Courageous

I walked into MSG for morning skate before the night’s game against the Pittsburgh Penguins much like every home game. I had grown used to being greeted by random fans on my into the Garden and it was only making my experience here that much better. More people were beginning to recognize me as the season had shifted into the month of November here in the Big Apple, at first it had been difficult to get used because I had never received that kind of attention before. Some of the guys had told me that I was quickly becoming one of the team favorites in the eyes of our fans, both men and women would be outside waiting for a chance to get my autograph, It was quite humbling to know that there were so many people, especially young girl who wanted to be like me. I never knew that I, a small town girl from British Columbia, could inspire people. It was awesome!

Apparently, there were whispers around the league that I had the potential to be the best rookie of the season. That in itself was a surprise considering I am just a 2nd line defenseman. Usually forwards were the ones who win the Calder Memorial trophy, just because they get more attention since they are typically flashier than us defenseman. Right now that didn't matter, not with the Winter Classic against the Flyers just around the corner. That was going to be my primary focus other than winning games and solid play.

The only thing I hadn't expected was to run into Richards talking one of the Pens forwards. From what I knew Brad didn't have any ties to anyone from Pittsburgh. I knew that he had played for both the Lightning and the Stars, but couldn't figure out whom he would know personally. I couldn't even tell whom it was from where I was standing; he had his back to me. So I decided to get their attention,

"HEY, RICHIE! WHO'S YOUR FRIEND?!" I shouted to the centerman at the top of my lungs causing both men to turn around to face me.

Brad rolled is eyes at me, like the older brother he had become to me while the Pens forward I now recognized as James Neal smirked, subtly as I felt his eyes roam over my body. I felt a flush crawl on my cheeks caused by his attention. It was like I hadn't ever gotten checked out by guys from other teams before, but the others had been much more discrete about it.

"Jesus, Mickie, why do you have to be so loud?"

Brad face palmed as I casually made my way over to the boys. I was unable to prevent myself from rolling my eyes back at him. It had become just like us to bicker and throw playful insults at each other. However, my attention quickly fluttered back to James, who was now smiling, adorably at me. Butterflies began dancing in my stomach as I scoffed at Brad,

"Ah, you should be used to it by now, Bradina. Why don't you be a good teammate and introduce me to your friend here? It's kinda rude, don't ya think?"

He glared at me, momentarily before he introduced us,

"James, this is loud mouth is Mickayla Hammer. Mickie, this is James Neal, he used to be my teammate when I played in Dallas."

My mouth made an 'O' shape, as it dawned on me that both forwards had played together in Dallas over a year ago. Of course, I would've forgotten that. When Neal had gotten traded to the Pens, I was still living large in Boston. I was lucky to even pair a face with a name; I was so bad with that. Trust me, I couldn't tell Henrik and Daniel Sedin apart when we played Vancouver, I had to look at the back of their sweaters to have told someone who was who. A goofy smile that graced James' lips brought her back to reality as she found herself studying his bearded face.

"So you're the girl that's made such a huge impact on the league? Everyone's been calling you, 'Hammer time' since you flatten out Alexander Ovechkin and Brooks Laich in Washington last Friday. Not to mention that you fought Scott Hartnell and Claude Giroux the other day."

"Yeah, that's me..." I blushed as my hand moved up to unconsciously rub the stitches that I now adorned above my eyebrow from a high sticking which had led me to fight Hartnell. The tension between us and the Flyers had increased ten fold with things falling into place for HBO start bringing film crews in to set up fro the 24/7 special they would be filming leading up to the Winter Classic in the month of December. I wrinkled my nose at my given name and insisted to him,

"Please, call me Mickie."

"Sure thing, Mickie." James winked which made me chuckle,

"Just don't ware it out."

"Don't worry, I won't." He promised as he ran a hand through his messy hair. I was almost disgusted with myself as I found my own eyes now wandering over his body. At first I had pinned him as someone who wasn't my type because he didn't have a clean cut appearance, but as I looked beyond that I had to admit that he was certainly an attractive man. Maybe it was that dazzling smile of his or the way his crinkled a bit as he did smile. Could it be his handle bar mustache? Or was it just because he taken notice in me. Oh fuck, how had one smile from a stranger turned me into a giddy schoolgirl all over again?

"Well, I'll see you later, Nealer. I think I'm gonna go get ready for morning skate." Brad spoke up as he clasped his former teammate in a friendly hug before walking away, but not without asking from over his shoulder,

"Are you comin', Mickie?" I thought about it for a moment, not really sure if I wanted to go to optional skate today or not. Right now, I certainly wasn't in the right mind to even have my head in the game. Coming to this conclusion, I shook my head,

"Nah, I think I'm gonna take my optional today."

