Big Girl Panties

Trixie gave the idea more thought than she had promised Dan and he was more than thrilled with the decision she had made. It was a bittersweet moment for Trixie as she marched her way up to Stan’s office. Her heart was fluttering and undoubtable sadness welled in the bit of her stomach as she passed all the photos on the wall reminding her of her early days when she first started with the organization to high glory of where her career was now. She knew she would feel loss for a while, for it was only for a year and there was one thing more important to her than making sure Patrick Kane’s skates were sharpened and Jonathan Toews had the right flavored Gatorade; her family.

Taking a deep breath in, Trixie lightly knocked on the cracked door and made her presence known when the familiar voice behind the door asked who it was. When Stan cheerfully told her to come in, Trixie found him sitting behind his desk with his glasses on, presumably answering emails. When Stan saw Trixie enter his office, the gleeful smile he wore quickly faded as she took a seat in a chair across from him.

“Is everything okay?” Stan asked.

Over the last twelve years, Stan had grown rather fond of Trixie O’Callahan. He knew she was her own person with a colorful personality and a spirit which was meant to always be free. It was precisely those traits she carried and her hard work ethic instilled by her father was what put Trixie’s name at the top of his list when the team needed a new assistant equipment manager, he had taken her under his wing and cared for her as much as he cared for his own daughter. It brought joy to see her thrive and live her life, and pained him to see her distress. The overwhelming happiness she showed and glowed while now in an open relationship with Daniel Carcillo was why he hadn’t made a big deal of it. Her work was still getting done and there was no locker room drama.

“Everything’s fine.” Trixie smiled. She placed the form she had filled out the previous night on Stan’s desk, finally feeling comfortable with the decision she made. “I’m here to give you this.”

Picking his reading glass up once again and putting them on, Stan looked over the sheet Trixie placed in front of him. “What the hell is this?”

He knew exactly what it was. Stan was just taken back and wanted to hear it from Trixie’s own mouth to make sure it was exactly what she wanted. If it wasn’t, he knew he’d have no trouble talking her out of it.

“My form requesting a leave of absence, it’s only for a year. I’ll be back for the 2014-15 season. Dan and I bought a house yesterday and I realized I want to be there for my son after he’s born. If I don’t take this leave, I’ll pretty much miss the first seven months of his life. I don’t want that, I want to be there. I’m going on leave following the finish of the first round of the playoffs.”

Every word that had come out of Trixie’s mouth was genuine and there wasn’t a point she made that he could argue. However, Stan didn’t have the heart to tell Trixie that buying a house with Dan was probably a mistake and if she planned on keeping her family together she would have to make one of the hardest decisions of her life. With that in mind, Stan wasn’t too optimistic that’d she’d really be back for the 2014-2015 season. This was one of those few times where Stan had nothing to say. There was nothing he could say. Picking up his black pen, Stan looked up at Trixie and smiled before signing and dating the line at the bottom. Trixie’s smile matched Stan’s as she stood up and thanked him.

Before Trixie could walk out of his office to head back down to the locker room, Stan stopped her. “What month are you heading to Boston?”

She hadn’t given it much thought. Her visits to the East Coast to catch up with family varied depending on when the season actually ended. “Haven’t thought about it, why?”

“Make sure you’re in town…” Stan shuffled papers around looking for his phone to read the text message his wife had sent him as a reminder. “July 13th.”

Trixie knew the date was no coincidence. “My baby shower?”

“Probably; I’m just the messenger.”



By 2:30 in the afternoon Trixie had finished all the work she could until the guys would start arriving at the arena at 5 pm. She was looking forward to grabbing a burger at The Palace and bringing it home to devour as she propped her feet up on the sofa and watched an hour and a half of junk TV. Taken by surprise, Trixie was happy to see Dan waiting outside for her. He had parked next to her car and rested against the back of his with his arms crossed over his chest. When Trixie approached, he immediately enveloped her tight against his body and kissed the top of her head.

Trixie had left before he had woken up and his day had been made when he walked into the kitchen of his condo to find Trixie had started a pot of coffee and a Post-it Note had been stuck to the coffee maker. It read, ”don’t get your panties in a wad, I didn’t drink any. Love you tons – Trix Dan loved Trixie’s bubbly and feminine handwriting. Each word containing a mix of print and cursive letters.

