The Middle

Bringing Ryan back to Chicago was a lot easier than I anticipated. I thought that he would maybe be in pain, but as soon as we got on the plane, he was fast asleep. When we arrived to NorthWestern, I woke Ryan up. It was a bit of a struggle to get him to agree to go right into treatment, but thankfully, with the help of Pat and Nat, we got him to cooperate.

I tried to stay at the hospital, to be there when Ryan came out of treatment, but Nat told me it was no use.

“He’ll be really tired.”

I nodded. “Yea, I can see that he already is.” I sighed. “So, I guess I’ll just go home, then?”

Pat stepped in, startling me a bit. “You don’t have to go home right now. You can come to dinner with me.”

I raised an eyebrow at him. “You want me to come to dinner with you?”

Pat chuckled. “You sound so surprised. Of course, I do.”

I smiled. He was trying so hard, but at the same time, not pushing me too hard.

“Okay, I’d love tom but I have to go home and change first.”

He smiled and nodded. “Great.”

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Pat’s POV

Claire and I left the hospital and I had an extra skip in my step. I didn’t want to push her, but I wanted to spend as much time with her as I could. When we got into the car, she turned to me.

“Thank you.”

I raised my eyebrow at her. “Thank me? For what?”

She smiled. “Bringing Ryan home. You didn’t have to do what you did.”

I shrugged my shoulders and reached for her hand. I wrapped her hand in mine and gave it a small squeeze. “It was no problem. This is where Ryan wants to be.”

She smiled and held my hand the entire drive back to our apartment.

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Claire’s POV

When Pat and I arrived at the apartment, I felt myself suddenly feel very tired. I tried to hold it in, but I let out a loud yawn as I walked to my room. I walked to my closet, trying to find something to wear to the team dinner when Pat knocked on my door. I turned and saw him leaning on the doorframe.

“You don’t have to go if you’re too tired. We can stay home.”

I gave him a small smile. “You can’t stay home. It’s a team dinner, which means you, as a member of the team, have to be there.”

He shrugged his shoulders. “The guys will understand. I can tell them that I’m really tired. It’s not like it’s a charity event or something. The guys just wanted to get together once we came back into town.”

I wasn’t really feeling up to going up and getting dressed up, but I didn’t want Pat to stay home just because of me. I shook my head. “Well, I think I’m gonna stay home, but you should go.”

He smiled and walked over to me. “I’ll call Tazer right now. After that, I’ll order in some Chinese.”

I looked up at him with a smirk. He knew that I would cave for Chinese. “I’m not going to win this one, am I?”

He shook his head, smiling. “Nope. Besides, now I can give you that dinner I wanted to the night you left.”

My smirk turned into a full-fledged smile as I nodded. “Okay, but you better phone Jon soon, before he starts worrying about his boyfriend.”

Pat chuckled and flipped me the bird. I giggled as I found some pajamas to change into.

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Pat’s POV

I left Claire alone so she could change into some pajamas. I should’ve known that she would be tired, she was yawning for most of the plane ride home. Walking back into the living room, I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket. Tazer picked up on the second ring.

“Please tell me you’re on your way.”

I sighed. “Sorry, man. I don’t think I’m coming out tonight.”

He chuckled. “She’s got you wrapped around your finger, doesn’t she?”

I rolled my eyes. “You know it’s not like that. I invited her to come with me, but forgot about how tired she might be. We’re gonna stay in and grab some Chinese. I’m pretty beat myself.”

Jon kept on chuckling. “Dude, you got it so bad. I’ll see you tomorrow for the morning skate?”

I smirked, ignoring his first comment about how I feel about Claire. “Yea, I’ll be there.”

I hung up the phone from Jon just as Claire came back into the living room. No matter how tired she looked, she still looked beautiful to me. She walked in and sat on the couch. I chuckled as I looked down at her. She looked up at me with a raised eyebrow.

“Something funny, Kane?”

