Leaping for Your Dreams

They guys had cleared their lockers out yesterday. Tomorrow they were planning on taking _out_ the ice. That gave me today to be alone on it and enjoy the silence of the rink. Geno had Anna, they were spending the day bonding. In time I found I wasn’t the only one who felt the pull of the rink. Soon enough there were several of us out there tooling around and just having fun. No one wanted to play a pickup game, but just being on the ice was helping soothe the sorrow.

I felt better for my skate, almost back to normal in fact. As dad sat next to me I smiled. “You couldn’t resist it either could you?”

“You know me, whenever I can I’m out here. Mom needs your help on something. This is supposed to stay quiet. Sid wants to move their wedding to _this_ July 8th.” My jaw dropped. “I know, it’s a lot of work. I also know that if anyone can do it, it’s you.”

“We may need a new Captain next year…” I threatened. I continued changing my shoes and we went up to my office again. The nice thing about being the boss of your department is that if you don’t want to work summers, you don’t have to. The bad thing is that you have to make sure you have someone willing to cover you if you aren’t there. Fortunately my little group was more than willing to cover the few events we would have during the summer so I could go home with my family.

I picked up my “magic book” and Dad and I went to mom’s office. Once there I sat down and grinned. “So, dad tells me that your gaining a son AND the planning therefore too.”

She sighed and rolled her eyes. “I could kill him for this, truly I could. Love him to death but what is he thinking?” She wasn’t talking about dad.

“Mom, he’s thinking that she’s waited so long, so quietly, so _Patiently_ that she deserves him to cave a bit for her. We’ve got time to do this right. I’ll plan it so that you and his mom don’t argue over the details. I know Aleks and knows what she wants in general. I know she’s going to want a church wedding and with how many Pens weddings there are already this summer we need to be nice and _not_ have it too out of the way.” I pulled up google maps and found both Thunder Bay and Montreal, sites of the two closest weddings. Then I pulled up my summer calendar. “Oh crap. Brooksie’s wedding in Cali is the week before. Well I’m just going to plan it and their gonna have to tell him they can’t make it.”

Mom coughed and I looked up. Mario was standing there smiling. “Planning another wedding? Let’s see you had a rush one a few weeks ago and you’re looking up this summer’s plans.”

Sid came in then. “Mari there you are! I need to talk to you.” I put my planned in his hands. He looked down at it and then back at me, confusion written on his face.

“_You_ are going to have to tell Brooks you two won’t make it. You _will_ be coming to our place tonight and you will _not_ argue about where this is going to be held. Do I make myself clear?” I saw Mom relax as I took forcefully over and Mario tense up.

“Oh, someone’s already told you. Why don’t you seem more angry? You’re making me nervous.” He said a bit wide eyed.

I sighed. “Sidney, you love Aleks right?” He nodded, unsure of where I was going. “You don’t really care how you get married just _that_ you get married right?” That brought out his grin and a nod. “Then you’re going to do everything as I say, _when_ I say until we’re done planning this. Aleks can’t help me and make a good solid run, but you can.” He gulped loudly.

“_Finally_.” Mario sighed. “Do you know where and when yet?” He _wasn’t_ asking Sid, but rather me.

“Where we’ll fix today, when I know will be their anniversary. It’s gotta be somewhere between Thunder Bay and Montreal, preferably somewhere in the middle.” I put my hands on either point on the map and began drawing them closer together. They came together between Sault Ste. Marie and Sudbury.

Sid looked around my hands a bit. “Well we could always do it in Toronto I guess.” _I_ gave him the stink eye. “Or not.”

I pulled my hands downwards until I hit Detroit then zoomed in. Lo and behold it was our hometown of Windsor that came up. I looked at Sid as the light dawned. I then turned the screen so Mom and Mari could see it. “That’s where.”

“It’s perfect.” Mom said. “Maybe the priest at St. Michael’s would be willing to perform it too. There isn’t really a good place for a reception though; have you thought about that?”

I smiled. “Leave it to me, I’ll get everything prepped. They’ll both love it. He’ll help cause he has no choice otherwise I turned this entire thing over to _his_ mother.” I looked at Sid who paled. “I can ask Aleks via email and Skype her preferences. First thing we’re going to do is find out what they need for a license and _then_ if the Priest at St. Michael’s has that day open. By my calendar it’s a Sunday, which might give us a bit of a break on some things. We’re going to need a guest list, stat so we can get those out.” I looked over at Sidney, who looked bewildered, then at Mario who just was smiling.

“OK so I know the bridesmaids dress colors, we’ll base the invitations off of that.” I snapped my book shut and took hold of Sidney’s arm. “Come on, I’ll think better if I’m closer to my office and it’s resources.”

Once back in my office, I brought up David’s Bridal on my desk computer. Sid kind of looked odd at that while I then brought up the invitations site. “You look through those while I give Aleks a text to wake up to.

Sid looked at every invitation on the site. “I have no idea how they are going to look in the color she wants.” I lean over and choose Wisteria, it’s a medium purple that’s easy to read. He picks out a very simple invitation with 2 hearts on the front and the saying; Two Friends, Two Hearts, one Promise, One Love. “I like this one a lot, it’s simple and elegant and it just fits us.” I copy the url and send it to Mal.

