Remember Me

Alyssa awoke the next morning to a pounding headache, and an alarm going off. "What the ..." she muttered, clenching her fists over the thought of someone shoving an alarm clock into her room and setting it so damn early. She opened her eyes to find a scruffy haired Frenchman jumping up from the floor to turn it off. She watched him rush over to the clock, and click it off, before shooting a look over to where she was laying, covered up in some very comfortable blankets. The bed she was in was like heaven on Earth.

"I thought I had turned it off," he apologized to the blonde who just smiled uncomfortably at him. She didn't remember much of last night, other than the part that ended with her throwing up in a toilet and then trying to use the shower to wash out the leftover stomach contents in her hair.

"I made an idiot out of myself yesterday, didn't I?" she asked him, and he made an only sort of face and shrugged his shoulders. "Did I say something stupid?"

Marc-Andre immediately shook his head, yet still remembering, quite clearly, the part where she had told him about her brother. He wasn't even sure if that had been a true story, or just drunken rambling to make him feel bad for her. There was just something in her eyes that said it had been the entire truth. As though he could see the hurt spilling from her heart, through her eyes.

"Thank God." He watched her throw herself back into his bed and stretched out his own back. There was no way he was, ever, sleeping on the floor again. No matter how much of a gentleman he wanted to be.

Marc picked up the extra blanket and pillow he had slept with on the floor, throwing it onto the recliner sitting near the large bay windows in his bedroom. "I'll be downstairs. I called your uncle by the way," Her body shot up at the statement, looking extremely horrified. "He's coming to pick you up at eleven." They both looked at the clock telling them it was nine-thirty, and Alyssa thanked whatever God there was.

"Oh, okay, well ... do you mind if I shower? I'd at least like to look good when I die." he nodded, pointing to the left to show where she could wash up before leaving to grab something to eat.



"You know, going to the bar alone and underage isn't the safest thing to do." he spoke, his coffee mug still resting on his bottom lip.

She looked at him, trying to measure how serious he was about giving her a safety lecture right now. "I know how to protect myself."

"How much you want to bet, that's what they all say before they get raped and killed." She ignored him this time, helping herself to his fridge and pulling the door open.

Marc watched as his house guest rustled through his almost-empty fridge, trying to find something. Good luck, he thought, knowing just what was in there and how none of it would appeal to the twenty year-old. At least, not whilst hungover. There might be an old Chinese food container with leftovers, but he couldn't guarantee it was still good and wouldn't end up making her spend the rest of the day throwing up. And after last night, there was no way she would voluntarily put herself through that again. She was wearing his old Penguins hockey tee that was ripped and had a few small holes around the seams of it; he also noticed she had put back on the short skirt she had been wearing the previous night. Maybe he should have also offered her a pair of shorts or something. You've been hospitable enough. You don't want to make her feel like she's welcome forever, he convinced himself before taking another sip of his coffee.

"You've got nothing in here. How do you live?" Alyssa asked him, honestly surprised at how empty his kitchen was. Weren't hockey players supposed to eat a lot? Where the hell was all of his food? She settled on a can of Coke that she had found at the back of the fridge, not even bothering to ask whether it was still good or not. It was a can - they didn't go bad for years, right?

"Take out," was the only answer he offered. "You're healthy - pop at ten?"

"You're starting to sound too much like a parent," she groaned. "I'll stop hanging around you if you keep doing that."

He chuckled, "Stop giving me good reasons to." She shot him a look, but smiled herself whilst shaking her head. There was a knock at the door during the long moment of silence the two were sharing. They were sitting in Marc's kitchen, him drinking his coffee and she drinking her Coca Cola. Every so often, they'd catch each other looking at one another, and they'd quickly look away. Alyssa busied herself with braiding her hair into pigtails, and Marc read an old newspaper sitting around the table.

"Guess that's my uncle," Aly said, informing them of what they already knew.

"I'll get it." Marc stood up and headed towards the front door.



"You're going to have to fix your attitude, and really think over who you want to be around here if you plan on staying around." Pascal told his niece. His expression reminded her of when he was about to go hit a guy in a game, or was about to punch someone. They were in the living room, Aly sitting on the couch and Pascal standing across the room from her. Marc had left them alone, not even wanting to be involved in the conversation that was going to be taking place. How he even became a part of this immature girl's life was far beyond him. He really needed to rethink some of his choices.

"Why? Are you going to send me back home, otherwise?" Aly spat back, trying to stand her ground against her uncle, but deep down, she knew she wasn't going to succeed at it. She was still afraid of what would happen if she got him mad enough, and she was afraid of disappointing him. Perhaps why she felt so bad about last night.

