If We Ever Meet Again

Walking along the large concourse inside of the Ericson Globe Arena, a laminated accreditation hanging from around her neck, Ellie was talking to one of her coworkers over the phone and passing a few early arrivers who were already lingering about, she couldn’t help but smile slightly. During the years she’d visited the arena more than a few times for concerts, hockey games and even the EMA’s one year, so she could definitely identify with their excitement for the game that evening.

Working at a well-renowned promotion and management company in the nation’s capital, she often found herself backstage at a lot of different events; anything from international swim meets to concerts, high profile hockey games to international conferences. And nodding a greeting at one of the PR-executives for the NHL who was heading in the opposite direction, she knew that she was very lucky to get the opportunity to work that particular event and to get to go behind the scenes when three NHL teams rolled into town.

Ending the call with a promise to check the contract as soon as she could, she locked the screen on the iPhone and pushed the device into the back pocket of her dark wash jeans, pulling a keycard from a small pocket of her pencil gray, fitted blazer. Swiping it and entering her personal code, she pulled open the red-painted door marked ‘Private’ in white block letters and disappeared into the block off part of the arena.

Glancing at the watch around her arm, she cursed under her breath as she made another turn in the seemingly endless maze of corridors and sped up slightly on her way back towards the offices. It was still at least two hours till puck drop, and you’d think that any sort of promotion for the event should have been over and done with, but oh no…

Running her manicured fingers through her blonde hair, she smiled at her co-workers as she entered the room and immediately reached for a thick purple folder marked ANA v NY. The preparations for the two games had been a work-in-progress for months and from experience she knew that – strangely enough – the work wouldn’t be done when the games ended.

From the moment she started working at the company, she’d loved her job. She wasn’t a morning person at all, but she still loved getting up every morning, knowing that she was going to be facing a day filled with challenges and assignments that would test her knowledge about a very wide range of things and subjects.

Taking a seat in the ergonomic chair behind the desk as Louise walked out of the office, mumbling something about press-passes and VIP suites; she could only roll her eyes as she opened the folder.

She took her work seriously; she never liked mixing her personal life with her work even if she sometimes pulled a few strings here and there to get her friends in on the benefits of having an all-access pass to all kinds of different events. Louise was pretty much the polar opposite; using her work to try and climb the social ladder. Every group has one, the one person who is always looking to get higher up on the social totem pole.

And Louise was that exact person. Her latest thing was to try and see if she could possibly find someone, anyone who could get her away from her job as a market manager and into the world of journalism, or if things went really well, could give her the opening she needed to quit working altogether.

Louise was – and as far as Ellie knew, had always been – the kind of girl who wanted to grown up and become a stay-at-home mom, cookies at the ready when her horde of kids came home from school. It was a strange dream where she came from, where most moms worked at least as much as the dads and kids attended daycare from the age of two or earlier and it was honestly something that Ellie had never dreamt of.

She was a career-girl; she wanted a successful career, she wanted to make something of herself. Children and possibly marriage had always been a part of the plan, but it had never been the biggest part. She didn’t want to spend years and years at home once she had a baby, maternity leave of course, but not longer…

Shifting slightly in the seat as the reality of her current situation made itself known in the form of heartburn, she continued reading the papers as she placed her hand flat against her growing belly, rubbing gentle circles over it as she silently willed the baby to calm down. She loved feeling them move, letting her know that they were in there, but…just till after the two games were wrapped up she wanted them to calm down so she could do her job.

Noticing the time, she suppressed a curse before grabbing another folder – a black plastic one – from the cluttered table and heading out of the office. Not surprising, Louise hadn't yet returned from whatever she was doing to collect the information sheets for the number of different news papers and broadcasting companies who were scattered around the large arena.

Her shoes weren't exactly made for running around the entire arena, that wasn’t even what she was supposed to do, but she was – at least partly – responsible for making sure that the whole game, everything around it, went off without a hitch. And if that meant that she was going to have to do her colleagues job whilst she was off running around searching for some sugar daddy, then so be it.

Having encountered North American media many times before, she made sure to pay them a visit before riding the elevator down to ice level where the Swedish channel would be broadcasting from. Sharing a few words and a couple of laughs with the guys from the hockey channel as the arena was filling up and the two teams emerged out on the ice for warm-ups, she opted to linger around, catch a few minutes of it before going back to work.

