Cinematic Confessions

Katherine looked at Autumn. She knew her best friend was upset. And, while she felt bad for what had happened with Corey, she wanted Autumn to be happy again, if not for herself than for the baby she was carrying. But, she couldn't just flat out say that to Autumn. She glanced over at Cade, who had tried to help Autumn feel better by stopping at her favorite restaurant on his way home from the hospital, but she didn't even want to eat.

"Autumn, I know you're upset," Katherine began.

Autumn's head snapped up. "Yeah, and I know you're worried how my mood is affecting the baby," she stated.

Katherine wanted to protest. She cared about Autumn's feelings, but she couldn’t deny that she was worried about the baby as well. "Autumn, I just want you to be happy again. Look, Corey was an asshole, and maybe he'll get his head out of his ass one of these days and come back," she started.

"You were there, Katherine. You saw the way he looked at me, what he said to me. He thinks I'm some whore," Autumn spat. "He's not coming back."

There was a knock on Autumn's door, and Katherine stood up to get it. "I wouldn't be too sure of that," she muttered under her breath as she opened the door, seeing Corey standing on the other side. "I see Brent must have talked to you," she spoke, her defenses still up. Corey had hurt Autumn, and she wasn't about to just let him walk back in her life without knowing what he was facing if he hurt her again.

"Yeah, Brent talked some sense into me," Corey told her.

Autumn's head shot up when she heard Corey talking. She hadn't thought about Brent when this had all happened. Either Katherine or Corey or maybe both of them had talked to Brent about what had gone down. Autumn was embarrassed by the accusations from Corey, and she really wished it would stay low profile. But, if Brent knew, she was sure the entire team knew. She shouldn't have been surprised, either. After all, Brent was Katherine's brother. Of course he knew.

"Can I please just talk to her?" Corey asked. Autumn could hear the desperation in her voice, though she couldn't see his face, as Katherine was blocking the way. She had her arm over the entrance to the door, not letting him walk inside. Autumn knew if Corey wanted to, he could easily push past Katherine, though she knew you never wanted to cross a pissed off Katherine.

"Whatever you want to say to her you can say to me. I don't need you to accuse her of being a whore again," Katherine stated.

Autumn heard Corey sigh. "Look, I was wrong. Can't I just tell her that?"

"No, you can't," Katherine began.

"Kat, let him in," Autumn called out, and Katherine slowly moved to the side, watching as Corey slid past her over to Autumn, standing in front of her.

"Autumn, I'm sorry," he immediately apologized. "I got it all wrong," he said. Autumn didn't say anything, and after a few moments of silence, Corey continued. "I jumped to the wrong conclusion. Will you please give me another shot?"

Corey was starting to get worried when Autumn still didn't reply. He could feel Katherine shooting daggers into the back of his head, not that he could blame her. Autumn turned her head so she was looking at Katherine. "I think you're going to have to get Katherine to give you another shot," Autumn said.

Corey spun his head around to look at Katherine. He could now see the resemblance between her and Brent. Katherine may have dyed her normal dark hair blonde, but their facial features were similar. "You're a dumbass," Katherine flat out said. Corey had to bite his tongue not to laugh at her words, the same ones that had come out of Brent's mouth a number of times the night before. "And, you're going to have to work damn hard to win her back. And, if you ever hurt her and talk to her the way you did the other day, I'll have Brent kick your ass. And after you're down from that, I'll have Cade come along and kick your ass again."

He knew with those words that Katherine had forgiven him, though he would be on the block for a long time to come. He turned to look at Autumn, waiting to hear what she had to say. "Autumn?" he prompted.

"You should probably meet Cade, he's a big part of my life," she spoke, and though she hadn't said the words themselves, he knew she had forgiven him for his foolishness from before.

He watched as a tall man with dark hair stood up from the chair he was sitting in and walked over to him, holding his hand out. "Cade Woods," he introduced himself.

"Corey Crawford," Corey replied.

"Cade is Katherine's husband, the father of the baby," Autumn explained. It was a touchy subject . Though she may have let him back in her life, they hadn't discussed the baby at all, and Autumn wasn't sure of Corey's thoughts on the matter.

Cade must have caught on because he was the one to excuse himself and Katherine. "Call us if you need anything," Katherine said. "Otherwise, I'll talk to you later."