I continued to chuckle as I sat down beside her. I stretched my arm over her shoulders and pulled her closer to me.

“You sure you want me to order in? I’m sure that we have something in the fridge that I could quickly whip up.”

She shrugged my arm off of her shoulder, sat up and looked at me with wide eyes. “You’re not suggesting that you think I’d want your cooking over Chinese, are you?”

I gasped in mock shock. She smirked as she grabbed my phone off the coffee table and handed it to me. “Place the order, Kane.”

I smirked as I took my phone from her. “What’s with the last name stuff all of a sudden?”

She shrugged her shoulders, “I don’t know. I just like it.” She got off the couch and started walking toward the kitchen. I smiled to myself as put my phone to my ear to order our dinner.

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Claire’s POV

I didn’t know why I had begun to call Pat by his last name, but it just kept coming out like that. I didn’t give him a straight answer as to why, but he didn’t seem to mind. I think it was boosting his ego a little bit.

I was in the kitchen pouring myself a glass of milk when Pat came in and stood behind me. He put one hand on my hip and placed his chin on my shoulder.

“The food will be here in about 45 minutes.”

I turned my head and smiled at him. He spun me around and held me in front of him. He had a really serious look on his face. I raised my eyebrow at him.

“What is it, Pat?”

He let a small smile show before asking, “Why?”

My face didn’t change as I answered his question with a question. “Why what?”

He sighed. “You could’ve easily stayed in Pittsburgh. You didn’t. You came back here with me. Why?”

I backed away from me as my jaw dropped. “You seriously want to have this conversation again?”

He shrugged his shoulders. “Well, I don’t know. You’ve been acting off since we got onto the plane coming home and now you’re calling me by my last name. I don’t get it.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I thought we had decided to try this.”

I sighed and walked up to him. “We did agree to that, but Pat, you’ve gotta understand where I’m coming from. My little brother just took a trip that he could’ve waited a few days to take and is in treatment all night long. I want to be there with him, but I can’t. And as much as I don’t want to, a part of me blames you for making us come back to Chicago so early.”

His eyes went wide and he backed away from me. He looked at the floor and I could see his face fall. He whispered to me.

“Well, I’m sorry that I wanted you back here, just in case…”

My eyes went wide and before he could finish his sentence, I walked up to him, and lifted his chin so that his eyes met mine. “Don’t! Please don’t say that. That’s not happening right now, and that is not the reason why we came back to Chicago.”

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Pat’s POV

I couldn’t believe that Claire blamed me for….. wait a minute… I thought before I asked her out loud.

“Wait, what exactly are you blaming me for?”

She sighed. “Oh, I don’t even know, Pat. I just wanted to stay with Ryan and if we hadn’t had come back here, I would still be in his room right now. He wouldn’t be in treatment all night.”

Something clicked into my head. “So you’re saying you’d rather be in Pittsburgh right now?”

She ran her hand through her hair as she walked out of the kitchen. I wanted an answer, and I had a feeling that there was some other reason that she didn’t want to leave Pittsburgh. I followed her back into the living room. “This wouldn’t have anything to do with Jordan, would it?”

Her head snapped back towards me. “Where the hell did that come from?!”

I plopped down on the couch with a sigh. “Well, you keep talking about wishing you didn’t come back here, but you keep walking in circles about the reason why.”

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Claire’s POV

I couldn’t believe that Pat had pulled the Jordan card. I think I made myself perfectly clear back in Pittsburgh as to where I stand with Jordan. I stood in front of him and said in a really quiet voice.

“I’m not having this discussion with you.”

I walked out of the living room and was halfway down the hallway towards my room when Pat turned me around.

“What about dinner? You gotta eat something.”

I shook my head. “I’m not hungry.”

I walked away, leaving Pat in the hallway with a confused, hurt expression on his face. I opened my door, but before I walked in, I gave him one last look.

“I’ll see you in the morning.”