If We Ever Meet Again

Cursing her own coworkers for being so careless and leaving half of their needed information packs back at the office, Ellie hurried through the automatic doors in the subway and glanced down at the watch on her arm as she dodged a man with a briefcase and hands-free and absolutely no care for others whatsoever. She was supposed to be on her way home already, yet here she was, on the opposite side of the city…

Sometimes she honestly suspected that her coworkers would lose their heads had they not been permanently attached.

The gloomy skies dampening her already sketchy mood, she walked across the bridge and continued towards the arena where her company was in charge of all the promotion and decking out the whole place in new logos and advertisements for the upcoming event. Without destroying or removing the current setup that would still be in commission once the weekend was over.

Her hands in the pockets of her beige trench coat that was undone and flapping slightly in the chilly October winds, her high heeled boots slammed against the ground as she walked between the high-rise buildings and weaved in and out through the maze of permanent flower arrangement supposed to slow down exiting crowds on their way towards the train station. The familiar arena coming into view, she had a hard time to keep from smiling and shaking her head slightly as she continued forwards, heading straight towards the Annex where she knew that Louise and Adam would undoubtedly be lounging around as they were waiting for her instead of finding something else to do.

She’d been a hard worker all her life, she knew how to have fun and relax, but when she was at work she never lounged around. Especially not when they had just gotten one of the biggest projects in the history of the company, and the three of them had been put in charge of it.

But they were all on the same level, in charge of different things, she didn’t have seniority so she couldn’t exactly yell at them for not doing their job…even if all of them knew that she would do just that the second she saw them…

Pulling out her All-Access pass from the mess that was her bag, she slipped the lanyard over her head and let the laminated disk with her name and photo fall down to hang in front of her stomach. Security was extremely tight at the arena at the moment and where you could usually get in with just a flash of your ID, you now had to have specially made accreditations and lanyards and God knows what to just get through the front doors. They’d all had their backgrounds and criminal records checked before they’d even been considered for getting the pass that allowed them to go anywhere, all the time, during the few days that the events were taking place.

Plastering a somewhat genuine smile across her lips as she walked through the doors to the Annex and had her ID checked, she headed down the familiar corridors of the arena, soon finding herself pushing open the door to the lunch room.

Just like she’d been expecting, she found Louise and Adam lounging around, doing nothing of importance.

Suppressing the urge to roll her eyes at them, she simply walked into the room and over to where they were sitting, dropping the information packs down on the tabletop with a bang, successfully startling them both out of their iPhone induced comas.




- x -

Jogging along the unfamiliar catacombs with a few of his teammates, trying to memorize signs in foreign languages and just how many doors they passed so they could find their way back to the locker room, throwing in some step-over’s and whatnot into his warm-up routine, Jack let out a surprised grunt when Drew punched him in the shoulder.

“You're up in the clouds again,” Drew smirked as he jogged up next to him, all but bumping him into the concrete wall.

“Jet lag,” Jack replied simply, knowing that he was only telling half the truth.

“Liar,” Drew stated frankly. “But jet lag is a bitch and a half,” he agreed nonetheless, he hadn't been able to sleep normally for the past couple of nights and he knew that it was just going to get worse in the next few days, weeks even.

Turning the conversation towards the upcoming game they continued their routines and when Drew turned back around, heading towards their current locker room along with a few of their teammates, Jack stayed behind, making sure that his muscles were loose and his blood had started flowing. He really didn’t want to get an injury this early in the year; anything even something minor would be devastating for him.

Slowly jogging up and down the hall once more, he was stretching the back of his calves when his eyes landed on a woman walking towards him along with a guy he easily recognized as one of the team’s press managers, her hands moving around as she appeared to be explaining something.

Having been passed by people from all over the place, from the guys operating the zambonis to the officials from the league who were overseeing the whole thing, from average fans having a dream day to people organizing the event, he wasn’t all that bothered and simply went about his way as they got closer to him.