"I'll look forward to the nightly call to say good night to the baby," Autumn joked, and Katherine stuck her tongue out at her while she and Cade walked out, leaving Autumn and Corey alone. Autumn looked over at Corey. "So, where do we go from here?" she asked him.

"I need to apologize a million more times," Corey told her. "God, I was such an idiot, jumping to conclusions. I'm sorry, Autumn. It's just, we'd only known each other a couple of weeks, and I thought you had kept it from me for a reason, the reason being…well, you know," he trailed off.

"Yeah, I know," Autumn said sadly.

"Seabs filled me in on the details though. You're a surrogate," he stated. Autumn nodded her head. "I think that's a great thing that you're doing for them," he told her.

"Thanks," Autumn said with a small smile on her face. "Let's move past a couple of days ago, okay? Maybe we can try another date?" she suggested.

Corey grinned. "I'm one step ahead of you," he told her, and she looked at him curiously. "I thought we could have a movie day," he smiled at her. Autumn knew this was a big deal. She'd learned in the past few weeks that Corey wasn't a huge movie fan like she was. And, while they would have some movie dates, she knew they were having them specifically because she liked movies so much. He grabbed his bag, which Autumn had assumed he had with him because he came straight from practice, but now realized it served a purpose. "I thought we could watch Juno or Baby Mama or Million Dollar Baby," he said, pulling the DVDs out of the bag.

Autumn started laughing, realizing he had a theme going on, just like she had when she had accused him of lying. And, she also knew he was trying to tell her he was accepting of her being the surrogate mother. She knew they'd have to talk about it more in detail later, but right now she just wanted to be happy with him again. "You do realize that Million Dollar Baby has nothing to do with being pregnant, right?" she asked him with a chuckle.

Corey shrugged his shoulders. "Can't say I've seen it," he admitted, and Autumn just shook her head, knowing she shouldn't be surprised. They had had several conversations that consisted of her naming off a bunch of movies and Corey telling her he had seen none of them. "And, if you don't want any of those, I brought a backup just in case," he said, digging in his bag and pulling out one last DVD.

Autumn stared at the movie in shock. "Bride Wars?" she asked, grabbing it out of his hand. She couldn't believe it. She'd never mentioned this movie, but it was her favorite. "How did you know?"

"Know what?" he asked her, tilting his head to the side.

"Bride Wars is my favorite movie," she told him.

"Seriously?" he asked, his eyes widening. "You just said your favorite actress was Kate Hudson," he said. She was partially surprised he remembered that. She had told him that their first date when she had made him watch How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. "So I just picked another Kate Hudson movie," he admitted.

Autumn smiled at him. "Everyone gave this movie such a bad review, but I seriously love it. Kat and I always joked that we were like Anne Hathaway and Kate Hudson. Though she got to be Kate Hudson because she's got the blonde hair," Autumn shook her head, still obviously bitter by that fact.

"So I take it that's the one you want to watch?" he asked with a smile, and she nodded her head excitedly as she grabbed the box and walked over to the DVD player, popping the disc in. She went back over to the couch, sitting down and leaning into Corey. It was like his accusations and their fight had never happened.

The movie finished, and Autumn used the controller to turn the tv off, but didn't move from where she was curled up next to Corey. "So, tell me more about this surrogacy. I don't know all the details how it works," he told her.

Autumn moved away from his body slightly so she could look up into his face as she talked, but he kept his arm around her so she didn't get too far away. "It's pretty simple for me," she began. "Since Katherine's my best friend. She found out a little while ago that she wasn't able to carry a baby to full term, so she and Cade decided to go through a surrogate to have a baby of their own instead of adopting. I offered to do it," she shrugged her shoulders, making it seem like it wasn't as big of a deal as it actually was.

"She couldn't really ask for a better friend," Corey spoke.

Autumn chuckled. "Oh, I’m sure she could. But, I know how important a baby is to the two of them, so why wouldn't I do this for them?"

"You know, not everyone is like you," Corey told her. "Not everyone would give up their body for nine months just to give their best friend a baby. They'd tell them to go through a hospital."

Autumn looked directly into his eyes when she spoke. "She's my best friend and I'd do anything for her."

