Ice Might Be Nice

After a weekend of 2 musicals, Newsies! And The Lion King, it was Monday again. This Monday was unlike any other I would come to find out, unfortunately for me. I came into Jim’s office after dropping my stuff down. “Morning Krys, I have an assignment for you. I need you to help out on ice today during practice. Reg has asked that he have an extra pair of hands today so I thought of you.”

I gaped like a fish at him. It took me a little bit to be able to speak finally. “Uh, I’d love to help out on ice, but Jim… I can’t skate.” I expected him to get upset at this information. He didn’t.

“I know that. I told Reg you didn’t know how and he said he just needed a second pair of hands not feet. Your second assignment is to get a pair of skates and learn. I don’t care how.” He picked up his phone and called down to Acacio Marques. “Cass, Krys is here can I send her down? Great. I have no idea. OK She’s on her way.” He hung up the phone and looked at me. “Go see Cass, he’ll get you fitted for skates. After the guys are gone you’re more than welcome to use the ice. Scat so you can get those before the guys get here.”

I resigned myself to having to figure out how to skate to keep my job. I headed down to Cass’ domain. “I’m here.”

“Oh good. Come here and try this on.” He handed me a skate. I looked at him dubiously and began unlacing my shoes to do what he asked. As I slipped into the skates and began tightening them, he grabbed me shoes. “8 women, hmmm. Those might be too big on you. Don’t forget to get your heel all the way back too. Won’t fit right if you don’t.” He turned to his computer and checked a size chart for the conversion from women’s to men’s sizes. He then went into the racks he had, looking for something.

I thought I had them ready and tight enough so, keeping near the chair I was on, I stood up. That’s when I found out that nope I didn’t have them tight enough. Fortunately I didn’t fall onto the floor, just the chair. I growled softly at myself for not getting them tight enough. Then Cass came back from his stacks. “Here, let’s swap those for these. I’ve had these in stock for a little while and think they’ll fit you pretty well.” I took the skates I had off and set them aside.

I took the proffered skates and began lacing them up. “I can’t quite get these tight enough when I’ve got them on, any tips?”

“Yeah, learn how to do since you’re able to walk.” I turned to the second voice and found Cally standing there. I flushed knowing that this looked bad for me. “So, why is Cass taking care of you?” He sat down on the bench and looked at me.

I looked at what I was doing and sighed. Things like this would get out anyway I might as well be honest about it. “I need to learn how to skate.” I side glanced at him and caught the look of shock and horror on his face.

He moved around behind me. “Here, tighten them like this, from the toe up. Make it as uniform as you can. There you go, pull as tight as you can. It may hurt a little bit but it’s that of have your foot slip a lot, which you don’t want.” He was giving me lessons on how to make it fit right. “Can’t believe you don’t know how to skate.”

I looked down and mumbled. “I played soccer.” I knew the animosity between the two sports; this could make or break me here. I was tense as he paused.

“Really, that would be why the guys thought you might have been a figure skater. We’d _never_ have guessed soccer though.” He then went back to tightening my skates for me. “There, try that for how it feels.”

I stood up carefully. This time my ankles were stable and I didn’t fall over. Once I got the balance I took a few steps. “These aren’t so bad. You mind if I wear them for a while and get used to them?”

Cass laughed. “Keep them, we don’t need them and you might as well have a pair for yourself. They aren’t sharpened so when you’re ready to hit the ice I’ll pull them and do that.” He handed me my shoes. “Go ahead and leave them on, get your feet used to wearing them. You’ll get better at walking with practice too.”

I smiled. “When my feet get tired I’ll take them off and put my shoes back on. Do we need to do anything else to them today?”

Cass grinned. “Not today, we can bake them tomorrow. For now just get used to them. They’ll fit differently after we bake them too. Tighter.”

I nodded as I made my way back into the medical room with Cally behind me. “You look almost comfortable in those already.” He got closer and lowered his voice for the next question. “What position did you play?”

Took me a minute to figure out what he was referring to, I was lost in the giddy feeling of new skates. “Oh! I’m a keeper, gross gloves and all.” We turned into the med room and Jim looked at me odd for a split second, then noticed my skates. He nodded and went back to wrapping the knee he was working on.

Cally went into the dressing room to get changed and ready for practice. Once the med room was clear again, Jim asked how I felt about my second assignment. “To be honest I’m nervous. It’s one thing to be able to walk it’s another to glide on ice.”

Reg came in then to check on how I was doing. “It’s easy. For now though give your feet a break and put your shoes back on. Don’t want you to hurt yourself too badly during practice.”

Practice went really well and while the guys _tried_ to chirp me about not being on skates, they quickly learned that I was better in my shoes than they expected. Just before practice was over Reg let me go back to my normal routine. Once the guys were done and the ice was free, Jim shooed me back out to the ice to figure out how to skate.