The hockey fan in her wanted to be in the stands, dressed in a jersey with a beer in one hand – but considering that she was pregnant it would have been a soda of some sort – and focus completely on the game that was going to take place. Not running around behind the scenes, handing out papers and making sure that nothing went wrong…

In the midst of turning around and heading back in the same direction she’d come from, her blue eyes caught sight of a familiar blonde and a smile spread across her lips as she immediately changed her heading. Making her way along the boards to the opposite side of the arena, to the side of the ice where the penalty boxes and the control booth were located, she wrapped the shorter blonde in a close hug. “You made it,” she smiled at her longtime friend.

“Of course I did,” Tessa smiled up at her friend whose height was embellished by the shoes she was wearing. “I promised I’d be here,” she reminded her. “So how’s it going?” she asked as the lights were turned on and the two teams were introduced, skating out on the ice for warm-ups.

“Really well actually,” Ellie told her truthfully. “Which makes me a little worried,” she admitted with a slight laugh, “usually at least something goes wrong during an event like this.”

“Positive thinking,” Tessa reminded her as she looked out over the ice where the LA Kings in their black uniforms were skating around, occasionally catching a puck before firing it off in the direction of the net. “So who should I be cheering for?” she asked after a moment, glancing over at her friend.

“The Kings are the home team, but I’d say that the Rangers are going to have home field advantage,” Ellie replied simply, not having to look around to know that a very large percentile of the crowd would be wearing Rangers jerseys. It wasn’t that they were the preferred team in Sweden; it was just that the country’s star goalie was playing for the New York team. It had been the exact same thing when the Red Wings and the Blues had visited the country two years prior, the former team definitely had the crowd behind them.

Though glancing around, she could definitely see that the Kings weren't completely without fans in the stands; they were just very outnumbered….

“Kings it is then,” Tessa stated simply, pulling her from her thoughts. “I like an underdog,” she elaborated as she caught the look Ellie sent her.

“I didn’t say that the Rangers were the better team,” Ellie smiled slightly as she glanced at the watch wrapped loosely around her arm. She still had a few more minutes to spare.

“I'm still going for the Kings,” Tessa decided. “They got a cooler name,” she noted, causing her friend to let out a laugh as the arena host’s voice came through the speakers, beginning to introduce the players whose pictures were being shown on the large jumbotron in the middle of the spherical arena.

“Isn't that…?” Tessa began asking as she looked up at the TV-screens as ‘her’ team were being presented, only to glance back at her friend for a second before looking back to make sure that her eyes weren't deceiving her.

“Don’t,” Ellie replied evenly, not looking up at the presentation she’d seen about ten times since that morning, her eyes trained on the ice where the forwards were taking shots at one of the goalies and several of the defenders were stretching just a few feet away from where they were standing.

As if he could feel her looking, one of them turned and she couldn’t help but return the smile as familiar blue eyes met hers, a soft blush spreading across her cheeks.

“You got some explaining to do,” Tessa told her frankly as she caught the exchange.

“It’s…it’s…” Ellie really didn’t know where to begin. In all honestly she didn’t quite understand it herself.

“I'm going to take it that ‘All-American Jack’ wasn’t just some regular American tourist, who just happened to be staying at our hotel in Kosice,” Tessa arched one of her eyebrows pointedly.

“No,” Ellie shook her head slightly. “No, he wasn’t.”

“Have you talked to him?” Tessa asked, altering between looking at her friend and following a certain Kings defender around the ice before them. “Does he know about…?” she trailed off, her gaze flickering down to her friend’s obvious, but very cute, baby bump.

“I ran into him yesterday,” Ellie admitted, knowing that she should probably have shared that particular tidbit of information with her friends, but…sometimes it was just better to keep your mouth shut and work through it on your own before you told them. It could end up saving you a lot of explanations and unnecessary drama.

“You weren't supposed to be working yesterday,” Tessa noted, having talked to her blonde friend just the previous morning.

“True,” Ellie nodded once, “but Louise and Adam aren't exactly what you call reliable,” she knew that she was preaching to the choir. “They forgot a lot of stuff back at the office and I had to come out here and deliver it to them.”

“You're pregnant,” Tessa pointed out frankly. She – as a lot of their other friends – was worried that Ellie wasn’t slowing down enough to accommodate the fact that she was actually growing a person.

They were all worried that she was going to work herself into the ground one of these days and harm herself or the baby, but she constantly insisted that she wasn’t doing anything her doctor had told her she couldn’t do. Besides, she was feeling just fine and the baby was doing excellent. She’d take it slower when she needed to, that just wasn’t right now…

“I'm pregnant, not incapacitated,” Ellie rolled her eyes with a smile, “I can still take the tube across Stockholm,” she knew exactly what was flying through her friend’s head right them.

