Brave the Storm

“Come on son of a bitch! Hit me! Go ahead and hit me!” Kailyn screamed at the man with a red jersey and the white number of 52 on it.

“Kailyn don’t be ridiculous. I am not going to hit a woman,” He told her calmly as they circled around each other, neither one getting closer or farther away.

“Why? You have been checking me the entire game! It shouldn’t be that difficult!” She skated close to him and pushed him before putting up her fists.

“Aw, did I offend you Lyn? I’m sorry.” He made mock pouted at her. “I wouldn’t have to knock some sense into you if you weren’t fucking around on me! I wouldn’t have had to divorce you if you didn’t force my hand. I just need you to do as I say!”

“I am not your wife! I can fuck whoever I want! And I swear Eric is the best I’ve ever had. He puts you to shame in the sheet---“ She didn’t have any time to fight back when Mike pushed her hard in the chest.

She looked at him in shock. She didn’t think he would actually do it. She had no time to think anything else before she saw his fist coming at her. She quickly ducked and punched him in the stomach as hard as she could.

She smiled as they raised their fists in unison and preparing to attack. This was an unconventional way to get over someone, but she figured if she could beat the shit out of him, she would find it easier to separate herself from him. She could separate her feelings from him. If she could just gather her strength and take him on physically, she could take him on mentally as well. It was all about healing, even if she gained a few bruises while doing just that.
She then tried to punch him in the face and he blocked it before punching her in the face. She faked with the right and then landed a solid punch to the cheek. Mike grabbed her by the arms and held her as she tried to get free from his grip. Her heart was racing a hundred miles a minute from the strains of the game and the adrenaline pulsing through her veins. She knew in her heart that this was a hockey fight and if Mike had her cornered; he would certainly take advantage of the opportunity.

But her whole body ached with hurt when that thought came to mind as she thrashed around to try to get out of his grip. Knowing that he didn’t care enough to spare her from his fists in a hockey fight hurt more than his fist ever would and she didn’t like being this way with the one she loved. She had been on the receiving end on many a punch from another player, but her emotions had never gone through this much trauma. This fight was really an emotional fight and just like the physical fight, Mike had all the advantage. She wouldn’t go down without swinging though, and she had plenty of swings left in her. She felt her left hand rattle in her red Bauer glove and she decided to try to yank it free from her glove.

Her hand was almost out of her glove when Eric came streaming in and tackled Mike to the ground throwing punch after punch to the face. “Eric! Get off him! Don’t hurt him!” She tried to pull him off Mike, but to no avail.

It was only when Nick came to her rescue that the both of them could yank Eric off Mike who was bleeding profusely from the nose. The refs quickly gained control of the situation when they threw both Eric and Kailyn out of the game for the remaining five minutes of the game as well as Mike. Kailyn walked into the locker room and wordlessly started to undress. She didn’t even spare him a glance, she was too angry with him. Who was he that he could step into another NHL player’s fight? It was the ultimate insult when another teammate bailed a person out of the fight. It was essentially one teammate slapping the other in the face. She couldn’t believe what he had just done. He wouldn’t dream of bailing Jared out of a fight, so why should he bail her out? What was so special about her? There was only one explanation, “So you do like me,” she said as she had finally stripped down to Under Armour and calmed enough to speak. She put her hands on her hips an awaited his answer.

“You love him, so what does it matter? You were barely even fighting him.”

“I was fighting him well enough!” she screamed at him. She felt a sting in her heart. He was right; she loved Mike so much she ached. She wanted to take her anger out on the man that haunted her at every moment. She took a deep breath to calm herself, “Being a jealous and an over protective idiot will not get you any brownie points Staal. I can handle myself and I don’t need a man to live. When you stop acting like a man who thinks he owns me then I might consider being friends again.” She turned and walked to the showers. When she was at the entrance she turned her head to the side and informed him, “I wasn’t fighting to beat the shit out of him. I was fighting to get over him.”

********

Eric was pissed, not only had his team lost, his friend was unbelievably angry with him. This was the most terrible day he had in a long time. He sat alone in Doge City bar. He was drowning his sorrows in Molson after Molson. He talked to no one after he ordered his beer. Eric was not in the mood to deal with puck bunnies or fans, so he sat in a secluded area at the bar with a baseball hat slung low to cover his face. He was sitting at a shadowed place at the bar where it was difficult to see him because of the television hanging above him. He felt so defeated that he just wanted to get hammered enough to forget this day ever happened.
His tactic be damned, as soon as she rightly accused his feelings he threw out the playbook and lost his head. So much for getting her to admit her feelings first, that obviously didn’t happen. It would have to be saved for another time. He had definitely screwed up when he let his jealousy of Mike really show.

He hated the guy. How could such a dick have the heart of such a beautiful person and treat her like dirt? There was absolutely no justice in the world. He had been there for Kailyn since she came here and treated her with a hundred times more respect than her former husband and he still wasn’t good enough. He sighed angrily and took another large swig of his beer. He just wanted to forget.

He was significantly buzzed when he hailed a cab to go back to the hotel. It was a short ride and he paid the cab driver before stumbling into the hotel. He went up to the eleventh floor in the elevator and was about to go into his room and call it a night, when the glare from the light on the number plate next door caught his attention. He stumbled to the next door and knocked loudly. He didn’t care if he woke his whole team up, he just had to talk to her and make things right. All that his clouded mind wanted was forgiveness and he would do anything for it.
He banged his closed fist on the door some more and almost stumbled into it when the door opened to reveal a very tired and angry Jeff. Once Jeff saw the clearly inebriated captain, he opened the door wider and let him in. “Where’s Kai? I need to see her! I need to apologize!” Eric yelled too loudly for politeness. He grabbed Jeff by the shirt and pulled him close as if the tight space would convey his urgency more before pushing him away again. “Kailyn! Where are you?”
“I am in bed dipshit,” she told him flatly as she removed the pillow from her face and glared at him from her place under the white blankets. “Rick go away, you’re drunk and disturbing the peace,” she glared at him.

He stumbled over to her bed and knelt by her bedside. He took her small hand in his warm ones. “Kailyn, please. I am so sorry for insulting you in front of our team and his team. I just want to make sure you are safe. I am so jealous that he has your heart that I didn’t think of how my actions would affect you. You are so beautiful and he doesn’t deserve you and I just want you to love me because I love you. But I know now that it won’t happen because you aren’t ready. I promise that everything will go back to normal and I’ll forget my feelings for you as long as you forgive me. Please forgive me. I don’t want to lose my friend. I’d rather have you as a friend if nothing else. I’m sorry just please forgive me,” he rambled. His words were slurred and he spoke quickly to get everything off his chest. He slammed his head on the soft bed beside her when he finished his slurred rant.

She soothingly ran a hand through his soft strawberry blond hair. His shoulder muscles loosened and he breathed a sigh of relief. He lost himself in the feel of her fingers running through his hair that he almost didn’t hear her speak. “Okay Eric, you have a deal. We will forget everything and go back to what we were before all this.”

Eric barely felt his brother and Jeff lift him to his feet. In a daze he let them lead him back to his room and he fell face first on to his bed and promptly passed out in a deep sleep, truly forgetting all the day’s events.