But as they came within maybe 10yards of him, he frowned as he realized that he recognized her. The blond hair, the sparkling blue eyes…

“Ellie?” he asked surprised as he caught her eye, his stretching forgotten as he thought he saw panic flash across her features…




- x -

Leaving her co-workers in the lunch room, Ellie made her way around the large arena, checking out the work that had been done since she left the place around noon the precious day, only to run into one of the suits she was working closely with. Ending up waking around the place with him, talking about all the things that would be taking place within the next few days, she froze as they ended up in the underground corridors, her eyes landing on someone she definitely hadn't expected to see there.

“Ellie?”

The familiar, sort of deep raspy voice reaching her, sending strangely familiar tingles up her spine, she made quick work of dismissing the man who was working for one of the teams before she forced herself to tear her eyes away from the man dressed in sweats and trainers and spun around on her heel, heading back down the small hall they’d just come down.

This was not happening to her…

Not now, not ever…

The moment her eyes landed on him, immediately recognizing the name and the logo across his chest, the penny finally dropped and she couldn’t believe just how stupid she’d been.

“Ellie!” he clearly wasn’t unsure about her identity this time…

“Hey,” he smiled as he reached her, a hand on her shoulder causing her to spin around and face the man that had managed to invade her dreams since those two, indescribably amazing nights back in May.

“Jack,” she replied coldly, wanting to be anything but there.

“I thought I’d never see you again,” he smiled widely and against her will she couldn’t tear her gaze away from him.

His hair was slightly longer than when she’d last seen him, but everything else was pretty much the same; the raspy voice, the bump on his nose, the slight stubble along his strong jaw and the plump lips that were built to do dirty deeds….

“Why didn’t you tell me that you actually played for the States?” she questioned simply as she looked at him, shifting slightly under his intense gaze. A gaze that forced her to remember just what had happened those months ago, as if she’d forget. “Why did you let me think that you were some average fan just like me, who was out there on vacation?”

“I don’t…” he trailed off, his previously good mood dropping several notches. He’d known that if they ever saw each other again, this would come up, but it was still unbelievably uncomfortable actually getting the question. “At first I thought you know who I was and then when I realized that you didn’t, I just…it’s nice to talk to people, about hockey or whatever, to just spend time with people who don’t know who I am, who don’t know what I do, who don’t know that I play hockey.”

“Do you know how incredibly stupid I feel now?” she asked seriously. “How incredibly thick it makes me feel? Knowing what I said to you, what we talked about, all whilst you…” she trailed off, shaking her head slightly and reaching up, running her fingers through her long hair that was hanging in loose curls around her shoulders.

“I'm sorry,” he said seriously, taking her in and for the first time realizing that something was different about her, very different.

She was wearing layers, many layers, but not even the open trench coat and the cardigan and the graphic-print tee she was wearing could disguise the way her waistline had expanded since he last saw her.

“Why didn’t you tell me the second night?” she questioned as she looked at him. “Jack?” she frowned slightly as she saw the slightly vacant look across his face.

“Are you…I mean, you're…” he couldn’t form his thought into words.

Realizing what he was on about, what he was looking at, she sighed softly and followed his gaze down to the obvious bump where her previously flat stomach had been. “I'm pregnant,” she confirmed evenly, not really sure what kind of reaction the statement would bring from him.

His eyes flickering up to meet hers, seeing the serious but candid look in the blue orbs, he found that his throat was closing up.

“I wasn’t going to…you don’t need to…” now she was the one who couldn’t form proper sentences. Clearing her throat, looking away from him for a moment, she straightened herself up. “This isn't something you need to worry about,” she stated frankly. “And I have to go,” she mumbled as she looked away from him.

Turning around, she began walking back the same way she’d arrived, only his reflexes were quick and before she really got anywhere he’d wrapped his fingers around her wrist and pulled her to a stop once again.

“Wait,” he looked at her, trying to read her. “Is the baby mine?” he asked softly, his gaze flickering down to the obvious baby bump as he suppressed the sudden urge to reach out and place his hand on it.

“I…” she pressed her lips together as she focused on the small spot on his neck; this was a meeting she’d never expected would take place. It was a question she’d thought would never arise…

Her gaze never wavering from the tiny spot she clearly remembered kissing those months ago, her reply was honest, “Yes.”