The Fear Is Paralyzing

Quinn walked into Noah and Claire’s apartment, a pink bag in her hand. “Please tell me you did not bring her more stuff!” Claire’s voice rang out as she walked into the living room. “Quinn! She has so much stuff already! You’ve got to quit buying her stuff!”
 
Quinn chuckled, but shrugged her off. “She’s my niece, of course I’m going to spoil her. I’m going to get her all of the things that you and Noah refuse to buy her,” she said jokingly. Riley came running into the room, hearing the sound of her aunt’s voice. She saw the bag in Quinn’s hands, and her eyes got wide and she got a big grin on her face.
 
“Aunt Quinn! Is that for me?” she asked excitedly, pointing to the bag.

Quinn couldn’t help but smile at the small girl, who was happiest at the smallest of things. “It sure is! You want to open it?” she asked, and Riley nodded her head. “Here you go,” she said, holding the bag out so Riley could take it from her.
 
She watched as Riley threw the tissue paper that was inside the bag on the floor and got to the gift inside as quickly as she could. “Mommy!” she said excitedly, pulling the gift out of the bag, showing it off to her mother. “Look! It’s Belle!” she said proudly, holding the Disney princess doll out for Claire to see. “My favorite!”
 
“What do you say, Riley?” Claire asked. She had been trying to instill good manners in Riley, so she was going to make sure Riley said her proper thank you’s.
 
“Thanks Aunt Quinn!” she said, running over to her and hugging her side. Quinn reached down and hugged Riley back before grabbing the doll out of her hands.
 
Riley looked at her, wondering why she had taken the toy away from her, but her silent question was quickly answered. “Let me open it for you,” Quinn smiled, using her nails to open the package for her.
 
Claire was picking up her things, having to head into work for a couple of hours, the reason that Quinn had come over in the first place. “Thanks for watching her, Quinn,” Claire said, slinging her bag over her shoulder. “I’ll be back as soon as I can!” she promised before leaning down to her daughter. “Bye, Riley,” she said, giving her a quick kiss.
 
“Bye, Mommy!” Riley told her as Claire made her way to the door. Her daughter had lost complete interest in her already, as Quinn had gotten the package open and was handing her her new doll. “Quinn, you want to play with me?” she asked as Claire shut the door behind her.
 
“Of course!” Quinn smiled at her.
 
“You can be Cinderella!” Riley exclaimed, running back to her room to grab her Cinderella doll for Quinn. She came running back seconds later, handing the doll to Quinn.
 
“Thank you, dear,” Quinn told her as she sat down in the middle of the living room on the floor with Riley, getting ready to play dolls with her.
 
An hour and a half later, Riley was still being entertained with the dolls, though Quinn had gotten up to make her dinner since Riley had begun saying that she was hungry. While she was in the kitchen, she checked her phone to see if she had any missed calls or texts. She seemed to get at least a couple of calls every day about something about the team. Usually it was something that didn’t need a response, and Quinn wondered why they didn’t just email her or something, but it was obviously how things were done with the team. Though, now that she was the new owner, she wondered if she could request that people just emailed her with that kind of stuff. She wasn’t a big fan of talking on the phone, and she hated when she had messages on her phone. Anything to eliminate or at the very least decrease the number she received would make her happier.
 
She saw she only had one voice mail and two texts. She listened to the voice mail first, wanting the little symbol at the top of her phone to disappear. Once again, it was a message that could have been sufficient as an email, and she deleted the voice mail. Next, she went to check her texts. The first one was from Claire, telling her that the people she was supposed to meet to talk about getting her artwork in a show were running behind, but that she was almost finished and she should be home within the hour. Quinn quickly texted back that that would be okay, and that she and Riley were having a good time together.
 
The other text was from Kris. He would text her occasionally, so she wasn’t exactly surprised that she had one from him. She opened it up to see what he had said. Flyers game is on in a half an hour. Want to come over and get another lesson?
 
