If We Ever Meet Again

Climbing out of the large SUV and straightening out the dark blue halter top with swirly white print and trims that she was wearing, Ellie squinted slightly behind her large sunglasses as she looked up at the house they were parked in front of – a simple two story house painted a pale shade of gray with a large front lawn. Slamming the door shut behind her she took a step forwards and then turned back to look at Jack who was locking the car, a secretive smirk across his kissable lips as he watched her as well.

“Where are we?” she asked as she slowly walked towards the front of the car.

“You’ll see,” he smiled widely as he joined her and held out his hand, suppressing a wide grin as she just rolled her eyes at him and reached out her own hand, lacing their fingers together like it was the most natural thing in the world.

“You are such a mean person,” she grumbled slightly, but let him lead her up the stone path leading to the front door anyway.

“Trust me, you’ll like this,” he stated simply, leaning over and pressing his lips to the top of her head all whilst praying that he was right. Because in all honesty, he had no idea if she was going to like what he’d planned.

“Alright, if you say so,” she relented as they walked up the two steps to the front porch and he forwent knocking, simply opening the dark-colored door and letting her enter the unfamiliar house first.

Sending him a curious glance, she walked through the doorway and quickly surveyed the foyer/living room of the house, taking in the high ceilings, the dark-wood features and the intricate staircase.

It had only been a couple of days since she first touched down on Californian soil and if she was completely honest, it was a lot different from the last time she’d been there.

Of course, this time she was pregnant and back then she’d still been in high school, ready for the summer of a lifetime. That time she’d also been pushed in on the deep end, all that she could do was sink or swim, so in only matter of days she was starting to feel at home, finding that she was recognizing the area she was staying in and the area she was going to school in, learning to get around at least a little.

This time it was different, a lot different.

First off she had a different kind of safety net around her and of course, a very different reason for being there. The downside however was that she was finding Los Angeles to be a lot more intimidating this time around. Her first time there someone else had constantly been in charge of making sure they were where they were supposed to be, that they made it there on time and they didn’t really have to think much about stuff like that at all…

No matter what she’d told her friends, had tried to promise her friends, she was for all intents and purposes moving to LA this time and…and it was scary. She didn’t really know anyone, she didn’t have a job, she didn’t have…

Jack’s hand brushing against her bare forearm brought her out of her thoughts, causing her to clear her throat slightly as she glanced around the seemingly empty house where judging by the toys strewn across the floor at least one child live, before looking back at him. Finding that he’d closed the door behind them and was looking at her almost expectantly.

“Where are we?” she asked softly as he took her hand in his and slowly led her through the ground floor of the house he’d been in more times than he could probably count.

Not replying, he simply pulled her closer and pressed his lips to her cheek, continuing to steer them through the open-planned house.

Walking down a wide hallway, past an office and what appeared to be a formal dining room, they reached a large kitchen with light colored fixtures and light granite countertops, as well as sliding glass doors that lead out onto a patio. A patio where a large group of people were gathered…

Along with masses of pale blue and pink balloons and a number of perfectly wrapped presents of all shapes and sizes littering the wooden deck…

“What…?” Ellie began asking as she felt Jack walk up behind her, wrap his arms around her waist and gently cradle her growing bump with his large hands.

“Surprise,” he whispered into her ear, feeling her lean back slightly against him.

Had she not been as exposed to American culture as she had been during the years growing up, the scene before them would have thoroughly confused her, but as it was it didn’t…they were throwing her a baby shower….

“Wow,” she breathed as she watched the people milling about in the garden. Most of them she’d never met before, but a handful she had been introduced to just two days prior as the Kings had been hosting the Minnesota Wild, a game they’d come away from with a 5-2 win and during which she’d experienced her first proper NHL-game. Sitting in the stands of a real home arena, filled with fans of the home team.

“Did you do this?” she asked as she looked back at him. “Did you plan this?” she wondered softly, her hormones making tears pool in her blue eyes.

“Some of it,” he confirmed with a slight nod. “The rest is all thanks to Nicole,” he told her, nodding towards the blonde woman who was his captain’s wife.

“It’s…that’s…I…” she honestly didn’t know what to say. “Thank you,” she settled on as she turned around and reached up to cup his cheeks, placing a firm kiss on his lip.

Smiling into the kiss, he laced their hands together as he pulled the door open and they stepped out on the patio, quickly catching the attention of pretty much everyone out there.

“The woman of the hour,” the blonde whom Ellie now knew to be Nicole smile widely a she stood up from the armrest of the wicker sofa where she’d been sitting, placing a tall glass with some pink bubbly drink on the coffee table and heading straight for them.

“It’s so nice to finally meet you,” she said as she wrapped Ellie into a hug, surprising the pregnant blonde. “Jack has been going on and on about you since they came back, I feel like I already know you,” she indulged and Ellie glanced over at the guy standing beside her, catching the pink tinge on his cheeks and the top of his ears.

“I can’t really say the same,” Ellie said sheepishly as she returned the hug, feeling a bit out of her comfort-zone. “But it’s nice to meet you too,” she added as they parted and she tried to not notice how many faces were turned their way, all of them looking at her with a mix of worry, skepticism and curiosity…

So far she’d managed to gathered that once you were on the inside of the circle, everyone had your back, and everyone trusted you, but before you got there…it was a hard process and she had a long way to go till she’d earned the trust of the people closest to Jack and their significant others. Till they trusted that she was in it for the right reasons.

