The Next Year

*February 8th, 2014 Aleks' POV*

After a hard fought loss to the Rangers, we said goodbye for a couple weeks to our usual teammates and began focusing on the Olympics. It was now nearly 9am and our flight from Pittsburgh to New York had been delayed due to plane trouble. Of course we were still missing someone too, Geno. I texted Mari to find out where they were just as they came through the waiting room doors. I heard Sid giving Geno his usual ration about being late and then telling him the flight was delayed. We all chuckled at Geno's righteous indignation that he could still be at home. I leaned over to Anya. "Don't be like your Papa. He makes us wait sometimes too long. Better to be early than late."

She moved over and sat next to me, cuddled close. "Tetya Aleks, will you do your best to score for me?" She was still not happy she wasn't being allowed to go.

"Of course I will angel. You have so many teams to root for during the Olympics, how are you going to keep track?" Distraction was always good. I saw Mari smile behind Anya.

"Mama and I have a system. We have everyone we know's pictures in their Olympic team jerseys and will keep track of who scores and such with those and we." She turned to Mari. "What's else?"

Mari came to her rescue. "I laid out the tourney like any bracket would be and we'll keep track of the team's through that way. Like we used to do during football season." That made sense to me, we tracked college football instead of basketball. Being that we were normally hip deep in play in the Frozen Four ourselves.

Too soon it was time to say goodbye to our Olympic sunshine and get going. I did hear Sid try to get out of her a Go Canada Go, but her neutrality was firm. Which I found funny because she is Canadian.

In New York we were shown into the waiting room and that's where my brothers found us and our folks. Sid's family found us shortly after. That's also when we found out we would be having practice soon after landing. Everyone groaned until I did the math. Having practice when we were that tired would mean we would gel faster, but it would make it hell too.

Once aboard the plane I was even more glad I had gotten some approved pills to help me sleep. I saw some other guys also breaking out similar. I got an odd look from Sid which I waved off. "So I can get them easily when I need to. 100% IIHF and IOC sanctioned. It's hyped up melatonin, that's all." He visibly relaxed. He knew I took melatonin when I needed to sleep quickly.

PK Subban leaned over his seat and grinned. "Aw didn't you get the better stuff?" I chuckled.

"I don't need anything more. I'm not risking my medal with things I don't need." He grinned. We had all gotten the 'disclose everything you' take lecture.

The plane took off and soon we all settled down to try and relax during the 15+ hour flight. I heard some strategy being done but I didn't pay too much attention to it. I was trying to write down how I was feeling. I had been asked by Sam and Michelle to write a first person view of the whole experience which I had no problem doing. It was not unlike what I liked to do during tourneys anyway. They go so fast that details meld together without writing out a diary of sorts.

After I captured the early hope I was feeling I tried to do some reading, hard at the best of times during flights, but it was impossible on this charter. Everyone was getting hyped up about what we were about to do. While it was exciting, I had to fight to keep an even keel. It was the first time that I was going to be on the international stage.

I went through the plane a few times trying to settle my growing nerves. Sitting down after my last round trip I heard a chuckle to my left. "What?" I growled a bit.

"Stop being so nervous." He pulled me into my seat and over close to him. "We'll do great." There was nothing quite like being aggressively hugged into Sid's side.

I sighed. I hadn't told Sid everything and now was the time. "It's not the Games that I'm nervous about. It's meeting the rest of Mom's family that I'm thinking about. When the wall fell my aunts and uncle all decided to go back to where the family was originally from. It's how mom got Busha's table, no one else could bring it back."

Sid chuckled again. "I'm sure they're as nervous as you guys are. What do you know about them?" Sid knew that mom's family had mostly gone back but they were mostly a mystery other than that.

I thought for a bit. "Um, I know I have a cousin, Ilya, who goes to school somewhere in the States who is coming home for the Games but really I don't know a lot about them overall. My mom has 2 older sisters and an older brother."

Mom stepped in. "Actually honey my sisters don't live in Sochi. They and their families all are in Moscow or St. Petersburg. Only Maxim lives in Sochi. Ilya is his son and goes to Johns Hopkins. Ilya is taking a short break between his residencies for Emergency and Family Medicine to come and man the Western Medicine First Aid area during the Games. Not that Putin wanted to put them in but the IOC insisted." To say that Mom wasn't impressed with Putin was like saying Sid disliked changing his routines, way off base.

After discussing Uncle Maxim and Cousin Ilya and how they were both still closely in touch with mom I felt better. I had been trying to talk Sid into a vacation in Russia and hoped that this would go a long way to whetting that appetite. The Black Sea was where Russians went to have vacation so going to Sochi would at least give him that insight. I wrote a bit more in my journal about how this was also about meeting those who had moved back to the family's ancestral home.

