the warm bed and searched for something to cover myself with. Finding one of his tee shirts, I was about to open his door before remembering that Tomas would be home. I looked around the room once again to find something to cover my legs with, but then I just gave up and pulled on yesterday's jeans. Tugging Antti's grey shirt down over the jeans, I finally exited the room. I followed the noises to the kitchen, where Tomas was talking loudly on his cell phone in Slovak and Antti was attempting to hush him. When the two saw me enter the room, Tomas managed to say to Antti, "Told you she was awake." before continuing the loud Slovakian conversation as he walked out of the room.
Antti stepped towards me and wrapped his arms around my waist.
"Sleep well?" I asked, glancing around his arm to see what he was doing.
"A lot better than I would have." He let go of me to get a plate out of one of the cabinets. I saw what was quietly sizzling on the stove.
"Pancakes!" I said, jumping a little and getting closer to the griddle.
"Not just any pancakes." Antti added, flipping it over with the spatula on the counter, the plate still in his hand. He turned and put a few already done pancakes on the plate and set it on the table. "Chocolate chip pancakes."
I looked at him disbelieving. "No way."
A smile spread across his face and he motioned to the table. "Eat."
I grabbed a fork and did exactly what he had told me to do, and sure enough, there were chocolate chips inside the thin pancakes. I made noises of pleasure when I chewed them that made Antti chuckle.
He soon joined me, sitting across from me.
"Are they good?" Antti asked.
"They are fantastic! I didn't know you cooked." I said inbetween a mouthful. He laughed again and started to eat as Tomas walked back into the kitchen, his phone no longer attached to his ear.
"Good morning." He said to me before attacking his own plate of pancakes.
It was pretty silent in the kitchen until I finished my breakfast first.
"If I knew you could make pancakes this well, Antti, I would have put you to work much earlier." I wrapped my arms around my middle, wanting a nap already, perfectly filled.
"He's pretty modest about his cooking abilities." Tomas commented, his mouth full of food.
I snorted a quick laugh at him and stood, taking my empty plate and Antti's, going over to the sink to rinse them and put them in the dishwasher.
"I'm really not that good." Antti said, cleaning up the griddle.
"Told you." Tomas said towards me, quickly polishing off his stack of pancakes and put them in the dishwasher.

Kopecky had left to go someplace with Hossa and left Antti and I sitting on their couch, watching television.
He sat against the arm of the chair and I laid down, my head resting in his lap. While we watched the ridiculous television show, I languished in the feeling of him toying with my hair for a change.
It was noon when the boys had to board the plane to St. Louis, where they would play tonight. The team had opted to fly there last minute so they could get some more time in their own beds. They would fly back tonight after the game, too, allowing everyone more home time after the long road trip.
Before Antti left for the airport, he had dropped me off at my apartment, pressing a red jersey into my arms this time, "Wear it when you watch us tonight?" I nodded, always unable to deny his simple requests.
Instead of staying home and watching the game together, Angelina and I set out on Chicago, donning our significant other's home sweaters. We settled on the bar that would be hosting the Blackhawks Road Watch.

Antti was starting and I slid inbetween other fans to get a better view of the television. Angelina closely followed me and we managed to get as close as we could.

As the bar started to empty, I was still giddy when we walked out to my car. Antti had shut out the Blues completely, and I was shouting out the fact to the dark Chicago night. Angelina just laughed as we climbed into my truck and I flicked through my ipod that was hooked up to the stereo. Before I pulled out of the parking lot, the song began playing and Gina pumped her fists in time with "Chelsea Dagger". She, too, was in a good mood- Brouwer had gotten a goal and an assist to help the 3-0 final score.
I was about to drop her off at her loft before she asked, "Want to drive around downtown to waste some time before the guys get home?"
"The plane will probably land around two in the morning, Gina."
"Who cares?"
I agreed, loving spending time with my best friend doing stupid things. We had driven downtown to Millennium Park and parked, then ran around the bean, irritating tourists and amateur photographers who had shown up at a late time to admire the beauty of Chicago at night. We found ourselves walking to the lakefront, watching our breath as it billowed out of our mouths like smoke. We walked along it, passing late-night joggers and bicyclists.
It wasn't until we had gotten texts from Troy and Antti, respectively, before we realized what a bad idea being out at the lakefront at one in the morning was. We started walking back to my car, looking over our shoulders and being ultra-paranoid until I shouted at Angelina, "Race you!" and we both sprinted to the safety of the car, pushing past the few people who were left on the street.

Breathing heavy, I started the car and began to drive to Gina's place again.
"Had a fun time, call you Monday?" She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively before slamming the door and running into her large apartment building.
When I finally arrived back at mine, I had another short text from Antti and a call from the office that had been sitting in my phone since this morning. I ignored the call again and read Antti's text.
Can I come over?
Replying with the obvious, I shed my coat and went into the kitchen for some water.
No more than four minutes later, there was a buzzing at the door and I let him up. I had just opened my door for him when his lips crashed into mine and he entered the house, shutting the door behind him.
We tripped over things as I led him to my bed and he fell on top of me, traveling suit still on. When we finally broke the kiss to catch our breath, my chest was heaving when I told him, "Too many clothes." He quickly pulled off his jacket, working on his tie and shirt and I was sliding my pants off when he said, "Sam- I don't want to force you into anything, but I think we should definately sleep together tonight?" He managed to make it sound like a question at the end.
There I was, laying on the bed in only his jersey and underwear, completely dumb-stuck.
"You honestly need to ask?" I had finally said before pulling him down to meet my lips again.