“If she likes it too, all the better. Fits you two really well. Seriously Sid we need to have a guest list, we need a solid number of no more than X. Remember that both families will _try to inflate this number.” I watched him think about it for a while. “Tell you what, you make a list of everyone you want to invite, I’ll have Aleks do the same and that which overlaps is in for sure. Does that help?”

He looked up at me, “Yeah it does. Mind if I use some paper?” I waved him to a notepad I had and a pen. I went back o finding out what we needed to do to get this happening on the date they wanted it to happen.

After much wrangling I found out that not only were both myself and Aleks _still_ on the parish rolls for St. Michael’s, the priest would be _more_ than happy to marry the two of them. He even asked if I wanted my own civil vows turned into religious ones. I had to tell him that we were planning something for while we were in Russia. I hated lying to a Priest but this was Aleks’ big day not mine.

Then I called a few places in Windsor for a place for the reception. Either they were too public or too exclusive and wouldn’t bend the rules no matter who was getting married. I finally said screw it and called a friend in Detroit. She worked for The International Banquet Center. “Lils, you gotta help me.”

“Mari what’s wrong?” She had played with us in college so I knew I could count on her to be discreet.

“Mal’s getting married this July, I’ve got a place for the wedding but not the reception. Do you have _any openings for the 8th?” I knew it was a long stretch this close but I had to try. I also knew that this might set the limit of guests.

I heard her flipping through a book. “Oh My God, Mari are you sitting down? We’ve got both Olympus 1 and 2 still open for that evening. Together they seat 160 people.” I grinned, there was our hard cap. “Each one has room for 80 guests for a wedding reception. Who’s the groom? I don’t remember Mal being with anyone in school.”

I chuckled. “Sidney,” I called out, he jerked up and looked at me. “80 people or 160?” His eyes went wide at 160 so I nodded. “We’ll only need one of those rooms. She’s been seeing the same guy for almost 8 years now. In fact I’m doing the planning cause she’s in the middle of a playoff run.”

I heard a pen drop. “No way! That’s _our_ Cap?! Holy shit! Never mind then I know whom she’s been seeing. I’ll write down Olympus Room One for you guys. It’s the bigger of the two. How about menu? What type of crowd are we feeding?”

“Knowing them, probably mostly hockey guys and their girls. So while I know they’d want to taste it, the fewer options is better right now. If you have a dual entrée that would probably be best for now. I have no idea how long it’s going to take Mal to be out of the playoffs.” Sid had stopped writing and was listening as I worked my magic for his wedding.

“I hope she goes all the way. Wouldn’t that be something to _know_ the first female player to have her name engraved on The Cup?” Lils had a wistfulness to her voice. “OK where’s the wedding so I can coordinate with that and how long it’ll take for you guys to get here.”

We did that and she giggled. “You’re giving Mal the advantage on having friends there you know.” She was writing things down. “So if you’re doing this, what is the groom doing right now?”

I looked up at Sidney who had thought of a few more names. “He’s writing his guest wish list of course. You think I’m gonna do this without him helping. Please they’re getting a better wedding than I had. I had 4 hours to find a dress, I think Mal’s got hers already.” Ok so I _knew_ she had it already but you didn’t say things like that when the groom was in the room.

This went back and forth for a while as we chatted and got on the same page. I didn’t know what kind of cake either one of them wanted yet but I would let Lils know when I had a clue. She knew of a few excellent bakeries that she’d dig for timing from.

I hung up the phone and sat back in my chair. “You realize this _is_ my gift to you two.”

“Yeah I kind of figured. Thanks for not turning this over to my mom, she’d drive us all nuts.” He hadn’t stopped writing.

“Don’t thank me until _after_ it all goes off without a hitch.” I was planning my sister’s wedding, with only her nebulous approval, wow.

Before I could get past that, my phone rang. “Michaela Malkin, how can I help you?” I answered directly.

“Oh Mari I love those invitations! They are _so_ us! I should be thinking about my game tonight but _Thank_ _You_. Email or text anytime when you need an answer I’ll get back to you as soon as I can, _make_ Sidney help too.” I could hear her relief and excitement bubbling over.

“He is helping, in fact _he+_ chose those invitations. Right now he’s doing his homework too. The reception hall can hold 80 total, so make your guest wish list so I can get those compared and the invites sent out before Nick leaves. Email it to me when you have it, but sooner is better.” Sid sat up straighter as he figured out who I was talking to.

“I’ll have it to you tomorrow. We’ve got the day off in D.C. and all I had planned was laundry. I trust you Mari, you know me better than either mom does. I gotta get going, don’t let him slack off. Thanks again Mari.” Aleks hung up and my worry was lifted.

“You’re so lucky that I know her so well and _can_ pull this off so quickly.” I said to Sid as he worked.

He looked up and grinned. “I’m _thankful_ that you’re willing to do this Mari, I’d be so lost already. She _so_ deserves this.” I couldn’t disagree, why fight when he’s right?