And that didn’t make her feel much better where she was currently standing. Ever since she’d first started showing, and had left that awkward stage where it just looked like she’d eaten too much or gained a little too much weight, she always felt awkward and self-conscious when people she didn’t know looked at her. It was as if a baby bump just made it okay for anyone and everyone to outright stare at her or god forbid walk over and place their grubby little hands all over her stomach.

And whilst she recognized a great many of the male faces out on the deck as members of the Kings and she figured that the women were significant others or just close friends, their looks only served to make her feel ever more uncomfortable than usual.

Something that Nicole apparently noticed as she ordered Jack to get her a drink and then proceeded to introduce her to everyone out there.

She would later learn that Nicole and Dustin had three boys of their own, the youngest one born just the past April, and she knew exactly how she was feeling. But right then all she was truly worried about was trying to memorize as many names and faces as she could so that she wouldn’t end up royally embarrass herself at a later date.




“Oh God,” Ellie complained as she leaned back against the side of the dark SUV, watching as Jack attempted to get all the gifts into the trunk. It was a large vehicle, with a big trunk and it was still a fight to get everything in there. “I think I'm going to burst,” she groaned as she had her hand over her stomach and leaned her head back against the window, the bun she’d pulled her long hair into acting like a make-shift pillow.

“You shouldn’t have eaten all that cake,” Jack smiled amused as he reached up and closed the trunk, brushing his thumb over her cheek before placing a kiss on her lips and pulling the passenger side door open for her.

“But it was cake,” she whined as she climbed into the seat. “And it was good cake,” she all but moaned as he closed the door behind her and shook his head in amusement as he rounded the car, climbing in behind the wheel.

His teammates had told him all about cravings and late-night ice-cream runs when their girlfriends or wives had been pregnant, and he’d been sure that they’d been over exaggerating, but he was quickly learning that they hadn't been. Just the previous night she’d woken him, practically in tears because they were out of peanut butter and she just had to have a peanut butter and ice-cream sandwich…

He was also coming to learn that their baby, boy or girl, was craving sweets above everything else and whilst Ellie had told him she was trying to not give in, sometimes there was nothing she could do about it. And apparently vanilla cake with white frosting and blue and pink decorations was absolutely delicious and much too good to pass over.

All in all, the baby shower had been a success. In the beginning it had been a bit awkward, with Ellie not really knowing anyone, but all of his teammates and their significant others had been welcoming and after a while she’d warmed up to them and didn’t even have to be bribed to participate in the number of games that the girls had lined up for them.

In the end, before they had left she’d even planned a shopping trip with Nicole for a few days after when the team was heading out of town for a bunch of away games.

Never really having been a baby shower before, he’d been slightly surprised by the amounts of presents and as they were driving through the calm neighborhood he was very happy that the car was as large as it was, or they wouldn’t have been able to get even half of the stuff in it. Everything from clothes and baskets filled with everything they might need right after the baby was born, to hockey decorations for the nursery and gift certificates were stuffed in there, and there was a part of him that was surprised, or rather overwhelmed at the amount of things they would apparently need.

After all, a baby is rather tiny…

“What?” he cleared his throat as her voice brought him out of his thoughts, glancing over at her as they had stopped at some traffic lights, waiting to turn down main street and head towards their house.

“Is it wrong that I feel a bit…I don’t know, embarrassed, uncomfortable with the amounts of money they clearly spent on us, on our baby?” she asked softly, her blue eyes meeting his as she gently rubbed her hand over her growing belly. “I mean, I know what these things cost,” she added with a motion of her hands towards all the things that were stuffed into the back of the car.

“You have to remember that we tend to make more money than people with regular jobs does,” he said carefully. “It doesn’t put that big of a dent in our back accounts.”

“Yeah, but…” she trailed off, licking her lips slowly. “I don’t want people I don’t know spending a lot of many on me. Feeling like they have to spend that kind of money on me, no matter how much money they have, or how much money they make.”

“Trust me, they wouldn’t if they didn’t feel like it,” he promised her. “And they know me,” he pointed out with a cheeky smile. “They want to see me happy and you make me happy,” he admitted softly, reaching out and taking her hand in his, lacing their fingers together before brushing his lips against her knuckles. “The prospect of becoming a dad…” he trailed off. “It’s amazing, and I'm beyond excited about this and they know that.”

“Make me cry and I will punch you,” she sniffed from the passenger seat. There was one thing in particular that she absolutely hated about being pregnant, apart from the inevitable weight gain and the aches and pains involved with literally everything, and that was the crazy hormones. She hadn't even been this emotional when she was going through puberty and that was saying something, as of late it seemed like she broke out crying at the slightest of things. Just a couple of days prior, she almost started crying in the middle of the cereal aisle at the grocery store, just cause they didn’t have her preferred brand…

“I’ve heard that one before,” he smiled at her, squeezing her hand slightly. “So since you had so much cake, you're not going to want much for dinner, right?” he asked with a teasing smile as he drove down the freeway.

“Shut up,” she glared at him, he knew that despite all that cake, she was still going to get hungry again in a couple of hours. “I'm growing your baby here,” she stuck her tongue out at him, knowing just how juvenile the move was.

“Want me to throw something on the grill?” he threw out there after rolling his eyes at her, not missing the soft smile that spread across her lips.

His first season out in LA he too had been slightly weirded out by the prospect of barbequing outside in the middle of November, especially without needing to dress for a polar expedition when attempting it.

“Sounds good,” she told him with a smile. It was crazy, she hadn't been there more than a week, and they had already settled into a somewhat comfortable routine. They were so comfortable around each other that…well, it honestly scared her…