"You need to stop that," he spat back, his brows furrowing. "You need to stop thinking that every time you're going to do something stupid and make an idiot out of yourself, we're going to send you back, because we're not going to. We may call you an idiot, but we won't just send you away at the first sign of trouble."

"Why not? It's what everyone else did."

Pascal didn't want to talk about this subject with Marc still being in the house. This wasn't something he needed, or probably wanted, to overhear. It wasn't his fault Aly's mother didn't know what else to do and Pascal's brother was an ass who couldn't care less about his own daughter: the only kid he had left standing. Marc didn't deserve to hear all that. "You should have called me last night, not Marc-Andre."

"I didn't want them to see me!" Her voice was attacking her uncle all on its own.

"Who?"

"Mae, Kody and Zoe! I didn't want them to see that," her voice grew softer as she sunk lower in her seat on the couch that was supposed to have been her bed the previous night - until she passed out in front of the toilet and Marc had brought her to his bed. Why did he have to be so nice to her? It was starting to get annoying, how polite he was. Yes, he was Canadian, but come on!

Alyssa buried her face into her hands, her elbows leaning on her knees as she leaned forward. Two years ago, she never would have been caught dead drinking alone at a bar. Sure, she was a normal teenager, and she drank and did stupid things with her friends, but she was never that girl. She preferred to go dancing at clubs she found her way into with her girlfriends, and making moves on guys she would later turn down, just because it was fun to do. Two years ago, she was what some would call naive. She wasn't this girl she was trying to pretend to be.

Pascal sighed, backing off on his niece a little after her confession. He hadn't wanted his own children to see that scene. They looked up to Aly, they loved her like she was their cool older sister. She was the girl that wrote them songs, and taught Maeva how to play guitar. She was Kody's cool big sister that knew sports, and could kick any of his friends' asses at video games. He always asked to have her pick him up at his hockey games, and from school now that she was in Pittsburgh.

He looked at her, and didn't see any of the little girl he once knew remaining in her. And he tried, hard. He searched her for anything that could give him hope of seeing that girl again. A girl he could trust around his children - to take care of them, and make sure they didn't hurt themselves. A girl he could trust with leaving her home alone at his home, without calling people up and throwing a party. But there was nothing he could find, to reassure him. That moment broke his heart, and all he could do was tell her to get up and meet him out in the car. He didn't want to look at her anymore.

"I'll get my uncle to give you back your shirt," Alyssa said as she passed Marc, who was trying to make it seem he hadn't overheard their argument. She knew he had, it would've been hard not to at the volume they had been yelling at. He could see in her eyes she wasn't proud of this moment, and for once, he saw a real expression from her. He believed that she wasn't this girl. He just couldn't understand why she was trying to become her.

"Don't worry about it, I've got lots." he told her, offering a small smile as some sort of gesture to make her feel a little better. Marc didn't expect it to work, but he felt better at least trying. Aly just nodded before heading towards the front door to get into Pascal's car.

"Thanks," Pascal told his teammate, feeling incredibly embarrassed by his niece. It was one thing for her to do this, but it was another to have to involve a guy he 'works' with in the mess. He didn't know what else to say, but Marc just nodded his head.

"I was twenty once." Marc offered as some joke to lighten the situation. Pascal just forced a smile, saying his goodbyes before heading out of the house and trying to figure out a way to deal with this.



There was an optional skate being held on Christmas Eve, and while most of the guys had brought along their families, Marc spent most of it playing a shootout drill with Matt Cooke's eldest. He had intentionally let a few slide by, just to keep the kid interested, but caught a few to make it look like he was trying his best. His own family wasn't joining him until Christmas Day, when they were flying in late in the evening. That idea on its own - spending Christmas alone - just made him feel that much more of a Grinch than he usually was. Usually, he was ecstatic for the day - it was his favorite holiday of the year, but not when he couldn't spend it with his own family.

It only made him miss his ex-girlfriend, Vero, even more. She would have spent the holidays with him, refusing the entire time to go out in public with him if he insisted on wearing his ugly Christmas sweaters. And then he'd get the same 'no' from her when he'd show her the matching sweater he had found for her. She never wore it, but he always asked anyway. Marc sighed, slipping his skates off and working on the rest of his goalie equipment while the rest of the team engaged with their family members. It wouldn't take him as long as it usually did, since he hadn't put on the entire gear. It was only an optional skate - not a real practice, so he hadn't needed it. Though, the chest pads might have been a good idea when Cookie's kid missed the net, hit the pole and almost gave him a heart attack as the puck missed his stomach by an inch off the rebound.

"Merry Christmas!" was all he heard throughout the dressing room, and he returned the sentiment to many of the players who shot a blessing his way before he packed up his things and left to go home. He had been offered to spend his Christmas over at the Lemieux house with Sidney, his family, and of course, Mario, Natalie and their kids, but he hadn't accepted the invitation just yet. Marc hated being a third wheel, and that was exactly what it would be like - well, more or less a pity invite than anything else. You sound pathetic, he told himself as he pushed open the doors and headed to where his car was parked.

