Blue Paint & Red Lights

Our next three days were spent in three rooms. The bedroom, as expected, the bathroom, to have good clean fun, and the kitchen, where Antti fed us. One time I tried to make breakfast for us and burned a piece of french toast so bad we had to throw it into the sink to stop it from sizzling. We didn't go outside until the day we left. Antti had gotten a call from Tomas, who was at the airport in Slovakia at the time, reminding him about the Blackhawks Convention. So we cut our honeymoon short to go back to work, and finally stepped out into the balmy Finnish weather to get picked up by his brother.
Henri let us sit together in the backseat on the long drive to the Vantaa airport.
"The family.. going to meet at airport to say goodbye." His brother struggled with English. I smiled at him when he glanced at me in the rearview mirror, hoping he acknowledged it as gratitude. When we first ate dinner at the Niemi household, Antti's mother Jonna had smacked Henri over the head with a wooden spoon, telling him to speak English around guests. I tried to quickly diffuse the situation and insist that it was fine, but Jonna just shook her head.
A smile was brought to my face when I thought of my brief time with Antti's family. His mother had instantly warmed after meeting me. I guess she was put off that he wasn't marrying a 'nice Finnish girl', so when I met her for the first time, I tried very hard to impress her. As soon as it worked on her, the whole family warmed up to me and Jonna told me, "I've always wanted a daughter!" when Antti told them we were getting married.

He squeezed my hand and tilted his head in question as Henri tried to find a parking spot. "I'm just glad to be a part of your family." I smiled at him.
"Damn right!" Henri called from the front seat and Antti hit his headrest with the heel of his free hand.
"Äiti sanoi, ettette vannomaan englanti!" He told his brother. I recognized a few words. 'Mother' and 'english'. More than likely, Antti was scolding him for swearing in English. I chuckled.
"Varmista, että." Henri replied, waving his hand around.
We slid out of the black car and grabbed the bags from the trunk. Henri made us follow him into the airport, and I whispered to Antti, "Your brother doesn't walk, he struts." He laughed at his younger brother and Henri turned his head briefly, glaring at Antti. It was my turn to laugh and we had to stop to buy our tickets.

Before our flight boarded and we got on with our carry-ons, the Niemi family embraced us. Literally and figuratively with Finnish and English words. His father Tarvo hugged him, telling him something in their native tongue while Jonna clung to me, saying how glad she was that, "Someone else can put up with Antti, now."
I laughed and hugged her back, not wanting to go back to the states and work.
Finally they let us get on the plane and we began the long flight back to Chicago's O'Hare Airport. Deep down I longed for something familiar, but right now I was missing the quiet beauty of Finland already.
We touched down in Chicago near five in the morning and I had to drag myself out of the airplane. All I wanted to do was sleep. Antti pulled me places by my hand- now being familiar with the airport enough to weave us through and retrieve our bags. I remember carrying my bags to his truck that was parked in the extended parking lot and then waking up briefly to him whispering, "We're home."
Home for us was a two bedroom apartment in Lincoln Park, close to the downtown, the lake front, and Swedish Covenant Hospital. We lived on the first floor of the old brick building, below a small Jamaican family. Before crawling into bed, freshly shed of clothes, I thought hurray for living on the first floor before falling asleep cuddled with Antti.

When I woke up, it was Wednesday afternoon and my phone was filled with calls and messages. Sometime during the flight it had gotten signal again and began collecting all the lost messages from when I was pleasantly oblivious in Finland. We went out to dinner with Tomas, Marian, Troy, and Angelina, mostly because they got into an argument on who missed us the most. Angelina had won with, "Well I used to sleep in her bed when we were teenagers!" Which shut the guys up instantly and Antti just told them that we would all meet for dinner. I laughed at my friends and they were glad to see us back in Chicago. The rest of the team was still filtering into Chicago for the Convention, and after that- training camp.
"You know those Rockford guys are going to be flooding your office, yeah?" Troy commented.
"Why will they be up here?" I asked after I finished chewing.
"The hawks are bringing some of them in for the Convention Friday, Saturday, and Sunday."
"Some are already here, are you working tomorrow?" Angelina said, using her fork to gesture. She waved it too close to Troy's face and he bit it off of the metal utensil and smiled a private smile at her. I averted my eyes to my plate again and nodded quickly, saying, "Yeah, I have to, or else the doctor will freak."
She laughed her agreement and I felt Antti's warm hand rest on my knee.

