He Shoots, She Scores

It’s now January 24th 2013, the Sabres third game of the finally started season and Nate’s first back. As all the guys skate around the ice warming up in Carolina’s rink Carrie and Lacey are in the box seats of the arena waiting for the game to start. Carrie paces back and forth chewing on the edge of her nail chipping away at her blue and gold nail polish.
“Will you sit down! The game hasn’t even started yet, I thought pacing was a shoot out ritual”
Carrie looked at her friend with wide worried eyes “Pacing is now a ‘I can’t handle it if my husband gets hurt again ritual’ okay?”
Lacey stood from her spot and grabbed Carrie by the shoulders “Stop. It. Nate would not have said he was ready to or been cleared to come back if he wasn’t okay Carrie” Carrie shook her head pacing again “Do I need to go down to the locker room and tell Lindy you need to talk to Nate?”
“No, I’m fine” Carrie says running her hand through her hair and watching the Carolina players skate in circles and shoot pucks there was still at least an hour and a half until the game so there was no rush to their movements “Maybe, I don’t know. I’m glad hockey’s back but I don’t know about his back, what if someone hits him again? He’s not going to say he’s scared of that happening, and I’m not going to tell him I’m scared of that happening”
“I’m calling Lindy”
“NO!” Carrie reaches to grab Lacey’s phone and misses as she walks further away from her friend
“Hey Lindy, can Carrie and I come down for a minute? Yeah I know you guys are having a meeting but please it’s mainly for Carrie. I knew you would understand that you’re sure everyone is going to have pants on right cause I don’t want to see anyone in their boxers. Okay thanks Lindy” Lacey hangs up her phone and smiles at Carrie “Let’s go”
“You’re a liar” Lacey looked at Carrie confused
“I can name at least 3 players you would like to see either shirtless or pant less”
“I am engaged!”
“And I’m married, what is your point” Lacey smiles and grabs Carrie’s arm dragging her out of their seats and towards the dressing room.
The two weave their way through the arena and down to the dressing room where Carrie and Lacey see Nate waiting outside, Lacey nods towards Nate and turns to walk the other way
“You’re not going with me?” Carrie asks
“You are a 20 year old married woman who needs to talk to her husband, no I am not going with you, go I’ll be outside the door” With a sigh Carrie walks towards Nate
“What’s wrong Lindy said you needed to see me, I only have one sock taped and my pants are not tied right, if they fall I blame you” Carrie gave Nate and half of a smile and his joking expression changed to concern “Carrie what is wrong? Do you feel sick, did something happen what’s going on?” Carrie shook her head and stepped closer to him hugging him tightly, he wraps his arms gently around her and kisses her temple “Are you going to tell me what’s wrong or not”
“Just don’t get hurt okay?” she whispers
“Carrie, I’m fine. I promise”
“Nate I just, I don’t know you tell me that the doctor tells me that and I hear it but all I see is that hit. Then you’re out for a month and have a concussion and a back injury that no one told me about, no one told me. And then you come back and then the season ends and we’re planning this wedding and everyone tells me you go to the worlds games when you disappear and no one tells me, oh hey by the way he’s not going to the worlds games he’s going for back surgery” Carrie steps out of his arms pacing the hallway “I should have been there for you, regardless of that stupid Derek thing, you had back surgery those don’t always have a happy ending and no one told me! Now you’re saying you’re ready to play again and the doctor cleared you to play again, but no one told me you got hurt why would anyone tell me you aren’t ready to play again?” She stopped pacing and faced him with watery eyes “I cannot take seeing you lying on the ice in pain again” she took a shaky breath and swallowed hard then gave Nate a small smile
“Come here” he says quietly stepping towards her and wrapping her tightly in his arms “I am fine I promise you I would not be out there if I wasn’t ready I promise, and I’m sorry no one told you I was hurt I really am it was stupid but at the time I figured you wouldn’t care and I can’t fix that. I realize now we never talked about this don’t worry okay I’ll be fine I swear”
“Nate you are a hockey player you can’t tell me you are going to go out there and no one is going to hit you”
“No you’re right I can’t”
“Then you can’t tell me that you won’t get hurt again”
“No I can’t do that either”
“How is this supposed to help then?”