“Did you actually do it?” Dan lifted Trixie’s face with his hands so his eyes met hers.

Trixie nodded excitedly. “I did! I feel like a giant weight has been lifted off my back. Now I’ll be able to focus on getting the house decorated and starting on the nursery. If you don’t mind, I’ll ask Patrick and Jonny if they want to hel-.”

Dan shut Trixie’s rambling up with a kiss. Her warm lips melted against his as she wrapped her arms tighter around his middle. As cliché as it seemed in Trixie’s own head, she was sure she would have floated away from the joy and happiness she felt if she hadn’t had such a tight grip on him…or a growing belly. Trixie’s inability to shut up was good sign for him. It meant she was in a very good mood,

Once they had separated, Trixie bashfully bit her lower lip as her cheeks glowed with a deep shade of red. She felt as if she was sixteen again and it was their first kiss. To her, though, it did feel like a first kiss and she wasn’t too sure what to make of it.

“C’mon,” Dan encouraged as he pulled his keys out of the pocket of his jeans. “You and I have somewhere to go.”

As much as she wanted to go with him, all she wanted to do was go home and put her feet up. She had a long night ahead of her; once the horn signaling the end of the third period sounded, Clint, Trixie and Troy would waste no time packing up and loading bag to head seven hours south to St. Louis for the final game of the regular season. Trixie knew it would be nothing but chaotic when she received a copy of the possible lineup. The roster consisted of most guys from Rockford, whom she either hadn’t worked with January or never before.

“Would that ‘someplace to go’ by chance be The Palace? Not only am I starving but your son told me he would really like a hot plate of cheese fries.”

Dan couldn’t help but laugh as he shook his head. “Just get in.”

When Trixie buckled her seatbelt, the first thing she did was attempt to stretch her legs out and she noticed how agitated Dan was. She had no idea he seemed so anxious and he was unusually shorter tempered with other drivers and irked with the traffic as they made their way downtown. Dan found a spot to park in and Trixie got out of the car to feed the meter with coins. She noticed they were standing across the street from the Cook County Clerk’s office.

“The hell we doing here?”

“Let’s get married, today, right now.” He blurted, Dan had shut off all emotion until he heard Trixie’s response. There was a feeling in the pit of his stomach that Trixie wouldn’t give him the response he was looking for. He knew he should have approached it in a different way.

Trixie’s mind had momentarily let her body for the moments it took for her to let it sink in what he had actually just said. In all honesty she thought he had been joking when he first asked her to marry him. They just bought a house less than twenty-four hours ago. She thought that would be enough to hold him over for the next year. This impulse side of Dan was something she hadn’t seen too much of.

When she had come back down to Earth, Trixie covered her face with her hands for a few more seconds to think. She already had the baby, they were moving into the house in four days so why not get married? After all, marriage was supposed to come first but she realized at this point, her life was less than conventional.

Dropping her hands from her face, she could see the look of pure relief on Dan’s face as she smiled wide and gave the answer he wanted to hear. “Yes! Let’s get married.”
There was one thing Trixie realized that would put Dan’s idea of getting married today off track. “You do realize marriage license aren’t valid until twenty-four hours after you sign it, right?”

“While you may be correct on that, my dear, Trixie, with just a few phone calls last night, I figured out the greatness of Chicago politics.”

Trixie narrowed her eyes. “What the fuck did you do?”

“Relax.” Dan grabbed Trixie’s hands. “I made a few phone calls and as it turns out, the guy who deals with the marriage licenses here has a son who just so happens to be not only a huge Blackhawks fan, but a fan of The Great Daniel ‘Carbomb’ Carcillo. And, in exchange of a pair of tickets to the first 2 playoff games and a signed jersey from ours truly, he agreed to do some shit so it would seem like it was filed yesterday.”

Trixie was in amazement. “Oh, my god. You’d made a perfect Chicago politician.”

Grabbing Trixie’s hips, Dan pressed a quick kiss on her. “Let’s get that license so we can get married.”