She easily recognized the slight worry line across the shorter woman’s forehead and she’d heard the lectures about a thousand times already, but she’d talked to her doctor and as long as she wasn’t feeling dizzy, unusually tired or fatigued or any other kind of distress, she could continue doing what she had been doing. As long as she took care of herself she could live her life like normal. And she did take care of herself; she’d even given up coffee for crying out loud!

“Anyway, we crossed paths in one of the hallways downstairs and we talked, he practically figured it out himself and then I had coffee with him, down by the water.”

“And you just failed to mention this when you talked to Maggie?” Tessa called her out.

“Yeah, or something,” Ellie knew it was better to just be honest; beating around the bush wouldn’t get them anywhere.

“Huh,” Tessa commented with a slight, knowing, nod as she crossed her arms over the laminated pass that gave her access to the floor around the ice as well as a couple of the underground corridors, a small smile across her lips. “He’s not too bad to look at,” she commented after a moment of silence between them, knowing that she was riling her friend up.

Their very different taste in guys had been a constant source of bickering between the three girls ever since they reached their early teens. Maggie and she had pretty much the same taste in men – tall, dark and handsome – whilst Ellie…well, they hadn't yet managed to pinpoint what her exact preferences were, but they were vastly different from theirs. And they were never ever the same…

“Obviously,” Ellie replied dryly, that joke wasn’t even funny when they started it. “Considering I decided to have sex with him and all…”

“What are you going to do now?” Tessa asked carefully, eyeing her friend from the corner of her eye.

“I don’t know,” Ellie admitted softly. “He wanted me to fly back to LA with him,” she half-smiled causing her friend to choke on nothing but air before turning towards her, completely ignoring the warm-up that was still taking place out on the ice.

“Are you crazy?!” Tessa hissed under her breath.

“I didn’t say I was going,” Ellie reminded her. “I pointed out that whilst it might be ‘the right thing to do’, I wasn’t going to do it,” she averted her gaze back out on the ice for the last part, knowing that her friend could read her like a book whenever she was flat out lying.

“But…” Tessa pressed, knowing that it was more to the story than her friend was telling.

“It’s…” Ellie hesitated, was she ready to talk about something she herself didn’t yet understand?

“You really like him,” Tessa noted softly, her voice almost drowned out by the noise in the arena.

“…maybe,” Ellie reluctantly admitted. “It’s crazy, this isn't…it isn't a fairytale, you're not supposed to feel like you’ve known someone your whole life when you’ve spent exactly two nights and one afternoon with them.”

“Life isn't always logical, it doesn’t always have to make sense,” Tessa smiled softly.

She’d always been the one with the dreams of a large family and a house in the country with animals and at least one dog. Maggie was the one who wanted one devastatingly good-looking husband, one or two children who played the piano and learned to play golf before they reached their teens and a luxury pad in the middle of the city, if she was to have any kind of animal it would be a small enough dog that could be carried if needed be.

And Ellie…once again she’d been the odd one out. A part of her wanted to travel the world, possibly settle down somewhere else and have a super successful career, and the other part wanted the whole nine yard; the white picket fence in the suburbs, 2.4 children, a husband who loved her unconditionally, an SUV and possibly even a dog…

“But I'm rational,” Ellie pointed out.

“You don’t have to be,” Tessa pointed out as the Rangers left the ice and most of the Kings players did the same. “Any chance of you pointing me in the direction of my seat?” she asked, knowing that her friend wasn’t going to be sharing anything more right then.

“Walk along the board till you see the only opening in the stands and show your pass to the guards, seat number is on the back,” Ellie told her with a slight smile before lingering as the shorter blonde thanked her and went on her way.

Watching the remaining Kings players also start to make their way off the ice, one of the goalies the only one left, she licked her lips before heading in the same direction they going. A slight bounce in her step, her accreditation bouncing against her belly as her heels narrowly avoided getting stuck in the felt carpets that were rolled out over what was usually covered by the Olympic sized ice, she tried to not second guess what she was doing.




- x -

Arriving with the rest of the team at the somewhat familiar arena that was shaped like a giant white golf ball, Jack went through the motions like it was just any other game day. The only difference was that when he was warming up in the plain gray corridors, his mind wandered away from the upcoming game and towards the blonde woman he knew was somewhere in the same building in that very moment.