“Carrie I don’t know how to help this, I can’t say I won’t get hurt. I can’t say I won’t get slammed into the boards and checked and fall I can’t say that it’s my job to pretty much get tossed around like a bean bag, it happens to everyone”
“That’s not going to make me worry any less; it’s going to make it worse now I’m seeing the whole team on gurneys in the hospital instead of just you” Carrie tightens her grip around his waist and buries her face in his shirt “Don’t play tonight”
“Did you just say what I think you did?” he asks and she nods “Carrie listen to me, I’m fine, I’m playing hockey tonight. After the game you and I and Lacey and the rest of the team are going to get on the plane back to Buffalo. We are going to get home late and probably not going to get much sleep then tomorrow night we are going to play Carolina again at the First Niagara Center. I will be fine” Carrie looks at him about to protest “I will be fine you can get hurt in the stands as much as I can on the ice, think about that the puck still flies over the glass you could get hurt too. Should I worry about you like crazy? No because it’s irrational and you are far from irrational so stop being irrational I will be fine okay”
“Okay” she mumbles
“I love you” he says kissing her softly
“I love you too” she says quietly
“Go on upstairs and relax okay don’t stress yourself out this early in the season” Carrie nods and laughs turning to leave the hallway.
She steps out of the doors to see Lacey leaning against the wall with a bridal book in her hands
“Jeeze I can’t even get you to a hockey game without you trying to plan your wedding”
“Oh shut up, everything okay now?”
“No I’m still worried but not as bad, he helped a lot but I will always freak out”
Lacey nods and they head back up to their seats

With Nate
Nate walks into the dressing room to see all eyes on him and as he makes his way back to his spot next to Tyler Ennis his team mates tease him
“Gerbs, don’t you know you can’t bring them to a game for like the first 3 years of marriage? They like you still at that point” the guys let out a chuckle and Nate shakes his head taking his seat and beginning to wrap his other sock
“Carrie okay?” Tyler asks in a low voice
“I would like to say yes, but no probably not. She was a mess at least when she left I got a smile out of her”
“What’s wrong?”
“All I can say right now is, don’t get injured cause if Lacey is anything like Carrie and I’m assuming she is it’s going to be rough for you”
“She worried about your back?”
“Worried doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface”
“Oh boy”
“Exactly”
With Carrie
As the game starts Lacey drops her wedding magazine back into her purse and Carrie tries her hardest to focus on the game and not Nate. After his first couple of shifts Carrie starts to relax. Realizing everything is okay Carrie sits back in her seat and starts to enjoy the game.
As they come down the ice Carrie notices Steve Ott pass the puck to Nate, it only takes a second before a Carolina player comes from behind boarding Nate. Up in the box seats Carrie pales as Nate crumples to the ice the scene scary similar to last season. Lacey stands up watching the ice more carefully, when he stands again and the whistle blows Lacey turns to see Carrie white knuckling the arm rests
“Carrie! Breathe!” Lacey says and she notices her friend let out the air she was holding.
Lacey turns back to the ice to see Steve Ott face to face with assumingly the player that hit Nate. Nate who had gotten up was not far behind throwing his two cents into the situation which under any other circumstances would have made the girls laugh seeing as each of the other players had at least a foot on him.
The arena is quiet for a moment while things on the ice get sorted out and as Nate continues to throw his tantrum the referee grabs him by the jersey and pushes him into the wall. Carrie’s jaw drops as she stands up and feels Lacey’s hand clamp over her mouth shortly before she screams
“Calm down, you yelling from up here will do nothing they cannot hear you” Carrie takes a deep breath and nods before Lacey unclamps her hand
“Stupid ass referee, he gets boarded not only by a player but by a referee I hope he gets fined. That’s bull” Carrie mumbles sitting back down
“You okay?”