Quinn smiled to herself, happy to see that he was the one initiating the lessons. She quickly typed in an answer. Can’t right now. I’m babysitting my niece. I could stop by afterwards though. Maybe an hour or so?
 
She set her phone on the countertop as she put the spaghetti noodles into the boiling water and began preparing the sauce. She heard her phone buzz, and she glanced at it, reading Kris’s response. Sounds good. I’ll see you then
 
She continued making dinner as Riley came into the kitchen, asking when it would be ready. “Soon, sweetie,” Quinn told her. “Why don’t you sit down at the table, and I’ll get you something to drink. What do you want? Juice? Milk? Water?” she gave her the choices as she grabbed one of her spill-proof cups out of the cabinet.
 
“Apple juice!” Riley told her, and Quinn nodded her head, getting the juice out of the refrigerator and filling her cup. She had just set the cup in front of Riley and had gone back into the kitchen to see if dinner was ready when she heard the front door open.
 
“I’m sorry I’m late!” Claire’s voice rang out, as she walked inside, giving Riley a kiss on the head before walking into the kitchen, following the scent trail of the spaghetti. “Quinn! You didn’t have to make dinner!” she told her.
 
Quinn turned around, smiling at her. “I know,” she told her. “But, Riley was hungry, and you were going to be late, and I knew Noah would be home soon anyways, and he’s probably not going to feel like cooking, so I thought I’d do it for you guys,” she explained, grabbing plates out of the cabinet to go set the table.
 
“Well, thank you. You’re really a lifesaver,” Claire told her, snatching the plates from her hands. If Quinn had gone through all the trouble of making dinner, then the least Claire could do was set the table. “Hey Quinn, you forgot a plate!” Claire called out, realizing she had just handed her three plates instead of four.
 
“No, I’m not going to stay for dinner,” Quinn said from the kitchen, taking the food off of the stove and transferring it to a big bowl. She looked in the oven to see the garlic bread was finished, and she pulled it out, turning around to grab a knife from the drawer to cut it.
 
“What do you mean you’re not staying?” Claire asked, coming into the kitchen once again. “You just made all this food!”

“Yeah, but I’ve got other plans,” Quinn told her, trying to keep the smile off of her face.
 
She didn’t do such a good job, though, as Claire caught her, calling her out. “Quinn! What kind of plans do you have tonight? Do they involve a boyyyy?” she sang, causing Quinn to blush. She wasn’t sure why she was turning red, all she was doing was going over to Kris’s place to watch a game and get a hockey lesson, but the way Claire was treating her right now, she felt like a teenager being grilled by her mother.
 
“I’m going over to Kris’s,” Quinn admitted. “To get another lesson.”
 
Claire smiled at her. “That’s so cute!”
 
Quinn rolled her eyes. “There’s nothing cute about it! I’m an idiot when it comes to hockey, and he’s just helping me out.”
 
“Whatever you say,” Claire told her, obviously not believing her. “But, I’m just going to say this one thing. If it’s turning into something more, I say go for it.”
 
Quinn opened her mouth to try to convince her that there was nothing more to it, but when the front door opened once again, she quickly shut her mouth, not needing Noah to know about any of this. While she knew Noah wouldn’t be against anything she was doing with Kris, she didn’t need to get into the details right now.
 
Noah said hello to his daughter before walking into the kitchen to see the two women standing in there. “Hey Quinn,” he smiled at her before giving his wife a quick kiss hello. “You here for dinner?”
 
“No,” Quinn shook her head.
 
“No, she just made it, but she isn’t staying to eat it,” Claire spoke at the same time.
 
“What?” Noah asked, looking over at Quinn, confused.
 
“I’ve got to get going, but you guys have a good dinner. You’ll have to tell me how it tastes,” she smiled, not giving Noah any more information as to why she wasn’t staying that evening.
 
“If it tastes anything like it smells, then it’ll be delicious,” Noah assured her.
 
“Well, I’ll see you guys later,” Quinn said, saying goodbye to those two before heading back out into the dining room to see Riley drawing on some paper. “I’ll see you later, Riley,” she told the young girl. “I had a fun time today!”
 