Troy wasn't kidding. When I got into work the next morning, on very few hours of sleep (Antti and I were still awake from sleeping until noon, but we kept ourselves busy until three in the morning) and Suzy told me after welcoming me back, "You have nine appointments today. Three of which aren't hockey players."
I sighed, but still smiled, looking forward to seeing all the Rockford Icehogs players.
The first person to sit on my examination table was Jack Skille.
"Hey, cheesehead." I greeted him with the nickname I had adopted from Adam, but worked out for Jack, too- him being a Wisconsin native and all.
"Hey, butthead." He quickly replied. I laughed at him and said, "What's wrong with you, now?"
"Sore ankle."
Bullshit. I thought, but dealt with him swiftly.
After he had left, Suzy needed me to unpack a box of new equipment in the back before my next patient came in.
"Who is it?"
"Miss Karolina." She replied before shooing me into the back room.
I quickly unpacked the box and noticed that the company had shipped it in copious amounts of bubble wrap. I laughed before I took it all, keeping some in my office and walking to the examination room with some. I took the clipboard off the door and glanced over the name. Her first name was easy, but her last name left us all baffled and we just called her by her first, and when we needed to be formal, Miss Karolina would suffice. She assured me it was fine one time, and I told her, "I'm not usually this bad with ethnic last names." while thinking about Antti's family and friends in Finland.
I entered the room and she sat there on the table, swinging her legs.

"Bubble wrap!" She shouted and took it from my arms before greeting me.
"Well, thanks." I said, sitting in the stool and flipping pages on the clipboard before filling some things out.
"What are you in for?" I asked her, pen poised to write things down.
"Ugh, my shoulder again. I feel like I'm learning how to swim again." She tried rotating it.
I looked at her, not believing it. I knew she was over reacting, but from what I had heard, she was a fantastic swimmer.
"Okay, maybe not that- but it's sore!" She defended herself, holding her hands out.
I quickly scrawled some things on the sheet and Karolina asked, "Nice ring- is it your wedding ring?"

I nodded and continued writing.
"Suzy told me you just came back from your honeymoooooon. Who's the lucky guy?" She verbally prodded me.
I clicked the pen and looked up at her, "What business is it of yours?"
Karolina looked shocked until I started laughing, letting her know I was joking.
"Oh, you are mean. For your information, it is all my business. You are my doctor."
I shook my head at her reasoning and she added, "Is it a Blackhawk?"
Damn, she was persistent. I decided I would sate her curiosity and replied, "Yes. The goaltender." I assumed she wasn't familiar with the team or the sport.
"Niemi or Fallon?"
A look of surprise crossed my face.
"Niemi."
"How come your last name hasn't changed?" She twirled a piece of her long brown hair around her finger.
"I'm working on it, okay? How come you know the goalies?" I slid the pen into the clipboard after quickly writing a prescription.
"My doctor doesn't even know that I love the Blackhawks. Silly Samantha."
I shook my head at her again and handed her the piece of paper.
"More drugs for your shoulder." I said.
"I'll only take it if you promise to introduce me to some of the guys. YOU USED TO WORK FOR THEM, DIDN'T YOU!?" She shouted, jumping up.
"How'd you find out?" I took a step back from the excited woman.
"I heard rumors, but this makes sense. You need to introduce me."
"Haven't you just graduated from high school?" I asked her, tilting my head.
"Check your files, I'm old enough!" Karolina said before showing herself out, hand still clutching the prescription.

I laughed to myself and before I could walk out, Suzy opened the door and said, "Patient in room three."

My day went quickly like this, patient after patient. I saw a rugby player and the high school wrestler, before being bombarded with various AHL players. Bickell had made up a story about how his pinky toe was in so much pain, Aliu groaned about his side, and Brophey complained about a mystery pain in his arm.
As much as I loved those guys, they WERE pains. The paperwork almost made their visits not welcome, but they definately brightened up my day.

When I went back to our apartment, Antti was still sleeping peacefully in bed.