“I’m fine”
“Are you sure?”
“No, this is what I was scared of happening! What if he’s hurt again?”
“He’s still on the bench I’m sure he’s fine he would have gone to the dressing room if he wasn’t”
“He played the rest of the game last time too” Carrie protests and sits back in her seat watching only Nate for the rest of the period and being unable to get back into the game.
As the period ends and the players head back to the dressing room Carrie stares down at the ice watching all the players exit while Lacey starts to flip through her books again. About a minute later Carrie can hear her phone ringing from in her purse.
“Hello?” she says not bother to look at the caller ID
“Baby, I’m fine”
“You promise?”
“I promise, do you want to talk to T-Mack?”
“No I believe you”
“I really am fine I’ll be back out on the ice next period and tomorrow I’m okay”
“Okay, I love you”
“I love you too bye”
Carrie smiles at the phone and then at Lacey “he’s okay, he says he’s okay so he’s okay”
“Alright then. I’m just going to let you process that on your own”

With Nate
Nate hung up his phone and once again all eyes in the locker room were on him as the teasing started once again. There was no joking to Nate’s irritated sigh as he flung his towel down and flopped onto the bench fixing his sock tape. A shadow appears above him and Nate looks up to see John Scott towering over him
“Nathan listen”
“Most of the time I’m just Gerbs”
“Yeah I know but I’m not talking to you like we are on the ice I’m giving you a piece of advice here. The reason why this room is teasing you right now is because we’ve been you, we’ve had that hit that injured us and we’ve seen that look on our wife’s or girlfriend’s face that just shows pure fear. Then you’re out for a few games and she’s scared to sneeze in the same room cause you’re hurt then she babies you when you come back. We’ve all had that moment where she questions if we are ready to come back so much that we start to question it, and all this teasing is trying to do is to get your mind off of what she’s freaking out about. If we can’t get your mind off your injury you’ll never play at full strength again”
Nate nodded “My wife is different though, we kind of hit a bit of a rough patch at the time and she only knew I had a concussion. She didn’t know about my back until after we got married when I lifted something wrong and reinjured it, she’s been a mess since”
“And until you can go out there and play like before the hit she still will be, just remember that”
“Thanks”

With Carrie
With the game brining the Sabres first loss the girls and the team make their way to the plane and head back home. The next day the girls head to the arena early and are sitting in their new box seats with the rest of the wives or girlfriends of the players.
“You look happy” Lacey jokes with Carrie who is slouched down in her seat half asleep
“Don’t even joke right now, I did not sleep last night”
Carrie starts to doze off when she hears the wives talking in hushed tones still heard in the empty arena
“Can you believe they are back together?”
“Oh I know, isn’t it ridiculous he’s playing terribly now because of her”
“And they are getting married what a joke”
Carrie looks at Lacey with a raised eyebrow and Lacey shakes her head turning away from her friend.
“She even tried to get with that other one, good thing his girlfriend decided to show up”
“Who Marcus?”
Carrie pulled on Lacey’s sleeve and she turned to face her, with a smile Carrie uses their one common class sign language to good use signing the word who to Lacey who casually looks over her shoulder and signs back Vanek and Pominville
“Alright that’s it I’m sick of this now” Carrie says standing from her seat and Lacey looks at her wide eyed
“Sick of what Carrie honey?” Jason Pominville’s wife asks sweetly
“Don’t Carrie honey me, do you think I’m deaf? Matter of fact do you think we both are?”
“What do you mean?”
