Until Hell Freezes Over

The next few weeks flew by and before I knew it Patrick and I were heading off to Vancouver to play in the Winter Olympics. I had really turned to him as my confidant on the team since Jon still wouldn’t talk to me. I was really worried that this was going to hinder the team and I would get traded because I was at the root of the problem. I knew that no matter how good I was or how much I had proven myself in my rookie season there was still a chance that I could easily be traded, anyone could, but I was a girl. Hormonal and at sometimes weak, weaker than I wanted to be. I made it goal to use this opportunity to make adjustments to myself in all areas of my life.

“Can you believe that we’re going to be representing the United States in the Winter Olympics, Dillan?” Kaner asked, excitedly. I just shook my head, ‘no’ because that thought had never crossed my mind. Then I thought of my dad and how proud he would be of me. I would do dedicate my Olympic performance to him, since I still felt that I hadn’t honored him enough. I also knew that nothing was going to replace his love.

“No and we get to annoy Ryan Miller!” I laughed, manically causing a few other passengers to look at me, strangely.

“Why would we want to do that?” Kaner questioned, not following what I was getting at.

“Because he played for the evil Michigan State Spartans, that’s why!” I informed him, with an exasperated sigh. His mouth turned into an ‘o’ before he continued,

“Then are you going to annoy Ryan Kesler, too because he went to Ohio Sta-“I cut him off by clamping my hand over his mouth,

“Please, don’t remind me. Kesler is cool and every time I think about where he went college I get mad because I dislike them as well.” He laughed at that statement because he knew it was true. He understood me better than Jon did for some reason, I guess it’s because we came from similar lifestyles. I’m pretty sure that we were going to room together, after all I trusted him, who would’ve thought that at the beginning of the season. We spent the rest of the flight, pretending to be gangsters while rapping to Lil’ Wayne and Ludacris.

……………………………………

“Prepare yourselves Vancouver because Dillan Maxwell and Patrick Kane are here to dominate!” Pat exclaimed as we stepped out of the taxi when we arrived at the Olympic village. It was so amazing to see all of the different athletes from all the different countries participating this year.

“Hey, Pat, where are we staying?” I asked after he had begun to walk in one direction. Neither of us had taken the time to check where we were to be staying during our time here, we had been too busy partying it up on the plane to even remember. He hadn’t a clue because he stopped dead in his tracks and turned around to face me.

“Shit, I totally forgot to find out. If Tazer was with us he would know. He’s always prepared.” Kaner sighed; he knew that it was still a touchy subject for me.

“You come with me. I show you were hockey players are staying.” A heavily Russian accented voice stated from behind me, it was so thick I thought that it was Duncan faking it. But when I turned around it wasn’t Duncan, it was Evgeni Malkin of the Pittsburgh Penguins and then he continued, “You must be Dillan Maxwell, yes?” He just nodded to Patrick, I’m sure that they had met before.

“Yeah, it’s a pleasure to meet you, Evgeni. “ I stuttered, when I noticed how tall he was. He was like a giant, at least 6’2” or 6’3” which was almost a whole foot taller than me.

“No, it is a pleasure to meet you.” He corrected me and took my luggage from me, slinging it over his left shoulder as if it weighed nothing, “Come now, you must be hungry!” With that we let him lead us to the hotel that all of the teams would be staying at.

“He seems too friendly to me.” Kaner stated, in a low voice, so that Evgeni wouldn’t hear him. My guess was that he was worried that I was going to forget about Jon. In a way, I did, I wanted to forget the argument we had, but I didn’t want to forget him. I’m sure that even while we aren’t on the same team right now that he won’t make it easier to forget him.

As Evgeni, Pat, and I walked into the main lobby of the hotel, we were greeted by his Russian teammates Alexander Ovechkin and Alexander Semin. I knew that Malkin and Ovechkin didn’t get along during the regular season and even more so during the post season when they got the chance to play againist each other but it looked like they were putting their differences aside for a better representation of their team for their country.

“Ah, you found some stragglers.” Ovie stated upon meeting us. Evgeni just nodded before introducing us, well me,

“Yes, you already know Patrick Kane, this is his new teammate; Dillan Maxwell.” Malkin smiled down at me, this caused me to blush furiously.

“She also responds to Maxi, you can actually call her anything just don’t call her stupid.” Kaner joked; this made both Alex’s laugh. I scowled at him for even saying that even though it was kinda true. Just then Brian Rafalski came down the corridor,

“Hey, well look who it isn’t!” I greeted, throwing my arms around him in a hug. We were on good term because I had met him before I had been drafted.

“And it isn’t.” He finished, “How you’ve been, Maxi?” He stated after pulling away.

“Good, I guess, well as good as I can be.” I shrugged, looking back to check on Kaner only to see him talking vigorously to the Russians and catching the deep brown eyes of none other than Evgeni Malkin. He smirked at me and I felt the heat rising back to my cheeks so I looked back to Brian.

“Yeah, I heard about what happened to your old man. It’s got to be tough, not having him around anymore.” He empathized with me. Brian and my dad went way back they had played together for Wisconsin. Well, my dad was a senior when he was a freshman, but they had become good friends none the less, “Come to think of it, I didn’t see that there was a funeral.” I shook my head in agreement, I hadn’t had the time to put it together and besides he didn’t want one,

“He had it in his will that he wanted to be cremated like my mom. We placed his vase in the mausoleum with her.” Somehow I found myself looking back around but this time it wasn’t for Kaner, I thought I had heard his voice and for the second time, Evgeni Malkin caught my gaze this time I didn’t want to look away. He was so different from Jon but so similar at the same time. He seemed a little more welcoming and relaxed maybe it was because he didn’t have the weight of his team solely upon his shoulders. This time Brian also followed my gaze and his amused laughter brought me out of whatever spell the Russian boy had placed on me.

