Reunited

“Hey, Ebs, haven’t seen you in awhile. Where have you been?”

“Yea, you’ve been MIA for a few days now.”

Jordan shook his head with a chuckle and sat down in his locker. He sent Taylor a nod as the man sat down beside him.

“You practicing today?” Taylor asked, pulling his equipment out of his bag.

Jordan shrugged and started pulling out his own equipment. “We’ll see what Doc says. I hope to start skating, but I doubt I’ll be playing for at least another week.”

Taylor nodded and scanned the room quickly. “How was your trip with Jen?” His voice was low and serious.

“You know we went to Martensville to visit one of my old hockey friends, right?”

“I know, but you still went with Jen.”

“Well, I hope she had fun. She did some shopping with Jeff’s kid sister. Other than that, it was good to get away. I didn’t have to worry about anything that was happening back here and I was able to clear my head.”

Taylor nodded, taking in his friend’s confession. “Do you know what you are going to do about Lindsay?”

Jordan gave him a questioning look. “What about Lindsay?”

“She called both Sam and I while you were gone,” Taylor explained quietly. “She wanted to know where you were and kept saying that you wouldn’t answer your phone. I think she said she wanted to apologise.”

“Right, apologise,” Jordan scoffed, shaking his head. “Lindsay and I are over.”

“Really?” Taylor asked. “Are you sure that’s what you want?”

Jordan nodded. “It’s not just what I want, it’s what I need.” He watched his teammate, trying to read his reaction.

“Lindsay’s going to be pissed,” Taylor chuckled before starting to pull on his equipment.

“What are you two laughing about?” Ales asked as he stopped in front of the boys.

“Jordan’s finally figuring out his life,” Taylor told him.

“That’s good to hear,” Ales smirked. “But in the meantime, Doc’s waiting for you in his office, Eberle.”

Jordan nodded his thanks and got up from his bench. “See you in a bit,” he said to Taylor.

This was the part about being injured that he hated most. It felt like he was going to find out the hand that fate had dealt him. He always felt nervous when he went to see the doctor because he knew that the elderly man was the only thing standing between him and the ice. The nerves got worse the closer he got to the black door with the frosted window.

He tried his best to focus on the black letters that were stuck to the window ahead of him, rather than wondering whether or not he would be able to start practicing again. The last thing he wanted was to end up like Sidney Crosby a few years back and not be able to play for months.

Jordan knew that the couple of days away had probably been beneficial for his health, but he wasn’t sure how much they had helped.

Once he had reached the door, he slowly allowed air to fill his lungs and leave just as slowly. He gave the door two sharp knocks and turned the knob. Pushing the door away from his body, he noticed the doctor standing next to the medical bench.

The grey haired doctor stood shorter than Jordan and had on a pair of dark blue Oilers track pants and a white tee-shirt.

It didn’t take Jordan long to notice a third man in the room. He racked his brain to try to remember if he had ever met the third man, but came up empty handed. “Am I interrupting?”

“Not at all,” the doctor shook his head. “Come on in. You remember Thomas, my intern?”

Jordan sent the young intern a nod. “Do you think that I’ll be able to play this weekend?”

“Well, since you’ve been symptom free for a couple of days, we will have to see how everything pans out once you’ve started practicing again.”

“Can I start practicing today or will I have to wait?” Jordan inquired.

“You can start with a light workout today and we will see how you are feeling tomorrow,” the doctor told him while making his way over to some grey filing cabinets. He pulled open one of the drawers and started shuffling through the files. “Tomorrow, when you come in, we will do a few tests and examinations and go from there, okay?”

Jordan nodded and turned to leave.

“Light workout means a leisure ride on the bike,” the doctor reminded him. “Bring your heart rate up, but do it at a slow pace. I’ll be in and out of the exercise room throughout practice to see how you’re doing. Thomas should be there for most of practice, working with some of the other guys, so if you need something, let him know and he’ll help you out.”