After this I began my retreat back towards the players parking garage, but not without sending a wink to James as I passed by him. Almost to the players exit door, I heard footsteps coming towards me. Smirking to myself, I knew that there could only be one person at the moment that would be following me. I turned around just in time to see the forward in question skid to a halt in front of me. Panting from the sprint he had just taken on.

"Can I help you?"

James held up his hand, still trying to catch his breath, but after a few seconds he was breathing semi-normally again,

"Yeah... You can..."

Umm..... My mind was blank for a response, but like usual my mouth didn't need my brain to reply,

"Well, then how might I be of service to you?"

"Okay, look, I know what I am about to say is extremely bold but-" He rambled on for a few more seconds before he finally came to his point, "I was wondering if there was any possibly way that we might be able to have lunch together..."

Aw! He was blushing like a shy little boy who had gotten caught with his hand in the cookie jar! I had made him blush! Did I really have that kind of effect on him? It couldn't be. His face must be flushed from his sprint to catch up with me. There's no way I could make a guy like that blush, it's just not a possibility. I'm too much of a tomboy to make any guy blush like they were looking at Megan Fox. Deciding to relieve him of whatever was embarrassing him, I decided to keep the mood like.

"Are you tryin' to get in my pants, Mr. Neal?" I, half jokingly, folding my arms over my chest with an eyebrow raised in question.

"Well, I'm always game for a romp between the sheets if you want to." James offered, wagging his eyebrows in a suggestive manner. So he wasn't going to be shy now, eh?

Well, that was a game changer. Maybe we could play a little dirty. It's not like we would get caught. After all, I am a C class celebrity at best and here in New York there were always bigger fish to fry than some little hockey player on a 'lunch date'. And it wasn't like he was Sidney Crosby or Hank. Most people wouldn't even recognize his face unless they were hockey fans. But the probability of us running into some hockey fans was slim to none since the NFL season was still going on. Most New Yorkers would be more concerned with the Giants and the Jets to even give the Rangers a second thought. Keeping up the charade, I pretended to be offended. Pushing him away from me, not even realizing how close we had been until he had been moved. Turning on heel back toward the players parking lot, I noticed at he hadn't made a move to follow me. Tossing him a look from over my shoulder I sent him a smile,

"Are ya comin' or what? If we're gonna go anywhere we might as well take my car." Within seconds his long strides carried him to my side. Shaking my head at him, I led him over to where my Victory Red 2012 Chevy Cruze was parked. Unlocking it, I slid in not waiting for him to follow,

"Sweet little car you've got here." James commented as he slid into the passengers seat, "I bet it get's good gas mileage, eh?"

I nodded after I had put on my aviator sunglasses and turned to him before shifting the car out of park. Just as quickly, I set it back into park as an idea hit me. The confused look he sent me as I pulled out my iPhone was priceless so I snapped a pic of that and then suggested,

"Take a pic with me?"

That million-dollar smile appeared on his face as he leaned across the center console, snuck an arm around my shoulders, and leaned his head into mine. Checking the picture, I had to admit that we looked good together and then turned my phone so that James could see it as well. He smiled a little wider, if that is was even possible at this point,

"Do you mind if I send this to myself?"

I shrugged, indifferently at his request, as I turned on my car. Unfortunately, I had forgotten that I had left my music cranked up as the beginning melody of 'Shippin' Up to Boston' by the Dropkick Murphey’s blasted out the speakers. It had been hard to completely given up my connections with the Bean Town so I gave up knowing that I wouldn't be where I am today without them. Jerking, I reached to turn it down so that the music was subtly in the background.

"Sorry about that," I offered, scratching the back of my head, "I usually have to blast my music before a game... It helps pump me up."

"It's no problem... I think you just busted my ear drum." He complained, teasingly. Which earned him a swat on the shoulder, "Ow! Jeez, that hurt woman!"

"Oh, that did not. Stop being an infant." I chided him as we pulled out onto Broadway,

"So do you have any preferences where we eat?"

"Don't ask me you're the expert here." James informed me.

"Oh yeah because living here for 3 months totally makes me an expert about Manhattan cuisine." I chuckled sarcastically, making me think of how I really hadn't lived here for that long, "Ok, I'll give you two choices. The first is we go back to my apartment for pasta or go to my favorite pizza parlor."

"Whoa, now, I thought you said that you didn't want to get in my pants." He joked, using my words against me. I could tell he was just kidding around and wasn't implying anything by it. It did kinda make me want give my words a second thought.

"I never said that." I managed to say after desperately trying to figure out how to not sound even worse than it was. However, it was beyond repair by this point and my words were only making me sound like a little hussy.

"So you do wanna sleep with me." He pointed out as if it were fact. It could be, but he didn't need to know that now did, eh? I didn't think so. It was just too much fun messing with him.