“Thanks Aunt Quinn,” Riley smiled, getting up out of her chair and giving Quinn a hug. “Bye,” she added as Quinn left the house.
 
***
 
Quinn sat on Kris’s couch, getting to his place just after the second period had begun. It was currently a commercial, and Kris looked over at her. “So, you were babysitting your niece. I didn’t know you had a niece,” he noted. He really didn’t know a lot about his personal life, though he shouldn’t be surprised about that with how Mitchell had been.
 
“Yeah,” Quinn smiled, thinking about Riley. “Just one. Her name is Riley, she’s three. She’s my brother, Noah’s little girl,” she explained.
 
“You have just one brother?”
 
Quinn shook her head. “No, two. Both are older, Noah and Dean,” she explained.
 
“You get along with them pretty well?” Kris asked.
 
“Noah I do,” Quinn told him. “He’s treated me like his sister from the beginning,” she said, and it took Kris a minute to realize that Noah was actually her step-brother, so they hadn’t known each other their whole lives. It was taking him a while to get used to the fact that Mitchell had abandoned Quinn and her mother when Quinn was younger. He had been introduced to Quinn as Mitchell’s daughter, so that was what he had originally known her as. Now, he was learning that she was far from Mitchell’s daughter. In fact, she didn’t really consider him a part of her family whatsoever.
 
“And Dean?”

“Dean…hasn’t,” she said simply, as she turned her attention back to the television. Kris assumed she didn’t want to talk about it, and he was about to make a comment on the hockey game when she turned back around to look at him. “Dean and I don’t always get along. Actually, we hardly ever get along. He’s very much about himself and I’m…” she trailed off, not really sure how to finish the sentence.
 
“Not?” Kris filled in for her.
 
“Well, at least not as much as he is,” Quinn chuckled. “He’s not really supportive of me owning this team. He thinks I should give it to him. He doesn’t think I can do this, that I can’t be an owner. Well, actually no one really thinks I can be an owner,” she said, thinking of her mother and Garrett, both of whom had told her to hand the team over to Dean.
 
“I think you can,” Kris spoke up, and Quinn looked over at him, seeing that he was being sincere with his words.
 
“Thank you,” she told him.
 
“What about your parents?” Kris asked, knowing he needed to turn the attention back to her and try to move past what he had just said to her. “Do you get along with them? I mean, your mom?” he corrected, suddenly realized what he had said.
 
“My mom remarried a couple years after she split with Mitch,” she explained. “She’s still with Garrett, obviously, since Noah and Dean are still in my life,” she said with a small laugh. “My mom and I get along for the most part. She doesn’t always have the most faith in me, but that’s how all moms are, right?” she asked. Kris wanted to correct her and tell her that not all moms were like that. His mom definitely wasn’t. She had always been supportive of Kris and everything he did, especially hockey. But, he didn’t interrupt Quinn, liking that she was opening up to him, particularly about her personal life. “And Garrett’s been a great dad to me. He took me in immediately, and he’s always treated me like Noah and Dean.”

Kris smiled at her, happy that she had someone in her life that treated her better than Mitchell had. While he had never had a problem with the man when he was the owner of the team, since he had begun listening to Quinn talk about him and what kind of man she thought he was, he had since changed his perception of Mitchell. “Good,” he said.
 
“So tell me about your life,” Quinn said, turning the tables on him. She listened as he told her about growing up in Canada and his best friend who he had lost a few years back. She didn’t really know what to say to him besides that she was sorry about his loss. She continued to listen as he described how he had made it to the NHL and on the Penguins.
 
“And, that’s about it,” he wrapped up, a smile on his face. He glanced at the television, seeing the hockey game was long over, and now a black screen was being shown. “I think we missed the game,” he chuckled.
 
Quinn turned her attention to the television as well.” I guess we did, sorry!” she apologized.
 
“Just means you’ll have to come over for another lesson,” he smirked, causing Quinn to smile at him.
 
“I think that can be arranged.”