Sweet Disposition

Claire took a deep breath before finally urging herself out of her car. She had been parked in front of the Flyers Skate Zone for a little over 15 minutes just staring at the building in front of her. It wasn’t that she was scared about starting a new job nor was it of her new boss with whom she had only met in a few phone conversations. She felt nervous, excited, hoping to make a good impression on the organization that had been so keen on hiring her. These nerves were the reason that she had shown up to work a half hour before she officially started.

18 days had passed since her break up with Henry and she had made quick work of finding an apartment in Philly. After 2 weeks she managed to find and buy a place in Center City, pack up her things and pay the last of her lease on her Manhattan apartment before throwing everything into her car and the trailer she rented for the furniture she wanted to bring down with her to Pennsylvania.

Her new apartment wasn’t anything spectacular, but it was nice and suited her needs with two bedrooms, a bathroom, small laundry closet, and a living room and open kitchen divided by a breakfast bar. The last 4 days had been spent unpacking and getting her new home in livable shape. There were still boxes here and there around the apartment that had yet to be unpacked but she was ready, excited for a fresh start in her hometown.

When she had called to accept the job offer with the Flyers Organization, Jim McCrossin, the head trainer, was more than excited to take her on and hire her officially. She had several more conversations with both him and Paul Holmgren to discuss pay, contracts, and the like. Since it was the offseason when she had initially been offered the job they decided to wait it out and bring her in for preseason as opposed to training camp. Had she been called to begin during training camp she would’ve had to stay in a hotel, having no time to find a place to live and move down, not to mention she would’ve come down about halfway through the program.

Now, here she was, walking into the Skate Zone to meet her new boss. She went from a fairly successful physical therapy practice to the training staff of an NHL team, namely her favourite team. She was a Philly girl born and raised before her parents relocated for her father’s job.

A rush of cool air greeted her as she walked into the building, bringing a smile to her face and relieving her warm body from the rather notorious summer heat and humidity. She relished in the feeling of the cold of the ice rink and the air conditioning, hating the uncomfortably hot weather that lurked outside. She was always one for the winter season, loving the cold weather. Her Canadian blood keeping her warm along with the time she had spent and lived in Québec to visit family and go to school when they moved there for her dad's work.

She adjusted the strap of her satchel, hoisting it higher on her shoulder as she made her way into the rink area where she was met by the sight of the team running drills on the ice. She scanned the empty stands, hoping to find someone who could point her in the right direction to her new boss’ office. She sighed, failing to find anyone moving about the rink, her eyes landing on the familiar figure standing nearest to the bench observing the players, occasionally calling out corrections and input.

Biting her lip she cautiously made her way over to the stern-looking man who she knew to be the head coach, “Excuse me?” He turned to face her with an unreadable expression, clearly not too happy about someone interrupting his focus on the practice, especially when it was closed to the public. “I’m so sorry for interrupting, but my name is Claire Dubois, I was just hired to the training staff.” She kept her tone even, trying her best to hide her nerves and sound as confident and professional as possible while maintaining the most sincere apologetic overtone.

His eyes lit up in recognition, demeanour changing in a flash as he extended a hand in greeting, “Right, Peter Laviolette. Welcome to the staff.” She accepted his gesture, giving him a firm handshake, “Thanks. I really look forward to working with you, sir.” He offered a small smile, “Please, call me Coach or Lavy, sir’s too formal around here.”

She smiled brightly in return, gladly acquiescing his request, in turn asking him to call her Claire. “I’m so sorry for interrupting practice, but I’m meeting with Mr. McCrossin today and I have no idea where his office is. Could you tell me how to get there?”

The men on the ice continued on with their current drill as their coach’s attention was drawn away. Several of them found themselves shooting curious glances at the attractive young woman speaking with Laviolette.

“Who’s that talking to Coach?” Claude Giroux asked the few teammates who stood by him as they waited their turn to charge the net, “Any of you seen her before?” They shook their heads, only half paying attention to the drill at hand. “I don’t know who she is,” piped up Mike Richards, who eyed the girl with interest, “but she’s hot. I wouldn’t mind-“

“Richards!” The group of them jumped slightly at the stern voice of their coach, who had rejoined them on the ice without their noticing. “You wanna do laps?” The captain looked up at him startled, his cocky demeanour vanishing in the blink of an eye, “No sir.”

The guys around him fought to suppress amused smiles, snickering quietly as their coach called him out. “Good to hear. Why are you standing around then? I never said this drill was over.” With a mumbled apology, Richards took the puck and sped off down the ice, only to have his shot blocked by Boucher.

Claude found himself staring at the spot the brunette had been standing in only moments ago as she talked to his coach. She had apparently left the vicinity in the moments between Mike making an ass of himself and Laviolette appearing at their side. He quickly snapped out of it when Danny gave him a little nudge to signal him that he was up. He reacted quickly, taking the puck down the ice and sinking it in on the net before Lavy could give him an earful like he had the captain.



