While You Were Away

I looked over when I heard the door open to see Val walk in the house. He had just gotten back from a two game road trip the day before. We hadn’t talked much since he threatened to break up the engagement seeing as I had been busy filming and he had been busy with hockey. It still seemed a bit awkward to me.

He silently made his way to our room to put his bag away before walking back to the living room where I had been seated.

“Hey,” He said quietly, taking a seat next to me.

“Congrats on the goal against the Blues,” I said, glancing over to smile at him. He smiled in return as he nodded.

“Thanks.”

“You’ve been scoring a lot lately.” He nodded again.

“So how has it been around here? Have you talked to Emily at all?”

“Yeah. I went to her doctors appointment with her actually. They’re having a boy,” I said, glancing up to see a shocked expression on his face.

“Wow. That’s…that’s great. So you guys are doing good now?” I shrugged.

“As good as we can be I suppose.”

“Is that all you did with her?”

“Afterwards we went to lunch with our dad,” I said, picking at the chipped nail polish on my fingers.

“You actually went with them? I thought you hated your dad!” He said, sounding amazed.

“I did…but now, I guess I realized that holding grudges like that isn’t healthy. I mean, it’s gunna take some time before I even get remotely close to him or anything…but I figured I’d try and start now.”

“I’m so proud of you,” He said quietly, pulling me into a hug, placing a kiss atop my head.

-

I walked down to the locker room, thinking about the game that had just been played. It was a good fight from the guys. It looked like it was going to be a 4-0 shutout for the Penguins, but then the Wings tied it up and went into a shootout.

Todd passed me in the hallway, already out of his gear and ready to leave.

“What a game, huh?” He asked, stopping to talk to me.

“That was actually amazing,” I said, laughing. “Let’s hope the Pens tie up for the playoffs so they lose the shoot out win.”

“See, this is why I like you, you know hockey,” He said, chuckling at what I had said.

“Damn straight. Did you happen to notice if Val was changed yet?” I asked, looking down the hallway.

“Sorry small fry, I try not to look at your boyfriend, or any of the guys for that matter, when they’re changing,” He said, a playful grin on his face, showing off the gap where some of his teeth should have been.

“You look like such a hockey player when you smile Bert,” I said and he rolled his eyes before patting me on the shoulder.

“I gotta get outta here. I’ll see you later okay?”

“Sounds good.” I continued down the long hallway, glancing up at the Olympia Stadium sign hanging up.

“Emily?…Emily what are you doing here?” I turned to see Sidney Crosby walking up to me, a confused look on his face.

“Excuse me?” I said, then realized he thought I was my sister. I was still getting used to people getting confused when they saw us, seeing as it hadn’t happened for years.

“What are you doing at a Wings game? Does Jack know you’re here?” I gave him a look. “What?”

“I’m not Emily.” I stated, crossing my arms over my chest.

“Haha, very funny. Seriously, what are you doing here?”

“Do you not understand English? I just told you I’m not Emily.”

“Well then who are you?” He asked and I rolled my eyes.

“I’m her sister, dumbass,” I said sharply and he looked taken aback.

“Her sister?”

“Yes, as in, same parents. Same DNA. Different person.”

“Emily doesn’t have a sister…” He said and I laughed.

“Because you would know, right? She’s my twin. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go find my boyfriend, who plays for the Wings. By the way, thanks for not leaving him alone all night. Totally helped your case in my opinion,” I said, rolling my eyes as I walked away, leaving him standing there dumbstruck.

“Is everyone decent?!” I called into the locker room, and was followed by a chorus of ‘yeah’s.

“What took you so long to get here?” Darren asked, giving me a look as he pulled his shirt over his head.

“I got stopped by Crosby.” At this, a few heads whipped around to look at me. I had a reputation for not liking him, so they all wanted to hear about it.

“What happened?” Val asked, walking over to his stall to grab his hoodie.

“He stopped me thinking I was Emily.”

“Did you tell him off?” Jimmy asked, a very hopeful look on his face.

“Called him a dumbass,” I said smiling, knowing Jimmy would enjoy that.

“My girl!” He said, grinning at me.

“Also thanked him for not leaving Val alone in the game,” I said and Val shook his head as he walked up to me, wrapping his arms around me from behind.

“I’m a hockey player babe, you don’t need to defend me like that,” He said, kissing my cheek.

“Do you expect that to deter me?” I asked, receiving a few laughs from the guys.

“Not at all, just felt like letting you know. Are you ready to get out of here?”

“Yes. We need to go celebrate your almost Gordie Howe hat trick,” I said, giving him a look and he smiled, chuckling quietly.

“Don’t have too much fun you two!” Hank yelled as we left the locker room.