I took them back to Cass for sharpening, which didn’t take long. I then changed into my skates on the bench, tightening them like Cally had showed me. Once I had them on and I was ready to step out onto the ice, I got nervous.

Carefully I stepped out onto the ice and immediately fell on my ass. I got back up and put my hands on the top of the boards for stability. I knew the theory on how to skate I just hadn’t ever done it. I turned myself around and carefully set myself up for just gliding across the ice. Nothing horrible; right?

Yeah wrong again. I tripped over something as I moved and landed on my knees with a hiss of pain. Over and over again I fell and got up again. Once I had finally gotten the hang of moving in a straight line, I tried turning and ended up adding bruises to my hips as well as my knees and butt. I kept working on this until my legs wouldn’t hold me up anymore and I got back to the bench. Turned out I had been working on this for 2 hours. No wonder I was tired. As I sat on the bench changing back into my shoes I hear someone clapping softly behind me. I turned and found Marc standing there.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone so determined to learn to skate. Every time you fell down you got back up.” I blushed. I hadn’t thought anyone had seen me multiple failures. “Oh, don’t blush trust me I’ve seen _way_ worse failures. My brother Jared fell through the ice at one point on the pond we learned on. Eric once biffed it so bad that he nearly lost a tooth. That’s nothing compared to my own spectacular failing though.” He rolled up his pant leg and showed off a scar on his leg. “I was figuring out how to go backwards and ended up falling over a log I didn’t remember being there. I couldn’t skate for 3 weeks. After this Dad figured out how to do a backyard rink so we wouldn’t be half a mile away and hard to get to.”

By this time I had my shoes back on and he’d rolled his pant leg back down. “I just feel dumb for being here and not knowing how to skate. I mean I should if I’m gonna be here.”

“Reg knows, a few of the other guys do too but that doesn’t mean you _have_ to know right now. You did just fine today in your shoes out here. Didn’t fall once. Gotta tell you the guys might have been chirping you at first but they were complimenting you in the room after.” We sat there a minute. “Hey did your sister have a good time the other day? I know you said she was down.”

I smiled. “Even better she found a job that evening, started today. She’s now within walking distance of the house. So if I didn’t need to come out here so often we might get rid of the car. But I do so we’ll keep it.” I laughed.

“That’s great. We should celebrate.” Things felt a bit awkward. Marc knew me but not Lyss.

“Actually we were very bad and had McDonald’s as our celebration. So bad for us but it tasted _so_ good.” I had stood up and was ready to leave the ice.

Marc stood and let me precede him. In hindsight that might not have been a good move on my part as I felt like he was staring. We walked back into the locker room and before I could get into my area Marc spoke up. “You can put those in my stall if you want. Nobody will look twice at them there and they’ll dry over night.” He moved a few things on the seat of his stall, clearing a place for my skates.

“Thanks.” The fans were already going in here so things would dry faster than anywhere else. I put my skates down and he turned them so that the fans would hit the inside.

“Come on, Jim said you could go after you were done on the ice. I asked.” I scooped up my bag from my office and we headed out. As we got to my car, he turned. “You know, I really would like to take you out before the insanity hits. I mean camp starts Friday.”

I thought about what Lyss might be working, probably until close seeing that she was new. “How about Wednesday? It would give me a chance to get this skating thing down a little better not to mention double check about a fraternization policy. I know probably a silly thing to think about but I’d rather know for sure no one was going to get upset.”

Marc kicked his shoe against my tire. That’s when Jim came out into the parking lot. “Hold that thought.” I said to marc as I ran over to Jim. “Hey Jim I have a question. Does the team have a fraternization policy?”

Jim looked taken a back a bit, he glanced over towards Marc and back at me. “Does this have anything to do with a certain Defenseman standing by your car?” I flushed and looked away. “I thought so. You two kind of have gotten cozy. As long as it doesn’t effect either of your jobs, I don’t see a problem.” He waved at Marc. “Now, get over there and put him out of his misery.” Jim ruffled my hair and went on his way.

I breathed carefully as I went back over to Marc. “So… about Wednesday.” He looked at me. “Would you mind if we moved it up to tonight?” I smiled, my smile got bigger as Marc’s bloomed across his face.

“I think we can do that. Can I pick you up at 6?” He caught my hand in his. I blushed again without wanting to.

“I think I can do that. We need to get going though if that’s gonna happen on time.” Marc laughed.

“Then let’s push it back to 7 so you aren’t rushed.” He walked me around my car to the driver’s side. “I saved your home address when we stopped the other day. I just don’t know what number your place is.”

I got in my car and couldn’t stop smiling. “We’re in Unit C11, the name on the unit is Morgan.” He closed my door and took a step back. I started the car and began moving. “I’ll see you at 7.”