Corey smiled at her. "I know," he spoke quietly as he pulled her head towards him and kissed her gently on the lips. "And, that's one of the things I like about you," he said before going for another kiss.

"And that I don't just open my legs for anyone," she joked, and Corey pressed his forehead against hers as he looked down at her.

"Just had to ruin the moment, didn't you?" he chuckled.

"I have to give you shit," she smiled, giving him a quick peck on the lips. "And, you know you won't live that down for a long time."

Corey nodded his head, knowing she was right. "Something tells me I've got a lot more movie marathons coming up," he said.

"Oh yes you do," Autumn grinned, sinking into him once again.



His teammates could tell there was something different with Corey. He had been back on point since that horrible disaster against Vancouver, and he was a perfect 2-0 on the road trip with one game left to go on the road. "Let's go out," Duncan Keith, his roommate, suggested.

Corey nodded his head, grabbing his phone and wallet before following Duncan out of the room. They got to the bar and weren't surprised to find several girls throwing themselves at the boys, trying to get them to invite the girls back to their hotel room with them. A couple of the men fell for it, but Corey stayed where he was at the table, drinking his beer. "I don't need to find another room for the night?" Duncan joked, elbowing Corey in the side. It was customary for the roommate to stay with someone else for the night when one of the men brought a girl back for the night.

Corey shook his head. "Nope, you're stuck with me tonight, stud," he exaggeratingly winked at Duncan.

"So when are we gonna meet this girl of yours?" Duncan asked. "I mean, Seabs knows her so we might as well all get to know her," he reasoned. Corey had thought about that a lot. He knew if things got serious with Autumn, like they were right now, he'd have to introduce her to the team eventually. But, that also meant having to explain her whole surrogacy situation to the team. And, while Seabrook had ousted that when Corey had messed up, he wasn't sure how many of his teammates had actually picked up on what was going on. And, introducing his teammates to his pregnant girlfriend was going to be a little weird. So he was going to hold that off for as long as he could.

"Eventually," Corey said vaguely, ordering another beer as he finished off his first one.

"Oh the man thinks he can keep her hidden!" Andrew Shaw called out from a couple of seats over. "Do you really not think we can get to her?"

Corey laughed. "I'm trying to keep her the hell away from you before she dumps me because I have the worst friends ever!" he joked.

"We're not all idiots," Patrick Sharp spoke up. "You could introduce her to the decent ones in the group. And by decent I mean the mature, married ones," he said, looking at Brent and Duncan, the two married guys at the table, who nodded their heads in agreement.

"We'll see," Corey said. "Now can we talk about anything else besides me and my girlfriend?" he requested.

"How about that babe over there," Patrick Kane said, nodding towards the opposite side of the bar where a group of women had just sat down. In the past, Corey would have been interested in the women as much as Kane was, but right now, all he could do was compare them to Autumn and her short stature and infectious smile that had first reeled him in.

Thinking about her, he grabbed his phone out of his pocket to check to see if she had texted him. She had sent him a congratulatory text after the game but didn't say much more than that. He had to admit, he liked that she wasn't a clingy girlfriend. He'd seen enough of his teammates with them in the past, and they just didn't work when they were on the road like they always were. Still, he wanted to talk to her, and he sent her a quick text. What are you up to?

After sending it he realized it was a stupid question. He was on the west coast, where it was nearly midnight, which meant it was nearly two in the morning in Chicago. He had just put his phone back in his pocket when he felt it buzz, and he pulled it back out to read her response. Throwing up

He furrowed his eyebrows. He had texted her earlier in the day and she hadn't mentioned feeling sick. Maybe she had eaten something bad. He was starting to type a reply when he got another text from her. Morning sickness apparently happens at 2 am too

"Who are you texting?" Shaw asked, pulling Corey away from his texting to see that all of the guys were staring at him. Apparently he hadn't been paying attention to their conversation for too long for them to notice. "It's your girl, isn't it?"

"Yeah, she's throwing up apparently," Corey told him, figuring there was no reason to lie about that.

"She drink too much?" Kane joked.

Brent looked at him seriously, though. "Is she okay?" he asked, and Corey nodded his head at Brent.

"She's fine," he said, putting his phone back in his pocket, forgetting to text her back, as he joined back into the conversation amongst the guys that had just started about Duncan's new baby.