“What do I mean? You know what I mean, who the hell gave you the right to weigh in on anyone’s relationship? You don’t know a thing about Lacey and Tyler and don’t even try to play like that isn’t what you were talking about because I am not stupid. All the two of you have done since they broke up is talk about her like she is not a real person well I hate to break it to you but she is and she has feeling and her relationship is none of your damned business”
“Carrie I think you need to calm down” Thomas Vanek’s wife says trying to maintain a sweet façade
“Do not tell me to calm down you are just as bad as she is and you don’t know shit either. If either one of you knew anything then you would know it was everyone’s favorite Derek who started this mess in the first place. You all praise him like he was God’s gift to hockey or something I mean really how many of you slept with him to get that kind of opinion? Because of Derek Roy my marriage was almost ruined and her relationship fell apart. Hell he had Tyler believe that Jason Pominville would cheat on you with her” Jason’s wife’s eye widened in surprise “Oh you didn’t know that your sweet little Derek was such an asshole huh? Sorry to burst your bubble ladies, wait ladies would have more respect than this you are all children, to talk about someone behind their back while we are both sitting right here!”
“You little tramp!” Jason’s wife yells stepping towards Lacey, Carrie takes a step over shielding her friend
“If you are going to even think about laying a finger on her you are going to have to go through me first, and apparently you don’t know how to listen. She didn’t do a thing wrong, this is on Derek” With a clenched jaw Jason’s wife steps back “Also, just so you know the Marcus situation, see he told Lacey he didn’t have a girlfriend. Then he randomly shows up at my house with one. Get your damn facts straight. Come on Lacey”
Carrie storms out of the box seats with Lacey close behind. They make their way down the stairs and towards the locker room.
“WOMEN ENTERING!” Carrie yells into the room before walking in and all eyes are on her and Lacey “Nate, give me your car keys”
“What did you forget at home?”
“Nothing”
“Then why do you want them”
“So I can go home why do you think I want them?”
“What happened?”
“Yeah really who put your panties in a twist?” Carrie turns to find the voice seeing Jason Pominville with a smug smile on his face
“Trust me, you of all people do not want to go there” His smile falls and he raises and eye brow
“Try me”
“Fine you asked for it, your wife is a bitch”
“Finally someone said it” Carrie looks towards Thomas Vanek and shakes her head
“Yours is no better”
“What is going on?” Nate asks spinning Carrie back to face him
“Apparently its shit on Lacey day and I want to go home! Can you just give me your keys?”
Tyler moves to hug Lacey while Nate digs his keys out. In the silence of the room Carrie hears a chuckle and turns to face to sound finding Marcus Foligno laughing in the corner
“Really? You think this is funny?”
“Yeah I do”
“Oh no” Lacey mumbles
“Marcus, I have to say you are second on my shit list I can’t believe you really think you have the balls to laugh right now. I mean really, you’re a special kind of stupid. You think it’s okay to just begin a relationship or act like you want to begin one and then while still acting like everything is okay between the 2 of you just get back together with your ex. Then in the ballsiest move probably ever you think ‘hey let me take my girlfriend with me to a party, at the house of the girl I’m talking to’s best friend. She totally won’t be there’ I mean really that’s so ballsy its stupid”
“Please the only reason I was talking to her to begin with was because Roysy said she was easy, and in that 2 months I was talking to her she was far from it”
“Hey!” Tyler pipes and Carrie holds up her hand
“Shut up Tyler. Roysy said she was easy? What is this man to you people? Is he like the supreme being of knowing? When have you ever known him to tell the damned truth! Consider for just one moment if you will what kind of man he is, half of Buffalo has probably been in his bed, and you all just take advice from him and take his word as gospel?”
Carrie threw her hands up showing her irritation and shook her head “That man will flirt with anything that moves, and tried to ruin two relationships and yet all I keep hearing from all of you is how much respect you have for him and how you hope he does well, you’re all dumber than you look. I used to respect him as a hockey player I really did but if he never wins a Stanley Cup or gets placed on waivers I’ll be the happiest girl in Buffalo. He made Nate believe I would cheat on him, and as if that wasn’t enough when Tyler doubted his relationship Derek fed the fire. You people look up to that?”
