For All I Know

The boys played hard and won against the rival Red Wings. I made my way to the locker room, but waited outside the doors. I hadn’t been to the locker room since I came with Ryan.

“Claire?” I looked up to see the smiling face of Patrick Sharp.

“Hey Patrick.”

“You here for Kaner?” I nodded. “Well, do you want to go in? Everyone’s decent.”

I shook my head. “No, it’s okay. I’d rather wait out here.”

“Claire!” I felt a pair of arms engulf me in a side hug. I recognized the voice right away.

“Hi Jon.” He grabbed my hand and pulled me into the locker room. I looked back towards Sharp, who just smirked at me with a slight wave.

“Kaner, how dare you make your lady wait out in the hall.”

Pat looked over to Jon and I with his eyebrow raised.

“I never told her she had to wait out there. I thought she would come in.” He walked towards me and wrapped an arm around my waist. “Why were you waiting out there?” He whispered in my ear. I shrugged my shoulders.

“I don’t know, really.” He raised his eyebrow at me with a smirk, knowing there was more to the story.

“Okay, well I’m almost ready to go.” He walked back over to his locker. He looked over his shoulder towards Jon. “So Tazer, what time tonight?”

“Uh, I think we’re meeting at my place at 10, then we’ll take cabs.” Jon looked over at me. “You coming along, Claire?”

I shrugged my shoulders. “Where are we going?”

“To celebrate at Sharkey’s.” I closed my eyes, then shot my gaze towards Pat. He gave me a knowing look, knowing what happened the last time Pat and I were at Sharkey’s. Pat’s mouth curled into a small smile, and I decided to shrug off what happened in the past.

“Yeah, count me in. Not too late, though. I do have to work in the morning.”

Jon nodded with a smile and left the locker room. I looked around and I had noticed that everyone else had left, leaving Pat and I alone.

“You don’t have to go if you don’t want you, you know.”

I nodded. “I know, but I need a night out. I’ve been doing a whole lot of nothing besides working and sitting at home with you since ..well, you know.”

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “You know, we can talk about that night. I mean, if that hadn’t happened, who’s to say we’d be where we are right now.”

I sat down in the stall beside where he stood. “I know, it’s just strange. I mean, we didn’t talk for so long. But one night of drunken sex just shifts everything into high gear. It’s crazy and a little overwhelming at times.”

“What do you mean, overwhelming?” He sat down beside me.

“I mean, like just 2 months ago, I wasn’t speaking to you. I was doing everything I could to avoid you. You didn’t know where I lived and you had finally stopped asking Nat about me.” I began to fidget my cell phone in my hands. “But then I saw you at the cemetery. I listened to you talk to Ryan and it took everything in me to hold myself back and not run up to you.”

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Pat’s POV

I looked over at Claire, and saw her on the verge of breaking down. I thought about the words she had just spoken and then my eyes went wide.

“Wait, you saw me at the cemetery?” She nodded. “How much did you hear?”

“I heard you say that you were sorry that you broke your promise and that you never meant to hurt me.”

I moved my gaze to the floor. “Was that all you heard?”

I heard her sigh. “I heard you say that….” She paused. I looked up at her, and tears were brimming in her eyes. “I heard you say that you still love me.”

I reached out and grabbed one of hands in mine. I gave it a light squeeze and she moved her gaze to look up from her hands to look up at me.

“I do still love you, Claire. A part of me always will. But, I know that there is still some bridges to burn before we go back to the way we were before I screwed everything up.”

She wiped her eyes and smiled at me. “Why are you so understanding? You’re supposed to be the dumb blonde, party boy.”

I smirked. “I met a girl who brought out the best in me.”

I leaned in and placed a soft kiss on her lips.

“Well, if we’re going to change before we go to Jon’s, we better leave now.”

I stood up and laced my fingers in Claire’s. We left the arena hand in hand.

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Claire’s POV

We arrived at Sharkey’s and Pat pulled me straight up to the VIP area. When we finally stopped, I raised an eyebrow at him.

“What’s with the rush, superstar?”

He wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me closer to him.

“I just want you to myself, is that such a problem?”

I smiled and shook my head. “Not at all.”

He leaned in and captured my lips in a soft kiss. Pulling away, he placed his forehead on mine.

“You want a drink?”

I nodded my head. “Yeah, I’ll go get my own. I wanna dance.”

He smirked at me. “Okay, let’s go.”

I raised my eyebrow at him. “Wait, you’re gonna dance….sober?”

