Our Secret Hiding Spot

Quinn had just dropped off Riley and Anna back with Noah, and she was getting ready to head into work when her phone started ringing. She glanced at it to see it was Kris, and she picked up. "Hey Kris, what's up?" she asked him.

"You might want to come home," he said slowly, and her stomach dropped, her mind racing with all sorts of possibilities as to why Kris was telling her to come home. Did it have something to do with him signing a contract somewhere else? Or had Dean done something again? Was it something about the wedding?

"What is it?" she asked him, not needing to think of any more ideas while she was driving, as she was likely to crash her car.

"Just come home," Kris replied, and Quinn knew there was no way this could be anything good or else Kris would have just come out and said it on the phone.

"Okay," she said. "I'll be there soon," she added as she hung up the phone, making a U-turn at the next stoplight. She couldn't help but worry the whole way home. She wasn't sure which scenario would be the worst. But, she knew she didn't want any of them. She tapped her thumb along the top of the steering wheel as she drove home nervously. She pulled into the parking garage and made her way up to their condo.

She walked inside to see Kris sitting on the couch. "What's wrong?" she asked him, furrowing her eyebrows as she noticed he was playing a video game. What exactly had he called her for? "Did you sign a contract?" she asked.

She impatiently tapped her foot on the floor as he continued to play his video game instead of responding to her. She was starting to get irritated at him and was ready to call out his name when suddenly a person came running into the room from the kitchen, tackling her. It took Quinn a moment to catch her breath after getting it knocked out of her and to figure out who had just attacked her. When she finally recognized the dark hair and scream, Quinn squealed herself. "Dani!"

"Hey bride-to-be!" Dani smiled brightly.

"What are you doing here?" Quinn asked, though she was happy to see her best friend. Danielle had moved to San Jose with her husband, Tyler Kennedy, when Tyler had gotten traded to the Sharks. Quinn had hated that day. She had wanted to keep Tyler with the Penguins, but in the end, she had to do what was best for the team and had given in when Mario and Ray had argued for trading him.

"Well, I haven't been around to help you with your wedding, and I haven't gotten my bridesmaids dress, so I thought it was time to come back for a little bit and get all that done! Plus, a little birdie told me that your wedding planner may not be as helpful as you had hoped and I thought I could be of some assistance," she smiled.

Quinn looked over at Kris, who continued to play his video game. She knew he must have been the one to call Dani and tell her about the wedding planner who wasn't living up to expectations. "Thank you," she told Danielle. "I need to go into work for a little bit and get some things done, but can we meet for lunch and we can talk? How long are you staying for?" she asked.

"I'm here for a couple of weeks right now. Ty is coming this weekend, and he's going to stick around for a little bit and catch up with everyone. And, then I'll be back for the two weeks before your wedding to make sure everything goes off without a hitch," she explained.

"You are the best!" Quinn exclaimed, pulling Dani into a hug. "I have to go to work, but hang out with Kris or something and I'll text you about lunch! Bye Kris!" she added, grabbing her purse and heading back out to the car. She glanced at her watch, seeing that she was going to be late, but she didn't really care today. Her best friend was back, and things were finally going in the right direction again. At least she thought so until she walked into her office and Mario immediately called her over into his.

"Have a seat," he said, motioning to the chair across from him.

For the second time in less than an hour, her stomach dropped. "What's going on?" she asked him.

"I've got a meeting with Evan Grayson in fifteen minutes," he told her.

"Okay," she said slowly. Mario never talked about interactions with Evan with her. Whatever went on behind the scenes about Kris stayed with Mario, and Quinn was never involved. "What does that have to do with me? Besides the obvious?" she asked. "Are you going to stop negotiations with Kris?" she finally asked the question that was on her mind. She knew that if Kris didn't sign a contract with the Penguins soon, it was likely that the Penguins would just give up and let him walk. That was the last thing she wanted right now.

"You know I can't discuss those matters with you," he said softly, and Quinn looked at him confused, wondering why he had brought it up if he wasn't planning on telling her anything else. "I want you to look into moving a couple of people."

"Who?" Quinn asked, utterly confused by what was going on.

"Murray and Jeffries," he stated.

"Okay, do you have something in mind?" she asked. They had discussed them in the immediate post-season meetings and said that they could keep them or leave them, either way would be fine for the team, but it hadn't been discussed since that first meeting.

Mario smiled, and Quinn knew he had something up his sleeve, but she wasn't quite sure what that something was. "I'm thinking if we get rid of one or both of them, we can get someone cheaper and maybe have a few more dollars to wave around to certain free agents," he said. It didn't take any more explanation for Quinn to understand what Mario was thinking. He was trying to save Kris without actually coming out and saying it.

"Thank you," Quinn said quietly, smiling at him. "I'll get on that right away," she added with a nod of her head as she went back to her office. She turned on her computer and immediately got to work making calls to see what kinds of trades they could get for the two men Mario had suggested.

The hours passed by quickly with Quinn on the phone with several owners from other teams, and before she knew it, it was already one o'clock. She called Danielle, apologizing for not getting to her sooner and asking her to meet her for lunch at a local Vietnamese place that was right next to the arena.