Staying at the small café by the water for a number of hours the previous afternoon, talking about the baby and pretty much anything else that might have come up, he had reluctantly announced that he had to get back to the hotel if he was going to make it to the obligatory team dinner that evening. They’d been having a great time and there really was a part of him that wanted to skip dinner and just spend more time with her, but he took his job, his career, seriously and he knew that if he didn’t make the dinner he could forget playing the following evening so he reluctantly let her lead the way back to the hotel he was staying at.

Though as they were walking along the unfamiliar sidewalks, he had wondered if she would be watching the game, to which she’d replied that it was kind of in her job description. He’d been thinking more along the lines of as a fan, in the stands, possibly even wearing his jersey…but he kept his mouth shut and nodded slightly. He’d take what he could get at this point.

Besides, he barely knew what her work entailed anyway…

After a pregame soccer game in the garage with some of the guys on the team, Jack found himself wandering the halls, stretching his muscles like he usually did before heading back into the locker room and quickly putting on his pads and skates like he usually did. Not a big fan of superstitions, he actually avoided them, he didn’t have a certain way to do things, unlike several of his teammates, not to mention friends…

Following his fellow teammates out on the ice in the arena that seemed a lot less intimidating when there were actually people in the stands, he skated along the length of the ice to the side that would be their zone for two periods, he followed the carefully constructed warm-up skate that they all – assuming they were healthy and playing – participated in 82 or more times every year.

Going through the motions that were almost second nature to him by now, he joked around with Doughts like had always did, shot a few pucks at Bernie and avoided Kopi like it was a job, the latter one very cranky forward if someone dared to mess with his routine before a game.

From the corner of his eyes catching something blonde by the side of the ice as he was stretching next to Alex Martinez, he couldn’t help but to look over, a smile spreading across his lips as he immediately recognized the woman.

Breaking the gaze after a moment he got to his feet and joined the others in a shooting drill before they all slowly left the ice to head back to the locker rooms for a final pregame talk and other last minute things prior to the game that would officially kick off their season.

Walking along the corridors that were lined with rubber mats; he glanced back over his shoulder as he heard someone walking after him, the sound of their shoes against the concrete floors echoing softly against the bare walls. The tall blonde causing him to stop midstride and turn around, he watched as she walked up to him, a soft smile across her pink lips.

“Hey,” he greeted her as she reached him and understandably didn’t get closer to him than maybe two feet.

“Hi,” she replied, the look across her face telling him that she was silently debating something. “I shouldn’t be down here right now,” she mumbled under her breath. “This isn't the time for this, but you leave as soon as the game ends and you're heading straight to the airport and I have to work tomorrow and…” she rambled before catching herself and clearing her throat embarrassed as she saw the amused spark in his blue eyes. “I’ll shut up now.”

Not knowing what to say, he simply looked at her, taking in the way her white v-neck showed off her bump as well as a cleavage he was pretty sure was quite a lot more prominent now than when he’d last seen it… Averting his gaze he made a mental note to question her about the decision to wear heels that high when she was pregnant at a later date.

“I'm a rational person, I don’t do things on a whim and I definitely don’t have one-night-stands with people I don’t know,” she blushed slightly. “It’s not who I am, my friends always tease me for being the responsible one, unable to do things spontaneously and…I don’t do things like this,” she shrugged as she furrowed her brows together. “What I'm trying to say is…its crazy, but I feel like I’ve known you for….years and not for a couple of days. And it’s not something I know how to deal with.”

“So just go with it,” he suggested simply, finding it very funny that she found whatever was between them that complicated.

“But that’s not who I am,” she pointed out frankly. “I overanalyze things and I fret and then, after days, weeks, or even months of thinking about, twisting it and turning it, then maybe I do something.”

“Go with it,” he ordered her with a smile, a smile that grew as she glared at him.

“I don’t want to promise things I can’t keep,” she began softly. “But if you want me to, I’ll try to visit you out in LA, just maybe before the baby is born, but definitely after.”

“I’ll take what I can get,” he said honestly.

It was strange, but he wanted her out there yesterday, he’d been thinking about her a lot, wondering how things could have been if they’d met somewhere else, at some other time and…and knowing that she was pregnant with his child… He wanted her around.

He didn’t believe in love at first sight and all that girly fairytale crap, but at the same time, he shouldn’t feel like he’d known her for years when he really hadn't and he shouldn’t feel like…like he could possibly love her after just spending two nights, albeit two very amazing nights, together.

“So are you a Kings fan?” he asked, nodding towards the black and purple lanyard that hung around her neck, holding her accreditation and hiding most of the gold circle hooped necklace she was wearing.