He shrugged his shoulders. “What? You think I’m going to let other guys rub their hands all over you? I don’t think so.”

I rolled my eyes and grabbed his hand. We walked downstairs, through a crowd of people and made our way to the bar. We ordered our drinks and carried them out to the dance floor. I had a martini, while Pat had a beer. We walked over to where Jon was standing with some girl he had found when we got to the club. Pat and Jon were whispering to each other, but their conversation didn’t last long, as I pulled Pat towards the middle of the dance floor as “Wild Ones” by Flo Rida came on. As I sipped on my martini, I felt Pat pull me closer to him. I heard cat calls and looking around, I saw they came from some of Pat’s teammates. I could feel my cheeks begin to flush. I put my head down and Pat must’ve noticed my embarrassment. He whispered in my ear. “Let’s move.”

I silently agreed and he guided me through the crowd of people. We found ourselves in a somewhat secluded corner of the dance floor. Rather than having my back to him, I turned to face him. I placed my drink on the ledge behind his head and wrapped my arms around his neck. I looked into his eyes and saw that he opened his mouth to say something, but I didn’t give him the chance as I closed the gap between us and pressed my lips to his. I felt his hand grab hold on my hip. He reached his other arm around to pull me closer, but I quickly jumped back in shock. He raised an eyebrow at me.

“What’s wrong?”

I looked at his hand and grabbed his beer bottle out of his hand. I put it beside my drink and leaned into him again.

“That fuckin’ thing is cold.” I whispered. I saw him smirk before I placed my lips on his again. Before it got too heated, Pat pulled away.

“I don’t think this is the best place to this.” He whispered as he placed his forehead on mine. I let out an aggravated sigh. He let out a small chuckle. “Let’s get out of here. You gotta work in the morning, anyway.”

I sighed. “But we just got here.”

“I know, but I don’t think we’d be doing a whole lot of dancing if we stayed here and I don’t think this is time or the place.”

He was right, I just didn’t want to admit it. I grabbed my drink and quickly sipped it back. As soon as we finished our drinks, we walked up to the VIP area. Pat walked over to Dan and Sharpy, to tell them that we were leaving. They both looked over at me and winked. I rolled my eyes at them as Pat made his way over to me.

“Okay, you ready?”

To be honest, I didn’t want to leave, but at the same time, I didn’t really want to dance. I don’t know what was going through me, but all I wanted to do was wrap myself around Pat. Nevertheless, I nodded.

“Yeah, I’m ready.”

He smiled and placed a hand on my lower back. As he guided me out of the club, he whispered in my ear. “You going home or coming back to my place?”

Oh, so nowhe’s on the same track as me. I thought. “Uh, I think I should head home. I do have to work in,” I pulled out my phone to see the time. “7 hours.”

He shrugged his shoulders. “Well, I was just going to suggest that we sleep, and my place is closer to the hospital.”

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Pat’s POV

I hoped that Claire didn’t think I wanted to take her back to my place just to have sex with her. Sure, I had been thinking about it, but I was thinking about what was best. She had to work early in the morning and my building was closer to the hospital than hers. I looked down at her as we waited for the cab. She looked to be deep in thought.

“Claire, I’m not saying we have to…do anything. I was just suggesting what I thought would work out best for you to let you get the most amount of sleep before work.”

She looked up at me and smiled. “Okay, fine. I’ll do this your way. Your place it is, but nay funny business Kane, and you can say goodbye to your manhood.”

I gulped loudly and she smirked at me. I placed a soft kiss on her temple as we saw our cab finally pull up. We walked up to the cab and slid onto the seat. I gave the driver my address and leaned back in the seat, my arm wrapped around Claire’s shoulders. I looked down at her and saw that her eyes were beginning to flutter closed. I began to slowly run my arm up and down her arm. She looked up at me with a sleepy smile and snuggled closer into my side.

“Wake me up when we get to your place.” She whispered as I saw her eyes fully close. She clearly was more tired than she thought. She did work before the game, so it was to be expected.

When the cab pulled up to my building, I gently shook Claire awake. I saw her stir and she wrapped her arms around me. I lightly chuckled and whispered in her ear.

“Claire, we’re here. Wake up.”

Her eyes fluttered open and she looked up at me with a small, sleepy smile.

“We’re here?”