He smiled and waved. “Yes you will.” I drove away a lot happier than I thought I would be. I got home and found I had the house to myself as I thought. I showered quickly, noting the few bruises blooming on my legs. Oh tomorrow was going to be fun. Then I realized I had no idea where we were going to dinner. I figured I’d hedge my best and dress nicely but not in a skirt.

At 6:55 pm my phone rang. It was the front desk; I had a visitor. Shortly thereafter my front doorbell rang. Opening it I saw Marc looking nice as I suspected. “I didn’t know where we were going so I hedged my bets.”

He smiled, I ushered him in and gave him the nickel tour. “Not as nice as yours but it’s home.”

He chuckled. “Home is a place to be between games, that’s about it.” We were ready to go so I grabbed my jacket and we went back to his place. “I hope you don’t mind eating in. I figured sitting on hard chairs after so much new activity wouldn’t feel good.” We sat on the couch and I was quite surprised as he lifted the coffee table. “I love this table. Really great when you don’t feel so good too.”

Dinner was Chinese and it was good too, unfortunately I lived outside their delivery area. We talked some more about just odd things and simply enjoyed each other’s company. The phone rang once and Marc begged off whomever it was saying he just wanted a low-key night.

Whoever it was gave him a lot of shit so eventually he just hung up on them. “I’ll pay for that tomorrow, but I’d rather be here than out in a bar.”

“It’s ok if you want go out with the guys. It’s not like we don’t have other days we can do this.” OK that wasn’t true but I had to let him think it was for now.

In the end we had dinner and talked until 9, then he brought me home. I had left a note for Lyss so I hoped she wouldn’t ask too many questions. I was starting to feel tired after everything I’d done so I crawled into bed.

In the morning Marc wasn’t the only person who paid for mistakes of the previous day. I was black and blue so badly it hurt to put on pants. I should have sucked it up but I didn’t want to. I put on a pair of shorts and went into work anyway.

I kept mostly to the medical room in the morning so that the guys wouldn’t ask too many questions on how I got so many bruises. Jim had taken a look at me and pronounced that I’d be hurting for a few days.

It wasn’t until _after_ Tuesday’s practice that I had to go into the dressing room and just my luck all the guys were there. “Whoa! Krys what happened?”

“Yeah honey, he ain’t worth it if he’s beating you.”

“Guys! GUYS!” I shouted to be heard. “I’m not being beaten by anyone. I just _overdid_ something yesterday and this is the price. I’ll be ok I’m just really sore today. I’ll be fine.” I down played not knowing how to skate, I knew I’d get offers for lessons if I didn’t.

They tried asking other questions but Jim helped me escape back to the med room. “I’ll wear pants tomorrow I swear.” I said as he came in behind me.

“If it hurts to put them on, don’t bother. Lay down let me get a good look.” He checked me over for other signs of injury. I heard a few guys come in while he was doing so. “What do you guys want?”

“Do _you_ know why she’s got these, man those are _really_ ugly.” Cally said as they got a closer look. This didn't make a lot of sense unless he forgot that I was going to learn how to skate.

“Yes I do, she’ll be sore for a few days but she’ll be fine.” I heard most of them go back out. “Go ahead and let me check those shins too.” I rolled over and Marc was standing there kind of frozen at the sight of my legs.

“This is from skating isn’t it?” He skimmed a hand over my thigh and felt what little heat was coming from the bruise there.

“I told you I don’t know how to skate and I need to. If I fall and get bruised up in the process then I fall and get bruised up. I over did it yesterday I know that now. I won’t do that again.” Jim had left us alone without me noticing.

He sighed. “I get it, but let me teach you. I don’t like seeing you all bruised up like this. The guys will only take your answers for so long before they start pushing.”

I sighed. He was giving me the stern but pathetic look; I couldn’t fight it. “Fine, but _no_ _one_ finds out about this. If I thought playing soccer would get me chirped, this would be 10 times _worse_.”

The look on his face changed quickly. “I didn’t know you played soccer. Yeah that’ll get you chirped for sure. Learning to skate not so much possibly. How about we work on it tomorrow though. It’ll give you a chance to feel better and give me a chance to figure out just how I’m gonna do this.”

Soon after he left and I was able to get the rest of my job done. When I was washing everything Cass brought me into the equipment room and started my skates one at a time baking. Once they were done I was let back to doing the laundry.

When I got home I found a note from Lyss. ‘Marc called said that if I didn’t have you wear pants tomorrow he was going to tickle you. You _will_ explain later, I ram home for lunch. –L’ I decided that I was going to soak out my bruises. So I grabbed a cold pack from the freezer and a hand towel. I hobbled over to the couch and sat on the cold pack under the towel. Oh man that felt good. I grabbed the remote and watched TV until just before Lyss got home. Bruises be damned, I _would_ learn how to skate and now I had someone willing to help me.