Quinn gathered her things and walked down the street to the restaurant, waiting on Dani to arrive. She had already ordered a drink for herself when Dani walked through the door, finding her friend sitting near the front of the dining area fairly quickly. She sat down across from her, setting a binder down on the table between them. "How's work going?" Danielle asked, not offering any sort of explanation of the binder.

"Busy," Quinn replied. "Sorry again about the late lunch! But, what is that?" she asked, pointing to the binder that was distracting her.

"Oh! I thought you could use this!" Dani answered, pushing the binder towards Quinn.

Quinn grabbed the binder and opened it to the first page, smiling as she saw what it was. Inside, the pages were filled with details from Danielle and Tyler's wedding, and Quinn quickly realized that it was Dani's wedding planning binder. "Oh my God, this could be my lifesaver!" she exclaimed. "Wendy is seriously not helping at all. I think she's actually making it more complicated."

"Well maybe you should fire her," Dani suggested, and Quinn had to admit that it sounded like a good idea, but she shrugged, figuring she would think about it later and maybe talk to Kris about it, though she knew he would just tell her he'll go along with whatever she wanted. "I'm here to help you out, and I'm sure between me and Claire that we could do Wendy's job for her!"

Quinn smiled at her. She loved Dani, and she knew the girl would do anything for her. She continued flipping through the binder, seeing the page with all the bridesmaids dresses. "We need to get you your bridesmaids dress!" Quinn told her. She had already picked out the style and color, but Danielle needed to be fitted still. Quinn had joked with her that she didn't want her to get a dress and then end up pregnant before the wedding. But, it appeared Danielle had been right when she had assured Quinn that she and Tyler were waiting to have kids for at least a couple more years. It didn't matter that they had been together for several years already, they wanted to enjoy their time as a married couple before having children.

"Yes we do!" Danielle agreed as the waiter came up and she ordered a drink and her food. As he walked away, she looked across the table at Quinn. "So how's Kris been with everything? Ty didn't really care about anything. He just told me to make myself happy and do whatever I wanted," she chuckled at the memory.

Quinn shrugged her shoulders. "Kris is kinda the same way. I think we've both got so much going on that he just will go along with whatever I want. That's why we hired Wendy because we're both so swamped with everything else, but in the end, she just seems to put more on us, which was exactly what we didn't want."

"Any word on next season for Kris?" Dani asked. She knew what it was like to worry about the person you were in love with getting traded. It wasn't fun being stuck in limbo, knowing that you have no say in the matter whatsoever.

Quinn shook her head. "Nothing new. Mario had a meeting with Kris's agent this morning, and he asked me to look into moving some things around to maybe get a little more money to offer. But, he doesn't really say much to me, which is what we agreed on. Kris doesn't talk about it much, but I know he's looking for a no trade clause to stay here, but Ray doesn't want to give it to him."

"Fuck Ray," Danielle cursed. Quinn frowned. She knew Dani didn't exactly like Ray. After all, he was the reason that Tyler was traded away. It was well known that Ray and Tyler didn’t get along very well. The only reason Tyler had stayed with the Penguins so long was that Coach Bylsma loved him. But, even Dan couldn't convince Ray that the team could use Tyler, and ultimately when the offer came up, Quinn and Mario had to take it and send Tyler to San Jose. Quinn prayed that it worked out for the better for him.

"I'm sorry," Quinn apologized.

"It's not your fault!" Danielle assured her as their drinks arrived. Quinn had ordered sangria, though she wasn't sure she should be drinking at lunchtime when she had to go back to work. But, not knowing what was going on with Kris was getting to her, and one drink at lunch really couldn't hurt. "Why doesn't he want to just give him the no trade clause?" Dani inquired as she took a sip of her cocktail.

"I don’t know. Sometimes I wish I was in those meetings with them, but then I think my personal feelings would take over way too quickly," Quinn mumbled.

"Which is exactly why you have the setup you have with Mario. But seriously, everyone knows the entire fan base will be pissed if Kris leaves. You'd think Ray and Mario would be working harder to get him to stay and just give in to the no trade clause. Kris obviously wants to stay here. But, have you guys talked about what will happen if a deal isn't made?" Danielle asked hesitantly. She didn't want to upset Quinn, but she was curious nonetheless.

Quinn inhaled deeply and let it out slowly. "Not really. I don’t think Kris really wants to think about it, let alone talk about it. He tells me the gist of what goes on with Evan, and that's never really good. Evan keeps telling him to think about taking an offer from somewhere else."

"That sucks," Dani muttered, and Quinn nodded her head in agreement, taking another big sip of her drink. "Well, let's talk about something that doesn't suck!" Dani changed subjects quickly, grabbing the binder from Quinn. "First thing's first, you're going to fire Wendy, and I'm going to help you plan this thing, even if we have to do it over the phone while I'm in California, and I have to call places here to get everything set up!"

Quinn laughed, knowing that Danielle wouldn’t hesitate to plan this thing from a long distance away. "Okay," she smiled at her friend.

"Let's start with food!" she said, flipping through the pages until she got to the menu she and Tyler had at their wedding and she and Quinn started discussing options for Quinn's own wedding.