Claire followed Laviolette’s directions, soon finding herself standing outside her new boss’ office. She stood there a moment, trying to calm the nerves that had been steadily rising as she had navigated her way through the Skate Zone. Taking a deep breath she knocked. A muffled “Come in” emanated from the other side, cuing her to tentatively open the door and enter the room. She looked over to find an older man seated at his desk looking through what she made out to be a supply catalogue.

The walls were covered in hockey paraphernalia ranging from pictures to memorabilia to books (medical and personal, from what she could tell). His gaze swiftly moved up from the catalogue to meet hers.

“Hi, Mr. McCrossin,” she started, the phrase posing as both a greeting and a question. “Oh, you must be Claire,” he smiled, rising from his seat, extending his hand. She smiled at his enthusiasm, gladly accepting his hand and gave it a firm shake. “It’s great to finally meet you face-to-face. Alan’s told me a lot about you.” She smiled brightly, “It’s a pleasure to meet you too, sir. All good things I hope?”

“Nothing but the best things, I swear,” he smiled, making her feel more at ease with his very welcoming attitude, “By the way, it’s Jim, none of this ‘sir’ shit. If we’re going to be working together we’re on first name basis.” She grinned, nodding in agreement. He reminded her so much of Alan, forward and to the point. She knew then and there that she was going to love working with him.

“I have a few papers for you to sign,” Jim said, quickly making his way back behind his desk and pulling out a small stack of legal documents and whatnot from one of the drawers before gesturing for her to sit in the chair across from him, “Then when we’re done, I’ll take you around the facility and show you the ropes. How’s that sound, kid?” She sat down with a smile, “Sounds great Jim.” He nodded, pushing the paperwork in front of her and handing her a pen so she could fill it out.

It didn’t take too long to scan the contracts, agreements, and policies and sign where she needed. The moment she was done, Jim quickly rounded up the paperwork and hustled her out of his office and began to show her around. They walked through the maze of corridors so she could get an idea of the building’s layout.

“So, I’m assuming you met Peter?” he asked as they circled around the rink area towards the locker room and trainer’s room. “Yeah, he seemed very nice. He told me how to find your office,” she replied, following the head trainer, eagerly taking in the layout of the Skate Zone so she wouldn’t get lost. “He’s a good guy,” he said respectfully, “You’ll get to know him and the rest of the coaching staff better as we work with them.”

She only nodded in response as they walked into the deserted locker room. The team was still practicing on the ice. She examined the stalls quickly as her eyes swept over the details of the room, trying to commit as much to memory as quickly as she could. “There may be some occasions when a player gets injured during a game that they will be treated in here. More often then not if it’s a bad injury, they’ll be taken to the trainer’s room, which is in here,” he said leading her into a nice sized, fairly standard trainer’s room, “Superficial wounds and quick fixes are usually just cleaned and treated in the box,” he said, watching her carefully to make sure she was keeping up with everything that had been thrown at her in such a short time.

He usually didn’t expect new staff members to get it during their first introduction and she was no exception. However, Alan had told him that she picked up on new information rather quickly and once she got the hang of it she almost never forgot. He had asked her several times along the way if she had any questions but each time she replied that she had none. Her confidence in her memory tempted Jim to quiz her on everything as opposed to his usual approach of holding off and letting it digest.

“Got it,” she replied quickly, her eagerness to learn amplified in her voice. He familiarized her with her new kit that would reside in the room until her job really came into full swing.

“Lavy and I were thinking we’d introduce you to the boys tomorrow so we don’t overwhelm you too much on the first day. They can be a bit of a handful, but they’re a good bunch of guys overall,” he said once they had finished the tour, “Then I’ll take you around the Wachovia Center on their day off to give you a better idea of the layout and pregame routines, sound good?”

She could feel the excitement flowing through her veins at the prospect of meeting the team, “Sounds great! I’m looking forward to meeting them.” He smiled, leading her out of the trainer’s room and going back over the same route they had taken through the tour of the building, passing through the locker room and weight room once again as they made their way back to the rink.

“You’re free for the day, kid, I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said as they approached the staff and player entrance to the building that she would be using from now on. “Alright, I’ll see you at 9. Thanks again for the opportunity, Jim,” she said, turning to face him with a sincere smile gracing her lips. “Welcome to the family, Claire, we’re glad to have you.” He placed a firm hand on her shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze before saying goodbye once again and making his way back to his office.

Her cheeks were sore from the wide grin that had almost painfully spread itself on her face from the excitement of her new job. She pushed open the door and walked around the building to find her car. She was officially working her dream job for her favourite team’s organization with more than decent steady pay. It was safe to say that moving back to her hometown was definitely a plus.

Tomorrow she would run through everything she had learned today with Jim before he would introduce her to the team. She found herself to be a little nervous, having a feeling that they were probably going to give her a relatively hard time. In fact, she expected them to. She was a young woman working in a man’s world. Several of the guys on the team were notorious for partying and womanizing. Nonetheless, she was excited to meet the rather large group of men that she would be working with for what she hoped would be the rest of her career. She was ready for a fresh start. Little did she know that she would have that and much more than she could have ever imagined.