‹ Prequel: The Fear Is Paralyzing

Our Secret Hiding Spot

Six

Quinn came home to find that Kris wasn't there. She wasn't sure where he had gone off to, but she didn't think too much of it as she went to the kitchen to decide what to make for dinner. She saw some pasta in the cabinet and decided to make fettuccini alfredo. She wasn't sure if Kris was going to grab something for dinner while he was out, but she decided to make enough for him, and if he didn't make it home for dinner, then there'd be enough left over for lunch tomorrow.

She had already finished eating dinner when the front door opened, and she heard Kris call out, "Hey babe."

She stood up and made her way out to meet him. "Hey," she smiled at him. "I wasn't sure if you were eating here or not. There's some fettuccini out in the kitchen if you want," she told him.

He shook his head as he took off his jacket. "I ate with Sid," he told her, and she nodded her head. "How was your day? Get a lot of stuff taken care of with Dani?" he inquired.

Quinn smiled. "Yep, a lot more than whenever I meet with Wendy. Dani suggested we get rid of Wendy, and I'm starting to think that might be a good idea. I thought Wendy would help this be less stressful, but with all of her calls all the time, she seems to be stressing me out more. Dani's going to be here for a couple of weeks now and she said she could help from California, and then I've got Claire, so maybe I could do it on my own with their help?" she spoke the thoughts that were running through her mind.

"Whatever you want," Kris replied, not really helping her decide.

Quinn rolled her eyes with a chuckle. "Thanks for your help," she told him. "So you hung out with Sid today?" she asked him.

"Yeah, we went to the gym and then went out for a couple of drinks. Apparently he's got a girl now. We'll see how long that lasts once the season hits though," he told her. Everyone knew the captain didn't like dating during the season. He thought it was disruptive to his play, but Quinn knew that once he found the right girl, he'd change his mind.

"You never know what'll happen when you find the right one," she shrugged her shoulders.

Kris laughed. "I don't think this is the 'right one'," he told her. "I think this is the one that will get him laid without it having to be some random one night stand. Or maybe it's like a two night stand."

"Maybe someone just needs to help him out a little finding a girl," Quinn suggested.

Kris turned to look at her. "Don’t even try," he warned her. "Sid won't go for it anyways, and there's no need to waste your time. One day he'll find one on his own. I did," he said with a smile.

"It's not like I'm swimming with a bunch of girlfriends that I could set him up with anyways," Quinn laughed. "I'm not exactly the girl with tons of friends, and the couple that I do have are happily married. Something tells me Claire and Dani aren't going to leave their husbands for a chance with Sid," she mused.

Kris shook his head. "Not a chance."

"Did you talk to Evan today?" Quinn changed subjects. She had learned there was no sense in trying to beat around the bush with the subject. It was best to just be straightforward and ask him about it, even if she was always a little scared about what his answer would be. Quinn hadn't seen Mario since he left for his meeting with Evan. She assumed that if something major had happened in their meeting that Mario would let her know. But, he might also want her to hear it from Kris instead of him.

Kris looked up at her, his hair falling in his eyes, and he moved his hand up to push it back. "Yeah, how'd you know?"

"Mario mentioned he was having a meeting with Evan. I was hoping it went better than the talks had been going," she said hopefully. She had started to ask around other teams to see if any of them were interested in taking Murray or Jeffries. She had heard back from a couple of teams, but no great offers were there yet.

"About the same," Kris replied. "Evan didn't have much news, just said that they pretty much said the same thing. He's fighting for a no-trade clause for me, and Ray is still against it," he shrugged his shoulders. Every day that passed that no deal was made was making Kris feel less hopeful that he would stay in Pittsburgh. "Maybe I should just accept the deal without a no-trade clause."

Quinn looked at him. The entire time, Kris had been adamant about a no-trade clause, and she understood why. He wanted to make sure that he wasn't going to get blindsided with a trade, and he wanted to finish his career in Pittsburgh. Quinn would be lying if she said she wasn't a little bit selfish in wanting him to get the no-trade clause as well. But, she was starting to think a deal in Pittsburgh without a no-trade clause would be better than going somewhere else where they were offering one. "That's up to you," she said, walking up behind him and putting her arms around his waist as she rested her head on his back.