“Could be,” she smiled cheekily, “but it’s actually event-issued,” she admitted. “Tomorrow night I’ll be an Anaheim ‘fan’.”

“That’s no joking matter,” he mock-reprimanded her, a smile still playing across his lips.

“I know, trust me, I know,” she told him, looking up at him as he towered over her in his skates. “Give me your hand,” she said suddenly, surprising him with the unexpected change of subject.

“What?” he frowned, in the back of his mind knowing that he probably needed to get back into the locker room.

“Go with it,” she mocked him. “Give me your hand,” she instructed him once again.

Removing his glove from his right hand he tucked it beneath his right arm and held out his hand, looking at her skeptically. Her much more delicate hand taking his, she took a step closer to him and placed their joint hands flat on her belly just to the left of her belly button. Frowning slightly at her, she silently urged him to wait a second and humoring her, his eyes grew as he realized what she was doing.

“They like the sound of hockey games,” she shrugged slightly, a soft smile across her lips as she looked at him. “And soccer games,” she added as an afterthought.

“That’s amazing,” he said softly. He could vaguely remember feeling his younger brother kick when his mother had been pregnant but this…this was something else….

“I have to get going,” she licked her lips after a moment. “Work and stuff and you probably need to get in there,” she nodded towards the closed door with a large crown on it.

“Will you watch the game?” he needed to know.

“As much of it as I can,” she said honestly. Dropping his hand, she leaned closer and brushed her lips against his slightly parted ones before lingering a second and then turning on her heel, heading down the corridor in the opposite direction of their locker room.

“Yo, JJ!” Brownie appeared out in the hallway. “Why are you still out here?” he questioned. “Who was that?”

“Just…someone…her name’s Ellie,” Jack replied as he walked over to where his team captain was standing. Seeing the skeptical look across the older man’s face, he sighed slightly. “We met during the…before the summer, during the world championships.”

“And…” Brownie urged him, having clearly recognized the look across his teammate’s face the second he walked out through the door.

“She’s pregnant,” Jack smiled slightly, realizing that it was the first person he told. “I'm becoming a dad.”

“Congrats man,” Brownie broke out in a wide grin, reaching out and pulling his friend into a congratulatory hug, patting his back as he did.

“Thanks,” Jack smiled slightly, realizing that the news had already sunk in and he was truly looking forwards to it.

“I'm happy for you and all, but we got a game in less than twenty,” Brownie pointed out, nodding towards the door before they both walked into the locker room and Jack consciously avoided the disapproving look the Coach sent him.

He knew that they had the eyes of the league on them because it was the Premiere games and sitting down in his stall, he forced himself to focus his undivided attention on the pregame talk the coaches were in the middle of. They had a game to get ready for.




- x -

Unable to keep her attention on her work, organizing things for the game the next evening, Ellie left her things in the office and walked through the arena that was getting more and more familiar with each time she worked there and reached the players entrance just as the second period started.

Chatting with a few people here and there, she soon found herself walking along the length of the ice, checking that all the officials in the control booth had everything they needed, before stepping up on the raised floor at the Kings side of the ice where a number of chairs were placed. A few of them were occupied by relative of the Swedish players, in a couple of others the bus drivers of the players busses were sitting and sharing a few words with one of the security guards who were wandering around, checking that everything was alright, she took one of the few empty seats, crossing her legs as she focused her attention on the ice.

Leaning back in the red, uncomfortable chair, she found herself drawn into the game, even if the second period was mostly just back and forth between the two teams.

However, in the third period the Rangers had picked themselves up and taking the lead, it looked as if they were going to win it. But with five minutes left, Mike Richards scored his first goal as a King, equalizing the score.

The game going into overtime, she honestly wondered if she should leave. Only in her 24th week of pregnancy, there was the ever-present risk of going into preterm labor and that was something she wanted to avoid at all cost. And overtime, 4-on-4 hockey was probably not the way to do that…

Especially as she was a rather big hockey fan and liked to get swept up in the excitement, the agony, the anticipation… Licking her lips as she glanced up at the scoreboard, she watched as the seconds ticked by and when there was less than a minute left of overtime, a minority of the arena got a reason to really cheer.

And a wide smile spread across her lips as she watched the hug-fest in the opposite end of the ice. The LA Kings had ended the game 4.08 into overtime, and Jack Johnson was the one with the power play goal off a pass from Mike Richards.

Standing up from her seat and walking the length of the ice as she began the trek back to her office, a soft smile was playing across her lips. When the final goal horn sounded, the baby had kicked harder than ever before and the sentimental part of her believed they knew just who had scored the game winner.