Taking Strides

Sarah's perspective:

"You swear this isn't some sort of Al Capone style hit, right?" Sarah mumbled as Cari blindfolded her.
Cari giggled. "I promise that the Boston Bruins Organization is not out to get rid of you. At least not yet."
"Well, I guess there's hope for me yet." She responded. "So where to?"
"Just hold on to my arm, and trust me. I promise to stray far away from stairs." Cari swore to Sarah. Luckily she couldn't see the excitement in her face, and Cari managed to hide it from her voice. The two of them hopped in the elevator and made their way towards the locker room.

Lucic's perspective:

"You sure this is going to work guys?" Milan looked over at the rest of the team. Brad and Dougie felt pretty bad about the whole situation, once they'd figured it out. It wasn't too difficult to piece together the gist of what happened, and after they did, it was clear that they needed to help their teammate out. Adam wasn't a guy who went out with a lot of girls, in fact he was normally the only one single, so they could only hope that this would work.
"Positive," Brad spoke up, "Dougie's going to be bringing Adam in a few minutes, and I have Carebear texting me and keeping me updated on where they are, and I'll let her know when to bring her in."
"Let's just hope that Adam---" Milan got cut off by two sets of footsteps barreling down the hallway.
"Hope that Adam what?" Adam said, catching the last bit of the conversation.
"Makes it here on time. Jesus, you two like to cut it late." Brad replied, saving Milan. Brad's skills at ruffling feathers on the ice, made him pretty good with thinking on the spot.
"Hey, it's that one's fault." Adam said, motioning behind him. "If he had told me that practice had been bumped up, I would have picked his sorry ass up and forced him into the car."

Dougie turned around six shades of red as the rest of the team roared into laughter. Brad sent out a text to Cari, letting her know that the coast was clear as the guys calmed down.

"So Adam, there's this girl that the Managers wanted us to meet, sort of introduce ourselves. We're giving her a jersey and we heard you're her favorite player." Zdeno started. "So, it's your job to give her the present they sent down." Z gestured towards the box in Adam's locker.
"Well, where is this girl?" Adam asked.
"This girl is right here!" Cari burst into the room, pulling Sarah behind her.
"Cari, calm down!" Sarah exclaimed. "I'm not a bungee cord, my arms only stretch so far!"
"Oh please, you're fine. You'll be even better once you see the surprise we've got for you." Cari responded.

The guys all looked over at Adam, who stood there motionless. For someone who spent so much time on ice, he had finally managed to become frozen. The guys laughed a little at his situation, minus Brad, who worked on waving a hand in front of his face.
"Anybody want to help me here?" Brad piped. "Get me some water or something?"

Adam's perspective:

'I can't believe, it's her.' Adam thought to himself, zoning out. 'She's really here. Dammit these guys, how' d they even manage to pull this off? Once she sees me, she's just going to freak out again and leave. I can't. No. No way, no way in hell.' He came back to reality following an icy wake up.

"SERIOUSLY MARCHY?" Adam boomed. "You just had to pick ice water, didn't you!" He shook his hair out. It had grown a bit longer in the offseason. Although it didn't absorb nearly as much as his mullet probably would, it at least saved him from getting too soaked. The last thing he'd need to do is have to see her again, with his shirt completely plastered to his chest. Because that would be a great impression on her, as if her first one wasn't bad enough.
"We had to do something to wake you up, you looked like you were in some sort of trance!" Brad responded. "Besides, it's not that bad. I could have always run for the coffee pot."
Adam groaned in response. Leave it to Marchand to justify dumping water on a teammate. He had a point though, hot coffee would have been a lot worse.

He looked over at Sarah, who was now whispering nervously to Cari, whom luckily had managed to keep her from removing her blindfold, so far. She was really trying though, had to give her that.
'So I guess she recognized my voice already. I shouldn't have spoken, honestly. This is not going to be a great day, is it? Nope, probably not.'

Adam grabbed a towel and threw it around his shoulders before walking closer to Cari and Sarah. The guys had gone through so much trouble, the least he could do was give it a shot. Johnny (Boychuck) and Milan moved towards the door, hoping to prevent her from running away first thing. Brad grabbed the box and followed slightly behind. If she did want to slap him right away, that might be the only thing to stop her.

"Calm down Sarah, it's not that bad." Cari tried to soothe her new friend. "They're not going to hurt you. They don't bite, well, most of them don't. I don't make any promises on Marchy or Shawn (Thornton)"
"They'd better all be clothed!" Sarah hissed as she moved towards her blindfold again.

A couple of the guys chuckled at her comment. True, they would normally be in various states of dressed and undressed at this point, but they were too preoccupied with this whole situation to bother to get ready for practice. They'd managed to convince Claude to let Tampa have the ice first for morning skate, so they should have plenty of time to get all of this done.

Adam covered Sarah's hands with his own and lowered them. "Please, let me." He whispered as he went to undo her blindfold. She didn't resist, but she didn't respond either, so it could work out either way.

Sarah's perspective:

'Is he really doing this? Why'd he go through the trouble of setting this all up.' Sarah's thoughts started to race once she felt him close to her. It was an unusual feeling, having someone this close. She hadn't dated much growing up, just a few flings, and nothing too serious. It had been a long time that someone other than a friend or family member had been this close to her, let alone someone she was attracted to. Once the blindfold was off, she began to look around the locker room. If she hadn't already been overwhelmed, she would have been at the sights. To most people, a locker room is probably considered more a room that smelled like sweat and BO, but to a hockey fan, their team's locker room was one of the most glorious and, honestly, sacred places. This is the room where years of Bruins had been, and where a whole set of Bruins stood right now.