I nodded. She unwrapped her arms from around me, which allowed me to open the door and step out. I reached out my hand for her to grab. She gently placed her hand in mine, and I pulled her out of the car. I pulled her to her feet then stepped towards the front window. I leaned in and paid the cab driver. When I turned back towards Claire, I noticed she was gone. I looked around to see if I could find her. She was being pulled away by some guy, who had a hand over her mouth. Hence why I never heard her scream.

“Hey!” I yelled at the douchebag. “Let go of her!”

He laughed at me. “Oh, don’t tell me ‘Party Boy’ Patty actually cares for a girl? Please, don’t make me laugh. Ha ha.”

I clenched my fists and wanted nothing more than to punch this guy. I knew better than that, though. So I just tried to talk to him as he began to pull Claire into the alleyway beside my building.

“I do care about her, actually. She’s my girlfriend.” My eyes flashed to Claire’s. I knew that we never made it official or anything, but surely this would show her how much I care for her. The guy’s eyes grew wide and he looked down at Claire.

“That true, sweetheart?” Claire quickly nodded her head. She didn’t know what else to do. I could see tears brimming in her eyes. A million of thoughts were running through my head.

I couldn’t really see the man who was holding Claire’s facial expression, but I had a feeling this wasn’t going to end well.

“Look, I’ll give you anything you want. Just let her go, please.”

The man chuckled. “Anything? What if I told you I wanted one night with your sweetie, here?”

I clenched my fists, but tried to keep my cool. I looked into Claire’s eyes, and could see she was silently pleading for help. I didn’t know what to do that wouldn’t land me in some kind of trouble, or put Claire in more danger.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Claire’s POV

Standing in front of Pat, trapped by this random creep that held me close to him with a hand over my mouth, I stared at Pat. I saw that he was conflicted, not knowing what to do. A part of me was angry that he hadn’t really done a whole lot other than stand there. However, another part of me knew that he couldn’t do much that wouldn’t put his career in jeopardy, or my life in more peril. Finally a thought came to my mind. Since I didn’t notice a weapon or anything, I kicked my leg back and my heel met where the sun didn’t shine. He loosened his grip on me and I tried to run towards Pat. Pat stepped closer and stretched his arms out, attempting to grab me. I felt my fingers graze Pat’s arm before being pulled back.

“That wasn’t very nice.” I looked over at Pat, my eyes quickly dashing to his pocket. He had his cell phone in there. Thankfully, even in the dark, he picked up on it.

“Look,” Pat told the creep. “I don’t want to have to take it this far, but if you don’t let her go, I won’t hesitate to call the cops.”

In my mind, I groaned. I didn’t expect him to do that, but I was hoping it would work. The creep didn’t take too kindly to Pat’s threat. He threw me towards the ground and stepped towards Pat.

“Oh, really? And what will you tell them, huh? That I almost kidnapped your fuck for the night?”

I watched Pat’s face turn up into a scowl. This is not getting better. It’s getting worse.

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Pat’s POV

I was quickly losing my patience with this guy. Twice he made comments about Claire and I wasn’t about to wait for a third one.

“Quit talking about her like that.”

The douche chuckled. I stepped closer to him, but then felt something pull me back. The douche smirked at me and I looked over my shoulder. Another guy showed up, obviously one of this guy’s friends, and was holding me back. I watched the douche in front of me walk backwards towards Claire. Claire stood up and tried to run away, but he grabbed her and shoved her against the brick wall. Claire shrieked in pain and the douche laughed out loud.

“Not so loud, beautiful. You’ll wake everybody up.”

Claire took that as her cue to scream. I struggled against the oaf holding me back, but his grip was too strong. The douche clapped a hand around Claire’s mouth and used his forearm to hold her against the wall. I watched as one of his hands began to snake down the side of her body. I continued to try to get away, yelling at the douche bag.

“Let go of her!”

He turned his head to face me, his hand still roaming her body. It disappeared under her skirt and I heard the fabric of what I could only imagine was her underwear rip.

“Let her go, you son of a bitch.”

“Temper, temper, Kane.” The oaf holding me back chuckled to me. I tried I kick him, but he was too quick and moved his leg.

“Calm down, pretty boy. I’m almost done.” I looked back over to Claire. I saw her eyes tighten shut, and tears began to roll down her cheeks. I gritted my teeth and tried to gather up all the strength I could find, and stretched my foot back and kicked then oaf in the junk. He loosened his grip on me, I let one of my arms loose and elbowed him in the head. I watched the oaf stumble as I walked over to the douche. I pulled him off of Claire and punched him in the jaw. He stumbled and I took that chance to grab Claire’s arm and we began to run down the alleyway. We didn’t get very far before Claire pulled on my arm. I looked over to her, and saw that she had fallen to the ground. I leaned down to help her up.