It was on his way to his car, that he noticed a familiar blonde girl sitting on one of the free parking space's cement bumpers, looking bored and uninterested towards whatever it was she was viewing on her phone. She was wearing a pair of jeans, and the same sweatshirt he remembered her wearing back when they had gone shopping. Flipping his keys out, and then into his hands, the key ring safely around his finger, he made hi way over to her.

"How's life locked up?" Marc questioned, watching her look up at him and try and hide the smirk that came around after hearing his question.

"Oh, you know, at least I get outdoor time." The two shared a laugh, before he took a seat next to her.

"I wasn't right, was I?" The question hit her by surprise, and Alyssa looked at him quizzically. "Oh, right, you probably don't remember." he laughed to himself.

"Well now you have to explain yourself." Aly responded, still waiting for him to explain himself.

"Last night, when... yeah, you told me to stop acting like I knew you and then to get you to let me take you home before you did any more damage, I had to guess what I thought your life was like..." Marc wasn't proud of that moment - judging someone like that. Even if that had been his original impression, since then he had gotten a new view of her and it was completely confusing the hell out of him. She was like two different people, and the more she confused him, the more Marc had a harder time getting her out of his head.

Alyssa nodded, slightly remember that moment. She didn't really remember much after following Marc out of the bar, but before that it was sort of hazily clear. She just shrugged her shoulders, looking down at the phone in her hand.

"Okay, well now you have to answer me."

"What?" her attention was drawn back to him, not used to hearing him be so blunt and forward.

"I helped you out last night, and now you can't even answer the one question I have?" She was pissing him off now, thinking she could just leave him there guessing after everything he had done for her. Hell, he had even taken her Christmas gift shopping earlier, when he could have been doing something so much better with his time.

Alyssa groaned, blowing a breath of air out in front of her and watching it float up towards the sky. It was cold, but nothing she wasn't used to having lived in New York. The snow was nice; it was one of the reasons why she enjoyed winter so much. Aly loved being bundled up, and wearing cute scarves and hats, and sweaters. Once her breath disappeared, she turned her head to Marc once more. "Fine. No. You weren't." she shrugged, trying to act like this was no big deal to her. It wasn't. At least, she thought it wasn't. Why should she care so much what he thought of her? This guy didn't even know her. "I mean, yeah, I had a lot of friends back in New York, but... I mean... whatever. My life was not like Gossip Girl." The last sentence almost came as a slap to the face, the way she had spat it out quickly.

Marc wondered why she never called New York her home. Whenever he had heard her refer to the place, she never mentioned it as her home. It irked him for a short moment, before he pushed it aside and decided it was irrelevant. He was just too observant about these things, sometimes. "I always thought that show wasn't even close to being real," he cracked, smiling softly at her and she returned the gesture. Alyssa was glad that he didn't continue questioning her about her life back in New York. She wouldn't exactly call it the best days of her life - at least, not in the past couple years.

"So why weren't you in there with the rest of 'em?" he questioned her, referring to why he hadn't seen her on the ice with the Dupuis family.

She shrugged, "Didn't feel like it." Alyssa drew her legs closer to her body, wrapping her arms around her knees. "To be honest, I was sick of getting that look from my aunt and uncle."

"What look?"

"You know, the look that says, 'We're so disappointed in you, we don't even know what to say to you right now.' They've been doing it all day."

Marc laughed, "I remember that look. I always thought that parents went to some group meeting where they all get taught it."

"That would make a lot of sense," Aly laughed, shaking her head at the image. They shared a minute or two of silence, just the two of them sitting on the cement brick in silence. Alyssa wondered whether her parents had skipped that parent meeting, since they were never any good at making her feel bad with just a look. But maybe it was just depending on who you cared more about disappointing, she wondered, staring at the few cars pulling out of the lot.

"Ready for Christmas?" she questioned, disrupting Marc's own thoughts that had been planning his time with his family.

"Family's not coming until Christmas night, so I've got tonight and most of tomorrow all to myself." he tried to make it sound like he was okay with that, but failed miserably. Alyssa could tell by his face he wasn't excited about it at all.

"Well, if you ever get lonely, I'll be doing nothing for the next couple weeks until my house arrest is turned to probation." she joked, and he chuckled lightly.

"Thought you didn't like me." he smirked.

Alyssa shrugged a response, trying to make it seem like she was indifferent, but even that would have been a lie. "Nobody deserves to be alone on Christmas. Besides, you kinda grow on people." Aly nudged him lightly with her elbow, smiling.

"Good to know." he laughed.