Shaking my head at him, I noticed that my turn to get to my apartment complex was coming up quickly and decided to set that awkward conversation aside,

"My turn's coming up. So choose now, please."

"Well, as much as I'd love to have lunch at your place I'd feel like we'd be moving too fast in our relationship at this point to do something like that..."

Slamming on the breaks as I hit a red light. A few disgruntled commuters honked their honks at me in displeasure of being forced to also have to step on their breaks to avoid rear-ending me. I glared and snapped,

"What makes you think we are in any kind of relationship at all, Sparky?"

Oh.my.god. I just had given him a nickname? What fuck was this world coming to? I have never given a guy a pet name that didn't have anything to do with their last name until now. Had I just upset the balance? Was the world going to implode now? What had gotten into me today? First, the flirting and now the nickname. What's next? Am I going to kiss him? At the rate, I am going it very might be a possibility. God, I needed to regain control of myself or this might be disastrous for me. I wasn't sure if I really wanted to be in a relationship at this point in my career. Glancing out of the corner of my eye, I noticed James fighting off a smile that had his lips twitching upward. Neither of us said anything to the other until James suddenly asked,

"So what's it like being the only girl in the league?"

Scrunching up my nose, I looked at him as if his question was completely out of line. It wasn't, it was just that it seemed like everyone continually asked me that every time I did an interview. No offense to him or anything, but when were some people going to get a little originality? It is kind of depressing, really. I wasn't going to change my previous statement just because someone new asked me that damn question. Sighing, I ran my hand through my hair and answered it, out of the politeness in my heart,

"To be honest, it's fuckin' tough. Sometimes I don't wanna get out of bed to go to practice 'cause I hurt so bad I wanna cry. It seems like everybody checks me harder than anyone else in the league because I'm an easy target. It's hard when the medical staff isn't quite sure how to treat me because I'm a girl. No one stops to think that I have been playing hockey since I could walk, checking guys before I could run. I have more of a guy's mentality and it doesn't bother me to be treated like one."

I could, practically, hear the pity in his voice when he spoke next. I hate pity. I don't deserve pity. I made my choice to play hockey and it was my job to deal with the adversities that the NHL threw at me.

"Man, I'm sorry. If you want I can tell my guys to give you a break-" His offer was sweet, but I immediately shut him down.

"Fuck, no! Do you have any idea what that would do to my reputation? I'm supposed to be the biggest badass in the league! Not some spineless whimp, who needs to be babied by other teams!" I snarled at him, raw anger and frustration flashed burning hot in my minds eye. I would've continued but I decided against it, "You know what? No, forget it, you wouldn't understand."

James reached over to touch my shoulder, enticing a shudder out of me, which I tried to suppress. I shrugged him off, trying to ignore how his touch was so relaxing. I didn't need to be relaxed at the moment. I wanted to be mad, but I couldn't be mad at him for some stupid reason. My frustration eased, when he looked me in the eyes. His eyes were so gentle and they held a childlike sparkle in them that immediately calmed my ire.

"Try me." He dared, "I know a thing or two about what it's like to be the new guy."

Taking my mind of the man sitting next to me, as focused on parallel parking right in front of
Carlos's Pizza. Thanking God, that I have a small car otherwise I never would've made it. I was still getting used to all the parallel parking that came with living in a big city like this. Sure, I had lived in Vancouver for about two years but that was nothing compared to this bustling hub. Turning off the car, I cautiously got out walking around the front of the car to wait on the sidewalk for Neal, who scrambled to get out of my car. Laughing when he hit his head on the ceiling as he tried to get out. I guess, big guys aren't made for little cars after all.

"You hungry?" I chucked, reaching out to straighten his rumpled navy pens sweatshirt, before leading him by the hand into the restaurant with a small tug.

"Starving." He admitted with a smile, squeezing my hand once we were in line to order our pizza. I hadn't realized that I was still holding onto him after we had gotten inside so I pulled my hand out of his, shoved it into my jacket pocket, and looked up at the menu to avoid his gaze. I was trying so hard to fight the warmth that was spreading on my cheeks; maybe I could blame it on the frigid air outside.

My mind told me that I should be more concerned about what his interior motives might be, but I felt that there was no validity for my paranoia. But my heart is telling me to take a chance. I find myself unable to resist the magnetic pull that was between us, I inched closer and leaned against him, feigning fatigue. A smile found its way onto my lips as James, in turn stealthily, wrapped an arm around my shoulders. A simple gesture of affection or comfort to some that was a rare treat for me. Not many had admitted to having any romantic feelings towards me and even fewer were anything like the man, who was standing next to me. My heart sped up, at the thought that if I didn't screw anything up that this man could be mine.