“Roysy wouldn’t do that” Jason says tossing his towel onto the bench in anger
“Really? Because when he fed the fire for Tyler, Derek let him believe Lacey cheated on him with you. Still respect the man? Your own team mate at the time was willing to let your marriage fall apart” When the stunned look crossed his face she let out a sigh “Nate, can I please have your keys now?” she asks turning back to him and seeing 3 pairs of angry eyes looking back at her
“I can’t believe you just did that” Tyler mumbles and Nate hands her the keys shaking his head
“You’re mad at me too, Lace?” Carrie whispers and Lacey ignores her walking out of the dressing room
In a huff Carrie follows Lacey out of the dressing room and then out of the arena
“You had no right to do that Carrie!”
“What no right to defend you? I thought that was the point of being your best friend!”
“You had no right to tell them about what Tyler thought! No right to discuss the Marcus situation! In front of the whole team Carrie!”
“I’m sorry! God I was just sick of everyone talking about you like you aren’t there like you don’t matter, it was about time they heard the truth don’t you think!”
“Well next time you think people need to hear the truth, only spill your business” With that Lacey gets in her car slamming the door
Carrie walks towards Nate’s car and gets in turning the key and driving home way to fast. By the time she gets home there is only one text message from Nate telling her that Tyler will give him a ride home. She slams her phone down in anger and heads up the stairs taking a hot shower to relax herself. In her anger she ignores the pending hockey game and sits down to read a book getting lost in the perfect reality of someone else. By 9:30 she is ready for bed, still angry she leaves a note for Nate on the door saying if he is still mad he can sleep in the guest room. She lies down and falls asleep quickly.

Waking up the next morning Carrie rolls over expecting to see a sleeping Nate, instead she finds a perfectly made half of the bed. With an irritated sigh she gets up and gets ready for the day. Walking down the stairs she hears voices in the kitchen and she turns to see Nate, Tyler, and Lacey sitting around the island
“What is it anger management intervention time?” she asks bitterly sitting down next to Nate
“You didn’t answer my texts last night I got worried” Lacey says and slides Carrie’s phone towards her
“Didn’t think I would be getting any texts so what did it matter”
“Are you really still mad?” Tyler asks popping a grape from the fruit bowl in front of him into his mouth
“I wasn’t then I came downstairs and the only people I cared about being mad at me last night were all sitting in my kitchen, I figured I should be ready”
“Why don’t you look at your text messages” Nate says and Carrie sighs unlocking her phone waiting for her was 18 text messages one was from Nate, one from Tyler and the other 16 from Lacey.
Starting with Nate’s she opens it and reads the small paragraph ‘Hey baby, you’re probably asleep. We lost, I’ll blame my game on the fact that I didn’t say I was sorry or that I loved you before you left and it bothered me the whole game. I’ll be home soon I’m sorry and I love you’ she gives a small smile towards her phone and looks at Nate
“Keep going” he urges and she opens Tyler’s next ‘Hey Carrie, sorry I was so mad, you had every right to go off like that, even if it did embarrass me in front of my team captain’ Carrie looked up at Tyler with wide eyes
“I am so sorry about that, was he ready to kill you?”
“Surprisingly no, thank goodness. Keep reading” he says and Carrie rolls her eyes opening the text folder from Lacey last and scrolling to the top of her messages
‘Hey, I’m sorry’
‘Are you really ignoring me? That’s childish I said sorry’
‘Carrie come on answer me! I’m sorry you were right, do I have to grovel?’
‘Come on I’ll even agree that the score is 4-2 even if it isn’t’
‘Please talk to me’
‘We’ve never fought before I don’t like this answer me’
Carrie made her way though each of the 16 messages and when she was done she quietly set her phone back down. Before looking up at Lacey she hardens her glare and makes eye contact finally with a sad looking Lacey
“For the record” she says quietly “The score is always 4-2” Lacey’s semi-frown is replaced by a smile as she jumps up to hug her friend
“You scared me so bad! Don’t ever, not answer a text message again! I thought you got kidnapped or murdered or something! We don’t fight that is just not us and I didn’t like it, can we please never do it again?”
