Status: All finished! :)

One More Night

Chapter 17

“Why are we doing this?” Bree complained. At the moment she wanted to be filling her face with ice cream – having been hit with an odd craving for it – not sitting with Anna who had decided she now liked hockey. Bree placed a hand on her ever-growing middle, still having trouble comprehending that there was a baby in there, even though she was five months pregnant and had the sonograms to prove it. There was just something about the fact that was so surreal and strange that sometimes it just hit her that she was in fact going to be having a baby.

“Because I want to watch the game! Mike really likes it, and since we’re both trying to make a bigger effort to accommodate each other,” Anna shrugged, as if this wasn’t odd for her at all. “I figured my best friend who actually understands hockey could help me figure it out before I watch a game with him.”

“You’re lucky I love you so much,” Bree grumbled, before awkwardly getting up to go and raid her fridge, knowing she had ice cream tucked away somewhere. She’d had to start keeping a lot of weird foods around, because aside from craving ice cream, pickles, chips and salsa were also high up on that list. She knew that if she didn’t go find a snack now, that all she’d be able to think about would be the food in the cupboard.

What Bree didn’t know was that Anna had planned this far too well. She needed to be sure that Bree’s Marc – tall, redhead, hazel eyes, warm smile, athletic build, lives in New York most of the year, and works with the New York Rangers – wasn’t in fact Marc Staal. She was sure the only way to know without actually coming out and asking would be to expose Bree to him. This would be safe; she wouldn’t have to run into the guy or anything like that, but Anna would be able to gauge her reaction. It was sneaky and underhanded, she knew, but she felt like she had to do something. Even Vik had agreed with her.

“Come on! Game’s starting!” she called, and moments later Bree appeared in the entrance to the living room, bowl heaped full of ice cream in hand. She made herself comfortable on the couch, eyes glued to the screen. The Leafs were playing the Rangers in New York, and as they announced the Rangers Bree nearly choked on her ice cream.

“Number eighteen, Marc Staal!” the announcers voice felt like it was a million miles away as her Marc ran out and onto the ice, helmet on and everything as the camera zoomed in on his face. Something was off, she could tell – his eyes weren’t lit up with excitement, contradicting the small, serious smile he had on his face.

“You okay?” Anna asked, biting her lip. Bree took a deep breath, before nodding her head.

“You planned this, didn’t you?”

“I’m sorry Bree,” Anna was nearly in tears, and Bree shook her head before pulling her best friend in for a hug. She understood why Anna was so hell-bent on figuring out who Marc was and convincing her to tell him about the baby, it just hadn’t quite changed her own outlook on the situation.

“This? This just adds to why I don’t want to tell him,” she sighed, and Anna’s eyes widened.

“What? He didn’t tell you he played for the Rangers? I’m confused, why would this be more reason?”

“Because he’s a hockey player – he’s got media around him all the time. If I called him up and told him someone would get wind of it and the last thing I want is the media tearing him apart for knocking someone up, or media all over me because I’m having his baby,” she explained, trying to make herself sound convincing. Both of those prospects sounded awful, but Bree knew that she’d put up with anything if it meant she had Marc back.

“I get it,” Bree was shocked at how quickly Anna sided with her, after having fought her tooth and nail since she’d found out she was pregnant. Just when even last week she’d started entertaining the thought that maybe she should tell Marc about her baby. It was too strange, and Bree was about to ask when the two announcer’s voices caught her attention.

“Staal hasn’t really been on top of his game this season, has he?”

“No, the Rangers top defenseman hasn’t been playing like the top defenseman; and it seems like it’s his personal life doing it. Staal came into camp in incredible physical condition, but if the fact that his wife hasn’t been at any of the games or fundraisers in the last month or so is any indication, that’s where his playing slump is coming from,”

Wife.

Bree blinked slowly, figuring she must have misheard the announcer. There was no way, there was absolutely no goddamn way he’d said Marc was married. Not when she’d been with him just this summer, and he hadn’t said a word, hadn’t worn a ring. Marc was too honest and sweet to have kept something like that from her, it went against everything she knew about him.

“That’s got to be wrong,” she whispered, turning her eyes to Anna who was sitting in her chair with tears streaming down her cheeks.

“I’m so sorry Bree,” with that Anna came over and wrapped her arms around Bree, who was still too stunned by the news to do anything. It had to be wrong, there was no way that Marc was married, that she hadn’t meant anything to him and had been ‘the other woman’. That she was very probably the reason for causing enough issues in his life to affect his playing. That wasn’t the Marc she knew.

It couldn’t be.
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Sorry that this is a short one! It just had to kind of sit on it's own to bring Bree's world a little more into perspective after Marc got things out in the open in his. If all goes as planned I'll update again in the next day or two!

And I have a job interview today so I've got my fingers crossed on that as well :) Hope you guys had a good long weekend!

Hayley