Ice Might Be Nice

The Staples Center was deafening, and that was before you got out on the ice. Torts stood in the room looking closely at everyone. He went over and kicked the door closed so he could be heard. “I know you can all hear that. That’s what it sounds like to raise a fucking Stanley Cup Banner. I don’t know about you, but I want to hear _that_ in the Fucking Garden next year!”

That got the guys attention, heads raised from their mental preparation. Torts went on like this for another 5 minutes. I’ll be honest at some point I blocked him out and started mentally reciting the speech from Miracle instead. Once he was done the guys were fired up. “Now, it’s time for us to go out there and show them what the _next_ Cup Champions look like!”

I watched from behind them all as they marched out of the locker room and down the tunnel. Now I had time to worry and wait. I had my phone in my pocket on vibrate and felt it go off. Being in the locker room I could check it as long as I was careful and kept cleaning up from pre-game. It was a text from Lyss. ‘Good Luck tonight!’. I didn’t text her back right away as I was trying to straighten up the room for the intermission.

Once that was done and we were all watching the screen, we noticed the slaughter that was going on. Already we’d scored two and I saw as Hags put another one past Quick. “Holy Shit!” I said loudly. This wasn’t the first time I’d cursed, so no one looked at me oddly. A couple minutes after our second goal J.T. got called for holding on Williams. Once that wound down, the boys came into the room with a 3-0 lead and were already on their way to a happy ending for this game.

Torts came in a few minutes after they did, after conferring with his staff. I didn’t bother listening really, but he was unhappy with some things we did and felt everyone needed to know it. After he left and the guys were grumbling to themselves about things that happened during the period, I felt it was safe to go into the room and check to see who was going to be a pain, or in pain as the case may be.

So far it looked as if the guys were in good shape. I focused on my work and not how hot I thought Marc was looking right now, it was the only way I was going to be able to get through the season. I went back into the medical room to make sure that there was no one in there I’d missed and as I turned I came face to face with Marc.

“Hey I know it’s early to ask, but we’re thinking about going out after the game, you think you’ll be up for it?” I sighed a little knowing that I had to let him down. My job wasn’t over when his was; I had an hour or more after the game where I was still working.

I shook my head, a few strands bouncing around my face. “I don’t think so. I’ve still got things to do after you guys leave, or did you forget?” His face fell a little bit. I reach out and touched his arm. “It’s not that I don’t _want_ to go, it’s that I can’t. I have to get my stuff ready for the flight to San Jose tomorrow.” I think reality finally hit him; I couldn’t just drop everything and go with him every time he wanted me to, I had my job too. He nodded a bit and left the room.

I stayed in the treatment room until I heard everyone getting up to leave. It was cowardly, yeah, but it was how I had to deal with not seeing the disappointment in Marc’s eyes. Jase must have overheard some of what was said, as once the room was picked up again and we were watching the game on the screen, he spoke. “Sorry about you having to bail on him. If it helps, we’re gonna go grab a bite before we come back and deal with this. We normally go to The Farm of Beverly Hills. It’s walking distance from here and has great comfort food. All the trainers go as a group, it’s _our_ team bonding event. We don’t have to dress up and get great food.”

I sighed. “I feel like I kicked his dog. Not my fault I have to finish my job before I can do other things.” I felt like a bad girlfriend, but I knew I did the right thing. Jase pat me on the shoulder as we watched L.A. finally tally their first goal.

The guys came back in and I stayed in the treatment room. Jim came in and restocked his on ice kit and before leaving came over and gave me a squeeze. “Cheer up kiddo, after we get settled tomorrow afternoon, you’ll have all night to yourself.” Yep he’d been told.

I lowered my voice and sighed. “I still feel bad about not dumping work to go with him. Is that sad?” I looked over Jim’s shoulder and saw the locker room was listening to Torts.

He smiled and chuckled. “He’ll get used to it. You’re a professional and making that decision shows it. Jase told you about _our_ tradition right?” I nodded. “Good, cause the food is great and they are always happy to see us. I called and warned them that we’d be over late this afternoon.”

I felt better during the third and watched in the tunnel as the Kings _tried_ to pull closer to us. It failed miserably as 15 seconds later Captain Cally got his second of the night for a 5-2 lead. Hank closed the door and that’s how it ended. Needless to say the guys came into the room in high spirits. I helped check the few tweaks we had, nothing major but it was safer to check and keep an eye on it than have it be a surprise.

After the media had left and the guys were making their ways to the bus, Hank stopped by to see me. “Hey, don’t worry about Staalsie. We’ll make sure he gets back safe and has a good time. There’s plenty of time for you guys to go out on other nights.”

I smiled at him. “Thanks Hank. Hopefully we’ll find a balance with all of this and not have it tear us apart.” I closed the trunk I had been working on and started the next one.

“You will. Just let us know when you guys need help doing that. I better catch up with them, I just had to let you know he’d be cared for until we can get him back to you.” He knocked on the doorframe and left me alone to finish up.

About an hour after the game ended, we were packing our now dry game jerseys into their box and wheeling it all into a secure room. We’d come back tomorrow morning to load it all onto the plane but there was another team coming in tonight and they needed the room. It was now time to feed our hardworking selves. We walked over to The Farm; it was only a block. The 16 of us were met with smiles and seated in the back of the restaurant. Over perusing menus, stories were traded; including how Jim found me.

As we ordered I noticed that most of us were going for comfort type foods. I got the Oven Roasted Chicken Breast. It sounded so yummy with the lemon chardonnay sauce, sweet white corn, & fingerling potatoes. The golden beets didn’t sound as yummy but I’d try them, who knew I might like them. The guys all got caught up with each other and even made sure to include me in the flow of conversation. I had a feeling this was something normal for them all, going out together to make sure that we all knew who each other were and to foster good feelings between us all. It worked.

After dinner and the obligatory ‘See you in the morning, but not too early’’ the 8 of us walked the block to the hotel. I crawled into bed and made sure my alarm was set. I still felt like a bad girlfriend, but it was clear I was good professional.