After obtaining their Illegal marriage license, the couple had less than an hour and a half to get to the courthouse and get married before the both of them were expected to be back at the United Center. Although they didn’t have rings, they were assured that was perfectly okay and Dan promised to take Trixie ring shopping when they got back from St. Louis. She already had the perfect ring in mind.

There was no doubting the amount of trouble they knew they would face. It wasn’t expected of them to go off and get married as they had told their respective families marriage wouldn’t be thought about until after the birth. It was an understatement to say this was a shotgun wedding and in all honesty both Trixie and Dan wouldn’t have it any other way. They both loved stirring up trouble.

“Are we crazy?” Trixie asked with a giggle as she sat down in the waiting area.

“Baby, we’re not crazy. We’re fucking bonkers.” Kissing her cheek, Dan grabbed Trixie’s hand and laced their fingers as he gave her hand a tight, reassuring squeeze.

She was happy and relieved to see she wasn’t the only pregnant woman waiting. She had grown even more excited and the tears freely flowed when she saw not only her parents, but Dan’s parents as well, walk in and meet them. Trixie had known his parents flew in early in the evening the previous night. They never missed Dan’s final home game of the season, whether he was playing or not. After picking them up from the airport, the four of them and Trixie’s parents had gone out to eat. Jack had invited Julia and Geno to sit with him and his new ‘lady friend’.

Darting up from her seat, Trixie hugged and kissed her mother before latching on to her father and continuing to cry out of happiness; Julia couldn’t help but laugh as she wiped the tears from Trixie’s cheeks.

“How did you know we were here?” Trixie finally settled down.

Julia gave Trixie a hug. “I told my son he’d be a very dumb man not to marry you after we first met. I told him the same thing last night after dinner and this morning I got a phone call telling me to come to the courthouse.”

Trixie turned around to look at Dan mouthed the words “thank you.” He knew how important it was to her to have her parents there and it was as equally important to him to have his.

Jack pushed a lock of hair that fell in to Trixie’s eye before pulling her into a hug. “You’re my baby girl, Trixie and I’ll always love you. After a long conversation over many vodka and cranberries with Dan, I realized the only man who will ever love you as much I do is Dan. I have faith he’ll treat you and my grandson well and with respect.”

Trixie tried her best to control the tears again. She had no words for her father; the only response she could give him was a kiss on the cheek and another hug.

The butterflies didn’t really set in until their last names had been called. What scared Trixie was the most was that she wasn’t second guessing her decision. But, she did find comfort knowing that if she had second guessed it, then getting married probably wasn’t a good idea.

When the six of them entered the judge’s chambers, Trixie was none too surprised to find the man who would be marrying them was rather quirky. He wore thick, rounded glasses which almost matched the thick round belly which wasn’t well hidden under his robe. He shook all their hands and gathered their names as he cracked jokes about Trixie being pregnant.

“Shall we get started?” He asked.

Everyone answered in a unison “yes” as they realized they were running out of time.

And so he began. The judge gave a small speech outlining the joy of marriage as it unified two people. He assured Jack and Debra that they weren’t losing a daughter, but rather gaining a son and then in turn assured Geno and Julia that they weren’t losing a son, but rather gaining a daughter. Looking from his book, the judge eyed Dan and Trixie.

“Do you have rings?”

“No.” Dan answered, looking at Trixie with an apologetic look in his eyes. He wished he would have taken the time to at least pick out a small ring as a temporary.

Without missing a beat, the judge told the both of them join hands. Dan rubbed his thumb against Trixie’s as the both of them could hear her mother sniffling in the background.

“Do you, Daniel, take Laura, to be your lawfully wedded wife?”

It had been the second time that day he had heard Trixie’s legal birth name and he was rather intrigued to the story as to how she acquired the nickname of ‘Trixie.’

Dan gave Trixie a small smile as he looked her in the eye. “I do.”

The quirky judge turned to Trixie. “And, do you, Laura, take Daniel, to be your lawfully wedded husband?”

She returned the smile and nodded her head lightly. “I do.”

“And now, by the authority invested in me and in ordinance of the laws and statues of Cook County and the State of Illinois, I now pronounce you man and wife. Daniel, you may kiss your bride.”

The small room erupted with claps from Jack and Debra, Geno and Julia as Daniel cupped the jaw of his bride and sealed the deal with a kiss.