*GENERAL POV*

Sidney Crosby was perplexed, he had when to go hang out with Duper and Neal after morning skate but Neal was no where to be found. He had searched all over the team's private section of the hotel they were staying at for their game against the Rangers in the evening, but there were no sign of the winger in any of his usual spots. When he asked the older forward if had any idea where Neal had disappeared to all Pascal did was shrug.

"Well, this is odd. It's not like him to miss a meal." Paul Martin agreed from a seat on the other side of the round table that they were seated at as they enjoyed their lunch. After this most of the guys would return to their rooms for a pregame nap. A select few would gather for a brief round of video games before they, too, would take a siesta.

"Hey, I just got a hit on Nealer." Brooks Orpik declared as he walked into the dining room with Geno, waving his phone in the air, "Rupper just texted me saying that he got kidnaped by their hockey goddess."

Pascal's brow creased with worry as he frowned at this new information. It didn't surprise him that she had captured him. He hoped the kid was keeping his wits about him. Lord, knew that girl would destroy him if given the chance. Not that he knew much about the girl beyond what the NHL Network claimed.

* MICKAYLA'S POV*

Once we had order, we moved to sit at a table for two in a quiet corner of the restaurant, laughing up a storm.

"You know you're a pretty cool chick, Mickayla." James admitted, his face flushed from laughing,

"So how old are you again?"

"Me? I'm 22. Why?" I questioned, giving him an odd look as I took a sip of her Long Island Ice Tea.

James merely shrugged and then stated before taking a sip of his water,

"Well, I was just curious why you didn't break into the League sooner is all."

I chuckled at his curiosity and then went to e plain why I had chosen the career path I did,

"Look, this might seem weird, but after I won a memorial cup with the Vancouver Giants I was offered a full ride scholarship to play hockey for Boston College. At the time I thought it was a great opportunity to go the U.S. and get a quality education while I was at it."

"So you're a Catholic?" James asked, stating the obvious.

"Duh!" I giggled, accidentally brushing my foot along his leg when I saw that our pizza was coming.

"Look at that! Fresh out of the oven!" I exclaimed, taking a piece of the mushroom and cheese pizza and placing on my plate as steam rolled off the disk.

"This is why I come here." I giggled.

James licked his lips as I wrapped a strand of the warm stringy cheese around my finger before slipping it into my mouth. I almost groaned in delight. God, I really loved pizza.

"You're beautiful."

James suddenly blurted out before he knew what he was saying. Blushing, he dared not look up at me. It was sweet of him. So instead, he chose to become more interested in the pizza.

"James, I don't know what to say-" My words were cut off by a chuckle as I caught sight of a strand of cheese hanging off his beard. Taking his face in my hands, I picked off the dairy product off his face, and slipped in between his lips.

"Silly boy, you don't have to be shy with me."

What the fuck is wrong with me?! Where the hell was this coming from?

James blushed even more at my words before I spoke again,

"Seriously, James, you're the fist person who's ever told me that I was beautiful outside of my family...."

"Nah, I'm just the first one to speak their mind." He admitted, as he reached across the table to grasp my hand in his once more,

"Ya know, I'd love to get to know you better."

A very bold statement.

One that took a lot of guts.

I was honestly surprised at his boldness that I had to put his statement on replay in my mind to make sure that I heard him, correctly. I couldn’t remember a time when a guy had been interested in me as more than a friend. Those words were almost foreign to my ears and I couldn’t believe that they were coming from someone like James.

James' eyes watched for my reaction and for a while he unable to read my expression. He was probably worried that he had offended me in some way but couldn't put a finger on how. Scratching the back of his, he sighed, "I'm sorry I shouldn't have said that. It's just-"

I cut him off, blushing, "No, I'm sorry, I was just so surprised. I'd like to get to know you, too."

James cocked an eyebrow, a quirky smile grew on his lips, "Yeah?"

I found myself smiling back at him because his smile was just so infectious. It was like all he had to do was smile and he had me wrapped around his finger. But I had made me sick to my stomach with all the sappiness that was running a muck in my brain and I hated all of it. But I couldn’t stop myself either.

"Awesome.... So can I get your number?" James asked in a hopeful manner. I pondered his request for a moment or two but then decided to tease him a little,

"Nah, you'll just have to wait until we win tonight."

"What?! Come on! Totally not fair!" He whined in frustration, only seconds after did he process the rest of my words,

"Who says you guys are gonna win tonight?!"

"I do."

I challenged him with that I laid my money on the table and walked out of the restaurant.

*GENERAL POV*

James was torn as he look between the remaining two slices of pizza and the most interesting girl he'd ever met. The inner conflict was quickly resolved as he, too, laid a wade of cash on the table not bothering to count it, then grabbed a one more slice for the road and went to chase Mickie down.