“Claire, you gotta get up. We’re almost at the doors.” I pleaded with her to find a small amount of strength. She shook her head.

“I can’t, Pat.” She whispered. I saw her wince in pain. I wrapped my arms around and brought her up to a standing position, then picked her up bridal style. I walked as fast as I could through the alleyway. I heard footsteps behind me and tried to pick up my pace. I was beginning to feel my legs go weak.

BANG

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Claire’s POV

I fell from Pat’s arms to the ground with a thud. I gingerly sat up and looked around for Pat. He was laying on the concrete, face down moving ever so slightly. I crawled over to him.

“Pat, are you okay?” He didn’t answer me. My eyes traveled down his body, widening when I caught a glimpse of his leg. I felt the tears well up in my eyes. I looked down the alleyway and saw the creep and his friend begin to slowly walk over to us. I tried to dig through Pat’s pockets to find his phone. Finally grabbing it, I quickly dialed Jon’s number. I heard it ring twice, then felt it be taken out of my hand. I looked up at the creep with fear in my eyes.

“Please,” I pleaded. “Please, leave me alone.”

He snickered. “No can do, sweetheart.” He leaned down and gingerly ran a hand through my hair. “See, pretty boy over here didn’t let me finish, and I don’t like to be interrupted.”

I looked over at Pat’s gingerly moving body and heard him mumble something. The creep heard it and instructed his friend to kick Pat.

“You say something, pretty boy?”

Pat mumbled again. I put my hand on Pat’s shoulder.

“Pat, stop.” I pleaded. I didn’t want this to go any further than it has to. The creep grabbed my arm and pushed me against the wall once again.

“Don’t worry about your pretty boy, sweetheart. Take it from a real man.”

I struggled against him, and he pushed me against the wall once more. My head hit the wall, hard. The last thing I remember seeing is flashing lights and then everything went black.

“Claire! Claire, wake up!” I could hear a voice, but everything was still black. I felt a hand run over my face. Slowly, my eyes began to open and I saw Jon looking down at me. He gave me a small smile.

“Officer, she’s awake!” I saw another person appear in front of me. It was a police officer, blinding me with a flashlight.

“Miss, can you tell me your name?”

I nodded. “Claire Brecht.” I said, groggily.

He nodded. “Okay, can you sit up for me?”

I grabbed onto Jon’s arm and he pulled me up to a sitting position. I looked from Jon to the officer. The officer nodded at me then looked at Jon.

“Can you sit with her for a minute while we get the man onto the ambulance?” Jon nodded. My gaze moved into the direction where the officer walked towards. I saw what looked like a lifeless body laying on stretcher. My eyes widened and I snapped my head towards Jon.

“Is that…..Pat?” I asked in a whisper. He nodded.

“He’ll be okay. He’s just lost a lot of blood.”

I raised an eyebrow towards him. “How did you get here? How did you know?”

“You called me and all I heard was some guy talking to you. I knew that you guys had left the club and were going home. I put two and two together and made my way here. I phoned the police on my way.”

Another officer walked over to Jon and I.

“Okay, you two can come with me. We’re going to take you to the hospital to get checked out.”

I nodded and Jon helped me stand. I didn’t have a whole lot of strength in my legs, so I leaned onto Jon for support. We made our way to the ambulance and both the officer and Jon helped me in. I was given a blanket to wrap around my body and a paramedic gave me a once over. Other than a few scrapes and bruises and a small gash on the back of my head, I was seemingly okay. Jon held a piece of gauze on the back of my head as I reached out to put my hand in Pat’s. I gave it a gentle squeeze and felt him squeeze back just a smidge. A small smile grazed my face as I saw him open his eyes slightly. He looked at me and whispered.

“Claire?” I nodded. “Are you….okay?”

I looked over towards Jon and gave him a small smile.

“Yeah, Kaner, I’ll be okay.”

He let out a few long, deep breaths.

“Tazer? Is that you?”

I looked over at Jon, seeing him chuckle slightly.

“Yeah buddy, it’s me.”

Pat let go of my hand and stretched his hand out a little further. Jon reached over and grabbed Pat’s hand. I looked at their hands, then shifting my gaze to Pat’s face. I saw a lonely tear fall as he whispered.

“Thank you.”