“Thanks, Doc,” Jordan smiled before leaving the room. As he walked back down the hall, he felt the need to drag his feet. His body was telling him to put off the workout as long as possible, but his brain was telling him that if he didn’t get started he would be off the ice even longer. Deciding to follow his brain, he quickly walked into the locker room, which was not empty, and changed into his workout clothes.

As he was tying his laces, he heard the door to the locker room open. He glanced up at the man who had just entered the room. “Nice to see you’re on time.”

The man sent Jordan a dark look and hurriedly pulled on his equipment.

Jordan shook his head and chuckled lightly. He grabbed his water bottle and started toward the door.

“Son of a bitch,” the man breathed. “Do you have a new lace, Eberle?”

Jordan turned to his teammate and smirked at the sight of him holding part of his skate lace while the rest sat in the skate. “I’ll take a look,” Jordan said, going back to his bag. “Why are you so late today, Gags? He glanced at the brown haired man, who was scowling.

“My parents are in town and my mother wouldn’t let me leave when I needed to,” Sam confessed. “She said I hadn’t eaten enough.”

Jordan gave him a look of disbelief and held out the skate lace. “Your parents are in town?”

Sam nodded and took the lace from him. “Why is that so hard to believe?”

“It’s not,” Jordan shrugged. “I’m just unsure if that’s what really happened or if it’s an excuse that you’re going to try on Coach.”

“What else could have happened?” Sam asked, quickly pulling the lace through the holes in his skate.

“I just thought, maybe you had slept-”

“You know I’m not like that.”

“I wasn’t going to say that you slept with someone. I was suggesting that you had overslept.”

“Whatever you say, Ebs,” Sam finished tying his lace and stood from the bench. “See you later.”

Jordan nodded at his teammate and quickly headed to the exercise room. When he walked through the door, he sent Thomas a smile and hopped on a bike. He punched in a few settings before putting his earphones into his ears and turning on his iPod. As the music of Justin Bieber filled his ears he let out a frustrated groan and started looking through his music. He ran a hand down his face when he noticed that the only music that was loaded onto his device was Justin Bieber. With a discontented sigh, he pulled the earphones out of his ears and set his iPod aside. He was going to have to have a talk with Ladislav, who he was almost certain had stolen his iPod and changed the music.

Without music, Jordan’s time in the exercise room would feel much longer than planned. He slowly started to pedal as his thoughts wandered. They started on hockey, which was normal for him. He thought about getting back onto the ice and playing again. His goal was to be back out there by the time they played Vancouver. The game was a week away and if he couldn’t play, he wouldn’t be going to Vancouver for the competition. Instead he would be sitting at home on his couch, probably shouting at the TV set about how there should have been a penalty called.

His thoughts then jumped to Lindsay. He thought about how, whenever he was injured or at home watching a game, she was usually by his side. She always laughed at the way he got into the game even though he wasn’t playing.

He shook his head, clearing it of thoughts about his recent ex-girlfriend. With a clear mind, he tried to focus on his pedalling. He wanted to take it easy like the doctor had told him, but he could feel his body wanting to speed up and give him a well deserved workout.

As he tried to keep his legs from going faster, his mind began to wander again. This time the topic was a certain red-haired woman, who went by the name of Simone. He thought about the first time he saw her. That night at the bar, he had seen her from across the room and knew he had to talk to her. He remembered walking to the bar to get another drink and seconds before he placed his drink order she was standing beside him asking if he could grab her a Coors Light. Of course he had agreed to do so and from there they started talking.

The subjects were nothing important or personal. He remembered asking her about her tattoo, but she either ignored the question or didn’t hear him ask. Even after all of this time of talking to her, he hadn’t gotten up the courage to ask her again, but he couldn’t help but wonder what it meant. He tried to come up with reasons for getting ‘a tattoo’ permanently written on your body, but came up with nothing. The tattoo was the only thing about the girl that he never told anyone about. If he couldn’t figure out why she had it, he didn’t want to know what everyone else thought about the strange tattoo.

His next set of thoughts surprised him. He began to think about his friend Samo. She was always energetic and happy to help everyone. She was big into learning different languages and always tried to convince him to learn one.

