Until Hell Freezes Over

Kaner and I were chilling in the Team USA house in the lounge before we were to play Finland this afternoon. Kaner was playing Halo on his PSP on link with some of our teammates back in Chicago. I was currently playing Pokémon on my Nintendo DSi. Why? Because I'm bored and it's fun to beat the bad guys.

"I can't believe that you're playing Pokémon." Patrick remarked after being killed by Soupie.

I rolled my eyes, but didn't answer until I beat my opponent with my Empoleon, "Yeah? Well, maybe I can't believe that you're playing Halo. Isn't that game for little boys?"

He scoffed and pretended to be hurt, whimpering like a little puppy. I couldn't help but laugh at his childish behavior,

"Grow up!" This only made him pout even more. I was about to add more to my comment when Tim Thomas called for me from down stairs,

"Yo, Maxwell, someone's on the phone for you!"

I groaned, because I didn't really feel like talking to anyone at the moment. I wanted to focus on the upcoming game. "Tell'em I'll be down in a minute." I got up off my but and pulled on my Frozen Four sweatshirt and jogged down the stairs to the kitchen.

"Who is it?" I asked Tim as I picked the phone off the counter top, where he had laid it for me. Timmy only shrugged and walked over to fix himself a sandwich. This concerned me and I thought about hanging up... No, I couldn't do that whoever wanted to talk to me sure went through a lot of trouble to get a hold of me, so I took a deep breath before asking, cautiously into the speaker, "Hello?"

"Ello? Is this Dillan Maxwell I am speakin' ta?" A heavy accented voice inquired back upon my greeting. I frowned, wondering who this joker thought he was and responded,

"The last time I checked that's who I am. Who do I owe the pleasure?" I asked as politely as I possibly could in return.

There was a shrill squeak in return, "Oi, Tis good! I finally found ye!" The exuberant man then introduced himself, "Tis yer cousin, Ewan Cassidy. I donnae know if ye 'ave ever 'eard o' me before from yer fat'er but'im and I used ya be pretty close before he left."

Now, I was really confused. My cousin? For all of my life my dad had said that he was the only child of a business man who died when he was very young and a stay at home mother who passed on a few months before I was born. "What do you mean before he left?" I found myself asking.

Ewan chuckled at my query, "Before he left Ireland, lassie." When I didn't say anything, he continued, "Conner got accepted into a University's Foreign exchange program 'n' never came back. I 'eard that he found himself a woman 'n' settled down there. That's what my Auntie Kay. Yer Gran, if you will."

Well, that would explain why we never heard or visited any family. At All. They were across the freakin' Atlantic Ocean. "How do I know you're not lying to me?" I prodded, then I lowered my voice, "Why didn't you try to contact us before?"

There was a sigh on the other line, but I didn't hear it because I saw Jon walking down the hallway headed my way. "Ello, Dillan, are ye still there?"

"Yeah, I am. Sorry, I got distracted." I mumbled, turning to face away from Jon so that I could pay attention to my so called 'cousin'. I ran my hand through my hair and waited for him to answer my question.

"We had been watchin' the Olympics the entire time but we 'adn't made the connection 'til they showed yer story on the Tellie." Ewan informed me, "We recognized yer da in some o' the photographs.... I got on a plane as soon as I could."

I hadn't expect that kind of answer, it surprised me that someone would act that fast, "Hold the phone... Are you here? As in, are you in Vancouver?"

"Ay! My wife 'n' I volunteered to come meet ye, so that my mum and yer gran could continue runnin' the pub. We've got tickets to yer game tonight. Could we meet ye afterward?" He sounded so hopeful, but I didn't think it was a good idea. I'm not usually in the best of moods after games.

"Umm... How about tomorrow? I don't want you guys to have to wait for interviews, plus I'm staying after to watch my boyfriend's team play Slovakia." I offered and explained to him instead as I reached for Jon's hand, who gave me a questioning look.

There was muffled conversation on the other end of the line, but Ewan quickly got back to me, "Ay, that sounds fine. How 'bout half past 10 tomorrow in front of Rodgers Arena?"

"That sounds good to me." I agreed, quickly, swinging Jon's arm back and forth absent mindedly.

Ewan, then confirmed, "Alrighty, then, we'll seen ye ten."

"Alright, see ya." I answered and waited until the line went dead to hang up and turn to Jon.

"Oh. My. God!" I gasped, suddenly feeling a see bit queezy.

Jon shook his head at me and then asked me, expectantly, "What?"

I felt like I was hyperventilating at this point, "M-my d-dad lied... to me." I felt tears brimming up in my eyes but I forced them away. I didn't want to be weak in front of Jon again, so I turned away from him.

Jon wasn't having any of that because he turned me back around to face him,"What did he lie to you about, mon étolie?" His concern was evident in his voice.

I just shook my head, "Can we go upstairs? I don't really want to talk about this in front of everyone."

Jon frowned, but nodded unsure of what to say, no doubt. He only allowed me to lead him upstairs to the room where Kaner and I had been gaming. Once the door wad shut, I told him what had happened and who I had been talking to on the phone.

"So he never told you any major details about his past?" Jon inquired, I just shook my head, 'no', in response.

"He always said he was an only child and that his parents never spoke to their families because they didn't want them to be married." I   recalled, "He never told me much about my mom for that matter..."

Jon wrapped his arm around my shoulders and lead me to the extremely comfortable couches at the center of the room. He knew the story of what happened to my mom, not many other people did, "I'm sure his heart was broken over losing her... I don't understand why he would want to keep you away from your heritage."

I sighed and leaned into him, "I don't know either, Jon. I guess, I'll never know the real reason now..." I trailed off, there wasn't much else to say.

"Maybe it's a good idea then to meet your cousin. Maybe he knows something about why your father never came back or mentioned them to you... Je ne veux pas tu faire manquer une occasion pour répondre à ta famille. Je t'aime, Dil. Je deteste te voir triste et sais que cela tu rendras heureux." He pleaded in French because we could hear my teammates huddling around the door trying to get a hit as to what was going on.

I nodded and leaned up to place a quick kiss to the corner of his mouth, "Je te coïncider avec toi. Je tiens à leur répondre, trop. Je ne veux pas faire une erreur." Jon, then, moved in to silence me with his own lips and he pulled away after to promise,

"Je promets tu ne feras pas une telle chose." I smiled at his consideration, but asked him instead,

"Comment?" A smiled widen on his face, 

"Comment?", He repeated, "Je viens avec toi."

I laughed at his determination and kissed him again, "Merci beaucoup. Je t'aime, trop."

What an interesting turn of events to add on top of getting into the medal rounds. Wouldn't you say?