"Why'd you do all of this?" She managed to get out. It was quiet, but loud enough so that Adam could hear her.
"It wasn't my idea, but now that I'm here, I think I wish it was." Adam replied, just as softly.
"WELL DON'T JUST STAND THERE." Zdeno boomed, interrupting the moment. The Slovak wasn't known for his romantic side, it only really showed up around his wife and daughter; He instead gestured towards the gift in Marchand's hands.
"Okay, okay. Sorry." Adam went over and took the box from Marchand. He hestitated. "I don't exactly know what this is, but it's a gesture from the team to you, as a sort of welcome present. I can however assure you that it's completely appropriate, as Marchand's been living on our couch so much, there's no way he would have had the time to contaminate it."
"Hey, I wouldn't have done anything to it!" Brad scoffed.
"Says the one who thought it was a good idea to hire strippers for Dougie as a birthday gift, a month after his birthday." Adam glanced over at the two guys, a slight scowl on his face, before turning back to Sarah and handing her the box.
She looked around at the guys staring at her, waiting for her to open the box, and took it from Adam. "You guys really didn't have to do anything for me. That includes an introduction, please, you don't need to give me one." Sarah said. The guys laughed again.
"Same goes for you, we already got an earful from Adam." Dougie piped up from behind her. Adam blushed a little and sent a glare towards Dougie. Sarah shook it off and began opening the box.

Sarah laughed a little, before taking her jacket off and tossing it towards Cari. She grabbed her gift out of the box and put it on lightning fast, before even looking at it further.

"AND IT FITS PERFECTLY!" Sarah cheered. She was so excited about getting her own jersey from the team, that she couldn't exactly hide it. The guys all had grins on their faces as she modeled the jersey a little. Marchand, Milan, and Cari let out wolf-whistles, while Adam was the only one to notice the back of the jersey.
"You didn't see the back, didn't you?" Adam groaned. "You're going to kill me, aren't you?"
"So now I'm the one giving the hits? I guess that's a relief, considering I thought Cari might be taking me to my own personal hit." Sarah joked. "Where's a mirror then?"
Adam grabbed her hand and walked her over to the mirror. His palms were slightly sweaty, as if he was really nervous about this. He really didn't plan this, she could tell. However, he was lucky enough that his teammates had his back. She couldn't exactly be angry at him, or anyone, considering what was going on. She turned around and got a good look at the back of her jersey, and the numbers on the side.
"Well, I have one extremely unique jersey." Sarah admitted.
"I swear I didn't plan this, any of this. I had nothing to do with this. Shit." Adam nervously spoke. It seems Dougie had picked up on the part that made her storm out of the restaurant, and thought it was appropriate to put on her jersey. Sarah was now the owner of a custom number 54 jersey, with letters spelling out "Princess" on the back, which she had to admit, combined with the signatures, made for a pretty fantastic look.
"I actually don't mind." She said with a smile, turning towards him. "But, I have a feeling I'm missing one name from the back." Taking that as their cue, a few of the guys started to throw sharpies at Adam. Some jokingly, some aiming. He leaned over instinctively to protect her.
"Knock it off guys!" Adam yelled.
"Indeed guys, knock it off and get your asses dressed for practice!" Claude boomed as he came into the locker room. "This isn't a pow-wow, this is morning skate and you guys have a game this afternoon!"
"Shit." Adam swore under his breath. Sarah looked up at him, slightly fearful, only to be reassured by his gaze. He had eyes that just made her feel automatically more comfortable, which was much better than feeling weak in the knees at his grins. "Come to the game this afternoon?" He asked her.

'Holy mother of Chara. He was so close to me. I didn't even have time to react and he was already protecting me..' Sarah started to zone out herself.

"Sarah?" Adam looked at her. "Please?"
"Sorry, what?" Sarah snapped herself out of it and looked back, now standing slightly awkwardly together. He pulled her out of the locker room and into the hallway, noticing that some of the guys were beginning to get ready, and knowing she didn't really want nor need to see that site.
"Come to the game, then come down here after, and let me sign your jersey." Adam said. She looked at his eyes, and she saw how genuine he was being. If only she had noticed this at dinner.
"Only if you get me a ticket too, buster." Cari spoke up, now leaving the locker room herself. "I mean you can't exactly leave her alone.
"She has a point." Sarah replied.
"Yes, okay. I'll run up and give them to you guys at the office?" Adam hurriedly responded.
"Fine, Mister McQuaid." Sarah said.
"Alright, we really should get back to work. Don doesn't exactly know where we went." Cari casually mentioned.
"WHAT?" Sarah exclaimed, grabbing her hand and running down the hallway. "Bye, sorry, have a good practice!" She didn't exactly know what she was supposed to say, too focused on getting back to work. She did however, catch his chuckle, and turned back long enough to see him peeling off his shirt as he walked back into the locker room.

"I'm totally dreaming. Yep, dreaming. This is all a dream. Going to wake up now, going to wake up now." Sarah idly whispered before feeling a sharp pinch on her arm. She looked back at Cari, wide eyed. "Was I talking out loud?"
"Yes, yes you were." Cari replied, laughing. "Appears you liked the view too much."
"So sue a girl." Sarah said, inadvertently mimicking Adam from their dinner before.