By now everyone was starting to settle in for the long haul. I took my melatonin and got comfy. I figured if I could get a jump on the local time it might help. Within a half hour I was out and dreaming of gold.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your Captain letting you know that we will be touching down in Sochi, Russia in about 45 minutes. I hope you all had a good flight with us and thoroughly enjoy the Games. To the athletes we have aboard, good luck." There were groans all over the cabin, mostly from the athletes. I felt fuzzy headed as I worked out what time it was. I was glad I had changed the watch I had brought to local time before leaving home. That's what made me groan, it wasn't quite 8 am locally.

*February 9th,2014*

Once we were sorted out into our respective teams and on board buses to get to the Olympic Village, something else hit me. For all that everyone who mattered in the beginning knew there was a good chance that I wouldn't be rooming with Sid. This was both nerve wracking and a relief. It got even more so when we got to Canada House to drop off our stuff. Turns out that I would be rooming with John Tavares.

"Um, this isn't gonna be weird is it?" He asked as we got into the room.

I raised an eyebrow at him. "John have you ever spent summer camping with your sisters?" He nodded a bit and I continued. "Then treat it like that. This is a place to rest, we can spend as little or as much time here as we want. I don't snore or sleep in the buff. You won't have to worry about me stealing anything except as a prank which if I do pull I fully expect to be gotten back." We had by now chosen which beds we wanted and set our bags next to them on the floor.

"But," he interrupted. "Everyone knows you and Sid are an item, isn't he gonna be mad?"

There was a distinct laugh from the doorway. "Why would I be mad? We told everyone who had to know for legal reasons but we're adults. We can handle not sleeping near each other, hell we do the same on the road." Ok no one but the Pens knew about our connecting doors and if that was how he wanted to keep it, fine.

John relaxed a little. "If you're sure." That's when Johnny came up behind Sid.

"Oh this is so not fair. He gets the hottest rookie in the League and I have to put up with Sharpie?" I heard a HEY! from down the hall and laughed which made everyone else laugh as well. "Seriously man Mal is an awesome person. You won the roomie jackpot."

Sharpie had by now pushed past Johnny and collapsed onto my bed. "I am affronted that they wouldn't have put the two of us together." I just rolled my eyes and pulled out the few things I needed on my nightstand, just the important stuff. Charger with adapter for European outlets, the picture I took out over the dock on the lake watching someone in silhouette (Sam at his feet) and the book I was currently reading before sleeping. When I was done Sharpie looked it over. "That's all, seriously? My wife's nightstand is covered with creams and all sorts of shit."

Sid chuckled. "She keeps hers pretty clear, even at home. Something about having to answer the phone in the middle of the night due to a drunk dial..."

I looked at John. "They can say what they will about how I keep my stuff. I prefer to keep my beauty routine where it belongs, the bathroom." He chuckled. I pulled out my bathroom kit and his jaw dropped. "I have it pretty streamlined. I don't hog the bathroom. Having to catch many buses after doing my media duties at MSU taught me what I do and don't need." I set it on the bed and grabbed my Team Canada Jacket and Athlete's Credentials. "Didn't Babs say something about a team meal and the practice? We should get moving."

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Hours later we got back to the room and truly unpacked. "I thought you were kidding when you said you had your stuff streamlined. Those reporters were brutal about how personal they tried getting." He was speaking of my media scrum.

I sighed and tried not to yawn. "That's nothing. The first time we were in Montreal this year, I had someone ask me what Sid was like in bed. I was so happy I had figured out something to say before the season started." John looked at me with a shocked look. "I know, Jen was furious when I told her afterwards, to say _nothing_ of how Sid reacted. I just looked at the guy and told him that there were two people who needed such intimate knowledge of my life and he wasn't one of them and asked for the next question."

John laughed heartily. "That is a masterful way of telling them to go to hell." I shrugged. "You don't let them push you into giving anything up do you?"

I sat up. "JT, my dad was an equipment guy for the Wings when I was born. I grew up getting secondhand media training in their room. Once the PR people at Shattuck and MSU realized what I was doing, practicing with both the guys and girls teams, I got more direct media training. It didn't hurt that I was Captain either. I knew I would need a nice way of telling the reporters off so they wouldn't pry into my personal life. Fortunately I know a _lot_ of guys who are as guarded about their lives and asked their opinions."

"I'd say it worked. Hey if I don't move I'm gonna fall asleep. Wanna see if we can get anyone else together and find something to do?" He sat up and tried not to yawn. This was going to be an interesting tournament.