Sequel: Run the Show

Somebody Needs You

Chapter 26

Having figured that she’d gotten a bout of the flu, Katie was starting to get annoyed as she almost two weeks later wasn't feeling that much better, she was nowhere near feeling fine and like she usually did. It wasn't that she was feeling especially sick; it was more of a…well, under the weather kind of feeling.

Luke had quickly picked up on it and had insisted that she’d go to the doctor to check it out, he even offered to take her to the Leafs’ own team doctor, she’s protested loudly and he hadn’t dared argue his point after that. And she didn’t actually look all that sick, except a slightly pale tint to her skin. But it was January after all; almost everyone looked a little pale around that time of year, so he simply let it be.

After getting engaged, neither of them had really thought about that thing that come after the engagement, but they had quickly learned that whilst it wasn't the first thing in their minds, everyone else was practically expecting invitations to starts dropping in, and soon.

They’d been engaged for close to a month and according to both their mothers, they should at least have picked a date by now. And tried on dresses, searched for a place and have started thinking about themes and what kind of flowers they wanted. The guest list, the color scheme, the seating chart, the ceremony, the vows…

Somewhere along the line of endless to-do lists, Luke had simply excused himself and Katie had zoned out. Sure, she was the one with the ring on her finger, but she hadn’t thought that much about their wedding.

She’d thought about it when she was young, but beyond that…not so much. She’d kind of figured they cross that bridge when they came to it, preferably further into the future than the approaching summer…

After their mothers began questioning them, they’d spent a night talking about it, what they were going to say when people asked them about it, and they decided they would look into it all, but they weren’t really ready to walk down the aisle just yet. Though they agreed that this didn’t mean they wouldn’t start planning things and getting ideas.

This was exactly why Katie was sitting cross-legged on the carpet in the living room, her back against the front of the couch and several bridal magazines spread out over the coffee table in front of her. She’d chatted with a few of her friends from LA as well as the ones she worked with, trying to figure out at least a direction to go in when it came to a possible wedding gown. Personally she had no idea what she even wanted. They hadn’t been that much help in the end.

Luke was leaving on another lengthy away-game-trip the following morning and they were both in the living room, he laying on one of the couches, flipping through the too-many channels they had on the large flat screen that was mounted to the opposite wall, surrounded by game consoles and a number of entertainment gadgets and the like.

Not many words were exchanged between them, but they were both feeling rather content with that, it meant that they didn’t need words to feel comfortable around each other, that they didn’t need to fill the silence with talk all the time.

“When would you want to get married?” she frowned as she looked up, realizing they hadn’t covered that particular topic.

“What?” he asked, looking over at her. Whilst most of his teammates thought he was crazy for wanting to get married when he was so young, he’d realized he didn’t want anything but to be able to call her his wife, that he was young didn’t matter to him.

“What season?” she asked as she looked over at him. “Summer, spring…” she hinted. “It’ll probably be a good idea to have at least an idea about when it’d be when I’m looking at the dresses.”

“Right,” he nodded understanding, he didn’t have that problem, all he had to do was get a suit and show up on time, he didn’t need much more preparation. Sort of, at least. “Well, with the season and all, winter is probably out, and spring,” he pointed out. “Most tend to get married in the summer,” he bit his bottom lip slightly. He knew that his ‘work’ tended to complicate a lot of things, their wedding too apparently. She might have dreamt of a spring wedding since she was a kid and now she wouldn’t get one, that hurt him… He wanted to give her to world.

“Or early fall,” she nodded in agreement. His schedule would bring some difficulties in picking their date, but they did have the whole summer to do whatever the hell they wanted…

“Or early fall,” he smiled softly, leaning over and kissing her. Sometimes he wondered what he’d done in a previous life to deserve her. Most girls would have run for the hills when faced with everything that came along with dating someone in the league, if it wasn't for the money they made. And she refused to even let him pay the whole rent.

“Then I should probably skip the long-sleeved ones,” she smiled against his lips before going back to the magazines, hearing him chuckle slightly as he turned back to the TV.

Yeah, he decided, she was probably too good for him.

Despite being a designer and having studied fashion for four long years, she had no idea what she wanted for her wedding dress. White was a given, floor length too. She probably should show off her shoulder, maybe a strapless…

Sighing heavily as she flipped through the pages of the glossy magazines with far too many happy, glowing brides covering the spreads, she came to the conclusion that she had absolutely no idea what she wanted. Meaning that she was probably a failure as a bride-to-be, every single article or interview with a prospective bride in the magazines before her told that they’d dreamt of their dress since they were children, that they knew exactly what they wanted…

But on the other hand, that could mean that she was perfectly normal, cause no one was that perfect anyway.

Having felt unusually strange the entire day, she was still surprise as she felt like her stomach wanted to turn itself inside out and she had to practically jump up from the couch and sprint towards the bathroom where she proceeded to throw up everything she’d eaten that day, including the unnecessary jell-o a few hours earlier. It wasn't a pretty sight…

“Katie!” Luke called after her as he scrambled off the couch to follow her, make sure that everything was alright with her.

“I’m fine,” she assured him as he found her sitting on the tiled floor, a slight green tint to her face as she kept her eyes close, to keep everything from spinning he later learned from her.

“You just threw your guts up,” he replied unconvinced. “Are you sure that you don’t want me to take you to the doctor?” he asked, kneeling next to her and gently running his finger through her hair.

“Yes, I'm sure,” she told him as frankly as she had the strength to. “And it was probably the combination of jell-o and mushroom soup anyway,” she added. She knew that eating that soup was a bad idea, she didn’t even like mushrooms. “It clearly didn’t agree with me.”

“Okay,” he agreed reluctantly. “But I'm staying here tomorrow to make sure that you're alright,” he stated as he looked at her.

“Like hell you are,” was the immediate response. “I like the sentiment and all, not to mention that it’s absolutely sexy that you’d stay home and take care of me, but you have hockey games, and it’s not like I’m bedridden,” she looked up at him and he knew that the look in her eyes would cause him to agree even if he didn’t want to. He couldn’t say no to her.

“Fine,” he agreed. “But if you even feel the slightest bit ill, you call me and you get your ass to the doctor,” he look at her sternly.

“I promise,” she said softly, forcing herself to breath evenly as he sat down on the floor next to her and carefully wrapped his arms around her, letting her rest her head on his shoulder. He’d never seen her sick – really sick, she’d had a cold before Christmas which hadn’t been worse than a lot of tissues everywhere – and he really hoped that it was just some soup that didn’t sit well with her.