Ice Might Be Nice

For the next two weeks we worked carefully on my skating. I felt bad that Marc was doing so much extra skating but he didn’t seem to mind. Unfortunately for me our lessons didn’t stay private. In the days leading up to Training Camp, it seemed that the entire team showed up for one reason or another. It wouldn’t have been so annoying but they all insisted on trying to give me pointers, sometimes overlapping each other. “SHUT UP!” I shouted as they, yet again tried giving advice. They all stopped and looked at me. “You do realize that you’re talking over each other right? Not to mention I can’t keep my feet at my shoulders _and_ do this damned cross over.”

They all stopped and gaped at me. I kinda felt bad but they needed to know. “I know you’re trying to help and I love you guys for it, but I think I need just _one_ of you guys to teach me. I’ll even go so you guys can figure out who that’s gonna be.” I turned back for the bench and the exit and made my way off the ice. I didn’t ask all of them to help me and they were pissing me off by trying.

I walked confidently into the locker room and angrily pulled my skates off. I grabbed a towel sitting next to me and wiped them down automatically, I then put my guards on and stalked to my office. Yeah, I was that mad. I didn’t _quite_ slam my door, but it was a close thing.

10 minutes after I skated off, I was immersed in paperwork for what was starting tomorrow, Training Camp. There was a tentative knock on my door. “Enter.” I said as I kept working. I was making the logs for the various stations so I couldn’t exactly stop.

Cally poked his head in. “Krys? Can we talk?” I waved him in and he came in and closed the door behind him. “We feel awful Krys. Here you’re trying to do something we take for granted and we all came in and tried bossing you around when we should have been making sure you were learning what you really needed.” I could hear the shame in his voice as he spoke. “It was unfair of us to do that and I’d like to apologize.”

I finished the page I was working on, saved it and turned to him. “Cally it wasn’t that you were trying to help, it was all the conflicting comments and directions. You guys have all skated since you were very young, well I haven’t. I need someone who’s willing to be patient with me and help me learn quickly. I was serious, you guys figure out who is gonna be able to help me with those qualifications and I’ll do my best, otherwise I’m going to do it on my own.” Ryan nodded, he understood that I was mad at the situation not so much the people.

“Then we’ll figure it out.” He stood and put a hand lightly on my shoulder. “Patient, help you learn quick and I’m guessing fun would help too.” I smiled up at him. “No problem.” He walked out of my office and I heard him shouting down the hall at the guys.

*** Marc’s POV***

I knew that letting the guys find out about this was a bad idea, even if it was just Hank at first. I watched helplessly as Krys berated the guys and then stormed off. As much as I wanted to go after her, I knew she needed time to cool off, I would. Instead I wandered into the room with the other guys and we had a chat about who was going to go talk to her and apologize. We decided Cally should do it. He flipped us all off but went and did it anyway.

While he was gone I sighed and got nudged. “She really was making good progress.” I said aloud. They all seemed to agree with me.

“Once she gets that cross over she’ll be ready for backwards.” Taylor said carefully.

DZ chirped him easily. “Yeah but someone that does it more often than you should teach her.” He threw a towel at Pyatt.

Marty chipped in. “So we shouldn’t count on you t’en right?” That earned him a towel thrown too. “Seriously she needs to learn right? Who’s goin’ to teach ‘er?

“Guys I got a starting point!” Cally shouted as he came back into the room. He turned the corner and his volume dropped. “She wants someone who can be patient with her, someone who can help her learn quick and she smiled when I said someone fun. I think we can find someone who can fit that. Of course this would be outside our own training like it is now.”

We did some serious discussion and figured out that while she needed to learn, none of them could commit to full time after Camp started. That’s when they tried getting tricky with it, but it blew up quickly. I finally stood up. “Guys, I’ll just keep teaching her. We’ll do it after practice and when I can’t be there, I’ll find someone to cover it.”

Hags threw a towel at me. “You just want an excuse to stay with the pretty girl and have your hands on her. You never _did_ tell us what you were doing the other night, blowing us off to have a low key night…”

Derek put it together. “Oh man, you were with her weren’t you?!” I could have cursed him for it too. All at once it seemed everyone had a questions about Krys and I.

Suddenly there was a shrill whistle from the doorway. “Knock it off!” Jim yelled at us. “A, she’s still in her office and B, I knew that they had gotten cozy. As long as it doesn’t affect their jobs it doesn’t matter. I would _hope_ that Marc would have the decency _not_ to gossip about what has or has not happened with someone you all see every day. Now, get out of my locker room before I make you skate laps!”

Things quickly broke up after that. We all agreed we’d table this until a later date so we didn’t get in trouble with Jim. I scrawled a note for Krys and left it on her car. “Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel. – Marc” I hoped she’d find it and understand what it meant.

*** Jim’s POV***

I watched carefully as the boys filed out of the locker room. They were close to hitting the nail on the head; Marc and Krys were _very_ close. I wouldn’t say it was a bad thing; he drove her to do her best during their skating sessions. When they were mostly out I pulled Hank aside. “Hank,” He stepped over to me with a curious look on his face. “Don’t let the guys tease Staalsy about spending time with Krys. They have a chemistry that pushes them both to be better. He’s learning to be patient while she’s learning to skate. It’s _going_ to benefit us when the season starts.”

Hank nodded. “I thought I was the only one who saw that from them. It will benefit the team not just on the ice either. I’ll have words with Cally and Brad about what I see, let them know that I’m not the only one too if that’s ok.” I nodded. “Thanks Jim, she’s a good fit. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.” He left me standing in the doorway with things to do. Camp was opening in a couple days and I would be even busier, so would Krys. The Roller Coaster was about to begin.