“A Russian? I didn’t think you were the type to go after foreigners.” He joked, “Seeing as you are an All-American.” His referral to the honor I had received at the end of last year made me smile. I wasn’t even a year out of college and I was participating in the NHL and representing my country in the Olympics.

“I don’t.” I replied, quickly, because he had flustered me.

“It doesn’t seem that way to me.” He shrugged, he knew more than most people when I was lying, “Hey Kaner, come on, we gotta get ya’ll to your rooms before we have a team meeting.” With that Patrick came running over to us and we started down the hall way to the elevator, but something didn’t seem quite right it felt like I was missing something. Then I realized that I had left my bag with Evgeni.

“Hey, hold on. Malkin still has my bag.” I told them before taking off down the hall, only to run into him. Running into him was like running into a brick wall, the force from it caused me to fall flat on my ass. He merely stumbled a little before regaining his balance and offered his hand to help me up. I took it without a second thought.

“Sorry.” I mumbled, embarrassed that I had fallen in front of him. He looked at me, oddly before asking,

“Why you sorry? I knocked you down.” I just laughed at how courteous he was being and shook my head,

“Yeah, I wasn’t really watching where I was going plus I was running. It’s my fault for not being more attentive.” He opened his mouth to say something but then a familiar voice caught my attention as I whirled around to see my fellow Blackhawk.

“Duncan!” I shouted, running towards him and engulfing him in a bear hug even though he was sitting at a table with several other players.

“Hey, Maxi, you lose Kaner already? I thought I told you to keep an eye on him at all times.” He joked, looking around for our curly, blonde haired teammate.

“Don’t worry; Rafalski is watching him for me while I went to go get my bag from Malkin.” I remarked, pointing back to the Russian who had followed after me.

“Hey Keith, Sid, Brooks.” Evgeni greeted with a nod as he came up to stand directly behind me. I didn’t notice until that Sidney Crosby and Brooks Orpik were sitting with him until Evgeni had said something.

“Hey, Geno, what are you up to with this hell child.” Sidney teased; I just rolled my eyes at him knowing that he meant nothing from it.

“I find her and Kaner lost, so I show them here and then they took off. Mazi forgot that I still had her bag so she came back to get it then she heard Duncan.” He informed his captain. I loved how he said, ‘Maxi’ it was really cute and I was definitely going to have a soft spot for him before our time here was finished.

“Hey Duncan,” The deep voice I had wanted to her so much came from behind my left shoulder. I knew that he hadn’t seen me until he came closer to the table because of my personal Russian tower, “Hey Dillan.” Only two words? Well at least I got a greeting out of him, that’s gotta count for something right.

“Hey Tazer.” I muttered back, before turning to Geno, “Hey, can you carry my bag up to my room?” Batting my eye lashes and smiling, sweetly up at him.

“Of course, anything for beautiful American Girl.” His laugh boomed, “Which way?” I nodded towards the door.

“See ya at the meeting tonight, Brookzy. See ya out on the ice, Squid. Bye Bye, Dunky!” I mentioned before walking out of the room with Geno on my tail. But don’t you think that I didn’t see the fire burning in Jon’s eyes as I walked past him. Was that jealously?

*General POV*

“Since when did that happen?” Jon asked, as he sat down at the table with his friends, he looked to Duncan because he knew that Dillan had been spending a lot of time with him and Kaner since their fight.

“Hey, I have no idea; she came in with Malkin right before you came back.” His fellow Winnipeg native shrugged. Jon just glared down at the table. He thought that she would’ve respected him enough to come to terms with the new developments in their rather complex relationship. Instead, when he came down from his to chill in the computer room with Duncan and Sidney, he found his blonde beauty with the Russian ogre talking it up with them. It was so unexpected, but that’s exactly what Dillan had become known for. He didn’t want to have to win her back, but he knew that if he was ever gonna have a chance with her again he would have to make an effort to get her alone so that he could explain why he had been so distant lately.

*Dillan’s POV*

“Thanks for helping me, Geno.” I stated, throwing my arms around him in a hug. He hugged me back so quickly; it wasn’t something I was used to. Jonathan usually took longer to respond to my hugs or didn’t hug me at all. It felt good to have someone match my embrace.

“No, thank you.” He chuckle, “Dillan?”

“Yes?” I answered, pulling away to look at his face. He had that cheerful smile on his face that I was growing to love.

“Go out with me after the opening ceremonies tomorrow?” He questioned. I leaned up and kissed his cheek,

“Sounds fun, of course I’d love to.” I replied. He nodded, smiling even more brightly,

“Good, meet me afterward.”

“Okay, see you then.” With that he got up and walked to the door before leaving he turned around,

“Goodbye, Dillan.” Then he left, closing the door behind him. Shortly, after the door was thrust back open by Patrick.

“Hey, Dillan. Hey, Dillan. Guess what! Guess what!” He exclaimed, excitedly.

“What?” I laughed at his eagerness.

“Hi, but besides that I found where Miller and Kesler’s rooms are. Wanna go bug the shit out of them with me?”