“If it gets you to let go of me then yes”
“No not letting go for at least another 30 seconds, you put me through hell! I called Nate at 2 am to make sure you were alive”
Carrie laughed and slowly pried Lacey off of her “You are my best friend, my little sister I love you but you seriously need to step like 5-12 inches away I need my personal space”
“And besides” Nate says wrapping an arm around her waist “I haven’t even gotten to kiss her yet I think I’m more important”
“I didn’t even get a ‘hi’ from her yet, I mean granted Carrie and I are not as close but still not even a ‘hi’?”
“Hi Tyler, how are you this morning? Would you like some fruit? Help yourself there’s plenty”
“Listen I got dragged out of bed by Lacey with no breakfast because she had to see for herself that you were alive, be happy all I’ve done is partially emptied your fruit bowl”
“Okay fair enough how about I make everyone breakfast? No Lacey I will not make soup for breakfast don’t even ask”
“Breakfast sounds good but I still haven’t gotten a kiss”
“And maybe you won’t”
“What did I do wrong?”
Carrie shrugs walking away from him and towards the fridge “French toast for everyone?”
“Sounds good” Tyler and Lacey say at the same time
She opens the fridge to grab the milk, eggs and bread and turns to be face to face with Nate trapped between him and the refrigerator
“Hey” he whispers “What’s wrong?”
“Your side of the bed was untouched that’s what’s wrong. You text me an ‘I’m sorry’ but don’t even wake me up to say it, that’s what’s wrong”
He takes the ingredients for breakfast out of her hands setting them on the counter and shooing their friends away. As they exit quietly Nate wraps his arms around her tightly “I’m sorry sweetheart, I figured it was better to just let you cool down” he says quietly and kisses her hair “And not coming to bed, I was just so aggravated with losing again I couldn’t sleep and so I just sat here watching TV and fell asleep, if you haven’t noticed I haven’t changed yet”
“Ew you’re holding me this tightly and you are still in a sweaty hockey suit”
“Yep and I will continue to until I feel like letting go”
“If I kiss you will you go away”
“No, I may go shower but you’ll never get rid of me”
“Good because I don’t want to get rid of you, I want you to get rid of your smell”
“I do not smell”
Carrie laughs and smiles at him “Yes you do but I don’t love you any less because of it” she says giving him a quick kiss “Please add brushing your teeth to your to do list”
“Jeeze, now not only do I stink but so does my breath!”
“I say all this in the most loving way I can”
“Yeah, yeah sure you do” Nate joking rolls his eyes and kisses Carries forehead “I love you”
“I love you too” Nate kisses her slowly and smiles at her “Go shower stinky, and let me cook”
Nate laughs and exits the kitchen jogging up the stairs. After they had breakfast the 4 sat around for a little while and it wasn’t long before they were all bored
“Carrie lets go dress shopping”
“For what?”
“My wedding duh!”
“You haven’t even set a date yet!”
“Yeah we did”
“When”
“December 14th, 2013”
“Lacey it’s January 26th! We are not going dress shopping until at least next month” Lacey sat back on the couch pouting and Carrie let out an irritated sigh “Look at it out there will ya? It’s coming down in drifts I do not want to go dress shopping in this snow!”
“We should have a snow ball fight” Nate says with a devilish gleam in his eye
“We so should” Tyler agrees “Gerbe’s verse Ennis’s”
“Where does Johnson fit?” Lacey asks confused
“With Ennis honey, that’s why you got the ring” Carrie says with a laugh “Do you need gloves Lace? I think I have some extras”
Lacey nodded and followed Carrie out to look for the gloves in a few minutes the four of them plus Cash and Max were outside acting like a bunch of kids instead of acting their age. By the time they went back into the house the snow plows had cleared the roads and Lacey and Tyler decided they should both head home.