Kris inhaled deeply as he turned around, wrapping his arms around her. "We'll wait a little while longer," he said softly, kissing the top of her head. "Let's go back to talking about the wedding," he suggested. He really didn't want to talk about contracts anymore. "You were thinking about getting rid of Wendy?"

Quinn shrugged her shoulders as she took a step back out of his arms. "I was thinking about it, but what do you think?"

"She isn't make you happy, she isn't helping you out. She's just costing us money to cause you more stress," he spoke. "I say we get rid of her. If we need help in the future, we can find someone else, but Dani seemed pretty into helping you."

Quinn nodded her head. "She did plan her own wedding, and she brought her wedding binder that has like everything you could ever need in planning a wedding. Maybe we should hire her," she laughed.

"Something tells me she wouldn't take your money," Kris replied.

"She won't," Quinn agreed. "But I think tomorrow I'll call Wendy and tell her we don't need her services anymore. I'll pay her for what she's done already, but we won't use her from here on out," she stated.

●●●


Quinn had been on the phone all morning. First, she had called Wendy and told her that she and Kris would no longer need her. To say she was upset was an understatement. Wendy had told her that she had done so much work for the wedding already, and that there was no way everything would get finished by the end of August if she wasn't working for them. Quinn had told her that she understood her concerns, but she was confident everything would get finished.

She then proceeded to call Danielle and have her assure her that everything would be set for her wedding. The things that Wendy had said to her had started to worry her, but Dani had calmed her, telling her that she and Claire would be on top of everything and would get everything set for her.

With that taken care of, Quinn had then begun to do more talks with other teams about the Jeffries and Murray deals. She had gotten a decent offer from Ottawa for Jeffries, but she wasn't sure it was the right deal for the Penguins. As much as she wanted the deal to work for Kris's sake, she wasn't willing to sacrifice the team as a whole for her own personal benefit. She wrote down the details of the offer to discuss with Mario later and then went about other things that were on her to do list.

Mario came into the office a little bit before lunch and came straight into Quinn's office. "Hey, I was going to come talk to you," Quinn said, glancing up at him from her desk. "I talked to Ottawa, they're giving us an offer for Jeffries. But, it's a second round draft pick. I wasn't sure that was enough for us," she stated.

"Let's try to package Murray in with him and see if they'll give us a defenseman. It can even be a couple of defensemen from Bingingham," he replied, referring to their AHL team. "We're pretty good with defensemen, but if we get rid of both of them, we're going to need some backups in case someone gets hurt," he told her. Quinn nodded her head in understanding as she took some notes on a post-it note and set it on her desk, reminding her to call back the owner of the Senators and discuss it with him later. "I'm still working on the Tanger deal," he told her.

Quinn slowly lifted her head to look at Mario. "I know," she told him softly, and Mario knew that Kris had told her what he knew. But, there was still a lot that was left out to Kris and Quinn. Mario knew that agents never told their clients everything that went on in meetings, and Mario never gave Quinn the details either. Quinn bit the inside of her lip, wondering if she should tell Mario what she and Kris had talked about the night before. In the end, she figured it wouldn't hurt to let Mario in on the details. "Kris is considering taking a deal without a no-trade clause," she revealed.

Mario didn't say much, and he didn't have any expression on her face to let Quinn know what he was thinking. "You know I want him here, Quinn. I'm fighting for him. But, he needs to do what's best for him. And if that's going to another team, then that's what he should do."

Quinn's stomach turned to knots. This was the first time that Mario had ever said anything about Kris going to another team, and it just showed that he was less confident that they could keep Kris. She nodded her head, but didn't say anything.

"He's got to do what's best for him," Mario repeated before heading out to go to his own office. Quinn sighed and leaned her head back, wanting more than anything to go home right now, but she knew that wasn't an option. She had work to do, and she had to get her mind off of Kris and the contract.