He remembered the first time he had met her family. It was a cool fall afternoon. The team had gotten out of practice earlier than usual and was leaving the next morning for a game in Moose Jaw the next evening. After that, they were going on a road trip, if you could call it that, all over the rest of Saskatchewan and to Manitoba for one game. He had wanted to say bye to Samo before he left, but didn’t know where to find her. Expecting that she had not gone home, he went to a few of the spots that he knew she loved to go when she needed to get away. When he finally found her, she told him that he had to meet her family before the end of the year.

He had agreed, but suggested that it wait until after he came back from the trip. They had argued until he pulled up in front of her house and he knew that he had lost the agreement. He could picture himself getting out of his car and following his red-haired friend to the front door. He could feel the need to turn around and run from the yard as he thought about it. Jordan knew that back then, even though they weren’t dating, he was more nervous to meet her parents than he had been to meet any of his girlfriend’s parents. When they made it inside, he had been introduced to her parents, Tanya and Daniel, who were extremely welcoming, and her younger sister, Jazmine, or Jaz for short.

He smiled when he thought about how different Samo looked from the rest of her family. She was shorter than both of her parents and her sister, but it didn’t seem to bother her. She was also the only one with red hair. Jazmine had light brown hair that had a bit of a red tinge, but nothing compared to Samo’s. Both parents had brown hair.

He was jolted from his thoughts when someone hit him on the arm. He looked to the right and saw a very proud looking Ladislav Smid.

“How’s the workout?” Ladislav asked before taking a sip from his water bottle.

“It’s been boring,” Jordan admitted, starting to do a cool down. “It would have been better if I had music.”

“Isn’t that your iPod?” Ladislav asked, pointing at the device sitting in one of the water bottle holders.

“It is, but someone switched all of my music.”

“They changed it? To what?”

Jordan sent the man a dark look as he answered. “Justin Bieber.”

“Now, who would do something like that?” Ladislav laughed.

“That idiot would be you,” Jordan rolled his eyes.

“I wish I could have been here when you realised that’s all you had on there,” Ladislav admitted, still laughing.

“I, for one, am glad you weren’t,” Jordan muttered, getting off the stationary bicycle. He started walking toward the locker room with Ladislav. “How was practice?”

“A lot of hard work. We could use you out there this weekend, you know.”

“Yea, well, I won’t be back for a little bit longer, Ladi.”

“Did Doc tell you how much longer?”

“Not yet, he wants to do some light workouts and stuff first, then make a final decision. I hope I’m back in time to play the Canucks next week.”

“I’m sure you will be, but if not, you’ll have one hell of a time cheering us from the comfort of your own house.”

“That’s not as fun as it sounds,” Jordan smirked. “Especially when I have to watch you make stupid mistakes.”

“’Cause I’m so sure you could do better than me on defence,” Ladislav chuckled. “You have enough trouble as it is playing your position.”

“It’s not my fault I’m so good that they have to have the best coverage for me,” Jordan joked.

“Right, I’m sure that’s what it is, Eberle. You’re just so good.” The man rolled his eyes and walked over to his locker.

Jordan shook his head and changed into his street clothes. He couldn’t help but notice that the locker room was empty as he packed his stuff into their bags. “Where is everyone?”

Ladislav shrugged and picked his bag up from the floor. “Practice ended awhile ago and I lost the rock, paper, scissors match that decided who was going to give you a ride home.”

“You all know that I don’t mind walking home,” said Jordan. “I walked to practice, so I’m sure I can manage walking back home.”

“Well, don’t tell me that. Talk to Captain Horcoff, he’s the one who suggested someone drive you home.”

“So why didn’t he just do it?” Jordan inquired as the pair made their way to Ladislav’s vehicle.

“He’s got someone special waiting at home for him,” Ladislav told him, pulling off a disgusted face in the process.

“You mean his wife?” Jordan asked, getting into the vehicle.

Ladislav nodded and turned the key in the ignition. “He said something about the kids being away or something for the day. I don’t know the details and I wasn’t about to ask.”

“I don’t blame you.”