She tried her best to focus on getting all of her work done, but by four o'clock, she realized it was a bust. She packed up her things and told Mario goodbye and decided she'd come in early in the morning to try to get more work done.

She walked into the condo to find Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby sitting on her couch playing video games with Kris. "Hey guys," she said as she put her things down on the table. None of them turned around, all too consumed in their game, but they did all give mumbles of greetings, keeping their eyes on the screen.

She rolled her eyes as she made her way back to the bedroom, taking off her heels and going to her dresser to change out of her skirt and blouse she had worn to the office today. She had just put on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt when her cell phone started ringing. She glanced at it to see it was Claire and she picked up immediately. "Hey Claire!" she answered.

"Hey, so Dani called me and said you had fired Wendy today," Claire told her. "Thank God! That woman was not helping you at all!" she added.

Quinn couldn't help but chuckle. She knew Claire had wanted to help plan the wedding, but Wendy was constantly saying that it was up to the bride to choose everything and wouldn’t allow any of Claire's input. Honestly, Quinn would have preferred if Claire could make the majority of decisions for her. With her in the middle of trade season, she didn't feel like making decisions for the wedding. "So you're willing to help me out?" she asked hopefully, even though she knew what Claire's answer would be.

"Of course! Dani already suggested we get together for dinner tonight so we can talk about it! What do you say? My house whenever you get off of work?" Claire suggested. "My parents have the girls and Noah's going out with friends, so we won't get interrupted."

Quinn could hear yelling from out in the living room, and she knew the guys would be there for a while, and Kris wouldn't mind if she went over to Claire's for the evening. "I'm actually at home now, I left work early. So I'll head over there right now. I'll call Dani on the way," she told her.

"Okay, I'll see you soon!" Claire said before hanging up.

Quinn found a pair of shoes and put them on before heading out into the living room. "I'm heading over to Claire's for the night," she told Kris, who muttered a "d'accord" before yelling in French about the game. She rolled her eyes, reminding herself to shoot him a text later to let him know where she was because she was sure what she had just told him hadn't registered.

She made her way to Claire's house and saw that Dani had already beat her there after Quinn got stuck in traffic. She walked inside and saw the Danielle and Claire already had a bunch of wedding stuff spread out on the floor. "Hey guys," Quinn smiled as she set her things down on the couch before going to sit down on the floor with them.

"I'm surprised you left work early," Danielle commented.

"Well my mind wasn't exactly in my work," Quinn replied with a shrug.

"Uh oh," Dani said, knowing what Quinn meant.

"What happened?" Claire asked. "Should I get some wine ready?"

"Mario basically said that Kris should do what's best for him, and he implied that it might be best for him to go to another team. I don’t think they're going to give him a good offer," Quinn told them. "I could be wrong. Mario and I are trying to move some people around so that maybe Mario has more to offer Kris, but it's not looking good right now," she spoke.

"Let's skip the wine and go straight for margaritas, what do you say?" Claire suggested.

Quinn smiled at her. She couldn't imagine not having these two girls in her life. "You got any strawberries?" she asked.

"You know I do," Claire smiled, and they left the wedding planning in the living room for a few minutes while they all made their way into the kitchen to make some strawberry margaritas. Quinn had a feeling that with all the drinks they were about to have, not a lot of wedding plans would be made, but she needed the alcohol more today than she needed to get wedding plans finished. She had plenty of time until the wedding, but she really needed to just forget about Kris possibly leaving for another team for tonight.
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Okay, so here's the deal. This story is getting a bit of a makeover. For those of you that have been here from the beginning (three years ago!!!), the premise is still the same. The first five chapters are exactly the same (this one just got some very tiny editing). But, starting in the next couple chapters, you could see some differences. Hopefully it's for the best. And hopefully, you all like it. I guess sometimes you just need a long hiatus to get in the mood to write about beloved characters again! Let me know what you think!